Posted in bible jesus, end of days. prophecy, end time

Some thoughts

Posted on by elizabethprata

I usually do a ‘Friday This and That’ of random or disconnected ideas in list and excerpt form, because I’m really tired on Friday nights and have little cognitive ‘get up and go’ by that time. But this Friday I’m going to be fine, because we’re off from school. And, I’m tired tonight so here are some this and that thoughts. And the news, you know? Even though it’s only Tuesday, it is pretty heavy already. Gaddafi and sharia and suddenly inflating volcanoes and Thailand inundated and a hurricane at the doorstep and Turkey quake and [drawing breath] I could go on but I won’t. So here are a few thoughts.

We know that New Jerusalem is transparent. “having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.” (Rev 21:11). “The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.” (Rev 21:18). Recently scientists learned that gold, when reduced to the nano level, becomes clear. Not opaque, but transparent. This scientific article explains: “If, however, you shrink gold down to a nanoparticle, its properties change dramatically. Its color changes, it becomes a very good catalyst, and is no longer a metal – instead it turns into a semiconductor.” I wrote more about it here.

I personally believe that the city is transparent so that the glory of God can be seen at all times.

But what about privacy? Max Lucado says of the transparent city, “Arguments will cease, for jealousy won’t exist. Suspicions won’t surface, for there will be no secrets. Every sin is gone. Every insecurity is forgotten.”

Remember, before the fall Adam and Eve were naked and they were not ashamed. We will not be naked. The Tribulation saints are given garments of white (Rev 6:11) and so are the elders, (Rev 4:4). I believe we will have white robes too. Even still, there will be no need for privacy because there will be no shame. We will see God’s glory everywhere, bright and sparkling.

I watched a very good half hour prophecy update from a very good pastor. Pastor JD Faraq in Hawaii made an interesting connection to something in his latest videocast. I’ve often said that making connections to things that exist is one thing, but making a connection to things that do not exist is another. But what isn’t seen, or what isn’t said is just as important as what is seen and what does exist. Pastor JD said that when Saddam Hussein was killed there were many effigies of President Bush that angry Muslims burned. However, there have not been any effigies burned of Obama after Bin Laden and Gaddafi were killed. Have you noticed that? I hadn’t but when Pastor JD said it I suddenly realized that he is right. No effigies.

Is it because the Muslims understood we were a strong nation with a strong alliance to Israel. Nowadays they understand we are weak and not a friend of Israel.

He also said that the Occupy Wall Street protest isn’t protesting the leader of America. They are protesting the blessings on America.

Why do we learn prophecy? What is it good for anyway? “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.” So you may believe! (John 14:29).

Do not lose heart. Many prophesies have been fulfilled. Many more will be. The church has been redeemed but we are waiting for full repossession. We will be claimed though. How do we know this? The sure word of God.

“Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:9-11)
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Posted in bible, days of lot, gay kiss sparks outrage, homosexuality, jesus, judgment

Gay kiss sparks outrage

Posted on by elizabethprata

Lots to discuss here.

Homosexual kiss at school assembly prompts student walk-out, parental fury

“Members of the football team stomped out of a Hartford, Connecticut, high school assembly when a pro-homosexual advocacy play featured two boys kissing on stage. When the actors locked lips, reports Vanessa de la Torre for the Hartford Courant newspaper, “a piercing clamor rang through the auditorium. “There were screams and loud voices and a bit of feigned or real disgust. Dozens of students, mostly male and a few in their Owls football jerseys, hurried out of their rows and walked out. A few jumped over seats to leave.”

The play was a fantasy portraying the world as entirely homosexual, and the few heterosexuals that existed were in the closet, ashamed of their non-gayness. Of course, we know satan’s agenda is to aim for exactly that. He comes to destroy the family to destroy the purity of marital sexual unions between the God-ordained one woman-one man inside of a marriage that God outlined for us. His agenda is to introduce perversity in all arenas and to saturate the culture with anything sexual goes.

It was good to see that there was a furor over the perverted display of males kissing in an auditorium where impressionable youth were attending. It was even nicer to see that it was in a school in New England, and not even the bible belt. The comment that ‘all the play was trying to do was instill a sense of empathy toward gays and lesbians,” was replied to by the principal that “our kids are not there yet.” Well, good.

