Category: prophecy

Posted in Ahab, encouragement, prophecy

Ahab learned the hard way, you’re either all in, or all out. There’s no halfway

Posted on by elizabethprata

1 Kings 22. King Ahab of Israel wants to go to war.

Earlier, Ahab had truly repented in sackcloth and ashes, and the LORD saw that his heart was truly saddened for his sin. So God delayed the prophecy’s fulfillment that Ahab would die in battle and dogs will lick his blood until later in Ahab’s life.

Meanwhile, Ahab and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, wanted to get the city of Ramoth-gilead back but they have to fight the king of Syria to do it. Ahab sought the prophets, who, of course, told Ahab exactly what he wanted to hear. Except for the real prophet, Micaiah, who delivered bad news. And of course Ahab went ballistic and ordered Micaiah to jail and Ahab decided to go to battle anyway.

“But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.” (1 Kings 22:34)

However…

When Micaiah said that Ahab would die in battle against BenHadad, king of Syria, and all men would scatter like sheep, Ahab ignored the prophecy but still feared it. He disguised himself and told Jehoshaphat to keep on wearing his own royal robes. Yet a stray arrow shot at random still found its mark and wound its way into Ahab’s breastplate. Ahab died that night, and his blood covered his chariot and it had to be washed in the pool at Siloam, where, according to prophecy, the dogs licked Ahab’s blood.

The battlefield disguise made no difference to the LORD, who sees all things–

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)

The notation in the verse about the randomness of the arrow shows just how powerful God is, it was no thing for Him to direct the arrow to pierce the fragile flesh of a man who feared God only as long as the prophecies were good to him.

Ahab should have listened to Micaiah, and he should have known that the Lord speaks truly and certainly. Fear the LORD fully, and you will do well.

God is all or nothing. He is truth, or He is not. He is all-powerful, or He is not. He sees all, or He does not. What is it in man who thinks we can out-wait, out wit, out-think a God such as this?

Ahab was in it part-way, and he lost all.

It’s foolish to fear God because He’s God, but then think a mere clothing disguise will prevent Him from seeing you. If He is the God who can make all things come to pass, a few inches of metal on your body aren’t enough to shield you from His eye nor His will. You either fear Him or you don’t fear Him, You either rebel in your own will or you accept His will. Ahab was playing a child’s game of costume Trick or Treat and he forgot God is the omniscient God of the eternal.

Remember, there is the broad way, and the narrow way. Foolish virgins and wise virgins. Heaven or hell. With Him or against Him. No ‘Bible PLUS tradition.’ There’s no tricks, no disguises, no argument. Read Matthew 7:21 to see how far the arguments carry.

Don’t be an Ahab. Fully embrace Him. And why not? Jesus is glory and beauty and truth and love and perfection.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:3)

Posted in antichrist, bitcoin, jesus, prophecy, quantum computer

Bitcoins and quantum computing

Posted on by elizabethprata

Back in April of this year, I wrote about a quirky new virtual currency called bitcoin. At that time, it was just three years old and amazingly, valued at 1 BN. Forbes magazine at that time called it a “disruptive technology.” They state their opinion in a well-written, understandable piece of logic:

“A financial network is a technological platform that people build businesses on top of. And the traditional banking and credit card networks are closed platforms. If you want to build an e-commerce site, a payment network like Paypal, or any other service that deals in dollars, you need to convince incumbent financial institutions to do business with you. Getting such a partnership is difficult and involves a lot of red tape.

 There’s a good reason for the high barrier to entry: electronic transactions in the conventional banking system are generally reversible. If someone makes a fraudulent charge to your credit card, you can dispute the transaction and in most cases the bank or the merchant, not the customer, will cover the cost. That’s convenient for consumers, but it requires the financial system to be a fairly close-knit web of trust. Allowing a new member into the club creates risks for everyone else. So the incumbents are understandably reluctant to deal with anyone who isn’t well-known and well-capitalized.

 Bitcoin is different. Because transactions are authenticated cryptographically and cannot be reversed, there’s no need to restrict access to the network. There’s no risk to accepting payments from complete strangers. That means people don’t need anyone’s permission or trust to go into business as a Bitcoin-based merchant or financial intermediary.”

So how is bitcoin doing three and a half years after debut, and 7 months after it poked through the ceiling of global consciousness? Pretty durn good. The Verge has a piece on bitcoin from last night.

Source

Bitcoin hits $700 during surprisingly friendly Senate hearing on the virtual currency
“Bitcoin, the decentralized virtual currency that approximates cash on the internet, had a big day today. The four-year-old currency had its first hearing in Congress as experts from the government, the Bitcoin community, and the nonprofit sector appeared to discuss the implications of the growing popularity of virtual currencies. And while that testimony took place, a single Bitcoin soared to $700 on the market at the tail of a two-week climb.”

 “Virtual currencies, perhaps most notably Bitcoin, have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others, and confused the heck out of many of us,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told a packed room.”

 “The hearing was the culmination of a three-month investigation into Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, he said. The proceeding was made up of two panels. The first featured Jennifer Shasky Calvery, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; Mythili Raman, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice; and Secret Service agent Edward W. Lowery III.”

The above article concluded ended with this “While the hearing was frontloaded with discussion of the potential for virtual currencies to be used for crime, there was no sense of alarm about the strange new world of Bitcoin. “

So far from being disruptively and wild N woolly, the bitcoin is settling into its place in commerce and in governmental mindsets. It is traded on the exchange, and is gaining investors, according to TechCrunch. The Chinese bitcoin exchange “pile onto bitcoin” and is gaining momentum. Bloomberg goes so far as to say it is gaining credibility. Bloomberg reminds us that “Bitcoins … exist as software and aren’t regulated by any country or banking authority,” and this is a remarkable statement because the currency didn’t even exist three years ago.

