Posted in earthquakes, end time, jesus, prophecy

Major Earthquake in Columbia, how many earthquakes have we had this year so far?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is some information regarding earthquakes. The year is not over so we cannot compare this year to previous years…unless we compare the exact same time frame, January 1 to Sept 30, which is what I did.

What did the data reveal? How is the number of earthquakes running so far this year, compared to previous years? How is the number running, compared to annual averages by United States Geological Survey? (USGS gives annual averages from Jan-Dec., so the time frame is not exact but you can get an idea of the running total to see if this year is under, the same as, or over expected number of quakes.)

This first chart is the major magnitudes and the annual number of each magnitude of quake, from Jan 1 to Dec 30 for each year, USGS source.

This next chart is one I generated by using USGS search engine to find total of quakes between January 1-Sept 30. I highlighted in red the years where each magnitude of quake exceeded the annual average by Sept 30.

This chart is straight from USGS (though I cropped off the lesser magnitudes). Click to enlarge.

As for quakes in diverse places, there were two just north of Dallas Texas which rattled windows, and nerves. The magnitude was 3.4 with a 3.1 aftershock.

A 7.3 occurred in Columbia today, which was a very strong one, but so far thankfully no deaths are reported. Here is a news story about it, but the current reporting of the magnitude is 7.1 which is wrong. Initially USGS posted the magnitude of the Colombian quake at 7.4. Then USGS downgraded it to 7.1, and that is where most news reports came in. But then USGS upped the magnitude again to 7.3, where it is currently staying.

The other strong quakes this week were:
6.2 at the Gulf of California
6.4 at Andreanof Islands, Alaska
6.0 Solomon Islands

There have been 167 quakes of small size at or just north of the Virgin Islands. They all range roughly from 2.5 to 3.5 in magnitude.

Jesus said, as a sign of His soon return, “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” (Matthew 24:7b). Not every quake by itself is an indicator of His soon return. However, the totality of the signs He told us would be present is a better barometer of the times. Israel being in the land existing as its own nation is sign number one, given the focus of God upon Israel as the major eschatological component.

However also included but not limited to the signs on the list are earthquakes, famines, diseases, false teaching, false prophets, and sin rising to levels that make the times absolutely perilous.

God either causes or allows each and every thing to happen on this earth, and if an earthquake has occurred, it is of God and from God, as part of His plan in some way. In other words, He is speaking. Are we listening?

Posted in end time, falling away, jesus, prophecy

Apostasy and the Remnant Church, part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yesterday I wrote how the remnant church is like a peanut M&M. I think anyone with eyes to see understands that the global body of believers in Jesus Christ is persecuted, surrounded, discriminated against, and generally derided. I think it’s obvious that the church in the West has been thoroughly polluted by Gnosticism, Phariseeism, ecumenism, and prosperity gospel. The church, especially in the west, is largely apostate.

This is prophesied. We read in Luke 18:8 that Jesus asked the disciples, “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” He had just finished telling them the parable of the unrighteous judge, and He warned them that at the end the oppressed will get justice, but it won’t be on earth. He was speaking of the time of the Tribulation, but we see that apostasy being set up now.

At the last day, there will be faith on the earth in the form of Tribulation saints, but they will be so few in number and there will be so many who don’t believe, that realistically speaking the believer’s influence will be statistically negligible.

Apostasy will abound in the last days, and that means not only in the tribulation, but now, too. (Matthew 24:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1-3). But what does that apostasy look like? How does it begin?

First, let’s look at apostasy in the person who has never believed. How can a life-long unbeliever be an apostate, you say? Because we all know God from the beginning. Any unbeliever, whether they have never believed or they seemed to have believed for a while and fallen away, are apostate.

You see, we all start out on equal footing when we are born. We all have a sin-nature. (Genesis 5:3; Psalms 51:5). And as we grow, we all see the glory of God made manifest in the world through His creation. All.(Romans 1:19). Romans 1 continues by showing us the process of how people end up dead in their sins for all their lives.

First, they deliberately suppress the truth. (Romans 1:19). Then, though they know God, they refuse to give Him honor. As a result, their hearts are darkened. (Romans 1:21). Still needing to honor something greater than themselves, though, they trade giving honor to God for giving honor to idols. (Romans 1:22). That’s the end of the mental portion of the process.

If a person has come this far without repenting, then they start dishonoring God with their bodies. (Romans 1:24). The tipping point seems to be the moment when they actively start worshiping nature or idols. If they continue without repentance, then their bodily dishonor deepens and they become homosexuals. (Romans 1:26-27).

At the last, their mind becomes so polluted due to their having suppressed the truth and dishonored God with their bodies, their minds are given over to total debasement. (Romans 1:28.) You notice in the next verse it says they were “filled” with all manner of unrighteousness. The Greek word used here is defined “to make full, to complete”. God allows all sins to flood into them and they are capable of anything at that point.

But what about apostates, you ask. I described the unbeliever’s process, but an apostate is someone who falls away from the faith, right? Yes and no. Yes they fall away from the faith, but they were never IN the faith to begin with. They were an unbeliever the same as those I described above, they just happened to have made a little foray into the church for a while.

It is important to understand that Jesus will never lose one of His sheep. (John 10:28; John 6:39). Those He brings into the faith will never leave. John wrote:

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (1 John 2:19).

How they leave may take a long time or a short time, but they never were in the faith. They only looked like it on the outside.