While we have empathy for gays who are in sin as we do for any person caught in sin, we do not celebrate sin. We do not accord it a normalcy. We do not allow it to pass without comment. And when it occurs in the church, any sin, any church, it defiles the church. Immorality in a church must be judged. (1 Corinthians 5:1-12) while immorality outside of the church will be judged by Jesus.

I listened to the trailer for the documentary “Agenda: Grinding America Down” and in it the statement was made that in just 40 years we have gone from Norman Rockwell’s America to Hugh Hefner’s America. So true. Within one generation the nation’s morals have completely swapped, and who is to blame for that? Not the president, not the government’s policies, not the parents so much, but satan. We fight not against the president. We fight not against the politicians’ policies. We fight not against parents or leaders or bosses. We fight against powers and principalities and spiritual rulers of the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12). Satan knows what God expects and as a result he does the opposite. (John 10:10). Look how much we have let him.

Jesus mused to the Disciples that just prior to His Second Coming “will the Son of Man find faith upon the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Of course He knew the answer: the answer was no, not so much faith at all.  He said as a matter of fact, that it will be as it was in the Days of Lot. (Luke 17:28-29). So, what were the Days of Lot like?

Lot was Abraham’s nephew who decided to go live near Sodom, (Gen 13:10-13) the worst city there ever was or ever will be, except for Babylon. Sodom and Gomorrah’s depravity had reached such a level that there was an outcry against the cities and their sin was a very grave. (Gen 18:20). The angels that had ‘come down’ to see what the outcry was about and to judge the cities. However all the men of the city, from every quarter, surrounded the house, demanding that Lot present the “men” (angels) so that they could be raped. The perverted lust was very real and had turned the men into a mob, with violent rape threats made against Lot when Lot refused(Gen 19:4-5) The door was bulging with the pressure of the men trying to get at the fresh meat of new men to rape. (Gen 19:9).

Their perverted lust was so great that even after the angels struck the men blind, they still tried to get at them! (Gen 19:11). The mob wore themselves out trying to find the door.

The lesson here is that proper lust, when perverted, is a sin and sin, as we know, leads you. You become a slave to it. (John 8:34). The story of Sodom is one that shows us the bottom of the pit of where sin leads: to an out of control person and then to judgment.

Expand that picture of the men trying to get into the door where fresh men were staying, with a mob blindly clawing their way to the door and trying to batter it down. That will be the scene many times over when the Holy Spirit Restrainer is removed from the earth at the Rapture and men’s passions and perversions get out of control during the Tribulation. The days of Lot.

I’m glad to see a semblance of restraint in Connecticut at that assembly-play and an outcry against such blatant sins. And I assure you, the outcry was not because the audience lacked empathy for the gays and lesbians portrayed in the play and by extension, all gays and lesbians, it was because there are still some people left who say such things are sins, and not to be tolerated. And let me assure you of this, the play organizer and writer was not trying to instill a sense of empathy for gays and lesbians, he was trying to desensitize us to the potent effects of perversion, to normalize it. I’m glad there are still some people around who just say no to sin’s drug of perversion and depravity.
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Posted in mary's belt, sacra cintola

The Belt of the Mother of God

Posted on by elizabethprata

I spent quite a bit of time in Europe, traveling. I wasn’t saved then. I visited many churches, chapels, and cathedrals in Italy and France. One thing that always puzzled me was the veneration of relics.

Holy relics are defined by Wikipedia as something that “in religion, is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Shamanism, and many other religions. The word relic comes from the Latin reliquiae, meaning “remains” or “something left behind” (the same root as relinquish). A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.”

Part of a body of a saint. I can’t tell you how many times, in Catholic churches in some small Tuscan town, in a jar of liquid at the altar there would be a shriveled finger or a gray toe from some supposed saint. Ew.

According to Catholic, Greek, and other traditions, the mother of Jesus was a virgin all her life. This, despite the teaching of the bible that Joseph ‘knew her not’ until after Jesus was born, indicating that they did have marital relations. “Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.” (Matthew 1:24-25, emphasis mine)

This indication is supported by the fact that the bible further says that Jesus had brothers and sisters, and they are even named.

“Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?” (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). And again in Matthew 13:54-58 where his brothers are mentioned and named and his sisters mentioned too.

