(no title)

Iran to fire long-range missiles during naval war games

Posted on December 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

I wrote extensively yesterday about the Iran war games in the Strait of Hormuz. It is a tense situation. One spark could catapult the world into a catastrophic series of circumstances. If the Iranians close the Strait then oil prices would double overnight. If one Navy ship from either Iran or the US makes a wrong move within that constricted area, then the entire Fifth Fleet, NATO, UK, France and Iranian ships would be engaged in a battle that would undoubtedly spill over to the nearby Arab states. Anything could go wrong. This week’s escalating situations is not only rhetoric this time. Oh, to be sure, the rhetoric is very heated, there is war of words going on that contain threats very close to actions. Iran has threatened to close the Strait. They have threatened to attack ships that come too close. But actual events are occurring too. Iran is engaged in the biggest naval war games they ever executed.

Now, we learn from Reuters, that “Iran to fire long-range missiles in drill“
“Iran will fire long-range missiles during a naval drill in the Gulf on Saturday, a semi-official news agency reported, a show of force at a time when Iran has threatened to close shipping lanes if the West imposes sanctions on its oil exports. … Iran began a 10-day naval drill in the Gulf last Saturday to show its resolve to counter any attack by foes such as Israel or the United States. Iranian media have said the exercise differed from previous ones in terms of “the vastness of the area of action and the military equipment and tactics that are being employed”.

Haaretz also reported on it: “The testing of the missiles is part of ongoing navy maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and, according to Moussavi, the main and final phase is preparing the navy for confronting the enemy in a warlike situation.”

Meanwhile, In Syria, protesters are making a momentous show of defense. “Hundreds of thousands of Syrians protest; activists say at least 19 killed“
“Hundreds of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets across the nation Friday in the largest protests in months, shouting for the downfall of the regime in a defiant display invigorated by the presence of Arab observers, activists said.Despite the presence of the monitors, activists said Syrian forces killed at least 19 people, most of them shot during anti-government protests.”

They say that the number of Syrian protesters is up to half a million now.

MoneyMorning reported last week that there is an ongoing back door bank run happening in Europe. “On Wednesday, Fitch Ratings Inc. downgraded its credit ratings on five of Europe’s biggest banks, and while that decision made headlines, it’s not the most important story to come out of Europe this week. The real story, which the mainstream media is neglecting, is that there are signs of an underground run on Europe’s banks. Almost nobody’s talking about it, but there are indications money is already moving out of the European Union (EU) faster than rats abandoning a sinking ship. Not through the front door, mind you. There are no lines, no distraught customers and no teller windows being boarded up – not yet, anyway. For now the run is through the back door, and there are four things that make me think so:”

“-Italy’s planned ban on cash transactions over 1,000 euros, or about $1,300.
-French, Spanish, and Italian banks have run out of collateral and are now pledging real assets.
-Swiss officials are preparing for the end of the euro with capital control measures.
-Europe’s CEOs are actively preparing for the end of the euro despite governmental reassurances.”

I wrote about the laying of the prophetic infrastructure earlier today, and how though the rapture is a signless and imminent event and has been throughout all of history, we can see by looking at how close the prophetic infrastructure is to being complete how close we may be to the rapture. Of course, this way of thinking may be all wrong, I am fallible and see through a glass darkly. But with Syria, the global economy, and Iran so heavy in the news it seems to me to be a hopeful portent for Christians, and an ominous portent for unbelievers. Please keep praying with all urgency, please keep living the Godliest life that you can in these dark times. Being holy and sanctified in the face of pessimism, perversion, and hate will stand out like a beacon of light that we are called to be.
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/iran-to-fire-long-range-missiles-during.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

prophecy, rapture

Prophetic infrastructure almost complete, golden spike soon?

Posted on December 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

I am readying another blog entry about the news from Iran and Syria which I’ll post in a moment. Both of those nations have huge prophetic parts to play. As I gathered the news about what is happening in the Red Sea, the Strait of Hormuz, and Syria today, I started thinking about prophetic infrastructure.

When I say “prophetic infrastructure” I mean just the same as any infrastructure. “Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. It can be generally defined as the set of interconnected structural elements that provide framework supporting an entire structure of development.” (Wikipedia).

For there to be the one world economy in Revelation 13 this present economy must somehow become inoperable or done away with. We see that now. For there to be a one world religion there must be an acceptance of ecumenism. We see that now. For there to be a one world dictator there must be fear and discontent in the world combined with erosion of freedoms. We see that now. The infrastructure is being laid. Remember, the Tribulation is only 7 years long. In that time, the global economy is completely changed. The global political structure is completely changed. The temple will be rebuilt and sacrifices ongoing. Old hatreds must be ignited and hot for war. We see that now. Seven years is a short period. In my opinion the infrastructure is being laid now so that when the rapture happens it all will be put together almost instantly.

The Lord moves His hand and a piece here and a piece there draw closer together and soon the system the infrastructure was meant to support is able to get up and running. I like to think in pictures and I visualize the Transcontinental railroad. Stay with me here.

“The First Transcontinental railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska with the Pacific Ocean at Oakland, California. By linking with the existing railway network of the Eastern United States, the road thus connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States by rail for the first time.”

One group began on the eastern side of the US and the other side began on the western side, all the while blasting mountains, leveling hills, building bridges, and laying ties and rails. The whole time the two groups were moving toward each other. The people in the vast part of the US could not actually see the action. Many did not even know it was happening, unless they read a paper. The two rail lines drawing inexorably close to each other were real but invisible to the people.

Then the two groups began to get within sight of each other and excitement grew. People could actually see the progress now and started buzzing with excitement at the import. When the two lines actually met up, there was a huge ceremony, at which the last spike was pounded, representing the finality of the infrastructure building phase and the beginning of the actual use. The First Transcontinental Railroad was now a reality. The last spike was golden. “In perhaps the world’s first live mass-media event, the hammers and spike were wired to the telegraph line so that each hammer stroke would be heard as a click at telegraph stations nationwide—the hammer strokes were missed, so the clicks were sent by the telegraph operator. As soon as the ceremonial spike had been replaced by an ordinary iron spike, a message was transmitted to both the East Coast and West Coast that simply read, “DONE.” The country erupted in celebration upon receipt of this message. Travel from coast to coast was reduced from six months or more to just one week.”

This is like what the Lord is doing now, if I may be so bold as to make this metaphor. Prophecy by and large is invisible to most, but it is very real. Every hammer of the spike into a rail brings it closer to fulfillment. When it gets toward the end, it garners notice, celebration, and a knowledge that the final spike will bring inexpressible change. The Lord moves His hand and here in the world occurs an Arab Spring, and over there is an earthquake. Over to the north a bank run and to the south an atheist president elected. To the common person, we cannot see how these events will coalesce but the Lord does. He is laying the infrastructure even now. When that last, golden Christian is saved, the infrastructure will be complete.

We know from Romans 11:25 that the Lord has a certain number in mind for His church. When that number is reached, He will call His bride up to Himself. We do not know how close we are to that number and thus we don’t know how close we are to the rapture. It is a signless event and it is imminent. But we can see from other circumstances, for example, how and where the Lord is working in the world in simultaneously laying His infrastructure for prophetic fulfillment post-Church Age, and to me it seems close.

The Last Christian to be saved will close the church age, the full number of the Gentiles having been reached. Is the Lord readying the golden spike even now, lifting up the hammer to put into place the final bit of prophetic foundation?

