It’s spring, full-on, here in the South. I was reading a passage with one of my students this week called From Chrysalis to Butterfly. It’s that time of year we start seeing the flowers bloom and then come the butterflies. I started thinking about butterflies. I like butterflies. See?
Throughout history butterflies have fascinated artists and philosophers, scientists and school children with their profound mystery and beauty. In METAMORPHOSIS you will explore their remarkable world as few have before.
Spectacular photography, computer animation and magnetic resonance imaging open once hidden doors to every stage of a butterfly’s life-cycle. From an egg the size of a pinhead…to a magnificent flying insect. It is a transformation so incredible biologists have called it “butterfly magic.”
The superbly engineered body of a butterfly is magnified hundreds of times to reveal compound eyes made of thousands of individual lenses, wings covered with microscopic solar panels that warm the insect’s muscles for flight, and navigational systems that unerringly guide Monarch butterflies on their annual migration from Canada to Mexico.
How did these extraordinary creatures come into being? Are they the products of a blind, undirected process? Or, were they designed by an intelligence that transcends the material world?
Filmed in the rain forests of Ecuador, Mexico’s Trans-Volcanic mountain range, and leading research centers, METAMORPHOSIS is an unforgettable documentary filled with the joys of discovery and wonder.
—end documentary description—-
Here is the trailer for it
It is told from a Christian perspective. The movie is great family viewing, for adults just wanting some encouragement of the beauty of creation, or for homeschooling parents doing a science unit (aimed at adults, some of the documentary will have to be explained to little ones). The photography is super and it leaves you with the unavoidable conclusion that God and only God can have made this amazing creature.
Happy Spring!
For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. (Song of Solomon 2:11-12)
*The answer to the question I posed in the title is, “I don’t know. No one knows.”
EPrata photo
The Seven Thunders seem to be a part of the series of judgments in the Book of Revelation. I say “seem to be” because the words were not allowed to be written down, so we cannot be sure that they specifically are judgments. However, coming in sequence after the Seal and Trumpet judgments, and before the Bowl judgments, it seems that the mysterious Thunders may be judgments too.
Given that thunder is the voice of God in judgment, it seems to further the notion that these mysteriously sealed instructions may be judgments.
John MacArthur wrote of the Seven Thunders in his book Because the Time is Near:
The seven peals of thunder did not merely make a loud noise, but communicated information that John was about to write. In obedience to God’s commands, John had already written much of what he saw in his visions. Later in Revelation, John would once again be commanded to write what he saw in his visions. (14:13; 19:9; 21:5). But before John could record the message of the seven peals of thunder, he heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.”Whether the voice was that of the Father, or Jesus Christ, or an angel is not revealed. The command, however, clearly originated with God. The reason John was forbidden to record the message is not revealed. It may be that the judgments were simply too terrifying to be recorded. Any speculation as to the content of their message is pointless. If God wanted it to be known, He would not have forbidden John to write it. They are the only words in the book of Revelation that are sealed.
Let’s focus in on the “too terrifying” part of the reasoning here. In all the apocalyptic movies I’ve ever seen specifically related to the Tribulation, they are all uniformly sanitized. In other words, the horrific reality of the Tribulation as depicted in the Bible’s Book of Revelation has been visually watered down to be as non-reflective of the reality of a cellophane wrapped hamburger meat at Publix is compared to the blood, filth and messiness of a low-rent butchery. And even that is not reflective of the reality of what is coming.
The non-Christian apocalyptic movies movies I’ve seen, Threads, The War Game, and It’s A Disaster, were harrowing and soul-slaying. Their real depiction of nuclear or nerve gas apocalypse stayed with me for a long time. The War Game was commissioned by the BBC to specifically illustrate the horrors of nuclear war and the BBC Board found the movie too realistic to be released. For thirty years it languished in a closet. Yet even that film doesn’t go the distance of what the reality of the Tribulation will be like in terms of nuclear horror and death. People just do not understand what it really means when Jesus promised it to be a time of distress exceeding even the time of the Flood. (Matthew 24:21). And remember, that was a time when everybody on earth horribly died. (Except 8 people).
So here is Oliver B. Greene in his Verse-By-Verse Study of Revelation, on the Seven Thunders’ terror:
Thunder is the voice of the Lord in judgment (I Samuel 7:10, Psalm 18:13). The seven thunders “uttered their voices.” (John assumes that the readers already have Some knowledge of these seven thunders.) In Revelation 4:2, 3 John saw a throne encircled by a rainbow, and here in chapter ten we see the same rainbow. In Revelation 4 John saw upon the throne One who was to look upon as a jasper and a sardine stone, and “out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices.” In chapter 10, we have the same thunder, sounding out a message of God’s fury and judgment.
The seven thunders are the judgment thunders from the throne of God. When the Lion of the Tribe of Judah roars, as on the eve of bounding forth upon His prey, the seven thunders utter their roaring voices as in full sympathy and agreement with what is about to proceed in righteous vengeance and holy fury from the throne of eternal majesty. Personality is attributed to these “seven thunders.” Everything is in sympathy with the Lamb of God. These mighty thunders utter messages that are intelligible . . . they speak words. John heard what they said – and when the time comes in reality, the seven thunders will speak literal words that earth’s dwellers will fully understand. It will be a message in tones of thunder. We use a public address system to amplify voices when we want to be heard – but God needs no amplification. He can speak like mighty thunder – and He WILL when the time comes!