Well, Catholics and the Greek Orthodox believe that Mary was ever a virgin. Here is a prayer from the a pastor of a Greek Orthodox church related to Mary worship:
“O EVER-VIRGIN Theotokos, shelter of mankind, thou hast bestowed upon thy people a mighty investure, even thine immaculate body’s raiment and sash, which by thy seedless childbirth have remained incorrupt; for in thee nature and time are made new. Wherefore, we implore thee to grant peace to the world, and great mercy to our souls.* THE MOST VENERABLE and full of grace Belt of our Blessed Virgin Mary, which is found at the Holy Great Monastery of Vatopedi in Agios Oros (Holy Mt. Athos), is the only precious souvenir that survives from her earthly life.”

Theotokos is the Greek title they give Mary. Appealing to Mary to bestow peace on the world usurps Jesus’ place as the identified Prince of Peace. (Isa 9:6). Imploring her to give mercy usurps Jesus as the only giver of mercy: “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.” (Daniel 9:9). The prayer mentioned Holy Mt. Athos, that is the church that houses her belt. You heard me. Her belt.

It’s bad enough that millions worship Mary in place of Jesus. But for those same many millions, they also worship her belt as a holy relic, the belt itself able to perform miracles and wonders. Mary worship is idol worship. Mary’s holy belt is idol worship. The bible says not to do that. It commands us not to do that.

Exodus 20:4-5 — “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”

Here is the story of Mary’s belt.

Supposedly, when Mary died, Thomas missed the funeral. He came hurrying back, only to find her tomb empty. He searched for her and found the place where she was ascending to heaven. He called out, and Mary either descended on a little detour, or while on her way up, took off her belt and cast it to Thomas.

Today, people pray to the belt and ask it to bless them with children. Here is a video of the displaying of the belt. It is held in a church in Prato, Italy, and taken out and shown 5 times per year.

Now, the folks at Prato, Italy say that they have the entire belt, and the folks at Athos, Greece say they have the entire belt, which makes a dilemma. But nevertheless, throngs at both places clamor to see it at the duly appointed times per year it is taken out of its reliquary and shown to the people. The explanation from the Greek Orthodox pastor concludes: “…the Church attributes it honorary worship, as it does to the Holy Wood of the Cross of the Lord. The Holy Belt has the unique grace to cure women’s sterility as well as cancer patients, with a ribbon that has firstly been blessed on the Belt and is subsequently worn by the sterile women and patients.”

So why this explanation about Mary’s Belt? Because it is on the move. It is entering Russia and everyone is very excited about the belt’s appearance for the first time in that country.

“Putin welcomes Greek ‘fertility-boosting’ relic to Russia“
“Vladimir Putin on Thursday welcomed to Russia a highly revered Orthodox relic credited with fertility-boosting powers as his country struggles to halt a population decline. The relic venerated by believers as the belt of the Virgin Mary arrived on loan from violence-hit Greece in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg where hundreds, mostly women, waited patiently to pay their respects. … Monks from the Vatopedi monastery accompanying the (relic) showed Vladimir Putin the reliquary containing the belt,” the Russian government said in a statement. Arriving in Russia for the first time from its home on Mount Athos in Greece, the relic, whose full name is the Belt of the Mother of God, will remain in Russia’s former imperial capital until Monday. Hundreds of people, mostly women, were standing in line in Russia’s second city, also Putin’s hometown, to see one of the most treasured Orthodox relics, which is believed to have miraculous powers to boost fertility.”

The Voice of Russia says simply: “Mother of God’s belt comes to Russia“

“Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has met a delegation of Greek monks in an airport in St. Petersburg. The delegation brought a belt which is believed to have belonged to Mary, the Mother of God, to Russia for worshiping. It is the first time that this relic is brought to Russia.”

It was stated several times that the object is brought so they could worship it and so they could ask it to perform miracles of fertility. That makes it an idol and them idol worshiping idolaters. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) has a piece on Mary-worship here.

There is only one true God. There is only one intercessor between God and man. There is only one who bestows mercy There is one who covers the whole world with protection. It is Jesus. Not Mary.

