Category: prophecy

Posted in church, encouragement, end time, fellowship, gather together, prophecy, putnam

Churching Alone: The Collapse of American Churches

Posted on by elizabethprata

In 2000, an important book was published. Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

Since the founding of America, we as a nation have always emphasized the importance of a strong and active civil society to the consolidation and perpetuation of democracy. When Thomas Paine wrote “Common Sense” before the American Revolution, people grabbed up his pamphlet and brought it to the tavern to discuss. Taverns and public squares were abuzz with discussions of ideas, concepts, philosophies. A robust public conversation with personal engagement among neighbors was the foundation of democracy.

I grew up in Rhode Island, the 13th state in the American Colonies, a place where there are more pre-colonial buildings still standing than anywhere else in the US. The first American Jewish synagogue is in Newport. (Touro). The first Baptist church is in Newport. A letter written in 1790 from George Washington to the RI Hebrew Congregation, assuring them, citizens of a newly independent United States, of tolerance and freedom of religion. Washington wrote,

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

But back to the old days. Men discussed ideas together in public spaces- taverns, the town square, the general store, front porches. They argued, persuaded, they met, they wrestled with ideas and formed community. It was that wrestling and knitting that made us strong enough as a collective of disparate farmers, millworkers, sailors, and the like, to dare to poke the eye of the mighty United Kingdom, and fight for freedom, including freedom to assemble and freedom to worship.

In this paper, the Daily Life of the American Colonies: The Role of the Tavern in Society Noon Inn Barroom, we learn of the importance of a citizenry discussing ideas together,

In the century or so leading up to the Revolution, colonial taverns and inns were an essential part of the community. Horses need frequent rests, travel by coach and horseback were far from comfortable. In Massachusetts on the roads leading to Boston, taverns and inns were spaced about every eight miles, which worked out to a reasonable journey in the winter cold before a person needed to warm up, inside and out.

The main reason for the importance of the colonial era tavern was as a social hub. Issues of the day were discussed and hammered out here, in fact, often in official settings. The City Tavern in Philadelphia, was the site of the first continental congress. The Virginia legislature met in the taverns of Williamsburg. And the initial investigations of the Salem Witch trials were supposed to be held at Ingersoll’s ordinary, [a name for a small tavern] though it was in the end was too small for the crowds.

To the common man, the tavern was where you learned the current prices for your cash crops. It was where you could find a newspaper, often read aloud for those who couldn’t read. It’s where local issues were debated and local governments met. The colonial era tavern was the link to the outer world for those in rural areas, and a place where you could meet your neighbors for conversation, games and diversion.

Entertainment included gambling; on horse racing, cockfights as well as cards. Actually the colonists were known to gamble on almost anything, including guessing the weight of pigs, a practice eventually outlawed on Long Island as it led to too many fights. The tavern also served as courthouse, where you learned of new business opportunities and worked out trades with your neighbors.

The tavern also served as post office. Originally the practice was to put your posts on a table, which travelers would then take along the route with them. It was commonly accepted that the travelers had the right to read your mail, providing a bit of entertainment along the way. Mail arrived in the community in the same way that it left, eventually becoming more organized and efficient.

In addition, recruitment and deployment of the militia took place in the taverns. Prior to the battle of Lexington, the militia organized and fortified themselves at Buckman’s tavern, before marching out onto the Lexington Green and into the history books.

In Newport RI, where our family would often drive on a Sunday, the White Horse Tavern still stands. It was constructed before 1673, is one of the oldest tavern buildings in the United States. It is located on the corner of Farewell and Marlborough streets in Newport. We used to eat brunch there. I’d sit in one of the many small rooms, with small fireplace blazing, hardwood floors and ladderback wooden chairs, and wonder about the Colonists who lifted a tankard in debate as to whether to separate from England.

In Wikipedia it is stated,

“In the first half of the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville had observations about American life that seemed to outline and define social capital. He observed that Americans were prone to meeting at as many gatherings as possible to discuss all possible issues of state, economics, or the world that could be witnessed. The high levels of transparency caused greater participation from the people and thus allowed for democracy to work better.”

White Horse Tavern, Newport, in 2009. Wikipedia

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42 KJV)

If the foundation of a democracy was forged by citizens together in community, discussing things of import, ideas traded, dispensed with, held onto; how much more should those behaviors be replicated in the church? Where do the community of Christ’s members gather, discuss, flesh out biblical ideas, knit ourselves together in His name? Where are the robust discussions, healthy praises to Jesus, songs and fellowship? Because it’s not in church. And increasingly, it’s not in homes, either. Forget the public square, if a gathering occurs, say at Cracker Barrel, the talk is rarely biblical. Other times, Christians are prevented from speaking of Jesus in public.

Public domain

Corporate worship is extremely important. In this sermon by Phil Johnson called A Foretaste of Glory Divine. Pastor Johnson explains the verse from Psalm 122.

Notice the plural pronouns in the first two verses: “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” Our feet are standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem.” One of the distinctive joys David is writing about here is the corporate nature of this worship experience. He had spent much of his youth alone on the hills tending sheep and meditating on the truth of God in solitude and that’s certainly a good and valid exercise. But it cannot take the place of fellowship and public worship with the multitude of God’s people. That is why the feasts were so important in Israel. Verse 4: “The tribes go up, even the tribes of the LORD–An ordinance for Israel–To give thanks to the name of the LORD.”

And,

There’s a sanctifying influence in the gathering of believers that you will not benefit from if you think watching a church service on TV or streaming church on the Internet is a valid substitute for real live participation in the public worship of God’s people. Hebrews 10:24-25: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

There are two problems in today’s ‘churching alone’ era. One is that people increasingly satisfied to stay at home and watch someone on TV or streamed online. The second and the greater problem is that when people do attend church for any reason at any function, rare is the talk of doctrine. We might sing some ‘me-oriented’ songs, listen to a (too-short/self-help/topical) sermon. And then when the last ‘Amen’ is said, people are out the doors, never to speak of Jesus again until next week.

