Category: revelation

Posted in laodicean church, revelation

Sobering thoughts: the prophecy of our Laodicean church

Posted on 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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Posted in four horsemen, judgment, revelation

World’s 7 Billionth Person Arriving Soon

Posted on by elizabethprata

From the Hindu Press recently, they report that the world’s 7 billionth person will soon be added to the world’s population. It is a really interesting (short) article. First the article and then the prophetic math.

“Before long–if not already–a baby will be born who will take the global population above 7 billion for the first time. No one is sure; no statistician would be prepared to say exactly when this event takes place.”

“The rate of population growth has soared over the course of recorded history. When Jesus was born, there are thought to have been around 300 million people on earth. The one-billion mark was reached only after 1800. As many as a billion have been added in just the last 11 years.”

“David Bloom of the Harvard School of Public Health speaks of the multitude of unpredictable factors in estimating future population growth: “Among them are infectious diseases, war, scientific progress, political change and our capacity for global cooperation.”

“It is generally assumed that population growth will tail off, with U.N. predictions for 2050 ranging from 8.0 to 10.5 billion. Assuredly the proportions will shift among the continents, driven by high birth rates in Asia and Africa. India (now at 1.2 billion) will soon take the lead from China (currently at 1.3 billion). Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country today with 162 million, is expected to have almost 750 million by the middle of the century.”

“Increasing population creates greater pressure on land, food and energy resources, already a source of contention between countries. Water wars are predicted between neighbouring countries. The environmental organization WWF estimates that with current usage patterns, the population of 2050 would require the resources of three planets. We will be forced to change our habits. “In the next 40 years we will have to produce the same amount of food as over the last 8,000 years,” the WWF’s Jason Clay believes. He notes that far too much is still thrown away in the industrialized world.”

If we look at the information in this article through a prophetic lens, and reduce the figures to match certain verses, the results will be startling. Revelation 6 begins the wrath (judgments) and the judgments come quickly. Remember, there are 7 seal judgments, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls, not to mention maybe 7 thunders to be completed within 7 years. So in Revelation 6:8’s fourth seal, the 4th Horseman of the Apocalypse is unleashed to kill a quarter of the world’s population. A quarter of 7 billion is one billion seven hundred fifty million people dead in one swoop. The number of people remaining will be five billion two hundred fifty million.

Then a short while later in Revelation 9:18, “A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths.” These are the demons unloosed from the abyss. So if a third of the remaining population is killed, that means one billion seven hundred fifty million die in one swoop. This leaves three billion five hundred million. We started with 7 billion. Now we have 3 billion. But wait, there’s more!

Ezekiel 38-39 describe a future battle between Iran/Russia/Turkey/Sudan/Libya/Armenia and others, against what turns out to be God.. Many scholars believe that this battle will take place before the tribulation begins, or at least immediately at the threshold. Why?

Nathan Jones explains, “Ezekiel 39:1-8 describes the tremendous aftermath of the foiled Gog-Magog invasion. Before the massive coalition army can fire a single shot from their launching point on the mountains of Israel, God steps in and supernaturally devastates not only the invaders but also their homelands as well. Russia, Iran, Turkey, the ‘Stans, Sudan, Libya and other Muslim nations are reduced to a wasteland, and only one-sixth of their combined army remains, exiled to Siberia (Joel 2:20). For the nearly three-quarter million to a billion corpses left by God’s hand to rot in the land of Israel, the biggest cleanup process in all of history is ready to begin. Ezekiel 39:9-20 unearths the gory funeral purification ritual.”

Ezekiel 39:9-10 states that it takes 7 years to clean up the dead. There are so many dead it takes that long to bury them. How many dead? As Mr Jones mentioned, some estimates are as high as a billion. His essay continues with how he arrived at the math. So now we are down to 2 billion left alive on earth.

Then of course, there are deaths occurring from fallout from the wars, famines, natural causes, etc and we can see quite rapidly the stark reality of life on earth during the Tribulation when Jesus says that if He delayed there would be no flesh left on earth. (Mt 24:22).

But He will not delay, and prior to any of this beginning, He will snatch His children up from the world to be with Him. Glorious! Judgment is coming and it will be devastating physically, spiritually, and as we see from the above, numerically. But Glory is coming too, and if you wish to be on the side of Light, you must repent and appeal to the Judge for a pardon for your sins. Do not delay, or you might soon become a forgotten statistic.
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Posted in end of days. prophecy, krugman, revelation, space aliens

It’s come to this: fake alien invasion would cure the economic slump

Posted on by elizabethprata

On CNN, Fareed Zakaria’s show “GPS” Sunday night, Economics Professor and Opinion Columnist to the NY Times Paul Krugman came up with a novel idea to help the economic slump.

As Huffington Post reports, “Paul Krugman is so frustrated by the lack of support for another round of stimulus spending that he’s now calling for a fake alien invasion of the United States to spur a World War II-style defense buildup.”

It’s official. We have stopped making sense. To continue-

“Krugman was a guest on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday. Speaking with Zakaria and Harvard economist Ken Rogoff, he made the same case he has been making for years–that deficits are not the top economic concern of the day. Krugman noted that the effort of World War II helped end the Great Depression, and joked that something similar was needed today. “If we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,” he said. “And then if we discovered, oops, we made a mistake, there aren’t any aliens, we’d be better–” “We need Orson Welles, is what you’re saying,” Rogoff cut in. “There was a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode like this in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace,” Krugman said. “Well, this time, we don’t need it, we need it in order to get some fiscal stimulus.”