If you watched the video above of the priests marching around the Prato square and the priest lifting up the belt to the people, you likely saw how ridiculous the spectacle was. It was ridiculous because God said not to worship anything other than Himself. And yet they hold up this garment and follow it. It is a direct rip-off of the biblical incident described in Mark 5:25-30:

“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

Jesus later explains to the woman that it was her faith that made her well. It was not the garment. (v. 34)

Is it any wonder, then, that the world mocks us as ridiculous people? Isn’t worshiping anything aside from the one true God blasphemous, too? I’m not down on Catholics or Greek orthodox. I’m UP on Ten Commandments and the One True God.

Posted in bible jesus, circumstances, prophecy

A God thing

Posted on by elizabethprata

God speaks to us in many ways. He speaks foremost though His son’s Word. (Hebrews 1:2). Sometimes He speaks through another person, oftentimes if they are speaking of a verse themselves. He speaks through circumstances, such as through tragedy or chastisement. (James 1:2-5). Personally, I enjoy the song service at church or on the radio in listening to traditional hymns. (Ephesians 5:19). Most hymns are based on scripture, either directly or paraphrased.  Listening to these hymns gives me an opportunity to meditate on them all day, (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2).

Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Psalm 4:4

Sometimes I hear a hymn playing in the background of my dreams as I slumber at night. When I wake up, the song and its lyrics are strongly in my head, and I wake up humming. Aside from the fact that it is a joy to wake up with thoughts of Jesus on my mind, and gentle words that uplift and exalt Him, I also enjoy when these things happen for another reason.

I take it as a prompt to investigate what the Spirit wants to say. Therefore I go to my computer and bring up YouTube and listen to the song that was in my head, and read and sing the lyrics. Then I pray for the Spirit to open me up to a deeper understanding of the practical application of what He wants from me. Sometimes as I read a devotional or a bible chapter that day, or even a year later, the Spirit will then make a connection. It is how He grows us. It took me a long time to learn to pay attention to these prompts. It is the way He conforms us to His thoughts. (Romans 12:2).

So today I was blessed with the hymn “I Surrender All” in my head as I awoke. I got up and I listened to it on YouTube. I thought about the word surrender in relation to my life with Jesus. I prayed, asking Jesus to root out areas where I have not surrendered, where I would be holding onto flesh and selfishness. I hummed it as I made French Toast for breakfast. I then let the day begin and other thoughts come into my head as the more pragmatic things of the day crowded out the spiritual thoughts. ‘Change the sheets’, ‘it’s a nice day I think I’ll go out and take some fall pictures’, ‘what am I going to put in the Prophecy Newsletter today?’ And so on. But before I got up to do these things I decided to put on Pandora radio so I could listen to it as I made the bed and went about the morning chores.

I have had a computer problem for the last two weeks and only got my laptop back from repair a few days ago. I haven’t used Pandora for all that time.

I have ten stations. The way Pandora works is that the last station I’ve left it on will begin playing a mix of songs related to the theme I’d chosen. There is an endless amount of songs on each station, I can listen all day and rarely is one repeated. I brought the station up and pushed back my chair to start chores. The first song was “I SURRENDER ALL.”

I cried in awe and humility. I love how the Spirit works.

How has He been speaking to you lately?
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Posted in american decline, iran, libya

Friday This and That

Posted on by elizabethprata

It’s been a long week, for me and I’m sure many others. I’m looking forward to this weekend and also next weekend: we have a four day Fall break. I’ve already completed my domestic tasks tonight so tomorrow I have more free time. I’ll make apple crisp and some veggie soup. Maybe some homemade bread.

Focusing on the timeless domestic satisfying tasks helps me stay relaxed as the news gets darker and  more potent. I also love to listen to good, strong sermons.

I heard a very good sermon tonight from Don Green at Grace Community Church (John MacArthur’s church.) It is on “Marriage and Singleness“. He began his sermon with a definition of marriage: “A God ordained institution in which a man and a woman covenant with one another to live as husband and wife in an exclusive monogamous relationship for the remainder of their earthly lives together.”

I was listening to another sermon, and I’m sorry I don’t remember this one’s origins, but I heard the following and immediately wrote it down: “We’ve gone from Norman Rockwell’s America to Hugh Hefner’s America.” Boy, ain’t that the truth.

That reminds me of the verse from Luke 17:29-30, ‘As it was in the days of Lot, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed’…

America in decline is all the rage this week. An article in the UK’s Financial Times stated, “America must manage its decline“.

