Posted in prophecy, theology

Some truth about coronavirus

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday CNN, (Cable News Network) decided to unilaterally call the covid-19 flu outbreak a pandemic. I wasn’t aware that CNN reporters had global medical expertise enough to decide for the world whether the coronavirus had reached a criterion-laden level of that sort. CNN has had hidden talents all this time.

My sarcasm stems from a deep anguish and a disappointment in the journalism we have come to know and either love or hate, depending on which side of the aisle you’re on. If you’re reading an evangelical blog named “The End Time”, I suspect you’re on the side where you also feel some disappointment, anguish or at least skepticism over the state of affairs in world reporting by these mainstream outlets.
Continue reading “Some truth about coronavirus” →

Posted in Sunday martyr moment, theology

Sunday Martyr Moment: Matthew

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. According to this summary from Christian Book Summaries,

Writing in the mid-1500s, John Foxe was living in the midst of intense religious persecution at the hands of the dominant Roman Catholic Church. In graphic detail, he offers accounts of Christians being martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ, describing how God gave them extraordinary courage and stamina to endure unthinkable torture.

From the same link, the book’s purpose was fourfold:

  • Showcase the courage of true believers who have willingly taken a stand for Jesus Christ throughout the ages, even if it meant death,
  • Demonstrate the grace of God in the lives of those martyred for their faith,
  • Expose the ruthlessness of religious and political leaders as they sought to suppress those with differing beliefs,
  • Celebrate the courage of those who risked their lives to translate the Bible into the common language of the people.
Matthew

Whose occupation was that of a toll-gatherer, was born at Nazareth. He wrote his gospel in Hebrew, which was afterwards translated into Greek by James the Less. The scene of his labors was Parthia, and Ethiopia, in which latter country he (tradition says) suffered martyrdom, being slain with a halberd in the city of Nadabah, A.D. 60.

A halberd is this:

The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew-Caravaggio (c. 1599-1600)

 

This essay first appeared on The End Time in April 2013

Posted in encouragement, theology

Believers cannot die

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In the Shane & Shane song Before the Throne, we sing the lyric,

One in himself, I cannot die…

Now we read in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 1:22,

and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

We have His seal, the deposit of the guarantee of the Spirit in us for…what? Some versions say for what is to come. So…what exactly?

It’s a big subject but today I want to leave you with one short thought.

A guarantee of eternal life. We cannot die because He that is in us cannot die. We have the Spirit in us, the third Person of the Trinity, IN US, and since He is eternal, we are eternal in life.

The Greek word pledge in the 2Corinthians verse means, earnest-money, a large part of the payment, given in advance as a security that the whole will be paid afterwards.

Sure, all souls who ever lived, even for a few weeks in a womb, all the way to the end of a long life in the triple digits, die physically. We will awaken at the end of all things. Some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt, says Daniel 12:2.

Those of us who are in Christ cannot die spiritually, when we are awakened by His trumpet call it will be to LIFE eternal, the Spirit guarantees it! We cannot die. The eternal Spirit in us cannot die, so we will not die.

There is no guarantee, no deposit, more sure than the Third Person of the Trinity, making a pledge of His own self, for the promise of life eternal in glory.

glory