By Elizabeth Prata
As we prepare enter Holy Week I’d like to share a poem I wrote a few years ago. The Lamb, He is worthy! He is majestic! Praise the Lamb of God, the Holy One of Israel, the Eternal King!
The Lamb: Slain and Alive
Are you a cotter pin?
By Elizabeth Prata
In the body of Christ, all are important- even the seemingly small. Are you doubting your importance to Christ and His work? Don’t.
Isaiah 33:23a – “Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread“
I was reading this verse today and it reminded me of something that happened to me some years ago. We were liveaboard yachtsmen then and had sailed from Maine to the Bahamas. We were anchored a while in the Bahamas, enjoying the numerous islands, hopping from one to the other. We had made some friends and sailed with them, anchoring at night and socializing by day over scrabble and rum. On the day of the photo below, I and my husband were sailing with our chums on Sea of Abaco. It was a yacht race, and we were aboard their boat.
So me and the boat owner’s wife were sitting amidships enjoying the race, looking at the other boats, and chatting. After a few minutes, she said, “Let’s go below and get some water.” We moved to the galley and a second later we heard an enormous crash! The boat shook and rolled! We instantly thought we had run aground, even though the Sea was deep at that location. We scrambled up to the deck only to see that the mast had fallen down! It had crashed down on the spot where we had just been sitting!!
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| dismasted credit. note, this was not the boat I was on. But the mess was similar. |
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| Again, not our boat, but the sails and rigging dragging in the water is similar |
The other owner had fallen into the water and the sails and heavy ropes and rigging were ensnaring his legs, potentially dragging him under. The boat came to a dead stop in the water and we were simply in shock.
A dismasting is one of the most terrible things that can happen to a yachtsman on the water. Fortunately we were half a mile from nearly the only and the best boatbuilding and repair facility in the entire 700 mile chain of islands. The owner guy was a schmoozer and finagled parts from the States in no time and within a week they were on their way. As with any tragedy, we wanted to know why. What did the mast autopsy say?
The cotter pin was gone.
This is a cotter pin:
This is how a cotter pin is used:
A cotter pin is “a metal fastener with two tines that are bent during installation used to fasten metal together, like with a staple or rivet.” (Wikipedia)
A mast and its rigging system is complex, and it relies on the sum of its parts, plus tension, to work. “On a sailing vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of standing rigging which keeps a mast from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in fractional rigs between about 1/8 and 1/4 from the top of the mast. The other end of the forestay is attached to the bow of the boat.”
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| forestay is #16 |
And the cotter pin holds the forestay to the bow. With the cotter pin gone, the tension of the system was disrupted, and at just the right moment, the mast fell backwards.
The first thing you see on a sailing vessel is its mast and sail. It is a beautiful thing, billowing in the wind, doing important work to propel the boat. The next thing perhaps you see is the boat itself, its lines and its beauty. As Alan Jackson sang in “Boats to Build,” it has a “fair curve from a noble plan.”
The next thing you may notice is the stays and shrouds hearing them hum and sing in the wind. You hear the engine, you see the keel when heeling in a stiff breeze. You never notice the cotter pins.
Isaiah 33:23a – “Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread“
We Christians make up a body. Every body part has a function. If we’re serious about our walk with Jesus, we want to make a difference. We see great evangelists opening hearts to the Spirit and subsequent salvation. We see missionaries making great sacrifices. We listen to pastors preach as if they were on fire, and altars filled with weeping responders. We see teachers publishing book after book, with eager readers excitedly discussing new points of view.
We never notice the cotter pins. Some folks serve in quiet ways, unnoticed. In the background. But if the pin is gone, the mast falls down. It has its part in the system, and every body part is important to Jesus, the Head of the Body. If you have been feeling sad, like you’re insignificant, like you don’t make a difference, YOU DO.
But now God has appointed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20But now there are many members, but one body. 21And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, how much more is it that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, 23and those members of the body which we think as less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24whereas our more presentable members have no such need. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all translate? 31But you earnestly desire the greater gifts.
And I will yet show you a more excellent way.
The world is baking soda and we’re…
By Elizabeth Prata
Our own limited spheres may seem calm and fine, but it’s a false calm. The world is baking soda. Once we step into the world and speak truth- whether at work or to unsaved family or in public- we’re vinegar (not the honey of the Gospel that can only be appreciated after salvation). What happens when vinegar is sprinkled on baking soda? It bubbles, foams, makes a frothy storm.
Vinegar to the world is “There’s only two genders”. Vinegar is “Transgenderism is sin”. Vinegar is “Women are biblically unqualified to preach”. Oh! Watch the foaming and the bubbling in anger when THAT vinegar truth bomb is poured onto the baking soda!
We as believers do not go around purposely stirring up the baking soda of the world, but it is a truism that speaking truth to a heretical world will stir it up. Some people avoid saying the truthful things because they fear man, or they’re tired and don’t want to deal with the fallout, or they ‘need’ the job, and so on. Being winsome and pleasant is wonderful, but if you are getting pushback because you’re speaking truth, that is all right too. It’s going to happen. You did nothing wrong and probably did everything right.
