Uncategorized – Page 73

Eschatology is not a fringe field of study but it attracts a wacky fringe element

Posted on May 10, 2017May 10, 2017 by elizabethprata

I get excited as anyone about the thought of the rapture happening any minute. It has always been imminent, meaning, it could happen at any time without any particular circumstance HAVING to have happened first. Not like during the Tribulation where there is a specific series of chronological events, one preceding the other. Interest in the future has always been high.

Unfortunately, the theological field of study of “Last Things”, also known as Eschatology, has fallen into disrepute over this last generation. I do my best to present credible essays which strive to demonstrate that eschatology should still be a major area of concern for Christians.

One reason the field of study has fallen in status is because so many people think nothing of twisting the scriptures and promoting wacky theories. Others set dates. When the date passes by without the projected event having occurred, the followers become defeated not just with eschatology but with Christianity in general. Pagans also love to make a mockery of us when this happens. The verse below prophesies the mocking of prophecy.

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

Another reason eschatology has fallen to less than credible status are that the fringe elements simply adding craziness to it. Aliens, conspiracy theories, and a heavy focus on interpreting signs and omens in current events all add to the pot which in turn adversely affects perceptions of the field.

A reader in all sincerity sent me a link to an article that seemed to explain certain aspects of the rapture with which she was unfamiliar. She was questioning it and wanted to know my take. I appreciate these kinds of questions because it’s encouraging to know that people think and question about these sources.

The author of the piece is a woman who writes at a website called Cross and Cutlass. She made many statements that were assertive in their dogmatism. When this happens it often confuses people, because dogmatic statements in print seem credible just for being dogmatic. It’s the old, “If it’s in print, it must be true” notion.

Here are some of her statements.

Originally, God set up the constellations to reflect the Gospel. Many people don’t know this, and I have only recently discovered this.

Warning #1. Whenever you see someone saying that an interpretation has been ‘hidden’ for thousands of years, and only recently discovered, run. The Bible isn’t a code, it’s not a secret, and it’s not unknowable until some lone person in a corner of the internet makes a “new discovery.” The Holy Spirit has been illuminating the Bible for millennia. The standard interpretations are the correct ones. It’s called church history, preaching the Gospel, and hermeneutics.

Warning #2. There are no scripture verses to support her statement that God set up the constellations to reflect the Gospel. Instead, she uses a hundred-year-old book as her source called The Witness of the Stars by E.W. Bullinger. I’ll provide a link below from the Creation Research Institute debunking Bullinger’s “Gospel in the Constellations” theory.

Listen. Scholars over the last two thousand years didn’t ALL fail to look up and notice the Gospel in the constellations. If it’s a new theory, it is almost a sure bet that it’s wacky, wrong, or based on twisted scripture and a poor hermeneutic. I’m talking to you Jonathan “Isaiah 9 Harbinger” Cahn and John “Blood Moons” Hagee.

The author of the wacky eschatological piece also claimed the following;

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. Revelation 12:1-2
The woman here is the constellation Virgo, the Virgin, who every Biblical scholar says represents Israel. In fact, Israel in Biblical days was well aware of these constellations and their meanings. Even as far back as Enoch.

Warning #3. Again we have a dogmatic statement with no proof: “the woman here is the constellation Virgo…” Then the author adds her connection to truth by incorrectly referencing scripture. She changed Virgo to virgin, which the scripture nowhere indicates. The Greek word for woman in the verse she cited means “woman, wife, lady.” As a wife, she would most assuredly NOT be a virgin, which the scripture actually indicates, The woman is, in fact, giving birth to a child. So, #hermeneuticfail.

The author goes on offering what seem like credible evidences but are actually tangential or made-up or just plain ridiculous. Like this statement:

Now, let’s move to Virgo being in labor. Jupiter was known by the Jews as the planet Messiah or the King planet. Jupiter enters the womb of Virgo every 12 years. Only every 83 years does it stay in the womb of Jupiter for the full period of a human pregnancy.

Be very cautious when people use constellations as their guide to prophecy. It is a satanic corruption. Astrology is an abomination to God. The Institute for Creation Research makes some excellent points regarding the constellations as a guide to the Gospel. Here are just a few of their good points, and the full explanation under each point is at the link:

The “Gospel in the Stars” Theory1) There is no uniform zodiac constellation. [in cultures across the world]
2) There is no uniform message behind the stars. As in the case of astrology, the star-formed zodiac signs can be assigned whatever meaning the interpreter decides upon; the purported messages behind the signs are completely arbitrary.
3) The message of the stars is out sequence.
4) There is no biblical evidence to support GIS. Bullinger cites a number of Bible verses that have nothing to do with stars revealing the gospel. For instance, he interprets the word “constellation” (Mazzaroth in Hebrew and Lucifer in the Latin Vulgate) in Job 38:32 as the twelve signs of the zodiac when, in fact, the precise meaning of the term remains uncertain.

I also wrote about horoscopes, i.e.interpreting the stars via their positions in the sky, and other omens/oracles, which forbidden to do.

GotQuestions has a good article about astrology.

Please be careful when following a website or teacher or preacher who is presenting explanations about Last Things. The fringe element is growing every day, with wacky theories, conspiracies, astrology, omens and signs.

