First, about casting lots. Then about Zacharias and the lot that cast him into the Nativity scene.
Did you know that the practice of casting lots is called cleromancy? I didn’t. Wikipedia defines it-
Cleromancy is a form of sortition, casting of lots, in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice, but are sometimes believed to reveal the will of God
Casting lots was a method used by the Jews of the Old Testament and by the Christian disciples prior to Pentecost to determine the will of God. Lots could be sticks with markings, stones with symbols, etc., which were thrown into a small area and then the result was interpreted. … There are many instances of casting lots in the Bible.
It’s Angel week here on the blog. With so much angel activity during the Nativity I thought it would be god to get to know about these heavenly spirit beings from the Bible as Advent approaches. Angel activity from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 is constant and amazing.
You know this Christmas hymn, I’m sure:
“Angels we have heard on high”
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Now, the Bible isn’t saturated with information about angels but there is a good bit of information about them. They are created beings whose created purpose was to minister to humans. (Hebrews 1:14). When they were created, we do not know. They also serve the Lord at His throne, so they could have been created billions of years ago as we count our time, or they could have been created just before He made humans. We do know that at the three critical junctures of God’s revealed plan for the world, they burst into song, proclamation, and exhortation, in jubilation of the work that God is doing. They burst through the veil between earth and highest heaven, to make His work known.
They sang as God laid the foundation of the world, referred to here as they often were, as the “sons of God”:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7)
They proclaimed when Jesus was born:
“In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:8-14)
And finally, angels will exhort during the Tribulation. Three of them will fly around the earth preaching and exhorting and warning:
“Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth–to every nation, tribe, language and people. A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. ” (Revelation 14:6-10a)
Three times they burst in, at the beginning, the middle and the end of this age. God cares for us SO much, He created angels to minister to us before He even made us, or the world. He cares for us so much that He sent His son to satisfy the sin debt and make a way for us to be with Him. He cares for us so much He sends angels to warn and proclaim the gospel to every creature on earth. He is a mighty God and a Loving God.
I hope that your eternal destination to be with Him is secure. I hope that you have recognized His holiness and our sinfulness, and asked Him forgiveness for your sins. Otherwise, the default destination for you is to receive your wish: permanent separation from him in hell. Hell was originally designed for Lucifer and the fallen angels, (Matthew 25:41) but God widened its mouth to receive those humans who would also rebel against Him in refusing the remedy of Jesus’ forgiveness. (Isaiah 5:14). Instead, because of Jesus’ birth as a babe, His sinless life on earth, His obedient death, and miraculous resurrection & ascension- we can sing in exultation that we are saved! We are His!
Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!
Angels figure very, very prominently in the NT. People don’t really know this, or they overlook angels in the created order. At the other end of the scale, some are so preoccupied with angels they nearly fall into angel worship.
Once you start studying angels, you realize how frequently they are mentioned in the New Testament. And as for the nativity story, they figure prominently, making many appearances! So let’s get to know these incredible beings better.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2 KJV)
From the Bible, we know that God created angels. (Colossians 1:16-17) We know that angels interact with humans at the behest of God. (Luke 1:26-38) They deliver messages. (Daniel 9:20-23). They fight for territory. (Daniel 10:20). They guard humans (Matthew 18:10) and report to God on the actions of children, anyway (Matt. 18:1-14) and perhaps to individually minister to adult Christians also (Hebrews 1:14).
Angels are divided into hierarchies and troops, including both good and evil angels, and special categories such as cherubim, seraphim, and the archangel. They are invisible. (2 Kings 6:17). They look like men sometimes, (Gen 18:1-2) and other times they look like glory (Matthew 28:2-4) and other times they look like metal and lightning (Daniel 10:5-6) and still there are other angels who look completely unusual and beyond description (Revelation 4:6-8). [For the record, with one debatable exception, angels are not biblically described as having any wings]
Surely, it is a blessing that there is a class of created being whom God uses for His glory and for our help. It is a blessing also to think that we may entertain one of them at some point in our lives!