When Philip asked the Ethiopian Eunuch if he understood what he was reading, Philip received a courteous and open reply. Sometimes that happens. When Paul told the Ephesians the truth of God, they beat him almost to death. That happens sometimes too. It’s not that you’re doing something wrong if you never receive an open and calm reply. When Paul shared with the group of women at Philippi, Lydia listened and converted. But you notice it wasn’t because of persuasion or artfulness or winsomeness that Lydia converted. The Lord is the Lord of Salvation. It was He who opened her heart to receive the Good News. (Acts 16:14b).
We just don’t know who is one of the elect. We simply need to keep speaking truth to a lost and dying world. Sometimes people listen attentively. Sometimes they gnash their teeth and revile us. Sometimes they simply laugh and go their way.
Charles Spurgeon is said to have printed more words in English than anyone ever. In print he published some eighteen million words. His sermons sold over fifty-six million copies in nearly forty languages in his own lifetime, and that steady pace continues today. Today, there is available more material written by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, living or dead. He is said to have preached to more than 10Million people.
Charles Spurgeon said,
If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect I would go around lifting shirts. But since He didn’t I must preach “whosoever will” and when “whatsoever” believes I know that he is one of the elect.
Charles Spurgeon
And so we continue to be the vinegar whose truth stirs up the world’s baking soda. But out of that foamy stir, emerges Spurgeons, and Bunyans, and Warfields, and MacArthurs, and Riccardis. And Joes and Sallys and Petes and Janes who turn around and preach and teach and bring ever more people into the fold. Vinegar poured on a wound of sin will sting at first. Then it turns to the sweetest honey when one believes in Jesus. Sweeter, even:
The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether. 10They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:9-10 LSB)
Thoughts on the Christian school shooting
By Elizabeth Prata
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28 year old woman from Nashville, packed herself with two assault-style rifles, a handgun, and lots of ammunition, drove to a Christian school, parked, and exited her vehicle. She shot out the glass on the side doors to the school. Entering the hall, she looked for people to kill. And kill she did, slaying a substitute teacher, a custodian, the head of school, and three nine-year-old children.
She apparently identified as a boy. She was a biological female, but preferred to think of herself as a male. She used he/him pronouns on her now defunct social media, and gave herself the name Aiden. She also dressed as a male, including a tie.
This tells us that she was on the far end of sin. As Romans 1:18-32 describes the process of deepening sin in both an individual and a society, we see that Hale was toward the end of the sin-spectrum, having a mind so futile she couldn’t figure out her own gender.
When a person is that deep into sin, Romans 1:28-31 says,
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;“
Hale’s choice to look a 9-year old in the face and shoot her dead, along with 5 others before being killed by police herself, is evil. But sin is something that is inside each one of us.
I want us all to understand something.
In a sense, we are ALL capable (before salvation) of such evil deeds. Hitler might be seen as an anomaly but he wasn’t unusual. Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Timur, Bloody Mary, Lenin, Stalin, Idi Amin…all just as evil. History is littered with ruthless, evil leaders possessing a penchant to kill.
As for run-of-the-mill individuals, ABC News states that “There have been 131 mass shootings with four or more people wounded or killed so far in 2023.” John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, the Hillside Strangler, Skid Row Slasher…and I could go on with naming serial killers and murderers.
King David was a murderer. So was Saul/Paul.
We learn other things about murder in the Bible. For example, we learn that murder is a crime authored by the devil himself. John 8:44 says the devil is a murderer. And murder is basically authored by Satan.
John MacArthur, “Who is a Murderer?“
Hale’s decision to mass murder isn’t a fringe event (thanks to police’s swift action or there would have been many more victims, said the Metro Police Chief). Murder is a sin that is sadly in each one of us. The very first human-to-human crime was … murder. Cain slew Abel.
We tend to think sin is an abstract. We like to think it’s something that can be handled. We toy with it. We indulge sin, sometimes for a long season. Post-salvation, we respect the Bible’s stance on sin, but do we, really? Do we understand how strong sin as a force is?
Even Christians tend to overlook some sins. Ligonier Ministry wrote: “Have you ever found yourself so caught up and concerned with the rampant sinfulness of our culture that you forget about the subtle sins in your own heart? If so, Jerry Bridges has written a book for you. Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (NavPress, 2007) takes aim at the sins many Christians consciously or unconsciously consider “acceptable” behavior.”
NO! Sin is powerful and a HUGE PROBLEM.
If we are saved, there is blessedly one direction we will go- and that’s toward sanctification, holiness, Christ-likeness. We resist the sin that is in us, every day, a little more. The Holy Spirit sees to that. But just as we cannot fathom how much the Lord loves us, we cannot fathom how evil sin is.
But if a person isn’t saved, the direction they will always go will be deeper in sin. That’s the other direction. Sometimes the Lord calls some of them home before they reach the level of evil murder. But remember, Jesus said that,
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER,’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be answerable to the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. (Matthew 5:21-22).