I have found that one of the best expositors of the book of Revelation is John MacArthur. There are several other men I’d point you to, who do a good job with prophecy and explaining the scriptures regarding prophecy, like S. Lewis Johnson and James Montgomery Boice (who is excellent on the Book of Daniel!). The MacArthur sermons contain either audio or video AND transcripts. S. Lewis Johnson’s sermons are transcribed too. Boice is good, too. Also solid on eschatology are Phil Johnson and Martyn Lloyd Jones and Dan Duncan at Believers Chapel, all of whom are on the web.

Sad to say I do not recommend RC Sproul on eschatology. Though I do listen to him on the topics of holiness, justification, and beauty, I do not trust his hermeneutic on eschatology. He is a preterist, a stance that believes that all or most prophecies were fulfilled in 70AD at the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. If one is a partial preterist they believe most of the prophecies were fulfilled. Further, preterists believe that Revelation’s language is only figurative. Though it is heavily symbolic, scripture interprets scripture and the correct interpretation CAN become known. Just not to preterists, I guess! I feel strongly about this. I use a reference from Randall Otto’s review of Sproul’s book as a punctuation to my feelings on preterism and eschatological hermeneutic overall.

Randall Otto reviewed Sproul’s eschatological stance as a preterist when Otto reviewed Sproul’s book The Last Days According to Jesus, thus,

One can only marvel at the hermeneutical duplicity at work here and the way it ravages genre analysis. By means of such a hermeneutic any text could be made to say anything. The recognition of genre types provides bases for how to understand a text. Seeing similarities in form and content to other texts enables the interpreter to view a text differently than if those similarities went unnoticed. By applying to the text the potential extrinsic genre-types, “the interpreter eventually determines the intrinsic, originally intended genre and thereby is able to utilize the correct ‘rules’ for understanding that text.” [12] The elasticity with which these “rules” are applied to such texts elicits a problematic inconsistency vis-a-vis the parousia.

So sadly, even within conservative and evangelical corners of the faith, misinterpretations in eschatology occur. Yet, last things are not unknowable. MacArthur said,

I’m seeing this world unravel. There doesn’t seem to be any way back. I mean this is totally out of control. This is a free fall down a black hole. So, you can’t just say, “Well, eschatology doesn’t matter.” That is not helpful. People want answers. Where is this thing going? It’s not fair to God, it’s a dishonor to God to say, “Well, the Bible is not clear.” It is clear. It is absolutely clear.

Here is an example of that clarity, even on eschatological matters. After the Soviet Union fell and the split-off nations came into existence, each with freedoms and openness to religion, 1,600 pastors in Kazakhstan asked Dr MacArthur to come and teach them. He spent 7 days a week, 8 hours a day teaching, for two weeks. The pastors wanted one entire day on Revelation so MacArthur went through the book systematically from start to finish. At the conclusion of chapter 22, the pastors said,

“You believe what we believe.” I said, “I believe what you believe?” Same Bible. Guess what? It’s so clear that people with no training, no seminary, and no commentaries could understand what the book of Revelation said.

Some things are difficult to understand. I’m not saying I have everything figured out. I can’t understand the Daniel verses referring to the Beast, or how the Last Days verses across the OT like Amos and Obadiah fit together in the grand picture, etc. But if I studied for a long time and referred to credible commentaries and prayed and was patient, I could by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Peter mentioned that some verses were hard to understand when referring to some of Paul’s writing on eschatological topics.

He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard not to be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing. (2 Peter 3:16-17).

The context of Peter’s comment is the end of days, when the earth is to be dissolved and a new earth established. That’s the ‘such matters’ Peter is referring to. Peter says he understands when Paul writes of these matters that some parts are hard to understand, but not impossible because it is the unstable who twist them. If you are not unstable, by default, you already know the truth, and Peter urges us to stand on it, and not be carried away.

I think the best way to handle prophecy, especially the next one to be fulfilled (rapture!) is to study the Bible, which keeps us joyous in troubling times, listen to credible expositors preach the verses, and stay out of fringe end time groups online. We should also keep an expectation of imminence about us, and to stop looking for signs. It only promotes defeatism when the signs inevitably pass without fulfillment, and it destroys the credibility of the study of eschatology itself.

encouragement, Uncategorized

The Galilean fishermen and their boats (and calming of the storm)

Posted on May 9, 2017May 9, 2017 by elizabethprata

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25; also Matthew 8:23-27).

Sea of Galilee, at Tiberias. View of ruins at shore of Galilee. 1862.
Public Domain

The Calming of the Storm, a 33-minute sermon on the biblical text of Luke 8:22-25 from Ligonier Ministries is very good.

The Sea of Galilee is an important location in the biblical history. Jesus displayed His sovereignty over creation on the sea of Galilee when He calmed the storm and rebuked the waves. ‘The wind and waves obey Him!’.

Don’t you find it interesting that seasoned fishermen were afraid for their lives? These were tough men who saw death on a daily basis. Between the high death rate in general in the first century, the daily animal sacrifices, and the naturally high mortality rate due to their profession, they were familiar with terror and the presence of death. Yet in this storm, they were afraid for their very lives.

What’s the Sea of Galilee like? Let’s get a mental picture.

