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discernment, glory, perilous times, prophecy, self-worship

Ultimate selfie: man edits himself into one-man orchestra playing every instrument (and conducting)

Posted on May 17, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A man played each part in a 70-piece orchestra and cut it into a one-man show

A man from Hull in the UK has taken the concept of the one-man band and run with it. Ben Morfitt, 24, spent a month creating a video of himself playing the parts of a 70-piece orchestra in his bedroom and posted the bizarre result to YouTube. He filmed an empty concert hall in the city’s Abermarle Music Centre as the basis for the clip, before then taping himself playing each instrument in front of a green screen and slowly building the orchestra, the Hull Daily Mail reports. It took a full month to film,” Morfitt said. “I used about three-and-a-half hours’ [worth of] footage for the final piece, and there’s about ten times that in outtakes.” He had to edit out his cat every time it wandered into the shot. The whole thing ends with 70 versions of himself turning to the camera to give it the finger.

Because…why? Why waste that much time? Energy? Talent? After reading 6 articles about Mr Morfitt, the only clue I could glean regarding his employment is that he makes a living from composing work. He actually did play each of the nine instruments depicted. He is talented and creative…but to spend that much time on one’s self, seems to me to be just ridiculously inward. And flipping the bird at the end, that’s over the top crass.

The Bible says,

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,(2 Timothy 3:2)

The Strong’s Lexicon explains the word ‘lover of self’ in the Greek. it is only used once, here in 2 Timothy 3:2,

phílautos (an adjective, derived from 5384 /phílos, “lover” and 846 /autós, “of self”) – properly, a lover of self, describing someone preoccupied with their own selfish desires (self-interests).

Preoccupied with self and one’s own desires. The young man who took such an inordinate amount of time to film himself in every orchestra position, then gave the finger to the audience at the end of the piece, seems to fill this scripture perfectly.

It takes a selfish desire and a heavy preoccupation with one’s self to do this. It is a gross idolatry. Matthew Henry says of the 2 Timothy verse:

Even in gospel times there would be perilous times; on account of persecution from without, still more on account of corruptions within. Men love to gratify their own lusts, more than to please God and do their duty. When every man is eager for what he can get, and anxious to keep what he has, this makes men dangerous to one another. When men do not fear God, they will not regard man.

Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God, preached Puritan Thomas Watson. He wrote,

Here are two ends of life specified. 1. The glorifying of God. 2. The enjoying of God.

First. The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11. “That God in all things may be glorified.” The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. l Cor. 10:31. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

When we speak of God’s glory, the question will be moved, What are to understand by God’s glory?

Answer. There is a twofold glory: 1. The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the “God of glory.” Acts 7:2. Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it. The creature’s honour is not essential to his being. A king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robes are taken away; but God’s glory is such an essential part of his being, that he cannot be God without it. God’s very life lies in his glory. This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; it is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with. Isa. 48:11, “My glory I will not give to another.” God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, honour; he will give them spiritual blessings, he will give them grace, he will give them his love, he will give them heaven; but his essential glory he will not give to another. King Pharaoh parted with a ring off his finger to Joseph, and a gold chain, but he would not part with his throne. Gen. 41:40. “Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.” So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance; he will put some of Christ’s glory, as mediator upon them; but his essential glory he will not part with; “in the throne he will be greater.”

2. The glory which is ascribed to God, or which his creatures labour to bring to him. 1 Chron. 16:29, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.” And, 1 Cor. 6:20, “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.” The glory we give God is nothing else but our lifting up his name in the world, and magnifying him in the eyes of others. Phil. 1:20, “Christ shall be magnified in my body.”

Please click on the link to learn more of what it means to glorify God.

There are only two occupations for man, to glorify God, or to glorify self. This viral video which the social media proclaims is so clever is an object warning for myself. As I approach the end of school and begin to look forward to 8 weeks of staying at home, I can easily slip into the same kind of mind-set as Mr Morfitt- navel gazing, indulging selfish desires, and being preoccupied with my own glory and not the Great God whom I serve.

I must remember to submit to the Holy Spirit in yielding up my old man, and focus on the new man. I want to use my time well and glorify God in what I do. I can use the time to study, minister, pray, read the Bible more, disciple, and grow. Lord, help me this summer remain diligent in seeking YOUR glory, and avoid resting in any false laurels I build up in myself. I desire to redeem the time. Summer is glorious for me because of the time off, yet the lure of the leisure life can easily descend into too much personal work, introspection, and just plain silliness (like Mr Morfitt)… and leave no room for the purpose of my life: the glorification of God

EPrata photo

Prayer

At times I feel I could bear any suffering, but how can I dishonour this glorious God? What shall I do to glorify and worship this best of beings? O that I could consecrate my soul and body to His service, without restraint, for ever! O that I could give myself up to Him, so as never more to attempt to be my own! or have any will or affections that are not perfectly conformed to His will and His love! But, alas, I cannot live and not sin. ~Valley of Vision

bible, jonathan edwards, repentance, revival, sinners in the hands of an angry god, valley of vision

Marks of a True Spirit-initiated Revival

Posted on May 15, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The Book of Acts is such a wonderful book to study. I’m fascinated by what the Spirit brings to mind each time I read through it. On Wednesday night we were studying the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of 14. I was thinking about Acts chapter 13, verse 42. Here are the rabbit trails I went down after I got home and in the succeeding two days 🙂

As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. (Acts 13:42)

Antioch. From Wikipedia

I focused on the word “begged”. Isn’t it wonderful that the people BEGGED to hear more of the Word. Begged to hear more of the Good News. It seemed important. Begged.

I started thinking of the reaction of people to the Gospel that Acts shows us. Shortly after the verse 42 was this one in v. 44

The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

What a wonderful work of the Spirit! To ignite an entire city’s heart so that almost all of them turned out! I know that among the crowd would like be some rubber-neckers, others would be sent to spy on them (Gal 2:4) but still, almost an entire city eager and begging to hear of the Gospel. It blesses the heart and refreshes the mind to even think of such a thing happening today.

That thought brought me to another city that turned out to hear the message from God, this time, not Good News but Bad News: impending Divine wrath. Jonah preached only one day into a three-day walk sized city and immediately they were repenting already. (Jonah 3:3-4). Again, another amazing move of the Spirit.

Turning from those days to Enfield CT when Jonathan Edwards preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I was thinking of the Spirit’s lack of move in Edwards’ own congregation. He’d preached the same sermon to his own people but it fell like a lead balloon. When Edwards was invited to preach at Enfield, it had an immediate impact, the historically verified one we know of today.

The Dictionary of Bible Themes defines revival as

The soveriegn activity of God whereby he renews his people individually and corporately in vigour, affecting both sincerity of belief and quality of behaviour.

What seems to be the marks of a real revival? In looking at Antioch, Nineveh, and Enfield CT the same things are present:

–an immediate response (eagerness to hear more of God’s word, repentance)

–widespread impact (in the case of the Woman at the Well, her individual conversion resulted in telling the Good News to the town, which all showed up asking Jesus to stay and tell them more as per John 4:40. In the case of the corporate conversion, the people at Antioch wanted to hear more and all showed up the next week to listen to Paul.)

