Posted in malachy, pope benedict resigns, prophecy of the popes

UPDATED–Pope Benedict resigned- will the next pope validate Malachy’s prophecy?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is an update:

The news broke early this morning EST, and I wrote this entry initially a mere few minutes before I had to leave for work. In the essay I wrote century instead of millennium. I apologize for using the wrong word. I have since fixed the mistake.

There is a bit more news now about the reactions of the Bishops when Pope Benedict tendered his resignation. I find their reactions very interesting. This really is big news. The Guardian reporter wrote:

Pope Benedict XVI resigns owing to age and declining health
Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world and left the Catholic church reeling when he said on Monday that he would resign – the first pope to do so since the middle ages. The move, announced without warning, will take place on 28 February and leave the papacy vacant until a successor is chosen. A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff’s aides were “incredulous” when he told them he would step down because he was too weak to fulfil his duties. The pope summoned a meeting of cardinals to tell them of “a decision of great importance for the life of the church”. One of those called to hear the announcement, the Mexican prelate Monsignor Dr Oscar Sánchez, said none of the cardinals had expected it. “The pope took a sheet of paper and read from it. He just said that he was resigning and that he would be finishing on February 28,” he said. “The cardinals were just looking at one another. Then the pope got to his feet, gave his benediction and left. It was so simple; the simplest thing imaginable. Extraordinary. Nobody expected it. Then we all left in silence. There was absolute silence … and sadness.”

Photo: AFP Agence France-Presse Lightning strikes St Peter’s dome at Vatican on day the Pope announced resignation, by Filippo Monteforte

Thirdly, I was asked in the comment stream why I believe the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is a false church. With the unbelievable amount of hits on this essay and the intensity with which the world is now looking at and discussing the RCC, I will be happy to answer. It is a good chance to witness for the true faith of Jesus. I answered in a separate essay shortly and here is the link.

——————end updates—————–

Pope Benedict to resign at the end of February
“Pope Benedict XVI will resign at the end of February, the Vatican Press Office tells Fox News.

A spokesman for the Vatican did not have any more information, and the announcement was just made to the Catholic church. A pope has not resigned for 600 years.”

Now, THAT is historic, something happening that hasn’t happened for over half a millennium.

No doubt, the ‘Prophecy of the Popes’ will come up in your mind at this historic moment in time. I say, ‘Watch, test all things, dispense with the false and hold fast to the good.’

With high levels of skepticism and even with one eye shut, holding our nose, I refer to the “The Prophecy of the Popes” by Malachy. This ‘extra-biblical’ prophecy according to a Wikipedia definition “is a list of 112 short phrases in Latin. They purport to describe each of the Roman Catholic popes (along with a few anti-popes), beginning with Pope Celestine II (elected in 1143) and concluding with the successor of current pope Benedict XVI, a pope described in the prophecy as “Peter the Roman”, whose pontificate will end in the destruction of the city of Rome.”

In effect, this extra-biblical prophecy says that the next pope will be called Petrus Romanus and will be the last pope presiding over the papacy during a time of terrible global tribulation.

The longest and final motto of Malachy’s prophecy reads in the original Latin:
“In eſecutione extrema S.R.E. ſedebit. Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.”

This is usually translated into English as:
“In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit [i.e., as bishop]. Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End.”

I am no fan of extra-biblical revelation. However, it IS pretty interesting that a guy in some tiny Irish town a thousand years ago made a list of popes that ends at exactly a time when true believers see the biblical prophecies already coming together. Malachy could have listed 100 popes, or 150 popes, but he didn’t. The list ends…at this point in time just as Christians are seeing the tribulation events appearing on the horizon. That merits a ‘hmmmm’ from me.

Compelling, but don’t build a doctrine out of it. The currently reported weakness of the Pope and the prospect of installing another one is always interesting because by far the Roman Catholic Church is one of the largest false religions in the world, with roots that can be directly traced back to the first false religion, Babylon. For that reason alone, the new Pope is worth watching, because it is highly likely the Catholic religion will have some role to play when true believers are raptured away. As head of that religion, the Pope will need to send assurances to the billion Catholics left behind. The Pope, whoever he will be, will be prominent in the news and on the world stage. There are approximately 1.1 billion Catholics, and 1.5 billion Muslims so the number of false religion adherents left behind will undoubtedly embody and perpetuate the Lie. (2 Thess 2:11).