The “sea” is really a freshwater lake. It ranges from 16 miles tall to 9 miles wide. By comparison, Lake Tahoe in the United States is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide. The Sea of Galilee has been given other names, including Lake Gennesaret, and Lake Tiberias.

City of Tiberias – Jewish Fishermen by the Sea of Galilee, Palestine,
a photograph by William H. Rau, 1903. Public domain

The storms on the Sea are legendary. This is because of its geography, which makes it prone to sudden, boiling storms and pitched waves. It sits about 640 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and it’s surrounded by towering hillsides. Ravines on the Sea’s west side funnel cool air into the basin. When the cool air rushes into hot air rising from the low sea level valley, the resulting clash can create sudden, fierce winds that stir up steep waves. These choppy waves can become big enough to swamp a boat. When you get a steep chop and no space for the waves to become rolling, there’s no time for the boat to climb up one wave and surf naturally down another. The waves simply pound down on its bow, and if caught broadside, the waves can capsize you in a moment. As a former yachtsman, I can attest that there is no worse situation for sailor and boat alike than high winds and a steep chop. The boat takes a severe pounding, as does the helmsman!

In Jesus’ time, a thriving fishing industry was one of the main ways men earned a livelihood in and around that area. Peter, James, and John earned their living as fishermen. The lake yielded many kinds of fish. Three of the most popular were Sardines, Biny fish, and Tilapia, now known as “St. Peter’s Fish”. According to the Wiki Bible project, “Biny fish are easily identified by the “barbels” or whisker type flesh that hangs from around the mouth. These fish are a hardy fish that was popular for the Sabbath feasts. These Biny fish can usually be found near schools of sardines as they are predatory fish eating everything from snail and mollusks to sardines.”

‘The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee’ By Rembrandt van Rijn

We know that the fishermen were petrified for their lives during the terrible storm. But after Jesus calmed the storm, they became more petrified.

He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:25).

The word in the verse for afraid is phobēthentes, the main word is phobéō or phobos. You will recognize the English use of the word in ‘phobia’. It means to put to flight, to terrify, frighten. If the men hadn’t been trapped in the boat in the middle of the sea they would have run away! Much like the men did in Daniel 10:7. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31).

The scene should stir in us an awe and a recognition that there is nothing more terrifying, even waves that swamp your boat, than the living God who created the waves and calms them at a word. The takeaway is that though the waves made the men were fearful for their lives, when Jesus displayed His sovereignty over the creation, they feared for their souls.

He is a great God, powerful, yet kind to His children. Praise His holy name.

discernment, Uncategorized

The global church is bloated with counterfeit Christians

Posted on May 8, 2017May 8, 2017 by elizabethprata

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:22-23).

A few days ago I’d mentioned I had heard a song from 1964 by the Sego Brothers and Naomi called Sorry, I Never Knew You. In the song, a man was dreaming that he was standing before Jesus on Judgment Day and to his shock, he was placed on Jesus’ left. He heard Jesus say to him, “I never knew you.” It was the first Gospel song to sell 1 million copies.

Link to song

The verses in Matthew, to me, are some of the most haunting and devastating prophecies in the Bible. Prophecy is surer than a promise, it will happen. On that day many people who claim to be Christian but are not will try to prove it to Jesus by recounting their deeds in His name, but sadly, they were self-deceived and will be sent to the Lake of Fire for eternal torment instead.

The problem of professing Christians who do not actually possess Him is significant. The global church is bloated with counterfeit Christians, some of whom know they are false and gleefully upset whole families and sneakily pollute their church. (Titus 1:11, Jude 1:4). Others have only a dim clue they are false but never repent or even try to seek him, perhaps lazily believing their deeds will be enough to get them to heaven instead of repentance and faith. Others have no idea at all they are on the broad path to destruction.

External Christianity, professing Christianity possesses millions of people who feel like Christians, who have been induced into thinking they are Christians, who live with the hope of entering heaven and escaping hell, but will find at the end that they were wrong. There are millions of people who claim to believe in Jesus, who use His name who call Him “Lord,” who say they believe in Him, expecting heaven, only to receive hell. John MacArthur

Occasionally someone asks me about their faith as a Christian. They’re doubting. They ask questions or share concerns about the genuineness of their faith. Sadly, I hear others responding to doubters superficially, saying that the doubter should dismiss these doubts out of hand, because ‘it’s just satan messing with you.’

While that certainly could be the case, sometimes the person really isn’t saved. They’ve become genuinely worried when they perceive a major difference between their ‘walk’ with Jesus and others’ walk with Him. These queries should be taken seriously, very seriously. Not everyone who professes faith possesses the Spirit.

RC Sproul often speaks of the difference between a mere profession of faith, and the possession of it. The key is assurance. In this article titled “Faith and Fruit”, Sproul says,

One thing that is sometimes neglected in the discussion of spiritual growth is the fact that the assurance of our salvation contributes mightily to our maturity. If we have a proper understanding of assurance, it becomes an impetus for holy living. When we know that we belong to Jesus, our love for Him motivates us to obey His commands and thus we increasingly display the reality of salvation.

In the final analysis, any assurance we have of salvation is grounded in the person and work of Christ. By His life, death, resurrection, and intercession, He has demonstrated His full ability to save His people. We are justified because of His righteousness, and so the confidence we have in our salvation is not ultimately a confidence that we have in ourselves but a confidence that we have in the Savior.

