(no title)

Children of hell and sons of heaven, part 2

Posted on March 15, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I wrote on Tuesday about the verses in Matthew 23 where Jesus pronounces woes upon the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus said they shut the door of heaven in people’s faces and make sons of hell twice as bad as they are. That was part 1: Children of hell and sons of heaven, part 1

Alternately, I got to thinking about the global church. There are those outside the church and those inside the church. I already talked about the children of hell who are outside the church. Let’s talk about our brethren inside. The beauty and glory of the church of Jesus Christ, His church, His bride, is unparalleled.

We each live in a civil sphere. Part of it is private (our home) and the rest is public (work, school, hobby, recreation, local church). But often we forget that part of that sphere is not just local, but global. It is the Bride of Christ.

Often, we tend to let our mind shrink the sphere of what we see and experience as church is the local body. That is fine. We are to make a laser-point focused commitment to the lives of our brethren. And in our secondary sphere, work or school, we see and engage with believers there too. We live out the gospel by living out the commands of Jesus as we go through our daily lives. Occasionally we may know people in our third sphere, community, who are believers. The checkout lady at the grocery store, the soccer mom who sets up her chair near yours, the teller at your bank. We may love on them as brethren and see them as part of our local church or near set of believers.

Sometimes we get involved with missions or go to listen to a missionary story. Who doesn’t love a good missionary story! I am constantly humbled by their bravery and their commitment, and love to listen to their stories about what God has done in the darkest of places. In those times we briefly think of the believers in other parts of the world but then we go back to thinking about and interacting with local believers.

Should I think of the global church body more often? Yes. I don’t mean only the martyrs in the dangerous places or the people we meet on a conference. I mean the regular old people who love Jesus and go to work and go to school and go to church every day elsewhere in all the other parts of the world. They aren’t radical and they aren’t famous and they just love and worship in their spheres like we do.

Do we forget that we’re connected?

I do sometimes. But kind people remind me.

Very loving people think to send an encouraging email. Or a Christmas card. Or sometimes the Lord burdens them and they send a provision through the mail, a gift card or a check. This week someone sent me a gift they made. I was so amazed by this. I really mean it. Amazed.

4 Coasters and 2 cat toys

My ministry is piggy-backed on the gifts the Holy Spirit has delivered to me. (1 Corinthians 12:11). He gave to me the gift of prophecy, discerning of spirits and teaching. (1 Corinthians 12:10, Romans 12:7). So I write, and speak, and write, and speak. I write on the blog and also occasionally within my church. I speak at my church and occasionally at other churches or venues. I am always seeking to make sure the gifts the Spirit distributed to me are used for His glory.

I’m involved in my church and my public sphere is actually very small. Aside from church twice a week, I go to work and I go home. Once a week I go to the grocery store. That’s it. The sphere of my ministry in the local public sphere is restricted to the local body. The ministry with the blog is wide, but invisible. I don’t see you all on the other end. So though I ‘know’ there are people out there, certainly, because you comment, lol, it can become easy to forget the global body that I’m part of.

With so much falsity rising in the world that we have to acknowledge and deal with, the Lord is gracious to show that there is also much love, also. When someone sends a note or an email or a present it reminds me so vividly of the common love we share. It is a nudge that we are part of a body, connected. Because it is not just the note or the email or the present, it is the time and energy and thought behind it. Someone out there who loves Jesus spent some time developing love and enacting it. This makes the church body across the world thrum.

What?

I envision the global church as scattered across the earth but connected like the strings of string theory and each one is thrumming with love. These strings that connect us glow with a heavenly glow. The harmonic strings that connect us vibrate with a supernatural quality because it is the Holy Spirit who weaves them.

He is always at work in believers all over the globe. He indwells each believer and helps us in our weakness. He convicts of sin, brings to mind the scriptures, molds our character and produces fruit. He is doing this in every believer all over the earth and this is the church. The church is love because it is part of the body of Christ who is the head, and HE is love.

We, the church, is His bride. And it is all about love. Though the false and evil in the world is rising and attacking the church, His bride is unbesmirched. It is indwelled by Holy Spirit, growing in fruits and surrounded by love. LOVE. We can’t see each other all over the place but we are out there. We’re beautiful because Jesus imputed His beauty and goodness to us. He is the Head but it is His body.

“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,” (Ephesians 1:15-17).

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” (Romans 1:8)

The faith of the saints and our love for Christ and one another is a glorious thing. We are united, tied with a scarlet thread of Christ’s blood which redeemed us. We love each other when we see each other. We love each other even though we don’t know each other. We love each other when we don’t see each other. The darker the day the brighter our love for each other grows.

“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” (2 Thessalonians 1:3)

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12)

Thank you all for being my brethren May our Holy God purify us even further so that we may love Him with all our soul, strength, mind and heart, and love one another as neighbors both near and far.

pope. conclave, rick warren

Pope frenzy? No, antichrist frenzy

Posted on March 13, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

As the Vatican cardinals gather to vote on a second ballot today, seeking their
ope, I want to make a reminder to everyone. Theologians more eloquent than I have spoken out about the Roman Catholic Church’s stance against the Gospel.

In this age of ‘tolerance’ we usually do not see the kind of language that church fathers used even as recently as 50 years ago when describing someone who is opposed to the Gospel: an antichrist. The RCC pope was most often referred to as an antichrist, having the antichrist spirit which John described in his verse in 1 John 4:3). We hear of the coming one man who will be antichrist, but if we say “that man or this man is an antichrist” we are soundly pooh-poohed, being called intolerant or politically correct.

