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Vandals topple Ten Commandments granite statue

Posted on September 23, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Man must obey God.

Man does not want to obey God.

God put His commands on a stone tablet so there would be no equivocation as to what is required for obedience. (Now those commands are subsumed under the two greatest commandments. (Mark 12:29).

Yet man hates God and disobeys. God’s commands are a curse to man.

10 Commandments monument toppled in Washington
“A stone monument of the Ten Commandments that sits on a street behind the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington and was the subject of controversy in the past has been toppled by vandals. The 3-foot-by-3-foot granite monument weighs 850 pounds and sits out front of the headquarters of Faith and Action, a Christian outreach ministry. The group installed the tablets in a garden outside its offices in 2006, and the group’s president said the tablets were angled so that justices arriving at the high court would see them. The Rev. Robert Schenck, who heads the organization, said the damage to the monument happened sometime between Friday night and Saturday night. A minister who works in the area alerted the group to the damage around 9 p.m. Saturday. The monument had been pushed over so that the words of the Ten Commandments are now face down.”

Man can do those things all he wants, but God is God. There is no other. Not self, not personal wants, not Dagon. No other God. See what He did here, with Dagon-

“The Philistines and the Ark“

Wikimedia commons, Fall of Dagon, Landseer

“When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.” (1 Samuel 5:1-5)

Charles Spurgeon wrote of this incident. He called it “Dagon’s Ups and Downs“

“Another lesson may be learned from the incident before us. When the Philistines had beaten the Israelites in battle, and captured the sacred chest called the ark, they boasted and gloried as though they had defeated God Himself. They evidently regarded the golden casket as the very choicest part of the spoil, and they placed it as a trophy in the chief temple of their god Dagon, to show that he was mightier than the God Jehovah, who was unable, as they thought, to protect His people. This touched at once the honor of Jehovah, and because He is a jealous God this boded good for Israel. The fact that God is a jealous God has often a terrible side to us, for it leads to our chastisement when we grieve Him: this, indeed, led to the defeat of Israel. But it has also a bright side towards us, for His jealousy flames against His foes even more terribly than against His friends; and when His name is blasphemed, and honors that are due to Him are ascribed to a mere idol, or He is declared to have been defeated by a false god, then His jealousy burns like coals of juniper, and He makes bare His right arm to smite His adversaries, as He did on this occasion.”

“He thinks it meet to punish His offending people, but when Philistia saith, “Dagon has defeated Jehovah,” then the Lord will no longer suffer Philistia to triumph. Jehovah’s answer to His foes was Dagon broken to shivers before His ark, and the Philistines plagued with tumors till, in their desperate pain and dire disgrace, they set free the ark, being no longer able to endure its presence in any of their towns; so that the Jews ever afterwards used to exasperate the Philistines by reminding them of the disease which so sorely tried them; and there is a dash of this in the psalm which saith of the Lord, “He smote his enemies in the inner part; he put them to a perpetual reproach.” Never did a boastful nation undergo a deeper dishonor in the eyes of their neighbors, to whom they became a laughing-stock, and never did an image suffer a worse disgrace than that which befell their god Dagon.“

America will suffer such a disgrace.

Oh, not because some vandals toppled the Commandments, though the image of the Commandments face down did remind me of Dagon lying face down. But because of this and many other incidents which directly show God that we are irredeemable as a nation.Whereupon we have said over and over, through elections, and judicial renderings, and mass demonstrations, and state-by-state verdicts, that we do not want God.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

God will do something about it. His Holy ire is roused, to be sure, and one day, soon I think, He will part the veil and let us know it directly and personally. Spurgeon said in his piece–

“Now, then, whenever at any time infidelity or superstition shall so prevail as to discourage your minds, take you comfort out of this—that in all these God’s honor is compromised. Have they blasphemed His name? Then He will protect that name. Have they gone further than they used to do in foul utterances against Him? Then they will provoke Him, and He will make bare His holy arm. I pray that, they may so provoke Him! All His church will say “Amen!” to that, so that He may arise and perform the glorious works of His strength and of His love among the sons of men, and put the adversary to confusion by proving that He is still with His people, and still the same mighty God as He was in the days of yore.”

“Say you to yourselves, then, “Our Lord will not always endure this idolatrous popery, which is multiplying its priests within our national church. His people cannot bear it; much less will He. He will not always tolerate these blasphemous theories, by which self-conceited, learned men and vainglorious skeptics seek to get rid of God out of the world. They will provoke Him. He will bestir Himself, He will show Himself strong on the behalf of His truth, He will roll back the waves of sin, and let the ages know that He is still the great I AM, the victorious God over all, blessed forever.””

end of days, end time, last days, rapture, repent

A Simple Plea: please repent, the end is near

Posted on September 23, 2013 by elizabethprata

It’s the end of the end times.

