But until that glorious day, as I prepare for work and my day outside this home, my prayer today is:
I pray this daily. Why every day? Because I must die to self daily.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Lord, I need You. Every hour I need you.
Recently I posted a two-part review of the new movie “War Room” starring Priscilla Shirer and TC Stallings. Included in the essays are links to other reviews and resources regarding prayer. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.
My review regarding War Room was negative.
Christianity Today reviews War Room.
Other movies with Christian themes that I and others do not consider edifying:
Coming Soon:
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called “The Shack.”
Ever since Hollywood discovered that Christian people will attend a movie containing no profanity, no nudity, and including Christian themes, they have been pumping them out. For the most part, the movies have been atrocious. The worst of these movies distort the word of God by deleting foundational truths or adding extra things that hide or dilute the truth. They have been written by heretics or Non-Christians. They have insulted the holy name of Jesus. Or these alleged Christian movies have other issues that make them not worth watching.
Now I understand that there is some license taken with movies containing Christian themes. If it is to be called a Christian movie, the Gospel should hopefully be in the movie in some way. God should be honored and His character should rightly be portrayed in the people in the movie who claim Him as Father. Apart from that, we all understand that movies are movies, and it is not the movie’s responsibility to replicate the Bible. Unless the miniseries indeed is attempting to replicate the Bible, as Roma Downey’s series did, in which case, what is plainly in the Bible should not be changed for artistic purposes. So there is some license, or some latitude there when each person chooses their entertainment of a Christian fashion.
On the other hand, the Bible tells us to be involved in endeavors that glorify the Lord. We only have so much time here on earth, so why choose to go to a movie that will entertain you, but at the same time take liberties with the only thing worth anything on this earth, the Word of God? Is that entertaining? If you want to go to a movie, go to a movie where it doesn’t monkey around with the things of a holy nature. It’s no problem to want to relax. But choosing a movie that you know ahead of time distorts the word, but then pooh-pooh the effect its distortion has on the weaker brother, or yourself by claiming it’s only a movie is disingenuous.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)
If one wants simply to relax by watching a wholesome movie, I’d rather see the 1994 version of Lassie than War Room, because Lassie doesn’t pretend to honor the word of God. It is what it is. When choosing entertainment, first and foremost, ask does it honor God? Colossians 3:17 speaks to that.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:17)
Another question is, does this self-styled Christian entertainment put you under the influence of non-believers? Watching The Bible Miniseries by Roma Downey certainly did. It was written by a pagan and the spiritual oversight was given by Modalist TD Jakes, Pragmatist Rick Warren, and Prosperity Gospelist Joel Osteen. Do not partner with darkness, lest you be influenced by it.
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)
Now that said, some people have read my review of War Room and complained that I am a negative Nellie, a Debbie Downer who never says anything good or positive. That I delight in stomping on flowers and snatching candy from babies. That my name is really Gru and I’m despicable. OK, maybe not the last two but certainly I can answer the query as to what movies I DO consider respectful to the faith.
There are a lot of Christian movies I’ve reviewed in a positive fashion on this site. Here are a few of them.
Finding Normal
The only thing standing between Dr. Lisa Leland (Candice Cameron Bure) and the wedding of her dreams in the Hamptons is a 2600-mile drive from Los Angeles to Long Island. However, a run in with the law in the country town of Normal, Louisiana leaves Dr. Leland with a choice–Jail or community service. Sentenced to serve three days as the town’s doctor, Lisa has her world turned upside down by a man she would never expect. Quickly, Lisa finds that there’s a lot more to Normal than she could have ever imagined.
Common Sense Media review
The End Time review here
Raising Izzy
The touching story of two orphaned sisters and the caring teacher who changes their lives forever.
Christian Film Database review here
The End Time review here
WWJDII The Woodcarver
A troubled youth vandalizes a church and winds up in a close association with the woodcarver whose work he destroyed.
The End Time review here
Secrets of Jonathan Sperry
An wise old Christian man imparts Biblical truths to three boys during the summer of 1970.
The Independent Critic- review of Sperry
Camp
This is a very good film. I just watched it last week and have not had a chance to review it yet. Here is Christian Movie Guide’s summary: Strong Christian worldview as Eli attends a camp with Christian camp counselors that teach about the Bible, worship and pray to God, with strong moral elements as counselors speak to another counselor about showing forgiveness and compassion;
To impress a potential client, financial advisor Ken Matthews signs up to be a counselor at a camp for kids in the foster system. He is paired with Eli, a 10 year-old determined to hate camp. However, when Ken discovers Eli’s dark past, his apathy turns to compassion. But is he to late to help the scared boy nobody wants? Inspired by true stories of ordinary people providing extraordinary help for abused and neglected kids, CAMP is a tale of hope shining in the dark places for forgotten children. For his performance in the role of Eli, actor Miles Elliot won BEST PERFORMANCE IN A FEATURE FILM by a Leading Young Actor at the 35th annual Young Artist Awards. The camp mentioned is in reality Royal Family Kids’ Camps.
MovieGuide Christian reviews
No Greater Love
Jeff and Heather Baker were life long sweethearts and happily married… for a time. But at her greatest moment of weakness, Heather abandons Jeff, forcing Jeff to raise their young son alone. Ten years later, through a God ordained encounter, Jeff and Heather meet again. They must wrestle with forgiveness, reconciliation and the pressing of the Savior on their hearts.
