(no title)

Where the vultures gather

Posted on March 16, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’m sure you’re familiar with this verse. It is in Matthew 24 and here from Luke 17

“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:33-37).

The above is a real photo that I took when driving along in my hometown in GA. They are indeed vultures, turkey vultures, and I thought the composition was interesting. They didn’t budge when I stopped my car under the branch and snapped a few photos. Then I inverted it, changed the mode to B&W and voila, spooky birds.

Vultures always seem kind of spooky, don’t they. While camping in the Everglades, the buzzards used to glide in and stand on the picnic table, staring at us. They are huge birds, made all the more spooky by knowing they eat carrion. Or live things, it doesn’t matter. We kept our cat holed up in the VW pop-up while we were there. The birds just seemed way to interested in chomping either her, us, or our lunch.

And that is the point of the verse. So many people think that it is a rapture verse. It is not. The Lord had spent the bulk of the Matthew passage explaining the labor pangs of the Tribulation to the disciples, in order and in detail. Luke has a shortened version of it. Then in Matthew, the Lord explained the Abomination of Desolation, which is the unveiling of the antichrist at the Temple, calling himself God. Then He said when you see that happen, do the following, and He delivered instructions to the Jews.

He concluded with “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…” and gave a couple of parables to finish it off. The verse is contained in the section at the end of Matthew 24 and Luke 17, where the Lord tells us that no one will know the day nor hour of His coming. The world will not know because the sun is dark, no one knows what day it is, the antichrist had sought to change times and seasons. They lose track of what day it is. THEN the Lord will come in a blaze of glory.

The people taken are those non-believers taken alive who displeased God, and those who are left are those believers who pleased God. He takes the non-believers away to judgment. He cements this thought by saying they will be where the vultures gather. Vultures are carrion birds which gather where the (spiritually) dead are. Believers are left to enter the Millennial kingdom on earth. Jesus concludes with reminding us that where the carnage is, the spiritually dead and the physically dead in judgment, there the vultures gather. It is the wicked who are taken- to judgment.

Any person can escape all these things by believing on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He came to save the world and make the payment to God for our sins, taking on God’s wrath instead of allowing it to be poured out on us, as it should have been. He was crucified and died. He was buried but by the power of God, who was pleased with His son, resurrected Him from the dead. Jesus is in heaven now, reigning on His throne, and will come again to earth to judge the living and the dead.

If you are still not sure about the interpretation of the Matthew 24 passage as a Tribulation and not rapture passage, and also the Luke 17 parallel passage, here is a lesson at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) on How to Interpret the Bible and they use these exact verses to share how to interpret a passage. It will lead you through it verse by verse and step by step.

If you believe you are a sinner disqualified from entering heaven, and believe that Jesus is our savior and Lord, you can be saved. Saved from what? His wrath. That is what the Luke and Matthew passage refers to, the spiritually dead who are already under God’s wrath and which will come fully one day to judge you. Pray to the Holy Spirit, Who is also God, for more information, as you read more here too: God’s Simple Plan of Salvation. Or speak to a local pastor of a bible believing church. You are spiritually dead and are gathering where the vultures are. The miraculous grace of God can regenerate you alive. Think on these things- they are real issues and eternal, too.

iran, north korea, tribulation, war

North Korea and Iran’s war drums are beating so loud the US responds

Posted on March 16, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with You.”

OK, I took a liberty, changing the intent of the Stealers Wheel’s lyrics to add the capital Y to indicate God in the lyric.

I am concerned in watching the militaristic beating of the war drums to our “left” – North Korea, and to our “right” – Israel and Iran. Yet God is in control, He is in the middle of us. (Matthew 18:20).

Let’s take a look at the situation of North Korea first. Drudge put this up yesterday:

Always crazy, always unpredictable, North Korea is the one nation in the world which may indeed use nuclear weapons as a matter of curse or just for no reason. You never know what they may do, and that is because they are a closed nation. We are cut off from indicators, diplomatic channels, hints or feints. We are shadow boxing with a mirage when it comes to North Korea. They are closed to journalism, economic exchange, and communications. China is their only ally, and even they are getting exasperated with North Korea.

