prophecy – Page 53

Jerusalem! A Three-part Series

Posted on May 23, 2013 by elizabethprata

Jerusalem! Part 3, Its glorious spiritual future

I’m listening to John MacArthur preach through Zechariah. Pound for pound, there is more prophecy in Zechariah than any other book in the bible, including Revelation. The book is at turns comforting, inspiring, and difficult to interpret. Overall, I’m fascinated!

When MacArthur got to Zechariah 2, the sermon titled “The Future Glory of Jerusalem”, I became fascinated even further. Jerusalem, and by definition, Israel, is a hugely important topic for every Christian to seek understanding of and wisdom about. Israel is the fulcrum of history, God’s nation, the apple of His eye, and future home of Jesus the King. Christians will be living in New Jerusalem. Thus it is our focus as Christians to understand His plans for this city, as well.

When the LORD dwells in Jerusalem the name of the city shall be Jehovah-Shammah, meaning, “The Lord is there.” (Ezekiel48:35). It never fails to move me to even think of the Lord being there, physically and eternally. Jeremiah 30 is a chapter describing the future restoration of Israel. See here verses 18-22,

“Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its ruins and the palace shall stand where it used to be. 19 Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small. 20 Their children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them. 21 Their prince shall be one of themselves; their ruler shall come out from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself to approach me? declares the Lord. 22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”,

The Lord is there, Jehovah Shammah!

I decided to write a three part series on Jerusalem and Israel. The first part will be about Jerusalem geographically and its natural history. It is not a dry desert with swirling sands as most people superficially believe and as I once believed. Jerusalem and environs is a fascinating place, with lush animal and bird life, an interesting climate, and is the crux of three continents. It is the belly button of the world.

The second part will look at Jerusalem politically. I’ll look at what prophecy says about it during this time of the last days, what the Times of the Gentiles means, and what is happening now with Secretary of State Kerry and the revived push for “peace and safety.”

Last, will be the best part in the series of all. What of Jerusalem spiritually? What of the future glory of Israel? What does the bible say Jerusalem will look like and what are God’s plans for it?

Stay tuned! This will be exciting look at our spiritual home, Jerusalem, the City of David, the Holy City, Jehovah Shammah!

bible, end of days, prophecy, quantum leap, rapture

Make a quantum leap with me

Posted on May 18, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I published this almost two years ago to the day. I have been thinking about quantum leaps again, a lot, so I thought I’d re-post this.

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

I love learning how the bible is a book of science. If true and honest science were to be considered, scientists would accept that the earth is a young earth. Science shows it, but they “believed the lie” – the lie being (in my opinion) that God didn’t create the universe. And if He is not Creator, therefore maybe He is not Redeemer either. Hey, that lie works for satan.

In any case, I learned about quantum leaps this week.

The heavens and the earth (Hebrew phraseology for the universe) will disappear. That is a fact. But how? And where will we be? My question regarding the first was answered to my satisfaction this week. It involves quantum physics. LOL, stay with me!

If you make a fist and bump your fist from below with your other hand, your fist moves up from the bump. Keep that in mind as I explain. A quantum leap happens when a photon strikes an atom, it boosts an electron into a higher orbit. And when that occurs the electron moves from the lower to the upper orbit simultaneously without having traversed the intervening space. That’s a quantum leap. (Definition from John MacArthur). Or this, “A quantum leap is a leap from A to B, without passing through any of the points between A and B. Imagine that you enter a train in A-ville. You sit in your seat, and the train is instantly transported to your destination of B-ville. You just made a quantum leap.”

Amazing! The electron blinks out and then blinks back into a higher state of being – instantaneously! This makes sense to me when thinking of two biblical events prophesied to come: the Rapture and the New Heavens/New Earth.

Rapture: “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52). When Jesus calls us with the last trump and the voice of an archangel, we will be translated instantaneously from fleshly human with sin nature to glorified eternal person with no sin nature. This will happen in the blink of an eye, which is said to be 150 milliseconds. The how of it seems to me to be a good definition of a quantum leap. We are translated from a lower state of being to a higher state of being, instantly.

