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Can you be forgiven if you take the mark of the beast?

Posted on November 5, 2013 by elizabethprata

Jesus is long-suffering. He hates sin, but He withholds judgment upon sinners until the full measure of His anger He deems is ready to be poured out onto the world. The greatest news is, God sent His Son to absorb all of God’s wrath for sin onto Himself, so that those who repent and believe would not have to endure that same wrath.

However, those who reject Jesus and His substitutionary atonement, disbelieve His death and resurrection, fail to adopt His Gospel, do not repent, will endure the wrath of God for their sins. Jesus is longsuffering, but He is not a patsy. He’s not even tolerant. He hates sin and He hates all who do iniquity. (Psalm 5:5). At some point, He will unleash all His wrath and the world will then know just how much He hates sin.

That unleashing is called the Tribulation, (Matthew 24:9) also The Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus said the wrath is stored up for individuals and for the world. He will unseal 7 seal judgments, which are the first set of three series of judgments which include Trumpet Judgments and Bowl Judgments (or four, if you count mysterious Seven Thunders of Rev 10:4).

“calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17)

Jesus literally releases the full strength of His wrath and also unleashes Hell upon earth. The times will be unimaginable for the people left behind on earth after the rapture. The mind cannot comprehend its horrors.

I’ve mentioned His wrath, but next let’s discuss His grace. One of the amazing things about God’s grace is that He continues to reach humans with the news of His forgiveness. We are wretched creatures, constantly rebelling and opposing Him. Yet He extends the hand of grace and many have believed and many more will believe, even in the Tribulation. (Revelation 7:14; Revelation 7:17).

Throughout the Tribulation Jesus sends many messengers with the Good News. He extends His grace even amid wrath. He seals 144,000 to super-evangelize the world. The martyrs themselves are a witness for Him due to their willingness to die for His name. He sends His Two Witnesses (I suspect they will be Enoch and Elijah) to testify of Him. And He sends three angels who proclaim the eternal Gospel, speak of judgment on Babylon, and warn of eternal doom if anyone takes the mark of the Beast. By this time, every nation, tribe and tongue will have heard the Gospel. (Revelation 14:6). Jesus forgives all, every sin, and this continues throughout the first part of the Tribulation, just as it had since the age of Grace began when Jesus rose from the dead, having atoned for every sin. He forgives all sins, except for one. There is one sin that is unforgivable.

Taking a break from the overview of the Tribulation’s wrath and the run-up to Revelation 13’s Mark of the Beast, let’s discuss for a moment this “unforgivable sin”. It is found in Mark 3:28-29, and Matthew 12:31-32

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.“

This is a very serious thing. There is one sin that a person can commit which Jesus will never forgive. What IS this sin?

The Bible Gateway blog explains it this way: it is willful rejection of Jesus in an onoging attitude of rebellion. “Blasphemy against the Spirit is not unforgivable because of something done unintentionally in the past, but because of something being done deliberately and unrelentingly in the present.“

The Gospel Coalition blog explains it this way: “I suggest it’s a specific, active, and final choice to declare the person and work of Jesus as being demonic in origin“

Dr. Henry Morris states it as “speaking against the Holy Spirit has been interpreted in various ways, but the true meaning cannot contradict other Scripture. It is unequivocally clear that the one unforgivable sin is permanently rejecting Christ (John 3:18; 3:36). Thus, speaking against the Holy Spirit is equivalent to rejecting Christ with such finality that no future repentance is possible.”

Dr John MacArthur describes the unforgivable sin as: “But the one who won’t be forgiven is the one called the apostate who gets full exposure to the truth, full exposure to the gospel, full revelation and makes the final conclusion…it’s not true, I reject Christ.”

It’s a sin to have heard the facts, to have had the Gospel given to you, and to make a deliberate, willful, conscious decision that it is not true, to reject it completely and utterly, and to continue in your sins. That is unforgivable.

Hebrews 2:3 mentions it: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,”

The word neglect means to ignore, to put little value on it. Hebrews 10:26-27 also mentions this

“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

This means that if you have received full information about Christ, and reject it, it is as if you stepped over His body – which He sacrificed for your sins – and now you can only expect judgment,and in fury and fire, too.

Back to the Tribulation- In Revelation 13:15-17 there is a choice people are given. They may participate in the world economy (and thereby eat) but they have to worship the Devil to do it. Or they can reject the devil and accept Christ, but they will be hunted and killed. Here is the scripture which describes this choice: (“It” refers to the False Prophet)

“And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.“

Taking the mark is a mark of worship to the devil, who by then indwells the antichrist. It is a deliberate choice given the world, to worship satan or worship Jesus. The world knows this because three angels flying at midheaven circle the globe to first give the gospel of Jesus Christ, (“Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. Revelation 14:6), to declare judgment of Babylon and third, to warn them NOT TO TAKE THE MARK.

“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” (Revelation 14:9-11).

The people of earth by then have had the fullness of all God’s revelation to them through the bible, His son, the prophets, the angels, His Church, the witnesses and the sealed virgins…if they take the mark and worship the beast, they are sinning the unforgivable sin and in a way that for the first time ever, is demonstrable and evident. In the case of Tribulation non-believers who take the mark, they are not only showing their allegiance to satan and their rejection of Jesus, they are permanently modifying their body to show their rejection of Jesus and decision to worship satan instead. They are enacting it and cementing it with their very body, by accepting the mark of the devil on them as the emblem of worship. They reject Jesus and worship of Him, and thus blaspheme the Spirit. It’s over.

It is my contention that this moment divides the believers from the unbelievers in one final, conscious moment of choice. After the mark is places on the hand or the forehead, or refused, marks the final chasm between believer and non-believer.

The scriptures in Revelation 14:9 are clear: take the mark and endure wrath forever. You cannot be saved if you take the mark.

This turning point is also remarked on by the angel in Revelation 4:13a who says, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

One may ask why am I writing about this if the church isn’t going to be here and we always look for Jesus and not toward satan? Because satan is adulterating this simple truth as well. As long as he can sow confusion and persuade even one person to delay their day of salvation, then he has accomplished his evil purposes. The fact of a person’s devilish eternal choice in Rev. 13 matters it matters because when they enter the Tribulation, they are at extreme risk of believing the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11) and won’t be able to decide.

The moral is always the same: believe on the name of Jesus Christ now. Do not delay your repentance and your appeal to Him, the Judge, for pardon. You are not promised a tomorrow. If you do receive a tomorrow, the rapture may come and you will be left behind to face hell on earth and God’s wrath. When that happens, you are at risk for believing the lie and losing your soul because of the delusion coming upon the world.