When you close a people off from the world they have no basis or benchmark to determine what reality is. The North Koreans believe that the US is poised to lob a nuke at them and that NK is right to defend themselves by lobbing one first.

The NK leaders, formerly Kim Jong Il and today’s Kim Jong Un, often make inflammatory statements that have no basis in reality. But no matter, they seem intent on striking the US with a nuclear weapon and they just might indeed do it.

Max Fisher at the Washington Post wrote a few days ago, “Here is a partial list of some of North Korea’s terrifying threats and provocations since the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions late last week: nullify the 60-year armistice that had ended the Korean War, sever the emergency communication line with South Korea, order frontline troops to prepare to “cut the windpipes” of their enemies, threaten to “wipe out” a South Korean island and pledge “all-out war.” ” Fisher said that NK loves to threaten WWIII (but probably won’t follow through“. Notice the ‘probably.’ I think they will. But I’m just a schmoe blogging in my pajamas. What do I know?

However, more seriously and ominously, the US apparently isn’t taking any chances. This time NK’s threats caused the US to make a response in action. They deployed missiles.

U.S. to bolster missile defenses to counter North Korea threat: Hagel
“(Reuters) – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans on Friday to bolster U.S. missile defenses in response to a growing nuclear threat from North Korea, adding 14 interceptors to a missile defense site in Alaska by 2017 and deploying a radar tracking system in Japan. The decision to add 14 new anti-missile interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska amounts to a reversal of an Obama administration decision in 2010 to stop expansion of the missile field there at 30 interceptors. The Bush administration had planned to deploy 44 total interceptors. Hagel said the decision to deploy all 44 interceptors came as a result of the growing threats from Iran and particularly North Korea, which tested a third nuclear device last month and launched a rocket that put a satellite in orbit in December.”

A government doesn’t move war materiel for nothing. When you start deploying missiles, it is serious.

Now as to the jokers to the right, Iran is also doing its crazy thing. The nation got daring this week. “An Iranian fighter jet approached a U.S. surveillance drone over the Persian Gulf but broke off its pursuit after the pilot of a U.S. escort plane radioed a verbal warning, the Pentagon said Thursday,” reports HuffPo.

More concerning is the wrangling between Israel and the US. The US says that the nuclear red line for Iran is more than a year away. Israel says it is a matter of weeks (this spring to summer).

Who is right? The mistake is not recoverable. I wrote in February of this year that the bible indicates more than once that a nuclear war in the Tribulation is likely.

In another war drum beat, The Times of Israel reports that the Intelligence Chief says Syria is ready to use chemical weapons.

I don’t know when war will come. I don’t know from whence it will start. But it will. The bible tells us that in the Tribulation, peace will be taken from the earth. (Revelation 6:3-4; Matthew 24:6). However, I do not know how many wars or battles will take place prior to the removal of the saints in the rapture before the Tribulation begins. We must be prepared.

But that preparation will only last so long. We will be called home soon and whenever that event occurs, blessedly, we will study war no more.

Source

Above, Lesleigh Coyer, 25, of Saginaw, Michigan, lies down in front of the grave of her brother, Ryan Coyer, who served with the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia March 11, 2013. Coyer died of complications from an injury sustained in Afghanistan. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

War is an outward indicator of the state of man’s heart. Man’s heart is wicked and deceitful, who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). Man’s thoughts and intents are only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5). Unregenerated man is at a state of war with God, all the time. War on earth is the manifestation of all that.

But when Jesus comes, “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 2:4)

Cling to that. Man and Savior reconciled, man and nation at peace with themselves and with their Holy God. Hallelujah! (Colossians 1:20).

comment policy

Non-comment policy

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

I don’t have a comment policy. I do allow comments. I always appreciate the blogs that allow comments. It feels vertiginous to read something really interesting or provoking in one way or another but not be allowed to satisfy the urge to reply. So I allow comments.

