Posted in color, emerald rainbow, encouragement, green, jesus

Heaven and the color green

Posted on by elizabethprata
Remains of the 12th-century Trim Castle in County Meath,
the largest Norman castle in Ireland

They call Ireland “The Emerald Isle” for its deep green, undulating countryside. The island nation was first nicknamed the Emerald Isle sometime around 1780 in a poem by William Drennan called “When Erin First Rose.” Here is the first stanza
By

When Erin first rose from the dark swelling flood,
God bless’d the green island and saw it was good;
The em’rald of Europe, it sparkled and shone,
In the ring of the world the most precious stone. …

I’ve never been to Ireland but I’ve been to Scotland and the north of England. The green hills of Scotland were tremendously vibrant. Perhaps it was the quality of the northern sunrays bouncing off the grass, or the mystery of travel exhilarating my emotions, but it seemed to be to be a quality of green like no other place I’d ever been. The green there calms the eye, soothes the soul, envelops the body is its aura.

One of my favorite verses in the bible is in Revelation.

And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. (Revelation 4:3)

Green Pastures, river Severn at Caersws, Rod Trevaskus, CC

I love that emerald rainbow. When I pray I envision Jesus sitting on the throne, accepting prayer, listening, and the emerald rainbow all around Him.

I wonder what the color green will look like, up there. The bible says-

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—(1 Corinthians 2:9)

I suppose even the color green as we know it will be startlingly different. There will be precious stones in the foundations of the city walls, including emerald-

The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, (Revelation 21:19)

Benbulbin Mountain, County Sligo, Ireland. Public Domain

Dictionaries – Easton’s Bible Dictionary – Emerald

Heb. nophek (Exodus 28:18; 39:11); i.e., the “glowing stone”, … a precious stone in the breastplate of the high priest. It is mentioned (Revelation 21:19) as one of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The name given to this stone in the New Testament Greek is smaragdos, which means “live coal.”

Lucifer walked among the precious stones in heaven, including emeralds. (Ez 28:14). They adorned him.

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. (Ezekiel 28:13)

The breastplate of the High Priest was adorned with precious stones, four rows of three stones each.

the second row shall be turquoise, lapis lazuli and emerald;(Exodus 28:17)

Public Domain. Green Pasture, Ireland

Originally, God gave to man every green plant for food. (Genesis 1:30) When judgment came, God sent locusts to eat every green thing. (Exodus 10:15). Green is often used in the bible to represent clean growth, and goodness. (Psalm 52:8, Proverbs 11:28)

I suppose the most famous mention of green in the bible is Psalm 23

The Lord Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake

Randy Alcorn, who specializes in the study of heaven, wrote the non-fiction book called Heaven, and the fiction book Dominion. In Heaven, Alcorn said,

In the same way that the New Earth will be refashioned and still be a true Earth, with continuity to the old, the new cosmic heavens will likewise be the old renewed. In my novel Dominion I try to depict this in a scene in which Jesus takes a woman who has died to a new world:

Eventually they arrived on a world more beautiful than Dani could fathom—cascading waterfalls, rainbows of a hundred colors, mountain peaks five times higher than any on earth. Oceans with blue-green water, and waves crashing upon rocks the Page 4
size of mountains. Grassy meadows, fields of multicolored flowers—colors she had never seen before. This place seemed somehow familiar to her, yet how could it, since it was like nothing she’d ever seen? Still, she felt profoundly at home.

I believe this also. I think there will be the color green in the New Earth. Only better. Different, but the same. What will the emerald green of heaven look like? If the photos above are so beautiful, what awaits? An emerald sparkles. Green pastures are restful. The described emerald rainbow around the throne must be incredible. Yet, even then, the bible says we cannot imagine what awaits us.

No eye has seen, until we go home, that is! Then thanks to the blessed Savior atoning for our sin, and having prepared a place for us, we WILL see. What a day that will be.

Posted in discernment, doctrines, Jesus follower, power, words

Do you "follow Jesus"? Or are you "saved by Jesus?"

Posted on by elizabethprata

People today are starting to say “I follow Jesus.” Or, “I’m a Jesus follower.”  I’m sure you’ve seen this.

People used to say “I’m saved by Jesus.” Or, “Jesus saved me.”

I don’t like saying ‘I follow Jesus’. I’ll tell you why.

Saying “I follow Jesus” puts me as the subject. ‘Look at meeee, I follow.” The verb is about me too. The verb alerts the hearer to something I am doing, following. It puts a picture in the mind of the hearer on two people walking, the second one being the follower, and that is where you’re mind’s eye rests in forming the picture of the words spoken to you. On the one doing the following and not on the One doing the leading.

EPrata photo

It is also kind of boasting. If one is saved by the atoning work of Jesus Christ, it stands to reason that a person would then follow His commands and abide by His statutes. No one says, “I’m saved by Jesus but I don’t follow Him.” The following is tacitly understood by one and all.

But one can say “I follow Jesus” and not be saved. Mormons follow Jesus and are not saved. Catholics follow Jesus and are not saved. Judas followed Jesus for three years and he was not saved. I understand that saying “I’m saved by Jesus” doesn’t guarantee a person is saved, but at least it includes the acknowledgement of sin and the need for a savior. Following Jesus is something a lot of people do, and saying so only increases the likelihood that what they are doing is simply an activity. When you decide to call yourself a Jesus follower, in my opinion it increases the likelihood that are one of the people DOING things for Christ and not actually saved by Christ.

All these people followed Christ, too:

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:22-23)

Saying that “Jesus saved me” puts the emphasis on Him. Referencing my salvation by constantly saying “I follow Jesus” puts a boasting aspect to the phrase the speaker may not have intended, but is there nonetheless.

Now, someone could reply that the comment is not about salvation, but is about sanctification. Sanctification is the growth we experience in Christ after we are saved (justified). They could argue that they were saved by Jesus and now they follow Him in His statutes, ever growing in sanctification. After all, Jesus said, “Follow me”.

Yes, Jesus said “Follow me” many times. He said it in Matthew 4:19, Matthew 16:24, John 8:12, Luke 5:11, 1 Peter 2:21, John 10:27, etc. It is biblical to say that one is a follower of Jesus. I cannot categorically condemn the phrase.

I can make a statement that it is unwise to speak solely of one’s salvation OR sanctification in terms of the self. The growth we experience when we follow Jesus is partly done under our own steam but not fully. The Holy Spirit grows us. Our part is aggressive obedience, fervent pursuit, and a total submission. Therefore saying “I follow” seems just so…anemic.

‘Following’ as opposed to submitting, pursuing, or obeying is one step away from Jesus. Who are we following? Why? That small shift in emphasis is incremental but dangerous nonetheless. Once the shift is made away from the object of our pursuit, then the following becomes the main theme. And one can easily go astray. One can follow your bliss.

Creative Commons, source

One can follow a leader. Paul addressed this in 1 Corinthians 1:12-13, because errant ‘following’ was causing divisions.

What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

The members at Corinth were split along doctrinal lines and had shifted their eyes from Jesus and their unity in Him to personal preferences among different teachers and the doctrines these teachers were teaching.

Erin McCrum wrote about the “why” this trend eschews the name ‘Christian’ in favor of  ‘Follower of Jesus:

…proponents of the “follower” lingo claim two advantages over the label “Christian” or “evangelical.”  “First, it doesn’t carry baggage.  You can wear it abroad, in Islamic countries, or at home with your Jewish or Buddhist friends, without causing offense.  Second, it distances the bearer from the culture wars that have made American politics so divisive.”

In this scenario, one can envision saying to a Muslim, “I’m a follower of Jesus!” and they reply “I’m a follower of Isa!” Hugs all around. It is precisely the offense which makes a Christian a Christian. Paul said if there is no offense then the cross has been taken away (Galatians 5:11). If claiming Jesus as our Christ doesn’t offend, there is something wrong. There should be love in witnessing, but there should be no attempt to cloak, diminish or otherwise distort who we are and who Christ is. Of course the term “Christian” carries baggage. That is the point. The ‘baggage’ is the cross which offends everyone.