It is prophesied that the false prophet will force all to accept a mark of worship that will not only ally the recipients with satan via the antichrist but allow the recipients to buy or sell, (Revelation 13:16-17). People who refuse the mark will not be allowed to buy or sell. This is an intriguing prophecy. For millennia, it has been impossible for commenters, theologians and interpreters of the bible to understand how one man could control all of the world’s commerce by regulating its currency and to know instantly at point of sale who is allowed to buy or sell- and who is not. They believed it, they just couldn’t envision it.

However, since technological times in this generation, people have accepted that somehow the world economy will be remade to the point where one currency will circulate, but before the internet was invented the best they could envision was that it’d have something to do with barcodes.

The barcode was invented in 1952 but it wasn’t used commercially  until 1974. That is not so long ago. I was in high school. Since then, technology has made envisioning some of the previously more difficult and obscure prophecies not only clear but almost realized in our lifetime. Whether bitcoin will be THE currency used to fulfill the prophecy, or another one will be, it is increasingly clear that since this generation was born there have been astounding technological advances that not only laid the groundwork for the prophecy to be fulfilled but the details of it to be envisioned with clarity and precision.

Think about it- prior to 1974, no barcodes were in use in commercial economy. Since then we’ve had the advent of the internet, a global economy, and new currencies. One may buy and sell virtual items without ever touching money. A kindle book is one example. eCommerce is de rigueur.

Parallel to the bitcoin’s rise is the necessity for supercomputers to handle the world’s increasingly virtual commerce. And just yesterday, a quantum computing record was set. If there is to be a new currency and if it is to be virtual-based, the world will need faster computers to maintain these commerce and banking records. Enter quantum computing. Instead of using silicon based transistors, a quantum computer “will harness the power of atoms and molecules to perform memory and processing tasks.”

“Notoriously hard to manipulate and even more difficult to maintain Quantum memory states are often best controlled at absolute zero, however this new record has shattered previous estimations by being carried out at room temperature.” (source)

And the record that was “shattered” was that the quantum computer was maintained at room temp for 42 minutes. That’s a huge leap. A quantum leap. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

With our old global economy on the brink, fiat money increasingly diluted, and new currencies popping up, combined with the convergence of all other prophecies such as the rapid decline of society, rise of apostasy, and Christianity’s great shrinking, it seems to me that we could actually see the Messiah in our lifetimes- if not sooner.

Posted in prophecy, seminary

How to spot a liberal seminary, storms, political discourse

Posted on by elizabethprata

Clint Archer has a good article on How to Spot a Liberal Seminary. If you were wondering how so many false pastors get into churches, and then turn around and corrupt the sheep, this is how. I personally believe we have passed a tipping point, with so many pastors as the tares choking out the real wheat. Pastors who don’t know the bible have to come from somewhere. Liberal seminaries are one place from which they spew.

Do you think there are more huge storms lately? Superstorm Sandy has already been upstaged by “the biggest storm ever, “Typhoon Haiyan. Here is an editorial looking at the last few years’ worth of storms and comparing them to the prophesied birth pangs. Data don’t lie.

Speaking of storms, another usual occurrence occurred. The Huffington Post commented on the recent rash of tornadoes in the Midwest yesterday. Their line, “Illinois was struck the hardest by the unusually powerful late-season tornadoes” contains the by-now usual superlatives I’ve been talking about. With each passing storm, each one larger than the last, or more unusual, or more powerful, we read of superlatives. In the HuffPo piece, we read three at once; ‘Unusual”, “powerful” and “late-season”.

We’ve gone from this:

“The citizens of the U.S. are responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society” ~James Madison

And this:

“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.” ~John Adams

To this. This is what passes for public, political discourse lately:
MSNBC’s Bashir Apologizes For Saying Someone Should Defecate on Sarah Palin

The scriptures say-
“Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” (Proverbs 13:3)

“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 5:4) 

Posted in prophecy

Headlines indicating prophetic signs of near fulfillment

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been reading some headlines on some Christian sites and the headlines remind me of some prophetic verses. I’ll post the headline and a snippet, and below that, the verse it reminded me of.

Did Israeli gov’t vandalize box that held the bones of Jesus’ brother?
“A limestone box said to have once held the bones of the brother of Jesus was at the center of the most controversial forgery case in decades — and it was allegedly vandalized by the Israeli government before being returned to its owner. … The box will soon go on display for the public to view for the first time since 2002. There’s just one problem: Reddish stains now appear over the inscription, remnants of a silicon substance applied by the Israel Police Forensics Laboratory to help determine the authenticity of the James ossuary. The Israeli police, with permission of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), made a red silicon mold of the inscription — destroying the ‘letter patina’ by pulling out this ‘soft’ patina … thus destroying evidence,” said the geologists who first studied the ossuary in 2002, according to Jerusalem-based journalist Matthew Kalman’ v:shapes=”_x0000_i1025″> who has covered Golan’s trial extensively. “Consequently, the alleged small amount of masking letter patina is absent now and cannot be studied further.”

I have no idea about the allegations on this issue, and I’m not making any correlations or allegations, but it did remind me of the case recorded in the bible. After Jesus rose from the dead,

“While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.” (Matthew 28:11-15)

I long for the day when Jesus will not be denied in any form from any person.

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Unprecedented Skull Discovery Raises Serious Questions Over Evolutionary Premises
“The discovery of an ancient human skull in the Asian country of Georgia has thrown the proverbial monkey wrench into the theory of human evolution. …For evolutionists, the skull presents a major problem. According to naturalistic dating methods, the specimen is nearly 2 million years old. Yet, despite the alleged ancient age, the skull is similar to today’s cranial structures, with differences that could fit into variation levels of modern humans.“

“For decades, evolutionists have claimed that different human species evolved at different rates in various locations. However, the skull discovery in Georgia shows that there was actually much more continuity than predicted, with only one distinct lineage of humans.”

Well, well, well. God made man. No myth or philosophy will stand on His day when He shows Himself as Faithful and True.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26).

