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

Is today the day?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Is today that day that You will call for your church to heaven?
Is today that day You will present a bride to Your Son?
Is today the day You will deal with sin in the world?
Is today that day You will send another warning to the unrepentant?
Is today the day You will quicken the Spirit inside me to grow in Christlikeness?
Is today the day You will send the Spirit to draw my family to the cross?
Is today the day You will grow me in the spiritual fruits?
Is today the day You will chasten me, your child?
Is today the day You will send ministering angels to help me?
Is today the day You will give this land to Abraham and his offspring forever?
Is today the day You will bring Your people out from under the yoke of oppression?
Is today the day You will show Yourself in glory and power?

Today could be the day. For many of these, today IS the day. For others, soon will be the day. The Lord’s promises are true. They will be fulfilled. May His name be forever blessed.
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Posted in man regains hearing, miracle

Man regains hearing after earthquake

Posted on by elizabethprata

I went out directly after school yesterday and didn’t get home until 9:30. I went with a friend to see the movie “The Help.” It was an excellent movie. I had read the book this summer and I think the movie stayed very close to the book. Both were good, and I recommend either reading the book or viewing the movie. Then we went to Chili’s for supper. I hadn’t realized that the movie was 2:20 running time! The movie was so good that you didn’t notice the length of time in the theater and when we got out we were astounded to see that it was almost 7:30.

Here is a re-post of a news article that I found interesting. It is just one of those things that make you go “huh!” I will post another blog entry tonight. There are a lot of thoughts going through my mind. There is so much happening in the world it will be hard to know what topic to choose! The Spirit will tell me.

I hope you enjoy this one. There is a video at the link.:

Man Regains Hearing After Earthquake

WASHINGTON – For patient Robert Valderzak, Tuesday’s earthquake was a blessing in disguise. On Father’s Day, the 75-year-old lost his hearing when he fell. He has been in the hospital since then.
“He has a conductive loss, meaning that could be due to fluid or problems with the bones of the ear. And he has a nerve loss as well, so it’s a combined loss,” said Dr. Ross Fletcher, Chief of Staff at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Northwest D.C.
Valderzak used a special speaker phone with a light on it that flashed when it was ringing and an audio device system to communicate. But on Tuesday, something strange happened while his four children were visiting and that massive earthquake rocked the region.
When it was over, Valderzak, who sat in silence for months, sat up in his bed and told his kids, “I said, you know, my hearing is back. I can hear everything, people in the hallway.”
As he was shaking around in his bed, something happened in his head, and he could hear and talk again.
“Some people seem to be a little frightened by it, but he is delighted that this earthquake came along because soon after the event, he could hear everything in the room very clearly,” Dr. Ross said. “I think there is still some hearing loss if I test him informally. We do have the ability to look into audiograms and do it more formally.”

But to Valderzak, he doesn’t care about any test. He already knows what happened.
“To me, it was a miracle, a blessing from God up above. Couldn’t ask for a better day,” said Valderzak.

Posted in earthquakes in diverse places, end of days. prophecy

About God and earthquakes

Posted on by elizabethprata

I wrote on this blog yesterday about the Colorado earthquake, 5.3 magnitude quake which was the largest in Colorado since 1967. It occurred in a nearly aseismic to large quakes area, making this one a surprise to geologists.

Then later in the day a “5.8 Virginia earthquake shakes East Coast, rattles residents” and in the Washington Pot article the writer noted “It was not a killer quake, nor even a particularly injurious one. But if it didn’t add up to a natural disaster, it was still a startling geological event, the strongest East Coast tremor in 67 years…”

It was a startling geological event. Thousands poured out into the streets in shock and surprise. The author went on to state that, “Any assumption that the region is seismically serene was corrected at 1:51 p.m…”

source

This blog entry is about God and earthquakes. Whenever a large or an unusual quake happens, my site doubles in traffic. People are intensely interested in earthquakes, and they know instinctively that quakes somehow relate to God and also to the end time. In one essay within a series I did last year called The Language of God, I wrote about the Language of God speaking through earthquakes. It is one of His vocabulary words.

