Posted in end times, prophecy

Prophecy and News round up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Well, the world hasn’t ended. The Mayan Apocalypse (so far) seems to have been a bust. So what other news is happening in the world? What news is there that the bible indicates would be happening in the last days? Here is a survey of headlines that in my opinion rise to the top in prophetic importance.

The economy is important to keep a watch on. It’s not only important because we’re participants in the economy, and not only because we are affected by the economy, but because the economy will completely fail and be taken over by the antichrist.

Revelation 6 and Revelation 13 show this. As an institution God set up, trade, commerce, finances, and money, as with all things on earth, it will be completely corrupted. The last 7 years of the Tribulation will be a time when sin saturates everything, completely. This includes the economy.

Revelation 6:5-6, “When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”

The symbolism of the scales are explained by Barnes Notes:

“Scales or balances are the emblems of justice or equity (compare Job 31:6; Psalm 62:9; Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 16:11); and when joined with symbols that denote the sale of grain and fruit by weight, become the symbol of scarcity. Thus, “bread by weight” Leviticus 26:26 denotes scarcity. So in Ezekiel 4:16, “And they shall eat bread by weight.” The use of balances here as a symbol would signify that something was to be accurately and carefully weighed out.”

Bread will cost a day’s wage. This indicates scarcity and/or hyperinflation. There will still be luxuries like oil and wine for the rich to buy, which indicates that some will be super-rich. It seems there will be a a huge gap in the rich and the poor. Revelation 18 shows us that the merchants lament their trade when Babylon falls, and what they lament are luxuries. A healthy trade in wealth-items had been going on all the while the poor starve for lack of bread. That gap is widening now.

ECONOMY

Retailers Hammered by Winter Storm ‘Draco’
“When I was running other people’s money, I had a rule: If a retailer blames the weather for bad results, sell the stock. Good merchants understand climate volatility and plan accordingly. No exceptions were made and no excuses were accepted. That is until now. The winter storm that shutdown most flights in and out of O’Hare yesterday and is threatening to do the same to most of the eastern seaboard over the next two days comes at an inconceivably horrible time for retailers. Draco, as the storm is being called, may not be of historic magnitude in terms of storms but it will go down in history for U.S. merchants.”

With retail trade as tenuous as it is already, a several day loss at the only time of year people feel free to spend money to excess, and even to spend money they don’t have, is a drastic problem.

Greek austerity – it’s just like aftermath of World War Two
“In the Greek mountain town of Kastoria, less than an hour from the Albanian border, Kostas Tsitskos (88) can’t afford fuel to heat his home against the winter’s cold. So he and his son live in a single bedroom, warmed by a small electric heater. When temperatures fall below freezing, Tsitskos spends most of his time in his bedroom and rarely leaves the house, he said. For meals, he and his son move the electrical heater to the kitchen. … The household price for heating oil in Greece reached €1,266 per 1,000 litres in the second quarter of this year, surging 48pc from a year earlier, according to the International Energy Agency. The same quantity cost €861 in the UK and €790 in New York. … Tsitskos has relatives in Astoria, New York, who have considered returning to Greece to retire and he cautions them to stay in the US. He would leave if he could afford it, he said. “I was expecting a different type of life,” he said. “There’s nothing that makes me happy. I’m living just to live.”

Angelos Tzortzinis/Bloomberg

Caption: Greece Austerity Diet Risks 1930s-Style Depression. Wage and pension cuts have heightened tensions in Athens and other Greek cities as the economy shrivels and an anti-foreigner party flaunting a swastika-like insignia won 18 seats in Parliament.

Imagine how eagerly the people will embrace any leader who comes forward with a solution to their lack. By the time the antichrist comes, and the economy will have worsened (fiscal cliff, anyone?) imagine how they will clamor to do what he proposes…

And if you know your history, the aftermath of WWII bore the beginnings of the European Union. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a six-nation international organization serving to unify democratic countries of Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day European Union. It was first proposed in 1950. In other words, scarcity brings union. People look toward each other when things get tough. This will be fulfilled ultimately in the ten nation conglomerate of Daniel 7:7.

RUSSIA

Next is Russia. I included news about them because they will figure prominently in the Gog-Magog alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39. They are a protector nation and ally of Syria and Iran, nations which (among others) attack Israel in the last days. This attack is what God uses to supernaturally show Himself in the earth and thus bring Israel back to Him in covenant. So we watch Russia… and its leader.

Vladimir Putin goes on offensive against US
“Vladimir Putin signalled his support for a controversial new law that would ban American citizens from adopting Russian orphans as he issued a fierce verbal attack on the United States. Mr Putin said that despite Americans being “up to their ears in a certain substance” made up of their own problems, they still insisted on highlighting Russia’s ills. “Why does one country consider itself entitled to spread its jurisdiction to the entire world?” he said in his characteristic rapid-fire delivery. “Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo – people are kept in prison for years without being charged, they walk around in shackles like in the Middle Ages. “They have legalised torture inside their own country.”

The jackals are skulking closer to the wounded carcass that is America, eh?

SYRIA

Next: we watch Syria because of the prophecy in Isaiah 17 that Damascus will be destroyed and its environs devastated and depopulated. The verse at 14 seems to indicate that the destruction will happen quickly, even overnight. I can’t imagine many weapons that will depopulate a place faster than either chemical weapons, or nukes.

Syria fires more Scud missiles as refugee projections climb
“The head of NATO condemned the Syrian government’s return to firing Scud-type missiles yesterday, saying they were “acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse.”

