Posted in theology, visual theology

New Bibles for the Instagram generation, part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Part 1

Yesterday I’d written about how visually presenting timeless truths from the Bible is nothing new. Infographics (visual theology) as old as the 1600s were published and circulating. I’d noted that the Bible’s format has also morphed over the centuries, changing as new technology made reading it and production of it, easier.

A new trend has come to the fore, a meshing of three streams: our generation’s emphasis on visuals, the Kinfolk Aesthetic movement, and a small startup grown huge called Alabaster Co. These three trends have birthed a new format of the Bible, which Alabaster Co. has named the Bible Beautiful. Continue reading “New Bibles for the Instagram generation, part 2” →

Posted in theology, visual theology

Are you ready for ‘Bibles for the Instagram generation’? Part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Part 2 here

We have to admit something. I mean, if you’re of an age like me, we have to admit that for almost two generations, how we approach print has changed dramatically. Fast-paced video games, TV’s political sound bytes, short tweets, the argument culture replacing debate, and images-images-images has shortened the attention spans of just about everyone. The pull of scrolling, tweeting, and looking rather than reading is now the order of the day.

I fight it myself. I noticed that before the internet, I used to settle in and read for long periods, hours. Now if I have a book in my hand, I’m struggling to not look at the internet after 10 minutes. I’m actively retraining myself to read longer and actively resisting shortening my attention span.
Continue reading “Are you ready for ‘Bibles for the Instagram generation’? Part 1” →

Posted in theology, word of the week

Word of the Week: Propitiation

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We’re losing the meaning of our uniquely Christian words. Biblical illiteracy is high. People don’t understand the meaning of foundational words like justification, sanctification, glorification, etc., partly because the Bible isn’t read, and partly because pastors don’t use them in sermons or explain them. The thread of Christianity depends on a unity from one generation to the next of mutual understanding of our important words. Hence the Word of the Week. Continue reading “Word of the Week: Propitiation” →

Posted in supernatural, theology

Consider the supernatural, what it really is

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Did you ever stop to consider the supernatural in your everyday life? In 2011 and 2012, I wrote an update to the Leroy NY situation in which a bevy of teenage girls came down with a Tourette’s-like illness. They suddenly began twitching and having seizures, and no one could figure out why. The update I wrote about is that the final tests and examinations have finally been released, and still no one knows why the girls came down with this. They spent thousands of dollars and issued a 6,000 page report that said, “Er, we dunno.” Continue reading “Consider the supernatural, what it really is” →

Posted in potpourri, theology

Prata Potpourri: Sleepovers, Singleness, Women moms/eva teachers, Church voting, Saints, more

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

It’s November today. 11/12’s of the year 2019…poof, gone. Wow. Time passes quickly on earth. I often wonder what it will be like to watch the Great White Throne Judgment where every unsaved person who ever lived will stand on front of Jesus and make account for their life. That’s a lot of people. Will it go by in a flash, since we believers will be in glorified bodies by then? Will we even notice ‘time’ passing? One day is like a thousand years or a thousand years is like a day- to the Lord. Will it be like that for us?
Continue reading “Prata Potpourri: Sleepovers, Singleness, Women moms/eva teachers, Church voting, Saints, more” →

Posted in false christians, theology

The Worst Danger

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’ve been in danger before. I’ve been stalked by a serial rapist. Gypsies surrounded me in Ecuador and and slashed my pants trying to get to my wallet. The Storm of the Century tossed my boat on its side like a matchstick. I’ve been trapped under a raft in white water rapids. I’ve been inches from a lightning strike that fused the sand on the ground into glass next to my feet.

Most of those dangers were unexpected and unknown. I didn’t see them coming. Continue reading “The Worst Danger” →

Posted in theology

Pursuing wind

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14).

How pointless it is to pursue the wind. But that is what the unsaved do. It is what I did for 40 years, and it was vain. I heard Billy Joel’s song Movin’ Out this morning and I remember when I first heard it. The song is basically about the meaninglessness of life. The main character in the song decided that everything was meaningless, pursuing life to get a big house in the suburbs, saving up for that special car, working all the time, paying overtime taxes to Uncle Sam…the guy asked, what was it all for? He was moving out. To where and to do what, is not stated. But the same meaninglessness will pursue him there too. Continue reading “Pursuing wind” →

Posted in prophecy, theology

When God changed the calendar

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. (Exodus 12:1-2).

In that verse, the LORD Is preparing the Hebrews for the grand finale, the last plague and their exit from Egypt. Upcoming is the Passover, where the LORD Instructs Moses and Aaron to tell the people to stay in their homes that night, eat only unleavened bread, and to take an unblemished lamb, slaughter it, and use a hyssop branch to daub the doorposts with its blood. The death angel would pass over any home so marked.

So in commemoration and in preparation, the LORD changed the month. Formerly Abib, corresponding to our April (roughly), the LORD announced the change. Continue reading “When God changed the calendar” →

Posted in Uncategorized, word of the week

Sunday Word of the Week: Immanence

Posted on by elizabethprata

Last week the word was Transcendence. God is apart from His creation, different from it. This week the word is Immanent or Immanence,

God’s immanence refers to His presence within His creation. (It is not to be confused with imminence, which refers to the timing of Jesus’ return to earth.) A belief in God’s immanence holds that God is present in all of creation, while remaining distinct from it. In other words, there is no place where God is not. His sovereign control extends everywhere simultaneously. Source GotQuestions

Immanence: God’s presence and activity within the creation and human history. Source: Biblical Doctrine, MacArthur/Mayhue, p 931

God is so majestic! Mysterious! How can He be both apart from His creation, and present within it?! At the same time? It shows who our God is. It’s why I chose these two words one after the other to demonstrate His essential otherness.

One other notion that is important to emphasize.

Pantheism and deism twist many people’s view of how God relates to His creation. Pantheists believe that everything is God or is a part of God, making Him equal with His creation and unable to act upon it. Deists hold that God is distinct from His creation but deny that He plays an active role in it. Contrary to these and other false views of God, the Bible says that God is both different from His creation and actively upholding it.

We must not stress His immanence at the expense of His transcendence, and vice versa.

That they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, (Acts 17:27).

Note: Modern pantheism is seen in William P. Young’s The Shack, Oprah Winfrey’s promotion of Eckart Tolle, and in Ann Voskamps’s book One Thousand Gifts as an offshoot of pantheism, panentheism. It is easy to twist both immanence and transcendence, either by direct twisting or omitting one in favor of the other. It is why it is important to learn these terms so we retain a balanced view of God.