Jesus Christ is worthy of honor and glory and praise and love and worship because of who He is. He is the unique Person of the universe, extending His hand of grace to you now. Your sins will have to be dealt with- either through your repentance and His forgiveness, or by your torment and punishment for them in hell forever.

foxe's book of martyrs, martyr, persecution, prayer

Sunday Martyr Moment: Seven soldiers in a cave

Posted on November 3, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

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

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

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

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

Text from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

The Seventh Persecution, Under Decius, A.D. 249, continued

In the year of our Lord 251, the emperor Decius having erected a pagan temple at Ephesus, he commanded all who were in that city to sacrifice to the idols. This order was nobly refused by seven of his own soldiers, viz. Maximianus, Martianus, Joannes, Malchus, Dionysius, Seraion, and Constantinus. The emperor wishing to win these soldiers to renounce their faith by his entreaties, gave them leniency and said that they would be allowed a considerable respite until he returned from an expedition. During the emperor’s absence, they escaped, and hid themselves in a cavern. The soldiers’ hiding place was discovered, and it was ordered sealed up, so that they would die of hunger and thirst.

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

The Voice of the Martyrs blog posted a story recently about how difficult it is for Chinese missionaries who obey God to enter the Tibetan mission field. One of those difficulties is the deep spiritual darkness of the region. It is Buddhist, and idols are everywhere. Here is an excerpt of a wonderful short essay about those difficulties, and the grace of God which strengthens and enables the missionaries to persevere.

“The biggest obstacle faced by Chinese missionaries, however, is the intense spiritual warfare being waged in the region. Tibet is a Buddhist stronghold. The vast majority of the Tibetan people adhere to this religion. “The streets are full of idols,” says the Chinese missionary. “All of these people worship these idols.”

“A quick walk through the old part of Lhasa confirms this statement. Everywhere you walk and at all hours of the day, people are ceaselessly mumbling chants, rubbing their prayer beads in calloused fingers and spinning prayer wheels. According to the missionary, penetrating this spiritual darkness is extremely difficult – many of the Chinese Christians in the area, he says, are lazy and weak of faith as a result. Many more go home, disillusioned and discouraged.”

“As if these challenges weren’t enough, Chinese missionaries are often persecuted by the Chinese government, which maintains very strict control on religion in Tibet. Chinese missionaries have been thrown in prison and even kicked out of the province as a result of their efforts to evangelize the Tibetan. Evangelism in Tibet must be conducted very covertly and on a small scale level in order to avoid the wrath of the authorities.“

In Lhasa, everywhere Buddhists are ceaselessly mumbling chants,
rubbing prayer beads in calloused fingers and spinning prayer wheels.(source)

The fingers of the Buddhist are calloused because they pray and pray but no one is listening.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear (Isaiah 59:2).

Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him (John 9:31).

The seven soldiers that the Emperor sealed up in the cave died a horrible death. Though not as painful as some of the Christians who were being actively tortured, the soldiers took a long time to die, in agonizing thirst, alone in the dark. Except … they were not alone.

I am sure that they prayed to our Holy God for comfort and to supplicate to Him. They laid down their lives for His glory. Being a faithful God, would not leave them alone in their moment of truth but accept the sacrifice of their lives and their dying prayers as the glory He deserves and demands. I wonder if the LORD sent an angel to minister to them as they lay dying. I wonder if they heard His voice whisper comfort to them. I wonder if they gained supernatural strength to pray and sing even as their wasted bodies lay shriveled and dying.

Even in death, the loss of the breath in the body is nothing, as long as there exists a blessed supernatural highway of communication between ourselves and our precious Savior. For the Buddhist, spinning wheels and counting beads, there is only blackness, emptiness, and darkness. They have the high altitude sunlight but have hearts of stone and dwell in the dark, while the 7 soldiers had the darkness of a cave, but the Light of glory at the end. No matter your situation today, whether you are in a real cave-like dark prison for the faith, or you are in a metaphorical dark cave of bad circumstances, you always know that you can pray. We are confident in Him.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

earthquakes, eruption, supervolcano, volcano, yellowstone

Earthquake and volcano news: OK swarm continues, volcano discovered in ME, Yellowstone magma lake larger than thought

Posted on November 2, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’ve chronicled that earthquakes (up until this year) had been been on the rise. For a steady number of years, using the United States Geological Survey’s own benchmark, the number of quakes had been increasing.

As far as 2013 data, we still have 8 weeks to go, but this is the running tally of number of quakes in the world in each of the four magnitudes I track. Data as always from USGS. The red means the number of quakes have met or exceeded USGS averages.

5.0-5.9 – 1169
6.0-6.9 – 110
7.0-7.9 – 15
8.0-9.9 – 2

The type and location of the quakes had also been diverse from times in the past. There were earthquakes at a deeper level than ever, or large quakes in places there had never been one (Svalbard, Norway).

USGS reported last week,

Earthquake Swarm Continues in Central Oklahoma
“Since January 2009, more than 200 magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes have rattled Central Oklahoma, marking a significant rise in the frequency of these seismic events. “We’ve statistically analyzed the recent earthquake rate changes and found that they do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates,” said Bill Leith, USGS seismologist. “These results suggest that significant changes in both the background rate of events and earthquake triggering properties needed to have occurred in order to explain the increases in seismicity. This is in contrast to what is typically observed when modeling natural earthquake swarms.”

What they are saying there, is that there was a sudden and inexplicable change in at least two variables, presenting an unaccountable statistical anomaly, and that they dunno why.

As far as volcanic eruptions go, the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program counts them. I searched the database from January 1, 1930 to December 31, 1939, and did the same for each decade through December 31, 2010. The plain number of eruptions is up. Click to enlarge.

Raw data here
1930s – 312
1940s – 269
1950s – 467
1960s – 537
1970s – 562
1980s – 703
1990s – 574
00-10 -950

In some volcano news, KURL8 out of Montana reports today that the lava pool under the supervolcano at Yellowstone is much bigger than thought.

“The lava pool beneath Yellowstone National Park is more than twice as big as scientists previously believed, that’s according to new research from the Geological Society of America. Scientists from the University of Utah say the lake of molten lava is nearly 50 miles long and 12 miles wide.”

For all that, scientists say that the real danger in that area is not from an eruption, since the geysers let off steam and pressure. It’s from the earthquakes.

“Researchers analyzed, get this, 4,500 earthquakes in and around Yellowstone from 1985 to 2013. … The last major earthquake in the area measured 7.3 and was in 1959. It was the most destructive earthquake ever recorded in the Rocky Mountains.”

In other interesting volcano news, it was reported at a geology conference this week that remnants of a supervolcano have been found in Maine.