An apostate could be someone who came forward at an altar call, who responded to the pastor’s plea for “the sinner’s prayer” to be answered. Maybe they were even baptized. But after that week you never saw them again. They never came back. That was a false convert, an apostate who fell away.

An apostate could be someone who had served as deacon for thirty years. Who had been a long-time member of a church, dong all the right things, saying all the right things, but slowly began drifting away. Their church attendance became spotty, and they gave up on Wednesday night teaching. Then their absences became longer and longer and when asked about it, they said they needed a break. Eventually you realize, they never did come back. They stopped leading devotionals at home…they quit praying… That is apostate also.

So how does apostasy happen to a person who looked like a believer? The exact same way as Romans describes.

In 2 Peter 3:3 Peter reminds us that we should remember the predictions of the prophets of old, that in the last days, “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.” The Greek word used here for scoffers implies a false teacher. These mockers will be false teachers, who look like they are in the faith, but they mock and scoff at His coming and at the doctrines surrounding His coming, such as pre-tribulation rapture, literal Millennium Kingdom, or even his second coming at all.

Jude 1:18 says the exact same thing. “They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” Haven’t we seen a steady chipping away of the truth of these doctrines? Some even claim that there is no rapture.

But look at this, Peter goes on after reminding them that there will be scoffers, to say in verse 4-5: “They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,” [emphasis mine]

We saw in Romans 1 that the process begins with knowledge of God, even for the overt unbeliever. Of those who claim to be in the faith, and by definition have some familiarity with the bible and the history of our faith, they deliberately overlook the facts that they know. When a person deliberately suppresses the truth, they are on dangerous ground! Whether it is an unbeliever suppressing general revelation of God by His creation or a false believer suppressing biblical fact & history, they purposely suppress. That is the first step for the apostate.

So first the apostate suppresses knowledge. Then they begin to mock and scoff at those in the faith, or aim their ire at who hold to certain doctrines that are evidence of His sovereignty. Then they abandon the faith, either abruptly or slowly.

Picture a hot air balloon anchored to the ground. Those who are in the basket are those who are solidly in the faith. They are being sanctified, going higher and higher by God’s process of Spirit-filled consecrating. Sanctification means we are becoming more Christlike every day.

Some people are around the basket, tying ropes and filling the balloon. They are easy to spot as people who will never get into the basket and allow the Spirit to lift them higher and higher. They are hangers-on, doing works that look Godly in form but they have no solidity. Some people hang on to the basket, even as it rises. Some hang on for a long time. But the further a person goes in sanctification, and the higher the Spirit takes them, the harder it is for the apostate to hang on. Eventually they drop off. They drop off because they were never IN the basket of faith. The hand of Jesus was never holding them (otherwise they never would have fallen away!)

Source

Though it is painful to see our church swamped with apostates, flooded with ungodliness, and surrounded by false doctrines, it is part of the process! The apostasy we see now is a mini-version of what will happen at the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ. At the end of the Millennium Jesus will allow satan out of the abyss for a short while. Satan will gather the nations and like the sand of the sea they will march against the beloved city. (Revelation 20:7-9).

How can this be, you wonder!? The people will have lived for a long, peaceful life, on earth when Jesus made everything perfect, and there was no war nor high degree of sin, because Jesus ruled with a rod of iron. How could satan gather rebellious ones so fast, and so many of them, too! It will have been be a pure theocracy for a thousand years!

Because those people will have been born during the millennium with a sin nature, and the last rebellion is to weed them out. For hundreds of years of their lives, they looked the part, they acted the part, they said all the right things on the outside, but Jesus knew their heart was not inclined towards Him.

Satan’s drawing out of them is an opportunity to give them one last chance to decide for him or against Him. Satan was the magnet that drew out the apostates.

This apostasy is a weeding out, too. Though we may feel surrounded at times by encroachment of false teachers, false pastors who strike the sheep, mockers and scoffers even sitting next to us in the pew, the fact that “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1), means these things must be so.

Don’t worry, peanuts! At the rapture, the brittle candy exterior will be cracked, the chocolate confection melted away, and the peanuts who had been the core of the church will burst out and up. We’ll be brushed off, cleaned up, and forever will be in the presence of Jesus! We’ll be shot out of all that sickening sweetness like a cannonball!

As we strive toward the goal, the balloon is rising higher and higher in our process of sanctification, those who are just hanging on are exposed, and they fall away.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Posted in carnal, end time, false church, jesus

The Remnant Church is like a peanut M&M…

Posted on by elizabethprata

Part 2 of Apostasy and the Remnant Church here

———-
Tucker Whitaker wrote an interesting piece this week called “The Rise of the Remnant Church” He wrote-

“The mainstream and denominational churches, the seeker friendly, emergent, and prosperity churches are far from what God envisioned them to be. Entire denominations and religious movements today operate without the Holy Spirit. They are spiritually bankrupt without the presence of Jesus, showing no evidence of spiritual gifts or fruit. They practice a form of godliness devoid of power or conviction which gives no hope of eternal salvation. They are comfortable with the world and are more social and political than spiritual. They appease sin, teach spiritual tolerance and diversity, and deny the authority of the Bible, while casting away all teaching about repentance, heaven, hell, and judgment. They have abandoned Biblical Prophecy for modern relevancy and Replacement Theology believing all prophecy is already fulfilled or that it is all allegory or at very worst that God has abandoned His covenant relationship and promises to His chosen people Israel. By making any or all of these unbiblical claims they prove their own ignorance of scripture and prophetic truth. They prove the very prophecy they deny.”

