tower of babel

Burnout, Church Mothers, Discerning Women, discernment, encouragement, Michelle Lesley, prophecy, tower of babel, trevin wax

Gibberish, Discerning Women, Burnout, Church Mothers, Eschatological Discipleship

Posted on July 25, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Around the interwebs, edifying and thought-provoking essays for your enjoyment.

What I been sayin,’ words mean things. Words matter. They really do.

I’d written back along,

Well, the second problem that ties back into the first (ecclesiastical feminism) is that words mean things. They mean things. Any liberal in any realm in the battle for hearts and minds will first seek to change meanings of commonly understood words in order to co-opt the meaning and then to redefine them to their advantage. Example: sodomite—->homosexual—->gay. In the church world, we no longer sin. We make mistakes. We’re no longer Christian. We’re Christ followers.

GIBBERISH

Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)

So. Words matter. Until they don’t. The ever-brilliant Carl Trueman writes about The Coming of Age of Today’s Gibberish whereupon an “Editor’s Note” attempted to say what certain words mean without being too specific about what they really mean. Like the word “woman” and menstruate”.

Editor’s note: This blog post refers to individuals who menstruate as women because the author wanted to highlight gender inequality in health care. We acknowledge that not all individuals who menstruate identify as women and that not all individuals who identify as women menstruate, but feel this generalization is appropriate considering the gendered nature of most health care policies.

One might translate what the editor is really saying as ‘the concept of being a woman is now utterly meaningless but we have decided to preserve the fiction at those points where it is politically convenient for us to do so.’ Notice the editor’s use of the vague term feel and the slippery adjective appropriate. As ever, in our aesthetic age, it is impossible to argue against a feeling.

DISCERNING WOMEN

Here, Michele Lesley lists Nine Reasons Discerning Women Are Leaving Your Church and every single one is 100% a ‘hear, hear’.

The absence of discerning women in churches gives rise to many other problems. Godly mothers raise godly children, and absent discerning moms, the next generation of church life suffers. Elder discerning women have much to bring to the table (reason #7) in being the Titus 2:4 women teaching the younger. As discerning women leave churches the less discerning take over and soon you have the blind leading the blind. Third, the contributions to the faith of discerning women are without measure. Within our biblically prescribed roles, we see New Testament women advancing the Gospel and expanding the kingdom in myriad ways.

Priscilla and Aquila were discerning enough to see the potential in Apollos and taught him separately. Lydia’s home became a hotspot for prayer, teaching, and hospitality-fellowship. Dorcas gently led many women in a worthwhile sewing circle, teaching biblical principles by example.

On the other hand, you have a young and skittish and Rhoda who was so startled to see rescued Peter standing at the gate she shut it and left him there, believing the false but then-widely-popular notion that humans have a doppelganger angel, and that was who came to visit.

Soon, if not already, you will have churches that are absent your wise Priscillas, and Dorcas’ and Lydias and instead filled with foolish Rhodas.

Even though it is a bad thing that discerning women are leaving the churches, it is encouraging in a sense if you are one of the discerning women. At least you know you’re not alone in your concerns. Read Ms Lesley’s piece, it’s good.

While Scripture is pretty clear that we can expect women (and men) who are false converts to eventually fall away from the gathering of believers, why are godly, genuinely regenerated women who love Christ, His word, and His church, leaving their local churches?

BURNOUT

Other men and women are leaving due to burnout. Yikes, burnout is an epidemic, just at the time when we need good men and women ministering to the flock. Please, please avoid burnout. Please, please pray for your pastors and leaders.

Question: “What does the Bible say about burnout?”
Anyone who has experienced burnout knows it is not something he ever wants to experience again. Burnout is commonly described as an exhausted state in which a person loses interest in a particular activity and even in life in general. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, social, and spiritual exhaustion. It can lead to diminished health, social withdrawal, depression, and a spiritual malaise. Many times, burnout is the result of an extended period of exertion at a particular task (generally with no obvious payoff or end in sight) or the carrying of too many burdens (such as borne by those in the helping professions or those in positions of authority, among others).

CHURCH MOTHERS

Photo by Alysia Burton Steele

An interesting peek at a part of Christian culture of which I have no experience and very little knowledge

Chronicling Mississippi’s ‘Church Mothers,’ and Getting to Know a Grandmother

Ms. Bearden and Ms. Floyd were part of a larger assemblage of 50 African-American women whom Ms. Steele had chosen to chronicle in text and image for a book-in-progress she has titled “Jewels in the Delta.” Whether by formal investiture or informal acclamation, nearly all the women in the book held the title of “church mother,” a term of respect and homage in black Christianity.

ESCHATOLOGICAL DISCIPLESHIP

Jesus giving the Farewell Discourse (John 14-17)
to his disciples, after the Last Supper,
from the Maesta by Duccio, 1308-1311

Trevin Wax is an Editor at LifeWay and is working on his doctoral dissertation. He wrote recently that his dissertation is on the topic of Eschatological Discipleship.” This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because it is exactly the focus of this blog. How are we to live, biblically, knowing of Jesus return? I’d observed that too many people, as Trevin wrote below, focusing on Jesus’ past work and avoiding the future promise of His return. Yet the Bible is replete with admonitions for living, encouraging, and a praying for the future deliverance via the promises of prophecy. This is what Trevin is writing about. Here is the excerpt from his longer essay which is mainly on other topics. He wrote that he is taking a break from blog writing to focus on his dissertation writing, whichis the topic of:

Eschatological Discipleship

The topic of my dissertation is “eschatological discipleship.” Following Jesus means understanding our times in light of the biblical vision of history and having the wisdom to make the right choices when the path ahead seems unclear.