“You’re stupid. You people have been saying it’s the end times, like, forever.”

True. That is because it HAS been the end times like forever. At least two thousand years. They began when Jesus ascended, and will end when Jesus returns. (Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:2)

The last days is like a woman who is pregnant. Her baby grows inside her, and as the weeks progress, she shows more and more evidence of her imminent state. (in today’s terms, ‘baby bump’.) As she nears the end of her pregnancy, she develops other signs that her term is nearing the end. Her body aches. Her stomach grows. Her doctor visits become more frequent.

Then there is a final sign, the final sign that the baby’s birth is nearing. The pregnant mom’s water breaks. This is the moment when it becomes evident in the long gestation that the final phase has been entered. There is pain, blood, mess, and screaming.

Then the baby is born. New life has arrived. (Revelation 21:1)

The gestation is the end time, or last days. This is the time that Jesus is building His church. (Matthew 16:18, Romans 11:25, Luke 21:24). The water breaking is the rapture. The blood, mess and screaming (labor pangs) is the Tribulation. (Matthew 24:8). The new baby is the new earth and the Kingdom, fresh and new.

Jesus likened the last days as to the woman’s pregnancy, and specifically to labor pangs. In Matthew 24, Jesus answered the disciples specifically as to three three things they were wondering:

“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.” (Matthew 24:3-5).

They asked —

1. When will it happen?
2. What will be the sign of your coming?
3. What will be the sign of the end of the age?

Jesus said no on knows when, so we can get that question out of the way fast. The disciples were waiting for Messiah and of the Kingdom that had been promised them. They had learned as Jews that when Messiah came, He would institute the covenant promises, so naturally the disciples were eager for it all to start. What they did not know (but should have) is that His coming would be in two phases, Lamb and Lion. Suffering Servant and Sovereign King. So they asked excitedly in Matthew 24 and several other times too, “Is it now? When? When? When?”

What we know from our vantage point is that Jesus has been building the church, growing His bride for these last two thousand years. The disciples thought it was all going to take place right then, and they didn’t have the church on their radar.

As for question #2, Jesus went on in Matthew 24 with all the signs. These are signs of His immediate coming, His return after the 7 year Tribulation. Matthew 24 is a Tribulation chapter relating to the Jews. These are signs the Tribulation saints will be looking at and waiting for His return on the Day of the LORD.

I think we are moments away from the water breaking. I really do. I think we are in the last moments of the last days.

I could be wrong. But the rapture is always imminent. Always has been, always will be, until it happens.

“And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” (Romans 16:20)

“Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13).

“Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the Day approaching” (Heb 10:24-25).

“For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Heb 10:37).

Here is the plea:

Do you know where you would go if you were to die in the next few moment of time?

Do you know what would be happening if all the true Christians suddenly disappeared and the world went to hell (literally. That’s not a swear. The Tribulation is a time hell comes to earth). Well, do you?

No?

You can. You can know where you will go when you die. If you repent of your sins (be sorry for them, truly sorry that you’ve done things that disobey Holy God), you can ask Jesus to forgive them. He is the resurrected Lamb, whom God exhausted all His wrath for sins. Pleased with Jesus’s sacrificial death, He raised Jesus from the dead and set Him at His right hand in heaven. Now people who are sorry for their sins can come into heaven under Jesus, since He already took your wrath for your sins for you.

Once you do that you become born again, born from above, you will go to heaven when you die.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

If you do not repent, and do not ask Jesus to forgive your sins, and are not born again, when you die you will go to hell. That’s because you still have a debt to pay- that wrath. You didn’t want to come in under Jesus, who already blocked God’s wrath from you. So now you have to take it, and that will happen forever in hell.

It’s much better to get your sin-debt to Jesus taken care of now, before you die. Christians have been saying this for two thousand years, and how much closer is the kingdom today than yesterday? Closer.

“and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

“You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James 5:8)

Don’t wait until tomorrow. You may not have a tomorrow.

“Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)

Eternity is long.

“It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For “who knows the power of God’s anger?” Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, excerpt)

Repent. The end is near.

creation, grace

Creation Grace: Snow

Posted on September 22, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Elizabeth Prata photo

Sunday martyr moment

Sunday Martyr Moment: Year of Six Emperors

Posted on September 22, 2013 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 Sixth Persecution, Under Emperor Clodius Puipienus Maximus, A.D. 164-238

Maximus was a despot who ordered all Christians hunted down and killed. So many were killed that at times they buried them fifty and sixty together in large pits.