Syria’s chemical weapons transported towards Lebanon
“Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has moved some of his chemical weapons arsenal in the direction of Lebanon. If one reads between the lines of a report written by David Ignatius this week in The Washington Post, it is not hard to make the jump between that trip and the possibility of such trucks — or missiles carrying warheads with their contents — crossing the border.”

WEATHER

Crazy weather! It was another year of incredible weather extremes. The disasters that have occurred in America are unprecedented in US history during 2012. There were 11 billion-dollar weather disasters that hit the U.S., a figure exceeded only by the fourteen disasters during the previous year of 2011. But 2012 cost us more. Wow.

Remember in past posts, I mention the superlatives. Bad weather in and of itself is NOT an indicator of the nearness of the time, but when weather keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse, topping itself, it is an indicator. When meteorologists use superlatives like “biggest storm” or “most vicious in a hundred years,” etc, that is an indicator. God ordains each thing that happens on earth (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 11:36), and He controls the weather. If a weather event isn’t ordained directly by His hand, then He has allowed it to occur as a natural course of the effects of sin’s decay on the world. Either way, as we get closer to the time, the weather will be increasingly haywire.

With this next news piece, we have news of a once in ten years storm, which compared to recent storms and also the mythological Mayan apocalypse, barely rates a ‘pffft’. I’d mentioned before that we were running out of superlatives to describe the unprecedented weather events, and now it seems the ability to describe them has subsided to not even being bothered unless it is of unimaginable size or impact. In other words, a few years ago, a ten-year storm would be big news. Nowadays it isn’t.

Not-quite-apocalyptic storms hit Israel
“Sure, the Water Authority says the weather system is a once-in-a-decade event, but it’s not the end of the world. Though no once-in-a-civilization, earth-wrecking storms surfaced, the Israel Water Authority said the severity of Friday’s storms represented one of the most significant winter weather events of the past decade. Over 100 ml of water fell in some towns in the North, and the Kinneret lake rose some 6 cm, Army Radio reported.”

Storm lashes Northeast with wind, rain; thousands of flights disrupted
“With Christmas around the corner and winter officially arriving Friday, travel headaches brought on by the first big storm of the season continued — with disruptions now plaguing Northeast airports due to wind and rain after the Midwest was socked Thursday.”

Johnston Iowa

Ukraine and Russia hit by extreme cold snap and heavy snow
“Cold weather has killed 37 people in Ukraine so far this month as temperatures reached minus 23 Celsius in parts of the former Soviet republic. Night temperatures are expected to drop to -28C (-18F) in northern, central and eastern Ukraine this week. The cold snap followed heavy snowfall which left some areas covered with as much as 53 cm (21 inches) of snow. Cars were blocked for 18 kilometres (11 miles) overnight on Saturday on the main road between the capital Kiev and Lviv, officials said.”

A woman looks through an icy window in a bus in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, on Friday

Cold snap claims nearly 200 lives in Russia, Eastern Europe
“MOSCOW: A vicious cold snap across Russia and Eastern Europe has claimed nearly 200 lives, officials figures showed today, as forecasters warned it would last until Christmas Eve. In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56. The freeze had also left 371 people in hospital. Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow — and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia — for a week.”

Ouch. I really feel for those folks.

VOLCANOES

Volcanoes are becoming more active. The undersea Pacific Ring of Fire is also becoming more active. It should be noted that Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano is a constantly active one. However, the next volcano that is listed in the news, Russia’s Kamchatka, is not.

Ecuador’s rumbling Tungurahua volcano spews more hot rock from crater
“QUITO, Ecuador – The Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador keeps spewing gas, ash and red-hot rock, forcing hundreds to evacuate from their homes. The country’s Geophysical Institute says incandescent rock shot from the crater of the 16,479-foot (5,023-meter) high mountain fell about half a mile (a kilometer) down its flanks. Explosions early Wednesday rattled windows 9 miles (14 kilometers) away, while rain-borne ash has been falling to the southwest of the crater.”

Russian volcano erupts – video
“A volcano in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, which has been dormant since the 1970s, erupts, spewing lava and sending clouds of ash into the air. A crack about 5km long appeared on the slope of Plosky Tolbachik. The lava poured into a river valley, destroying a volcanologist research base and a tourist campsite, both of which were empty at the time.”

Geology Professor Erik Klemetti reports in his eruption update for December 17, 2012, “Across the globe in Indonesia, Lokon has also been keeping active with numerous explosions, like this one from earlier today. That same brief Reuters report claims that Lokon has experienced over 800 explosions over the last 6 months, an impressive number to say the least. The plumes from the explosions are reaching 3-4 km / 11-14,000 feet. Lokon is joined by Paluweh in this week’s Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report and another 6 volcanoes are on Orange Alert status according to PVMBG.”

Guatemala’s Pacaya Volcano spits ash, gases
“GUATEMALA CITY – Pacaya Volcano, located 47 kilometers south of the capital, has had increased activity in recent days with ash and gas being released into the air, said the Institute of Volcanology (Insivumeh). On Wednesday, the institute issued a preventive alert and recommended the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conrad) to keep monitoring the 2,500-meter-tall volcano, located between the departments of Guatemala City and Escuintla. “The activity yesterday [Tuesday] was a manifestation of reactivation, so people should be aware of developments in coming days,” Insivumeh experts said.”