Michelle Lesley reviews No Greater Love
What If…
15 years ago, Ben Walker left his girlfriend and his ministry calling for a business opportunity. Now with a high-paying career and a trophy fiancé, he is visited by an angel, who gives him a glimpse into what his life would look like had he followed his calling.
MovieGuide Christian Reviews
The End Time movie review of What If…
These next few are Apocalyptic movies, not necessarily Christian. I include these because they graphically depict in realistic fashion nuclear war and its effects, or germ warfare and its effect. In my opinion, the value of these movies is to show the to Christian what life will realistically be like after the rapture during the Tribulation. And even then, as horrific as these movies are (and The War Game was banned in Britain for 30 years before the BBC would allow its release, it is THAT realistic) seeing the reality of the Tribulation-like conditions should spur us to fervency in witnessing the Gospel. If you dare, watch these films to see what our non-believing friends and family will endure.
The War Game
The War Game is a fictional, worst-case-scenario docu-drama about nuclear war and its aftermath in and around a typical English city. Although it won an Oscar for Best Documentary, it is fiction. It was intended as an hour-long program to air on BBC 1, but it was deemed too intense and violent to broadcast. It went to theatrical distribution as a feature film instead. Low-budget and shot on location, it strives for and achieves convincing and unflinching realism.
Roger Ebert Movie Review
The End Time Movie review
It’s a Disaster
Four couples meet for Sunday brunch only to discover they are stuck in a house together as the world may be about to end.
Common Sense Media review
The End Time movie review
Threads
Documentary-style account of a nuclear holocaust and its effect on the working class city of Sheffield, England, and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.
Where The War Game focused on the day of and week after, Threads shows the day of and the generation after. This is the title I gave to my review:
The most unrelentingly horrific and unsettling apocalyptic movie you will ever watch that comes the closest to what the Tribulation will be like: “Threads”.
At-A-Glance Film reviews
The End Time movie review
As for other movies that are wholesome and clean with a more subdued spirituality, there are plenty to watch. I enjoyed The Next Voice You Hear…, Brownstones to Red Dirt, Lassie (1994), Owd Bob, Becoming Santa, Honor Flight, and many others.
Let’s make our entertainment choices wisely and enjoy your relaxation time with a clear conscience and no stumbling blocks in sight 🙂
Here is one movie poster depicting an event I know we are all looking forward to:
S. Lewis Johnson was a pastor, teacher, and theologian who lived from 1915 to 2004. He was a wonderful expositor and blessedly, his sermons are archived and available for free at the SLJ Institute from Believers Chapel, the church he pastored for many years.
In 1967 he began a series expositing the text verse-by-verse from Zechariah. In the second sermon of the series, he said something I appreciated. From his own vantage point, having lived through most of the twentieth century and into the 21st, he saw a lot of history. In 1945, Israel was reborn, an astounding prophetic fulfillment. (Isaiah 66:8). In 1967, the year Pastor Johnson preached this prophecy series, Israel was reunited with Jerusalem after their miraculous win of the Six Day War.
In this portion of the Medeba Map (“the Madaba Mosaic Map”), the Greek letters in red above Jerusalem say, “Holy City, Jerusa___”; the final characters are missing. Image by David Bjorgen, from Wikimedia Commons.
Johnson was a young adult when the Second World War broke out. He has seen the ascendancy of Britain and the Allied powers, Europe at its most powerful, and the ancient biblical empires all but forgotten. However after WWII all that changed. Here is Pastor Lewis.
In this particular sermon, Johnson said,
Now, the other astonishing thing, which may have some relation to it, is the reappearance and re-emergence of the ancient biblical powers. I know when I first started studying the Bible twenty-five years ago(in 1942) and read of Egypt, and Ammon, and Moab, and Persia, and Assyria. And noticed the tremendous prominence that they had in the prophetic portions of the word of God, I wondered if it were even conceivable credible if such a thing could really come to pass in our day that these powers should become powers again. And today as we open up the newspapers we read of Syria, of Lebanon; we read of Iran, which is ancient Persia; we read of Iraq, which is more or less Assyria; we read of Jordan, which is more or less Ammon and Moab; we read of Egypt, and of course, now, and perhaps most remarkable of all we read of Israel. Is there a connection between the eclipse of Europe and the re-emergence of the Middle East as significant in world history? … It is remarkable this connection. In other words, God marches on to the consummation of his program and time is his servant.
I don’t have any technical fine points of anything in the discernment department. I don’t have any profound insights for encouraging you. But I hope the mere fact of the pendulum of history marching inexorably toward prophetic fulfillment of all that the great I AM has said and the knowledge that God is supreme master of His own plan encourages you. It does me.
To Your Name Give Glory
1Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
2Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:1-3)
“I Want My MTV”
Thirty-four years ago, in 1981, MTV was born. The only problem was, few cable companies would carry it. “A 24-hour music station?” they said. “Ridiculous!” Music videos were new and a 24-hour music video channel was unheard of. The MTV creators knew teenagers and youth wanted this station and would watch it. So the creators of the station went around the Cable Company Big Wig gatekeepers and approached their target audience directly. The developed an ad campaign with some musicians on board (comprised of one simple exhortation to the teens they KNEW wanted the channel to stay alive. “Call your cable company and demand it. And the campaign “I Want My MTV” was born.