At the end of time when Jesus makes a new heavens and a new earth, it appears to me also that it could happen as in the definition of a quantum leap. The earth is translated from a lower state of being to a higher state of being, instantly.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10) … “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (Verse 12-13)

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” (Revelation 21:1)

When I read things like this and I ponder the enormity of the unified system that is the universe, (yes I believe string theory is correct) it makes me feel a great sense of awe for Him and I love the Creator all the more. That we polluted his perfect creation with sin and He redeems us anyway makes me feel humbled and I love Him all the more. It’s all good!
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last days, missile, prophecy, russia, syria

Russia plans to go ahead with Syrian missile transfer, ignoring Israel’s warnings

Posted on May 17, 2013 by elizabethprata

Russia and Syria are in the midst of completing a deal for Syria to receive a ‘new shipment of anti-ship missiles are equipped with advanced radar that makes them more potent’ reports Haaretz. Obviously this does not make Israel happy. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu met in an emergency meeting with Russia’s President Putin, and Netanyahu urged Russia to abandon the deal with Syria. He said that continuing it might just trigger a larger regional war.

Israel does not make idle threats.

The missiles that Russia is sending to Syria “Unlike the long-range surface-to-surface missiles that stand at the Assad regime’s disposal, the Yakhont anti-ship missile system allows the Syrian military to stand against potential efforts by international forces to impose a naval embargo or a no-fly zone on the country, or to carry out limited airstrikes in support of the Syrian opposition,” according to the report in Haaretz.

This is a significant increase in military capability, and seriously hinders Israel’s ability to carry out strikes in and around Syria, such as taking out forays that Hezbollah make or destroy supply convoys of Hamas.

Russia is unswayed by Netanyahu’s exhortations, and is continuing to send the anti-ship missiles to Assad. This signals a commitment to Assad. The NY Times says “Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday. “

Interestingly this is exactly what the bible says the alignments wold be in the last days. We also know from the bible that there will be regional wars, such as the one described in Psalm 83 where all of Israel’s abutting neighbors and the terrorist groups existing in those nations attack Israel. Or the Gog Magog war described in Ezekiel 37-38 where Russia, Turkey, Iran and others also attack Israel. Or the one in Isaiah 17 where Damascus is destroyed and Syria’s environs are made a waste. Or the LORD’S promise to Israel/Judah that they will finally possess Jordan in the last days just before He comes back to establish His kingdom. (Obadiah 15–21).

But back to today. Times of Israel reports, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in an emergency face-to-face meeting on Tuesday that Moscow’s sale of the S-300 missile defense system to Assad could push the Middle East into war. But Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, evidently unmoved by the dramatic Israeli warning, declared on Thursday that while Moscow was “not signing any new deals,” it would honor existing contracts with Syria, including for the air-defense systems. “We’ve already carried out some of the deal,” Lavrov said, “and we will carry the rest of it out in full.””

This antiship missile, with its described impacts on widening a military capability of chaotic Syria, does seem to be a tipping point.The Times of Israel article explains,

“An Israeli source was quoted as saying that Netanyahu had told Putin the S-300s represent a weapons system that “shatters [Israel’s] qualitative edge,” presumably since it would greatly constrain the Israeli air force’s freedom of movement above Syria and neighboring Lebanon.”

“An Israeli source was quoted as saying that Netanyahu had told Putin the S-300s represent a weapons system that “shatters [Israel’s] qualitative edge,” presumably since it would greatly constrain the Israeli air force’s freedom of movement above Syria and neighboring Lebanon.”

We will wait to see what Israel does. Perhaps the final destruction of Damascus is on the horizon, (Isaiah 17) not that I’m happy about that. Please pray for the millions of Muslims in these areas who do not know Christ and are unaware, or who disbelieve, the eternally final plans that the Lord has for them unless thay beleive on the precious name of Christ.

last days, perilous times, prophecy

Is the "Day of the Lord" the same thing as "The Last Days"? part 2

Posted on May 15, 2013 by elizabethprata

In two parts, I’m examining a last days prophecy Paul delivered to Timothy. Paul’s warning to Timothy is in 2 Timothy 3, 1-9, and it concerns “perilous times”, or “Godlessness in the last days.” Paul warned Timothy that in the last days perilous times would come, and Paul went on to describe the characteristics of people’s behavior in those last days. Paul begins his warning to Timothy by saying that the prophesied times of difficulty will come in the “last days.” In part 1, I looked at what the “last days” are, and how they are different from the Day of the Lord. In this part 2, I will look at the passage closely and show that how it is commonly interpreted may need a second look.

Here is the passage- It is in the ESV.

Godlessness in the Last Days
1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

People usually interpret this passage as pertaining to the world. As when “in the last days, perilous times in the world will come.” That, perilous times from the world will come. That when sin in the world heightens to monstrous levels, it will be a sign of the perilous times Paul spoke of.