Many gospel-centered folks are right to point out that the New Testament’s moral imperatives are often grounded in Christ’s finished work for us in the past. What we sometimes overlook, however, is how many of those moral imperatives also look forward to Christ’s return in the future. We are called to be “children of the day” in a world that knows only darkness.

The question that propels me forward is this:

What kind of discipleship is necessary to fortify the faith of believers so that we understand what time it is, we rightly interpret our cultural moment, and see through the false and damaging views of history and the future that are in our world?

That is the question I posed in my workshop at TGC this year: Discipleship in the Age of Richard Dawkins, Lady Gaga, and Amazon.com: Grounding Believers in the Scriptural Storyline that Counters Rival Eschatologies. (The audio from the talk is available here.)
To be alert to our times is a gospel requirement, says Oliver O’Donovan:

To see the marks of our time as the products of our past; to notice the danger civilisation poses to itself, not only the danger of barbarian reaction; to attend especially not to those features which strike our contemporaries as controversial, but to those which would have astonished an onlooker from the past but which seem to us too obvious to question. There is another reason, strictly theological. To be alert to the signs of the times is a Gospel requirement, laid upon us as upon Jesus’ first hearers.

I agree.

Enjoy the day today friends, look forward to the future and keep looking up!

fiscal overlord, one world government, one world religion, tower of babel

Germany wants a fiscal overlord

Posted on October 19, 2012 by elizabethprata

The Tower of Babel

“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 10:1-9).”

Is God one big party pooper? Not allowing the men of the earth to have some fun, to build a tower to worship Him?

Nope, that’s not it. That is not why He stopped the tower building, confused the languages, and dispersed the people.

He did it because He knows that humans collecting together under the rule of one man (in that case, Nimrod) is bad for us. If one man runs everything, there are no checks and balances, and our evil ways will emerge very quickly to the detriment of all humankind.

Did He not say to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the whole earth? (Genesis 1:28). But they didn’t.

And after the Flood, did God not say to Noah and his sons, “As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it” ? (Genesis 9:1). But they didn’t.

And in no more than 100 years after the flood, Nimrod had set himself up as dictator, founded the Babylonian Kingdom, and began worshiping idols by building this tower for worship of the false gods. The did the opposite of filling the earth. The gathered, huddled, collected. It was rebellion. And worse, the tower was a monument to their pride. It wasn’t built to worship God, it was intended for worship of idols.

They said:
“Come let us…make a name for ourselves“.

So God said,
“Come let us…disperse them”

We know that the Tribulation, AKA The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, will be a time of 7 years when sin will be allowed to course unrestrained through the world. (2 Thessalonians 2:6). Sin will reach its full course, its full measure. Without a restraint, the full impact of man’s evil will come out. The most evil man who ever lived will be allowed to create his own Tower of Babel so to speak. The antichrist will run the economy, the military and the religion of the world. It will be a one world government and there will be no checks and balances. What God stopped at the Tower of Babel will become all too real in the Day of the LORD.

We already have a dilution of the world’s languages. This article in How Stuff Works, The Future of Language has some interesting facts. They wrote-

“It’s difficult for linguists to know how many languages exist in the world at any given time, mainly because the point at which a dialect becomes a separate language is hard to pin down. Best estimates put the current total at 6,909 distinct languages. Despite the difficulties of counting languages, most experts agree on one thing: There are fewer languages around today than yesterday. That’s because languages are disappearing at an alarming rate – some experts predict that half of the current languages will be gone by the year 2100.”

“Imagine losing the languages of the world to a dominant global one. According to Dan Fitzgerald, a Washington, D.C.-based French instructor, the costs to humanity would be huge. “Much of the culture that goes along with each of those languages would also disappear,” he explains. … Some might say that we already have a world language: English. English is spoken in more than 100 countries, making it by far the most global language on earth. There are certainly other languages that are spoken by more of the world’s people, such as Mandarin Chinese and Hindi. However, Mandarin Chinese and Hindi are spoken in only 16 and 17 countries, respectively.”

In a sense, we already have a one world language, almost. At the United Nations you can put on headphones and listen to simultaneous translation. It is really amazing. Slate explains:

“The United Nations uses simultaneous interpretation, which means translating on the fly without breaks (as opposed to consecutive interpretation, in which the speaker and translator alternate). At any given moment, the U.N. Interpretation Service has a dozen interpreters working six booths—one for every official language. The pair of interpreters in the English booth translates into English, the French booth translates into French, and so on. Attendees can then listen to the interpretations on headphones, clicking across channels for different languages. The job is exhausting, so interpreters will usually switch off every 20 minutes or so. They can also take breaks when the speech is in their language, since no translation is necessary.”

Online, google translate will instantly translate any language on a web page to any other language, even Esperanto or Latin. So in some respects, a one world language is already here.

