Category: prophecy

Posted in israel, missile, prophecy, UFO

Middle East UFO or meteor sighting turns out to be Russian missile

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel was in havoc last night. So was Lebanon, Iran, Syria (for a different reason), Armenia, Turkey, Georgia, Jordan and other countries. Twitter came alive with panic and wonder. Dozens of phone calls were made to police stations. Youtube videos popped up with blaring headlines and triple question marks. Why? At dusk and into dark luminous lights began appearing in the sky over Lebanon. Many thought they were UFOs, others wondered if they were missiles. Some said they were meteorites, but Israel authorities said they were not. Information was conflicting and as long as the lights remained unidentified, panic rose.

Here is one example from Twitter:
BREAKING: Luminous bodies and meteors appear over North #Lebanon, #Marjaayoun and many areas in the #Bekaa.

Twitter/Yfrog/Instagram came alive with photos, some real,

And some fake,

Syrian State News reported “An aerolite piece flickering over the sky of Damascus was observed yesterday around 8:30 P.M. Chairman of the Syrian Society of Astrology, Dr. Mohamad al-Assiri, asserted that a 20 to 30 centimeter diameter aerolite piece burnt in the troposphere near the Earth sending light flickers for about 30 seconds. Al-Assiri added that the aerolite appeared as a strong light spot observed by the inhabitants of Damascus and the sparkles stretched to Aleppo and to some parts of Lebanon. No damage from the aerolite, none of its components fell on the earth, was reported.” Aerolite is another name for meteorite.

But then they inexplicably used the following graphic to illustrate the news story!!!

Ynet News more soberly reported: “Lebanon: Unidentified objects – meteors
Lebanese media also reported that an unidentified object was observed in the sky. They quoted scientists who claimed the “explanation was scientific” and that the object was most likely a “large meteorite.”The LBCI network reported that: “Luminous objects and meteor bursts appeared over north Lebanon, Marjaayoun, the Bekaa and the Syrian-Turkish border.”

And a short while later reported this:
Israelis nationwide report seeing UFO
“Hundreds flood police with reports of UFO in nation’s skies; Astronomical Association chairman says object isn’t a meteor, flew above Lebanon. Similar sighting in Norway in 2009 turned out to be failed missile test.”

RT’s summary is excellent and is accompanied by good photos.

Today, the Kuwait State News reported this:
“Russian military announced Thursday they have successfully test-fired a new version of the TOPOL-M series, code-named RS-12M. The rocket, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), was test fired from a Russian military base in Southeast Russia, Interfax news quoted military sources as saying. The missile hit its target in Kazakhstan in central Asia precisely…”

Meanwhile, also being Tweeted at the same time the mysterious lights were seen over half the nations in the Middle East, were reports of a white powder drifting down on Syrian citizens. Subsequent reports of people entering emergency rooms with symptoms of burning and choking appeared and it was strongly suspected that Syria officials had used a chemical weapon.

Report: Unidentified gas used in Syria
“Syrian opposition says Assad’s Air Force planes bomb towns with unfamiliar substances he unidentified gas caused suffocation among residents, the activists said.”

The overwhelming feeling as all this chaos was occurring is disorientation. People in the Mid East are living with warfare threats today that will soon be realized. Christians know they will be due to prophecy and the integrity and certainty of God’s Word. For those who do not believe in God’s word, knowing that the multiple threats will likely result in ignition of the Middle East tensions is also a no-brainer. It happened before, and today there are even more threats, more missiles, and less economic stability than ever before. It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.

When the Mid-East lights up like that, one cannot help but say, “Is it happening now? Is this it?”

After the furor dies down and facts are sorted out, and it becomes apparent that God’s hand has stayed us fallen humans from the brink [for the moment], so the secondary thought turns to man’s hubris. At least it does for me.

As an example, the New York City Municipal Archives were recently opened online and gave access to a gallery of over 870,000 images from the 1880s to the 1980s. One hundred years of municipal photographs include stunning photos of city projects undertaken such as the Manhattan Bridge construction, highways, and subways. As I looked through the NY Municipal Archives and saw photos like this, of the Manhattan bridge under construction in 1909,

Source

Or this photo of the Holland Tunnel power station in 1925,

Source

I could not help but think, “Wow! We have accomplished so much! Man can do anything!” I do have a justifiable feeling of pride that human engineering has made our lives more smooth and transportation more feasible. It seems that man has conquered the seas, the sky, the earth. We dig tunnels and drive under rivers, we build bridges and drive over the air. We go where we want to go and we build what we want to build, the earth is being remade to our specifications. It seems as if everything will go on as before, and that man’s accomplishments will last forever.

This, of course, is untrue. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. (Psalm 24:1)

It was real-time events like last nights that really brings home the tension we are all living under, and the fact that one day, soon I think, the events we witness like last night’s will be the last ones we Christians will see on this side of the veil … before we are called home to glory.

Posted in discovery, gog magog, israel, oil, prophecy

Prophetic implications of Israel’s latest gas/oil find

Posted on by elizabethprata

ANOTHER major oil find in Israel was announced Sunday. I wrote about it briefly here. Now in this blog entry, I am giving more information.