I used to think this way also, and in a way it is still true. Sin gets worse and worse. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 that “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,” and that shows us that sin gets worse and because of it, people’s love gets colder and colder (that is the meaning of grow cold, ‘to breathe, blow, to make cool’). Later in this same chapter of Timothy I’m looking at today, 2 Timothy 3:13, it says “while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” They go from bad to worse. Sin always gets worse.

But though sin in the world will get worse and worse, the passage specifically isn’t talking of the world here. It is speaking of people in the church. People in the body of Christ. How do we know this? There are several clues.

If you read 1 Corinthians 2:14 in it surrounding context, the passage there is saying in essence, don’t be angry with unbelievers when they act like unbelievers. The world has always been brutal. The world has always presented difficulty to the church.

When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, it was around 67 AD and shortly before Paul was martyred. It was no surprise to Timothy that people in the world were brutal, Christian martyrdoms had been going on since Stephen, our faith’s first martyr. Stephen was killed for the name of Jesus barely a year after Jesus rose to heaven. Killings had been ongoing ever since. Nero’s wave of particularly vicious killings began in 64AD. Why would Paul need to warn Timothy that the world will treat us brutally? Jesus even said so (Matthew 10:22).

The surprise is that the people claiming to be Christian who dwell inside the body of believers will act in the ways Paul outlined. We need to guard ourselves from people on the inside.

The second clue is that Paul warned such folks will have adopted an “appearance of Godliness.” Pagans who hate Christians and treat them brutally do not stop to pretend they are Godly. They just hate.

A third clue that this passage relates to how people inside the church will act is that they are “lovers of self.” Those in the world, pagans, already love themselves. This is not news to Christians and certainly would not have been necessary to warn Timothy about people such as those.

No, I’m afraid this passage sadly tells us to watch out for those who are brutal, false, hating, greedy, treacherous, conceited, etc and will be people who sit alongside you in the pew. Or preach to you from the pulpit. Or teach you in Sunday School class. Now that is a warning worthy of taking heed of!

In case you have difficulty interpreting that the passage from verse 1-9 relates to the church, think on this. First:

Some say that the current evil in the world surely matches the passage and must be a harbinger of Jesus’s soon appearing. Well, the evil in the world is surely awful. They cite the present escalation of evil and say that the events of today are frequent as opposed to evil event that used to be rare and isolated. But are they so rare? They cite the Gosnell baby abortion murders, or the kindergarten massacre at Sandy Hook school. But haven’t people always sacrificed children to Molech? (Leviticus 18:21). Children have always been at risk as society’s most vulnerable targets. Or they cite the New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade shooting, or the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing. Yet enemies have always come by stealth or deceit to kill (Joshua 9). They say that the Benghazi terror attack and coverup, and the current government abuse against citizens with IRS spying or tapping phones, is surely evidence of the world’s descent into evil. But look no farther than today’s North Korea and Eritrea as most oppressive regimes full of abuse and hate against their own citizens, or Egypt and its treatment of millions of Jews in Pharoah’s day. Or they say that today’s shock video of victorious Syrians eating the dead hearts of their enemies is definitely evidence of how far the world has fallen. But the ancient Aztecs and the ancient Chinese of the Tang Dynasty ate the hearts of their enemies.

Eve and Adam rebelled against God, Cain killed Abel, and not long after, Nimrod was the first world dictator. The world IS brutal. Always has been since the fall.

The evidence of the evil in the world is how far it has crept into the church. Jesus said there would be tares sown in with the wheat and that He wanted it kept so until the harvest. (Matthew 13:24-30). Tares (darnel) and wheat look the same until just before harvest when it only then becomes possible to tell one from another. The field of the church is filled with those who are just as Paul warned Timothy about. They infiltrated then (Simon the Magician) and they infiltrate now, but since the last days have progressed so long, the progression of the behaviors Paul warned Timothy against have grown too and now the church is overgrown with infiltrators.

We have our greedy ones, pitching Jesus at you to make money for themselves so they can fly around on their private jets to one of their many homes. We have the unholy, heartless false pastors spiritually abusing their people and tossing them under the bus. We have the slanderous and unappeasable litigating against their own family members over their television station ownership. And boy, the name it and claim it crowd sure do love themselves. The way they preach by inserting themselves into every passage surely is disgusting.

No, the warnings about those to look out for is a warning to us in the last days to look out for infiltrators (traitors to Jesus) who have an appearance of Godliness but deny the power thereof.