At the beginning of these marvelous visions, John was commanded to write in a book what he saw and heard – past, present and future. But when the thunders spoke, John was given another command. He was about to write – but a voice from Heaven said: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not!” The seven thunders must have given a terrible message. Already set before us are blood, tears, famine, heartache and heartbreak; killing, misery, hail, fire, burning mountains, demon monstrosities, men begging to die and unable to do so. Surely what John was forbidden to write must have been beyond human imagination and understanding! There is no need to speculate on what the thunders said. Your guess is as good as mine; but you may rest assured that the message had to do with God’s last gigantic, unheard of, indescribable judgment, when God “lowers the boom” in utter destruction.
Will YOU be on earth when the seven thunders speak? You are the only one who can answer that question. If you are born again you will NOT be here – but if you are not born again, you may be here. Read John 1:11-12, 3:16-18, 3:36, 5:24; Romans 10:9-10, 10:13, 10:17; Ephesians 2:8-9; I John 1:9. Read these verses, hear what they say; receive them – and you will not be here when the seven thunders utter their message of destruction. You will be with Jesus.
Imagine a message that exceeds the terror and blood of all that had already previously been spoken. Or if that was not the case, imagine a message that was so tremendously powerful it needed to be sealed from our tender brains until the moment they would be spoken during the Tribulation.
Prophecy is supposed to motivate us to witness, and yet the reality of the judgments of souls in rebellion to God is omitted from the message of the Good News when liberals or ashamed people share it. How terrible that it’s omitted so often these days, when the days are coming that many will be living it!
May this essay motivate you to read Revelation, to pray for wisdom and understanding of the coming days, to receive the promised blessing for having read it, and for its words to be a catalyst in your heart for the lost who are under that very “boom” Greene mentioned, soon to be lowered…
Does the Bible speak to which doctrines are necessary for belief and faith in Christ? Yes. iIn it we find what one must believe or be condemned, and it states what not to believe.
The primary essential doctrines of the faith one must stick to, According to Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, (scriptures supporting them are here) are–
1. Jesus is God in flesh, and Jesus is the proper object of faith. The Doctrine of the deity of Christ includes:
–The Trinity
–There is only one God in all existence
–That Jesus is both God and man.
2. Salvation is by Grace alone
3. The resurrected Christ
4. The Gospel
They are called the primary essentials because the Bible declares them to be essential to the faith. Secondary essentials are necessary truths, but there is no self-declared penalty for their denial — yet they are still essential to the Christian faith. Those include:
–Jesus is the only way to heaven
–Mary’s virgin birth
An apostate very slowly starts to doubt the above. He or she begins to read and absorb other things that are contrary to those doctrines. Paul called false teachings gangrene because they slowly pollute the body and mind. (2 Timothy 2:17).
The Bible says that at the time of the end there will be a great falling away from the truth. Look to 2 Thessalonians for the prediction regarding the “falling away.” 2 Thess. 2:3-7 says,
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
The lawlessness is sinfulness and the fact that Paul says it is already at work means that there have been apostates throughout the Church Age, even in Paul’s day. Demas fell away and went back to the world. (2 Timothy 4:10). The verse in 2 Timothy 2:17 speaks of Hymenaeus and Philetus who spread false teachings, two men who “wandered away from the truth” and became “more and more ungodly”. (2 Tim 2:16; 18).
Where does the prosperity gospel fall into this continuum? One comment I often receive when writing a discernment article about a prosperity preacher, or any other false teacher, is that they can’t really be falling/fallen away from the truth, “because they declare Jesus as Lord” or some other affirmation of one of the primary essentials of the faith.
Of course they affirm Christ. If they didn’t, they would be immediately identifiable as false. Yet, in discernment, A teacher’s doctrine and life must match up. What they teach in one place must be the same as they teach in another.
For example, 1 Corinthians 16:22 makes our love for Christ a fundamental issue: “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed.” A false teacher may say they love Jesus, but their life betrays the truth. If they twist scripture consistently and grossly, if they sin unrepentantly, if they continually violate standards for behavior listed elsewhere in the Bible, they do not live Christ. They might have been reproached several times by an elder of colleague, and rejected that rebuke. Any or all of these show that the person does not love Christ.
Anyway, be sure of what you believe and why. Examine yourself to be sure you are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Drifting away is easy to do. (Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1)
Yesterday I wrote a comprehensive article documenting the slide from orthodoxy in Francis Chan. These things grieve me, but they are necessary to look into. Here is yesterday’s piece:
**Phil Johnson and Todd Friel discuss this article and the issues within on Too Wretched for Radio, below. Phil articulates the issues so much better than I did, please take a listen- https://wretched.org/radio/wretched-radio-08-19-2019/
The link below was the original talk, I am not sure if the one above is the same one. The link below has a 404 not found error message. I find that a lot wit Wretched links, they are hard to retrieve after a month or so. https://www.wretched.org/wretched-radio-04-15-2019/
—————–
Apostasy is defined as ‘a defection or revolt’. It is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy in religion (or who apostatizes) is known as an apostate. In Christianity, it is important to remember that apostates never really were saved. 1 John 2:19 says,
They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Apostasy is a process. No one wakes up one day and says “Gee, I hate Jesus and I’m not going to church anymore.” The first part of apostasy is a (usually slow) drifting away of the key doctrines of the faith. That’s the beginning. With that comes an eventual abandonment of the things of God and an attraction to the world and to the false teachers of the world. Unless a drastic repentance occurs this slide will grow and grow. Demas apostatized, we don’t know if he ever corrected course.