If the next pope is Peter the Roman, we tend to will believe the prophecy of Malachy. If he is not Peter the Roman, then we know according to the standard for prophetic validation set out in Deut. 18:21-22 the prophecy was false. Because with all things, the bible is the only standard of truth.

Posted in hell, tornado, transparent dress

Designer creates dress that turns clear when wearer gets excited

Posted on by elizabethprata

Essential reading: Tim Challies on hell

“The Bible warns us that those who do not accept the gospel of Jesus Christ “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).”

Read more at his blog. It is an excellent presentation of this essential doctrine.

I’m so sad at reading of the huge tornado at Hattiesburg MS, but thankfully so far no deaths are reported. The youtube video uploaded immediately after the storms rolled through were jaw dropping. Weather Channel producer Shawn Reynolds tweeted, “Within 48 hrs, I’ve produced separate shows on historic blizzards & tornadoes. If I ever get bored with my job, shoot me.”

And let’s not forget another 6.0-plus quake at Santa Cruz Islands. (M6.3). The big quakes there never stopped. It has been a busy day and it is not over yet. Weather is getting c.r.a.z.y!

As we edge ever closer to the singularity…”A Netherlands-based fashion designer has created a high-tech dress line that turns clear when you get excited. How’s that for being transparent on a date? Called Intimacy — from designer Daan Roosegaarde, founder of Studio Roosegaarde — the project aims to explore the relationship between technology and the body’s interactions.”

A transparent dress? Hm. I guess he never read the end of Forever Amber.

Posted in satan

Compare the first words of Satan and the first words of Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

Just for follow up on my previous post about the Law of First Mention, look at this:

Our adversary’s first words in the bible are:

“Yea, hath God indeed said?” (Genesis 3:1)

Satan followed up his penchant for doubting by saying to Jesus, “and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” (Matthew 4:6a). Notice the “IF”. Satan makes you doubt what you know by incessantly questioning the Word. False teachers under the influence of satan deny God and will teach you in satan’s subtle way.

Contrast that with the first recorded words of Jesus!

“And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 KJV).

Nothing was recorded of what Jesus said as a child for the first 12 years of his life. But when He is first recorded, it is to show His intent to be doing God’s work! Magnificent!

The last recorded words of Jesus are “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Leonard Ravenhill said those were “the greatest words ever uttered, by the greatest Man who ever lived. In these three words I see the consummation of all the Old Testament truth and the germination of all New Testament truth.”

The entire life of Jesus was devoted to doing God’s work. Oh by the way, the first words He uttered upon entering His ministry was “It is written”. (Matthew 4:4). The work Jesus submitted to was according to the Word of God.

We can be about our father’s business, according to the will and the word of God, or we can incessantly question what God hath said. There is no in-between!

Posted in interpretation, law of first mention, satan

Little foxes eventually grow up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Genesis 3 is where we first meet satan–

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Other translations for the word crafty are, cunning, shrewd, cunning.

The first mention in the bible of a doctrine is very important. This is actually an interpretive doctrine called The Law of First Mention. The Law of First Mention is defined as

“the principle that requires one to go to that portion of the Scriptures where a doctrine is mentioned for the first time and to study the first occurrence of the same in order to get the fundamental inherent meaning of that doctrine. When we thus see the first appearance, which is usually in the simplest form, we can then examine the doctrine in other portions of the Word that were given later. We shall see that the fundamental concept in the first occurrence remains dominant as a rule, and colors all later additions to that doctrine. In view of this fact, it becomes imperative that we understand the law of first mention.” (source)

The first time we are introduced to satan, the very first thing we’re told is that he is crafty. The verse doesn’t say, “Watch out for him, he is evil!” The verse does not say, “He will destroy all that is good!” No. The verse says first that he is cunning.

Our lesson is that we must watch for the cunning wiles of smooth flatterers who slyly come in among us secretly bringing destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1). Yet they are tolerated. It is erroneously thought that as long as they are small sins, little errors, or tiny doctrinal mistakes, they are manageable.