Despite this fact, an important existential question remains. If true faith is the instrument by which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, how do we know that we have true faith? How do we know that we are not only professing faith but also possessing it?

There are several evidences of true faith. One of the most important is whether or not we have love for Christ at all in our hearts.

Dr Sproul continues with other pieces of evidence. It’s a good article, and short.

In the weeks after I was first saved, I was convinced that I could grow just as much by watching TV preachers and not have to go sit in a congregation. I’d never attended church in my 42 years of life (except for a wedding, baptism, or event as a visitor) and I definitely didn’t want to start. So I stayed at home for almost a year and watched Joel Osteen.

In 2004 he was at the height of his popularity. He was in the throes of buying the Compaq Center which would host the tens of thousands of people that flocked to his church. I liked Osteen for three reasons.

1. He made me feel good.
2. I was fascinated with his rhetorical ability. As a rhetorician and an academic I was interested in how he held an audience week after week, and how he continually crafted his 28-minute ‘story arc’ so perfectly
3. All those tens of thousands of people could not be wrong.

Someone gave me a Bible, thankfully, and once I began comparing what Osteen said with what the Bible said, it was game over. The Spirit exposed Osteen to me as a liar.

But back to the numbers. Many people think that because a church is large or that so many people attended the Crusade and “came forward” or so many youths were saved at camp etc. that these numbers are evidence of genuine conversion. Not so! Quite often, it’s the opposite. (Luke 6:26). I remember a few years ago when John MacArthur hosted the Strange Fire conference. This was a conference designed to scripturally expose practices that are misleading hundreds of millions of people.

Tim Challies live-blogged the conference. He shared the numbers. One objection to the conference was that it was making a big deal of only a small part of the movement, the so-called lunatic fringe. Not so, Challies said.

[Naysayers claim] This issue is only true of the extreme lunatic fringe side of the movement. MacArthur believes that this statement is patently untrue. There is error in this movement all the way through it. 90% of the movement believe in the prosperity gospel. 24 to 25 million of these people deny the Trinity. 100 million in the movement are Roman Catholic. This is not characteristic of the fringe. This is the movement and it grows at a rapid rate.

I want to turn back to Matthew 7:22-23, the verse where Jesus said ‘many will say to me, Lord, Lord…’. I looked up the word “many” in the Greek. In this verse, by Strong’s Greek Dictionary, it is the word polloi, main word polys.

polýs – many (high in number); multitudinous, plenteous, “much”; “great” in amount (extent).
4183 /polýs (“much in number”) emphasizes the quantity involved. 4183 (polýs) “signifies ‘many, numerous’; . . . with the article it is said of a multitude as being numerous” (Vine, Unger, White, NT, 113,114) – i.e. great in amount.

Do you see the issue??? ‘Many’ is an exceedingly great number! A great quantity. It’s not just the jungle tribesman who will be rejected, not just the militant atheist. It is possibly the woman sitting next to you in the pew! Maybe the youth who served on all the committees! Hopefully not the long-term deacon!

I’m not saying that we should go around looking askance at every person in the church, suspicious of their faith or standing before Jesus. I am saying that first, the issue is so much bigger than people think. Hundreds of millions of professing Christians on this earth at this very moment think they are going to heaven but they are not. How much do you have to hate them to let them keep thinking that? It’s one great, biblical reason that the Strange Fire conference was loving.

And second, if a person comes to you unsure of their faith, don’t dismiss their concerns. Really come alongside them and delve. Sit down, listen, and love them. If they wonder and they trusted you enough to come to you, then it’s a serious conversation that needs to be had.

Third, if you have known a sister or brother a long time and there does not seem to be any fruit whatsoever, and instead you see a long-term pattern of rebellion of one kind or another (they promote strife, they gossip and slander, they refuse to submit to their husband, etc) then if you have a good relationship with that person, and there seems to be a good moment to sit down over coffee, gently bring up the issue. The book of 1 John is helpful here.

Remember the word polys. ”Much in number, emphasizing the quantity involved. We love Jesus and have no issue with His right to reject whom He will reject and judge those whom He will judge. It will be a glorious moment of vindication where we can praise Him in His final victory over His enemies. However, while we are still here on earth, we love and care for our neighbors. What a devastating moment if the Lord says “I never knew you.” But what a glory to His Spirit if you have helped a person examine their faith, discipled a wobbler, prayed for a person of whose faith you were unsure, and on the Day they come out the other side and are placed on Jesus’ right! Oh what a day that will be.

——————————–

Hoshino Wedding Chapel, Japan

Posted on May 7, 2017May 7, 2017 by elizabethprata

Well, that’s beautiful.

It’s the Hoshino Wedding Chapel in Karuizawaprefect, Japan. What a beautiful blend of function and form. Solaripedia gives this description from an energy savings point of view-

[T]he sloping stone base of this wedding chapel unites the ascending concrete arches that project up and out of the natural terrain. For insulation from the cold, the self-supporting concrete arches are separated by double glass. The chapel turns in plan towards the south, affording a more uniform distribution of solar radiation from the sun that rolls westerly across the sky. The chapel is radiant heated by tubes of water in the floor. The thermal mass of rock, concrete, and marble floors make it energy effective. The doors, pulpit and pews were designed and hand-crafted from fine cherry wood on the site in a design-build process. As in Nature, the engineering of this chapel represents an integral expression of form. The number-one wedding chapel in the world, this wedding chapel provides more than 4000 weddings a year.

