Posted in bible, bozrah, end time

Petra the Sheepfold

Posted on by elizabethprata

I wrote about Petra once before, here. This is an excerpt of that blog essay.

Petra is also known as Sela, both of which means rock. The rose red city of Petra in Jordan is referred to in Judges 1:36; Isaiah 16:1, Is 42:11; Obad. 3 where Petra is known as the “cleft in the rock”. Petra is also known as Bozrah, which means sheepfold. Sheepfold or sheep pen is an enclosure designed with overhangs or other protection from the elements, and is solid enough to keep the sheep in and the wild animals out. It always has one narrow gate for entry. Bozrah is the perfect sheepfold! Our Shepherd Jesus will protect His remnant during the Great Tribulation at Bozrah, the sheepfold, the Cleft in the Rock.

It is there He returns at the Second Coming and becomes stained with blood of the armies attempting to wipe out the remnant, and leads them to victory at Mt. Olive. (Photo source above)

God’s Vengeance on the Nations
“Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? “I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment.” (Isaiah 63:1-3)

Jews during the Great Tribulation are told by Jesus in Revelation 12:6 “Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” In Matthew 24:15-16 He tells them when they see the Abomination of Desolation to to flee to the mountains. The only place where there are mountains across the desert is toward Jordan and to Petra.

In that Day, two-thirds of the Jews will be killed during the Tribulation. One-third survives. (Zechariah 13:8). That one-third had fled to the mountains at Petra and there they are protected, but it is also there that they finally repent and clamor for the Messiah, Jesus. (Zechariah 12:10). Now let’s fast forward our imaginations to that terrible time, and envision the Jews who are now Christians, repentant and supplicating to Jesus, nourished by him, His sheep finally returned to the fold. Look at the picture below and imagine the worship services that will be happening in that Day!

Imagine, being nourished by the very providence of God! As they were once nourished by the quail and the manna in the desert, so again will the remnant be nourished in the desert, His sheep protected by the sheepfold at Bozrah throughout the latter half of the Tribulation!

He is a God who cares for His people, He prepares places for us. And that is a mighty thing indeed. Hallelujah to the One True and Mighty God!

source

Posted in volcanic eruption data

Volcanoes are becoming very active: data and discussion

Posted on by elizabethprata

For those of you interested in volcanoes, here is some data.
In the last month, the news stories regarding weather have revolved around tornadoes, hail, and quakes. Now it’s volcanoes.

I wrote a blog essay a while ago showing my interpretation of the Revelation 6:12 verse, “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;” It is called “Of volcanoes, dry fog, and sun as sackcloth“. In that blog essay, I posted some examples of what sackcloth looks like. When volcanoes explode, the ash circles the atmosphere and the sun’s rays are dimmed, and what rays do emit through the haze look hairy instead of beamy.

Volcanic ash has the same effect on the sun as described in the Revelation verse. The Byzantine historian Procopius recorded of 536, in his report on the wars with the Vandals, “during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness…and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.” That event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil, possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics.” The resulting weather changes and attendant devastation on plant and human life is called “Volcanic Winter”.

The science magazine Wired has a great article about volcanic winter in our recent past, one that happened in the 1700s (that Ben Franklin wrote about) and one that occurred in the 1800s. In the article, it states, “The cloud of ash that was fine and light enough to stay in the atmosphere circled the globe. Average temperatures dropped as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the next year … and beyond. Many Europeans and North Americans called 1816 the “year without a summer.”

In Gray, Maine where I used to live it was indeed called the year without a summer. The bad weather of winter 1815 continued with heavy frosts in August and snowfalls every month of the year in 1816. It became known as “The Year without a Summer” or “Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death”. Scientists now believe the cause was the eruption of a volcano, Mt. Tambora, in Indonesia. On its first day of eruption, it spewed 2 cubic miles of magma into the atmosphere. The next day it spewed 36 cubic miles of rock and ash into the air. This eruption was the largest in nearly 2000 years and spewed massive quantities of ash into the atmosphere which impacted the climate in the summer of 1816.

The Egypt Road was said to have been named so by people in East Raymond ME who used the road to come to Gray to get seed corn in the spring of 1817. One section of town was lucky to have its corn crop survive in 1816. This was said to have been due to the fact that the hill where the corn grew was high, and prevailing winds scoured the frost before it could settle. Seed corn was given to some Raymond citizens. They named the road they took “Egypt Road” since they were remembering the deliverance from Joseph to the starving masses. (Genesis 41:49; 56)

Over the year after the eruption, the largest famine in the 19th century impacted the northeast, maritime Canada, and northern Europe. The famine was deadly. This weather report from the July 10th Eastern Argus news of Portland ME is typical: “The weather is yet remarkable! On Monday night last a smart frost was experienced in a number of towns in this vicinity—it was confined principally to low ground.”

We know that in the Tribulation, geologic changes occur which eventually change the face of the earth. Quakes are so severe that entire islands disappear. We got a taste of that last March when the Japan quake occurred, which was a 9.0 magnitude. The whole island was jogged 8 feet to the right, and the whole planet was jigged off its axis by 4 inches. One thing people rarely connect are the drastic changes that occur with climate in a volcanic winter. Atmospheric changes which lead to temperature changes which lead to reduced or failing crops which leads to wars to obtain the remaining food which leads to famine which leads to death which leads to pestilence…you read Revelation 6:1-8 and you see this progression The world’s volcanoes are really waking up.

