Posted in egyptian cleric proposes slavery, prophecy, revelation

Slavery in the Tribulation? Muslim cleric proposes it as solution to economic woes

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve always been puzzled by a verse in Revelation. LOL, more than one verse, but this one really gets me. At the fall of Babylon, we see in the threefold woes that are uttered, that a healthy economy in luxuries had been ongoing. Far from the economy being dead, as many suppose, it traded in all the world’s luxuries as if nothing untoward was happening. The rich still exist but the poor comprise most of the world. We also know that the economy is massively different, being under the control of one man, the Beast (antichrist) as revealed in Revelation 13. But the rich still buy things. We know from Revelation 6 that many are not rich but are really are devastatingly poor, unable to even afford more than a loaf of bread which equals a whole day’s pay. For the rich, they keep on keeping on with their consumerism of ridiculously luxurious items. Except for one particular luxury item in the verse at the end:

Revelation 18: 9-13
Threefold Woe Over Babylon’s Fall
“When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. 10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

“‘Woe! Woe to you, great city,
you mighty city of Babylon!
In one hour your doom has come!’

“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore— cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.”

I could not understand how this could be, though I believe it totally because God’s word is inerrant. But I had thought slavery was pretty much stamped out. There is indentured servitude in informal form, and children sold as sex slaves. But organized slavery today, though it exists is the smallest number than it ever has been in history, is rare. 12-27 million people are purported to be slaves today. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations, according to Wikipedia. But then again, I don’t know why I am surprised that slavery as indicated in the Revelation verse would not be a going boom to the economy. It is the natural end to the philosophy of Darwin, and simply an extension of abortion and euthanasia. There is no regard for life if you adhere to those philosophies or engage in those activities. Life means nothing. Further, the bible tells us that life will mean less than nothing:

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. (Mark 13:12)

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Jesus said, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12). Lawlessness here in this verse translated from the Greek is ‘sin’ or total and complete disregard for God’s laws. People who totally dismiss God will be more liable to disregard the soul of the person inhabiting the body, and just kill it. Or sell it. It’s an “it,” not a person. Then today I read this:

Egyptian Cleric: Poverty Can be Solved by Selling Humans ‘Like Groceries’
“Over the past week, a video has surfaced featuring prominent Egyptian cleric Salafi Shaykh Abi-Ishaq al-Huwayni. In a translation posted by Al Mutarjim on his blog Translating Jihad, al-Huwayni is quoted as advocating jihad (he says it’s “a real pleasure”) and encouraging listeners to ease financial problems through the capture and sale of human beings (he says they can be sold “like groceries”).”

Here is a translation from the video which is at the link. Sounds like he has thought long and hard about this. I mean, he has a mini-economy in people going on there in that twisted head of his:

Here’s the translation in copy form:
“We are in the era of jihad. The era of jihad has come over us, and jihad in the path of Allah is a pleasure. It is a real pleasure. The companions (of the Prophet) used to compete to (perform jihad). The poverty that we’re in—is it not due to our abandonment of jihad? But if we could conduct one, two, or three jihadist operations every year, many people throughout the earth would become Muslims. And whoever rejected this da’wa, or stood in our way, we would fight against him and take him prisoner, and confiscate his wealth, his children, and his women—all of this means money. Every mujahid who returned from jihad, his pockets would be full. He would return with 3 or 4 slaves, 3 or 4 women, and 3 or 4 children. Multiply each head by 300 dirhams, or 300 dinar, and you have a good amount of profit. If he were to go to the West and work on a commercial deal, he would not make that much money. Whenever things became difficult (financially), he could take the head (i.e. the prisoner) and sell it, and ease his (financial) crisis. He would sell it like groceries. Of those who are–” and the video is abruptly cut off.