Satan is so subtle and so skillful. Satan managed to convince a third of the holy angels who saw the face of God every day, to follow him instead. He convinced Eve to bite the forbidden fruit just by asking a question. It is unwise to allow incremental creep into our language regarding who we are or what we do. Satan will quickly take advantage of it. Instead, we must be mindful, biblical, and vigilant in our language about Jesus and in our active holy walk. See the difference:

The Jesus Follower: I am a pretty good person who just made some mistakes and so I decided to follow Jesus and I want to live out His plan for me because after all, He loves me.

The Christian Saved by Grace: I am a totally depraved sinner saved by unmerited grace of the Son of Man who came to live a sinless life, die as the atoning sacrifice for my sin, and endure all God’s wrath for it. I pursue the resurrected Jesus who has holy standards for the ones He has saved, and am living by those standards to the best of my craven ability, by submission to and obedience in the Holy Spirit. I rest on the promises Jesus the Christ has made to His chosen ones to both activate the faith He has given me, and to empower me to live in ever-growing sanctification. I’m looking forward to obeying him all the days of my life until He deems it the time to bring me home.

I have a very small leak in the tub faucet. A tiny drop comes out every few seconds. One day, the cat had tripped the drain shut. I went into the bathroom a few hours later and there was an inch of water on the bottom of the tub. The litter box was floating. Small doctrinal leaks add up. Explosively wrong doctrine can pop a balloon or a tiny leak of slowly shifting language can drain it. The result is the same.

I’m not a Christian. I’m a Jesus follower.

The terms Christian, sinner, salvation, justification, sanctification etc have lasted so long and been so understandable to everyone for centuries is because they are biblical. These terms transcend time. Be mindful of falling into a trap of exchanging words attached to known and commonly understood concepts with new terms that are nebulous, temporary, cultural and lack Spirit power. Sometimes synonyms aren’t synonyms, but a subtle trick of satan to drain power from our witness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further Reading:

Liberals change word meanings with intent to deceive

The cults are infamous for perverting historically accepted biblical terms. “Is it any wonder then,” said the late Christian apologist/polemicist Dr. Walter Martin in The Riddle of Semantics, “that orthodox Christians feel called upon to openly denounce such perversions of clearly defined and historically accepted biblical terminology, and claim that the cults have no rights — scholastically, biblically, or linguistically — to redefine biblical terms as they do?” (Source)

Posted in faith, francesco spiera, francis spira, jesus, judas

What are the effects of final apostasy? The case of Judas, John Child, and Francis Spira part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata
Apostate church by Boris Sajtinac

In part 1 of “What are the effects of final apostasy? The case of Judas, John Child, and Francis Spira” I looked at the biblical effects of apostasy on aperson in three famous cases. I’d reviewed the case of Judas and of John Child. Francesco Spiera AKA Francis Spira’s is a longer treatise and I wanted to post it entirely, so I separated these two blog essays into two separate parts.

Last time I’d said that apostasy is hard to spot, happens openly or secretly, fast or slow, and its end is a biblically noted horror as these verses attest-

“Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:45)

“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.” (2 Peter 2:20)

“The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” (Matthew 26:24)

Judas was tormented in the end and wound up one of two suicides in the bible (Saul is the other). Judas hung himself, and in the case of John Child (Called ‘The English Spira’) he hung himself too. Now here is the case of Apostate Francis Spira. Frank Luttmer introduces the piece and intersperses his explanations in between, in italics. Original text by Bacon in regular font.

————————–

The Fearefull Estate of Francis Spira, by Nathaniel Bacon
(London, 1638), Edited from the original text by Frank Luttmer.

Among English Puritans, the most common and the most feared of Satan’s temptations was the temptation to despair, the loss of hope in one’s own salvation. Perhaps the most widely-known example of despair in the sixteenth and seventeenth century was the case of an Italian lawyer Francis Spira. In 1548, Spira converted to Lutheranism and began to spread the Lutheran message to others. Under pressure from the Catholic Church, however, he renounced his Protestant faith. He then became convinced that he was a reprobate, destined for hell. The story of Spira spread throughout Europe, surfacing in sermons and treatises dealing with despair. In England, an account of Spira’s case by a first-hand witness, Matteo Gribalde, appeared in 1550. The most influential English account of Spira, however, was written by Nathaniel Bacon in 1638. Bacon’s Fearefull Estate of Francis Spira, based on the original Latin records, became an instant best-seller and was reissued ten times in England and eight times in the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For anti-Puritans, Spira’s case exemplified the dangers of the Calvinist teachings of predestination and human corruption. Puritans, however, empathized with Spira, seeing Spira’s condition as simply an extreme example of the experience of all godly Christians. William Perkins, the preeminent Puritan theologian wrote:

[O]ft it will fall out that the conscience of Gods child shall bee so exceedingly tormented in temptation, that hee shall cry out, he is forsaken of God, and shalbe damned; when as indeed he stil remains the deare child of God, as Christ our Saviour did Gods welbeloved in the deepest assaults of Satan. And therefore the relation published of Francis Spira his desperation, doth inconsiderately taxe him for a cast-away; considering that nothing befel him in the time of his desperation but that which may befall the child of God: yea our owne land can afford many examples which match Francis Spira, whether we regard the matter of his temptation, or the deepnesse of his desperation, who yet through the mercy of God have received comfort. And therefore in this case Christian charity must ever bind us to thinke and speake the best.

Francis Spira, a Civill Lawyer, an advocate of greate rank and esteeme being of knowne learning, & eloquence; of great experience; of carriage circumspect and severe; his speech grave & composed, his countenance sharpe and austere; every way befitting that authoritie whereunto hee was advanced; endowed with outward blessings, of wife, & eleven children, & wealth in abundance: what his worst parts were, I have no other warrant, then his owne words, which (if not tainted overmuch with the bitternesse of a desperate minde, and bearing the countenance rather of passion, then of sober confession) may seeme to adde a period to all further commendations. . . .

I was (said hee) excessively covetous of money, and accordingly I applied my selfe to get by injustice corrupting justice by deceit inventing tricks to delude justice: good causes I either defended deceitfully, or sold them to the adversary perfidiously; ill causes I maintained with all my might; I wittingly opposed the knowne truth; and the trust committed unto me, I either betrayed or perverted.

When he encountered Lutheran ideas, the self-described covetous man converted and proceeded to spread the Lutheran heresy to others.

[IN 1548, the] opinions of Luther coming into those parts . . . presented an object of noveltie unto him; who being as desirous to know as he was famous for knowledge . . . . he began to taste their nature so well, as he entertaines, loves, and ownes them at length . . . . [H]e became a professor; yea a teacher of them, first to his wife, children, and family, and after to his friends, and familiar acquaintance; & in comparison, seemed to neglect all other affaires; intending ever to presse this main point, that We must wholly, and onely depend on the free, and unchageable love of God in the death of Christ, as the onely sure way to salvation. [He] continued in this private way for about six years, but at length it brake forth into publique meetings; so as the whole Province of Padua dawned by the lustre thereof. The Clergie finding the trade of their pardons to decay . . . [began] striking at Spira with grievous accusations.

The Venetian Senate gave John Casa, the Papal Legatine in Venice, the authority to examine Spira. Because Spira had been so successful in spreading Lutheran ideas, Casa demanded that Spira publicly recant his Lutheranism. Spira must weigh the option of recanting (thus committing apostasy, accepting the fate due heretics, or “falling away” from the faith) or fleeing Italy.

[H]is enemies wanted (lacked) neither power nor occasion to call him to account in Publique, when he must either Apostatize, and shamefully give his former life, yea his own conscience the lye, or indure the utmost malice of his deadly enemies, or forsake his wife, children, friends, goods, authoritie, yea, his deare Country, and betake himselfe to a forraigne people, there to endure a thousand miseries.