A movie is making the rounds, “Agenda: Grinding America Down“. “When Idaho legislator Curtis Bowers wrote a “Letter to the Editor” about the drastic changes in America’s culture, it became the feature story on the evening news, people protested at the capitol, and for weeks the local newspapers were filled with responses. He realized then that he’d hit on something. Ask almost anyone and you will hear, “Communism is dead! The Berlin wall came down.” But although the word “communism” has fallen out of favor, Marxism continues to have a powerful influence upon our nation, as this new film quickly reveals. Join Bowers for a fascinating look at the people and groups that have successfully targeted America’s morality and freedom in their effort to grind America down.”

Watching the interesting 6-minute trailer for the film, I was reminded of Naomi Wolf’s assertion in 2007 that we are all on the way to Fascism, in her treatise “Fascist America, in 10 easy steps.” I wrote about it at the time, and was roundly criticized. Now we can see that the ten steps are fulfilled.

Dimitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse, has been saying the same for lots longer. His perennial favorite article, written in Dec. 2006: “Closing the ‘Collapse Gap’: the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US.” He said it again on October 9, here. Dmitry Orlov (born 1962) is an engineer and a writer on subjects related to “potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States,” something he has called “permanent crisis”. Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production. (source). His perspective is interesting because he is from the old Soviet Union, and writes extensively on how the Soviets were so much better prepared to handle a collapse than the Americans, and why.

A strong quake at Kermedec Islands struck today, 7.4. Another strong quake struck at Japan today, a 6.1. (USGS). Erki Klemetti at Eruptions blog noted a quake swarm at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

The nations listed in prophecy are alive in the headlines. Libya’s Gaddafi was killed this week and Russia is claiming that the kill breached International Law. Both nations are Gog Magog coalition partners.

Syria is claiming that any Mid East war will begin at Tel Aviv, which, according to Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17, may well happen in that way. Most scholars believe that Psalm 83 is a parked intercessory prayer for a war that has not happened yet. Isaiah 17 prophesies the overnight destruction of Damascus, Syria, and both of these likely precede the Ezekiel Gog Magog war. Psalm 83 includes Syria, Gog Magog includes Russia, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Libya and others.

Speaking of Iran, it seems they have enough bomb making materials to make 4 nukes. They are so close that they are moving their nuke stuff to bunkers to better protect it. If they get their stuff into bunkers, a strike by US or Israel will be all the more difficult.

He is the Light! No matter the news, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalms 27:1) Salvation is eternal, and it is secure.

I love to think of the Lord as the Light. He is so bright, so light, and His glory is bright forever. “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” (Psalms 36:9). I believe we shall see that Light soon.

Maranatha!
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Posted in hell, lockerbie

Gaddafi’s death predicted in 1987: off by only 83 days

Posted on by elizabethprata

The 1987 sitcom “Second Chance” premiered for only one season. In this clip, Gaddafi meets St. Peter.

This was a terrorist, a killer, and a murderer of innocent people. The UK Daily Sun has a full front page photo of dead Gaddafi’s head with the blaring headline, “THIS IS FOR LOCKERBIE!”

Lockerbie was an incident that happened in 1988. Lockerbie is known internationally as the place where the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed after a bomb exploded during the flight. In the United Kingdom the event is often referred to as the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven residents of the town were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane’s wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, destroying several houses and leaving a huge crater, with debris causing damage to a number of other buildings nearby. The 270 victims (259 on the plane and eleven in Lockerbie) were citizens of twenty-one different nations. The bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie, in southern Scotland, were also killed when plane parts fell on them.

Libya, and Gaddafi, were behind it. They admitted it in 2003 when they sent a letter to he UN admitting responsibility (but not guilt). It was noted that the language of the letter contained no remorse for the victims. The motive was that Libya was angry with the US Navy. For these and other murderous and horrific acts long remembered, the world is breathing a sigh of relief that the crazy dictator is dead.

I had written earlier today about Gaddafi’s death, and quoted Joel Rosenberg’s notation that Gaddafi had called himself the “king of kings.” Of course, bible students will know that the title is reserved for Jesus only, and right now Gaddafi is realizing his eternal mistake.