If a person is not a believer then they will try to convince themselves that earthquakes are natural happenings based in science where strike-slip quakes, normal ones, or thrust quakes have logical scientific meaning and occur in places where underlying geology supports their particular kind of quake stress relief. (Though scientists cannot and have never been able to figure out why deep-focus quakes happen. These are quakes that happen in places where scientifically, none should occur.) Note that-

Most earthquakes are shallow. They are concentrated no deeper than 20-25 kilometers down. However, a few extremely deep quakes rumble at depths of about 600 kilometers. Geophysicists are really not certain what causes the very deep quakes, because at 640 kilometers rocks are so hot that they flow rather than snap under geological stresses. The more common, shallow earthquakes are generally created when rocks snap and fracture. source

Anyway, Bible Believers love science but know that God is not beholden to science. If He wants to cause an earthquake, He will. There is no place that is ‘seismically serene.’ There is no place that is ‘aseismic’. I thought it was ironic and amusing when the Powers that Be decided to build a seed vault to store seeds in case of a cataclysm. They spent millions to search for and then build a perfect place that was remote, could be protected, and was safe from earthquakes. They chose Svalbard Norway, atop a tiny rock atop a tiny island in the remote north Atlantic, above the Arctic Circle. It was supposed to be a seismically free zone. The day they opened the vault and had their bigwig ribbon cutting party, there was a huge earthquake. It was the largest in Norway’s history, a 6.2.

“This location was chosen for the express reason that seismic activity rarely if ever occurs there. Earthquakes occur hundreds of miles away on the Norwegian mainland, but they are low in magnitude. The largest one on the mainland [1200 miles away] was 5.4 in 1904 and most eq’s on mainland Norway are less than 4.0. The quake occurred even though the vault’s feasibility study assured that “there is no volcanic or significant seismic activity” in the area.” (source).

God can cause an earthquake anywhere, any time, of any magnitude. Satan does not cause earthquakes. The antichrist does not cause earthquakes. Nature does not cause earthquakes. There is nothing that happens on the earth that God does not permit. Nothing. There is nothing happening on earth that He does not know about. We read in Luke 12:6-7, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Earthquakes vary in kind. Some as mentioned are the mysterious deep-focus kind of quakes. There was a deep-focus quake lately, in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, there were three high-magnitude deep-focus quakes in fast succession. Read more here. Another kind of strange quake was the quake in Florida USA.  I wrote about it here in a blog entry titled “Now the ground is shaking for no reason.”

Remember the mysterious kind of quake that happened with Korah?

“Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that The Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then The Lord has not sent me. But if The Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated The Lord with contempt.”

“As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” (Numbers 16:28-34).

This kind of earth opening then closing is reminiscent of an incident that will take place in the tribulation. It is described in Revelation 12:13-16–

“When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.”

Jesus said that there would be earthquakes in diverse places in the Tribulation (Matthew 24:7). The Greek translation of “diverse” places is “against, down from, daily, day-by-day.” So if we substitute diverse for against as the Greek indicates, the verse takes on new meaning. “There will be earthquakes against various places.” Even more specifically, the Strong’s Concordance says the definition originates from a “preposition, properly, “down from, i.e. from a higher to a lower plane, with special reference to the terminus.” Earthquakes against various places from on high to a specific place or terminus. Hmmm.

As we see, Jesus will cause earthquakes against a location. He uses them for warnings and as judgments.

In the Tribulation, there will be many earthquakes. They will kill millions. Billions even. A third of the population dies almost immediately and then another third of the remainder are killed by the various judgments. (Not only earthquakes but pestilence, beast, famine, and sword (His for sore judgments; Ezekiel 14:21).

Here are scriptures that show He is in control, He holds the earth with gentle hands as gently as holding a sparrow, knowing even the numbers of hairs on your head, but also showing that He will shake the earth violently to show His displeasure in sin and rebellion against Him. After I read all these I came away with a sense of awe and humility in seeing without a doubt how much He is in control. And yet He loves us. He wants us to dwell with Him in heaven…please repent so that you will be there. Confess to Him that you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive the wrongdoing you’ve engaged in over your lifetime. He will forgive you. He died so that it would be possible. Now He is risen and waiting to hear your confession. Meanwhile, please enjoy these awesome verses illustrating His power on the earth:

GENERAL SCRIPTURES ABOUT QUAKES
Job 9:6
He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.

Psalm 18:7
The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

Psalm 46:2
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

Psalm 46:3
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Psalm 104:32
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

Nahum 1:5
The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.

VERSES ABOUT QUAKES AS PROPHESIES

Matthew 24
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Revelation 6:12
[The Sixth Seal—Terror ] I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;

Revelation 8:5
Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Revelation 11:13
And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Revelation 11:19
And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Revelation 16:18
And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.

Ezekiel 38:18-20
This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.

Zechariah 14:4
On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

VERSES OF QUAKES AS JUDGMENTS

Psalm 18:15
The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

Psalm 60:2
You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking.

Isaiah 13:13
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.

Isaiah 24:19
The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken.

Isaiah 24:20
The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.

Isaiah 29:6
the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

Nahum 1

1 A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
The LORD’s Anger Against Nineveh
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.