Being thus distracted, and tossed in the restlesse waves of doubt, without guide to trust to, or haven to flye to for succour; on the sudden Gods Spirit assisting, he felt a calme, and began to discourse with himselfe in this manner: “Why wandrest thou thus in uncertainties, unhappy man; cast away feare, put on thy shield, the shield of faith” . . .Now was Spira in reasonable quiet, being resolved to yeeld to these weightie reasons; yet holding it wisedome to examine all things, hee consults also with flesh and bloud; thus the battaile doth renew, and the flesh beginnes in this manner: Bee well advised, fond man, consider reasons on both sides, and then judge . . .thou shalt lose thy substance . . . undergoe the most exquisite torments . . . die shamefully . . bring thy friends also into danger . . .Thus did the cares of this world, and the deceitfullnesse of riches, choke the good Seed that was formerly sowne . . .
Spira went to the Papal Legate, abjured Lutheranism, begged for forgiveness, and promised never to depart again from the Catholic faith. Casa, however, is determined to exact the most from Spira.
The Legate perceiving Spira to faint, he pursues him to the utmost; hee causeth a recitation of all his Errours to be drawne in writing, together with the Confession annexed to it, and commands Spira to suscribe his name there, which accordingly he did; then the Legate commands him to return to his own Towne; and there to declare this Confession of his, and to acknowledge the whole doctrine of the Church of Rome to be holy, and true; and to abjure the Opinions of Luther, and other such Teachers, as false, and hereticall.

On his journey home, Spira began to reconsider his decision to abjure his faith. In the midst of doubt, he believes that he hears the voice of Christ.

[He considered his] constancie in Christs cause; and to be plaine, how impiously hee had denyed Christ . . . and thus partly with fear, and partly with shame being confounded; he though he heard a voice speaking unto him in this manner.

Spira, What doest thou here . .. doest thou indeed thinke eternall life so meane, as that thou preferrest this present life before it . . .

Now was Spira in a wildernesse of doubtes . . [He] consults friends, who all confirm that he needs to go through with the second abjuration [and] not to betray his wife and children [especially since] already [the] greatest part [is] performed. . . .This was the last blow of the battell, and Spira utterly overcome, goes to the Praetor, and proffers to performe his foresaid promise.

Spira went through with his public recantation, as he had been instructed by the Papal Legate. On his way home, he again thought that he heard the voice of Christ.

No sooner was he departed, but he thought he heard a direfull voice, saying to him; Thou wicked wretch, thou hast denied me, thou hast renounced the covenant of thy obedience, thou hast broken thy vow; hence Apostate, bear with thee the sentence of thy eternall damnation: he trembling and quaking in body and minde; fell down in a swoun; reliefe was at hand for the body, but from that time forwards he never found any peace or ease of his minde; but continuing in uncessant torments, he professed that he was captived under the revenging hand of the great God: that he heard continually that fearfull sentence of Christ that just Judge: that he knew he was utterly undone: that he could neither hope for grace, nor Christs intercession with God the Father in his behalfe. . . .

Convinced that he was reprobate, Spira fell into a deep depression, refusing to eat or drink.

Now began his friends some of them to repent too late of their rash counsell; others not looking so high as the judgement of God, laid all the blame upon his Melancholicke constitution; that overshadowing his judgement, wrought in him a kinde of madnesse: everie one censured as his fancie led him, yet for remedie all agreed in this, to use both the wholesome helpe of Physicians, and the pious advise of Divines, and therefore thought it meet to convey him to Padua, an Universitie of note, where plenty of all maner of meanes was to be had. . . .

His friends took him to see three physicians at the University of Padua in search of a cure for his “Melancholicke constitution.”

[T]hey could not discern that his body was afflicted with any danger or distemper originally from it self, by reason of the over-ruling of any humour; but that this Maladie of his did arise from some griefe, some passion of his minde, which being overburthened, did so oppresse the spirits, as they wanting free passage, stirred up many ill humours, whereof the body of man is full, & these ascending up into the braine, troubled the fancie; shadowed the seat of the judgement, and so corrupted it: this was the state of his disease, and that outward part that was visible to the eye of nature, this they endeavoured to reforme by purgation, either to consume, or at least to divert the course of those humours from the braine; but all their skill effected nothing.

Spira continued in his depression. He told the physicians that his malady was not physical but spiritual, that he had been condemned by Christ. The physicians were finally convinced of Spira’s story and they urged him to consult with priests. By this time, Spira’s case was attracting a lot of attention. Priests and students of divinity began to flock to his bedside to have conversation with the convinced reprobate. Spira had almost daily conversations with two people, a Bishop, Paulo Vergerio (Paulus Vergerius), and a professor of law at the University of Padua, Matteo Gribalde (Mattheus Gribauldus).

[Gribauldus said to Spira], Sir, this is but an illusion of the devil, who doth what he can to vexe you.
[As Spira spoke] the violence of his passion and action sutable, did amaze many of the beholders; insomuch as some of them said with a whispering voice, that he was possessed; hee over-hearing it, said: Doe you doubt it? I have a whole Legion of devils that take up their dwellings within me, and possesse me as their owne; and justly too, for I have denyed Christ. . . .

Heere Gribauldus said, I do verily beleeve, Spira, that God having so severely chastised you in this life, correcteth you in mercie here, that he may spare you hereafter, and that he hath mercies sealed up for you in time to come.

Nay (said Spira) hence do I know that I am a reprobate, because hee afflicteth mee with hardnesse of heart: Oh that my body had suffered all my life long, so that hee would bee pleased to release my soul, and ease my Conscience, this burthened Conscience.

Gribauldus, asked Spira to say the Lord’s Prayer with those present.

Our Father which art in heaven,) then breaking forth into teares, he stopped; but they said, it is well, your griefe is a good signe: “I bewaile (said he) my miserie, for I perceive I am forsaken of God, and cannot call to him from my heart, as I was wont to do”‘ yet let us go on, said Vergerius. Thy Kingdome come;) “O Lord (said Spira) bring mee also into this Kingdome; I beseech thee shut mee not out.” Then coming to those words; Give us this day our daily bread; he added, “O Lord, I have enough and abundance to feed this carcasse of mine, but there is another bread, I humbly beg the bread of thy grace; without which, I know I am but a dead man.” Leade us not into temptation;) “seeing Lord that I am brought into temptation, helpe mee Lord that I may escape; the enemie hath overcome; helpe mee, I beseech thee to overcome this cruell Tyrant.” These things hee spake with a mournfull voice, the teares trickling down abundantly.

Gribauldus and Vergerius tell Spira that his calling upon the Lord, as he had in the prayer, was a sign of the Holy Spirit working within him. His prayer was proof that he was not bereft of the spirit. Spira, however, denies it. He compares himself to Judas.

Then he began to reckon up what fearefull dreames and visions, hee was continually troubled withall; that hee saw the devils come flocking into his Chamber, and about his bed, terrifying him with strange noises; that these were not fancies, but that hee saw them as really as the standers by, and that besides these outward terrors he felt continually a racking torture of his minde, and a continuall butchery of his conscience, being the very proper pangs of the damned nights in hell.

Cast off these fancies (said Gribauldus) these are but illusions, humble your selfe in the presence of God, and praise him. . . . You must not, O Spira, seeke out the secret counsels of Gods election and reprobation, for no man can know so long as hee lives, whether by his good or bad deeds, hee bee worthie of Gods love or anger.

[Spira said] my heart hates God, and seekes to get above him. . . .For as the Elect have the Spirit testifying that are the sonnes of God, so the Reprobates even while they live, do often feele a worme in their conscience, whereby they are condemned alreadie.

Unable to make progress in comforting Spira, Gribaldus and Vergerius decide to call for an exorcist.

Afterwards came in a Priest called Barnardinus Sardoneus: bringing with him a booke of Exorcismes, to conjure this devill: whom when Spira saw, shaking his head hee said: “I am verily perswaded indeed that God hath left mee to the power of the devills: but such they are, as are not to bee found in your Litanie: neither will they be cast our by spels.” The Priest proceeding in his intended purpose; with a strange uncouth gesture, and a loud voice, adjured the Spirit to come into Spira’s tongue, and to answer. Spira deriding his fruitlesse labour, with a sigh turned from him.