Here is The Atlantic’s “2012: the Year in Volcanic Activity” with some really great photos. They write,
“Out of an estimated 1,500 active volcanoes around the world, 50 or so erupt every year, spewing steam, ash, toxic gases, and lava. In 2012, active volcanoes included Guatemala’s Volcan de Fuego, New Zealand’s Tongariro, Russia’s Plosky Tolbachik, Chile’s Puyehue, Italy’s Etna, and a new island appearing in the Red Sea. In Hawaii, Kilauea continues to send lava flowing toward the sea, and locals living near Mexico’s Popocatepetl continued to deal with ashfalls. Collected below are scenes from the wide variety of volcanic activity on Earth over the past year.”

That “50 or so” per year is not correct. It hasn’t been correct for a while. You’ll see the data soon. I am preparing my annual year-end report in numbers of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc. It is called “by the Numbers” and it will be up in a day or so.

MYSTERY BOOMS/SKY NOISES

Who knows what those weird noises are?! They have been occurring for several years. The reports come from credible sources. When they occur, official government agencies deal with numerous calls and then make statements. YouTube and other video recordings capture the noise and they are posted on the internet for all to hear. I’ve written about them before, several times. I’ve speculated they may be leak-over from spiritual battles in the heavenlies. The roar of invading host, as it were. They may be something related to Jeremiah 25:31 —

“A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.”

Or they may be something we can’t comprehend. In any case, they are still happening.

The weird sky noises continue to happen and when they do, they continue to baffle. It isn’t quarry work and it isn’t earthquakes. Those have been ruled out. And no military activity as taking place either. Those are the three main culprits that cause loud noises like these, and they have been ruled out.

Columbia County (GA) Booms Continue To Baffle Community
“Columbia County residents are stumped over the origin of a mysterious series of loud, wall-rattling booms that have been shaking their eardrums -and homes- several times over the last few weeks.”

PESTILENCE

Luke 21:11 says that there will be pestilences as a sign of the end time. Pestilences are a contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating.

Whooping Cough on the dramatic rise: Maine cases tripled
“Reported cases of whooping cough in Maine more than tripled this year, in line with a national trend that resulted in the worst year of pertussis infection in the United States in more than 50 years.”

source

Vermont is experiencing an outbreak too. Their cases this year have doubled over the previous next highest year of number of cases.

Pertussis outbreak has state encouraging vaccinations for adults and children
“Vermont is experiencing the most severe outbreak of pertussis, or whooping cough, in documented history. While state numbers show the vaccine’s inefficacy in the Green Mountain State, top health officials say there’s no better solution. The 568 cases the state has so far recorded this year are double the previous high of 283 cases set in 1997.”

In the UK, cases have doubled.

Whooping cough outbreak continues but cases have dropped.
“The biggest outbreak of whooping cough for 20 years is continuing but experts said cases have dipped slightly. The number of new cases recorded in November dropped for the first time in 18 months, but experts warned that the disease does usually die down in winter and it may not mean the outbreak has peaked. … So far this year there have been a total of 8,819 cases, higher than in any year since the 1990s.”

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

The point of posts like these is three fold, mainly. First, we recognize God’s sovereignty in all things. the news headlines may say that there is travel “chaos” but in heaven there is no chaos. God is in control of each and every thing, including our lives. God is a mighty rock in a weary land!

Secondly, He said He will come again and take us to where He is. This is known as the rapture. All believers who are dead will be resurrected into glorified new bodies, and we who are alive will be taken up with them into the air where we will meet Him in the clouds. This will be a real event. It is not a theory. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-54.)

So then, if He will come back a time we do not expect, how will we live from day to day? In expectation? Do we long for Him? Do we know the signs, or are we looking at life signs and not spiritual signs, much to our shame and rebuke? (Matthew 16:1-4).

Third, we take comfort in these words! He will return and right all things! He will hold us close and wipe our tears. He is the Good Shepherd who takes care of His sheep. He will install us in His fields, to lay down in good pasture, with still waters. Heed the words of David:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,c
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4)

Whether He is near on His day of the rapture or He is near because he is indwelling us, He is near! Call on the mightiest name in the universe, your friend, Jesus.

 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18). Look for Him and live for Him. Selah

Posted in angels, bible, government, jesus, powers

Government will be upon His shoulders: The heavenly government to come

Posted on by elizabethprata

Though the United States presidential election happened only 6 weeks ago, it feels like a lifetime ago.

However, undiminished 6 weeks later is my shock that Obama won again, and with that, the terrible feeling that the US is under judgment.

I’ve been a political animal all my life. My father was politically involved in supporting candidates, and later as a candidate himself. I remember as a four or five year old, laying in dusty grange halls and admiring the colorful banners strung up. Later as a newspaper reporter I covered government, government officials, and took my duty seriously that we live in the greatest nation in the world and I needed to do my part in being an informed participant in elections and to be a journalistic watchdog of those who win them.

As a lover of history I feel deeply the sacrifices the Pilgrims made to dare cross an ocean in a tiny boat and start a new nation, and of the Revolutionaries who dared to poke a stick in the eye of the most powerful nation in the world, Britain, to separate and go our own way.

What American isn’t moved by the words in the Declaration of Independence, and who wouldn’t cherish the US Constitution? It hurts to see the government destroyed by man’s greed, sin, and God’s judgment due to the disobedience and opportunity we have squandered.

So government is always on my mind, and thus, when I read the famous ‘Christmas’ verse in Isaiah 9, I treasure these words:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

“Government shall be on His shoulders”

We usually focus on the child, or the titles for the child such as Counselor etc. But this blog entry is about government, on earth and in heaven; the present institution and the coming glorious eternity.

The Isaiah verse continues with the government theme:

“Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:7)

The Hebrew word for government in the verse is misrah, meaning ‘rule, dominion’.

God is orderly. His orderliness extends to every atom in the universe, including the government of His temple and the hierarchy of His angelic host. Let’s look at the order of the angelic host for a minute.