Yet the Song of Solomon says

“Take us the foxes, the little foxes, which destroy the vines: for our vines have small grapes.” The Geneva bible explains the verse well. “Suppress the heretics while they are young, that is, when they begin to show their malice and destroy the vine of the Lord.”

photo credit: Matt Tillett via photopin cc

Little foxes grow up.

Source Wikipedia

Satan is subtle. Don’t dabble in errors. If you know a book, or a teaching, or a teacher is false, stay away! Don’t engage. Even putting a toe in gives satan a hold to exploit you. He will make you doubt what you know. Just ask Eve (Genesis 3). Seek the truth in the word and be diligent about not exposing yourself to little foxes. Because little foxes are hungry want is prey … and they grow up.

Posted in ecclesiastes, love

Eternity set in our hearts

Posted on by elizabethprata

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Barnes Notes eloquently explains the verse: “God has placed in the inborn constitution of man the capability of conceiving of eternity, the struggle to apprehend the everlasting, the longing after an eternal life.”

If you notice in verse 11 two important things: we endlessly search for eternity, and the search for it outside of God will be futile.

I usually write about facts rather than emotions, and I write less about myself, but in this case I’d like to illustrate the Ecclesiastes verse by sharing something from my life. It is a true praise to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and how He draws men to God. (John 6:44). Even though I am ten years post-salvation, I am still acutely aware of how I felt prior to the grace of Jesus descending on me. I remember distinctly how it felt to be searching, ever searching. I even chronicled the search.

I live for information. That is my unique quirk. I love it. I absorb it, connect it, sift it, and apply it. And as for making attempts to understand my own place in the world and my purpose, I chronicled everything I ever did. I obsessively chronicled. I jotted down notes in a calendar that had large squares. I kept scrapbooks with ticket stubs and restaurant napkins. I wrote down where I went and what I did.

Before I was saved, I thought, somehow, that if I chronicled enough information, that a pattern would emerge. I hoped that some previously undiscovered piece of information would drop into place and suddenly I’d understand the mystery, that the puzzle would be complete. What the ‘mystery’ was, I didn’t know. I was looking for understanding of a larger context, not knowledge for its own sake, but searching for the missing piece that would help me make sense of the world. Because the world most assuredly did not make sense.

I would actively think on these things, engage in meta-cognition as to why I was endlessly searching for information, knowledge, and purpose, and chronicle and make little books.

Look what I wrote in one of my little books in 2003 as I neared the moment of repentance at the cross. Mind you, I grew up outside of church and had zero church experience. My father is an atheist and my mother a bitter lapsed Catholic. They hate God. I was raised without any religious instruction and absent any Godly beauty at all. I was clueless as to the Christian terms like salvation and kingdom.

“The world is awesome in its complexity and contains all the customary codes of conduct, a myriad of occupations and vocations, behavioral nuances of every description, emotional obligations, and ethical standards. The world also contains a secret kingdom. It dwells within the common world, but is invisible to nearly all. Only some comprehend this kingdom.”

Now you tell me that He doesn’t set eternity in our hearts. My soul was longing for His kingdom and I knew it was there. I knew it. But where was it?

I had written that quote in a little booklet I’d made. The booklet was a parable of a girl’s journey toward the secret kingdom, which was a journey toward the cross, but I did not know that at the time. I pictured the journey in written form of a girl looking for something. I had written,

“So one day she gathered her belongings and put them into a handkerchief and swung it over her shoulder and went slowly toward the kingdom.”
photo credit: Lens linker via photopin cc

I was right to picture the world as a desert. Absent Jesus, the thirst will never be slaked. I had written,

“She flew and flew. She saw the world. She did not know it, but she was looking for something. With all that flying, though, she was always thirsty. She drank a lot of juice. Sometimes she thought it was strange that as much as she drank she was already thirsty again. The juice was just not satisfying.”

On and on the insatiable need for knowledge went, the endless journeying. I wrote:

“Sometimes the girl would tremble in bewilderment. Everything was so complicated! Why was she always thirsty?… She studied all the maps on how to get into the kingdom. She thought about it very hard. Her thoughts taxed her little girl brain. She knew this was necessary. No matter what, she belonged in the kingdom.”