I am glad I stand as His friend and not His enemy. How about you? Are you friend or foe of God?
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Posted in DC quake, mockers and scoffers, warnings

Virginia Earthquake 2011: USGS Warns it May be a Foreshock

Posted on by elizabethprata

Well, that would be terrible…but it cannot be ignored when an official source is saying it. Here’s more.

“A 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia rocked the Mid-Atlantic, sending shockwaves up and down the East Coast through Washington D.C., New York City, and up all the way to Concord, N.H., and Toronto, Canada. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the quake happened at 1:51 p.m. at a depth of 3.7 miles. The quake was centered 27 miles east of Charlottesville, Va., near the town Mineral in Louisa County. The movement lasted for no more than 30 seconds. Minutes after the quake, the director of the USGS, Marcia McNutt — who watched objects falling from the shelves in her office — cautioned that the shaking might not be over. “What the concern is, of course, is that this is a foreshock. If it’s a foreshock, then the worst is yet to come,” McNutt told The Washington Post.”

What I find ironic is that the east coast experienced a good-sized a quake before the west coast did, where all the faults are. But Jesus said there shall be earthquakes in diverse places, in the Tribulation. (Mt 24:7). He also said that the days before His coming will be like the Days of Noah, when they were all eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, building and planting…unsuspecting of the judgment soon to come. (Mt 24:37). Not that there were no warnings, Noah’s 100 years of preaching and the ark itself were a big clue. But they ignored it, mocked and scoffed, just as they will in the last days. “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires” (2 Peter 3:3).

It will be the same once again. The time just before Jesus Second Coming will come after a period of inexpressible tumult and natural disasters, and yet they will ignore them as warnings and judgments. How much more easy is it today to ignore the warnings a graceful God is sending. Pretty easy.

A commenter made an observation in the last entry I’d published about the twin quakes on Aug 23 in CO and DC. Anonymous said, ” A newscaster made a comment about the DC quake that since there was no real damage every thing has gone back to “normal”. One newscaster who experienced it was even talking about the earthquake excitedly like something cool had happened. It will be nothing more than one of many topics on facebook, twitter posts and water coolers around America. I know this is an understatement but the world is going to get blindsided by the coming time of Judgement.”

Very true words.

As for the mocking and scoffing of God’s warnings, Isaiah said, “Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.” (Is 28:22)
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Posted in earthquake colorado washington DC

(UPDATED) DC quake, Largest Colo. quake since 1973 shakes homes

Posted on by elizabethprata

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded on the East Coast shook buildings and rattled nerves from South Carolina to New England on Tuesday and forced the evacuations of parts of the Capitol, White House and Pentagon. A 5.9 quake rocked the eastern seaboard of the US today in a shallow quake that was felt from Atlanta to Martha’s Vineyard. Its epicenter was near our nation’s capitol in Washington DC (nearby VA). Some of the astounding Drudge headlines are:

Pentagon, Capitol evacuated…
Shakes Manhattan…
Felt from Toronto to Atlanta…
Epicenter VA…
Felt In Chicago…
Airports Closed…
CELLPHONES OUT…
Nuke Plant Shuts Down…
VIDEO: Vacant White House Shakes…
Stones fall off National Cathedral…
WASHINGTON MONUMENT ‘TILTING’?… DEVELOPING…

Quake rocks Washington area, felt on East Coast
“A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered in Virginia forced evacuations of all the memorials and monuments on the National Mall in Washington and rattled nerves from South Carolina to Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where President Barack Obama is vacationing. … The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was half a mile deep and centered near Louisa, Va., about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Charleston, S.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in the same county as the epicenter were automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of the earthquake, said Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”

There was a large quake in Colorado too this morning. Where the quake was in Colorado is considered nearly aseismic. See following article. HMMMM…

Irish Weather Online explains:
“The 5.3 magnitude quake, the largest in Colorado since 1967, struck on the edge of the Rio Grande National Forest on the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains at 11:46 PM local time (06:46 GMT).”

“The epicentre was located 15 km (9 miles) WSW of Trinidad, Colorado; 33 km (20 miles) NW of Raton, New Mexico; 54 km (33 miles) S of Walsenburg, Colorado; and 290 km (180 miles) S of the Colorado State capital Denver. It struck about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).”

“The USGS estimated that several dozen people living in the area may have felt ‘very strong’ shaking, while more than 700 people were estimated to having perceived strong shaking. In addition, the USGS estimated that some 27,000 people may have felt light to moderate shaking. A dispatcher for the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office said a number of homes in Segundo had been damaged, but said there were no injuries. She also said there had been a rockslide on Highway 12.”

