Kay Cude is a Texas Poet. Used with permission.
Kay Cude Poetry: Invisible Made Visible
Two perspectives on Halloween
By Elizabeth Prata
The ‘holiday’ of Halloween tends to bring out in Christians some firm convictions from two sides. There are those who insist we/the children should have nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween, that it’s an evil holiday with devilish origins. Many are concerned with the fact that it seems to spur on society’s fascination with the paranormal and other ghostly phenomena.
The other side says that its origins touch back to the Reformation, when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of All Saints’ Church Wittenberg where he was Professor of Moral Theology at the University. This type of posting was the usual University custom to ignite discussion, and it’s commonly held that Luther posted it on 31 October 1517. His act sparked the Reformation.
Many churches hold some kind of family friendly event for their congregants, where children can dress up and play games and have fun in a way that is separate from the bloody specters too often sadly seen by families who do not hold to Christian tenets. Churches invite the local community to these events, and share information about Jesus in between all the fun.
With those two camps in mind, here are two resources for you. Use them as you wish, either to crystallize your own thoughts or to read ‘the other side’ and perhaps come to a different conclusion.
In this podcast, “Fred Butler: Halloween” Fred Butler, who works at Grace to You, the radio ministry of John MacArthur, where he coordinates and directs the volunteer ministries, joins Andy Olson of Echo Zoe (in 2016) for an informal discussion on the topic of Halloween. Should Christians participate in Halloween? Fred and Andy had similar backgrounds in regards to how they approached Halloween early in our Christian walks, and how they approach it now. The podcast discussion revealed how Fred and his wife gravitated from a strict no-participation approach, to one that fully embraces what they see as an opportunity to both have fun and share Christ with people.
In this booklet, “Halloween Under The Light of Scripture: The History of Halloween“, (56 pages, or on Kindle), Justin Pierce summarized the history of Halloween and its occultist history and practices. It is a primer for the Christian to understand the evils of Halloween. It is Mr Pierce’s contention that our kids should not participate in it. Justin is a pastor, co-host of Apologetics Live, and Pastor at Grace Reformed Baptist Church in TN.
Alternately, here is an interview with Justin Pierce by Doreen Virtue.
As each family decides upon the level of participation they feel comfortable with, remember that these kinds of discussions and decisions are individual based on conscience. It’s a gray area, and there should be no dogmatic pronouncements one way or another. Christian liberty still exists, and hopefully, so does charity.
Further Resources-
Four Principles for the Exercise of Christian Liberty, Sinclair Ferguson at Ligonier
What does Christian Liberty Mean? Compelling Truth
Halloween: History, & The Bible, Answers in Genesis
Christians rarely speak of or teach about God’s Wrath – and that is a problem
By Elizabeth Prata
After salvation, I related to God from the beginning in an unusual way. Many people recommend reading John’s Gospel first because the Apostle of Love would ignite the seeker or the new believer’s heart with love for such a God as we have in return. God is love, is the approach.
As a person on the autism spectrum I don’t relate to the emotion of love in the same way as other people. I don’t have a relationship with my emotions that other people have. In fact, I’m unskilled at identifying the emotions I do have. This is called alexithymia. It isn’t a medical diagnosis and it’s not a disorder, according to health professionals. It’s just a condition some people have. So the emotional approach to a relationship with God wasn’t the path He laid out for me. I was like, ‘God is love, so what?’
I do have a strong sense of justice, as many high functioning autistic folks do. I thrive where there are very clear rules (the Bible is a relief!), strong logic, and a robust sense of fairness and justice.
Therefore God’s wrath for sin is very attractive to me. I often speak and write of it, and I look forward to the Day when He rights all wrongs. Injustice is an agony to me. Broken rules, unfairness, and chaos are upsetting. I was like, ‘God is justice?! HALLELUJAH!’
That God will enact His justice through a potent wrath that will strike the souls in heaven silent and will be infinite enough to torment sinners in hell forever does not bother me. It never did. It does bother me if a person won’t repent, or when they reject Christ. But the fact of the existence of holy wrath seems a logical counterpoint to His holiness and love. It’s a natural extension of His justice. Sin needs punishment. I am fully aware that apart from His grace, I’d be one of the people dwelling in hell forever, enduring the torment the Lamb pours out, and justifiably so. I was a terrible sinner. His wrath and justice for sin must be executed.
And far from the lovey-dovey hippie Jesus who hung out with sinners and would never torment these poor victims of satan, Jesus is the one doing the tormenting! Jesus is fully involved with His justice.
Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-10, cf Revelation 20:10)
But today people hardly speak of wrath at all. To do so invites scorn, ridicule, a peppering of questions and accusations, and rejection. I agree with the writer below. When I read Dustin Benge’s Twitter thread on wrath I was pleased to see this important topic addressed. Here is his thread-
Dustin Benge @Dustin Benge wrote
God’s wrath is a foreign topic nowadays.