The exorcism failed. Spira remained convinced that he was damned.

[Spira said] that Faith that works not a holy and unblameable life, worthie of a beleever; credite mee, it will faile, I have tried it: I presumed I had gotten the right faith . . . living impiously and carelesly, behold now the judgements of God have overtaken mee, not to correction, but to condemnation.

Eventually, Spira was allowed to return home, where he soon died. The text is not clear about the cause (or time) of his death. Some assumed that he died of thirst or hunger, others that he committed suicide.

Thus hee went homewards . . . hee lay about eight weekes in this case, in a continuall burning . . . so spent, that he appeared a perfect Anatomie [skeleton] . . . nothing but sinewes and bones; vehenemntly raging for drinke.

[W]ithin a few dayes after his arrivall at his owne home, he departed this present life. Yet an occasion to make us remember, that secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but charitie to man, to teach him to hope all things.

Posted in faith, john child, judas, spurgeon

What are the effects of final apostasy? The case of Judas, John Child, and Francis Spira part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

Part 2 here

The nature of apostasy is tremendously fascinating to me. There is the quick apostasy, like Billy Graham’s partner and friend, Charles Templeton, and the slowly emerging apostasy like Billy Graham’s. There is the open apostasy like Demas’, and the secret apostasy like Judas‘.

Apostasy is a falling away from or an open rejection of the truth. No one who is truly saved is nor can ever be an apostate. John says that the apostate’s going out from us is the proof they never were of us in the first place. (1 John 2:19).

Rare in the recounting of the martyrdom of believers is the story of those who recanted. Some did, though. In reading about Judas this week in one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons, Spurgeon mentioned two men in history who, under Catholic pressure to recant Luther’s doctrines of faith under the Reformation, recanted. They openly rejected Christ and publicly said so and signed papers to the effect. Their end was startlingly similar to Judas’.

You might remember that after Judas conferred with the Pharisees, got his 30 pieces of silver, and kissed Jesus unto betrayal, Judas was filled with remorse (but not repentance) and he hung himself. His branch fell and Judas was splashed onto the rocks below, his intestines bursting out in a gory and spectacularly failed death.

Christian looked to see if he knew him; and he thought it might be one Turn-away, that dwelt in the town of Apostacy. But he did not perfectly see his face, for he did hang his head like a thief that is found; but being gone past, Hopeful looked after him, and espied on his back a paper with this inscription, “Wanton professor, and damnable apostate.”  (John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress)

Satan harasses believers, (Luke 22:31; Acts 5:3) and his demons oppress non-believers too, and even possessing some (Luke 4:33, Mark 5:2). Satan himself possessed Judas and will possess the antichrist.

What do satan and his demons do to men who have heard the Gospel, even professed the Gospel, but then have rejected the Gospel? John Child (d. 1684) and Francis Spira (d. 1638) are two horrific examples. Obviously not all men who reject Jesus and show their apostate attitude are tormented like this, but the experience of these two men is worth sharing. Always paired, Child and Spira have become almost synonymous in the retelling. The pamphlet published about their case was the runaway bestsellers of their day, and on through the 1700s and even the 1800s.  Here is the title of the pamphlet and a picture from amazon.com,

A relation of the fearful estate of Francis Spira, after he turn’d apostate from the protestant church to Popery. As also, the miserable lives, and woful deaths of Mr. John Child, and, Mr. Geo. Edwards

In his sermon, “The Betrayal” Spurgeon said this of Mr Child,

Mr. Keach, my venerable predecessor, gives at the end of one of his volumes of sermons, the death of a Mr. John Child. John Child had been a Dissenting minister, and for the sake of gain, to get a living, he joined the Episcopalians against his conscience; he sprinkled infants; and practiced all the other paraphernalia of the Church against his conscience. At last, at last, he was arrested with such terrors for having done what he had, that he renounced his living, took to a sick bed, and his dying oaths, and blasphemies, and curses, were something so dreadful, that his case was the wonder of that age. Mr. Keach wrote a full account of it, and many went to try what they could do to comfort the man, but he would say, “Get ye hence; get ye hence; it is of no use; I have sold Christ.”

Wikipedia says this,

CHILD, JOHN (1638?–1684), baptist preacher, born at Bedford about 1638, was apprenticed to a handicraft; after a while he adopted another calling, and removed to Newport Pagnel, Buckinghamshire, where he lived for some years, married twice, had several children, and increased in wealth. He held ‘the baptism of believers,’ joining himself to the baptists, or, as they were then generally called, ‘anabaptists,’ and for some years was in the habit of preaching occasionally. About 1679 he removed to London. Fear of cution and anxiety to better his position led him in 1682 to publish ‘A Second Argument for a more Full and Firm Union amongst all good Protestants,’ in which he argued against dissent from the church of England and ‘slandered his brethren.’ He appears to have published an earlier book of the same character, but neither of his pamphlets has been discovered by the writer of this notice. The idea that he had acted the part of a traitor preyed upon his mind. He fell into religious mania, and hanged himself in his house on the night of 3 Oct. 1684. A broadside was published the same year on the subject of his death, and after the declaration of indulgence and the subsequent increase in strength of the dissenting interest, pamphlets on Child’s ‘fearful estate’ obtained a large circulation.

Spira’s case was graphically written in almost torrid language. I’ll post that in its entirety in another post next. As John MacArthur said this week in his essay about sanctification,

“…sanctification is essentially the believer’s work of mining out the spiritual riches that God placed within him at salvation. It is the active and aggressive pursuit of obedience.”

Source

I would presume to say that apostasy is the opposite of sanctification and thus if I paraphrase, can be said to be ‘an active and aggressive pursuit of corruption’. Apostasy is secret, open, happens fast or slow, but in all cases it is horrible. Look at this verse,

And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, (Luke 4:33).

Before the church was born, the synagogue was the place where God had designated men to assemble for holy worship. However, by Jesus’ day the worship had become so apostate that a demon felt perfectly comfortable hanging out in a man who was attending services there. Only when Jesus, the Holy One of Israel came, did the demon cry out. Have some of our churches become so apostate that demons would feel perfectly comfortable residing in a man attending worship services there? I would venture to say yes.

Emotionally or mentally professing Christ but failing to go all the way, with all your mind, heart, strength, and soul, will only end in failure. But the worst part about apostasy is that the end result is worse than the beginning.

“Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:45)

“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.” (2 Peter 2:20)

“The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” (Matthew 26:24)

And with Judas’ end we see that is true. With Mr Child’s end we see that it is true. And next post, with Mr Spira’s end we see that it is true. The tragedy is that when they die their end does not come. They will be tormented forever. That is why, even among brethren, we preach the Gospel. In addition, we ourselves must remain holy, so that the demons around the apostates become uncomfortable to the point of crying out, so that we will know who the apostates are. Or at least some of them if not all of them, since wheat and tares look so much the same.

Next is the “Fearfull Case of Francis Spira“

Posted in daniel, Oliver B. Greene, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy, rapture

Oliver B. Greene on Pre-trib rapture

Posted on by elizabethprata

Oliver B. Greene published a wonderful verse-by-verse exposition of Daniel in 1964. I’ve enjoyed reading it, because the book of Daniel is so hard for me to interpret. I was struck by Mr Green’s certainty and fervency regarding the pre-tribulation rapture.

A Pre-Trib rapture is biblically correct. The rapture itself has been in the bible all along, notwithstanding assertions that it was a made-up doctrine from the 1800s. And the rapture’s timing happening prior to the Tribulation has always been biblically evident too. It was only lately that man began to shy away from the clear teaching of this and muddy the waters to the extent that people now are hesitant to be dogmatic about it- so much so that they think they are being pious to show uncertainty. Look at Mr Greene’s statement on the subject (I kept his exact emphases):

The Great Tribulation has nothing to do with the church; the Church will not enter or go through any part of that terrible time. Any preacher or teacher who suggests that the bride of Christ will be subjected to any part of the reign of the Antichrist is definitely wrongly dividing the Word of Truth. God pity the preacher who will accuse Jesus of allowing the Antichrist to reign over His bride-and the Church IS the bride of Christ!