A one world religion is clicking along to close to fulfillment. Calls for ecumenism, tolerance, and an interfaith church based on religious elements of faith that we share and not the differences are getting louder. Ecumenism according to Walter A. Elwell, in The Concise Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, is “The organized attempt to bring about the cooperation and unity among Christians.” To this end, the Catholic Church and its practices are increasingly accepted in evangelical circles. Labyrinth walking, lectio divina, contemplative prayer, saintly visions, works/word-based faith, and direct revelation had all been part of the Catholic Church for many years but is now permeating the conservative Southern Baptist congregations like gangrene in a Civil War soldier.

Which is funny because the more that the conservative Protestant Churches accept Catholic ecumenism, the more they die an agonizing spiritual death, because Catholicism teaches that no salvation is available to anyone not a Catholic. So there’s their ecumenism for you. It is a classic bait-and-switch

[Proof-text: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God.” (CCC 816). ‘

That desire to congregate is reaching a height these days. The religious conglomeration that will be fulfilled in the Tribulation in a one world religion is ramping up now with demands for ecumenism and with the active push of the Roman Catholic Church to overturn the Reformation (and the more gullible Conservative Evangelicals accept the push).

Gathering together is a bad thing for humanity, not the least of which is because of the evil the prophesied overlord will perpetrate. And what’s worse, is the leaders of the world are clamoring for it. Read this headline from two days ago:

Germany shocks EU with fiscal overlord demand
“There must be an EU “currency commissioner” with sweeping powers to strike down national budgets; a “large step towards fiscal union”; and yet another EU treaty. Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dropped his bombshell in talks with German journalists on a flight from Asia, and apparently had the blessing of Angela Merkel, the chancellor. “When I put forward such proposals, you can take it as a given that the chancellor agrees,” he said.” … Mr Schaeuble said the currency chief should have powers similar to those of the EU’s competition commissioner, a man “feared around the world”. The competition Czar is the arch-enforcer of the EU machine, with powers to launch dawn raids, deploy SWAT teams, and block mergers on his own authority.”

Did you even know there was such a thing as a Competition Czar? I didn’t. And now the EU official wants a fiscal overlord? Wow.

In my opinion, one of the scariest things God said is in the opening verse above, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6). But THE scariest is that in the tribulation, He will allow it.

While you still can,
COME TO CHRIST, HE IS MIGHTY TO SAVE!

Watch the 3 minutes that may change your life-

gemonoid, Hiroshi Ishiguro, prophecy, robot, tower of babel

Blurring the lines between humans and robots

Posted on August 25, 2012 by elizabethprata

I posted on Friday about a robot that has been developed which recognizes its own reflection. I’d mused on the implications of this, within the concepts of artificial intelligence, the location of the seat of consciousness, and recognition of sin and evil in ones’ self. The nearer implication is the use of computers and artificial intelligence during the Tribulation when a one world commerce system is prophesied to be in place. The greater implication is the use of robots (droids and drones) in hunting humans and other evil uses. The greatest implication is man’s Tower of Babel, and how far God will allow humankind to go in making a conscious creation.

Is it a coincidence that today I found a short (under 2 minute) Youtube video about the most human-looking robot ever created, and the discussion by its maker about where the seat of the soul is? In this video, the Japanese Professor who created a doppelganger robot says that it is because of their unique spiritual beliefs that they blur the boundaries between humans and robots. He says, “It’s a question of where the soul is. Japanese people have always been told the soul can exist in everything and anything. So we don’t have any problem with the idea that a robot, too, has a soul.”

The implications of this are enormous. More portentous, in my humble opinion, than the inflammatory rhetoric that will spark a Middle East war imminently. When man makes a human looking robot, declares it has a soul, and sends it forth into the world (as the Professor in the video said he does) we have truly reached a moment when man supplants God as sole creator. God said in Genesis 11 in response to man’s Tower building and claim of a “name”, “this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6b). The Tower was built satisfy the spirit of man. God knew man needed Himself to satisfy the spirit, and He wasn’t being a big party-pooper when He dispersed the people and confused the languages. “[N]othing they do will be impossible for them” means they will embark on a downward spiritual and societal spiral that will only lead to death, because they were doing it apart from Him.

Secondly, God is the only name. Man has no name. Man is the clay, he is the creation. God is the Creator, with all power and authority. Therefore God’s name is holy and perfect.

“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11).

“And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’ ” (Ezekiel 38:23

Man will never be allowed to share God’s glory apart from God, it is His alone. Psalm 84:11 declares that He may share His glory, but it is not man’s to claim, neither by “making a name” nor by creating creatures with “souls.”

Watch and be stunned:

PS: robot is called a “doppleganger robot.” Doppleganger is a German word for “double walker” , or a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune.

higgs boson, large hadron collider, lhc, tower of babel

The Higgs boson, AKA ‘God’ particle, and the tower of Babel

Posted on July 5, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Scientists say that they are 99.999999% sure they have found the elusive Higgs boson particle, AKA their dubbed “God” particle.

Why do they want to know if the Higgs boson exists? Because:

A picture with a zoom effect show a grafic traces of proton-proton collisions events measured by European Organization for Nuclear Research in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience on May 25, 2011 in the search for the Higgs boson.