“Monday’s earthquake in Colorado was the largest in the state since a 5.3-magnitude earthquake was recorded near Denver on August 9, 1967. There was also an event in May 1973 which registered as 5.7 on the Richter scale, but the USGS said this was caused by an explosion and not an earthquake.”

“According to the USGS, Colorado is considered a region of minor earthquake activity, although there are many uncertainties because of the very short time period for which historical data is available. The northwestern and southwestern corners, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the south-central section of the state, have had no activity in historic times. Eastern Colorado is nearly aseismic with respect to large earthquake.”

Successive quakes in that area have continued since the 5.3 quake-.

3.2 COLORADO
3.8 COLORADO
3.2 COLORADO
3.5 COLORADO
5.3 COLORADO
3.0 COLORADO

Is the LORD getting ready to judge the world? Yes. When will that judgment come? We don’t know. What we do know is that the church won’t be here to experience it (we are not appointed to wrath 1 Thess 5:9). However, we see the prophetic indicators forming for ready fulfillment, including one that Jesus said will happen in the Tribulation: “There will be earthquakes in diverse places.” (Mt 24:7). What should a person’s response be? Confess and repent. This goes for the lost as well as the brethren. Make sure, brothers and sisters, that you confess your sins to Jesus and stand before Him clean. Not that you can lose your salvation, but a close walk with Him without sins in your way means peace and abundant fruit bearing, something the world needs now. (Romans 13:12). It also means your prayers will be more effective. (James 5:16). If you are lost, confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to forgive them. He will. And you shall be saved from His wrath soon to be unleashed upon the rebellious and unsaved world.
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Posted in 90 minutes in heaven, end of days. prophecy, heaven is for real

Discernment lesson: books where people are given tours of heaven and hell

Posted on by elizabethprata

There have been a spate of books lately in which the author shares his or her trip to heaven or hell, as the case may be. The three I’d like to address are the following:

Heaven is for Real, published 2010

23 minutes in Hell, in 2006

90 minutes in Heaven, 2004

The most recent is Todd Burpo’s Heaven is for Real, which was a surprise, phenomenal bestseller. The following article is from NY Times this past March:

“Colton’s father, Todd, has turned the boy’s experience into a 163-page book, “Heaven Is for Real,” which has become a sleeper paperback hit of the winter, dominating best-seller lists and selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Thomas Nelson, the book’s publisher, said it had broken company sales records. The publisher, based in Nashville, began with an initial print run of 40,000 copies. Since the book came out in November, it has gone back to press 22 times, with more than 1.5 million copies in print. On the New York Times best-seller list for paperback nonfiction last Sunday, “Heaven Is for Real” was No. 1. The book remains in the top spot this coming Sunday.”

Why is this, one wonders? The answer, for this company at least is answered later in the NY Times article:

“We all are perhaps desperate to know what is on the other side of the veil after we die,” Vice-President of the Publishing Company) Mr. Baugher said, adding that his initial skepticism about the Burpo family’s story was short-lived.”

We all wonder about the other side. We are intensely curious, I think we all need to be honest about that. When a book comes out that purports to have special information, insider stuff, a sneak peek, people flock to it … as evidenced by the statistics shared by the Nelson Publishing company about the Burpo book.

Don Piper experienced a terrible accident and it was while he was trapped in the car that he said he visited heaven. Although the title says ’90 minutes in heaven’ he never actually visited heaven. He was only ever standing on the outside of the pearly gates. He never entered. Todd Burpo is the father of the boy who said he visited heaven. Colton was just turned four years old when his appendix burst and he lay on the operating table, unconscious and under anesthetic.  As Colton recovered from his medical ordeal, over a period of months, he revealed tiny details of his trip to heaven and after 6 or 7 years, his pastor father wrote the book.

BIll Wiese was just sleeping and was inexplicably transported to hell by Jesus. Jesus gave Wiese a tour of the place and sent him back topside 23 minutes later with a message that “I am coming very, very soon.”

I don’t want to diminish anyone’s terrible medical tragedy or be insensitive if anyone has mental problems, demonic dreams, or just plain seeks attention in this bizarre manner. There is no doubt that for Piper and Wiese that whatever they experienced changed their lives. They are constantly sharing their testimony, witnessing, and evangelizing. But was what they experienced from God? Or not? And how should we as Christian readers respond?