Even to mention God’s wrath is to evoke rejection by our hearers: “God would never be that harsh… I thought God was love, not wrath… Surely God wouldn’t send anyone to hell… Doesn’t God say that he loves sinners?” 1/7
Our problem with God’s wrath springs from the fact that we consider wrath in human categories rather than divine. That is, we conclude that God must be like us when he expresses his wrath, a morally monstrous and vindictive person who threatens, “You just watch out!” 2/7
But this is not the God of Scripture, for God’s wrath is in perfect accord with his perfect righteousness, holiness, and justice. God can’t be divided into various parts, as if he had multiple personalities. 3/7
Since God is both infinite mercy and infinite justice, this requires that every single one of our sins committed against his infinite holiness be punished. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). 4/7
While some divide God into a wrathful Old Testament “tyrant” and a benevolent New Testament “daddy,” a consistent reading of both Testaments discerns that the presentation of God’s wrath is wholly consistent throughout Scripture. 5/7
There is no greater portrait of divine love than when God poured his wrath out upon his beloved Son at Calvary. On the cross, God unleashed his holy fury upon our sin-bearer and substitute, Jesus Christ, who became for us “a propitiation by his blood” (Rom. 3:25). 6/7
God so loved the objects of his wrath that he gave his only Son that through his perfect blood he would make provision for the removal of his wrath. Christ so wholly satisfies God’s wrath that those who were once objects of his wrath are now beloved children. 7/7
To ignore the wrath because it makes a believer uncomfortable to talk of, or because he cannot ‘defend’ it, is doing the unbeliever an injustice. Unbelievers will suffer the wrath forever and ever. They are at risk at every moment of being cast into the fires of hell at their death, which may always come at any time. Jonathan Edwards preached,
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.
This is a fact. Wrath is real. Many millions and billions are enduring it now. Please, dear reader, inquire of the Spirit to expand your mind to learn more about God’s wrath as the executing vehicle for His justice. We don’t want to focus excessively on love to the exclusion of the conclusion of the reality in front of the unbeliever. The unrepentant will live an infinitely long life in hellish eternity. And such were some of you- sinners dangling over the fires of hell before the grace of God took pity on you (and me) and rescued us through Jesus’ blood. Remember that, and talk of it.
Does a woman reading a Scripture verse during worship constitute “exercising authority”?
By Elizabeth Prata
I was asked this question by a reader and it’s a good question! Thank you, sister for the query. We have several verses in scripture that speak to ecclesiastical roles/duties with regard to men and women. The one most spoken of is Paul’s verse in 1 Timothy 2:12,
“But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”
There is also the verse in 1 Corinthians 14:34,
“the women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.”
Which is re-emphasized in the next verse, 1 Corinthians 14:35,
“If they wish to inquire about something, they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is dishonorable for a woman to speak in the church.”
Headship is the issue, which as part of her submission to the Head of the Church, mentions the woman’s silence. Thus, part of woman’s role is to remain silent in the church. It’s actually dishonorable to speak! The Greek word for dishonorable or disgraceful, is actually “sordid“. THAT’S how gross the Lord deems it for a woman to speak in the church service.
A woman reading scripture is not technically teaching or preaching it, (or IS it?) but the optics of a woman on the dais, with open Bible, reading and speaking, visually contradicts the verses that say women should remain quiet. It *looks* like she is taking authority, an authority she doesn’t have. That is not a good visual. She is also not being quiet as the verse says she must be.
If a woman was truly submissive to the headship of elders and to husband, there really should be no reason why she would want to perform in front of the church during service in that role.
Some people say ‘But, but, it’s JUST reading!’ No it’s not just innocent reading. Public reading of scripture during worship service is actually part of preaching.
1 Timothy 4:13 says, “Until I come, give your attention to the public reading, to exhortation, and teaching.”
“Those three elements form the essence of preaching: reading Scripture, declaring it, and explaining it” said MacArthur. So it’s not ‘just’ reading, it actually is a function of the pastor as part of the sermon.
To conclude, the issue of women reading the Bible to the congregation during services is:
1. Headship/Creation order issue;
2. Women remaining silent;
3. Understanding via proper interpretation that reading scripture is part of the pastor’s duties in preaching; and
4. A bad look, with a nuance in interpretation that treads close to a line many churches decide not to cross.
I rejoice when women ask me these kinds of questions. The glory of the Lord should be utmost in people’s mind and heart, with an earnest desire to obey His word in all things. Even though many visible churches seem to be falling into reproach these days, there are many more where obedient and diligent elders and pastors strive toward holiness and urge their people to do so as well. They gather, serve, sing, rejoice, obey; and persist in all these things. Even though we can’t see them, these churches are there. Some have 20 people in them and some have 200 and some have more. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. He will build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
In Acts 18:10, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. He told Paul to keep persevering in Corinth, ‘for I have many people in that city’. We never know where the Lord has His elect, nor who will be regenerated by the preaching of His leaders. We don’t know where people will grow and flourish despite our view of circumstances on the ground. He keeps His church thriving and will do so until the end.
Why does mankind resist certain fictional narratives?
By Elizabeth Prata
Philosophers are a funny breed. They have great thoughts and important discussions and some of them, even, contribute to the world in useful ways.
For the most part though, philosophers are to be pitied, for they pursue wisdom apart from God’s word. This is a vain pursuit.
Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.”
The word philosophy here means, according to Strong’s Concordance,
5835/philosophía (“philosophy”) in Col 2:8 refers to secular philosophy – elevating human wisdom over the wisdom of God. Such 5385 (philosophía) is loving one’s own thoughts (secular wisdom) at the expense of God’s Word (true wisdom).
And that is exactly what most philosophers do.
I came across a new sub-sub genre of philosophy the other month. It’s the study of “imaginative resistance.”