There was only one problem.

After a journey of twenty-four months and forty-two years and three days, she came near to the kingdom. She could feel it, she was almost there! She crossed the river and flew over the hedge…and hit her head! She fell down. She peeked at the hedge again and saw a huge pane of glass. She looked all the way up to the sky and the moon and the glass went all the way up, too.

This is all still me, intuitively seeking God. The Holy Spirit had drawn me sooo close. In retrospect, the clarity with which I see the Gospel laid out in what I thought was an afternoon’s art project to lass the time is stunning. All the while I had been attempting to get into the kingdom of my own efforts. I “studied maps.” But man-made philosophy won’t tell the seeker how to get on the narrow way. I flew and flew, traveling the world. All that did was alert me to the fact that there is a God, but brought me no closer to my own repentance. The “freedom” I thought I’d had was simply my own sins piling up, trapping me like a fly in a jar. I simply could not get there on my own efforts. This was where I ended the story:

She flew round and round and soon realized that though the while time she thought she was free, she was trapped in a jar. She looked up and there was no top on the jar, but it was a long way up. She tried three times, but she could not get out. She didn’t know what to do. So she curled up on the bottom of the jar and cried.

In the little booklet I’d made, though I ended the written part of the story with being trapped in a glass jar with no lid on it, I left a good many blank pages after that last scene. I knew there was more to come. The story would continue. I refused to believe that my story ended in despair, and make no mistake, I was in total despair.

But God wasn’t done with me. He brought me to the end of myself before I could realize that He and only He could save me from this terrible despair. In the jar, there was only me and despair. I had to face it. The despair was caused by my sin. Only at the end of myself would He give me entry into the Kingdom.

Getting back to Ecclesiastes.

“I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.” (Ecc 3:14).

GOD HAS DONE IT. All the information in the world would not save me. GOD HAS DONE IT so I cannot boast. He lifted me from my sins and set me into eternity, my heart finally matching with the secret reality I knew was there but could not get to on my own. Only IN eternity can I discover what God has designed: redemption glory through the Son Jesus.

I called out to Him and I was saved. And you know what? I stopped chronicling. God has done it! All the chronicles of everything from the beginning to the end is already in the finest chronicle of all: the Bible.

Salvation did come, thanks to His grace, not my works nor my efforts. His grace lifted me from the bondage of the glass jar, lifted me right out of my sins and I knew, KNEW, that nothing I could have ever done would have lifted me. As a matter of fact, the harder I tried, the lower I went. Only despair awaits even the most earnest and diligent seeker, until repentance comes. He did it.

You see, though we seek eternity, too many people want it on their own terms. Or in their own time. Or in their own way. That was me. Everything I did was futile until I understood what the Kingdom stood for: a righteousness that reflects the glory of the Son.

The Son is love, and love lifted me.

Posted in blizzard, creation, God, nemo, snow

Nemo, the Blizzard of 2013, found New England

Posted on by elizabethprata

The weather’s “historic” records have been tumbling quite quickly these days. It isn’t even months between catastrophic events any more, but weeks. Superstorm Sandy became the largest hurricane on record as it devastated New Jersey and New York in October 2012. In November 2012, a dangerous nor’easter hit NY and New England. Christmas Day 2012 will not be forgotten by those in the Midwest. That storm will go down as producing the most tornadoes ever recorded on Christmas Day in the United States since record keeping began, writes the meteorologists at EarthSky. In January 2013, the South received a rare and historic tornado outbreak. Now the blizzard of February 2013 for New England.

Nemo: mammoth blizzard turns fatal
“The Boston Fire Department says an 11-year-old boy has died of carbon monoxide poisoning after being overcome as he sat in a running car to keep warm while his father was shovelling snow. This is the third reported death related to the record-breaking blizzard named Nemo striking the US northeast in which 700,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the boy was helping his father shovel the snow Saturday, but got cold, so his father started the car and the boy got inside. MacDonald said the car exhaust was covered by a snow bank, causing the fumes to collect inside the vehicle. When the boy was overcome by the fumes, the father went into respiratory arrest, and emergency workers took both to a hospital. The boy was pronounced dead there. No names were released. The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast dumped more than 90cm (35.4in) of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. Blizzard and flood warnings were in effect for the coast.”