Maine’s volcanoes (yes, Maine) among world’s biggest
“Maine has supervolcanoes. Wait, Maine has volcanoes? Yes, and their eruptions could have been among the biggest ever on Earth, geoscientist Sheila Seaman reported here Tuesday (Oct. 29) at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. … Since they formed, the ancient volcanic layers have been tilted up by tectonic forces, providing a top-to-bottom slice through a supervolcano. For example, Isle au Haut, part of Acadia National Park, exposes the heart of a volcano. “The whole magma chamber is lying on its side,” Seaman said.”

The Most Active Volcano You’ve Never Heard Of
“In the extreme northeast region of Russia is the Kamchatka Peninsula. Familiar to people who play the board game Risk, Kamchatka is a huge mass of land sticking out into the north Pacific, and sitting on the peninsula is a cluster of volcanoes, some of them among the most active on the planet. The biggest of these is Klyuchevskaya Sopka, a monster stratovolcano towering over 4750 meters (15,500 feet) high. It’s also the most active, having been more-or-less erupting continuously since the late 1600s. It’s erupted a dozen times just since 2000! On Oct. 20, 2013, the Landsat 8 Earth-observing satellite flew over Klyuchevskaya, capturing a tremendously long plume of ash as well as two separate lava flows moving down the volcano’s flanks:

Isn’t earth so interesting!!
I can’t wait until we see it from that vantage point!

Ever since the fall of man and the curse that was given by God over man, beast, and earth, the creation has been groaning. Though the dates in this scientific article are no doubt off, it is interesting to see that man has been living with a restless earth since the beginning of the curse

9,000-year-old painting of volcano linked to a real eruption
“A 9,000-year-old painting of an exploding volcano, the oldest ever found, can now be linked to a real-life eruption in Turkey. The towering Hasan Dag volcano erupted 8,970 years ago, plus or minus 640 years, according to a new dating technique that analyzes zircon crystals in volcanic rock, geochemist Axel Schmitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, reported here Wednesday at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. Turkish scientists long suspected Hasan Dag was the source of the painting’s dramatic scene, but never had a precise date for its volcanic rocks, Schmitt told LiveScience. The volcano is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the ancient village of Çatalhöyük, where the painting was discovered in 1964 during an archaeological dig.”

(FMI on the painting itself, here is the article from Daily Mail)

Daily Mail Caption: “A mural, pictured, found on a wall in the Turkish settlement of Catalhoyuk depicts a village in front of a volcano. The painting is thought to be a warning about the danger of nearby stratovolcano Mount Hasan, located 70 miles northeast from where the mural was found.“

Turkey is interesting. The world’s most mysterious and stunning archaeological site is there, Gobekli Tepe. I wrote about it in 2011 here.

I’d posted from the article, “The elegant bas-reliefs of vultures, scorpions, and other creatures found on the T-shaped pillars had to have been created by skilled artisans, evidence that hunter-gatherers were capable of a complex social structure. Pillars at the temple of Göbekli Tepe—11,600 years old and up to 18 feet tall—may represent priestly dancers at a gathering. Note the hands above the loincloth-draped belt on the figure in the foreground.”

Some believe that the area of the Garden of Eden was in southern Turkey. Here is a map showing the nearby village of Catalhoyuk to the Turkish volcano Mount Hasan, and Gobekli Tepe’s location. They are about 250 km apart or about 158 miles.

Horatio said,

O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Hamlet replied,
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Volcanoes being discovered, restless earth, unknown paintings of long ago eruptions, and mysterious monoliths by disappeared rivers…there is so much we do not know but even as we partially know now, later we will fully know, by His grace. (1 Corinthians 13:12).

“How great is God–beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.” (Job 36:26)

berean, charismatic, scripture

Why were the Bereans noble? First, they received the word with eagerness

Posted on November 1, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Paul and Silas in Berea. (Acts 17:10-12)

“The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.”

I am currently in a sad mood because friends are following the false teachings of a growing Charismatic church in my area. I had a conversation with someone, who answered with emotional arguments and completely rejected all scripture I’d offered. Though I’d tried hard in showing the biblical stance through scripture, I’ve been thinking long and hard about why and how a professed Christian can reject the bible as authoritative and refuse to submit to its teachings.

The classic reference as to the nobility of those who search the scriptures is well-known. The Bereans relied on scripture to check what Paul was saying, as quoted above. I usually focus on the latter part of the key verse, “searched the scriptures daily”. But today I’d like to focus on the former part, “received the word with all eagerness.”

We think, ‘of course they received the word with eagerness! Who wouldn’t want to check what you are learning against the word?’ But it goes a bit deeper than that. Paul and Silas ministered in Berea in about 54 AD. We have the advantage of 2000 years of history, culture, and theology and a completed canon of a revealed word of God on which to stand while making that statement. The Jews & Greeks in Berea hadn’t. They had about 20 years.

First, many were Jews, and Paul was teaching in the synagogue. Jews had a nearly two thousand year tradition of intimacy with God since Abraham. Judaism was the world’s only monotheistic religion. The Jewish temple, rituals, holidays and laws were literally embedded in the Jews via DNA and having become a peculiar race of people.

“For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” (Deuteronomy 14:2)

Second, Paul and Silas were teaching the opposite of everything every Jew had ever learned. They had to hear hard sayings. They heard Paul preach that the Messiah had come, and His peculiar people had rejected Him. They listened to teaching that His salvific gaze was no longer on the Jews but on the pagans until the time of the Gentiles was fulfilled. That He died and rose again- without having established the promised kingdom (yet). That pagans (Greeks) were now included in the bosom of the Lord as peculiar people- people a Jew had been taught to revile. That the Messiah had fulfilled all the law and there no longer needed to be feasts and Jewish holy days. That salvation only required belief in these hard sayings- faith in the dead and resurrected Jesus. And more.

How would you react if you heard hard sayings? Many who had just seen Jesus feed the five thousand rejected Him when they heard him speak hard things. And those were pagans with no history of a relationship with God. (John 6:53-56). I know that I get irritated when people email me to say that a certain interpretation I’d labored over was wrong. Or a pet teacher or preacher is no good. But I look into these things as a dutiful Christian to confirm what I am hearing, or to confidently reject it on the basis of revealed truth.

But the Bereans “received the word with all eagerness“. They listened, and then they checked. But the first part is that they listened and received the word. Their love for the Holy God of Israel was above any personal interpretation they held. It was higher than any value they laid upon the word. They wanted to know the truth, and it was obvious that these men were of God. Something was happening in the religious arena, exciting, troublesome, wondrous.

The only way they could begin to examine the scriptures was to compare what Paul and Silas were saying against it. So they listened.

Many Charismatics do not love Jesus more than their own experience. They do not love the word more than their own pet theory. They do not examine the scriptures to see if it is so. They reject the best this world has to offer, the sterling and true word of God.