This first story is very ominous. 20 million people would be affected. And though we can’t ever really predict when a volcano will erupt, that the Mexican government is actively warning people to prepare an evacuation route shows how seriously they take the situation…

Popocatepetl Volcano Threatening to Erupt, 19 Million Prepare to Evacuate
“The Popocatepetl volcano is making movement and threatening to erupt, causing Mexican officials to raise the alert level from yellow phase three to yellow phase two.The volcano has already begun spewing red-hot bits of rock, and its opening has expanded. These are signs that the volcano, still quite active, could soon erupt. In a statement by Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention, the volcano could produce “moderate exhalations, some with ash, sporadic low to moderate explosions with likely burning fragments, and flaming magma within the crater. “Residents and tourists have been advised to remain at least seven miles away from the volcano’s base, lest magma or hot rock injure anyone. Mexico has been experiencing natural disasters with increasing frequency.”

President Calderon said, “we have taken steps and we are doing even more to ensure the operability of all escape routes from neighboring states to the volcano Popocatepetl. As precautionary measure we have determined a safety radius of 12 kilometers from the summit of the crater.”

The President of the National Disaster Center said that historically speaking, the last eruptive phase of the volcano was between 1919 and 1924. He explained that Popo is the kind of volcano that explodes violently [Ed. note- as opposed to Mauna Loa, which dribbles] “In the recent activity there could be explosive activities of the intermediate to high growth of domes and possible expulsion of lava, explosions of increasing intensity, rains ash on nearby towns. “

Geology professor and volcano expert Erik Klemetti said, “This week a lot of the volcanic focus has been on Mexico’s Popocatepétl and its rumbling – and rightly so. When it comes to volcanic hazards, many times it is all about location, location, location. … Popocatepétl is situated within 70 km of a major metropolitan center with a population of over 20 million, so even small-to-moderate eruptions can have wide-ranging effects.”

Explosions Continue at Popocatépetl as Mexico Prepares for an Eruption
“It appears that the activity at Popocatépetl has picked up, with more ash emissions and even (unconfirmed) reports of new lava at the summit. This would all suggest that the potential for a significant eruption is high. The explosions from the volcano have been large enough to rattle windows in communities surrounding the volcano. CENAPRED reported over 12 explosions in two hours starting at ~5 AM on Friday (April 20). The steam-and-ash plume from Popocatépetl topped out at ~3 km / 10,000 feet while seismicity remains at elevated levels.”

There are about 500 active volcanoes throughout the world. In an average year approximately 50 of these erupt. Volcanic hazards create fewer disasters and deaths compared with earthquakes and severe storms. Many of the deaths associated with volcanoes are indirect hazards such as famine due to crop damage or from secondary hazards such as lahars. Volcanoes are composite hazards. There are both primary and secondary hazards which can be caused by volcanic eruptions. The primary hazards include pyroclastic flows, air-fall tephra, lava flows and volcanic gases. The secondary hazards include ground deformation, lahars (mudflows), landslides and possibly tsunamis in ocean floor volcanic eruptions.” (source, ‘Natural Hazards: Volcanoes’)

I counted the eruptions at the Smithsonian Global Volcanism site by year. Smithsonian’s site is to volcanoes as United States Geological Survey (USGS) is to earthquakes. Between 1970 and 2010 the average number of eruptions per year have been 61. This year in the first four months we have almost met that average: there have been 56 eruptions already.

1970 – 55
1971 – 53
1972 – 53
1973 – 66
1974 – 60
1975 – 49
1976 – 55
1977 – 64
1978 – 55
1979 – 60
1980 – 66
1981 – 55
1982 – 58
1983 – 55
1984 – 59
1985 – 54
1986 – 67
1987 – 64
1988 – 63
1989 – 54
1990 – 55
1991 – 64
1992 – 57
1993 – 58
1994 – 58
1995 – 62
1996 – 59
1997 – 52
1998 – 56
1999 – 66
2000 – 67
2001 – 65
2002 – 68
2003 – 64
2004 – 71
2005 – 73
2006 – 76
2007 – 72
2008 – 78
2009 – 68
2010 – 69
2011 – 56
For eruptions with a listed start date of 2011
Posted in challies, macarthur

This and That

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is some good stuff:

Pastor Jordan Hall’s website, Pulpit & Pen. I enjoy his forthrightness and his humor. A Montanan of the Reformed Southern Baptist variety, this young pastor is incisive and funny. For example, his latest essay as of this writing is titled, Friendship Evangelism: Winning Souls by Your Awesome Personality. LOL! Here is another sardonic romp, “Stupid Church Signs“.

Tim Challies has an excellent essay (when are they ever NOT excellent?) titled “Don’t tweet that sermon“. The piece explores five biblical-ish reasons not to live tweet a sermon. (I added the -ish because the bible doesn’t directly address iPads and tweeting, silly).

John MacArthur’s recent sermon “The startling servant of Jehovah.” Exploring Isaiah 52:13-15, my favorite bible teacher does it again, brings to life the majestic God that is Jesus while at the same time slaying me with the vividness of His personal sacrifice. If you need a great dose of Jesus, this sermon is it.

Erin Benzinger responded to the current issue of people eschewing ‘dry theology’ for live friendship Gospel-evangelizing in a pointed, clear, convicting way in Perry Noble misses the point. Don’t miss.

These are brothers and sisters in the faith, writing about life with Jesus as their backdrop. Their blogs are engaging, loving, and homey. If you want to visit some wonderful Christian people living life and honoring Jesus with their life and words, go to these blogs:

Lin: Backyard In Motion
Tracy: Nothing New Under the Sun
Lydia: Disciple’s Diary
Kelly: The Weeping Prophet 
Barbara: Wingabouts
Linda: Today’s Grace
Sandee: Serve Him In the Waiting
Jean-Louis: The Light Seed
Kim: The Incredible Gift
Child of God: CPR Ezra 8:23

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:29). Pray, read, and listen to Him, our Greatest treasure!