“In Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates of 12.5cm an hour at times overnight, he told local WTNH television. “Even the plows are getting stuck,” Harkins said. The storm concentrated its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the top snowfall 95cm in Milford, Connecticut. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee banned all travel on roads in order to aid snow plow crews. He told CNN that National Guard troops were rescuing stranded motorists, especially at uncleared on-ramps. The mammoth storm dumped 73.2cm (28in) of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, and the weather service said there is more on the way.”

What of weather and the bible? On Blogos, I read about weather and how it is a living metaphor for how damaging our sin is. “All creation groans… When Adam and Eve ate that fruit and got kicked out of paradise, God cursed the Earth (Genesis 3:17). When the people grew so wicked that God had to wipe them out with a flood, He cursed it again. (How? One moment it was a planet where people didn’t eat meat and lived to over 900 years, and the next it was this place.)”

Further, “In much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation. Romans 8:19-21 tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything, including the world we inhabit. Everything in creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.” Sin is the ultimate cause of natural disasters just as it is the cause of death, disease, and suffering.” (source)

MSNBC reported a couple of months ago, after Superstorm Sandy, “The January-to-November period in the United States this year was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous states. And 2012 will likely surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record for the nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration….” But in seeking a reason as to why these storms are appearing so frequently and intensely, they also reported “nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say they think the storms are evidence of the “end times” as predicted by the Bible” which I am sure drove them crazy.

The earth is decaying under the weight of creation’s sin. Romans 8:21 says “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Since the Fall, the earth and its people have been on a downward trajectory of decay.

As anyone who plays Jenga knows, there is a tipping point and then suddenly the whole things comes crashing down. The crash-down is not chaos, because God is in control. At His designated moment, He will call His Bride home, recall His Spirit from His retraining ministry, and let it all go to the full measure of sin and His full cup of wrath. (Daniel 9:24, Genesis 15:16, Romans 2:5-8).

Right now we are living in a home of unrighteousness. Jesus in us is perfectly righteous, and that is why we are not of this world. This place is of unrighteous and of the darkness, while God has made us righteous by installing His Spirit in His children. However, 2 Peter 3:13 reminds us of His promise, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

Meanwhile, I hope that the shaking of the world by our Creator God reminds the lost to repent and the saved to revere His power. (Haggai 2:6; Hebrews 12:26)

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,” (Job 38:22)

“He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;” (Psalm 78:26)

“I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.” (Psalm 55:8)

“The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.” (Ecclesiastes 1:6)

Now, for some fun. As the blizzard progressed, the obligatory snow-door shots appeared on Twitter. I noticed a trend.

@AbbyDiaz1 @JimCantore Little boy, big snow drift at our door
@4castrnh: @JimCantore, I think this is a more iconic image 4 #nemo!

South Portland, with Wgme Portland, Lori Gray-Chase and Monica Custeau

Maggie Koerth-Baker ‏@maggiekb1 This photo is older than #Nemo,
but think of it as a fun DIY project for those of you snowed in.

Posted in death, ecclesiastes, grief

A lamentation

Posted on by elizabethprata

Death came suddenly to our circle today. A woman is a widow, a son is fatherless, a daughter is brokenhearted. Grief descends and lays a heaviness on our hearts. Never more clearly are we reminded of the words of the bible,

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

“You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah” (Psalm 39:5)

Barnes Notes says, “For what is your life? – All your plans must depend of course on the continuance of your life; but what a frail and uncertain thing is that! How transitory and evanescent as a basis on which to build any plans for the future! Who can calculate on the permanence of a vapor? Who can build any solid hopes on a mist?”

And so now we clamor of Christ, our solid hope! We are entreating for Him to listen to our pleas as we lift up the grieving ones. Lord, wipe their tears. Lord, heal their heart. Lord, show them grace and comfort.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Every matter under heaven. It is time for others to rejoice, to dance, to speak. It is our turn to grieve.