The clip is 1:36 and he makes the statement starting at 1:00 but it is always good to listen to the entire thing to get the context. Now, I don’t think he was really calling for a fake space alien invasion, but I can’t be totally sure. He never said ‘just kidding’ or backed off, but used the example of the Twilight Zone episode to validate his idea that a certain government in the fictional episode faked an external threat to pull their nation out of a slump. Are space aliens THAT prevalent in the thinking of the folks making decisions today? Apparently so.

What I find more sinister is that a high-level influence maker such as Krugman would openly tout the tactic of the government lying regarding a full-scale invasion in order to accomplish its goals.

The bible says that in the Tribulation, “And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25). I mentioned yesterday that the seas roaring is a symbol for the restless populations. “Though certainly the interpretation can be made that this is literally the seas roaring, indeed, there are so many natural disasters occurring now and will occur in the Tribulation it is more than possible, but I don’t think it means only that. In Isaiah it is explained what the metaphor means: “Isaiah 17:12 Oh, the raging of many nations–they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples–they roar like the roaring of great waters!”

The word ‘distress’ or in other translations, “anguish” in the Greek means: “tension from difficult circumstances that “won’t move” which produces distress (anguish) – causing someone to feel “locked in”. It means that there will be problems that the decision-makers cannot solve, and the populations are restless and rebelling because of it. We see the beginning of that status now.

The protracted period of non-decision making and the intractable global problems also set up another prophecy to be fulfilled: the antichrist’s solutions will appeal so greatly to the world that they will accept him quickly.

Meanwhile, back in the present (and on earth) I note that the casual mention of space aliens can be marked as a success on satan’s side. The influx of Hollywood movies with the theme, television programs, books, comic books, and video games on the theme of intelligent life from outer space, all have desensitized the human psyche to the normal recoil that used to occur in the pre-1940s when speaking of the subject. Now we take it as a matter of course that such beings exist. And in Krugman’s case, they can be used as a convenient lie to spend us into oblivion in order that the economy would revive. (Remember, angels are off-planet intelligent beings, some of whom from satan’s side are intent on destroying us.)

In any case, it’s come to this: the people at the highest levels who are supposed to be offering solutions to the problems of the day are now simply babbling. Next to Krugman, who wouldn’t embrace the genius solutions that the flattering and smooth antichrist comes up with?
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Posted in comet elenin, judgment, planet x, revelation

Elenin is almost here…but so is Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

The posts I publish that I hope will get a lot of traffic, don’t, and the posts I put up about the weird stuff always gets a lot of traffic. The all-time top traffic-getter was the February 4 post about the “Ghost Horse of Tahrir Square on MSNBC“, with 22,254 views. Coming in a close second is the “Comet Elenin is Coming” post that same month, with almost 20,000 views.

I’d posted information about Comet Elenin, hoping to cut through the hysteria with some facts. I’d presented information from NASA’s ‘Ask an Astrobiologist’ site, and analyzed it. I also made the main point that the reason for the Elenin hysteria these days is that people are increasingly having a hard time finding truth in the news, and in frustration with their elected officials and their main stream media, are turning in droves to the fringe sites for information. It is increasingly hard to trust the people we used to depend on to tell that the facts, and anger is rising. Frustration leads to hysteria and soon we have a skittish population running to and fro to catch the wisps of the latest fact-filled conspiracy or conspiracy-laden facts, however you want to look at it.

That is because, like Isaiah’s day, we live in a time soon there will be “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20). These are the days when the sins are rampant. Increasingly there is no distinction of morality and religion. People prefer evil to good and we see this played out every day when some news organization is revealed to have plagiarized or made stuff up, some financial organization is revealed to have been horrendously greedy, some politician is revealed to have been perverse and immoral. The religious prefer erroneous and fake doctrines to the true; the people prefer evil to a righteous course of conduct.

The only truth is the bible, then, now, and forever. You can trust it.

Now add to that that even since February, the spiritual pressure has risen to almost unbearable levels. Even the most atheistic person feels something about to happen. What we’re feeling are the effects of the increase of sins. The sins are piling up to heaven, (Rev 18:3-5) weighing us down, pressing in on us. In 2 Timothy 3:1-6, Paul describes the Godlessness in the last days and mentions there will be silly women laden with sins, falling prey to the ones who have a form of godliness but deny its power. “Laden” is the word to focus on here. Just like the sins piling up to heaven, laden indicates that sin has a weight to it, a weight of guilt, a weight of a seared conscience. Isaiah 24:20 prophesies the day at the end of time when the earth is so heavy with sin it reels like a drunkard, and cracks and falls.

Of course, sin doesn’t have a real weight, it’s a metaphor, but you get the idea. When a kid has done something wrong, their face is downcast, their shoulders are slumped, they walk like they have a ball and chain on the end of their ankle. You ask “What’s the matter?” and they mutter, “Nothing” but every fiber of their being says otherwise. We’re all familiar with the phrase, “You look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.” THAT’S what we’re feeling now. Sins, guilt, the effects of sin, pervasive evil that is called good, all weigh heavily. The world is spiritually spooked, feeling the pressure of the last stages of pregnancy, the heft and weight of the portentous moment when the labor pains begin and the awful pressure will be released.

Is it any wonder that unsaved people are hysterical about Elenin? They feel something is coming, and Elenin is just as good a thing to focus on as any. Hey, it kind of fits with prophesies, right? The Mayan doomsday prophecy of December 21, 2012, Nostradamus’s prophesies about destruction and comets, even Revelation with the celestial bodies falling out of the sky. Maybe there is something TO all this prophetic stuff, they wonder. There is, but their mistake is equating any prophecy with the Bible’s prophesies. The world’s prophesies are wrong, only the bible is right. So is there an Elenin-like thing in Revelation or another prophetic book?