Jesus is saying that yes, murdering a human is bad. Slaying a body is breaking the Law. But the human heart harbors such evils (Galatians 5:20-21) that we can’t even know (Jeremiah 17:9). Yet, the scope of God’s commandment not to murder isn’t restricted to solely the fleshly demise at the hands of another. The commandment not to kill encompasses more that just that. It concerns the glory of God, divine judgment, God’s holy character, and a person’s inner attitudes. John MacArthur explains the Matthew 5:21-22 verse,
And that’s why Jesus goes on in verse 22, and says this, “But I say unto you – ” Let Me tell what God really meant by that word in Exodus. Let Me give you the right interpretation. “ – whosoever is angry with his brother… “Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” Jesus simply says, it isn’t the issue of murder alone, it’s the issue of anger and hatred in your heart. You cannot justify yourself because you don’t kill. Because if there’s hatred in your heart, you are the same as a murderer.
Allowing sin to linger causes problems for the saved person-
If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear; (Psalm 66:18).
Sin is evil! We are all sinners! It is heinous to think of Audrey Hale gunning down sweet little children. Our minds recoil from that. Our hearts grieve over acts like that. But do our hearts and minds mourn and recoil over the 2 biggest sins in history? Sins worse than shooting a small child? Such as: Adam’s rebellion in the Garden, and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus?
If our mind hates that sweet innocents like the 9 year olds in Covenant Christian School were killed by Hale point blank, what about life in a perfect earth, personally knowing God, dwelling in a state of innocence, yet choosing to disobey God? What about a man like Judas, living with Jesus, seeing all his miracles, absorbing all His teaching, for three years, yet selling the most perfect and beautiful person in the universe, for money? Does our mind recoil from THAT?
This is why we all need the Gospel. We all need it, pre-salvation and even after salvation. Sin is THE most pervasive and most evil force upon the earth. Not gravity, not solar flares, not magnetism, SIN.
Do.Not.Underestimate.It.
Our hearts might be angry with a mass shooter of children, but our hearts should also ache for the sins we ourselves perpetrate. The respectable ones, the subtle ones, the overt ones. All of them. Jesus came to die for us so that we might be saved from His just wrath.
Audrey Hale wrote to a friend just before she shot up the school. She said she wanted to die. She said she’d see her friend in another life. Audrey Hale did die that day. Police shot her. She died, but sadly, her pain didn’t end then. It only began.
I grieve over the unsaved living in this ever-deepening cesspool world of sin. I grieve over their death and headlong plunge into hell and torment forever. Such was I before grace came. Be grieved or even angry over evil. But aim your anger over the true culprit: sin. Such were some of us- angry, confused, emotionally disturbed. And drunkards, addicts, homosexuals, liars, filthy beasts. The Gospel is the answer.
THANK YOU Jesus for living on earth as God-Man, a perfect life, and unjustly dying and rising again. Thank you for solving the world’s worst problem- sin and our separation from You. Thank you for giving us a right worldview and hope and peace.
Share the reason for the hope that is within us. No doubt Audrey Hale had been given the Gospel. Her parents were devout. Audrey Hale rejected it. Some will reject. But some won’t. And so we persevere, sounding forth His GOOD NEWS, until the Lord comes back –
For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of an entrance we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10)
Am I a wretch?
By Elizabeth Prata
Romans 6:23.
Photo by Mia Golic on Unsplash
Before I was saved, I used to like that hymn “Amazing Grace”. Go figure. Usually only at Christmas or Easter services I was dragged to, we were not a church going family. But that was where I’d heard the song, and I liked it.
But I decidedly did not like the part that said “a wretch like me”. I stubbornly clung to the notion that I, a good person, was in no way a wretch. I closed my mouth when that part came up. What self-pitying, low self-esteem these Christians were, I’d thought.
I was so deep in my sin, of course I could not see my own depravity. But His grace abounded. Now I’m saved, and far from thinking that Christians are being pitiable doormats with no self-esteem, now, acknowledging my position before Christ is a relief. I had been comparing myself to others, and comparatively I might have been slightly nicer than the other guy, who was also a thoroughly depraved wretch by the way, but at the judgment we do not compare ourselves to other people. We must be like Christ, who is perfectly holy. So, yes, I am a wretch. I had been strutting and roaming the earth in sin, proud of my sin, doing nothing for God and happy in my pigsty of a life.
Those who will humble themselves He will lift up, but the proud, He opposes.
It bears repeating, and repeating, and repeating, just how sinful we were before salvation – yet God loved us. He loved his enemies! We were His enemy, hating Him and rejecting Him at all points. No one seeks for God. We only seek for ourselves. Yet His grace descended on each person who is and will be in heaven, plucking us up from the sinner’s nest of sin, and cleaning us with his own blood, standing us upright, and bestowing on us all the benefits of heaven as His children.
Every human is made in the image of God but only people that His grace opened their eyes to repent are His children.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Do not let the wonder of salvation dwindle in your mind. Allow the beauty and eternal gift of His Spirit in us to dwell richly in a bed of gratitude deep within, welling up at all points to share the glory that is Jesus.