There is an old joke that Moses took the wrong turn from Egypt, leading Israel to sand and leaving oil for the Arabs. Haven’t you ever wondered why the same geology that yields so much oil in Saudi Arabia and Iran and Iraq yields none in Israel? I have. However, the recent discoveries of oil and gas listed below have made that bad joke outdated. Israel produces 4,000 barrels per day, but has a 250,000 barrel per day demand. Therefore they must import, relying on ever-increasingly hostile neighbors and ever more vulnerable pipelines. It appears that reliance will no longer be necessary. I am sure Israel’s enemies will not be happy to contemplate her ever-growing fuel independence.

For decades, scholars and bible students have wondered what “spoil” could the Gog-Magog alliance possibly want. Israel feeds Europe with her fruit, growing oranges and figs and other fruits that are widely exported. I cannot imagine a war fought over figs, however. The verse in Ezekiel 38 says “A great spoil.” Hmmm.

“Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day,  thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme and say, ‘I will go up against  the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon  the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?'” (Ez 38:10-13) [emphasis mine.]

What could the great spoil be? Until now, Israel has not shown much yield in anything except what she herself can coax from the ground with hard-won irrigation and sweaty toil. And Russia is the oil monster, with an output that until recently was prodigious. “Was” being the key word.

Jan 2009:
Israel Discovers Gas!
Israel’s Delek fuel company has discovered a huge deposit of natural gas west of Haifa that could change the face of Israel’s economy.

Dec 2009:
Israeli company finds oil beneath Rosh Ha’ayin 
Givot Olam Oil Exploration Limited Partnership said that more than 60 percent gas was measured in the drill, indicating the first such find in Israel.

Dec 2010:
Gas Field Confirmed Off Coast of Israel
Exploratory drilling off Israel’s northern coast this week has confirmed the existence of a major natural gas field — one of the world’s largest offshore gas finds of the past decade — leading the country’s infrastructure minister to call it “the most important energy news since the founding of the state.”

Aug 2010:
Leviathan Oil Field Could Sustain Israel For Decades 
All big oil and gas fields have geopolitical significance, but we haven’t seen a big oil find in recent years that could matter more than the Leviathan field in the Mediterranean Sea off of Israel. 4.3 bn barrels.

March 2011
Oil shale reserves can turn Israel into major world producer
THE JOKE has been told by generations of Jews, most famously Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel: ‘Why did Moses lead us to the one place in the Middle East without oil?’ … According to Dr Vinegar, Israel has the second-biggest oil shale deposits in the world, outside the US: “We estimate that there is the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil here. To put that in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia.”

Nov 2011
Russia output dropping
“Lukoil, which accounts for 15 percent of Russia’s 30-stock Micex index, extended its weekly decline to 6.6 percent after reporting third-quarter results that included a 2 percent drop in gas output and a 21 percent slide in net income. Oil production declined as flows from some wells in Western Siberia abated and falling demand from customers cut gas production, the Moscow-based company said in a Nov. 25 regulatory filing.”

Feb 2012
Another Gas Discovery for Delek, Noble Energy!
Noble Energy and the Delek Group announced on Sunday another significant discovery of a natural gas field off the coast of Haifa.The field, located in the Mediterranean waters 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) northwest of Israel’s northern port city, reportedly totals about 1.2 to 1.3 trillion cubic feet.

May 2012:
Forbes: Is Russian oil output plummeting?
“According to a recent Bloomberg story Saudi Arabia displaced Russia as the world’s largest oil producer, producing just about three thousand barrels a day more in March of 2012”

June 2012:
Israel discovers more offshore oil and gas
An Israeli company announced the discovery of another sizable offshore oil and gas field on Sunday.Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP estimated the newest field at about 1.4 billion barrels of oil and 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.”The quantity of gas discovered in the licenses — and the high probabilities — make it the third largest off-shore discovery to date,” chairman Ronny Halman told Globes.

You see how this is going. You see that the “old joke” about Moses leading the Jews to the one place in the Middle East that doesn’t have oil is actually by this point kind of a blaspheme. God said He would provide for His people and He IS providing for His people. Furthermore, it demonstrates once again how perfect the LORD’S word is, how precise.

I watch with eager wonder and with bated breath as to what will be the tipping point for the Gog Magog prophecy to come true. When will Russia, Iran, Turkey et al get tired of holding back and pounce? At this oil discovery? The next? It can’t be long now…we see prophesies of Egypt in Isaiah 19 coming to pass and the prophesies of Isaiah 17 regarding Syria ready to come to pass. It is like a drawstring purse, the strings pulling the open neck ever closer, a closing which will end up being a noose around the necks of Israel’s enemies. How much more to go until the prophetic foundations are laid? God in His timing knows, but to me, this puny human, it seems ready today.

Posted in joy, prophecy

Studying prophecy brings joy in seeing God as sovereign

Posted on by elizabethprata

Word of the week: Collapse.

Societal, cultural, financial, economic, political. The world as we know it is ending. And now we really see that this is so. This week’s news brought the world ever closer to the consciousness that things will not remain as they have been. And still, as much as the world sees that the events we are experiencing in the aforementioned realms are changing, for the worse, and perhaps to never be the same again, they still insist that this has nothing to do with Christ. They say, ‘Oh, the world is changing, and the Zombie/Mayan/Cayce/Nostradamus apocalypse may be near, but it has nothing to do with that guy, Jesus.’