Our imagination will accept a book plot that involves flying cars or talking cats or aliens from other worlds readily enough. The problem is not with imagination. The problem (or ‘puzzle’ as philosophers state it) comes in when an author writes a fictional narrative that includes elements we deem morally reprehensible. Our imagination resists it. We won’t go there as a reader or movie watcher.
Morally deviant narratives are almost universally resisted by readers or viewers. Factually deviant fiction is no problem. We suspend disbelief to allow our imagination to go along with warp speed or giant guardian talking trees and closets that lead to another world. Yet morally deviant fiction is a huge problem. We reject infanticide and slavery as being deemed ‘good’. The evil villain who gets away with it doesn’t sell as many books as the one who receives justice in the end. People won’t consume it. Why this happens is a puzzle to philosophers. This paper explains further:
When engaging with a work of fiction we readily imagine all sorts of things, many of which depart from the world as we know it. Moreover, we tend have no trouble imagining such factually deviant propositions; our knowledge that, e.g., there are no such things as hobbits does not get in the way of our imagining the world described by Tolkien. Matters are different, however, when we are asked to imagine morally deviant propositions. If told: “Giselda gave birth to her fourth child,” we go along with the author. But if told, “In killing her baby, Giselda did the right thing; after all, it was a girl,” we tend to resist. How to explain this asymmetry has come to be known as the puzzle of imaginative resistance”. Source
This philosophy blogger said, “Without the slightest resistance, we accept invitations to imagine scenarios that contradict the known laws of nature or that rewrite some large or small fragment of the history of the world.”
Our imagination is inhibited by very few restraints, as confirmed by the fact that fiction has been alive and well since almost the dawn of history. However there IS a constraint upon imagination, there are some things our mind does resist treading toward and over a certain line. And that this is a generality that seems true across cultures and times, for almost the whole of humankind, indeed must be a puzzle to those who do not know the Lord.
For example, speaking of rewritten history, the television series “The Man in the High Castle” was an extremely well done and by the way, successful show that revised history to spin out what America would be like if we had lost to the German Nazis in WWII. It was an imaginative puzzle of interesting ramifications and scenarios that the show’s writers dealt with in ingenious ways. The Nazis were repugnant and their regime was a horror. Still, though, the author could imagine a world run by Nazis, and readers and TV watchers did also, but … we don’t normally accept imagining a world where the adulteress wins.
Famously, the 1987 movie Fatal Attraction with Glenn Close, Michael Douglas and Anne Archer had an ending that we never got to see. The plot centered on Michael Douglas as Dan, who was a (supposedly) happily married man and his weekend-long sexual encounter with a woman he’d just met. When the weekend was over he assumed the relationship would end, too, but the woman, (Glenn Close, playing Alex) became dangerously unstable and refused to let go. She performed increasingly dangerous intrusions into the family, at one point, boiling the family’s pet bunny. This is where we get the term “bunny boiler.” The climax came when she appeared in the married couple’s bathroom and tried to kill the wife (Anne Archer). Michael Douglas’ character drowned Alex in the tub, but she wasn’t dead and popped back up, but by then Anne Archer’s character was ready with a gun and shot Alex dead. Cue the end.
Audiences loved that ending. It was satisfying. Especially because 35 years ago, the woman was much more looked upon as the person more in the wrong in any adulterous affair. That she got what was coming was fulfilling to the audience. But that was not the ending the screenwriter put on the page at first.
Originally, the Alex character slits her own throat and frames the Michael Douglas character. She commits suicide and dies a lonely death in her bathroom. This did not please audiences at all, who clamored for a more theatrically potent and a more morally just ending.
Director Adrian Lyne reminisced, “Somebody said that the only innocent party in the movie is Beth, so it had a certain logic that [Alex’s death] would come from her,” he says of how he approached Archer’s revised role.”
Imaginative resistance refers to the way readers are willing to give consent to all sorts of implausible things in the context of a fiction, but become uneasy when asked to imagine that something they consider morally or ethically reprehensible is good. Source
Texts in quarantine: Karl Barth, biblical interpretation and imaginative resistance | Scottish Journal of Theology | Cambridge Core
That this resistance is a puzzle to philosophers is not puzzling to Christians. God has instilled in every person’s soul a moral compass, vestigial knowledge of the Ten Commandments impressed into the heart, and a conscience.
William Fenner, English Puritan, wrote, There is in every man a conscience: “their conscience…bearing witness.” There was a conscience in the scribes and Pharisees: “being convicted by their own conscience” (Joh 8:9). There is a conscience in good men, as in Paul: “our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience” (2Co 1:12). There is a conscience in wicked men: “their mind and conscience is defiled” (Ti 1:15). As it is impossible the fire should be without heat, so it is impossible that any man should be without a conscience.
We all have one. And why is that? Do worms have a conscience? Do mice have a conscience? Do butterflies have a conscience? No. Only humans have a conscience, and this mental activity inside us that accuses or excuses did not “evolve”.
AW Pink wrote, “CONSCIENCE is the faculty of the soul that enables us to perceive of conduct in reference to right and wrong, the inward principle that decides upon the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our desires and deeds. Conscience has well been termed the moral sense because it corresponds to those physical faculties whereby we have communion with the outward world, namely, the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Man has an ethical instinct, a faculty or moral sensibility informing and impressing him.“
We suspend disbelief, we can imagine illogic, we can set aside physical laws, but for “some reason” we humans almost universally cannot go beyond some aspects of moral imagination. Why? I put it to you that it is because we have an innate sense of the line that is drawn of ethics, morals, and values as humans, and that glimmers of the knowledge of our accountability to God restrains us. The Common Grace of the Holy Spirit in His restraining activity enacts this.