–demonic opposition (angry Pharisees, plots, riots, rejection. Even as Edwards was lauded for the sermon and people begged to hear it over and over from different pulpits to which he was invited, after a several-year fight he was dismissed from his own pastorate for trying to lead them away from the liberalism and compromise in the Half-Way Covenant).

It’s so strange to think of the Spirit’s move in masses of people. In Nineveh, widespread repentance. In Jerusalem, widespread rejection of Jesus and His followers. In Antioch, widespread acceptance (at least, a curiosity without rancor). In Lystra, they drove Paul out and stoned him. In June 1741 in Northampton, Edwards’ sermon was received without murmur. A month later in Enfield, they tore their clothes and begged to be saved.

It seems that after repentance, the very least one should see in a genuinely converted or revived person or corporate entity is eagerness to hear the Word preached, to study it, and proclaim it. After that, one should expect to see lives that align with the repentance they professed, in the form of a personal hatred of sin and progressive sanctification as their old man dies and the New Man is growing in them. Last, one should expect to see perseverance of the saints. The genuinely revived or converted will not fall away

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Matthew Henry wrote,

The Spirit sends his influences where, and when, on whom, and in what measure and degree, he pleases. Though the causes are hidden, the effects are plain, when the soul is brought to mourn for sin, and to breathe after Christ.

The Faithlife Study Bible Commentary says,

3:8 wind The Greek word pneuma can mean “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit.” John uses the metaphor of the wind as a power that is felt but unseen to explain the power of the Spirit of God. This echoes God’s Spirit hovering before His creative works began—providing credence for the Spirit that Jesus initiates among all believers being one with God the Father as well (1:2). The creative act of God will enter people, becoming the source of their transformation back into God’s image.

The Holy Spirit’s work in salvation individually or corporately, is a wondrous strange thing.

Lord Jesus, I sin. Grant that I may never cease grieving because of it, never be content with myself, never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue, trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, peaceable, to live for Thee and not for self, to copy Thy words, acts, spirit, to be transformed into Thy likeness, to be consecrated wholly to Thee, to live entirely to Thy glory. Valley of Vision

colton burpo, end time, NDE, near death experience, prophecy

Is the growing acceptance of both secular and "Christian" near-death experiences one of the prophesied lying signs?

Posted on May 15, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

FMI on Raymond Moody

The 1970s and 1980s were funny decades. The Free Love movement of the 60s gave way to Age of Aquarius, Eastern Mysticism (thanks, Beatles) and Near Death Experience movement. The 1970s for some reason was a breakthrough decade for study in NDE. For the first time the phenomenon was studied seriously. Books galore came out and the adults around me ate them up. I remember seeing Raymond Moody’s Life After Life, a seminal book for the decade that broke open the study of what happens after we die. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross‘ study of death and the five stages of grief was another that fascinated the adults around me. Then came all the philosophical books from New Age promoting spirituality and mysticism based on “discoveries” reported from NDEs such as those from Carlos Castaneda, (A Separate Reality) and Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull).

As a side note, adults, if you think the books you read and put on your bookshelves go unnoticed by your kids, you’re crazy. Growing up and as a young adult, I was hugely impacted by the books the adults around me were reading.

As far as NDEs went, I became fascinated by the fact that all these people nearly died or did die, and came back and reported the same thing. They all talked of beauty in another place or dimension, a tunnel, the light, peace. There had to be something to it, I thought! From the vantage point of today, of course I know these to be satanic deceptions perpetrated on unsaved people deluding them into thinking they are going to “that place”, “into the light” without repenting of sins or knowing Jesus.

Those 1970s NDEs are no different in their high deception-factor than are the ones from today by “Christians” like Colton Burpo (Heaven is For Real) or Alex Malarkey (The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven).

But when I was a young adult noticing all these New Age books talking about peace and light after death, it made sense to me. It was by the grace of God only that I didn’t stop there and came to know the real Light and can read the only book that reports what it is really like “over there” – the Bible.

The “Christian” books 90 Minutes in Heaven, by Don Piper; Heaven is For Real, by Colton Burpo and his dad; The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, by Alex Malarkey; 23 Minutes in Hell, by Bill Wiese; Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben Alexander; To Heaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal, Mary K. Baker’s A Divine Revelation of Heaven and other such books, exploring ‘the other side’ from a Christian perspective, have been enormous best-sellers. As each “Christian” NDE book has been published, they have grown in popularity…and acceptance. By the time Heaven is For Real came along people applauded the book, trusted the four-year-old’s account of rainbow horses and homework in heaven, and made a movie out of it. The Burpos are considered evangelical.

There have been great inroads that the testimonies of Christians who claim to have had a personal encounter with Jesus or angels at near death have become mainstream, a path that the 1970s NDE books started, which at that time were looked upon as paranormal quackery.

In this recent article in The Atlantic, the convergence of the “Christian” NDE and the New Age NDE appears to have been finalized.

The Science of Near-Death Experiences

Yet even these skeptics rarely accuse experiencers of inventing their stories from whole cloth. Though some of these stories may be fabrications, and more no doubt become embellished in the retelling, they’re too numerous and well documented to be dismissed altogether. It’s also hard to ignore the accounts by respected physicians with professional reputations to protect. Even if the afterlife isn’t real, the sensations of having been there certainly are.

There is something about NDEs that makes them scientifically intriguing. While you can’t rely on an alien abduction or a spiritual visitation taking place just when you’ve got recording instruments handy, many NDEs happen when a person is surrounded by an arsenal of devices designed to measure every single thing about the body that human ingenuity has made us capable of measuring.

And that’s exactly it. That is what intrigued me as a teen and young adult there are too many stories of NDE, they’re too similar, and in this age of technology they are too scientifically confirmed to simply ignore. What the people don’t know, however, is that simply the fact of the cumulative existence of thousands of NDE cases doesn’t confirm that they are sent from heaven.

Yes the NDE occurred. No, it doesn’t mean it was heaven. Satan is a deceiver and a liar, and he can perform lying wonders, (Matthew 24:24, Revelation 16:14), can appear as an angel of righteousness, (2 Corinthians 11:14), and alter the physiology of a targeted human. (Mark 4:3-4).

The fact that it occurred is not the proof. The world believes the NDE occurred but they never stop to think that the NDE itself may be real but is a deception. Satan counts on this.

I’d had a conversation with a young person, age 7. He was fervently trying to convince his mates that Bigfoot is real. Here is his argument.

I KNOW Bigfoot is real, because I had a dream about him…and DREAMS ARE REAL!

He made me laugh, and his argument was a circular but internally consistent logic that made it hard to argue against. I got to thinking about his argument though a little later. It’s the same argument that evangelicals make about Jesus, and when they do, it isn’t so cute or funny any more. But it is the exact argument that people who have had NDEs (or visions or dreams of Jesus) claim.

I had a dream/vision/near-death experience of heaven. Dreams are real. Therefore Heaven is for Real.

Too many Christians fall prey to this also. They blindly believe that simply because a supernatural event occurred that it must be from heaven. But more likely in this day and age, it is from hell.

Some don’t believe that satan is capable of deceivingly presenting a false heaven to people. However remember that angels are powerful. Satan was the most powerful angel of all, dwelling immediately next to the Most High in the heavenly realms at His throne. He was capable of showing all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus! (Matthew 4:8). The magicians were able to replicate Aaron’s and Moses’ sign from God by the power of their secret arts, turning their own staffs into snakes as Moses and Aaron had. (Exodus 7:11-12).