Among those killed were Pontianus, bishop of Rome, who was exiled to Sardinia for preaching against idolatry and was killed there. His successor, Anteros, was also martyred after only 40 days in office, for offending the government by compiling a history of the martyrs.

A Romans senator Pammachius, and family, and 42 other Christians were beheaded on the same day and their heads displayed on city gates.

A Christian minister, Calepodius, was dragged through the streets of Rome and then thrown into the Tiber River with a millstone around his neck. A refined and beautiful young virgin named Martina was beheaded. Hippolitus, a Christian minister, was tied to wild horses and dragged along the ground until he died.

Maximus died in 238 AD and was this was the year they call “The Year of Six Emperors”. Maximus was succeeded by Gordian, who was then succeeded by Philip. During the latter two reigns, the Church was free form persecution for a period of 6-10 years. In AD 249 however, a violent persecution in Alexandria was instigated by a pagan priest without the emperor’s knowledge. This was partly by his jealousy concerning the amazing increase of Christianity; for the heathen temples began to be forsaken, and the Christian churches thronged.

During that persecution, an elderly Christian named Metrus was beaten with clubs, pricked with needles and stoned to death for refusing to worship idols. A Christian women, Quinta, was scourged, dragged over flint stones by her feet, and stoned to death. A 70-year-old woman, Appolonia who confessed that she was a Christian, was fastened to a stake to be burned. After the fire was set she begged to be set free, which the mob did, thinking she was going to recant Christ. To their amazement however, she hurled herself back into the flames and died.

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

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

They hate Jesus so much that even a Christian compiling a history of the martyrs incited them to kill the man compiling a history of the martyrs. Keep this in mind.

grace, homosexuality, judgment, romans

"California teen named nation’s first transgender homecoming queen"

Posted on September 22, 2013 by elizabethprata

Tommy Hunter posted this on Facebook group Christ in Prophecy. I am re-posting it here because I agree with every word. See the news item this gentleman was talking about that prompted his comment below:

“Does anyone else feel like you’ve been awakened in the Twilight Zone?!?!? I know I do!!! I’m blown away how people have thrown rational thinking out the window to embrace the vilest lifestyles as normal under the banner of “acceptance”!!!! This is just another fulfillment of Romans chapter 1!!!! The selective judgments that have occurred throughout America will soon become national judgments.”

And the news item:

“In what is being described as the first known event of its kind, a transgendered teen was named as her high school’s homecoming queen on Friday. “I am so proud to win this not just for me, but everyone out there,” 16-year-old Cassidy Campbell said after receiving her crown during the halftime of Marina High’s homecoming football game Friday night in Huntington Beach, CA. The Los Angeles Times published a slideshow of photos from the homecoming event, which you can view here. Cassidy rose to national prominence when it was reported that she was entering the contest. “Just to be true to themselves and to let people know around them and to not keep it bottled up inside,” Campbell said about what her win should mean for fellow members of the transgendered community.“

KTLA reports that “Cassidy Lynn Campbell was born Lance Campbell, but has been living as a woman for the past three years.” So if he is 16 years old now and has been living as a girl for the last three, that makes him changing to a female at age thirteen.

When the article says the transgender ‘community’ let’s put that into perspective. Unlike the mirrors on the sides of cars that say “objects may be larger than they appear” transgenderism is smaller that it appears. Though the homosexual lobby likes to put forth that the gay population is huge, it is not.

“The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a sexual orientation law and public policy think tank, estimates that about 3.8% of Americans identify as gay, les-bian, bisexual or transgender (2011, source).”

So, the ‘transgender community’ is microscopic, amoeba-like, minuscule and tiny. Yet the noise they make is turning the world upside down, isn’t it.

What is transgenderism? GotQuestions has the answer

“Transsexualism, also known as transgenderism, Gender Identity Disorder (GID), or gender dysphoria, is a desire to change one’s sex or to fulfill the role of the opposite gender. Transsexuals / transgenders usually describe themselves as “trapped” in a body that does not match their gender. They will probably practice transvestism / transvestitism and may also seek hormone therapy and/or surgery to bring their bodies into conformity with their perceived gender.”

“The Bible has plenty to say about human sexuality. Most basic to our understanding of sex is that God created two (and only two) genders: “male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). All the modern-day speculation about numerous genders—or even a gender “continuum” with unlimited genders—is unbiblical.“

What is happening in a society that affirms and celebrates this kind of sexual sin? The answer is in Romans 1, as John MacArthur explains.

