about me

By Elizabeth Prata

What do you do? Why do you do it? Why ‘the end time’?

Origins

For newcomers to this blog ministry, here is a bit about me. I’m just a layperson whom God apparently gave the ability to write. When I was saved late in life (around age 42), I became eager to read the Bible. I’ve always processed complex thoughts by writing, so it seemed natural that I’d write to try and understand the Bible. Blogs were emerging as a platform then, so this made it easy for me to write and self-publish my thoughts, and if a wider audience clicked in, good.

After about 18 months post-salvation I began digging into the Bible in earnest. I had already started a personal blog called The Quiet Life. As my religious interest grew, I split the topics by creating this blog, The End Time, to be my religious writings, and The Quiet Life continue to be my personal blog.

Why ‘The End Time’?

I chose ‘the end time’ as the title because we are IN the time of the end. The end time is the time between Jesus’ ascension and His return. I want us all to be eager to be about our Father’s business, and remember that time is short. He could return any time, or our number of days will be called and we’re translated to heaven. Either way, life is short so let’s be like Paul and pour ourselves out for His name and His glory.

I have taken some classes here and there to deepen my understanding of His word. And to ensure that I am correctly dividing His word. I don’t hold a theology degree or anything, but I have a responsibility to make sure I do not lead anyone astray. So I do my diligence and continue to learn.

Goals with this blog

My goal here is to encourage, to help women discern, and to pass along credible ministry links for women’s further learning if they so chose to click. As to this last one, there is so much false teaching out there, I desire to be a trustworthy platform where women can trust and safely click through on the links I present

Discernment

When I was first saved I resisted going to church (being a loner and not understanding the ‘one anothers’) so I followed Joel Osteen on TV and incorrectly believed I was doing well. After some months, when I began looking into the Bible in earnest and compared Osteen’s speeches to God’s word, I saw that Osteen was false.

I was sad and angry that I had wasted that time of following a false teacher. However, it soon became apparent that one of the spiritual gifts the Spirit dispensed to me was discernment, so I decided to write about discernment topics in hopes that women who follow me would not be deceived, or at least, awaken to the possibility they may be following a false teacher.

Encouragement

I also write encouragement pieces. Much of what women do in this world is hard- if she works outside the home, the world is pressing against her, if she works at home with children, the world mocks her. Submitting to a husband in marriage is also hard work, and against our fleshly nature. So I try to encourage women by extolling the glories of Christ. There is no better encouragement then looking unto Jesus!

Prophecy

Finally, I love prophecy. In my earliest days I was thrilled with prophecy because it answered all the questions I’d had as an unsaved adult who was perplexed with the world and human behavior. Why are people so bad? Why does the world hate Israel? Why is there a heaven (it seemed obvious there was since all cultures spoke of one) but if so, who goes there? And if everyone goes there, what makes it different from here? Who created the world? (Obvious to me it didn’t emerge from a Big Bang, and evolution seemed unwieldy).

I was dwelling in the nether world of Romans 1:19-20 where my understanding was that there IS a Creator, but my fleshly mind rejected anything about Jesus. I also knew deep down I was a sinner but up top of my mind I suppressed that and thought I was a fairly good person. The dissonance was highly uncomfortable.

Prophecy answered my questions. NOW I know who created the world, and why. NOW I know why the world hates Israel. NOW I know why my conscience was bothered by my sinfulness. I was so relieved in learning prophecy in the earliest days of the blog when I was using Blogspot I did some newspaper eisegesis but the Spirit grew me out of that.

Prophecy is THE answer to all the questions pagans have, and we believers hold that key. This is truly amazing. I love the Lord’s prophetic work, it is one way I worship His sovereignty. Who else knows the end from the beginning? Who else created the end from the beginning? And that He deigns to share it with puny humans is amazing.

I came at the Bible in a way that seems different from many, I did not start with the Gospels. I began reading the Old Testament; Genesis, then ALL the Prophets, then Revelation. It took me about 3 years to finish them, and by the end of that I had what I believe is a beginning of an understanding of past-fulfilled end time prophecy.