Last night I listened to a John MacArthur sermon about the church, and this morning I read two other essays which discuss the pope in terms of antichrist. I bring your attention to them.

First, how the Pope was spoken of in the past:

John Wycliffe
“When the western church was divided for about 40 years between two rival popes, one in Rome and the other in Avigon, France, each pope called the other pope antichrist – and John Wycliffe is reputed to have regarded them as both being right: “two halves of Antichrist, making up the perfect Man of Sin between them.” -Ibid

Martin Luther (Lutheran)
“We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist…personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520) Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 2., pg. 121 by Froom. (In response to a papal bull [official decree]): “I despise and attack it, as impious, false… It is Christ Himself who is condemned therein… I rejoice in having to bear such ills for the best of causes. Already I feel greater liberty in my heart; for at last I know that the pope is antichrist, and that his throne is that of Satan himself.” –D’Aubigné, b.6, ch. 9.

Cotton Mather (Congregational Theologian,)
“The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.” Taken from The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom’s book, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, pg. 113.

John Wesley (Methodist)
Speaking of the Papacy he said, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers… He it is…that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped…claiming the highest power, and highest honour…claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” Taken from Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms by John Wesley, pg. 110.

John Knox (Scotch Presbyterian)
Knox wrote to abolish “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church” and that the pope should be recognized as “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.” Taken from The Zurich Letters, pg. 199 by John Knox.

In his sermon, MacArthur spoke of the history of the reformation and began speaking of John Hus, John Knox, and went forward to Martin Luther. He did so because he wanted us to understand that when we casually say, “Christ is the Head of the Church” that was a blood-bought concept purchased by martyrs who opposed Rome’s claim to the same and who died horrible deaths exalting the glorious name of Jesus and denouncing the pope.

The Pope’s claim to earthly supremacy and headship of the church is satan’s longest running attack on the church on earth. Not the only one, but the most successful, longest, and most heinous. The seeker driven pastor is of spirit of antichrist because they look to carnal means to expand the church. The purpose driven pastor is spirit of antichrist because they replace the bible with man-made, corporate methods to expand the church. The prosperity preacher is spirit of antichrist because they replace values and qualities of God with earthly possessions such as money and carnally-driven consumerism. The Charismatic is spirit of antichrist because they replace the word of God with personal experience as authoritative.

The sermon is excellent and heartfelt. You can listen or you can wait for the transcript.

Turning back to the pope, there is so much focus on the process to select a new one, after Pope Benedict’s dramatic resignation, it behooves us to remember that the pope is an antichrist. Remember, this is a man who claims to be Christ on earth, infallible and the authority over all the church, replacing Jesus. There is no higher blasphemy. We should not become so inured to this blasphemy that we cave under pressure to NOT say pope is a slave to sin, a man of perdition, and an antichrist. Here is what the folks at The Cripplegate say:

A friendly reminder: the Pope is (probably) the antichrist
“…The identification of the Pope as the antichrist was so ingrained in the Reformation era (for obvious reasons) that Luther stated it repeatedly. For example: “This teaching [of the supremacy of the pope] shows forcefully that the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ, because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power, which, nevertheless, is nothing, and is neither ordained nor commanded by God” (Smalcald Articles, II).”

And again Luther said,

““We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist…personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist” (sermon on Aug 18, 1520).”

A little known fact about Jonathan Edwards is that he actually wrote a church history book. Titled A History of the Work of Redemption (it is in Vol. 4 of the complete set of his works), he actually identifies the rise of the Papacy, which he places from 479-800, as “the rise of the antichrist.” Edwards describes the time period between 800 and the reformation as “the reign of the antichrist” and structures most of his outline around the theme of the gospel’s advance in relationship to the antichrist.

This was not a doctrine held only by Calvinists and Lutherans. Wesley wrote a book titled Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, and he too saw the antichrist of Revelation and of 2 Thessalonians as the Pope.

I give this long list simply to put forward a response to those that ask me if I care about who the next Pope will be. In short, I do not. And if calling the Pope the antichrist seems like a very unchristian thing to do, I assure you that it is not the theology of the thing that has changed in the last 50 years. Today’s reluctance to make that connection says a lot about how far our evangelical culture has drifted, and very little about the Pope.

The false doctrine spewing from the Vatican is so corrupt that it hardly bears thinking of how these men are allowed to go on taking another breath. God’s grace is surely evident in the fact that the ground does not open immediately and swallow them whole.

With that in mind, I bring you to another sad fact. Rick Warren, the man who is one of the pastors advising the makers of the History Channel mini-series, “The Bible,” has called for prayer and fasting for the cardinals as they “seek God’s will” in selecting a new ~~antichrist~~ pope.

As Erin Benziger wrote last night,

Such realities [of the pope’s antichrist spirit] make it difficult for the Christian to deny that the office of Pope is one that should be denounced and condemned by true believers, not one to be celebrated. How, then, ought the Christian respond to the following tweet posted early this morning by purpose-driven pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church?

Do you finally see? Do you see how so many of our “pastors” in our faith have gone off the path, if they were ever on it? How this end time of God’s work in the world is unveiling who is false and who is a wolf? God’s grace gives comfort but it also gives discomfort as we begin to see the masks come off and the wolves’ teeth bare in the gloaming, bloody with prey and looking for more.