We are all eagerly waiting.

source

Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/prophetic-infrastructure-almost.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

bible jesus, prophecy

New island in Red Sea: other weird geophysical changes happening in that area too

Posted on December 30, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

All the news outlets are reporting this today, a stunning new development in the Red Sea. I’ll post one article and then continue below with connecting the unusual seismic activity that has been ongoing in that region for over a year. And of course, connect it with the bible…

Brand new island rises from Red Sea depths

“Throw away that shiny new atlas you got for Christmas – it’s already out of date.”

“Volcanic activity in the Red Sea is causing the formation of a new island in the Zubair archipelago as lava is cooled by the surrounding seawater and solidifies. The underwater volcano responsible is located on the Red Sea Rift, where the African and Arabian tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart.”

“Yemeni fishermen first spotted lava spewing 30 metres into the air on 19 December and this was later confirmed by satellite observations. Ash plumes were detected by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard its Terra and Aqua satellites and NASA’s Advanced Land Imager aboard its Earth Observing One satellite, which produced this image. Elevated levels of sulphur dioxide in the region were also recorded by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA’s Aura satellite.”

“By 23 December, the lava mass had broken the water’s surface and the new island had begun to take shape. The island is currently around 500m wide and is still growing. The question now is whether or not it has staying power. It may continue to grow significantly as volcanic activity continues, or the fragile lava mass may be broken up by the action of the sea’s waves.”

“Whatever the outcome, volcanic activity in the Red Sea region appears to be on the rise. This is the first time the volcano has erupted in over a century and follows recent eruptions in the Afar Triangle in Eritrea and Ethiopia and the volcanic fields of southern Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In 2007, the nearby Jabal al-Tair volcanic island also erupted for the first time in over a century, killing 8 people.”

If you remember, there has also been another volcanic island rising from the deep, over at El Hierro in the Canary Islands. And in November last year a new island emerged from the sea in just a few days at Indonesia at Anak Krakatau. I wrote about that, here.

Back to the Red Sea.

In December 2010 I wrote about unusual seismic activity occurring in the area off Eritrea in the Red Sea. I’d written,
“In 2005, the continent of Africa began unzipping. In just days, a 35-mile-long rift opened up, which was 20 miles wide at spots. It happened quickly and initially, scientists surmised that a new sea was growing. However, this assessment as controversial, because their understanding of plate tectonics holds a longer and a slower view. In other words, continents don’t move and split apart in days, it takes millions of years. Or so they thought. In November of 2009, scientists concluded that indeed, the continent of Africa is birthing a new sea, and that was when they used the word “unzipped.” More on this below.

At the Horn of Africa in November 2010, an earthquake swarm at Yemen caused alarm. The swarm was situated at the opening to the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aden, and seemed to be an unusual place for seismic activity. According to the history of the area, at USGS, the Yemen-Gulf of Aden-Djibouti area IS seismic, but in a minor way. Between 1950 through yesterday this area had 56 earthquakes ranging between mag 4.0-5.9. There were no quakes greater than mag 5.9 during that date range. Now there have been 31, which is 2/3 as many as in the last sixty years. This is statistically significant, as well as prophetically interesting. (Mark 13:8). It should be noted that this is the exact area where a new island has now emerged a year later.

In my opinion, there are two ways that this is prophetically interesting. First, Jesus told us plainly that in the last days of the birthpangs, there will be earthquakes in diverse places. Beyond the unusual geophysical changes occurring with rifts suddenly opening, and unusual earthquake activity that has never been replicated historically, but at the other end of the rift at this same time last year, a 5.1 mag earthquake occurred in Ethiopia, which is the other end of the rapidly “unzipping” rift. The area highlighted above is definitely diverse.

Secondly, the bible shows us that the Tribulation will be a time of massive geophysical changes. Revelation 16:20 prophesies that every island flees away and every mountain crumbles. So do Revelation 6 and Ezekiel 38:20. Isaiah 24 is the chapter that describes the destruction of the world by God, “The LORD’s Devastation of the Earth.” Remember, when the world was formed it looked very different. After the flood the land masses had changed dramatically.

As to the slow vs. catastrophic plate tectonics competing theories, many current observations are incompatible with slow-and-gradual plate tectonics. The unzipping of the African Rift is just one example. It is happening before our eyes.

Answers in Genesis explains:

Is Catastrophic Plate Tectonics Biblical?
“The Bible does not directly mention either continental drift or plate tectonics. However, if the continents were once joined together, as suggested by Genesis 1:9–10, and are now apart, then the only possibility is continental division and “sprint” during the Flood. Some have suggested this continental division occurred after the Flood during the days of Peleg when “the earth was divided” (Genesis 10:25). However, this Hebrew expression can be also translated to mean “lands being divided among peoples,” which, according to the context, refers to the results of the Tower of Babel judgment. Furthermore, the destruction at the earth’s surface, where people and animals were then living during such a rapid continental “sprint,” would have been as utterly devastating as the Flood itself. Therefore, using catastrophic plate tectonics as a model, mechanism, and framework to describe and understand the Genesis Flood event is far more reasonable and is also consistent with the Bible.”

It is the supposition of many eschatology bible scholars that the geo-physical changes that will occur in the Tribulation not only will be punishment for sin (Isaiah 24), but also a process by which the Lord reforms the earth back to its original state. (Rev 21-22). Ezekiel 47 describes the Millennial River that forges a path between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. (see map here). Rapid geological and geo-physical changes are prophesied and are already beginning. Keep looking up.
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-island-in-red-sea-other-weird.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

bible jesus, prophecy, state of the church

State of the Church part 5a: When carnality leads to spiritual abuse

Posted on December 29, 2011May 2, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

State of the Church:
Part 1: Introduction, Love growing cold
Part 2: Are you tending your anchor?
Part 3: The numbers aren’t good
Part 4: Carnal Carnival, & the greatest sin pastors commit
Part 5a: When carnality leads to spiritual abuse
Part 5b: Is your church spiritually abusive?
Conclusion: Spiritual Leaders and Humble Relationships

We have been exploring Jesus’ end time prophecy in Matthew 24:12, which says, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,” and looked at how this prophecy applies to believers. We explored the incremental drifting away from Jesus and how that impacts our selves and our churches. In part 3 we looked at the numbers of surveyed born-again believers who state they hold to a biblical worldview and found that it was 8-9%. When you have 91-92% of a congregation that has in some part a secular worldview you are in for trouble, and part 4 looked at that trouble: carnality.

Carnality is described by GotQuestions as “translated from the Greek word sarkikos, which literally means “fleshly.” This descriptive word is seen in the context of Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. In this passage, the apostle Paul is addressing the readers as “brethren,” a term he uses almost exclusively to refer to other Christians; he then goes on to describe them as “carnal.” Therefore, we can conclude that Christians can be carnal. The Bible is absolutely clear that no one is sinless (1 John 1:8). Every time we sin, we are acting carnally. … Until we are delivered from our sinful flesh, there will be outbreaks of carnality. For a genuine believer in Christ, though, these outbreaks of carnality will be the exception, not the rule.”

It is my contention that love is growing cold because these outbreaks of carnality in Christians are becoming the rule. They are now more than outbreaks, they are the norm. Carnality and secular worldviews lead to apostasy, something else we are told will happen in the last days. 2 Timothy 4:10 shows us that it a worldly spirit that tends to make apostates.