Along came Dire Straits thirty years ago and unleashed “Money for Nothing”. The opening guitar riff, pounding drum solo, and that falsetto “I Want My MTV” warble came together in a convergence of perfect timing and computer animated in a Grammy winning song & video. These were the golden years of MTV. As for the song “Money For Nothing”,
According to SongFacts, “This song is about rock star excess and the easy life it brings compared with real work. Mark Knopfler wrote it after overhearing delivery men in a New York department store complain about their jobs while watching MTV. He wrote the song in the store sitting at a kitchen display they had set up. Many of the lyrics were things they actually said.”
As the video begins, two moving men who deliver and install refrigerators and ovens, real work, see a video with the big haired pretty boy musicians and comment that they sure have it easy. They complained that everything comes to the musicians, money, chicks, acclaim, and the high life, just for a few hours’ play on stage.
Many would agree that slogging a fridge up a 4-floor walk-up is hard work and playing drums to screaming chicks is easy work.
What does MTV’s Money for Nothing/I Want My MTV campaign have to do with liver shiver experiential Christianity? Read on.
The experiential relationship with Jesus is the new(ish) thing nowadays. Some, like Sarah Young who wrote Jesus Calling 11 years ago, said that she read the Bible but yearned for something more, something tangible. Here is Ms Young–
Sarah Young wrote in her introduction (page xii), “I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more.”
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| Edward Steichen, Moonlit Dance Voulangis, 1909, Portland Museum of Art, ME |
She got the “something more.” Young wrote about the feelings and experiences she had with the “Presence” during her devotional and prayer times,
Young wrote: “The air was crisp and dry, piercing to inhale. Suddenly I felt as if a warm mist enveloped me. I became aware of a lovely Presence, and my involuntary response was to whisper, ‘Sweet Jesus.’ “
After a few years, it seemed like the yearning for Presence had caught on. Studying the bible, real work, was being set aside for a more direct, experiential kind of relationship. Piggybacking onto this female yearning for tangible, physical relationship with Jesus is the now 9-year-old DVD Be Still, teaching how to enter into the Presence of God and feel and experience “the Divine.” One of the founders of modern contemplative prayer and Presence-practice is Richard Foster, a mystic. He said of contemplative prayer.
“[W]e began experiencing that ‘sweet sinking into Deity’ Madame Guyon speaks of. It, very honestly, had much the same ‘feel’ and ‘smell’ as the experiences I had been reading about in the Devotional Masters”
Foster was highly influential to some of the more conservative sections of the faith, such as Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer. You notice once again, the romantic and sensual language to describe the extra-special relationship these people believe they are having with Jesus. However it is a Jesus of their own imagination and the “Presence” – as they like to capitalize it – is something else indeed.
Priscilla Shirer has many studies out and is in a box office hit movie about prayer. Yet here, Priscilla Shirer “explains” the process of being still in your quiet devotional prayer time in this one minute Be Still clip from 2006. She advised putting on some soft Christian music and closing your eyes to screen out any visual stimuli around you. Then,
“allow the music to awaken in you the Spiritual side that we so often ignore. See what God wants to do with you in that time. I think He wants to have a personal experience with each of us. I think it’s kind of like a man and a woman that are intimate with each other. … and with your personal time with the Lord it’s the same thing. He is going to create in you an intimate time that’s going to be so different from anybody else.”
No. The relationship we have with Jesus the Christ is not like a husband and wife having intimate relations. No. But to many women, like Shirer, Young, and Voskamp, it is.
Moving ahead in time, nearly 5 years ago, Ann Voskamp wrote One Thousand Gifts, a book describing her tangible relationship with the ‘Divine”, liver shivers and all. She also wanted something tangible, physical, in her relationship with God.
I long to merge with Beauty, breathe it into lungs, feel it heavy on skin. To beat on the door of the universe, pound the chest of God.
She got it what she yearned for as well, or in the end, more than she bargained for.
She continues with phrases like “the long embrace,” “the entering in,” “God as Husband in sacred wedlock, bound together, body and soul, fed by His body,” and “mystical love union” (213). (source)
This kind of liver-shiver romance language to referring to our relationship with Jesus reminded me of this:
And that seductive laugh, which sets the heart to flutter in my chest For when I glance your way, my words Dissolve unheard. Silence breaks my tongue and subtle fire streams beneath my skin, I can’t see with my eyes, or hear through buzzing ears. Sweat runs down, a shiver shakes Me deep — I feel as pale as grass: As close to death as that, and green, Is how I seem.
It is a lesbian poem by Sappho. She lived around 600 BC on the Island of Lesbos, Greece, literally where and why the island got its name. Sappho was quite famous at the time.
Soooo…. anyway, you see the problem with the current crop of writings using romance language. Jesus Calling, Be Still DVD, One Thousand Gifts and all the jane-come-latelies afterward promote a mystical, tangible union with Jesus during devotions or prayer. This kind of ‘mystical union’ presented as normal is having a drastic effect on today’s Christian woman.