The glorious part is that those who are in Jesus have the Holy Spirit in them to help spot these who would make a shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). He cares for His sheep, and cares for His church. After all, didn’t he warn us that these things would happen?

Recently I noted that our pastor was asked to resign because the sermons he was giving for the last many years were word for word someone else’s. He was a plagiarizer. It is a heartbreaking thing to discover you have been worshiping through a veil of untruth. But I was truly grateful to the Lord also, not only because by the Spirit He had revealed this to us, giving us the opportunity to address it in a God-honoring way, but also because He already told us these things would happen. Therefore was I shocked? Yes. Was I surprised? No. Through the pain we were feeling, I praised Him because of His many warnings about false prophets and false teachers and disqualifying behavior throughout the Old Testament and the New. Even right at the end of verse 8 in the passage we are studying today, did the Spirit not inspire Paul to write, “men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith” ?? It made me love the Lord all the more for His care in showing us these things, and for giving us His comfort when when they do happen to us.

If you are in a church worshiping body and are reeling because you’ve experienced deception or brutality by one of the kind of people mentioned in the passage, take heart. The Lord warned us because He loves us! And if you have not been affected by the behavior of any of the church-fakers mentioned in the passage, take heart, because you will! (2 Timothy 3:12). Take heart because He will use your experience for the good to those who love Him, and you will be polished as a jewel of faith in His trophy case. He is equipping you for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:17).

In my opinion, that is our highest calling- service to a holy Lord who loves His own.

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Is the “Day of the Lord” the same thing as “The Last Days”? part 1

Rare Ice tsunami rises up and crushes lakeside homes in moment

Posted on May 14, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Interesting weather we’re having eh? It’s the hottest spring on record! The next year it’s the coldest spring on record! The most tornadoes ever! The least tornadoes ever! Rare phenomena becoming common. Common phenomena (like rain) becoming rare. It is a wildly swinging pendulum, and this ice tsunami adds to the pot.

This occurred 188 miles north of Winnipeg, Canada a few days ago.

Massive wall of ice rises out of lake and destroys a dozen homes as residents watch helplessly from the shore
“Massive ice floes rose out of a lake in Canada over the weekend, destroying a dozen homes and damaging fifteen others. Within mere moments, strong winds drove piles of ice onto the shore from Dauphin Lake on Friday, inundating homes and giving residents only minutes to flee. 55-mile-per hour winds drove masses of ice from the thawing lake in a phenomenon that is commonly witnessed but rarely seen with such intensity and size. Authorities told the Winnipeg Free Press that seven of the destroyed homes were ‘literally crushed by the ice that rose up within minutes from Lake Dauphin. Twenty-seven homes were affected in total as the frozen wall to plowed through everything in its way along Ochre Beach.”

Source Daily Mail

There are lots more pictures at the Mail. The same thing happened in Minnesota this week. Here is raw video showing it. At about 30 seconds in, the mom explains to the daughter what is happening. I was struck by how loud the phenomenon is. You can hear it on the video. Also in the video, the adult daughter is videotaping the event and remarking on how crazy it is, how loud it is, questioned ‘how are we going to stop it’, but doesn’t seem to apprehend the danger until the ice crept to the front of the house and busted into their front door. Then she ran in a panic.

Raw: Ice Wave Comes Ashore in Minnesota

Todd Strandberg at Rapture Ready posted his weekly essay Monday, and the topic was “Unusual Weather We’re Having.” He ended it this way- and please overlook his reference to “mother nature”.

“I think Bible prophecy is the only way to account for the oddities of Mother Nature. God warned that the calling card of the Tribulation hour would be an increase in weather anomalies. The on-and-off pattern may be God trying to get Man’s attention. Since that doesn’t seem to be working, I look for the warning signs to be replaced by judgment.

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:25-26).”

day of the lord, prophecy, the last days

Is the "Day of the Lord" the same thing as "The Last Days"?

Posted on May 13, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Part 2 is here

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I’d like to examine a last days prophecy Paul delivered to Timothy. It is in 2 Timothy 3, 1-9, and it concerns “perilous times”, or “Godlessness in the last days.” Paul warned Timothy that in the last days perilous times would come, and Paul went on to describe the characteristics of people’s behavior in those last days.

There is a common misconception regarding the passage though, and I’ll be addressing the verses and the misconception in part 2.

But before we look at perilous times in the last days, I want to define last days, and show its distinction from the phrase we read about in the Old testament and the New, “The Day of the Lord”.