Do not overlook the many cautions and warnings in the Bible about satan’s lying signs and his power to deceive. The lying sign serves several purposes. They lead people astray. They confirm man in his error – for example, emphasizing Gods love toward the unrepentant sinner and the unrepentant sinner’s presence in heaven. Lying signs thus encourage people to rely on the sign and not the word of truth which would set him free.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, (2 Thessalonians 2:9)

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. (Revelation 13:14)

Satan has the power to deceive the entire earth. Do we not think he can deceive one unfortunate car accident victim lying in a state of drugged unconsciousness?

In The Atlantic article it’s stated,

Whether you saw a divine being or your brain was merely pumping out chemicals, the experience is so intense that it forces you to rethink your place on Earth.

The secular person and sadly the ‘Christian’ nowadays put faith in the experience and rate its credibility based on its intensity. Yet Theologian John MacArthur stated,

Studying mystical accounts of supposed journeys into the afterlife yields nothing but confusion, contradiction, false hope, bad doctrine, and a host of similar evils.

In my opinion, the fact so many “Christian” NDEs are occurring it is in itself a prophesied lying sign. A further sign is the convergence of Christian acceptance of (lying) wonders with with New Age (false) wonders. Another sign is the fact that evangelicals are accepting the New Age/Spiritual NDE instead of the Bible’s word on the matter.

Convergence almost complete

Conclusion point #1: Stay in the Word so that you will not be deceived.

Conclusion point #2: A supernatural wonder is not necessarily from God. Satan is supernatural, too.

Conclusion point #3: The world’s fascination with life after life is not only unabated since breaking through to the mainstream in the 1970s, but it’s growing. Christian booksellers are helping this along, partnering with New Age thought, and blending the two so that one is virtually indistinguishable from the other.

Yet even then, the positive outcome of this is that we have the knowledge of the truth, and can share with any person who is similarly fascinated with near-death experiences, as I once was before I was saved. Intrinsically, I knew life didn’t end at death. Eternity is written on our hearts. Share Revelation 21 and 22 with friends or family who want to know more. It is a beautiful future ahead for those who believe. Try to bring as many as possible along with you.

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Further reading

Heaven is Real: Hallucinations are not

created, creator, physics, universe

Mystery radio signals that baffled astronomers for years came from the staff microwave

Posted on May 13, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I saw that headline and I just had to laugh.

I love science and study physics when I have the chance and have a somewhat clear head to tackle the subject. What holds the universe together and what makes it tick is an endless fascination to me. Of course, coming from a Christian perspective, I know that Jesus holds the universe together by His word (Hebrews 1:3) and He sustains it (Colossians 1:17). Anything I might learn about the universe’s workings is going to be based on that fact and through Him.

APOD: May 12, 2015. Left, Marseilles France, Earth.
Right, Elysium Planitia, Mars

So while on the one hand I respect physicists and astronomers highly, on the other hand it seems that ultimately they are like ants chasing a phantom trail, always learning about the universe but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. At least, their truth, whatever man-made theory they adhere to as to the origin of the universe. Their seekings and learnings are all like the elusive dark matter they also speculate exists, the invisible space in between other visible objects that can only be detected by the effects the theorized dark matter has on other things. Seeking to know about how the universe works without knowing Jesus, brings to mind the famous quote attributed to Gertrude Stein regarding Oakland CA: “There’s no there there.” Christians know the there there is Jesus. Not knowing Jesus but seeking to know His mind as Creator (which is what physics is all about) will only bring endless theories, surprising discoveries, and an ant trail of eternally frustrating length.

There was this in 2009. Frustrating to them, amusing to me: The Case of the Mysterious Baguette:

Sometime on Nov. 3, the supercooled magnets in sector 81 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), outside Geneva, began to dangerously overheat. Scientists rushed to diagnose the problem, since the particle accelerator has to maintain a temperature colder than deep space in order to work. The culprit? “A bit of baguette,” says Mike Lamont of the control center of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which built and maintains the LHC. Apparently, a passing bird may have dropped the chunk of bread on an electrical substation above the accelerator, causing a power cut. The baguette was removed, power to the cryogenic system was restored and within a few days the magnets returned to their supercool temperatures.

While most scientists would write off the event as a freak accident, two esteemed physicists have formulated a theory that suggests an alternative explanation: perhaps a time-traveling bird was sent from the future to sabotage the experiment. Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, Japan, have published several papers over the past year arguing that the CERN experiment may be the latest in a series of physics research projects whose purposes are so unacceptable to the universe that they are doomed to fail, subverted by the future.

However, that isn’t the whole story. The baguette was not found above ground in the snow damply getting mushy within a few moments of time. The baguette was found inside a cooling building. That was locked. That was surrounded by high-voltage wires. That was guarded. That is why the esteemed Japanese physicists speculated that it was a time traveling baguette. They were confounded as to how the bread got in there. I’ve been laughing about the Baguette Incident since I wrote about it in 2009.

And then there’s something like this from last week.

Mystery radio signals that baffled astronomers for years came from the staff microwave

Beginning in the late ’90s, once or twice a year, astronomers operating the telescope at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia would pick up mysterious radio signals. These signals were known as perytons, described in a recent report as “millisecond-duration transients of terrestrial origin.” The researchers believed the perytons were linked to atmospheric activity such as lightning strikes, and they held this belief for around 17 years, until this year, when they installed a new receiver to monitor interference, The Guardian reports. The actual source of the perytons? A microwave.

Peryton? Another proposed, theorized particle to explain another proposed theory of how the universe works? I remember when they discovered strings and thought they’d nailed it. That was back in the early 1980s.

1984-6 – A series of important discoveries in string theory leads to the “first superstring revolution”, and it is first realized that string theory might be capable of describing all elementary particles as well as the interactions between them. (source)

Cut to 35 years later and not so much. Not only haven’t they described all the particles, they keep discovering new ones, much less be able to delineate all their interactions with each other. They are still seeking, learning, attempting to explain the whole, without the There there.

Rabbit trail factoid:

Artist’s rendition of imaginary peryton

Did you know that a peryton was a mythological creature?

The Peryton is a mythological hybrid animal combining the physical features of a stag and a bird. The Peryton was created and described by Jorge Luis Borges in his Book of Imaginary Beings, using a supposedly long-lost medieval manuscript as a source. The Peryton is said to have the head, neck, forelegs and antlers of a stag, combined with the plumage, wings and hindquarters of a large bird, although some interpretations portray the Peryton as a deer in all but coloration and bird’s wings. (source)

Peryton. Beautiful Bird, lovely plumage. Physicists certainly have a vivid imagination. They have to, in attempting to learn about the creation sans a Creator.

When I look to the heavens, I see God in His creation. I worship the Creator, not the created. (Romans 1:25).

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1)

Physicists will continue to study the universe and for that I’m glad. Astonomers will continue to bring us magnificent photos of dep space and explain what we’re seeing, and I’m glad. However, never forget Who created it all, and give Him glory for his incredible Mind, His wonderful handiwork, and His power to speak a word and the existence of the universe and everything in either entered reality or will be snuffed out (Gen 1:1, 2 Peter 3:10).