The cardinals can no more find God’s will than rich old Lazarus begging for water in hell can find comfort. They would not know God’s will if they fell into a hole and came nose to nose with it. That Rick Warren, such a popular and influential pastor, should urge us to pray they select a new antichrist and that this process is within God’s will is so far out of bounds my heart is racing with amazement.

Do not be caught in a web of deceit that the pope is anything but an antichrist and for all likelihood, will become THE antichrist.

Benzigner finishes, “What a blessing it is to know that the true Body of Christ is never without its leader! Jesus Christ is the only Head that the true Church ever has had or ever will have. No mere man could surpass Him in power, greatness or glory and woe to the man who tries.”

false, pharisees

Children of hell and sons of heaven, part 1

Posted on March 13, 2013 by elizabethprata

I was reading Matthew the other day and I read Matthew 23 with a new eye. A verse jumped out at me. Don’t you love when that happens? Then the verse that jumps out stays in my mind and heart for a long time, rolling around like a holy marble.

Here is the verse:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:13-15).

Then the next day I received something in the mail that was really good. I was humbled by it and touched by it, and I began thinking about the global church body.

Since then, I’ve been pondering three things- pastors, elders, and leaders of the faith that shut the door of heaven in people’s faces (Matthew 23:13); second, children of hell that emerge from a false system Matthew 23:15), and third, what it means to be a child of God in the global body. (1 Corinthians 12:12). Children of hell vs. sons of God.

So the contrast of the children of hell and the sons of God will be the main point in two blog essays, one today and one tomorrow. Today, leaders who shut the door of heaven in peoples’ faces and the children of hell they make after themselves.

When the scribes and Pharisees arrested Jesus, Jesus endured six trials. Usually, as today, a person endures one. There were procedures for the trial, and as we saw with Paul, opportunity for appeal. Depending on the charge, a person could be arrested and tried in front of the High Priest and Sanhedrin, or arrested and tried in front of the Romans. Jesus was charged with blasphemy, so He went before the High Priest & Sanhedrin. He was also charged with sedition, so He went before the Romans (Pilate).

But because the charges against Him were illegitimate, Jesus went before the Jews three times and the Romans three times and then had one final appeal before both groups simultaneously.

The first time, they dragged Jesus away to stand in front of Annas. However, Annas wasn’t the High Priest at the time. Annas had been pressured to step aside due to becoming too powerful. Annas was sort of like the Godfather, taking a cut of all the Temple money exchange action and the sales of the beasts for worship. (more here). He didn’t have the position, but he had the power. So Jesus was dragged to Annas first.

“Not only were the moneychangers robbing the people, but history records that excessive prices were being charged by those who were selling animals used in Temple sacrifice. For example, according to Leviticus 12:6-8, after an Israelite woman had given birth, she was to bring a sacrifice to the temple, preferably a sheep. But if she was poor, she could take two doves or two pigeons for the sacrifice, since birds were much less expensive, one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering. The Jewish Mishna states that because of greed, the market for birds rose so much that not even the poorer woman of the community could afford them.”

The price for two birds had risen to one gold zuz. (I don’t know the exchange rate, but that sounds like a lot…). The Mishna gives this account in Kritut 1:7:

“If a woman had given birth five times during her life . . . after she brings a single sacrifice, she will be able to eat sanctified foods once again. But she is still under oath to bring four more. It eventually came to pass that the cost of two birds rose dramatically to one gold zuz. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel declared: “I pledge that before I go to bed this very night, the price of birds will fall!” He headed straight to the courtyard and instructed the people to obey the following regulation: “After giving birth five times, a woman . . . needs to bring just one sacrificial offering to cover all five births . . . That very day, the price of birds plummeted to one quarter of a silver zuz.” (source)

It was a struggle to keep the prices low. The greedy priests would take advantage of the travelers who brought an animal for sacrifice by fallaciously declaring it unfit, or with blemish, and order them to buy another animal at the temple grounds for an exorbitant price. If the Jews who brought money had Gentile coins, it meant the coin had a pagan image on it and were told they had to exchange the money for clean Jewish money. Of course, the exchange rates were sky-high.

“Even many of the high priests during the first century seemed to have given up their love of God for the love of money. Most notably the High Priest whom Jesus was brought before, Annas, along with his five sons who succeeded him to that position. The Temple sacrifice during their reigns can best be summed up by the words “The Marketplace of the family of Annas.” (Or in other translations, “The Bazaars of Annas”).

“The historian Josephus sheds some light on the actions of one member of this family, Annas the younger, the man who had James (the writer of he book of James in the Bible) stoned to death. Josephus states:
“The high priest, Annas, (after he had been relieved from his office) to some degree, was respected and feared by the citizens, but in a bad way; for he loved to hoard money. He became good friends with Albinus, and of the newly installed high priest. He did so by offering them bribes; he also had wicked servants, who associated with the most vilest sort of characters, and went to the thrashing-floors, and took the tithes that belonged to the priests by force, and beat anyone who would not give these tithes to them. So the other high priests that followed him as well as his servants acted likewise, without anyone being able to stop them; so that some of the priests, those who were old and were being supported with those tithes, died for lack of food.” A matter of fact, Jewish history records that these High priests who walked the temple courts during the first century, were despised by the majority of the people for their brutality and hunger for money.” (source)

Remember, Jesus cleansed the temple twice, once at the start of His ministry and once at the end. He called His holy ground a den of thieves, and this struck directly at the power and money structure Annas had so carefully accumulated. The hatred Annas had for Jesus was vicious. And we see the reaction of the Savior to the thievery and greed of Annas in Matthew 23 because He pronounced woes upon them all.