Posted in deception, evil, faith

Evil men and impostors

Posted on by elizabethprata

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

There is a lot packed into these two verses! Our Lord is truly great in the way He speaks in such depth in so few words!

The verse is connected with a comma and the word “while”. It is plain- Christians are going to be persecuted. And persecution is going to happen because evil men and impostors flood the world and the church in ever increasing numbers. So no, it is not your imagination that things are getting worse. It is because they are getting worse.

The verse says evil men “and impostors” will go on. The word impostors is Greek, “goētes”. This is translated as “shameless cheat pretending to use supernatural power; an actor (cheap impostor), looking for self-gain, i.e. posing to be someone he isn’t…’a charlatan’, used only in 2 Tim 3:13, refers to a seducer (properly, a wailer) – a fraud who “sounds off” like a whining enchanter. This person uses their verbal spells and incantations to give the (false) impression they can do miracles.”

The entire comment is linked to the description at the start, a long list Paul records for Timothy, and us, to be warned by. He’d  mentioned Jannes and Jambres, two of Pharaoh’s sorcerers who (for a while) copied God’s miracles He performed through Moses. What we should be wary of is the fact that we’re being told that these aforementioned evil men are going to use their verbal skills to deceive, and I’m not just talking about the obvious ones like Benny Hinn or Joyce Meyer. Or even Joel Osteen. These were sorcerers who can charm you and deceive you like no others. Remember, the two that Paul mentioned copied God’s miracles one for one during the first few plagues! They are powerfully deceptive.

Paul had said that the deceivers are evil. MacArthur wrote, “They are evil. That’s poneros, it’s used of Satan in Matthew 13:19, they’re as malicious and wicked as he is.”

OK, so that’s pretty evil.

And they are going to get worse and worse. Each individual man will wax worse and worse, and the general deceptions will get worse and worse. Attendant with the deceptions will come persecution.

Barnes Notes explains,

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse – That is, it is the character of such men to do this; they may be expected to do it. This is the general law of depravity – that if men are not converted, they are always growing worse, and sinking deeper into iniquity. Their progress will be certain, though it may be gradual, since “nemo repente turpissimus.” The connection here is this: that Timothy was not to expect that he would be exempt from persecution 2 Timothy 3:12, by any change for the better in the wicked men referred to. He was to anticipate in them the operation of the general law in regard to bad men and seducers – that they would grow worse and worse. From this fact, he was to regard it as certain that he, as well as others, would be liable to be persecuted. The word rendered “seducers” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, a “juggler, or diviner;” and then, a “deceiver, or impostor.” Here it refers to those who by seductive arts, lead persons into error.”

The Latin phrase ‘nemo repente turpissimus’ is translated “No man becomes a villain all at once.”

And the last part of the verse, ‘being deceived” is explained thus by Barnes Notes,

And being deceived – Under delusion themselves. The advocates of error are often themselves as really under deception, as those whom they impose upon. They are often sincere in the belief of error, and then they are under a delusion; or, if they are insincere, they are equally deluded in supposing that they can make error pass for truth before God, or can deceive the Searcher of hearts. The worst victims of delusion are those who attempt to delude others.”

MacArthur wrote,

These are dangerous times…dangerous times. The closer we come to the time of our Lord’s return, the worse men get. And the worse their influence gets and the accumulation of all the lies and false teaching mounts and escalates and we’re in dangerous times. And dangerous times call for strong people.”

Are you strong? Jesus said in Matthew 12:29

Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.”

You ARE strong! Barnes tells us, “A man could not break into the house of a strong man and take his property unless he had rendered the man himself helpless. If he had taken his goods, it would therefore be sufficient proof that he had bound the man. So I, says he, have taken this “property – this possessed person” – from the dominion of Satan. It is clear proof that I have subdued “Satan himself,” the “strong” being that had him in possession.”

Jesus is the strong One in you! He has busted satan out of your house (your body) and delivered you from the dominion of darkness! There is no one more strong that Jesus, and it is He that is in you. He is the best,t he top, the most, the superlative among all superlatives. There is no possible way you could be stronger than to rely on the Strong One who is inside you and loves you and made you His child. It is He that is in us who resists satan and overcomes that old serpent. No charms or deceivers can come if you rely on Jesus because even though things on the outside of us go from bad to worse, HE IS ALWAYS THE SAME. (Hebrews 13:8)

Victory in Jesus!

