revelation – Page 5

When heaven becomes silent

Posted on September 10, 2012 by elizabethprata

Heaven is full of holy noise. There are songs, and harps, and mighty choruses, angels shouting, peals and thunders, and praises so loud the temple pillars shake.

“Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?”” (Revelation 5:1-2).

“Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus:” (Revelation 5:11-12).

“And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” (Isaiah 6:3-4).

“And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army.” (Ezekiel 1:24).

It must be amazing! None of the noise will cacophonous, but will be perfect.

Which is why, in Revelation 8, the silence is so devastating. When Jesus breaks the 7th seal…well you read it:

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (Revelation 8:1)

There are many conflicting interpretations as to what this means. The time period, “half an hour” is from a Greek word correctly translated half an hour, but it is the only use in the entire New Testament. In any case, it seems that the time of silence will be short, but powerful. If it is enough to stop the praises and choruses and noises otherwise heard in heaven, it must be a powerful silence!

Why the silence? Again, many interpretations. Yet they all agree that the silence is to honor the moment, acknowledging the suspense of what is coming, that the judgments are so severe, and the holiness and righteousness of Jesus to render them. If you read Revelation 8, and it is short chapter, what comes next are angels sounding the trumpets, fulfilling Jesus’s judgments. A third of the grass is struck, a third of the seas are struck, and a third of the rivers are struck. Then there is an angel shouting–

“Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!” (Revelation 8:13)

And those trumpets release the demon-locusts and then the most evil angels who’d been bound at the River Euphrates prepared for this very day and hour, to kill a third of mankind.

Woe indeed!

Some commenters say that heaven’s population becomes silent at the suspense only because they do not know what is about to happen. But the church is there, and the Tribulation martyrs of Revelation 5 are there and we’ve read the bible so we know the judgments.

I’ll throw out another possibility, my own opinion. Judgments are falling, due to sin. In the Seal judgments of Revelation 6, the chapter ends with the the 6th seal being opened, and the population of earth shouting that it is ‘the wrath of the Lamb, and who can stand, the great day has come.’ (Revelation 6:16-17 paraphrase). So they know by now that these are not just coincidental events, like the people claim today. They know it is not Mother Nature, or Global Warming, but that it is the Day of Judgment and wrath from God. The difference between the Seal Judgments and the Trumpet judgments, is that by the 6th Seal they KNOW it is God and nothing else.

In Revelation 7 the scene shifts away from judgment. In the first half of Revelation 7 we are told that 144,000 are sealed, and they go forth proclaiming Jesus to the world. In the second half of Revelation 7, the martyrs are in heaven and singing. By the end of Revelation 7 the seventh seal has not been opened yet.

Revelation 8 begins with that last seal opened and that is when there is silence. The difference between the Seal Judgments past and the Trumpet Judgments about to come is that by now the people who dwell on the earth know it is judgment time from God. They know.

Revelation 8 ends with four of the seven trumpets having been blown, and the angel shouting woe because the next three are about to be blown and the three judgments accompanying them are terrible.

So the heavenly population is stunned into silence for the reasons mentioned above: suspense and awe at the severity of what is to come. But I also think it is a holy fear. The remaining trumpets are blown and the horrors of hell on earth are indescribable….

…And yet they do not repent.

THAT is what I think stuns them into silence.

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20-21).

The earth’s people know it is Jesus judging them, and yet they do not repent. They continue sinning!!

I’m stunned on earth now at those who do not repent, and I can’t imagine how I would feel standing in the presence of Holy Jesus and knowing the earth’s people do not repent even when woes are piled on them and they know it is Jesus. I’d be stunned into silence at the situation. Anyway it is just my own thought. But the silence in heaven at that moment, for whatever reason it happens, is monumental to contemplate especially when compared to the previous verses we are blessed to read of the heavenly noise!

The movie starring Richard Harris, The Apocalypse of John, has in this excerpt toward the end of the 4 minutes, the scene when Jesus breaks open the seal and heaven is silent. No exultation, no praise, no thunder, no harps, no hallelujahs. Just silence and awe.

blood, revelation, river runs red, yangtze river

Yangtze River runs blood red

Posted on September 8, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

We’ve seen a small rash of rivers or lakes turning red lately. Earlier this year the Beirut River turned red. No one knew why at first, but later they thought it was due to a factory that had illegally dumped red dye. Despite the fact that this is prophesied to happen, as per Revelation 16:4, it is not a prophetic fulfillment yet, because we are not in the prophesied time of Revelation. The Tribulation has not begun. But as precursors go, it’s pretty eye-popping. As mysteries go, it is pretty interesting.

Two weeks ago a lake in France turned blood red.

“At first glance, it might look like a sign of the apocalypse – but scientists say the blood red lakes in southern France are actually a natural phenomenon. Camargue, France is a river delta where the Rhône meets the sea. The picturesque area is home to numerous salt flats, and it is this concentration of salt that will occasionally stain red the regions normally blue water.”

So that time the culprit was salt.

A few days ago Lake Erie hadn’t turned red but there was a massive fish die-off.

‘Something really wrong’ with fish die-off along Lake Erie: officials
“A strong sewage smell preceded scenes of dead fish littering the shores of Lake Erie this weekend and has residents wondering what caused the massive die-off, the president of the Rondeau Cottagers Association said Tuesday. “This is a very substantial fish kill and there’s something really wrong to have a fish die off like this,” said Dr. David Colby, a cottager who is also the Chatham-Kent medical officer of health.”

Officials aren’t positive, as usual they say the “likely” cause was the fish were killed by “killed by a lack of oxygen caused when lake sediment was stirred up, the province reported Friday.”

Oh. Ok.

“Water samples “do not show evidence of a manure spill or anything unusual in terms of contaminants,” Ministry of Environment spokeswoman Kate Jordan told NBC News. Jordan said it wasn’t known if the die-off was unprecedented, but that “it was a significant number — tens of thousands. The fish were found along 25 miles of beach, with locals first coming across them on Monday.'”

Like that happens every day, sediment killing 25 miles worth of fish.

Here is the today’s “river turning red” news–

Yangtze River Turns Red and Turns Up a Mystery
“For a river known as the “golden watercourse,” red is a strange color to see. Yet that’s the shade turning up in the Yangtze River and officials have no idea why. The red began appearing in the Yangtze, the longest and largest river in China and the third longest river in the world, yesterday near the city of Chongquing, where the Yangtze connects to the Jialin River.”

Remember, it is NOT a fulfillment of Revelation 16:4, not only because we have not been in the Tribulation for ten chapters, but also because when it does happen, a third of all the earth’s rivers will turn to blood. And the verse says what it says, the waters will become blood. Not salt making it look like blood, not illegally dumped dye, but actual blood.

I’ll be interested to see if the officials come up with a “likely” cause for why section of of Asia’s longest river and the third longest river in the world turned blood red. It is freaking everyone out, and as well it should. I am glad it makes people think of the apocalypse, which should make them think of Jesus, which should make them think of judgment and sin. And then of repentance. I pray it makes them think on those things.