In Nehemiah 9:6 we read of the host:

“Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.”

The word host here means tsaba: defined as army, war, warfare. It evokes the orderly organization of armies into cohorts, legions, companies, divisions, etc. as we know them on earth. Colossians 1:16 continues the idea that the angels are divided into divisions of hierarchical structures:

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him”.

No one is quite sure what those powers and principalities are or what they involve (except trying to thwart God’s plans as seen in the Daniel 10 verse below) because though the bible mentions the powers, principalities and thrones and dominions, they are not defined for us. Therefore there is much debate.

However we do know that the bible says that there was an angelic-demonic Prince of Persia who caused a delay in Gabriel’s dispatch to Daniel, and Michael had to come help break that resistance. (Daniel 10:13). Perhaps this is an indication of the fact that if angels are called “princes” in the heavenly realms, they also have “principalities.”

However since they are referred to as the host which means an army, one can perhaps safely say that they are a hierarchy. It’s just that no one is sure of the order from top to bottom.

Additionally, the bible mentions classes of angels such as seraphim and cherubim and archangels.

Isaiah 6:2 first mentions Seraphim. The word “seraphim” (singular is saraph) is probably a translation of ‘fiery ones’ and seems to stem from the fiery imagery in the Presence of God (cf. Ezekiel 1:27; Ezekiel 28:14).

The Cherubim seem to guard important things, like the Ark of the Covenant, and the Tree of Life. (Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:20; Ezekiel 10:16). They may have four faces or two faces and wings and hands. Amazing creatures!

Michael is mentioned as an archangel (Jude 1:9) and the word archangel is translated chief angel.

Gabriel is an archangel too, identified so in translation of his name into the Hebrew, “man of El, archangel,” Strong’s 1403. Daniel 8:16; Daniel 9:21).

The verse 2 Peter 2:10 uses the word authority [some translations it is government] and the Greek translation refers to a hierarchy:

“But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” KJV (lordship: divine or angelic lordship, domination, dignity, usually with reference to a celestial hierarchy.)

The word authority also indicates in the Greek, “dominion; a power exerting itself in a particular jurisdiction (“ruling”).

See how orderly everything is??

Though this survey of the angelic hierarchies and the dominions God has set up has been brief,  I wanted to offer the concepts of order in established government as a comfort. God is orderly. Even though there is rebellion in heaven and rebellion on earth, what He has set up will be restored. Even though angels resist and try to thwart, and man is sinful and rejects, everything is still subject to His rule and He controls it.

If you love government at its best, all functioning perfectly for the common good, just wait until the government rests on Jesus’s shoulders! What perfection! What Good will come of it! What glory will shine upon Hm and through Him!

because He was born and lived and died and was resurrected, on His Day, He will restore all order and all the government will be on His shoulder. The government will function perfectly and in total harmony. Plus, no more elections and if there are no more elections there will be no more campaigns. Phew! His restoration of the government upon His shoulders is yet another blessing the baby Jesus as God-man gives us hope to look forward to!

Read this conclusion to Ephesians 1:15-23. I added the emphasis–

Thanksgiving and Prayer

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 a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,  and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Posted in christmas, messiah

Rejoice, Messiah has come!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Andrew and Simon Peter followed John the Baptist and when John pointed to Jesus and said to Andrew, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Andrew followed Jesus and brought his brother with him, saying–

“He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).”

In order to find something, you have to be looking for it. These two disciples were looking. They knew the Messiah was prophesied to come and they were waiting, praying, sacrificing, and hoping. They looked and they found. Seek and ye shall find … (Luke 11:9a).

The Greek word for ‘found’ as it’s used in John’s verse means, “I find, learn, discover, especially after searching.”

I pray you are searching for Messiah, too. Here are some of the precious names He is called in the bible:

King — “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:6)

God with us — “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Son of Man — “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.” (Daniel 7:13-14). He is referred to by His own lips as that title about 80 times in the New Testament.

Star — “I see Him but not now, I behold Him but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel.” (Numbers 24:17)

Good Shepherd — “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ” (John 10:11)

Redeemer — “‘A Redeemer will come to Zion. And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 59:20)

Any study of Jesus, even if it’s simply a list, would be comprehensive and overwhelming. He is so great, we can study about Him forever. And glory to God in the Highest, we who have repented and are counted as justified and sanctified, CAN and WILL study Him forever–

“Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (Psalm 119:89)

Merry Christmas!

(adapted from John MacArthur’s sermon “The Perfect Mediator“)

Posted in doomsday, end time, jesus, Mayans, prophecy

What is the opposite of a Mayan doomsday? Jesus’s Peaceday

Posted on by elizabethprata

Mayan doomsday hysteria is overtaking people, towns, whole nations. According to an incorrect interpretation of the long count Mayan calendar, (Baktun) the world is supposed to end tomorrow. The fascination with this calendar and its prediction of global doom has apparently affected many, many people. Crimes are being committed. Deaths are occurring. Government decisions are being made.

O, would that they would do the same by taking the bible seriously! If people changed their lives, thought of their mortality, made decisions based on the truth and fact of a REAL doomsday that will come for every human who ever lived…what a world this would be. Alas, it is not.

But be that as it may, the troubles of the mind are bubbling to the surface. The intuitive fear that every human has is giving rise to actions that are caused by those fears.