Sanctification is the process of the Holy Spirit taking a believer away from carnality and toward Christ-likeness. To the degree that Christians are submitting to the Holy Spirit’s authority, sanctification occurs. “Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ in all that we do, think, and desire. True sanctification is impossible apart from the atoning work of Christ on the cross because only after our sins are forgiven can we begin to lead a holy life.” (Source CARM.org)

The more drenched you are in the biblical worldview the faster the process of sanctification goes. The more a Christian holds to a secular worldview and who sins willfully or unrepentingly, the slower sanctification goes.

“Sanctification is an intrinsic thing; it lies chiefly in the heart. It is called ‘the adorning the hidden man of the heart.’ 1 Peter 3:4. Sanctification is an intense and ardent thing. … Its properties burn within the believer. ‘Fervent in spirit.’ Rom 12:11. Sanctification is not a dead form, but it is inflamed into zeal. We call water hot, when it is so in the third or fourth degree; so he is holy whose religion is heated to some degree, and his heart boils over in love to God.” ~Thomas Watson. (online source)

When love grows cold, it means the sanctification process has slowed or stalled. We see Jesus’s rebuke of the Church at Ephesus for their love growing cold.

Rev 2:4-5, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

So, “what was the matter in Ephesus? Christ found a fatal fault that probably nobody else saw. Their hard hearts, that labor of passion and fervor was becoming the cold orthodox function. That was deadly, dangerous. The service had started to become mechanical.” Sermon ‘When Love Grows Cold’ (Grace To You)

The condition of the heart is something only known to Jesus. He could see that their ardor had cooled and they were beginning to let tradition set in. “You don’t love Me like you once loved Me. Your love has cooled. That, beloved, is the forerunner of spiritual apathy. That is the forerunner of indifference. And that is the greatest fear that I have for this church for that is step one that moves you through the rest of the steps that you see in these churches into a love for the world, compromise with evil, corruption, death and judgment. … repent because to lose your first love is sin. The decreasing intensity of your love for Christ is sin. Lack of loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is sin. Repent, get on your knees before God and ask Him to forgive you for that weakening love.” Sermon ‘When Love Grows Cold’ (Grace To You)

Here is the sad, downward trend:

Apathy gives rise to churches who have stalled in their process of submission to Christ and so are apathetic in their studies. Therefore allow an authoritarian pastor to take over. They still want someone to tell them what’s what, but they have left their first love (Jesus), so the pastor will suffice. If a church is going to be abused by an authoritarian pastor, it would begin now. Having a large group that is more worldly than not, is either apathetic or ignorant of the biblical duties of a pastor, they allow him to take more spiritual authority than he is given by God.

Now, I will say that I have never been a lifelong fan of the word abuse. Everyone and their brother says today that they have been abused, and while that may or may be actually true for the many people, I’ve always been a proponent of sucking it up and getting on without much fuss. But the issue I’ve uncovered through researching this series about the effects on the church of love growing cold has shown me clearly that spiritual abuse, or if it makes you more comfortable, its synonym, authoritarianism, is not only present today, but it is just as rampant as it was in the days of Jesus confronting the Pharisees. It breaks my heart. Since discovering this, I have cried on behalf of the abused and the sinning pastors while praying every night. So is Spiritual Abuse a new phenomenon or is it biblical?

“David Henke notes in “Spiritual Abuse in the Bible?” Spiritual abuse has a very prominent place in the Bible, though that terminology has not been used until recently. In the scripture it is called bondage to men and the traditions of men. It is a by-product and outgrowth of legalism, which is bondage to the letter of the law.”

Jesus mourned that the people had no shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-38; Mark 6:33-34; John 10:11-13). Every town had a synagogue if the town had eleven men, so there were shepherds, the priests were the shepherds. What Jesus was mourning was their lack of compassion, their penchant for abuse by instituting legalistic rules, and their selfishness, self-aggrandizement and vanity. The shepherds were no shepherds. The problem was that the religious system had been corrupted by men to the extent that they were abusive, hypocritical, lordly legalistic shepherds who harm and not help the flock. These scriptures speak to the shepherds who not only harm but scatter the sheep: Ezekiel 34:1-24, Zechariah 11, Jeremiah 5:26-31, 1 Peter 5:1-4.” (online source).

So we see that though the term is modernized it is a very old problem. And everything old is new again. Though we are told many times in the New Testament that wolves will be among us, Christians usually take that to mean, out there, or at best, in other churches. But it is not so. Wolves will be among us, everywhere. (Mt 7:15).

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31).

The Pharisees and Scribes were poster children for abusive spiritual authorities. “[I]f you look at Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah, was that they were not using the authority they had been given for the benefit of the weak, for those who didn’t have a voice. They were using their authority for their own purposes and for the sake of human kingdoms. The result in people’s lives then was the same as now: spiritual exhaustion rooted in misconceptions about who God is, about what God wants from us and about God’s stance toward us. … in Matthew 23 he not only describes the dynamics that were going on between the Pharisees and the people, but he also warns people about the Pharisees.” (Source)

So we know the path that leads to love growing cold and what a sin it is. We know that it is prophesied to be rampant in the last days. In this post we looked at the biblical history of the constant problem of authoritarian pastors and worthless hireling shepherds. In the next post I will discuss what spiritual abuse is, how frequent it is, and look at list specifics as to what constitutes the warning signals of authoritarianism in the church, or spiritual abuse.

Part 1: Introduction, Love growing cold
Part 2: Are you tending your anchor?
Part 3: The numbers aren’t good
Part 4: Carnal Carnival, & the greatest sin pastors commit
Part 5a: When carnality leads to spiritual abuse
Part 5b: Is your church spiritually abusive?
Conclusion: Spiritual Leaders and Humble Relationships

DEBKA, jesus, mines, prophecy

DEBKA says Iran may be salting Hormuz with mines

Posted on December 29, 2011 by elizabethprata

If that headline doesn’t put fear into your stomach, I don’t know what will.

However, DEBKA has a track record of being more rumor than not. However there I have confirmed several elements of their report, while not being able to confirm the mining part. Let’s sort out the information to see what has credibility and what doesn’t. The report is making huge waves and even Ynet picked up on it, which is a legitimate news outlet, so let’s take this lobster apart.

DEBKA: who is DEBKA? DEBKAfile describes themselves as “founded by a team of journalists in June 2000 as an independent Internet Web site, providing an intelligence and security news service.” Wikipedia describes them as “a Jerusalem-based English language Israeli open source military intelligence website with commentary and analyses on terrorism, intelligence, security, and military and political affairs in the Middle East. The word “Debka” refers to an Arab folk dance.”

They correctly note that most of their sources are anonymous, a non-no in journalism. “Israeli intelligence officials do not consider even 10 percent of the site’s content to be reliable. Cornell Law professor Michael C. Dorf calls Debka his “favorite alarmist Israeli website trading in rumors.” The site’s operators, in contrast, state that 80 percent of what Debka reports turns out to be true, and point to its year 2000 prediction that al-Qaeda would again strike the World Trade Center, and that it had warned well before the 2006 war in Lebanon that Hezbollah had amassed 12,000 Katyusha rockets pointed at northern Israel.”

So there you have the pro and the con of DEBKAfile. Let’s take a look at their predictions, rather than their descriptions.