The New York Times says this:

There is not a single right angle in the Hoshino Wedding Chapel’s cascading concrete arches and soaring interior of inlaid stone.

Form and function, it’s a beautiful and delicate balance, especially when seen in in the animal world. a balance God achieved in just 6 days.

Spirals are beautiful and soothing. American Scientist says this about the logarithmic spiral-

Spira Mirabilis

“Of the numerous mathematical curves we encounter in art, geometry, and nature, perhaps none can match the exquisite elegance of the logarithmic spiral. This famous curve appears, with remarkable precision, in the shape of a nautilus shell, in the horns of an antelope, and in the seed arrangements of a sunflower. It is also the ornamental motif of countless artistic designs, from antiquity to modern times. It was a favorite curve of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher (1898–1972), who used it in some of his most beautiful works, such as Path of Life II.”

“The many intriguing aspects of the logarithmic spiral all derive from this single feature. For example, a straight line from the pole O to any point on the spiral intercepts it at a constant angle α. For this reason, the curve is also known as an equiangular spiral. As a consequence, any sector with given angular width Δθ is similar to any other sector with the same angular width, regardless of how large or small it is. This property is manifested beautifully in the nautilus shell ( left ). The snail residing inside the shell gradually relocates from one chamber to the next, slightly larger chamber, yet all chambers are exactly similar to one another: A single blueprint serves them all.”

Hrm, evolution didn’t cause such perfection, regularity, and beauty. The ‘single blueprint’ is God. As you go around today praise Him who made the earth and all that is in it. (Psalm 24:1). He didn’t have to make it beautiful, but He did. Man copies what is soaring and sublime, he can only copy the beauty that originates from and emanates from God.

Uncategorized, visual exegesis

Even The Depths of God

Posted on May 7, 2017May 7, 2017 by elizabethprata

Full of Eyes is a support-based ministry of exegetical art that creates still and moving images intended to point people to the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Son. All art and animations are done by Chris Powers. Powers’ goal is to help people see and savor the faith-strengthening, hope-instilling, love-kindling beauty of God in Christ. And he does this by creating free exegetical art in the form of pictures, animations, and discussion guides. His work is at https://www.patreon.com/fullofeyes, Youtube, and his website fullofeyes.com

Chris’ most recent work is below, with his artist’s statement below the picture.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”–these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

Often times verse 9 gets quoted as referring to the eternal state….however, I’m not sure why people do that. The context of Paul’s citation has no immediate bearing on the new heavens and earth etc. Instead, he’s quoting Isaiah 64:4 here (the text immediately following the passage I used for yesterday’s picture).

In Isaiah 64:4, that which “no eye has seen” etc. is not some future blessing for God’s people, rather Isaiah is talking about the absolute uniqueness of YHWH as attested by His acts of redemption on behalf of His people. This original context of the citation fits much more naturally into Paul’s line of argument in 1 Cor.1-2. In this section, Paul has been saying that the preaching of Christ crucified is a message that reveals God to and saves the souls of those who receive it as wisdom and power (1 Cor.1:21,23-24), while it confirms in condemnation those who reject it as folly (1 Cor.1:22).

This–Christ crucified as the saving revelation of the God who cannot be known by worldly wisdom–this is the “secret and hidden wisdom of God” imparted by Paul’s proclamation of the word of the cross (1 Cor.2:7), a wisdom that “God decreed before the ages for our glory. The spiritual understanding to perceiving the saving revelation of God in the crucified Christ is that which God “has prepared for those who love Him,” and this is why Paul supports his argument by citing a passage from Isaiah talking about YHWH’s utter uniqueness as revealed in His works of redemption.

In Isaiah’s day as in Paul’s (and ours) YHWH is made known as the only true God through His works of redemption. This is definitively true of the cross of Christ….a work of redemption so opposed to the fallen bent of humanity’s perceptions that the revelation of God imparted therein cannot be received apart from the merciful foreordination of God and present working of His Spirit.

So, verse 9 is talking about the never-before imagined glories of who God reveals Himself to be through the preaching of the crucified Christ. This–He Himself perfectly communicated in the love of the Son–is what God has prepared for those who love Him. And so, in that sense verse 9 can be seen as anticipation of eternity since ALL the joys of the eternal state can be summarized in that one statement: to know God in Christ.

With this in mind, the “these things” in verse 10 is God made savingly known through the wisdom of Christ crucified. This, then, is what the Spirit of God must reveal to us….If this is true, then the awesome thing to see is that Paul says the Spirit can do this–can reveal God to us in the Son–“For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” In other words, these “depths of God” are what the Spirit illumined eyes of faith perceive when they look to the crucifixion of the Son who will rise again. The unplumbable depths of God’s infinite heart–truly the beauty into which we will be pressing further up and further in for eternity–this is opened to us on Calvary…..May we, then, by the Spirit, in submission to the word, and in community with other believers, grow in knowing this all glorious Triune God who blessedly surpasses all of our knowledge, imagination, and hopes.

encouragement, Uncategorized

The Tree of Life

Posted on May 6, 2017May 6, 2017 by elizabethprata

I like trees.