Real Zeal vs. False Zeal part 2
By Elizabeth Prata
Part 1 Discerning false zeal, here
Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).
By this verse we see there is such a thing as a zeal that is not of God. There can be zea, or fervor or energy around religious things, but not according to what we know from the Bible. AKA knowledge.
Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. Synonyms: passion, fervor, enthusiasm.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on the Romans 10:1-2 verse in a sermon called False vs. True Zeal. The sermon is stunning, relevant, and informative. He laid the foundation as he always does, logically, then laid out tests to determine of someone is exhibiting false zeal. Then in the later part of the sermon he laid out how to determine if a person is exhibiting true zeal. I paraphrased the part of his sermon discussing false zeal, here. Today, we have an exam of true zeal.
Lloyd-Jones’ sermon can be heard here, for free: True Zeal and False Zeal: A Sermon on Romans 10:1-2. Or on Youtube with closed captions (which might help due to his accent).
What follows is Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ excerpt from the sermon True Zeal vs. False Zeal, focusing on true zeal.
What are the characteristics of a true zeal? A true zeal is never a zeal that’s put on. It’s not put on you by anybody else it’s not put on by you yourself. If you’ve got a zeal you’ve got it not because you’ve been told it’s the thing to do when you join this church or this society. That’s not the reason if you are doing it, simply because it’s the thing to do in this society or company. It’s never put on or mechanical either by other people or the thing to do or by ourselves as the result of a decision.
Secondly, it is always the result of being the man who’s got a true zeal has it because he is what he is. He has it because he’s grown in grace and because he’s grown in sanctification. It’s not an act.
Thirdly and putting it still more specifically and in terms of our text true zeal is always the result of knowledge. It is always the outcome of knowledge. With the Apostle is really put this very wonderfully for us already in chapter 6 in verse 17, (KJV)
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Now you notice the order. He actually puts the obeying first. That the obeying actually in practice was the last. This is what he says has happened to you – he says the first thing was this a form of doctrine was delivered. The gospel was preached to them and they received it and believed it with their minds. But it wasn’t only in their minds, the heart was involved. They were moved by it and because the heart was involved they were moved by it. They gave it obedience. Their will came into action but that was the order they received it with the mind first, it moved the heart it moved them to action.
That is the true order of true zeal. The trouble with a false zeal is that it puts the will first and is not interested even in the heart nor in the head. The man who says ‘nothing matters but activity’ is exhibiting a false will. That’s the danger of activism. It goes on in his headlong blind manner. The right order is the mind, the heart, then the will.
The man who has the true zeal he knows what he’s doing and he knows why he’s doing it. Zeal is according to knowledge!
The fourth test is that it’s a deep zeal. Not superficial. It’s not a spectacular, showy blaze, but a controlled fire that’s longer lasting and more useful.
As such, the true zeal displays control. Fire is a bad master, but when zeal is controlled by knowledge it’s as it should be. If a fire is in the hearth it’s controlled and warming the room and pleasant to be around. Fire that is out of control is damaging and unwanted. It burns and destroys. It is the same with zeal. A person exhibiting true zeal controls it.
Sixth, a true zeal is never self-confident. He’s always reverent. He doesn’t get excited. The Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians that when he went amongst them he did so in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, Paul, trembling, apprehensive, fearful nervous? How different that is from the false zeal and the confidence and the assurance and the mastery of the occasion some men show in their false zeal!
A person with true zeal knows he operates under grace and not in his own strength. His confidence comes from knowing his energy is deposited by the Spirit of God.
Remember, the Corinthians were despising Paul because he wasn’t boasting about himself. Some of the false teachers were boasting about themselves. They were recommending themselves. Well, says Paul, if you really want to know I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me. I am what I am by the grace of God .
Seventh- What’s the motive that animates true zeal? Well it isn’t just to be busy and to do things and to get results. It’s the glory of God… the glory of God. The love of Christ. Their motivation is the love of Christ and wanting to share that with others who are lost.
A man of true zeal is not simply anxious that people should decide for Christ. He wants them to come to what Paul calls our knowledge of the truth. He’s not interested in superficial results. He is very concerned that men and women should have a knowledge of the truth that will save them from hell.
It comes to this – that the man who is animated by a true zeal however successful he may be he is never elated he’s never excited with his own success. When the Lord sent the seventy out to preach and to cast out devils and they were so successful that they came back full of excitement. They said ‘master the very devils are subject unto us!’ and our Lord looked at them and said ‘In this rejoice not that the devils of the spirits are made subject unto you, but rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’
I ask you a question as I close. What’s the effect of all this upon you is it that you are so afraid of the false zeal that you do nothing at all. If it is I have spoken in vain if you are so afraid of a false zeal that it paralyzes you, then you’re the very antithesis of Paul. You’ve not understood the truth. Knowledge of the truth always moves the heart and moves the will.
If the knowledge of the truth hasn’t moved you, hasn’t engaged your affections and your emotions hasn’t made you do something, you have not known the truth properly. When a man really knows this truth he says we cannot but speak of the things which we have seen and heard.