It may be a large environmental disaster, a huge detriment to the food chain, and a terrible accident or other natural disastrous event. But it is not Revelation. Yet.

end time, jesus, locusts, prophecy, revelation, sounds of the apocalypse

Booms in the foothills a mystery

Posted on August 26, 2012 by elizabethprata

There is a report from Drudge about more sky booms, but this time people hear them coming from the ground. Previously, people in other locations have reported them coming from the sky. There have been so many booms, from so many places around the globe, for so long, that the name “Sounds of the Apocalypse” is widely recognized as the name for this phenomenon. I have reported on these booms myself many times. Do a Google search for sky noises, or booms, and you’ll see how many times they have been heard around the world.

In one post, I explored that the noises could be leak-through spiritual warfare in the heavenlies ramping up and used the verses in 2 Kings for support text (here). I also wrote about the possibility that it was leak-through from the throne room, and used support text from Ezekiel 1:24a, here. Thirdly I mused that it could be a fulfillment of a Jeremiah verse, here, this being the verse from Jeremiah-

“A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 25:31).

I’ll propose a fourth theory. Just as we do not know what is happening in the heavenly realms now, apart from what is written in the bible, we do not know what is happening in hell, or in Tartarus (the lowest gloomy dungeon where the fallen angels are being kept (Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4). I wonder do the noises from hell leak-through to us here on earth? Are the fallen angels sensing the nearness of the day when they as the Revelation 9 locusts will be released and they make a great rushing sound?

“And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.” (Rev 9:1-3).

When that happens, and it has not happened yet, don’t you think it would make a great noise? Yes, it does, and the bible tells us how great a noise they make:

“In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.” (Revelation 9:7-9).

When an orchestra warms up before the concert, they make a cacophonous sound as each individual musician tunes his instrument. Then the conductor raises his baton and at once, they perform in harmony and in like movements. It is the same with an army. As each soldier jockeys his armor into position, there is a rumble and a noise as the preparations go on, which gets louder and more cacophonous as the moment nears when the Commander raises his hand to begin.

Before a football game, don’t the fans, in their excitement, stomp their feet and pound the bleachers, making a great racket?

The “wondrous strange” thing about the coming of the prophesied locusts is that they have a king.

“They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.” (Revelation 9:11). Yet Proverbs 30:27 tells us locusts have no king. So the Revelation locusts are no ordinary locusts. Are they demons? Yes. They have a form and they have faces and they have armor and they have a sting of a scorpion even though they are called locusts.

John Phillips wrote, “Picture what the world would be like if we were to open the doors of all the penitentiaries of earth and set free the world’s most vicious and violent criminals, giving them full reign to practice their infamies upon mankind. Something worse than that lies in store for the world. Satan cast out of heaven is now permitted to summon to his aid the most diabolical fiends in the abyss to act as his agents in bringing mankind to the footstool of the beast.”

Are the locust-demons in the pit pounding their bleachers and rattling their chains and yelling as they sense the Day approaching where they will be let out to destroy the earth and its peoples? I don’t know. Only God knows. The possibility of it reminds me of the famous quote from Hamlet. Upon seeing a ghost (demon) Horatio said to Hamlet, “O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!”

Hamlet replied, “… There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

The thing to remember about these booms is that what we see is not real. The life we are living is not the full story. There is more, much more, in God’s realms than we see and experience. Paul said,

“as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Here is the report from Drudge. This time, the booms are coming from the ground, but they are not earthquakes. Or sonic booms. Or mining. They simply don’t know what they are.

Source Of Loud Boom In Foothills A Mystery
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) – People from all over El Dorado County say they’re hearing loud booms several times a week, but there are many theories on what is causing them. “I thought it was thunder,” said one person. “It’s definitely not thunder; too consistent. I thought it was just mining,” said another person. “I always considered them to be sonic booms from flying aircrafts for years,” said Loring Brunius, owner of Sierra Rock Diamond Quarry. People who live near Pleasant Valley say their days have been interrupted by loud booms, shaking the floor beneath them. “You can feel it in the ground, no question about it. But no one’s been able to figure out why,” said Pleasant Valley resident Peter O’Grady. “I tend to hear somewhere between four to six of these things during the weekdays usually between 11 p.m. and 2 p.m. “Boom, boom, boom, boom just like that,” said Lorren Gonzales, who lives near Pleasant Valley.”

God’s Four Sore Judgments #4: Beasts

Posted on July 28, 2012March 25, 2020 by elizabethprata

Introduction
God’s Four Sore Judgments #1: Sword
God’s Four Sore Judgments #2: Famine
God’s Four Sore Judgments #3: Pestilence

The other day I introduced a series examining the LORD’S “Four Sore Judgments.” (Links just above). In other translations they are called the “LORD’S Four Severe Judgments.” They’re mentioned in Ezekiel 14:21: “For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!”

The four are Sword, Famine, Pestilence, and Beasts. Wesley’s notes says, “How much more – If they could not be able to keep off one of the four, how much less would they be able to keep off all four, when I commission them all to go at once.”

It is a very dread situation when all four are unleashed. If you read Revelation 6, you will see that the four are unleashed all at once, or in very rapid succession. Jesus called it the worst time on earth there ever has been or ever will be. (Matthew 24:21; also Rev 6).

We looked at the correlation between Sword (war), famine, and disease. Now we will take a look at the biblical judgment of Beasts.

Vision of Death, Gustave Dore, 1865

“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7-8)

The Greek word for “beasts” is just that, the generic term always used for ‘wild animal.’ I’ve written about Death by Beasts before, here.

While we have always had war, famines and epidemic diseases, death by beasts is more unusual. Let’s look at man’s relationship to beasts since the beginning, through the flood to afterwards up through the Tribulation and ending at the Millennium.

When Adam was created, one of the jobs God gave him to do is name all the beasts of the earth. (Genesis 2:19-20). At that time before the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, the beasts were friendly and herbivorous. (Genesis 1:29-30). Man was still sovereign over them, but it was not a bloody relationship.

After the fall, they became meat for humans. The Flood came. After the flood waters receded, the relationship between man and beasts changed once again. God put the fear and dread of man into them. (Genesis 9:2).

In the Millennium kingdom, He will reverse that curse and all will be reverted back to the original state of peaceful co-existence. Children can put their hand into a snake’s hole and not be bitten. The wolf will lay down with lamb, and the lion shall be tame. (Isaiah 11:6-9).

Elisha and the boys in Bethel,
Matthaeus Merian the Elder, 1625

But before that, between the receded Flood waters and the peace of the Millennium, it seems that there will come another change of the relationship between man and beast, though this once is more implicit rather than stated. It will occur in the Tribulation. It seems that in the Tribulation, the Lord will (perhaps) have removed the fear and dread of man from the wild animals. I can’t point to a specific scripture that tells this explicitly, but implicitly I gather than the progression of man’s relationship with beasts changes from a contentious one as it is now, but with their fear removed. If a quarter of the world dies by the aforementioned plagues and one of them is beasts, it seems that there will be a lot of hunting going on- and not just man upon beast, but beast upon man.