My opinion is that what they experienced was not from God. I personally do not believe that Jesus is in the business of giving personal tours of heaven or hell. We do know that Ezekiel, Isaiah, Paul and John saw the heavenly things. But once the bible was completed, I believe that is all that Jesus has to say on the subjects. We read in the bible that we die once and then the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27). I could go point-by-point on the things in these books that are unscriptural, but I want to be more general than that. The title, for example, “Heaven is for Real.” Do we really need a book dictated by a four year old to tell us that heaven is real? The title 90 minutes in Heaven, for example, is disingenuous. He did not enter heaven. The bible says that when we are absent with the body, we are present with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:8). The bible does not say “absent from the body you will hang around the entrance to heaven for 90 minutes only to be turned back without seeing Jesus.”

I am a bible believer. I am a big fan of the bible, besides. It is the revealed word of God, generously given to us from on high, by His grace and intellect. He crafted that Word over 1500 years and the writers went through great pains to put to paper the Spirit-inspired words for future generations to be blessed by. And at that, it may be opened occasionally at a church, IF the pastor actually preaches from a bible and encourages his flock to bring one and open it during the sermon. More usually, the book gets tossed in the back of the car, to become sun-faded and ignored.

But when a four year old awakens from a drug-induced operation, and drops details of his visit to heaven, over a period of months, that his father fills in the details of, people buy the book by the millions. SAD!

The bible tells us all we need to know about heaven, AND hell. The bible. It should be all we need to have hope in the future promise of heaven. His Word is impeccable, solid, and sure. Christian Book reviewer Tim Challies has a good review of these books here. He also addresses the underlying reluctance and guilt we have to reject such books: saying, ‘who are we to dismiss another’s experience?’

Challies said: “If you struggle believing what the Bible says, but learn to find security in the testimony of a toddler, well, I feel sorry for you. And I do not mean this in a condescending way. If God’s Word is not sufficient for you, if the testimony of his Spirit, given to believers, is not enough for you, you will not find any true hope in the unproven tales of a child. This hope may last for a moment, but it will not sustain you, it will not bless you, in those times when hope is waning and times are hard. So reject this book. Do not read it. Do not believe it. And do not feel guilty doing so.”

This reviewer endured a traumatic medical trauma as well but questions the legitimacy of those who have such experiences while under the influence of medications. She wrote in part, “I wasn’t planning to read the book, because I’m skeptical about it, but maybe I should … and maybe I’ll be won over like you were. The reason I should read it is because people are asking whether my experience of almost dying matches any of it. After receiving severe injuries in an accident, I spent about 48 hours hovering between life and death. I have some foggy memories that I could wrap in Heaven language, but I don’t feel comfortable doing so. My body was in a traumatic situation and I was heavily medicated … so why would I trust anything I thought/saw/experienced at that time? While I realize the book brings comfort to the family (and many others) my biggest doubts are with the certainty placed in a 4-year old, especially while in a traumatic situation. (plus, when else do we base major beliefs on what a 4-year old says?) Also all the experiences I’ve heard he had confirmed what the family already believed. What if he had ‘come back’ with new information that would have challenged what they believe or cost them something, such as: if he had said Jesus really does want them to sell everything and give all to the poor?”

What we should feel guilty about is not rejecting another’s extra-biblical revelation of heaven or hell, but of  rejecting God’s word in favor of man-made experiences. This is all too common of a problem today, substituting a personal experience for God’s Word. We cannot make a theology out of what we experience. We are sinners and therefore flawed. We see through a glass darkly. But God sees all things perfectly, and He has told us how heaven is and what hell is like.

Pastor Reid Ferguson wrote about Burpo’s book, “So, if you have read the book, and have found your “faith” bolstered by it or your soul encouraged by it, my question to you is – Why? Why not the Bible? Why this story – and not the authoritative one? What does this say about your own attitude toward Scripture? What does it say about your understanding of Scripture? What does it say about your approach to truth – and how it is found, discerned and processed? Why does this strike a chord with you God’s own Word to you does not?”

Good questions. If you would like to read some secular books that are biblically based that illustrate heaven, I recommend Heaven by Randy Alcorn, and also Alcorn’s “We Shall See God: Charles Spurgeon’s Classic Devotional Thoughts on Heaven” which is a compilation of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons on heaven, lightly edited and with an introduction to each sermon by Alcorn.

Be discerning, people, and READ THE BIBLE!
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Posted in cowan, marriage, mayo clinic

Older couple at Mayo Clinic charms onlookers

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is famous for its medical expertise and care. They installed a grand piano in the atrium of the Gonda building which is used often by people who want to share the gift of music. This older couple did just that. Fran and Marlo Cowan, married 62 years, played Old Grey Bonnet to the great joy of the people in the atrium. Some who where there were using walkers, others were in wheelchairs. The couple’s playfulness with each other and joy of life lifted the spirits of the people who were waiting there, some for cancer treatments. Fran turned 90 in February…but his energy and joy was contagious.