A prophecy from Peter: “They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”” (2 Peter 3:4).

They say such things because they believe them. Satan has blinded the lost to the things of Christ. It has always been so. The Israelites taunted Jeremiah with the same:

“Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.” (Jeremiah 17:15)

And why do they believe the Zombie/Mayan/Cayce/Nostradamus apocalypse and not the Christian Revelation of the promised Apocalypse? Because the aforementioned are from satan. Now satan, they’ll believe.

Technically, the world has been ending since Genesis 3, but the feeling of chaotic flying apart has increased dramatically in the last two weeks. Pundits are talking openly of a Euro collapse, and at one point Bloomberg’s market screens showed Greek drachma! Panic calls to the institution yielded a short statement that they were ‘just practicing’ and ended with a please move along, nothing to see here.

I’m enjoying the Spirit’s sweet presence every day. I enjoy my walk with Jesus in increasing amounts of awe and joy. I am encouraged by knowledge of the sovereignty of the Father. Far from being depressed personally, I am more joyous all the time. Seeing these world events and understanding where we are on the timetable of God’s prophetic clock, I’m slain with wonder at the vastness of His intelligence and the scope of human history- and grateful that I am a part of His kingdom.

Yes, the days are difficult, and I mourn for people who are lost in sin and for my own sins. But the events we read about here and elsewhere far from saddening me, make me think of Exodus 15:11.

“Who among the gods is like you, LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”

In the current phase of Christianity, many have lost that sense of awe. I think it is because many popular teachers and preachers have taught and preached a raised up man. The excessive focus on our prosperity, our self-esteem, our pits, our problems, combined emphasis of His love to us, His friendship with us, His Bridal “romance” of us, has resulted in a lowered God.

Too often Western Christianity looks to Him as a friend, (which He is) but in looking at Him only as friend, through that one facet, and not so much as Sovereign King, Judge, and Holy God. This looking exclusively at Jesus through one facet has allowed many to devolve His status in their minds from friend to ‘old buddy, pal o’ mine.’

A sense of awe in Him was heightened in me this week as I read the unfortunate incidences of cannibalism (the South Beach Miami event was not the only one! And the problem is in Maritime Canada, too.) But as read some of these headlines- not purposely- but even as my eye caught them as they were listed on a page with other headlines, and I averted my eyes in disgust, I was amazed in realizing that the lower society sinks the higher I see Him. It is as if He is stripping away the layers and revealing us to be the depraved sinners we are and by contrast, we can’t help but see Him as August Holy One.

Quite simply, western Christianity does not have a transcendent view of God anymore, and thus a sense of awe is lost. This particularly applies to prophecy. Only a Sovereign God expressing His will upon the world knows the end from the beginning. Only He at His will and pleasure states what will happen in a thousand years, or six thousand years, and it comes to pass exactly as He said! We are living in the times of Romans 1. Our nation is being judged, Romans 1 IS the judgment as He gives them over to their depraved minds. This is an awe inspiring thing- to see the bible pages ripped from its bindings and come to life on earth in the news. It makes me fear Him and it makes me love Him.

That He stays His hand of execution despite seeing the perversity in the world makes me love Him even more. He said in Luke 13:6-9

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
“And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”

The vineyard owner is God who rightly wants to see fruit in His tree. The gardener is Jesus who came to sow seed and tend it. He pleads with the Vineyard owner (God) for a bit more time. The parable relates to both the nation of Israel that God had planted and also to the fruit-bearing individual. Jesus had been preaching for three years, but even after He ascended the tree was not uprooted- yet. That happened in 70AD when Jerusalem was sacked by Rome and the inhabitants scattered.

So when I write of judgments to come and the signs that indicate their nearness, rather than be completely sad, I also focus on how compassionate He has already been. “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22) He has been giving the Spirit time to grow seeds, waiting for us to repent, bringing many sons to come to Glory! (Hebrews 2:10). His wrath is tinged with patience, and I am in awe of this God who loves us despite the perversity and rebellion we see in the world today!! THAT is how I stay positive. I hope you do too.

Habakkuk finally got it, saying in chapter three:

“Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.” and then he said,

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.”

No matter how low the world gets, the Lord makes me tread on high places. My Holy awe of Him is a reverence mixed with fear: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.’” Hebrews 12:28-29

Posted in nottingham zine fair, prophecy, zine

What is the apocalypse and what is going to happen in it?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today is the day the Apocalypse This zine goes on sale at the Nottingham Zine Fair. I was asked to contribute a piece for the magazine. Here is the backstory. Below is the article I wrote for the zine.

————–
The Apocalypse has been the source behind some of the greatest poetry, art, and writing. One of Yeats’s greatest poems is called The Second Coming, most of Renaissance art contain Apocalyptic or biblical scenes, and many films these days have apocalyptic storylines. It all comes from the bible, the world’s greatest selling book. That’s pretty amazing when the fact is the bible is unreadable to any person who doesn’t know Christ.

You heard me. More on that in a second.

But first, what IS Apocalypse?