“It is that judicial act of God, whereby He lets the sinner go. In other words, He stops convicting. He stops calling. It’s Genesis 6, where God says, “My Spirit will not always strive with man.” There comes a point when God says, “That’s it. I’m letting you go,” and when God lets a society go, Verse 24 [in Romans] says, “He gives them over to uncleanness.” That’s sexual sin, and then Verse 26, He gives them up to vile passions, and women exchange the natural use for what is against nature, but likewise, the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their l-usts for one another, men with men, committing what is shameful, so you have lesbianism and homosexuality.”

“When God gives a society up, they plunge into sexual sin, and then they sink deeper into homosexual sin, so while homosexuality is a forgivable sin, and, categorically, no worse than others, when it happens on a societal level, it is evidence that when a society affirms it; when it becomes normal in a society, that is evidence that God has turned that society over. If you look at America, you could look back to the sexual revolution of the ’60s, which has now become a homosexual revolution of the ’90s, in which the homosexuals have redefined themselves as a minority, like a racial group of people demanding rights.

And so I think, while it is, as far as individual sin goes, no more damning than any other sin and as forgivable as any other sin. When it becomes the pattern of a society, it is evidence that God has turned that society over to that sin. It may be at that point an evidence that many in that society are not redeemable because they have gone past the age of grace.“

And that is a sad state of affairs, to see that so many in society are not redeemable because God has given them over. I agree with Tommy Hunter’s comment above, and I’d go one step further, It is an evidence that God has turned us over and the Age of Grace for American has closed for our society. We ARE under national judgment.

end time, false doctrine, willard

False doctrine IS a sign of the end of days

Posted on September 21, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I had a mouse problem in my apartment. It’s an old, old house (100+ years) and it is inevitable that critters will try to get in through the cracks. I have two cats, so before this fall, I’d never had a problem inside the place before, though I knew that there were mice cavorting unseen just outside.

Wikimedia Commons

So at first I thought I heard a whisper of a sound when all was quiet. I put that to regular noises an old house makes when it settles. But then I saw the cats perk up when the tiny sound came along again. After a while, the cats would not only perk up from snoozing placidly at my feet while I typed at the kitchen table, but sit up and stare intently at the spot behind the sink faucet.

Sometimes their eyes and head would track a sound I could not hear and a thing I could not see. It was preternatural, to be sure.

Then I opened the large drawer under the stove and saw the beginnings of a mouse nest. I went into combat mode and cleaned it all out. I took out the pots that were under there and put them under my re-arranged and cleaned under the sink area, leaving a nice wide expanse and one mouse trap. I also put mouse traps next to the stove and under the sink in that cabinet. Plus, some D-Con pellets.

I was unsure of where the creature was coming in, but I supposed that was one of the mysteries of living in an old farmhouse.

Feeling good, having four traps set and two cats waiting, I went back to work typing at the kitchen table. After a while I heard a slight tinkle of a glass in the sink. Knowing that glass doesn’t move by itself, I got up to investigate. Immediately I saw the mouse in the sink. He scrambled up and disappeared like smoke down a crack behind where the sink cabinet butts up against the outer wall.

I admit I screamed like a girl. My friend on Facebook later said that I AM a girl. I know, but I always thought that when the moment of horrible crisis came (spider, mouse, demonic invasion, Atomic bomb…) that I would handle it with aplomb and serious intentional purpose. Nah. I screamed EEEEEKKKK! just like in the movies, and went running into the bedroom. Girl.

Later I peeped over to the crack where I saw her go out, and I marveled that the fat mouse could even fit into that crack. It’s a small crack, man! Look, it’s only half a penny wide!

And that is the widest, the rest of the counter is less than half a penny wide. It narrows to nothing by the ends. A penny is 0.750 inches. Half of that is 0.375! Yet the mouse came in and went out confidently, going and coming in through the tiniest of cracks, despite the fact that there is a large, lumbering lady in the kitchen 10 hours a day and two cats 24/7.

False doctrine is that pregnant mouse. It’s quiet. It’s stealthy. It comes in when you’re not looking, under cover of darkness. It comes in through the tiniest of doctrinal cracks.

What happens if you leave it alone? If you let it be? If you don’t challenge its encroachment into your territory? Don’t scream at it, so as not to hurt its feelings? Allow its filthy feet to trample all over your counter where you fix sandwiches for your children? Ignore the fecal matter left behind?

Crispin Glover in 2003 Willard remake

You end up like Willard. And if you remember the original movie or saw the remake, the rats that Willard had trained and thought were his friends, in the end turn on him and eat him up. That is what false doctrine does. It kills you, eating you alive.

Some days I feel like that guy standing there, with so much verminous doctrine around.