I am writing about that verse for the first time, and inevitably the Spirit gives deeper understanding each time I read it. But for now, we take at face value that there will be an economy in human commerce in the Tribulation. Slavery. Dead ahead.
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Posted in theology

Springfield Mass. tornado, surreal (UPDATED- tornado sucks up river)

Posted on by elizabethprata

I watched an intense storm pop up in central Massachusetts this afternoon. All of the eastern seaboard is under a tornado watch, from DC to Maine. Half an hour ago, a tornado touched down in Springfield Mass and ripped through the city at rush hour. Tornadoes in New England are rare. They do happen, but they are rare. Municipalities don’t have tornado warnings and the people don’t expect them. If one hits, people must rely on eyesight to visually spot it or be tuned in to emergency weather messages. They may not be tuned in, and even if they are, they don’t know what to do. I didn’t.

When I moved here to Georgia I had to learn what to do when a tornado warning is issued. You go to the cellar or to the lowest floor of your building. You put as many walls between you and the outside as possible, going into a closet or the bathroom if need be. I didn’t know any of that nor was familiar with the power of these storms as I am now.

The tornado that hit Springfield apparently did much damage. Trees and power lines down, buildings damaged. Another one is headed for Worcester MA, and one just hit Sturbridge. I’m listening to live scanners, and also looking at video and photos. Amazing. This is surreal. I don’t know what is in store for Boston or NY later today but the weather channel guys are making comparisons to weather conditions similar to Tuscaloosa and Birmingham Alabama in terms of signature and situation.

The guy stayed looking at it until the hail conked his head, then he made a beeline for the car.

Jesus said that as we approach the end of days that the birth pangs will become more frequent and painful. We are not under judgment yet but we can definitely see that the times are getting crazier. I’m more amazed every day at seeing the results of what the bible tells us to expect.

Don’t forget, today, June 1, opens the 2011 hurricane season.
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Posted in 300 sheep dead

300 sheep die within one hour

Posted on by elizabethprata

Mystery disease kills 300 sheep within an hour
Published Saturday, May 28, 2011

“A Saudi farmer who went into his barn to take his 300 sheep on their daily pasturing was shocked when he found them all dead, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom said on Saturday. The farm said he checked the sheep an hour earlier and they were all alive in their barn at his far in the western town of Qunfudha. The unnamed farmer had owned the sheep for years and they were his sole source of living for his family of 16. “Inspectors at the ministry of agriculture said they had taken samples from the dead sheep to determine the cause of their death,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.”

Weird.

Now this, 8 dogs drop dead in one hour on popular Yorkshire walking path. Though officials don’t know how or why, they suspect poison. Whether either of these two stories are wierd or have a normal explanation, it is a sad, sad thing that the animals suffer.

And now this, a talking monkey an African mob suspected of being a “witch” was killed.
“Animal welfare groups in South Africa have condemned the “barbaric” killing of a vervet monkey by a mob of township residents who said it was a talking witch. The monkey was beaten, pelted with stones, shot at and then doused with gas and burned to death in Kagiso near Johannesburg, by residents chanting “Kill that witch!”, reports South Africa’s Star newspaper. The vervet monkey had reportedly wandered into the township after becoming separated from its troop. Residents said the monkey had been going around Kagiso “talking to people,” and believed it was linked to witchcraft and would bring them bad luck.”

Terrible!
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Posted in laodicean church, prophecy, regeneration, repent

Where’s the beef?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Remember this Wendy’s commercial from the early 1980s?

I used to love Clara Peller, who was a breakout hit for several years in the ad cycle. Good for her.

In the world in general there is a steep decline in civility, modesty, and behavior that would comport with what the Lord advises is pure living. With all the millions of Christians claiming that they are Christian, you would think that there would be more modesty, cleaner language, more purity, stronger families, and higher regard for Godly things. There is a terrible disconnect and it all has to do with transformation.

Philippians 3:20-21 reminds us that we have a bodily transformation to look forward to: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

But before we get there, 2 Corinthians 3:18 reminds us that after submitting to the Lord, our transformation of mind and spirit is an ongoing process- “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”[emphasis mine]

We would expect such an ongoing transformation. When we first believe, He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our body. A supernatural occurrence begins to start the transformative process- the transfer of a divine being from heaven to our flesh. If you really mull through all the ramifications of this, it is mind-blowing. God sends a part of His very self to be planted inside our body which then works as an engine of transformation to His likeness.