Do they get angry,
or do they receive with eagerness?

If you are engaged in a discussion with someone who answers emotionally and refuses to listen to the scriptures you are sharing, they are not a Berean. They do not receive the word with all eagerness. And as long as they do not listen to hard sayings and verses from the bible, they can’t see if it is true. WHich is exactly satan’s point.

Then they can and do go on their way, experiencing and encountering and lifting ‘holy hands’ and singing and falling down in tongues and having a happy ‘worship time’ until the Lord returns and says “I never knew you.”

Third, what was the result of the Bereans receiving the word with eagerness, and then searching to see if it was so? Belief. It stands to reason that the opposite will be true also. Refusing to listen and search and confirm results in unbelief.

You see, He has revealed Himself in the word. Paul saw Him personally, all the apostles did. But we in the new millennium cannot see him, “for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Do we rely on tongues and miracles and signs? No. We rely on the word.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

And why do we rely on the word and not on signs and sight and earthly works as ‘manifestations of the Spirit?’

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Mark 3:31)

The Bereans knew that when God speaks, you listen, and do so eagerly.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

God spoke to us! He speaks! The holy God who dwells in heaven, parted the veil, and took over a thousand years to put together a holy book by His Spirit for our benefit. Who are we to ignore it? Who are we to place a higher value on our supposed experience than His Son, the Word?

To conclude, remember that the verse regarding the noble Bereans has two parts, receiving the word eagerly and checking for themselves to see if what they hear is true. A sign you are dealing with someone who is seriously adrift is if that person refuses to address the scriptures you share. A sign you are dealing with someone who loves the Lord, even if they are getting irritated, is if they hang in there and stick to a scriptural talk.

I said to the person I was speaking with about Charismatic manifestations, that I cannot do any better than offer the word of God. There is nothing higher, more true, or more absolute to place on the table as common ground in any discussion. All else is just opinion. And we know what Proverbs 18:2 says about opinions,

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

faith, halloween, zombie apocalypse

It’s Halloween. Zombies!

Posted on October 31, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Today is Halloween. I hate Halloween. I really loathe it. There are too many reasons to go into. Some involve me being an Asperger’s person dealing with costumes, masks and makeup, not to mention parties and being among masses of people. Some reasons involve the open invitation (one that I didn’t issue) to come to my house. Some objections involve being a teacher and having strangers offer candy to children. And most of my reasons are spiritual.

I grew up in New England, not too far from the Salem Witch House.

I went to college in Bangor and lived lived in Maine most of my adult life, where Stephen King’s wrought iron fence in Bangor adorned with bats, spiders and three-headed dragons was part of the neighborhood landscape.

Stephen King opens the new gates to his bat-guarded Victorian home
in this November 1982 photograph.1982 BDN photo by Carroll Hall

Michael Jackson’s Thriller scared us to pieces when it first came out on MTV.

I’m well aware of the origins of Halloween, and I’m pointedly aware of the holiday’s occultic embeddedness on secular people. That’s why I’m always conflicted over Halloween when it comes to church activities. John MacArthur has a good essay on it here.

Anyway the whole zombie thing was on my mind. What are zombies, anyway? Wikipedia has a nifty definition.

“A zombie is an animated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli.“

You’ve seen it, the shuffling walk, the ghostly rotting flesh, the audible groans. Zombies.

The zombie’s rise in cultural consciousness has grown to the point of the notion of the zombie apocalypse.

“Intimately tied to the conception of the modern zombie is the “zombie apocalypse”; the breakdown of society as a result of an initial zombie outbreak which spreads. This archetype has emerged as a prolific subgenre of apocalyptic fiction and been portrayed in many zombie-related media after Night of the Living Dead. In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization.”

George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is
considered a progenitor of the fictional zombie
of modern culture.

Walking corpses. Does that remind you of anyone? The animated dead. Still nothing coming to mind?

Animated dead people, conscious and able to respond to outward stimuli?

Lost people.

Every person on the planet who does not believe in the name of the resurrected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, is a zombie. They are alive, but they are dead.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,” (Colossians 2:13)

Please always remember that those without Christ are just as empty as the fake zombies appearing in movies and television. They do not have the hope of Christ in them. Only Christ makes us alive!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.“(2 Corinthians 5:17)

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Even the description of the zombie apocalypse sounds like the conditions will be like on earth immediately after the rapture, when no true believer is left. In those moments after the rapture, the entire earth will be populated with zombies: lost people who are dead in their sins and trespasses, robotically walking around and unknowingly or knowingly submitted to satan, who roams the earth looking for those whom they may devour.

I don’t need to ‘celebrate’ Halloween, not when every day I see a lost person in their hopeless state and I am in agony for them. Not when I am being attacked at every turn by false teacher zombies holding out hands grabbing for my money, or putting books full of poisonous false teachings into my and my friends’ hands. I don’t need to pay any more attention to Halloween than it deserves, because on earth, every day is Halloween. Why look at costumes of bloody people when the only blood that can re-animate dead corpses was shed on the cross at Calvary? Blood that has been and is forever once for all shed?

The earth is a graveyard of sin and death, lost people are un-animated corpses needing to be born-again, and the costumes we wear are the soiled garments of unrighteousness.

Jesus Christ is the Light, the only Light in a dark, dark world. What we should celebrate is being born from above and entering the kingdom of heaven This is what we can and should celebrate. Why look at death, zombies, and hell, when heaven is available to each and every person on earth during this age of Grace! Let grace reign, look to Jesus. Look up, our redemption draweth high!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

“And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16)

bible, discernment, false teachers, peter

Ongoing prophetic fulfillment of Peter’s prediction of false teachers

Posted on October 31, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I have studied the last days prophecies since almost the moment I was born-again. It was obviously and most certainly the niche the Holy Spirit placed me in. I have an earnest and never-quenching desire to learn the word of God, and especially to learn the prophecies in the word of God.

Often when people hear about prophecy, they think of the prominent ones, like the rapture, the Tribulation (AKA Time of Jacob’s Trouble), or the antichrist.

We are in the midst of a last days prophecy being fulfilled. Before I continue explaining which one, I want to make clear that the last days began with the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. This opened the Age of Grace. However, the Age of Grace is a period which is foretold to be like birth pangs and to hurtle toward its climactic and chaotic conclusion at Armageddon and the coming of Jesus Christ the second time. As a pregnancy gestates and then concludes, the water breaks and the pains come, at first far apart but then closer together and in more painful and bloody form until the new birth arrives. The new birth is the Kingdom on earth AKA the Millennium Era.