This is a snippet from the Mayo Clinic blog of a daughter who had brought her mom for a cancer treatment and they both watched and heard the couple play the song.

“And then we heard the piano and the laughter. From the balcony we could see an older couple sitting side by side at the piano playing together and entertaining a host of people. Some were in wheelchairs, others were sitting with canes beside them or standing. Everyone was smiling with all burdens forgotten for the moment. The joy was absolutely indescribable. When we asked them to play one more for us, Fran and Marlow Cowan, who have been married for more than 62 years, treated us to an exceptional performance that is now a “youtube” sensation.”

Turning attention to the married couple, 62 years together and counting, it is God’s way that marriage should be loving and playful and committed. He set it up that way.

“The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:18-24)
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Posted in bible jesus, day of rage, peace, prophecy

Arab Spring in America?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Did you know that there is a planned “Day of Rage’ here in the US? It is planned for September 17 and targets Wall Street, but sister cities are planning their Day of Rage also. The point is supposed to be a protest against despots, dictators and cronyism in the White House, Congress, and Wall Street. Here is what the Arab Business and Banking journal Zawya wrote about it:

“Arab Spring-style protests are apparently being planned in the United States as the richest country in the world teeters on the edge of a ‘lesser depression’. Things are so bad in the U.S. that disenchanted, non-partisan citizens are planning to occupy Wall Street reportedly on September 17, according to media reports and vent their fury at Wall Street banks and policymakers.”

“The “U.S. Day Of Rage” echoes the massive protests undertaken by citizens in various Middle East countries to demonstrate against despots, dictators and cronyism in the Arab world. Similar to many Arab Spring movements, the organisers are leveraging social media website to gain some traction. Nearly 4,800 people ‘like’ the main US Day Of Rage Facebook page and it has nearly 6,000 Twitter followers. According to its social media feeds, it is planning peaceful civil disobedience across many American cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Idaho, Oklahoma and Hawaii, among others.”

“While the movement may well fizzle out, it does point to an extreme reaction to the complete and utter disappointment of American citizens with their governments especially as they watched in horror the debt debacle, the subsequent Standard & Poor’s downgrade and the ‘correction’ in American stock markets wiping out trillions of dollars in a matter of weeks.”

“U.S. President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have fallen to an average of 43% (including a personal low of 39% in one survey) while Congress’s collective approval rating slumped to an average of 17% (dipping to 13% in one Gallup poll, a record low).”

The website for Day of Rage says that they plan ‘civil disobedience.’ I fail to see how something called a day of rage is supposed to put enough of the brakes on so that people are only civilly disobedient and not marauding mobsters yanking people out of cars at the state fair or razing a convenience store, things which have already happened in abundance without a prompting of a Day of Rage.

Matthew 24:7 says that in the Tribulation “nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.” The word ‘nation’ in this context is the Greek word ‘ethnos’ which means people group sharing a similar culture. In other words, civil unrest. It means that there will be black against white, poor against rich, young against old performing violence against each other within the same country. These kinds of protests and violence are things the US has already experienced. The young mobs mobbing stores where older owners stand by helpless…blacks yanking whites out of cars and beating them senseless, and the poor protesting against the rich Wall Street bankster types are all things that we see already. During the Tribulation this kind of violence will get worse. Kingdom against kingdom, means for example, Lebanon fights Israel, but ethnos against ethnos is a worse kind of violence for it means your neighbor could turn on you and you may never even know why.

With food prices shooting up and unemployment rampant, the general mood in the US is tenuous at best. Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse blog wrote a recent piece titled: “16 Statistics Which Prove That The American People Are Absolutely Seething With Anger“. He wrote another piece titled “10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The United States Are Now More Likely Than Ever.” What I like about his pieces are that he uses credible sources and presents exactly what the title says. After reading the facts, you believe exactly that unrest is coming and that people are seething with anger. What are the chances that the Day of Rage will be peaceful, with polite folks engaging in civil disobedience with no harm done? Low. Very low.

The organizers of the Day of Rage say they will engage in civil disobedience, but the fact is that people are already at tinderbox temper. It would not take much to trip them over to mob mentality. As Bonnie Tyler sang in her song “Total Eclipse of the Heart,”, ‘We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks’.

I prefer the Day of Prayer to the Day of Rage. I pray that the light of Jesus will shine in the eyes of all who live in darkness. When you see the Light, you know that a perfect government is coming. It will be one filled with perfect justice, perfect peace. The government will make war no more, and all the citizens will be engaged in productive works. Their relaxation times will be saturated with harmony in worship of Jesus, songs, and pleasant conversations where there will be no gossip, agendas, or misunderstandings. In the New Jerusalem there will be no days of rage but only peace.