In any case the Apostle teaches us in Romans that we must not be slothful in business we must rather be fervent in spirit serving the law not a false zeal but a true one. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. He’s not writing to apostles he is writing to ordinary church members. Are you fervent in spirit? Are you moved by what you claim to believe? Do you really believe it? If you do you know that everybody who doesn’t believe it is going to hell, can you be passive and quiet and paralysed and say nothing and do nothing?
To what extent are you concerned about the souls of the Lost? How can a man believe the gospel and not be concerned about those who don’t? How can a man sit down feeling his own pulse worrying about his own temptations and sins and problems and have no concern about the lost?
————end MLJ sermon part 2 on true zeal.
We don’t often talk about zeal, or energy, or fervor for the lost. We talk of how ‘busy’ we are, but as we saw in part 1 and in part 2, there can be a false motivation, a false energy propelling us in this busyness that is completely vain. Make sure your energy comes from the Spirit, that it isn’t something put on and springs from a fountain of carnality. Matthew 7:21-23 shows the unmasking of people who exhibited a false zeal, only to find they were doing it in their own strength and not in the Lord.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).
The only way to obtain knowledge of God is to go where God is: the Bible. That is where he has revealed Himself, and is the source of truth and knowledge.
Poetry by Kay Cude: Unity in Christ
Artist’s Statement:
I was compelled to do a piece about “unity in Christ” and what Christ means, not what “we” assume He means. [The picture] is Christ the Lamb of God who manifested all that “unity” of the redeemed in God the Father and God the Son!
For more information on the topic of unity, please see Mike Oppenheimer’s (Let Us Reason) pieces on “UNITY”, (“The Gospel of UNITY,” and “Unity Without Truth or Christ,”
Photo and poetry below. Used with permission.
Real zeal vs. False Zeal part 1
By Elizabeth Prata
Real Zeal vs. False zeal part 2
A regenerated heart means different affections, different point of view, different citizenship. It means the world will hate the believer. And it does. It does.
Post-salvation, I learned that some of the most vicious and difficult evangelistic responses don’t come from the world, but sometimes actually come from people calling themselves other Christians. That is because I learned there are false Christians who possess a false zeal. Or, actually, it’s a true zeal, but it’s misplaced from glorifying God in truth, to glorifying satan in hate.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).
By this verse we see there is such a thing as a zeal that is not of God. There can be zeal, or fervor, or energy around religious things, but not according to what we know from the Bible. AKA knowledge.
This contrast of false zeal vs. true zeal was highlighted recently with several events in the news. Of course, the “Asbury Revival”, a week-long event that had occurred at a college in Kentucky where a seemingly spontaneous move of God spread across the campus, drawing hundreds of matriculated students, then busloads of students from other campuses, then rubber-neckers. The event seemed to indicate a spiritual move of the Spirit to awaken dead sinners. Or was it? There certainly was an abundance of zeal present. Was it real or false? How to tell? At the very beginning it was especially hard to tell.
Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. Synonyms: passion, fervor, enthusiasm.
In addition, another zeal event occurred. Beth Moore’s third memoir was released in February and the enterprising little Bible thumper from Texas has been busy as a bee flitting from interview to interview. The book rests at this writing at the top of famous best-seller lists. It’s creating quite a buzz. She has been on TV, streaming, and print, her opinions delivered with as much verve as ever, and are eagerly absorbed by audiences, never waning despite her 65 years and over 4 decades in the Christian biz.
Beth Moore has been consistently described through the years as “energetic”, “charismatic”, “passionate”. She puts out an energy as zealous for God.
But how can we discern if we observe a true zeal or a false zeal? Let’s turn to the scriptures.
As Paul finished Romans 9, and remember, there were no chapter breaks in the original letter, before he went on to mentioning false zeal in Chapter 10:1, had reminded the Roman Christians that Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. (Romans 9:31-32).
They appeared to be doing a religious effort, they looked like they were on the right track, and part of that appearance is because of their fervent energy.
They went across the world to make one proselyte, but wound up making him twice the sons of hell they were. (Matthew 23:15). That verse is the example of zeal without knowledge. You can be passionate, you can be busy making disciples, but a false zeal will make disciples who miss the mark completely and will wind up in hell as a son of hell. Zeal, no knowledge.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on the Romans 10:1-2 verse in a sermon called False vs. True Zeal. The sermon is stunning, relevant, and informative. He laid the foundation as he always does, logically, then laid out tests to determine of someone is exhibiting false zeal. Then in the later part of the sermon he laid out how to determine if a person is exhibiting true zeal. I’ll paraphrase his sermon below in 2 parts. Today, we have an exam of false zeal. Tomorrow, true zeal.
Lloyd-Jones’ sermon can be heard here, for free: True Zeal and False Zeal: A Sermon on Romans 10:1-2. Or on Youtube with closed captions (which might help due to his accent).
I think almost invariably that zeal is one of the most prominent characteristics of people who belong to the cults.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Test of False Zeal
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, paraphrased & quoted from his sermon
Here is one thing which should always raise the query in our minds and that is that our zeal has been imposed upon us by somebody else and we are just conforming to a pattern. You’re becoming just like the rest of them, conforming to an external pattern.