So we have been in the last days for 2000 years. However the prophecies foretold of events occurring at the last 7 years necessitate Israel being reformed, globally instant telecommunications, technologies which support the mark of the beast, Damascus being destroyed, the rise of Russia, etc. and we see infrastructure that align with those prophecies now. Therefore we know that the rapture is even closer and the other prophecies which are not as prominent are being readied to be fulfilled and are being fulfilled in the present day and moment.

The prophecies I’m speaking of today which I see being fulfilled, are 2 Peter 2:1-2 and 2 Peter 2:3. Here they are

GA pastor Creflo Dollar’s house

“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.” (2 Peter 2:1-2)

“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 2:3)

Please note that Peter makes a distinction between the times of old when false prophets trampled the way of God, and today when Peter says false teachers are the ones to watch out for.

Secondly, note that Peter says false teachers will be “among you.” Jesus warned they will wear sheep’s clothing. (Matthew 7:15). When you put on clothes in the morning, you’re hiding the flesh, hiding who you are, covering up. These prophesied false teachers will not be immediately evident as false. They will be among the believers, and they will not be teaching not spouting easily identifiable false teachings at first. They are double agents, infiltrating inside to do their deathly work.

Third, note that Peter said they will secretly bring destructive heresies. They will hold secret blasphemies in their heart, and these heresies and blasphemies will slowly and gradually filter out and permeate the faithful. The false teachers spout poison gas. They don’t spout cyanide or sarin gas, because in using the metaphor, those odorless and colorless gasses kill instantly. No, these false teachers spout carbon monoxide, which takes a while to do its deadly work, lulls the unwary to sleep, and then death comes. “Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs after enough inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO). Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect. Symptoms of mild acute poisoning include lightheadedness, confusion, headaches, vertigo, and flu-like effects; larger exposures can lead to significant toxicity of the central nervous system and heart, and even death.” (source)

See? It takes a while to build up in the bloodstream, but all the while the poison is in your blood it is warping your mind and causing you to not be able to think straight. And note that carbon monoxide poison is “initially” non-irritating. This is exactly how false teachers operate. Eventually the poison’s buildup reaches its critical mass and you fall spiritually.

Beth Moore (and others) at Passion 2012
performing the Catholic mystical Lectio Divina (source)

Fourth, the verse says that followers of the false teachers are in fact following their sensuality. The prosperity gospel false teachers promote the original sin that satan offered Eve, which was lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh. (Genesis 3:6).

My contention is that false teachers and acceptance of their teachings are becoming so common that it’s obvious the prophecy is being fulfilled now, today.
There are so many false teachers who are obvious and rank heretics, but masses and multitudes of ‘Christians’ follow them. Have they all gone mad? Yes. The carbon monoxide buildup in the blood has almost reached its death point. Let’s look at some real examples.

Joseph Smith was the founder of Mormonism (Latter Day Saints). He lived from 1805 to 1844. In his day, he was seen as a madman, a heretic, and a false teacher. From the beginning, Joseph Smith and his followers provoked ridicule for Mormonism’s seemingly magical if not superstitious origins, and opposition as a heresy that dared to claim itself “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth.” (source)

Though he had gained a few thousand converts, once a newspaper article was published exposing his promotion of polygamy and other aberrant “Christian” doctrines, this caused him to be jailed and even then, an angry mob stormed the jail and killed him outright. The men of the area were outraged at Smith’s corruption of marriage, sullying of women by seducing them into polygamy, and exaltation doctrine (humans become gods). Of course I don’t advocate lynching, but it is interesting to note that false prophet Joseph Smith’s blasphemies caused outrage and action. Today we are told to tolerate them.

The United States Congress opposed Mormonism in the form of vigorous opposition to their main tenet at that time: plural marriage. This battle squelched Mormonism’s growth for a long time. By the 1890s the Latter Day Saints movement banned plural marriage so as to escape this opposition in political and secular quarters.

So how does a ridiculed and obviously ridiculous religion in the 1840s, with a disgraced and dead founder, grow in size to 14 million members today?

Joseph Smith,
1st Pres. of Latter Day Saints

After Smith’s death, the cult selected Brigham Young as its leader, and they regrouped, trekked out to Utah’s desert, and became insular and economically self-sufficient. When they finally relinquished its stance on polygamy in the late 1800s, they became poised to grow. Even at that, “Throughout the nineteenth century and most of the twentieth, Mormonism has been viewed as an aberrant, bizarre, isolated, and largely self-contained religious movement cut off from the mainstream of American society.”

Until recently. How is it that a hundred and fifty years ago, an aberrant cult poised to die in the desert, can become the fastest growing faith sector in the United States today?

This 2012 study states there are “reported 2 million new adherents and new congregations in 295 counties where they didn’t exist a decade ago, making them the fastest-growing group in the U.S.”

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (Hosea 4:6)

In the 1800s, people knew their bible. They could not be fooled. And they not only knew their bible, they lived it, so they could not be drawn away into spiritual lusts like exaltation and fleshly lusts like polygamy. Not so today.

Joyce Meyer used to travel in this Canadair Challenger 600S;
seen here in Sydney, when she was speaker at Hillsong, ’05.
Since then she’s gotten a Gulfstream G-IV. Source Wiki

Today, people are so foolish they are exploited at every turn. The Charismatics are bursting on the scene so fast that they make the Mormon’s growth over a hundred years look like a turtle’s.

For example, Charismatic preacher and heaven tourist Jesse Duplantis has fooled his congregation so well they built him a 34,000 s.f. parsonage. Joyce Meyer fools the deceived so well they give her a jet and multiple homes. Jentezen Franklin supposedly pastors two churches, one in GA and one in CA. In order to get from one to the other on Sundays, his congregation gave him a jet.

“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 2:3)

And now the people will believe almost anything. They believe Beth Moore when she says Jesus spoke to her in a vision and told her to teach that the bride is doesn’t believe in Jesus. They believe that barking like a dog in worship is holy. They believe Sarah Young has Jesus Calling on the phone line. They believe Don Piper spent 90 minutes in a heaven where he ‘saw’ people in actual bodies (Remember, no one in heaven has a glorified body yet!). They believe four-year-old Colton Burpo when he (or his father) say that everyone in heaven has wings and Jesus rides a rainbow horse. They believe that drawing a circle on the ground and sitting in it makes you spiritual. They believe “worshiping” to songs like Highway to Hell and Michael Jackson’s Thriller is, well, worship. They believe they are living their best life now. For most of them, they are right. Things will only get worse for them after death.