We have the blessed promise, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 3:10).

In the writings of Paul we are promised. “For God hath not appointed us to WRATH, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 5:9). The Great Tribulation has to do with the nation of Israel, not with the Church.

If the Church were to enter or go through any part of the tribulation, believers would be commanded to watch for Antichrist, not for THE CHRIST. We would be commanded to watch for the great tribulation, not to wait for God’s Son from heaven. (1 Thess. 1:10).

Posted in end time, pharmakeia, prophecy, sorcery

A follow up on Ouija board-demonic possession story: Pharmakeia

Posted on by elizabethprata

On June 23, 2014 I posted a story about three American teens and young adults who had used a Ouija board in Mexico and had become apparently possessed. The striking and horrifying video of the girl, who was reported to be 22 but turned out to be 16, went around the world in a heartbeat.

I like to follow up. I was thinking, how is that girl? Is she OK? Are they recovered? Was the story bogus, or does it have a happy ending? Well there is more, it turns out.

The teens had been encouraged by their guardians in Mexico to take a psychedelic drug used by shamans, so that they would be “opened to the spirits” before they played with the Ouija Board. In case you’re unfamiliar, a Ouija Board is a “game” where players attempt to contact the spirit world for the purpose of asking questions, which are allegedly answered by the demonic forces through the seekers who are holding a planchette which is supposedly moved by said demonic forces to spell out the answers.

Here is the Daily Mail’s update
‘We tried to pray for them but it only made the demons angrier’: Inside the terrifying ‘possession’ of Mexican orphan girl who took shamanic drugs to contact her dead parents with a Ouija board

The girl who shocked the world this week after she was videoed being ‘possessed’ after using a Ouija board was trying to contact her dead parents and had taken a shamanic drug used in Mexico to contact the ‘spirit world’, MailOnline can reveal today. 16-year-old orphan Alexandra Huerta, who appeared possessed by evil spirits in a video taken by paramedics as she was taken to hospital had taken Brugmansia, a poisonous plant which grows in tropical regions of Latin America. The drug is also known as Angel’s Trumpet for its large poisonous flowers, and induces dark hallucinations, confusion, muscle paralysis and can lead to death in large doses.

Brugmansia can induce temporary insanity, especially in those who are not yet fully grown. ‘She started convulsing and screaming of terrible visions’, said Maria Camaño, 48, her guardian in the house where the trio tried to make contact with the dead on Sunday June 22. ‘We tried to pray for them and to get them to pray as well, but it only made the demons who had taken control of her angrier’, she said in an interview with the MailOnline in the house near the village of Tepotzlan where the disturbing episode took place. Maria gave a terrifying account of the effects the Ouija board and ‘bell flower’ drug, as it is known in Latin America, had on Alexandra and her brother and cousin. They still firmly believe that she was in fact possessed.

I thought they were going to lose their minds’, said Maria. ‘There is a lot of shamanism in the hills where we live and I was terrified when I saw what the Ouija had done to them. ‘She was possessed by a spirit who wanted to harm her.

Here is a New Age site’s take on it

Here’s some good news for anyone who was contemplating trashing their Ouija board after the story last week about three young adults in Mexico who claimed they were possessed by demons after using one, including a girl who was videotaped screaming and struggling in the EMS vehicle on the way to the hospital. It turns out the odd behavior was caused not by demons but by Brugmansia, a drug used by shamans.

New details on the story reveal that Alexandra Huerta, the girl in the video, is 16 years old, not 22 as first reported. What’s worse, the drug was knowingly referred to her, her brother and their cousin by Maria Camaño, the girl’s legal guardian, who admits she was “helping” the orphaned girl and boy contact their dead parents. They boiled the flowers in a tea that they drank an hour before the session and its subsequent problems. Mrs. Camaño is the same woman who went to a priest first to perform an exorcism rather than getting medical help for the hallucinating teens.

Brugsmansia, also called Angel’s Trumpet for its poisonous flowers, has long been used in South American cultures as a topical remedy for pain relief, arthritis, infections and as an anti-inflammatory. All parts of the plant are poisonous and can cause death when ingested in large quantities, but it has also been used internally for spasms, pain and asthma. It is known to cause visual and auditory hallucinations and was traditionally given to misbehaving children who were told the visions they had were dead ancestors coming to scold them. Yikes!

It appears Alexandra and her relatives have recovered, although she has no memory of the experience. This is not surprising since Brugmansia hallucinations can cause a loss of awareness and amnesia. The Camaños say they regret suggesting the teens use Brugsmania and the Ouija board. And, of course, they plan to sue the paramedic who filmed the girl.

A sad tale of irresponsible adults.

This does not reduce the horror of the demonic possession. In fact, knowing that shamanic drugs were a part of their demon-play in fact brings it even more into the prophecy arena.
Strong’s: pharmakeia=drug-related sorcery

In Revelation we read an indictment against the world. Here it is-

“Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. “And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.” (Revelation 18:21-23)

In Greek the word is pharmakeia. If ‘pharma’ looks familiar to you it should be, it means drugs combined with witchraft or sorceries. Four years ago I’d written about this, here. I’d said,

We know from many verses that God is against sorcery, astrology, witchcraft, etc.; God hates sorceries.

The curious thing is that the word in the verse, “nations were deceived by your sorcery” the root Greek word for sorcery is actually pharmakeia. It is the word from which we get pharmacy. In the Strong’s it means “from pharmakeuó (to administer drugs).” It is further defined as “the use of medicine, drugs or spells.”

I am of the opinion that the verse in Revelation is NOT saying that legal drugs administered by doctors is bad. I am concerned with a trend I am seeing these days toward a renewed and vigorous interest in psychedelic drugs. How this ties in with sorceries, you will discover when you read on…

The trend I speak of is not new. It is ancient, actually. But in the search for God, many people take the broad way, the fork in the road that leadeth to destruction. That road is the search for experience, not a submission to belief. They seek feelings, and when they cannot find them, they turn to drugs. A melding of drugs and the spiritual is the most dangerous kind of sorcery, because it dulls the senses and creates a false god: self.

Go to the link to read the rest.

Drug induced shamanism to find a higher power is twisted but at least the motive is somewhat understandable if the method is all wrong (and evil). Drug induced shamanism to contact a dead loved one is twisted but understandable when unsaved young people unwisely do it. They don’t know that this opens them widely to the demons. There is a great curiosity out there to the other side, and sadly, most do not turn ot Jesus to find it.

Worst of all though, increasingly, we see that shamanic or psychedelic drugs are being ingested so as to purposely seek the demonic. In this case I’d say it was less a ‘sad tale of irresponsible adults’ than a terrible poison given to children by evilly wayward adults. Seeking the other side? Contacting ghosts? Giving drugs to children? What a horror.

One only needs to see movies, television, youth-aimed books, games, clothing, and cultural pressure to know that more poeple  are unhealthily interested in the demonic. I’ve written several times about this. Add drugs to the mix and it dramatically worsens the situation. In the sermon “Satanic Slaughter,” explaining Revelation 9:21, we read,

And then he mentions sorceries. Interesting word in the Greek, pharmakeia from which we get pharmacy, pharmaceutics, drugs. This is a word that is bigger than just drugs, although it literally could be translated druggings. Whatever it is that they use to dull their senses, whatever it is that they use to induce their satanic worship, whatever impure occultic practices they use to get in deep to their witchcraft, drunkenness, drugs, seances, hypnotism, incantations, mystic mantras, whatever induces their religious experience, cavorting with mediums, spirits and the deceptions of Satan. They’re not about to let go of that. That, too, will be rampant. We see that coming, don’t we?, in the New Age

It is not even the Tribulation yet and we can see the heightened interest in and indulgence of shamanic drugs so as to contact the other side. Those poor teenagers, their legal guardians exposing them to such evil when we rely on adults to protect us from evil.

It is one reason I do pray for the rapture. All the children will be safe, then. Please come soon Lord Jesus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What does the bible say about sorcery?