When believers gather these days, too often it is not really to worship God but merely to entertain one another. ~Phil Johnson
What are we losing by ‘churching alone’? What are the effects on the church when its members forgo social intercourse, fellowship, and good discussions and praises to the Lord? Wikipedia summarizes Putnam’s book,

Putnam surveys the decline of “social capital” in the United States since 1950. He has described the reduction in all the forms of in-person social intercourse upon which Americans used to found, educate, and enrich the fabric of their social lives. He believes this undermines the active civil engagement which a strong democracy requires from its citizens.

iPhone wallpaper

When we ‘church alone,’ whether at home or alone as an island at church, our biblical lives are not enriched. When we are not educated in biblical literacy, we weaken. When we are weak, the scarlet thread of our lives that should be evident when we gather with others isn’t connected. And the Preacher said in Ecclesiastes 4:12,

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

If Putnam’s notion of social capital is an investment in social relations with expected returns in the marketplace, then in the church world, social capital is investment in spiritual-social relations with expected returns in the church. In Acts 2 we see the priority of fellowship, and along with that came praise for the Lord. (Acts 5:42)

It seems clear that the more we meet in His name, breaking bread, having fellowship, and discussing His doctrine, then the more we have glad hearts, generous spirits, and praise for Jesus on our lips. It stands to reason that the opposite is true too; less we get together, the fewer times we discuss His doctrines, break bread, and have glad hearts, and thus we praise Him and proclaim Him less.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, (Acts 2:46)

And truth be told, if we do get together, how often do we really discuss His doctrines as the verse in Acts 2:42 states the first church did? Not a lot.

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. (Proverbs 18:1)
Yet personal engagement at an all-time low. The previous networking availabilities in church, such a personal visits, dinners on the ground, home gatherings, have gone the way of the dinosaur. People don’t do that anymore. We do not ‘continually devote ourselves to… fellowship.’

More often than not, the way this generation engages today is via social media online. Visiting in person is a relic from the past.

What do colonial times in the 1770s to 1800 have to do with today’s church? Cut to 100 years later, the 1900s. There was still a public square. Before television, before the internet, people sat and talked. They had coffee. They visited. They had Sunday suppers. They sat by the pot bellied stove at the feed store and talked. People played bridge, gathered for parties, told stories. They discoursed.

The iconic Andy Griffith show reflected this reality- front porch sitting was a favored past time.
It was a time when people were invested in each other’s lives. They know when someone wasn’t feeling well. Or wasn’t themselves. They knew when someone was struggling. They celebrated victories and pitched in during hard times.

We have lost that.

We’re “crazy busy” now.

Yet the youngsters don’t know any other way of engaging except what they see online or through their parents or other trusted adults. They think fellowship is gathering at a google hangout.

I’m not saying anything that is unknown to anyone living in the year 2014. It’s old news that we do not socialize anymore. Here is the new news. New, at least to me.

We are forgetting HOW to socialize.

The influence of personal cellphones and texting have infiltrated our psyche to the extent that front porch sitting, passing the time, just being with someone is a lost art.

If people socialize at all in person now, it includes a phone interruptions and texting, looking at email, or a myriad of other things that distract from looking fully into someone’s eyes and listening to what they are saying with full attention.

This is my favorite episode from Andy Griffith. A business man in a hurry breaks down in Mayberry on a Sunday. Initially chafing at the slow pace of life and the almost uniform commitment by its inhabitants to the priority of fellowship on the Lord’s Day, the man eventually succumbs to the love shown to him- and he slows down.

Will you visit someone this week? Will you sing with them, or speak of the glories of our savior, or read the bible together? Will you linger at church for a while afterward and praise the sermon and flesh out some of its points- coming to happy agreement with a fellow believer? Let us not “church alone.” The foretaste of glory divine Mr Johnson was preaching on is the corporate gathering of believers on earth being the glad foretaste of the gathering in praise of all of history’s saints at the end of time. What a true foretaste- glorying in the Lord together, never alone forevermore.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

Man in a Hurry- full episode

Posted in daniel, encouragement, prophecy

The UN tries to solve the world’s unsolvable problems

Posted on by elizabethprata

I read an interesting article last week. It concerns the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. The UN website states the purpose of the General Assembly:

The General Assembly (GA) is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority. Decisions on other questions are by simple majority.

Every year in September, the world gathers at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Secretary-General of the UN gives his “State of the World” speech. This year’s speech (the 69th) was much darker, with much less hope than previous years. Here are some excerpts from this year’s speech by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

“This year, the horizon of hope is darkened. Our hearts are made heavy by unspeakable acts and the deaths of innocents,” he told the assembled leaders from 193 nations. “Not since the end of the Second World War have there been so many refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers. Never before has the United Nations been asked to reach so many people with emergency food assistance and other life-saving supplies,” he said.

“It may seem as if the world is falling apart, as crises pile up and disease spreads. But leadership is precisely about finding the seeds of hope and nurturing them into something bigger. That is our duty. That is my call to you today.”

Another article about the UN Opening Day session reports a bleak world picture as well. It was published this morning before the Secretary-General gave his speech.
Here are some excerpts from this article.

World leaders meet with multiple crises on agenda

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Facing a world in turmoil from multiple crises ranging from wars in the Mideast and Africa to the deadly scourge of Ebola and growing Islamic radicalism, leaders from more than 140 countries open their annual meeting at the United Nations on Wednesday with few solutions.

Looking at the array of complex challenges, Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende told The Associated Press: “It’s unprecedented in decades, that’s for sure.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will deliver his state of the world report at Wednesday’s opening of the General Assembly ministerial session, gave a bleak preview to reporters last week: The world is facing “multiple crises,” with all featuring attacks on civilians and having dangerous sectarian, ethnic or tribal dimensions.

World problems have always been difficult. The world after WWII when the UN was formed was very different than the world that had existed before the war began. Two atomic bombs had been dropped, ushering in the atomic age, and then the space age came in. Every generation has had to deal with complex problems and policy makers at this highest level have always gone into the UN General Sessions knowing that.

However, every generation has had to deal with problems that have been incrementally more difficult than the generation before. It was only a matter of time until the problems outpaced man’s ability to solve them. I think we are reaching that tipping point.

Source
It is a restless, sinful world, nation against nation.
Isaiah 17:12, Isaiah 57:20, Matthew 24:7.

These world problems will only grow more seemingly unsolvable. The unsolvable problems will grow so large and wearisome to the people that they will stagger under the weight of tension from the world coming apart at the seams, not only as Ban Ki Moon said, but also as US Vice President Joe Biden said this week:

“The international order that we painstakingly built after World War II and defended over the past several decades is literally fraying at the seams right now.”  ~Joe Biden

He’s right, the world IS coming apart at the seams. Not uncontrollably, but under the sovereign and perfect eye of God. The world will continue to stagger under threat of global pandemic, tribal uprisings, civil uprisings, moral decay, government enforced cultural perversity, famine, drought, …until one king comes along and he’s got the answers-

And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. (Daniel 8:23).

This man understands riddles, he is cunning, comes out of nowhere, he will seem greater than his companions (Daniel 11:21, Daniel 7:8, Daniel 7:20).

He will be energized by satan, and remember, satan is described in Ezekiel 28 as an angel “full of wisdom”. Satan is an angel ascribed the term ‘wisdom’ many times in that chapter- but his wisdom was corrupted by his pride and arrogance. This same wisdom, though corrupt and evil now, is still endowed to satan. He hasn’t lost it. He gives it to the antichrist, who appears on the world scene like a god. After a while the antichrist will believe his own propaganda, that is actually IS a god, and force all to worship him. (Daniel 8:25)

The world will accept him. Weary of problems, they just want some relief. This man promises it.