Today, if a beast does become a “man-killer” it has to be killed. God said in Genesis 9:5 that even from the beasts he will require capital punishment. In Exodus 21:28 we read that if an ox gores a man the animal is to be killed and its flesh not eaten. But if the animal is previously in the habit of goring and the owner is warned, and the animals kills a man or woman, then the animal AND the owner are to be killed. (Exodus 21:29)

Did you ever wonder why the animals that could do us the most harm don’t simply hunt us down and eat us, like, all the time? But they don’t. When I was in Big Bend National Park in SW Texas, hiking in the Chisos Mountains, Rangers told us if we come upon a mountain lion to stand tall, and throw stones at it. The lion would leave us alone. LOL, I’m glad we never had to test that, but the methodology is that the lion would see you as a bigger threat and leave.

Even today if a wild animal kills a man, the Rangers, or zookeepers, or whoever, usually kills that animal. In most cases the Ranger is not responding explicitly to God’s instructions laid down in Exodus 21, but they instinctively are. If an animals kills a person, it means they have lost the fear and dread and is all the more dangerous to humans.

In the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend a couple of months ago, the Austin newspaper reported, there had been a mountain lion attack. The people chased it off by throwing a backpack at it. However, the report made this particular family who camped there the day after the attack hyper-aware. They decided to stay in the lodge instead of the tent, and when they went to the restaurant for dinner from the lodge room, they held their child’s hand, one parent on either side. They walked on the lit walkway between the two populated buildings. However, the lion attacked the boy anyway, dragging him away from his parents to a nearby bush. The parents then attacked the lion! The boy is chewed up a little, but he is OK. Rangers said it was highly unusual for a mountain lion to attack on the pavement between populated buildings. If the animal was caught, they said, it would be killed. Above, me in the Chisos Mountains 17 years ago.

War brings famine to animals, too. Their natural habitats are disrupted, and food gets hard to find. The stress often leaves them no choice but to start looking at humans as food, and attacks increase. That would seem to be a normal outcome of the other sore judgment: famine.

John MacArthur preached on the Revelation 6:7-8 verse here. He preached in part-

“…The most deadly creature on the face of the earth? Not a snake, not a lion, not an alligator. A rat. Historically the deadliest creature on the face of the earth. Why? Rats are annually responsible for the loss of billions of dollars of food in America alone and death all over the world. Rats infested with Bubonic Plague killed one third of the population of Europe in the fourteenth century, that’s Encyclopedia Americana’s own figure. Rats can carry as many as thirty-five diseases at once and amazingly if ninety-five percent of the rat population is exterminated in the given area, it will replace itself in less than a year. It has killed more people than all the wars of history and it always makes its home where men dwell.”

Death by rats is certainly a likely possibility. More than likely, given the history cited above which bears this out.

Remember “Snowpocalypse” of winter 2011? Cities all along the US Eastern seaboard were inundated with snow. Mountains of it fell, stilling whole cities like NY for days. As a result of the paralysis, garbage piled up. People still generated trash, but the streets were too clogged for garbage trucks to make their way on their routes. And the landfills and parking lots of the garbage scows were too full of snow to unload the garbage anyway, even if it was picked up.

The following article reports on that situation in February 2011: “A suicidal man plummeted nine stories and survived in midtown Sunday when he landed on a mountain of trash that had piled up since last week’s blizzard, officials said.”

Look how much garbage there is left over from a week later…

Trash did pile up to shoulder heights. On January 6, 2011, Letterman on The Late Show was more graphic about the rat situation:

“New York’s just beginning to dig out of the garbage backlog from the Dec. 27 snowstorm. Two kids, all bundled up, are building a garbage man outside. I hope they’ve had all their vaccinations! And with so much garbage, the rats are crazy. And I don’t want to alarm you, but honest to God, we’re knee deep in rats now with the garbage. Fortunately the city has hired an additional cat.”

You can imagine the rats bringing a killing disease after the catastrophic events of Revelation 6 that are prophesied to occur before the Fourth Seal is opened. So, death by beasts could be the plagues that rats bring.

But I think it is more that that.

I’ve been noticing over the last two years particularly that wild animals have been acting strangely.

Shark attacks are up. This summer Myrtle Beach SC has struggled with an unusual number of shark bites upon people who were not far offshore at all. There was a spate of weird fox attacks in Britain a while back. Foxes entered homes to attack babies. In April 2012, a ferret jumped into a baby’s stroller and attacked her, the Daily Mail reports. It it took two firefighters 25 minutes to fight it off! Reports of a monkey stealing a baby from the living room. There is no fear of humans inside an animal when it boldly enters a dwelling where humans are present!

Moreover, these are not isolated incidents. Incidents like these are occurring every day in a number of animals, in highly populated areas. Remember the fisher sightings spike in Boston? The bear that entered a well-populated, campfire-lit campground and dragged a girl by her head? The mountain lion stalking and prowling at the Denver bus terminal? The 40-ton whale that leaped onto a passing yacht, snapping its mast? All within the last couple of years and all stated to be unusual for that local area. Just today, NY Daily News reports that black widow spiders are invading NY. The exterminators say Black Widows in NY are rare.

As with any sign or symptom of the culture, ONE event does not mean Tribulation is imminent. But I detect a pattern. Animal attacks are up. Second, the attacks were unusual (no rabies, populated areas, never before happened in that location, the time of day, etc). I mean, we can rule out the rabies-incited attacks, and all attacks that were warranted (like the guy who climbed into spider monkey enclosure to play with them and got mauled). Last, the attacks perplex the scientists. Usually the scientists will say that habitat stresses cause the animal to behave in unusual ways, which is certainly true.

So when you have a pattern of non-rabies attacks occurring inside homes where humans dwell, brazen attacks that happen out of the blue with no provocation, happening increasingly over several years, not anomalies, then I think it is safe to say that perhaps God is lifting His hand and the fear and dread of man in the animals is decreasing.

Back to the four sore judgments. Yes, each one is bad enough, but how bad will it be when all four are unleashed at once? Terrible! Fortunately in His mercy, He made a way for His beloved sheep to escape all these things. SALVATION in the Church Age, AKA Age of Grace. Judgments in the Tribulation will be delivered “to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity…” as Daniel hears in his vision in chapter 9, verse 24. He learns why the LORD will send the Tribulation judgments: to finish allowing sin to complete itself.

We are sinners, whose rightful place is hell after death, to be punished for our sin-crimes against God. If we ask the Lord to forgive those sins before our death, understanding Him as Lord and Savior, who came to earth to live the sinless life so He could be the perfect atonement, slain for our iniquities, and was accepted by God of that sacrifice and brought out of death to eternal life, then we will not be in the Tribulation when the whole earth will be judged for their sins. Our sins will have been pardoned, so He will sweep us up to heaven in our glorified bodies and allow us to be in His presence forever!!!

Do not put off your repentance. Intending to repent still means you are still as much an enemy of God as the fist-shaking atheist. Alternately, believe this:

How much better will it be when He calls His sheep home to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in perfect New Jerusalem by the living waters and the street of gold?!! Don’t you want to be there, your sins pardoned and forgotten? Putting off repenting means you choose the Four Sore Judgments. How? If you are not for Him, you are against Him. (Matthew 12:30). Personally, I have found a multitude of peace and blessings in living FOR Him. I hope you will think about it. But not for too long… OK?

famine, revelation

God’s 4 sore judgments: #2- Famine

Posted on July 24, 2012 by elizabethprata

God’s Four Sore Judgments:

Introduction
#1: Sword
# 3: Pestilence
#4: Beasts

Yesterday I introduced a series examining the LORD’S “Four Sore Judgments.” In other translations they are called the “LORD’S Four Severe Judgments.” They’re mentioned in Ezekiel 14:21: “For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!”