It is not well for us to miss the opportunity of the presence, the conversation, and the prayers of the good. The influence of such guests in a family is worth more than it costs to entertain them. ~Barnes’ Notes
But do not forget, there is another class of angels. There was a rebellion in heaven, and the highest angel, one created to guard the throne itself, tried to vault himself above God and was kicked out of heaven for it. His name is Lucifer, whose title is now the devil, adversary, satan. And even though a third of the multitudes of angels lived with God, and saw His glory and knew His heart, Lucifer was apparently so convincing that they sided with him against God, and so they were kicked out too. (Revelation 12:3-4,9)
Not everything supernatural is from God! If you entertain angels unawares, it may be a good angel sent to minister to you. Or it may be a fallen angel, sent by satan to thwart you, deceive you, or hinder you. ( also 1 Tim.4:1-3; 2 Cor.11:13-15) “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
In this we must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Banres’ Notes again:
If there is danger that we may sometimes receive those of an opposite character. yet it is not wise on account of such possible danger, to lose the opportunity of entertaining those whose presence would be a blessing.
If you are reading this whether you are a Christian or a non-believer, be aware that deceit comes in a guise wrapped in a beautiful package. Fallen angels would look just like the glorious angels, as stated above in the Corinthians verse. If you are a Christian, you should be praying daily to receive wisdom, and it will be given to you without reproach.
You should be in the Word daily so that you will know the truth from a lie. If you are a non-believer reading this after the rapture, know that your odds of learning the truth have diminished but you can pray to Jesus to forgive you of your sins (if you are truly sorry for your bad acts and thoughts, that is) and He will forgive you. He will send the Holy Spirit to you to help you discern the truth from a lie. Without His help, you are at the mercy of an adversary who can and does ‘appear to us unawares’ and always for the purpose of destroying us!
NOT EVERYTHING SUPERNATURAL IS FROM GOD! “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9).
Angels might surround you unawares, and it surely would be a blessing to entertain a Holy Angel, but YOU should not be unaware of satan and his angels’ counterfeiting abilities!
Recently I wrote about pearls, and today I’m writing about gold. Many precious and semi-precious gems mentioned in the Bible, and I’m interested in all of them! Next in my Jewels series I’ll write about rubies.
But first, some science. I haven’t written a science essay in a while.
Quantum dots are the new big thing in science, particularly chemistry. Last month two guys just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of and manipulation of “quantum dots.”
“Quantum dots are tiny particles or nanocrystals of a semiconducting material with diameters in the range of 2-10 nanometers (10-50 atoms). They were first discovered in 1980. They display unique electronic properties” Source, Millipore Sigma
“The discovery of quantum dots, and the ability to synthesize such materials with high accuracy but relatively simple chemical methods, is an important step in the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology.” More on the Nobel Prize here.
The ability to construct machines at the sub-atomic level is Nanotechnology. It is engineering at the molecular scale. Molecule by molecule you can build something from the bottom up. Nano-technology is already being applied in medicine and environmental technologies. Nanotechnology is also known as molecular manufacturing.
A mechanical white blood cell attacks bacteria. The bacteria cannot develop immunity to mechanical devices as it would towards a drug
Renowned physics professor Richard Feynman proposed the capability of nanotechnology in 1959, and in every decade since then, advances have been made in the field. That brings us up to last month:
In September 2023, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to “Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov for being pioneers of the nanoworld. The new laureates discovered and developed quantum dots, semiconductors made of particles squeezed so small that their electrons barely have room to breathe. Semiconductors are crystals that help power our electronics. But while traditional crystals may be quite large at the molecular level, a quantum dot consists of just a few thousand atoms squished into a space just a few nanometers across. The difference in size between a quantum dot and a soccer ball is about the same as the difference between a soccer ball and the Earth, the Nobel Foundation said.” Source NY Times.
Targeted drug delivery through nanotechnology
Nano-tech is is a hot topic. Within that field, nano-gold is even hotter. Scientists have discovered that as the gold particle size is decreased, there are many intriguing phenomena which occur.
On the nanoscale, gold becomes transparent! Remind you of any particular verses?
And now, scientists are discovering the uses of matching quantum dots with nano-gold and there are even further discoveries to be made that they say will benefit humankind.
This pdf explains nanogold in laymen’s terms: it’s really interesting and easy to read. Exploring Materials—Nano Gold
If you shrink gold down to a nanoparticle, its properties change dramatically. Its color changes, it becomes a very good conductor. It is no longer a metal – instead it turns into a semiconductor.