The Greek word for conscience appears in the New Testament 31 times, writes RC Sproul. Its use is two-fold, it accuses as well as excuses. “When we sin, the conscience is troubled. It accuses us. The conscience is the tool that God the Holy Spirit uses to convict us, bring us to repentance, and to receive the healing of forgiveness that flows from the gospel,” he said in “How Can I Develop a Christian Conscience?“.
How is the conscience informed? God’s word informing God’s principles to the person’s mind. How is the conscience breached? By constant sin unaddressed, which hardens the mind and dissociates the soul.
The conscience excuses as well as accuses. We are living in a time when that moral line of resisting moral deviance in fiction, as well as resisting it in real life in all arenas, is rapidly evaporating. Sproul continues,
“It’s interesting that we can always find someone who will give an articulate and persuasive defense for the ethical legitimacy of some of the activities that God has judged to be an outrage to Him. As humans, our ability to defend ourselves from moral culpability is quite developed and nuanced. We become a culture in trouble when we begin to call evil good an good evil.”
What happens when the puzzle of why humans resist going over certain morally deviant lines erodes to the point when anything and everything is good, or at least, should be tolerated? It is prophesied that the cycle of evil over human history will always devolve to the point of calling evil good and good, evil, says Isaiah 5:20.
We have after-birth abortion which is just another name for infanticide, drag shows to children, homosexual marriage, torture and defacing of children in pursuit of another identity, riots that are called peaceful and peaceful protests that are called riots, and much more and worse. We have this now. What do you think will happen when the Spirit ceases His restraining hand and like the line of children playing tug of war, fall down, all moral restraint collapses and falls all at once?
GotQuestions mulls this over:
Of course, the Spirit works through believers to accomplish this. The church, indwelt by the Spirit of God, has always been part of what holds society back from the swelling tide of lawless living. At some point, Paul says, the Spirit will “step aside” from His restraining work, allowing sin to have dominion over mankind. Second Thessalonians 2:7 can be literally rendered, “The secret of lawlessness is already working, only it cannot be revealed until he who now withholds disappears from the midst.” We believe this “disappearing from the midst” will happen at the time the church leaves the earth at the rapture. The Holy Spirit will still be present in the earth, of course, but He will be taken out of the way in the sense that His unique sin-restraining ministry—through God’s people—will be removed (see Genesis 6:3). Source
Can you imagine? Literal hell will break loose on earth.
Philosophy is all well and good for those who stumble in the dark. God’s word says of philosophy,
We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:13).
Timothy, protect what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— (1 Timothy 6:20).
It is admittedly a distressing state to sit in a seat of light and truth and knowledge, and watch philosophers and ethicists and sociologists the unsaved elites grapple with these issues of morals and conscience. It’s worse to see these people informing our leaders in government based on these horrific principles. The Lord in His wisdom bestowed true knowledge to His people, yet the unsaved stumble in the dark and fall into a pit. O, the Day when He comes to show all who He is and that the Light is pure and Holy will be too late for many.
For the Christian in these times, protect your conscience. It is valuable and is the guiding light that informs our mind of sin, grows us in accusing us of sin, which drives us to the Father in repentance. Be a believer, not a philosopher.
Further Resources
The Conscience Revisited, Grace To You article
Everyone Has a Conscience, William Fenner (1600-1640)
Suppressing the Truth and Searing the Conscience, The End Time
Peeking into ‘the other side’- Two Questions (part 2)
By Elizabeth Prata
Last week I wrote three times about heaven. What We Have to Look Forward To, Where Is Heaven?, and, The Tree of Life and 12 Fruits each Month? With all the darkness in the world, I needed a spiritual bath and to bask in God’s pureness and His holy habitation!
I’d wondered about two questions. The first was, can the unsaved get a glimpse into the other side by means of divination? They seem to do it all the time. The true and biblical answer of course, was NO. That essay is here.
If the unsaved cannot look up to see what is happening in heaven, then, can those in heaven look down and see what is going on here on earth? This was the second question I’ll address today. The Bible isn’t totally crystal on this, but probably the answer is no.
John MacArthur addressed this question, “Do those in heaven know what is happening on earth?” He dealt with “the rare and unusual occurrence” of Saul’s interaction with the Witch of Endor, (1 Samuel 28), and the issue of the parable with Lazarus in Sheol. He debunked the Hebrews 12:1 issue by placing it in context and explaining it biblically, saying this-
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)
The witnesses in that verse are not modern-day loved ones, but the faithful saints in Hebrews 11 who lived victorious lives by trusting God. Those saints are witnesses to us because their lives testify about the value of trusting God no matter what hardships we face. They are active witnesses who speak to us by their example; not passive witnesses who watch us with their eyes.
Consequently, when we understand Hebrews 12:1 in its context, we realize that it doesn’t really support the idea that our loved ones are watching us from heaven. Our comfort comes not from knowing they can see us, but that they can see Jesus and one day we will see Him with them as well-never to be separated again.