The word apocalypse comes from the Greek for “revelation,” or “unveiling.” It’s about future things dealing with the return of Christ and the events of the end time. Do you know that a third of the bible is prophecy? Did you know that every book in the NT except Philemon speaks about the end times? It’s not just a Revelation thing. It’s a Jesus thing, and Jesus is throughout the entire bible.

So what IS going to happen? Jesus is going to punish sin, plain and simple. Punishment is never pleasant, and Jesus said that the Apocalypse will be the worst time on earth there will ever be. (Matthew 24:21; Daniel 12:1b). Daniel 9:24 explains the 6 things God will do during the Apocalypse punishments. God, who is loving, wants us to be righteous so we can be with Him in heaven, so He sent Jesus. God, who is holy, is going to punish the unholy, who reject Jesus.

There will be earthquakes so bad that entire mountains crumble and islands flee away. One hundred pound hailstones will squash men. Plagues (and wars and beasts) will kill 1/3 of people. Demons will be let out of the abyss to inflict a painful bite so bad that people want to die: but can’t. They’ll chew their tongues in agony. Starving people will die in the streets, but no one will care. Things will come upon the earth so frightening that people have heart attacks on the spot. The sun and moon go dark, stars fall from the sky. Jesus said it will be so bad that if He let it go longer nobody would survive. As it is, 4 billion die within the 7 years. (Revelation 6-19).

Sin is real. God’s judgment of sin is real. Satan is real. Hell is real. The coming Antichrist is real. Everything in the bible is real. Not any other book. Apocalypse will happen. The rapture will be the signal that it’s beginning.

How can I be so sure? Because for 43 years I had everything I ever wanted. Money, fame, comforts, ease, professional recognition, world travel, and yet I felt empty. I felt in my soul that there had to be something more. What was this longing? This hole I felt within me? (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Is this all there is? Live a life and then die? It seemed like a lot of trouble to go through just to die. Is there a heaven? Will I go there? I wondered all these things.

It was the lack of knowing Jesus that was the problem. He created us. (Rev 4:11) and because we are born with a sin-nature, I was separate from him. THAT’S what I was feeling. I had been trying to fill that hole with temporary and unfulfilling things. I finally found the answer, at middle age without ever having gone to a church (so I’m not brainwashed into Christianity, lol). When you confess your sins and repent to Jesus, He forgives you and He brings you to fellowship with Him. He sends the Holy Spirit to make the things of God understandable, like the bible. (2 Corinthians 3:14). Before I was saved, the bible made no sense. I thought it was stupid. I thought bible thumpers and Jesus followers were stupid. After I repented, the bible made total sense and I loved Jesus.

I now see death differently from all the rest of the world that has no hope. It is simply a transition, from something tiring and full of struggle, to something wondrous and glorious beyond compare. I have no fears of the Apocalypse, because I won’t be here to experience it. Those in Christ will be taken out of the way, because He is not angry with us. We’re forgiven sinners. He is angry with unrepentant sinners. O, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God!

I am very sure this age will come to a terrible end. I am sure that time is not long away. I am very sure that I will be lifted bodily away from earth to meet Jesus in the air at the rapture to live with Him forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54.) If you want that certainty too, then repent of your sins and turn to Jesus. Believe He is Lord, who sacrificially died to satisfy God’s wrath about sin and who was raised on the third day. I will be in heaven. I hope you will be too.

Posted in apocalypse, nottingham zine fair, prophecy

Apocalypse This: at Nottingham Zine Fair today

Posted on by elizabethprata

A little while back, UK graphic designer, fashion student and editor Loren Kristie Aldridge asked me to contribute an article to her zine which would be sold at the 2nd Annual Nottingham Zine Fair. She was putting together a ‘zine about the apocalypse and wanted me to contribute something from the Christian point of view. She asked me for a bio and also to spend 800 or so words describing what is going to happen according to the Christian version of the apocalypse, and why I believe the Apocalypse is going to happen. It was a tall order to be that broad but have so few words to say it all in, but the Holy Spirit was gracious and led me to what I feel is a good product.

Her product came out great, I really like it from what I could glean from photos. Here is her final version of the zine:

Here is what my article’s page looks like. I like it.

This is an article about the Nottingham Zine Fair: “The rise of online publishing’s all very well, if you’re into all that technical rammel but for those with more tactile ambitions, who still hanker after old school printing and the smell of yer actual paper, you might want to get ye sens down to Spanky Van Dykes on the 26 May where the Raw Print Club will host it’s 2nd annual ‘Nottingham Zine Fair’. The event will be a mecca for lovers of zines, indie magazines and artist books of all shapes and sizes. According to Matt Gill, university lecturer, graphic designer and founder of Raw Print Club the day is ‘all about showcasing creativity and also bringing lots of different people together who have a love for print…So don’t tek our word for it, go along and have a proper good day out, read and buy some zines, talk to like minded people over a few jars of ale and dance your self silly at the aftershow party.”

It sounds like a lot of fun, actually. I wish I was going.

For the folks who aren’t in the zine world, a zine – pronounced zeen – as derived from magazine – is defined by Wiki as an independently- or self-published booklet, often created by a single person. Zines are customarily created by physically cutting and gluing text and images together onto a master flat for photocopying, but it is also common to produce the master by typing and formatting pages on a computer. The end product is usually folded and stapled. Zines can be printed and bound in any manner. Offset printing is a relatively common alternative to photocopying…” I remember putting together small print zines myself by ditto machine and staples, lol.