Writer Sam Hendrickson wrote an excellent essay about the phenomenon titled
Liver Shivers, Goosebumps, and “I Have Peace About This Pastor”
Hendrickson said,
Having spent a significant time around charismatics (Assembly of God, and Pentecostals), there was clearly an understanding among many of them (including pastors and leaders) that a physical response (including manifestations like gooseflesh) indicated that “the Holy Spirit was working.”
The rest of the short article is good. Please check it out.
I’m sure you have heard many Christians say things like that. I know I have. Maybe someone somewhere felt the walls of a prayer room shake or bulge as the first century Christians did in Acts when they were praying (Acts 4:31). In those days, as John MacArthur explains in the Commentary note,
“a physical phenomenon indicated the presence of the Holy Spirit. The disciples could not comprehend the significance of the Spirit’s arrival without the Lord sovereignly illustrating what was occurring with a visible phenomenon.”
And that was then, not so much now.
But what are women to think when their idols teachers such as Young, Voskamp, Shirer, Moore and others promote a physical union with Jesus that SHOULD be producing physical, tangible results? You get this from today’s time. Here is a woman on Facebook touting her relationship with Jesus in exactly the same way that the more famous women do. The trickle down effect has led to a devastatingly twisted perspective of our holy relationship with a Kingly Groom. She is discussing what happens to her in her “War Room”:
Plain and simple, nothing fancy. If you don’t have one, I encourage you to find a War Room of your own, even if it’s in the bathroom. I have experienced more goose bumps, felt the presence of the Lord in there, I’ve gone in anxious and have come out filled with peace, I’ve gone in there angry and have come out not. Yes, I pray all day long, but there is just something about going into a small room, no distractions, just you and the Lord and praying.
As for this “peace” one supposedly enjoys after the mystical union and sinking into the Divine, I think that also is a twist. Here, Mr Hendrickson also has good comments:
He opens his article with a quote from Ken Sande in The Peacemaker (2004, 3rd ed., Baker, Ch. 1 endnote, p. 299):
I have found that many Christians rely more on their own ideas and feelings than they do on the Bible, especially when Scripture commands them to do difficult things. In particular, many people seem to believe they can be sure they are doing what is right if they pray and have a sense of ‘inner peace.’ Nowhere does the Bible guarantee that a sense of peace is a sure sign that one is on the right course. Many people experience a sense of relief (‘inner peace’) even when they are on a sinful course, simply because they are getting away from stressful responsibilities.’
I would add that the relief can also come simply because a decision has been made and a direction has been chosen. I am not certain of the root of this false teaching historically, but it likely includes a misunderstanding of Philippians 4:6 – 7.
Mr Hendrickson goes on to remind us that tough decisions, uncertainty, upcoming persecution, or imminent death often does NOT bring about this much spoken of “peace”. The example he gives is Jesus praying in his own “War Room” in the Garden of Gethsemane.
My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; (Mt 26:38)
Not so peaceful. And yet no one in history or eternity had a more perfect, physical union with God than Jesus had. Yet He did not emerge from His prayer war room feeling peaceful. Righteous Lot prayed, but was vexed in his spirit (2 Peter 2:7). The entirety of the Book of Galatians demonstrates Paul’s white-hot vexation of spirit because false teaching had polluted his people at Galatia. David was sorely vexed even to his bones. (Psalm 6:2). Did these men not “experience” a true worship and relationship with the Lord? Did they not have close union and even the Spirit in and with them?
My point is three-fold. One is of course that when women describe a relationship with Jesus in such sensual terms, it is insulting, nearly blasphemous, and displays a twisted understanding of who He is. Women, don’t do it.
Secondly, women, if you’re seeking, engaging in, or describing your relationship with Him this way, you’re displaying a monstrous lack of discernment and ignorance of the relationship we already have with Him. Ladies, we have the Holy Spirit inside us. (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 John 4:16). He is in there, inside our body, our blood, our DNA. Somehow, the sovereign Lord of the universe indwells us as a deposit of the guarantee of our relationship we have with Jesus. How much closer do you want to be?
We know by faith the Spirit is in us. We know by Faith that our Lord listens to everything we say and sees everything we do. (Hebrews 4:13). We know by faith that He already loves us with a perfect, eternal love. (John 3:16). We know by faith that all He does for us is for our own good and His glory. (Romans 8:28). We know by faith He is our Groom, priest, friend, brother, and master.
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:23)
Look, sisters, at what you already have! And you women want more!?
Third, back to Dire Straits. At root of this sensuous, experiential faith, in my opinion, is laziness. Not only do they seek the sensual, but they are lazy. As the Kendrick Brothers said of how they process out their movie theme, the Lord downloads it to them directly. Beth Moore said she receives whole books by a force that compels her hand across the page. Priscilla Shirer likes to close her eyes and let the Lord have His way with her. It is easy to sit in a room and simply close one’s eyes and veg out to soft music and passively experience whatever you want to experience. I do that in the massage salon. Not when I study to seek the Lord’s face. Peaceful prayer room experiential liver shiver Christianity is not the real slogging work. Ask the refrigerator guys.
I gain insights into who my Lord is with my eyes open. I sit in a brightly lit kitchen and I read the Bible. I look at Atlases, commentaries, history books. I take notes. No force delivers insights of who He is. No warm mists appear. I “smell” no experiences. I feel nothing heavy on my skin.
Ladies, if you possess the greatest treasure in the universe yet yearn for something more, you ain’t doing it right. Or maybe you don’t have Him to begin with.