God made man in one day, not over billions of years as evolution states. Evolution is false on the face of it. There are too many logical leaps, gaps, and ridiculous assumptions. As for the science, the steady parade of the missing links and changes in ideas about the missing link should be a major clue that scientists themselves are not settled on the theory of evolution. A paper in Biology Letters just a couple of years ago asked, “Was Darwin Wrong?” No matter what man claims, the only true statements of any lasting value are God’s. (Mark 13:31)

FMI on why or how evolution isn’t true, go here

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NSA Tracks Turned-Off Phones — But Phone Makers Don’t Know How
Tracking a cellphone is easy, especially for the National Security Agency. But can you track a cellphone that’s been turned off? It sounds impossible, but the NSA apparently has been able to track powered-down mobile phones since 2004, as reported by The Washington Post in July 2013. So far, Ericsson, Google, Nokia and Samsung have responded — and, as far as they know or can say, it shouldn’t be possible to track powered-down cellphones. All four companies claimed to be unaware of any exploit or vulnerability that would make tracking a powered-down phone possible, since pressing the “off” button on a phone entirely deactivates its network connectivity.

There are some last days and Tribulation prophecies which refer to technology. Daniel said that in the last days knowledge will increase (Daniel 12:4).  It is a difficult prophecy to interpret because the prophecy isn’t clear on which sphere of knowledge will increase, or all spheres (including religious). We have certainly seen the government’s knowledge increase in both military and scientific applications. It has also increased in illegal knowledge of the citizens. We see many headlines today regarding the government’s knowledge of its people increasing by spying on us. But the plain meaning is that knowledge will increase.

The false prophet will cause all to have a mark on their hand or forehead. This will be a mark of worshiping the beast (antichrist) and it will allow the holder to participate in commerce, in other words, buy or sell.

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,e to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. Rev 13:16-17

How the antichrist would be able to track those who are in the commercial sphere and those who are not, given all the points of sale across the world, has perplexed many for thousands of years. Since these words were written by John it has seemed impossible to perform, and yet in the last few years it has been increasingly revealed just how able the government is at tracking its people. That is what the above headline shows.

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The Coming Betrayal of Israel
In Geneva, Switzerland, the United States and other major powers appeared close to a deal with Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting some economic sanctions against the terrorist-sponsoring state. Negotiations, however, fell apart at the last minute when France and Iran balked at the final wording on the interim draft. Talks are expected to resume within a few weeks, but it is worth pausing to consider what was nearly agreed to and what the outcome could likely be. The Coming Betrayal of Israel.President Obama has pledged to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America has Israel’s “back.” Who knew he had a knife?

The culmination of all things is that on the very last days, Israel will be completely friendless, completely surrounded and completely hated. Satan will have been thrown down from heaven, and his fury will be unleashed on Israel (and the Christians).

“Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.” (Zechariah 12:2-3)

“And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.” (Rev 12:13)

Backing up from that moment a bit, we know that through Israel’s history in biblical times and since 1948, the nation has been hated. Satan hates the nation that bore the male child, who is Jesus of course. Persecution has been the hallmark of the Jewish experience and the constant state of the nation of God. That Israel is increasingly hated today and increasingly isolated is prophetic and indicative of the last of the last days in which we are living. For those who just a few short years ago could not possibly see how the US and Israel would ever break relations, now you know. The bible is always true and it is amazing to me to see His words come alive in the world to the very jot and tittle of fulfillment.

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Brothers and Sisters, Jesus will call for His Bride and then He will return to judge the unbelieving world. These are facts from the bible. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). He will come soon, also a fact from the bible. (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Luke 3:7). His appearing has always been imminent. (John 11:17-27, Hebrews 10:24–25, Titus 2:11–13). I believe Jesus is coming soon because the bible declares it. The inspired writings the Apostles laid down declare it so.

I see the rising apostasy, increasing depravity, and  other partial fulfillments of scripture that herald the nearness of His coming as reported in the news, these are signs, the very signs He said to watch for. I read my bible, I look around, I know in my heart He is faithful and true- and He is coming soon. Whether He is “early” (Matthew 24:44) or whether He is “late” (Matthew 25:5) ,He will be right on time to collect His bride. I pray you are in that group and not the group left behind to face His wrath. Pray for forgiveness to the Resurrected Lamb, who was slain from the beginning of the world. God’s plan is to redeem, and pray your redemption is today, because the Redemption of the World who is also the Judge, draweth nigh.

Posted in disasters, prophecy, providence

God’s Providence in the face of mega-disasters

Posted on by elizabethprata
source

In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan decimating much of the Philippines last week, the AP has put together a list of the deadliest disasters of the last decade in which the death toll was higher than Haiyan’s.

I thought it would be interesting to look at the data regarding natural disasters in different aspects. Which are the ten worst natural disasters? Is there a particular nation that has endured the burden of more disasters than neighboring nations? In light of the fact that Jesus and the Apostles said that the times would be getting worse and worse, and the disasters that would come will be like birth pangs (which grow worse in frequency and intensity), let’s take a look.

On a personal note, each time a terrible disaster occurs and people and animals die, or horrible property destruction occurs, it is very hard to watch on the news. Knowing the destiny of those who are saved is a blessing, but alternately, knowing the destiny of those who are not saved, who die in these disasters on a mass scale, is a burden to any Christian’s soul. However, it is as Jesus says. No matter what the data shows, the times will wax worse and worse, and His hand will lift in restraint and then judgment will come.

The exercise to review the disaster data is not just a mental exercise. Each person who dies in a terrible disaster is an immortal soul. (Genesis 2:7; Matthew 10:28). As you consider the last days disasters, please allow the Spirit to increase the urgency in you to witness, live for Christ, and pray.

Comparison of natural disasters of the last decade
Typhoon Haiyan is feared to have killed more than 10,000 people in the Philippines. Here are the natural disasters in the last decade that had higher death tolls:

 — March 11, 2011: A magnitude-9.0 earthquake off northeastern Japan causes a tsunami that sweeps onto the coast. About 19,000 people are killed and three nuclear reactors melt at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.

 — Jan. 12, 2010: A 7.0 earthquake devastates Haiti’s capital and surrounding cities, killing 314,000 people.