I don’t go in for a complicated comment policy. It’s a blog, my blog, and I’m the boss. That means as a publisher and editor of a writing production, I can choose to make my own editorial decisions. I would hope that readers understand that as a former professional writer and print journalist, I have a method and a sense of fairness as to what comments to allow and disallow. For the most part, I use common sense.

However, I do feel I owe readership an explanation for some things. It is a relationship after all. Once in a while I make an explanation of when or if I edit a comment. I only edit a comment rarely. I do that when the comment is excellent and I feel contributes to a discussion, but has attached to it a link that either does not glorify God in its content or is of low web trust according to the rating system of the WOT add-on I use (I won’t send readers to a dangerous website filled with spam unbenownst to them). In the rare cases I do edit a comment for those reasons, I say so. I have only had to do this a mere five times or so in the last four years.

Once in a great while I close comments for a blog entry. I have the option to do this for individual essays and don’t have to do it for the whole blog. I have only had to do this for a few blog entries, such as the Jentezen Franklin piece, and recently for the Catholic essays I’ve written.

Blastr comment policy

I’m not so popular that I get swamped with comments, lol. But recently the comments have become more pitched as the spiritual battle rages. The piece I did on the History Channel’s series “The Bible” earned five-digit readership in a short time, and I was flabbergasted. The essays on the Catholic false religious system has a high reader interest, too, and has garnered a lot of comments.

For two of the Catholic essays, I closed comments. One reader said it was “strange” that I did that. They made an accusation as to when they sent “proof” that Catholicism was a true religion, I closed comments. Someone will always feel put out when that happens, and there is no avoiding that. I’m sorry if you didn’t get to comment or feel cheated of your chance to reply. Here is my reasoning for closing comments on those two pieces-

“It’s not strange at all. Quite the contrary. First, there is no “proof” that Catholicism is biblical. Second, comments were turning pointless because no matter how often the bible is referred to, the people supporting the false Catholic system refuted it illogically and extra-biblically. Third, there have been numerous comments that never even made it past the moderation stage, which were ad hominem attacks on personalities. I get tired of moderating those. The comments that are simply “you’re a bid stoopid poopiehead” or “you are a sham and a disgrace” are a waste of everyone’s time and are certainly not Christ-like. They are personal and not doctrinal. Comments like those edify no one, except perhaps, satan.

Enough ink has been spilled on each side for people to have expressed their position, and to illuminate any reader who comes along. As an editor I decide that at a certain point, there is no point in going further. Discussions have been fleshed out and the argument (an intellectual process whereby a collective series of statements to establish a proposition is laid out) turns into contradiction (an automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says). So when the intellectual portion of the discussion ends and the conversation turns into “(RCC is false. No it isn’t. Yes it is. No it isn’t…)” I choose to end it.

I will likely close comments on the other essays that discuss the false and satanic Catholic system, too, for the same reason. Even if you personally have not had a chance to comment, likely your thought in some form is already reflected in the comment stream and would be a repeat. That means it’s time to close comments. Good day to you all.”

Ultimately, it is my blog and I am the decider. I am the boss of what is said here. If the comment adds something to the discussion, great. If it provokes thinking in new ways or in a new direction, great. If it is encouraging or uplifting or supportive of the piece’s main point or a reader’s comment, great. If it is incisive and biblical, using verses appropriately, great. Even if it opposes the main thesis of the piece, I respect it if it is respectful and makes a point in a civil way. If it doesn’t, it does not get through.

I’m sorry that not all my decisions please, but though all attempts will be made to remain cordial on behalf of myself and the readers, my ultimate goal is to please the Lord. Sometimes I will close comments and that’s just the way it is. I envision doing that more as the battle rages and hearts darken. Profanity and accusations are more common now than they were even four years ago when I started. Not everyone who reads religion blogs are saved by grace of Jesus and they will behave badly. Blastr made the statement on their comment policy page that sometimes ‘nerd rage’ will creep in and a fury will develop over the most innocuous of topics, like favorite movies. LOL. Nerds behaving badly… funny. Well, at least now you know my reasoning.