This blogger has listed four years’ worth of DEBKA warnings that have failed to come true. He says of Debkafile, “where war always looms in the foggy but near future.” Of this warning from 2008, the blogger notes the headline from DEBKAfile- “Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf“, ‘DEBKAfile’s military sources name the three US strike forces en route to the Gulf as the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Iwo Jima. Already in place are the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea opposite Iranian shores and the USS Peleliu which is cruising in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden’ and he comments, “Disturbing news! Or rather it would be, except that the USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked at Norfolk.”

In today’s warning, DEBKA opened their report with the following, “Thursday afternoon, Dec. 29, Tehran raised the pitch of its threats to the United States when Dep. Chief of the Revolutionary Guards Gen. Hossein Salami declared: “The United States is in no position to tell Tehran what to do in the Strait of Hormuz,” adding, “Any threat will be responded [to] by threat… We will not relinquish our strategic moves in Iran’s vital interests are undermined by any means. “The Iranian general spoke after the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier and its strike group passed through the Strait of Hormuz to the Sea of Oman and into the area where the big Iranian naval war game Veleyati 90 is taking place.”

This is true. The quote about threats is confirmed in many newspapers, this being just one. I worked hard to confirm that the USS Stenis is indeed in the waters DEBKA says they are, and the carrier is indeed part of the Fifth Fleet stationed at nearby Bahrain and in those waters. Confirmation is here: “Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, said the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay headed out from the Persian Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, after a visit to Dubai’s Jebel Ali port.” And also here.

The DEBKA report continued, “Earlier Thursday, Dec. 29, DEBKAfile reported that an Iranian plan to mine the Strait of Hormuz had put US and NATO forces in the Persian Gulf on the alert. US and NATO task forces in the Persian Gulf have been placed on alert after US intelligence warned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are preparing Iranian marine commandos to sow mines in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The new deployment, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, consists of USS Combined Task Force 52 (CTF 52), which is trained and equipped for dismantling marine mines and NATO Maritime Mine Counter measures Group 2 (SNMCMG2). The American group is led by the USS Arden mine countermeasures ship; NATO’s by the British HMS Pembroke minesweeper. Other vessels in the task forces are the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Middleton and the French mine warfare ships FS Croix du Sud and FS Var.”

It was here I ran into problems. First, sowing mines would harm Iran, who relies on exporting oil through that strait as much as anyone, and so does Iran’s neighbors. Mining it would seem to be counterproductive and an inefficient way to choke off the Western use of the Strait, especially when there are other means Iran can use to do the job. But what do I know I’m not a military analyst. I’m just a woman blogging in her pajamas.

Given DEBKA’s history of putting the wrong ship in the wrong waters, I took some time to confirm that USS Combined Task Force 52 (CTF 52), NATO Maritime Mine Counter measures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) are indeed part of the Fifth Fleet. I had already confirmed through two other news articles that the USS Stennis is where DEBKA says it is. I didn’t bother looking up the British or French ships, searching through US ships was difficult enough

As for the USS Arden, I found nothing. After going to the Wikipedia list of all Navy ships currently in commission, I found that there is no USS Arden, but a USS Ardent. USS Ardent is a minesweeper. So they got the name wrong, but the ship class right. I went to the Navy website and USS Ardent is deployed at this time to Bahrain, which is its homeport.

In several articles I read things like ‘the USS Stennis passed through the Strait of Hormuz with escorts” or “the USS Stennis passed through the Strait of Hormuz with supply ships” but where those other ships were listed (USS Mobile Bay) the USS Ardent never was.

Ynet is a very credible Israeli new outlet. In today’s article they seemed to quote DEBKA, saying “The Islamic republic is halfway through 10 days of navy exercises in international waters to the east of the strait that have reportedly included the laying of mines and the use of aerial drones.”

As for the likelihood that Iran is salting the Strait of Hormuz with mines, I don’t know. I don’t think DEBKA knows. Here is what is do know, though, The tension at that area of the world is at an unbearable level. Any spark could set it off. As NPR succinctly concluded, “The Strait is a 50-kilometre (31 mile) wide passageway through which about a third of the world’s oil tanker traffic sails. Whoever controls this crucial choke-point virtually controls Middle East oil exports.”

Here are some of today’s headlines about the situation:

Iran Rebuffs US Warning on Strait of Hormuz as Tensions Rise

Iran ramps up war of words with U.S. over Strait of Hormuz: ‘Any threat will be responded by threat’

Gas price shoots up to $3.49 in Tri-Cities (“A rise in crude oil prices and tension between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz are possibly contributing to the increase cost.”)

[An actual blockade would double the price overnight.]

Iran Says It Recorded Video Of US Aircraft Carrier

Between the genocide in Syria and the tense faceoff between the US Navy and the Iranian Navy, it surely feels like war could erupt at any moment. This is an interesting piece from HuffPo yesterday:

The Coming Accidental War with Iran
“…due to the lack of understanding between our government and Iranian leaders who have been isolated from the rest of the world, war will not be a decision, but a mistake.”

God has a plan for the world, for Iran and the other Arab states,and for Israel. He does not make mistakes. What is unfolding is exactly according to what we see in Obadiah, Isaiah 17, Ezekiel 38-39, Matthew 24, Psalm 83 and many other bible books and parts of books. The issue is, because we so vividly see the prophesied Tribulation events unfolding in preparation for fulfillment, how much closer then, is the rapture? And the other important question is,

Are you ready?

Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/debka-says-iran-may-be-salting-hormuz.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

bible jesus, state of the church

State of the Church part 4: Carnal Carnival, & the greatest sin pastors commit

Posted on December 29, 2011July 21, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In the Introduction/Part 1 of this series, I discussed the Matthew 24:12 prophecy Jesus gave of “love growing cold”, and showed how that prophecy relates to believers. So then if love of believers for God and of each other is predicted to grow cold, in this series I ask what causes love to grow cold. Part 2 explored that question, focusing on the Hebrews 2:1 verse “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” Part 3 looked at just how many bible believers, exactly, might have drifted away and hold to a non-biblical world view, and how the numbers impact our churches toward carnality. In this part I will take a look at what Paul Washer calls the greatest sin that pastors commit, and how that also is hurtling our brethren toward carnality and eventual cold love. Last, this series will hopefully (by God’s grace) discuss how to spot waning love and how frequently these days waning love gives rise to church spiritual abuse.

We have an old man in us that Jesus died to make become a new man when we are justified. (Romans 6:6-7). We still live in the body of the old man but the new man is being sanctified each day as we submit and grow. The saved are still carnal creatures but it should be less so every day. It is incumbent on us to resist the fleshly desires, and to live a holy life. Succumbing to or clamoring for the carnal is never acceptable at any time.

From Forerunner commentary “(Matthew 9:16) “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old” (Luke 5:36). Mark’s version of the same parable stresses that the “tear is made worse” when the new patch eventually “pulls away from the old” garment (Mark 2:21). Christ’s message is clear: When it comes to doffing the old man and donning the new one, we cannot “mix and match.” Successfully mixing them—combining them—is as impossible as serving two masters. We just cannot do it (Matthew 6:24)! The two men represent intrinsically and irreversibly opposing ways of life.”

The problem is that when we look to things other than the bible and Jesus crucified, satan drives a wedge between us and our carnal nature, which is ever-present. It doesn’t take much for our carnal nature to raise its head, and then crane its neck, and then start leading us down the broad path. Some believers let it. Once our view becomes distracted and shifts from Jesus, we begin to renew our relationship with the carnal. Listen to Paul Washer describe the problem. It is a cycle with a terrible end. Please take a moment to watch, it is only 3 min.