——————————————————————–
Contemplatin’ Nothin and your Candles for Free
By Elizabeth Prata. With thanks to Mark Knopfler
I shoulda learned to light them candles
I shoulda learned to breathe the breath prayer
Look at that mama she sittin’ on the pillow
Girl, I should redecorate my chair
And she’s up there, what’s that, mantra noises?
She singing in the moonlight like a wild anointee
Oh that ain’t studyin’, that’s the way you do it
Get your warm mist going, and don’t judge me.
I gotta study Jeremiah, Ruth, Ecclesiastes
I gotta open these books, gotta learn this theology
With open eyes, studyin’ hard,
These liver shivers, they ain’t for me
That’s the way you do it.
————————————————–
A trip down memory lane-
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing / I want my MTV
And just for fun, the ever-brilliant “Weird” Al Yankovic with
Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies
One thing this time of blasphemy and apostasy is doing is outing the hidden haters of Jesus to declare for satan. In the end, nothing will be hidden. (1 Cor 4:5). It seems that great numbers of people are being shifted, inched, nudged, or pushed into one side or another.
After the rapture, during the ensuing Tribulation period, there will be absolutely no hidden Christians and no hidden atheists. All will be forced to declare one way or another. (Rev 13:16). Meanwhile at the present time, we see more and more hared of Jesus on earth.
“it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Matthew 15:11
Matthew Henry: “Christ shows that the defilement they ought to fear, was not from what entered their mouths as food, but from what came out of their mouths, which showed the wickedness of their hearts.”
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There is a great gulf that is fixed. (Luke 16:26). In time past, in the present time, and in the end of the end, none will cross from one side to the other. One must declare for Jesus while living. (Romans 10:9). Failure to declare, (Matthew 10:32; 1 John 4:15) or deliberately proclaiming blasphemies against Jesus, (1 Cor 12:3) is the sin unto death. (1 John 5:17).
Nowadays to me, it feels like a parallel to the prophesied time as the Millennial Kingdom is about to come to a close. After the 7-year Tribulation ends, there is a period of 1000 years when Jesus physically rules on earth. (Revelation 20:4). This is known as the millennial kingdom when all the promises Jesus made to His people Israel are fulfilled spiritually and physically with the full lands being given to them and His personal attendance in a renewed Temple (Ezekiel 41). At the end of the 1000 years of Jesus’ kingdom rule on earth, where sin had been subdued and satan had been locked up, but where there still have been mortals born, satan will be let out of his abyss jail and he will deceive the nations. It takes satan but a moment to draw the wicked to himself, immediately exposing the wickedness in their hearts that had been there all along. (Revelation 20:7-9). It feels like that now, with satan accelerating his evil doings to draw more and more people to himself. The cup of heart-poison overflows in many and shows in their words and deeds.
The great shifting of peoples hearts is the movement toward Jesus or away from Jesus. When the rapture occurs, the believers from the beginning at the time from the beginning of the church age (Jesus’ ascension) the very rapturous trumpet call will be resurrected or those who are alive will be lifted up and all will meet in the air to be with Jesus. Those remaining on earth will be those who chose not to believe. There will still be time for some of them to come to faith afterward, but the Church Age ends at the rapture with the last believer filling God’s quota of His church coming to faith. (Romans 11:25).
Then the 1000-year Kingdom, then the new heaven and earth, and the eternal state with the final Judgment of all humans.
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At the end the gulf between those who believe and those who do not will be exposed and settled at the Great White Throne Judgment. (Revelation 20:11-15) when all who have ever lived will give an account and receive their final body and their punishment will begin.
Wicked hearts are surely being shown today in great numbers. The venom that is in them is spilling out of mouths that deliberately or unknowingly proclaim for satan. We see it in their hatred of Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue homosexual marriage licenses. We see it in their hypocrisy against Christian football player Tim Tebow but worldly acceptance and lauding of Bruce Jenner’s depraved gender switch. We see it in the new Deist/Atheist Declaration of Sinlessness, blasphemies against Jesus, mob anger, violence. All this is in the heart, and is now coming out in torrents. They are storing up their sin for themselves.
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| EPrata photo |
We see it on blogs and comment sections, where hair-trigger anger and hatred is not even buried under a veneer of scoffing and sneering, but immediately boils over into anger and hate. There is no ‘ramping up’ anymore during a discussion. All discussions of Christian things seem to begin with a basis of anger, even among people who claim Christianity. We see venomous hearts exposed more and more and more and more.
Yet…there is One heart that is pure and undefiled, that is Jesus.
“For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.” (Psalms 33:21)
Bless His holy name, He is coming soon.
I love it when preachers, teachers, theologians talk about the Wrath of God. I do love the wrath of God because it is part of Him and His holy and perfect attributes. I do not love that people will undergo the suffering of His wrath due to the penalty of their sins. The wrath is a serious, serious thing.
I love it when preachers, teachers and theologians speak of the wrath because many others of them who are supposed to teach the full counsel of God do not. I know of churches where a pastor might go into a long, involved altar call, pleading with folks to come forward as music softly plays, and yet never mention wrath, sin, death, or hell. This is not the full counsel of God. Here, Bob DeWaay explains what the full counsel of God actually is.
