(no title)

bulldog, children, football, idolatry, idols, university of georgia

Two sacred cows … examining the idolatry of UGA football, & idolizing your children

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

I’m going to poke a wasp’s nest here by looking at two sacred cows. “Sacred cow” is an American idiom.

“The idiom is based on the popular understanding of the elevated place of cows in Hinduism and appears to have emerged in America in the late 19th century. A literal sacred cow or sacred bull is an actual cow or bull that is treated with sincere reverence. A figurative sacred cow is something else that is considered immune from question or criticism, especially unreasonably so.” [Wikipedia source]

The sacred cows are: making children your idol, and University of Georgia football. UGA football is a particularly virulent strain of idolatrous football in general.

We all agree that the run-of-the-mill kind of idolatry is bad. We all agree that work could be an idol and that’s bad. Shopping and consumerism could be an idol. Our car or our hobby could be an idol. When bringing them up in a Christian context, people agree that we should ratchet back down from those and put them in their proper place.

GotQuestions defines idolatry as:

“The definition of idolatry, according to Webster, is “the worship of idols or excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing.” An idol is anything that replaces the one, true God. The most prevalent form of idolatry in Bible times was the worship of images that were thought to embody the various pagan deities.”

One example of an ancient deity formed into an image is the fish deity Dagon. This is how the LORD views idols and what He did to Dagon-

“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)

There aren’t many pagan idols whom worshipers dance in front of today, but they still exist here and there. The Burning Man festival is one. I wrote about that festival earlier in the week. This is a festival where scantily clad people cavort in the Black Rock desert of Nevada for a week, drinking, fornicating, looking at profane art installations, and culminate their week with a revival of a Celtic festival in which an effigy of a man in burned. When the man is burned, they dance and worship in similar style to the Hebrews dancing and having an orgy before the Golden Calf. Just as the Golden Calf was an idol through which they blasphemed God, (Exodus 32:4, Nehemiah 9:18), it can be said that the Burning Man is an idol through which they blaspheme God also.

Source SF Chronicle

Any Buddhist shrine is an idol, where a figure of Buddha is graven and people leave presents for and bow down to him in worship.

Buddhist shrine just outside Wat Phnom. Source Wikipedia

But an idol doesn’t have to be a figure in which the person bows down to or worships in front of. An intangible thing may become an idol. In this way, it lurks in the heart and displaces or replaces God as the primary focus of worship.

Remember, the short definition of idolatry was, ‘excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing.’ In this way, as I mentioned above, work, hobbies, shopping, or cars could displace God either temporarily or permanently as the primary focus of worship or devotion.

There are two idols that we rarely speak of being an idol, and if we do, people have a hard time seeing what is wrong with loving them so much. These idols are sacred cows. We aren’t supposed to question whether they are becoming an idol in a person’s life. Remember a sacred cow is something else that is considered immune from question or criticism, especially unreasonably so.

The two idols are Children. And Football. Especially University of Georgia Bulldog football.

It seems strange that a person could make their child an idol. But the flesh can make anything an idol, even the ‘good’ of loving your child. Anything that takes the place of God as primary in our heart could be an idol- including children.

In the video below, Todd Friel explains about children as an idol. I’ll transcribe and then post the video below.

“So how is it that a child can be an idol? It isn’t the baby itself, it is our attitude toward the child. And that really goes for just about anything. Even this thing, whatever it is. [Picks up decorative statue]. ‘Ohhh, I love that. I’ve got to get more of those! I need to spend time cleaning this, it’s the most beautiful…’ That’s an idol. How can something that’s an inanimate object become an idol. I guess any other god besides the true God is an inanimate object. Anyway, it’s a heart issue. Mom, Dad, love your kids. … Enjoy your kids. Did you see the recent Time Magazine cover? ‘Is it Better To Not Have Kids?’ with a picture of a couple laying on the beach, like that’s the quality life. That’s the good life. No. It’s not. Having children, is. They are a blessing from God and they should be enjoyed. But, like virtually everything else, they can be an idol. Watch that line.“

Are you a parent who has made their children their idol? Even to the exclusion of the husband? And to the exclusion of God? Where every thought, every action is focused on the children? Where every conversation is about the children? If the idolatrous mom or dad switched their child’s name in conversation for God’s name, how much more would someone think the person was weird? Yet excessive devotion to children seems like it is a good thing. It is not good, if they have become your idol.

In this essay on Motherhood in Focus on the Family, Tosha Wlliams wrote, “Taking care of our children, even going beyond the call of duty for them, is not the issue, though. The heart of the matter is that nobody, not even our kids, should have a higher place in our hearts than God, lest they become our idols.“

Consider these questions:

Do you ever break away from your children — no matter their ages — and spend time alone with God?
Do you intentionally communicate with Him as much as you do with your kids?
Do you regularly focus on getting more of God instead of getting more for your kids?
Do your kids see you read your Bible as much as they see you watch TV?
Is your relationship with God a higher priority than anything else in your life — even more important than teaching your child the alphabet, cooking healthy meals or getting your kids into Little League?

The total focus and attention of our lives should be God first, then spouse then children. However the parent who idolizes their child is thought to be a good parent and the person who speaks of God as often is thought to be a weird person to be avoided. Like Mr Friel says, watch that balance.

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

College football started this weekend. Around here in the University of Georgia-land, UGA Bulldog football takes on a life of its own. The team is regularly place in the top ten of college ball, and football is revered anyway from tot squads on up to Pro ball. Football is a way of life around here.

Daniel Ausbun of First Baptist Church, Moreland published a very well-written essay on modern idolatry. In it, he asked, “How would someone know if they’re practicing idolatry? We must look at the state of our hearts. On Saturdays does Georgia football completely dominate and take-over our thinking? If you have a desire or joy for something more than God, you’re an idolater.”

Enjoying your children isn’t idolatrous. Attending and enjoying a football game is not idolatrous. However, it becomes so when excessive devotion looms in the heart. Does Saturday football consume you? Do you plan for your Saturday football all week? Does the game, win or lose, impact your worship the next day? Do you stay home from church because you’re tired the next morning? Did you fail to adequately prepare your Sunday School lesson for Sunday’s class? Do you feel hateful toward other people as you go to church? Or feel downcast, depressed, or angry at that last-minute call the referee made? If you do, you’re a football idolater.