The Day of the Lord is mentioned 4 times in the New Testament. (Acts 2:20; 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Thess 2:2; and 2 Pet 3:10). The Old Testament prophets mentioned it much more often, 19 times in fact. The prominent theme of every Day of the LORD prophecy is God’s judgment of sin. (source)

“Now what is the day of the Lord? Well, the day of the Lord as a term, mark it in your mind, refers to not one day but a period of time. We use the word “day” in the same way. We say this is the day of…this is the day of space travel, or this is the day of existentialism, or this is the day of alcoholism, or this is the day of marital breakup, or this is the day of whatever. We use it in that sense and that’s the way it’s used in this reference. This is the day of the Lord. In other words, man has had his day, man has had his fling and now it’s God’s time. And the Lord is going to begin to do some things. And so the day of the Lord is a period of time beginning with the rapture of the church and extending through the millennial kingdom. It covers all kinds of events. It covers the Tribulation time when the Lord takes back the earth. It covers the conquering of the nations at Armageddon. It covers the judgment of the nations. It covers the establishment of the Kingdom. It covers the reign of Jesus Christ on earth for a thousand years. It covers the vanquishing of Satan. It covers this whole great eschatological time block from the Rapture to the end of the Kingdom. That whole era of the end of history is the day of the Lord. ” (source)

Source

Of 1 Thessalonians 5:2, “Paul here reminds us of this significant important climactic cataclysmic day to come in human history. Frankly, it is not at all popular to talk about God’s fury. It is not popular to talk about God’s anger, God’s vengeance. In fact, seldom do you hear a sermon on the day of the Lord, on the time when Jesus comes back to judge those who have rejected Him. Everything today needs to be positive and affirming and comforting. And very few preachers really want to deal with this particular topic. Rarely does someone preach on the vengeance of God.” (source)

Last year, Paul Lopez in Crosswalk.com, wrote an essay titled, “Seven ‘Last Days’ Passages You’ll Rarely Hear Pastors Preach On”. He said, “When was the last time you heard a “last days” sermon from the Old Testament? When most pastors preach a sermon on the end times they usually start with the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21) or the Book of Revelation. For years the focus on end times discussions has remained in the New Testament. Unfortunately that results in our teachers only giving us the end of the story.”

Mr Lopez’s assessment includes a dearth of preaching on the following topics (verses and summary included in the link)

1. Jacob’s Prediction of the Last Days
2. Moses’ Warning to the Israelites
3. Jeremiah’s Prediction of the Last Days.
4. Prediction of the New Covenant That Would Come
5. Jesus Was Born in the ‘Last Days’
6. Isaiah’s Prediction of judgment on Old Covenant Israel in the Last Days
7. Joel’s Prediction that the Holy Spirit Would be Poured Out in the Last Days

Is the Day of the Lord one day, or more than one day? BiblicalTraining.org defines it this way,

DAY OF THE LORD. An eschatological term referring to the consummation of God’s kingdom and triumph over his foes and deliverance of his people. It begins at the Second Coming and will include the final judgment. It will remove class distinction (Isa. 2:12-Isa. 2:21), abolish sins (2 Pet. 3:11-2 Pet. 3:13), and will be accompanied by social calamities and physical cataclysms (Matt. 24:1-Matt. 24:51; Luke 21:7-Luke 21:33). It will include the millennial judgment (Rev 4:1-Rev 19:6) and culminate in the new heaven and the new earth (Isa. 65:17; Isa. 66:22; Rev. 21:1).”

Some scholars include the actual Millennial Reign in the Day of the Lord, such as John Walvoord and John MacArthur, others such as Professor Richard Mayhue of The Master’s Seminary, for example, simply include the judgment at the outset of it and the end of it (Sheep & Goats judgment and Great White Throne Judgment) and not the reign.

So when are “the last days”? Most scholars acknowledge that it is the Messianic Age. Some of them agree that the last days began with the birth of Jesus, through the rapture. Others say that the last days began when John the Baptist began preaching in advance of Jesus. Still others hold the last days began when Jesus was baptized and began preaching. A very few believe the last days began in 1948 when Israel was re-formed into a nation as the major end times sign. In any case, the last days are the Messianic Age. After the rapture, the Day of the Lord will begin, the judgment period of time when sin will be addressed through God’s vengeance and wrath.

My position is the last days began at the birth of Jesus, and will end when the rapture occurs. The Day of the Lord will then begin.