GotQuestions asks and answers that question, too, here, and exegetes the verse Hebrews 12:1 to say, no, that is not what the verse is telling us. They conclude with this, “The Bible doesn’t specifically say that people in heaven cannot look down on us, so we can’t be dogmatic. However, it is unlikely that they can. People in heaven are likely preoccupied with other things such as worshiping God and enjoying the glories of heaven.“
But, people have asked, doesn’t the ‘silence in heaven for half an hour’ recorded in Revelation 8:1 when Jesus breaks the 7th seal, mean that people in heaven know what is happening on earth? That they are following the events of the Great Tribulation as recorded in Revelation, in real time? GotQuestions muses on three possible reasons, but none of the three reasons indicate a sure knowledge that people in heaven are watching earth as if from a balcony.
Albert Barnes in his Commentary notes explains Revelation 8:1 in a way that makes sense, “The meaning here is, that on the opening of this seal, instead of voices, thunderings, tempests, as perhaps was expected from the character of the sixth seal (Revelation 6:12 ff), and which seemed only to have been suspended for a time Revelation 7, there was an awful stillness, as if all heaven was reverently waiting for the development. Of course this is a symbolical representation, and is designed not to represent a pause in the events themselves, but only the impressive and fearful nature of the events which are now to be disclosed.“
I’m not sure why anyone would want to watch earth, when they can see Jesus, watch the holy angels, and participate in heaven’s activities! There is no comparison.
If you want to be sure you’re acting in a holy manner pleasing to God, and are curious about the other side, and are saved, read the Word of God to see what He has revealed in it. Then when you depart this life and go to heaven, you will know for sure about the extent to which we can ‘look down’ (or not) and see earth.
We regenerated believers have a duty to those who are so obviously curious, so obviously searching for hope of another life after death. Jesus called us to be His ambassadors and witnesses. We have the HOPE and we have the TRUTH. Let’s share it far and wide. Those whom the Lord will open their ears to hear, He will open. For, how will they believe unless they have heard? Romans 10.
Further resources
John Wesley- (sermon) The Almost Christian
Matthew Mead- (pdf) The Almost Christian Discovered
CARM- (essay) Why Write about Wicca?
Ligonier- (devotional) Two Men, Two Kingdoms (Simon the Sorcerer)
Compelling Truth- (essay) Can People in Heaven Look Down and See us on Earth?
Podcast listing: season 2, Episode 260
Peeking into ‘the other side’- Two Questions (part 1)
By Elizabeth Prata
Last week I wrote three times about heaven. What We Have to Look Forward To, Where Is Heaven?, and, The Tree of Life and 12 Fruits each Month? With all the darkness in the world, I needed a spiritual bath and to bask in God’s pureness and His holy habitation!
The Bible doesn’t focus excessively on visions of heaven, but it does speak about our future home in several places in God’s word. We are given glimpses of the ‘other side’ in several different books. Elisha saw heaven open up here on earth when the LORD opened his servant’s eyes and saw there were chariots all around. Paul was given a glimpse and it was wonderful but unlawful to say more about it. Steven as he was dying his martyr’s death, was given a glimpse.
Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John were given extended views of heaven in visions and told to write about them. Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 8, 9, 10, 11; and all of Revelation starting in chapter 1 verse 12 and ongoing through chapter 22.
“The Other Side”. “The Great Beyond”. “The Great Unknown”. “Behind the Veil”. “The Hereafter”. These are all terms and synonyms unsaved people use for the place we go after death. Intuitively, even the unsaved person knows that we have a soul and that it goes someplace after death. That was obvious to me, anyway, before I was saved. I used to wonder quite often about the Big Questions. Like, why does every culture have a heaven of some kind? Why do so many people apparently die and come back with similar stories of a bright, white light and another dimension?
Before I was saved, I was highly curious about these matters. At different points, I even went to an Aura Reader, had a witch read my Tarot Cards, and I bought books where the authors claimed to have died and come back. I paid for a ‘past life regression’ session. I even watched a movie called Escape From Hell. It was about a doctor, distressed over the death of a friend, and curious about stories of the other side, who induces cardiac arrest in order to have a near-death experience, and forces a fellow doctor to stand by to bring him back before it’s too late. His journey takes him to The Gates of Hell.
Little did I know that when I sought out Tarot and Aura readers and past life hypnotists and psychics, I was playing with dangerous fire. It was only the patience and love of God as His soon-to-be saved elect that didn’t punish me for treading into these areas He has forbidden.
I had a lot of time to look into the wrong things before I was saved at age 42! But all this to say, I completely understand the secular world’s fascination with the beyond. There really are two questions at play: one is, can those unsaved on earth peek into the other side to be sure there is a heaven? And two, are those in heaven watching us down here, looking through a window to see how things are playing out? I’m examining an answer to the first question today and the second question tomorrow.
I saw a Christian brother refute a headline that offered tips on how to know your departed loved ones are around you. The site’s article was titled Five Signs A Passed Loved One Is Trying To Contact You and as I looked around on it, it was obvious that the site was totally consumed with Dreams, Astrology, The Paranormal, UFOs & Aliens, Fortune Telling & Divination. Gulp. Treacherous stuff.
The unsaved spend a lot of energy dueling with themselves. They desperately want to know about the other side. Look at all the movies, books, sites, and tv shows on these topics! But they suppress the ONE and ONLY truth about it, Jesus and His heaven. (Romans 1:18). I remember distinctly every time someone mentioned this possibility, that the ‘Jesus thing’ as I termed it, was true, my mind would go, ‘NOOOO. Not that! Anything but that!’ Witches and tarot was better than sin-holiness-blood-repent. They prefer the creation to the Creator. (Romans 1:22).