The remnant church is the small core in the middle of all that. Mr Whitaker wrote,

“I believe He is calling out a Holy Remnant Church, dedicated to Jesus Christ and focused on doing His work during these last days. I believe God is raising up a church that is committed to Him and His cause who are a holy remnant, a group of people who are steadfast and sure of their God. Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ is calling His Remnant Church to Himself at the end of this age to worship and teach in simplicity and doctrinal purity. Perhaps the desire to be obedient to the Word and to understand Bible Prophecy and to fulfill the great commission and the great commandment has birthed an early church understanding of what it truly means to follow Christ. Perhaps God is preparing a people to stand and hold forth truth in a world where people and “churches” are consumed with materialism, prosperity, self-centered pursuits and desires, and tolerance for those things that are unbiblical. Perhaps a time of final testing for the true church and Israel is upon us, a time for the Remnant Church to “Stand” for Christ. Whatever the ultimate reason, folks are coming out, and almost immediately they understand the need to adapt to this new and extraordinary environment where the Sufficiency of Christ is taught, that Christ alone is indeed all they need.”

Mr Whitaker reminds us that no matter how feeble the Lord’s church may seem, He always preserves a remnant of it throughout the darkest of times. He said that even in the Tribulation there will be 144,000 sealed believers powerfully evangelizing the world, Two Prophetic Witnesses warning the world, and a host of Tribulation believers who will witness unto martyrdom. All this I agree with.

The main point of his articles (part 1 and part 2) is that the remnant church will rise so powerfully that the gates of hell will be shook. He said that ‘God is calling out a remnant church’, and I do not agree with that. I think that the church has always been called by God but the call is being ignored and suppressed in these last days. In addition, I believe that those who do answer some kind of call, are increasingly responding to false calls and are false converts. The church that remains is a remnant but it is holding on amid the increase in candy coated preaching and missional confection. Thus, I do not agree with Mr Whitaker’s ultimate premise that a remnant church will rise, though I do agree that the true church IS a remnant in these days. His articles are very interesting nonetheless.

When I read of the small core huddling at the center of churches surrounded by carnality as Mr Whitaker wrote about, I think of two things. First I think of Paul Washer’s description of American churches. In his sermon “The Great Sin of the American Pastor” he said,

“Now I want to tell you the great sin of the American pastor, and this has gotten me in a lot of trouble, but it’s true. This small group of converted people in that local church, all they want is Jesus and all they want to do is the right thing. They want purity, they want truth, they want Christ. But, the pastor, in order to keep this larger group of unconverted people, he caters to them. So while he is feeding these carnal men and women with carnal things, he is letting the sheep of God starve to death and he is going to stand before God one day in judgment.”

It is a vivid picture of sheep huddled together in the middle pews bleating for real food as goats swirl around the church ransacking everything in sight.

The other picture I get in my mind of the remnant church besides Mr Whitaker’s and Mr Washer’s, is of a peanut M&M.

There is an exterior thin veneer of cohesion, (“ecumenical tolerance”) covering a thick layer of chocolate candy, (false church) which melts away if pressed too hard. Inside all that sickeningly sweet, cloying confection, is a hard core of believers standing on the blessedly sure foundation of Christ. But that core is so small that a thin covering of eye-catching neon candy coating and a thicker layer of chocolate hides it very well. And the pile of M&Ms overall is growing as churches explode in falsity and where the real believer is so hidden as to be invisible,or at least, overlooked. The form of godliness without power is like candy- it’s food, filling without being nourishing. There are calories, but they do nothing for the body.

A worldly spirit makes apostates. “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.” (2 Timothy 4:10). More in the next blog entry on the process of apostasy.

Do you feel like you are part of a remnant church? I do. The church may look bedraggled on the outside, but His true Bride is unbesmirched, glowing, and pure. It may be small, but it has the power of He who overcame the world within it, sustaining it, and holding it. And that is a beautiful thing indeed.

Posted in comfort

I wanna go home…don’t worry be happy

Posted on by elizabethprata

I listened to these sweet songs last night, after an exceptionally hard day and a rough and tumble week. The list shows a progression of thought I underwent, and likely many of you also. I can’t linger or wallow in pity or stay down licking my wounds. I have to rely on the Lord to brush me off and then I go on my way.

“I’m worried.”
“Don’t worry- be happy. In your life, expect some trouble. When you worry you make it double.”
[Petulantly] “I want to go home.”
“I wanna to go home.”
“I wanna to go home.”
“Oh well, Every little thing gonna be all right.”

I’m a Worried Man

Don’t Worry Be Happy

I Wanna Go Home

Take me Home Country Roads

Day O (Daylight Come Me Wanna Go Home)

Every Little Thing Gonna Be All Right (Don’t Worry)
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Posted in fatigue, overwork, rest, society

Overworked Americans are a hazard

Posted on by elizabethprata

I read with interest Michael T. Snyder’s piece a few days ago “Americans are literally being worked to death.” Here is a snippet–

“Are you constantly tired and do you feel incredibly stressed almost all the time? Well, that means that there is a really good chance that you are a typical American worker. Even though our incomes are going down, Americans are spending more time at work than ever before. In fact, U.S. workers spend more time at work than anyone else in the world. But it was not always this way. Back in 1970, the average work week for an American worker was about 35 hours. Today, it is up to 46 hours. But there are other major economies around the globe that are doing just fine without burning their workers out. For example, the average American worker spends 378 more hours working per year than the average German worker does.”