And what are those fears? Follow me on the progressive thought: The bible says eternity is set in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It says that we are influenced by the general revelation of God in nature, (Romans 1:20; more here) and also that we have been influenced by special revelation which is the spoken Word, miracles, visions, dreams, and Jesus. And if we are influenced by God in those ways, we also intuitively feel the weight of our sins, (2 Timothy 3:6; Isaiah 1:4). Therefore we understand deep in the recesses of the darkest corner of our minds, that we are accountable for them. Each individual in the world at some point before their death, unless they were a babe or cognitively impaired, have pondered the eternal question- what happens after death? Is this all there is?

Not knowing the answer to that question bothers people. Of a mundane day to day living, the issue doesn’t come up so often. However if a person is confronted with a horrific event, such as the Newtown School massacre, they think about it. Or if they receive a dread diagnosis, they think about it. Or if they approach old age, they think about it. It’s natural to wonder.

Not having the answer, some people go more crazy and frantic when faced with a looming appointment with mortality. For many today, that looming appointment seems to them to be the Mayan end date and alleged pagan Apocalypse. People really are going crazy. See this news from around the world:

Almost 1,000 doomsday cult members arrested in China
Police in China have carried out further arrests of members of a doomsday cult for spreading rumours about the imminent end of the world, state media say.
State media terms Almighty God an “evil cult” – the same description it applies to the banned Falun Gong group.

As ‘Doomsday’ Looms, Serbs Cash In On Mystical Mountain
If doomsday really falls on Friday, the residents of this Serbian mountain region are cashing in while they can.  “We’re booked out December 20-23. We have a New Age convention and guests are coming because of the end of the world,” said Nebojsa Gajic, manager of the 160-bed, Communist-era Millennium Hotel on the slopes of Mount Rtanj.  The region is selling itself as the best place to survive the looming apocalypse–which will fall on December 21, according to mystics whose calculations depend on the ending of an era in the 5,125-year-old Mayan calendar.

Dec. 21, 2012: Fearful ‘end of world’ callers flood NASA
If there’s one government agency really looking forward to Dec. 22, it’s NASA.  The space agency said it has been flooded with calls and emails from people asking about the purported end of the world — which, as the doomsday myth goes, is apparently set to take place on Dec. 21, 2012. … NASA decided to do “everything in our power” to set the facts straight.  That effort included interviews with scientists posted online and a web page Brown said has drawn more than 4.6 million views. [italics mine]

School Districts Cancel Class Due To Doomsday Talk, Potential Threats
Thousands of students will have an extra long holiday break after school administrators in at least two Michigan counties decided to cancel classes because of talk surrounding the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and rumors connected to the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world.  Five districts in Lapeer County and 20 districts in Genesee County posted announcements Wednesday evening cancelling classes Thursday and Friday. … Additionally, rumors connected to the Mayan calendar predicted end of the world on Friday have also surfaced,” a letter from Matt Wandrie, Superintendent of Lapeer Community Schools said.

Chinese police suspect man who stabbed 23 kids ‘influenced’ by doomsday rumor 
Chinese police said Monday that the man who stabbed 23 children in a rural Chinese elementary school just hours before the Newtown, Conn., massacre may have been “influenced” by doomsday predictions. A belief that the Mayan calendar predicts an apocalypse this Friday, Dec. 21, has gained peculiar currency here. And the knifing spree is the darkest manifestation yet of how end-of-the-world rumors have taken hold in China.

People are taking this thing seriously. Too bad they are all wrong. They are going crazy. And they do not need to.

Oh, the Lord may rapture His believers any day, and the last 7 years of doom on earth may begin. That last 7 years does include days of darkness as the Mayans “predict”, and asteroids and comets and other doomish happenings. But if it does occur it will not be because the Mayans said so, it will be because GOD said so.

However, the heartbreaking concepts in all this are two-fold. First, that people and governments are making decisions based on a false prediction from a lost cult of the Mayans. Their religion means nothing and it came to nothing. Chances are that naught untoward will happen tomorrow. Sadly, many people who have either committed suicide, or killed someone or went underground or sold all their stuff will sheepishly understand they made an eternal mistake based on false intel.

Secondly, what we’re seeing with all the hullabaloo is the roiling of usually placid waters of apparent unconcern with their eternal destiny. People hide or suppress the turmoil of fear and uncertainty underneath. (Romans 1:18). We don’t usually see a person’s turmoil. Big events stir up that inner turmoil. That is what we’re seeing today.

In this case it is the specter of doom in the form of an ancient pagan prediction. However, even the Newtown massacre prompted full churches and candlelight vigils in the search for meaning among the face-off with death and its eternal question.

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“Oh, the raging of many nations–they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples–they roar like the roaring of great waters!” (Isaiah 17:12) Isaiah likened the turmoil of nations with its endlessly raging peoples to the roaring seas. So did Luke:

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,” (Luke 21:25)

Isaiah’s use of roaring is from a Hebrew word hamah that means to ‘murmur, growl, roar, be boisterous’ and that is exactly what we see when a great many people across the world at once are forced to face mortality and confront their conscience with the question of “what happens after death?” Like a Mayan apocalypse. They murmur, growl, become boisterous, just like the raging sea.

One can be peaceful, placid, and avoid the roiling of waters by being in Jesus. HE brings peace, and only HE brings peace. Without Him, there is no peace. And no answers.

“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;” (Ephesians 2:14-15)

“To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:79).

The Apocalypse is coming. It is not the Mayan apocalypse, but the Jesus Apocalypse. Apocalypse literally is from the Greek word apokalýptō and Strong’s concordance defines it as:

“properly, uncover, revealing what is hidden (veiled, obstructed), especially its inner make-up; (figuratively) to make plain (manifest), particularly what is immaterial (invisible).”