As I have had people explain it to me: “people don’t go to church to feel worse about themselves.” So, it is deemed irrelevant to discuss the sin nature, and relevant to help people feel better about themselves. What about the glory of God? Are we to hear a powerful, Biblical presentation of God’s glory, His holy nature, our fallen condition, and the necessity of a blood atonement to appease the wrath of God (Romans 3:25)? Again, these matters are not likely to be deemed relevant to many.
Before my own conversion, I heard people say things like ‘the lost need to be saved’. I did not understand what “lost” meant. I joked that those dumb Christians were always going on about being lost but I knew exactly where I was. Har har har. And as for “saved? I had no clue what the threat was that we needed saving from. Yet this is exactly the reason why we should not dilute or on any way water down the message Jesus gave to us, His ambassadors. Ambassadors in real political jobs must convey the message from their superiors exactly as stated. It is not up to the Ambassador to change the message. (2 Corinthians 5:20). We are only witnesses and messengers, and the message has been set. It includes the “unpalatable” doctrines of sin, death, hell, and wrath. There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God. ~Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.
The fact is, God’s wrath is the threat. And it is very real. Here are some theological thoughts from J.A. Milliken, and E.E. Carpenter, on what God’s wrath is and why we need saving from it.
WRATH, WRATH OF GOD
Used to express several emotions, including anger, indignation, vexation, grief, bitterness, and fury. It is the emotional response to perceived wrong and injustice. Both humans and God express wrath. When used of God, wrath refers to His absolute opposition to sin and evil. When used of humans, however, wrath is one of those evils that is to be avoided.
The OT speaks very frequently of both God’s wrath and human wrath, but the wrath or anger of God is mentioned three times more often than human wrath. There are some 20 different Hebrew words, used approximately 580 times, that refer to God’s wrath in the OT.
… These anthropopathic terms must not be construed in such a way as to attribute to God the irrational passion we find so frequently in man and which is ascribed to pagan deities. They do, on the other hand, point to the reality and severity of God’s wrath in the OT (Isa. 63:1–6). God’s wrath is not capricious but is always a moral and ethical reaction to sin. Sometimes that sin may be spoken of in general terms (Job 21:20; Jer. 21:12; Ezek. 24:13) and at other times specified as the shedding of blood (Ezek. 8:18; 24:8), adultery (Ezek. 23:25), violence (Ezek. 8:18), covetousness (Jer. 6:11), revenge (Ezek. 25:17), affliction of widows and orphans (Exod. 22:22), taking brethren captive (2 Chron. 28:11–27), and especially idolatry (Ps. 78:56–66). The means by which God expressed His wrath was always some created agency: His angels, His people the Israelites, Gentile nations, and the forces of nature.
In the prophetic books the wrath of God is commonly presented as a future judgment. It is usually associated with the concept of “the day of the LORD” (Zeph. 1:14–15), or simply “that day.” That day will be a great and terrible day, a day of darkness and gloominess, day of the vengeance of God (Joel 2:2, 11; Isa. 63:4). While some of these prophetic utterances may have referred to the judgment of God in history, their ultimate fulfillment will come in a final act by which the world and its inhabitants will give account to God (cp. the NT use of the “day of the Lord,” 1 Thess. 5:1–9; 2 Pet. 3:10).
The wrath of God is not mentioned as frequently in the New Testament nor is there the richness of vocabulary that is found in the OT. There are only two primary NT terms for wrath: thumos and orge. Both are used to express a human passion and a divine attribute or action. When used of human passion, wrath is repeatedly named in lists of sins that are to be avoided, and if not, may incite God’s wrath (Eph. 4:31; 5:6; Col. 3:8; Titus 1:7).
Some have seen a distinction in meaning in these synonyms, the difference being that thumos expresses a sudden outburst of anger whereas orge emphasizes more deliberateness. There may be an intentional difference in occasional uses of the terms, but this does not prevent both terms from being condemned as vices when applied to human passion. In addition, both terms are used to describe the character of God, particularly in the book of Revelation.
There is great emphasis in the NT placed on the wrath of God as a future judgment. John the Baptist began his ministry by announcing the wrath of God that is to come, from which men should flee (Matt. 3:8). Jesus, likewise, pronounced a wrath that is to come upon Israel and produce great distress (Luke 21:23). Paul speaks of a day of wrath to come that awaits some, but from which believers are to be delivered (Rom. 2:5; Eph. 2:3; 1 Thess. 2:10). The idea of a future wrath of God is unfolded on a large scale in Revelation. It is described in very graphic terms, as cataclysmic upheavals in the universe (Rev. 6:12–17), “the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty” (Rev. 19:15 HCSB), and “the cup of His anger” (Rev. 14:10).
In the NT the wrath of God is not only a future judgment, it is a present reality. It does not merely await people at the future judgment. Jesus stated that the wrath of God abides on unbelievers, and consequently they stand presently condemned (John 3:18, 36). For Paul, God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom. 1:18), all people in their natural state are “children under wrath” (Eph. 2:3 HCSB).
Theological Considerations: The doctrine of the wrath of God is unpopular in much modern theological discourse. Some deny that there is ever anger with God. Others think of God’s wrath as an impersonal moral cause-and-effect process that results in unpleasant consequences for evil acts. Still others view God’s wrath as His anger against sin but not the sinner.