I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. (John 5:43, Revelation 13:3)

What a heartbreaking moment. An ignorant world rejected Jesus, the precious Creator and Savior, but will accept the one called The Beast and Man of Sin.

But our Savior did not leave us without hope. He will rapture us when He is ready to get His bride, and He will render the due judgment on the unholy world that it deserves. All we have to do is persevere. Persevering is the sign that we are saved, it is the assurance of the seal of hope we have within us. It is the signal the the power of the Spirit is working in us to help us be His light in this present darkness. (Ephesians 6:12.)

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19)

If they go out from us, they never were of us. Therefore, staying in Him proves we are of Him. Persevere! 2 Timothy 2:12, Galatians 6:9, Revelation 3:11. It all has a very happy ending!

Posted in biocontainment, ebola, nebraska, pestilence, prophecy

How many hospital beds are there in the US prepared to handle Ebola? The answer may astound you

Posted on by elizabethprata
Training exercise, Nebraska Biocontainment Unit brochure

The Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha Nebraska, put out a press release in July 2014. It stated,

Ebola Outbreak: Qualified and Prepared

In late July 2014, representative from the U.S. State Department recently visited The Nebraska Medical Center to take a closer look at the capabilities of our 10 bed Biocontainment Unit. There are no current plans for Ebola patients to be transferred here. This was strictly a fact-finding mission, to make government officials aware of the unit’s capabilities in case the need arises for treatment of additional patients with the Ebola virus here in the U.S. The unit has been operational for nearly ten years and is one of four such units in the country equipped to handle an outbreak of this nature.

A few thoughts:

–Ten beds? In an outbreak where a ‘biocontainment unit’ is needed, 10 isn’t that many beds.

–One of four Units in the US? Where are the other three? Maybe they have more beds. The National Institute of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, Bethesda Maryland, has 3 beds. Emory Hospital, Atlanta has 3 beds and St Patrick’s Hospital, Missoula Montana has 3 beds. Nineteen beds total in the US. Oops, Nebraska’s ten seems like an embarrassment of riches compared to paltry 3 in the other places.

–I guess those ‘no current plans’ to receive patients in July turned into ‘you must open for business now’ in October

It is hopeful to read that “And any hospital equipped to care for a tuberculosis patient can care for an Ebola patient, according to Dr. George Risi, an infectious disease specialist who recently returned from spending 20 days in a Sierra Leone Ebola ward.” But it still doesn’t make it a Biohazard level-4 facility.

Ebola virus causes a medical response to a Biohazard Safety level-4 (BSL-4). It is the highest level.

Biosafety level 1
This level is suitable for work involving well-characterized agents not known to consistently cause disease in healthy adult humans, and of minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel and the environment (CDC,1997)

Biosafety level 2
This level is similar to Biosafety Level 1 and is suitable for work involving agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment. It includes various bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as C. difficile, most Chlamydiae, hepatitis A, B, and C, orthopoxviruses (other than smallpox), influenza A, Lyme disease, Salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, MRSA, and VRSA.

Biosafety level 3
This level is applicable to clinical, diagnostic, teaching, research, or production facilities in which work is done with indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease after inhalation. It includes various bacteria, parasites and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans but for which treatments exist, such as Yersinia pestis (causative agent of plague), Francisella tularensis, Leishmania donovani, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Chlamydia psittaci, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, SARS coronavirus, Coxiella burnetii, Rift Valley fever virus, Rickettsia rickettsii, several species of Brucella, rabies virus, chikungunya, yellow fever virus, and West Nile virus.

Biosafety level 4
This level is required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections, agents which cause severe to fatal disease in humans for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and various other hemorrhagic diseases. This level is also used for work with agents such as smallpox that are considered dangerous enough to require the additional safety measures, regardless of vaccination availability.

Source for above, Wikipedia

Praise God there are medical personnel willing to work with BSL-4 patients!

I was glad to read that the patient being monitored at Queens Hospital in Honolulu does NOT have Ebola, according to reports.

Interesting article below. The author does a lot of math… and a little scaremongering. Though the numbers she uses are like-to-like, the scenario between W. Africa and the US has a few additional variables than simply numbers. In West Africa, rural clinics are so poor they habitually reuse needles. As a result, standards are different. Also, governments vary in their responses and protocols.

Though a disease will do what it will do whether it emerges in West Africa or the US, there is more to compare than just numbers to numbers. However, in one article I read, the medical personnel interviewed said that by simply applying IV drip, anti-coagulant and electrolytes, one can reduce Ebola’s mortality rate from 80% to 40%. That sounds like a great reduction, but when you consider that the Spanish Influenza killed 3-5% of the world’s population…and had a mortality rate of 10-20%, then 40% doesn’t sound so great anymore. Anyway, for what it’s worth, here is the article.

There are only 19 level 4 bio-containment beds in the whole of the United States…and four in the UK

And the beat goes on… “Two Washington area hospitals said within hours of each other Friday that they had each admitted a patient with symptoms and travel histories associated with Ebola.”

Posted in earthquakes, ebola, prophecy, signs, weather

News roundup: Ebola in US, Japanese volcano eruption, quake swarm at Mammoth

Posted on by elizabethprata

PESTILENCE

CDC confirms first case of Ebola in US

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the first case diagnosed in the United States. The patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. It’s the first patient to be diagnosed with this particular strain of Ebola outside of Africa.“[The patient] had no symptoms when departing Liberia or entering this country. But four or five days later on the 24th of September, he began to develop symptoms,” said Frieden. The patient, who was in the U.S. visiting family in Texas, initially sought care on September 26, but was sent home and was not admitted until two days later. He was placed in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, where he remains critically ill, according to Frieden.

The assurances we’ve been receiving from officials since the outbreak in Africa spread have not made much sense to me.

“The risk of the spread of Ebola in California is low.”

“and the past-president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told weather.com Americans should not fear the disease. “We see the risk as essentially zero,”

If an ill traveler arrives in the U.S., CDC has protocols in place to protect against further spread of disease.

The problem is, the patient in Dallas was not showing any symptoms. Secondly, he had traveled to Liberia and when he arrived at the Dallas hospital for treatment, he was sent home. It doesn’t seem those protocols are working.