Paul reiterated the transformative process in Romans 12:2- “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Our minds AND our bodies are being transformed by the Spirit into Jesus’ likeness.

What this looks like on the ground is a slow or a fast but a visible process where people eschew the same activities, recreation, language, and thoughts they had before. A beer-drinking, porn consuming, profanity laced man will become a gentle, moral, and upstanding husband or bachelor. Initially, the transformation is hard for the new believer but it gathers speed and becomes easier as His holiness spreads in us like a tapestry being enlarged, thread by thread. After a while, we notice that our eyes can’t stand the same television shows, books, movies, and computer activities we used to enjoy. We notice that not only has our own language cleaned up, but hearing it from others is jarring. Not only do we notice that our character is being transformed but being around unbelievers is a strain as the things they say and do hurt our gentle soul because they are an affront to God. Friends drop off, new ones are made. You begin to eagerly look forward to church, not counting it as a trial but a joy. The Spirit is transforming you.

When you repent, you renounce yourself. You allow Christ to become in you more fully every day. Now, reformation is not regeneration. Reformation is a fleshly effort in our own strength to change our ways. Due to our sin nature, permanent reformation is impossible. We will fail. If we could reform ourselves to the extent necessary to become acceptable to God, then we would not need Jesus.

Regeneration means we are being knit by a divine, supernatural process into a new creation. But it doesn’t happen spontaneously. When we are saved, we are always saved. But are we growing? The writer of Hebrews acknowledged that even after some lengthy period of time, some Christians were not growing. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Hebrews 5:12). They should have been strong enough to have been teaching others at least the basics (‘first principles’) by then, but were disappointingly still ingesting milk and not strong meat!  Do a self-check. Are you still on milk of the Word and not the meat?

When I say that regeneration is not spontaneous I mean that it takes effort of the Christian to apply himself to the process. Once you are saved you are always saved, but as for growth to produce good fruit, if the new Christian never reads the bible, never or rarely attends strong worship or listens to bible preaching, never studies, haphazardly prays, or only occasionally does any deeds, they won’t grow. They may have heard the word, but they are not doers of the word- in the aforementioned things.

James 1:21-27talks about being a doer. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

This is the age of the Laodicean church. There are many who are hearers only and worse, what they prefer to hear is false doctrine that tickles the ears. They are not growing, and in truth, many of them are even deceived as to their natural state. Thinking themselves saved, they are not. If you never confess your own sins, thinking that your initial confession and forgiveness covered it all forever, you will not be regenerated. James urges us James 5:16, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” We all sin daily but if we confess daily then we are purified and the gratitude for this purification makes us submit even more to the Spirit’s work in us. It is a cycle.

Jesus said that there are true disciples and false disciples. (Mt 7:21-23). Many won’t make it into the kingdom, they will realize too late that their hearts deceived them. Check yourself. It is pretty simply really. “WHERE’S THE BEEF?” Do you have a fluffy exterior, big and laden with condiments, but if you peek inside, is there little to no meat? Has there been spiritual fruit borne of your deeds lately? Or not? If not, there is a problem.

Take another look at the commercial. Except let this script run through your mind:

“It certainly is a big church.”
“It’s a very big church.”
“A big, busy church.”
“It’s a very big, busy…[lifting the top to peer at what is inside]…church”
“Where’s the Gospel?”
“Some churches give you a lot less Gospel on a platter of tolerance.”
“Where’s the beef??”
Announcer extolling solid doctrine, un-watered down and meaty.
“Where’s the BEEF?? I don’t think there’s anybody back there.”

I hope you are asking yourself the important and ever-pertinent question- where’s the Gospel? Look at your church. Look at yourself. Are you on meat? Do you feel yourself being regenerated, part of an everlasting cycle of doing, hearing, growing? Or not? Ask yourself now. You don’t want to find out you belonged to a Laodicean Church when it is too late to change the outcome…

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Posted in australia, waterspout, weather

Raw Video: Huge Waterspout Near Australian Coast

Posted on by elizabethprata

Just for cool watching purposes. I’m fascinated with waterspouts ever since I lived on a sailboat and saw one in North Carolina’s Albemarle Sound. This video shows several from different angles. The definition for waterspout is: “A rotating column of water and spray formed by a whirlwind occurring over the sea or other body of water.” The meteorological definition is “A small, weak tornado, which is not formed by a storm-scale rotation. It is generally weaker than a supercell tornado and is not associated with a wall cloud or mesocyclone. It may be observed beneath cumulonimbus or towering cumulus clouds and is the water equivalent of a landspout.”