After I saw the headline and followed up with looking into the article, I mulled the unfortunate and pitiable state of the unsaved. I then remembered a devastating event with TV personality Roma Downey. You might remember this actress from the long-running TV show Touched by an Angel. (1994-2003). More recently she and her husband Mark Burnett co-wrote a TV series based on The Bible (which won an Emmy but sadly twisted the Truth). She and her husband executive-produced produced the feature films Ben-Hur, Son of God, Little Boy, Woodlawn, Resurrection, Messiah, and Country Ever After which aired in 2021. It’s obvious Downey is fascinated with Bible topics, but though she keeps trying to learn, she has never come to the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7).
Downey says she is a devout Catholic and is also a mystic. Many Catholics combine ritual with mysticism. Downey “sees God in everyone” and utters claptrap such as “The language of God is in the silence.” She attained a Master’s Degree from a New Age college in Spiritual Psychology. Her beliefs are not even close to being evangelical, born-again Christian.
Further, she practices divination. She participated in a psychic show and allowed the medium to ‘call up’ her dead mother from the other side and Downey talked with ‘her’. This is divination and necromancy, part of a cadre of sorceries that God hates with a holy hatred. God said,
Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of [the] nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord. (Deuteronomy 18:9).
Divining… is trying to find something through a divine contact. And that is forbidden.
John MacArthur
If a person performs any of these sorceries, that person is detestable to God. That person is an abomination to God. And lest someone wrongly claim that the Deuteronomy verse is outdated just because it’s Old Testament, sorceries are also forbidden in the New Testament. Revelation 18:23 and Galatians 5:19-21 strenuously forbid such practices.
However, so-called evangelicals partner with Downey as if her abominable practices are of no account! Dr. David Jeremiah platformed her in his church because they wrote the Bible series together, and Beth Moore participated with Downey in a Bible conference!
You see how easily divination can become mixed in with the pure and holy truth, and even overlooked- or at least unremarked. What Christians are tasked to do is not titillate unbelievers with unbiblical stories of heaven and hell, but call them to repentance over their sins and fall on the feet of our Holy God. Paul was given glimpse of the third heaven and it was too wonderful to speak of and unlawful as well. (2 Corinthians 12:2–4).
Once the truth is in them, then they will read the Bible and understand what has been revealed by God about heaven and all other matters. Seeking information through divination, sorcery, witchcraft etc is abominable to God. God described what He wanted to describe about heaven via His Spirit who inspired men to write about it in the Bible. That is the ONLY place to seek information. A person cannot understand these matters unless they are spiritually comprehended by a regenerated mind.
But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14).
We regenerated believers have a duty to those who are so obviously curious, so obviously searching for hope of another life after death. Jesus called us to be His ambassadors and witnesses. We have the HOPE and we have the TRUTH. Let’s share it far and wide. Those whom the Lord will open their ears to hear, He will open. For, how will they believe unless they have heard? Romans 10.
Further resources
John Wesley- (sermon) The Almost Christian
Matthew Mead- (pdf) The Almost Christian Discovered
CARM- (essay) Why Write about Wicca?
Ligonier- (devotional) Two Men, Two Kingdoms (Simon the Sorcerer)
The End Time Blog Podcast: Update and Changes
By Elizabeth Prata
I started doing a podcast for The End Time blog on April 3, 2021. It’s just me, reading what I wrote. But my goal for both this writing ministry and podcast ministry is to exhort for godly living through correct theology, and to point women to solid resources achieving that end. I’m no theologian, there are so many others out there with more insight, deeper comprehension, and more skill. So my blog is just a few of my thoughts, and a point in the direction of a more thorough exegesis.
To achieve the goal of getting good material in front of women, when Anchor/Spotify came along and partnered with WordPress to seamlessly include a podcast, I jumped on it. I thought, if women are busy with kids, chores, or work outside the home, then listening would be attainable than reading, more easily included in her day than sitting down and reading. She could listen in the car, while waiting at the doctor, or when folding laundry.
I enjoy reading the material I write. With I think only 5 exceptions using the bot to read it, I’ve recorded it myself. I like doing it. I enjoy it as much as when I read to my students at school.
When I started I didn’t put episode numbers on the podcast or divide it into ‘seasons’. It was all I could do to work in this extra task in the morning (when I usually publish, record, edit, do show notes, and post on multiple social media sites, from 5:30-6:15am before work!) A lot of that is manual.
As of today, I’ve done 553 episodes, or podcasts. I began it on April 3, 2021. There are 295 episodes in 2021. There are so far 258 episodes in 2022. The change is: Starting tomorrow I’ll tag each episode with an episode and season number. So while the previous 553 won’t have a tag or number (I contacted Anchor and they said ‘no can do’), the ones going forward, will.
Therefore, October 24, 2022’s episode will read, for example “Season 2, episode 259: Peeking into ‘the other side’- Two Questions (part 1)”.
I’ve got 4 blogs written and ready and 4 more half written and almost ready for the week ahead. I praise the Holy Spirit for sustaining this ministry, giving me ideas, and energizing me to keep going. I’ve written on The End Time every day since January 9, 2009. I started on Blogspot, then imported most of the blogs from Blogspot to here (some didn’t transfer, there was a byte limit). On WordPress I’ve published 5,930 original essays with few repeats.