What is the Jesus drug?

What kind of things open you to demonic oppression?

Posted in daniel, end time, many shall run to and fro, prophecy

"From buggy to outer space": Many shall rush to and fro, prophecy and hope

Posted on by elizabethprata

When our pastor and the congregation parted ways, he left behind a study full of books. In order to get ready for the new pastor, the deacons cleaned out the room and put the books in the hallway. Any and all members were encouraged to look through and choose any books they wanted. This was one of the happiest days for me, a bibliophile’s, life.

Our other two pastors picked up many of the commentaries and expositions, but there were still plenty left over. I picked up several, along with atlases, reference books, and biographies. One book I happily got is Oliver B. Greene’s verse by verse exposition of Daniel (pub. 1964). Please allow me a brief diversion from my upcoming point about the Daniel prophecy where “many shall run to and fro”, to introduce you to a worthy man of the faith. Wikipedia:

Oliver Boyce Greene (February 14, 1915 – July 26, 1976) was a Independent Fundamental Baptist evangelist and author. He converted in 1935 at the age of 20. Over 200,000 confessions of faith were recorded as a result of his ministry. He attended North Greenville Baptist College briefly before entering full-time ministry, conducting revival meetings in tents and in churches across the eastern United States for 35 years. Greene wrote over 100 books and brief booklets about the Bible.

In 1956, he founded The Gospel Hour, Inc. as a Christian outreach ministry. It included a radio program of his preaching called The Gospel Hour, which began on one station in Georgia and gradually became syndicated until the point it spanned the nation. The Gospel Hour was heard on 150 stations at the time of his death. The cause of death was a cardiac aneurysm. The broadcast is currently on over 80 stations, including international stations and the Internet. Taped copies of the program are still aired today on the Fundamental Broadcasting Network and other Christian radio stations.

Greene hoped that the radio program would continue hopefully until the Lord came back. May it be so. You can read his and many other short biographies of the great men of faith here at The Sword of the Lord

Here is part of the prophecy the angel delivered to Daniel and subsequently interpreted. The title of chapter 12 in the ESV is “The Time of the End”. In Daniel 12:2, the angel said to Daniel that the prophecy was for his people and will happen during a time of trouble no man has ever seen nor shall see again (cf. Matthew 24:21). The angel was speaking of the Israelites (Jews) and the Tribulation. The angel reassured Daniel that his people will be delivered in the end, and then the judgment will come. (Daniel 12:1-3). However, the angel said then, “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” (Daniel 12:4)

Since the ascension of Jesus it has been the time of the end. It has been the Messianic Age, the time of Christ as prophesied. The Last Days means the time when Messiah comes. Yes, the past 2000 years have been the latter days. The Jews and early Christians did not know that there would be a 2000 year interval. The rapture could have happened at any time during this last two millennia. Paul certainly thought it would happen in his lifetime.

The Jewish last days began 2,000 years ago, did you now that? That’s right. The Jewish last days began 2,000 years ago with the arrival of Messiah. They will be completed when the setting of the kingdom takes place. It just so happens that the last days has stretched at least in the 2,000 years. You say why so? Because God graciously is calling a people from the Gentiles. And secondly, because God in chastisement is punishing Israel for unbelief.

And when God gets through calling together the fullness of the Gentiles and gets through gathering and regathering Israel to the land, then the last days will be consummated. Now Paul writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Timothy 3:1, talks about the last days there, but he’s talking about the last days of the church. That the interval of 2,000 years that we’ve been living in, I believe we’re living in the last days of that. Do you believe that? Do you believe Jesus is coming soon? Do you believe the rapture is soon? Then we’re not only in the last days of Israel and have been for 2,000 years, but we’re in the last days of the church. John MacArthur “Explaining Pentecost“

The last of the last days will begin when the rapture happens and Jesus pours out His wrath upon the world, and then consummates all His plan by judging, setting up the Millennium Kingdom, and then after that, close the age to begin eternity. The Millennium Kingdom (so called because it will last 1000 years) is what the Jews are looking forward to, but first, they must be punished for their rebellion. That’s what the angel is explaining to Daniel in chapter 12.

So at the time of the end, people will rush to and fro. I was reading the news headlines like I always do, with more often than not one eye closed lately because of the headlines’ increasingly heinous nature. I saw several headlines that reported passenger airliner near collisions over metropolitan airports. Here are the news pieces:

Boeing 767 Aborts Landing To Avoid Crashing Into Another Plane

The news article comes with stunning video showing just how close the crash nearly was. Below is a still from the video showing the second the airborne plane sees throttles up, points his nose up and aborts the landing. He really kicked it into high gear. The video goes on to show the airliner circling around and making a 2nd attempt to land, this time successfully with no planes in the way.

These two planes were in Houston TX and came within 200 vertical feet of one another in early July – but an aware traffic controller noticed the danger and gave timely instructions to avert the collision. The article ends by noting that the FAA was investigating another near miss at that airport from May.

Last month, there was an actual crash of two passenger planes on the tarmac. Thankfully there were no injuries. One of the plane’s wings was crushed and the incident forced three hour delays of all traffic at Stansted Airport north of London.

In the US a ground crash between two passenger planes occurred at Boston’s Logan Airport, causing damage but thankfully again, no injuries.

In Ottawa Canada, A quick-thinking air traffic controller saved an ORNGE air ambulance helicopter from taxiing into the path of a cargo jet at Ottawa airport

All these examples are from the last few days to last few weeks. Increasingly, we read of these crashes and near misses as our world’s airports and other transportation hubs as they have become overloaded with travelers.

I found Mr Oliver B. Greene’s explanation about the people rushing to and fro in the prophecy very interesting. I quoted his bio above, he was born in 1915 and died in 1976, an interesting time span. I’ve often wondered about my grandmother’s life, emigrating from Britain as a young woman, having been born in 1900 and living through to the early 1980s. What a century the 1900s was!

Mr Greene wrote of Daniel 12:4. I think it is interesting so please bear with me as I post his long exposition of the verse.

A fleet-footed horse was probably the fastest mode of transportation in Daniel’s day. The kings had horses and chariots which were very fast in that day, but compared to the speed of today they were slower than a tortoise.

Notice that “MANY” – not just a few, but multitudes – shall run to and fro. My father lived to be seventy years of age. He left his home state only once during those years, and the only reason he traveled so far from home was because my brother, out of state at an army camp,  was preparing to go overseas. Had it not been for the fact that my brother was going to war, I doubt that my dad would have left his home state during his lifetime.

I’ll pause here to insert that I have met many people here in Georgia, older folks who farm or have animals. Many of them have never left the state of Georgia, or a few have ventured to nearby South Carolina (40 miles away) to visit nearby family or go to the lake that borders our two states. This was amazing to me when I moved here, having grown up in the northeast and having traveled the world by the time I was 40. But the north tends to be transient not just in travel but in simply moving to and fro and here to there. The south has farmers who are tied to the land, and whose families also tend to stay put. It is not uncommon for family reunions in the south to have 50 or more attendees, all of whom are still living in the same county.

Continuing with Mr Greene,

Fifty years ago, [in 1914, working back from 1964 when the book was published] very few people traveled very far; but today almost everyone travels. Millions travel even across the seas, and a trip around the world is nothing today. Regardless of where you go on this earth, many are running to and fro. I visited the jungles of Africa, and in Leopoldville we purchased a ticket for that native train that rain 100 miles back into the jungle. I supposed there would be an ambulance of room, but the next morning when we went down to the station to board the train we found people standing, hanging out the windows, and riding everywhere they could find a place to stand or sit. Wherever you go today, people are on the move, traveling, going, and coming.

In the early days of our country, people traveled from east to west, but as a rule they traveled only one way  –  most of them never returned. But Daniel was instructed to write that many would go “to and fro”: they will go, but they will return.

Another pause here to put before you several translations of the verse.

NLT: “But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase.”