 — May 12, 2008: A 7.9 temblor in China’s Sichuan province kills 87,000 people. A disproportionate number of them were children killed when their shoddily built schools collapsed.

 — May 2, 2008: The storm surge from Cyclone Nargis washes up densely populated areas around the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar, washing away whole farming villages. Around 138,000 people died.

 — Oct. 8, 2005: A 7.6 earthquake kills about 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir.

 — Dec. 26, 2004: A 9.1 earthquake off western Indonesia triggers a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

 — Dec. 26, 2003: A 6.6 earthquake flattens the historic city of Bam in southeastern Iran, and some 26,000 people are killed.

Victims of the flooding in August 1931, Wikipedia

Wikipedia has lists of the worst natural disasters. In the first set, they list the worst ever disasters over all recorded time. I had not known that in 1931, 1 million to 4 million people died in China during floods. As a matter of fact, five of the ten listed worst disasters ever occurred in China. More here.

Of the ten worst disasters since 1900, again, half of those occurred in China, with only two overlapping from the above list. The top one is that aforementioned flood that killed -4 million people. The second worst disaster since 1900 was an earthquake, again in China, that killed 650,000–779,000 people. It was in 1976 in Tangshan.

Did you know that 4,000 people died in 1972 in Iran from the world’s deadliest blizzard? I didn’t either. Of the ten worst blizzards, 50% have occurred in the United States.

Galveston 1900 hurricane aftermath, Wikipedia

Of the worst tropical cyclone, which Typhoon Haiyan doesn’t even come close, half a million people died in 1970 in Bhola, India. As a matter of fact, 60% of the worst cyclones with high death tolls have occurred in India. A majority of these disasters occurred prior to 1900, which it stands to reason because the more primitive weather prediction services and technology didn’t afford much time to evacuate.

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane in Texas USA caused the deaths of about 8,000 and birthed the modern Weather Service. The book Isaac’s Storm was a tremendous non-fiction book covering both the storm and the men who valiantly tracked the storm and the aftermath of the impact on the then-nascent weather service. Many people say it was that storm which lurched the Weather Service into modern times.

Avalanches are a danger and a hazard, too. The 1970 Huascarán avalanche; triggered by the 1970 Ancash earthquake, killed 20,000 people. In 1950-51 The Swiss were held hostage to terror, a winter they still call the “Winter of Terror“.

“The Winter of Terror was the three-month period during the winter of 1950-1951 when a previously unrecorded number of avalanches took place in the Alps. The series of 649 avalanches killed over 265 people and caused large amounts of damage to residential and other human-made structures.”

That is an average of 216 avalanches per month, or an average of 7 per day. Can you imagine living with that much terror and uncertainty? A terror where a mountain full of snow may come sweeping down into your house as you sleep, burying you alive?

Nothing gets people looking for the meaning of life like an earthquake. The hits on my blog rise dramatically when a large earthquake occurs. Maybe it is that primal terror of even the seemingly solid ground under your feet swaying and opening its chasm like hell enlarging its mouth that strikes such fear. (Isaiah 5:14). People go looking for answers in large numbers when an earthquake hits.

source

In any case, here China is the beleaguered recipient of a major disaster, three-times over. Holding the  place for location of the top three worst earthquakes ever is China once again. 830,000 people died in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in 1556, 650,000–779,000 died in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, and 273,400 died in 1920 in the Haiyuan earthquake.

You can go on and look at the Wikipedia page for lists and explanations of the other worst disasters, like floods/landslides (China holds the top 4 places); deadliest heat waves (the top two occurred after 2000); lightning strikes, storms and the like.

I enjoy learning about the Providence of God. I am fascinated with that doctrine. It relates to His sovereignty and how God orders, ordains, or allows everything that occurs to occur, for His plan and His glory. It is a hard concept, especially when you think of all the terrible storms and disasters that occur. It is also hard when you think about evil. Why is there evil? Why do these things happen? Phil Johnson speaks of Providence a lot. He preached about it recently at the Strange Fire conference, but prior to that, he preached on the doctrine of God’s providence the week before the conference as he was preparing. The conference sermon was terrific, I recommend it. I also recommend the sermon he preached to his Sunday School group the week prior. In that sermon, Pastor Johnson specifically addresses questions like the ones I’ve raised today, about evil, and how evil fits into God’s plan, and about all the things that happen, from mega-disasters to the hairs on your head (and when God allows each one to fall out.) God is in the little things as much as He is in the disasters.

His sermon at the conference is called Providence IS Remarkable. There is a transcript available in case you can’t listen or watch video. The sermon that relates more closely with the issues in this essay today is “The Master of My Fate.” Again, there is a transcript.

God is in control. When you see a disaster occur, remember God and obey Him. Also when you don’t see a disaster happen, remember God and obey Him. When a hair falls out of your head, or when your car starts in the morning, or when you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, remember God and obey Him. Most importantly, remember the lost people who do not have the privilege and comfort of knowing that a loving God hods them in the palm of His hand.

Everyday Providence should make us urgent to witness, but sometimes we grow lax. I know I do. When we see a disaster like Tropical Typhoon Haiyan, it jogs us again. When they occur, floods of souls arrive in hell. Keep that visual in your mind. The ones who arrive in hell during a disaster outnumber greatly the ones who arrive in heaven. Hell must enlarge its mouth to receive them. Therefore, disasters are as much God speaking to Christians as it is to the lost.

Posted in discernment, jesus, last days, prophecy, second coming

The season of the return of Jesus Christ is near

Posted on by elizabethprata

Did you know that the Second Coming of Christ is one of the major themes of the bible?