“Sadly, for many Americans work is not even finished once they leave the office. According to one recent survey, the average American worker spends an extra seven hours per week on work tasks such as checking emails and answering phone calls after normal work hours have finished. Other Americans are juggling two or three jobs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. Americans are busier than ever and work is often pushing the other areas of our lives on to the back burner. What this also means is that “family vacations” are becoming increasingly rare in the United States. In fact, Americans spend less days on vacation than anyone else in the industrialized world. While some would applaud our “work ethic”, the truth is that the fact that we are being overworked is having some very serious consequences. In fact, as you will see below, Americans are literally being worked to death.”

For the first time in a while I’m only working 40 hours per week. It is still stressful though, because of a reduction in our staff numbers. So we were told we have to work smarter and stretch. This means we are all taking on more duties, and working in a more rushed fashion than ever before to complete an ever-growing list of tasks during those 8 hours. Add to that a growing bureaucratic regulations that must be attended to and the list of things to accomplish during the day gets quite long.

Many Americans are working two and three jobs, and still, pay has gone down and our money buys less. The treadmill is outpacing us.

I lived on a sailboat for two years. I was a live-aboard cruiser. I learned so many valuable lessons during that time. We didn’t have radar or GPS or self-steering. Me and my husband stood watches through the night in shifts, did our own navigation by old fashioned ways, and when we anchored, (no marina for us) we rowed to shore in a dinghy.

We had some rules though. We understood that with fatigue, comes mistakes. On a sailboat, mistakes could cost us our lives. We respected what our bodies were telling us and we didn’t try to stretch things. We never made a passage that took more than 48 hours, knowing that our bodies would not adjust well to a prolonged two-hour on, two hour sleep rotation very well. When we’re tired, we can’t think as clearly.

Above is a still from the Bob Ballard-NatGeo show Alien Deep, episode “Wrecks of the abyss.” The team was looking for ancient wrecks and their radar showed a hit. They deployed the submersible, and as it approached the radar bump, the crew gasped (and me too) as the camera panned over the deep sea bottom to show a modern yacht, fully intact, resting gently upright, sails still deployed. It was the S/V Miranda out of Heidelberg. Now it is forever sailing the eternal deep, its fate a mystery. My husband and I knew that even in calm weather, one instant of inattention or mistaken decision-making could yield a fate like this for us, too. We were careful and tried not to allow fatigue to set in.

Fatigued driving is akin to drunk driving, it affects our brain so much. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says over 55,000 accidents happen each year due to fatigued driving, and they say most of those could be prevented just by getting a good night’s sleep.” (source)

When you’re exhausted you cannot think, react, calculate, decide or do many other cognitive functions as well as when you’re fresh. Add to the normal exhaustion that most parents feel, an extra job or two and you’ve got a fatigue permeating society that affects overall performance.

Let’s say that you’re on the road and you encounter a tired cop, a weary EMT, a fatigued transit conductor, a tired delivery driver, an exhausted bus driver. When people in jobs that affect others are tired, they make mistakes. Their mistakes affect others. They may have a harder time handling tension, stress, anger, or irritations that normally would not affect them.

It is one invisible way that society comes apart: depressed economy leads to overwork leads to fatigue that leads to mistakes that turn violent or deadly. It is one of the threads that stresses a society and overwork and fatigue pulls the thread apart from the seams. We’re all feeling that stress and societal disintegration. We can’t see fatigue, but we see its effects in reduced productivity and high exhaustion rates. Mistakes soon appear, then more and then even more. A wrongly filled out prescription, stepping on the gas instead of the brake, inattentive crossing guard… Think about it. Think about the number of people you depend on each day to make decisions that directly and indirectly affect you and your family. They may be in fact working three jobs and operating on 3 hours’ sleep.

When the Tribulation arrives, people left behind will encounter an already angry, discontent fatigued population ever vying for resources that are becoming scarcer by the day. It will get ugly fast.

I know it is hard now for many of you. But Jesus knows the importance of rest. When He sent the Apostles out on mission, and they returned to report to Jesus of their labors,

“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.” (Mark 6:31-32).

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:1-2)

Our permanent rest is coming soon. Until then, I entreat in as loving a fashion as I can for us all to make wise decisions for yourself and your family that will allow you all some down time, as well as quiet time to worship Him. I hope you all have a good, and restful, weekend.

Posted in ahmadinejad, end time, isa, islam, jesus

Isa is NOT Jesus!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today the President of Iran, Mr Ahmadinejad, said the following–

Iranian President Ahmadinejad Tells UN Jesus Christ and ‘Ultimate Savior’ Are Coming
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered his address before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, saying that the return of Jesus Christ was soon to come, along with the Islamic end-time figure the 12th Imam. “God Almighty has promised us a man of kindness, a man who loves people and loves absolute justice, a man who is a perfect human being and is named Imam Al-Mahdi, a man who will come in the company of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) and the righteous,” Ahmadinejad said, according to a transcript by PolicyMic. According to Shi’a Muslim beliefs, which the Iranian president subscribes to, Jesus of Nazareth will return to Earth along with the above-mentioned Imam, and they together will solve many of the world’s problems.”

Of course we know that unbelievers are fools. (Psalms 14:1; Titus 3:3; Ecclesiastes 2:14…). They are deceived and walking in darkness. Of course they would be fooled by empty talk.