Even after 7 football seasons here in GA I can’t believe the idolatry of the UGA devotion to Bulldogs. In the very short clip above, Todd Friel of Wretched TV asked Kevin Hynes, Fellowship of Christian Athletes Campus Director (FCA) about the excessive devotion to football, and the UGA bulldog in particular.

“We have to be careful we don’t cross a line in praising the gift rather than the giver.” ~Todd Friel

Here is the transcript of the Football clip above Hynes and Friel talking:

“This is something you don’t normally see. Where the guys come running out of the tunnel over there, but over here, this is the mascot. ‘Go Dawgs’, right?

Hynes: Uga.

Friel: Uga, U-G-A, I just got that, lol! Maybe I need to go back to school. So this is the mascot [pointing to a statue of the bulldog]

Hynes: It’s a replica of the mascot of the dog running around on the field.

Friel: So it’s a real dog running around on the field. What happens to the real dog when the real dog dies?

Hynes: Well, they have a service, to celebrate the dog’s life, and then they entomb him behind us.

Friel: Right in these little things right here.

Hynes: Yes.

Friel: They each get a plaque. See, “This dog was gone too soon”… this one, “A big dog for a big job and he handled it well” … So they get a little plaque commemorating their lives.

Hynes: Yes.

Friel: Now this could be an example of going a little bit too far with how much we love the sport, or connect a symbol with an affection. In other words, maybe…it has become idolatry?

Hynes: Absolutely.

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

Do you idolize your kids? Do you idolize UGA football, or any sport? Watch out!!

“Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” (1 Corinthians 10:7).

“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” (1 Corinthians 10:14)

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

Sunday Martyr Moment: Coliseum and Catacombs

Posted on September 1, 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

“It has been said that the lives of the early Christians consisted of “persecution above ground and prayer below ground.” Their lives are expressed by the Coliseum and the catacombs. Beneath Rome are the excavations which we call the catacombs, which were at once temples and tombs. The early Church of Rome might well be called the Church of the Catacombs. There are some sixty catacombs near Rome, in which some six hundred miles of galleries have been traced, and these are not all. These galleries are about eight feet high and from three to five feet wide, containing on either side several rows of long, low, horizontal recesses, one above another like berths in a ship. In these the dead bodies were placed and the front closed, either by a single marble slab or several great tiles laid in mortar. On these slabs or tiles, epitaphs or symbols are graved or painted. Both pagans and Christians buried their dead in these catacombs. When the Christian graves have been opened the skeletons tell their own terrible tale. Heads are found severed from the body, ribs and shoulder blades are broken, bones are often calcined from fire. But despite the awful story of persecution that we may read here, the inscriptions breathe forth peace and joy and triumph. Here are a few:

“Here lies Marcia, put to rest in a dream of peace.”
“Lawrence to his sweetest son, borne away of angels.”
“Victorious in peace and in Christ.”
“Being called away, he went in peace.”
Remember when reading these inscriptions the story the skeletons tell of persecution, of torture, and of fire.
But the full force of these epitaphs is seen when we contrast them with the pagan epitaphs, such as:
“Live for the present hour, since we are sure of nothing else.”
“I lift my hands against the gods who took me away at the age of twenty though I had done no harm.”
“Once I was not. Now I am not. I know nothing about it, and it is no concern of mine.”
“Traveler, curse me not as you pass, for I am in darkness and cannot answer.”

The most frequent Christian symbols on the walls of the catacombs, are, the good shepherd with the lamb on his shoulder, a ship under full sail, harps, anchors, crowns, vines, and above all the fish.”

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

Wikipedia explains the Catacombs: “The Catacombs of Rome (Italian: Catacombe di Roma) are ancient catacombs, underground burial places under Rome, Italy, of which there are at least forty, some discovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either in separate catacombs or mixed together, they began in the 2nd century AD,[1] much as a response to overcrowding and shortage of land. Many scholars have written that catacombs came about to help persecuted Christians to bury their dead secretly. The soft volcanic tuff rock under Rome is highly suitable for tunnelling, as it is softer when first exposed to air, hardening afterwards. Many have kilometres of tunnels, in up to four storeys (or layers). The Christian catacombs are extremely important for the art history of early Christian art, as they contain the great majority of examples from before about 400 AD, in fresco and sculpture. The Jewish catacombs are similarly important for the study of Jewish art at this period.”

Below, Early Christian funerary art from the Roman catacombs depicting the good shepherd 3rd-5th century CE

photo credit: mharrsch via photopin cc

“Catacombs of San Callisto; in the center, the Chi Rho — a commonly used Greek monogram for Christ. Also note the fish in the upper right hand corner, another Christian symbol — the letters in the Greek word for symbol were an an anagram for “Jesus Christ, Savior, Son of God.” More at Jim Forest’s Photostream

photo credit: jimforest via photopin cc

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

I visited the Colosseum and the Catacombs when I was in Rome some years ago. The Colosseum was where many thousands of Christians were slaughtered for the name of Jesus. The Catacombs was the place where they were buried. They tunneled under ground secretly because no one was allowed to be buried within the walls of the city, and land was expensive anyway. Christians were usually poor and could not afford land. Wealthy Brethren donated land for the purpose, and the Catacombs were born.

Photo Jim Forest

When I was there, I wasn’t saved yet. After visiting these two important places in the birth of Christianity, my only takeaway was of the Colosseum, that the Romans were geniuses at engineering, and from the Catacombs, how small the early Romans were. Their funeral holes in the walls of the tufa were a mere four or five feet.

How I wish I could go back there now that I am part of the great, eternal body of believers, connected through time by the blood of Jesus. Now I know of the plan of redemption God promised His Son from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20, Titus 1:1-2). I would give the places more respect, pray in praise for our Magnificent God for creating a people who, by the Spirit endured death for His holy name, and thank Him for my inclusion in this great Body.

As it is, I’ll do the same from my chair here in Georgia, because I know that though my body may perish, it will be resurrected and united with my eternal soul, in a timeless and boundary-less place called heaven.

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

Creation Grace: Angels

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

burning man, lewd, licentiousness, sin

I used to want to go to Burning Man

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

It’s Burning Man week in Black Rock Desert.