Proverbs 19:3 shows us that their rage comes from within their heart and it is against the Lord. “A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the LORD.”

Proverbs 29:11 – “Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.”

The calm in the end always leads back to peace, IF there is reconciliation with Jesus. Apart from Him a person is in rebellion, that is why they rage. It is the underlying reason. But it need not be so. A person need not have a day of rage, nor an eternity of rage:

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,” (Ephesians 2:14-15)

Now isn’t that much better than a day of rage?
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Posted in bible jesus, earthquake, tribulation

Major quake at Vanuatu, and earthquake data for you

Posted on by elizabethprata

There was an earthquake at Vanuatu on Saturday afternoon 1:00 pm local time. Its magnitude is classified as 7.5. Vanuatu is in the southern Pacific halfway between Fiji to its east and Queensland Australia to its west.

Any quake over 7.0 magnitude is considered ‘major’. On average, the USGS states that we can expect about 15 quakes of that magnitude each year. So far in 2011, the world has had 11 quakes of that magnitude. It is my estimate that due to the rate of strong and major quakes’ occurrence over these last five years (with those averages being regularly exceeded), the average will once again be exceeded this year as well.

As a matter of fact, the average amount of quakes in the 6.0-6.9 range is 134 and we have already had 140 so far this year in that magnitude, thus crushing the USGS average once again. In short, earthquakes are on the rise. Let’s take a look at the facts:
Source: USGS (United States Geological Survey) Where annual averages are met or exceeded the number is in red.
Magnitude / Average Annually
8+ = 1 (in 2011 we have had 1)
7 – 7.9 = 15 (in 2011 we have had 11)
6 – 6.9 = 134 (in 2011 we have had 140)
5 – 5.9 = 1319 (in 2011 we have had 1697)

Frequency of Occurrence of Earthquakes

¹ Based on observations since 1900.
These numbers have been recently updated, based on data from the Centennial catalog (from 1900 to 1999) and the PDE (since 2000).
² Based on observations since 1990.

So the USGS even updated the averages and STILL are they exceeded annually. Here is a chart I generated and updated today through Aug 20. Source USGS data.

Earthquakes have long been one of the ways God gets our attention. “An earthquake is a great teacher. It doesn’t make any suggestions; it’s making commands. It doesn’t ask for our attention, it demands it. It doesn’t just hope we’ll contemplate and act, it brings about almost instant obedience.” (source).

God is in complete control. The bible teaches that everything that happens is under His control. Nothing that happens, happens without His permission, knowledge, and sovereign plan. Satan cannot make an earthquake. But God can. All that He does is for the good.

For the Christian, we know that our eternal destiny is settled. If we die in an earthquake, it is to the good, for we will be with Him. If we do not die in an earthquake, than nothing that we have lost is of eternal value. Our possessions? We won’t need them in heaven. Our health (if we are injured in a quake) will be restored. Since we live on the earth, we are flesh and therefore not impervious to sin’s effects nor remain untainted by calamity. But what we lose is nothing. Enduring a disaster means we have an opportunity to become dependent on God. That is always a good thing because He is the source of all good things. We can fellowship with the afflicted. We can grow and mature through hardship.

If a person is not saved and endures an earthquake, they learn that life is fragile. They learn that the time to settle the earthly accounts and eternal destiny is now. Also, though living in a place where quakes are common means likely that there are strong codes for buildings, there are limits to how far one can go to protect one’s self from calamity. If a quake is big enough, the place will be razed, codes or no codes. Witness Japan. Life is fragile and there is nothing like an earthquake to reveal that to puny humans.

All this to say, that though earthquakes are in the rise and will continue to be so (Luke 21:11, Rev 6:12, Rev 8:5, Rev 11:13, Rev 16:18), the saved should fear not. That link is to a search result where ‘fear not’ is stated 63 times. There are many more ways He tells us not to fear, just not in that particular phrase. Therefore, we should not fear.

“Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.” (Lamentations 3:57)
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Posted in creator, evolution

Our wonderful Creator

Posted on by elizabethprata

Regular readers of this blog know that I love nature. I love the intricacies of how God created it all for His good and His glory. I love the macro. These are the large items in nature and the large complex systems- the sunsets and meteors and aurora borealis, the green flash, gravity, earthquakes, and black holes. I love the micro. These are the small systems- atoms and their electrons, mollusks, insect anatomy, rocks and the minerals they contain.

Regular readers also know that as a bible-believing fundamentalist, I adhere to the bible’s presentation of the creation in Genesis. It happened by the Word of God, over six days, and that’s that. And since God created the world, He created all its intricacies. The plants, insects, animals and humans and their complex interactions, whether symbiotic or parasitic.