Posted in beth moore, false doctrine, false teachers

Beth Moore: a type of false prophetess of the church at Thyatira?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There was an actual woman Jesus designated as a false prophetess who was corrupting the church at Thyatira. He also condemned the church for tolerating her! We know from the previous Bible examples that there will be again a type of false prophetess who corrupts the church.

Jesus’s letter regarding Thyatira was the longest of the seven. It enumerates a number of issues with that church. I’ll focus on the teachings of the false prophetess who was corrupting the sheep.

This Thyatiran church was tolerating sin and idolatry (also sexual immorality). Worse, it was tolerating a woman teacher who was promoting idolatry and not only were they tolerating it, but she had risen to such a point of prominence so that Jesus called her “Jezebel” (who was a queen who led the people into idolatry and immorality, and an eternal emblem of embodied rebellion). She was also prophesying in His name- falsely!

Now, it should be noted that this corruption was coming from a woman inside the church who was teaching the brethren, not from an outside influence. She was regarded as a sister in the faith. A prominent sister. So much so that she was given to teach and had gathered quite a few around her who were followers of her false teaching. The rest were tolerating it.

God wants a pure church. He wants Jesus to have a holy and virginal bride, and toleration of idolatry and false teaching is the opposite of that. This church at Thyatira was mightily besmirched.

However, to complicate matters, the verse in Rev. 2:19 says “as for your works, the last are more than the first.” They were loving, working and doing more that they had at the first. This makes it incredibly hard to separate the sinful idolatry from the loving works. They were not loveless, but they were tolerating sin, which is loveless. The unaddressed sin would eventually eat them up. By the second century there was no church at Thyatira any more. It had died. So obviously loving works alone are not enough to carry a church through. There must be solid doctrine and discerning elders properly identifying false doctrine and rooting it out.

In Thyatira, they were tolerating a false teaching and false propheying. They were accepting of a woman who had taken a place of leadership in teaching, she was preaching and prophesying which is forbidden to women in the church. The church congregation was tolerating these evils. Though the verse above calls them out for eating foods sacrificed to idols, nowadays, we do not sacrifice food to idols. However the notion there was of spiritual adultery, and spiritual adultery is certainly an issue today.

Can you think of one woman who perhaps fits the type that is described in the Letter to Thyatira?

Beth Moore, perhaps?

I think we can see that in Beth Moore’s fans, they exhibit what is called the idol worshiping excessive devotion to her that goes beyond a simple preference for one teacher over another. This is idolatry.

John MacArthur, in his sermon The Pathology of False Teachers, defines what false teaching IS: “It could be error about Christ, error about His lineage, error about His virgin birth. Someone who teaches contrary to the sinless perfection of Christ, contrary to His substitutionary atoning death on the cross, contrary to His resurrection, contrary to His miraculous life and works, His perfect teaching, His Second Coming, His high priestly ministry of intercession, His eternal reign, any of that. Anyone who teaches differently than that. It could be a denial of the authenticity of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture. It could be a denial of the work and ministry and person of the Holy Spirit as revealed on the pages of holy Scripture.”

In Mrs Moore’s case her falsity comes in her denial of the authority of Scripture by de facto writing her own. She also denies the authority of scripture by rebelling against it. She denies the sufficiency of Scripture by de facto claiming to write scripture herself. She also denies the sufficiency of scripture by teaching her own visions instead. If you are just reading for the first time that there are concerns with Mrs Moore’s teachings, please note that I have many examples of these concerns on the sidebar to your right. Other bloggers have also listed their concerns here, here, and here. I state unequivocally that through spirit-led study and discernment that my proposal is she is currently Christianity’s greatest counterfeit.

Her teaching denies the inspiration of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture by inserting herself as another authority by reception of divine revelation outside the Bible. She has been subtle. However, her false teaching is rapidly becoming more bold. She says that she hears God personally telling her to do things or to teach things, this is a denial of the authority of scripture when you receive direct revelation and teach it as authoritative. She said recently she was lifted up to another dimension to see the church from Jesus’s perspective through Jesus’s eyes and returned to tell what she saw. This is prophetess. She says a book was delivered to her heart in toto by God with a force as compelled to put ink on paper. This is spirit writing, an idolatry that consorts with the devil. She says if she had not written her book that the rocks in her yard would have cried out, which is not only a claim that her writing is scripture, but is actually blasphemy.  More here.

All false teachers gather to themselves followers who exhibit excessive devotion. These followers defend their favored teacher almost violently. Many call themselves a “Beth Moore groupie.” The word “groupie” is … a derisive term used to describe a particular kind of female fan assumed to be more interested in sex with rock stars than in their music.” In Mrs Moore’s case it is the emotional intimacy they seek, because Mrs Moore is a self-help guru using the Bible as a platform from which to read ourselves into the text for temporal help with astray emotions, rather than a sacred text to discern more about Jesus. In the groupie’s mind they seek more intimacy with the false teacher than with Jesus. Any person who has become the substitution of adoration aside from Jesus is worshiping an idol.

Many female fans are more interested in following this false teacher than the One whom they are supposed to be learning about. Like this lady who titled her blog entry “Confessions of a Beth Moore groupie“. Or this lady, who calls herself a BM groupie and says that if Mrs Moore is anywhere within driving distance, she goes to see her. Or this lady who made tank tops and took a photo of the self-admitted groupies in her group to send to the object of their adoration. Or this lady who calls herself a groupie and jokes that she amazingly strayed once from Mrs Moore to take a study under someone else (Priscilla Shirer, another false teacher). This lady calls herself not only a Beth Moore groupie, but a Beth Moore addict. I can go on with the myriad of ladies online who self-profess excessive devotion to a person who is not Jesus, but you get the idea.