The last book of the bible is Revelation and it reveals the things of the last days. It reveals to one and all the terrible wrath of God leveled upon the world for their sins. He reveals what He will do.

In Amos 3:7 it is written, “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets”

and in this case He revealed His intentions to John, who was also instructed to write it down and thereby it becomes instructive to us in this generation.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. … Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” (Revelation 1:1-3, 11)

We are meant to read the book and to understand the price that pride and sin and rejection of Jesus brings. Surely the LORD does nothing without revealing it…and He has. The Mayans have not.

You have been warned, as every generation has been warned since the generation of John and the closing of the bible with the words of Revelation He ordained John to write.

Wrath is coming. But the Peace that passes all understanding is also revealed. (Philippians 4:7). That also, is yours for the choosing. I beg and plead with you who do not believe, I entreat and urge those who do believe but are falling away. I am not so proud that I would not beg you in abject tears to heed the words of Jesus the Christ who is and who was and who is to come again.

It may be today. It may be tomorrow. It may be next month. Or your very death may cause you to slide in due time toward the eternal destiny He has set before us. (Deuteronomy 32:35). There are only two destines for every person who ever lives: eternity in hell away from Him, and eternity in heaven with Him.

As Paul wrote in the great book of Romans,

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. (Romans 12:1-2).

What is the will of God, you ask?

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)

Believe on Jesus, the resurrected God-man who was slain for the sins of the world, and who took YOUR wrath as the substitute. Repent and believe. And then you will no longer wonder about your appointment with mortality. You will KNOW.  You will never worry about anything so foolish as a Mayan apocalypse again. It is His delighted pleasure to reveal to you your destiny which is peace and glory and perfection and joy. His peace is amazing. Jesus is amazing. Come join us in His peace, I beg you.


Posted in theology

Milestone upcoming

Posted on by elizabethprata

Less than 10,000 views and I hit 2 million! What can I say, I’m a sucka for stats…

But what it really means is Jesus proclaimed 2M times. I am grateful have an eternity to proclaim Him 2 google-gazillion more

Posted in evil, God, good, tragedy

Why does God allow evil?

Posted on by elizabethprata

God doesn’t cause tragedy. But God allows it. Why?

Todd Friel of Wretched TV answered this in a very good and biblical way. It is 7 minutes long and I recommend listening. The video is below. Here is a short, written summary of what Mr Friel said-

The bible makes sense to help us understand what appears to be senseless. We need to be proclaiming the reasons for evil the bible gives generally so that individuals can apply them specifically. We can’t point fingers and say that ‘this is the reason that happened to YOU,’ but if we share the general principles of why God allows evil it may help someone understand and apply it to their own situation. God is always doing something for everyone involved in a tragedy. God uses sin sinlessly. He is always at work to the Good.

1. The Gospel
If there was not sin in the world we would not need Jesus as Savior and not know how amazingly kind God is to send Him to us. Without sin there is no Gospel.

2. Magnify His Goodness
When God’s kindness is portrayed against the backdrop of evil His goodness is even brighter.

3. Repent
In Luke 13:1-5, in a sermon on the need for individual repentance for sin, Jesus talks about to 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them. They were innocent victims of a calamity which was due to no fault of those killed. Are we less sinful than those who were killed? No. We don’t know the day or hour of our appointment with death, therefore the need to repent NOW is even greater.

4. Jesus loves children
He loves them. Maybe He wanted them with Him today. Let that comfort you.

5. Make us long for Him
The churches were packed after the tragedy and the candlelight vigils were frequent. We long for Him and rush to Him when under such duress and heavy weight.

6. Draws us to Himself
See above

7. Equips us to comfort
We can comfort someone else.

8. Prepare us for service
He uses sin sinlessly by increasing our gratitude today for service tomorrow. He uses something really hard to do some and to equip us for something in the future to empathize with others going through a similar thing, or for us to be able to endure something in the future.

9. Remind us of the battle
He uses sin to remind us of the battle in the spiritual realms for the souls of men, and to refocus our priorities.

10. Genuine decisions can be evil
He allows us to make decisions and sometimes those decisions can be downright evil

11. Reaping and sowing
Is it possible a nation is reaping what it has been sowing?

12. Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Some things are too high for us to know, or too burdensome. Would you tell your five year old the adult things we know of? They would either not understand or be able to handle it. Sometimes God reveals things to us later, or in heaven, when we can handle it.

Posted in giant fish, jonah

Jonah as a type of Christ

Posted on by elizabethprata

I am fascinated with Jonah. Four short chapters, concise and not a word wasted, but packs a powerful punch.

Isaiah was beloved. He saw God and was cleansed in the holy heavenly temple. Elijah is revered- and is to come again. So fervently do they look for Elijah that Jews set a place for him at the Passover table. Daniel was noted by God to be a righteous one among men. (Ezekiel 14:14). But Jonah? The disobedient one? Not so much.

Yet … through Jonah’s preaching God converted the largest city on earth. Jonah’s story carries with it fantastical but true elements of runaway prophet, giant fish, death or near-death experiences, raging storms, begrudging task completion, a small worm and a withering shade tree. So many miracles pack Jonah it boggles the mind- ten of them in four short chapters.

And most amazingly, of all the prophets God sent, Jesus identified himself not with powerful Elijah, not with beloved Isaiah, not with righteous Daniel- but with runaway Jonah.

It has been said that Jonah is a type of Christ. To me, this is an interesting juxtaposition. After all, Jesus was the only human on earth to be perfect, sinless, and in complete obedience with the Father. So how or why is Jonah a type of Christ?