Let’s look at what people are saying about Comet Elenin, first. Has the hysteria died since last February? Have NASA and other’s efforts to dispel the frenzy been effective? Not really. Consider this humorous intro from The Economic Voice:

“It’s always nice to come across a subject on the Internet that evokes such difference in opinion. And Comet Elenin is one of those topics. The debate over Comet Elenin is polarised between two opposing views, with an almost infinite number of variations in between. On the one hand comes the official view that Comet Elenin is an obscure loosely packed dirty snowball of as much interest to the general public as a small broken snail shell beside a railway track is to the occupants of the speeding express train passing by. At the other end is the opinion that Elenin is an artificial comet camouflaging a fleet of galactic battle cruisers full of hideous aliens equipped with straws and the aching desire to suck our brains from our skulls via our collective left nostrils.”

Hilarious! The article continues:

“The trouble is that there are many end time prophecies such as the Mayan calendar and the Bible Revelations that seem to fit in with the timing of this visitor from the deepest regions of space. There is also the Comet’s name, Elenin. Some claim it was given this name as short for such things as ‘Extinction Level Event 9’. Then there are the theories of alignment causing the Earth’s poles to shift and earthquakes to rend our planet. Or Elenin’s magnetic field will somehow throw the Earth out of orbit despite it having no magnetic field to speak of. There are also concerns about the comet tail ‘engulfing’ the earth, even though it’s only one notch above an absolute vacuum.”

He’s right, that is a problem that there are so many prophesies describing nearly the same thing. People who are not saved don’t know what to believe, and will latch on to something that comes close to the truth but isn’t the truth. And then there’s Planet X/Nibiru, and other impending celestial disaster the conspiracy theorists have whipped themselves into a frenzy over. This information is from Fox News this week:

Believers in Mysterious Planet Nibiru, Comet Elenin Await Earth’s End
“The waxing obsession with the planet Nibiru, which conspiracy theorists say is a planet swinging in from the outskirts of our solar system that is going to crash into Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012 — or, in some opinions, 2011 — shows that an astonishing number of people “are watching YouTube videos and visiting slick websites with nothing in their skeptical toolkit,” in the words of David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Morrison estimates that there are 2 million websites discussing the impending Nibiru-Earth collision. He receives, on average, five email inquiries about Nibiru every day. “At least a once a week I get a message from a young person — as young as 11 — who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday,” Morrison told Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com. What’s the origin of this mass panic about Nibiru, which astronomers say doesn’t exist?”

Good question. It’s from Nancy Lieder, who claims she “has the ability to receive messages through an implant in her brain from aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system.” She is being used by aliens to warn of the impending disaster of planetary collision that was supposed to have happened in 2003, and when it didn’t was changed to the more secularly accepted false doom date of 2012. Did you catch that above from the NASA guy? Millions are watching YouTube videos on the subject, the astrophysicist receives a hundred inquiries a month, and gets dozens of suicidal emails from people worried about the disaster. That is so sad.

I’ll show you one more article about a Doctor in Cape Girardeau, MO. He is getting bombarded with emails and personal visits from people who want to know more about survival in the Ozark Mountains when Planet X-Nibiru-Elenin arrives. He’s getting them because there is a chat room where the leader of the survivalist movement claims to know the Doc and is alleged to have said the Doctor is leading a team to the caves when the planet comes into view. Look at the link, the doctor looks like a really annoyed milquetoast and says he doesn’t know the survivalist chat room guy, and has no plans to move to a cave any time soon. Yet he is harassed daily. People are bonkers with expectation!

Here is a link to facts about Comet Elenin. if you’re interested in the scientists’ point of view. If you trust it.

I have no clue about Comet Elenin and its supposed effect on the earth. I have no clue about Nibiru or Tyche or Planet X. I do know about the bible. And the really sad thing is that people are whipped in a frenzy about things that ARE GOING TO HAPPEN. They do not have to check the NASA site. They don’t have to follow misguided survivalist leaders in chat rooms. They don’t have to listen to Nancy Lieder in her Zeta Talk show. They can read Revelation.

Because if the feeling of impending doom is pervasive, that is because it is real. The Sun will go dark. (Joel 2:31; Mt 24:29; Acts 2:20; Rev 6:12; Is 13:10; Ez 32:7; Joel 3:15). Men WILL hide in the caves. (Rev 6:15). Tremendous earthquakes will happen. (Zech 14:4; Ez 38:20; Micah 1:4; Rev 11:13 & etc). The unsaved feel the weight of the sins piling up, they feel the spiritual darkening, they glimpse eternity ahead. But they are not saved by the blood of Jesus so they do not know what to do to escape. They glimpse rightly but conclude wrongly.

The feeling of imminence of a ‘something about to happen’ is judgment. Judgment is not a popular concept these days. It is not even a popular doctrine within the church among people who should know better. Judgment reminds us that there is a Higher Authority. We are not our own authority. We have free will, but we will have to answer to Him for the choices we’ve made. Christians won’t be judged because at salvation our sins were forgiven (Col.2:13-14), but we will be held accountable for the things we did for Him after salvation, and the things of no use to Jesus will be burned up. (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:10-15, 4:5). Unsaved people will have to answer to Him for rejecting His pardon and willfully rebelling against him. (Mt 25:31-46). The things coming on the earth will be real, not a conspiracy. Those who believed in Elenin chose poorly. Those who believed in Zeta Talk chose poorly. Choose wisely. Choose the only truth there is: Jesus, Holy and Wrathful, judging mankind.