But too many believers are fooled too. They see famous people mentioning Jesus and they believe that we “share” a faith. Islam’s Allah is NOT the God of Abraham. And the Muslim “Jesus” is NOT the Jesus who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If you are a Christian, get that notion out of your head right now.

The “Jesus” (Isa, or Īsā in Arabic) is NOT Jesus. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Rick Warren say ‘Isa’ they don’t mean our precious Jesus. They mean a man who Muslims teach was a prophet but not God. A man they claim was a sinner and not perfect. A man who never died on the cross to atone for sins, but was lifted up to heaven directly without dying. A man who is prophesied to return with final Imam (whom they teach is perfect), and kill all the Christians. A man who will break the cross. A man who will renounce his tie to Christianity. A man who will live during the Muslim version of the Millennial Kingdom, marry, have children and die a natural death.

 At the 2008 Obama inauguration when Rick Warren prayed in the name of Isa, that is who he prayed to. Warren may as well have said “I pray in the name of Baal”. When Ahmadinejad says ‘Jesus is coming’, THAT Jesus bears no relation to God in the flesh who died for the sins of the world. Ahmadinejad’s Jesus, or Isa, is satan. Rick Warren’s Jesus/Isa is satan. Ahmadinejad may as well be referring to Lucifer when he claims Jesus.

 Do not be fooled, or Jesus will call YOU foolish to your face.

Posted in bride of Christ, come up here, heaven, rapture

"Come up here!"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Though the rapture verses do not state explicitly, I think implicitly we can surmise that when Jesus calls to His bride at the rapture He will say “Come up here!”

One of the rapture verses states, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

I believe the ‘loud command’ will be ‘Come up here!” Why? Because…

In Revelation 4:1, Jesus said it when He called to John, “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

In Revelation 11:12, the Lord commands His two witnesses who had lain dead in the street of Jerusalem for three and a half days to “come up here!”

“Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.”

How exciting it will be when Jesus calls with the voice of an archangel and a trumpet and many waters (in other words, LOUD!) “Come up here!”

Transcending gravity, hurtling through space in a glorified perfect body, we WILL come up there, and we will meet our Groom.

“It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.” (Like 9:38)

Posted in earthquakes in diverse places, plates cracking, prophecy, quakes, tectonic

Earth’s tectonic plates are breaking up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sumatran quakes in April were part of tectonic plate breakup
The article I linked to there opens with noting the earth shows up a shattering surpise now and then: “Such was the case on April 11 when two massive earthquakes erupted beneath the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, far from the usual danger zones. Now scientists say the seafloor ruptures are part of a long suspected, yet never before observed, event: the slow-motion splitting of a vast tectonic plate. “It was jaw-dropping,” said Thorne Lay, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. “It was like nothing we’d ever seen.” At first, Lay wondered whether the computer code he used to analyze earthquakes was wrong. Eventually, he and other scientists realized that they had documented the breakup of the Indo-Australian plate into two pieces… Scientists say the 8.7 main shock broke four faults. The quake lasted 2 minutes and 40 seconds — most last just seconds — and was followed by a second main shock, of magnitude 8.2, two hours later.”

The earth is cracking up, eh? This is interesting in light of bible prophecy.

God uses earthquakes to warn and to judge. He has done this in the past and will again in the future. Regarding future judgment, He said many things about coming earthquakes and seismic shifts at the end of the age.

In a specific answer to the Apostles who had asked what will be the signs of the end of the age, Jesus said one of the signs will feature “earthquakes in various places.” (Matthew 24:7b). Earthquakes, plural. In my opinion, ‘diverse’ places does not only mean surface location. It also means deep-focus quakes too. Let’s take a brief side-trip before I get to the earthquake prophecy to take a look at one of the ways Jesus may have meant “diverese places.”

There are quakes that happen that are so deep that scientists say earthquakes should not even be able to happen at that depth at all, but they do. “Shallow earthquakes are between 0 and 70 km deep; intermediate earthquakes, 70 – 300 km deep; and deep earthquakes, 300 – 700 km deep.” (USGS source)

“Geophysicists are really not certain what causes the very deep quakes, because at 640 kilometers rocks are so hot that they flow rather than snap under geological stresses. The more common, shallow earthquakes are generally created when rocks snap and fracture.” (source).

Here is a chart I made just for the heck of it. I looked up quakes for the last 30 years that according to USGS would be the deep quakes, 300-800 km below the surface. I found something interesting. There was a steady number of 250-400 deep-focus quakes on average from 1981 -1995. Then abruptly the number of deep focus quakes roughly doubled, to 800 or more per year. For several years, the deep, impossible-to-happen quakes exceeded four digits! Then just as strangely, the number of deep-focus quakes dropped startlingly in one year from 1380 quakes to 291!! The deep quakes seem to be stabilizing back at the low numbers seen in the early 1980s. Click graph to enlarge. Data from USGS

One of the prophesied mega-quakes is mentioned in Revelation 11:13. The LORD resurrects the Two Witnesses who had been lying in the street of Jerusalem for three and a half days, saying “Come up here!”, and at that very hour “a great earthquake occurred and a tenth of the city fell”. The Greek word for great earthquake in this verse is megas seismos, or mega-quake. Another great quake prophesied to occur is described in Revelation 16:19- “And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.” It is the great quake where every island flees away and every mountain crumbles. (verse 20).

The Old Testament prophets speak of a time when a great quake precedes the Lord’s coming. “The LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.” (Isaiah 29:6).