The second part of the process is the final abandonment of Christianity. Apostasy is in fact a process that progressively reveals the truth of one’s inner self, that one was never saved at all. Judas is the example here. He enacted a total repudiation of Jesus and what He stands for. Judas’s apostasy was hidden from even his close intimates, the disciples, until the very end. But it was there all along.
Apostasy begins with sinfulness. Sometimes it’s corrected by repentance, sometimes not. If not, it’s the first slide toward apostasy. An example of how apostasy is born of sinfulness might be that a woman wants to live with a man in sexual sin. Someone from church approaches her about her sin, and she rejects it as sin, perhaps saying that “The Bible never explicitly addresses this,” or “Only Paul wrote about that, not Jesus”. They present an excuse that in some way rejects the authority of the word of God. They might be approached about it again, and reject again, saying, “The Bible never says we have to gather for church, I’m going to worship at home.” Then after a while they don’t worship at all. They hang around with like-minded people who affirm their sin, they sin some more, and eventually they abandon the faith totally.
Francis Chan has been the object of much ink of late. Chan is a former graduate of The Master’s Seminary. He started Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley CA in 1994 with his wife and 30 other people. Eight years later the church had grown to 1600 members. By 2010 the church was a bona fide megachurch, and Chan decided to resign.
His reasons were, among others, due of the failure of the people in the church, Chan said. They ‘weren’t using their gifts’ and they were only ‘sitting around listening to my sermons’ Chan explained. It is ungracious and unhumble to blame your members for your departure. After 16 years no one would really fault a pastor for ‘feeling called’ to move on to another pastorate or position, though leaving the church you started IS a very big deal. However, to blame the resignation on your congregants and not yourself reveals a great deal about a pastor. It wasn’t even true. According to this essayist, the members were using their gifts and vibrantly serving.
If your members are not using their gifts, whose fault is that? Were they false converts allowed in as members to a rapidly growing church focused on growth and not souls? Or were they genuine converts not using their gifts due to unaddressed sin and thus a failure of church discipline? Both of these reasons lay at the pastor’s feet.
His second reason for resigning from Cornerstone Church was that his church ‘cost too much to run.’ He felt that there were too many wasted dollars. Chan continues at length in the above link and in other interviews about the money. In fact, his subsequent project, We Are Church, a house church movement, touts that it’s free and costs nothing. Not even the pastor gets paid. Hmmm. Isn’t that a violation of 1 Corinthians 9:14?
Anyway, that was the beginning, and a clue. He left his church, and not well, either.
Secondly, the We Are Church movement is another clue to Chan’s growing apostasy. Chan was obviously disillusioned with his megachurch, Cornerstone. Did you know that Chan founded Cornerstone in the first place because he had been disappointed and discontent with his previous church? That same old discontent reared its head again. Here is what he said about his discontent with Cornerstone:
But over the years, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still missing. It wasn’t a problem with the church members or with the staff that God brought to help me lead. We were successful in staying on target with the goals that had set the DNA for the church. But something was off.
He readily admits that the church was loving, giving, hearing the word of God, and vibrant. Yet “Something was missing.” I recall Sarah Young saying much the same thing when she stated why she wrote the heretical book Jesus Calling. ‘The Bible wasn’t enough’, and she yearned for more.
So Chan resigned from the church he founded, even though he said “God was stirring hearts,” “There was so much life at our services”, and “Lives were being changed.” He said, “There was no church I would rather have been a part of.” Yet…for Chan, something was missing. Remember, apostasy is inner sin, the flesh wants something other than Jesus.
When Chan resigned from Cornerstone in 2010, he took his family traveling in Asia to rethink church. At this point in his publicly recounted history Chan admits that his “theology leaves some room for hearing directly from God.” And on a certain day, Chan says he did. Yes. He heard directly from God. What did God say? “He was telling me to go back to the States and plant churches.”
That is clue #3. First it was disappointment with the churches he had been a part of, despite his own church admittedly doing well. Secondly it was a feeling that he needed to “rethink church”. The normal church model had disappointed Chan. Chan wrote that many people want the early Acts church’s “unstoppable power, miraculous love, and outrageous sacrifice of the first church” and in order to get that, it is more likely found in home churches, not the regular structure of churches ‘in big, expensive buildings’ we have come to know. In other words, he yearned for more.
It can be said that though megachurches are more difficult to manage, Charles Spurgeon’s church was mega, and clicked long just fine. There were regularly 800 or so weekly in his “Boiler Room’ AKA the prayer closet in the basement. John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church is a megachurch that also does well. 900 volunteers last week served in various areas at The Shepherds’ Conference. There are many small groups and fellowships ongoing. Megachurches can work just fine.
But Chan’s disappointment with Cornerstone generalized to the point where in 2013 he decided that home church, not a traditional church, was the way to go. Sadly, these home churches have as part of their model, an unhitching from the traditional sermon exposited by a qualified leader or pastor. Instead, they just all get together and “as a body we can wrestle with Scripture together.” (Source)
He also places man-made numerical limits on how many can join a home church until it needs to split and form another one. Nothing about submitting to the authority of the Spirit who sends however many people He wants. Nothing about 2 Timothy 2:15, only another man made limit on how long the home facilitator (not pastor) can speak (5-10 min, and only if he really feels the need).