The verse from 2 Timothy 4:3 applies best here: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears...” Let’s unpack this phrase by phrase.

First, these ladies do not want sound doctrine. They have already rejected it.

Second, they want to suit their own desires. There is nothing in the universe more powerful than satisfying our own fleshly desires. It got Eve, then Adam. 1 John 2:16 applies here: “For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.” It is one reason for the vehement defense of Mrs Moore and the violently verbal rejection of anyone sharing concerns about Mrs Moore.

Third, they ‘heap up teachers.’ This part of the verse always reminded me of a child at the beach, heaping up sand next to themselves, or a child at Christmas, heaping up toys.

Fourth, their ears itch. An itch MUST be satisfied. The Greek word for itch here is knéthó, itch, rub, tickle, or from a late word meaning ‘scrape.’ This brings to mind the extreme scene of itching Job experienced when he had boils, and used a pot sherd to scrape them. He didn’t care if his very skin was scraped off, he had to satisfy that tickle so badly, even if it hurt him. (Job 2:8).

It is not simply a difference of opinion in one Bible teacher over another. Where satan has successfully installed a false teacher who is drawing many away from sound doctrine, he will fight to the death to keep it that way. Here is a great short essay in Why Idolatry is so Attractive. If you read it, you will see why the ladies react the way they do, and why it is so hard to get a Beth Moore lover away from her teaching.

No, she does not call herself a prophetess, but she acts in the prophetess role when she says she received a word from God audibly, directly, or through a vision and was ‘told’ to go out and speak it to the people. Defenders of Mrs Moore pick at points such as the aforementioned, but in looking at false teachers and the type of false prophetess described in the letter to Thyatira, we look at what they do, not just at what they say. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.

I have shared with you an interpretation specific to Thyatira of what Jesus warned, and of which we discern also will happen to the churches throughout the age. I applied an understanding of how Mrs Moore may be filling a type of role Jesus prophesied will occur. I ask you to ponder it, pray, and decide for yourself. I believe that Beth Moore is a type of false prophetess so deeply embedded in the body of the true church that her deep things of satan are corrupting it. That is my opinion, based on research, discernment, and prayer.

Meanwhile, Jesus said to those who do NOT hold to this false prophetess’s teaching, this or any false teaching, I remind us of Jesus’s words, “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come.”

Hold fast to the truth! He knows who does not fall to the deep things of satan, and has their reward in mind. One stays fast to the truth by continually studying the real thing, praying, and submitting to the Spirit’s generous leading into discernment. If you know the real thing, then you can spot the counterfeit. Watch out for popular false prophetesses, Thyatira, and hold fast, Jesus is coming!

discernment1

Posted in end time, sounds of the apocalypse, strange noise in oregon

Strange sounds in the sky: Oregon

Posted on by elizabethprata

Along with all the increased signs that Jesus predicted we would see in advance of His coming, such as wars, earthquakes, pestilences etc; the manifested or visible supernatural has also increased. It will increase a lot more during the Tribulation, Revelation tells us. Also Joel. I’ve posted about the strange onset in NY of what doctors are calling Tourette’s but looks for all the world like demonic possession, entire towns where strange demonic things happen (Sicily and the clocks, demon attack in West Indies and a follow-up), a vampire in Colorado that caused a car crash, Halo over Mile High Stadium, and who can forget the Norwegian Doom Spiral and the Ghost Horse of Tahrir Square? Now the strange sounds of the Apocalypse. That is the public’s name for the phenomenon, not mine.

I’ve posted about the strange sounds three times this year. In January, March and April. Of all the weird/inexplicable things that have been happening, I’m most intrigued by the Strange Sky Noises. (Another name for the phenomenon). And it is a phenomenon by now. Phenomenon is defined as “any observable occurrence.”  But that doesn’t seem to adequately cover the definition for the Sounds of the Apocalypse events that are occurring all over the world. So we look at the definition of Paranormal Phenomenon: which is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside “the range of normal experience or scientific explanation” or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science’s current ability to explain or measure. Paranormal phenomena are distinct from certain hypothetical entities, such as dark matter and dark energy, only insofar as paranormal phenomena are inconsistent with the world as already understood through empirical observation coupled with scientific methodology.” (Wikipedia).

THAT seems to define it.

Here is the commentary for the video uploaded by the Oregon woman:

“This is the 3rd morning in a row at roughly 3:00 am. The sound starts with a rumbling in the ground, and then the sound continues for roughly 30 minutes or so. Can not explain where it is coming from, it seems as if it is coming strait from the sky with not a single plane in sight. If anyone has anymore info. on this sound we are hearing, I would very much appreciate any explanation to what we are experiencing here in Oregon. Thank you.”

This blog has a follow up with questions asked of the Youtube lady who had uploaded the video. She answered some of the questions people had wondered about in her comment section.

Now for the biblical exploration of the strange sky noises.

“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.” (Jeremiah 25:31).  The Hebrew word for noise is defined in Strong’s Concordance: “shaon: or din, clamor, big noise, roaring, rumbling, tumult.” The sounds people have been hearing all over the world have been variously described with exactly those adjectives. Strong’s further defines the word shaon, “a roar of many waters as in simile of noise of invading host.” Further, the infinitive of the word is defined as “by implication, destruction — horrible, noise, pomp, rushing, tumult”. Horrible. Yes. You will remember that the host are the armies of angels, both the good ones and the fallen ones. In none of the cases where the noise was heard and recorded did it sound like a pleasant noise. The noises are not named Sounds of the Apocalypse for nothing.