There are 300 hundred prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus in the Old Testament, but there are 500 — five hundred! — in the Old Testament about His Second Coming! And in the New Testament, one out of every 25 verses has to do with the Second Coming of Jesus. In other words, there are many, many, many more prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus than His First Coming. Probably twice as many. Why so many? Because Jesus is returning in wrath. The first time He came, He came as a compassionate Savior with tears in His eyes. But when He returns, He is returning as a conquering warrior with eyes like white hot flames because He is returning to judge and make war against the enemies of God. And so, since God does not wish that any should perish, He has given us sign after sign after sign to watch for. (source)

There are many of us who study the bible, including prophecy, and are eager for His return. We believe we are in the season of His return. The reason is not because there is one specific reason or sign, but because the signs are all converging with rapidity and laser focus. It’s happening fast and it is happening intensely.

One of the signs is that there will be apostasy in untold amounts before the Son of Man returns. Some of the verses which speak of this are:

  • “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) NASB
  • “And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.”(Matthew 24:10, 12)
  • “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16)
  • “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,” (1 Timothy 4:1)
  • “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Can there be any doubt that this time right now has had the greatest falling away from even professed ‘Christians’? Where the foundational precepts that make the faith are ignored or denied? Here is one such example:

Methodist Pastor Frank Schaefer Faces Trial for Son’s Gay Wedding “Schaefer, pastor of Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in South Lebanon Township, told his superiors in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that he was going to perform at his son’s wedding in 2007 and received no warning or reprimand. It was only this April, when a parishioner filed a complaint, that Schaefer was told he would face discipline for violating church doctrine.”

How sad, that no one said anything for 5 years. Where is the discernment?  

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” (Philippians 1:9-10). 

 What is my crime? I blessed two people that loved each other,” Schaefer, 51, told ABC News.

Love doesn’t trump God. It’s not a reason nor an excuse. Love is not an indicator of anything, except that the heart is desperately sick and not to be trusted. (Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 6:5). His crime is that he disobeyed God, and failed his office of pastor.

 “Jesus our Lord and Savior never mentioned homosexuality at all and my point is if it is that important of an issue, why didn’t he mention it?,” Schaefer said.

So we only need to follow the red words in the bible? The rest is chopped liver? Never let it be so! The Old Testament and the New Testament are replete with lists of sins that are abominations to God, homosexuality among them. (Genesis 19:1-13; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9, and Romans 1:26-27 shows that homosexuality itself is the judgment for those who had continually disobeyed God.) The minister forgot this verse, which says,

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16)

 Apostasy is so rampant now that it boggles the mind that there are any decent churches left at all. And look, the article nears its conclusion with this statement:

 “On Saturday in Philadelphia, nearly 50 ministers participated in a same-sex wedding at a Methodist church as a symbol of support for their colleague, Schaefer, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Apostasy now, but come soon, Lord Jesus.

Posted in merchandise, prophecy

Christemporos- merchandising Christ

Posted on by elizabethprata

I often refer to the prophecy Peter issued regarding the future of the church, and the false teachers who will come. Peter said of these false teachers,

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” (2 Peter 2:3).

Making merchandise of “you” means “us.”

I often use the KJV for this verse instead of the usual ESV because it is descriptive in a vivid way. The merchandising of Christianity is a heinous sin that is growing terribly in these last days. The word for exploit in the Greek is emporeuomai, meaning, “I travel as a merchant, engage in trade, I traffic in, make gain or business of.” It is where we get our English word emporium, which means mall or marketplace.

I mentioned this prophecy again, in a recent essay about Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now: The Board Game.” False teachers and false preachers will try to merchandise Christianity by trading on Christ’s name for personal gain, and they will try to make merchandise out of the very sheep.

I was listening to a great sermon this week called “Beware of False Prophets.” In that sermon I learned about the Didache and about the term Christemporos. Here is a quote from that sermon:

In the year 100, the year of our Lord a 100 A.D. we have the earliest of the Christian writings that we know about and it’s called the Didachē. And by the year 100 the church had been formed and it was beginning to try to help itself to, to stay away from false prophets, and so in the Didachē there’s a section where the church instructed itself as to how to deal with false prophets. It uses a term to describe them and the term I think is interesting it’s Christemporos, and that Greek word means Christ merchants, Christ merchants. They used Christ, they trade in Christ, they sell Christ for personal gain, they pad their pockets, they build their empires. They are the, they are the happy Holy Spirit healers and they are the positive thinkers and they are the people who just wind up on the gravy train end of it, sucking it all up, the Christ merchants. And I’m telling you there are so many people in the world today and even in our own country who are using Jesus Christ as a product to pad their pockets, it’s unbelievable, unbelievable. And every area from books to music to preaching in churches and television and radio it’s on and on ad infinitum ad nauseam.

Christ peddler. Of course, you recognize the ’emporos’ part of the term, like emporium, it means “a merchant using a particular venue to trade.” Of course that venue is Christ. How blasphemous, horrible, and sickening.

The first recorded Christ-monger, or one who trades on the name of Christ for personal gain or other vain reasons is found in Acts 8: Simon the Magician. He tried to buy the Holy Spirit.

Using Jesus Christ to pad their pockets…can there be a worse blasphemy? To market and trade on the name of Jesus for money? To extract money from people, especially the poor and the vulnerable and the sick, so you can own a gold commode? Justin Peters is a pastor specializing in discernment teachings, and at the Strange Fire conference in October Pastor Peters played a clip of one recent prosperity preacher preying specifically on widows. The preacher said something like this ‘You’re poor, you’re widowed, not knowing where your next dollar is coming from. So send in your seed money and watch it grow…”

Pastor Peters gently reminded us all of how Jesus feels about preying on the vulnerable.

“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (Exodus 22:22-24)

“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:5)

In general, Pastor Peters teaches constantly that there are attempts to redefine biblical Christianity by teaching dangerous doctrines designed to distort the Gospel and to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor, the desperate, the sick, and the widows. Since Simon the Magician existed in the early days of the church, unscrupulous people have tried to gain from Christianity. This sickness and blasphemy has been with us since the beginning.

Today, we have celebrity pastors flogging their book from the pulpit, preaching gimmicks on tv, merchandising the latest fad, and making merchandise out of the sheep, even extracting a widow’s last dollar or preying on the crippled and sick for cash.