Church Leaders Who Permit Carnality from NCFIC on Vimeo.

Mr Washer said that church pastors are increasingly catering to the large group who want the carnal at the expense of the small group who wants Christ. I agree with this. I have seen it all too often. For me, it is like the chicken and the egg. Some pastors introduce the carnal and once tasting, the large group gets addicted. Or some churches clamor for it and sinning pastors find they want their position more than the truth and cave in to their wishes, finding that they like the carnal way too much after all.

Rev Washer mentioned the small group. In the last part I did the numbers. If we take on face value the Barna research stating that 8% of Baptists hold a biblical worldview (and we can because the Barna numbers have remained consistent for 9 years), and we take a medium-small congregation of 200 Baptists, 8% is 16 people. One hundred eighty four people will want the carnal, or at least, accept it. Now, not all of them will want the carnal in the same degree. There are some unregenerate who are all carnal, all the time. There are others who have just started drifting and will not stand for a lot of it, only comfortable dipping a toe into the carnal. But suffice to say, in the last piece we looked at the numbers and we can see the depressing truth of what Mr Washer says: the small group starves while the large group gorges.

He also mentioned something that I’ve seen is a downward process. He said that sinning pastors try to retain the carnal congregants by presenting ever more carnal means. The issue in many churches today is that pastors and their congregations have become adventure junkies, always seeking the next big thing, then the bigger thing, then the biggest thing. Everything has to be a thrill now. Let me give a few examples.

In a previous piece I wrote on Jentezen Franklin, I quoted him from his book “Fasting: Opening the Door to a Deeper, More Powerful Relationship with God.” Franklin said, “When I feel myself growing dry spiritually, when I don’t sense that cutting-edge anointing, or when I need a fresh encounter with God, fasting is the secret key that unlocks heaven’s door and slams shut the gates of hell.”

Heaven help us when we grow dry spiritually, lacking the latest cutting edge thing! Why do we always seem to need a fresh encounter? Like Jesus grows stale or something?

Here is another example: Mega church Willow Creek pastor Bill Hybels wrote a book called “The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God and having the guts to respond.” There are a host of problems with this book which I’ll address in another piece. In reference to the issue I am raising issue about adventure junkie syndrome, in his book, Hybels said, “Without a hint of exaggeration,’ says Bill Hybels, ‘the ability to discern divine direction has saved me from a life of sure boredom and self-destruction.”

Thank goodness Jesus died on the cross to save Bill Hybels from boredom! His next quote from the same book is more telling. As his second grade teacher assured Hybels that God still speaks to people today as God spoke to Samuel when Samuel was called to the office of prophet, Hybels says,

“I felt a swell of release as I considered for the first time in my seven years of life that perhaps Christianity was more than ancient rules, creeds and other stiff-necked ways.” (The Power of a Whisper, 20-21).

By comparison, a believer’s staid old faith, prayer, service, obedience seems dry as yesterday’s toast.

(PS as an aside, often these adventure junkie pastors selectively clip from the OT and normalize the experience of whom they are highlighting. God audibly calling people as He called the prophets is not the normative NT Christian experience.)

Brethren, if you are in a church that lifts up Hybels as the favorite read of 2011 and legitimizes divine whispers, RUN. You have a carnal pastor feeding you carnal pabulum.

Paul Young, author of The Shack, has the same adventure junkie addiction. The regular old faith that has been good enough for 2000 years is BOR-ing! Here is what Young said on page 178 of The Shack: “For Mack these words were like a breath of fresh air! Simple. Not a bunch of exhausting work and long list of demands and not the sitting in endless meetings staring at the backs of people’s heads, people he really didn’t even know. Just sharing life.” Doesn’t that comment sound more than a bit like Hybels? Satan always tries to get us dissatisfied with what we have, which is a perfect revelation contained in the bible, but for Hybels, and undiscerning pastors who promote him, the ancient bible is not enough.

A concern is also in the sly ways these books chip away at solid biblical principles with craftily written statements like Hybels, or these in The Shack such as, “the dusty old King James Bible” or that church attendance is “religious conditioning” or that the term “Christian” is outdated. People may not even be consciously aware of being influenced by these kind of statements. But the cumulative effect is the diminish the Word and heighten the personal experience. This only adds up to spiritual adventure, which equals carnality.

Beth Moore is another one who lives for breathless moments with Jesus, seeking the thrill rather than the faith. She is a big one for always looking for the divine whisper, the personal revelation, having a blast, the heart to heart chat, the date with God to make a snowman. In her book, she said, “Christ seemed to say, “Let’s go play.” And that we did. I hadn’t been to the zoo in years. I heard about all the improvements, but I never expected the ultimate: Starbucks coffee! (OK, so I don’t have my health issues down pat.) Can you imagine watching a baby koala take a nap in a tree on a rare cold day in Houston with a Starbucks grande cappuccino in your hand? Now that’s a Sabbath moment! God and I had a blast.” (The Beloved Disciple, p. 220). And never mind about the time when she was minding her own business on her back porch and it was as if God raised her up right then to see all the churches of the world through Jesus eyes in another dimension. That must have been quite an adventure.

Now, who would want to spend half an hour on their knees praying, or a hour in the bible when you can go to the zoo with God?! Or visit another dimension? For all these ‘Christian evangelicals,’ the bible is insufficient. They add their experience to the Word and count it as faith.

Jesus said that love would grow cold. It grows cold when we drift away, as in Hebrews 2:1. We start looking at the world which contains satan. Our appetites for the carnal grow. The more carnal we get the less love we have for Christ and for others. You see the authors above substituting the bible for their own, carnal experiences. Suddenly the bible is insufficient and the thrill of the zoo, the fast, the whisper is all they clamor for.

Woe to the pastor who offers this poison to the flock. Woe to the flock who accepts it.

Love grows cold because we compromise, and pastors, leaders, deacons are stringing along the sheep on this carnal carnival of heightened biblical insufficiency and exalting personal experience in its place. You can see we have gone from a solid, Christ-centered church in part 1, to drifting away, using carnal means to attract congregants, to diminished numbers of true sheep, to an atmosphere where pastors use carnal means to catch and keep the sheep, and the sheep love it.

Puritan John Owen wrote, “The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word. It is a promise relating to the new testament, that God would give unto his church “pastors according to his own heart, which should feed them with knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15). This is by teaching or preaching the word, and no otherwise.”

No other word. Not secular books, not man-made fasts, not “Divine Whispers,” not any other word. Pastors who fail in their duty will be called to account. Congregants who stood by will be called to account also. It is a serious thing to set aside our first love and allow ourselves to grow cold while we seek or accept carnality and bible insufficiency, and substitute personal experience and spiritual adventure junkyism in its place.

“The only hope is a return to Scripture and sound doctrine. We evangelicals desperately need to recover our determination to be biblical, our refusal to comply with the world, our willingness to defend what we believe, and our courage to defy false teaching. Unless we collectively awaken to the current dangers that threaten our faith, the adversary will attack us from within, and we will not be able to withstand.” (source). Yes, return to the biblical worldview!

“Yet, surely, there must be some who will fling aside the dastard love of peace, and speak out for our Lord, and for his truth. A craven spirit is upon many, and their tongues are paralyzed. Oh, for an outburst of true faith and holy zeal!” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

And what of the churches where the faith and holy zeal is turning cold? All believers are at risk. Part 5 will deal with one of the risk: spiritual abuse.