“The Higgs boson has long been thought the key to resolving the mystery of the origin of mass. The Higgs boson is associated with a field, called the Higgs field, theorized to pervade the universe. As other particles travel though this field, they acquire mass much as swimmers moving through a pool get wet, the thinking goes. “The Higgs mechanism is the thing that allows us to understand how the particles acquire mass,” said Joao Guimaraes da Costa, a physicist at Harvard University who is the Standard Model Convener at the LHC’s ATLAS experiment. “If there was no such mechanism, then everything would be massless.”

The origin of mass is no mystery. Read Genesis 1:14-19. Even better read Genesis 1:1. Scientist Herbert Spencer said that “all reality, all that exists in the universe can be contained in five categories…time, force, action, space and matter. Time, force, action, space and matter. That is a logical sequence. And then with that in your mind, listen to Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning,” that’s time…”God,” that’s force, “created,” that’s action, “the heavens,” that’s space, “and the earth,” that’s matter. Everything that could be said about everything that exists is said in that first verse.” (source).

I’ve always thought that the Large Hadron Collider and the activities around the search for the God Particle are one of the best benchmarks for where we are in the prophetic timeline nearing judgment. This is because in my opinion, the LHC is a post-Shinar Tower of Babel.

In Genesis 11:1-9 we read the story of the dispersal from the Tower of Babel.

“And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”

The people had been told to go forth and multiply and fill the earth. But instead they “settled” at Shinar, rebelling against the Lord’s command. There, they determined to deepen their rebellion by building a city for themselves, (so they could be socially satisfied) and to make a name for themselves (to satisfy their pride) and to build a tower that will touch the heavens (to satisfy their false gods).

There is no excuse for them. There still lived the people who had lived before the flood, Noah’s sons. They estimate the Tower was built a mere 100 years after the flood, so rebellion again began quickly. They could still listen to first hand accounts of life pre-Flood and know what a Wrathful God would do. They suppressed the Truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18) and determined to build a monument to touch the heavens so their false gods would be honored. But instead of God judging them via flood again, which He said He would not do, He judged them by separating them.

The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s most expensive science experiment, costing about 10 billion dollars. The aim is, according to the article here, five-fold:

1.The origin of mass
“This discovery bears on the knowledge of how mass comes about at the quantum level, and is the reason we built the LHC. It is an unparalleled achievement,” Caltech professor of physics Maria Spiropulu, co-leader of the CMS experiment, said in a statement.”

Let us make a name for ourselves.

2. The Standard Model
The Standard Model is the reigning theory of particle physics that describes the universe’s very small constituents. Every particle predicted by the Standard Model has been discovered — except one: the Higgs boson. “It’s the missing piece in the Standard Model,” said Jonas Strandberg, a researcher at CERN working on the ATLAS experiment. “So it would definitely be a confirmation that the theories we have now are right.”

Man seeking to confirm himself through his own wisdom? “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)

3. The Electroweak Force
“A confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson would also help explain how two of the fundamental forces of the universe — the electromagnetic force that governs interactions between charged particles, and the weak force that’s responsible for radioactive decay — can be unified.”

“And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Gen 11:6)

4. Supersymmetry
Another theory that would be affected by the discovery of the Higgs is called supersymmetry. This idea posits that every known particle has a “superpartner” particle with slightly different characteristics. … “If the Higgs boson is found at a low mass, which is the only window still open, this would make supersymmetry a viable theory,” Strandberg said. “We’d still have to prove supersymmetry exists.”

We already know that the universe is orderly. “For God is not a God if disorder but of peace.” (1 Cor 14:33). James 3:16 says that disorderliness is of every evil work. To come that close to acknowledging the harmony, symmetry, and orderliness of God but not acknowledge that it IS God, is the height of blasphemy.

5. Validation of LHC
“The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle accelerator. It was built for around $10 billion by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to probe higher energies than had ever been reached on Earth. Finding the Higgs boson was touted as one of the machine’s biggest goals.Finding the Higgs would offer major validation for the LHC and for the scientists who’ve worked on the search for many years.”

It’s an achievement if man can validate man? The Tower’s ends were to feed on itself, too. Of the Tower of Babel affair, “The contrast in this brief text is between what man desires to achieve directed at self glory, self fulfillment, and what God does to show man’s impotence and emptiness before him. It is man at his best and his noblest trying to achieve his greatest anti-God act and God steps in and undoes the whole thing.” MacArthur

Listen to physicist Michio Kaku on the implications of the God Particle’s discovery with an ear to the aims of man in building the Tower of Babel. It is an end to feed on itself:

In opining about the LHC success in being 99.999% sure they found the Higgs boson, one editor of an Australian paper had an editorial titled, “One small atomic particle for science, one giant leap for mankind.”

The difference is that when comparing the LHC achievement to the United States’s original moon shot achievements, particularly on December 24, 1968, in what was the most watched television broadcast at the time, the crew of Apollo 8 read in turn from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the moon. Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman recited verses 1 through 10. They acknowledged God, and took one giant leap for mankind- as His witnesses.