Granted, one patient isn’t an outbreak. But the worry is that he was ill, AND showing symptoms and walked around Dallas for days. The CDC press conference last night never did answer the question as to whether the patient’s family has been quarantined. However, several medical workers are now quarantined:

Paramedics, ER staff under Ebola observation in Dallas

DALLAS — Three Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics and several emergency room workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital are off work and under observation after making contact with the patient being treated for Ebola. Perhaps the most tangible evidence of Ebola in Dallas is an ambulance parked in a city lot in Pleasant Grove, an area about 15 minutes southeast of downtown Dallas. It’s quarantined and roped off with red tape warning of a biohazard. Ambulance No. 37 carried the Ebola patient to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday morning.

So on September 26 the patient walked into the hospital seeking care, and just three days later had to be taken by ambulance. It seems that this is either a very rapid progression, or symptoms were evident on the 26th and were missed. Neither scenario are particularly comforting.

The ambulance used to transport the Dallas Ebola patient is now a biohazard,
and the paramedics are quarantined. Source

But the CDC assures us, still, that everything is just fine. But just in case, they issued Ebola guidelines for US funeral homes. The article’s opening poses the following question:

ROSWELL, GA (CBS46) – CBS46 News has confirmed the Centers for Disease Control has issued guidelines to U.S. funeral homes on how to handle the remains of Ebola patients. If the outbreak of the potentially deadly virus is in West Africa, why are funeral homes in America being given guidelines?

They asked the question because the article was initially published on September 29. The news did not break about the Dallas Ebola patient until September 30. Now we know the answer.

All I can say is that the same thing is on many peoples’ minds. First is Mark Davis’ tweet

Fred Butler summed it up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WEATHER

I love spooky clouds. Or non-spooky clouds. I just like clouds.

PSU meteorology student & storm chaser Jacob DeFlitch ‏@WxDeFlitch tweeted this pic yesterday, “Incredible photo of clouds this morning over NYC from the air.” [Via: Angela Wang]

Ginger Zee, Chief Meteorologist at ABC News; re-tweeted this photo yesterday morning.

“Great capture! “@TheNan08: Heading into NYC crazy looking clouds @Ginger_Zee @Evansweather”

Denver severe weather dumps massive amounts of hail

An impressive hail storm slammed into the Denver metropolitan area around 2 p.m. MDT, dropping hail as large as golf balls. Photos posted to social media show what looked like snow, but was actually a thick sheet of hail covering highways and grassy areas. Denver’s 9 News reports Cherry Creek schools delayed dismissing students because of the weather. Hail drifts several feet deep were reported in some towns, according to AOL.com.

South of France hit by devastating floods

Around 60 towns in the south of France have been officially declared natural disaster sites following severe flooding caused by torrential downpours, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on Tuesday.

Scientists are grappling for reasons as to why the weather is worsening so palpably. This is from NOAA weather:

New report finds human-caused climate change increased severity of 2013 heat waves in Asia, Europe and Australia September 29, 2014. The report, “Explaining Extreme Events of 2013 From a Climate Perspective,” can be viewed online. (Credit: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society) A report released today investigates the causes of a wide variety of extreme weather and climate events from around the world in 2013. Published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, “Explaining Extreme Events of 2013 from a Climate Perspective” addresses the causes of 16 individual extreme events that occurred on four continents in 2013. NOAA scientists served as three of the four lead editors on the report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUAKES

The Weather Channel ‏@weatherchannel posted the following yesterday,
“JUST IN: M4.2 #earthquake near Perry, OK at 10:01pm CDT; shaking felt from Wichita KS to Norman OK.”

4.2 is pretty big for Oklahoma.

Mammoth Lakes in California has been experiencing the “most intense” quake swarm of the last decade. LA Times has mapped them in a .gif

Watch 900 earthquakes erupt during Mammoth swarm

There were 947 total quakes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VOLCANO

Mount Ontake, a Japanese volcano, erupted unexpectedly, unfortunately killing and injuring climbers. A hiker who was on scene filmed the terrifying event. Below is a screen shot and below that, the video.

I truly hope those poor people made it out!

UK Daily Mail

The search for at least two dozen victims of Japan’s worst volcanic eruption in decades has been called off again today amid fears that another deadly steam explosion is imminent. Hundreds of military searchers had been preparing to enter Mount Ontake by foot and helicopter to resume the recovery of at least 24 people caught in a deadly rain of ash and stone after the peak erupted without warning on Saturday when it was crowded with hikers, including children. Twelve bodies have been recovered from the 10,062 feet peak but at least 36 are feared to have died, with the recovery hampered by high levels of toxic gas and ash piled hip-high in places on the still-smoking mountain. At least 69 people have been injured, 30 of them seriously.

UK Daily Mail(as usual, great photos)

Mount Sinabung Spouts Off

Mt. Sinabung in Sumatra let out a long roar on Wednesday, erupting for a full 907 seconds, or just over 15 minutes – about 0.0028% of the year since it first started acting up. Daily eruptions, which started last November and lasted for months, coated the countryside in gray ash and forced tens of thousands of people from their villages.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CULTURE

Video: Fla. commissioner walks out of meeting when Pagan delivers bizarre ‘satanic,’ singing invocation

A Florida pagan was given the opportunity to offer the invocation at an Escambia County Commission meeting Thursday, but one commissioner wouldn’t stick around to hear it. By law, the commission had to allow David Suhor, a self-described Agnostic Pagan Pantheist who worships nature, to give an invocation, according to ABC affiliate WEAR-TV. When Suhor recited the pagan prayer in song calling of the directions north, east, south, and west, Commissioner Wilson Robertson walked out. “People may not realize it,” Robertson told WEAR. “But when we invite someone, a minister to pray, they are praying for the county commissioners, for us to make wise decisions and I’m just not going to have a pagan or satanic minister pray for me.”

Good for him. The law may require that equal opportunity be given to all religions, but that does not mean we have to accept the prayer in the ‘spirit’ in which it was intended. I hope the commissioner prayed for the pagan man to repent and come to Jesus.

Posted in last days, prophecy, sex week, signs, sin, university of new mexico

University of New Mexico’s ‘sex week; Church teaches Harry Potter

Posted on by elizabethprata
Jesus told the disciples at the Mount of Olives the signs of His return. They had learned that the establishment of the Kingdom was not going to happen immediately, as they had thought. So they asked Jesus.

“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)

The ‘these things’ refers to a statement Jesus had made in verse 2. He said the temple would be destroyed, not one stone left upon another. So there are three questions they asked,

–When will the temple be thrown down?
–What will be the signs of the end of the age?
–What will be the sign of Your coming?

In terms of the signs of the end of the age, and Jesus was speaking of the Tribulation (Mathew 24 is a Tribulation passage, NOT a message to the Church). However there are some general principles we can look at to understand the cycle of depravity in the world.