And chuckle at the childish antics of the men in the Physics Lab break room heating up a Lean Cuisine in the microwave while the others at the telescope believe some breakthrough is happening because the microwave is pulsing out some kind of signal. But it’s just lunch, and their minds will never match the Mind of the One who looks down at his wayward people and laughs, because they saw His majestic work and denied Him.

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)

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Further Reading

Watch earth live from the vantage of the International Space Station

Physics Timeline

Hubble Telescope Site

NASA’s APOD: Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Hiesenberg Uncertainty Compensator Explained

How William Shatner Changed the World

William Shatner presents a light-hearted look at how the “Star Trek” TV series have influenced and inspired today’s technologies, including: cell phones, medical imaging, computers and software, SETI, MP3 players and iPods, virtual reality, and spaceship propulsion.

beth moore, chris hull, discernment, false teacher, shepherd

Lutheran pastor on Beth Moore: "She’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing trying to destroy my flock"

Posted on May 11, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

In 2012, thanks to Sola Sisters, some of us became aware that a pastor named Jim Murphy of First Baptist Church in Johnson City NY spoke to his congregation sternly about their lack of effort in applying biblical discernment. He said this after he repented in front of them himself, for not guarding them from false doctrines as he should. He led the people through a history of post-modernism and biblically showed how and why false teachers from ‘out there’ can and do get ‘in here’ to their church. If not through the pulpit, false doctrines can come in through Ladies Ministry studies, Sunday School Curricula, and/or the church library.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

Even if the pastor himself is solid and would never think to quote a Beth Moore or a Sarah Young, these false teachers enter the church by other means. Pastor Murphy said he was sorry for not having provided enough oversight in the aforementioned areas, and said the tentacles of satan had so far reached far and deep. He went on a mission to overhaul all the aforementioned areas. In addition, he promised to name names in warning his flock away from certain teachers who have shown by their fruit they are dangerous.

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-16a)

Many of us who listened to Pastor Murphy’s online sermon applauded it and were thrilled to see one faithful shepherd executing the biblical command to guard the sheep. (Acts 20:28-31)

Additionally, we know that there are other pastors out there doing the same, even when we can’t see or hear them. We trust the Lord who has raised up faithful shepherds to empower them with discernment, courage, and fortitude to withstand the tsunami of falsity attempting to sweep into the church and to speak against it. We can’t see them, but we know they’re there and doing it. We live by faith, not by sight, knowing that doctrinal protection by good under-shepherds is occurring. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

But it is still thrilling to see when it happens, it’s a visible demonstration of the Goodness of the Holy Spirit.

Well, here is another example. Also in 2012, a Lutheran named Chris Hull, who is Senior Pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Normal, Illinois, was interviewed on a Lutheran radio show called Issues Etc. He noticed several of the ladies of his flock were doing Beth Moore studies, so he set about researching what they were consuming. He was aghast at his findings.

To Beth Moore, Jesus is more sympathizer than Savior. ~Pastor Chris HullHis talk is linked here, and below is posted a lengthy excerpted transcript of his interview. There are a few things he speaks of through the lens of being Lutheran that I do not agree with, for example, the sacraments being more than representational, and of being their ‘father’, but despite these few things, his opposition to Moore is worth a read. He takes it from a theological point of view, speaking of the false things Moore teaches that I haven’t heard before, or at least, in my opinion speaks of them in such a way as to bring new light on why Moore is false. It’s a new perspective, even though this interview is surfacing now (thanks to an eagle eyed and thoughtful reader who sent it to me).

In this essay, I’m showing you three things. First, the different perspective that the pastor brings to the table regarding Moore’s theology. Second, if you read the excerpts below or better yet, listen to the half-hour interview linked above, you will see HOW the pastor went about assessing Moore’s theology and how he considered whether she was good for his flock. Third, once he came to his conclusions, note the kind of language he uses to definitively state them. He didn’t apologize, back-pedal, or waver when explaining exactly what the problem was. Too many teachers, pastors etc seem almost apologetic when saying that so-and-so is a false teacher. Many hesitate to say even that, claiming that gentleness, caution, and tolerance are called for.

I say no.

“Guilty Spirit” EPrata collage
w/digital overlay

If a person, by their fruit and/or lifestyle has demonstrated that they are false, we are beyond caution and tolerance. We are at war with the false teaching they bring! If they have proven themselves false (and Moore certainly has) it means they are against Jesus and operating for satan. It means they are out for your destruction. It means they are a liar, seeking filthy lucre. We don’t have to be mean, but we need to be clear! We do NOT need to say, “Well, gee, in some ways this teacher has helped me, and I don’t agree with everything they say, but…” No, sir. Paul was clear:

So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Cor 11:15)

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. (2 John 1:11)

See the Apostle of Love calling false teachers wicked, as not having God in them, and for believers to refuse them hospitality! Therefore note the clarity and conciseness with which Pastor Hull expresses his findings. You definitely know where he stands. He stands with Jesus. He guards His flock.

Here are excerpts from Pastor Chris Hull’s interview on Issues, Etc. regarding Beth Moore.

Q. What role does Jesus play in Beth Moore’s Theology?

Pastor Hull

Pr. Hull: I’d say it’s mainly example. Christ is our example. Lutherans have fought that mindset for many years, this ‘what would Jesus DO mentality.’ Worse, and I hate to say this because it sounds silly, but to her, Jesus is more of a lover, even. He’s the man who understands me. He’s the man who gets me. No other man in my life gets me, but Jesus does. That’s a big problem. Yes, He does get us all, because He died for us. So I would agree with her there, yes He gets you. But He gets you because He takes your sin upon Himself and dies your death. But she never gets to that point. It’s more of a ‘He’s there for me in my need.’ It’s a very abstract ‘there’. He’s never there in concreteness in the means of grace, but rather, just there. Like a spiritual life coach giving me a pat on the back when I need it. And that’s Jesus in her book. Jesus is more sympathizer than savior. … It’s very, very shallow spirituality.

What you get with Beth Moore’s bible studies is emotionalism. You know, getting into how I feel and things of that nature. Her main appeal to women in her studies is getting into the mind-set of people in the bible. For example, in her study, “Jesus the one and only”, she gets into: How did Mary feel? or what was Joseph thinking? There is no actual theology here, it is all, what do I think they were feeling and does that relate to my feelings today. The best part is, she will quote like 20 bible verses, that have nothing to do with that actual passage in scripture in order to support your emotion, she is using the bible to tell you the feelings you have are natural and good and you should feel comforted in that, and therefore powerful. It’s all about God respects you, that is one of the main appeals to women is that God respects them in their feelings, in their stage in life.

Q. How would you summarize her message?

Beth Moore

Pr. Hull: A typical evangelical one of free will. She is a lazy Arminian, who says that our greatest gift God gives us is our free will to choose Him. How can that comfort people? If that’s the gift God gives us is free will, saying and you have to get into the bible to read more of the bible, and the more you read the bible the more you will know about God and the more you know about God, the more God will love you. And then, once God loves you He will respect you as a human being.

Her bible studies are mostly prose, not much doctrine, a lot of fill-in-the blanks type of questions. Here’s a question, read this one bible verse, and fill in the blank. It’s like reading a Dan Brown novel the Da Vinci Code, you feel smart after because it’s short chapters.