Please be aware of the merchandising of Christ and the emporium of Christianity, and keep things pure. Our treasure IS Christ, and our inheritance IS His glory, and it is the privilege of being with Him forever. What a treasure He is. Watch your money and your motivations for spending and for giving, spend and give in His name and for His glory. Greedy wolves try to trade on His name, but don’t be a part of it.

Posted in false teacher, merchandise, prophecy

Your Best Life Now: the Board Game

Posted on by elizabethprata

Published in 2006 and placed into the Museum of Idolatry in 2007, we find the artifact of “Your Best Life Now: The Board Game” still being sold on Amazon today. Apparently the Prosperity Gospel’s attraction does not wane but only grows more attractive with age.

A person named David Harrison wrote a review of the game on Amazon,
This was bought as a joke gift for a friend. Joel has popularized a gospel message that promises an easy, comfortable, and prosperous lifestyle to the Christian. He ignores the fact that God’s primary purpose for us is to make the glory of God known to the world, and instead, Joel promotes an idea that loving God will result in making more money. This game gives us a great example of what is wrong with the prosperity gospel.

This person wrote a hilariously sarcastic review,
This game doesn’t have the same style as those of the Reformation and even earlier. Augustine’s “Hungry, Hungry Bishop of Hippo” set a standard to which Osteen can only dream.

What is the most tragic thing on this page? The fact that such a “game” exists? Yes that’s tragic but…the fact that there exists a five-star review? Yes, that is bad also, but…the fact that even 7 years after this game was published it is still popular enough to have “ONLY 1 LEFT IN STOCK”?!?! We have a winner.

I continue to look toward my go-to prophecy, which I believe is being fulfilled in accelerating train style each day,

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2:3 KJV)

I always use the KJV for this verse because the language is more descriptive. The Greek word for ‘merchandise’ is emporeuomai, from which we get the word emporium, or mall. It literally means “I travel as a merchant, engage in trade; I traffic in, make gain or business of”. We can see the devastating fulfillment of this prophecy any time we go to a Christian bookstore, especially a Lifeway store.

Money tends to corrupt faith and the faithful. We are warned over this so many times. Money itself is not bad. The love of money is. (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus was righteously wrathful over the merchandising of faith in the Temple, and cleansed it with a whip. (John 2:13-22). Ananias and Sapphira became the first Christians in the Church killed for their hypocrisy and it was over the money they’d held back and lying about it. (Acts 5:1-2). The Rich Young Man refused to believe in the Messiah who was standing in front of Him, in favor of the property he owned far off. (Matthew 19:22). Simon the Sorcerer tried to buy the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:19-20).

The mixture of money and faith usually ends up being tragic if one is not careful.

And now we see not just greed and interest in personal wealth climbing to stratospheric proportions but the faithful actually being made merchandise out of.

The next time you enter a Christian bookstore, see how long it takes you to be distracted from buying a serious theological book which will edify you (if they even have any in the store anymore) in favor of buying something tangential, like a game or a praise CD or a gizmo or a piece of jewelry or a set of greeting cards or a huge bejewled cross or a birdhouse or … anyway, the tangential things are seeded around the store like sirens. And I don’t mean the loud clanging bells, I mean the seductive sea creatures who tried to lure mythological Odysseus off his path and onto the shoals in shipwreck.

The Siren: John William Waterhouse, ~1900

“A siren call means something that is alluring. It is dangerous and potentially deadly. Even if you know better, the siren call is hard to resist. In Greek mythology, the sirens who allured were sea nymphs beguiling enough to begin with, but with even more enticing voices.” (source)

The Sirens were luscious sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching songs. As Walter Copland Perry observed: “Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption.”

Merchandising is today’s mythological Sirens. And the wolves do it via smooth talk and flattery- their voices. (Romans 16:8; Psalm 12:2; Colossians 2:4)

The greedy wolves seek to exploit the faith and the faithful with bewitching merchandising songs which lure you from the aisles of the bookstore to the shoal infested waters of games, trinkets, and fluff-filled books that tickle your ears with doctrines of devils and distract you into a fatal lethargy.

Stay vigilant! Don’t buy the merchandise, but more importantly, don’t BE the merchandise.

Posted in beer, holy, nadia pastrix, profane, prophecy

Tattooed pastrix and beer church: When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith upon the earth?

Posted on by elizabethprata

The title to this piece is from a verse in Luke 18:7-8,

“And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?“

Jesus is saying that we should pray for His return, and that He will render justice to evildoers, and He is also warning us that faith in general will wane as the ages go on.

And we do see that faith today is so corrupt that it doesn’t even look like faith. Prophet Jeremiah knew something of corrupt worship. So did Jesus when confronting the Pharisees and called them whitewashed tombs. But the lack of faith in view here in Jesus’s statement is a faith that exists in a few. Gill’s Exposition says,

“in the world at the last day: there will then be little of the doctrine of faith, and less of the grace of faith, and still less of the exercise of faith, particularly in prayer, and especially about the coming of Christ; it will be little thought of, and expected, or faith little exercised about it.“

We see this today. Here are two examples of the incredible, corrupt faith upon the earth, which is no faith.

Bolz-Weber’s liberal, foulmouthed articulation of Christianity speaks to fed-up believers
“Nadia Bolz-Weber bounds into the University United Methodist Church sanctuary like a superhero from Planet Alternative Christian. Her 6-foot-1 frame is plastered with tattoos, her arms are sculpted by competitive weightlifting and, to show it all off, this pastor is wearing a tight tank top and jeans.“

The lack of discernment among people who claim to be Christian is astounding. The biblical record is clear, woman cannot be pastors. (1 Timothy 2:11-12).

Profanity for any Christian, but especially for leaders, is  something that impugns the spotless name of Christ. Leaders are supposed to be above reproach. This is a must. (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6-7).

Further, cursing is a sin. (Ephesians 4:29,  1 Peter 3:10, James 3:9-12).