After the Fall of man in Genesis 3, the first murder occurred in Genesis 4. So did the first case of polygamy and another murder. It didn’t take long, did it? By Genesis 6:5,

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually

We went from perfection to utter sin in three chapters. God sent the Flood in Genesis 7-8, and when it subsided in Genesis 9, the nations began to spread in Genesis 10 and by Genesis 11, again, sin. Terrible sin. In Genesis 11 we have the world’s first dictator and the founding of Babylon. Here is a rough timeline from Answers in Genesis-

It roughly took only 1600 years for man to be created, fall and be wiped from the earth. It took only 100 years for man to revive from being wiped out to such rebellion that God changed man’s language and scattered them from Babel.

What a depraved creature fallen man is! As Christians with the Spirit in them grow fewer and fewer in the world, (though the church will never be overcome) it seems that the sin rising is beginning to appear to be piling up to heaven!

Ezra 9:6,
and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.

Jeremiah 51:9,
“‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens.’

Revelation 18:5, of Babylon,
for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

They are metaphors, of course, but the weight of sin upon the world is definitely heavy in these days. Witness two examples,

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is hosting a “Sex Week,” where students can learn “How to be a Gentleman and get laid,” negotiate threesomes, and [other things]. The event, sponsored by the University of New Mexico Women’s Resource Center and the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), is offering lectures on “How to be a Gentleman AND Get Laid,” “Reid’s Negotiating Successful Threesomes,” “[and other things]”.
“[F]or example, when you are having sex with more than one person it can be very challenging to make sure that everybody’s needs are being met and that everybody’s boundaries are being respected.”
According to local news station KOB4, “The events are designed to prevent sexual assault, but organizers have taken a new approach…Instead of teaching students how not to get hurt, they’re teaching them how to have safer and better sex.”

Other news articles on the event. Thankfully not all people are happy with this.

Sex Week at UNM has varied reaction among people on campus

Critics concerned about UNM’s first ‘Sex Week’

That is the world’s view of the act of sexual union. Here is God’s view-

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

What is sexual immorality, exactly, that we should be fleeing from?

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Hebrews 13:4)

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:15-17)

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28 )

The sexual union between a man and a woman only is for the sanctified marriage bed only. Anything else is adultery, fornication, and sexual immorality. It dishonors God to do these things. Not only is it bad to do them in secret, but worse is that these things are now openly taught and heartily applauded. Adults are supposed to train up the youth in the way that they should go. Is the way that they should go? Into sexual perversity?

Romans 1:32 says, Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

A heavy judgment awaits those who put such dishonorable and perverse things in the way of children.

Here is a second piece of news. The Berean Times on Twitter tweeted,

“An episcopal church here in Tulsa will start teaching Harry Potter cause the leader said the Scriptures were too hard to teach…no joke.”

I investigated and indeed, it is no joke.

“…the children went into a candle-lit darkened room where a witch-like “sorting hat” was placed on their heads, and they were assigned to groups named Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Teachers and helpers dressed in black robes. Crystal balls, owls and jars of magic potions decorated the classrooms. “It was my idea,” said Paula Rule, director of youth ministries who developed the program. “This is one of the things that a lot of our kids have grown up with. They relate to it. They’ve read the books. “We’re exploring the same Christian themes that you find in the Bible — good versus evil, redemption, salvation, love.” The Rev. Kenneth Orsburn, curate at the church, teaches the adult portion of the Harry Potter program. He said Biblical literacy is on the decline, a symptom of a general decline in church attendance across America. “We’re getting folks in here who have been unchurched for 30 years,” he said. “They don’t know these stories. That’s a challenge for us and for the church. The Scripture is very daunting. Harry Potter is easier.

Oh! It’s easier. Well that explains it.

Some people in the congregation have questioned the wisdom of using books filled with witches, magic and sorcery to teach the Bible, she said.

Only ‘some’?

Lexi Medina, 12, who played the part of a mythical creature, also was happy with it. “I love Harry Potter, for real,” she said. “I think it’s pretty cool, as long as I get to act, like, creepy around people.”

As long as the kids like it, then I guess it’s OK. /sarcasm

It is such a shame that the priest/pastor person does not see that a “30-year unchurched person” is a lost person. They need the scriptures, not the culture! But of course that is exactly why they do not understand. Their minds are blinded to the truth. So the church dumbs down the Gospel, or in this case, excludes it completely and puts in its stead the exact things that God said He hates.

Here is what God says about sorcery, divination, and witchhraft-

“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” (Leviticus 20:27)

“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” (Exodus 22:18)

Oh dear, that’s pretty harsh. Surely the ‘Lord of Love’ has softened His stance on the sorcerers, diviners, witches by the New Testament’s arrival. Jesus isn’t that harsh.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)

Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:20-21)

I guess Jesus is that harsh. His love doesn’t exclude His wrath upon the ungodly.

Isolated events like fornication, and wayward behavior in apostate churches have always been present on the earth. What I am seeing is that these behaviors are becoming systemetized by the power structures such as Universities and Churches, and presented as normal. They are codified: “to put (laws or rules) together as a code or system.”

No longer is it the one or two aberrant person, but a system of depravity or sinful behavior that is presented and applauded. Romans 1 says this would happen.

  • First they deny the truth (a truth God has made plain to them).
  • Then they refuse to honor Him.
  • Next, their thinking became darkened and futile.
  • Then they began to worship creeping things.
  • Now it goes faster. God gives them over, and their hearts full of impurities act out the perversions in it.
  • Last they live in a debased mind that not only lives in perversity but also all the other sins blossom, such as malice, envy, insolence, haughtiness, etc.
  • Finally, they turn to others and applaud their degenerate descent into dishonor. (Romans 1:18-32)

And that is where we are. Verse 32.

Do not be surprised when the world acts like the world. More and more people, cities, organizations, Universities, and churches are adopting sin wholesale and then promoting it heartily. This is very bad for the people individually, and in the cities, organizations, Universities, and churches but it is an opportunity to be the Light we are called to be. We always strengthen ourselves in prayer, staying in the word, and worshiping in spirit and in truth.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Paul said he learned to be content in whatever situation he finds himself, (and he was in jail at the time) because he knows God will strengthen Him. (Philippians 4:13). It is our Savior’s strength we need in these dark days, and the more we submit and rely on Him, the brighter our light will shine in these dark places. Until the Day…

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Posted in discernment, false teacher, prophecy, rick joyner, visions

Rick Joyner – "Encountering Heaven"… Or not.

Posted on by elizabethprata

On September 7, 2014, in his Prophetic Ministry 101 speech, Rick Joyner shared about when he had a bad case of food poisoning (or flu) and …

…was caught up in to heaven for eight hours. … I say prophetic, but I don’t know if it was just prophetic experience or if I was really there, but it seemed real. I saw things that I believe really are part of the heavenly realm. But this one was many times better than I’d ever experienced before. At the end of the whole dream – and this was an 8-hour, earth-time dream – I know because it started at midnight. I laid down at midnight, went right to sleep, went right into this dream, woke up several times during the night astonished, just trying to understand everything I’d just seen and heard. I’d then I’d fall back to sleep and go right back into the same place. Over and over. … I’d had that experience one time before, just one time, where I woke up, went back the same place in the dream, but this time it happened over and over. It was just awesome.