Beckoned by the desert, Burning Man’s burners return
Story highlights:
–Temporary city of about 70,000 sets up yearly near Gerlach, Nev.
–Weeklong event is about freedom, creative, self-expression

“The images of Burning Man that have come out of the Black Rock Desert during the past two decades have shocked and mesmerized people all over the world. The event has become widely known as something that involves barely clothed women and men, bicyclists decked out in fur, all-night dance parties and indescribable large-scale art installations. This year, the Man burns on Aug. 31 before some 70,000 in the temporary city. As Burning Man participants, known as “burners,” trek through Reno to the Black Rock City decorating the community with colorful dreadlocks, out-of-town trailers and other-era attire, one might question: Who are these burners and why do they keep going to Burning Man?”

——————————–

I can answer that. They keep going to Burning Man so as to indulge the flesh.

Burning man is a free-for all party in the remote and forbidding Black Rock desert of northern Nevada. For the last 24 years, folk who want to get away from it all, create some art, hang out far from the prying eyes of society or simply to party, have been attending this informal and rapidly growing libertine and eclectic gathering.

The top two tenets of Burning Man as stated are:

“Radical self-reliance—” Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.”

“Radical self-expression—” Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient. Participants at the Burning Man event in the Black Rock Desert are encouraged to express themselves in a number of ways through various art forms and projects. The event is clothing-optional and public nudity is common, though not practiced by the majority.”

There is no plumbing, no running water, no structure and no societally normal limits on, well, anything. Participants return to regular society after the week-long party is over filthy, exhausted, sunburned and satiated.

The climax to the event is the torching of the effigy of the man, hence the name Burning Man. Each year the ‘set’ of and around the man gets bigger. This year’s theme is Cargo Cult, after the Melanesian cult whose South Sea natives began worshiping the left-behind American detritus from WWII.

The roots of the festival were the brain child of Larry Harvey who attended a few solstice ceremonies on Baker Beach in San Francisco back in the 1980s The culmination of the solstice festival was a bonfire, where a wooden man was burned. When the original organizers stopped putting on the pagan festival, Harvey developed the idea and ran with it. Harvey says that the he was unaware that a wicker man was a large human-shaped wicker statue allegedly used in Celtic paganism for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy. Accordingly, rather than allow the name “Wicker Man” to become the name of the ritual, he started using the name “Burning Man”. (Wikipedia)

So as these things always do, it has pagan idolatrous roots.

The penchant for man to collect around an object and idolize it goes far back. It goes back to the Tower of Babel. It even goes back to the Golden Calf of the Hebrews, just released from slavery.

Moses had gone up the mountain to speak with God. The people below waited. And waited. And waited. While congregated around Mr Sinai, they coalesced into an orgy of licentiousness and ‘self-expression’. (Exodus 32:1-4). They waited only 40 days. Days, people, before their flesh could not be restrained. Their ‘worship’ became an orgy. (Exodus 32:6, Exodus 32:25)

Adoration of the Calf, by Nicholas Pouissin, 1633

“They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:8)

What they were really worshiping were themselves.

At two points in the early bible record, God wanted His people scattered, in Genesis 9:7 after the flood, which the people did not do. And secondly at the Tower of Babel, where they had collected together in the desert, erected a pagan monolith to worship. (Genesis 11:8). This time He confused the languages and they did scatter eventually.

People with their fleshly impulses, were not then nor are even now ready to live peacefully together in great, crowded cities. Why is crime higher in cities than in rural areas? More temptation, greater immoral models, and increased opportunities for envy and pride lead to crime, and of course, to sin. Would Burning Man be the same if only four people attended? No. Half-naked participants acting weird and crazy would simply be embarrassing. Someone in a fringe bikini, gladiator sandals, an orange wig and firecracker sparklers stuck in their hair walking down the streets of any town USA or even any city USA on a given weekday would receive stares and probably a police welfare check.

——————————–

Burning man is said to be “the biggest party on the planet.” I believe it. Left alone to seek self-expression, the unsaved flesh will always gravitate to sin. Always. And it is no different in the Black Rock Desert the last week of August.

Source UK Daily Mail

Last year, one man named his Burning Man camp “Papa Legba,” after the figure in Haitian voodoo who serves as the mediator between the seen and unseen worlds. The Cult Cargo theme hearkens back to Quetzalcoatl and Osiris, two pagan ‘deities’. The former is from South America and is a feathered serpent of fertility, the latter is from cultures of Egypt and was said to be the god of the underworld.

The horrifically sinful roots of Burning Man are incontrovertible. And before I was saved, I wanted to go there in the worst way.

————————-

New Orleans Mardi Gras, Wikipedia photo

I wasn’t saved until I was 43 years old. That left a lot of adulthood to play around and let the flesh have its day. Yet I was a study in contrasts. My flesh would seek freedom and licentiousness (which is what ‘self-expression’ is all about) but whenever I’d encounter it or have an opportunity to indulge its worst excesses, my conscience would be shocked and I’d back away.

Burning Man was too difficult and too remote for a Mainer to attend, but my husband and I did explore other undercurrents of off-the-grid living. We traveled across country in a VW camper van, two older hippies at heart, looking for whatever it was that wanna-be hippies looked for. We attended New Year’s Eve celebrations at sexy South Beach Miami, but were pretty tired after our late supper at Grillfish, so we took a short walk and then went to bed to escape the noise of the parties up and down Ocean Drive. We attended sunset drinking parties on Key West’s southernmost beach on Halloween, but the revelry and costumes of the drunken participants grossed us out and we went back to the camper. We were at New Orleans the day before Mardi Gras was to begin, but all we could manage as far as the revelry goes was walk up Bourbon Street in the rain and conclude this wasn’t for us. We escaped to a nearby bayou park and enjoyed hearing the growls of the alligators all night. We went to the freakishly bizarre place known as the Salton Sea and were so spooked we couldn’t sleep, and turned on the camper and drove off at 3am.

Halloween parties, beach parties, New Year’s parties, cruising parties on yachts … all sound like fun but in the end, they weren’t. Yet the flesh will not be denied, and thinking the reason I failed to really have fun was simply the location, or the style of party, or the type of people attending. We searched constantly for the change of venue and tried another party the next time.

For a long while I was jealous of Burning Man, thinking THAT was the place to be. I wanted to see the art. I wanted to look at the large-scale installations. Yet, saying you’re going to Burning Man for the art is the same as saying you read Playboy for the articles. If you want art, go to MoMA, or any public park in the United States to see large scale art installations. What you are really wanting to see is the spectacle of unrestrained flesh, and the unpredictability of how far the unbridled ones with a seared conscience will go.