“The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense.” (Proverbs 10:21)

Most don’t even look for truth anymore,
but just for “encounters”, most of which are unbiblical

Lack of discernment is the biggest problem in the church today. Personally, I believe we have passed a tipping point. Now that satan knows how many lack discernment, he is flooding the church buildings, the bookstores, and the television with false teachers and the gullible who don’t know better are building up carbon monoxide by the bucketfuls. To cement his position, satan is teaching that “doctrine” and “theology” are dirty words and all you need is an “encounter” with God. Satan has sifted the wheat and planted enough tares so that that today’s Christian church looks exactly like the chaotic and ridiculous church at Corinth that Paul rebuked.

“They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.“ (Ezekiel 44:23)

Pastors no longer fulfill their duties as overseers. Pulpit Commentary explains the Ezekiel verse above where there were four fundamental duties of the OT priests, three of them relevant to pastors today.

Education: “The education of the people in the fundamental principles of their religion, viz. that a distinction existed between the “holy” and “profane,” or “common,”

False teachers today deliberately blur that line, teaching that it is ‘tolerant’ and ‘loving’ to accept all teachers and doctrines, and thus they blur the theological lines and Christian distinctives.

Discernment: “and in the practical application of that principle, the art of discerning between the “unclean” and the “clean.”

In promoting that dreams and visions should be expected of the “sincere” Charismatic person, that extra-biblical revelation via audible encounters or tongues should be common to their faith, they in effect teach that the bible is not sufficient and the word can and should be added to. Without the word, no one knows what is true and what is not. There is little discernment any more.

Church Discipline: “The administration of justice in all disputes arising out of and connected with the practices of their religion.”

Some true sheep are no longer willing to do the hard work of protecting the body by confronting false ones in the congregation. Or, Pharisee overseers use church discipline as an excuse to rid themselves of the faithful discerning sheep, leaving them space to operate among the goats they attract. (John 7:13, John 9:22)

In other words, pastors abandoned their duties, and the sensuous people, all too willing to follow their lusts, accept false teaching readily.

Jentezen Franklin has mastered the trick of being in two places at once.

All you need is a jet and a rich congregation to pay for the jet, pilot, and fuel.
Every Sunday.

“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:4)

The very fact that a Strange Fire conference rebuking the Charismatic movement was necessary in the first place is indicative of the prophecy’s continuing and rapidly advancing fulfillment.

The antidote to carbon monoxide poisoning is to wear a filter that keeps your head clear of the poison. That mask is the bible. Breathing the holy air of truth will always fill your brain and your lungs and your body with a freshness that keeps your mind clear and heart pure.

Meanwhile, know that even as these false teachers are coming on like a flood, Jesus was kind and gracious to tell us in advance. (Matthew 24:25). As we see the flood of falsity and the tragedy of so many who fall, cling to Him who is our faith (Hebrews 12:2)… and soon will be sight. (Luke 21:28)

___________________

The anchor holds, my ship has come in: rapture

Posted on October 29, 2013 by elizabethprata

I lived by the water growing up and most of my adult life, mainly the ocean. Some years were spent on a lake. I loved it.

The ocean has moods, a personality, mystery, and power. Who doesn’t love a day at the beach? Even better, who doesn’t love a day ON the water? When we got a chance, we got on a boat. After a while, we had a boat. LOL, back in the day, a bunch of teenagers zooming around the bay on a 20 foot Boston Whaler wasn’t unusual.

We grew up knowing how to use our knees to ride the waves, could look at the rocks to spot the state of the tide, knew how to anchor, dock or throttle up to reach plane. We kept a weather eye on the clouds, watched the whitecaps, and had a grand time.

Despite having such familiarity with the water, and were so comfortable on it, we knew its dangers. On Narragansett Bay there was a navigational hazard called “boiler awash”.

It is a shallow patch of water near Hope Island near Prudence Island. A Navy tug sank there and its boiler, being tall, presented a hazard to the keels of boats passing over it. To make the shallow water issue worse, its boilers came to just under the surface of the water at low tide. It was a hazard all right. We always gave it a wide berth.

As an adult, I lived on a sailing yacht for two years and we sailed from Maine to Florida, crossed the Gulf Stream, and went on to the central Bahamas. We returned with the weather following the same route. Our route took us on almost every coastal river, sound, bay, and canal along the entire eastern seaboard as well as the Atlantic ocean waters off it.

Because we lived on the boat and were no longer teenagers messing around near shore, we well knew the hazards. Our VHF radio was full of calls from mariners in distress, the squawk of the marine weather station, and calls from the Coast Guard to alert to hazards (container awash, drifting and disabled boat, etc). Sailing in New England meant having intimate knowledge of reefs, shoals and rocks, and sailing in Florida meant having intimate knowledge of drunken fools, wannabe mariners and rich guy weekend warriors. In between, we learned to respect the fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen, and all the others trying to make a living.

We quickly acclimated to the water living and became respectful of the hazards. When you are underway, you are always on guard, even if it’s familiar water. Always, every second. Because any second, anything could happen, and since your boat was both your home and your transportation as well as your life, well, if it required being vigilant, that is what you did.

That is why, when the anchor was set and the engine turned off, you breathed a special sigh of relief. Oh, anything could still happen, but the ratcheting down of the vigilance was considerable. As long as the anchor held, you were all set.

I remember feeling a wonderful sense of relief when the day’s run was ended and we anchored. The engine turned off and all we could hear were the sounds of the birds and the waves. We were still, secure, and finished for the day. I hadn’t realized how much tension I’d carried in my shoulders until the engine went off and the anchor was finally set. Day’s movement done. Day’s diligence concluded. Phew, we made it.

In bible days there were only three ways to travel. You got there by walking, riding an animal, or boat. Paul traveled a lot and because of that, he was on a boat a lot. He used many marine references in his letters, examples the people of the era would know well and understand immediately. Here are a few examples Paul and the other Apostles used:

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)

…tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14)

These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds (Jude 1:12)

holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, (1 Timothy 1:19)

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

The interesting thing about that last one is that the drifting away in the Greek literally means from God’s anchor.

Strong’s explains, to “drift away from,”pararrhyéō, only occurs in Heb 2:1 where it refers to going spiritually adrift – “sinning by slipping away” (from God’s anchor). It means to “lapse” into spiritual defeat, describing how we slowly move away from our moorings in Christ.”

Friends, stay moored to Christ. He is our anchor. Though our journey is tense, and long, imagine the sweet relief we will feel when we get there! When all storms are over, and there are no more hidden reefs. The empty clouds deceive us no more, and our friends and family’s spiritual shipwrecks (so hard to watch!) are but a distant memory gentle Christ wipes from our mind. The sweetness and rest awaiting us beside the glassy sea is unimaginably wondrous. Rest in that assurance 🙂

Here is “The Story Behind – “The Anchor Holds” written and performed by Lawrence Chewning“

Mr Chewning shares about the year his father died, his burnout as pastor, division in his church, his wife’s three miscarriages, his discouragement, sabbatical. It is tearfully affecting. Friends, if you are also going through a storm, rely on the anchor!