But this post is about the bigger mistake, and the bigger mercy. While the human side of me wants to engage in a little Schadenfreude, as did the UK Daily Mail, and in seeing the unique justice “St. Peter” enjoined upon Gaddafi in the sitcom clip, I must refrain. Gaddafi’s bigger mistake is that if he had repented, he, too, would have been welcomed into heaven. Really? Yes.

Gaddafi was a sinner, like us, who are sinners. All sins are crimes against God, and all sins had been pardoned at the cross. The big mistake was that Gaddafi had not accepted that pardon for sins and thus believing on the One God had sent: Jesus. (John 6:29)

The bigger mercy is that God forgives crazy dictators as much as He forgives …you and me. Because Gaddafi refused Jesus’s authority and forgiveness, he will spend eternity in hell. Just as any person will.

So often people use evil people like Hitler or Gaddafi as a benchmark against which they compare their own ‘goodness.’ They say, “I’m a good person. I will go to heaven. Not like that crazy dictator Gaddafi. He was really bad!” Well God’s justice is over all, including the small as well as the great.

Rev 20:12 says “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” But just as Gaddafi and others who refused Christ will be judged, He is merciful to one and all as well:

“and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:14-16.)

I hope you are one of those who comes to Jesus. Realize that if you don’t, you will share the exact same fate as Muammar Gaddafi.
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Posted in end of days. prophecy, Gadhafi, gog magog, Qaddafi

Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi is dead- Updated

Posted on by elizabethprata

Update at bottom.

Gadhafi was a tyrannical and despotic dictator who oppressed his people in Libya for 42 years. After Fidel Castro who resigned in 2008, Qaddafi was the world’s longest ruling leader. And now he is dead. Does this have anything to do with bible prophecy? Yes.

Libya is one of the nations mentioned specifically as a major player in end time prophecy. A coalition of nations will attack Israel in the last days. It includes Iran, Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya along with some in “the isles”. This listing of the nations who attack Israel is found in Ezekiel 38:1-6. What happens is, Israel is unsuspecting, living with confidence in a “land of unwalled villages” (Ez 38:11) when they are sudd. The attack is going well for the coalition and very badly for Israel. Israel is on the brink of losing, God saves them, and God says that everyone will know that it was Him who saved them. (Ex 39:6-7).

It is Libya along with the other nations along the northern tier of north Africa that joins with Russia and Iran and Turkey etc to attack Israel. It is believed that this battle takes place at the very end of the last days and at the very beginning of the Tribulation. This is because, as mentioned above, Israel returns to covenant with God through this battle, having seen Him save them. “From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God.” (Ez 39:22).

“‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of.” (Ez 39:7-8). So if Israel is back in covenant with God it means the last 7 years of the Old Testament times that have been suspended all this time will resume. The church will be gone. And it is thought to be at the very beginning of the tribulation because the verse in Ez 39:9 says they will use the fuel from the downed planes and tanks and military things for 7 years. So there has to be 7 years remaining for them to use it.

Any time there is major news about any of the Gog-Magog nations listed in Ezekiel 38-39, and also the Psalm 83 list of nations, I take notice. World events in and among the nations listed as end time or tribulation nations which are the ones that propel prophecy further along are in the news headlines almost daily now. The LORD soon comes. Are you ready? I hope so. Do not put off your repentance, asking Him to forgive your sin. I hope to see you at the Marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven.

————–UPDATE————-

Christian writer Joel C. Rosenberg write this about Gaddafi today:

“Reuters is now confirming that Muammar Gaddafi is dead. Libya’s Prime Minister has also confirmed the news. The tyrant of Tripoli — a man whose hands were soaked with blood, a man who called himself the “King of kings” — has been brought to justice. Now, in death, he knows the truth: that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. As an evangelical Christian, I will pray for his family and colleagues, that the Lord would comfort and console them and that they would repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.”

“Now there are new concerns: Will Libyan people — so badly oppressed for so many years — truly be set free, or enslaved by leaders as bad or worse than Gaddafi? Where is Libya headed next? Will the rebels ally themselves with the West, or with the Radical jihadists of Iran, Sudan and al Qaeda? The mullahs in Tehran have been seizing the initiative and moving strategically in recent months to exploit the chaos in Libya and build an alliance with the rebels. They are eager to build an anti-American, anti-Israeli coalition throughout the Middle East and North Africa to lay the groundwork for an Islamic caliphate. What’s more, the mullahs in Tehran believe the fall of leaders in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are prophetic signs that the Twelfth Imam’s arrival is soon, as explained in the Iranian documentary film, “The Coming Is Upon Us,” released earlier this year.”