I hear so often these days that God would never judge us, for God is love. Yes, God is love. Is that all God is? Are your parents only love? Or do they also delight in you? Punish you? Teach you? Chastise you? If our parents punished us because they loved us then God is the perfect embodiment of both love and justice as well as all His other attributes.

I am not going to say prepare for Elenin, prepare for Nibiru, prepare for Planet X. I am going to say Prepare for the Lord. Either you will meet Him as His friend, in which case you will be protected from all these things; or you will meet Him as His enemy, in which case all these things will be poured out on you. I know what the logical choice is. Do you?

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Posted in end of days. prophecy, end time, famine, forgiveness, love, revelation

Looking at famine

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I wrote about famine as a judgment from God recently. It is truly saddening to see these things happening because although I glory in His promises coming true it also means suffering and death for many. And death for the unsaved means an eternity away from God, in hell. In that essay I quoted a news article that said, “The striking images of the landscape seem to represent a deceptively simple assessment of the drought: the dirty work of Mother Nature.”

It is the LORD who sends the rain in preparation for the crops. (Psalms 147:8). It is the LORD who sends it to the obedient. (Leviticus 26:4). He appoints seasons in His own authority. (Acts 1:7). “Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:17) He sends the crops, the seasons and the weather for our benefit, to His glory. He can, and will reverse the process when we fail to thank Him and refuse to acknowledge His authority. That is the spiritual fact.

On a practical level, famine is both biological and social. It occurs to a person individually while it is also happening to all others around the sufferer. And unlike pestilence, where sick people are quarantined, privately sequestered, or are too insentient to socially connect, famine leaves the individual able to share in it with others.

“When starvation becomes a mass experience, the phenomenon is no longer purely biological.” (Robert Dirks, Academia.edu).

Famine is sneaky because the population has no clue that this crop failure will lead to a continual shortage, or that this lack of monsoon rains will lead to a permanent drying-out. It is only after successive storms or failures or absence of expected weather that it become apparent that food will not be coming. By then malnourishment or early stages of starvation may have already set in.

The biological consequences of famine begin with scarcity, move to malnourishment, elevate to starvation, and finish with famine. Starvation happens when the energy demands of the biological unit exceed supply. Technically, starvation begins 4-6 hours after the last meal, when the body has broken down all that will be or is able to be used, and no new food is forthcoming. However since a person living in a healthy culture will then consume more within a reasonable time period after the last meal, the negative effects are not really felt.

After a day or so, though, dehydration, hypoglycemia, and ketosis begin. After 24 hours, there are impacts to the tissues as loss outpaces fat. As starvation continues, exhaustion sets in and there is decreased tolerance for work. People move more slowly and adopt an energy saving posture. “In mobilizing its reserves, the body progressively selects fat over muscle as fuel, allowing life to be sustained for one to three months in acute starvation.” (Dirks).

Things go rapidly downhill from there, with all sorts of nasty things happen to the individual’s biology. And that’s just starvation, not famine. But you can see, it happens quickly. Though drought and famine take a long time to set up, when it hits, the body, mind, and soul shrivel pretty quickly.

I wrote above that in the first few sentences mother nature was blamed, and in addition, war also precipitates famine. War does have a devastating connection with famine. In Revelation 6, first there is war, then there is scarcity, then there is death. Those are Seal Judgments two, three, and four. In history, famine has almost always followed war. As the Red Cross says in discussing humanitarian aid, “the fact must be faced that food aid alone will never eliminate famines nor the suffering they cause. It still falls short of meeting the victims’ needs and appears essentially inadequate to solve their problems.” That’s because there are complex reasons for it that also include war, conflict, and strife.

Famine is destructive to those societies where malnourishment is always present, and soon after initial starvation sets in, financial ruin and disease take over. For some societies, they may at first adapt to conditions that in many cases don’t affect them. There is such a thing as “class famine.” We see in Revelation 6:6 that millions starve, unable to afford more than a loaf of bread even though they worked all day, while in Revelation 18:13 we see that all the while, a hefty trade in food luxuries had been ongoing. (“and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep…”) There are the very rich and the very poor, and you can bet the very rich will not be affected by famine. The Tribulation’s predicted scarcities will be characterized by class famine.

When famine conditions deepen, the ‘Law of Diversification and Polarization’ comes into play. As Dirks quoted Sorokin, “simply put, this means that catastrophe brings out the best and the worst in people. It exaggerates what is already there.”

Sociological studies show that at first, people share when disaster strikes. As the disaster continues, and/or as supplies run short, sharing ceases. Starvation’s biological effects are that people become exhausted and irritable. Volatile situations erupt. Populations tend to migrate, looking for better conditions. The 1901 Indian Famine Commission called it “unusual wandering.” When adding to that the prophecy that love grows cold (Matthew 24:12), people are unthankful, (2 Timothy 3:2-4) and their thoughts are only evil continuously, (Matthew 24:37, Genesis 6:5) then you can see that violence will soon become the norm just at the time when people are physiologically least able to handle it.

So let me sum up the ivory tower talk: famines have always occurred and will continue to occur, followed by the worst brought out in people who are marauding hither and yon, looking for anything they can steal so they can stay alive. Violence breaks out and a true Darwinian human ‘survival of the fittest’ is played out in front of atheists everywhere, with the starving exhausted falling where they lay in irritable convulsions, dying by degrees while no neighbor cares.