At the end of the dream, I ended up on Main Street down here. [pointing]. Our Main Street. And I’m standing there, I’m in heaven and I’m on Main Street, and the Lord said ‘You’ve got to bring this here.’ We’re going to have heaven on earth. Right here!

Joyner goes into ‘explaining’ that Jacob’s ladder dream meant that the angels ascending and descending means that the angels are “bringing back to the earth evidence of heaven’s reality.”

In the video synopsis, we read, “In this week’s Featured Video, Rick Joyner shares about a recent experience in heaven.”

The phrasing, ‘recent visit’ made me think of the frequent hotel points you can rack up for a free gift if you travel to a place enough times. “Purchase 9 drinks, get the 10th free!” Like, on this ‘recent trip’, Joyner could redeem his points for either a ride on Jesus’ rainbow horse Colton Burpo said Jesus owns, or enjoy a light lunch with John the Baptist.

A few things, in seriousness.

1. Joyner’s “recent trip to heaven”. How sacrilegious, impious, and irreverent to even describe the gift of seeing the heavenly realms in such a flippant way. Of course Mr Joyner did not go to heaven, but he thought he did, and to describe it in such a way demeans the realm our King Jesus presides over. Paul was too humble to even speak of his trip for 14 years, only did so when pressed, and then it was in the third person. Paul would never flippantly say something like, “Oh yah, this time I went up there I saw…”

2. The false visionaries like Mr Joyner try to legitimize their false experience by using biblical language to describe what happened. When Joyner says “What I saw and heard” is reminiscent of the bible’s command from God to “Write what you see and hear” as in Revelation 1:19, Deuteronomy 27:8, Jeremiah 36:2. Of course Joyner’s description of whether it was a prophetic experience or whether he was really there is reminiscent of Paul’s description (which he was too awed to even ascribe to himself in the first person) of 2 Corinthians 12:3. That is one way the false prophets attempt to make their false teaching sound biblical, by using biblical language. But you can think it through, and you remember that Paul was too awed to even tell it, but Joyner is eager not only to tell it right away but to piggyback his ‘awesome’ heaven trip with his explosive flu. Also if you think it through, knowing that if Jesus is bringing people up to heaven and giving a command, then it is new revelation and equal in authority to what is already written.

So when you tell this to someone and they say “But they use the bible!” you can say of course they do. Satan did even with Jesus when satan tempted Him. If they didn’t use the bible, it’s easier to see they’re false. So….they use the bible and biblical language. Like when Beth Moore said she saw Jesus in the heavenly realms and He purportedly said to her, “And boy you write this one down. And you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it.” Who talks like that? No one, except the Old Testament prophets, so the false ones inflate their puffed up visions with puffed up language.

3. Obsessing over irrelevant details as if to legitimize it. Example: “It was an 8-hour dream.” As if that matters. How long was the Jacob’s Ladder dream? How long was Paul’s dream in the third heaven? How long was John’s vision on Patmos? How long was Daniel’s dream? John simply said “After this…” and began recording the next vision.

Jacob awoke from his ladder dream, “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:16-17).

Jacob praised God and built and altar, he didn’t spend time repeating how long the dream was, as if these details have the power to cement false visions into reality.

3a. Another detail this false diviner Joyner obsessed over was the ‘wonder’ of waking up so many times and then falling back into the vision and being ‘right back there’. If God is going to lift you into the third heaven, as He really did to Paul, are you really going to marvel at the lesser minutiae of His ability to wake you and then drowse you and bring you back up? More to the point, don’t you think God has the power to keep you in the sleeping vision state until He has finished showing you what He wants to show you? I bet Joyner woke up ‘over and over’ because he had to pee.

4. Joyner said it felt real. Just because it feels real, it isn’t. Satan performs lying signs and wonders, it is not hard for an angel to appear to a person in a dream. In Matthew 2:13 an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to flee with baby Jesus and Mary to Egypt. The unholy angels have lost none of their power, including entering your dreams like that holy angel did with Joseph, they just use it for evil. The unholy ones have the power to enter your dreams – obviously, because Joyner had a false one. I mean, it is up to Rick Joyner to bring heaven to earth? Or earth to heaven? And it was not clear in the speech which he meant.

Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:32)

Why teach through the filter of a dream that was filtered through a sinful brain and out a sinful tongue, when one can simply teach from the unadulterated word of God? That is what Peter meant when he said we have a more sure word (2 Peter 1:19). Peter was ranking Scripture over experience.

It should be obvious that Rick Joyner is a false teacher, a false prophet, and a wolf. These descriptions of encounters with Jesus, via visions, and dreams, like Kim Walker Smith music born from fresh encounters with Jesus in heaven, and audible devotions and romantic “Presences” a la Sarah Young, and mind-pictures and visitations and visions like Beth Moore’s, and books and books and books written about people’s ‘recent trip to heaven’ (or hell)… it is a scourge! A plague of falsity. False visions are so commonplace nowadays that it is not enough to have only one, you must have many and join the frequent heaven flier club.

The people claiming these divine experiences make a fatal mistake: they forgot that satan’s ministers masquerade as righteous angels (2 Corinthians 11:15) and that the white light, or the friendly voice, or the romantic warmth is easily counterfeited by powerful angels out to lie, kill and destroy.

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2:18-19).

Did you catch that? People going on about their false visions are puffed up and are not even Christians (not attached to the Head).

If you have NOT encountered heaven in some kind of ecstatic vision or dream, be grateful.

If you HAVE encountered someone who says they have gone to heaven, be wary.

If you have been saved by the grace of our resurrected Jesus, be ready!

Religious deception in the church is a marker of His soon return. (Matthew 24:3–5, 11, 24; Mark 13:5–6; Luke 21:7–8).

We will all see His heaven soon enough, together. And that is good enough for me.

Posted in earthquake, prophecy

A synopsis of quakes today, and a list of prophesied Tribulation earthquakes

Posted on by elizabethprata
USGS quakes in continental US as of Sept 7

I look at the USGS map of 2.5+ quakes everyday. After a few years your mind gets used to seeing the visual pattern. Anomalies then stand out.

You’d be surprised at how many 2.5-plus quakes hit different spots of the US nowadays, as opposed to years ago. I knew that the Americans were jolted when a large quake hit Virginia a few years ago and cracked the Washington DC monument. Small quakes happen in Maine. In Georgia last year there was one that was felt for a wide range of the state.