BE ALERT

Taking this metaphor further, I was alert in my house. On guard. I detected minute sounds that should not be there. That is how Christians should be in life and in church. Listening for and detecting the first whispers of false doctrines being preached or offered in a curriculum, sounds and whispers that should not be there. Once I heard the sound of the mouse I was fully alert and detecting from whence it came. It helped to have the cats there, with their ability to see and hear things I could not. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He alerts you, aids you and prompts you to what He can see and hear that you cannot. Our fight is with the invisible.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

BE ACTIVE

Once I heard something that should not be there, I launched into action. I cleaned out my stove and under the sink. I jumped in the car and went to the Dollar Store to buy traps. I came home and immediately set them. I continued to listen and be watchful.

If you detect false doctrine, don’t wait a moment. Don’t let it go. Don’t stand around. The mouse was building a nest because she wanted to have babies. That means more vermin infestation, and soon. The mouse had a very good reason for wanting in. It was not an accident that she was busy settling in to a place she should not be. Soon there would be more, lots more to deal with. Vermin always spreads.

“How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:11-12)

“But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.” (2 Timothy 2:16-17a).

Whether using the example of leaven (yeast) or gangrene, false doctrine spreads from within and affects the whole organism..

Jesus said one of the signs of His soon appearance will be that false prophets will come. In the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24, He is speaking of the Tribulation.

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24).

However the false teachers that come will pile on more and more throughout the church age. Paul reminds us of that-

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:12-13)

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).

MacArthur wrote, “We read that in the end times there’s going to be a rise of cults, false religions called by Paul in his letter to Timothy doctrines of devils. We read that in the last days there are going to be apostates who go around denying the Lord that bought them, 2 Peter 2. That things are going to get worse and worse and worse, not better.”

The advance of falsity throughout the world and deep inside born-again Christianity is amazing. Just the last few years have seen an incredible change for the worse. Sometimes it seems like too much! There is false teaching everywhere! False teachers encroach into all churches! Oh no, the burden is so great, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!

But wait! We don’t have to protect the world. The genius of how Jesus set things up is that He made us part of His body. We are all connected but perform in different areas and with different gifts. He sent the Spirit to endow us with spiritual gifts and the Spirit enables us to serve Him in maximum fashion within our spheres. The Spirit even gave some five talents and others two talents and still others one talent. So, some have more to do but a greater capacity to do it. God is genius!

I do not have to exterminate the mice in the yurt in Mongolia. I don’t have to listen for vermin scratching at the door of the tent in the Amazon. I don’t have to wonder if encroachment is happening in the igloo in Sitka. All we have to do is do our best where the Spirit has places us, with the gifts He has given us.

Even though the Matthew 24 discourse relates to the Tribulation, I see the flood of false doctrine, false teachers, false pastors, and false everything coming as a flood. The false teachers came on strong against the first century church and they haven’t let up one bit, but only gotten more numerous like mice unattended. Is the end near? The loads of false doctrine we see is a sign. Ultimately because the bible says the end is near, the end is near, (1 Peter 4:7; Romans 13:12) but no one knows the day nor hour. So I don’t know, but this is a great verse to think about:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Just do what you can do with the Lord’s talent that He gave you. Be alert, speak up, clean house, pray hard, serve well, love Him, and do it all while waiting for Him. As James said,

“You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” (James 5:8)

Source

charismatic, doctrine, error, God in a box, personal revelation, truth

Help! God is in a box! We have to get Him out!

Posted on September 21, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

This week I read a book to the kids at school called “Not A Box” by Antoinette Portis. It is a book about imagination. An unseen narrator asks a rabbit, “Why are you sitting in that box?” The ensuing pages record the rabbit’s responses, insisting it is not a box, whilst the illustrations show indeed that in the rabbit’s mind, the box is indeed something else and the rabbit is busy outside of it.

I write frequently of the absolute integrity and truthfulness of scripture and that the only reason we can say the bible is absolutely true is because it is the revealed word from a living and holy God. His word is contained in the bible and nowhere else. To be sure, we can see His qualities in creation, which revealed His creative power and His divine nature (Romans 1:19-20). But His revealed will to humans? In the bible and the bible alone.

However, Charismatics rely on experience as a standard of what God is revealing to them. They put their experience as high or even higher than the Word as revealed in the bible. If something spiritual happened to them, they believe it is real, and it therefore really reveals something God is doing, or saying, or thinking, or whatever.

When I show that that charismatic experiences count as nothing, that they are unbiblical and unworthy of attention, I receive responses saying, “Don’t put God in a box!” Or, “Don’t limit God!”

Let’s take a look at what a person is really saying when they say those things.

The issue: IS God in a box?