KJV: “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”

ESV: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

The word for run or rush is to roam about, rush back and forth, rove. It indicates movement, and restless movement at that. Mr Greene says of the rushing part of the verse, and I replicate his emphasis:

Notice that “many will RUN to and fro”. When I was a boy, I walked 5 miles to school. Today the average child who goes as far as two city blocks to school either rides in the family automobile, or has his own bike or motor scooter. There is a minimum of walking.

Wherever you go, people are in a hurry- and for what? Most of them could not tell you. They are hurrying to get – where? Most of them do not know, but they are always in a hurry. The only way to stay alive today is to run, even in the supermarket. If you are not careful, someone will run a grocery cart right into you if you stop moving!

LOL, you notice our pattern of speech, As I grew up I always heard my mother say “I’ve got to run to he grocery store.” Or if she was leaving a person’s home or concluding a telephone call, she said, “I’ve gotta run.” In my lifetime we’ve gone from saying “I will go” to I’ll run”. Of course the statement I just made isn’t absolute nor does it apply to everyone, but in general, I’ve noticed an ever further speeding up than did Mr Green in his day of 1964. To continue:

This is the age of speed. As I dictate these lines, the President of the United States has just announced that we have a jet fighter that flies more than 2,000 miles per hour… think of it! It makes one dizzy to think of such speed. It has just been announced that France is building a transport that will carry 200 people across the Atlantic ocean in just one hour and twenty-five minutes.

Mr Green was speaking of the Concorde, which came online in 1969 and ran in service from 1976 to 2003. It did indeed run an hour and a half. Donald Fagen’s song I.G.Y. (What A beautiful World) mentioned it,

On that train all graphite and glitter 
Undersea by rail  
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris 
Well by seventy-six we’ll be A.O.K.  
What a beautiful world this will be 
What a glorious time to be free

‘The undersea by rail’ may indeed refer to the Channel Tunnel, AKA the Chunnel, “a high-speed undersea transport from France to the UK. The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for automobiles and other road vehicles—the largest such transport in the world—and international rail freight trains. It has the longest undersea portion of rail in the world.” (Wikipedia)

Amazing! None of this was even conceived of or possible before my generation. Mr Greene remarks about Daniel,

If Daniel could have read a statement such as I have just made, he could not have understood the words he read. Thus the Lord God instructed him to seal up the book and close up the words until the time of the end. WE can understand because we have seen these things come to pass. We are living in the days of fulfillment of this prophecy.

Isn’t he good?! I have enjoyed his commentary and exposition. In addition, he wrote a half-page pre-tribulation stance that is just tremendous. I’ll be posting that later in another post.

Not only do I agree with what he wrote but see how far it’s gone even in the last 50 years since Mr Greene published his exposition of Daniel’s prophecy of traveling to and fro. The Chunnel, the Concorde, space ships, the Space Shuttle, regular commuting distances of hundreds of miles, travel at the drop of a hat, so much so that now airports are SO crowded that planes crashing in to one another even on the ground is a regular threat and a frequent occurrence.

Our crowded, rushing, to and fro world is certainly an amazing one. When the angel said to Daniel to shut up the prophecy for the time of the end, the time of the end came in 33AD, but until this past 75 years, it still would not have been understood. Has the prophecy been opened? I believe it has. As Mr Greene said, we understand it because we have seen these things come to pass.

And may it soon come to pass that Jesus calls His bride home, and the time of the very end will come in which He will blessedly rectify all the blasphemous injustices that have been performed against Him.

Enjoy the thoughts from Mr Greene, and above all, slow down!

Posted in end of days. prophecy, israel, Obama, peace and security

When they are saying peace and security…

Posted on by elizabethprata

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Israel has never had peace or security. Not for any real length of time. Their constant falling away-repent-falling away cycle prevents that. their penchant for making alliances with hostile nations in vain hopes of forestalling attacks also is a sad pattern. (Ancient Assyria, Egypt, Cush … 2 Chronicles 18:1-2, Isaiah 31:1, Isaiah 20:5)

Praying for the peace of Israel as Psalm 122:6 says really means as Gill’s Exposition says, a future peace in the Millennium:

“but for the spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem, the church of God, and for the peace of it; that Christ, the Man, the Peace, the Peacemaker, who then was not come, might come; that the members of it might enjoy spiritual peace in their son is, and might have peace one with another, and be at peace with their enemies; and enjoy the abundance of peace and prosperity, which will be in the latter day;”

It will be then and only then Jerusalem has peace. That doesn’t stop Israel from seeking it though. Nor does it stop false friends from pressuring it upon Israel, either. The Israel Daily newspaper Haaretz this morning has a front page dedicated to peace. An opinion article from Obama is prominently placed there. Here is a photo of today’s front page from Haaretz:

In an exclusive article for Haaretz’s Israel Conference on Peace, Barack Obama says that the only solution is a democratic, Jewish state living side-by-side in peace and security with a viable, independent Palestinian state.

Peace talks have once again stalled out. Each President has tried to resolve the issues in the Middle East ever since Israel was created as a nation in 1948. Each president has failed. Only the antichrist will be able to [seemingly] resolve the conflict there but he will prove to be a betrayer and tear up the peace treaty he negotiates halfway through the covenant’s time period and turn around and persecute Israel to their almost bloody death. This is part of God’s plan.

This latest round of peace talks has ended with a sputter. Secretary of State Kerry failed to make headway. Tablet Magazine actually claims that America is the Arsonist in the Middle East, and that it was “Kerry’s failed peace negotiations set off the spiral of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.” Apparently someone has to blame someone.

Obama is pushing the issue once again after it has languished on the back burner these long months. A deadline set by Kerry 9-months ago has approached and it is time to renew attention to the issue. Hamas isn’t unaware either and has ramped up rocket fire in this last week. Joel C. Rosenberg writes today,

Escalation: 130 rockets fired at Israel since midnight. IDF calls up 40,000 reservists for possible ground operation in Gaza

(Washington, D.C.) — My heart is breaking over the escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians as the situation goes from bad to worse, hour by hour.

  • In recent days, Palestinian extremists kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenage boys.
  • Then Jewish extremists kidnapped and murdered an Arab teenage boy, apparently burning him alive.
  • Meanwhile, Palestinian extremists in Gaza began firing rockets at Jewish and Arab civilians in southern Israel.
  • More than 220 rockets have been fired at Israel since July 1st. And just since midnight, 130 rockets were fired at Israel.
  • Israel’s “Iron Dome” system is shooting down many of them.
  • The Israeli Air Force is striking Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government authorized “Operative Protective Edge” to ratchet up attacks on the terrorists in Gaza. The IDF is calling up 40,000 reservists for a possible massive ground invasion of Gaza.

I know the prophecy in Thessalonians is trotted out any time anyone ever says “peace and security”. The verse is actually pointing to the Day of the Lord, AKA the Time of Jacob’s Trouble AKA The Tribulation. However, it does do for us to keep the prophecy in mind as we watch unparalleled events in the Middle East occur. ISIS is advancing, a caliphate has been established, rocket fire is barraging Israel, the deadline for the peace talks is renewing pressure on everyone involved, and let’s not forget the violence in northern Africa and central Africa. Several of those nations will take part in the Psalm 83 war.

Jordan King: ‘We fear spread of Iraq chaos’
Floodgates open as ISIS takes over swaths of both Syria and Iraq
C. African Republic church attacks leaves 17 dead
Mild quake shakes Lebanon, western Syria and northern Israel
63 Women Escape Extremist Abductors in Nigeria
South Sudan Official Orders Curfew Violators to be Shot Dead

We won’t know the day or hour, or even whether the Day of the Lord is approaching very near, but we can see that the world is in turmoil and in need of its Savior once again. He will return in wrath next time though. Before there is peace on earth there will be wrath.