If the armies of heaven are readying for the battle, then what would it sound like? When Elisha asked God to reveal by sight to his servant the host that had gathered around them, were there also sounds that the servant heard?

“When Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17). Would Elisha’s servant have heard rumbling of the chariots? Were his ears also opened? I dare to say that when a multitudinous army masses for battle, there is clanking and rumbling and noise.

We know in John 12:28-29 that when Jesus prayed to God for Him to glorify His name, “Then a voice came out of heaven: “Father, glorify Your name.” “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” So some heard thunder and some heard the voice of an angel.

I have no doubt that some of these noises are hoaxes. But many of them are not. How do I know? Well, for example, this one above. It is the spookiest, creepiest, scariest I’ve heard yet. When you get to the last few seconds, the lady says ‘I am going to just stay here until it ends’ and right then, the noise crescendos into something that is utterly horrifying to the soul. At that time she says, “UH MAYBE NOT!” and the screen goes blank. The sound terrifies not just the ears but the soul. It raised hackles on my neck and sent a shudder down my body. It caused a spiritual reaction that freaked me out so I won’t listen to it again. If a hoax noise can do that, then my hat is off to the hoaxer.

Otherwise, pray, people, for soon the sounds will be sight, and the sight will be terrible to behold. Elisha and his servant were not afrighted because the host they were allowed to see were there to help them. In Jeremiah, we read that “He will give them that are wicked the sword.” The justified will be in heaven due to the rapture. The wicked will be the ones that are left behind. And it will be to them that the horrible host will rumble with a tumult out of the sky to put them to the sword.

If you are frightened by that specter, then plea to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins. He died for those sins, you know! They are forgiven already. All you have to do is call upon Him as Lord, and because of His death and resurrection, the sin-debt to God has been satisfied. You can be included in that happy group, if you repent. Otherwise the Sounds of the Apocalypse will soon become sight, and “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:26).

Posted in Uncategorized

The seasons are changing, it is the season of weeping and woe

Posted on by elizabethprata

I hope this fine spring week has offered you beautiful glimpses of God’s creative intellect and His wonderful power. We always enjoy the march of the seasons. “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.” (Psalm 104:19, KJV). Wherever we are in the world, reading this newsletter, we see and understand the times and seasons. We look for the robin, the crocus, the ladyslipper. The orderliness and consistency of the seasons since His ordination of them is a comfort.

Yet in Jeremiah 8:7 Jeremiah says of the seasons, meaning God’s season, “Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.” In the natural history of Israel, Barnes notes explains, “Jeremiah appeals to the obedience which migratory birds render to the law of their natures. The “stork” arrives about March 21, and after a six weeks’ halt departs for the north of Europe. It takes its flight by day, at a vast height in the air (“in the heaven”). The appearance of the “turtle-dove” is one of the pleasant signs of the approach of spring.”

As for the part of the Jeremiah verse which speaks to His judgments, Matthew Henry holds sway here: “Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious inquiry as to what we have done, from conviction that we have done amiss. They would not attend to the ways of providence, nor understand the voice of God in them, ver. 7. They know not how to improve the seasons of grace, which God affords. They would not attend to the written word. Many enjoy abundance of the means of grace, have Bibles and ministers, but they have them in vain. They will soon be ashamed of their devices. The pretenders to wisdom were the priests and the false prophets. They flattered people in sin, and so flattered them into destruction, silencing their fears and complaints with, All is well. Selfish teachers may promise peace when there is no peace; and thus men encourage each other in committing evil; but in the day of visitation they will have no refuge to flee unto.”

How perfect and prescient His Word is! What was true then is also true now. So many are in a season of backsliding sin, of wasting this season of grace. My statement goes toward the lost and Christians as well. The lines of demarcation are widening, and more Christians than ever are uncovered as pale, weak, lukewarm. It is the season of woe, because “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isiaah 5:20). It is the upside-down season. This is the season of proclaiming sin as good and Jesus as evil. Man becomes more like the animals every day.

In Numbers where God is dispensing instruction to the Priesthood, God said, “I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.” (Numbers 18:7b). It is a gift to serve Him. It is a gift to dedicate one’s life to him. It is a gift to be close to Him. It was a gift to the people who needed priests. He also gave the Prophets as a gift and in the New Testament, the gift of prophecy is also a gift. (1 Corinthians 12:10; Romans 12:6).

I feel deeply for Jeremiah the Prophet, who was known as The Weeping Prophet. Jeremiah lived in a time when the People’s pride was dragging them backward into sin and away from the LORD. (Jeremiah 13:15-27- “Pride precedes captivity”.) He lived when the people’s sins had piled up to the point where they were actually living in their last days. Jeremiah was the last prophet sent to preach to the Southern Kingdom. The searing effects of their sins had hardened them so much that no one ever listened to Jeremiah. He never had one convert. “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” (Jeremiah 7:24).

Unfaithful Israel, engraving by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Jeremiah preached and spoke and prophesied, but yet he was hated and reviled. They did not listen. He had no friends. He had no wife even to weep with, for the LORD had forbidden him to marry, knowing the grievous deaths that would soon take place in His coming judgment of the southern kingdom. God was actually sparing Jeremiah THAT special kind of grief, but Jeremiah still cried out, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1). He is saying here that he mourns so deeply for what he knows, that he does not have even enough tears to weep for the people.

“My mourning for the sins and desolations of my people has already exhausted the source of tears: I wish to have a fountain opened there, that I may weep day and night for the slain of my people. This has been the sorrowful language of many a pastor who has preached long to a hardened, rebellious people, to little or no effect,” says Clark’s Commentary.