Zines are most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier.

Martin Luther and early American Revolution pamphleteers such as Thomas Paine were technically zinesters. A zine is simply a self-published print medium of focused theme and small circulation. Often there was only one edition. More often, the minority interest contained in the zine was of a more alternative nature.

In Thomas Paine’s and Martin Luther’s day the minority interest of alternative nature was anti-government or anti-pope, a dangerous position indeed, often carrying with it a death sentence for treason or heresy. This was because small pamphlets had the potential of having a huge impact on capturing the vox populi despite large corporate or governmental control of information and thus perception of the status quo. Just think the moment on October 31, 1517, when, according to traditional accounts, Luther’s 95 Theses were nailed to the door of the Castle Church. It turned the world upside down. Just think of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, it having the effect of galvanizing the Colonies toward revolution.

In the modern era of the 1900s and especially by the 1960s and onward, the subject was often was prurient, such as touting homosexuality, lesbianism, or BDSM lifestyles, subjects no standard publishing house would touch. One HAD to self-publish in those days.

I was always involved with print, as a journalist, academic, short story writer and general lover of all things print in the three dimensional media. I was born in 1960, with personal computers coming on the scene soon but before the internet. Getting something published was a hard go, because the NY publishing houses had a lock on the print media in terms of magazines and books, so zines were often the only alternative for the enterprising writer with something to say. As with anything first-generation, self-publishing was crude but satisfying. The 1980s brought punk zines, and computer bulletin boards, and then in the 1990s we had the explosion of self-publishing due to the widespread connectivity of the internet and easily obtained word processing software. In the early 2000s the blog was born. Now we have Facebook, Youtube, blogs, Twitter, personal websites and more. Self-Publishing has had a huge impact on the industry. Now, anyone with a computer can have a voice that may impact the world.

Nowadays, sophisticated software such as Adobe Illustrator allows for more aesthetically pleasing products, such as you see with Ms Aldridge’s Apocalypse This zine above.

As time has gone on, I note that these days, the minority interest subject is often Christianity. The subjects no self-respecting publishing house would touch before 1980, 1970, 1960 are now deemed ‘normal’, such as homosexuality, alternative lifestyles etc. Publishers and broadcasters only produce things with subjects that have wide appeal and thus will make them money. On television we regularly view shows promoting perverted structures of family, showing open sexual acts, and worse subjects, such as cannibalism or serial killing as entertainment, subjects one never even discussed inside a home, never mind touted on a global medium. But it sells. Christianity doesn’t.

I know that in the days to come and after the rapture when the antichrist will control media & information and thus perception, and that self-published small zines, or even portions of the bible will once again attain underground status and will have to be circulated stealthily. The openly circulated is the perverse and the stealthily circulated will be the pure.

Isaiah 5:20 warns, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Jesus warned in Matthew 6:22-23, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

I am humbled and grateful to have been asked to contribute to Apocalypse This zine. Due to the alternative nature of zines these days, having a piece about Jesus in and amongst the other subjects means that people will read the Gospel who don’t normally come across it. Please pray that the Spirit sends all the right people to today’s Nottingham Zine Fair whose heart is ready to receive the truth.

I’ll post what I wrote for the zine and  link to it. And also here. Meanwhile, right now there are hordes of youths ambling through aisles under the sun at Nottingham, looking for…something. I pray they find Jesus.

Posted in end time, flesh eating bacteria, prophecy, Uncategorized

(UPDATED)Third Georgia patient comes down with flesh eating bacterial infection

Posted on by elizabethprata

Three Four people from Georgia have now been infected and are being treated for the dread flesh-eating bacterial infection.

1. Aimee Copeland was riding a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River near Carollton, Georgia May 1st when the line snapped, causing a gash in her left calf. The bacteria thought to have triggered the infection, Aeromonas hydrophila, thrives in warm climates and fresh (brackish) water, like the river where Copeland was kayaking and zip lining with friends.

2. Lana Kuykendall was infected on May 7th after she gave birth to twins at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

3. Bobby Vaughn of Cartersville, Georgia’s story– “Reports emerge of third flesh-eating bacteria victim with ties to Georgia.” Vaughn is a Cartersville landscaper who was injured at work May 4th when he fell from a tree and suffered a cut to his side.

4. UPDATE, A grandfather from Milledgeville (also not so far from Atlanta) is battling an infection of flesh eating bacteria. Shudderrrrrr…

The scale of miles between each location where the patient became infected is that each side of the triangle is roughly 50 miles from each destination. The distances are not long.

OK, one is a freak thing, two is something that makes me go HMMM, but three is a pattern. Three from the Atlanta area is just too close for comfort!

But now there is one in Long Island NY, a veteran fought for his life from a hospital bed warding off this weird bacteria. He survived. The article says that the bacteria “is rare”. I think they need to look up the definition of “rare” again. Four in the news in one week, suddenly, is not rare. It’s freaky…

I think of the verse that will be fulfilled in the Tribulation, the one where Jesus promised that there will be pestilences, (Luke 21:11; Rev 6:8). He created the entire world and all that is within it in 6 days. He can create a disease that will kill a fourth of mankind. Or He will allow a mutation of a disease that man in his own sin created, to kill a fourth of mankind. Or both.