Now the verse about Godlessness in the Last Days

Godlessness in the Last Days 1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

Can you really live casually knowing that there comes a day of wrath and vengeance? The LORD never, ever, EVER lets sin go unaddressed. He will address it- He is angry at the sin in the world and the sin in you. Jesus is your ark, your shelter, your safety. He is the refuge for your very soul. He died on the cross for the LORD, as the sacrifice upon which God exhausted His wrath. If you are in Jesus, He will not pour out His wrath on you, because He already poured it out on Jesus. If you are not in Jesus, you will be in the middle of the world’s largest storm of heavenly wrath ever seen by man, and shall ever be. (Matthew 24:21). Pray to Jesus now for Him to forgive your sins. If you are sincere, claiming Him as risen Lord and Savior able to forgive, then you are saved. Confess and believe. (Romans 10:9). The Day of the LORD is at hand! (Isaiah 13:6).

Part 2 will take a closer look at Godlessness in the last days, and whether Paul was referring in those verses to the world or the church.

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Is the “Day of the Lord” the same thing as “The Last Days”? Part 2

marriage supper of God, prophecy, woman eaten by vultures

Woman who fell to her death eaten by vultures in 45 minutes

Posted on May 10, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

This week I’ve posted on several different topics. I posted an academic kind of essay called “What we need around here is some apocalyptic journalism.” I posted a sweet essay and a simple one about creation, called “Birds make me laugh.” I posted one about discernment and contemplative prayer, and a political one about the Middle East. I think what we are missing to round out the week is something of the weird!

It is reported that a woman who was hiking in France fell 980 feet off a cliff to her death. Before rescue workers could extract her body, vultures had eaten the body within 45 minutes.

“The body of a woman who died after falling off a cliff in France was devoured by vultures in just 45 minutes, before rescue workers were able to reach the body. The 52-year-old woman was hiking with two friends in the French Pyrenees on April 14 when she fell off a cliff and plunged more than 980 feet to her death, according to France’s TF1. The woman’s body was eaten by vultures in minutes. “There were only bones, clothes and shoes left on the ground,” Major Didier Pericou told The Times of London. “They took 45 to 50 minutes to eat the body.” Adding, “When we first went out in the helicopter looking for the body, we saw numerous vultures without realizing what they were doing.””

Spooooky!

Vultures are carrion birds and the bible declared them unclean, in the Old Testament. The Lord will use vultures after the Tribulation to eat the bodies of those who fell at Armageddon.

The Lord organized the world and he made several different avian migration routes. The largest goes over Israel. Three continents funnel their birds over Israel twice a year, as they migrate north to south or south to north, depending on the season. 500 Million birds funnel over that tiny nation, as they avoid the Mediterranean and Caspian seas and fly over Israel. It presents quite a hazard to flight navigation, a problem Israel has recently made advances in solving. I wrote about the bird migration over Israel, here in this essay titled Bird Watching in Israel, and The Great Supper of God

As far as prophecy goes, there is this verse-

“And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.” (Rev 19:17-18).

This moment occurs after Jesus bursts back onto earth on a white horse with His saints following, and He slays all those hundreds of millions assembled at the battle of Armageddon. The angel then calls to the birds “which fly directly overhead” to come eat the dead. I’d often wondered about the hundreds of millions of dead and how or where the birds will come from to be able to match the numbers indicated in the verse of how many dead there will be to eat.But the LORD has that covered, with having set the migratory routes and the great numbers of birds already traveling over that region.

Also Ezekiel 39:17 at the end of the Gog-Magog war: “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.”

In that previous essay, I’d shown that because of the bird migration routes going over Israel, and how the Lord has already trained them, the numbers of birds available to attend the Great Supper of God are already set. Now with this article about the woman hiker in France, you can see how, once the birds arrive, how efficient the carrion birds are in dispatching corpses.

There will be two great suppers. One will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. All those who believe on the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord, having repented of sins and believed in His work on the cross, and in His resurrection, will be attending. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). It is going to be great!!

“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 clothe herself 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 the true words of God. (Revelation 19:7-9).

The other supper will be the Great Supper of God.

“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave,e both small and great.” (Revelation 19:17-18).

Only two suppers. You will either eat with the Lord in glory, or be eaten as carrion by vultures. The difference is repentance or rebellion, salvation or sin. The difference is eternal. Pray to Jesus now for salvation and be blessed of those invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

Told you this was a weird essay! Praising the Lord for carrion birds! Yes! He already has everything organized and in His timing, all will be performed excellently- just as the bible says!