The earth’s end is prophesied to be melted in fire, (2 Peter 3:10) but not before splitting apart at the seams and cracking up. And it is this which made me think of the news item at the top:

“The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.” (Isaiah 24:19).

It seems to me that a mega-quake shakes the earth, and it splits apart. It also seems to me that the process has begun.

Please repent of your sins and believe the Gospel. The Gospel is

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Gospel literally means Good News, and the good news is that if you repent and believe you will not have to endure God’s wrath. That IS good news! Further, you will be safely tucked away in heaven when His wrath cracks apart the earth and melts it. Do not delay, He is coming soon.

Posted in end time, iran, middle east, prophecy, temple mount

Did you know that Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount? And other news

Posted on by elizabethprata

An Op-Ed piece in the Israeli National News (Arutz Sheva) newspaper today just tore me up. I’ve been reading over the years of the incremental chipping away at Israel’s right to her holy and historic sites. Today there was an Opinion Editorial (Op-Ed) lamenting this sad fact.

Has Israel Lost the Temple Mount Race?
Op-ed:Olympic races don’t mean a thing, but the race for the control the Temple Mount is one that we must win. By Giulio Meotti
“A Palestinian flag is now flying on the Temple Mount, the most holy site on earth, where the First and Second Temples stood and the Holy of Holies was. Piece after piece of Eretz Israel is becoming a symbol of Arab nationalistic achievements. Several months ago, the Palestinian Rehabilitation Committee raised the UNESCO flag next to the Palestinian flag in front of Hevron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs. A Palestinian flag on the Temple Mount not only makes the Jewish people psychologically weaker, it looks as though Islam won the race in climbing to the top of the most sacred mountain. It’s an implicit recognition of Muslim hegemony.”

He’s right.

Then I read this about a young man:

Youth Arrested for Prostrating Self on Temple Mount
“A 21-year-old resident of the Judean Jewish community of Kiryat Arba was detained for questioning, Tuesday morning, after he prostrated himself on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The action violates guidelines for non-Muslim visitors to the holy site, who are not allowed to do anything that resembles praying.”

There are rules that no one may stop walking on the Mount, or fold hands or whisper or bow. Once, a woman was arrested for putting her head on a bench. You cannot bring a bible. You cannot bring anything with Hebrew lettering on it, even a newspaper. If you break some of these rules you will be summarily arrested. Others, you will be detained and your item confiscated. Sad!! It will be so great when all believers are in the presence of Holy God and we can pray all we want.

The Lebanon Daily Star is usually pretty interesting. I read Arutz Sheva and the Jerusalem Post, the Jordan Times, and Turkey’s Hurriyet News to get my dose of news from epicenter mainstream sources, and whatever the King of the dictator in power at the moment has allowed into print. The Lebanon Daily Star has an interesting feature: Photos of the Day. They offer a different perspective than the similar feature at the Boston Globe does. For example, here is one of yesterday’s photos:


An Afghan man stands near the window of a tea house in downtown Kabul. AFP PHOTO/ Roberto SCHMIDT

Or this one from today

A riotpoliceman reacts after he was hit by a petrol bomb thrown by protesters during a nationwide general strike in Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The Greek and Spain economic situation is terrible. People are dumpster diving in Spain in increasing numbers just to find some food so they can stay alive.

Spain Recoils, as Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a Next Meal
“On a recent evening, a hip-looking young woman was sorting through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store here in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas as it shut down for the night. Getty Images The European Union (EU) flag, left, flies alongside the Spanish national flag. At first glance, she looked as if she might be a store employee. But no. The young woman was looking through the day’s trash for her next meal. Already, she had found a dozen aging potatoes she deemed edible and loaded them onto a luggage cart parked nearby. “When you don’t have enough money,” she said, declining to give her name, “this is what there is.”

It is a gripping, sobering, and heartbreaking article. This is so especially because the real hunger hasn’t even started yet. (Revelation 6:6; Matthew 24:7)

Also in the Daily Star is this news article:

Tehran unveils drone capable of reaching Israel
“Iranian military leaders gave details Tuesday of a new long-range drone and test-fired four anti-ship missiles in a prelude to upcoming naval war games planned in an apparent response to U.S.-led warship drills in the Persian Gulf. The show of Iranian military readiness and its latest tool – a domestically made drone capable of reaching Israel and most of the Middle East…”

Hmmm. This bodes ill. Today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised an appropriate response to Iran Prime Minister Ahmadinejad’s speech a the UN where as usual he promised to wipe Israel from the map.

Netanyahu promises fitting response
“Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu left hours after the end of Yom Kippur Wednesday night for New York to address the United Nations where he pledged to give a fitting response to Iran’s desire to “sentence us to death.” In an unusual letter to the Israeli public before leaving for the US, Netanyahu wrote that history showed that those who desired to wipe the Jewish people “off the map” failed, while the Jewish people persevered and overcame all obstacles. Netanyahu – referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the UN on Wednesday – said that while “we prayed to be inscribed in the Book of Life, a platform was given to a dictatorial regime in Iran that strives, at every opportunity, to sentence us to death.”

Poetic words. History shows that Netanyahu is right. The bible as history book shows time and again that when God wants Israel to be an immovable rock, He makes Israel an immovable rock. (Zechariah 12:3).

Turkey used to be fairly secular. Over the past ten years or so it has turned into a Muslim state. Now, there are complaints that high school children are being forced to attend imam hatip schools. These are schools which focus not only on secular curriculum but teach conservative Islam theology. If you want to be an Imam you graduate from one of these schools. They call them Muslim preacher schools.