Oh, but Jesus cares. His famines may be one of His sore judgments, yes, but it is to alert rebellious people that He is still in control and He is still holy. His control includes an eternal and infinite love for all His children. He wants you to turn from your carnal thoughts and lifting up of Mother Nature and replace those with perfect thoughts and spiritual infinity in His love. As long as you have not rejected him and slammed the door shut, you can enter the door to heaven by repenting of sins. He is the door and he stands ready to allow all who would believe to enter. (John 10:9)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7) What is beyond that door? Certainly not war or famine or exhaustion or violence. See what is there:

The Gospel is exclusive: Jesus is the only way. The Gospel is inclusive: any person can accept Jesus as their savior and forgiver of sins. I hope you enter in to His rest, escaping all the Tribulation things and choosing to partake of the Eternal things. What it takes is a prayer to Jesus that you know and understand you’re a sinner, unworthy to enter His realm, and ask Him to forgive those sins. Since He is sinless and died as the sacrifice for your sins, your debt is paid. But you have to ask. Do it soon, my beloved friend. Soon.

Posted in end time, gog magog, ottomans, prophecy, revelation

The Ottomans are back. Are they Revelation’s 7th kingdom?

Posted on by elizabethprata

There is a difficult prophetic passage in Revelation, some say the most difficult. Revelation 17:9-11 says-

“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.” (Revelation 17:9-11)

Oh, boy, where do you start? OK, in the first phrase, it says ‘here is wisdom.’ To me, that means that the interpretation won’t be easy or obvious. It will take deeper study, but that it will be revealed to the one who seeks wisdom. James 1:5 makes that promise.

Next, “Mountains”. In biblical symbolism, mountains represent kingdoms or strong, powerful governments. When it says THE mountain, like in Isaiah 2:2-4, it means Jesus’ government. “It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains.”

“The seven” past kingdoms (empires) are generally accepted to be Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Media-Persia and Rome past and/or Rome to come, or perhaps someone else. “The eighth” seems to be the antichrist which is part of the seventh.

Remember that in Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue of the kingdoms (Dan 2:31-35), it was gold at the head, silver at the chest and arms, bronze torso and thighs, legs of iron and feet of a mixture of clay and iron. A side note, you notice two things of the statue’s metals: as they progress from head to toe, the metals become less expensive. Gold is the most precious metal, iron the least. Clay is worth nothing at all. But they also become stronger. Gold is the softest metal but iron is strongest.

The legs of iron are generally thought to be the split Roman empire. The Romans split their empire in 330AD when they allowed Constantinople to become a sister capital, and the kingdom was split east and west. (The feet of iron and clay are thought to the coming Tribulation kingdom.) So let’s look at Constantinople.

Now known as Istanbul, it is located in Turkey and is its largest city. Wikipedia says Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). That’s a lot of empires! It was also chosen as a joint European Capital of Culture for 2010-2011, and as such organized cultural events with a strong European dimension. Yet…Istanbul is not European, and despite its long desire to align with the west, that desire has been thwarted.

Though Turkey was one of the first countries to become a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, a predecessor to the EU, and is now an associate member of the EU, it has been denied full membership ever since its application in 1987. It seems that the two legs of the Roman empire are still split, though it is part of the body of historically precedent empires and loosely connected to the west, is not the west.

The Turks figure into end time prophecy as the nation who aligns finally with the east. They come together with Armenia, Russia, Iran, and northern Africa and others to attack Israel. Their final status as an Israel-hater is certain. The journey from  been a tumultuous one ever since Paul’s missionary days into Asia Minor, which Turkey is still known as (also Anatolia). The question is, how does Turkey get from here to there?

Ezekiel 38:6 says that Gomer and the house of beth-Togarmah join the Gog-Magog attack. I interpret Gomer to be Turkey and beth-Togarmah as Armenia. You can research the historical/biblical names here, and here, and directly from the bible here and here. Turkey reverts to her roots in the last days, no matter the Western overlay this generation has come to see Turkey outwardly present.

Now to the original verse in Revelation. The verse says that there were/are 7 kingdoms. Some say the 7th both are Rome, and some say that the 7th could be the Ottoman Empire. Note the last part of the Revelation verse, ‘the beast is the eighth AND is of the seven’ could be satisfied by a ruler from the eastern leg of the statue that was part of Roman empire but not Rome.

The Ottomans existed as an empire for 500 years, disappearing in 1922 with the cessation of the office of Caliph (Ruler of all Muslims). Jack Kelley explores the notion of the Ottomans as 7th Revelation Kingdom, here. He said in part, “There are already some who believe the 7th Kingdom of Rev. 17:10 is the Ottoman Empire, and point out that Constantinople is also a city on seven hills. If so, its loyalty to Islam would confirm the identity of the one world End Times religion, and could also support the idea of an Islamic anti-Christ, the one some call al-Mahdi. As details of Islamic eschatology become more widely known, prophecy students are discovering a striking similarity between descriptions of al Mahdi and the anti-Christ.”

John MacArthur said in his sermon “The Grim Reality of the Last Days“, “Now somebody might say, “Well, when you think about the future and what’s going to happen in the world, don’t we have a revived Roman Empire? Doesn’t that mean the west? You remember that the image in Daniel 2 of the final world empire had two legs and the Roman Empire had the west and the east? You know, of course, if you know history that the western part of the Roman Empire basically dissolved and the east survived for a thousand years or more so that at the time of the New Testament, sixty percent of the Roman Empire was land that is now under Muslim control…at least 60 percent. The vast majority of the Roman Empire in New Testament times is today under Muslim control and Islam is moving across the west rapidly in Europe, isn’t it? When you have a picture in Ezekiel 38, you have a picture of the Antichrist, Gog and you have the listing of eight nations, that will be a coalition for the Antichrist. All eight of those are Muslim nations, all eight of them. And they ring the Mediterranean to Libya. In Revelation 17:9 to 11 it says there were six kingdoms and then a seventh and finally an eighth. What is the seventh? Well there’s been a discussion about that, it well could be the Ottoman Turk Empire which lasted five hundred years and didn’t really fall until the modern era. The Turkish Empire was the last Caliphate which ended in 1923 and they’re waiting for the restoration when the Mahdi comes.”