What we have today is a flesh eating bacteria that is hard to handle in these relatively calm times with all the focus of the practicing experts brought to bear, with a total focus of curing the patient afflicted with it. A cure is almost too hard for them to manage now. Imagine when things are really chaotic and a quarter of the world is dying from plagues and wars and other deathly afflictions. If a person in the Tribulation catches this bacteria you will watch your flesh rot off while doctors are performing triage on patients worse off than you, until even they are overwhelmed with the flood of medical emergencies and finally practicing medicine as we know it sputters to a halt. If you believe I am overstating things, look what happened during Katrina.

I bring these unpalatable things to mind for you so as to think on His mercy. THIS is the age of grace, when repentance will bring joy and redemption to the penitent. Submitting to the loving care of the Savior brings to fruition for each individual all the promises of glory, peace, eternal joy with Him in heaven. Rejecting His offer of grace brings pain, death, and eternal separation from all his promises in hellish agony.

He said that he told us these things head of time so that when they came to pass you would believe. This presently ending of the Age of Grace is the last lead-time you will have to make these choices. (John 13:19). You can choose Jesus during the Tribulation, IF you survive any part of it, IF you don’t wait too long before all the world becomes deluded by the antichrist, IF Jesus doesn’t give you over to your perversions first, IF……

No, do it NOW. He loves you and wants you. He wants YOU.

Posted in fallen angels, greece, prophecy

Greece, the euro, and self-delusion

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is an interesting article out this morning from Reuters.

“Greeks embrace some new myths about life with the euro“
“In a land of ancient myths, modern Greeks have created some of their own about their near-bankrupt country’s future as an integral part of a Europe that will never kick them out. Solemn warnings from abroad that Athens cannot stay in the euro while rejecting the terms attached to the billions offered to pull Greece out of its financial hole are widely disbelieved in a land that considers itself the envy of foreigners. However bad their prospects, many Greeks seem to think that since money to bail them out was found in the past, it will be found again, whatever politicians say. Nor do they believe that Europe will simply cast them loose, despite growing signs that Greece is heading for the exit from the single currency and towards the economic and social catastrophe that would follow.”

‘Never be kicked out’? ‘The envy of foreigners’?? ‘They will get more bailouts’???

How is it possible to be THAT deluded? There is a biblical answer to that, and one that the article’s headline alluded to. It is shown to us in Daniel 10:20, where there is a mention of a Prince of Greece:

“When said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.”

From Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, “But before he communicated to Daniel what would befall his people in the “latter days” (Daniel 10:14), he gives to him yet further disclosures regarding the proceedings in the spirit-kingdom which determine the fate of nations, and contain for Israel, in the times of persecution awaiting them.”

What is happening is that Daniel had inquired of the LORD. The LORD dispatched an angel to give Daniel the answer. But on the way, the holy angel was delayed in the celestial realms by evil angels who opposed him and tried to prevent the message from being delivered. Finally after 21 days Michael had to be sent to help the holy angel get through. And when the holy angel was finished speaking with Daniel, he said was going to have to leave and go deal with the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece.

We know that the princes spoken of are not in this context earthly princes like Prince Charles of Britain. They are angels. Daniel 12:1 speaks of archangel Michael being the “prince” who is assigned to ‘Thy People” the Israelites. It seems that there are evil angels and good angels who are assigned in a military type hierarchy to different regions. And Greece apparently has a very powerful prince assigned to it by satan.

John MacArthur preached on this verse, explaining,

“Now listen to this. Satan has an incredibly clever organization. He has set up a network of demons that are behind all of the activities of human history. There was a demon assigned to Persia. Verse 20 says there’s a demon to be assigned to Greece. The Bible says that all the gods of the nations are demons. And I believe without question, throughout all of human history Satan’s network of demons have been behind the scenes, endeavoring to do all they can to foil the plan of God. His task, this prince of Persia, was to hinder the will and the working of God in regard to Persia, to do all he could to hold back God’s plan.”

“And when Persia passed away, and Greece became the third great world empire, according to verse 20, there would be another demon assigned to be the power in Greece and he would have under him a whole plethora of demons to carry out his bidding. Is that an insight? God actually carries out His will through the angelic conflict. Incredible. And this angel says I’ve got to hurry and get my message so I can get back to the war.”

“And when I’m done with this Persian deal, Greece is going to come along and I’ve got to fight that one, too.”

So from the land that gave us myths, which are false religions and twists on His truth, we have an evilly powerful prince of Greece and his unholy minions who delude an entire nation. That’s how it’s possible to be so deluded.

Posted in end of days, jesus, prophecy, satan, tribulation

Tribulation overview

Posted on by elizabethprata

The verse below is meant to be (mostly) fulfilled in the Tribulation. The Tribulation is prophesied to be a period where many things will happen. One of them is that the earth and heavens themselves will be wildly disrupted and disfigured. Landforms disappear. Weather patterns evaporate. Celestial orbits cease. Plagues kill. And more.

The outline of what Jesus will be doing at that time is presented to us in Daniel 9:24. The Lord will do 6 things:

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city,

1. To finish the transgression,
2. To make an end of sins,
3. To make reconciliation for iniquity,
4. To bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. To seal up vision and prophecy,
6. And to anoint the Most Holy.”