The people who are active in and who are around and who report on the doings in the lab under the Alps at Switzerland, use God language, refer to God’s creations but do not acknowledge God. Here is one example:

Lisa Randall wrote a book called “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World” and in it she refers to the LHC —
“Despite my resistance to hyperbole, the LHC belongs to a world that can only be described with superlatives. It is not merely large: the LHC is the biggest machine ever built. It is not merely cold: the 1.9 kelvin (1.9 degrees Celsius above absolute zero) temperature necessary for the LHC’s supercomputing magnets to operate is the coldest extended region that we know of in the universe—even colder than outer space. The magnetic field is not merely big: the superconducting dipole magnets generating a magnetic field more than 100,000 times stronger than the Earth’s are the strongest magnets in industrial production ever made.”

Isn’t man great!! We can do things!

Algernon Swinburne, English poet, wrote a poem in 1871 called Hymn of Man. In the book, Swinburne and His Gods: The Roots and Growth of an Agnostic Poetry we read this quote about why Swinburne wanted to make a poem called “Hymn to Man”: to sing the human triumph over ‘things’, the opposing forces of life over nature, and over the God of his own creation. It might end somehow thus with a cry of triumph over the decadence of a receding deity:

“And the love song of earth as thou diest sounds over the graves of her kings, Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of things.”

Yet the bible says, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 1” (1 Cor 2:6-10).

The lesson of the Tower of Babel, and I suspect the LHC also, is that when man searches the deep things of God without and apart from the Spirit, worshiping the creation and not the Creator, look what happens:

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:21-23)

“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25)

cern, large hadron collider, lhc, tower of babel

God is in a particle, or is He?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by elizabethprata

The physicists under the Alps at a lab called CERN built a machine to enable them to smash particles that will allegedly replicate the moments after the universe was created, an event they call the Big Bang. They say, if they can find this particle, it will prove everything. The particle is the Higgs Boson and its existence has eluded scientists ever since they theorized it four decades ago. The particle is supposed to carry all the mass in matter, and if found to exist would be the basis for all understanding of how the universe works. That is what they call it the “God particle”. The Higgs Boson is allegedly the glue that holds the universe together.

If it is proven to exist, it would provide a bridge across a previously unscalable chasm between the theories of the macro (General Relativity) and the theories of the micro, (Quantum Mechanics) which currently don’t resolve. Here is the Jamaica Observer’s summary of the current excitement from CERN:

“THE world of physics is bubbling with excitement this weekend as scientists await news about the discovery of what some call “The God Particle”. The Higgs boson, a sub-atomic particle that is thought to carry all the mass in ordinary matter, has eluded the boffins (persons engaged in scientific or technical research) since it was proposed nearly half a century ago. But speculation is raging across the Internet that Cern — the European particle physics laboratory that has the world’s largest atom smasher — is about to announce that it has evidence, if not conclusive proof, of the existence of the Higgs. The Higgs, if it has emerged for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland, could help to unify the two great physics theories of the 20th century.”

Einstein hated quantum physics. The Standard Model of physics attempts to resolve all theories into a theory where all actions (whether at the macro or the micro) are harmonized. You see, Einstein had a problem. He hated the emergence of Quantum Physics because the two were not harmonized, but actually were opposed to each other. Einstein spent the rest of his life alternately trying to disprove Quantum Physics or to harmonize the two into his Theory of Everything. To this end, he famously said, “I want to know God’s thoughts, all the rest are details.” In the BBC documentary summary about Einstein’s last days, they wrote, “Einstein’s work was underpinned by the idea that the laws of physics were an expression of the divine. This belief led him to think that everything could be described by simple, elegant mathematics and moreover, that once you knew these laws you could describe the universe with absolute accuracy.”

So by now the CERN particle smashing experiment is concluded and the scientists have been assiduously examining the results. The first surprising result that came out in September is that it seemed that particles can travel at a speed faster than light, something Albert Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity said they cannot do.

A second result is that it seems the scientific community is abuzz with some evidence, if not conclusive proof, that the God Particle does exist. The Daily Mail’s headline, ‘Significant progress’ made in search for God particle: CERN announcement ignites storm of excitement among physicists doesn’t even come close to the recording palpable excitement of these scientists finding what they call the Holy Grail of particle physics.

So how does this all fit in with bible prophecy? In a couple of ways. The first is a reference back to Einstein’s comment that he wanted to know God’s thoughts, and that He doesn’t play dice with the universe. Einstein overtly thought that if he could find the theories that harmonize it all, he will have found God. God is an orderly God and He does things in an orderly fashion. Einstein was right in that God created the universe and that He controls it. Einstein was wrong in thinking that man could find the key to the theories that will produce God in a neat box and that man will then know all that God does. It doesn’t work that way. If man could understand the universe with “absolute accuracy” as Einstein thought, then man would be equal to God. Though Einstein overtly said and believed these things, the other scientists such as the ones at CERN also believe this. Or else they would not be looking for God in a particle.

Einstein had it backward, as the prophecy said man would. In 2 Timothy 3:7 we are told that in the last perilous days, man will be “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. …But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.” Einstein was always in search of the truth of the universe, which God made, but that he and the other scientists want to remake in their image. How could Einstein come that close but never truly see God, which is Jesus in man’s form? The prophecy said it would be so. Ever learning, never able to come to knowledge of what will save a man…Einstein wanted to know God’s thoughts, but those thoughts are already written down for us in the bible, not in a scientific theory. Science shows God’s mind, but learning science doesn’t prove God.