Solomon knew the flesh, once indulged, leaves a person feeling guilty, hollow, and a little sick and embarrassed. Indeed, I read that recent Burning Man parties have had some contention among participants, because cell phone coverage has become more and more available. Participants don’t like thinking that people can snap a photo of them in all their “free self-expression” and upload it to the world to see. Sin always likes the private dark.

Kevin Rolly is a photographer from Los Angeles who has attended the festival every year since 1996. Of the fight to have cell phone availability verses the tenet of absolute freedom & privacy out there in the desert, “Rolly also feels that because most phones can upload pictures or video to the Internet instantly, “That has put more of a damper on people’s freedom.”

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:19)

Sure it ‘puts a damper’ on people’s freedom. Freedom as I said above, is simply another word for sin. They want self-expression, but are embarrassed at the expression that comes out. If your self-expression is legitimate, should your ‘message’ change the more people who might see it? If it does, there is something wrong with your ‘expression.’ Because, if you’re a pharmaceutical executive, is this what you want your customers to remember your message as?

photo credit: brentbat via photopin cc

Because if you’re a schoolteacher, is this what you want your students and parents to see?

photo credit: john curley via photopin cc

Of course not. The inhibition the conscience naturally levels makes a person intuitively understand that it is NOT about freedom and self-expression. It is about indulging wanton passions which are frowned upon by society, and for good reason. They are sins against God and there is nothing new under the sun. Not even the sun of the Black Rock desert. Solomon said of the vanity of self-indulgence, in Ecclesiastes 2:1, & 10-11,

“I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. … And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

At Burning Man in the remote desert, revelers, there is nothing new under your sun, except guilt and shame.

Thanks the gracious Lord that he gave us the Holy Spirit to indwell us. After we repent unto salvation, He helps us restrain this hot wind of l-ust and revelry. He instills in us good desires. He helps us re-orient our heart to the things above and not the things of the flesh. Our Lord eternally satisfies. In Jesus, there is no need to drive a camper van from city to city in and out of holiday after holiday, looking for what will be sure, this time, to satisfy. Jesus always satisfies the eternal longing that sends people to Burning Man. After the Man is burned and the people return to life as normal…they will feel the desert wind leaking from their hands, evaporating even as they begin dreaming of the next time. Come to Jesus and be satiated with Him.

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

earthquake, end time, God

7.0 quake rocks Alaskan Island, aftershocks continue

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

7.0 Quake Rocks Alaska’s Aleutian Islands
“Several aftershocks rattled a remote Aleutian Island region off Alaska in the hours after a major 7.0 temblor struck with a jet-like rumble that shook homes and sent residents scrambling for cover. At least three dozen aftershocks, including one reaching magnitude 6.1 in strength, struck after the major quake Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. “I heard it coming,” said Kathleen Nevzoroff, who was sitting at her computer in the tiny Aleutians village of Adak when the 7.0 temblor struck at 8:25 a.m. local time, getting stronger and stronger. “I ran to my doors and opened them and my chimes were all ringing.”

“There were no reports of damage or injuries from the earthquake, which occurred in a seismically active region. It was strongly felt in Atka, an Aleut community of 64 people, and the larger Aleutian town of Adak, where 320 people live. The earthquake and the aftershocks didn’t trigger any tsunami warnings, but Michael Burgy with the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, said the center is monitoring for potential tsunamis caused by landslides, either on land or under water.“

——————————–

Source, USGS

As of 7:15 AM on August 31 (EST)

Earthquake List/
Magnitude/ Location/ Date

5.2 100km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.6 29km NW of Nikiski, Alaska 2013-08-31
5.1 103km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
5.2 97km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.0 127km NNW of Kodiak Station, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.4 124km NNW of Talkeetna, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.9 119km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.0 118km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.2 111km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-31
5.2 99km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.3 111km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.8 102km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.5 105km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.3 148km SE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-31
5.5 108km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.9 113km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.8 124km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
5.9 106km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.5 115km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.9 93km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.7 99km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-31
3.8 119km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.5 103km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-31
4.8 97km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
5.4 108km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
5.8 0km S of Benzilan, China 2013-08-30
3.0 51km S of Estacion Coahuila, Mexico 2013-08-30
2.7 79km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.3 95km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
5.0 96km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.7 87km SE of Old Iliamna, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.1 78km E of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.3 108km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.3 90km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.6 88km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.6 107km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.9 91km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.5 111km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
2.5 101km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.0 113km SE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
2.9 37km S of Ester, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.5 98km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.8 83km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.1 103km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
2.6 87km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
2.8 109km W of Cantwell, Alaska 2013-08-30
4.7 113km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.1 106km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
2.9 98km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.3 97km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.3 102km SSW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
3.6 106km SW of Atka, Alaska 2013-08-30
7.0 94km ESE of Adak, Alaska 2013-08-30

————————-
Isn’t it amazing that a huge earthquake like that plus all the aftershocks occurred, yet there were no deaths, no injuries, and no damage discovered so far. The Lord will not always be so generous. The bible records several prophetic quakes still to occur in the future which will yield maximum damage. One will happen in Jerusalem where a tenth of the city falls and 7,000 die. (Revelation 11:13).

Revelation 6:12 records a mega-quake. “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,”

Another in Revelation 8:5, Revelation 11:19, and a HUGE one in Revelation 16:18, such as no man has ever seen before.

In an essay I wrote last night I’d called for repentance from among the brethren for daily sins post-salvation and repentance unto salvation for those who are unsaved. While not every earthquake is a judgment from God, it is wise to think of Him anyway when one occurs. He is the Lord of the Earth and everything in it. Please consider these things.

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

Rome airport vent IS deemed volcanic in origin, plus other earth changes

Posted on August 30, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

On Sunday I’d noted an unusual event occurring at Rome’s Fiumicino airport. A geyser had opened up unexpectedly at the end of one of the runways. Fiumicino is the fifth busiest airport in Europe. Then On Monday I’d commented about the new ground vent in light of the end times.

Scientists have been studying the gases emanating from the vent and trying to make a determination as to what it is. Did it happen due to a broken water pipe? Is it a hot spring? Is it a volcano? Experts were making their tests to find out.