What I’m saying is, the bible shows us that Turkey is a powerful and influential nation in the Gog-Magog battle. We saw Turkey’s influence come to the fore last year in the Gaza Flotilla attack, and we see it now in her continuing spokesmanship for Muslims in Asia Minor.

This article from a Turkish daily newspaper titled “Turkey is shaping the Arab Spring” states flatly, “the Ottomans are back”.

That the Ottomans could be the 7th kingdom mentioned in the Revelation verse is worth pondering, as we watch Turkey’s pre-eminence in the Middle East rise again.
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Posted in creation, genesis, prophecy, revelation

If Genesis is creation, is Revelation UNcreation?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been reading the Creation verses a lot lately. Genesis 1 is wonderful and it fascinates me completely. I am also listening to John MacArthur’s series on Creation and last night I heard him explain the verses relating to Day 3. I think it is so important to be thoroughly familiar with the Creation verses because they are under such assault. The Spirit has impressed me with this, and when I read in the local newspaper an opinion piece by the founder of the paper that he believes evolution and creation are co-existent, I couldn’t let it go. Rather, the Spirit wouldn’t let me let it go. I wrote a response, and still, the Spirit wouldn’t let go.

Part of what I wrote was this: “First, science and the bible are at odds on the point of creation. There is no scientific process that has, can, or will ever confirm the creation of the world. It can’t. Creation was not a scientific event, it was a supernatural one.”

Christian, don’t worry about defending the bible against science. It is our job to witness to His holiness against sin.

I continued listening to the sermon, and MacArthur got to the part about seeds. The earth was made fully mature. Adam and Eve were grown adults. The trees were mature and bore seeds and fruit from the first moment. So did plants. (Genesis 1:11). MacArthur said,

“One of the great, great wonders of the world is the science of seed dispersal. I watched an entire video on that just absolutely astonishing to see how God designed seed dispersal, not the least of which is accomplished by birds in your own yard, sometimes even attempted on your car and on your head. Pre-fertilized seed dispersal is very efficient.”

How DO seeds disperse, I wondered. Wikipedia explains, “Seed dispersal is the movement or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and consequently rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their propagules, … There are five main modes of seed dispersal: gravity, wind, ballistic, water and by animals.” I started to think about the Tribulation and the verse in chapter 8 came to mind.

“The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” (Rev 8:7). The earth is judged and that includes the vegetation, which He created on Day 3. Hmmm, grass and vegetation die in this, the First Trumpet Judgment.  But the verse later in Revelation came to mind also,

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.” (Rev 11:6). If wind is one of the major ways seeds are propagated, then after the vegetation is burned up then there is very little chance that new growth will occur, especially of no wind if blowing “on any tree”… or its seeds. And when the Two Witnesses cause no rain to fall upon the earth for three and a half years, (Rev 11:6) then that diminishes the chance for new growth all the more.

Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam, detail, Sistine Chapel

It occurred to me then, that Revelation could be seen as the orderly progression of UNcreation. Do the seven days of Creation match in reverse the seven years of Tribulation? Not exactly but in general. Revelation depicts judgment to be sure. But what a synchronicity that the first book of the Bible reveals how Creation was made, and the last book depicts its unmaking. On Day 1 the Light turned on, and ‘immediately after the tribulation of those days’, the sun, moon, and stars give no light” in other words, the lights are turned off. (Matthew 24:29-31). Heaven is made on Day 2, and in Rev 6:14 heaven is rolled up as a scroll. The sea creatures die. The land creatures die. The people die. The sun, moon, and stars fall.

The people know it is God, that He exists, and that He is exerting His power over them. In Revelation 16:9 they curse God on account of the plagues but they refused to repent and glorify Him. Those on the earth who rebel and deny His creative power will watch a slow and excruciating dismantling of creation, plank by plank. This is judgment indeed.

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Posted in egyptian cleric proposes slavery, prophecy, revelation

Slavery in the Tribulation? Muslim cleric proposes it as solution to economic woes

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve always been puzzled by a verse in Revelation. LOL, more than one verse, but this one really gets me. At the fall of Babylon, we see in the threefold woes that are uttered, that a healthy economy in luxuries had been ongoing. Far from the economy being dead, as many suppose, it traded in all the world’s luxuries as if nothing untoward was happening. The rich still exist but the poor comprise most of the world. We also know that the economy is massively different, being under the control of one man, the Beast (antichrist) as revealed in Revelation 13. But the rich still buy things. We know from Revelation 6 that many are not rich but are really are devastatingly poor, unable to even afford more than a loaf of bread which equals a whole day’s pay. For the rich, they keep on keeping on with their consumerism of ridiculously luxurious items. Except for one particular luxury item in the verse at the end:

Revelation 18: 9-13
Threefold Woe Over Babylon’s Fall
“When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. 10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

“‘Woe! Woe to you, great city,
you mighty city of Babylon!
In one hour your doom has come!’

“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.”