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Posted in quantum levitation

Video wows with quantum levitation

Posted on by elizabethprata

Wow!

MSN explains:
http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/19/8398355-video-wows-with-quantum-levitation
Quantum physics is the mind-bending study of matter and energy at its smallest scales. It can be difficult to grasp, no doubt. But this video of a smoking cold disk that appears to float in midair just might make you try.
The trick works due to something called quantum levitation, explain the scientists from Tel Aviv University in Israel. And they hope you’ll ask: what’s that? The apparently floating disk is a sapphire crystal that has been coated with a very thin layer of ceramic material called yttrium barium copper oxide. At room temperature, it has no interesting magnetic or electrical properties, the group explains. However, when cooled below minus 301 degrees F, it becomes a superconductor, which means it conducts electricity without resistance. No energy is lost. Now, it turns out that superconductors and magnetic fields don’t play nice with each other. Usually, the superconductor will expel the magnetic field, something called the Meissner effect. But when the superconductor is really thin, such as the one in this video, the magnetic field penetrates. Of course, since we are talking about quantum physics here, it does so in a strange way. It creates flux tubes. These tubes, in turn, trap the superconductor in midair. The result is called quantum locking, that is the superconductor is locked in space.”

I have to go to work but I’ve been thinking about some quantum mechanics with relation to Einstein, (“Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony”) Feynman, and Al-Khalili, i.e. “The Measurement Problem”, “Gravity doesn’t exist”, and “The Illusion of Reality” with relation to unsolved issues in quantum mechanics, and the superconductivity of gold- and I’ll discuss later today. It’s related to the bible, lol. Come back later for update. Meanwhile, cool video clip!!

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Posted in theology

One eyed albino shark sparks internet frenzy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Later or tomorrow I am going to post a carefully considered, thoughtful theological essay on the decline of American cities as evidenced by what is happening in Camden NJ. Maybe not tonight because I have church and I don’t think I can get it done in time. When I post it, it may be well received and get a decent number of hits.

But nothing will get people’s attention like this story today from MyFox Orlando:

One eyed albino shark sparks internet frenzy

“(NewsCore) – An incredible picture of an albino baby one-eyed shark was going viral Tuesday amid reports that, despite looking like a sci-fi spoof, the creature had been verified as real by researchers. The white fetus was reportedly cut from the belly of a dusky shark by a commercial fisherman in the Gulf of California earlier this year and the picture posted on the blog of Pisces Fleet Sportfishing, based in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. However, the website cited shark expert Felipe Galvan Magana, of Mexico’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar, who told Pisces Fleet, “This is extremely rare. As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded.” Researchers said they had examined the shark and found that its eye was made of functional optical tissue. Magana and his colleagues are to publish a scientific paper about the find. Seth Romans, a spokesman for Pisces Fleet, told LiveScience that the fisherman who caught the shark was “amazed and fascinated” by the attention and was hanging on to its remains.”

The thing that gets me is the level of sin in the world is so corrupting that God’s creation doesn’t even look like itself any more. The other thing that gets me is that posts on cryptozoology (weird animals) and earthquakes/volcanoes/natural disasters always get the highest amount of hits. The Dust Storm of Lubbock the other day got a massive number of views. The Elenin post is still going strong even though the comet is dissolved by the sun and no longer in existence.

I guess we all want to know why weird things happen and huge natural disasters are always an attention-getter. Maybe because they feel so out of our control. As many dams as we put up, rivers still flood. As much as we learn about volcanoes, they still explode unpredictably. As many zoning codes and engineering strengths we place on buildings, they still fall down in a quake.

My hope and prayer is that people allow the Holy Spirit to draw them to the Father, and once converted, have the same thirst for information about Him as they do about the weird stuff. I personally believe that the Rapture will be not only the culmination of one of the Lord’s plans, but a sign unto itself to many who have heard the Good News and put off deciding whether to believe it. Of course, it is not good to wait that long. God’s mercy has room for all repentant sinners whether they repent before or after the tribulation. However, living through what Jesus Himself described as the worst time there shall ever be is something I don’t wish on my worst enemy.