The Malta Today Newspaper reported today that scientists have determined that it is volcanic in origin.

Small volcano discovered near Rome airport.
Geologists have begun studying the hole, labelling it a ‘fumarole’, an opening in the earth’s crust.
“The nearest possibly still active volcanic system in the area is the Monti Albani, an old but possibly not yet extinct volcanic complex located 20 km South East of the capital; but its last known activity there took place about 20,000 years ago. New volcanic activity in the suburban area of Rome itself is certainly not completely impossible, but quite unlikely scenario. More data will be needed to shed light on this.”

The UK Telegraph also reported,
“A geyser-like vent, known as a fumarole, opened up near a road crossing in the Italian capital on Saturday morning. The small opening in the Earth’s crust, has been filmed ejecting mud, water and steam near Fiumicino. Italian geologists are currently examining the phenomenon.”

The Telegraph also has a video of the thing, glurping up steam, ash and mud.

Reporters use words like ‘phenomenon’ and ‘unlikely’ and ‘perplexing.’ It seems strange that a volcano could be born under an airport in the middle of one of the oldest cities in the world. When we think of volcanoes we think of them being in the jungle or under a National Park like Yellowstone, or in the desert or an uninhabited island far away. We don’t think of volcanoes being under a bustling city. The posters for the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” depicted tornadoes razing Los Angeles and were jarring because of the juxtaposition of ‘natural disaster’ taking down a concrete city, which we think is so strong.

Just because man has altered the geography in a certain area, and made a city, doesn’t mean God can’t simply do what He wills anywhere on earth at any time.

“Of David. A psalm. The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” (Psalm 24:1)

In other earth news, from space, we read from SpaceWeather that “CME WILL NOT HIT EARTH, STORMS POSSIBLE ANYWAY: A coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled into space yesterday by an erupting solar filament will not hit Earth. However, a solar wind stream will. The stream, which is flowing from a coronal hole in the sun’s northern hemisphere, is expected to arrive on August 30-31, possibly sparking polar geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

MAJOR FIREBALL EVENT, UPGRADED(AGAIN): NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office has upgraded its estimates of a major fireball that exploded over the southeastern USA around 2:30 AM on August 28th. Lead researcher Bill Cooke says “the fireball reached a peak apparent magnitude of -16, about 20 times brighter than a Full Moon, and cast shadows on the ground. This indicates that the meteoroid had a mass of more than 110 kg (240 lbs) and was up to a meter in diameter. It hit the top of Earth’s atmosphere traveling 25 km/s (56,000 mph).” Watch the movie, then read more about the fireball below. This is the brightest event our network has observed in 5 years of operation,” he continues. “There are reports of sonic booms reaching the ground, and data from 4 doppler radars indicate that some meteorites may have fallen along the fireball’s ground track.”

It is so strange to think with all that power, all that brightness and magnitude, that at a certain point in the Tribulation, Jesus will simply say “STOP” and the sun will stop shining a third of its light. How precise He is! How powerful He is!

“[Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck] Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.” (Revelation 8:12)

And then later in the Tribulation, Jesus will say something like ‘let there be dark’ and the sun will go OUT.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Matthew 24:29)

In other space news, this is cool. “Hubble telescope spots ‘cosmic caterpillar’ that’s six TRILLION miles long, formed by harsh winds from some of our hottest stars” A previous study has called the object, which lies 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, a ‘tadpole in an interstellar pond.’

That’s so cool! And pretty! The LORD created all the stars. This powerful fact is almost written as an afterthought in Genesis.

“God made two great lights–the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” (Genesis 1:16)

Here is the NASA Hubble zoom sequence. Watch this 30-second video and ponder the fact that God made each and every star you see there and named them, too. I am in awe of our Creator.

“He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” (Psalm 147:4).

One reason I love to read news and science articles like these is because I love to think of how BIG our God is. If there is a star incubator out there in space (as the scientists call it) that is a trillion miles long, how big is God? And how do we dare to defy Him? How dare we ignore Him. His creation is all around us and it is genius and beautiful.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20).

If you are in Jesus today, praise and thank Him that you are saved by His grace. Thanks Him that you will personally see all the stars when He brings you to His home in heaven.

If you are not in Jesus, please repent of your sins and believe the Good News. Sin must be punished, but Jesus took all the wrath of God as your punishment while He was on the cross, so that all you need to do is confess your sins, and believe in the Resurrected Son’s work on the cross. Rejecting the Son means you reject the forgiveness He has extended to you, and you opt for the punishment. That punishment is God’s eternal wrath in hell.

I am grateful to my Lord who has done this great work, work that even the angels long to look into. (1 Peter 1:12). I hope that you are moved by the beauty and wonder of seeing a powerful God who has done these things such as make a star nursery, a volcano, a fireball, space itself. As powerful as He is, His greatest work is transforming a stony heart full of sin into a loving heart full of His grace and glory.

burden, guilt, sin, weight

The burden of sin and its heaviness upon the earth

Posted on August 30, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Psalm 38:3-4 speaks of the burden of sin. Sin is heavy. It weighs on a person. David certainly felt the weight of his sin, he wrote about it in Psalm 38. Here are verses 3-4

“There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head;
like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.”

In verse 8 David says the guilt associated with his sins have crushed him. Sin is heavy.

Some women feel the weight. As 2 Timothy 3:6 reminds us, “For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,”

“Weighed down” indeed.

In another verse we see the weight of sin upon a nation, not just an individual, as Ezra desribes.

Ezra felt the weight of sin. He prayed to God in Ezra 9:7, saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.”

Again, we read the allusion of sin piling up to over our heads. As MacArthur explains of the verse, “Even though Ezra did not participate in Israel’s sins, he understood that the sins of the few contaminate the many.”

The sins of the few contaminate the many… hold that thought.

Individuals feel the burden of sin, nations feel the burden of sin, and the world feels the burden of sin. See this next verse:

“The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.” (Isaiah 24:20)

Sin is heavy!

EPrata photo

Now, I am not saying that sin is literally heavy, though it feels that way sometimes. It’s like when we say “He has a heart of stone”. His heart is not actually stone.

We see snow-laden branches struggling to remain attached to the tree. Each snowflake is light but an accumulation of them will bend and break even the strongest of branches.The weight of sin is a weight of guilt, of conscience, of a burden carried within, metaphorically. Or IS it only metaphoric?