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57

photo credit: Sprengben via photopin cc

Posted in ahmadinejad, iran, khamenei, nuclear, tribulation

Has Iran become a nuclear nation?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Matt Drudge had a headline under a compelling graphic yesterday afternoon.

I am a child of the cold war, born in 1960 and raised in my formative years with Sputnik at my back and the ‘sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth’ to my front. The 70s and 80s are still vivid in my memory of the Russkies, Reds, Commies that were neck and neck militarily with the US and someday might even invade. And nukes. Goodness, the nukes we all worried about.

In the 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new generation was raised without the Red boogeyman as a political specter. We all went on to “greener” pastures, literally, with worrying about the environment and global warming and population control. The Bomb was so passe.

But in 2007 when the Russians started to make a surprise comeback, those of us who were old enough to remember the Cold War, Iron Curtain, East Germany, Berlin Wall, and the military buildup, collectively shuddered. The bomb is back. Oh, boy, is it back.

In God’s economy, the bomb never went away. But more on that in a minute.

Yesterday Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (above, right) and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei (left) revealed that they already have the bomb. This may be true. It may not be true. We will see. But the point is, they want it and one way or another. Iran is going to wind up possessing a bomb, if they don’t already. Here is the news article-

Ahmadinejad: Iran already a nuclear state, but has no intention of launching attack on Israel
“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that while Iran is already a nuclear state, it has no intention of attacking Israel. Ahmadinejad was interviewed on the eve of his visit to Cairo, where he will attend the 12th Islamic Summit Conference, due to open there on Wednesday. … Ahmadinejad said the world must now treat Iran as a nuclear country. “They want Iran to go back to what it was in the past, but they won’t succeed. They assume we’ll give in to pressure; such thoughts are misguided. We’re already an industrial and nuclear country, a country that has conquered space.”

Wait, back that up- a ‘nuclear country’? Well, maybe they mean nuclear power. Like, electricity.

Maybe so, maybe not so. The interview went on-

“Mentioning the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran, Ahmadinejad said that while it might be easy to launch missiles or attack using fighter jets, Iran’s response and defense capability were important in this context.”

Ahmadinejad is being cagy, perhaps to save face in recovering from the terrible loss of the Fordow nuclear processing plant, sabotaged two weeks ago. Maybe Ahmadinejad is telling the truth.

Is there a biblical take on nuclear war?

Yes, and no. The bible does not explicitly mention nuclear missiles in the Tribulation, of course. But it is my opinion, nuclear exchanges will take place. I will offer scriptures on why I think so and leave it to you as to whether the future portends nuclear war, or not.

Zechariah 14:12 tells of the time when Jesus returns. His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and the mount will split during a major earthquake and make a huge valley. At that time, the armies of satan will be surrounding and attacking Jerusalem. Jesus’s return stops it. He says, “And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. And on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.” (Zechariah 14:12-15).

The ‘plague’ could be an actual plague like the one that attacked Herod when worms ate him and he died. But the description here sounds much more like hat happens to flesh during a nuclear blast. I looked it up. The eyes, tongue, lungs, internal organs etc literally melt.

Revelation 6:14 speaks of a great earthquake and other signs happening: stars disappear and the sky recedes like a scroll. In my research about what happens when a nuclear blast detonates, I learned that there is a shock wave that travels in the air. The shock wave travels at supersonic speed, as well as the wave that travels upward, carrying the dirt, ground, and debris with it. A vacuum immediately around the blast occurs during this time. It is like the atmosphere rolls up and then rolls back.

In the aftermath of Gog Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39, there is a scene which is explicitly described. Ezekiel 39:11-16 has it:

“On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord God. They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make their search. And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. (Hamonahe is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.”

The specifications for cleanup are similar to a bio-hazard protocol which would be instituted after a nuclear blast. In addition, the name “Hamon Gog” means “multitude of Gog.” In the Hebrew it bespeaks of a multitude, multitude. A LOT of bodies. And we see that there are so many it takes 7 months to bury them and an entire valley has to be set aside for the mass graves. It seems that nuclear blasts would be one kind of weapon to cause such massive casualties.