They’re majestic. They’re interesting. They’re helpful to the environment. They provide a home for birds. They provide scenes for artists. They enhance the view.

The Bible mentions many trees. Acacia, myrtle, juniper, cedar, cypress, chestnut, olive, almond, fig… The list goes on.

There are references to trees as a metaphor for strength and for prominent men (Psalm 1:3) or as a symbol of evil (Psalm 37:35).

Of all the trees mentioned in the Bible there is one pre-eminent tree. The Tree of Life.

Tree of Life
The meaning of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” in the Eden narrative is not as clear as the meaning of the “tree of life.” Direct allusions to the tree of life are found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Significantly, in the book of Proverbs the tree of life is like a symbol:

• of knowledge (Prov 3:18);
• of righteous fruit (Prov 11:30);
• of accomplished desires (Prov 13:12);
• of a wholesome tongue (Prov 15:4; Marcus, “The Tree of Life,” 117–20).

Baez, E. (2016). Tree of Knowledge. Lexham Press.

The New Testament contains four references to the tree of life, all of which appear in Rev 2 and Rev 22. In this eschatological context, the tree of life functions as a future source of healing and immortality for the faithful.

In Revelation 2:7 and 11, the saints who emerge victorious in Christ through testing are promised the tree of life (Rev 2:7) and deliverance from the second death (Rev 2:11). Osborne argues that in this context, the tree of life symbolizes the cross, which makes access to God and eternal life possible (Osborne, Revelation, 124, 563). Similar imagery is attested elsewhere in the New Testament (e.g., Gal 3:13). Tree of life imagery also serves as a polemic against the Greek Artemis fertility cult of Ephesus, where her temple was a “tree shrine” in which she symbolized life (Osborne, Revelation, 124).

The final chapter of Revelation ties the tree of life back to the garden of Eden as “a picture of forgiveness and consequent experience of God’s intimate presence.” This chapter uses language and imagery of early Jewish literature (Beale, The Book of Revelation, 234–35).

Faro, I. (2016). Tree of Life. Lexham Press.

The tree of life used to be in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:9). Where is it now? In the paradise of God- AKA heaven. (Revelation 2:7b, 19)

It is an actual tree. Will the tree of life be a palm tree? A new kind of tree humans have never seen before (except Adam and Eve)? I am very much looking forward to seeing this tree.

Spiritually, our precious Savior is a Tree of Life (John 14:6). In only Him is life. Praise God for sending His Son. He is the tree of life, in whom we are rooted, in whom we grow, and in whom we shelter.

Kay Cude Poetry: The Catching Away, the Rapture

Posted on May 5, 2017May 5, 2017 by elizabethprata

Kay Cude is a Christian poet who uses photos or illustrations as a backdrop to her poetry on major Christian themes. The following is used with permission. Click to enlarge. Here is the Artist’s Statement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are so very enthralled by the beauty of this earth. Its splendor loudly declares it to be the handiwork of GOD THE I AM. How profound is His grace to share the wonders and workings of His creation with all mankind, the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:44-45). But as His redeemed Bride of Christ, we know this earthly realm is not our “home;” its final stages are playing out vividly before our eyes. We therefore live expectantly awaiting “eagerly our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) while this present earth and sin continue their measured steps into a final death throe.

We, the Bride of Christ, yearn for the many who do not know Christ to listen to our pleas for their salvation. These end times are a herald for false teachers and “religions” to present counterfeit and deceptive narratives of another Gospel (Mathew 24:24; Mark 13:22; Galatians 1:3-10; 2 Timothy 2:13; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Revelation 13:13-14), the Rapture (Harpazo, Strong’s G726 – harpazo; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18) and the Day of the Lord (Isaiah 13:6-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 2 Peter 3:1-10).

Too easily “natural” man succumbs to error ignorantly, willingly or because satisfying the “flesh” is the only thing one knows and it is preferable and seems, sounds or feels “right.” Perhaps one has never heard the TRUTH that GOD or that He as Creator is Sovereign over all things, and is patient and loving and ready to forgive and reconcile man to Him through Christ. Or perhaps they don’t understand that man’s life was never meant to be separate from GOD and that their sin and futility initiated through Satan, the deceiver (Matthew 13:19; John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 14; Daniel 8:25) can be voided through receiving Christ as Saviour (What Does it Mean to be Saved?” Ephesians 2:8-10″ https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-2-what-does-it-mean-be-saved-ephesians-28-10).

So while we speak of our catching away, we also speak warnings of the coming Tribulation.

encouragement, Uncategorized

End of the Week Encouragement

Posted on May 4, 2017May 4, 2017 by elizabethprata

1 Thessalonians 5:1-9: Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

We will not be surprised. The Lord is gracious and kind! Therefore we are alert, looking for our Redemption and mindful of the lost state of our brothers. Prophecy should spark us to fervency of faith and greater hope.

Have you had a good week? Yes? Praise Jesus! No? Then praise Him anyway! We have another week to witness, and to share the Gospel with people in our lives. I pray that He will shine His light through me even more brightly this week than the week before so that when people see me, they really see Jesus’ glory.