I’ll tell you before we go on that I don’t know the answer to that question. The why, anyway. But here is what my research uncovered on how Jonah as a type of Christ can be compared to THE Christ.

First, here is what Jesus said when referring to Jonah:

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:39-41).

What did Jesus mean that He would give no such sign? Perhaps that He would give one that should be as satisfactory proof to them that he was from God, as the miraculous preservation of Jonah was to the Ninevites that he was divinely commissioned. I mean, how many miracles do they need?

The Ninevites, pagans after all, recognized God’s work on first preaching. The Pharisees and unbelieving Jewish generation required miracle after miracle and still they refused to repent. That’s why the Ninevites’ example condemns the Pharisees and Jewish unbelievers.

To this day the tradition of what Jonah did at Nineveh remains. The city fell into ruin eventually and was covered over by desert sands for many generations. The city was not re-discovered until the 1800s. Yet throughout the entire time, the power of God through Jonah stayed. The area was always called and referred to by locals as Tell Nabi Yunus. A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides. (Wiki). Nabi is Hebrew for Prophet. Yunus, swapping the J for a Y is a transliteration of Jonah. In Greek it is Ionas.

So the ruins of Nineveh, near Mosul Iraq, means ‘ruin of the Prophet Jonah’. The work that God did there was known and understood and remembered to be a great work of God.

There are several other parallels to the Jonah-Jesus story. Jonah’s name means ‘dove’ by the way. Both were from Galilee. Though the Pharisees said no prophet comes from Galilee, they were so desperate to discredit Jesus that they forgot that Jonah was from Galilee. (John 7:52).

Both Jonah and Jesus were sent first to Jews and then the Gentiles.

They were both wiling to die for their people. Jonah first by perhaps expecting to be slain for disobeying God (as the example in 1 Kings 13:23 indicates happens to disobedient prophets) and then when Jonah urged the sailors to throw him overboard. We already know Jesus died as the sacrifice for all people.

They both preached and the Jews refused but the Gentiles accepted.

They both slept in a boat in a storm.

When the storm got worse, both sets of sailors asked the same question of Jonah and of Jesus: ‘How can you sleep? Can’t you see we’re perishing?’

Jonah 1:6- “So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

Mark 4:38- “But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The sailors asked God not to hold it against them as a sin that they shed innocent blood, and Judas told God he knew he had shed innocent blood.

Jonah 1:14- “Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”’

Matthew 27:4a- “saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

And yet a startling difference, that couldn’t be more apparent, is that Jonah had no compassion for the Gentiles and was disobedient.Jesus is perfect. Huh.

Below is a chart I’d made when pondering these things. It was the boat in a storm that made me start comparing. If  you are reading along and you’re reminded of an incident or a verse in another part of the bible, turn to it. Slowly examine it, looking carefully at the language. That is how I found the perishing language and the innocent blood language. Then read credible commentaries and/or listen to sermons from good expositors. The bible will become more deep to you. It is how the Spirit applies truths to our hearts.

I just started jotting them down and then, being visual, I put them into a chart so I could see them side by side. I love the Old Testament for painting pictures for us that in the New Testament become principles. Brethren, don’t forsake the OT. There is so much there, and it is a joy always to discover more in God’s word.

I don’t know the answer to why Jonah & Jesus slept, or how Jonah is a type of Christ, but I sure did have fun exploring. My faith is such that I know the Spirit will show me more in His timing, either on this side of the veil or surely in the next.

This side: “But God hath revealed them< unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1 Corinthians 2:10).

Other side: “For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Thanks for reading. 🙂

Posted in God, israel, jerusalem, military

Not by might, says God to Israel, but by My Spirit

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel is noted by the nations as one of the most advanced military and technological nations in the world. Their successive wins at various wars have given them confidence in their strategies and protocols. The recent success of Pillar of Cloud in the Gaza Strip with Iron Dome and now David’s Sling missile busters coming online have added to that feeling of confidence in their abilities. This feeling will nearly prove their undoing. Why?

They need to rely on God. But they don’t.

I’ve mentioned this before. In the blog entry titled “Israel, Iran, and Heavenly intervention,” I’d written-

“Of course, we would love to see some heavenly intervention that will stop them, to wake up some morning and learn that they’ve given up on their nuclear intentions,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday during a joint press conference with Leon Panetta, his American counterpart.”

I had mentioned yesterday that Israel’s current military success is a wonderful thing, culturally, in that the citizens of the nation have a bit more reassurance that they can live through the day without a terrorist rocket falling on them. But in the long run it is actually counterproductive spiritually, because as long as they rely on themselves they will not rely on the Holy God of Israel. You see the Defense Minister’s next statement:

“You cannot build a strategy based on these wishes or prayers.”

Oh yes you can. Elisha did.

A week later in a blog entry titled Mysterious site 911 raises eyebrows, I’d repeated the mantra that over-reliance on one’s military and under-reliance on God is a bad thing-

“Israel is becoming more security conscious every day. Their reliance on their military is a good thing, otherwise I’m sure that as a nation they would have been obliterated by now. And, after all, it is God who allowed their successes so far.

However, there is such a thing as over-reliance. … Their continued run of success will only make them ever more reliant on their military and further from remembering that God is behind it. As a matter of fact the Israel Defense Force tweeted, “Our job is to minimize the need for a miracle, even in Hanukkah. We must always be ready.”

Minimizing the need for a miracle, which only comes from God, is really saying they minimize the need for God.

The Israelites of today will drift further and further from Him, until He uses Russia-Turkey-Iran’s military might to draw them back to Himself. That alliance is prophesied to attack Isrel in the last days…ans almost win. It is God who saves Israel.