You might also be interested in this:
Where the vultures gather

damascus, middle east, prophecy

"Looks like it just got real in Damascus"

Posted on May 5, 2013 by elizabethprata

The title for this blog entry came from Mark Hemingway, Senior writer at The Weekly Standard, who tweeted this out about an hour ago. Watch about 20 seconds in

BBC Reports,
“Syrian state TV says Israeli rockets have hit a military research centre on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. Huge explosions have been heard in the Mount Qassioun area of the city. Earlier, Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that on Friday Israeli aircraft had attacked a shipment of missiles in Syria. The missiles were believed to be destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Heavy explosions shook Damascus overnight. Amateur video footage posted online showed a huge ball of fire rising into the night sky above the city.”

A Damascus resident speaks to Al Jazeera via Skype about a rocket attack in the Syrian capital, that she described as a “big and huge explosion” that caused “everything” to shake.

Damascus is destined to be destroyed completely (Isaiah 17:1). Syria is a proxy state for Iran. Iran will not take kindly to interruptions of their supply line of rockets to terrorists in Damascus and Beirut.

Remember, Psalm 83 is commonly interpreted as a ‘parked’ prayer in advance of a war where its participants have never entered into a coalition in all of past history. That is why bible scholars believe it is a future war. The Psalm describes Israel’s near neighbors Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah and Hamas, Jordan, and Gaza attacking Israel but Israel will be victorious. Many believe it is that victory, with assumed land expansion and a relaxed guard Ezekiel describes, which prompts Israel’s further neighbors to ally in the God Magog battle of Ezekiel 38-39 (Russia, Baltic States, Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, northern tier of Africa…). In that war, Israel was about to lose but God personally shows Himself holy and saves His nation.

Whatever the specific timing of the above-mentioned upcoming wars, the situation in Damascus is devolving rapidly. Keep praying.

albania, gog magog, israel, middle east unrest, prophecy

Israel: A Nation waiting to exhale

Posted on April 29, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Israel is God’s chosen nation. He created a people from Abraham to be His people, to bear His spiritual fruit, and to be His everlasting trophy. That is His history with them.

Israel’s history with God is less holy and less even-keeled. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him. They clung to Him. They left Him. They were punished by Him.

And so on.

One of the ways God punished His people was to use another nation to overrun the Israelites, or to defeat them in war, or just to harass them endlessly. This excerpt from the short essay “God’s providential use of other nations” explains,

The Use of Righteous Nations

The Lord can use a righteous nation to overthrow a wicked one. This certainly was the case in Israel’s early history when God led his people into Canaan and commanded them to destroy the tribes of that land (Deuteronomy 20:16-17). The ultimate potential redemption of humanity was at the root of this moral surgery. The failure of the nation to carry out completely the instructions was a source of severe hardship in the years that followed.

The Use of Wicked Nations

Jehovah may use an evil nation to chastise a relatively better one. There is no question but that the nations of Assyria and Babylon were far worse than both Israel and Judah, yet the Lord employed both of these pagan powers to punish his people who gradually (and sometimes more than gradually) were drifting into apostasy.

The essay goes on to use the verse from Acts in which Paul explains, perhaps, God’s thinking on why He does this,

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, (Acts 17:26-27).”

Here is a biblical example of how God used a nation. For example, Judges 10:6-8,

“And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and

Baal statue 1200BC, Wikipedia

the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon. And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.”

The long and unsettled history of Israel has made them weary today. They want peace. They want security. They want peace and safety. But it is not to be, yet.

“While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

Even today, with Israel’s military prowess tested and proven again and again, enemies all around Israel either harass them constantly or are in a war-like state of their own. (Below, Jerusalem at night)

Just a few of the headlines showing Middle East boiling point-
Syria PM survives assassination car-bombing
Claims of Hezbollah getting chemicals
And now some Albanian Islamists are joining the Syrian war. “In recent months, the “Albanian world,” which consists of five contiguous states (Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro), has been increasingly interested in what is happening in Syria and the controversy over whether Albanians should go fight there.”

This is interesting because in the future Gog-Magog war, described in Ezekiel 38-39, a coalition of nations surprise attacks Israel. Part of the coalition will be Russia and the Baltic states, of which Albania region is a part. I wrote about the Chechen connection to Gog-Magog when the Boston bombers were revealed to be Chechen.
Iraq getting more murderous, unrest permeates
They pulled the license of the news organization Al Jazeera and closed the border with Jordan.
Egypt pulling out of talks, protesting Israel’s nukes

All around Israel, tiny Israel, monster nations are at war, either with themselves, with each other or with Israel.