First, God cannot ever be ‘put in a box’ nor can God ever be ‘limited’ by humans. The thought is simply absurd. However, as He has chosen to reveal Himself and His will, He is confined to pages of scripture. Secondly, experience never trumps scripture. Ever. You can have all the “passion” you want for God, to the point that at spiritual events you jerk around so much look you like bacon in a fry pan, but that is not truth, it’s not doctrine, and it’s not from God. That isn’t even passion. It’s only impulses, and you’re being led astray. (2 Timothy 3:6).

If a person has a dream or a vision that is especially vivid, they say it is from God, that God is talking directly to them (And I mean YOU, Beth Moore…Sarah Young…Kim Walker Smith…). They ascribe all due spiritual gravitas to their experience and go about replaying it for any and all who would listen (and many who would not). They make themselves the hero of the story.

If confronted with the fact that though the Spirit is alive and working in sanctified Christians, but that tongues and miracles and signs have ceased, that is when they trot out the charge that by our denying their experience as perfectly and uniquely sent to them by God, we are putting God in a box, and we are limiting Him.

We know He is limitless, that is not the issue. However He has said He will operate in certain ways. During this Church Age He has said that He will use the Spirit to grow us in sanctification and will illuminate the scriptures for us. (John 16:13-14 ). He won’t suddenly decide to sky-write the messages He wants us to know. He can. But He won’t.

He has said that He listens to prayer as a method of communication. (Philippians 4:6). However, He won’t suddenly put notes in our mailbox (like in The Shack) or call us personally. He can. But He won’t.

Though we know He is alive, He is in heaven and will not come back until the Day. (Matthew 26:64). He won’t appear in our bathroom while we are shaving and put His arm around us. He can. But He won’t.

We know He CAN do those things, but we have confidence that He won’t. Why? He speaks through His word, His Son, and His Spirit. (2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 1:1-2, John 14:17, 1 Corinthians 3:16). He has said how He will operate. He spoke through men to write down His inspired word. And He doesn’t break His promises.

“Inspiration is the doctrine that the Bible was written by the influence of God. It is, therefore, without error in the original documents. It is accurate and authoritatively represents God’s teachings (2 Tim. 3:16). As such it is a revelation from God which implies direct knowledge about God, creation, man, salvation, the future, etc. It is an illumination in that it shows us what we could not know apart from it. “

We cannot know apart from it. That includes knowing something of God because He supposedly rained gold dust down, or put a thought in your head or seemed to heal a guy at a faith crusade.

Yet the Charismatic will cite John 21:25, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” And they will say that “See? Jesus did many other things. We can’t limit Him!”

We are not limiting Him by acknowledging what scripture says, that He performed many other wondrous things during His incarnation. It’s just that we don’t know what they were. Any speculations on what those things were is just that: speculation, guesswork, and vaporous estimations. If God had wanted us to know them, He would have put them in scripture. That He didn’t is no excuse to make some up. He told us not to go beyond what is written. (1 Corinthians 4:6)

The truth of the matter:

The problem is, the people who take God out of the box are really people who want to make God into what they want Him to be. It sounds all humble and everything to claim that it is limiting God by sticking to who He says He is in pages of holy writ. But it is really not humility. It’s pride. It is pride in their vision, pride in their alleged special relationship to Christ, who, after all, gave them a second blessing when they asked to be ‘filled with the Spirit.

His sovereign will is different from His revealed will. He has hidden from us some things He intends to do. The most glaring examples of His inscrutability on some matters are:
–what He was doing before creation and also,
–what we will do in eternity.

His revealed will, however, is just that: revealed. He has set down in words through men via the Spirit what He wants us to know about Him and what He wants us to know about what He plans to do and what he wants us to know to do for Him.

Therefore God IS IN A BOX, at least, as far as the pages of scripture go. And there He will stay this side of the veil.

Because, you see, once we take God out of the box, we make Him into whatever we want Him to be in our imagination. Once you take Him out of the pages of scripture, you say, ‘It’s not a box. It’s a highrise. My God is a fireman.”

Erroll Hulse wrote in his book, “The Blessings, Main Problem and Dangers of the Charismatic Experience,” that many Charismatics have a “Preoccupation with experience.”

“During 1977 a believer described two revivals which he had witnessed in Borneo. The first was classical in the sense that it was typical of revivals down through the centuries. Preaching, conviction of sin, repentance and transformation of life were the predominating features. The second revival which followed a couple of years later was Charismatic in character. The speaker himself reflected the impact that the second revival had made upon him personally. He gave description after description of visions, exorcisms, healings, spirit baptisms and sensational events such as preservation in the jungle and the moving of lights in meetings. One felt while listening to this account that the Word of God had been supplanted by all the externals. It is possible to become so enamoured with the extraordinary and with excitements and sensational happenings that such matters become the daily diet of believers. Eventually it is all they can talk about which is the hallmark of most Charismatic books. Scripture is supplanted by the narration of events which goes on ad infinitum.“

When you take God out of the box (pages of scripture) then you can say “It’s not a box. My God is a robot. But that’s OK if your God is a fireman. It would be limiting God by making Him be a definite thing.”