Pastors shouldn’t be the ones to speak for the majority of the time in our gatherings. If they do, it subconsciously teaches people that they don’t have as much to offer. Source
Well they don’t have as much to offer, at least as far as biblical insights go. A new Christian needs the word explained to him so he can be trained in righteousness and teaching. (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
This is stepping stone #3 on the dark road of apostasy. We’ve seen Chan’s disappointment with his former churches. His ungracious throwing of his former church fellow members under the bus. His discontent with traditional church model. He mourns that “all the gifts aren’t being used” (Code for being a secret continuationist). He leaves church. He hears personally from God. He rethinks church. He creates a home church model that has no eldership in authority. He unhitches from the Word explained in a sermon. He begins to speak at heretical churches and partners with heretics.
In addition to being busy in 2013 planting home churches with that aformenentioned numerical limit, it was also in 2013 that Chan spoke for the first time at OneThing conference, the heretical International House of Prayer annual gathering. Chan stated that he loved its main speaker and founder, Mike Bickle, affirming him as a brother.
Chan spoke again at OneThing in 2015, 2016 and again in 2017, which included a Catholic Ecumenical track and a speaker who is a Catholic nun in the Society of Our Lady.
In 2018 Chan revealed that he is a continuationist, and likely always has been. “All his life” he’s felt a “disconnect” between voices in his head & inner feelings, and “what I would read”. He said he previously preached through Acts, but he “didn’t like reading Acts.” [the 6:40 mark & onward]. He now believes it was “the worst sermon series in history.” Why? Because though he preached, it “I didn’t believe it” [that the gifts in Acts were only for that generation].
Chan has admitted publicly that he wants to speak in tongues. He has asked God to give him that gift. He believes speaking in tongues is possible today. He pleaded with the IHoP crowd to affirm Chan as a brother to them even though he doesn’t speak in tongues.
He uses charismatic language to describe personal revelations from God. “On the plane here, it was revealed to me…” He said the Lord began instructing him to give away specific amounts of money, $50,000, $1M and so on. During The Send pre-rally in January 2019, Chan said he was given a room for an hour alone to commune with God in scripture and prayer. It was during this meditative moment that Chan divulged exact words God said to him,
“the Lord revealed something to me tonight, just a couple hours ago,” … “He said, ‘Francis, you’re not supposed to be Moses. You’re not supposed to go up on that mountain top and have everyone go, ‘What’d He say?’ See, something happened at the crucifixion: The veil was torn. (The Send pre-rally)
And remember that it was allegedly God who spoke to Chan in telling him to start home church network in back in 2013. Note that a “voice from the sky” also told Jennie Allen to start the IF:Gathering, a parachurch discipleship movement separate from the church.
Let me say this. Cessationists that turn into continationists that turn into charismatics, always apostatize. Always. Why? Because they are separating themselves from the Bible as their sole authority, an act that always leads away from Christ.
Very worrisome is Chan’s stance on the role of the sermon. I’ve read and listened to buckets of material in preparation for this essay. One constant thread is that Chan disbelieves that a person should preach from the word authoritatively, explaining it to hearers. It’s one reason he said he was quitting the church he founded. It is a hard and fast practice of his home network not to preach. Chan is fascinated with Acts and the notion of a group breaking bread in homes and poring over scripture together. This is a good thing of course, but it is not a substitute for regular church. To Chan, it is.
He doesn’t think people should ‘show up just to sit and listen to him’. He mentions it again and again in various sermons (But that has not stopped him to speak incessantly through the year at mega conferences where people show up just to sit and listen to him).
The Send, Orlando, January 2019
In 2019 Chan has been soundly criticized for appearing at The Send event, a pit of percolating heresy and suppurating false teachers. Speakers included Lou Engle, Todd White, Benny Hinn, Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, Heidi Baker, who are all noted as the worst of the worst.
No excuse. None.
Chan has been coy in his public speech. He carefully crafts responses. I noticed this since the beginning of his downward journey. One response he has made to the current criticism for partnering with the heretics listed above, is to say
“It has not been my practice to ask who will share the platform with me and to research the other speakers.”
Yet at the first IHoP OneThing conference he opened his speech by saying that research was the first thing he did after receiving an invitation to speak there. Quote,
This is the first time I’ve ever been to an IHoP event. It’s kind of crazy to me, because I didn’t know that much, so I kind of went on the internet and started looking things up. And, man, there’s a lot of great things going on here.
As I mentioned, apostasy is a process. Hebrews 2:1 says “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” The moment Chan left his church (and I have not been able to discover if he is in submission and fellowship at any other church since then) and formed a home church movement that deliberately did NOT teach the word of God to the people, he was well on his way to apostasy.
Francis Chan sadly is apostatizing before our eyes. He hasn’t just begun. He isn’t in the kiddie pool. He is in the deep end, swimming with sharks, coyly denying that they’re sharks in the first place, and saying the water’s fine.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7).