I have journeyed
Through the long, dark night
Out on the open sea

By faith alone
Sight unknown
And yet His eyes were watching me

The anchor holds
Though the ship is battered
The anchor holds
Though the sails are torn

I have fallen on my knees
As I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds
In spite of the storm

I’ve had visions
I’ve had dreams
I’ve even held them in my hand

But I never knew
Those dreams would slip right through
Like they were only grains of sand

The anchor holds
Though the ship is battered
The anchor holds
Though the sails are torn

I have fallen on my knees
As I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds
In spite of the storm

I have been young
But I am older now
And there has been beauty
That these eyes have seen

But it was in the night
Through the storms of my life
Oh, that’s where God proved
His love to me

The anchor holds
Though the ship is battered
The anchor holds
Though the sails are torn

I have fallen on my knees
As I faced the raging seas
The anchor holds
In spite of the storm

Songwriters
CHEWNING, LAWRENCE / BOLTZ, RAY

Read more: Ray Boltz – The Anchor Holds Lyrics | MetroLyrics

antibiotics, grace, jesus, rapture, tribulation, wrath

The end of antibiotics: the beginning of biblical plagues?

Posted on October 28, 2013 by elizabethprata

SEM depicting methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus bacteria

I read an interesting article linked on Drudge to the UK Daily Mail, and discussed over at the American Thinker. It is that we have come to the end of the era of antibiotics.

Here is the American Thinker’s take on it
They’ve been predicting this for years and it looks like it’s finally come to pass.
In our human hubris, we think we can outsmart or defeat Mother Nature. It’s things like this that remind us how our pitiful efforts to control the natural world usually go for naught.

Daily Mail:
A high-ranking official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared in an interview with PBS that the age of antibiotics has come to an end. ‘For a long time, there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about “The end of antibiotics, question mark?”‘ said Dr Arjun Srinivasan. ‘Well, now I would say you can change the title to “The end of antibiotics, period.”‘

The associate director of the CDC sat down with Frontline over the summer for a lengthy interview about the growing problem of antibacterial resistance.

I suffered from bronchitis and pneumonia quite bit growing up and into my 20s. In my 40s I suffered from sinusitis, and in my 50s, various ailments that run the gamut of all of the above now that I’m working in a school again.

I’m allergic to sulfa drugs so that limits the number and variety of antibiotics I could take. After a couple of times in my 40s I never went to the doctor again for relief of any of them. I was always worried that the doctors were overprescribing. I was worried I’d build an immunity to them and that when the chips were really down, that they wouldn’t work as well for me.

My suspicions have been confirmed. The doctor went on in the interview saying,

‘We’re in the post-antibiotic era,’ he said. ‘There are patients for whom we have no therapy, and we are literally in a position of having a patient in a bed who has an infection, something that five years ago even we could have treated, but now we can’t.’.

It’s the era of the superbugs. This story from NPR six days ago tells more.

“Many people are familiar with the type of resistant infections often acquired in hospitals, caused by MRSA, the acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. But most people don’t know about the entirely different group of resistant bacteria that Hoffman reports on in , airing Tuesday on PBS’ Frontline. The show explores an outbreak of resistant bacteria at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the U.S., and explains why there is surprisingly little research being conducted into new antibiotics to combat these new superbugs.“

In the days before antibiotics, men died from the merest cut. That is one of the wonderful things about antibiotics, that people no longer die from simple injuries like they did for thousands of years. In this 2010 article by Rustam Aminov titled A Brief History of the Antibiotic Era, from the journal Frontiers of Microbiology, it is stated,

“Antimicrobials are probably one of the most successful forms of chemotherapy in the history of medicine. It is not necessary to reiterate here how many lives they have saved and how significantly they have contributed to the control of infectious diseases that were the leading causes of human morbidity and mortality for most of human existence.”

“We usually associate the beginning of the modern “antibiotic era” with the names of Paul Ehrlich and Alexander Fleming. Ehrlich’s idea of a “magic bullet” that selectively targets only disease-causing microbes and not the host was based on an observation that aniline and other synthetic dyes, which first became available at that time, could stain specific microbes but not others. Ehrlich argued that chemical compounds could be synthesized that would “be able to exert their full action exclusively on the parasite harbored within the organism.” This idea led him to begin a large-scale and systematic screening program (as we would call it today) in 1904 to find a drug against syphilis, a disease that was endemic and almost incurable at that time.“

Add caption

The September 3, 1928 event that led to the penicillin discovery by Fleming a year later was synthesized as Fleming and Erlich had done, and by 1945, penicillin was being mass produced and distributed.

I was born in 1960, a preemie by 5 weeks. I had pneumonia and no doubt penicillin saved my life. I grew up entirely in the era of widely available medicines for any variety of illnesses, cuts, or injuries. I see that that era is coming to a close, or as the doctor in the Daily Mail article stated, has already closed. Widely available antibiotics are not widely available any more, and where they are, oftentimes the patients with the infections are showing a disheartening resistance to their effectiveness. This is serious, because people are dying.

“The mortality rates due to multidrug-resistant bacterial infections are high. Each year, about 25,000 patients in the EU die from an infection with the selected multidrug-resistant bacteria (ECDC/EMEA Joint Working Group, 2009), and more than 63,000 patients in the United States die every year from hospital-acquired bacterial infections.” (source)

So what is to be done about this? It seems that the superbugs are rising fast. The answer is complex and involves societies, government, mass behavior change, widespread education, research and mass distribution. In other words, nothing will happen fast that will help, and a lot can happen fast that will hurt. This is where I see prophecy coming in.

Jesus said that many will die by pestilence.

“Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”(Luke 21:10-12)

“When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7-8)

Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas,
ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward at Camp Funston.

The time is ripe for any superbug to cover the world quickly. The verse in Revelation says a fourth of the earth will be killed by famine and beasts and pestilence. Assuming a billion are raptured away as Christians (I am being generous, I don’t think there will even be that many), that leaves 6 billion people, so that leaves one billion five hundred million dead from the variety given in the verse. By contrast, the number killed in one of history’s worst pandemics, the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918-19 killed 100 million in the largest estimate.

If the Spanish Influenza killed that many and so quickly prior tot he age of travel, what will a superbug do? Well, what the bible shows us.

Now, you may ask, why am I bringing this up? Why speculate on what hasn’t happened? Why camp on gloom and doom? Because it is a matter of scale.