Many Charismatics who want God out of that box claim that by us conservatives sticking to scripture, we are denying the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Not so. The great theologian J. Gresham Machan wrote,

Meanwhile we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the Scripture of the Old and New Testaments that the Holy Spirit uses. Much mischief has been wrought in the church by false notions of ‘the witness of the Spirit’; it has sometimes been supposed that the Holy Spirit makes us independent of the Bible. Just the opposite is the case.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He does not contradict in one generation what He has said in another. He does not contradict the Scriptures that He himself has given. On the contrary, what He really does is to make the words of Scripture glow with a heavenly light and burn in the hearts of men. Those Scriptures are placed in your hands. You may not say with the prophets of old: ‘God has spoken directly and independently to me; I appeal to no external authority; when I speak it is “Thus saith the Lord.”’ But you can do something else. You can mount your pulpit stairs; open reverently the Bible on the desk; pray to the gracious Spirit to make plain the words that He has spoken; and so unfold to needy people the Word of God.

Taking God out of the box (pages of scripture) opens one up to all sorts of mischief, as Machen wrote. We ascribe works to Him that He did not do. We ascribe attributes to Him He does not possess. We ascribe writings to Him He did not inspire. Taking God out of the box once too often, and you may find that it is satan you have loosed in your life, and not the Holy Spirit.

Hulse concludes,

Source

Jesus is Lord indeed. He has been exalted, crowned, celebrated and is adulated because he has procured our justification by the agonies on the cross. Any obscuring of that, his greatest achievement, is to defame his glory. If experience is permitted to gobble up doctrine, if love is allowed to devour principle, if sentiment is suffered to obscure justification by faith only — then how will the world’s multitudes be saved? How can Jesus be Lord for them? Satan will continue to have his dominion over them. Those who are ready to unite on the basis of love and common Charismatic experience at the expense of Justification should remember that in doing so they will be celebrating the lordship of Satan, not the Lordship of Christ.

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Four hundred pomegranates!

Posted on September 19, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I am reading 1st Kings. I read 1 Kings 6, 7 and 8. Solomon built the Temple, his Palace, and in chapter 8, prayed blessings unto God.

I was entranced in chapter 7 by the description of the temple artifacts. Whoa, the cherubim wings! Fifteen feet wide?! They are very powerful angels in real life and if they look like they do as represented in bronze in the description of the temple that are awesome!

Le Moyne’s Botanical Watercolors, 1585

I also got stuck on the detail the LORD put in the chapter about the 400 pomegranates.

“Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the Lord: the two pillars, the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars, and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the pillars; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars; the ten stands, and the ten basins on the stands; and the one sea, and the twelve oxen underneath the sea.” (1 Kings 7:40-44)

I got to thinking,
“Why 400 pomegranates?”
“What was Hiram thinking when he made all those pomegranates?”
“Did Hiram get tired of making 400 pomegranates?”
“Why pomegranates?”

The other questions can’t be answered this side of the veil, but I can always ask Hiram when I get there.

As to the pomegranates, I did find out a lot of stuff from the bible. Thanks to Wayne Blank of Keyway Bible Study, here is the lowdown on pomegranates.

The LORD was bringing the people out of bondage and delivering them to a land rich with provision. One of those provisions was fruit of the land, and one of those fruits was pomegranates.

photo credit: chany14 via photopin cc

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” (Deuteronomy 8:7-10)

Joel spoke of the pomegranate’s absence being the opposite of provision. When disobedience comes in, everything dries up. In Joel 1:12 we read,

“The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.”

Wikimedia commons

Back to 1 Kings, in addition to the pomegranates being cast in bronze for the temple adornment, the LORD had ordered Moses to direct the priests to make specific garments in which they would carry out their duties. The hem of the robe must be adorned with pomegranates.

“He also made the robe of the ephod woven all of blue, and the opening of the robe in it was like the opening in a garment, with a binding around the opening, so that it might not tear. On the hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates all around the hem of the robe, between the pomegranates— bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate around the hem of the robe for ministering, as the Lord had commanded Moses.” (Exodus 39:22-26)

The pomegranate is a good candidate for the forbidden fruit that was eaten in the Garden, though we cannot be sure. As a personal anecdote, we used to eat them at Thanksgiving. Every family has their traditions, and in ours, my mother always used to buy lots of shelled nuts and put them in a bowl with nutcrackers. Filberts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, Brazil nuts…they were all there and I enjoyed them each year. They were the one-per-year friends. Me and my cousins would sit around and pick nuts and laugh and talk.