The actual High Priest at the time of Jesus’s trial was son-in-law Caiaphas. But the first trial was in the wee hours of the morning, at Annas’s house. Since Annas wasn’t even High Priest he had no authority to bring charges. The house was an illegitimate place for a trial. There were no witnesses nor was the time of day remotely legitimate. The whole thing was a sham. These people were a sham, and the Jews knew it.

Annas, Caiaphas and their ilk for generations had shut the door of heaven in people’s faces by behaving in these and other grossly selfish and carnal ways. They sought the best seats at the banquet table (Matthew 23:6). They hogged the most prominent seats in the synagogue. They colluded in murder plots against Jesus. (Mark 3:6). Not even life was sacred to them, and least of all the Sinless One’s life who came to bring them life!

In that way, they shut the door of heaven against the people.

Can you imagine the people, laboring under the onerous Laws, struggling to come up with a gold zuz to pay for two pigeons? Knowing they were going to get ripped off as they crossed the temple grounds to go and try to find some peaceful place to worship? Imagine what you feel like after only suspecting once like you got ripped off. You get angry and if you’re not careful you get bitter. These people knew it and they knew there was nothing they could do about it. It would happen again and again, year after year. So some just gave up, like the widow and her two cents.

“Jesus has cleansed the temple. He has said it is a cave of robbers. It is a false religious system and these people are devouring widows’ houses. Then in the sequence, He’s done with that speech, He’s exhausted, it’s been a long wearying day of interactions and teaching. He sits down in the Court of the Women, opposite the Treasury and it says, “He looked up,” which meant that He was looking down, that’s an exegetical key there, you can’t look up unless you were looking down…” So He looks up and He sees people coming by and putting their money in the system, just dumping their money in the receptacles that they had set up in that corrupt thing and He sees a widow come by and she puts two coins in, the only two she had, to go home and die. And He turns to His disciples and says, ‘This temple is coming down, not one stone upon another.’” And the point is this, any system that devours widows and takes their last two cents is corrupt, is coming down…. The desolation is still going on today, folks. And I think that last little moment when He saw that system eating the very last two pennies of that widow, He said, “That’s it.” So I say to you, “Woe to you prosperity preachers who take the widow’s money to buy your ten-thousand-dollar a night hotel room and your hundred-thousand dollar a month jet. Jesus feels about your system just like He felt about that. (source)

Others didn’t give up like the widow did, but instead joined the corrupt system. They became sons of hell, figuring, “they’re doing it, why not me? I want some action, too…” For example, we know the tax collectors took more than their share. Zacchaeus by grace of God was saved after an encounter with Jesus, and declared he would give back to all his ill-gotten gain four-fold. (Luke 19:1-10).

However, we see the ultimate example of the legacy of the greedy Pharisees making sons of hell twice as bad as they are, in the crowd that called for Jesus’s death. (Luke 23:18-21).

This bunch of people who had received grace, food, healing, and teaching, who followed Jesus and clamored for Him every day, crowds pressing close, now called for His death at the first opportunity. Children of hell indeed.

I began with the verse and I’ll end with it:

What are our Pharisees making? Hell for themselves and children of hell to follow them. They fly on private jets and quit their church to go on book tours and drink champagne and rip off the wounded and sick. They boast that they’ll throw brethren under the bus if they don’t conform to the pastor’s vision. They make promises that won’t come true and ascribe to the Holy Spirit the things the devil is doing.

These emergent, prosperity preaching, seeker hispter pastors are making people into children of hell. The children of hell are despondent, in despair, looking for hope in an open door to heaven, but all they are getting is ripped off as the Pharisees make merchandise of them and exploit them with false words and then they shut the door of heaven in their face.

No wonder Jesus condemned them with woes!

Tomorrow, the beauty of the global body, unbesmirched and glowing by the glory of Jesus!

israel, jerusalem

Temple Mount firebombing

Posted on March 11, 2013 by elizabethprata

This morning I read an interesting news item in the daily Israel National News

Unprecedented: Firebombs on Temple Mount
“Jewish Temple groups demand inquiry as videos show policeman’s uniform alight after he was struck by a fire bomb. Jewish Temple organizations demanded Sunday that the Prime Minister immediately establish an official commission of inquiry into Friday’s events on the Temple Mount and the way the Temple Mount police handled them. Friday’s events were worse even than those that took place during the Great Terror War that began in 2000, the groups said. For the first time ever, they said, fire bombs were thrown at police on the Mount, and one policeman caught fire and miraculously suffered only slight wounds.”

Jerusalem has been set apart by our Holy God as his land and His city since the beginning. (Psalm 132:13). It was where Melchizedek, both a priest and a king of “God Most High,” ruled from about 4 millennia ago. (Then called Salem, Genesis 14). It is the place where we read of Abraham binding Isaac for the sacrifice of the son which God commanded. (Genesis 22) it is where the Presence of God dwelt in the Temple. God chose to place His name there (2 Chronicles 6:6).

It is a holy patch of ground. That is the point.