Typically we think of quakes happening in the Aleutian Islands, Hawaii, or California. But they happen in Texas, too. And ALabama. And Tennessee. And almost everywhere else. Occasionally. I think the only state not to have regular quakes is Florida. Only one quake centered in the state caused damage, but quakes outside of Florida have caused peripheral damage, notably Cuba in 1880 and Charleston SC in 1886.

But when I saw the above map I was struck. Usually there are not so many quakes at once in the unusual parts of the US.

Of course, the ongoing quake swarm in Oklahoma has people rattled. Since 2009 there has been an upsurge in felt-quakes and no one knows why. They attribute it to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) but Texas fracks much more than OK and they have less than a quarter of the quakes OK does, so who knows.

This map above showed 14 single, stray quakes in unusual parts of the US. The one over the farthest right is centered in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, location of one of the worst US quakes ever (in 1811-12). Yes, Missouri. The USGS article on the subject is titled,

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is at Significant Risk for Damaging Earthquakes

Last year, Joel Rosenberg wrote about earthquakes in the Tribulation.

Fifth earthquake in five days hits Israel

Every 80 years or so, Israel has a major, catastrophic earthquake. So Israelis know they are “due” for a “big one.” Those who pay attention to Bible prophecy also know that both the Old and New Testament Scriptures describe major earthquakes occurring in Israel in the last days. Earthquake preparations are on the increase by government agencies and among private companies and such preparations will now accelerate, especially in the wake of five minor earthquakes in Israel in the course of the past five days. Among the steps being taken: a new earthquake alert system is being developed by the government and is expected to be ready in 2016.

“Israel’s last major earthquake rattled the region in 1927″ reports the Times of Israel, was “a 6.2-magnitude tremor that killed 500 and injured another 700.” Before that, “an earthquake in 1837 left as many as 5,000 people dead.”

Here is a synopsis of the prophesied quakes that will happen in the Tribulation. We are in the last days. We have been since Jesus ascended. When I say the last of the last days, I mean now. After that, the Tribulation are the very last days of the age before the Millennium Kingdom.

Revelation 6:12-14
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

In the verse 12 where it describes a “great” earthquake, the Greek word is megas. It’s defined, “large, great, in the widest sense.”

Revelation 8:5
Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake

The text isn’t specific about what magnitude or where it will occur.

Revelation 11:13 predicts a quake in Jerusalem. When the Two Witnesses have lain dead in the street for three and a half days, God will call “Come up here!” and they will resurrect in front of the amazed and fearful world. Then-

“And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

More earthquakes…
There are noises, thunderings, lightnings, an earthquake and great hail. (Rev 11:19)

As great as the quake in Revelation 6 was, there will be an even bigger quake at the end of the Tribulation. We know this is true because the verse in Revelation 16:18 predicting it says there has never been a quake like this on the earth.

And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.

As rich in specificity as Revelation is, it is not the only book that predicts last days (Tribulation) quakes. Joel 2:10 says,

The earth quakes before them;
the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.

Ezekiel 38:19

For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

In Indonesia today there was a 6.5 quake, no tsunami, thankfully.

There was a 2.1 in Alabama today, no damage.

Iceland’s erupting volcano is sparking quakes. Or maybe the other way around.

After a brief lull, eruption concerns spiked again as a 5.5 magnitude earthquake shook the northern rim of the caldera of Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano Wednesday morning, according to the Icelandic Met Office.

And that is your quake report for today.

Posted in barack obama, God, ISIL, ISIS, middle east, prophecy

Does submitting to governing authorities mean ones like ISIS or Obama?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (Romans 13:1)

That can’t mean submit to … Obama, could it? I can’t stand Obama [Nero, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Herod, Pharaoh, Nimrod, Saddam Hussein, Mao Tse-Tung, Genghis Khan, Stalin, Nebuchadnezzar, Vlad Tepes…]

Why yes. Yes it does.

Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. (Romans 13:2)

The events taking place with ISIS in the old Assyria region of Nineveh/Mosul, Babylon/Baghdad are truly horrific.

Babylon is home to the deepest, longest lasting origin of evil on earth. (Genesis 11:4, Revelation 17:18), Babylon was first in evil religion and it will be the last. The angel of the Prince of the kingdom of Persia was strong enough to prevent the angel dispatched from God in reaching earth to bring the message to Daniel. (Daniel 10:13). That’s a strong, evil angel.

Nineveh was so evil God threatened to wipe it out, and eventually He did, so thoroughly that the city wasn’t even discovered until the mid-1800s! This area of the world is so evil that Revelation 9:14-15 says there are four evil angels bound in the Euphrates River who will be released during the Tribulation. When they are, they will immediately kill a third of mankind!

That ISIS is spawned from that area of the world is no surprise. That they are so vicious is also no surprise. Every man has that evil in him, the potential for it exists in all of us. While not all of us are as bad as we can be, the evil in us does run deep and some leaders are deeply evil. They are NOT an anomaly.

In addition, the area between Iran-Iraq-Syria (Assyria) has always had an evil government. Cain built a city (Genesis 4:17) and Nimrod was first dictator in the world, in addition, he founded Babylon, the very symbol for deceit, evil, and rebellion. (Genesis 10:8-10). The very first man-made government mentioned in the bible had a dictator and a false religion! In that same spot that there is still such evil happening!

From that perspective, the evil in the governments of the land of Assyria should not surprise us. Compared to ISIS, which is not just a terror group but a government, maybe old Saddam Hussein is looking kind of good right now! (in comparison)

So what good can some from submitting to such evil? Did God really mean to submit to governments like that? Who kill children and suspend the rule of law and torture and oppress?

Yes.

God makes good come out of it.

Like this:

In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them.

And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:19-25)

In the Millennium kingdom, God will BLESS them! They will convert and worship the one True God! There is no higher good than that! What good can possibly come from ISIS terrorists chopping off heads? That area of the world will be personally blessed by the LORD!

I love this prophecy so much. It brings tears to my eyes every time. They are the only three nations mentioned for such blessings. I also love the verse because it says, Assyria, Egypt and Israel will be blessed and the verse explains why. Egypt is His people, they hosted & protected His Son. (Hosea 11:1)

Assyria, the area ISIS is brutalizing, …Gill’s Exposition says of the prophecy regarding Assyria,

“Assyria the work of my hands; not as creatures only, but new creatures, having the good work of grace wrought in their hearts, of which God is the author; and therefore are called his workmanship, Ephesians 2:10 and who must be blessed, because, by this work of grace upon them, they appear to be the chosen of God, and precious, to be his children, and dear unto him, whom he will not forsake, and who are formed for himself, and for heaven, and happiness:”

The ISIS peoples, will be His children? Yes!