Secondly if it is a zeal that has to be whipped up or organized as it were, or that we have to be kept up to it. If the stimulus has to come from other people on the outside, it may very well be a false zeal.
A third test if you find that you put greater emphasis upon doing than upon being, it’s always an indication. You should be careful if you are more anxious to do things than to be a saint, you better examine your zeal again.
Another way of putting that my fourth test can be put in this form that involves zeal the activity is always very prominent and at the center of the life rather than the truth. The thing you are hit by all along is the activity, this energy that’s being put forth, rather than by the truth which even the people themselves claim to be representing. In other words, there’s always a tendency in false zeal to overdo things. There’s always an element of excess where the activity is more in evidence than the thing which is claimed.
In the fifth place the more prominent the machinery and the element of organization the more likely it is to be a false zeal. When methods and means and organization of machinery are very prominent it’s good presumptive evidence that it is a false zeal.
As my sixth test MLJ grouped a number of things together under the heading of carnality carnality. He meant that by that the flesh. In false zeal there is always this carnal element and it shows itself by a kind of lightness, a lightness of spirit, almost sometimes even a frivolity.
This can sometimes be seen even in religious meetings. There’s a lightness and a joviality and the kind of jovial superficiality. You can’t imagine such things anywhere near the Apostle Paul or any other of the Apostles or anywhere near our Blessed Lord himself, but you get it in these meetings. They’re very zealous. I’m not quitting their zeal I’m granting their zeal. I’m granting their enthusiasm but they always overdo it and there is this light touch about it.
Indeed I have often on some occasions in a certain type of meeting I’ve had to remind myself that I am in a religious meeting. The spirit I have felt present has been the spirit of a cricket team or a football team. The spirit of doing something worldly some wealthy entertainment. Now the people were absolutely sincere but there was lightness in the atmosphere there was no sense of awe, no sense of God, no sense of holiness no sense of reverence but everything was bright and breezy. It was being carried along with the verve and wonderful organizing power I say these are indications of carnality, not of true zeal.
Still under carnality, if there is an element of self-confidence and of assurance and of being in control of the situation, you can be quite certain it is false zeal. Any impression that is given by men – I don’t care how zealous he is, I don’t care how sincere he is – if he gives that impression that he’s in control and self-confident in the show I’m suspicious of his zeal and of his sincerity. If there’s any suspicion at all of his being proud of himself, it is still worse.
But let’s go on to test number seven – false zeal is always impatient to the examination. It dislikes being examined. It dislikes being questioned.
It resents this- it says ‘Can’t you see that I’m zealous … I’m enthusiastic … I’m sincere … I want to do …’ But you say ‘Well but let’s make sure because of the teaching.’ No, no, it’s impatient of all that. It wants to get on with things, must be doing something.
False zeal dislikes slowing down long enough to be examined.
Eighth, that is surely a very bad sign and when it is impatient of teaching. It is still worse they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. They don’t want the knowledge, for they’ve rejected the knowledge. They are not interested in it. They must get on with it they say. They don’t want to be taught and teaching is unnecessary. The thing to do is to be doing something that’s the spirit of the false zeal test number nine.
—end Martyn Lloyd-Jones tests of false zeal from his sermon.
As you read along of the 9 tests, did anyone come to mind? I can think of a lot of Christian celebs I see on social media who resist being tested, or don’t like their teaching being compared to the Bible. I can think of several people who exhibit a zeal but after having seen them PERFORM, their teaching actually evaporates. Their teaching has no substance when parted from their charismatic personality.
Monday I’ll post what Lloyd-Jones outlines as tests of true zeal. You’ll notice the difference immediately. Meanwhile, don’t be one of the many who think that just because a person seems passionate for God, they possess a true understanding of the faith. There IS such a thing as false zeal.
There is a danger of setting up zeal or sincerity to the supreme position.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Further Reading
Real Zeal vs. False zeal part 2
Today’s blog and podcast was about Romans 10:1-2, having a false zeal, that is, zeal about God but no knowledge of God. Zeal without knowledge Here is a good article on turning information into knowledge-
https://expositors.org/turning-information-into-knowledge/
The “good” in God’s plan for your life
By Elizabeth Prata
Here is an exchange on Twitter that occurred, one of many like these.
The Prosperity gospel/Word of Faith that the Osteens and their kind promote is a deathly error. It drags away the unwary, it devastates the witness of the true Christians, and it condemns the Osteens to hell.
The “good” plan for your life, according to the Osteens, is a healthy checkbook, a large house, health, and happiness.
However the “Good” that Jesus plans for us may or may not include any of the above. Peter was told by Jesus that Peter will stretch out his hands and go where he will not want to go (crucifixion. John 21:18). Paul was told he will be tormented in every city will he ever travel to.
“And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.” (Acts 20:22-23)
Stephen was bashed in the head with rocks, dying a martyr’s death. This does not sound like “a good plan for your life.”