Here are some examples of the intricacies I especially enjoy. These could not have evolved, but were made by the Ancient of Days who called them into being. In this first example of His creativity, I note that though the headline says the secret is unveiled the article actually says that ‘scientists are one step closer to unlocking the secret’:

Source Of Spider Silk’s Extreme Strength Unveiled
“The strength of spider dragline silk exceeds that of any material produced in laboratories, by far. All attempts to manufacture threads of similar strength have failed thus far,” explains Professor Horst Kessler, Carl von Linde Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at the TU Muenchen (TUM-IAS). In collaboration with the workgroup of Prof. Thomas Scheibel, who was a researcher at the TU Muenchen until 2007 and who now holds a chair of the Institute of Biomaterials at the Universitaet Bayreuth, Professor Kessler’s team has been researching for years to unveil the secret of spider silk.” … “How do spiders manage to first store the silk proteins in the silk gland and to then assemble them in the spinning passage in a split second to form threads with these extraordinary characteristics? And what exactly gives the threads their tremendous tensile strength?”

The scientists explain what happens inside a spider when it is not spinning its web:

“Spider threads consist of long chains of thousands of repeating sequences of protein molecules. These silk proteins are stored in the silk gland in a highly concentrated form until they are needed. The long chains with their repeating sequences of protein molecules are initially unordered and must not get too close to each other as they would immediately clump up. Only in the spinning passage, just before being used, are the threads oriented parallel to each other and form so-called micro crystallites that are, in turn, assembled to stable threads with cross links.”

Right. Like that evolved. How did the spider evolve its proteins in such a way that it could tell them to order themselves into a spinning passage in perfect harmony and tensile strength that escapes anything humans can reproduce? What a great God we have to create a universe that has a perfectly ordered and functioning system in all things, in everything, including the silk spider!

Here is a snippet of the symbiosis that occurs between a moth and a moth mite:

“In one particular symbiotic relationship between mites and moths, mites of the genus Dicrocheles infest one “ear” of a moth. The moth’s ear has three chambers, one of which is separated from the other two by the eardrum. The mites crawl into the moth’s ear to lay their eggs, and in the process puncture the delicate eardrum, leaving the moth deaf in that ear. However, the mites are careful to colonize only one ear, because if they were to colonize both ears, the moth would be fully deaf and would be unable to hear approaching bats. The bat would eat the mites along with the moth.”

Dr. Asher Treat is the foremost expert on moth ear mites. He wrote in the Journal of Entomology 1957:

Good question indeed. Though the mites didn’t know of the danger of infesting both moth’s ears, they avoid it completely and universally by only infesting one ear. How did that come about? Not by evolution. God is wonderful indeed.

Consider the pesky barnacle. It adheres to a boat’s hull and when enough of them accumulate, they slow the craft to nail biting, foot stomping frenzies. When we scraped the barnacles off our sailboat, the average speed over ground increased by a knot and a half. Then again, if you ever scraped barnacles, you know how hard they are to get off. Their cement is legendary.

BARNACLE
“Barnacle cement, the substance the animals use to glue themselves to ships’ bottoms and to rocks, has attracted the interest of doctors. A layer of this cement three tenthousandths of an inch thick over one square inch will support a weight of 7000 pounds. It is even stronger than epoxy cement. At temperatures above 6000°F the glue will soften but not melt, and at 380°F the cement will not crack. It does not dissolve in most strong acids, alkalies, organic solvents, or water. If man could learn to manufacture this cement, which barnacles have been using for millions of years, it could be used to mend broken bones and hold fillings in teeth.”

The Journal of Biological Chemistry says that for the barnacle “To adhere effectively, the cement needs to accomplish several functions such as coagulation, displacement of water from the substratum, establishment of interfacial contact, and molecular attraction between dissimilar materials.”

JPK Industries in the UK writes,

Right. Like that evolved.

I always have loved the beauty of shells. They are stunning in their delicacy and colorful beauty. Did you know that when a mollusk is born, its apex part of the shell is born with it? This starter part of the shell is called the protoconch.

It is a photo of the Ass’s Ear Abalone, and this is what a mature shell looks like:

As the animal inside the shell grows the animal secretes exactly enough calcium (in beautiful patterns too) that he will need to live at the upcoming size in the chamber. Like this Turritella

So this has been an interlude of praise for a Creator of extreme intelligence, creativity, beauty, and love. he created this world for humans to populate in order that we might worship Him, and once sin is vanquished (Daniel 9:24) He will restore all to its perfect glory. And blessedly, our current state of imperfect worship and praise that I am exhibiting even now, will become perfect toward Him. As it should be.

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