Women are supposed to adorn themselves modestly, not deliberately show off buff arms and flat tummies. (1 Timothy 2:9-10, Isaiah 3:16-17)

And tattoos? Leviticus 19:28 has spiritual significance for Christians living under the New Covenant today.

“In forbidding tattoos, God was telling Israel He did not want them to personally possess any physical marks or characteristics that externally resembled the pagan nations. Such a thing would link them visibly to the false religious practices and immoral behaviors of those nations, which ran contrary to God’s standards.” (source)

And in the New Testament we are told that we are not to conform to the world.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2)

This pastrix has said,

“I never experience God in camping or trees or nature. I hate nature,” she told the Austin crowd as she paced the stage. “God invented takeout and duvets for a reason.”

Yet the creation is one of the ways He has revealed Himself. I’m not a fan of camping either, but when I am outside I see God reflected in the beauty and complexity of His creation, and I give Him glory for it. If I was a leader I’d never say that I hate one of the main ways He has revealed Himself to us. Romans 1:19-20 says

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Why, why do so many follow an obviously false pastor like this one? Why is her church overflowing and her speeches standing room only? Because they like to elevate themselves and/or reduce God’s stature. And with the case of Nadia Bolz-Weber, she is preaching a different Jesus, one that is reduced down to our level.

She said, ““God isn’t feeling smug about the whole thing,” she writes about Jesus’s resurrection and the idea that the story is used as fodder for judgment. “God is not distant at the cross. . . . God is there in the messy mascara-streaked middle of it, feeling as [bad] as the rest of us.””

God is feeling as bad as the rest of us? You mean, the God whose ways are so high above our ways? Whose thoughts are not our thoughts? (Isaiah 55:8). God is in the thick of our petty emotional woes? Not hardly.

I used to dismiss articles like this one which describes a pastrix such as this woman, believing that an apostate as profound as this woman would be obvious to one and all, but it is not so. Hordes flock to hear her, and why not? She is part of the promise of a coming apostasy.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” (2 Timothy 4:3)

 If a profane, tattooed, lusty and buff female pastor is not your style, then maybe the church beer bar is.

 To Stave Off Decline, Churches Attract New Members With Beer

Todd Fadel, at piano, leads singers at a recent gathering of Beer & Hymns at First Christian Church Portland, OR

“With mainline religious congregations dwindling across America, a scattering of churches is trying to attract new members by creating a different sort of Christian community. They are gathering around craft beer.  Some church groups are brewing it themselves, while others are bring the Holy Mysteries to a taproom. The result is not sloshed congregants; rather, it’s an exploratory approach to do church differently.“

Do church differently? Ask Nadab and Abihu how different church went for them. Ask Solomon, who experimented with everything under the sun and found it all vanity. The LORD who sent His Son to tell us what to do and how to do it, laid down how to worship in His word. There is nothing that has changed, that He wants us to now do differently. There is nothing in the bible that says “when looking for a good church, go to a bar.”

These church-in-a-bar folks are giving the gospel with a microphone in one hand and a beer in another. Their churches are literally named “Church-in-a-Pub”. They take communion among the barstools. They advertise “Beer & Hymns”. I am not making this up. And denominations are taking this seriously. The article states, “Last month, the regional council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America named Church-in-a-pub a Synodically Authorized Community.“

At one church in a pub, “Between hymns, people can stand up and say anything they want.”

Paul expressly wrote to the Corinthians to stop such carousing, communion-insulting, prophesying chaos. He demanded orderly worship. Because God demands orderly worship.

“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14:29-33)

He demands orderly communion!!

“When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.” (1 Corinthians 11:20-22)

This is exactly what the hedonistic, pagan-saturated Corinthians church was doing. Paul got on to them, and came down hard. Yet here we are, repeating the exact things the bible says not to do. How can this be?

“When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith upon the earth?”

These people disregard holiness. Be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). The Lord hates profane worship. Read Malachi 1.

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.” (Malachi 1:10)

Stay in the word so you will not be deceived and lured off the path. Stay prayed up like the persistent widow demanding justice. Plead for the lost and straying, and remain grateful that His grace has found us, and that we will be with Him forever, and from what the state of the church looks like today, that time is nearing each day. Soon, my friends.

I hope to be in heaven soon, where I can worship in pure church, in perfect accord with His will, and not a blot or stain in me, but only holy desires to see Him exalted. O what a day that will be!

Posted in news, prophecy, pulpit, sermons, signs

Should pastors do news-prophecy updates?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been thinking a lot about pastors who do prophecy updates. This is when pastors speak from the pulpit regarding current events of the day, such as the Syrian civil war, or a major earthquake, or the eclipses coming up, or Egypt’s coups, etc. The speak about this news from the pulpit during service and relate the news back to the bible.

Should pastors do this? Should they refrain from updating their parishioners on the news?? It is a difficult question. As with all hard questions (and easy ones too) let’s look at the bible first. The role of pastor is to include:

–Care to those whom he has been entrusted (1 Peter 5:2-3).
–A pastor is a shepherd of God’s flock who is to instruct, teach, and protect the people under his charge. In John 21:15-17, Jesus said to Peter, feed My sheep, tend My sheep, feed My sheep.
–Acts 6:4 those who lead the church are charged to give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
–Acts 20:27 declare the whole counsel of God
–2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Though pastors have many duties as defined by the bible, teaching and preaching the word of God to the flock is number one. It is the major way they tend the sheep, and feed the sheep. They also protect the sheep from wolves, by guarding the congregation from false doctrine and the people who bring it. Feeding the lambs with the bread of life is uniquely given to elders/overseers.

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Mark 13:31. The only enduring thing in this world are the words of Jesus, and shepherds are entrusted to pass them to the people, to explain, to use as encouragement and rebuke, for training in righteousness.