As for us Christians, John MacArthur reminds us,

You say, “Will we be there at the day of the Lord?” No. We’ll be taken out before the day of the Lord. Now as you know through all the years it has been my conviction to teach you that we are taken out before that final seventieth week, that final seven-year period begins. The great promise is that we have not been appointed unto wrath. We have been appointed unto glory. If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, the future you look for is all glorious. If you don’t know Him, the future you look forward to is all terrifying. It is no insignificant thing that the whole world has its eyes on the Middle East, that’s where all the consummation of God’s history will take place. It could be in this generation, it could be soon. We must be ready. If you know Christ, you’ll be taken before it hits. If you don’t, you’ll be destroyed when it comes.

Posted in children, christian living

Sleepovers? To do or not to do? Tim Challies has some thoughts

Posted on by elizabethprata

Tim Challies wrote a good piece on whether to allow your child to sleep away overnight at a friend’s house. He and his wife have their own reasons that he shared in a blog essay as to why they don’t ever allow their young children to sleep overnight at another person’s house.

Why My Family Doesn’t do Sleepovers

Before my children were even old enough to ask, Aileen and I talked it through and decided we would not allow our kids to do sleepovers. Now let’s be clear: there is no biblical command that forbids them, so this was not a matter of clear right and wrong, but a matter of attempting to act with wisdom. We determined we would make it a family rule: …

Then the piece blew up. He was astounded to find that three quarters of million people looked at it in just inside of week. And the comments section blew up too. He bemusedly said that he never quite knows which of his blog essays will generate such reaction, but usually a person can kind of tell. a On the sleepover one, though, he had no idea it would generate controversy and also such encouragement. Read his second piece here:

6 Reflections on Sleepovers

I didn’t see this one coming. After over ten years of daily blogging, I tend to have a pretty good sense of which articles have the potential to cause a reaction and which articles have the potential to fizzle. I might have guessed that an article on why my family doesn’t do sleepovers would have attracted a few more readers than usual, but I wouldn’t have believed that in its first week it would be read by nearly 750,000 people. But it was, and I found myself wondering why.

Here are some other moms and dad bloggers with thoughts on the subject of sleepovers.

Rethinking sleepovers

Today’s Christian Woman shares some pros and cons in this article

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis shares a situation of how he handled when his daughter was asked to go on a sleepover birthday party. Scroll down.

Posted in eschatology, prophecy, rapture, satan, spiritual battle

The rapture is an economic juggernaut, fodder for the unsaved in titillating scenarios they will all too soon live out themselves

Posted on by elizabethprata

Mr Jay Parini, a poet and novelist who teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont, just published “Jesus: The Human Face of God,” a biography of Jesus. He has some opinions about the doctrine of the Rapture.

Even Jesus wouldn’t buy ‘the rapture’

The rapture concept is relatively new. It started with an Anglo-Irish theologian, who in the 1830s invented the concept. This may come as a shocker to many, but it’s a fact: Before John Nelson Darby imagined this scenario in the clouds, no Christian had ever heard of the rapture.

Said no Christian ever.

Not my grandmother

BAH HA HA [wiping eyes] Anyways, whaddya gonna do? as my Italian grandmother used to say. This is what non-saved people believe. They say things with such assurance, and such force, as if they know. But it is only godless chatter, (1 Timothy 6:20). Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Though Mr Parini calls himself an Episcopalian who is “a regular church-goer” not one person who is saved by grace of Jesus would ever say this as Mr Parini did:

“For instance, when Jesus says, ‘repent, and you will be saved.’ What He’s really saying, if you read the Greek, is: open your mind to the light. Go beyond yourself into the larger mind of God, and you will experience enlightenment and reconciliation with God,” he explained.

Oh, how easily the blinded twist sin, judgment and damnation into Light, ‘duality’ and New Age self-god concepts!

I’m not so aggravated at the usual blasphemy regarding the mystery of the rapture that Paul unfolded for the precious brethren, (WAAAAY before Darby or Scofield) as I was surprised to find myself agreeing with his statement from the article:

“The famous “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins was already out there. It consisted of 16 best-selling novels on the same premise, and it’s about to come to the big screen again, in a film starring Nicholas Cage. The original film adaptation (of three) appeared in 2000. And then there is the Christian real-time strategy video game called “Left Behind: Eternal Forces.” If anyone hasn’t noticed, the rapture has become a commercial juggernaut, endlessly shape-shifting, finding new and highly entertaining outlets.

The rapture and apocalypse in general has become an economic juggernaut, just as Peter wrote that it would. (2 Peter 2:3).

The co-opting of Christianity for entertainment and mocking purposes is age-old. Every Christian sentenced to die in the Roman Ampitheater was part of Rome’s economic juggernaut. Christians and Christianity being fodder for entertainment through martyrdoms, or torture, or today through debates, TV shows of movies, is par for the course.

I wrote about the economic exploitation of God’s biblical doctrines earlier this year here:

Is the fact that 2014’s been dubbed ‘Year of the Christian movie” a good thing? Well, was Ahaz redecorating the temple a good thing?

In the above piece, I listed all the movies and television shows I could find being released on the Christian themes. One of the new economic juggernauts was a video game of the rapture I found especially horrifying. I’d posted the summary of the game:

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture video game PS4, “The game will take place in a village in Shropshire during the apocalypse.”

In that piece I focused on the movies coming out that took biblical doctrines and presented them to a secular world for monetary gain. I’d mentioned movies like Noah, Exodus, TheBible, Left Behind, Son of God, Heaven is for Real and the smaller and well-intentioned movie God’s Not Dead but I missed the television series of The Leftovers and the video game “Left Behind: Eternal Forces.”

Photo by Kevin King. Wikipedia Creative Commons

The rapture certainly is one of the most fascinating doctrines in the bible. The encouragement of it, the reason for it, the science behind it (or supernatural science), the imminence of it, the suddenness of it, the fact of it. Additionally I find it fascinating that the Holy Spirit waited about twenty years after Jesus’ ascension to reveal this to the brethren. Paul revealed the mystery around 55AD on his 3rd missionary journey in a letter to the Corinthians,

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet... (1 Corinthians 15:51)

In 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 Paul explains to the church that some things on God’s plan were kept secret so that satan and his unholy angels would not try to thwart what must be done. In those verses Paul says that the reason for the cross was kept secret. Not that satan and his angels could thwart anything, but God does not reveal absolutely everything all at once.

About 20 years after the cross, Paul’s Thessalonians letters and the Corinthians letters explained the new doctrine of the rapture. It was planned from the beginning of time, but satan didn’t know about it until the Corinthians and the Thessalonians did. Satan still only knows what we do: it will happen … sometime.

What’s on the other side? Everyone is curious. Everyone.

That the rapture is equally fascinating to the lost is surprising, but if we think about it not so surprising after all. It’s a puzzle, a great and mystifying puzzle. And really, who wants to die? Just knowing that in the generation in which God ordains it to happen, all the living Christians will never see death but will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. For the lost, great minds have always pondered the supernatural, wondered about other dimensions, secretly wanted to step behind the veil and peek at the heavenly machinery. They have tried divination, seances, hypnotism, peyote, astral projection…anything to solve the mystery.

And all along, Paul had revealed it. It is plainly able to know…for anyone who first repents of sins and turns to Jesus as Lord and Savior, that is. He then opens up the mind to the Holy Spirit’s wisdom in illuminating the bible for us.

What I wonder is…with the sudden glut of movies and TV shows devoted to the subject of the rapture, does satan know something? He isn’t omniscient nor is he omnipresent. Also, he doesn’t know for sure any more than we do about the timing of it. But he does have the advantage of having seen human history from the long point of view, he knows how human hearts work, he’s in the thick of the spiritual battle and as its general he knows how it’s going, and having access to heaven he sees what is going on up there. I just wonder…

Anyway it is surely a heartbreak to see someone who is so puffed up with vain knowledge writing biographies of Jesus and claiming biblical things about the rapture that aren’t biblical at all. I am so grateful to my King that he elected me to salvation and opened my mind to the scriptures. In this way I get to know Him and His will for man by reading them. I learn about His character, and about how to live. I can be assured of my eternal destination. I can even be encouraged by Paul’s words, that we may be the generation that sees the Lord in the air and are translated alive into glory.

Maranatha!

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Further Reading

The Rapture defined and why it will happen