Israel is a nation that is still holding its breath. Peace and safety hasn’t come yet. It is not on the horizon, either. Prophecy says there will be another war, and this one Israel would lose. If it wasn’t for their holy God, that is. God uses nations once again in His providential manner to make His point-

“And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.” (Ezekiel 39:21-24). Below, what Armageddon might look like…

Israel is waiting to exhale. Hold on a while longer His people! Turn from your heathen ways and cling to your Holy God. His promises never fail. Your weariness will lead you to making deathly decisions, such as accepting the antichrist as savior, (Dan 9:27) and eventually, the armies of the world will encamp around you to fight the very LORD Himself at Armageddon. (Revelation 16:14-16; Zechariah 14:2). But He is trustworthy and will save a remnant, (hiding out at Bozrah/Petra, Isaiah 63:1) and will ensure peace for all in the Millennium Kingdom. (Zechariah 14:11). This is what’s coming for you, O Israel!

The Glory of the Lord Fills the Temple!

“Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” (Ezekiel 43:1-5).

Peace will flow like a river!

“Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.” (Ezekiel 47:6b-9)

bible, boston marathon, chechnya, gog magog, prophecy

Gog Magog connection to Boston Marathon bombers/Chechnyan region

Posted on April 20, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Baghdad. Karachi. Lebanon. Damascus. These are the places on maps our eyes rove to when thinking of terror, jihad, and evil. We see a great amount of hate emanating from these places where satan has his throne. (Revelation 2:13; Ezekiel 28:12).

And just when we got used to this place or that place being the seat of terror, BLAM! Chechnya!

The two brothers who executed the terrorist bombings at the Boston marathon were from Chechnya. They were Muslim and subscribed to a jihadi point of view. The Boston police Commissioner said, “We believe this man to be a terrorist,” said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. “We believe this to be a man who’s come here to kill people.”

I had to look on a map to see where Chechnya is.

Aha. This explains a lot. It is part of ground zero of where the Gog Magog nations will combine to attack Israel in the Gog Magog Ezekiel 38 war.

Russia’s Caucasus: breeding ground for terror
“Militants from Chechnya and other restive regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus have targeted Moscow and other areas with bombings and hostage-takings, but the allegations of involvement in the Boston Marathon explosions would mark the first time they had conducted a terror attack in the West. The conflict in Chechnya began in 1994 as a separatist war, but quickly morphed into an Islamic insurgency whose adepts vow to carve out an independent Islamic state in the Caucasus.”

“The word of the Lord came to me; Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army – your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops – the many nations with you.’ (Ezekiel 38:1-6).

These Magog coalition nations are the nations of today –

Magog – there are over 130 historical references tying Magog to the ancient Scythians. In Colossians 3:11 Paul mentioned the Scythians. The Strong’s concordance identifies a Scythian as an inhabitant of Scythia or modern day Russia. The Great Wall of China was known as the “Ramparts of Magog” in ancient times and was built to protect China from Magog. Magog was a son of Japeth and inhabited central Asia. His children, the Scythians, are the ancestors of today’s Russian people.

Meshech and Tubal – These two were brothers of Magog and are linked to the same general area, but more likely with the Turkic people. Josephus associated Meshech with Cappodocia, home of the ancient Hittite Empire in Eastern Turkey.

Persia – Iran

Cush and Put – Ethiopia, Libya and the north part of the continent; Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, etc.

Gomer– Eastern Europe of today.

Beth Togarmah – Armenians of today call themselves the House of Togarmah. The Turks (but not the Kurds, who are the ancient Medes of Media-Persia fame) are also included, and they’re the ones Ezekiel had in view.

Sheba and Dedan – commentaries none-the-less identify these two as probably representing the nations of the Arabian Peninsula, notably Saudi Arabia. The ancient capital of Saudi Arabia is still called Dedan on many maps today.

Tarshish – No one is sure. (go to link to see full explanation with scriptures)

Now look at the map again. Chechnya is smack dab in the middle of the exact geographic region which will combine in an unholy alliance against God, striking His nation Israel in the last days.

One thing that the surprise Chechnyan connection and the surprise US terror act tells us, is that satan is alive and well and busy, even in ways and in places we are not aware. If there is a good to come of this act, it is to unite us in prayer, to take a stand for Jesus, and to remember to put on our armor and be on guard even more vigilantly- spiritually.

No matter how dark the day, the Light is coming. He will prevail. He already has prevailed. In this way, all things are working perfectly to work out His plan. In the glory of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. His truth marches on! His day is coming!