The site has nothing to commend it in human terms. Jerusalem does not lie on any of the ancient important trade routes. There is no natural reason why this city should be one of the most important places in the world for more than four thousand years. A low range of hills are a barrier to winter rains from the Mediterranean Sea just 30 miles to the west. Just to the East, annual rainfall drops nearly to zero in the Judean Wilderness. The elevation to the East drops too- the Dead Sea is 15 miles away and is 1290 feet below sea level.

And yet it is hotly contested.

So the Muslims built a mosque on the patch and claim it is theirs and that the Jews never owned it or have claim to it. It is a contested piece of ground, and the only reason is that it is God’s and satan does not want God to have it.

The city is called the city of Peace, the root of Jerusalem, meaning Shalom. It has never known peace. Things are going to get much darker for Jerusalem before they get better. But it will. It will get better.

“And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ (Haggai 2:7-9)

“It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and)all the nations shall flow to it,
and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:2-4)

No more firebombs on God’s holy ground. That will be a glorious day. And get this:

“They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

What a glory and a delight when all the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord!

cross, easter, homosexuality

BBC Easter show to compare practicing homosexuals to Jesus on the cross

Posted on March 10, 2013 by elizabethprata

When I listened to John MacArthur’s monumental and devastating sermon in September which was a response to the Democratic Party platform, I thought the culture could not get any lower. (Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality). Even though I know in my head it can always go lower, I literally could not envision in my heart how it could. But we know that it always does, and indeed, it has.

In that sermon, which was at the time a low point for the global culture, MacArthur said-

“Isaiah knew sodomy was all around them, a part of life in Assyria, a part of life in Babylon, a part of life in Egypt. In fact there was much about homosexuality among the pharaohs. It took a while, it took about 150 years, but all of this kind of seeped in and what destroyed Sodom would destroy Judah. And later it would destroy Greece, and later it would destroy Rome. This is always a deadly sin, and always a defining sin, and always a damning sin.”

It can be seen as a low point because Romans 1:25-32 is a benchmark of progression of how a culture departs from God and what God does when that culture departs from Him. Rebellion against Him always takes the form of sin. A most damnable sin, and the only sin that IS a judgment, is homosexuality.

The political process at the Democratic Party adopted a platform that uplifted everything God hates and they denied God himself by removing His name from any and all affirmations included in the platform.

Ken Ham of the ministry Answers in Genesis wrote this weekend that the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is going to present a show on Easter that compares Jesus Christ to homosexuals. Ham writes,

“Yes, you read that title correctly: the British Broadcasting Company will be airing a radio Easter message that compares the treatment of practicing homosexuals to the Crucifixion of Christ. (Read more about the announcement at this link.) The host of the program will be Benjamin Cohen, the founder of the gay UK publisher PinkNews.

Now, Cohen has written an article titled “Like Jesus on the cross, the gay community know what it is to be abandoned.” He explains his view of the Crucifixion and how he believes it relates to the gay agenda. As you’ll see, his reasoning shows a complete lack of understanding of the Bible’s atonement message and why Christ came to earth as a man:

The story of Jesus is one that is inextricably tied up with the notion of him being an outcast and being both abandoned and rejected by his own people, the Jews. Jesus was abandoned because of something he said he couldn’t help, being born the son of God, the messianic figure for the redemption of the Jewish people and ultimately of mankind. Yet he was persecuted for it, treated as a traitor and ultimately executed.

One of the problems with Cohen’s statement is that the gospel accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry don’t center on rejection and abandonment. They are concerned with Christ’s purpose for coming to earth—to offer salvation to sinful man through living a perfect life, dying in our place, and rising again three days later.

What’s more, Christ and His disciples called people to repent and believe. You see, Scripture tells us that homosexual behavior is sinful—so Cohen’s comparison isn’t remotely valid. “

Please go to the link at Ham’s website to read the rest of his essay.

If anything, this shows the persistence of satan. If anything this shows us that sin always has another depth to sink to. This is why the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins to pay the debt of God’s wrath over them had to be Jesus- because He is eternal. His infinite Goodness and Holiness paid the infinite and unholy debt of the depth of the world’s sin.

Aren’t we glad that in one way, when we see sin sinking so low, we can also see Jesus as so high and lifted up?

In the year of the death of king Uzziah, I saw also the Lord sitting upon an high throne, and lifted up, and the lower parts thereof filled the Temple. The Seraphims stood upon it, every one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole world is full of his glory. And the lintels of the door cheeks moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me: for I am undone, because I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, and Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me with an hot coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with the tongs: And he touched my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. (Isaiah 6:1-8)

He is seated on the throne, powerful King of all the universe, having paid the debt of even these people who compare Holy God to polluted sin. That is why we worship Jesus, He is beautiful in His holiness and purity.

MacArthur concludes the sermon series from last fall by saying:

“What’s wrong with our world? Rejected God; same thing that’s always been wrong. What are the solutions to all of the things that come from that? The only solution is to worship God by honoring His Son, the only Savior, the only hope. People talk about hope and change. There’s only one hope–that’s Christ. There’s only one change–that’s regeneration. Otherwise nothing changes and there’s no hope.”

bible, preaching

A good word from the Shepherds’ Conference: quotes and quotables

Posted on March 10, 2013 by elizabethprata

I love the annual Shepherds’ Conference at Grace to You. It is a conference organized thirty years ago at John MacArthur’s church with the sole and express purpose of training up men and supporting them in their leadership positions at their home churches. It is a time for the pastors of our faith to come and enjoy being preached to, nurtured, prayed over, and to worship together. It is a moving experience to see them gather and sing, praising the Lord and loving on each other.