Martin V. Day of the Department of Psychology, Princeton University, and D. Ramona Bobocel of the Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada conducted an experiment. Their findings were released in July 2013. The thrust of the experiment was along the following lines:

“In everyday language, guilt is treated as a tangible substance—people bring guilt upon themselves, carry it, or are weighed down by it. Similarly, feelings of guilt can be expressed as a “weight on one’s conscience.” Such metaphoric language suggests that guilt has properties similar to an object with real weight. On the one hand, weight-related adjectives may merely represent traditional descriptions of guilt. On the other hand, guilt is a real emotion, and the heaviness of guilt may be embodied as a feeling of weight. In this paper, we tested whether the experience of guilt is grounded in sensations of increased weight.”

The researchers screened out variables regarding weight and perception, and masked the purpose of the study. They found some interesting conclusions. Guilt was the only negative emotion which significantly raised the subject’s perception of heaviness. For example, those subjects feeling emotions of disgust, sadness, pride did not report any attendant feelings of weight. Their conclusions were that…

Encased even 1/4 inch of ice,
branches snap like matchsticks.

“…participants who recalled an unethical act reported significantly more weight compared to those who recalled an ethical memory or an unethical memory of a distant other person … the present research revealed that personal experiences of immorality can be partly understood by sensations of weight, and that guilt appears to have some responsibility for this effect. Although guilt is literally weightless, we demonstrate that the embodiment of guilt can have consequences as if it does indeed have weight.”

You can read their study here. It isn’t long and they use plain language for the most part.

So I got to thinking…individuals feel the weight of guilt, and nations feel the weight of guilt, the world feels the weight of guilt….and the world will stagger under the weight of the guilt at the end of the last days… is THAT the feeling I’ve been feeling lately?

I am serious. Recently I’ve been feeling the weight of…something. I always feel the weight of my own guilt, and that weight gets heavier the more I am grown by the Spirit in Christ-likeness. As my sanctification increases, so does a super-sensitivity to my own sin.

source

But it’s more than that. It feels lately as if the very air has grown thicker. As if the very world has grown heavier. It feels like I’m in an antique diving suit, trying to walk through mud and molasses.

I got to thinking about the weight of sin, and David’s anguish over his guilt…and the women loaded down with sins…and Ezra’s burden of the nation’s sin… and Isaiah’s expression of the world tottering under the transgressions that have piled up. Some days it seems like a lead blanket has been shaken out and is settling slowly on the world, weighing down all peoples. Like Ezra, who understood that the sins of the few contaminate the many, we also feel the weight of the world’s guilt and are contaminated by it. If Ezra felt it when ‘few’ were sinning, how much more weighed down do we feel now, when so much of the entire world is rebelling against the LORD and weighed down with guilt for their sins? It’s like that lead apron they put on you when you go for an X-Ray.

O Lord, please release us from having to move in this ponderous world laden with an atmosphere of a murky soup of sinful souls.

gog magog, israel, last days, psalm 83 war, syria

Will Israel enter the fray regarding Syria?

Posted on August 29, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I am watching the Middle East situation carefully. I have some concerns regarding if the conflagration will widen, and if it does, whether some of the prophesied wars will begin. I don’t know if the time is now or not, but it seems to me that we have had so many near misses of late (in the last 4 years) and those near misses are coming faster and more frequently, that they seem like birth pangs to me, ready to break water and flood the world with Tribulation. That is my opinion. In any case, we know that the last days wars will happen and one of these days they will begin. I just happen to think it will be sooner rather than later.

In watching the news and reading the Old Testament prophets, I noticed something that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman yesterday struck me. He said–

“that Israel does not want to become embroiled in the Syrian conflict, but may have to hit back if it is struck. … Lieberman said that Israel does not want to enter the fray against Syria but added, “We may have no choice, but I hope that everyone knows how to read the map correctly and understand that Israel has no interest in entering the whirlpool of the Arab world.” “

What I believe he was referring to is that Israel is a tiny nation, completely surrounded by implacable enemies. If the situation goes south in Syria, well, Israel is to the south and undoubtedly Israel will receive either purposeful targeting or accidental blowback. Either way, the job of the Foreign Affairs Secretary is to protect the people.

However, when has that situation ever been different? Israel has always been surrounded by implacable enemies. We we do know how to read a map and we do know that at some point every single one of those enemies abutting the tiny nation of God’s people will attack. Many prophecy interpreters believe that battle is prophesied in Psalm 83.

Psalm 83 is an imprecatory psalm, imprecatory meaning calling a curse upon someone or on a nation. In Psalm 83 Asaph is calling for God to intervene against a coalition of nations which are colluding to attack Israel.

The reason some interpreters think this is an unfulfilled prayer is that the particular configuration of nations who are colluding and attacking have never joined up to attack Israel in history past. Though parts of the psalm have been fulfilled and now are history, the psalm has not seen fulfillment in the exactly as described. So they believe it is still future. Here are the first 8 verses to the Psalm:
A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate you have raised their heads.
3 They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult together against your treasured ones.
4 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
5 For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Asshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah

The nations named also in today’s modern language, are:

Edom & Moab, are southern and middle Jordan.
Ishmaelites, Hagrites, and Amalekites are descended from Hagar and Ishmael, and settled in southern Jordan and Saudi Arabia. (Map shows Amalekites being solely in Egypt, again, this is another interpretation)
Ammon is norther Jordan. Its capital today is still Ammon.
Gebal & Tyre are in Lebanon.
Philistia is Gaza.
Asshur is northern Iraq and western Syria (Assyria)

So in reading the map, we see that Asaph is pleading for deliverance from a coalition which intends to wipe Israel from the map.

Be advised that there is a lot of disagreement about the purpose of this psalm (imprecatory only? partially prophetic?) and its fulfillment’s timing, (past? present? or still far future?)

One thing I like to do is look at the bible’s end and work backward. We know that in the end, all nations will be against Israel. (Zechariah 12:3). Backing up some, we know that in Ezekiel 38-39 another, different coalition attacks Israel while Israel is dwelling securely. We know that battle is going to take place in the latter days because it says so in Ezekiel 38:16. Also, in Ezekiel 38:22 God says He will rain down sulfur on the hordes coming to attack Israel. This has never happened.