Many bible scholars, pastors, and lay people feel and believe the rapture is going to occur at any moment. Please note however that the rapture itself has always been imminent. That means it could have happened at any moment over the last 2000 years. The first century church believed this, as Paul taught:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:11-13).

We are to be doing what Paul instructed in verse 11 & 12, while we are waiting for our Blessed Hope. They waited, and we wait. He is coming imminently.

If Jesus’s return for His saints was imminent 2000 years ago, how much more so is it today? We look at the signs of the Tribulation nearing and if the Tribulation is close how much closer is the rapture, which the bible teaches will occur prior? Jesus, Paul, and Peter warned us to remain awake and watchful. (Revelation 3:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:4, 2 Peter 3:12). Don’t let anyone tell you that it is a bad thing to observe the times or see the signs of His soon appearing. It is commanded that we do so. On the other end of the spectrum, don’t let sign watching consume you, because as Paul said above in Titus 2, we are to go about living our lives to the utmost for Jesus (2 Peter 3:11), but soberly, watchfully, with our mind and eyes on the prize: which is Jesus. But do watch while we persevere in our waiting.

Here are examples of what I mean when I say the season of His rapture is close because of the Tribulation pieces coming together so visibly.

Famine is increasingly a part of the world’s vocabulary. Famine takes a long time to set up. It is a problem with complex and varied origins, relating to poverty, agriculture, weather, wars and more. Drought most often is the last symptom to appear before famine strikes hard and deep. War also is a catalyst for famine.

See Lamentations 5:9, which speaks of the sword and then the difficulty of getting bread:

“We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.’

See the situation in Syria, the ongoing revolution which is causing hunger and grief. This is a story out of Homs, Syria about a month ago: “He said the situation was worst in Cairo Street, which divides two districts. “No one can cross the streets to buy bread, water or their daily necessities.” Locals have resorted to throwing supplies over the road because it is too dangerous to walk across. At 6pm one day in October, Jamal al-Fadel was struck by a sniper as he crossed Shrakess Street in Homs on his way to the bakery to buy some bread …”

“He fell to the ground in the middle of the road. People on either side of the street tried to help him but the sniper on the roof of the nearby post office building continued to shoot. They attempted to drag him to safety using a rope. Mr Homsi’s friend, Tarek al-Ajdab, moved closer, stretching out a hand to pull him to safety, but a sniper shot him in the head.” [source]

Ponder the Lamentations again, “We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert.”

Famine does not happen overnight. Drought starts it. Lack of water from above and below continues it. War exacerbates it. Unemployment pressures it. With the wars and rumors of wars increasing to a fever pitch all around the world, the famines are increasing also.

The pieces are in place for the great famine of the Tribulation to begin. Revelation’s Second seal unleashes war (sword) and the third seal unleashes famine. But the fourth seal combines sword, famine, pestilence and beasts, all four sore judgments at once. Some have said that the overview Jesus gives in Matthew 24:4-14 is an overview parallel to the Four Seal judgments of Revelation 6:3-8.

People like me who watch and see the trends and the pieces coming together see the individual preparations for sword, famine, pestilence and beasts at a level where they are almost combined. When Jesus unseals the judgments they will be ready to ignite into a conflagration the world has never seen before, no, nor shall ever see again.

Here is some news regarding famine of today:

The Price Of Corn Hits A Record High As A Global Food Crisis Looms
“Are you ready for the next major global food crisis? The price of corn hit an all-time record high on Thursday. So did the price of soybeans. The price of corn is up about 50 percent since the middle of last month, and the price of wheat has risen by about 50 percent over the past five weeks. On Thursday, corn for September delivery reached $8.166 per bushel, and many analysts believe that it could hit $10 a bushel before this crisis is over. The worst drought in the United States in more than 50 years is projected to continue well into August, and more than 1,300 counties in the United States have been declared to be official natural disaster areas. So how is this crisis going to affect the average person on the street? Well, most Americans and mo Europeans are going to notice their grocery bills go up significantly over the coming months. That will not be pleasant. But in other areas of the world this crisis could mean the difference between life and death for some people. You see, half of all global corn exports come from the United States. So what happens if the U.S. does not have any corn to export? About a billion people around the world live on the edge of starvation, and today the Financial Times ran a front page story with the following headline: “World braced for new food crisis“.”

Extended drought in US sends prices for corn and soybeans higher again; no relief in sight
“Prices for corn and soybeans jumped again as forecasts call for more blistering heat in crop-growing regions across the U.S.Corn for September delivery jumped 16.75 cents to settle $8.245 a bushel, the second straight day of record highs. August soybeans settled at $17.575 a bushel, up 23.75 cents and the third straight record-setting day.”

Famine anniversary: Somalis again dying on food walks; little rain, more violence
“The long, dusty walks from hungry homes to far-away refugee camps are again claiming lives in Somalia one year after up to 100,000 people died in the country’s worst famine in generations.”

GenerationS, plural. O, the woe!

Food prices soar as drought worsens
“NEW YORK (CNN Money) – As the Midwest continues to suffer through its worst drought in more than 50 years and corn prices near record highs, sixth generation farmer Pam Johnson stares out her window, praying for rain.”

Food price crisis feared as erratic weather wreaks havoc on crops
“‘What the world economy really needs right now is a break’, one economist says, but instead it appears headed toward upheaval.”

The world is not going to get a break. Upheaval is the only thing on the menu.

When we read of ‘record setting” so frequently, the records going higher and higher, and the unusual and ‘freak’ weather happening on a sustained, regular basis, then that is what I mean by the signs. I realize that when I use metaphors like ‘the bonfire is laid’ and the ‘match is lit’, that is it my opinion. I have no extra insight and no conversations with God to tell me this. But I have the bible and I have my mind and I have my eyes to see. I also have elder ordained brothers in the faith who are more knowledgeable than I am, saying the same thing. The rousing cry is gaining momentum from all corners.

What we Christian believers can do is trust the Lord all the more. He is our Savior and Lord, the Shepherd who guards His sheep. We might struggle with earthly needs but He will provide those and so much more will He provide spiritual needs: comfort, faith, strength, discernment, clarity.

For the unsuspecting world, the upheavals will be very trying. Immediately as these first four sore judgment seals are opened, a quarter of the world will die. (Rev 6:8). It will be the largest death toll in history.

Prophecy is part of scripture so we study it, but as with any scripture, it should be put into action. We are called to be Ambassadors for His name–

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20)

So our action is first to be sure we are in the faith, reconciled to Him. Then, be ambassadors, so He will make His appeal to the lost through us. Be strong and hardy, never quailing in public, instead, relying on His strength to be calm and loving, even when sin is rising so palpably. That means sin is rising in your co-workers, families, neighbors, too. Not just “out there.” Don’t fall into the trap of becoming angry. We are Ambassadors, remember.