A craven spirit. Don’t let it be you. If it isn’t you, but you’re despairing of finding a good church to worship in with other like-minded believers, keep praying. Jesus won’t abandon you. He will install you in the place He wants you to be. “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

beth moore, false teachers

Beth Moore says God lifted her into another dimension & showed her the church through Jesus’s eyes

Posted on December 28, 2011 by elizabethprata

This portion of the “teaching” I’m discussing in this essay is a minute long. Her “teaching” in its entirety is longer, about 4 min. The original video I’d included which the transcription is from, has been deleted by Moore. Most copies of it I have been able to find online are marked “not available.” I found that I had downloaded a copy from someone on Youtube who included some verses along with an inter-title caption. His video started a few seconds after the original one, so that is why there are a few sentences of a transcription that don’t appear on the video.

//www.youtube.com/get_player

Transcription: “… to beg to differ with people that are ten times smarter than I am. But I want to say to you I see something different than that. I see God doing something huge in the body of Christ. I do not know why I have had the privilege to get to travel around, see one church after another…one group of believers after another, interdenominationally, all over this country, but I have gotten to see something that I think is huge. And I’ll also suggest to you I am not the only one. And tonight I’m going to do my absolute best to illustrate to you something that God showed me out on that back porch. He put a picture…I’ve explained to you before I am a very visual person…so He speaks to me very often of putting a picture in my head. And it was as if I was raised up looking down on a community, as I saw the church in that particular dimension- certainly not all dimensions, not even in many, but in what we will discuss tonight, the church, as Jesus sees it, in a particular dimension.”

Do you know how crazy this sounds? Do you know how wrong this is? Do you know the danger you are in if you believe her?

I had seen that clip of her saying Jesus took her up and showed her the world in HIS dimension a few days ago. I was impacted greatly by it: horrified, aghast, astounded would be words to describe my thoughts and feelings when I heard that from Mrs Moore… and days later I am still feeling that way.

She literally said that God somehow mentally or emotionally or spiritually (Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know) took her into a dimension above the world to show her how Jesus sees His bride, effectively saying she was seeing thru Jesus eyes. Didn’t satan do that to Jesus, take Him up and show to Him all the world’s kingdoms? (Mt 4:8) Didn’t the Lord lift up Paul and show Him things, but which no man is permitted to tell? (2 Cor 12:4). Apparently women are, though. Is Mrs Moore more special than Paul? Has God changed His mind on permissions since then? The only conclusion I can make is that God changed His mind on the lifting up and the telling, or it is satan showing her these things. You can guess which one of these two I believe.

The rampant problem of Christians who teach and preach that personal visitations from God are the normative experience are actually chipping away at the foundational truths from the bible which is the ONLY revelation now. (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Yes, God can do what He wants, and He can give revelation, but is He behind personal visitations and whispers and visions? That is the question. I believe the answer is no. He has said that currently He wants us to know Him through Jesus, who is the Word and His word is found in the bible. I go back to Hebrews 1, and also Revelation 22;18,”warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.” Revelation is the last book and with that admonishment, the canon closed. There is no new “seeing thru Jesus eyes” to be gained. It is all in the bible.

What Mrs Moore is saying is that God gave her a special revelation that is apart from the bible and subsequently she is here to teach us about it.

If we accept that we have authoritative word from the bible, PLUS Mrs Moore’s visions, PLUS Bill Hybels’ whispers, PLUS Colton Burpo’s visit to heaven, PLUS Mary K Baker’s visit to hell…where does it end? I say to one and all it ended at Revelation 22. You can read about it more here at MacArthur’s site, “Does God still give revelation?“

The canon of scripture is closed. I do not believe Jesus is continuing to give authoritative revelation, and certainly none that we accept as a “teaching” about His church

From GotQuestions about the canon:
“The acquisition of knowledge regarding such things as the true nature of God, the origin of the universe and life, the purpose and meaning of life, the wonders of salvation, and future events (including the destiny of mankind) are beyond the natural observational and scientific capacity of mankind. The already-delivered Word of God, valued and personally applied by Christians for centuries, is sufficient to explain to us everything we need to know of Christ (John 5:18; Acts 18:28; Galatians 3:22; 2 Timothy 3:15) and to teach us, correct us, and instruct us into all righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).”

I reject Mrs Moore’s claims of being raised up to see the church in another dimension as Jesus sees it.

We don’t need to listen to individuals who say they have had a vision of being lifted up into His dimension, when Jesus came into OUR dimension to tell us, all of us. I’m grieved daily that people increasingly show us by their acceptance of heaping up these teachers who tickle the ears that His intrusion into our dimension was not enough. Now we must go to His, and come back and tell. This is what I mean by the current belief in the bible’s insufficiency. God does have a vision for His church and that vision is contained in the bible. Listening to one person’s extra-biblical revelations about what God showed her and her alone, and through Jesus’s eyes no less, is dangerous in the extreme.

I see these things being said from people within what was once a conservative denomination, and I see and hear others even in churches around me here in GA saying similar, and I wonder, ‘have they all gone mad??’ but the answer is yes, I fear. It is as though as the Lord lifts His hand in ending the Church Age, the delusion that will come upon the whole world is infiltrating even now (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/beth-moore-says-god-lifted-her-into.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

end time, gog magog, prophecy, wars and rumors of wars

CFR says "Time is now to attack Iran"

Posted on December 28, 2011 by elizabethprata

There is some interesting news coming out these days. Heavily prophetic. In the last 6 months the European Union and other European nations have gone from defending an economic position of “this is manageable” to “here are our plans for when the euro/EU collapses.” The continual economic and currency pressure on the ‘eurozone’ nations is cracking it up and by now the cracks are wide enough to be visible. They’re not hairline fractures anymore, they are chasms. The UK, never a fan of the geo-political EU or the idea of a strongly centralized European currency, is openly making drastic contingency plans for the what they believe is its eventual failure.

UK to close borders if Euro collapses, other contingency plans revealed
“BRITAIN’S borders will be closed to continental Europeans if the euro collapses, it was revealed yesterday. The emergency measure would block hordes of French, German and Dutch nationals who would be desperate to withdraw cash here with credit cards if banks in their own countries dry up. It is feared a run on British banks could also result in them being unable to service UK businesses.”

That’s pretty drastic. It paints a picture of hordes of people storming banks, chaotic borders with armed guards, and riots. If this is the picture the powers that be firmly feel would happen, hence, their making plans around it, then we must pay attention.

We are concerned at this point in prophetic time with large geo-political and large-scale economic shifts. This is because the verses which are set in the Tribulation show us that the world is governed by ten kings (soon to be 8) whose top king is the antichrist. It seems that the world is governed by ten large kingdoms with sole people at the head. (Revelation 13:1; Daniel 7:16-24). Revelation 13 also shows us that the entire globe’s money system and consumer economics is also controlled by one person: the antichrist. (more here).

For the conditions to come to pass as we know they will, a massive shift in financial, political, and economic thought and infrastructure must first come to pass. We see these indicators now.

The bible’s chapters in Ezekiel 38-39 also show an evil confederacy led by Iran and Russia and Turkey attacking Israel by surprise in the last days. This prophecy has not come to pass yet in all of history so we know that it is yet future. As we see the news headlines day after day of the growing storm in the Middle East, particularly Syria and Iran, we can surmise that perhaps this prophecy is near future.