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. (James 1:15)
I value what my wiser brothers have had to say on this subject the past month. I’ve read most of it, and I’ve pondered and thought deeply. I’ve watched Mr Chan for many years, because I know many young people who like him and are confused by his actions and words (because they don’t match up). I write this with no joy. I pray he comes back to the fold, and reconciles his errant views on the role of and structure of the church, the role of pastors, his partnering with and affirmation of heretics, his direct revelations, and his stance on the continuation of charismatic gifts, before it is too late.
It is hard to ignore how many highly visible men in recent years (indeed, months) have behaved in sexually self-destructive ways. Some powerful men have long been sexually voracious; unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks.Of course, the heightened technological ability nowadays to expose private behavior is part of the reason for this change. But that is precisely the point: so many of the men caught up in sex-tinged scandals of late have exposed themselves – sometimes literally – through their own willing embrace of text messages, Twitter, and other indiscreet media.What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men’s judgment about sex and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses? … The hypothesis among the experts was that pornography was progressively desensitizing these men sexually.
She asks a good question, especially in light of the fact that the past 8 years has seen a precipitous plunge into depravity at a speed one would not have guessed. Same-sex-marriage, trans-gender, the advent of ‘non-binary’, even many Christian pastors unveiled as plumbing the depths of all kinds of sexual sin.
Wolf offers a different possible answer to it than I would. I say it is the fallen-ness of our sinful world and the fact that satan inhabits it, provoking our own sin-nature He is actually the god of this world and operates within it through the boundaries that God sets. On the other hand, Wolf could be unknowingly exactly right when she speaks of ‘desensitizing’, because Paul spoke of some people who, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;”
The full verse from 1 Timothy 4:1 is: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron“. The Matthew Henry commentary on this verse explains,
It is done by their hypocrisy, professing honor to Christ, and yet at the same time fighting against all his anointed offices, and corrupting or profaning all his ordinances. This respects also the hypocrisy of those who have their consciences seared with a red-hot iron, who are perfectly lost to the very first principles of virtue and moral honesty.
We get desensitized to sin. The ‘desensitization’ Wolf noticed is the seared conscience of a sin-scarred soul. Once engaging in it, unless we repent and confess immediately, presenting ourselves for a spiritual bath by the Holy Spirit, we remain unclean in that little spot, and we get used to the unclean feeling. We decide that it wasn’t really so bad, and we do it again. And again. Until we’re so strewn with scar tissue from the searing of our consciences, we become inured to the effects of sin and never even feel its pricks any more. And before long we have men exposing themselves publicly in ridiculous ways that they have convinced themselves are fun because they have lost any ability to feel shame.
God told Jeremiah to tell the Israelites:
Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished,says the LORD. (Jeremiah 8:12).
God spoke that to Jeremiah for His people at the end of a long list of sins they were committing, which also included deceit, straying from the ways of God, listening to false prophets who say all is well, being greedy, and rejecting God. He punished them. Will He do less with us here in America? Surely not!
Edward Gibbon wrote the book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He spent twenty years researching it. Through his research Gibbon realized that all great nations, Rome included, have fallen for the same reasons. Those reasons can be boiled down to just five, usually occurring in sequence-
1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4. The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within; the decay of individual responsibility.
5. The decay of religion, fading into a mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.
So is there any good news?
Though there is much to be mournful about, there is also much to be joyful about! Each day we are not raptured is a day closer to when it happens. Each day we are on earth is a day we can obey the Lord, celebrate the Lord, proclaim the Lord, and do the work of the Lord. Each day that passes is another day in which the Holy Spirit regenerates us more into His likeness. Each day that passes is a day we can thank Him for the many, many blessings we receive from Him, beginning with salvation. And each day that passes and our country and the world dies a bit more, we know that it is one day closer to when our new home will be ready to receive us. We celebrate worship, His glowing church, and His sovereignty.
Take heart, as Jesus promised Simon,
Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:17).
What rock is Jesus talking of? Peter’s confession! He knew, as we do, that Jesus is the Christ, (the Rock), the Son of the living God. And nothing thwarts the Living God’s plans and decrees.
We can work hard in obedience and repentance and prayer, not to spark a seared conscience in ourselves. We can be strong and bright lights for His name. We can anticipate the day of our homecoming, whether by death or rapture.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 13:4).
Keep praying, keep confessing, keep loving, even though it gets hard sometimes. Keep thinking of the lovely things. “”Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)”
And one day when we least expect, we will suddenly be clothed in new flesh, glorified and able to see Him as He is!
I like Ayanna Mathis’s writing. Her name was Ayanna Thomas, but she was married last week, congratulations! So now she is Ayanna Mathis. I’ve re-posted one or two things from her before. Ayanna is young, but wise. She makes sense, is gentle, humble, and a good writer.
She posts on Instagram ayannazariya. She had a blog called The Biblically Sound Woman with lots of good stuff, but stopped updating on it, though her writing is still there to be read and enjoyed. She stopped her podcast a year ago, too, choosing to drive most of her material to Instagram, where she also posts ‘Stories’ (videos). In addition to videos on Bible topics, she creates videos on the topics of healthful living and also makeup.
Ayanna posted this week on the notion of ‘Quiet Time’. Do you struggle to carve out a quiet time to read your Bible, pray, journal, or do a devotional? There are many young mothers in our church. It seems like a baby is being born just about every week! LOL seriously, about 6 or 8 babies have been added to the church family in the last year. Another baby came home from the hospital just last night! But that’s to be expected, our main demographic when we founded the church three years ago was college and just beyond, so this is the season for folks to marry and start families. It’s wondrous to see.