So the coalition named in Ezekiel’s attack are are non-abutting neighbors of Israel. Israel’s abutting neighbors are all named in the Psalm 83 prayer. It is thought that the victory given Israel over the Psalm 83 coalition nullifies them and takes them out of action. So when the second waves of attacks comes in Ezekiel’s coalition, it is subsequent to Psalm 83 because none of the nearer inner circle is named. Logic dictates they would be part of this attack if they could be. Others wonder about Israel dwelling securely, without bars or walls. What could make Israel lower their security vigilance? Perhaps the fulfillment of Psalm 83, where Israel vanquishes all her abutting enemies and is dwelling safely in the land? (Ezekiel 39:26)

If you think of satan’s attempts to get rid of Israel, as Israel being the bulls eye, and Psalm 83 being the first wave, then Ezekiel 39-39 being the widened wave of a larger and further-afield coalition of enemies, and then culminating in Armageddon with all the world coming against her, this seems to be the prevailing thought on the successive prophesied battles of the latter days.

Mr Lieberman is right. Anybody looking at a map can see that Israel is surrounded, small, and in all likelihood, going to be obliterated. However, that is not in God’s plan. As surprising as it is and as it will be to those who dwell on the earth, Israel is in fact an immovable rock, and those who try to dig her up or push her over will themselves be injured. (Zechariah 12:3).

If only Mr Lieberman knew that his nation has the only perfect and strong protector! What comfort that would be as all the missiles are aimed at her, as all the hordes storm the mountains like insects. As the bombs come down, the Lord will personally bat them away! (Ezekiel 39:3)

“The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.” (Ezekiel 38:20).

Not that Israel won’t be harmed at all during the Tribulation, she will, (Zechariah 14:2) but the Lord God Almighty will not let His people nor His designated land be overrun or destroyed at the hands of the Gentiles. He keeps His promises. Though we do see by the map that tiny Israel is beleaguered, beset, and besmirched, she will prevail in the end. That is because God always prevails in the end.

“And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezekiel 39:7)

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

further reading

Fears of a Larger War in the Middle East
“Will the phrase “Guns of August” one day refer not only to the prelude to World War I in 1914 but also to the prelude to a Middle East war in 2013? That is the ominous question posed by Roger Boyes, the diplomatic editor of the Times of London and a foreign correspondent for the past 35 years. “The direction of events in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran should keep us awake at night. History is taking a dangerous turn,” he writes. “The region certainly cannot sustain two wars — Syria’s bloody insurgency and a near-civil war in Egypt — without wrecking established peace treaties and the normal mechanisms for defusing conflict.”

black, ethnos, kingdom against kingdom, persecution, race, white

How easy it will be for the current race violence to turn to Christian persecution

Posted on August 27, 2013 by elizabethprata

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. (Proverbs 10:12)

This is an eternal truth. Though there are only a few words in this proverb, the truth of both halves of the verse (hate-love) cover the entire world. It covers all human behavior. It was true 6000 years ago (Cain vs. Abel) and it is true now (Muslim vs. Christian) and it will be true in the future (Armageddon unbeliever vs Jesus).

When a person hates, it stirs up strife. That strife first appears in the heart, which has its own evil passions. Another Proverb tells us that from the heart flow all springs of life, (Proverbs 4:23). Pulpit Commentary explains, “The fact here stated is that the moral conduct of life, its actions and proceedings, are determined by the condition of the heart. If the heart is pure, the life will be pure; if the heart is corrupt, the life will be corrupt. “

Next, if the heart is not guarded and the issues which spring forth in life are not dealt with, the mouth will begin to give voice to the strife within. (James 3:6a). Matthew 15:18 clearly ties the two together: “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.”

Finally, if the heart and the mouth are not restrained, then the person will begin to act on the corruption that is coming out. (Galatians 5:19-21). That is the way of the wicked.

We see this progression now in America. There is a rising race hatred which is causing riots, mobs, and individual beatings and killings, just on the basis of race. I am talking of black people killing white people simply on the basis of race-hatred.

A spate of news items in the last weeks has shown us that this particular kind of hatred is rising. Once hatred is found in the heart, if it is not addressed, and it rises to the mouth, it then is expressed in violence. This seems to open the floodgates. Just think of the spate of mob violence at fast food restaurants we saw in the news about 6 months ago. It seemed that every day there was some sort of altercation from a customer who, enraged for some reason or other, beat the cashier for a wrong order or a wrong look. Hatred and violence comes in waves, and now we see it in race violence.

I envision that hatred easily turned from race baiting and violence against white people to violence against Christians. After all, this is satan’s ultimate goal.

Jesus said that this would be the state of things in the Tribulation. In Matthew 24:7 He said, “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”

The word for nation against nation is ethnos. It means a people group against a people group. The Greek is defined here in Strong’s concordance, ‘people joined by practicing similar customs or common culture’. This is a perfect definition of white against black, or as in Bosnia, Bosnian Croat against Bosnian Serb. Gentile against Christian. In other words, a people who live in the same nation, but are otherwise divided by artificial lines within their same culture.

I am deeply concerned that the hatred we are seeing today in America, percolating in hearts and rising to the surface to evidence itself against those of different color, will soon be perpetrated against the Christians. It would only take a slight spark to ignite that fire. This is because it’s what the world is hurtling toward, anyway. By the time the Tribulation comes, the entire world, every nation, every people group, and every kingdom will hate the Christians and make war with them- and overcome them. (Revelation 13:7, Revelation 12:7).

Our job is to make disciples, share the Good News of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, even as the world increasingly rejects this message. However, there are still people being converted. There will still be people converted by His grace throughout even the darkest days of the Tribulation, before the mark of the beast settles the dividing lines once and for all. So certainly now, share the Good News!

As for us who are already in Christ, please be ready with a mental mindset and a heart condition of coming persecution in the US…Canada…Australia… “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” (1 John 3:13)

Therefore, do not react with surprise or anger at anything from mild rejection to killing persecution, for “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Here are the news clips from the race violence

3 Blacks Randomly Kill White Man In TN. Mainstream Media Silent
“Memphis–A young white male was walking to his car on a city street late at night on August 12, when he was confronted by a trio of black individuals. They shot him dead. Police have arrested three people and charged them with first degree murder. But some in the victim’s family can’t understand why the shooting is being called a “failed robbery” when they say the evidence suggests something possibly more sinister: a hate crime.”