Now add the podcast to that, the 553 episodes I’ve recorded. Growth has been amazing. Of those 553 podcast episodes, there have been 182,000 plays! Thank you!
So don’t be surprised when you see an added season and episode number attached to each upcoming episode. It’s the best way to keep them organized, I think, or to tag one when referring to another.
It’s funny. Growing up there was no internet. I started when I was in Grad school insisting on getting a computer because I was in a Literacy program and there was a lot of writing. I was tired of the typewriter and whiteout. I got a slow, huge desktop in 1996, added Word, and never looked back. I went online in 1997. It was windows 3.1, lol, and a 330 baud AOL landline dialup. And back then, we thought it was GREAT. And it was. Truly amazing.
Oh how far we’ve come! Kids today gasp when I tell them that “in my day” there was no internet, no TikTok, no Youtube, and no cellphones. I am grateful for the opportunity to get edifying material out to women who today alone have read or listened from 37 different countries. It’s gratifying – and humbling. I’m doing my best to keep up with the times and stay fresh with the technology available. My dearest wish is that God would be glorified in what I do and that women who come here would glorify him too with something they’ve learned, asked, or followed up at one of the resources I share.
So that’s the update- adding season and episode numbers, and a huge thank you to you, the reader and listener!
Attributes of God: Will, Wisdom, Wrath
By Elizabeth Prata
Sundays are a good time to ponder who God is. He is worthy of service and worship. We have been taking a look at God’s attributes each Sunday. Links to previous weeks are below. Most definitions are taken from Tim Challies’ visual theology chart of the attributes of God.
Remember, God’s attributes are not parts that make up a whole. Everything good that there is, is 100% contained in God. He is 100% beauty, 100% aseity, 100% omniscient, etc. He is complete in Himself.
Tim Challies explained: “To study God’s attributes is to study his character, to answer questions like, Who is God? and What is God like? A typical classification of God’s attributes divides them into those that are incommunicable (those that he does not share or “communicate” to anyone or anything else) and communicable (those that he shares with other beings). Like most theological classifications, this one is imperfect but still helpful as we seek to understand what is so far beyond ourselves. God’s communicable attributes can be further categorized into: attributes of God’s being, mental attributes, moral attributes, attributes of purpose, and “summary” attributes (attributes that, in a more particular way, modify each of the others).”
This is the final week in the series.
WILL: Attribute of purpose. God approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of all that exists.
WISDOM: Mental Attribute. God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals.
WRATH. Moral Attribute. God intensely hates all sin.
Free ebook, Stephen Charnock’s The Existence and Attributes of God. THE standard bearer for discussion on God’s attributes. The hard copy of the book is big, over 1600 pages. It’s heavy. It’s expensive. It’s 2 volumes. FYI, Reformation Heritage Books is having a huge sale now. Charnock’s book in hard cover leather is only $70 down from $120.
Monergism, where you can read Charnock’s work on the Attributes of God online for free, or download a free ebook, said,
“The Existence and Attributes of God has become a classic text on the doctrine of God, and examines in meticulous detail God’s foreknowledge and sovereignty, and discusses the possibility of free will and natural law. No Reformed theologian prior to Charnock treated God’s existence and attributes with such clarity and depth—in fact, his was one of the first works solely devoted to the subject to appear in the Reformed theological tradition, and has become a standard work on the subject. His positions have been echoed and refined by generations of theologians, and most recently have contributed to contemporary debates over free will, foreknowledge, and the openness of God.”
“No doubt the sheer size of the volume has caused not a few persons to direct their reading efforts elsewhere. This is regrettable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Charnock’s ability to combine rigorous theological discourse on the doctrine of God with the typical Puritan emphasis on “uses” of the doctrine (relating doctrine and life). His work has much value on a practical level, which should be the goal of all theology.”
The 2-volume set at Reformation Heritage Books includes:
- Modernized Language: Archaic punctuation, words, and phrases have been updated for the modern reader
- Updated Bibliographic Information: In the footnotes, Charnock’s sources have been located and updated with fuller bibliographic information, showing how widely read he was
- Chapter Summaries: Each discourse begins with a summary of the chapter to follow
- Extensive: Covers Charnock’s defense of God’s existence and 11 attributes of God
- Includes In-Depth Chapter on the Life of Stephen Charnock by William Symington
Listen to an 8-minute podcast with Stephen Nichols of Ligonier (or read the transcript) discuss Charnock’s book with John MacArthur and how the Puritan volume was crucial for MacArthur in his twenties, how “it just totally altered how I viewed God, with a kind of vastness that put me in awe of Him.”
Learning about God through His attributes is worship. We can’t properly love and obey that which we do not know. I hope this series has been beneficial to you. All glory to God!
Previous weeks-
1. Aseity, Beauty, Blessedness
2. Eternity, Freedom, Glory
3. Goodness, Holiness, Immutability
4. Invisibility, Jealousy, Knowledge
5. Love
6. Mercy, Omnipotence, Omnipresence
7. Peace, Righteousness, Perfection
8. Will, Wisdom, Wrath
Breaking down the truth that women may not preach in church or teach men
By Elizabeth Prata
The Bible is clear that there is an order to the church. Certain things are to be done a certain way. No New Testament believer can be so unobservant of the Old Testament that they fail to see the specificity with which God expects worship. Though New Testament believers are not beholden to the OT ceremonial laws and bloody sacrifices (because Christ has come!) we are still cognizant of the fact that God is still God. He does not accept any old worship. Just ask Ananias and Sapphira.