This is how I feel. Is it how you feel? Do you weep for the people and nations that sin, who allow sin to drag their hearts to destruction? Do you rejoice in gladness for the warnings and grace the Lord bestows, but weep for those who refuse to heed? Knowing the brutality that awaits them in the Tribulation, punishment for living a brutal life of sin against Jesus? I do. I weep especially for all those who believe they are saved and are a sanctified Christian, but will discover to their horror at the rapture that they were not called up. They were left behind. “My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!” (Jer 8:18). Jeremiah could clearly see the people’s pride and sin and he could clearly see the coming consequences, destruction of the nation and destruction of many hearts.

I ask you this, gently, lovingly: at prayer meeting, we weep and cry and mourn for Aunty Tilly’s big toe, but do we weep and mourn for souls? Sob, tear our clothes, wish that our very head was a fountain that we could shed many tears for them? We speak of His love these days and His joy, of peace in knowing Him. All these things are good. But where is the grief? Where are our weeping prophets (Christians) today?

Jeremiah begged them not to succumb to the false gods who lulled them into security and which did not make them feel guilty or convict of sin. They did not listen, and they were destroyed. It shall be so again. Prepare your hearts. Jesus is coming soon. Don’t be left behind.

Posted in Uncategorized

Studying John the Baptist, the Spirit is a great teacher

Posted on by elizabethprata

We had a nice study at church Wednesday night. We are going through Matthew, and we are up to Matthew 3. This chapter introduces an adult John the Baptist. and I loved exploring it. The people in our study will talk and share and contribute, which makes it interesting and collegial.

This blog post serves a dual purpose. It is good to employ some metacognition when studying the Word. That means thinking about your thinking. Knowing about your knowing. When you’re learning, understand not only what you’re learning, but how you’re learning it. To that end, I want to share what I learned about John the Baptist this week, and also how I learned it. I am hoping that this will raise your own awareness of how the Spirit may be working in your own study life.

So I was reading Matthew 3. When I first begin to read a section or book, I just read it. I let the words flow and I don’t stop to consult a concordance or look at a commentary. I just read. I let the word engulf me and wash me. I think it’s important to let the word speak for itself, uninterrupted.

Then I read it again. At this second reading I also resist the temptation to stop and look up stuff. At the third reading, I start digging. Now, at the first or second reading, but certainly by the third, a word or a verse will “jump out” at me. You know what I mean. If it happens at first I jot a note down and keep reading. But by the third reading, the Spirit seems to be pulling me to one certain point in the verses. This time is was John being a Nazirite. I mean, there is a rich variety of points to ponder in the chapter. Certainly John’s message of repentance, there’s the reference to the prophecy in Isaiah, there’s Jesus’s baptism, there is the history behind the Pharisees and Sadducees. But the Spirit pulled me to the behavior of John and whether he was a Nazirite from birth.

So then I pray. I ask the Spirit to dispense wisdom to me in what He wants me to learn. It is one of His ministries. (Ephesians 1:16-17; James 1:5; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10). After prayer, I begin research. In this case, I looked up Nazirite in the bible. Matthew 3 does not state that John the Baptist was a Nazirite, but Luke 1:13-17 seems to indicate that John would be specially consecrated from birth, and the addition of the prohibition of never drinking wine is one of the Nazirite vows. The verses say nothing about the most physically evident of the prohibitions, that the person making the vow shall never cut his hair as long as he is under the consecration, but I believe circumstances are such that I believe John was a Nazirite from birth. Luke 1:80 states he went to live in the deserts and from then on he consecrated himself to God completely, separating from society.

After I looked up the Nazirite vows in the bible in Numbers 6:1-21, and also looked up the verses relating to other Nazirites from birth- namely Samson and Samuel, I stopped to pray again. I asked the Spirit to continue to lead me in the direction He wanted me to go to learn what the Lord was making known. I can’t say I know how I got to Numbers and Luke and Judges and Samuel 2, just that it is a work of the Spirit to lead me to the right verses that relate to the study I’m engaged in. It is an answer to my prayer to be led and taught.

It is really interesting, how the Spirit works in this. A study always builds on something that came before and will build on something that will come after. A year might go by, and then some verse will “jump out at me” in another study of the future and I’ll remember this one, and a connection will be made.

Oftentimes, after I use the bible as primary source in the first through third readings, I’ll listen to a preacher I trust preach on it expositionally. This extends the study. And of course, I’ll go to class and listen to my home teacher and the comments from my fellow saints, folding in the insights gained from those places. The most important thing at this point is two fold: pay attention to what the Spirit says, and make notes. We often pray, but it is equally important to pay attention to the answer to prayer. Don’t send up a prayer for wisdom and insight and then move ahead so fast you leave your ears behind!

I picture the study of the Word as sewing a tapestry. Every nugget of learning through this process is a thread that weaves through the tapestry. The first and most important result of a study is to learn more about God. The bible is His revealed truth to us. It’s the only untainted way to learn Him and His ways. The bible contains words about who God is, what He is doing, what He will do, what he expects, and more. So I ask myself, what did I learn about Him through this? How does what I learned help me understand Him, my position before Him, and/or what I need to do to make corrections in any of the above?

Ultimately, a good bible study for me will include reading the Word, prayer, submission, and open mind, a notebook, and a willingness to use good study aids, such as concordance, commentary, or a solid bible teacher, and participation in my home church.