Even today, ultra-thin gold is being used on buildings and aircraft windows – thin film of gold display some unusual characteristics. When processed with ultra-thin sheets gold becomes transparent. Windows coated with gold admit light but reflects heat. Therefore, the cockpit windows of modern aircraft are coated with gold, as well as the windows of many new office buildings. (BBC).
Here are the biblical implications of nano-gold!
Have you ever been intrigued by the verse in Revelation 21:21,
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
Or Revelation 21:18,
And the material of the wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass.
How can gold be transparent, you ask? Well, at the nano-level, gold becomes transparent! We didn’t know this until a new millennium, but God always knew this, since He is the author and architect of creation!
Perhaps the references to ‘gold pure as glass’ in those Revelation verses, the only places in the Bible where that combination is mentioned by the way, is meant symbolically. The older Commentary writers struggled with this and most explained the clear gold as the purity of the heavenly dwelling, using the pure gold as reference to New Jerusalem’s cleanness (absence of dirt or sin). And maybe it is.
Or maybe … now that we know of nano-gold’s properties, that it becomes transparent at the sub-molecular level, maybe the verse is meant literally.
Isn’t it interesting that God knows the properties of every single molecule on earth and in heaven. He made the sun, the moon, and the stars. He makes the Aurora Borealis. He makes gold, and He knows that gold can become transparent.
Will man go too far with nano-technology? Will the new advances in “quantum dots” give man the capability of creating a new and unique life forms? Will the nano-universe become man’s Tower of Babel? Time will tell. God will not allow man to intrude into His sphere. He shared Earth with man, putting man on the earth to work the garden and keep it. But it is His earth, His domain to give life and take it away. His domain to create beauty.
As for me, I can’t wait to have a sinless mind. When we ‘get there’ we will be cleansed of sin. I’ll think clearly- not just about difficult subjects like quantum physics or nano-technology, but able to think clearly and sinlessly about God. To SEE our Jesus, to live in His dwelling place, to experience the giant pearl gates and the street of gold, to be with His redeemed forever. What a day that will be!
The culmination of the age of man ends with two great feasts. In one, believers will dine with the glorious King of all Kings!
“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”-for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” (Revelation 19:6-9)
In the other, the dead on the earth after Armageddon will BE the supper…for vultures:
“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (Revelation 19:17-21).
The Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom would come, and where. He answered:
“And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.” (Luke 17:37)
Eagles (other translations say vultures) will flock to where the prey is and they flock most to where there is easy prey. Jesus was saying that eagles will gather where the dead are- the wicked dead. Unless we each individually repent and are forgiven by Jesus, we are dead in our sins. (Colossians 2:13).
Unless this nation which accepts and codifies homosexuality, abortion, greed, usury and other sins abhorrent to God, repents and is forgiven, we are a dead nation.
Will you dine? Or will you be dined upon? Both suppers will happen. Repent now and fall on Jesus asking for forgiveness from the King who accepts worship from forgiven sinners.
EPrata photo. Not a photo of our office, but another local building who put up an enormous flag
I was in my newspaper office. Tuesday is a big paper day, we go to print Wednesday morning. I rented the office from my friend who lived a big farmhouse, and she called me from her living room. I thought it was unusual that she phoned, being just a few feet away from me in the same building. But her voice evaporated all other thoughts. She said quietly but with fervor, “COME HERE NOW”.
The first plane had just hit the twin tower in NY. We watched with eyes open, breathing shallowly, standing with arms numbly at our sides…until the second plane hit at 9:03. Our eyes locked together, and we knew without saying a word that this was an attack. We also knew that nothing would ever be the same. We watched until another plane hit the Pentagon 34 minutes later. It felt like the world was coming to an end. It really did. We thought the world was ending. A knot was in my stomach and coherent thoughts refused to form in my head. We got our purses and the first thing we did was walk across the street to the hardware store and we bought the biggest flag they had. We went back to the office and put it up. Then we went to the bank to get money. Cash was going to be important if the electricity went out or we were ordered to evacuate. We didn’t know what was coming next and we wanted to be prepared. It could have been a nuke coming next, for all we knew. At the bank, they had the TV on in the break room with the door open and the volume up so customers could hear what was going on. A fourth plane had just gone down in PA. We saw the smoking crater. We knew that plane was part of whatever was happening.