Of course, the preaching is stellar. It is expository, the word is central and it is illuminated by men of maturity and wisdom. There is audio available for the sessions here. The web page will soon have the video of these services, but they are already appearing on Youtube as you can see the links below.

Here are some of the many words of wisdom which struck me to the heart. I share them with you and hope that you may find time to click on one or more of the links to listen to the singing or hear a good word. Have a blessed Sunday.

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

[Street demonstrating atheists] “are not nearly as dangerous as church leaders who cultivate a gentle, pious, friendly demeanor but they hack away at the foundations of the faith, under the guise of keeping in step with the changing world.” ~Phil Johnson, Shepherds’ Conference 2013, general session #2

“No Christian should imagine naively that heresy is always conspicuous. That every purveyor of theological mischief is going to lay out his agenda in plain and honest terms. They almost never do that. Wolves come in sheep’s clothing.” ~Phil Johnson, Shepherds’ Conference 2013, general session #2

“There is a dramatic account of God’s judgment in Leviticus 9 and 10. The people had been ready to worship. They now had priests. They had standards by which they were to come before God, and offer Him their worship. In the 9th chapter, they came according to God’s law, a sacrifice was offered, God sent down miraculous fire and consumed the sacrifice. In chapter 10, however, another sacrifice was offered, and God consumed the offerers, because they violated His standard, and offered strange fire.” … Worship is a very serious matter. How you come before a holy God is the most important thing you will ever do.” ~John MacArthur, Shepherds’ Conference 2013 – General Session #9

“A high view of Christ leads to a high and holy regard for the church that He purchased with His own blood. A high view of Christ leads to a driving commitment to reach the world for Christ. But conversely, a low view of Christ produces low worship, little regard for His word, low esteem of the pulpit, low standard of holiness, low involvement of spreading God’s word. Everything hinges upon your vision of who Jesus Christ is. That is why we need to see the awe-inspiring vision of Christ.” Steve Lawson, Shepherds’ Conference 2013 – General Session #3

“Too many people see the Christ of the manger. The Christ of Galilee and Jerusalem. Too many only see the Christ of the Garden of Gethsemane, the Christ of the cross at Calvary and the empty tomb. As glorious as these aspects of Christ’s earthly and ministry are, they do not tell the whole story. If we are to grow in grace and mature in faith, we must not only see Christ as He once was, but as He now is: KING of Kings, and LORD of Lords! We must see not only the meek Messiah and the humble Galilean, but the Sovereign Lord, the Head of the church. The enthroned Christ invested with all power and authority in the universe. … The one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” ~Steve Lawson, Shepherds’ Conference 2013 – General Session #3

Of hymns: “We were singing songs the saints have sung for a very long time. I am not on a rant against modern technologies- I use them. I am not on a rant against all contemporary and modern hymns. There are many that are wonderful and we sang one of them tonight. But it is very important that we sing songs that people know are as worship of the One True and Living God. That these songs are not merely emotional expressions that end up flashing on a screen and then disappear. They are songs that belong to the saints. ~Al Mohler, Shepherds’ Conference 2013, General session #6 [emphasis mine]

I second that. I appreciate OUR music. It is not the world’s music, it is immediately identifiable as ours, the church’s, and separate from the world. It is worshipful music, not just worship music.

“God is not just the mayor of Jerusalem. He is the judge of ALL.” ~Al Mohler, Shepherds’ Conference 2013, General session #6

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

Now for some good, short essays on other topics:

What About Those Who Have Never Heard?

Locusts arrive in Tel Aviv, Israel (it’s a small pack and not a massive swarm. Officials hope that already-completed preventative spraying will keep them at bay)

Damascus, Syria is still imploding.
“The danger of Syria’s impending implosion”: 5 ways the collapse of Syria might be more dangerous than most people realize.”

Specks and Beams: the importance of judging

The sun isn’t producing many sunspots like it was ‘supposed’ to in its solar maximum. Scientists can’t figure out why it’s quiet…too quiet.

faith, john wesley, repentance

The isthmus of life

Posted on March 9, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of this life, between two boundless oceans.” ~John Wesley, 1747

An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas, usually with water on either side. A tombolo is an isthmus where the strip of land consists of a spit or bar.

The sandy isthmus or tombolo connecting
North and South Bruny Island in Tasmania, Australia

One of my favorite spots on earth is at Lubec Maine, and this shot is of the East Quoddy Lighthouse at Campobello Island, New Brunswick Canada. It is across from Lubec. The famous tides in this area rush in and rise to heights of thirty feet or more. This narrow spit of sand submerges in furious fashion when the tide comes in and covers it up.

If you are standing on the sand when the tide comes in you will find that the current stirs up the sand and pebbles and what you thought was solid to stand on becomes completely unstable. The forces of the water sweep you off your feet and carry you away. Your strength will not able to overcome the strength of the water. Its chilling effect weakens you and hypothermia sets in rapidly. The webpage for the lighthouse warns–

“If you become stranded on the islands by the tide, wait for rescue. Even former keepers of this lighthouse have lost their lives by misjudging the strong, frigid, fast-rising tidal currents, and tide-pressurized unstable pebble ocean floor, while attempting to make this crossing. During a summer in the 1990s, two visitors attempted to swim across this passage. One made it across, but the other was swept away by the current. After a rescue by boat, both had been stricken with hypothermia, were rushed to the hospital — and luckily, survived.”