A good study would not be complete without seeing how the Word can be applied to my life. I ask the Spirit to let me know how to apply this new knowledge. The Word is not only the Word for head knowledge, it is for heart knowledge and for encouraging the saints and applying in life. So I ponder John, being filled with the Spirit, and think about how he consecrated himself so that he would remain pure. I thought about how bold he was to proclaim curses on the Pharisees. I thought about how humble he was to say that his time was over, he must increase and Jesus must increase. His humility was also displayed when Jesus came to John for baptism, and John said he wasn’t worthy to loosen His sandal. There are many messages to learn from John the Baptist, and I am sure the Spirit will reveal more to me in time, along with increasing the fruits He wants borne from this knowledge. Faith into action, based on the prayerfully studying the Word. I love studying the bible. I hope you do too.

Posted in north korea, secret sin

Of North Korea, secrets, and Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

It seems that our attention lately has consistently veered between North Korea and the Middle East. Like a ball moving over the net at a tennis match, our heads are scanning left, then right, then left then right…If NK is quiet for a while, there is a coup in Mali. The African coup settles down, only to find NK suddenly preparing to launch a ballistic missile. Then Kim Jong Un goes quiet and there is a rocket attack on Israel. Back and forth, wars, and rumors of wars. Just as Jesus said it would be.

It was unusual that NK’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, spoke for half an hour in public. It was unusual because in the entire time his father Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea from 1994 to 2012, he never spoke in public. That NK is secretive to the outside world is a given, that they are this reclusive and secretive with their own people is another thing entirely.

Source

Fox News reports, “North Koreans are told he graduated from Kim Il Sung Military University and speaks several foreign languages, including English. But his age, marital status and even the name of his late mother — said to be one of Kim Jong Il’s wives, Ko Yong Hui — have never been made public.”

Now that’s secretive. For the most part, Kim Jong Un has kept his personal history a secret, even from schoolmasters in Switzerland and from schoolmates.

However, Jesus knows all. He knows Kim Jong Un’s heart, his motivations, his intent. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). In Psalm 90:8 we read, “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”

Of that last verse, I read a book last year that brought that situation to light. It was an edgy book, I read about a third of it and then stopped. It was kind of like an apocalyptic, dystopian Pilgrim’s Progress. The protagonist was wandering from place to place and at one point he wound up in a city. It was a dark city but he stayed for a bit because it was intriguing, the sins of the city, I mean. So all the people were streaming toward this large building and he went in. It was a show! In the center of a massive auditorium with seats all around it, like a boxing ring without the ropes, a raised stage was lit up. He settled in his seat and as the lights darkened, he saw that the wife and children he thought he had lost were sitting in the front row. He tried to get to them but couldn’t. And then the show started. Suddenly the stage was transformed into a hotel room, and inside the hotel room on the bed was the protagonist, or a replica of him! And the woman he had been in an adulterous affair came in and prepared to sit on the bed with him. Oh, no, the man realized, this was a show of the secret sin he had committed, and his wife and kids were watching!

He was in agonies of embarrassment and shame, and his wife began to cry as the scene shifted to its sordid conclusion.

I never forgot that part of the book, a book whose title I can’t even remember now. But I remember that scene. In His time, on His day, every secret shame, every hidden sin, every private motivation will be brought to light;

“Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:5).

All the kings of the earth will be laid low, those who do not know Jesus that is. Men like Kin Jong Un, who oppress an entire nation and live in utter luxury, choosing to reveal this or that about himself, deciding to keep this or that private…all his life and all his deeds and all his works will be revealed. Him and others like him, the great and the small will be judged. (Rev 20:12). Sin grows in the dark, but Jesus is the Light, shining it upon the hearts of all men to expose them.

Even those who do know Jesus, or who or did know Him while they were alive, will wait patiently in line for their turn before the throne at the Bema Seat where our works will be examined and rewarded. (1 Cor 3:13-15; Rom 14:10-12). Ours will be a reward ceremony. However, I work hard  every day to ensure, I hope, that my works bear fruit for His name and are not just hay and stubble to be burned. I hope that there will be things left in the pile that show I was motivated rightly and worked for His name and not my glory. I pray that’s your wish as well.

Remember, every secret thing will be brought out. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” (Ephesians 5:11). There are no secrets from Jesus. Wait patiently, brethren, and soon Jesus will rectify all private things, all back room deals will be exposed, all undercover deeds will be seen.

“For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.” (Mark 4:22).

Posted in dolphin die-off, end time, woke up gay

News tidbits of the weird

Posted on by elizabethprata

Massive Dolphin Die-Off in Peru May Remain a Mystery
“When a retired fisherman called to report that about 1,500 dolphins had washed up dead on Peru’s northern coast, veterinarian Carlos Yaipén’s first reaction was, “That’s impossible.” But when Yaipén traveled up the coast last week, he counted 615 dead dolphins along a 135-kilometer stretch of coastline. Now, the death toll could be as high as 2,800, based on volunteers’ counts. Peru’s massive dolphin die-off is among the largest ever reported worldwide. The strandings, which began in January, are a marine mystery that may never be unraveled.”

As we approach the time of the Tribulation, which is a manifestly supernatural time, we increasingly find events in the news that totally perplex authorities and scientists. In this present Church Age, though the supernatural exists (Ephesians 6:10-20; Hebrews 13:2), we don’t see it in mass quantity. In the Tribulation, they will see the supernatural in mass quantity. The inexplicable will be a fact of life. (Two Witnesses resurrected, rivers and seas turn to blood, demon locusts from the abyss, etc). As we get closer, we see the increasingly inexplicable occurring in increasingly in wider spheres. These events are getting harder to dismiss.