Prophecy should give us a reminder of the times and an urgency to seek Jesus all the more so His light will be evident in us to others. And, be salt. The salt must be in the food. We have to stay in the world but not be OF the world. Don’t retreat, as much as we might want to. We are Christ’s seasoning in this lost world. Let’s flavor it with love and patience.

Next in the series examining the four sore judgments is “Pestilence.”

I wrote about what famine does to the body and how quickly starvation sets in, and how scarcity flows into its heightening, all from a biological perspective here:

“Looking at the coming Famine“

end of days. prophecy, human trafficking, revelation, slavery

Human slavery is more prevalent today than it ever has been in history

Posted on January 24, 2012 by elizabethprata

Revelation 18 speaks of the day when Economic Babylon is finally vanquished. What a day that will be! Though the Tribulation will be a time of great upheaval and supernatural disasters, there will be an economy and there will be people buying and selling. Revelation 13 makes the point that no one without the Mark of the Beast can buy or sell. Revelation 18 lists numerous cargoes that the merchants lament when Babylon is destroyed. Revelation 18:15 notes that “the merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her…” So there will be trade, economy, and wealth.

Note the consumer items that are being lamented when economic Babylon is destroyed- they are all luxuries. Note particularly the last item:

“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore— cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.” (Rev 18:11-13).

Many people have thought throughout the twentieth century that the slavery being lamented must be a metaphor. It must mean, they thought, “It’s not really slavery, is it? I mean, slavery is so passe.”

In the twenty-first century we also believe that slavery is a thing of the past. As a matter of fact, non-believers who mock the bible as being ‘outdated’ and irrelevant to today’s society often point to this verse about future slavery and mock Christians who believe the bible word for word.

But it does mean slaves. The verse even defines it by saying humans. In no matter what translation you read it, it means people as slaves being sold.

Does slavery exist today? It certainly does. You will be shocked to read that slavery is more prevalent today than it ever has been in all of history. The figures in the link are 2008 numbers, before the current economic crash began. Not doubt the numbers are higher now. The article states, “According to research carried out by the organization Free the Slaves, more people are enslaved worldwide than ever before. In its 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade is estimated to have shipped up to 12 million Africans to various colonies in the West. Free the Slaves estimates that the number of people in slavery today is at least 27 million. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center suggests that three out of four slavery victims are women and that half of all modern-day slaves are children. ‘Countless other’ people are in other forms of servitude which are not legally classified as slavery, according to the Anti-Slavery Society, described ambiguously by some as ‘unfree labour’.”

Other terms used to describe slavery, thus disguising it from society, “are chattel slavery (the traditional meaning of slavery), bonded labor, trafficking, forced labor, and forced marriage, amongst others.” In a different article, this one in Forbes this week, are also ““trafficked,” “sexually exploited,” “commercially sexually exploited,” “prostitute.”

In 2011 it was reported that Slave traders made $32 billion last year alone, and sold 2.2 million children into slavery. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said, “Human trafficking has recently been described as “the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world” and the one that brings in the most money after drugs and weapons.

Slavery is real, people, and growing more real every day. Read how Michael Snyder put it today on his Economic Collapse blog:

“When the sun goes down every night, America becomes a very frightening place. There are communities all over the country where drug dealing, human trafficking and gang violence have gotten so out of control that authorities don’t really know what to do about it. In America tonight, thousands of meth heads will break into homes as they desperately search for enough money for another hit. In America tonight, thousands of children will be sold for sex at truck stops and on street corners. In America tonight, millions of criminal predators will be searching for a new victim. From the top levels of the federal government all the way down to the most depraved criminals on the street, America is rotting. Once upon a time our tremendous affluence masked the moral decay that was happening in this nation, but now that the economy is falling apart the damage to the fabric of our society is being revealed. We have become a nation of addicts, junkies, thrill seekers and predators. When we finally see the U.S. economy fully collapse, millions of desperate, angry and depraved monsters will take out their sick frustrations on all the rest of us.”

The Detroit Free Press reported this week on today’s slavery issue.

• Human trafficking is a $32-billion industry worldwide.
• Up to 2 million people are trafficked worldwide every year. Of those, 15,000-18,000 are in the U.S.
• Eight in 10 human trafficking cases involve the sex industry; the others involve labor trafficking.
• In 2010, 2,515 human trafficking cases were under investigation in the U.S.
• Eighty-three percent of victims in confirmed sex trafficking cases in the U.S. in 2010 were American citizens, though 67% of labor trafficking victims were unlawful immigrants and 28% were legal immigrants.
• The National Human Trafficking Resource Center hot line gets 1,000 calls a month about suspected trafficking victims.
• Call volumes have more than doubled in recent years, from 5,700 calls in 2008 to nearly 12,000 in 2011. Hot line calls coming from Michigan also have doubled in recent years, from 87 in 2009 to 173 in 2011.
• Twenty-seven states, including Michigan, have their own human trafficking laws.

Human trafficking, slavery, exists and will only get worse. The lament from the merchants at the destruction of economic Babylon isn’t mourning the loss of lives. They are mourning the loss of slaves they got rich on and the loss of opportunity to keep selling people as slaves.

How can they be so depraved? It is because we have steadily been reducing the value of a human life. We murder mass quantities of children in the womb as a matter of convenience. We teach and preach that we come from monkeys, therefore we’re only animals after all. We refuse to admit Jesus into our schools or public life, therefore generations of people don’t know we are made in His image.

As for the reality of slavery, the first and most important kind of slavery is slavery to sin. Paul in Romans 7:14 says “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” We are slaves to sin from birth. You see in the verses showing how much a going economic concern slavery will be and how depraved the slave merchants are, how deep they are in their sin. They will have traveled far down the sin-road. Nothing will be beyond them, not even a fellow human’s being’s enslavement. However, the Lord came to us from heaven, manifested Himself to us so that we no longer need to be slaves to sin and all the brutality it entails.

“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Hebrews 9:24-26). How glorious! He came to us, Himself!! He died as the sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God and God’s necessary justice. Jesus took the criminal penalty for us.

If you repent of your sins, you don’t need to remain a slave to your sins and you won’t need to worry about becoming an actual slave. You won’t be here during the Tribulation. You will be resting peacefully with Jesus where amazing grace abounds for all eternity. Praise Him!
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apocalypse, pope, revelation

Pope highlights Mary’s role as ‘woman of the apocalypse’. Too bad the bible doesn’t.

Posted on December 11, 2011 by elizabethprata

Well. This is certainly very interesting. The Catholic News Agency on December 8 published the following news piece:

Pope highlights Mary’s role as ‘woman of the apocalypse’
Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the biblical description of a “woman clothed with the sun” in his remarks at Rome’s Spanish Steps on the 2011 Feast of the Immaculate Conception. “What is the meaning of this image? It represents the Church and Our Lady at the same time,” the Pope told the crowd assembled before the nearby statue commemorating the 1854 definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. “Before all, the ‘woman’ of the apocalypse is Mary herself.” The 12th chapter of the Biblical Apocalypse – also known as the Book of Revelation – describes the glorification and persecution of “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Though not named, this woman is described as the mother of the Messiah. In poetic language akin to the Bible’s other prophetic books, Saint John says she faced the threat of “a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,” and “fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God.”