In Isaiah 17:1 the oracle states that Damascus will cease to be a city. Instead it will be heap of ruins. Even during the London Blitz of 1940 by Germany with conventional weapons, the city was not reduced to a heap of ruins. And Hitler tried his best. 348 German bombers escorted by 617 fighters blasted London for 12 hours. However, a nuclear blast could reduce a city to rubble…

In Revelation 6:8, Death and Hades ride out on a pale horse. A quarter of the earth’s people are killed and after that in Revelation 9:15 another third of the world is killed. As a matter of fact, so many die during the 7 years that Jesus said no flesh would be saved if He does not cut short the time. (Matthew 24:22).

Now, God does not need me to make a case for Him. He could move His hand and that many people would succumb to death at any moment. But it seems that with so many nuclear weapons still in the hands of man, the high level of deaths during this prophesied time of total war, and the verses which seem to indicate nukes are used given the effects recorded in Isaiah, Revelation, Zechariah and Ezekiel, that it seems logical to conclude that nuclear weapons are launched at some point.

The blessing is that the believer will not be here to endure any of that. Jesus Christ is not going to put His bride thought nuclear winter and radiation fallout. We will be take up to be with Him where He is- in the place He has prepared for us, (John 14:3) New Jerusalem

So Iran claims to have the bomb. Well…the Tribulation will be a time when man’s inclinations of evil will be a time when nukes will most likely be used. What do you think?

Posted in ring of fire, volcanoes

Four different volcanoes, four separate eruptions happening at the same time, unprecedented

Posted on by elizabethprata

Fox News reports,

A team of Russian photographers were able capture an incredibly rare event as four volcanoes erupted simultaneously within about 100 miles of each other. The amazing display occurred in the Kamchatka region in Russia’s far East. The photographers also attached a video camera to the outside of their helicopter, and it rotated 360 degrees to capture all of the eruptions. Martha MacCallum discussed the phenomenon with Corey Powell of Discover Magazine, who said the Siberian region is home to 29 active volcanoes and about 150 dormant ones. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like this. Four different volcanoes, four separate eruptions happening at the same time, unprecedented,” said Powell, who went on to explain why this activity is occurring in that part of the world.

“Geologic frenzy” lol. “No one has ever seen this before”. This is the same area that is tied in with the Ring of Fire earthquakes I reported on Sunday and yesterday.

Revelation shows that volcanic activity will be prevalent in the Tribulation,

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,” (Rev 6:12). The sun turning black as sackcloth seems to be a reference to what we now call volcanic fog. I wrote about that here

Joel’s end time, Day of the Lord references contain one about pillars of smoke:
“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.” (Joel 2:30)

NOT that the Tribulation/Day of the LORD has begun, no. But that the increased activity certainly is noteworthy. When scientists say “unprecedented” then personally I take it as another birth pang. Combined with the huge earthquake last night at the Santa Cruz Islands, and being part of the same Ring of Fire, then I just take it all the more as another sign of God’s work in the world.

You know the verse in Revelation 22:12 where Jesus “Behold! I am coming quickly”? Some translations say ‘soon.’ Others say, ‘quickly.’ But the word for quickly/soon is tachu, from where we get tachometer. A tachometer measures speed, not time. It gives the sense that the engine is revving up, and up, and up. The speed is increasing. A tachometer measures the revolutions per minute of the engine. Strong’s explains the word’s use:

“used of God’s promptness characterizing how He has ordered all physical scenes of life to happen on His perfect timetable without unnecessary “delay” (Rev 1:1, 22:6). It does not mean “immediately” or necessarily “in a very short time” but rather “without any delay.”

There are indications of another financial collapse in both America and Europe fairly imminently. There is the nuclear problem of Iran (which I have a post partly prepared for tomorrow) and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The Chinese and Japanese tensions inched closer to flashpoint this week. Fighting in Damascus got worse yesterday. There is a lot going on and I don’t know where we are on His timetable, nor what events there still are to endure in this world before the rapture comes. But it definitely seems to me that things are speeding up.