Prophecy is part of that general mandate. Too few pastors preach the prophetic passages or even mention them in passing. Somehow prophecy has gotten a bad reputation. This is likely because so many crazy people have set dates and brought shame onto Christianity by being a fringe element. Others are too shamefully gleeful at the wrath parts of judgment in prophecy and do not demonstrate the love of Christ by counterbalancing His wrath with talk of His grace and mercy. Or, many pastors don’t want the ‘taint’ that has besmirched prophecy in general to taint them, so they shy away. Oftentimes, it is also because seminaries do not teach pastoral students the importance of prophecy or preaching the prophetic passages, calling them unknowable, or controversial, and they ignore them altogether. Thus, new pastors don’t feel equipped to preach on them and they never do, even as they mature.

Frontspiece to “America A Prophecy”
William Blake 1793

As for the sheep, us, many have gotten discouraged by the hype that too many eager pastors have promoted with prophecy. Or, they have picked up on the general taint and they frown meanly from the pews when or if a pastor preaches it.

Yet the bible says to preach the whole counsel of God. Preaching the prophetic is encouraging because it shows God’s sovereignty, His careful attention to detail, and His everlasting covenants. When was the last time you heard a good sermon from, say, Obadiah? I listened to Phil Johnson preach from Nahum last weekend, and I loved every minute of it.

However that said, there is a difference in preaching prophecy and preaching secular news. As an example, John MacArthur has been preaching for 46 years, 44 of them at one church. All of his sermons he’s preached since 1969 are online. I’ve listened to a healthy sampling of them from each decade, including the ones from 1969, from the 70s, and 80s and 90s and 00s and beyond. In a bare few, he mentions current events. For the most part, he simply does what the bible says, preach the word. The word is always fresh. When he expounds on it, I literally cannot detect which era the sermon is from. It is as fresh as if he delivered it today than when he did 45 years ago. It is all edifying.

I applaud and honor those pastors who occasionally relate something happening in the culture or the world to the bible. John MacArthur did this in 2012 when he preached two sermons pointedly on America’s downward slide into immorality. They were “sermons on the spiritual and moral decline being championed by our country’s leaders.” The introduction to that two-part series states,

“If you’ve followed John MacArthur’s teaching for any length of time, you know he rarely says much about politics, culture, or society. It’s not that he’s uninformed on those topics. It’s that they’re often an intrusion upon the teaching of God’s Word. Evangelical Christians are already too easily distracted from the Great Commission in order to engage in partisan politics.“

However, sometimes mixing the current news and the bible is called for. Dr MacArthur stated

“I’m not one to talk about politics as such, but I was essentially amazed that one of the historic parties here in the United States adopted the sins of Romans 1 as their platform. This is a new day in our country. Parties which used to differ on economics now differ dramatically on issues that invade the realm of God’s law and morality.”

Even at that, the bulk of those two sermons were mainly focused on the Word of God and not the news of culture. And the rest of his sermons are focused totally on the word of God.

In the few cases if a secular news event is mentioned in an older sermon I am listening to, it’s jarring. It dates the sermon and makes it seem old and creaky. It kind of ruins the whole thing. Tying news into preaching is a bad mix, kind of like the iron and clay toes in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar that will not stay together.

There are some pastors who choose to speak a prophecy update each week, or quarterly. I have more concerns about these. I truly thank these preachers for doing weekly prophecy updates, I know their heart is in the right place. I know they love the Lord. But to work news back into the bible and claim meaning from it regularly is a dangerous activity, in my opinion. When a pastor has committed to a weekly prophecy update that includes the news of the world, their attention is necessarily divided.

I believe pastors should walk a fine line when it comes to preaching the news. They spend time reading newspapers instead of reading the bible. Tying news articles to the word means we think we can see what the Lord is doing or that we know his ways. But His ways are far above our ways. The pulpit is for God’s word.

Pastors should be excited about His appearing though, and talk much of our new home based on what the bible says, and look forward to the era to come. But they throw ALL prophecy out with the bathwater and never mention that this earth isn’t our home! Instead of preaching news stories from the pulpit, they go too far in the other direction and never preach the bible’s prophetic passages, either.

As far as news goes, we have come to the prophetic brink so often since 2008 and then the Lord saw fit to retreat the world from the prophetic brink. Russia is rising, Middle East is inflamed, the world economy is tanking, Damascus is dying, Egypt is failing, we can see the prophetic indicators.

The pastor’s role is to preach the word in season and out, ALL of the word, and this is on them- when

St Bernard preaching from a pulpit,
G. Martini, 1470

they do not preach prophecy passages from the bible they are not fulfilling the command to feed His sheep the whole counsel of God. But the word does not command shepherds to feed us news. So many pastors unwittingly get drawn away when they include secular news to their sermons from the pulpit. They start looking at the news and not expending their precious time on learning the word. Satan will take anything, even something good, and make it bad. If they feed us the word then we will understand and see the times. Jesus chastised the Pharisees for being able to tell the weather from signs but not His appearing from the fact of His appearing! (Mt 16:3). And Paul said –

“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” (1 Thess 5:4-5)

So the pastors preach the word, the whole word, and the Spirit illuminates the times for us.

It is a shame that so few are excited about His appearing. Paul mentioned it constantly! I talk about it a lot at church. I think He is coming soon. Not because the news indicates He is coming back soon but the bible says His return for His bride is imminent. It is something to get excited about! Not the news but simply the eagerness of going to our new home or the fact of His coming to get us. It is a sad thing that too few Christians look eagerly to that moment. If Paul and the early Christians did, how much closer is it today! Every NT book except Philemon mentions the prophetic future of our being raptured to Him and the new era. Christians who long for His appearing even earn a crown! And that is a shame, that so many brethren won’t share the joy of anticipation. I speak it from the bible, though, not from the news.

I do believe that the Lord is returning soon. I believe the rapture will be any day. I have believed this since I read it in the bible. The events today look to me like they are pointing to our last moments on earth under the Age of Grace. But, it’s been 7 years since I first thought that and it could be two years from now or another ten or I could die tomorrow and go to heaven anyway. We just don’t know. We look at the seasons and we look for His appearing and this should give us urgency to witness. But when I go to church I want to hear His word explained, there is no better way to spend time than hear the word. It is the only enduring thing on this earth.

What’s your opinion on the matter?