Students forced to enroll in religious schools in Istanbul
“Students living in Istanbul’s European-side district of Sultangazi who failed to earn good enough marks to enter the advanced Anatolian High School system or a vocational school have been enrolled in the religious imam-hatip schools without their knowledge, daily Hürriyet reported. Nearly 3,000 students were prevented from enrolling the Anatolian and vocational schools following the entrance tests, and most of those were subsequently enrolled in religious imam-hatip schools against their wishes.”

Parents are quoted as saying their child had checked off vocational school but the child wound up in the religious school instead, despite there being plenty of openings and the preference being having been made clear.

Meanwhile in Jordan there is concern that there is not enough Arabic content on the internet.

‘Gov’t to form council on Arabic web content’
“The government said on Wednesday that it will establish a consultative council to increase Arabic content on the Internet. The council will include representatives of the public sector, private content development companies, academia, publishers, lenders and investment funds, a source at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology said. “Our objective is to help look into ways to increase Arabic content to serve Internet users not only in Jordan but across the Arab world,” the source told The Jordan Times.”

People are nuts. The smallest thing will set them off. In NYC, two businessmen fight over a taxi. The scuffle began on the street with chest bumping and shoving, then one guy raced to the taxi with the other guy close on his heels, then the two shoved their way into the open passenger door, with one man briefly putting the other in a chokehold. One man entered the cab victorious and the other slammed the door very hard as the taxi prepared to speed away.

The newscaster said that though people argue over cabs all the time in the big city, you don’t often see this:

I can’t imagine how difficult it is living in proximity to many millions of people who are off their rockers in sin and haven’t been saved. With sin rising the way it is a city would be the last place I would want to spend any time at all.

Though tragedy finds us here in the country, too. Sadly a few weeks ago, in a nearby county, a student took his own life at school. It shocked us all that a youth would end his life, (he died a day later in hospital) and in such a public and dramatic way, too. Now I read another story today of a youth killing himself in a public school. This one was in Oklahoma. And he was 13 years old.

Police: Student shoots self at Stillwater school
“STILLWATER, Okla. — A 13-year-old student shot and killed himself in a hallway at an Oklahoma junior high school before classes began Wednesday, police said, terrifying teenagers who feared a gunman was on the loose.”

Oh, our precious babies!!

So the end will be soon but not yet. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next week. Soon- for believers will be taken out of the way before the Tribulation begins. (Isaiah 26:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 3:10). But not yet.

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6.)

Have you ever considered that one evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in regeneration is the very fact we look forward to the final ‘regeneration’ at the end of the age? (Matt. 19:28). “By His resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ became the ‘firstborn among many brethren.’ In the new birth, we are born again into the family of God, and the new light of the world to come begins to irradiate our lives. We yet live in ‘this present evil world’ (Gal. 1:4), but we live the life of the world to come because it has already come in the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit, the Spirit of God’s new and proper Man, Jesus Christ. The Spirit’s indwelling, renewing presence imparts a new direction, even trajectory, to our lives.” [more here]

Pastor Steve Lawson preached on the signs of the end of the age in a sermon called “Get Ready!” He said toward the end of his portion on the signs themselves,

“There will be forerunners who will announce His coming. And they are one of the signs that are mentioned throughout the entirety of this chapter. And Jesus says, ‘When you see these signs being fulfilled, we are to recognize and know that He is near, right at the door. The picture here is of Christ, arising from His throne in heaven, and approaching a door that would lead from heaven to the earth…He has arisen from His throne and His hand is on the door, ready to open the door and burst upon the stage of human history. Jesus says ‘when you see these signs increasing as leaves on a tree do suddenly appear on a tree in spring and grow and increasing fashion, when you see these signs growing in fullness, know that the judge is standing right at the door….Is it wrong to look at world events and try to estimate where we are in God’s prophetic calendar? The answer is no. Or He would never have told us what are these signs to look for. It would be a total denial of what Jesus said to not have one hand on the bible looking into the scripture and the other eye looking around at the world to see what is going on.”

So keep looking up, He is right at the door!

Posted in God, islam, jesus, muhammad, Obama

Blasphemy is on everyone’s lips

Posted on by elizabethprata

It seems that everywhere these past days I read a news story which now affords Muhammad a respect and title he had not been given before. We see more and more often in the newspapers and in media the Muslim man named Muhammad called ‘The Prophet Muhammad’ and not simply Muhammad. They even use a capital P. Entertainment Weekly referred to Muhammad this way. National Public Radio referred to Muhammad this way. The NY Times referred to Muhammad this way. And many others. Obama referred to Muhammad that way just today at the UN. (But ‘Jesus Christ’ was all our Savior got for a title from Obama, not Messiah Jesus or Savior Jesus or even Prophet Jesus. Only ‘Jesus Christ’).

Nowadays when Muhammad is referred to in print or video news items, increasingly he is accorded that elevated status and title.

I believe this is significant. (Jude 1:18; 2 Peter 3:3). It signals a shift away from Christ and toward Islam, which is really a prophesied shift away from the true religion toward a coming false one. At the end of the end, there will be a one world religion, and that religion will be worship of the antichrist (really, satan-worship). (Revelation 13:3-4). Worldwide hatred of anything having to do with Jesus will be the order of the day. (Revelation 13:7-8).