Here is the video from May 30th of a series of waterspouts approaching near the coastal suburb of Terrigal, on Australia’s New South Wales coast. The original link at Yahoo/AP is here.

Food for thought: Here is Jack Kelley’s answer to a reader’s question, “Is God using the weather to judge us?

Q. I live near Joplin, MO where an F5 tornado struck last weekend. Please help me because I know as I go to Joplin and help with our church I will be asked why God allowed this to happen, and I would like to be able to answer them from God’s word. We don’t know why God allows storms or stops storms or why they hit where they do. But He is in control of them and He sees the big picture and He’s God who are we to question Him, so basically I feel confused. Also there are a lot of people saying that when disaster strikes it’s God’s judgment on their sin and if that’s the case wouldn’t all of us need to take cover because we are all sinners?

A. For me this is a simple issue. There was no bad weather before there was sin. You can make a circumstantial case from the Bible that it had never even rained on Earth before the Great Flood. Extreme weather is one of the enduring consequences of that judgment, so if you’re looking for someone to blame don’t blame God. Blame the one who brought sin into the world and made the judgment necessary. As far as weather is concerned the only thing God promised is that He would never destroy the Earth by water again (Genesis 9:13-15).

I also don’t think the Bible supports the “God is in control” idea in the universal sense in which most people think of it. Certainly it’s true that eventually God’s will is going to be accomplished on Earth and in Heaven, but for now the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

As for judgment, the Bible says when God uses weather as a tool of judgment men’s hearts will fail them for fear (Luke 21:26) and the hail stones will weigh 100 lbs. each (Rev. 16:21) so you really won’t want to be around when His judgments begin. Thankfully, God won’t judge the world until He has taken the Church out of the way (1 Thes. 1:10).———end Jack Kelley’s answer——–

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Posted in theology

Incredible shrinking Israel

Posted on by elizabethprata

The extent Israel will go for “peace”, source The Israel News

Click on picture for enlargement, or look at original here.

According to the biblical borders set by God, this map approximates what Greater Israel should look like, and will one day after the Tribulation:

What a day that will be, when the nation loved by God is finally entering into its Kingdom reign with Him, with secure borders!
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Posted in bendandi, harold camping, mockers and scoffers

Taiwan ‘prophet’ unfazed by apocalypse no-show

Posted on by elizabethprata

Did you know that according to ‘prophet’ Wang, a 14 magnitude earthquake was supposed to occur in Thailand on May 10, 2011? On May 10, the apocalypse didn’t show up.

Did you know that according to self-taught scientist and seer Raffaele Bendandi ‘the big one’ was supposed to level Rome on May 11, 2011? On May 11, the apocalypse didn’t show up.

Did you know that according to self-styled bible interpreter Harold Camping, the rapture followed by the apocalypse was supposed to occur on May 21, 2011? On May 21, the apocalypse didn’t show up.

Peter prophesied, “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’ ” (2 Peter 3:3-4). We all know that the media and the world’s citizens did a good bit of mocking that the prophesied rapture did not occur on Camping’s falsely predicted date. Peter was right, there are mockers and scoffers and there will continue to be mockers and scoffers. Their flippant and demonically gleeful rhetoric and behavior will climb to a fever pitch, eventually culminating in the Tribulation after the Two Witnesses are killed. At that time, “Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.” They will be so happy and mocking that the Witnesses’ testimony did not come true they will give gifts literally over their dead bodies.

Not to fear, though, the Two Witnesses will be resurrected by the power of God and ascend in front of their eyes, the entire world in astonishment looking on. God’s Word is always true.

The people who mock, say ‘Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation’ and believe that just because things seem to have always been the same they always will be the same are laboring under a psychological condition called “normalcy bias.” As this mental state is defined, “The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur.”