Ephesians 4:13 says, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:… won’t that be a wonderful moment when we ALL worship Him in unity and perfect wholeness of the Body!

It is my opinion that God is slowly but surely removing protection from the world, and He is upsetting our self-satisfied equilibrium by demonstrating we can only depend on Him. But no matter what your interpretation is of worldly events, ultimately, we all know God is sovereign. He owns the world and the people in it. (Psalm 24:1).

Ezekiel 39:28 – Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind.

Is this a prophecy that has been fulfilled? Or is it one to come? It is one to come, and is related to the last days. Matthew Henry comments:

This is the conclusion of the whole matter going before, and has reference not only to the predictions concerning Gog and Magog, but to all the prophecies of this book concerning the captivity of the house of Israel, and then concerning their restoration and return out of their captivity. 39:23-29 When the Lord shall have mercy on the whole house of Israel, by converting them to Christianity, and when they shall have borne the shame of being cast off for their sins, then the nations shall learn to know, worship, and serve him. Then Israel also shall know the Lord, as revealed in and by Christ. Past events do not answer to these predictions. The pouring out of the Spirit is a pledge that God’s favour will continue. He will hide his face no more from those on whom he has poured out his Spirit.

Today would have been my father’s 84th birthday. He died suddenly and instantly in an automobile crash two-and-a-half years ago. He had never been born again. He personally believed his eternity was settled, because God does not exist. ‘He is a crutch for the witless, an opiate of the masses’ he told me many times. That is not true, as Christians understand. However, for all those people who wonder, who question, who say that they will wait until later to settle their after-life issues: you never know when it will be your time to meet your maker!

Hay bale kills ELO member

A giant bale of hay has killed a founding member of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) band after it tumbled down a hill and crashed into his van. Cellist Mike Edwards, 62, died after the 600 kg (1,323 lb) bale rolled down a steep field in Devon, southern England, smashed through a hedge and careered on to the road. He died instantly in the freak accident on Friday afternoon.

DO NOT WAIT! Settle your sin account with Jesus now. Eternity is long!

discernment, Uncategorized

Mail Call #8: How much should “associations” factor into my assessment of whether a teacher is false or not?

Posted on May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 by elizabethprata

Mail call! Another question from a reader.

A woman asked me recently whether she should read a certain book because the preface to the book was written by a false teacher, though the book itself was written by a solid teacher.

I’m glad that people are aware that associations can harm a reputation and can also be an indicator of future doctrinal problems in a leader or teacher. Associations do matter.

The pure and the polluted share nothing in common ultimately. And the people of God cannot form intimate relationships with those who don’t belong to God. All relationships like that are superficial. You cannot make a meaningful relationship with an enemy of the gospel. They live in a different world with a different and completely hostile and antagonistic leader. Separating from Unbelievers part 1

I posted an essay not long ago covering the event when Moore went on Joyce Meyer’s television interview show. The two women praised each other. Moore-Meyer is a bad association, one of many that Moore has shown (also associating with Jen Hatmaker, Victoria Osteen, Joel Osteen, etc) in spiritual endeavors.

Billy Graham used to associate with Popes in spiritual endeavors and praised them as brothers, that was another bad association among many that Graham has shown. His son Franklin hosted a Crusade where he’d invited a Catholic Bishop to give the opening prayer.Ravi Zacharias also went on Joyce Meyer’s interview show and praised her as a good Bible teacher. Dr David Jeremiah frequently appears on TBN channel flogging prosperity Gospel with other heretical Prosperity ministers during their annual beg-a-thon, also a bad association. So yes, when we see these teachers are associating with, praising, and not rebuking these false converts, it is a concern and often very telling as to the state of their heart and mind. We should not partner with people who abuse the Bible, twist God’s word, and distort the Gospel. As Michelle Lesley wrote this week, when she assesses a Bible teacher, one of the factors she looks at is that

She cannot currently and unrepentantly be partnering with or frequently appearing with false teachers in violation of 2 Corinthians 6:14 ff.

First of all, look to see if the pairing is a spiritual endeavor. If Beth Moore and Joyce Meyer ran into each other at the beauty salon and posed for a photo for a customer there, that would not be an association we would want to use as an assessment criterion. They would in that hypothetical case just being mannerly. The key is, are they pairing up in a spiritual endeavor?

Here, Ravi Zacharias appears on Joyce Meyer’s TV show,
and says that God is doing great things like Meyer on television.

And second, when we look at a leader or teacher’s associations, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. We have to take a prayerful & measured look when we’re looking at secondary circumstances like who is hanging around our author or preacher or teacher. Please allow me to share two examples from my own life.

One example is the Drive By series by Todd Friel. Todd Friel is the speaker on Wretched Radio and Wretched TV. He has a number of series where guest speakers give a 5-10 minute lecture on the series topic, whether it’s the Holy Spirit, or Discernment, or Marriage, etc. On one of the series, I believe it was Drive By Theology, pastor RW Glenn was a featured speaker on a number of the lectures. It turned out later that Glenn had been an adulterer the whole time and was eventually fired as pastor. Afterward, if a person was looking at the list of speakers on Friel’s DVD and saw Glenn’s name listed, on a DVD about the theology of all things, they might say, “I’m never going to listen to Friel again, he has bad associations!” That would be hasty because it was not known to Friel at the time that Glenn was sinning. He has since not been invited to participate in any further DVDs.