We resolved that our freedom was under attack. Running a newspaper which reported the news and offered a platform for the people to speak their thoughts on any political or civic matter freely, we decided our most patriotic thing we could do to support the Constitution that day was to get the paper out. The terrorists were not going to stop the presses. They were not going to stop freedom from ringing out. And that is what we did.
Churches were full that Sunday, though a bit less full the following Sunday. By about four slim weeks, churches were back to their spotty attendance. Why is this? Why do people fly planes into buildings and kill others? Why is there murder? Why is there war? Why are there conflicts at every level? Because man is inherently wicked. Our hearts are evil above all things, who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). Because man is basically evil. If we didn’t have laws and limits we would be killing each other at every moment.
Jesus is the hope we have to become good. Not on our own merits. We do not become good through our own efforts. No, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone.” It is not a popular thing to say, that we are not good, but we are not. [Click on the link for John MacArthur’s sermon the Sunday after 9/11/01 as he takes us through a biblical understanding of death, terrorism, and the Middle East]
I thank Jesus that He poured out His life so that we may live…and become righteous. “It is because of him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Even at that, our fleshly lives on earth are a struggle, a struggle against sin and growth in righteousness. I long for the day when flesh shall be glorified and sin shall be banished.
So people are evil, and we struggle against our nature. We want what we want and we sometimes terrorize or go to war to get it. Such will be the way, until the end. The end that comes before the beginning!
In the meantime, as we watch the death throes of this old world (which means the birth of the Glorious World!)…we mourn but also we love our nation America.
The song you are about to listen to is from a Las Vegas Diamond Rio concert. They received an immediate resounding standing ovation, and continue to do so every time they perform it!
Here in America, In God We STILL Trust:
On the day of 9/11 there were people trapped above the strike zones who thought it would be preferable to hurl themselves out the shattered windows of the twin towers rather than burn to death. One photo in particular caught the world’s attention. It is called “Falling Man” and it seems that his graceful swan dive plummet was poignant in the extreme. Here is the back-story of that photo.
Five months after 9/11 the Superbowl came along, just as it always does. The Superbowl is noted for artful, funny, or avante garde commercial debuts, due to the high viewership of the game. Budweiser showed a commercial called “Respect” and showed it only once, then until now. Thanks to Youtube, the ad has resurfaced. It is sure to bring a tear to your eye. We remember American greatness, American products, American ways.
Jesus will return in glory with His glorified saints. He will institute new nations and new cities populated by sinless resurrected chosen ones. There will be no more war because our hearts will be made right with Him. There will be no more terror because we will want nothing, having been given it all by our Savior. If you bow low to the Savior, He will lift you up high. Please do it soon.
And that’s a shame, because it is the central point of all of the story of Redemption. God is Holy. That means He is perfect, sinless, well, Holy.
And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)
Humans are not holy. We were originally created sinless, perfect, but through free will, Adam and Eve in the garden decided to follow Lucifer’s suggestion to eat the forbidden fruit, and in doing so, directly disobeyed a command from God. That is what sin IS, disobeying God. I used to tell my children in the Good News Club, an after school Bible club, that sin is anything we think, say, or do that displeases God. Since we have thoughts, words and actions that displease God all the time, and couldn’t stop if we tried, it means we are sinners with a sin nature. Paul refers to our sinful nature in Galatians:
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)
Even if you do not believe in Adam and Eve and the garden and the forbidden fruit, you know deep down, that you are a bad person who does wrong things. Even if you ever said one lie to spare a person’s feelings (“Yes, that dress looks great on you!”) you are disqualified from being with God in heaven. Why? His Holiness is eternal. So is that lie. Sin is eternal, too. It doesn’t go away after you say it or do it or think it. It remains. And your sin and His holiness shall never meet.
Why would a liar think he is qualified for heaven? A cheater? As self-admitted liars and cheats and adulterers, and gossips and lusty people, why do we think we are “a basically a good person” and therefore qualified to dwell forever with a Holy God? We aren’t.