But Peter reminds us as his verses continue, that they forget that the world has NOT gone on as it always has since the beginning. They forget, there was no beginning, since God has always existed. But there was a beginning for humans, when God who existed prior to the world being made, but then it was made. They forget that there was another time when the world was destroyed by water. Things have certainly not been going along as they always have been. There have been two cataclysmic events that have interrupted the flow and progress of time. And there will be a Third.

Honest science recognizes that the surface of the earth unequivocally shows enormous total hydraulic cataclysm. Why else are there fossil shells on the top of mountains…or in the desert? Everything has not gone along since the beginning. Peter continues, “For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’ (2 Peter 3:5-7). Notice the word ‘willfully.’ This means that despite evidence that things have not gone on as always, they purposely sink into a preferred delusion so that their craven lusts can continue unabated.

Just because the LORD has not judged the world a second time doesn’t mean He is never going to. As a matter of fact, in one sense ‘Prophet’ Wang is right, there will be a 14 mag quake.

“I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.” (Revelation 6:12-14). The Japanese quake of March 2011 was a 9.0 magnitude that moved the island 8 feet to the east and sank it by 16 feet. If every island and mountain is moved, that is a big quake, something on the order of a 14.0 mag I would guess.

In one sense, Bendandi is right, too, Rome will be leveled, likely in that same quake because the verse continues by saying that men hide in rocks and caves. In one sense, Camping is right, the rapture will occur. The fault comes in trying to predict a date. Peter reminds us that God’s promise [of judgment] is not slack. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). He is giving us time to repent.

Emily over at Extending Eager Hands pondered the plethora of self-proclaimed prophets these days. She wrote in a quick note, “I tend to distrust anyone who tacks the title “Prophet/Prophetess” in front of their name.  Perhaps this is wrong of me, but it makes my hair stand on end.  I understand this is a valid spiritual gift, but it’s a gift, not a personage, right?” I responded, “In my experience, most people who tack ‘Prophet’ onto their name also are into revelatory experiences that usually begin like- “God showed me…” or “Jesus took me to heaven and said…” The Revelation from Jesus to us is closed (Jude 1:3), there are no new revelations. It is all in the bible, delivered to the saints once for all, and we are not to add nor take away from the Word. If any ‘prophet’ claims to have new information from Jesus, then you know immediately they are false. On the other hand, people who have the gift of prophecy exhort, educate, or explain the prophesies that are already IN the bible, by the strength of the Holy Spirit. Spirit driven saints who have been given the gift of prophecy tend to be humble, knowing that the things they say, write, or act upon are known to them only because the Holy Spirit has imparted this wisdom. It tends to be humbling rather than ego-boosting.”

Peter again reminds us in the chapter previous to his famous mockers and scoffers passages, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” (2 Peter 2:1-2)

Final words from Peter on the subject, “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”(2 Peter 3:17-18)

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Posted in blackbeard, jewels

Blackbeard’s anchor found

Posted on by elizabethprata

Remember as a kid being so entranced with pirates? At least I was. The success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series would indicate a widespread fascination with pirates. I lived on a sailboat for a couple of years and sailed up and down the east coast of the US and over to the Bahamas. You cannot live on a boat and not be captured by the legendary stories of east coast pirates of long ago: Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny, and Blackbeard. At each town we stopped and visited, the historical society or museum would have information about the local pirates. Anchoring our boat in Georgetown Bahamas’ “Kidd’s Cove,” you can’t help but look down and wonder if that shiny thing is an overlooked gold coin…

Well, someone looked down, and looked and looked and looked and they found the famous North Carolina pirate Blackbeard’s anchor. CNN reports, “Dead men tell no tales, but the sea does, as shown Friday when an anchor was recovered from the wreckage of pirate Blackbeard’s flagship. An expedition off the North Carolina coast hoisted the nearly 3,000-pound anchor, one of three belonging to the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Crews were working in just 20 feet of water, according to the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. The Queen Anne’s Revenge is believed to have run aground in the shallow waters off Beaufort in 1718. The ship was discovered in 1996, with piecemeal recovery of artifacts intensifying only a few years ago.” More at link.