The second biblical principle we can learn from this is one that is seen in Genesis 11. In only two chapters after the flood and the covenant of the rainbow, man was at it again. In verses 1-9 we read of the Tower of Babel affair. The men led by Nimrod had decided to build a city, as Cain had built a city before the flood. Man was not ready to live in a city together, as evidenced today by the fact that man still does not do well living in close proximity to other men. It is God’s intention to build the city for men (New Jerusalem.)

The most famous verse about this affair is the one from Genesis 11:4 , “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 10 describes a scattered people and mentions their tribal languages, so the scattering and linguistic diversity had already begun. It is man who resisted God in staying together, and further, they knew it. We also see that the purpose of the tower was religious, they acknowledged God but wanted to remake Him in their own image and on their own terms. This most devastating motive is revealed in the part of the verse, “let us make a name for ourselves.” In sum the Tower of Babel was a sham, mentioning God but in fact sweeping Him aside to pursue man’s name.

I consider CERN’s Large Hadron Collider the modern Tower of Babel. It is a monumental effort mentioning God but in fact sweeping Him aside to pursue man’s name. I’ve written about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN many times, most pointedly in June 2010 in likening it to the Tower of Babel in an article titled “The Sound of Symphony, or Blasphemy?” where the scientists in pursuit of what the God particle looks like, were also attempting to see what the God particle sounds like.

This Tower of Babel attitude is captured in theoretical physicist Michio Kaku’s statements in 2007. At that time, he hosted BBC4’s science documentary series “Visions of the Future.” Of the series, Dr. Kaku said, “we are entering an empowered new era: “We have unlocked the secrets of matter. … “We will have the power to animate the inanimate, the power to create life itself,” says Dr. Kaku. “We will have the power of gods.” In the series, Dr Kaku extols the virtues of man’s soon-ability to have ‘mastery over matter’. Yet, God is the only Being with that ultimate ability and no matter how much we learn, we are not gods.

Just as in the days of the Tower of Babel, when God “came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” (Genesis 11:5) and thus dramatically and directly intervened, we are also told that when the full number of the church is reached (Romans 11:25) He will personally and dramatically intervene again, calling His bride to Him and then begin the judgments of the remaining people.

Of God’s statement in Gen 11:6, “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do,” Barnes Notes explains, “In like simplicity is depicted the self-willed, God-defying spirit of combination and ambition which had now budded in the imagination of man. … Now that they have made this notable beginning of concentration, ambition, and renown, there is nothing in this way which they will not imagine or attempt.”

“The Higgs boson is often referred to these days as “the God particle” after the title of Leon Lederman’s book, “The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?” Lederman initially wanted to call it the “goddamn particle,” but his editor wouldn’t let him.” Well thank goodness for that. The Higgs boson is theorized to be the “force carrier” of the Higgs field — a field believed by physicists to permeate the entire Universe. Yet Jesus is the glue that holds the universe together. (Colossians 1:17). And to answer Mr Lederman’s provocatively titled paper, here is the question, do you believe you are a sinner who needs to appeal to the resurrected Jesus for forgiveness of those sins in order to escape the just wrath that will befall you?

Is the Large Hadron Collider a horizontal Tower that pokes into the universe, sweeping God Himself aside in pursuit of making a name for ourselves? I think so. And we know what happened last time. I am all for science. I love it and I love the intellectual pursuit of answers to the deeper questions of the earth, planets, universe and subatomic worlds God has made. God is not against that either, because look how much man has learned by His allowance and through His hand on the smarter scientists and inventors! But when the Tower of Babel attitude prevails, when we forget God in the process, that is when things get sticky for men. And I believe that man is on the cusp of that Tower of Babel attitude, of sweeping God aside to think we have become our own gods, able to manipulate the universe through our own mastery to our own ends. Maybe it is a goddamn particle after all.
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end of days, end time, prophecy, tower of babel

Building a Tower of Babel in Argentina

Posted on May 10, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Symbols matter. If they didn’t, why do companies spend so much time and energy on logos? Why are logos patented?Why do people go nuts when a famous logo is changed? Why it is called a “brand”?

Symbols add understanding to our lives. They are expressions of human nature, and they are found in all cultures over all time. Human communication depends on interpretation of letter and number symbols, and picture symbols themselves.

Handprints are the most common symbol in ancient rock art, depicting perhaps the original, “I was here” message. Aboriginal handprints have been interpreted to mean the spiritual imprint of the symbol-maker. In India, handprints are a symbol of protection and placed on the doorframe.

The bible is full of symbols. Clothing or garments represent character (Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 59:6). Oil represents the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 25:1-13) The fish was and still is a symbol denoting a believer lived there. The fish was also a Greek acrostic. The Greek word for fish was ixthus which was an acrostic spelling for Jesus as the first letter, the 2nd letter for Christ, the next two, God Son, and the final letter represented the word Savior. This spells “Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the Savior.”