I like what John MacArthur has on his blog above the comment box: “Proverbs 17:9 Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” (ESV)

And there, wouldn’t you know. The bible has the best comment policy of all.

obama taster, pope francis, pride

Of popes and kings: Is the pope humble? Does Obama have a cup-bearer?

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

As the (misplaced) excitement at selecting a new pope dies down, we are left with the litter of conflicting notions of who rules the world, really. The pope claims to be a supreme and infallible authority over every Catholic on the planet and not coincidentally claims that the RCC is the only true church. Infallible means he cannot make mistakes and everything he says is pure gold. He is called ‘vicar of Christ’- A title of the pope implying his supreme and universal primacy, both of honour and of jurisdiction, over the Church of Christ. He is the supreme “another Christ” or alter christus. He is not subject to any government, organization or even to his own church. He is a king and more: he claims to be head of the church. (Only Jesus is head of the church, Colossians 1:18). (Above, the new Pope Francis)

The new pope, Francis, is said to be a humble man. This is incorrect. No man can be humble who thinks he is the head of the church, supplanting Jesus, the true head. No man can be humble who seeks and accepts an office where he is an “absolute monarch on earth, answerable to no temporal power, holding the highest administrative office in existence, and managing the largest non-governmental operation in the world. His power is absolutely unlimited save by divine law, and only death or his own will can remove him from office.” (Carol Balizet, The Last 7 Years)

No man can be humble who seeks and accepts ruling over “the wealthiest institution on earth and the most prosperous global institution on earth. The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars.” (Avro Manhattan, The Vatican Billions).

Pope is a word that comes from ‘papa.’ The problem comes when we attempt to address these august personalities. What do we call such a ‘holy’ and distinguished men among men? Father? Holy Father?

However, the bible says there is only one Holy Father and we are not to call anyone else father. “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9).

The Jewish people had a hard time with this too. So they decided on apifyor.

“The Catholic Church has a new leader on the Chair of Saint Peter – Pope Francis. But in Hebrew we don’t call him “pope” or “papa,” but rather apifyor (api-FYOR). Until the 16th century, Jews called the pontiff as their Christian neighbors did: papa, a name that since the 12th century was reserved for the Bishop of Rome but before that referred to any high ranking church official. It derives from the Greek papas – a term of endearment a son gives his father. Apparently some creative soul back in the 16th century thought it was improper for Jews to refer to the pope with such deference and decided to come up with a new term instead. This anonymous Jewish scholar picked the obscure word apifyor from the Talmud and fit it to the task. By the 17th century the word “papa” had all but disappeared from Hebrew.”

Yes, there is so much confusion that results when men think they are God. There will be one who will come who WILL call himself God and cause all to worship him. His title is the Beast, or the antichrist. (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Meanwhile this current “holy papa” is an antichrist, a little forerunner to the one who will fulfill prophecy by becoming the man of sin. In the 1600s, Puritan Thomas Manton (1620-1677) preached three sermons about the coming man of sin. This excerpt is from the third sermon: (below, Rev. Thomas Manton)

“Now why did they call Antiochus the man of sin? Because he sought to alter the religion of the people, and by cruelty to introduce a change of worship and idolatry, and such laws as he would set up. Now, according to this pattern, Antichrist is a man of sin; that is, either a man given up to all sin eminently, a sinner addicted unto sin, and a ringleader of others unto sin, either by fraud and violence; or as he giveth encouragements and encitements to sin; or as a special kind of sinner, a usurper and invader of the empire of the Son of God. So was Antiochus. So was Antichrist. Now, how much open sin is practised, allowed, and maintained in the Papacy, I do not wish to proceed into; their own stories speak enough; — the sodomy, blasphemy, incest, adulteries, sorceries, murders, treasons, parricides, which they have authorised and countenanced. Histories witness that hardly hath the world yielded a more abominable sort of men, than have sat in that chair of pestilence. This I am sure of, that a man can sin nowhere at so cheap a rate as in Popery, where, what by dividing their sins into mortal and venial, and these expiated by a little penance, accompanied with a single attrition, and bare grief and trouble, because of the punishment; what by faculties, pardons, licenses, dispensations, indulgences, sin is distinguished out of the conscience.”