We have the advantage of knowing this great work of God is ahead, no matter how many dams are booby trapped, no matter how many heads are chopped off, no matter how many children are killed. God has a purpose, and we know what it is.

What a blessing to know the future. What a blessing to know their future redemption. What a blessing to know His holiness, even in wrath, then He will save.

It’s terrible what is happening now in and around Iraq, but the worse things get the better things will be later, because God will show Himself holy and righteous and merciful to Egypt, Israel and Assyria.

Patriarch (a parallel position to Pope)
Anton II of Georgia

Let’s say that there are Christians in the Middle East. Many of the people who are called “Christians” are not- they are Eastern Orthodox. EO is a mirror of Catholicism, so if they adhere to the doctrines of EO they are not real Christians.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say there are some, because there probably are.

Let’s say that they decide for their own self, that though the bible says to subject themselves to ruling authorities, they say, “ISIS is killing children. That’s heinous. I will not pay jizya taxes which will support that government, in any way. I will wait for a better government and I will pay taxes then.”

But, that is the short view. God has the long view. He said to store up treasures in heaven. As a citizen of heaven, I want to invest in heaven. In the essay above I’d shared the Isaiah 19 passage, in which God says He will bless Assyria, Egypt, and Israel.

In subjecting myself to the ruling authorities on earth (as long as I’m not denying Christ and converting to Islam), I am investing in His blessed government that is to come. I am trusting the LORD to fulfill His promise to bring peace in Assyria, conversion in Assyrian hearts, and the Good ruling authority- Jesus.

The short view is selfish and myopic. Who am I to say, rebel against this government because they’re bad? They’re ALL bad! There is none Good except Jesus! But in following the bible and subjecting myself to ruling governments, whether they be Queen Elizabeth or ISIS, or Saddam Hussein or George Washington, I am simply waiting for the REAL government to come, investing in it, and storing up treasure. No, I don’t want my taxes to go toward the bad things that are happening in the US nor in Iraq, but God will take care of the leaders who deal falsely. My taxes, my submission, my Christian participation, is an investment as a shareholder of the great government to come.

The long view. It’s important.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further reading

What is the significance of the Babylonian Empire in biblical history?”

What And Where Is Babylon Today?

Islamic State threat ‘beyond anything we’ve seen’: Pentagon

Posted in enoch, prophecy

The enduring comfort of prophecy

Posted on by elizabethprata

God said in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Adam in Genesis 3:20, “…named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (NIV)

Jesus tells us things in advance for many reasons. (to foretell). One reason is so that we may be on guard, be warned. (Matthew 24:25). Another is to show His holiness at judgment. (Ezekiel 2:5).

“Eye of God” Helix nebula, source Hubble Telescope

Prophetic declarations of future events also serve to comfort. Adam seemed to be comforted by God’s promise of a future redeemer. Perhaps Adam wondered as they faced God, if He would smite them on the spot. Instead, Adam clung to the knowledge that there would be offspring. Adam was so trusting in God’s word that Adam named his wife Eve, “because she would be the mother of all the living”. Bearing a son was still in the future, (Genesis 4:1), so Adam took comfort in God’s forthtelling, clung to His word, and took action because of it it.

We don’t have new prophecies today that forthtell new information because the canon is closed, but we still are built up when a person reiterates them, and preaches truth, called prophesying. This includes referring to prophecies, as well as the bible’s poetry,truths, doctrines, and history.

On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. (1 Corinthians 14:3). In this case prophesying means forthtelling.

Helix Nebula a different view, NASA

God told the first prophecy in the bible, in Genesis 3:15. Adam re-iterated that prophesy in Genesis 3:20. But who was the bible’s first human prophet? Enoch.

Enoch was the 7th person born from Adam.

Genealogy from Adam, Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. (1 Chronicles 1:1-4)

Enoch lived prior to the Flood. At the Institute for Creation Research, Dr. John Morris writes,

One of the favorite characters in the Old Testament is Methuselah, who lived 969 years (Genesis 5:27), longer than anyone else recorded. His father was Enoch, of whom it is said he “walked with God” (5:24) but who was taken to heaven without dying at 365 years. Methuselah’s son Lamech died a few years before the Flood at 777 years (5:31) after bearing Noah.

When Methuselah was born, his godly father must have prophetically known of coming things for his son’s name means “when he dies, judgment,” and interestingly enough, Methuselah died in the same year God judged the sinful world with the great Flood of Noah’s day.

God took Enoch alive in a snatching away that is a typology of the rapture. Enoch was taken in Genesis 5:24. (Hebrews 11:5)

William Blake’s only known lithograph
(lithography was rather new and experimental in 1807),
illustrating Genesis 5:24 “Enoch walked with God; then was no more,
because God took him away”.)

Genesis 5 records a genealogy. The repetitive language forms a pattern … until you get to Enoch

Genesis 5:5, “Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.”
Genesis 5:8, “Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.”
Genesis 5:11, “Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.”
Genesis 5:14, “Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.”
Genesis 5:17, “Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.”
Genesis 5:20, “Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.”
Genesis 5:23, “Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.”
Genesis 5:24, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

Who didn’t die?

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” (Hebrews 11:5)

Before Enoch was taken up, Enoch prophesied. His prophecy is recorded in Jude.

“It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14-15)

CC, Wikipedia

This is an extremely precious prophecy. It is an heirloom seed. Why? the Flood.

FLOOD

Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. (Genesis 7:6-7)

Enoch’s prophecy was given before the Flood. Everyone on earth died. After the Flood, only 8 people knew the prophecy. For Jude to record it, it means the prophecy was carried through the Flood in the heart and mind of Noah and his family.

What comfort it must have been for Noah to have heard Enoch prophesy before the Flood that the Lord will return with ten thousand of His holy ones to execute judgment. What torture it must have been for righteous Noah, (Genesis 6:9), one of the three declared most righteous men on earth, (Ezekiel 14:14) to live among such evil. Enoch’s prophecy was a light and a pure hope amid the darkest days on earth!

When the waters receded and the family emerged onto a new earth, one where continents were split and only mud existed, Noah knew the prophecy. He told the prophecy. It was told and retold, until it became ingrained in the tradition of the Jews. Jude knew it, and the Holy Spirit inspired Jude to mention it. Though Enoch’s prophecy is not recorded by Enoch in the bible, it is recorded by Jude.

In these dark days, prophecy performs the same function. The Lord WILL RETURN to execute judgment and vindicate His holy name! While we do not take delight in the death of the ungodly, we do delight in knowing Jesus will rectify all wrongs, judge the wicked, and institute peace on earth. This is ultimate comfort. The ark carried 8 precious souls. It carried every kind of animal. And it carried with it the knowledge of the One True God, and His promises to all generations: holiness in the end.