I wrote a piece in October of 2009 titled “EU: end time symbols too blatant to ignore.” In it, I showed that here again, symbols are important and used for particular meaning. Choosing them also illustrates that the chooser was intending to convey a certain meaning, certainly because there are so many symbols to choose from. I always get soundly mocked by non-believers for saying this when I post a movie-symbolism piece, but Hollywood symbolism is picking up on satanic symbols left and right, fast and furious. I had written in the essay in Oct 2009 that choosing certain slogans and symbols of the EU is satan’s way of spitting in God’s eye once again.

If companies can have symbols, why not God? If God can have symbols, why not satan? If satan can have symbols, why not Hollywood? Symbols convey meaning, they are chosen for a reason, and they matter to the chooser, and they matter to God.

A certain Argentinian street installation artist finished her latest piece. It is the Tower of Babel.

link

Photo taken on May 6, 2011 shows the “Tower of Babel”, a creation made by Argentine artist Marta Minujin with thousands of books in languages from all over the world, at San Martin square in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The artwork was created to celebrate that the UNESCO nominated Buenos Aires as the World Book Capital 2011. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

There are many installation representations she could have chosen. She could have re-created a Gutenberg Press, certainly a revolutionary machine in the history of book-making and global dispersal of literature. She could have made a rocket symbolizing transport to outer reaches that books take you, the Huckleberry Finn raft, the whale of Moby Dick, the Round Table at Camelot. She could have made a cross, or the city of New Jerusalem. She did not. She chose the Tower of Babel, one of the most iconic moments in the bible of an ‘in your face’ disobedience.

Babylon becomes, in past history and in future prophecy, the fountainhead of false religion in all the world. According to Gotquestions’ summary,

“The Tower of Babel is described in Genesis 11:1-9. After the Flood, God commanded humanity to “increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). Humanity decided to do the exact opposite, “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11:4). Humanity decided to build a great city and all congregate there. They decided to build a gigantic tower as a symbol of their power, to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4). This tower is remembered as the Tower of Babel.”

“In response, God confused the languages of humanity so that they could no longer communicate with each other (Genesis 11:7). The result was that people congregated with other people who spoke the same language, and then went together and settled in other parts of the world (Genesis 11:8-9). God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel to enforce His command for humanity to spread throughout the entire world.”

The Argentinian artist chose a symbol of open defiance of God’s command. Such choices have repercussions. Just as the people building the tower lived a consequence both physically and spiritually, people who choose to lift up unholy things instead of holy things will also suffer the consequences of their choices. This is not a fact that is appreciated or even absorbed by the unsaved-at-large, but it is absolute.

Romans 13:1-5 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”

Or more to the point, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life”. (Gal 6:7-8)

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dubai, end of days. prophecy, end time, rapture, the world, tower of babel

Dubai unfinished development sinks back into the sea

Posted on January 25, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Note: the headline is all theirs.

The end of The World: Dubai island development sinks back into sea after being scuppered by financial crisis

It exemplified the booming property market and ambition of Dubai’s entrepreneurs. But after the global financial crisis led to the collapse of the emirate’s home-building market, a unique development known as ‘The World’ is reportedly facing Armageddon. The project, a man-made archipelago designed to resemble a map of the planet, is facing disaster as its islands have begun sinking, a tribunal heard this week. The development, which sits a mile and a half from the mainland, is all but vacant after investors who bought up its ‘nations’ saw their finances collapse after the economic crash.

The end of The World: A near-empty property development in Dubai is sinking

A company that ferries people to the islands is now seeking to withdraw from its contract with Nakheel, developers of The World, due to a lack of business and the erosion of the islands’ sands. Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, a British lawyer for Penguin Marine, told a property tribunal the islands are ‘gradually falling back into the sea’. He added there was evidence of the ‘erosion and deterioration of The World islands’. Only one of the ‘nations’ – Greenland is inhabited currently, with Dubai’s ruler owning a show home on the island. While Nakheel deny penguin Marine’s contention that the project is ‘dead’, the firm admits The World has slipped into ‘a coma’. ‘This is a ten-year project which has slowed down,’ he told the tribunal. ‘This is a project which will be completed.’ He added Penguin would see a return on its investment.

Facing extinction? This virtual photo of the Europe section of The World shows the dream of the Dubai project, not its sad reality

That’s the price Penguin makes to stay in the game,” he said. ‘They have the potential to earn millions.’ The tribunal found for Nakheel on Thursday, with full reasoning to come later. A spokesman for Nakheel insisted the islands were not sinking. ‘Our periodical monitoring survey over the past three years didn’t observe any substantial erosion that requires sand nourishment,’ a statement said. The World has already experienced its fair share of problems, with the businessman who bought the Ireland residence committing suicide after the collapse of his company while a London businessman who paid £43million for the Britain island was jailed for seven years last year for bouncing cheques. The claims of the erosion of The World comes as a Reuters poll showed Dubai’s house prices are set to fall by another 10 per cent over the next two years. Property prices in the emirate have fallen 58 per cent from their peak in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Here is an interesting promo video for The World:

The World islands are next door to the more famous man-made palm looking islands:

Kind of reminds me of the sudden halt of the Tower of Babel.