One way that Jesus has ordered His church is that He is its head. (Ephesians 5:23). Then, under their submission to Jesus, some men are called to lead. (1 Timothy 3:2-7; 1 Timothy 5:17). Then, the rest of the men, women and children submit to their leaders. (Hebrews 13:17).
Women are not to be in authority over men in the church. 1 Timothy 2:12 says, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.“
I’m usually amazed at the genius of how some people can expertly twist plain verses into meaning something they do not mean. The depraved mind is cunning. After all, their father the devil is the most crafty creature of all. (Genesis 3:1). The verse also uses the word subtle. This is how satan deceives, makes the lie sound almost like the truth, subtly.
I came across this Twitter exposition of the issue of women teaching men, 1 Timothy 2:12 as I posted above. Stephen Michael Feinstein (@Ptr_StephenFein) wrote a thread a few years ago that has been unearthed and retweeted. It’s good. He goes through how people with an unholy agenda can exposit the plain meaning into a different meaning, subtly. Here is his exposition:
1/ A plain reading of 1 Timothy 2:12 seems to clearly favor the complementarian position. “I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority.” In this thread, I will quickly break this down so that anyone can see the “exegesis” of both positions.
2/ Kostenberger demonstrates its grammatic structure as follows:
a negated finite verb (I do not permit)
governing an infinitive (to teach)
connected by the coordinating conjunction (or)
with a second infinitive (to exercise authority).
Pretty straightforward and simple.
3/Paul doesn’t permit women to do the infinitives, which are connected by the conjunction “or” οὐδὲ. Paul’s word choice for teach (διδάσκειν) is his normal word for good or faithful teaching. So one can’t say he is merely forbidding a type of false teaching (ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν)
4/ So a plain reading has women in the church being restricted from teaching or exercising authority. So how do egalitarians “exegete” the passage to show it to mean something different? Well, first, they insist on a definition for the word “exercise authority” (αὐθεντέω),
5/ thus claiming it can only mean to “wrongly domineer or usurp.” If they are right, the text would still at this point forbid women from teaching. So what they do is they remove the coordinating conjunction (οὐδὲ) and read it as an adverbial clause. This now makes it modify
6/ the infinitive “to teach.” See below:
a negated finite verb (I do not permit)
governing an infinitive (to teach)
remove the coordinating conjunction (or)
change the second infinitive into an adverbial clause (in a domineering way).
7/ So they would translate the verse as, “I do not permit a woman to teach a man in a domineering way.” But think about it. In order to get this rendering, they had to remove a Greek word (οὐδὲ/or), and they had to change the second infinitive into an adverbial clause.
8/ Exegetically, this is unjustified. If Paul meant it to be adverbial, he would use a preposition rather than a conjunction. The fact is the text as it stands has a conjunction that connects two infinitives. So it means what the complementarians say it means. Also, the narrow
9/ egalitarian definition of “exercise authority” is hardly proven. So again, the grammar makes it clear Paul forbids two things, not one, and those two thing are women teaching and having authority over men in the church. Our culture may shriek, but that’s irrelevant.
10/ Egalitarians then appeal to an invented historical background dealing with church women smuggling in the pagan theology of the cult of Artemis, and this is all Paul is forbidding. Yet, there is not a single clue anywhere in 1 Timothy that this was an issue in the church. If
11/ anything, he dealt with Jewish myths, not pagan ones. So let me summarize. The egalitarian position requires the exegetical butchering of the words that are actually in the text, and then it requires an invented occasion of crisis that just happens to not even be hinted in
12/ the text, and on this basis they radically reinterpret the verse in a narrow sense to render it inapplicable in the 21st century. Let me just state plainly, it is obvious that no one would arrive at this position by an unbiased translation and study of the text. They instead
13/ must already possess an ideological bend that forces them to reject the clear complementarian nature of the text. Therefore, they change the text and the historical context to fit their a priori ideological bend. My friends, that is not exegesis. That is not even Christian.
–end Pastor Feinstein–
It’s clear that women usurping and failing to remain silent in the churches (not on blogs, radio, podcasts, or real life!) is a huge issue these days in Christian life. Women teaching men and preaching in church is not a secondary or tertiary issue, because it deals with creation order, the orderliness of the church, and the sin of disobedience. The persistence and strength with which satan disrupts this Godly template in marriage and in church (two of the three spheres God has ordained for restraining sin) is proof that it’s something satan fervently doesn’t want.
If you, ladies, have an urge to teach, this is admirable. There are many wonderful women teachers out there edifying us and ministering in Godly (and appropriate) ways. These Godly female teachers submit to God’s word and do not have a craving to usurp. They do not teach men in church or preach. Godly female teachers possess an understanding that worshiping God means adhering to His orderliness in all spheres of life.
If you have an urge to teach men or to preach in church, then check yourself, please. There is a vast difference between standing at a pulpit on a Saturday afternoon and teaching a Ladies Conference, than there is standing at the pulpit on a Sunday morning and preaching to the congregation, explaining and exegeting God’s word. That difference is the gulf between obedience and sin.
Don’t be fooled by the subtle word tricks of satan, and don’t convince yourself on the back of word play that it is OK to preach. It is not.
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