Be “filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col 1:9), even as you take some time to read about the one-eyed baby shark, meditate on your eternal status as well.
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Posted in american, end of days. prophecy, last days, US decline

"America must manage its decline"

Posted on by elizabethprata

This article was in the UK Financial Times today. Such discussions would likely never appear in US media. Article author Gideon Rachman wrote:

“Recently I met a retired British diplomat who claimed with some pride that he was the man who had invented the phrase, “the management of decline”, to describe the central task of British foreign policy after 1945. “I got criticised,” he said, “but I think it was an accurate description of our task and I think we did it pretty well.” No modern American diplomat – let alone politician – could ever risk making a similar statement. That is a shame. If America were able openly to acknowledge that its global power is in decline, it would be much easier to have a rational debate about what to do about it. Denial is not a strategy.”

No, but it seems to be working for most Americans nonetheless. The author continued:

“What is not permissible, in mainstream debate, is to suggest that there may be no “coming back” – and that the decline of American power is neither a fad nor a choice but a fact. Admittedly, America’s relative decline is likely to be much less abrupt than the falling-off experienced by Britain after 1945. The US is still the world’s largest economy and is easily its pre-eminent military and diplomatic power. However, the moment at which China becomes the world’s largest economy is coming into view – the end of the decade seems a likely passing point. Of course, it is true that China has its own grave political and economic problems. Yet the fact that there are roughly four times as many Chinese as Americans means that – even allowing for a sharp slowdown in Chinese growth – at some point, China will become “number one”. —end—

A few years ago, people asked me quite often, “Where is America in the end days?” “Is the US mentioned in prophecy?” The US had been a superpower for so long and seemed so solidly in charge that it was unthinkable that we would not be a major player in the last days events, and unthinkable that we’d be omitted even from mention as one of those players.

Some end time watchmen twist the plain meaning of the scriptures to include the US as part of the events. For example, a famous Tribulation dream that Daniel had in Daniel 7:4 talks about four beasts, or one beast with four heads, “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle” and some say that because the lion is the emblem the UK uses, that the lion stands for the UK, and that since America came out of the UK and our emblem is an eagle, that America is the eagle. That’s a stretch.

The nations mentioned are Iran, Russia, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Syria…and others. These are all thousands of years old and the center of the beginning of hatred between Jacob and Esau, the location of the Garden of Eden, and the birthplace of Abraham. There is no reason the US should be mentioned any more than Canada or Mexico or Australia. The last days is not about us. We’ll be judged as a nation like all the others, but not have any prominent role.

As for America’s decline, the bible does have a strong reap-sow philosophy, remember. The Bible talks about reaping and sowing; blessing and cursing. Job 4:8 says, “As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” Psalm 126:5 says, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” In each of these examples, as well as all the many other references to reaping and sowing,  (Proverbs 22:8; Hosea 8:7; Galatians 6:8…) the act of receiving the rewards of our actions takes place in this life.

In Genesis 12:3 God said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

The US was blessed mightily in geography, in military, in wisdom, in generosity and in economic bounty and finances. Then we squandered it. Even that is not as gross an insult to the Creator of our nation (Isaiah 14:26) as removing Him from all spheres of life. We accept His gifts but reject the Giver. We will pay.

“He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.” (Jeremiah 18:6-10)

I think it is pretty arrogant that the US even thinks it can control its decline. As He set up our nation, He can destroy it. There is only repentance, obedience, and submission (blessing), or apostasy and atheism, rebellion, and lawlessness (cursing).

That China is mentioned in the article as on the horizon for the new superpower is no surprise. We know the end before it happens. The Kings of the East mentioned in Revelation 12 will come with a huge army. Some tie the vision John had in verse in Revelation 12 with the one in Rev 9:

“And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.” (Revelation 9:13-16). That’s 2 hundred million. China has an army that large right now.

Suffice it to say that we are in decline, no it cannot be ‘managed’, and no we’re not part of prophecy other than being blessed or judged like everyone else. It took the UK about 30+ years to decline. Ours has come in 3. Rather than a carefully ‘managed’ decline the speed with which we are hurtling down seems to me to be more of an avalanche. Anthony Walton said of the US, “America’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief in second chances, our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made better.” I have a strong suspicion that like the author of the news opinion piece, there will be no ‘coming back.’
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