The Strait of Hormuz is key route for world’s oil
“The Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to block if the West applies sanctions on its oil exports, is a strategically important waterway through which 40 percent of the world’s oil transits.The strait links the Gulf, bordered by petroleum-rich states like Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with Oman.Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned Tuesday: ”If sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz.”Several Western states are considering oil sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, accusing it of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.The narrow Strait of Hormuz has a maximum width of some 50 kilometers (30 miles) and a maximum depth of 60 metres (200 feet).”

When even the Council on Foreign Relations starts touting an Iran preventive attack, you know that things in that prophetic region are definitely nearing fulfillment. (If you happen to go to the link, you’ll notice the CFR article has a dateline of “January/February 2012”. Seeing 2012 as a real date seems strange…)

“CFR: Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option“
“Opponents of military action against Iran assume a U.S. military strike would be far more dangerous than simply letting Tehran build a bomb. Not so, argues this former Pentagon defense planner. With a carefully designed strike, Washington could mitigate the costs—or at least bring them down to a bearable level—and spare the region and the world from an unacceptable threat.”

The interest in Iran, of course, is two fold but it should be three fold. The world’s interest in Iran is in its nuclear programme, which by all accounts is nearing completion. They will VERY shortly have the bomb. Secondly, the world is concerned with Iran’s increasing belligerence. It seems the closer they get to finishing their nuke-making the more brazen they become. They began war games in the Strait of Hormuz this week and threatened to shut the strait down. This would be a bad thing as 30% of the world oil is exported by there on tankers. Just making the threat threw global oil markets into a tizzy. During the war games the Iranian Navy allegedly warned off a foreign helicopter and are trying to provoke US ships. The US Fifth Fleet is stationed in nearby Bahrain.

The third interest that the world should have in Iran but doesn’t is that Iran is propelled, guided, and in all ways spiritually motivated. The government and the Revolutionary Guard believes firmly in Shia end time Islam, which states that they are prophetically important in Islam and that they must begin cleaning out the world of Americans, Jews, and all infidels. Their staunch belief that Israel must not exist informs their every waking thought and action.

The Manila Bulletin explains, “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the ideological army of the Iranian regime, controls naval operations in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.” Don’t underestimate the will of Iran’s ‘ideological army.’ The ideological arm of the government is the arm that believes all Jews must die. Unfortunately, the world does not believe that they are as focused and intentional as they are. But we see from the chapters in Ezekiel, the Gog-Magog battle, that they are indeed.

As Iran begins the tactical stage of the games, “The war games, which started on Saturday, are said to differ from previous ones in terms of the vastness of the area of action and the military equipment and tactics that are being employed. It has been announced that submarines of the Ghadir class and other classes, warships, missile-firing destroyers, coast-to-sea missile systems, drones, and electronic warfare equipment will be tested during the exercises.”

Don’t underestimate the military of Iran. Though not as large as North Korea’s or as sophisticated as the US’s, remember they recently did just spoof a US drone, causing it to happily land in Iran instead of Afghanistan, and are busily scouring its secrets even now, with the Russians and the Chinese. They are not as weak or as backward as the US government would like us to believe.

In the upcoming Ezekiel prophetic battle, God supernaturally intervenes to protect Israel. Otherwise they would have been obliterated by Iran and Russia. Mercifully, the Lord once again will put His hand around His nation and all the world sees that it is by no other means that Israel was saved. Because of this, which of course Israel sees too, they clamor for a return to a covenant relationship with Him. This is why the temple is rebuilt. It is thought that the fallout of this battle jolts the world into finally confirming a peace treaty with Israel, something we know will happen (Daniel 9:27). Of course, the chronology could be otherwise but the way things are looking now, especially with Syria’s continual genocide of her people and the world’s growing impatience with it, this interpretation seems likely. (Isaiah 17)

I don’t know if any nation in the world will attack Iran prior to the rapture, or at all, there is nothing listed specifically for this as there are about prophesies about Damascus’s destruction and Iran’s attack on Israel. The prophecies do state that the birth pangs will include wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:6-7)

Also because the world sees God protect Israel and thus Israel returns to (old) covenant with God, resuming sacrifices etc, the new covenant people cannot and will not be here. The two covenants don’t mix. Therefore it is thought that by the end of the Gog-Magog battle (and it is called a battle because it happens quickly) that that event is the latest that the Church will still be in the world. We could be called out and up by the Lord at any time, but the common interpretation is that Ezekiel 38-39 is the latest. Keep looking up.
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/cfr-says-time-is-now-to-attack-iran.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

bible, love grows cold, state of the church

State of the Church part 3: The numbers aren’t good

Posted on December 27, 2011July 21, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In the Introduction/Part 1 of this series, I discussed the Matthew 24:12 prophecy Jesus gave of “love growing cold”, and showed how that prophecy relates to believers. So then if love of believers for God and of each other is predicted to grow cold, in this series I ask what causes love to grow cold. Part 2 explored that question, focusing on the Hebrews 2:1 verse “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” In future parts I will also take a look at what will love growing looks like at your local church or in your life. Last, this series will hopefully (by God’s grace) discuss how to spot waning love and how frequently these days waning love gives rise to church spiritual abuse.

The numbers give us a clue as to why so many are growing cold. Barna is a respected Christian research group, and in 2009 their numbers found that only 9% of born again Christians adults have a biblical worldview. “For the purposes of the survey, a “biblical worldview” was defined as

believing that absolute moral truth exists;
the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches;
Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic;
a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works;
Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and
God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.

“In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview. For Baptists the number was 8%. For youths the number was even lower- 5%.

Let’s look at that practically. If you belong to a medium sized Baptist church as I do, where on average 200 people congregate on Sunday mornings to worship, according to the Barna number of 8%, how many will hold a biblical world view? 16. Sixteen people. That’s it. Sixteen people in your pews on average who believe all six of the basic doctrines of the Bible said to give us a biblical worldview. Sad, isn’t it?

But we are told again and again about the numbers. This should not surprise us. The Bible is clear on that. Noah’s family of 8 were the only righteous saved in all the world. Lot and his two daughters were the only people saved out of four cities destroyed that day, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim. (Gen 19:1-29; Deuteronomy 29:23). And here is a lesson for love growing cold: Mrs Lot seemed to love her husband and children, seemed to be righteous in loving God, after all, she obeyed the angel from God, didn’t she? Mrs Lot left the city where her sons-in-law did not. But when push came to shove, she disobeyed the angel from God and looked back. What was she looking back to? All her stuff. It turned out that in the end, her carnal worldview was revealed. And we know what happened to Mrs Lot. Please pass the salt.

Jesus gave the parable of the soils (Luke 8:4-21) and out of fours soils only one soil was good to produce fruit. Jesus said the way is narrow and few find it, but the way is broad that leads to destruction and many will follow it. (Matthew 7:13-14). Books were opened to judge the damned but only one book of life was opened. So you can see that when Jesus says many will be cold and not have agape love, that even Christians will be part of this prophecy- MANY do not make it. Many of those who don’t were thought all along to be Christians but in the end are revealed not to have been.

Taking our eyes off our first love impacts our biblical worldview. (Rev 2:4). Once we ‘neglect our salvation’ we will begin to insert other things into our worldview in addition to our Bible. The further away we drift the more things enter into our view. Soon, people begin thinking the bible is not sufficient. They say, ‘Hey, we’re still on the boat, we’re not sinking, and life is still pretty good. Maybe we didn’t need to be that strict after all. Maybe we can navigate through these waters using our own navigation techniques.’