The Pope is welcome to his interpretation, but since the Catholic Church has misrepresented so much else (hell/purgatory, Mary as perpetual virgin, Mary ascended sinless to heaven, indulgences, justification by works, saint worship and more) then let us view with skepticism that Pope Benedict is right about the woman of Revelation being Mary. If she is not, then what is the more proper exegetical view of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head? (Revelation 12:1b).

The woman is not the Church. The woman is Israel.

Remember the dream Joseph had in Genesis 37:9? “And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” The 12 tribes of Israel were borne through Jacob, his father. The stars refer to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Further, she is giving birth to Messiah. “While it is true that Mary gave birth to Jesus, it is also true that Jesus, the son of David from the tribe of Judah, came from Israel. In a real sense, Israel gave birth—or brought forth—Christ Jesus. Further evidence for this is in 12:5 where the Scripture says that the woman “gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.” Clearly, this is describing Jesus.” (Source GotQuestions.org)

The lessons here are several. First, even when a supposed spiritual authority makes an interpretation, it may not be correct. Be a Berean and search these things out for yourself. Paul was a spiritual authority, taught by the risen Jesus Himself but still applauded the Bereans for checking what he said against scripture. (Acts 17:11). He called them noble for doing it.

Second, scripture interprets scripture. That may not mean that one verse has to be next to the other in order to give fuller meaning to an understanding. Joseph had his dream in Genesis and the woman is mentioned again in Revelation. But scripture tells us if we appeal to the Holy Spirit for understanding, He will give it without rebuke. (James 1:5).

Third, the Catholic Church is almost obsessively focused on Mary and not nearly enough on Jesus. The lesson here is to make sure to give your focus and attention on the proper spiritual center of the universe, Jesus, in Whom all things hold together. (Col 1:17). It is not by any other name we are saved. (Acts 4:12).

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babylon, judgment, revelation

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 2

Posted on December 3, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 1, here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3 here

God will judge Spiritual Babylon in Revelation 17. Nimrod, Noah’s great-grandson, and his wife Semiramis, brought the first organized false religion to man. His city, Babel, was the place where the Tower was built. The tower was a monument to man and what man could do, not a monument to God and what He can do. God stopped the building of the tower but that did not stop the growing of the false religion. It still grew. Babylon is therefore forever known as by full name: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth”. (Revelation 17:5)

So where is Spiritual Babylon today? Does she still exist? Yes, she exists. Technically, Babylon the Mother of Prostitutes is the mother of all false religions, starting with Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis, who called herself Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven is mentioned in Jeremiah 44:15-19. The Queen of Heaven’s counterparts in different cultures are Ishtar and Isis. All false religions that spawned from her are the harlot daughters of the original. But there is one religion that can be said not to be a daughter of the original Harlot Babylon but is still the Mother herself: The Catholic Church. Mary is the Catholic’s Queen of Heaven.

I bring Catholicism into this discussion because of the prophecy in Rev. 17:9, “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.” Rome is known as the City of Seven Hills. I do not know dogmatically that the city of 7 hills refers to Rome. I do not believe that the Harlot of False Religion is only the Catholic Church, I believe that it refers to ALL false religions in the world. The prophecy in Revelation shows us that though all false religions are tolerated by the Beast (Antichrist), in the middle of the Tribulation the Beast puts a stop to them all, and any semblance of ecumenism goes out the window. Catholicism will not be tolerated. Wicca will not be tolerated. Judaism will not be tolerated. Islam will not be tolerated. The Beast insists all worship HIM and him alone. (Revelation 13:11-18).

But…since the antichrist will emerge from the revived Roman Empire, it behooves us to look at its capital, Rome and the nation nesting inside Rome, Vatican City.

The Fuel Project Series explores the coming New World Order from a Biblical perspective. In this part, it discusses how Catholicism was created by putting a Christian facade on Mystery Babylon paganism. This Fuel Project, Know Your Enemy, Part 23 is only 16 minutes long. It gives a great overview from Constantine onward to the solidification of Catholicism, its marriage to money, and its relation to Babylon.

FUEL Project part 23 transcript, excerpt beginning at ~7:00–
“Stanley’s history on page 40 says, The popes filled the vacant place of the Emperors at Rome, inheriting their power, their prestige and their titles from paganism Pope Damascus recognized the power inherent in his new title. He believed himself to be head over not just the Christian church, but also over the pagans in Rome. It meant complete authority and domination; both the secular and the sacred, under one system. So how was the Roman Church to consolidate this rule over the pagans and the Christians under one system? They needed to somehow iron out the differences between the Babylonian system and the Christian system to create a unity between all peoples… and that meant compromise. What the Catholic Church did was consistently compromise the Gospel message with pre-existing pagan beliefs and adapted it based on whatever form of Babylonian mysticism existed a culture held to.”

That melding of all the religious beliefs will find its ultimate expression in the first half of the Tribulation. This movement has already begun. It is called the Ecumenical movement

Ecumenical movement is a pursuit of a unity in and among all churches with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church began its modern pursuit of ecumenism in 1961, but actually it has always been its stated aim, since at least 1274 if not before. The Catholic Church believes that it is the identical Church Christ founded and that all others have wandered. Ecumenism is the pursuit of the wayward churches back to the Catholic fold.

“Ecumenism takes as it starting point that Christ founded just one Church, not many churches; hence the Roman Catholic Church has as its ultimate hope and objective – that through prayer, study, and dialogue, the historically separated bodies may come again to be reunited with it. Before the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church defined ecumenism as a relations with other Christian groups in order to persuade these to return to a unity that they had broken. Pursuit of unity, thus understood, was always a principal aim of the Church.” (source)

Knowing the past will help us identify the future when it arrives, as we see the pursuit of the folding-in of all religions into one.

A missionary couple our denomination supports recently came to speak of their work. They said that the Catholic Church’s influence and embeddedness in Guatemala makes their work in bringing the truth of the Gospel very hard. The Mayans in the area are completely melded to the Catholic Church, mainly because the Catholic Church allows them to retain their Mayan rituals. Outside one local Catholic Church, he showed us a photo of a cave kind of pit, where the indigenous Indians sacrifice to the Mayan god before entering the Catholic Church to worship. The Catholic Church built the sacrificial pit as an honorary understanding that both religions could be accommodated. Therefore the Mayans sacrifice outside and then enter the Church and leave their money tithe inside.

Vatican City is the smallest nation in the world. It is not just a city, it is its own nation. “The size of a golf course, the Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It’s basically a walled enclave inside of Rome, Italy. It’s so small that the entire country does not have a single street address.”

“Another unique thing about the smallest country in the world is that it has no permanent citizens. Citizenship of the Vatican City is conferred upon those who work at the Vatican, as well as their spouses and children, and is revoked when they stop working there. The Vatican City may be small, but it is very powerful. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See, or the seat of the Catholic Church, its central government, which has over 1 billion people or about 1 in 6 people on the planet as constituents. The Vatican City was created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, which was signed by one of history’s most repressive dictators, Benito Mussolini and is ruled by the Pope, a non-hereditary, elected monarch who rules with absolute authority. He’s the legislative, executive and judiciary all rolled into one. Indeed, the Pope is the only absolute monarch in Europe.”