Q. What view of man in his fallen state does Beth Moore promote in her popular books and bible studies?

Pr. Hull: Her view of man is that man has problems, man is sinful but only because of what he does. You’re born in a state of neutrality, like Adam (she doesn’t knock Eve as much) and will I take the forbidden fruit or will I do good? This is the Christian life a neutral state and which one will I choose. It’s Arminian theology. If I choose good, God will be pleased. You see this especially in her books. There is this one book about getting out of the ditches, how do I get out of despair, and you don’t see things like “From depths of woe I cried to Thee“, you see ‘What can I do to get out of this problem in life.’

Expulsion of Adam and Eve
from the Garden, Masaccio, 1426-7

My wife went to one of the bible studies and she walked out saying ‘I had no comfort in the Gospel. It was all about what I need to do.’ She made the comment that if someone with clinical depression came in they’d probably want to go home and do something to themselves. Because it is just depressing to read, it gives no hope in Christ Jesus. Whatsoever.

[A clip is played with Moore emphasizing self-improvement, using the phrase “we are God’s masterpiece” and emphasizing change in terms of self-improvement].

Pr. Hull: Self-improvement is contrary to scripture. Romans 6 talks about that. We died with Christ so we shall also rise with Christ. You must die in this world. How can you progress in self-improvement if the point of the faith is to actually die to self? Beth Moore takes scripture out of the equation and replaces it with emotion and human reason.

Q.: Beth Moore had a little foothold on the congregation you currently serve when you arrived as its new pastor, how deep did it drive you into researching what Beth Moore believes and teaches?

Don’t believe the propaganda!

Pr. Hull: They did 2 Beth Moore studies the first year I was here, so I read both of those. I read 4 of her books, I watched a bunch of her Youtube videos…I spent way too much time with Beth Moore. But the problem is, and I guess I can say this on the radio: she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing trying to destroy my flock. The only way I could get her out was knowing her. Knowing her abilities, knowing how she gets in and twists. And I learned it.

But getting rid of it was the problem. Because Beth Moore becomes a friend with the church, she becomes good friends with people. How do you get rid of a friend? You have to say this ‘friend’ is no good for you. This friend wants to hurt you. This friend desires your death. She wants to give you this poisonous loaf of bread covered in sugar and tell you it’s good for you. And all it’s going to do is kill you over time and you won’t even recognize it…the problem is to compassionately say to your blessed flock that not only will this harm you, but it will be your end if you continue to place trust in this propaganda.

All Beth Moore Critiques Here in One Place

Beth Moore Confronts Young Pastor’s Wife for Criticizing Her Direct, Divine Revelation

Adrian Rogers, counterfeit christians, discernment

Adrian Rogers on the difference between false religion and true religion

Posted on May 10, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The difference between counterfeit faith and true faith is the FOCUS. Satan’s focus was on himself. It’s pride and selfishness. All false religions come from satan and he capitalizes on our sinful nature to focus on ourselves. He tempted Eve with “You will be like God”. (Genesis 3:5). He told Eve that if she ate the fruit (disobeyed) God she would get something good out of it for herself. Selfishness and pride.

This is what satan said in his heart:

‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’(Isaiah 14:13-14)

I will, I will, I will, I will, I will; five times satan is recorded as mulling over what he will do and what he will get. He has been on a tear ever since, telling us through false religion what we can do and what we can get (if we disobey God).

I will, I will, I will, I will, I will…

Yet Jesus prayed:

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. (Luke 22:42b)

God’s will. The focus is on Him, His Son, and His Spirit. What we can do for Him, to Him, about Him, through Him, and by Him- so He can get the glory.

Do not be fooled by satan’s tricks. As the late Adrian Rogers said in his sermon “Counterfeit Christianity-“

One of Satan’s chief tools in his bag of tricks is religion. The very first temptation in the Garden of Eden was a religious temptation; it was a temptation not to be ungodly, but to be godly “and ye shall be as gods”. (Genesis 3:1-5)

It’s a very good sermon, please take a listen. The part when he describes people who have falsely depended on a spiritual experience for their faith and not the Person of Faith (Jesus), and they try to convince God to let them enter heaven, is devastating. “But, but I had a vision, I was engulfed in light, I saw heaven…” Satan standing aside saying, “You fool, that was me.”

Our focus should always be on precious Jesus, as it says in Hebrews 12:2

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

death, election, encouragement, grace, infant

What happens to babies who die?

Posted on May 9, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Sinclair Ferguson on a difficult doctrine: Total Depravity in Children

Elisha Raises the Shunammite woman’s Son: Frederic Leighton

Little Innocents?

The total depravity of our children is a faith-doctrine, a biblical insight. Our natural instinct is to think of new-born children as moral and spiritual tabulae rasae, clean sheets on which to write a successful life. Admittedly the page may soon be a little blotted (the occasional temper tantrum!), but the background is still basically white, surely? Not so, according to the Scriptures: the wicked go astray from the womb and speak lies from birth, insists the psalmist.

Here is a chart comparing Arminianism and Calvinism. I’ll excerpt the part about our sin-nature.

Arminianism Free Will or Human Ability says:

Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does not interfere with man’s freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man’s freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated or resist God’s grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit’s assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man’s act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation.

Calvinism: Total Inability or Total Depravity says:

Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not — indeed he cannot — choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ — it takes regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God’s gift of salvation— it is God’s gift to the sinner, not the sinner’s gift to God.

Jan Sluijters (1881-1957), Elisha and the son of the
Shunammite woman, 1904

Total depravity does not mean that all humans are all as bad as they could be. Not everyone is a Hitler, is he? There are people who are nice and compassionate and do kind things. Then there’s the Hitlers and Stalins and Pol Pots of the world. No, total depravity means that sin has touched every part of our being, totally, and we are totally unable to do anything good for God. We are all criminals in God’s eyes and in His capacity as Judge He would be righteous if He sent all humans to hell upon their death. Even children.

So what happens to children who die, if they are completely depraved but are unable to consciously and maturely respond to the Gospel?

One of the complaints I receive about the Doctrines of Grace is that God would be horribly mean to send babies to hell when they do not have the mind to even be able to contemplate the Gospel and formulate a response to it, the basis of faith and the key to entry into the Kingdom. I agree, that would be hard to swallow. But God does not send babies or children to hell. He is just, and He is sovereign, and He has a plan.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, John MacArthur was invited to the Larry King talk/interview show to try and help people make sense of the spiritual questions the event raised. In a subsequent sermon titled What Happens to Babies Who Die?, Dr MacArthur said this:

Some of you who tuned in to the Larry King Show a week ago Saturday will remember that Larry fired a question to me on the air that came out of nowhere. The question that reveals a nagging, troubling issue in the human heart. He asked me, “What about a two-year-old baby crushed at the bottom of the World Trade Center?”
I answered, “Instant heaven.”
He replied with another question. “Wasn’t a sinner?”
I again answered, “Instant heaven.”
That’s a compelling question, what about a baby crushed at the bottom of the Trade Center? What about any baby that dies? It’s an agonizing question. It’s a question that plagues Christians and non-Christians alike…what happens to babies that die?

In the essay, MacArthur shows from scripture that they go to heaven. Though they are sinners from the womb and though they have not hard or responded to the Gospel, God made a provision.