The page ends with this warning:

DANGER!–TAKE NO RISKS & DO NOT LINGER!

We think of Wesley’s notion of life as an isthmus. It is narrow and temporary. The boundless oceans of heaven and hell are on either side, pressing in. Eventually the land gives way and we are carried away by one, or the other.

Which direction you go depends on your attitude toward Jesus. At the moment of your death, the difference in direction will all come down to one point, one only. Jesus. He will lift you from the hopeless, chilling waters of your looming eternity in hell and bring you to the warm bosom of Himself in glorious heaven. The difference in which boundless ocean you will spend your eternity is repentance. Repent and be saved!

What, then, is the connection between repentance and salvation? The Book of Acts seems to especially focus on repentance in regards to salvation (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20). To repent, in relation to salvation, is to change your mind in regard to Jesus Christ. In Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2), he concludes with a call for the people to repent (Acts 2:38). Repent from what? Peter is calling the people who rejected Jesus (Acts 2:36) to change their minds about Him, to recognize that He is indeed “Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Peter is calling the people to change their minds from rejection of Christ as the Messiah to faith in Him as both Messiah and Savior.

Repentance and faith can be understood as “two sides of the same coin.” It is impossible to place your faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior without first changing your mind about who He is and what He has done. Whether it is repentance from willful rejection or repentance from ignorance or disinterest, it is a change of mind. Biblical repentance, in relation to salvation, is changing your mind from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ.

What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation?

So this is the message: DANGER!–TAKE NO RISKS & DO NOT LINGER! Every day one lives on earth without knowing Jesus is a danger. You are taking risks with your eternity. Do not linger in repentance and faith in Jesus.

history channel, the bible, weird

Mark Burnett says ‘weird’ things happened on set of ‘The Bible’

Posted on March 9, 2013 by elizabethprata

Christian Post reports some more on Mark Burnett‘s miniseries “The Bible”. Burnett reportedly is pleased that the hand of God was over the production and is confident that it will be the most-watched thing that he, Mark Burnett, has ever produced and they will be watching what he, Mark Burnett made, even 50 years from now.

Let’s take a station break for this verse. And now, our sponsor, GOD:

“A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.” (Proverbs 29:23)

And … we’re back. Burnett went on to say that the proof of God’s hand on the production is that weird things happened. Once, get this, the wind blew! It has been a still night, but then the wind blew. And for 20 seconds!

That is not a miracle. It’s called “weather”.

In another incident, the set’s snake wrangler, who usually recovered one or two snakes per day on set to protect crew members, found 48 cobras and vipers hidden near the scene of the cross, where the crew was to film Jesus’ crucifixion.

In a third incident, part of the man playing Jesus’s costume floated away in the river and a boy brought it back a couple of days later. That’s not a miracle. That’s manners.

And with those, Burnett ascribes some sort of Godly supernatural glory or blessing to the production.

I want to remind one and all of some things. I have a particular peeve with people who ascribe God to every manifestation of every twitch under the sun. Things like, “I sneezed as I drove under the bridge so that means God will bridge the gap” or some such tripe like that. Or when the toast comes out burned and someone sees the face of Jesus on it. John MacArthur told of a woman who burned her tortilla and thought the face on it was the face of Jesus and she made a shrine and thousands came to look at it. He said,

“Well, evidently, skepticism is a rare commodity these days. People’s hunger for the mysterious and the astonishing and phenomena is a little unsurpassed in the history of the church. It’s pretty popular stuff in the secular world and it’s found its way into the church. Eager to witness miracles, many people seem willing to believe that almost anything unusual is a genuine heavenly wonder. The problem with that is it poses a severe danger for the church because it plays right into the hands of Satan, doesn’t it? False wonders and false signs, false miracles, extremely believable ones, the Bible tells us will be the primary tool of Satan in the end times. Jesus said, “False Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the elect.” Then He added as if knowing that many would ignore the warning, “Behold, I have told you in advance,” Matthew 24:24-25.”

Like, the wind blowing in the Sahara is not a heavenly miracle, people!

He says, “And the types of miracles that are being claimed today are absolutely nothing like New Testament miracles, absolutely nothing like them. In fact, the types of miracles today could be distinctly seen as different than New Testament miracles. Jesus and the apostles instantly and completely healed people born blind, a paralytic, a man with a withered arm. All obvious and disputable miracles, even Jesus’ enemies didn’t challenge the reality of His miracles that He had the people there to verify them. He raised the dead, of course, as we well know. They never did a miracle that was slow, they never did a miracle that took time, they never did a miracle that was less than permanent. By contrast, most modern miracles are partial, gradual, temporary, sometimes reversed, and almost impossible to verify.”

The snakes, now that seems like it was more from satan than from God.

Not everything is a miracle and not everything that happens that’s “weird” is from God. Satan is coming with signs and lying wonders, remember. (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

“Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.” (Revelation 13:14).

Sometimes in the past, God worked a miracle that circumvented His natural laws in order to accomplish something He wanted to accomplish. In most cases today, and even in the past, He works through providence.