But with that comes time management issues, exhaustion, and bewilderment! So I thought of the young moms, busy moms, or any woman who struggles with finding a quiet time, and I repost this piece for your perusal. I hope it edifies you as it did me. I broke the chain in my Bible reading plan and got a week behind, and felt bad about that. I’m caught up, but even with the pleasure of reading His word in an organized way, as through this plan, there is a mild pressure to ‘perform’ and guilt when I don’t.
And be sure to check out Ayanna’s Instagram. Her photos are gorgeous too. She is one talented lady.
It’s been said that if you miss your quiet time for whatever reason, some how you’re lacking whatever instructions God wants to give you for your day. What can often be well-intentioned admonitions, can turn into a legalistic, “do this or you don’t get that” approach to meeting with God. And the way our busy schedules, course loads at school, children waking up at all odd hours of the night and sleep deprivation being so real are set up, we cannot afford to buy into self-deprecating messages that do us no eternal good.
I’m reminded of Exodus 25:1-9 when I think of what God does when He calls us to dwell with Him. He never said that the conditions would be perfect. He never said that He wasn’t sovereign enough to not make a ripe environment for the wayward people He chose to know Him. You know what He did instead? He spoke to Moses, told him to tell the people to take up a contribution for Him and gave specific instructions on how to build a sanctuary for God to what? DWELL IN THEIR MIDST.
God doesn’t approach quiet times the way that we often do, just as He didn’t lay on these thick, unachievable expectations on the people of Israel. He GAVE them the contributions needed from when they plundered Egypt before they got out of there. He GAVE them instructions on what to use, how to use it and how to build. And He GAVE them the knowledge that this wasn’t a little Pinterest project. This was purposed so, “that I may dwell in their midst.” (Ex. 25:8)
Your Bible is not a weapon to be used to beat yourself up with for not getting to it quick enough. It is an invitation from The Lord to see one of the means He has chosen to use to dwell in the midst of His people. Christian Woman, God is invading your space with provision for you to know Him. He’s The One working out pockets in your day to afford you the great opportunity to dwell with Him.
The Bible isn’t ineffective because we miss a few days. God by His Spirit is going to lead you even if you broke the streak in your Bible reading plan. Open up The Scriptures today, not out of a defeated mindset, but out of one that is encouraged. God is bigger than YOU.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his own sin entangle him. (Proverbs 5:22)
Yesterday I’d written a few thoughts on the massive college admission cheating scandal uncovered in in the US. You can read that essay here.
One of the people indicted in the scandal is actress Lori Loughlin. Loughlin has been an actress for many years, appearing in television shows such as Full House and its reboot, Fuller House, (as ‘Aunt Becky’), Hallmark TV series such as When Calls the Heart and Hallmark movie series Garage Sale Mysteries, Hallmark’s Christmas films, and family movies such as Moondance Alexander.
Lori Loughlin has built her career on ‘wholesomeness’. Some actors always play the ‘tough guy’. Clint Eastwood comes to mind. Others have built a career on playing the goofy sidekick, or the strong silent type. Steve Buscemi is typecast as a smarmy weirdo, Samuel L. Jackson is typecast as hard-core fierce. Others, such as Loughlin, were blessed with the ability to pick and choose, and Loughlin consistently chose roles depicting her as “wholesome” and “heartwarming”.
The Hallmark Channel brings to mind holidays, happy endings and now, incongruously, a college admissions scam that involves one of the channel’s favored actresses. Lori Loughlin’s surprising arrest this week poses a challenge for the family-friendly brand with heartland roots. The allegation that Loughlin paid bribes to gain her daughters’ college admissions is unconnected to Hallmark, but her career and the channel have become intertwined, [as the article explains].
Though Loughlin played wholesome characters for most of her acting life, we know from both the Bible and from experience that an actor’s life is often very different than their carefully crafted camera persona. When “wholesome, family-friendly actress” meets alleged “cheating bribery fraudster” it’s a clash that wounds. The wider the gap between inner and outer man, the worse the fall.
“[Hallmark’s] a feel-good, family values-type channel, and obviously scandal is the opposite of that,” said Atlanta-based market strategist Laura Ries. “Will people get past that to love the character on screen and not the real person?” (source again).
It did not take long for Hallmark to drop Loughlin. I really like Loughlin in Garage Sale Mystery. Last week I was looking at Internet Movie Database for the release dates of the Garage Sale Mystery movies I knew were in development, and if I remember right, there were 4 of them in production or post-production. I’d give you a screen shot, but the IMDb actress page for Loughlin has been quickly changed to reflect Hallmark’s decision to fire Loughlin, and those movies have been deleted from the list.
Loughlin has also been dropped from Hallmark’s Christmas movies and Netflix’s comedy Fuller House. Loughlin reportedly will not appear in the last season of Fuller House, as of this writing. Her appearance as Abigail Stanton in When Calls the Heart has also been pulled.
We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin including Garage Sale Mysteries, an independent third party production.
When Calls The Heart statement:
The series will not air this Sunday March 17 while we are evaluating all creative options around the When Calls the Heart series. #Hearties please keep checking back to our social for all updates related to the beloved When Calls The Heart. (Statement here.)