Interesting, isn’t it?

“The country’s economy is unique: it is the only non-commercial economy in the world. Instead, the Vatican City is supported financially by contributions of Catholics worldwide (called Peter’s Pence – hey, even the Pope accepts credit cards!), the sale of postage stamps and publications, and tourism.”

I had shown through scriptures in Part 1 the tie-in between money and false religion. Being wealthy is not a sin. Abram was wealthy (Genesis 13:2). It’s doing wrong things with the money and for the money that brings judgment. Remember Elisha’s greedy servant Gehazi? “But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean, by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and take something from him.” (2 Kings 5:15-27). He ended up a leper. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? They stole from the tithe by falsely holding back and lying to Peter? They ended up dead. (Acts 5)

Jesus reminds us that where vast wealth exists, falsity likely exists too. “And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23-24). Jesus repeats His warning in the same verse.

How rich is the Catholic Church? Time Magazine wrote in 1965,

“Bankers’ best guesses about the Vatican’s wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market. The Vatican has big investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate. … Unlike ordinary stockholders, the Vatican pays no taxes on this income, which led the leftist Rome weekly L’Espresso last week to call it “the biggest “the biggest tax evader in Italy.”

That was in 1965. I wonder how much more wealth the Vatican has accumulated in the ensuing nearly 50 years? If I calculated right, and I may not have, 15 billion in 1965 dollars in today’s dollars would be 105 billion. The Catholic Church is the wealthiest organization on earth. Italian author Avro Manhattan wrote,

“The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars.”

Babylon the False Religion will be destroyed and its partner the Babylon the false economic system will also be destroyed. The Catholic Church has a role to play, whether it is prophetically the Babylon of the city on 7 hills or whether it is a part of the general destruction of all false religions.

The Harlot is mentioned again in the destruction of Babylon the false economic system. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” (Rev 18:3). It’s called prostitution because of the addition of the exchange of morals, faith, and conscience for money. It is the money exchange that makes it the harlot.

The lesson for us is to heed Jesus’ warnings that vast wealth corrupts. In Revelation 18 when the Babylon economic system is destroyed, the woes that are heard from the crying participants only for the loss of the consumer goods, not the people. It is all about them, they are crying, ‘where will be get our luxuries from, now?’ (Rev 18:11, 14, 18-19).

The Son of Man had no place to lay His head, (Mt 8:20) but the King of Vatican City has golden monstrance, gold embroidered robes, gold jewelry, velvet garments and a satin pillow to lay his head…

Fornication with false religions and fornication as a greedy consumer and hoarder of wealth will find their ultimate whorish marriage both fulfilled in the Tribulation and judged in the Tribulation.

If you are blessed with wealth, that is wonderful. But take care to be a generous giver, (2 Corinthians 9:7), a diligent doer of the Word, (James 1:2) and pray always for the Holy Spirit to guard your heart from prostituting yourself for filthy lucre.
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 1, here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3 here

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babylon, false religion, revelation

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 1

Posted on December 3, 2011 by elizabethprata

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 2 here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3 here

The most intriguing name in the bible may well be Babylon. (AKA Babel). It is mentioned over 300 times, more than any other name except Jerusalem. Babylon figures prominently in Genesis and in Revelation, illustrating to us the bookend of the false system that has bracketed mankind from the beginning to the end. It was with us after the flood (Genesis 10) and it never left the earth, but it will be addressed in the future. Just because the Lord has not yet judged Babylon the harlot religious system does not mean that He won’t.

Babylon is a false religious system, or spiritual harlotry. Revelation 17 is all about the evil thing that spiritual adultery leads to, and shows us the final judgment of it. Revelation 18 shows us the false political/economic entity Babylon will become and also shows us its final judgment. There is a third meaning of Babylon in Revelation, and that is the name of an actual city. From Revelation’s intertwining of spiritual adultery and economic adultery we can surmise that where one exists, the other follows. They are closely related.

SPIRITUAL HARLOTRY
Babylon’s full name is found in Revelation 17:5: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth”. Pretty strong! So what exactly does spiritual harlotry look like?

Hosea was a prophet of God whom God commanded to marry a prostitute. (Hosea 1). As Pastor Weaver exposits, “At the beginning of Hosea’s ministry, the northern kingdom was seemingly prosperous under the stable reign of Jeroboam II. But though things appeared to be calm on the surface, underneath the torrents of the kingdom’s destruction were swirling. The nation had forsaken Yahweh. Though they retained allegiance to Yahweh with their lips, their hearts were far from Him. They had began to mingle elements of the Canaanites’ fertility religion with Yahweh worship by engaging in sexual rites and drunken orgies which were thought to secure the giving of rain and the fertility of the land for their crops.”

The first indicator of spiritual harlotry is unseen. It is a heart condition that God sees. Everything looks all right on the surface because people speak and act in ways that seem consistent with God. But everything is not all right. The second indicator of spiritual harlotry is when religious people incrementally meld pagan rituals and ideas and doctrines with the Truth as revealed from God. Today this can be seen when churches bring the world into the pulpit, such as promoting the latest popular book, following a worldly fad, or singing secular songs.

This is a process Paul described as gangrene. (2 Timothy 2:17). If not stopped immediately, the false practices and doctrines continue to infect the body.

Pastor Weaver continues,
“The book of Hosea is not primarily about Hosea and his marriage, it is ultimately about God and His relationship to His covenant people, Israel. Hosea was commanded to marry a prostitute because that is the kind of wife which Israel had become to Yahweh. By combining elements of Baal worship with the elements of Yahweh worship commanded in the Law, Israel was engaging in spiritual adultery – a religious syncretism which by combining true Yahweh worship with idolatry resulted in a perversion which God Himself viewed as spiritual adultery.”

Though the excerpt above characterizes idolatry as spiritual adultery, I prefer to use the term used in Revelation, prostitute, whore or harlot. While adultery to me is a setting aside of morals, prostitution has the additional component of money changing hands. We will see from scriptures below that money is always a large component to spiritual falsity.

The Tribulation’s Spiritual Babylon is the end result of man’s failure and inability to eradicate false religion from the flesh and the mind. Finally, they all just quit trying. The Holy Spirit’s ministry of restraining of sin and illuminating the Truth has slowed this gangrenous creep for the last 2000 years, but when the Restrainer is removed, (2 Thessalonians 2:6), Babylon as spiritual harlot will explode all over the earth. Almost everyone will be infected by it. The final result will be that the world worships satan. The exhortations to the Tribulation believers in Matthew 24:13 and Mark 13:12 show us how hard it will be to remain faithful in a fallen and perverted world.

ECONOMIC HARLOTRY
So Revelation 17 dealt with the harlot Babylon in religion and Revelation 18 deals with harlot Babylon as false economic system. To me, this illustrates how the two are closely related. Once the mind begins to allow the world in, then money follows. By reverse logic, the old adage to “follow the money” shows that when we follow money to the root, the person will be evil at root also. 1 Timothy 6:10 states that “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” That verse shows us that the love of money and false religious systems are intertwined.