The Doctrines of Grace make me love Jesus all the more. He made a provision for the children and adults otherwise unable to cognitively understand their sin or the Gospel. God is love and His provision is demonstrates no better than the very moment an apple cheeked youngster’s laugh is stilled by death, when He receives them instantly to His arms.

Of Children:
The seed of every known sin is planted in their hearts. Robert Murray McCheyne

Of Jesus:
Never forget that there is more grace in Christ than there is sin in your heart and your child’s heart combined. Sinclair Ferguson

————————

Chewing up the meat and spitting out the bones- is that biblical?

Posted on May 9, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

In the Discernment department, I hear people frequently say they realize that so and so teaches some things that are bad, but some things they teach are good, so they will just take the good and throw out the bad. They call this method of learning the word of God “Chewing up the meat and spitting out the bones.” But is this how teachers should be followed or how scripture should be learned? No.

In Matthew 7:15 we read,

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

It’s a scripture we are familiar with, maybe too overly familiar. Let’s dig down into it again with a fresh eye.

Matthew 7 is the third of three chapters that comprise the Sermon on the Mount, arguably the most important sermon in the entire bible. Jesus is warning, exhorting, and teaching. By Chapter 7, He focuses on judgment/wrath, the broad and narrow road, and judging/discernment. Jesus spends a good deal of time teaching about judging wisely with good discernment. It is here in verse 7 He mentions false prophets.

He opens with the word “Beware.” When a command like this appears, we perk up to an even greater degree than usual. It’s like the word “woe”, indicating the need for special attention to what is being said.

The word “beware” refers to our Lord telling us specifically to be wary of a false prophet. He says they will be numerous and they will be hard to spot. But what is particularly dangerous about false prophets of which we should be aware?

So “Beware” it says – now, that word alone ought to let you know they’re dangerous. “Beware.” Literally, in the Greek it means, hold your mind back from. Don’t ever expose your mind to the influence of a false prophet. Don’t pay attention to, give heed to, follow, notice, devote yourself, don’t even put your mind in his vicinity. They’re dangerous, they pervert the mind, they poison the soul. (source)

People’s Temple cult leader Jim Jones

Beware means warning, danger! It tells us that extreme caution is to be employed. The action we
should be taking is not to give any quarter to any part of a false teacher’s teachings. To “hold your mind back from” … that is an interesting phrase. We know the scriptures transform us by the renewing of our mind. The mind is the first battlefield. Not the heart. See the scripture in Romans, it dovetails nicely with Matthew 7:15

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It once again illustrates that there is a severe dichotomy. Either/or. You are either being conformed to the world, OR you are being transformed by the renewal of the mind. There is no chewing meat AND bones and then spitting out bones. Your mind will either be conformed or not. It will be transformed or not. False teaching will poison your mind or not.

And secondly, the verse says we should seek that which is good. We should seek that which is acceptable. We should seek that which is perfect.

The Matthew 7:15 warning and the Romans verse say nothing about ingesting poison just so we can get to some nugget we believe is good. It says nothing about allowing poison into our mind just so we can strain out what we deem as bad. We in our pride think we can chew meat and spit bones even though we are told to seek what is good and acceptable and perfect by the One who is Good and Acceptable and Perfect? We are not to seek what is imperfect and full of bones! We are then choosing not to be careful. This is setting ourselves to be smarter than Jesus! WE are too smart for Jesus? Let it not be so!

You see, we see the results of what they [false teachers] do in 2 Peter 2:2, “Many people follow their pernicious ways.” (source)

Many will follow the false prophets. Do we think we are so strong that we will not be one of the many? Do we think we are so strong that we will be able to ingest poison and spit it out before it affects us?
The subtly of that false prophet can even singe your garment. MacArthur

The second reason, after pride, not to follow false prophets altogether and avoid chewing on meat to spit on bones, is destruction.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

If we believe we can withstand all the warnings about false prophets, be able to detect to the smallest degree what is good and acceptable and perfect in their teachings, and to in effect be smarter than Jesus and ignore His warnings, then we are proud. And pride sets us up for falling into destruction.

In Maine where I lived for many years, there are sea urchins in the intertidal zone. These marine animals have spikes. If you step on them, they hurt. Some are poisonous. What people say who claim they can “chew the meat” of a false teacher’s teachings, and “spit out the bones” is that they have confidence in walking on kelp-covered, slick rocks in bare feet with tide and current pushing them off, and be able to perfectly balance and make progress without slipping and stepping on one of the spines. Or swallowing a bone. Pride. No, eventually they will slip in due time and they will step on a spike and they will be destroyed by the poison the urchin holds for them.

A third and most important consideration is this: if a teacher has shown themselves false by their fruit, and by God-given discernment you’ve realized this, then nothing they offer will be meat. It may look like meat, just as their garment may look like a sheep’s. But that “meat” the prideful ones claim they can chew happily will have worms, e coli, and ground glass in it. For nothing a false teacher has to say is healthy. Nothing. It might sound good…you might think it is helpful, but it is not.

A false prophet has neither a divine commission nor a divine message. He neither speaks for God or from God. He stands in his own authority speaking his own message, and it is utterly false. (source)

Utterly. False.

In the above linked source, the example is given about the horrific and tragic events in 1978 in Jonestown Guyana, where 908 people drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and died in the jungle. These people had followed Jim Jones into his cult. Jones, that false teacher, brought them in a long slow descent from Christianity to Jones personally claiming to be Jesus, and when he said so, killed themselves.

There was a man named Tim Stoen. As John MacArthur described,

Here was this fellow attending the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and at People’s Temple at the same time. Raised in a G.A.R.B. background – a Fundamentalist, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring people – but exposing his mind to that instead of holding back his mind.

Jonestown, Guyana, Nov. 1978.
This mass suicide (304 were children) resulted in the greatest single loss of American
civilian life in a deliberate act until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001

Tim Stoen was married with a son, and the Stoens followed Jones from California to Guyana to the compound Jones had created. Eventually Grace Stoen left the cult and her husband, she defected. She battled for her son from the States. Tim left the cult year later. They battled for their son, hard, but the suicides occurred before they could get him out of the cult. John’s 6-year-old body was discovered in Jones’ cabin when the story broke.

Tim Stoen started out well. He had a large ministry in his church, he was regarded as an elder, was seen as mature and solid. However when Jones came to popularity, Stoen divided his mind. He ingested some bones with his meat. The bones will get you every time.

Stoen sadly discovered the hard way what happens when you do not hold your mind back from false teachers. He lost his marriage, his wife, and his son- all destroyed. He lost many years of valuable time he could have been working for the Lord- destroyed. He’d aided and abetted this cult leader in deceiving many- they were destroyed. Aside from the children, when the adults woke up, they were in hell.

False teaching destroys. Do not be so prideful that you think you can detect meat from bones, or even more foolishly believe that any part of a false teacher’s food is healthy for the body. It isn’t. Beware.

discern, judgment, prophecy, signs

“Discerning the Signs of the Times” by Pastor Phil Andrukaitis

Posted on May 7, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A pastor-friend from Maine recently wrote this below, what was on his heart. I agree with it. It’s on my heart too.

In Hosea 5:12, the LORD promised to bring moth-like judgment upon Israel.

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

Gill’s Exposition explains this long-slow kind of judgment.

Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth,…. Which eats garments, penetrates into them, feeds on them privately, secretly, without any noise, and gradually and slowly consumes them; but at last utterly, that they are of no use and profit: this may signify the various things which befell the ten tribes in the reigns of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah, which secretly and gradually weakened them

It is not hard to imagine the Lord employing the same kind of judgment on America and other nations as we deepen our apostasy and turn from Him.

Pastor Andrukaitis

The author of the piece below, Pastor Phil Andrukaitis, is senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, South Portland Maine. Please read the below and see if you agree also.

——————————–

“Discerning the Signs of the Times”

When hostile, threatened, religious leaders questioned Jesus about His identity and ministry, Jesus responded, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red;’ and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:1-3).

I’m reminded of an earlier time during the initial reign of King David [1011 BC – 971 BC], when the men of Issachar, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, were identified as those “who had an understanding of the times…” (1st Chronicles 12:32).

Question: I wonder how many Christians understand the present times in which we live.

In my devotional reading this morning, my heart was moved by King Josiah’s response when the Book of the Law [God’s Word] had been found in the house of the LORD, while it was being restored by faithful servants.

Evidently, during his grandfather’s 55-year reign as king [Manasseh] and his father’s 2-year reign [Amon], the Book of the Law was lost because these two kings, like many kings before them, had served idols, seduced the nation to follow after other gods, and shed much innocent blood throughout the nation. However, when Hilkiah the high priest found the Book of the Law, he brought it to the attention of King Josiah.

As the Book of the Law was read to King Josiah, the Scriptures says that Josiah’s heart was tender. In addition, Josiah humbled himself before the LORD when he heard what lay ahead for the nation – judgment and desolation because the nation had turned away from God Almighty and had forsaken His Word. And Josiah wept before God and he tore his clothes (2nd Kings 22:1-20). Judgment was on the doorstep of the nation. Judgment was certain. God had set the date.

Questions: First, how do we respond when the Word of God is read? Think about it. Are our hearts tender towards the Word? Do we humble ourselves before God? Do we weep and grieve over the sins in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our nation? Do we desire spiritual and numerical growth for the body of Christ?

Second, I wonder how oblivious God’s people are towards the events unfolding in our world today. I am not an alarmist who is crying, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Rather, my cry is, “Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming!”

Consider the sins of our nation for just a moment.

ABORTION: We have slaughtered nearly 55 million innocent infants in their mother’s wombs in the past 42 years, all for the sake of “protecting a woman’s choice.” This is a most damnable grievance before God. God is not going to turn away from the innocent cries of these infants. I praise God that these little ones who have been forsaken are in the presence of Jesus.

GBLT: We have cut loose the mooring lines that held this nation firm to the biblical, moral foundation by forsaking the Bible. The LORD God identifies these lifestyles an abomination in His eyes.

SELF: As sinners, we are prone to demote God in our lives and promote ourselves as “gods,” choosing to follow our sinful passions with a heart full of pride. Consequently, every imaginable sin flows out from our hearts and through our lives.

Listen, America is under God’s judgment. The Lord warned ancient Israel that if His people turn away from Him and forsake His Word, God would bring upon them the following curses (Deuteronomy 28): A state of confusion, diseases, natural calamities, rampant domestic violence, economic collapse, and evil rulers.

While these curses were specifically given to ancient Israel, principally speaking, our nation is experiencing the same type of judgments. Consider the evil rulers throughout our nation, the state of confusion and corruption within government, the growing unrest in our country, and the increasing disrespect for authority in our land.

I believe our nation is on the verge of a global economic collapse. I believe government is waiting for the right opportunity to impose martial law in our country. And I believe the church is on the threshold of her glorious hour, especially when God visits our nation with judgment. May the church of Jesus Christ do away with its stupid, petty fights and truly demonstrate that they are Christians, known by their love for one another and others.

I believe it is too late for America. However, it is not too late for individuals to return to the Lord. Confess your sins and your role in the moral collapse of our nation. Believe that Jesus died for you, paying your sin debt by being crucified on the cross. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Believe that Jesus rose from His grave, as this is God the Father’s proof that Jesus’ sacrifice was acceptable and that Jesus has conquered death, sin, and the grave. Moreover, the Lord is willing to forgive the humble, repentant sinner who comes to Jesus in faith. Go on, surrender your life to Him and know the forgiveness and peace that comes with knowing God through a personal relationship with Jesus.

——————————————-

By Pastor Phl Andrukaitis, Pastor First Baptist Church South Portland, ME. Phil enjoys fishing and target shooting. His passion is making disciples. As a former Marine, his motto is “Honor, courage and commitment are ‘corps’ values that build character. Phil has been married to Sally for over thirty years.

(UPDATED) Here come the female prophetesses! Thanks a lot Henry Blackaby, Beth Moore, and continuationists

Posted on May 6, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Update at bottom.
—————————————
Thanks Henry Blackaby.

Thanks Beth Moore.

Thanks, satan.

/sarcasm.
Lifetime television Network has ordered a docu-series about female preachers. This from TV Insider.

Lifetime is looking for an “Amen” with its new woman-preacher-focused docu-series. Preach follows four Ohio “Prophetesses” as they tend to their respective flocks, healing wounds both physical and psychic.

Prayers are about to be answered with Lifetime’s all-new docu-series Preach, premiering Friday, June 5th, at 10pm ET/PT. Produced by CORE Media Group, the show follows four powerful female leaders who believe God has given them the ability to heal the sick, see the future and rid people of their addictions. Known as “Prophetesses,” these women speak as interpreters through whom the will of God is expressed. In order for their legacy to continue, they must enlist protégés and teach them how to carry on their gift. These “Queens of the Church” each have different styles and their own special way of delivering God’s message, but all are united in their love of the Lord.

The Prophetesses and protégés featured are:

Belinda Scott (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) – Belinda considers herself a Major Prophetess who has given council to politicians and celebrities across the country. She has the ability to predict child birth and specializes in blessing the wombs of barren women. Belinda’s protégé, Hadassah Elder, grew up Muslim so adjusting to new life as a Christian protégé will have its challenges.

Taketa Williams (Columbus, Ohio) – Taketa has been called the “Beyonce of the Preaching World” and touts a global following. She trains her protégé with a strict hand and isn’t afraid to drop someone if they don’t come up to her standards. Her protégé, Rebecca Hairston, is a single mother with three children.

Linda Roark (Trenton, Ohio) – Linda’s specialty is delivering people from the street and bringing them to God. Known as the “Blue-Eyed Soul Sister,” she has been told that she “looks white but preaches black,” and is admired in African-American churches for her ability to roar and get the room standing on their feet. Linda’s protege, Angel Pound, had a rough start in life. A former drug addict who has now turned her life around, she is still haunted by a past that threatens her chances of becoming a Prophetess.

Kelly Crews (Cleveland, Ohio) – Kelly is Belinda’s former protégé who is now building a ministry of her own. The only single Prophetess in the group, she has trouble finding a man who can handle her gift. Kelly’s protégé, Stacey Williams, is newly married and pregnant and struggles with making her prophetic training a priority.

Back to Blackaby. In October 1990, Henry Blackaby and Claude T. King published a book called “Experiencing God.”