When Burnett claims weird things happened and they were from God so that meant God’s hand was upon the production, he is claiming direct Divine Intervention. Mary’s virginal gestation of the baby Jesus was Divine intervention. The Red Sea parting is Divine Intervention. As GotQuestions explains:

“At the opposite end of the spectrum are believers who view virtually everything as an example of divine intervention. A good parking spot being open is clearly a miracle from God. A sudden gust of wind or the chance meeting of a friend is clearly a sign from God to move in a different direction. While this mindset is more biblical than the approach a deist might take, it poses serious problems. Interpreting virtually everything as divine intervention can lead to very subjective conclusions. We tend to read into things what we want. It is tempting to study cloud shapes to find “proof” for what we want God’s will to be instead of truly seeking God’s will in a biblical manner.” (Romans 12:1-2). … “But the Bible does not instruct us to seek hidden spiritual meanings in everyday life events. While we should be aware that God does intervene, we should not spend every waking minute trying to decode secret messages from above.”

I pray that for you, the real miracle you experience is the living, breathing word of God, alive and profitable for everything.

sheep, shepherd

The Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd

Posted on March 8, 2013 by elizabethprata

The John MacArthur, Grace to You annual Shepherds’ Conference is going on right now in California. You can follow the twitter feed at #shepconf, or go to the website at ShepherdsConference.org

The purpose of this annual conference is to minister to the pastors, elders, and leaders of the local church. Its focus is to make the conference a time for our men to be refreshed and rejuvenated in their ministry. Men from around the world attend, and it is a beautiful sight to see and hear thousands of men singing hymns such “It is Well With My Soul” and seeing them gather. It is also wonderful to be able to pray for so many at once.

One of the first sermons preached at the 2013 conference was by Phil Johnson about the Shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd.

“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3)

Brethren, Jesus is with us, always. No matter what you are going through, He is with you. He cares for you as one of His lambs, nourishing us, rounding us up, leading us to calm waters, giving us pastures to refresh us. He protects us from wolves and gives us shelter under His wings to steady us from the storms. How good to hear His voice, in the bible, and how great it will be to hear it audibly when He, the Chief Shepherd, calls us home, and we follow Him as the sheep we are. (John 10:27, 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Is there anything more comforting than knowing that the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, knows His sheep…us?

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,” (Hebrews 13:20).

Abel was a shepherd, and when Cain killed Abel Abel’s blood cried out from the ground. (Genesis 4:2, Genesis 4:10). David was a Shepherd, and perhaps this was why God called David a “man after my own heart”. (Acts 13:22). Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11). “and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:24)

And so on Crucifixion Day, it was the blood of Jesus that cried out from the ground. (Matthew 27:51).

Yet the Shepherd rose again! Our Chief will care for His sheep forever!

“And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1 Peter 5:4).

But the glory is His. Let us cast our crowns back to Him and praise Him for His work in heaven and on earth. There is nothing we are going through that you and He can’t get through together.After all, he created us, He will keep us in His care.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 4:10-11

Uncategorized

It’s a young earth, and believing that makes a difference in your approach to the Gospel

Posted on March 8, 2013 by elizabethprata

I bring your attention to this article from One News Now/Christian Press. It is a young earth, brethren. It makes a difference.

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

Noted Apologist Calls Out Evangelical Leaders Who ‘Undermine the Word of God’

A noted biblical apologist and expert on creationism is calling out several of his colleagues. An audience of some 300 people at the recent National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention in Nashville were shocked to learn of the number of evangelical leaders who don’t believe in a literal 6 days of creation narrative.

At the recent NRB convention Ken Ham, president and founder of Answers in Genesis and the Cincinnati-based Creation Museum, gave a lecture entitled, “The Age of the Earth, Biblical Authority, and the Downfall of the USA.”

During his presentation Ham showed video clips of prominent evangelicals to illustrate how some modern Christian theologians are, what he calls, compromising the Word of God.

He believes in a literal interpretation of the creation account found in the Book of Genesis.

“I’m not attacking these people personally and I’m not saying they aren’t Christians or preach the Gospel or I don’t respect them,” Ham told Christian Press News. “I’m dealing with a particular issue that is important in which God’s Word is being undermined. Wittingly or unwittingly many of these famous Christian leaders are really undermining the authority of the Word of God.

Ham mentioned, in particular, John Piper, founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, co-pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla. Dr. R.C. Sproul and Mark Driscoll, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, as Christian leaders who have drifted away from teaching a young earth perspective.

“Many Christian leaders today will say ‘who cares what Genesis says and what does it matter about the age of the earth as long as you trust in Jesus. We need to go out there and preach the Gospel,’” said Ham. “But the point we need to understand is the Gospel comes from this book called the Bible and if generations of people have been led to believe they can’t really trust the Bible or lead to doubt that you can trust its authority or doubt its history – eventually they will reject the Bible and won’t listen to the Gospel.”

During a recent interview on the Bill O’Reilly show, Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, acknowledged his belief that the earth could have been created 13.7 billion years ago.

“I think it very well could have been,” Jeffress told O’Reilly. “One of the things fundamentalist Christians mess up on is they try to say the earth is 6,000 years old. The Bible never makes that claim.”

Ham denounced Jeffress statement maintaining the Bible makes no such claim that the earth is billions of years old.

“Pastors need to be told that when you do that, you undermine the authority of Scripture,” Ham said. “They are helping atheism by undermining the authenticity of the word of God.”