It was my contention in Part 1 that increasing belief in the Bible’s insufficiency is one of the main causes of love growing cold. Keeping a biblical worldview is critical to tend to our salvation! If you have a biblical worldview it means you believe the Bible is sufficient. Sufficiency is defined in Part 1.

Answers in Genesis describes the problem of declining biblical worldview here: “The history as recorded in the Bible has been attacked by our increasingly secular culture. As a result, recent generations have been brought up to see the Bible as a book that contains many interesting stories and religious teaching, but has no connection to reality.” AIG goes on in a different essay to define worldview from the “American Heritage Dictionary as ‘The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. ‘The most simplistic definition for a biblical worldview is to have the mind of Christ. That would mean that one would think like Christ; love like Christ; act like Christ; walk like Christ: have the humility, patience, longsuffering and all of the other Galatians 5:22–26 fruits of the Spirit. Christ would not only be the model but the individual’s worldview would be an exact copy. That is the final target of the committed Christian’s process of sanctification. Prior to reaching that glorious point, Christians will have more or less of every aspect of Christ’s worldview reflected in their biblical worldview.”

The moment you neglect your salvation which is Jesus and Him risen and sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins, your reality shifts. The Bible is the only connection to reality, but for those 92% not having the biblical worldview, they have accepted that it is OK to add things to the Bible and thus have corrupted their mind of Christ. In future parts of the series I’ll discuss this addition mentality and how it relates to (in)sufficiency.

(ClipArt source ChristianArt.com)

I strive to maintain my biblical worldview by studying the Bible, praying, living consciously for Christ, repenting frequently, making decisions and taking actions that are consistent with what the bible says to do, and saying that is what I am doing, worshiping unabashedly, and loving people. It is as if I took the Bible and put it in front of my eyes like glasses and that is the view from which I look out into the world. I will admit to you that this lifestyle is seen as weird today. I’m not talking about the lost, they think anything related to the Bible is weird. I am talking about close brothers and sisters in a conservative, southern Baptist church who think my worldview is weird. I’ve been accused by believers of taking the Bible way too seriously. Seriously!

That is how love goes cold. They leave their first love. Once they do that, submissive adherence to the Bible’s precepts for everyday living is seen as extreme. According to Barna’s numbers, it is extreme, if 92% of my fellow Baptists do not fully believe six basic six tenets of the Bible (those aren’t even the most foundational doctrines, either, other essential doctrines here). Anyone who does believe those 6 basic precepts is easily seen as too hot, too fervent, too outside the norm. And we are.

Praise the Lord that He always keeps a remnant! How precious to Him is that 8%! Those sixteen in the midst of the 200 drifting away, striving to retain zeal and live submitted, Godly lives! If you know one of these, now you know how much more precious than gold these saints are. Pray that at all times we do not do anything to douse the ardor of these few saintly sheep, and if we do, hasten to reconcile in all Agape love.

Part 4 will deal with the twin corruptives in the church: carnality and insufficiency, and how they lead to spiritual abuse.

drifting away, state of the church

State of the Church part 2: Are you tending your anchor?

Posted on December 27, 2011July 21, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In this section I want to take a look at the primary reason love grows cold. In my opinion, Hebrews 2:1 has the answer. In the NKJV the paragraph is introduced with the title “Do Not Neglect Salvation.” The first verse says “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

I love the nautical metaphors the bible writers use. Marine allusions never change throughout time. If we picture the church as a bunch of people on an anchored boat in front of a lighthouse, and we fail to tend the anchor frequently, it slips. It slips because there are tides, and currents and winds trying to push the boat off its anchorage, just as culture buffets us in the world trying to push us away from Christ. As the anchor slips, we drift away slowly at first. As any mariner knows, the less the anchor digs in the faster the drift becomes. Pretty soon the ground under the boat deepens enough so the anchor is still attached to the boat but it’s just hanging there, not doing its job of digging in and keeping the boat close to the Lighthouse. Away the boat goes and in between the boat and the Light are many perils and things that could sink the boat. It does not take long in the neglect of tending the anchor, to become adrift on a cultural tide and too busy trying to control the boat in the currents, tides, waves, and wind to think of the Lighthouse anymore.

What are people doing on the boat that causes no one to notice the slipping anchor? Well, some are on the foredeck, sunning themselves. They say they are warm and comfortable, the sun feels good, and they leave the anchor-tending to someone else. (Sardis failed to keep watch, they are dead- Rev 3:1-3). Others go below, to cook and eat and play cards and to watch TV. (worldly spirit- 2 Timothy 4:10). They say that they finally have a chance to relax, being on this nice yacht, and they are going to take advantage of it. (wilful sin-Hebrews 10:25-31). Others are doing boat-things, like repairing sails, or changing the oil in the engine, but still they don’t take the time to go up and glance at the anchor line because they are too busy. (appearance of Godliness- 2 Tim 3:5). One person noticed a fraying anchor line but when he told his fellow boat-dwellers, they said he shouldn’t worry about it, the rope was strong enough for now. (They heard, but did not do- James 1:22). What they didn’t know was that a storm was on the horizon that would fray the rest of it and cause them to drift. (Matthew 16:3; Luke 12:56). Everyone is supposed to be vigilant and take his or her watch, looking out for storms, fraying anchor line, slipping anchorage. We are a body and we all take a watch. We as individuals and corporately must monitor our position in front of the Lighthouse! Leaving the anchor-tending to one person (the pastor) or worse, no one, means for sure sometime you will slip away. The Lighthouse is still there and always will be. It is the boat that drifted away. We have love growing cold because too many people are abdicating their watch.

I used to live on a sailboat for two years, me and my husband. We rarely went in to a dock, which means we anchored each night. We handled the anchor twice a day, letting it down at dusk for the night and lifting it up in the morning when we left. We would look for two things: good anchoring ground and a protected area. Then we would make a plan for anchoring, me at the helm and him at the bow pointing us to the spot he had decided on. Next, we made a pass over the spot, ensuring there were no hidden dangers that would give a nasty surprise that night. Then we would go through the process of anchoring, making sure the anchor was well set. Finally, though we were stopped for the day and relaxing, we never fully relaxed. One or the other of us would continually take sightings, check the anchor line and generally be on guard, even getting up in the night, lest we drift away. Props to my husband (and me) because our vigilance and fore-planning meant we never slipped anchor. We always awoke the next morning where we had stopped the night before.

We up anchor at sunrise on a Georgia river, circa 1994.

The thing that begins love growing cold is taking your eyes off Jesus the Light and replacing Him with a world view. A world view is satan. The second you give satan an inch, he will bring his crowbar in and pry you away from your first love, inch by incremental inch. That is why it takes an entire body to be on guard, you may not notice your own drift away by inches, but someone else looking at you may spot it. Admittedly, it is a lot of work to tend the anchor of our salvation. You cannot relax, yet our carnal nature very much wants to. I understand that. What people consistently fail to understand is how devastating even a few moments of relaxing are. Ultimately, failure to tend the anchor is a neglecting of our salvation and that salvation was bought at too great a price to neglect it. (1 Corinthians 6:20). So, in part 3, let’s talk about how many people fail to maintain their biblical worldview by the cold, stark numbers.

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns. (Psalm 46:1-5)