In this next news story, there have been some nasty hail storms lately. I wrote about hail twice this week, here, and here. Hail is devastating to crops. He sends the hail, and for different reasons. (“He destroyed their vines with hail,And their sycamore trees with frost” (Psalm 78:47) and “I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.” (Haggai 2:17)

Hail storm equals crop damage
KINGS COUNTY, Calif. (KMPH) -“This week growers throughout the Valley are accessing the damage of last week’s powerful hail storm that rolled through the area. The hardest struck was to the south, from north Hanford to the Kingsburg area. The total monetary loss is still too hard to predict because the damage was so widespread, but it is in the millions. … Pete Hanse says “Storms like this one I saw maybe one other time, but not very often.”

UK rugby player had stroke, lay in a coma, woke up gay, he says
“I wasn’t interested in women any more. I was definitely gay,” Birch said. “I had never been attracted to a man before. I’d never even had any gay friends. But I didn’t care about who I was before, I had to be true to my feelings.”

Mr Birch is the focus of an upcoming BBC documentary, which explores the question, “the crux of the documentary was whether Birch truly “woke up gay” – was it really a transformation, as he insists, or merely a realisation of something that had been dormant within him his whole life?”

The issue of homosexuality being a neurological fact and not a lifestyle choice has the liberals wetting their pants at the prospect of homosexuality letting them off the hook, and ultimately not being morally culpable to a Holy God. I believe the man int he article was merely actualizing a sin that had lain in his mind all his life. (Mark 7:21-22; Matthew 23:26). Sin is not only what we do, it is what we think. Entertaining sinful thoughts leads to speaking of them, and finally to doing them.

If you find yourself thinking of sins, allow the Spirit to transform your mind by taking every thought captive. (2 Corinthians 10:5). If you hear yourself speaking of sins even in joking fashion, realize that the sinful thoughts are on their way to ensnaring you. Picture them as slimy tentacles, clutching your brain. But the Spirit is powerful and so appealing to Him in penitence will clear the decks for purity of heart and clarity of mind to swoop in again. Don’t dwell in sinful thoughts, and certainly don’t start joking, speaking, or telling of sinful things. “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Romans 13:14).”

As for Mr Birch, the Lord will sort that one out. As of now, the gentleman is sinning by living in a homosexual lifestyle. But our Lord is powerful and forgiving, Mr Birch or any homosexual can be saved…if he repents.

Posted in earth crasking, rapture, repent

Quake Expert: Earth Cracking Up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is something interesting from the Croatian Times a couple of days ago:

“A leading earthquake scientist has warned that the planet could be cracking up after a series of massive quakes in just 48 hours. Expert Gheorghe Marmureanu – from Romania’s National Institute of Earth Physics – says 39 quakes had hit the globe within two days. The series started with two massive quakes in Indonesia measuring 8.6 and 8.2 on the Richter scale rapidly followed by three more only slightly smaller in Mexico within hours.”

“There is no doubt that something is seriously wrong. There have been too many strong earthquakes,” said Marmureanu. He added: “The quakes are a surprise that cannot be easily explained by current scientific knowledge. With the Indonesian quake for example, statistically, there should be one big earthquake in this part of Asia every 500 years. However, since 2004, there were already three quakes with a magnitude of over 8, which is not normal.”

Not normal indeed. So many things are happening that are so outside the scope of scientific understanding and expectation as a weather or earth happening. Just look at the major quakes this week:

6.2 EAST OF THE SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
6.8 EASTERN NEW GUINEA REG, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
6.7 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
6.2 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
6.5 VANUATU
6.2 DRAKE PASSAGE (the passage between Antarctica and southern tip of So. America)
6.9 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
6.2 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
6.5 MICHOACAN, MEXICO
8.2 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
6.0 NORTH INDIAN OCEAN
8.6 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

Scientists are really doing the old soft shoe shuffle right now. They are vociferously denying that anything untoward is going on when we all can see that it is. I am reminded of the classic show “Chicago” starring Richard Gere as the lawyer, on how to fool people into thinking that there is meat to his case when there isn’t, he sang the famous tune “Razzle Dazzle ‘Em”.

Yet, there is an honest scientist, Gheorghe Marmureanu, saying that something is wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. And Mr Marmureanu is right. The bible says the earth WILL CRACK UP.

The earth is broken asunder,
The earth is split through,
The earth is shaken violently.
The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard
And it totters like a shack,
For its transgression is heavy upon it,
And it will fall, never to rise again.
(Isaiah 24:19-20)

Is the earth beginning to crack up now? I daresay it is. It will not complete its cracking up until the fullness of the sin weighing upon it is also finished, at the end of the Tribulation (Daniel 9:24). But in my opinion at least, there is no doubt in my mind that the judgments are about to fall because the events are passing the normal and are consistently ABnormal. I think this is almost as far as things can go before they are actually judgments.  Paul said that we are not appointed to wrath, (1 Thessalonians 5:9) and that our sins are forgotten when we repent, (Heb. 8:12, Heb 10:17) so I do not believe that the Bride will be on earth when judgments in wrath befall the unrepentant. But how it seems that the tension is dragging out, that the warnings are veering ever so precipitously to wrath!

You can escape all these things by repenting and believing on Jesus as risen Lord and Savior! It is just that simple. It is not easy, but it is simple. He paid for our sins with His flesh and shed blood, sacrificing Himself for us. God was pleased to raise Him up on the third day and He lives now. We cannot stand before Him as sinners, so believing on His work on the cross as pardon for those sins justifies us before Him. Otherwise, you have no hope, now or forever. He is the hope! Believe on His glorious name and be saved from his wrath for your sins. The earth is cracking up, but even better to hear is that your pride is cracking up. Allow Him in and humble yourself before Him, and ye shall be saved.