As a girl, of course, the attractive thing about pirates was the treasure chest. The all important treasure chest. What gal didn’t love to play in mom’s jewelry box? Dipping our hands into the necklaces and feeling them swing from your hands, and then to put them on? Put all of them on!

Source

Christians know that worshiping Jesus in person and being able to look on His face fully is the treasure for which we all long. But His grace extends to so much more and in His love He gives additional treasures. The beauty of heaven is difficult to capture in words, but these verses tell us that we will be in, around, and surrounded by jewels and stones of beautiful perfection!

“…behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius (AKA carnelian) in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.” (Revelation 4:2-4).

Wow! But that is just the beginning. The treasures of heaven continue. New Jerusalem is being prepared for us. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

John saw this dwelling place for the Bride: “…The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” (Rev 21:18-21)

I wrote about transparent gold, here. I wrote in part, “Scientists have discovered that as the gold particle size is decreased, there are many intriguing phenomena. In one discovery if 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. Even today, ultra-thin gold is being used on buildings and air craft windows – thin film of gold display some unusual characteristics. When processed with ultra-thin sheets, gold becomes transparent. It allows green light waves to pass through but reflects infrared lights.” Cool, huh?!

Below, some of the jewels mentioned in the verses. Whether these jewels will look the same or have the same properties as they do on earth is anyone’s guess 🙂

The High Priest was required to wear a breastplate made a certain way, and embedded with each tribe’s particular gem. (Exodus 28:15-29) Moses’ brother Aaron was the first High Priest. “And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart when he goeth in unto the holy place for a memorial before the Lord continually” [Exodus 28.29]”

 I used to belong to the Maine Mineralogical and Geological Society. We used to go with other members to quarries and mines and look for local gems. Maine is known for tourmaline, beryl, quartz, amethyst and other beautiful stones. It was a thrill to find even the tiniest gem, extracting it from the ground, cleaning it and admiring its beauty. I think to some degree we are all fascinated with stones and gems and oceanic treasures such as pearls. They are simply beautiful! When we get to our home and dwell as Jesus’ bride, these stones and gems will be all around us, we will be walking on gold! Entering and exiting doors of pearl! Leaning against foundation walls that have emeralds and sapphires embedded in them! And guess what? Despite a lifelong fascination with pirates and their treasure, despite hunting for gems in the earth and polishing them to admire, despite saving up for jewelry to wear so that the gems can gleam in the light of day, once we get to New Jerusalem, we won’t care anymore! The real jewel of heaven and earth is Jesus.

“There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” (Matthew 17:2)

Hallelujah! May He shine forever, and may we forever be bathed in His glorious Light!
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Posted in police brutality, prophecy, secret morgue, tribulation

Handcuffed, body slammed, & arrested for dancing. Also, secret morgue

Posted on by elizabethprata

The people who say they are looking forward to an earth after the rapture with Christians gone are completely deluded about what kind of world it will be. It will be a world with no restraint against sin, with evil running rampant. Paul describes it this way, and his words can’t even approach the terror of these upcoming days:
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”

People will be accusers and slanderers, and also truce-breakers. No relationship outside the home, as in business or professions, will survive mutual distrust, accusation, slander, and oh, yes, blasphemy. They will break treaties, and throw away promises, written and oral. No language, promises, verbiage or contracts will be sacred in the business and professional world.

The familial world will fare no better. ‘Without natural affection’ means unloving toward kindred and close family members. Mothers and fathers hating their children, children unloving toward parents. In the Tribulation passage in Mark 13:12, Jesus explains further: “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.” When a society breaks down that far, it indeed has broken down fully. Being on earth at that time, of thorough civil, no-holds-barred breakdown, is to me a fate worse than death. Nowhere will a person be able to turn for respite, care, love, or safety.

In government and politics, the world will be similarly dysfunctional. Oppression will rule the day. We are told of an antichrist who will take over, at first by flatteries (Daniel 11:21; 11:32). He will upset kings and take them over then take over the rest of the world. After he gains the world, he oppresses it by forcing all to take a mark of worship to himself, without which they cannot participate in the economy. (Rev 13:16-17).