Here is the blurb:

“Revised and expanded, this classic study guides readers to experience a relationship with God through which they come to know and do His will by learning to recognize when He is speaking.”

Blackaby had opened the door to Mysticism and it swept the conservative churches like wildfire. His book, and Blackaby’s influence through it, cannot be underestimated. Lifeway published this in 2013:

Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, the best-selling LifeWay resource first released in 1990, was written by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. Experiencing God has touched and changed millions of lives and thousands of churches around the world. The workbook has sold more than 7 million copies, is available in more than 45 languages and has been used in almost every denomination.

They are even making a film about the impact this book has had.

Gary Gilley reviewed Blackaby’s book in three parts, examining Blackaby’s misuse of scripture, his neo-Orthodoxy, and his mysticism. Experiencing God cannot to be consumed safely, brethren. Here is Gilley-

The appeal of Blackaby’s ideas is that we can experience a deeper reality of the presence and voice of God. Unfortunately, Blackaby does not derive most of his thoughts from Scripture. … Experiencing God is a book that is full of errors, biblically unsupportable assertions, incredible statements and story-theology (views based upon anecdotal accounts rather than upon Scripture).

Here are a few quotes about the emphasis Blackaby puts on experience over the Bible-

“Knowing God only comes through experience as he reveals Himself to me through my experiences with Him”.
“If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience”.
“If anything is clear from a reading of the Bible, this fact is clear: God speaks to His people…God does speak to His people, and you can anticipate that He will be speaking to you also.”

However the impact of this door Blackaby cracked open led, for example, to Beth Moore’s widening it with her prophesying. Just as Experiencing God was gaining traction, Beth Moore’s rise to popularity began. Moore began to say “I believe” more and more often, rather than “scripture says.” As time went on and she was not corrected for her own misuse of scripture, her neo-Orthodoxy, and her mysticism, she got bolder. Now Moore is flat-out prophesying, and her actions on stage or in church do not differ one bit from the ladies who are going to be featured in the upcoming docu-series. Except … Moore is accepted by conservative circles (as areBlackaby’s lessons on how to “listen to God”).

Why do I say thanks Blackaby, thanks Moore? Because they opened the door to this continuationism that even the most conservative, evangelical corners of the faith are now accepting. Because two credible teachers with bona-fide credentials and the Southern Baptist Convention behind them, prophesied, taught prophesying, and continue to demonstrate prophesying. They normalized it. They were early mystics infiltrating the most conservative quarters. Were they the only people prophesying in the 1990s? No, but they were the most credible. The thought was, ‘If it is OK for them to prophesy, receive direct revelation, if it’s a normal Christian thing, then it must be all right, notwithstanding the nutcases flopping around on the floor over there in Charismania-land.”

There are/were/will be three sets of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit to the believers. One set are works kinds of gifts, the gifts of mercy and helps and administration, for example. Another set given are those involving words, such as preaching, teaching, and exhorting, for example. A third set were tongues, interpreting tongues, miracles, and prophesying. It is this third set that is under contention by continuationists vs. cessationists.

The group of people who say the SIGN gifts have ceased (and sign gifts only have ceased) do so based on the authority of scripture, explaining that these particular gifts were given to lay a foundation of the church through the apostles. Those gifts given were not in and of themselves for the body of believers for all time, but to authenticate the apostles’ authority in having been sent by God. Even as the apostles were dying out, and the New Testament progressed, the “sign” gifts were ending. This was all explained in detail in the Strange Fire Conference held at Grace Community Church in fall of 2013.

Continuationists believe that the sign gifts have continued unabated since the first century church. They believe they are the same in quality and quantity as occurred when Peter raised his mother-in-law to life or when Paul healed the sick. And that they are going on now.

One of the charges that continuationists make is that the kind of prophesying Moore does is in line with the Bible, but that the kind of prophesying (and healing and tongues) that a Benny Hinn type does is not. That when a statement is made like Blackaby offers (“God told me”), it’s simply one of a long line of continuing statements Jesus is continuing to make personally to those whom He chooses, but when a prophetess from Ohio lays hands and ‘heals’ a barren womb, it’s not.

The only problem is, the barn door is either open or closed. Once you open the door to the notion that God is continuing to speak, you open the door to ALL of it. As Phil Johnson said, there is no safe zone regarding extra-biblical activity. All those who accepted Blackaby and Moore’ sign giftings must now look in the mirror and see these 4 prophetesses and all their kind…and answer to scripture for “providing cover for aberrant people and movements in some of the most problematic districts of the charismatic community”.

The continuationist- cessationist discussion aside, one would think it wold be obvious that the 4 prophetesses documented in the upcoming series are easily seen to be false. I used to think that it’d be obvious that a devotional claiming to be written in 1st person Jesus is false too, but Jesus Calling has been on the best seller list for ten years, so I take nothing for granted anymore in the discernment department.

So here it is: the women featured on the Preach docu-series ARE FALSE and in no way represent CHRISTIANITY. They are wolves come to get your money and destroy your faith. A side benefit for satan is that they tarnish the Christian faith altogether.

How can I say that? The Bible says women are not to preach.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. (1 Timothy 2:12)

In listening to Alistair Begg last weekend he mentioned about the false teachers and prophets. This verse,

Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. (Titus 1:11)

The phrase their mouths must be stopped is actually referring to a muzzle, like one puts on a dog, because false teachers are dogs and worse.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:

mouths … stopped—literally, “muzzled,” “bridled” as an unruly beast (compare Ps 32:9).
subvert … houses—”overthrowing” their “faith” (2Ti 2:18). “They are the devil’s levers by which he subverts the houses of God”

This is where unchecked mysticism gets us. The rampant Charismania won’t stop with these four women, it didn’t stop with Blackaby and Moore, after all. It will go on and get worse and worse.

Lord, please stop Belinda Scott’s, Taketa Williams’, Linda Roark’s, and Kelly Crews’ mouths.

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UPDATE

Between prayer and civic activism, it seems that Lifetime has canceled the show.

Controversial Lifetime Show ‘Preach’ Canceled After 15,000 People Sign Petition; Prophetess Reacts

Tachina Carter posted a petition on change.org. She said:

“The IMAGERY on this show is a TRAVESTY to the Christian Community. The women aka prophetesses are making a MOCKERY of the church and promoting foolish behavior that is not necessarily a true representation of the REAL power of God,” noted Carter’s petition. “Cameras do NOT belong in the church filming the ‘spiritual’ things that society as a whole does not understand. By airing this show it will cause more harm than good to the Christian community who already has a difficult time in sharing ‘The Good News’ of Jesus Christ to the masses.”

“Prophetess” Belinda Scott reacts:

“… I watch hateful people who say they love the Lord, type like that FROG typing at that machine. …TURN UP ON ‪#‎PREACHTV‬! A show that is not mocking the church, but exploring the lives of believers in the Church and hear me out first,” Scott wrote. “The word reality is this: the state of being real, a real event or state of affairs, One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual. Now, do I hear from God? YES, did He call me to be a PROPHETESS. YES, have I and Do I hear God’s voice concerning events, people and issues? YES! Did I see these attacks against us coming? YES! Is there a harvest on the way? YES!!!”

Yes there is a harvest. It will be very dire, bloody, and heartbreaking for the false prophets. And false prophetesses. Titus 1:10-11,

For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.