However, God so desires a relationship with us, that He made a way. He sent Jesus to us. I used to think that Jesus first came to us at Bethlehem on Christmas. But that is not so. He has been with God since the beginning. Genesis 1:1-26 shows that the Father God, Jesus and the Spirit were all involved in the Creation. And just in case there is confusion on this point, John 1:1-3 says
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
At one point known only to God, God said
“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.(Psalm 2:7)
And God’s Plan to send a Holy One to redeem us was enacted, as reiterated by Paul in Acts 13:33:
that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’
So if we’ve all been sinners since Adam and Eve and He is Holy and cannot dwell with us, that’s it, then, isn’t it? Not quite! We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) He loves us SO MUCH! He sent Jesus to us to minister and preach and heal, so that our only, ONLY call to the road to heaven is “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29b)
It is very simple. Believe. All other verses are spokes stemming that central truth: for example, believing in “the One” means believing in the Messiah. Why was He sent? To seek and save the lost. Why are we lost? We sin. Why is He Messiah? Because He is the ONLY one who is qualified to forgive our sins, being sinless. Why would we confess? Because He came to seek and save us from our sins, therefore it makes sense that we would acknowledge those sins through our stated belief in Him.
Many people believe in God. Believing in Jesus is a huge leap because the gulf between (Jesus and us) and (God and us) is sin. If you believe in Jesus you believe you are a sinner, like the thief on the cross did, because a person is finally recognizing his OWN sin in the face of the obviously Sinless one. Many people believe in God without believing they themselves are sinners and they leave Jesus out of the equation completely.
Because God is HOLY, and we sin, man must “reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. (Jeremiah 26:13)”
Believe, and turn from your sin. Repent and be dwelling in perfect love for all eternity! Love, love, love, we love because HE FIRST LOVED US! He is wonderful and a holy God like no other. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple,” that is how holy He is. Yet for all His holiness, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16) He is waiting there for you with open arms.
“America seems ripe for judgment”… The discerners of the church body have been saying ‘judgment in America’ for a while. I know I have. In 2010 I’d written that America seemed to have passed the “point of no return. Before the Economic Crash of 2008, all had been going along like it had been in this country. America was strong and mighty and seemingly invincible. Warning that judgment was coming soon was met with strange looks and shaking of heads. No brimstone was falling, after all. Just because we don’t see brimstone falling from the sky does not mean we as a nation are not experiencing judgment.
Many people think of judgment as the kind that occurred at Sodom and Gomorrah: brimstone from the sky and obliteration of the entire city. (Genesis 19:24). And that IS one kind of judgment.
Bible Fact: There are 13 mentions of brimstone (sulfur) in the Bible. Six mentions are in the Old Testament. Seven mentions are in the New Testament. Of the 7 mentions of brimstone in the NT, six are in Revelation.
The wrath of God is not one-dimensional. There are in fact many different kinds of wrath that God displays. Hosea 5:12 says “He is as a moth to Ephraim or or dry rot to Judah”, working silently and invisibly. In his 2012 sermon “When God Abandons a Nation“, John MacArthur outlined five distinct kinds of wrath the Lord has displayed throughout the Bible.
1. Eternal wrath: that is the punishing eternal, judgment God brings upon sinners in their death. 2. Eschatalogical wrath: God’s stored-up anger unleashed at the end of this present age upon the world, promised by Old Testament saints, outlined at length in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, and seen unfolding through Revelation. 3. Cataclysmic wrath: These are tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., the result of sin and the curse upon the world. 4. Consequential wrath: this is a person receiving the just due for their actions while on earth, the sowing and reaping. 5. Abandonment: This is the wrath seen in Romans 1:18-32. MacArthur preached, “God will abandon sinners to their own choices and the consequences of those choices. And just what is this abandoning act on God’s part, it is the removal of restraining grace. It is when God lets go and turns a society over to its own sinful freedoms and the results of those freedoms. No Scripture more directly confronts this abandonment and its consequences than Romans 1 does.”
A Hillary Clinton presidency would be a Jezebel judgment in my opinion. A Kamala Harris Vice-Presidency is also indicative of judgment, as Isaiah 3:12 seems to indicate.