With the progression of these verses and the awful picture they show you can clearly see that individual, family, professional, political, governmental relations are all corrupted in their entirety. Restraint is gone, brutality reigns supreme. This state of being will not come upon the world all of a sudden, even though the difference between pre-rapture world and post-rapture world will be abruptly different. The decline began long ago but as birth pangs that Jesus said would characterize the end of days, they increase like a stone rolling down a hill until the momentum is prevalent and unstoppable. These next clips and news excerpts show that oppression is here, in brutal form for what we consider today’s world but in post-rapture Tribulation world people will look back upon and it will seem seem by comparison almost benign and gentle. The platform for the verses to spring from have been well-developed and oppression is ready now to fly from the nest.

On May 5, a Pima AZ SWAT team stormed Jose Guerena’s home (with a warrant), kicked open the door, and fired 60 times. Twenty-two of those bullets entered Guerena’s body. He was a veteran who had served honorably in Iraq, and no drugs were found to be inside the home. His wife and child, however, were in the home with him. He had not fired at officers nor was his weapon ever taken off the safety position. Controversy of this event abounds in Arizona, and rightfully so.

On CNN, the reporters had interviewed two different people who survived the Joplin MO tornado who were looking for missing family members. In a follow up story it turned out that their family members had been in a morgue all along, but the two people only wound up knowing about their loved ones’ deaths because of back channels and from friends who had secret knowledge of who was in the morgue. Bizarre, I know. Many other family members are now clamoring to know about his secret morgue and want to know if their own family members are in it. So CNN went on a mission to find out and were summarily stopped by police. The reporter said it was a bizarre encounter with law enforcement, like trying to cross an international border without a passport. The action with law enforcement begins at :55 of this 1:55 clip but it is short enough to watch all the way through. Here is a partial transcript of what they found:

“There are some strange things going on here right now. The morgue, the morgue where these bodies are, is a secret morgue. It literally is a secret. If you call law enforcement and ask officials where the morgue is they will tell you we can’t say, it’s a secret. Families don’t know where the morgue is. The families who do know where the morgue is are afraid to tell us because they are afraid of getting in trouble.”

This next one really got to me, even after I had read the background and tried to understand the law and see both sides. I still hate it. Radio Host Adam Kokesh and several other activists participating in a flash-mob were arrested at the publicly-funded Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Their crime? Silently dancing, in celebration of the first amendment’s champion. Courts had recently upheld a ban on dancing at the Monument. I understand wanting to maintain decorum, but a law to suppress any and all behaviors that may lead to indecorous behavior is not the answer. Neither is the apparently overreaching and sometimes brutal enforcement of such laws here in America, or anywhere for that matter. It was very disturbing to see the arrests but worse was the fact that we have such oppressive laws now, and such wide latitude for applying them. The Founding Fathers surely didn’t envision this degree of minutiae and legal license to modify behavior to such a personal degree, did they? I mean, did they really have to body slam a guy? And the lineup of sitting, handcuffed men reminded me of the lineup of convicts in Iraq before they behead someone.

Here is Fox News article of the incident and then the disturbing video from Breitbart. (It is not graphic, only depressing)
“A group of people in Washington, D.C., protesting a recent court decision that says expressive dancing is the same as picketing and marching, were arrested for just that — dancing, MyFoxDC reports. A dance-in at the Jefferson Memorial led to five arrests and a violent clash with U.S. Park Police. The incident was posted on YouTube and appears to show officers using force to push the arrestees to the ground. MyFoxDC reports that a spokesman for Park Police says the agency is investigating complaints officers overreacted. Despite the court ban on dancing in certain areas of national monuments, the protesters say they plan to be back next Saturday at noon.”