God’s wrath is real, severe, and personal. The idea that God is not angry with sinners belongs neither to the OT nor to the NT. God is a personal moral being who is unalterably opposed to evil and takes personal actions against it. Wrath is the punitive righteousness of God by which He maintains His moral order, which demands justice and retribution for injustice.
Moreover, God’s wrath is inextricably related to the doctrine of salvation. If there is no wrath, there is no salvation. If God does not take action against sinners, there is no danger from which sinners are to be saved. The good news of the gospel is that sinners who justly deserve the wrath of God may be delivered from it. Through the atoning death of Christ, God is propitiated and His anger is turned away from all those who receive Christ (Rom. 3:24–25). Therefore, those who have faith in Christ’s blood are no longer appointed to wrath but are delivered from it and appointed “to obtain salvation” (1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9).
SOURCE: Millikin, J. A. (2003). Wrath, Wrath of God. In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, & T. C. Butler (Eds.), Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (pp. 1688–1689). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
What do the wrath and salvation have to do with each other?
“Wrath” is a strong term, reserved in the English language almost exclusively for describing “God’s anger” with human beings and their sinful actions. The Greek word orgē expresses the idea of “justifiable anger for unjust actions.” It is used throughout the New Testament to describe God’s anger toward the sins and unbelief of humanity.
The Old Testament and the New Testament both teach that God is storing up His anger for the great and final day of judgment. This day is frequently called the Day of the Lord. The concept of the Day of the Lord was developed by the prophets to warn Israel and the nations that no one can escape the righteous outpouring of God’s wrath (Amos 5:18–20). This day was still spoken about by the New Testament prophets, John the Baptist and John the visionary (Matt. 3:7; Rev. 6:16–17).
Those who do not profess faith in the risen Christ remain in their sins and will be subject to God’s wrath, whereas those who believe in Him are delivered (Eph. 2:3; 1 Thess. 1:10). The good news of the New Testament is that Jesus has come to deliver us from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9). Those who have been delivered are reconciled with God because they are no longer under condemnation (Rom. 5:10; 8:1).
God’s wrath will be poured out on the devil, his angels, and all who rebel against Him. This is graphically portrayed in the book of Revelation, as we see scene after scene of God executing judgment on the ungodly. God’s stored-up wrath will be unleashed in awful ways, as He brings destruction on: the earth, those dwelling on the earth, the merchants of the earth, false religions, the antichrist, and all the enemies of the gospel. Ultimately, God’s wrath will be satisfied when He has put the devil, his angels, and all unbelievers in the lake of fire, to be tormented for eternity in eternal separation from God (Rev. 14:10; 20:10–15).
SOURCE: Carpenter, E. E., & Comfort, P. W. (2000). In Holman treasury of key Bible words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew words defined and explained (p. 427). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Do we have hope to escape the wrath, then?
Here is how Jonathan Edwards concluded his masterpiece sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God“
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God; many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now an happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him that has loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.
BE SAVED TODAY
Kentucky Clerk of Courts Kim Davis has been arrested and sent to jail for her consistent failure to perform her official duties, specifically, to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Actually, Kim has refused to issue ANY licenses since the license language has been changed on the license itself to include language covering both heterosexual or homosexual unions.
Left, This Thursday, Aug. 3, 2015 photo made available by the Carter County Detention Center shows Kim Davis.
I applaud her stance all this time as the issue has gone from local to state-wide to national. Did you know Ms Davis has been a believer for only 4 years? As this issue has become more intense, she has not bent under pressure nor changed her mind. She has been reasoned and submissive to all in explaining it. This is Christ-like behavior and I commend her for it.
However for all that, I believe Ms Davis is incorrect to have chosen the course she has chosen, a civil disobedience which now includes fines and jail. Here is my opinion on why.
Ms Davis pursued the issue as high as she could go, then that is as far as she can go. She has her answer from the high court of her state: she must comply. No one is forcing her to deny God or change her beliefs. The issue is her performance of duties in her office, an office she does not have to continue holding. She has an option. The Judge said,
“Neither your oath nor the Supreme Court dictates what you must believe. But as elected officials, they do prescribe how we must act.”
I believe that oaths are serious business. Ms Davis swore an oath, this is it from KY Legislature:
“30A.020 Oath of clerk and deputies. Every clerk and deputy, in addition to the oath prescribed by Section 228 of the Constitution, shall, before entering on the duties of his office, take the following oath in presence of the Circuit Court: “I, ….., do swear that I will well and truly discharge the duties of the office of ………….. County Circuit Court clerk, according to the best of my skill and judgment, making the due entries and records of all orders, judgments, decrees, opinions and proceedings of the court, and carefully filing and preserving in my office all books and papers which come to my possession by virtue of my office; and that I will not knowingly or willingly commit any malfeasance of office, and will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God.” The fact that the oath has been administered shall be entered on the record of the Circuit Court.”
She swore to GOD that she would perform her duties without partiality, and not commit malfeasance. Oaths are serious business. (James 5:12, Matthew 5:33). When you swear an oath in God’s name it is considered binding.
This Justice of the Peace resigned in the fallout after the Supreme Court’s decision on Obergefell v. Hodges this summer, a decision that made homosexual marriage legal in all of the US.