She also used to put out a bowl of pomegranates. I don’t know why that particular fruit, but there they were. I remember them as being delicious, juicy, and refreshing.

If you enjoy studying flora and fauna, try a study of the bible’s natural history. The birds, insects, animals, and plants in the bible is a wonderful study. I can’t wait to find out why the Lord prefers pomegranates, what their symbolism is and what they mean to Him.

Meanwhile, I wonder…was a pomegranate the fruit that Eve and Adam ate in the Garden? Will a pomegranate tree be one of the fruit trees lining the River of Life in the Millennium?

“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12)

LOL, that is the original “Fruit of the Month Club”!

false doctrine, galatians

Did you know Galatians was so harsh?

Posted on September 19, 2013 by elizabethprata

We tend to think of Revelation being the “hard” chapter. But Paul’s little missive to the Galatians has some tough language in it, and stern words for the Christians of his day and for Christians of all time. Paul sends curses out twice in this short passage. False doctrine is extremely important to tend to. A little leaven spoils the whole lump.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9).

Paul mentions here that:

–Christians desert solid doctrine
–Christians accept a different gospel
–Christians be warned that some come in who trouble us
–Christians be warned that some who come in purposely distort the Gospel
–Do not ‘dialog’ with the Gospel-perverters. Instead, let them be accursed!

“Have you ever noticed how difficult sometimes it is to reject a false system because the people in it are so nice? Paul says, “I don’t care if it’s me or if it’s a beautiful angel from heaven, let him be accursed.” So many buy false doctrine because the package is so nice. Don’t you know Satan knows that?” (source)

Far from being tolerant, lackadaisical, inclusive; Christians should be exclusive, intolerant of false doctrine, and vigorous in defending Christ.

christ, occupy wall street, riches

I am the 1%

Posted on September 17, 2013 by elizabethprata

“The Occupy Wall Street slogan, We are the 99%, refers to income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.” (Wikipedia)

The OWS movement promotes a Marxist version of “social justice” and is not Christian in the least.

“Early Christians, for example, demonstrated how a system of distribution could be set up to meet the needs of everyone within a local church community (Cf. Acts 2:43-45, Acts 5:1-11, Acts 6:1-6). This communal sharing was a voluntary method of meeting pressing needs within the church. Of course, this was a far cry from the politically driven socio-economic Marxism, communism, and socialism that exist in present times, all which grant citizens the right to possess a large share of society’s burdens but only a small (though equal) share of its benefits.” – See more

Christian, if you have become involved in movements to donate money to causes which strive to render poverty non-existent (Bono’s ONE, for example, or Passion stamping out sex trafficking cause) or any other cause that uses your God-given money to stamp out social ills, especially to the neglect of giving to your local church, then shame on you.

For does not God raise up rich and poor? Install kings and depose them? Place each one of us in their own nation, state, sphere?

Job, Abram, David, Solomon, Paul, Nicodemus, Lydia, Susannah, Joseph of Arimathea, the three Magi, Matthew/Levi, and so on were in turn very rich. Were they somehow ‘wrong’ to be rich? Job’s fortune increased to a high degree, then God took it away, then God restored it. Was God wrong to make Job rich again? Could he have not given what Job had to the poor who existed all around him?

Jesus even raised up and used rich men for His name who were not believers, Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, and used them for His name.

In terms of Occupy Wall Street, I am the 99%. I am very poor. I have a minimal income. It has actually gone down in recent years, due to the school system rendering furlough days on us. (Unpaid days). I skip grocery shopping twice a month now, choosing to shop only bi-weekly. To save gas, I don’t drive anywhere except work and church. I have no savings and I live paycheck to paycheck. I buy nothing for myself, except very occasionally, a book, and new socks. According to the world’s standard, I am the working poor and part of the 99%.

Does that entitle me to another guy’s money? NEVER! I would not have it so. I don’t need it!

Because in fact, I AM THE 1%.

I don’t judge my lifestyle according to the world. I am satisfied with Christ’s provision. I always have enough to eat. I have a nice, clean, safe place to live. I have clothes and a vehicle and a job. I am cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I have books to read, the bible to study and friends to share with.

I have Christ.

He is all I need. His provision of His blood, freely given on the cross, is all the treasure I need or want, Because that is all there is

Christian it is always good to remember that we are not of this world. If you are in Him, you are spiritually wealthy and of the 1%.

“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

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Further reading:

A biblical view of ‘social justice’