In this instance, it looks like it did not happen in America, perhaps Spain or Portugal. I am not sure when it happened. The scene occurs on a soccer stadium field where a man holding a sign runs across an active game. Four security guards chase him down, sit on him, and handcuff him. While the four are huddled on the guy, one repeatedly beats the guy with his billy club. Horrified fans leave their seats and storm the field, chasing the security guys off. One falls down and is beaten in turn. I’m not condoning violence, but I was horrified to see such a dramatic level of force used against a man who had no weapon, was engaged in a usual prank, and was captured and subdued already. There was just no reason to beat him with a club.

The times in the Tribulation will be exponentially more brutal. An order of magnitude brutal. Anyone with a bit of power will use it for evil and not for the good. We see that power abuse now. Now let me say that I have respect for our local law enforcement and first responders. I am glad they do what they do and I know they do it with the public health, welfare, and safety in mind. Millions of good police officers work through every day with their lives on the line. But the fact is, we see more of an encroachment toward toward bullying as we creep ever closer to the day when restraint will be abandoned and Tribulation will be here.

In one sense these items may make it hard to trust Jesus to the level that is necessary for salvation. A person seeing how power is abused over and over from small people to the highest on earth- kings and presidents- must be wary of the Christian’s call to submit to the absolute power of a Holy God. That is why we say you must have faith, not only in Jesus name and through His blood that He saved us and will forgive us our sins, but faith that His power is the highest also but the most gentle and loving. We trust that because He made us, and He knows us, that He wants the best for us and that only He knows that that ‘best’ is. No one else on earth by any name or in any powerful capacity, like a government or law enforcement position, knows what is best for us to the degree that Jesus does, and they never will. Trust HIM! He is the ultimate law enforcement official, the highest judge, and He will enforce all his laws in His court one day. Jesus can be your Defense Lawyer (Hebrews 7:25) or your Prosecutor. (Genesis 18:25). His love is such that you get to choose. I pray you choose Him, and not the antichrist. The times are bad now, and they will get worse, but in heaven with a gentle and just God, time will be no more but every moment will be wonderful. Join me.

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Posted in melon sized hail, plague of hail, revelation

Melon sized hail falls in Norman OK

Posted on by elizabethprata

Though we are not in the Tribulation yet and are not enduring judgment, it seems that judgment is creeping ever closer as we see precursors popping up, or in this case, falling down:

Melon-sized hail falls on Norman OK Tuesday
“The violent storms whipping through parts of the Midwest this week returned on Tuesday night, leaving 14 dead in three states. The deadly extreme weather killed eight people in Oklahoma, two in Kansas and four in Arkansas. The deaths follow the tragic tornado that left at least 122 dead in Joplin, Missouri. Winds reached more than 150 MPH, and melon-sized hail fell from the sky:

Meteorologist Garrett Lewis from KFSM News Channel 5 discusses it here:

“The supercell thunderstorms that hit central Oklahoma generated giant hail. The Storm Prediction Center Severe Reports shows recorded 6” diameter hail that day. This hailstone apparently fell in the Oklahoma City area near Norman (According to api.newson6.com & Yahoo News) Three of the twisters in that area have been rated EF4. The National Weather Service is evaluating an EF5 rating on at least 1 of the tornadoes. Hail is formed in the updraft of a thunderstorms. A supercell thunderstorm consists of strong upward motion in the updraft and cold sinking air in the downdraft. The stronger the updraft the larger the hail. Strong to violent tornadoes of EF3-EF5 will typically create giant hail like this. It’s important to note that not all the hailstones were this large. Generally in a hail core the largest hailstones make up 10-20% of all hailstones falling. The rest were likely golfball to baseball size. Still… that’s “one hail of a storm”. -Garrett
Garrett PS NOTE: (I can’t vouch for this picture’s authenticity, as many of you have pointed out on Facebook… it DOES look like a frozen water balloon. I do believe the 6″ diameter hail reports from Storm Prediction Center. Usually SPC & NWS does a good job weeding out the weirdo photoshop crowd. Largest “official” hail report from that day was 6″ in Timken, KS, also 5″ in DFW Metro)”

It is not hard to imagine what hail that size would do to your head if it fell down on you in 150mph winds. It is not hard therefore to imagine the terror and devastation of hail weighing 100pounds. “And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.” (Revelation 16:21)

More here on biblical “Language of God: Hail“
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