Look at the cross references to the 1 Timothy 6 verse warning us about the evils of replacing God with the idol of money: Joshua 7:21, Psalm 62:10, Proverbs 15:27, Ecclesiastes 2:19, Matthew 6:19, Matthew 13:22, Mark 4:19, Colossians 3:5, 1 Timothy 3:3, 1 Timothy 6:9, 2 Timothy 3:2, James 5:19. NOT following the money is a huge theme in the bible, and the final end of such waywardness is shown to us in Revelation 18 when the Economic Babylon is destroyed.

Titus 1:11 warns us against false teachers who always do what they do for “filthy lucre’s sake”. Peter repeats this warning in 1 Peter 5:2: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;” (KJV). So it is no wonder that Babylon the Spiritual Whore is joined to Babylon the Economic Whore.

Babylon was the first organized false religion, and she has many daughters. However, there is one daughter who can actually be stated to still be the mother. That is the Catholic Church. This will be explored in part 2 of “Babylon the spiritual and economic harlot”, and part 3 will look at the city of Babylon.
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 2 here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3 here
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laodicean church, revelation

Sobering thoughts: the prophecy of our Laodicean church

Posted on November 27, 2011 by elizabethprata

The Tribulation will be a time of devastation and woe like no other in human history. That is not a possibility, it is a promise from Jesus. He said in Mt 24:21-22 “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

How bad? Half the people alive when the Tribulation begins will be dead before the Tribulation is half over. Rev. 6:8 says given to the horseman to kill a fourth part of the earth by sword, famine, pestilence and beasts. When the 1st judgments (seal judgments) are over, a quarter of the world will be dead. After the Seal Judgments are the Trumpet Judgments. Rev. (9:15). A third of the world is killed through those. There is no number given as for how many are killed in the Bowl Judgments that occur in the second half, but Jesus did say that if He had kept it going longer all flesh would be dead by the end.

There was recently much ballyhoo made over the 7 billionth baby. Our global population is at this moment, 7 billion. Half the population dead in the first half of the Trib means 3.5 billion people dead in 3.5 years. That is a billion people a year. That is 83 million people a month. That’s 27 million people a week. That’s like saying the entire population of Tokyo, dead this week. Seoul SK, next week. Mexico City, the week after, and on and on and on with the death. More will die in the second half.

So why do I dwell on this if I want to encourage? Well, I do want to encourage, but I want to focus for a moment on God and His holiness. He is perfect, holy, sinless, and glory itself. He hates sin, and He punishes for sin. His wrath is great! “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:16). This apostate church in America focuses on love, and unity and tolerance, wealth-health, they fail at church discipline because they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. Well, allowing false teachings into the church because you don’t want to hurt feelings is saying you allow offense to Jesus because you don’t want to hurt satan’s feelings! We have Joel Osteen speaking in the name of God saying we can get our best life now, AND a good parking place at the mall, too, if we follow his 7 steps for finding our full potential….

Preacher and missionary Paul Washer said he’d like to create a book cover with himself on it, standing like Osteen, with the title “Your Worst Life Now: why you have no potential for anything and you’re completely depraved”. I laughed, as did the video audience, but he has a point. We forget the power of God with all this talk of being radical and purpose driven. Gradually, we have made God in OUR image.

We have Jentezen Franklin urging us to fast and that our fast is the key that will unlock heaven and shut the gates of hell. It is statements like that, against a HOLY AND JUST GOD, who alone has the key to heaven and hell, indicating a grievous spiritual-heart condition that make Him so wrathful! This isn’t a partnership, and Jesus is not our psychologist. He is not our bank account. He is not our grocery store. He is not to be mocked, spoken of in vain, nor ignored.

So at the Tribulation, He will be impossible to ignore.

I am not reveling in all this death. But I revel in a holy God. I understand my position before Him and I know it is only His power and grace that lifted me out and not my own effort, merit, thoughts, 7 steps, or fasts. It is Him and Him alone in charge. The Tribulation is a time when He will remind everyone of that. As a culture, we have forgotten how terrible sin is, our sin. I understand the justice required for our Holy God to punish the wicked. My gratitude extends to Him every day in relief and wonder that He saved me. Not because I have a low opinion of me, but because I have a high opinion of Him. Because I have an understanding of my depraved sinful condition, and I am amazed that He even would want to have anything to do with me in that condition! “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:1

But He did, He picked me out of the mud of my own depravity and He washed me, lovingly. And He did that for the American Christians who now set Him aside on their way to buy Jentezen Franklin’s newest book about “recovering your passion, recapturing your dream, restoring your joy.” What about God’s passion? Jesus’s joy?

The Book of Revelation opens with letters to 7 churches authored by Jesus. At the time John recorded them, there actually were 7 churches named The Church at Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7); The Church at Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11); The Church at Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17); The Church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29); The Church at Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6); The Church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13); The Church at Laodicea. Laodicea is the only church in which Jesus had nothing good to say.

It is thought that in addition to the 7 churches being real churches in John’s time, the churches also represent the church age, and that Laodicea represents the last phase of the church on earth and the coming of Jesus, in other words, us. Lamentably, He stands outside the door and knocks, an uninvited and unwanted guest to the very church He died for. (Rev 3:20). He may be reading the sign we pinned there, “Gone to the Mall”.

The prophecy of the Laodicean Church is found in Revelation 3:14-22. The Laocidean Church is known as “The Dead Church”.

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Laodicea is charged with being so spiritually blind they bask in their wealth (Rev 3:17), needing Jesus for nothing and unaware of their condition. In that verse Jesus quotes the church as saying, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” Does that sound like today’s prosperity gospel-laden churches, or what?!

“Your Best Life Now”
“It’s Your Time”
“How to be Happier 7 Days a Week”
“Become A Better You”

Where is Jesus? Outside the church, knocking to get in. (Rev 3:20)

This church was also spiritually arrogant in its self-satisfaction. Jesus charges them with being naked, a symbol of worthlessness and shame, having no garment of righteousness on them to cover themselves! They are charged with being lukewarm, apostate, naked, worthless, unrighteous, rich, so rich they exclude the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! This spiritual condition is an abomination to a holy God.

Serious, serious stuff. Before you embark on the latest fad infiltrating your church, before you buy a book telling you Jesus will make you rich, before you accept a jet setting preacher’s words in the latest book saying if you ‘give big, you get big’, before you cut back on missions giving in favor of a new children’s playground or a church van, THINK! This church is us. It is an unsaved church, proud and about to receive a blistering rebuke from a Holy God.

Our holy God will vomit this church out of His mouth. Read Rev 3! We’re almost there. *I* feel like vomiting our church out of my mouth! Imagine how Jesus feels! For these sins and for all the sins of the world done in His name and out of His name, the world will be judged. If you mourn the Tribulation deaths, good. If you are unwilling to let your mind think on it for a moment, good. But think on this: our position before a holy God is low, He raised us up with His blood. Honor that blood, honor that cross, fight for your church! Fight for your faith!
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