I could not understand how this could be, though I believe it totally because God’s word is inerrant. But I had thought slavery was pretty much stamped out. There is indentured servitude in informal form, and children sold as sex slaves. But organized slavery today, though it exists is the smallest number than it ever has been in history, is rare. 12-27 million people are purported to be slaves today. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations, according to Wikipedia. But then again, I don’t know why I am surprised that slavery as indicated in the Revelation verse would not be a going boom to the economy. It is the natural end to the philosophy of Darwin, and simply an extension of abortion and euthanasia. There is no regard for life if you adhere to those philosophies or engage in those activities. Life means nothing. Further, the bible tells us that life will mean less than nothing:

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. (Mark 13:12)

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12). Lawlessness here in this verse translated from the Greek is ‘sin’ or total and complete disregard for God’s laws. People who totally dismiss God will be more liable to disregard the soul of the person inhabiting the body, and just kill it. Or sell it. It’s an “it,” not a person. Then today I read this:

Egyptian Cleric: Poverty Can be Solved by Selling Humans ‘Like Groceries’
“Over the past week, a video has surfaced featuring prominent Egyptian cleric Salafi Shaykh Abi-Ishaq al-Huwayni. In a translation posted by Al Mutarjim on his blog Translating Jihad, al-Huwayni is quoted as advocating jihad (he says it’s “a real pleasure”) and encouraging listeners to ease financial problems through the capture and sale of human beings (he says they can be sold “like groceries”).”

Here is a translation from the video which is at the link. Sounds like he has thought long and hard about this. I mean, he has a mini-economy in people going on there in that twisted head of his:

Here’s the translation in copy form:
“We are in the era of jihad. The era of jihad has come over us, and jihad in the path of Allah is a pleasure. It is a real pleasure. The companions (of the Prophet) used to compete to (perform jihad). The poverty that we’re in—is it not due to our abandonment of jihad? But if we could conduct one, two, or three jihadist operations every year, many people throughout the earth would become Muslims. And whoever rejected this da’wa, or stood in our way, we would fight against him and take him prisoner, and confiscate his wealth, his children, and his women—all of this means money. Every mujahid who returned from jihad, his pockets would be full. He would return with 3 or 4 slaves, 3 or 4 women, and 3 or 4 children. Multiply each head by 300 dirhams, or 300 dinar, and you have a good amount of profit. If he were to go to the West and work on a commercial deal, he would not make that much money. Whenever things became difficult (financially), he could take the head (i.e. the prisoner) and sell it, and ease his (financial) crisis. He would sell it like groceries. Of those who are–” and the video is abruptly cut off.

I am writing about that verse for the first time, and inevitably the Spirit gives deeper understanding each time I read it. But for now, we take at face value that there will be an economy in human commerce in the Tribulation. Slavery. Dead ahead.
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Posted in melon sized hail, plague of hail, revelation

Melon sized hail falls in Norman OK

Posted on by elizabethprata

Though we are not in the Tribulation yet and are not enduring judgment, it seems that judgment is creeping ever closer as we see precursors popping up, or in this case, falling down:

Melon-sized hail falls on Norman OK Tuesday
“The violent storms whipping through parts of the Midwest this week returned on Tuesday night, leaving 14 dead in three states. The deadly extreme weather killed eight people in Oklahoma, two in Kansas and four in Arkansas. The deaths follow the tragic tornado that left at least 122 dead in Joplin, Missouri. Winds reached more than 150 MPH, and melon-sized hail fell from the sky:

Meteorologist Garrett Lewis from KFSM News Channel 5 discusses it here:

“The supercell thunderstorms that hit central Oklahoma generated giant hail. The Storm Prediction Center Severe Reports shows recorded 6” diameter hail that day. This hailstone apparently fell in the Oklahoma City area near Norman (According to api.newson6.com & Yahoo News) Three of the twisters in that area have been rated EF4. The National Weather Service is evaluating an EF5 rating on at least 1 of the tornadoes. Hail is formed in the updraft of a thunderstorms. A supercell thunderstorm consists of strong upward motion in the updraft and cold sinking air in the downdraft. The stronger the updraft the larger the hail. Strong to violent tornadoes of EF3-EF5 will typically create giant hail like this. It’s important to note that not all the hailstones were this large. Generally in a hail core the largest hailstones make up 10-20% of all hailstones falling. The rest were likely golfball to baseball size. Still… that’s “one hail of a storm”. -Garrett
Garrett PS NOTE: (I can’t vouch for this picture’s authenticity, as many of you have pointed out on Facebook… it DOES look like a frozen water balloon. I do believe the 6″ diameter hail reports from Storm Prediction Center. Usually SPC & NWS does a good job weeding out the weirdo photoshop crowd. Largest “official” hail report from that day was 6″ in Timken, KS, also 5″ in DFW Metro)”

It is not hard to imagine what hail that size would do to your head if it fell down on you in 150mph winds. It is not hard therefore to imagine the terror and devastation of hail weighing 100pounds. “And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.” (Revelation 16:21)

More here on biblical “Language of God: Hail“
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Posted in end of days. prophecy, post-apocalyptic lansdcapes, rapture, revelation

"Post-apocalyptic landscapes" during this, the pre-apocalypse

Posted on by elizabethprata

Do you know who said this?

“We are living at a time when mankind seems to sense that the end of all things is very near. Just about everyone has a theory as to how the world is threatened and when that end might come. The media and the Internet are full of doomsday speculations concerning the New Age “Mayan Calendar” and the year 2012. Some scientists predict that Global Warming could wipe out life on Planet Earth within a certain number of years. At the same time, politicians work to halt the proliferation of life-destroying nuclear weapons before it is “too late.” High profile news reports of economic downturns, crime, wars, tsunamis, earthquakes, and disease outbreaks cause people to question whether God is bringing judgment on the world.”