Notice several things. First, it is a period where though the times seem chaotic, it is actually orderly. It is all in control of God. The three series of 7-judgments apiece (Seals, Trumpets, Bowls; perhaps four sets if you consider the Seven Thunders of Rev. 10:3-4) will be delivered in orderly fashion. The judgments unleash chaos, but their deliverance is orderly and controlled.

Another orderly aspect of the entire age, not just the Tribulation, is that He said it will take 70 weeks (70 bundles of 7 years, called shavua in Hebrew). This adds up to 490 years total for Him to perform the 6 things. The Tribulation is the time for it all to come crashing to a conclusion and so it is a time of demonstrable wrath and the culmination of the 6 things. In further orderliness, He stopped the clock at 483 years. Nowhere was it promised to be 490 consecutive years! But they should have known that, because the interruption was stated. In Daniel 9:25-26, a mere verse later, the angel told Daniel that after seven sevens and 62 sevens, “Messiah will be cut off (vernacular for died) and the people of the prince who is to come (antichrist) shall destroy the city.”

Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was 483 years to the day and then the clock stopped. Then Jesus took 2000 years to build His church, and when it reaches His quota, (Romans 11:25) He will snatch us away from this earth, and He will finish that last 7 years of the prophesied 70 weeks and accomplish the promised 6 things. (More here)

The angel also explained to Daniel that it is a time when God directs His attention to “your people” and “your holy city (Jerusalem). That does not mean He isn’t paying attention to non-believers or non-Jews during the Tribulation, or that nothing will happen to them during the Tribulation. Not at all. Jeremiah 30:7 calls it the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, though, and its point is for the LORD to finish His promises to His people. #1 is to finish the transgression which is to allow sin its full course unhindered (unresisted) by the Spirit- because they have rejected the Spirit. In other words, they will get what they asked for.

#2 says He will make an end to sins. This making an end to sins is an event that will affect everyone on the planet. God always sees the world through the lens of His people the Jews and through the central location of the Holy City. But all the world will be affected.

Note the progression of the 6 things. At the beginning, He allows the transgression to have its full expression. By the end, the Most Holy is anointed. The Most Holy is Jesus. Ahhh, what a day that will be! The Tribulation is the cap-stone to the final age of man where He allows the total outcome of rejection of the Holy Spirit to have its course. His Spirit does not strive with man forever, you know. (Gen 6:3a; 2Thessalonians 2:6-7). Like in Noah’s day, where all of man’s thoughts were only evil continually, (Gen 6:5) so it shall be again at the end of days (Matthew 24:37).

The Daniel 9:26 verse also promises that the end will come like a flood. This does not mean that there will be a flood of actual waters as in the first global judgment. As part of the cataclysmic geo-physical upheavals during the Tribulation there will be floods and tides and hurricanes and tsunamis, but He promised Noah that he would never drown the world again as a judgment. (Gen 9:13). Rather, the verse uses figurative language. The Hebrew word in Dan 9:26 is “sheteph; from shataph; a deluge (literally or figuratively) — flood, outrageous, overflowing.” He means that SIN will have its outrageous overflowing. Remember, the antichrist who overpowers the world is called The Man of Sin. (Rev 13:7; 2 Thess 2:3).

This flood language mirrors the language in Revelation 12:15. Midway through the Tribulation, the antichrist tears up the peace treaty he had confirmed with the Jews at the beginning of the Tribulation. He then persecutes them with all unholiness and evil. He goes after the Jews with an evil vengeance that makes the WWII Holocaust look like a picnic. “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.” Satan pours out his evil and sin flows over the world like a flood.

Floods have waters that rise, and rise and rise, eventually washing away all that is in its path. Even tsunamis which travel at jet speeds have waters that flow and rise accordingly. The end began when Jesus ascended, but it has been 2000 years and we can see that the flood waters of sin are not lapping at our toes…are not sweeping against our waists…but the flood waters of sin seem like they are actually crashing over our heads by this point in time. It seems the flood of sin in the world since the beginning is rising and rising, and now even crashing over our heads. It is like the famous photo of the lighthouse and its keeper:

But we are not destined for wrath! (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Though sin tries to engulf us, it will not prevail against His church! (Matthew 16:18). That is one reason we will not be here during the Tribulation, Jesus said that the gates of hell will never prevail against His church. (Mt 16:18). Notice where the keeper is: INSIDE the Lighthouse. Would you want to be anywhere else when the wages of sin try to engulf you? No. You would not survive that wave. You would not survive the hidden reefs under the wave. (Jude 1:12). Being in the Lighthouse is the only safe place to be, in ages past and in this present age.

Jude says, the apostates are “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:12).

Peter says, “These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.” (2 Peter 2:17).

Isaiah says, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” (Isaiah 57:20).

What of us, individually? His word says that Hades will not prevail against His church, but what of each of us in the daily struggle against sin? Some days it truly feels like it will engulf me. Here is the remedy: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).