Loughlin’s alleged corruption and involvement in fraud and bribery immediately destroys the fragile bubble she has built. She has squandered all her “reputation capital”. Hallmark, “As the country’s leading destination for quality family entertainment,” stated in their ‘About Us’, trades on wholesomeness, too, & does not want to be tainted by Loughlin’s taint. Hence, Lori is dropped like a hot potato.
Lori Loughlin describes herself as a Catholic, which we know means if she believes the dogmas of Rome, she is not saved. Her inner man is not being daily sanctified to reflect the face of Jesus.
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Ephesians 4:1).
The unregenerate inner man can only fake it for so long. One’s sin will always find you out.
But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23).
Sin is hard enough to master with the aid of the Holy Spirit, it’s a daily battle. Without the Spirit, one has zero chance of reforming one’s desires for very long.
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it. (Genesis 4:7).
Reputation and trust are fragile things. In Christendom, when someone we look up to like a pastor or leader falls ‘below reproach,’ that trust is broken and he can never lead or shepherd again. Sin happens among Christ’s people, of course. We’ve seen the fall of Art Azurdia, (adultery), RC Sproul Jr, (adultery, and also drinking), Tom Chantry, (child assault) and Mark Driscoll, (financial malfeasance, sexist comments, bullying, more…). However, the forgiving Jesus will forgive the sin but He does not forget that the line was crossed. They forfeit their role forever.
For us Christians, it’s doubly important to daily call upon the Spirit in us to continue mortifying sin. We have to be active and focused on putting off that old man-
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, (Ephesians 4:22).
Undealt-with sin will cause a Christian to ‘fall.’ (Though we can never again be lost; John 10:28). Our fall is worse than an actress’s wasted reputation, because it’s the reputation of Jesus that we besmirch. We’re ambassadors of His name and character. We are trophies of His grace.
In the secular world, celebrities and actors whose reputations were shattered overnight include Mel Gibson, Paula Deen, Martha Stewart, Miley Cyrus. Sometimes the brotherhood of sinners will eventually forget and forgive. Sometimes not. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s acting career never recovered from his 1920s scandal. It does not look like Roseanne will recover from her racist tweet. Matthew McConaghey’s reputation failed, started to come back, failed again.
I am personally disappointed, because I like Lori Loughlin’s work. I’m sad that her sin not only crouched at the door but entered and eventually opened the door wide for all of us to see the seaminess of her heart and mind. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Sin is what sinners do. I think of the earnest college kids and their honest parents whose way was perverted by allegedly unscrupulous people like Loughlin and the others who were indicted.
The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. (Proverbs 17:23).
But it did not stay a secret.
Woe to those who bribe. God said that bribery engenders His wrath. (Proverbs 21:14). My prayer is that though she claims to love God (as a Catholic), this event that’s shattered her reputation and career will cause her to do some introspection and hopefully, repentantly, call upon Jesus as her savior.
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
The original FBI affidavit. 204 pages. It recounts the credibility of the primary investigating officer, lists the methods of investigation, the colleges and universities participating, transcribes phone conversations, and presents other evidence.
The news broke a couple of days ago that 50 people; celebrities, coaches, and wealthy financiers, have partaken in the United States’ largest college admission cheating scandal ever. These people paid up to $6 million funneled through a fake non-profit to assure their children’s acceptance to Ivy League and other distinguished universities like Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, and the University of Southern California. Bribery, lies, and corruption are at the heart of this scandal, the root of which is money. If you want to read more about it here is a link describing how the cheating and bribery worked, plus some other links below. Headlines regarding this recently uncovered corrupt activity include “massive” and “explosive.”
Initially I did not follow this news. I declined to read about it or learn more. I thought to myself, ‘What’s new? The rich always use their money to pressure others, bribe, or introduce corruption, so as to get their way. And what’s so different about the colleges? They’re bastions of secular, worldly philosophy, so of course there’s favoritism and unfairness.’ But as the week continued it became apparent how enormous the cheating scandal was.
I got to thinking about the money involved.
I started thinking about how love of money truly is the root of all evil. (1 Timothy 6:10).
In one of his early short stories called ‘The Rich Boy‘, (1929) F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote,
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.
The book that more claimed my attention in my formative years as a young adult was the 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe called The Bonfire of the Vanities. It’s seen as Wolfe’s magnum opus and is thought to be the quintessential book of the era. The 1980s were all about excess, Wall Street, race, class, money, and greed. Wolfe’s book captured all of that. The main character styled himself as a “Master of the Universe”.
Another phrase that comes to mind besides Master of the Universe is ‘Captain of Industry.’ We know from history there have always been men who were on top, machinators of events, driving industry in the direction they want to go, holding forth in their cities or towns, masterminding and manipulating circumstances and people. All this in regards to self and fulfillment of selfish wants.
You know the adage, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” as explained here. Lord Acton expressed that opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887.
Given the Bible’s warnings about money being the root of all evil, I tend to believe it is less power adn more money that corrupts. Money makes it easier to satisfy self, to get what one wants. Those green bills fan the flames of discontent, and the flesh ever seeks to claim what it thinks it wants, thinks it deserves.
I got to thinking about the Bible’s men who were rich. Job, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Solomon, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea. Moses had all opportunity to live on Pharaoh’s riches, so did Joseph. Yet these men withstood the temptations that go along with money, and did the right thing. Poverty doesn’t automatically mean a person is virtuous, and riches don’t automatically mean a person is noble. But a noble, well-doing person who is wealthy AND virtuous, is honoring to God.