Thinking one’s self as king supreme always leads to destruction. We have a little king problem in the US right now, with Barack Obama.

Did you know that Obama has a cup-bearer?

In the bible a cup bearer is a personal taster to the king and his butler. Pharaoh had a cup-bearer we read in Genesis 40:2. That was the one who told his dream to the incarcerated Joseph. (Genesis 40:1). Nehemiah was a cup-bearer to the king of Persia. (Nehemiah 1:11). A cup-bearer, or a taster, had a duty to serve the drinks at the royal table. On account of the constant fear of plots and intrigues, a person must be regarded as thoroughly trustworthy to hold this position. He must guard against poison in the king’s cup, and was sometimes required to swallow some of the wine before serving it, or so says Wikipedia. Cup-bearers are mentioned further in 1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chronicles 9:4, where they, among other evidences of royal splendor, are stated to have impressed the Queen of Sheba with Solomon’s glory.

In keeping with this royal splendor, we read today that Obama refused to eat of the GOP luncheon because he didn’t have his ~~royal cup-bearer~~ taster with him.

Nehemiah the cup-bearer,
bible encyclopedia

Barack Obama agreed to meet with a group of GOP senators yesterday. But, he wouldn’t eat their food.
He didn’t bring along his royal taster. No joke. The Daily Caller reported:

President Obama was offered a feast of Maine treats, including University of Maine lobster salad and Wild Blueberry Pie when he visited Senate Republicans for a Capitol Hill luncheon on Thursday. But he didn’t touch a bite, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters following the 1:30 PM eat n’ greet. That’s because the President didn’t have a food “taster” with him, said Collins, who was responsible for the menu.

Sen. Collins said she told Obama that they were all eating the lobster and pie, and that if it was poisoned they’d all keel over, but Obama refused to bite. Now, to be fair, there does seem to be a regular call for the use of a taster for all US Presidents, or at least, some kind of security detail which monitors food and silverware when the President is off turf. But the image of cup-bearer to the one who has already been called pharaoh, was too much to resist remarking upon.

It is always a problem when kings and popes become too full of themselves. Fortunately we know to whom we owe allegiance as the real king. Though we are called to submit to earthly authorities because God has set them up, (1 Peter 2:13) we know our King is the Righteous One who comes in all glory. On the last day, He will reign supreme in all goodness and perfection.

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.” (Isaiah 1:2-3)

What a privilege it is to know the REAL Holy Father! The Real King! Our High Priest! Jesus

kimani gray, passover, sacrifice, sky angel

Passover sacrifice at Temple Mount denied, sky angel, Kimani Gray, love

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

A news article about seriousness.

The following article from Israel National News surprised me. They have done sacrifices at the Temple Mount during Passover before.

Temple-Times Passover Sacrifice Nixed by Government
“Israel’s Veterinary Services will not authorize the planned public ritual sacrifice of a goat in honor of Passover this year, Veterinary Services representative Zohar Dvorkin said Thursday. Jewish groups dedicated to the Temple Mount and Temple renewal are planning the sacrifice as a reminder of what Passover looked like in Temple times. The ritual slaughter is to take place in Jerusalem, in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood opposite the Temple Mount. The organizations planning the sacrifice were unpleasantly surprised at the Veterinary Services’ response. The Veterinary Services has authorized previous sacrifices in honor of Passover, including one held in Jerusalem last year.”

But coming on the heels of the wrangling over the Temple Mount and the recent violence there with a firebombing, maybe it is not so surprising. The activity in and around God’s holy ground is getting more severe. Expect more articles of this kind in the near future. The fighting is not over the actual mosque or temple, it is satan trying to prevent God from occupying His designated spot. For a short while in the near future, satan will be allowed to place himself there, to allow sin to run its full course. We are fast approaching that time now. It all will come down to a narrow, laser-point focus on Jerusalem.

“who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4)

“The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.” (Daniel 11:36).

“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:27).

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

Now we go from seriousness to silliness. This is of the “I saw the face of Jesus in my corn flakes” variety of craziness.