People first of all don’t take judgment seriously. Look at Lot’s sons-in-law. When Lot said the angels in their home were there to render judgment on the city, the men thought Lot was joking. (Genesis 19:14). But just because the Lord is long-suffering does not mean He won’t punish sin- and sinners. (Numbers 14:18, 2 Peter 3:9). He will.

Secondly, the scale of the judgments shown to us in revelation are unknown to any in the history of the world. (Matthew 24:21). Heaps of dead, masses of dead, hospitals overrun, entire communities with dead in the streets. The blood running and running. The police simply unable to keep up, whole neighborhoods will burn, whole oceans become as blood.

it is good to dwell on the might of the Lord and the power of His wrath. it is good not to think ones self able to withstand the torments from heaven that will over take the whole world (Daniel 7:23) and would ave overcome all flesh if Jesus had not elected to shorten the days. (Matthew 24:22). Do not think that you will wait to make a decision about Jesus when you see the rapture happening. It will happen in the blink of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15:52). Death will then ensue on a scale no man or era has ever seen or written about. You will be as a mote on a violent tsunami wave, disappearing in an instant into the gaping maw of hell if you have not repented. Hell is enlarging its mouth even now.

“Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.” (Isaiah 5:14)

Do not cockily think you have “the stuff” to endure, even as you delay repentance and submitting to Jesus. Do not think that you will be able to handle it. Men will drop dead on the spot from fear and terror. (Luke 21:26). You will be no different.

The scale of what is coming and even as I see it on the horizon is something to fear and respect. God’s long-suffering hand has been stayed these long epochs. It will descend one day on an unsuspecting world, and the scale of the horrors will be unlike anything a person can even rationally comprehend.

The era of antibiotics is ending. The era of the Tribulation may be soon on the horizon. But the Age of Grace is NOW. Jesus has come in the flesh to live the sinless life as the spotless lamb, to die sacrificially and be resurrected by the power of God. He substituted Himself for our place for on the cross, so that any person who believes in Him will not have to endure the wrath that is to come!

That is the reason I focus on this, the prophetic, from time to time. It is the end of days and Jesus will return. His long-suffering, mercy, and patience is one of the miraculous characteristics He shows us daily. William S. Plumer wrote in 1865 in his wonderful essay on Providence,

“Truly, it is astonishing that such sinners as we are should be spared; but surely it is not astonishing that if spared at all, it should be under the government of such a God. “The Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish.” God never punishes with delight. He does not will, or plan, or seek the ruin of his bitterest and most inveterate enemies. In the esteem of God the death of a sinner is a dreadful thing. “Many a time he turns his anger away” (Psalm 78:38) before he strikes a blow or crushes a sinful worm. The reason is, “God is love.” None else would bear so long—would so long avert deserved and terrible punishments from the heads of the rebellious. Truly, the prophet told us of the glorious nature of God, when he said, “The Lord does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.”

Come to Jesus now, under His grace. Repent, and live.

“Shall your repentance be unto life and salvation? Or shall it be but the fruitless relenting of a soul in an undone eternity? O accept the mercy offered to you now. Embrace the Savior, while he waits to be gracious.”

cessationist, continuationist, holy spirit, miracles, strange fire, tongues

Does it "limit God" to say the miracle gifts have ceased?

Posted on October 28, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

This blog post is an answer regarding a common objection continuationists make, and that is, to say that the Spirit is no longer distributing miracle sign gifts (tongues, miracles and prophecy) that this ‘puts a limit on God.’

Pentecost, Giotto, 1310

This is a very important topic. 1 Corinthians 12:10 speaks of four (temporary) signed gifts; miracles, prophecies, languages, and the interpretation of languages. A continuationist is a person who believes these miracle sign gifts have always continued since Pentecost. A cessationist (like me) says they ceased before the New Testament was even finished being written, that they were never meant to be permanent.

Formerly, this ‘continuing-or-ceased’ issue was seen as a secondary issue, or a non-essential to the faith. It was one of those ‘let’s agree to disagree’ things, and everyone went on their way. However, the fastest growing faith sector in the world is Holiness/Pentecostal/Charismatic believers who hold to the notion that men still perform miracles, speak in babbling tongues, and can receive prophecy directly from God which is separate revelatory knowledge distinct from the bible.

The Strange Fire conference showed me two startling things: that the fastest growing religion is not Islam, it is charismania. There are a billion people in the world who believe, in effect, the bible is not the final word of God. This has diluted the word of God and the works of God -as He has revealed them- from something final, absolute, and with integrity, to something that is secondary to the latest word one has received this day. This has opened the door to everything from merely wayward thinking, to people making a shipwreck of the faith, to the purely demonic. Therefore with this many people at risk, it is no longer a secondary issue.

Every cessationist, like me, and every continuationist knows, that God is infinitely powerful, and can do anything. He has no limit, at anytime. However, there are two things to consider here. First, God does not intervene in a visible, global, or dramatic supernatural way very often. Even in the bible days, seas parting, fire coming down, and resurrections etc. were not common.

Secondly, God already limits Himself TO US in at least one important way: His revelation of Himself . 1 Corinthians 13:12 says that we know in part now but later we will fully know. He has chosen to limit His infinite revelation to us for now, through creation (Romans 1:19-20) and the bible (Revelation 22:18-19; Hebrews 1:1). It is not germane to any discussion to allow the talk of “that puts a limit on God” to become part of the discussion. We are talking the miracle Spiritual gifts here, and those gifts were given to humans to employ. THAT is what we are talking about. Humans working the gifts, not God working supernaturally.

Lazarus, come forth, Salvador Dali, 1964

So the Word is where we look for a basis for any discussion about whether miracle gifts continue, or not.

And what the bible says, is that the sign gifts (tongues, miracles and prophecies) were given to men by the Spirit to authenticate Jesus’s message. (2 Corinthians 12:12, Hebrews 2:3). The bible even shows that tongues were not meant for the church, but for those who didn’t believe, a fulfillment of an OT prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:22; Isaiah 28:11-12.) Now that the message is complete, the Spirit is no longer giving those particular sign gifts to men. Though we all agree God could perform them if He wants, and Revelation is full of examples of how He will do exactly that, in the Tribulation.

The difference is, the Spirit does not give miracle working ability to men like He did before the canon was complete. Today, there are no apostles bringing His message, it’s all of us bringing it (Mark 16:15) and we can authenticate the message through His word, (Acts 17:11) with the Spirit’s help. That is why the miracle sign gifts faded away even as the NT was being written.

As far as God moving in supernatural ways, no, God has never stopped. That is what providence is. (Romans 8:28). It’s what justification is. (Romans 4:25). It’s what regeneration is. (Titus 3:5). It’s what sanctification is. (1 Thessalonians 4:3). But He did stop giving men the gift of miracles, tongues, and prophecy.