Wife of the First Baptist Church’s pastor, Gunter described herself as a conservative Christian who believes the Bible defines marriage as being between a man and woman. “I can’t uphold the oath that I swore, which states that I will uphold the laws of this state and of the country,” Gunter said.
Grenada County Circuit Clerk Linda Barnette decided to relinquish the elected position she’s held for 24 years rather than issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. “I choose to obey God rather than man,” Barnette wrote in a resignation letter Tuesday, attributing her decision to Friday’s Supreme Court pronouncement of the right of all men and women to marry, regardless of sexual orientation. “The Supreme Court’s decision violates my core values as a Christian,” Barnette wrote to the county’s Board of Supervisors. “My final authority is the Bible. I cannot in all good conscience issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples under my name because the Bible clearly teaches that homosexuality is contrary to God’s plan and purpose for marriage and family.”
Yet Ms Davis retains her sworn position, accepts the salary for said position, swore an oath to perform duties without partiality for said position, yet refuses to do so.
For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. (2 Corinthians 1:12).
If performing a sworn duty violates her Christian conscience, then no one is forcing her to violate it, and she is free to resign and remove herself from the situation that is causing her moral quandary. However if one swore to work for Caesar and accept salary from Caesar, then do as Caesar tells you. One cannot have it both ways.
I am proud of this new Christian taking a stand amid national pressure. I sincerely praise her that, though in my opinion she chose a path that led a little beyond where she should go because of the oath and her not-as-yet implemented option to resign, she is brave and sincere and willing to make a hard sacrifice. We’re all probably going to be faced with that or something like it in the near future. I applaud her public demeanor and also her correct stance that homosexual marriage is not God’s will. We should pray for her and ask the Lord to lead her in this time.
At the same time, let’s remember are not out to change Caesar but to labor for Jesus as His witnesses and Ambassadors in spirit and in truth. A resignation would make a statement. Maybe not as newsily as her current incarceration, but it would speak volumes to Jesus, and He is our only audience of One.
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Further Reading
This article excellently makes the point. Here are three excerpts:
Justice Scalia explained why Kim Davis should issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or find a new job
Davis has a right to observe and adhere to her religious beliefs, but she does not have a right to her job as county clerk. The latter obligates her to follow federal law, including the applicable judgments of federal courts, and it is now the law of the land that the Constitution bars state governments from refusing to recognize same-sex marriages on equal terms with opposite-sex marriages. If, as Davis claims, her religious convictions bar her from issuing such a marriage license, she should resign.Davis is in a similar position. Her official position obligates her to take part in the state’s licensing and recognition of marriages. Insofar as the state’s definition of an acceptable marriage differs from her own, Davis is obligated to follow the state’s rule so long as she maintains her current office.
Think of it this way. Someone who objects to war due to his religious conscience has a right to be a conscientious objector and not serve in the military, even were there to be a draft. But he does not have the right to serve as a military officer, draw a paycheck from the military and then substitute his own personal views of when war is justified for that of the government. The same applies here.
I’m all for prayer. I am all for creating a space to pray, undistracted. However, not everyone in Western Christianity has the luxury of a special room in which to devote one’s self to prayer. PEOPLE, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE ROOM!
Answer: After a short discourse on the follies of trying to appear religious in front of people, Jesus talks about prayer. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:5-8). The Greek used here for “room” is tameion, which means “an inner storage chamber or a secret room.” The point being, a public prayer, announced on a street corner, gives the pray-er all the attention he can expect to receive. A quiet prayer, directed at God and not passers-by, will reap spiritual blessings.
Some have taken the admonition literally. They set aside a room or a quiet corner in their homes, furnish it with a comfortable chair, table, Bible, and maybe a notebook, and use that corner for a regular prayer time. That’s certainly appropriate, but the fact that the room Jesus referred to most likely meant a pantry gives us a little more flexibility. A “prayer closet” might be a daily commute, a bench in the back yard, or the kitchen table. John Wesley’s mother is said to have sat in a chair and thrown her apron over her head as a sign to her kids to leave her alone. Jesus usually went to a secluded hillside. The point is that the “closet” is free from interruption, distraction, and listening ears.
Although there are good reasons to have a dedicated space for regular prayer—such as training the family to respect the quiet and keeping prayer-related materials in one place—that was not what Jesus was referring to. The passage in Matthew 6 talks about performing religious acts for the purpose of allowing others to see. Any act, be it praying, giving, or serving, should not be done for the purpose of gaining approval from others. Praying, giving, and serving should be responses to our relationship with God and the mercies He has given us. If a specific, dedicated location encourages prayer, it should by all means be used. If the cab of a pickup or a quiet stretch of beach suffices, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Jesus in the Garden. Matthew 26:36
The Upper Room Acts 1:13-14
Apostle Paul’s War Room Acts 16:23
Martin Luther’s War Room at Wittenburg
Martyr William Tyndale’s war room, incarcerated at Brussels, 1535
George Muller, Administrator of the Orphanage Built by Prayer.
Kenya Secret Church listening to Pastor David Platt in rudimentary room
Priscilla Shirer Movie War Room
Lady-decorated war room, Western Christianity
My war room is my kitchen table. I have my bible, a lamp, tissues, note paper, pens, and my prayer journal.
It is not about the room. It is about the God who hears prayer
O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. (Psalm 65:2)
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Further Reading