Angel-Shaped Cloud Appears In Florida Sky After New Pope Is Announced
“Some say it’s nothing. Others believe it’s a message from heaven on a big day for the Roman Catholic Church. Just hours after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio made his first appearance as Pope Francis at the Vatican, Florida resident Jodi Guthrie snapped a photo of a stunning cloud shaped like an angel hovering in the sky over Royal Palm Beach.”

Facebook/Ginger Teixeira Richmond

There’s no denying that it is a very pretty cloud and an unusual shape. But it’s in…Florida, and has nothing to do with the Pope from Argentina who lives in Italy. If anything, it is a false wonder designed to delude people, not a sign from God. I would tend to think lightning striking the Vatican twice on the day of the pope’s resignation is more from God than this cloud in Florida is.

On the other hand, it’s very good that people are looking around their world and wondering of the religious things happening have anything to do with the natural things happening. That is a good connection to make. However, the imbroglio at the Vatican has nothing to do with God and everything to do with satan, so it is a missed connection. We can pray that as people lift their heads and look up, they make the proper connection. The right things to think in these days are that Jesus is coming soon to judge the living and the dead. He is active and involved with the world in His general revelation (Romans 1) and will soon be appearing in His special revelation (Ezekiel 39). If it causes a person to wonder how they may fare before a holy God then good. If it causes a person to think this is praise for a new pope, then it is bad.

While we are on the topic, we can ask the question, “Do angels have wings?“

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

There is a situation occurring now in Brooklyn NY that you may not be aware of. A 16-year-old teen named Kimani Gray was shot by Brooklyn police. He was shot 7 times, which infuriated the black community. He pointed a loaded gun at police and threatened to shoot, which infuriated the peace officer community. There’s been three nights of rioting, and more police have been deployed to the neighborhood. 45 people were arrested after protests last night and the UK Daily Mail’s headline is a little more inflammatory but quite vivid: “It sounds like a war zone’: Chaos in Brooklyn as 100 teenagers ‘riot’ on the streets following vigil of 16-year-old who was shot dead by NYPD plainclothes cops”. The situation has become a powder keg, reports The New York Times. There have been mobs marauding the streets, vigils, speeches, and now apparently martial law. Or what they call “A State of Exception.”

Iran’s PressTV reports,
“The NYPD turned the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn into a ‘State of Exception’ on Thursday, arresting over 45 people including the sister of slain 16-year-old Kimani Gray.”

http://www.usnews.com/

Tensions in civil life between those in authority and those who perceive themselves to be oppressed rise exponentially when there is economic hardship. Put another way, people are angry and more often they unhesitatingly take it out on other people. Whether the police acted badly and took it out on “an innocent boy” simply adjusting his waistband, or the boy was angry and took it out on “brave and ethical police” protecting the public good and have commendations to back up their long and distinguished careers, is an age-old discussion and not new. However, the reaction to the issue is. The go-to solution used to be discussion, meetings between parties, and civil resolutions through procedures such as inquests or Internal Affairs. Now, people just riot. It’s an indication of taking the law into their own hands, and ignoring the thin veneer of civil authority that used to hold the lost sinners at bay, but now as the Restrainer slowly lifts His hand, is more quick to surface.

Here is a peek at our world today:

Today’s photos, March 14, 2013

Above, a Bahraini anti-government protester is engulfed in flames when a shot fired by riot police hit the bomb in his hand that he was preparing to throw during clashes in Sanabis, Bahrain. Hasan Jamali/AP. It has been two years since Arab Spring and Saudi-led forces quelled unrest in Gulf island. Protests mark the date

Above, thousands of students, teachers, and concerned citizens protested in Madrid against cuts in education, and rising tuition fees imposed by the Minister of Education. The demonstration ended in front of Ministry of Education building.

Anti-nuclear rallies took place across Japan,
on the eve of the second anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster,
urging Japan’s new government to abandon nuclear power.