MacArthur said in that 2012 sermon that “It’s pretty convincing that God has abandoned our nation.” God has done so in the past to other nations, many times. In Hosea 4:17 it is recorded that God said, “Ephraim is joined unto idols, let him alone.” America isn’t special that we should not expect the same treatment as other rebellious nations when we abandon Him.
In Acts 14:16, the Apostle Paul said, “In the generations gone by, He…God…permitted all the nations to go their own way.” This is the story of history. All the nations of history go their own way. So like the nations of old, like the nations past, we follow the same cycle of having the truth, rejecting the truth and being abandoned by God. ~MacArthur
Can you think of a worse wrath than for God to leave you alone? Whether He is abandoning you as an individual or as a nation, it is a deeply disturbing thought. In Romans 1:18-32,
Three times you have the statement, “God gave them over.” This term paradidomiinthe Greek can have a judicial sense. It can be used of a judgment made on a criminal who was then handed over for punishment. Each of these phrases expresses the fact that the wrath of God has acted judicially to sentence sinners. It is God officially giving them over. It is God letting them go to the uninterrupted cause and effect their sinful choices produce. When this judgment falls, there is a depriving of restraining grace and sin runs rampant through a society. (Source)
Do the people of a nation under the wrath of abandonment know it is happening when it is happening? Non-believers don’t of course, and even most believers don’t. But the Prophets certainly did, and it was a deep lament to them.
Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath. (Jeremiah 7:29)
And so, we are under His wrath. That brings the question…is there any hope? … [T]here is a word of hope in Psalm 81…This is a plaintive cry from God who says, “Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways.” The key, listen to Me. Walk in My ways. The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it, to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it. And I would suggest that this is not a good time for weak men preaching weak messages in weak churches. This is a time for bold and powerful strong biblical ministry that calls people to hear the Word of the Lord and respond. This is the only hope for any people for any individual.
The day is sobering and the times are troubling. We all strive to display the joy of Christ in our daily life, to persevere in and aura of hope and peace. We know to be gentle and humble, and to love our friend, neighbor and enemy. But there is no doubt that the times demand of us a careful attention to the Bible and its paths, more than ever in fact.
We don’t like to be downers but we also don’t ignore the fact that we are living in difficult times that are on the precipice of being massively more difficult soon. We know that God created each person on earth specifically and for a specific purpose in their era. If I am here now, for just such a time as this, what can I do to both advance the kingdom like I’m supposed to, and also prepare for the times ahead? We must do our diligence to lift Jesus’ name to the highest with all our strength, soul, mind, and heart.
The declaration of the fact we are sinners is rare these days. I’ve become saddened that so many people refuse to see that they are indeed wretched sinners, in need of a savior. The mere mention of the fact that we sin is enough these days to engender a harsh reaction, even profanity and blasphemy. I’m not kidding, the reactions are loud and brash.
People say that rather than see ourselves as at the core evil, we are created in the image of God and insinuate that then, of course, we are intrinsically good and worthy. They say things like ‘we’ve gone off course’, or ‘missed the mark’, or just ‘need a mid-course correction.’
NOOOOOOOO! It is a pure satanic twist, perpetuating the oldest and most basic satanic lie: changing the plain language of “sin”.
If we are intrinsically good and worthy, we do not believe we need a savior, which suits satan just fine. Satan’s first lie is that man is intrinsically good. We are not. Satan says if we are left to ourselves, we will do things that are moral, just and upright, (like heal the planet and refrain from wars and enact social justice and behave equitably.
Don’t you think that if we could collectively do that which is just and moral we would have already? Satan’s lie about just how good we are is refuted in Romans 5:12 “Wherefore by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, so then death is passed upon all men for all have sinned.”
Once the notion of sin is pushed away, and made to seem like just little stumbles, we can feel safe in taking the safe path toward a SELF-correction. That path is NOT safe, it is the worst of dangers and snares! “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death.” (Proverbs 14:7).
So do we believe the sins of the world can be cured by intrinsically good and worthy people working together to stop the ‘mistakes’ of oil drilling and excessive carbon emissions and social injustice? Has it worked, yet? This is another satanic lie, that we can control our own destiny.