What satan offered Eve was a temptation involving the lust of the flesh, the pride of the eyes and the pride of life. (1 John 2:16). In other words, the world. And the Osteens offer the world, too, wrapped in a veneer of prosperity and ‘happiness’.
Was Stephen happy when he was being stoned? No but yes. He was in pain but also saw Jesus in glory standing at the right hand of the Father. Was Paul “happy” when he was beaten and left for dead? Or put in chains in jail? No but yes. He wrote in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.“
I have a feeling if Victoria Osteen was beaten and left for dead she would not have the wherewithal nor the capacity to shout Rejoice! That is because the Osteens attach happiness to their worldly circumstances. Paul did no such thing. He rejoiced with friends at supper, while teaching in the synagogue making disciples, sewing a tent, or while sitting in chains in the sewer sludge. That’s because his ‘happiness’, prosperity, joy, came from above, not the world.
The ‘good’ in God’s plan is Good not because we receive pleasant things from the world. It is good because:
- God made the plan and everything God does is good. We proclaim this by faith, and
- All things work together for the good of those who love Him, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28, and
- God receives glory from the perfect outworking of His plan. The good is the glory He gains when saints acknowledge Him as good, no matter their circumstances. The ‘good’ in our lives is Jesus, not the world nor the things in it.
We do not seek the things the world calls good, but the things that God calls good.
We do not say in our greetings and our letters and our prayers, “I want a mansion, perfect health, and a fat checkbook for myself” but we say –
May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you (Jude 1:2) because it was multiplied to us. Now that’s good!
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Further Reading
Al Mohler: The Osteen Predicament
"Heaven is for Real" is Unreal. What near death experiences tell us, and what they don’t tell us
By Elizabeth Prata
At the Library book sale last week, I saw several of these heaven tourism books kicking around, still. Heaven Tourism is a phrase coined (I think) by evangelist Justin Peters, to indicate a book written by a person who allegedly was given a personal tour of heaven through a vision or even a personal, bodily visit, while still alive, guided by an angel or even by Jesus.
In 2010 a book was released called “Heaven is for Real“. A Wikipedia page describes the plot thus:
“The book documents the report of a near-death experience by Burpo’s then-four-year-old son, Colton. The book tells how the boy began saying he had visited heaven.”
And at the end of the page it says, “See Also”:
23 Minutes in Hell
90 Minutes in Heaven
The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven
Proof of Heaven
The book was immediately optioned to be made into a movie, which was released in April 2014.
Heaven Is for Real
“A small-town father must find the courage and conviction to share his son’s extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world.”
I used the word ‘immediately’ because the book was a runaway bestseller. It spent eight weeks at No. 1 in 2011. It was on the NY Times bestseller list for a total of 138 weeks, spurred on by the movie release.
This is incredible to me. That people in the first place would seek any information about God’s dwelling apart from God’s word is amazingly undiscerning. And to be attracted to such information from a four-year-old-boy is just beyond comprehension.
I kind of understand. I feel the attraction to wanting to see peeks of the other side. As Christians, we resist such thoughts and desires, because they aren’t profitable. When I was an unsaved person, though, I was intrigued by near-death experiences (NDEs).
Besides near-death experiences, there are now post-death experiences. Science and medicine has advanced to the point currently where doctors can put a person to death for a period of time in order to operate or repair a body, and then bring them back to life in controlled circumstances.
I wasn’t saved until I was 43 years old. That is a lot of years as a teen and an adult to ponder the mysteries of the other side. And ponder I did. There is a certain logic to Christianity that the unsaved mind suppresses. (Romans 1:18). Intuitively it seemed that evolution would not have gone to all the trouble to evolve us bodily AND in addition, give us a mind, a conscience, and self-awareness- and then we die off after only 40, 50, 70 years and then…poof, nada? Obliteration? It didn’t seem likely. What was the point of life, then? But the ‘Jesus thing’ as I termed it, made less sense.
Secondly, it seemed that every culture in the world since recorded time and history began has celebrated or worshiped a deity or deities. I often wondered, why are we all wired to worship? And which deity is the right one? There must be something to religion, if every culture from north to south, east to west, has worshiped someone or something. But my mind rejected Jesus as the answer.
Third, I always wondered why so many people reported having a near death experience, and why those experiences seemed so similar.
It was more than reasonable that religion was real, my pagan brain decided, the other side was real, that heaven was real.
Then I became a Christian by God’s grace and the drawing of the Holy Spirit, (Ephesians 2:8, John 6:44). I learned through the bible that heaven IS real. I read what it looks like. I read who will go there. I read about worship there. All about heaven, it’s in the Bible. How great and glorious God is to provide us this glimpse.
Four men went to heaven in visions and three came back authorized to tell about it. (Paul said he heard things he was forbidden to tell. 2 Corinthians 12:2. John also was told not to tell of one of the things he’d heard, the Seven Thunders, Revelation 10:1-7). Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John went to heaven in visions and were shown wonderful things. How glorious the Lord is to give us these peeks that are now recorded in His word! We can trust them.