We are Light keepers, and our job is never more important than during the storm! We are in Christ as THE Light, but we keep His word hidden in our hearts. We are ambassadors of His glory and His truths. We keep His commands. We keep His flame alive on earth by staying in Him and close to Him. It is important to be brighter during the storm and so let us be bright, by being full of peace and joy in these stormy times. Let the waves crash! We have the eternal Strength of the Light. Let others see, and come to Him.

Posted in end time, prophecy, tribulation

End times signs in pictures

Posted on by elizabethprata

The End Time signs in photos. I know that volcanoes have always erupted. I know that earthquakes have always happened. I know that there have always been wars or rumors of wars. But I thought it would be interesting to put in some photos from today’s news stories that closely match prophecy, to give a different, and visual, perspective of the Tribulation.

Volcanic ash envelops Kagoshima city. Kagoshima city has received a heavy dusting of ash since yesterday due to eruption of Sakurajima Volcano–

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,” (Rev 6:12). A common side effect of volcanic eruptions is that when the ash is flung into the sky it darkens the sun in a phenomenon known as dry fog. I explored this in more detail, here. Or you can read about dry fog from a real science guy, here.

The BBC reported on the rare annular eclipse, here, and published this photo of the eclipse over Tokyo.

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,” (Luke 21:25).

Below, PM Netanyahu meets with Winston Churchill’s granddaughter Edwina Sandys. Prior to WWII, Winston Churchill spoke against appeasing Hitler and foresaw the dreadful effects of failing to stop Hitler’s ambitions in time. He was laughed out of the room, only to unfortunately be shown later how right he had been. The situation brings to mind Netanyahu’s current sole position in his speaking of how dangerous it is to appease Ahmadinejad, and how precarious it would be for the world to fail to stop Iran’s convulsive power, cult of death and ideological zeal as that was demonstrated in the Third Reich.

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”’ (Esther 4:14).

Thousands homeless in deadly quake in Italy: 3000 homeless, 50 injured, 7 dead. Historic buildings destroyed.

“There will be earthquakes in diverse places” (Mark 8:13b)

Food shortages in North Korea’s rice belt have become so bad that farmers there have starved to death. As the caption to this photo states, “Famine amid food: North Korean rice farmers are starving to death on meagre government-mandated rations. Picture: AFP Source: AFP”

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!” (Revelation 6:5-6). [A denarius was a day’s wages].

Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano erupts dramatically at night

“And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.” (Isaiah 29:5b-6)

Posted in covenant, jerusalem, prophecy

It’s Jerusalem Day!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim) is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in June 1967.

Video and reporting from 1967:
“On June 7, 1967, Israeli military forces capped off the Six Day War with several remarkable feats, including re-capturing the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan, who had won control of the area in 1948. From a JTA report bearing the dateline June 6, 1967: OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM IS LIBERATED Jerusalem, a city torn in two for 13 years was about to be reunited. Israeli forces surrounded the Jordan-held Old City of Jerusalem today and reportedly occupied most of the area. The Old City, the second capital of Jordan, is the site of some of the holiest places in the Jewish and Christian religions. Jordanian denial of the right of access for Jews to such holy places as the Wailing Wall has been a bone of contention ever since Israel was established.”

And surely it still is, even more than it was 45 years ago. This is prophesied:

“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).

Barnes Notes explains the Zechariah verse:

“The image of the “cup” is mostly of God’s displeasure, which is given to His own people, and then, His judgment of chastisement being exceeded, given in turn to those who had been the instruments of giving it. Thus, Isaiah speaks of “the cup of trembling.” Thou, “Jerusalem, hast drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, hast wrung them out. Therefore hear thou this, thou afflicted and drunken but not with wine. Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.” (Isaiah 51:17, Isaiah 51:21-23).”

As we are told in scripture, today in the world not everyone is in agreement with Jerusalem as the eternal capital, however. Headline from this morning from the Lebanon Daily Star: “Israel marks 45 yrs since occupation of E. Jerusalem“.

Here are some demographic facts about Jerusalem if you want to gain an overall numerical view of the city.

A great sermon to read or listen to from John MacArthur is “The Future Glory of Jerusalem.” In the sermon, he says, “This final chapter hasn’t been written. It’s final hero hasn’t arrived yet, but He will. For about 2,000 years now the Jews have been going to the Wailing Wall at one point or another to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to plead with God to send a deliverer and break Gentile power, and I imagine if you were to go up to the wall, and you wouldn’t dare do this, and pull out of the cracks the little notes that the Orthodox stick in the cracks and read them, they would say O God for the peace of Jerusalem. And God will answer. Jerusalem has not only been the center of redemptive history it will be the center of redemptive consummation in the great future that God has planned. It is, incidentally, still to be the habitation of God. It is the only intended capitol for the kingdom and as Melchizedek was its first king so one after the order of Melchizedek will be its last king, but until then the Bible says Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles.”

So Jerusalem is NOT a city forsaken. His promises regarding His city and His people are NOT set aside! It is an eternal city, and someday when its shame and indignation has passed, when it has been purified, the Shekinah glory will reside there. Ezekiel 37:26 says

“I will make a covenant of peace with them and it will be an everlasting covenant and I will place them and multiply them and set My sanctuary in the midst of them forever, My tabernacle shall also be with them, ye I will be their God, they shall be My people, and the nations shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel and my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.”

The LORD is good and His promises endure forever!