Satan says man “is the captain of my own fate.” The LORD is the captain of our fate. The Scripture says, “A man can do nothing except it be given him from heaven.” (John 3:27) and “We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God’s hands.” (Proverbs 16:1)
Even words previously commonly understood like racism, misogyny, equity, justice have been perverted to mean things they are not.
“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25). Earth-worship is not new, but calling oil drilling or climate change a sin or that we can manage ‘climate change’ by dwelling in a hotter house are vain acts.
It is the end time. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (1 Timothy 4:1).
In these days of doctrines of demons, we read a great many things that are couched slyly as satan would say, with insinuating concepts of God as outdated, of personal sin as too harsh to accept against our innate goodness, of men who can collectively make a list and change the world through strength and actions of their own control of destiny.
Watch for statements like those, of conversations that accept these lies. We must be strong and call these statements what they are, not mistakes, or wrong thinking, but lies. We do not need correction of national mistakes, but forgiveness of personal sin. Why be so clear and pointed? Jesus calls them lies. Jesus calls them antichrists. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7). “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
“Female priests asked why God was still referred to as a man. The new form of worship, which removes words such as “Lord, he, his, him” and “mankind” from services, has been written by the church in an attempt to acknowledge that God is “beyond human gender”. Episcopalian bishops have approved the introduction of more “inclusive” language, which deliberately removes references suggesting that God is of male gender.”
They were already on a bad path. Did you catch that? “Female priests.” It sounds humble to say God is beyond gender. And while it is true, it is not humble. God revealed Himself as male in His word in His own words.
Once man decides to alter God’s word, it never stops there. It’s like all the leashes, and guardrails, and boundaries suddenly disappear and all bets are off. The Bible becomes a free-for-all.
Since sin never lays still and never ceases to try and pollute God’s people and His church, I decided to check back in now that 13 years have passed. Let’s see how the Scottish Episcopal Church is doing now. There is an advantage to have been blogging for 15 years, the chronicling I’ve done allows me to see trajectories. So, I checked back in with the Scottish Episcopal church now that it’s 2023 and 13 years have passed.
What happens when the rock starts sliding down the hill? It picks up speed. By 2017 the Scottish Episcopal Church voted to allow homosexual marriage. To become homosexual “inclusive”. Just 7 years after the change of language of God as male. It was stated,
By removing gender from our marriage canon, our church now affirms that a same sex couple are not just married but are married in the sight of God.
By the way, they call homosexual marriage “equal marriage”.
First, we already know that God is spirit and thus beyond human gender. Reiterating that fact by changing the language is not necessary. That language is already in the Bible. As John 4:24 states, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” God is a spiritual being. We all know that if we read the Bible.
However, when the ‘female priests asked why God is referred to as a man’, their first answer should have been to refer to the scriptures. The answer is that though God is Spirit, He chose to reveal Himself to humankind as male, and His son was revealed to us as a male also. It is too bad that the method God chose to speak of Himself and the way He chose to reveal Himself to us is not sufficient for the priests at this church. But they were female priests, so…already in sin and therefore unable to think properly of the things above.
Secondly, Jesus, His son, referred to Him as male.
John 8:19 – “So they were saying to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.””
John 20:17 – “Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'”” The Apostles also referred to God as a male. (Jude 1:1; 1 Peter 1:3; 2 Thess 1:2…) I’m sorry that the way that our Savior spoke of our Father is not credible to the priests.
They use the word ‘inclusive.” The word ‘inclusive’ these days is usually a code for ‘man’s fleshly desire.’ God is inclusive because anyone who calls on the name of God and repents will be saved.
Changing the scriptures to align with individual desires or mass culture is not only dangerous, but blasphemy. Why? “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Tim 3:16). The scriptures the Scottish Church is changing were delivered by God. Man’s corruption of God’s work is blasphemy because it directly disrespects God and His sacred Word. Again, to use an overused word, “all scripture” means ALL, inclusive of Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.
But! We were told that the days would come when people would not stand for the scriptures as is, but succumb to the pleasant words of man, wanting their ears tickled instead. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
UK Telegraph article concludes, “the blessing at the end of services has been changed by some ministers from “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” to “Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier”. “The changing of God language is a little tricky,” admitted Rev Darren McFarland, convener of the church’s liturgy committee…” Well that explains it. A committee!
the-end-time.org 