It is not likely that Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John were the only men for thousands of years but then ALSO Colton Burpo, Don Piper, Beth Moore, Jesse DuPlantis, Bill Wiese and others all strolled around heaven, or in Wiese’s case, hell).
And if you think about it, ONLY FOUR men were given visions of heaven. Job, who was called righteous by God, wasn’t escorted around heaven on a personal tour. King David, a man after God’s own heart, wasn’t given an individual advance visit. John the Baptist, whom Jesus said no other man born of woman had risen greater than, wasn’t given an opportunity to stroll around and take in the sights.
But four year old Colton Burpo was. He and his dad wrote “Heaven is for Real.” In Colton’s version, people had bodies. In the Bible it says people haven’t been given their glorified body yet. That won’t happen until the resurrection. And we’re supposed to believe the boy?
Dr Eben Alexander was given a tour. He wrote “Proof of Heaven.” Dr Alexander, a former surgeon, has been fired from multiple hospitals, is the subject of several malpractice suits, and is charged by doctors with lying in his book about the events leading up to his NDE. Others found discrepancies in his book on other matters. He is a Christ-rejecting pagan who believes in reincarnation. And HE was given a tour of heaven?
What near death experiences don’t tell us is, what heaven is like, because NONE of the people who claim to have gone there, really went there. The details of their trip contradict not only the Bible, but they contradict each other. Any detail, glimpse, peek, or curiosity you have about heaven will not be satisfied in these books or movies. Though they may indeed have had some sort of experience, the details related to heaven are all untrue imaginings brought on by severe bodily stress, mental derangement, or outright lies.
What NDEs do tell us is what we already know from the Bible: the conscious mind continues.
There is no doubt that near death experiences happen. They are consistently reported by millions of people. Eight million people in the US alone have reported having such an experience. And most of them have similar elements. The NDE FAQ page defines those elements this way:
No two NDEs are exactly identical, but within a number of experiences a pattern becomes evident. Researchers have identified the common elements that define near-death experiences. Bruce Greyson argues that the general features of the experience include impressions of being outside one’s physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of egotic and spatiotemporal boundaries. (source)
There is no doubt that in some of the NDEs, spiritual forces are at play. However, the fact of having a near death experience does not by default make the experience true. There is such a thing as lying demons. (1 Kings 22:19–23). Here is the Stand to Reason blog explaining this very concept in their discussion of “Heaven is For Real“.
“What we can’t conclude from these experiences that appear to be real is that what they heard and learned during these experiences are necessarily true. An experience can be real without the conclusions of the experience being accurate. That happens to us all the time even in this life. We have an experience, but we’re mistaken about what we think about it. It can happen in death, too. After all, once we have evidence for a non-physical world, we have reason to believe from the Bible, which tells us about this world, that there are beings there that deceive us.”
Why would we believers even want to pursue such rabbit trails that lead only to deception?
All that NDEs can tell us is that the conscious mind continues (we already knew that) and people experience things after death (we already knew that too). Anything other than that are fanciful thoughts and images that have no place in biblical mind and a Jesus-loving heart.
Though ‘Christian’ movies that are made with Hollywood production values are rare these days, movies about the afterlife, the soul and angels are common. Interest in the topic of the afterlife among the unsaved (and unfortunately the saved) is what’s real.
In 2004 John Hagee Ministries put together a movie called “Escape From Hell.” In it, a psychiatrist who counsels people who have had near death experiences becomes consumed with learning whether there is an afterlife for real or not. He induces a medical death for himself and calls a friend to come revive him before it is too late. With that, he passes out and begins his tour. The doctrinal errors in this film are too numerous to mention, but a movie reviewer called CBC Pastor wrote this:
When we seek to add error to increase the scare effect, we deny the power of God’s Spirit to work through truth… Movies that stretch the truth to this level only hurt evangelism through those that will laugh themselves right out of our churches and ignore the truth of genuine warning.
That is exactly what these heaven tourism books and movies do. They deny the power of the Spirit to work through truth, and isn’t that how the Spirit promised to work? Through truth? Not through lies.
Here are some credible reviews and essays on heaven tourism. I’ll tell you ahead of time, they are all negative. I am purposely listing these in order to help you or to help you help a family member or friend who insists that these visions and trips to heaven are real. Heaven IS for real. I know this because Jesus told me so, not a little boy, or a disgraced doctor or a well-intentioned pastor or any man in the flesh. As Pastor Tim Challies succinctly said of Heaven is for Real,
“The point of it all is to encourage you that heaven is a real place. Colton went there and his experience now validates its existence“.
Ridiculous in the extreme, isn’t it?!
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Further Reading
Heaven is For Real, book review by Tim Challies
Heaven Tourism, essay by Tim Challies
The Burpo-Malarkey Doctrine , essay by Phil Johnson
To Heaven and Back, review by Randy Alcorn
Justin Peters explains why trips to heaven don’t line up with the Bible video
This proves that heavenly tourism books and movies are a total scam. (Wretched video)
The Berean Library, Heaven is for Real
the-end-time.org 