Also significant, is the global push for about instituting some kind of restriction of speech about Islam and specifically Muhammad. On Friday, September 21st I’d posted a news blurb about the Muslim call for a global blasphemy law. I’d mentioned that the Muslim nations had successively made that call at each session of the UN but it never had gotten anywhere. The motion had always died. But it has revived with a bang.

If you think for a moment how ridiculous this is and how obviously it betrays Muslim intention to dominate the world. How can a religion pass a law? How would they enforce it? Can a person mot a Muslim even blaspheme a person or object in which they do not believe? Sharia is their goal. Sharia is the moral code and religious law of Islam, governing every aspect of a Muslim’s life & is based on the Koran).

Here is one news blurb about the global blasphemy law from today-

Muslim-led nations seek global ban on insults of Muhammad
“As the U.N. General Assembly convenes this week in New York, several leaders of mostly Muslim nations are suggesting that the world body consider sanctions on blasphemy, amid widespread protests against an amateur movie that denigrates Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will focus at least part of his remarks on the film when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.”

It’s one thing for people of another religion to lobby for certain rights to the UN, which has no sovereignty over the United States (for now) but it is quite another for citizens OF the United States INSIDE the United states to lobby for the same.

Leaders of Kansas City Muslim group petition Obama to limit free speech of American citizens
“The leadership of the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City have launched an online petition campaign for President Obama to back a bill to limit the free speech of American citizens they deem offensive.”

Back at the UN, “Blasphemy campaign threatens to derail UN“
“The demand for limits on anti-Islamic expression is coming from leading Islamic groups such as the Organisation for Islamic Co-operation, and leaders as diverse as the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Egyptian President, Mohammed Mursi, and the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

Hmmm. Interesting leaders it is coming from…Iran-Turkey will form an alliance to attack Israel in the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 37-38, and Egypt will participate in the Psalm 83 war against Israel. (I believe the Hagrites referred to in Psalm 83 are Egyptians. Hagar was Egyptian and she got an Egyptian wife for her son Ishmael from Egypt (Gen 21:21).

With all this blasphemy talk on everyone’s lips, I could not help but remember the prophecies in Revelation 12 and Daniel 7 & 11. In Revelation 13 the antichrist is given a great mouth to boast blasphemies against God. In Revelation 13:5-6 blasphemy is written three times. In Revelation 13:1 he is also called a blasphemer. Daniel 11:36 prophesies that he will say unheard-of things against the God of gods! Thessalonians 2:4 says he will oppose God and exalt himself and proclaim himself to be God! Blasphemy defines this coming Man of Sin! Blasphemy saturates every moment of the Tribulation!

How is all this significant? I’m not sure of the big picture yet. I feel that this global blasphemy push and the elevated name in print are something though. In one sense, it is significant because it shows how global the ummah really is. Ummah is an Arabic word for nation or community, and of course it means nation or community of Muslims. They truly see themselves as a global community of peoples, not just a local coalition of peoples. That is what Ummah means. Why else would Muslims in Sydney march against a movie made by a US resident and shown in Egypt?

As a matter of fact two days ago the Prime Minister of Pakistan called for the Ummah to unite.

“Time for Muslim Ummah to unite; seek permanent solution to end Blasphemous acts: PM‘
Responding to the uprising against the Youtube video about Muhammad (“Innocence of Muslims) the PM said, “Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said the Muslim Ummah needs to stand united and seek a permanent solution to ban hate speech that sows seeds of discord.”

He noted the ‘blasphemy’ also. The word blasphemy is on everyone’s lips today but it was on Jesus’s 2000 years ago. The Tribulation will be characterized by true blasphemy, against the one true God.

Christian blasphemy is defined at CARM as “speaking evil of God or denying Him some good which we should attribute to Him.  It could also be understood to be acting in any impious, mocking or contemptuous way toward any member of the Trinity.1 The word blasphemy comes from the Greek word, blasphemia, meaning “curse” or “vilifying.” 2 Blasphemy arises out of pride (Psalm 73:9,11), hatred (Psalm 74:18), injustice (Isaiah 52:5), etc.  Christ was often mistakenly accused of blasphemy by Jewish leaders (John 10:30-33).”

Muslim blasphemy is defined as “Blasphemy in Islam is any irreverent behavior toward holy personages, religious artifacts, customs, and beliefs that Muslims revere. The Quran and the hadith do not speak about blasphemy. Jurists created the offence, and they made it part of Sharia. Where Sharia pertains, the penalties for blasphemy can include fines, imprisonment, flogging, amputation, hanging, or beheading. Muslim clerics may call for the punishment of an alleged blasphemer by issuing a fatwā.”

One thing all this blasphemy talk is doing is heightening the lost people’s sensitivity for holy and unholy speech. We are beyond politically correct or incorrect speech. Now the global conversation is all about holy or unholy speech. The blasphemy talk also frames debates in religious terms.

Here is what the bible says about the coming blasphemy, the real blasphemy!

“And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.” (Revelation 13:1)

“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.” (Revelation 17:3)

“But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.” (Colossians 3:8)

I think the blasphemy talk emerging worldwide is important. We are heading toward a dark time when blasphemy against a non-existent god via a pedophile false prophet will likely protected speech but blasphemy against a Sinless and Holy God will be ripe on everyone’s lips. And watch for how people from this day forward refer to Muhammad, either verbally in news stories or in print. It’s no longer Muhammad but The Prophet Muhammad. The wicked are addicted to blasphemy:

“Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.” (Psalm 74:1)

May the Holy God of Israel and He who is the Light of the World come soon!