“I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezekiel 39:7)

Now finally someone of Israel is urging Israel to turn to God and not their military for confidence. Rabbi Dan Dorsch, the Assistant Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, New Jersey, wrote this on Sunday in Haaretz. Here is an excerpt:

From Pillar of Defense to Hanukkah: Why Jews mustn’t glorify military might
Why isn’t Hanukkah in the Torah? Perhaps because the sages did not condone military prowess divorced from God’s presence.

Having arrived at Hanukkah following Operation Pillar of Defense, I believe the words of our sages still speak to the nature of modern military conflict. Like myself, I believe our sages would be proud to be associated with the fine, dedicated, brave modern Maccabees of the Israel Defense Forces, who protect and defend our Jewish state. Yet, as the State of Israel and the Jewish people move forward proudly from that operation into Hanukkah, I believe our sages might also take care to remind us that triumph in battle can never be a true Jewish path toward holiness. Instead, they would probably remind us that the very Hebrew name of the operation, Amud Anan – which refers to God’s protective “pillar of cloud” as He led the Jewish people out of Egypt through the desert — reminds us that a Jew must ultimately never draw his or her strength from might or power, but from God’s spirit.

Hanukkah reminds us that in ancient times, armies fought brutal campaigns and crusades falsely in the name of God and glory. But, as Jews, we only fight as a last resort because it is necessary to live, and so that we may spend our days drawing closer to God in peace.

For Jews, our true path toward holiness must be drawn from the wellsprings of our faith. We may celebrate victory but must never glorify military might. Instead, we must long for the day when all of the peoples of the world will finally put down their arms and live in peace.

They do long for peace, and well they should. However, that day of peace will only come when the Lord returns to establish His Kingdom. However, the Rabbi’s yearning for the peace that is promised is a good thing, because we all must pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6)

Meanwhile, here is a verse that the Rabbi quoted-

“Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6).

Posted in childlike faith, newtown, sandy hook school, shooting

Putting Newtown behind and Jesus ahead, we ask ‘Why the children?’

Posted on by elizabethprata

Children are important to Jesus. That is why satan seeks to kill them.

Did you know that on the same day as the horrific Newtown killings, a deranged man stabbed 22 young children at a Chinese elementary school? And that it was the third such type of stabbing attack at a school within the last two years?

Why the children? Here is why–

“and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:16).

Jesus said this in response to the following in the verse prior, and note carefully!

“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant”

The children were shouting hosannas!

The Pharisees were indignant over the children’s joy in recognizing Him!

In Gill’s Exposition it says, “This owing to God’s disposing them hereunto, putting it into their mouths, and strengthening them to declare it in a very strong and powerful manner; so that his strength was made perfect in their weakness, and his praise the more glorious.”

Do not overlook the children in their clear praise and strength of faith in one Jesus the Christ. Children are Christ’s answer to pure faith, and a rebuke to all who would squash a religious child’s enthusiasm for proclaiming Him. Woe to those who squash it! Woe!

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:17)

“But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14).

Jesus sets a great store on children, and uses them for praise to Himself and as a warning to adults to follow their faith example.

Why were the children killed? Why? We cry. I believe it is because children are the last segment of the population to be attacked by satan.

Satan has the mothers via the corruption and eternal discontent of feminism. He has the fathers through pornography and adultery and abandonment. He has the youths through drugs and the narcoleptic spellbinder of technology. He has the institutions of government, entertainment, and even religion. What’s left for him to freshly attack?

Children.

For example, abortion. Child molestation is another way satan has attacked the children. The hidden shame of child trafficking in America (and in the rest of the world) is a scourge on us all. But those and other methods of attacking children are indirect. So Satan had a thought- why not kill them directly?

There is nothing to make a nation, even a world, weep and mourn as much as a child massacre. Just the thought of vulnerable little bodies strewn bloody on the floor is enough to make the world stop and take a collective gasp.

Jesus indicated this when He spoke of the abomination of desolation during the tribulation- “And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!“

As Gill explained, “whose tender affection to their infants will not suffer them to leave them behind them; and yet such their weakness, that they will not be able to carry them with them; at least, they must be great hindrances to their speedy flight.”

What defeats a family more, or crumbles their faith more, than losing a child to senseless violence? Not only would satan delight in the fact that a precious one’s childlike faith has been snuffed out, and that they can no longer praise Jesus in purity and trust, but he will also delight in the family’s grief and difficulty traversing the mountain of sorrow back to firm faith in Jesus again- if they ever do. Those of no faith will be unlikely to ever turn to Jesus. That likelihood diminishes with each bullet sent from a gun to slay a babe.

Satan is not overlooking the children in his attacks. But neither is Jesus. He ordained praise from babes. He taught us all to have childlike faith and trust in Him. He said that the little children should not be hindered from coming to Him. They were among the first before religious adults to recognize who He was on earth and they sang with joy.

I personally believe that the children who were killed in CT were young enough to see the angels God sent to minister to them as they hid in closets. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10). It’s something to imagine anyway.

Right now we trust in Him to create something good out of man’s horror. If you are finding it hard to move on to the solid rock of trust in a Good and Holy Savior, then ask the Spirit to increase your faith. (Luke 17:5). He surely does equip us to handle what comes in this world, a world I remind us all, is not our home.

As heavy as this affliction is, it is but a light affliction. (2 Corinthians 4:17). The children sang hosannas at the temple, and so should we. Though we cannot see the mercies and the glory that will emerge from this atrocity, we should have a childlike faith that something merciful and good will. If you don’t have that kind of faith, then at least do it for the children.