I have a thick heavy book called the Art & Craft of Preaching. It contains essays and interviews about how famous or well-known pastors prepare their material. I bought it ten years ago. Since then, several of those pastors have apostasized. Men like Rick Warren, Bill Hybels are listed in the table of contents alongside good men of faith like Alistair Begg and John Stott. Would I refuse to have anything more to do with Alistair Begg because ten years ago he participated in a book with pastors who later became heretics? No. It may be very likely that Begg didn’t know the full list of the men what would be in the book, or it was not known that ten years later several of them would become heretics.

So be careful and not superficial. Look at
–at patterns
–over time
–repentance

We don’t make a superficial decision based on one instance, that would not be fair. YOU wouldn’t want someone to make a decision about you based on one error or one circumstance where we don’t have all the facts. In the second case, you look over time. Is the person constantly having bad associations? Do ALL this teacher’s books have a heretical person introducing it? Is she continually saying things that are not in the word or is always twisting the word? Is she sliding down a slope? Or was her partnering with a false teacher only one instance?

John MacArthur on unequally yoked:

The issue here is linking up with an unbeliever, side by side, under the same yoke, pulling the same furrow, in the same direction, with the same goals and objectives. Now, that might mean a partnership in a common business — if it is likely that the nature of your partnership will lead to compromising situations down the road when your worldviews collide.

Beyond all that, however, the primary application of 2 Corinthians 6 is with regard to spiritual enterprise. The primary warning is to never link up with an unbeliever in spiritual pursuits.

discernment, Uncategorized

Does your phone bless or curse those around you?

Posted on May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 by elizabethprata

If you’ve ever been around people who drink alcohol, and you’re not drinking, you know how their increasing lack of sobriety looks and sounds. The person drinking thinks they are still in full possession of all their faculties, but to the sober observer on the sidelines, the story is completely the opposite. It’s a stark and un-pretty picture.

I used the drinking analogy to set up my main point. There are a lot of people who don’t drink, but it seems that there are few people who don’t have a cell phone anymore. I am one. I don’t have a cell phone, a smartphone, a mobile device, tablet, iPad, or portable technology of any kind. I am the one on the sidelines, watching the rest of the world get drunk on cell phone checking. It’s a stark and un-pretty picture.

Never was the rising cell phone addiction so prevalent than when I went into the fray last weekend to do some street photography. Athens, GA is a college town, and very liberal. As with most cities, there are fringe characters, weird dressers, buskers, hucksters, panhandlers and regular folks ambling along the bustling streets. I went into the city on a Friday afternoon after school and was there until about 5:30 or 6:00. I was observing and photographing long enough to watch the night city come alive. The buskers set up, and panhandlers claimed their spots, and the frat boys began roaming the bars in packs. Time to go.

I went home and began processing my pics. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. ALL my photos contained a plethora of people either looking at, dialing, or speaking on their phones. The ones who didn’t, had a phone in their hand. Period.

It was a warm and bright spring day. The trees and flowers were blooming. The skies were vivid azure and the sun was glowing with long shadows, making dappled leaf patterns on the sidewalks. The shops were open and the al fresco cafes were inviting. There was plenty to look at and notice, but one would think all that was invisible with a number of passersby who were enthralled with the tech world of their two-inch smartphone screens.

I’m old enough to have been an adult when cell phones came in. I remember walking down city streets all over the United States and the world, enjoying the day, people watching at the cafe. I’d enjoy the clouds, muse on people’s fashion choices, admire the architecture. Most of all, I’d talk to the person I was with, sharing these thoughts and observations and listening to theirs. We created common memories and enjoyed our shared experience.

Those says seem gone.

Author Tony Reinke expressed his concerns with the technological age epitomized by the smartphone in his book 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You. In his book he writes of concerns wth technology creating the Age of Distraction, but he also tempers his concerns with ideas and strategies to steward our time well and use the technology instead of it using us.

He wrote,

We check our smartphones 81,500 times each year, or once every 4.3 minutes of our waking lives, which means you will be tempted to check your phones three times before you finish this chapter.

My time photographing the street activity in Athens seems to bear this out. I stood in one spot for about ten minutes and this was the scene.

Concerns are with any device that distracts us from engaging with God’s world and His people. In fairness, Reinke also said this about cameras, which I think can be applied to philosophies about any device-

If the cameras in our pockets mute our moments into 2-D memories, perhaps the richest memories in life are better “captured” by our full sensory awareness of the moment- the later written down in journal.

Smartphones are here to stay. That ship has sailed. What we’re left with is not that we use our phones but how we use our phones. A title (I think) Westminster Books used in reviewing Reinke’s book was, “Is your phone a blessing or a curse to those around you?” For me, they are a curse.

Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition writes that Reinke’s book blurb convicted him. Nate Claiborne at Christ + Pop Culture wrote

Whether for advances in productivity (thanks to apps like Things and Evernote) or the pull of imminent distraction (thanks to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter being accessible at all times), my daily life is no longer the same. Rather than treating technological advances as givens, we ought to think about the good as well as the potential bad they bring.

You can find this Tony Reinke book at Westminster Books, and elsewhere.