In the New Testament, there were people who weren’t especially wealthy, but the scriptures make note that they were generous givers. For example,
Dorcas was “full of good works and acts of charity“. (Acts 9:36).
Cornelius was “a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God”. (Acts 10:2)
Even the widow gave her mites out of her poverty. (Luke 21:4).
Money is not evil. The love of money is the evil. When a person loves money to the exclusion of other people’s good, or your own good, it’s loathsome. Substituting money for God as an idol is a soul-killer. When it’s used to bribe, God considers this evil.
Definition of bribe: persuade (someone) to act in one’s favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement.
God forbids taking or giving a bribe. “for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous” (Exodus 23:8).
Again, we see this command in Deuteronomy 16:19, You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.
The college admissions cheating scandal is a tremendous blot against those institutions, colleges, and universities named. Cheaters have been exposed. Sophocles said,
I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
God help them if any of the cheaters were Christians. If they are wordly unsaved people, they have added this sin to their account.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
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The rapture will happen, and every day that passes makes it one day closer.*
There are some people who say that we should not say it is near, and they cite Mark 13:32, where it says ‘no one knows the day nor hour’. Or they cite 1 Thessalonians 5:1 where Paul said the day of the Lord will be as a thief in the night, a surprise. Or they cite Acts 1:7, where we are told we will not know the times or dates God has set by His own authority.
They are right.
If you meet up with anyone who knows the time, hour, or day, run, for they are false.
In Luke 12 beginning in verse 35 there is a section called “Watchfulness”. Jesus says, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,” and later in vs. 37 He says, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.”
So when you try to relate the imminence of the times don’t let anyone brush you off from speaking of it with the old chestnut, “we do not know the day nor hour” (Unless you have just told them a day or an hour.)
Others claim that the rapture as a doctrine is made-up, won’t happen, and is a false thing to believe. People who say that use a faulty hermeneutic, and thus have arrived at a false notion of things. It’s sad, because hermeneutics is a moral issue, being that it involves how one handles scripture and how the result of that handling makes one think of the Savior’s character and promises. No, the Bride will not be enduring God’s wrath at the Tribulation and she won’t be dragged through the mud during the worst time on earth. Paul explained the rapture to his people at Thessalonica and said to be encouraged by it. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
I feel the time is getting very close. I see the geo-political platform of the pieces coming together, the days and years passing, and I want to say WAKE UP!” “BE READY!”
I know so many people who are not ready. I have a near relative who has passed on. It seems he was never ready and likely dwells in hell now. Do I want my loved ones or friends to die apart from Jesus? No. Do I want my relatives or friends to go through the Tribulation, which will happen after the Rapture? No. I don’t want even my worst enemy to face the living hell of God’s wrath on earth, nor His wrath in eternity forever. The burden for the lost is heavy.
The world’s depravity is worsening by the day, but we knew that already. Paul told Timothy that the deception of men would wax worse and worse. (2 Timothy 3:13). Jesus said that things would get worse, and love would grow cold. (Matthew 24:12).
While the Lord may choose to defuse the situation on the earth and everything go back to something akin to normal or at least less depraved, that is His prerogative in His timing, but would He? Though God could certainly pull everything back from the brink, it is not probable, based on the verses above. Genesis 6:5 says
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
That’s how it is, the longer man goes without God, the worse his culture gets. It’s always a downward spiral. See: Judges.
I would venture to say that many conservative television shows, and radio shows, and blogs, and podcasts, perpetuate the “what is this world coming to?” attitude. It’s not uncommon for talk radio hosts to spend three hours lamenting the decay of morals in the world. But we shouldn’t be shocked or dismayed. The world is coming to exactly what Jesus said it would come to, and this actually gives us a lot of hope.
We can be dismayed over a culture that is gross and depraved, as ours is in the United States, but if we are going to lament, let’s lament the destiny of those without Christ. This world is not our home. However, we can hope in Him, that all His promises are true. The world is getting worse, yes, Jesus said so. However He will return, He said so.
What this adds up to is the final decision. A person must decide if they will acknowledge their sins against Jesus and ask Him to forgive them, or not. Not doing so means they will be left behind when He comes very soon for us. The Bible says it’s imminent. Worse, the day of a person’s death is unknown to him, and if he or she should die without Christ, they will be lost forever.
There is no sin you have committed in your life that Jesus will not forgive! The only unforgivable sin is refusing His pardon for your sins. He loves you and wants to take care of you and bless you and treasure you. He wants to save you and lavish love on you and adopt you. Yes, YOU!
Though Jesus could settle the world and wait another 10-20-50 years, I truly think He will not. I really think that it’s close. I’ve been saying this for ten years and I’ll go on saying it for another 40, or as long as the Lord’s days of my life haven’t reached their number.
The good news is that, in spite of the wickedness which fills the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ will continue saving sinners! Yes, evil is powerful, but Jesus is more powerful! Yes, Satan prowls about like a roaring lion, but Jesus is the great lion slayer. Jesus encouraged Peter that the church would not be overcome, and would even stand against hell itself
Repent, for the kingdom of Jesus is at hand.
Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;e repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14b-15)
*A version of this essay appeared on The End Time in February 2012. It’s been edited and changed.
the-end-time.org 