I agree with this statement. We ARE living at a time when mankind seems to sense the end of things is nearing. The person who said that is Harold Camping, from his website We Can Know. Though I disagree with Camping’s setting a date for the rapture, of course, I agree that the times are dire enough that people sense an imminence to…something. Christians know that imminence is judgment on the world, after the removal of the faithful believers in Jesus.

This year in the US is the most expensive year ever for natural disaster recovery. As I’ve mentioned before, reporters and weather men are running out of superlatives to describe the weather systems and disasters they are covering. “Worst ever” dropped off a long time ago. “Historic” got worn out fast as new events outpaced prior events, because history was made monthly or even weekly. Recently we were reading about ‘epic’ floods/tornadoes/landslides/eruptions/earthquakes. Even ‘epic’ doesn’t’ describe what we see anymore. This week, a new term to describe the devastation has arrived: “Post-apocalyptic”.

The Australian Broadcast Company wrote this of the damage in Joplin MO from this week’s tornadoes:
“The twister hit the town of Joplin with only 20 minutes warning, turning whole neighbourhoods into a post-apocalyptic landscape.”

The Book of Eli, movie

Time Magazine reporter observed:
“I saw a man sifting through the rubble of what used to be Affordable Mini Storage. He was going through the remains of his storage unit, searching for anything salvageable in the post-apocalyptic landscape of our home town. He picked up a toy from the debris.”

At Fox News, we read–
After daybreak, survivors picked through the rubble of their homes, salvaging clothes, furniture, family photos and financial records, the air pungent with the smell of gas and smoking embers. Some neighborhoods were completely flattened and the leaves stripped from trees, giving the landscape an apocalyptic aura. In others where structures still stood, families found their belongings jumbled as if someone had picked up their homes and shaken them.”

Joplin MO

Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’

Unfortunately for those who are already at a loss for words, the apocalypse hasn’t even begun. But the use of that term to describe in visual terms what we have never seen before is telling. All we have are movies to conjecture what a devastated world would look like, and many of us have seen those films or ones like them. Here is a scene from The Book of Eli, a film starring Denzel Washington that was released last Memorial Day weekend. The summary- “A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.”

The Book of Eli
Joplin MO

Japan tsunami damage:

Bloomberg News

From Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’

Each of these following three links uses the same phrase, that [parts of] Tuscaloosa Ala, Joplin MO, Denning Ark were “wiped off the map.”

Post-apocalyptic is a good descriptive term, and each of the real scenes and the movie scenes mirror each other in some way. However, the apocalypse has not begun. How will newscasters describe the real post-apocalyptic events when the real apocalypse happens, if they are already using up comprehensible terms that come short of offering understanding to the minds of viewers, stunned at devastation unlike anything we have seen before?

I am not making any hidden allusion that the movies mean something in today’s world. There is no hidden message here. The message is actually about language and the ability of men to visualize total earthly destruction without humanity’s extinction, which is what the Tribulation actually is. These movies did a good job of visualizing a post-apocalyptic world for movie-goers’ entertainment, but now it unfortunately has come close to the truth. No longer entertaining, hundreds of thousands of people are living it as reality. Reporters are increasingly at a loss to describe it. Mike Bettes of The Weather Channel is a veteran of thousands of tornado coverage stories, but in reporting Joplin MO tornado damage, he simply cried.

Folks, we are still PRE-apocalyptic. If you sense (correctly) that the real apocalypse is coming, whether you are of the ilk that believes in Edgar Cayce, Nostradamus, Mayan Calendar, Global Warming, the Final Imam, or Jesus Christ, you are correct, something is coming. I know what it is, too.

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

That’s the rapture! Though we do not know when that will be, we sense its nearness because our eyes are open and we see the signs the Lord said to look for appearing now with regularity and frequency. After the rapture, will be the Apocalypse. Here I quote Revelation 6-19, where the earth is devastated by earthquakes, 100 pound hail, disease, demonic attack on your physical person, torture, brutality, fires, and much more. Those two events will occur and you even have a choice as to which you would like to participate! If you sincerely believe you are a sinner rebelling against a just God, ask Jesus to forgive your sins and He will extend to you the pardon He bought for you in his own blood. You will be exempt from judgment and your sins will be wiped from the record. It will result in you being born again. You will enjoy a sweet and blissful time with Jesus in heaven while the apocalypse is happening down on earth.

Alternately, you can refuse to believe that you sin, that there is a Holy God who is judging you and will judge you, and you can choose to stay on earth for the apocalypse. If you like what you see in Japan, Joplin MO, Tuscaloosa, and Denning Arkansas, this option may appeal to you. If the reality of judgment begins to set in as it unfolds, you can appeal to the Holy Jesus and ask for forgiveness after the rapture, but do not wait until then. You may die, or you may have already been left with a hardened heart, Jesus having given you over to your desire to rebel and wallow in your sins. That is why we say now is the acceptable time of your salvation.

I plead with you to consider the reasons you are not saved but are reading this blog. The Spirit is pushing you, repeatedly, to understand the truths of His love, His justice, and His imminence. Do it today. He will not strive with man forever. (Genesis 6:3). You’ve seen the road ahead, and it is not pretty. You can traverse a road like Cormac McCarthy’s, which is broad and leads to destruction, or you can tread the narrow way which leads to eternal life and a street of gold. Your choice!
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