Above, March 9, 2013– Pakistani demonstrators torch Christians’ belongings during a protest over blasphemy in a Christian neighborhood in Lahore. More than 3,000 Muslim protesters turned violent over derogatory remarks allegedly made by Sawan Masih, 28 against the prophet Muhammad in a Christian neighboorhood in Badami Bagh area. Arif Ali / AFP/Getty Images

Amid all this violence and protests as to the way things are, want to see what love is? It is still on earth, sometimes hidden among the cracks of a crumbling society, like a flower emerging from the concrete crack in the sidewalk, but it is still here. Watch this very moving 4-minute clip- and enjoy your day in Jesus. Days with Him are always good.

cheap grace

"A Compromised Gospel Produces Compromised Fruit"

Posted on March 15, 2013 by elizabethprata

This article in Ministry Magazine is written by Dr. Michael L. Brown. I am absolutely struck by how each word is dripping with truth and wisdom. Please read and take to heart as your discerning ears listen to sermons and read books in today’s Christianity:

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

“The dawning of the 21st century finds the church of America in a moral and spiritual crisis. Decades of self-centered living and worldliness have taken their toll. Years of compromise and toothless gospel preaching have had their effect.”

Thirteen years ago in 2000, I wrote that admonition in my book The Jesus Manifesto. Ten years before that, in 1990, I sounded a similar alarm in my book How Saved Are We?:

“For years, we have preached a cheap gospel and peddled a soft Savior. We have taught salvation without self-denial and the crown without the cross. We have catered to the unsaved and compromised with the world. Now we are paying the price.”

Tragically, what I and others warned about has now run its dangerous and deceptive course.

You don’t have to look too far today to hear Christian leaders teaching that it’s wrong to expect born-again believers to change their conduct, calling those who do “religious” (as if that’s a bad word) or, worse still, “legalistic” if they preach repentance to the church and to the lost. Today, you can practice almost any sin, work in almost any ungodly profession and still be accepted as a follower of Jesus Christ.

How in the world did we depart so far from the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus?

Consider these examples:

–A glamorous spokeswoman for conservative Christian values explains that, “I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos.”

–A well-known rapper claims a conversion to Christianity and states, “I love God, Jesus Christ is my savior, and I’m still out here thuggin’.” He has been baptized, attends church regularly and says, “I still love the strip club, and I still smoke and drink. I’m faithful to my family, so I wanted to make an album where you could love God and be of God, but still get it poppin’ in your life.”

I am not making this up.

And we don’t dare call out anyone on their sinful, public lifestyle lest we be guilty of what is now considered the worst sin of all—judging. Yes, these days it’s considered worse to judge someone for sinning than it is to commit the sin.

With regard to the lingerie model and, even more so, the rapper, it would be one thing if we said that they were spiritually and morally confused, totally immature in their faith, in need of serious discipleship and a real encounter with the Lord. But so often that’s not what you hear. Instead, many believers in America today find nothing wrong with the idea of a “Christian” lingerie model or a “born-again,” profanity-using, smoking, drinking rapper who frequents strip clubs. What kind of nonsense is this?

The New Cross for Sinners

More than 50 years ago in his classic article, “The Old Cross and the New,” A.W. Tozer wrote, “The old cross would have no truck with the world. For Adam’s proud flesh it meant the end of the journey.” In contrast, he noted with profound insight, “The new cross does not slay the sinner; it redirects him.”

Today we could take his insights one step further and say that the new cross does not slay the sinner; it empowers him or her: Jesus came to make you into a bigger and better you. Jesus came to help you fulfill your dreams and your destiny. Put another way, the gospel is all about you—not Jesus.

Scan the programming on Christian TV and listen to the latest “hit” sermons, and take note of how often you hear messages about all the wonderful things God can do for you—including prosper you financially. Contrast that with how seldom you hear messages about the wonderful things we’re called to do for the Lord. And see if you can count even five times in the last year that you heard a message challenging you to sacrifice and service for Jesus (and I’m not talking about making a financial sacrifice for the TV preacher).

Yet Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24, NIV). When is the last time you were stirred to the core of your being with those words? Yet their message runs throughout the Gospels and forms a fundamental part of the message of the Lord. (See Matt. 10:37-39; 16:24-25; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 14:26-33; 17:32-32; John 12:24-25.)

“Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim. 2:3), as opposed to, “Enjoy personal success with me as a good entrepreneur of Christ Jesus.” And he exhorted Timothy to use the Word to “correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction,” warning him that, “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (4:2-4).

The Gospel of Hyper-Grace

We are living in such a time today, a time in which the gospel of personal success has been merged with the gospel of hyper-grace, thereby rendering the listener impervious to warning or correction or rebuke: “If it doesn’t make me feel better about myself, it’s not from God. If it draws attention to my sin, it’s not from God. If it challenges me in any way, it’s legalism, it’s bondage, it’s the law.”

According to the latest version of the message of hyper-grace:

Nothing you do will negatively affect your relationship with God.
As a believer, you never need to confess your sins to God or repent of your sins.
God doesn’t see your sins; He always sees you as perfect through the blood of Jesus.
You can follow Jesus effortlessly.

And still, there is more. We have become obsessed with the need to be “relevant,” trying to become like the world to win the world. We want lost, confused sinners to know we are just like them: “Is your life messed up? Our lives are messed up, too. You will feel completely at home in our church. And you will really be able to relate to our pastor. He’s up on the latest hit movies—even the raunchy ones—and sometimes he spices up his sermons with off-color language. We are not uptight religious people here.”

Misleading Our Young People

Moreover, as young people leave our churches by the droves, we compromise our message even more. We fail to realize that young people are leaving our churches because they have not seen us living out the gospel. We haven’t told them the truth, and we haven’t ministered to them in the power of the Spirit.

But where the gospel is going forth with power and conviction, young people are flocking to hear the Word and be changed. The more we water down the message, the fewer disciples we will produce and the less God will back us.

During the days of the Brownsville Revival, I wrote a little poem called “Pablum From the Pit.” It seems apropos to share it again now:

Cootchie, cootchie, cootchie-coo,
God loves me and God loves you!
Smile sinner, don’t be sad;
God’s not angry; He’s not mad.
Even when you leave the path,
There’s no hell and there’s no wrath.
So don’t you fear, just do your best.
Judgment Day won’t be a test.
God sees your heart and that’s enough.
The Judgment Seat won’t be that tough.
For you can’t sin away His grace
Or take that smile from His face.
’Cause God is love and love is good:
He’ll treat you like you think He should!
Just trust me, sinner, to the end.
My name is Satan, I’m your friend.

May God awaken His church again today beginning with us, His leaders. And may we take up the cross and preach the cross regardless of cost or consequences.

In more ways than we realize, the fate of the nation is in our hands. And if a compromised, watered-down message could bring death and destruction, an uncompromising, Spirit-empowered, compassion-birthed message could bring life and transformation.

Now is the time.

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

Dr. Michael L. Brown is president of FIRE School of Ministry and host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Line of Fire. His classic book on holiness, Go and Sin No More, has just been reprinted.

false, pope

Reprise: The ‘Gospel’ According to Rome

Posted on March 15, 2013 by elizabethprata

Nathan Busenitz serves on the pastoral staff of Grace Church and teaches theology at The Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles. He is part of the team of writers at The Cripplegate. Today he wrote,

“With a new pope elected, the eyes of the world are on the Roman Catholic Church. No doubt many evangelicals find themselves confused as to the critical differences between the biblical gospel and the gospel according to Rome. Hence today’s post-“

And he goes on to outline in five bullet points the major doctrinal differences, using Roman Catholic primary sources as quotes. He also presents the biblical case. The essay is short, clear and undeniably convicting.

He concludes:

“Before evangelicals rush headlong to enthusiastically embrace the new pope (pretending as if the Reformation never happened), they should stop and remember the fact that the Roman Catholic Church teaches a gospel that is utterly incompatible with the biblical gospel of grace. In the same way that Paul denounced the false teachings of the Judaizers (Gal. 1:6-9), the gospel according to Rome deserves unhesitating words of condemnation. That means that those who promote Rome’s false gospel, including the new pope, ought to be confronted for their part in the propagation of damning error.”

I encourage you to read more at their blog.

believers, holy spirit, love

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!