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end of days, end time, prophecy, tower of babel

Man is busy re-creating creation in his own image

Posted on January 14, 2011 by elizabethprata

I’ve been saying constantly that God will judge due to rebellion against Him. One way people rebel and stay in their own sin is to fail to acknowledge Him and His sovereignty over all the universe. Another way to sin is that even if man acknowledges Him, man still elevates himself to His position. Satan did that in his “I will” statements found in Isaiah 14: 12-15 wherein satan vowed to elevate his throng above God’s. It was how and where sin entered into his heart, and then the world.

We have seen what happens when man and angel elevates himself to positions to which he is not entitled. The Tower of Babel is one example where that process comes to mind. (Genesis 11:1-9). God confused the languages and scattered the inhabitants who were building the tower not because He is a killjoy oppressing the people who were trying to make something of themselves. Rather, He knew they were not ready for cities, had told them to go forth and multiply, and they didn’t. Their leader was Nimrod and his name is from the verb ‘let us revolt.’ Nimrod was the world’s first dictator and the tower was being built to worship astrology and to push the envelope of man’s technological achievements (Gen 11:3). Genesis 11:4 says that the people wanted to make a name for themselves. They did not say ‘let us honor God’s name’.

Ever since then, man has been wanting to make a name for himself, supplanting God in his endeavors either by failing to acknowledge His means or by plowing ahead in ambition absent the Holy Spirit. I’ve noticed today four headlines that are examples of this in today’s world:

Man is using DNA to re-imagine warfare…

Dept. of Defense may begin collecting and mapping genome of all military personnel
“A new report from a highly influential group of scientists [The JASON Group] is urging the Department of Defense to begin collecting and mapping the full genome of all military personnel. Pentagon officials believe gene-mapping all military personnel could lower health costs within the military and help scientist learn a great deal about the link between fighting and genetics. So, “what’s the big deal, why does it matter?” The report sneakily inserted the possible idea of the weaponization of genetic information into the report. “It may be beneficial to know the genetic identities of an adversary,” it says. The Department of Defense will be in charge of the giant database housing the soldiers records and will likely benefit by organizing personnel data into phenotypes for the military.” source

JASON is an independent group of scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology. The group was first created as a way to get a younger generation of scientists—that is, not the older Los Alamos and MIT Radiation Laboratory alumni—involved in advising the government. It was established in 1960 and has somewhere between 30 and 60 members. For administrative purposes, JASON’s activities are run through the MITRE Corporation, a non-profit corporation in McLean, Virginia, which contracts with the Defense Department. JASON typically performs most of its work during an annual summer study. Its sponsors include the Department of Defense (frequently DARPA and the United States Navy), the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Intelligence Community. Most of the resulting JASON reports are classified.

Man is using technology to re-create extinct animals for no reason…

Cloning might create live woolly mammoth
The extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life in as little as four years thanks to a breakthrough in cloning technology, a Japanese researcher says.

Man is re-engineering one of God’s creatures…

Re-engineered chicken enters the war against bird flu

[W]hat if there were a way to breed poultry that are genetically resistant to H5N1 or any other avian flu virus, thus severing a major link in the flu’s evolutionary chain? That’s what a team of scientists in Britain tried to do recently, and they were remarkably successful. The result, reported in a study in the Jan. 13 issue of Science, is genetically engineered chickens that, while they’re still vulnerable to H5N1, don’t seem to pass on the disease to other poultry.

Man is re-wiring human brains…

UT-Dallas Researchers’ Potential Tinnitus Cure Rings Loudly in Scientific Community’s Ears

This minimally invasive method of generating neural plasticity allows us to precisely manipulate brain circuits, which cannot be achieved with drugs. Pairing sounds with VNS provides that precision by rewiring damaged circuits and reversing the abnormal activity that generates the phantom sound.”

I am not saying technology is bad. I am not saying technology is good. Technology is technology, by itself it’s inherently neither. It is only after man overlays his own uses upon technology that it becomes evil or good. And if the new technology is being managed by a humanity that has no moral compass grounded from the bible, then that technology could go in any direction. It always does.

Secondly, there are always unintended consequences to everything that man produces, but especially in the technological realms. Only God is omniscient, knowing the end from the beginning. We do not know how a new technology will be used in the future. We make all safeguards against improper use but because we are not omniscient, we will miss something. That is why we rely on the omniscient God to guide us in all our ways. Because He knows! Absent His guidance, as God said in Genesis 11 at the conclusion of the tower of Babel incident, “And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” (Gem 11:6b). Quite often, we are not ready for what we unleash on the world, yet man must still suffer the unintended consequences. God also takes seriously when we worship created things instead of the Creator and exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25; Jeremiah 13:25).

This spate of few is but a tiny fraction of the scientific and technological headlines being published every day around the world. God made creation. But man is busy re-creating it in his own image. This will not be allowed to go on indefinitely. As in Genesis 11:5 states, at a certain point “the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” he will come down again, and take action. As a globe, we are lost and will be judged. That is prophesied and will come true. The unforgiven will fall on their faces, every tongue confessing He is Lord and every knee bowing in belated acknowledgement that He is King. As individuals, however, we always have the option to turn to Him and acknowledge His sovereignty over creation, and over our souls until the moment we breathe our last! If you repent, and make Him your Lord, when you face Him, you will be able to stand, His forgiveness and love holding you up.

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