WWII vet, beaten by teens outside Eagles Lodge, dies
“WWII veteran Delbert Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two [Black]teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening. Belton, 89, died from the injuries he suffered in the beating Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.“

Don’t Ignore Race in Christopher Lane’s Murder
“Australian Christopher Lane was killed on Monday in Oklahoma by three teens, one of whom has said they were just “bored.” The right is complaining that the media is making nothing of the fact that two of the teens were black whereas Lane was white, as opposed to the massive alarm sounded in cases such as white (or white-ish) George Zimmerman killing black Trayvon Martin. And again the cry was heard that there is more “black-on-black” or “black-on-white” crime than “white-on-black,” and that young black men are in fact more of a problem than people like Zimmerman.”

RACE IN AMERICA: ‘Black mob violence’ – the forbidden words
“The murder of the Australian man in Oklahoma was horrific, but not unique. Or even rare. A similar episode of black mob violence happened just a few days ago in Memphis. And a few days before that in St. Paul. And before that in Burlington. And before that in Delaware, New Haven, Madison, Denver, Flint, Peoria, Springfield, Greensboro, Green Bay, and on and on and on. This is a long list with more than 500 cases of recent black mob violence in more than 100 cities, big and small, many on video – and all unreported as being part of an epidemic of black mob violence throughout America. “Beat Whitey Night,” for example: Two summers ago, black mobs beat and robbed dozens of patrons at the Iowa State Fair for three nights in a row. They also attacked police. Ever hear about it? Didn’t think so. That is because most editors are not comfortable with the words “black mob violence.” No matter that black mob violence exists plainly and exponentially out of proportion.”

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

The hatred for another person based on skin, now that it has been expressed in violence so regularly, will be all that much easier to express in violence against Christians. It’s coming. Fortunately, the Good News is already here.

damascus, gas, Isaiah, prophecy, syria

Update on the situation in Syria

Posted on August 26, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Here is a quick update on the situation in Syria. It seems that it is becoming more tenuous by the day. Below, an explanation of what the bible says about the future of Damascus

August 21

UK Telegraph photo

Al Jazeera reported, “Hundreds reported killed in Syria gas attack“
“Opposition groups say hundreds killed when government forces fired rockets with chemical warheads into Damascus suburbs.’

August 22

The next day, “Aid group tallies 355 dead after Syria’s alleged chemical attack; government blames rebels“
“Syrian state media accused rebels of using chemical arms against government troops in clashes Saturday near Damascus, while an international aid group said it has tallied 355 deaths from the purported chemical weapons attack earlier this week. Doctors Without Borders said three hospitals it supports in the eastern Damascus region reported receiving roughly 3,600 patients with “neurotoxic symptoms” over less than three hours on Wednesday morning, when the attack in the eastern Ghouta area took place. Of those, 355 died, said the Paris-based group. Death tolls have varied over the alleged attack, with Syrian anti-government activists reporting between 136 and 1,300 being killed.”

The Havana Times reported, “Syrian Activist on Ghouta Attack: “I Haven’t Seen Such Death in My Whole Life”
“The alleged attack occurred just days after U.N. inspectors arrived in the country to investigate previous attacks. We’re joined from Syria by Razan Zaitouneh, a lawyer and human rights activist who works with the Human Rights Violation Documentation Center. “We couldn’t believe our eyes,” Zaitouneh says of witnessing the attack’s aftermath. “I haven’t seen such death in my whole life.”

U.N. chemical weapons experts visit a hospital where wounded people
affected by an apparent gas attack are being treated, in the southwestern
Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya, August 26, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Abo Alnour Alhaji

August 23-25

Syria to let UN inspect ‘gas attack’ site
“United Nations inspectors are to be granted access to the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus, Syrian state TV has said, with the UN saying that the Syrian government has also agreed to observe a ceasefire during the visit. It followed an agreement between the Syrian foreign minister and the head of a UN delegation to the country on Sunday. The agreement “is effective immediately and it will allow UN delegation to investigate allegations of using chemical weapons on August 22 in Damascus suburbs”, the state TV reported.”

August 26

Bashar Al Assad

Fearing a U.S. strike, Syria warns of global “chaos”
“A senior Syrian official said Monday that his country will defend itself against any international attack and will not be an easy target as the U.S. and other countries ramp up rhetoric in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack last week on a rebel-held neighborhood of the Syrian capital. In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said airstrikes or other action against Syria would also trigger “chaos” and threaten worldwide peace and security.”

August 26

Kerry Says Chemical Arms Attack in Syria Is ‘Undeniable’

US Secretary of State Kerry said today:

Secretary of State John Kerry

“Well, for the last several days, President Obama and his entire national security team have been reviewing the situation in Syria. And today, I want to provide an update on our efforts as we consider our response to the use of chemical weapons. What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear: The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable and — despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured — it is undeniable.”

What does the bible say about Syria in the end times?

Syria is one of the nations that has been mentioned in the bible consistently since the beginning. The city of Damascus was first mentioned in Genesis 14:15. Abraham’s servant Eliezar was from Damascus (Genesis 15:2). It is an ancient city and an ancient nation.

However, despite the 6000 years of history we can trace back to Damascus and the nation of Syria itself, there is one stark piece of prophecy which we can safely say has not come to pass within all that history yet: Isaiah 17:1 says that Damascus will be destroyed. Never has that ancient city been uninhabited. The prophecy says that the city will be razed and made into rubble, so that no one lives there. This has never happened to Damascus:

Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. (Isaiah 17:1)

The prophecy of Isaiah speaks of a partial fulfillment in the next verses (vv. 2-3) when the Assyrians conquered Damascus in 732BC. However the city was never razed as verse 1 indicates. That is still to come.

The city of Damascus is slowly being ruined because of this two-year-old conflict in Syria. The prophecy seems to indicate that the final disposition of Damascus will be complete obliteration, desertion, and uninhabited.

If the US and other nations attack Syria, perhaps the president of Syria, Bashar al Assad will indeed unleash global chaos. Perhaps that time is now, if these unfulfilled prophecies we have been waiting so long to see will come to fruition soon. Not that we hope for people to die and go to their doom, but we do want to see the Lord come in justice and establish peace upon the earth. O, Lord, come quickly.

Meanwhile, keep watching events, but more importantly, keep reading your bible. That is the only barometer of truth.