Eschatological Views

Based on studying the Bible alone, I believe the Bible clearly shows that there will be a rapture, that believers will be caught up in the air to be with Jesus in heaven. I believe that the rapture precedes the Tribulation, during which God will punish Israel and the world for 7 years. I believe during that time the antichrist will rise and persecute Jews and Christians. I believe the Battle of Armageddon will occur but the LORD will return as War-King and slay all his enemies. I believe He will then establish a kingdom of 1000 years of peace since the devil and his minions are locked up…until the end of 1000 years when satan is let out. After one final quick battle, the Lord will melt the earth and make a new heavens and a new earth, He will judge all humans since the beginning at the Great White Throne Judgment, and believers will begin eternity.

Some call this eschatological view “Dispensationalism”. I reject that. It’s simply biblical. I did not arrive at this belief by stumbling on John Darby. I did not arrive at this by listening to John MacArthur. In fact, I was listening to Adrian Rogers during these years, and also a Oneness Pentecostal post-millennial pastor called Irvin Baxter. However as I grew in understanding, Baxter’s beliefs were increasingly confusing and I never understood his version of the end of time. I finally rejected it.

After concluding my studies of the Old Testament, then Revelation, I settled on what seemed clear to me: the order of events I described above. THEN I began in the New Testament.

Some of my favorite preachers are John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Mike Riccardi, Martyn Lloyd Jones, RC Sproul, Paul Washer. Authors I enjoy are John Bunyan & other Puritans, Tony Reinke, Sinclair Ferguson, and Nate Pickowicz. Ministries I enjoy are Just Thinking Podcast, Wretched Radio, Justin Peters Ministries, G3 Ministries, American Gospel TV.

I am wary and careful about women’s ministries because even if they start out great, often, too often, they go sideways with wrong doctrine. But some good ones are Susan Heck, Martha Peace, Open Hearts in a Closed World, A Word Fitly Spoken, Thankful Homemaker. I also enjoy Megan Basham and Allie Beth Stuckey on Twitter.

Trivia

I lived on a sailboat and cruised the Eastern seaboard for two years, then lived in a VW camper van for 3 months and traveled the US Southern border.

I also traveled much in South America and Europe, Canada too. Italy is my favorite.

I hate snow.

I love birds.

I support myself as an educator: I’ve been a classroom teacher, substitute, and now a paraprofessional.

I’m a native New Englander living in the American south. I love both regions for their uniqueness.

So that’s it. My goals, my stances and my hopes for women. Be encouraged in Jesus love and care, be hopeful that the end of all things will come, and sin will be no more!

By Elizabeth Prata

Thank you to the newcomers to the blog! A new year brings lists, and if I’m on a list then people come over here and check the blog out. For that, I thank you for taking the time. Here is some information about The End Time and its Administrator and sole author: Elizabeth Prata (me!)

The end of the year often comes with reflection, and lists, and resolutions. It’s human nature to ponder. We like stark demarcations like borders, end of year reflections, anniversaries, things that help us say ‘this is this and that is that’.

Growing up, I never had much exposure to church. We were Methodist for a while, then Unitarian. Then nothing. Church education and attendance was spotty at best. My parents shall we say, did not practice godly living. (It was the 60s and 70s after all).

I was saved later in life at about age 43. I don’t have an exact date but a time frame, sometime in December 2003/January 2004.

Being a loner and having no understanding of what the Church is all about, for 18 months or so, I resisted attending church (even though deep down I knew I should).

I thought that watching Joel Osteen on TV every week was good enough.

Now that I was in Christendom, I thought that I was finally ‘safe’ and nothing bad would ever happen again. I was wrong! Christianity is full of strife and trouble, (but so worth it!)

When I finally got a Bible and compared Osteen’s words to it, by the Spirit’s grace, I knew that this kind of worship wasn’t proper.

I felt gypped, lied, to and upset at the notion that a pastor could be false and waste my spiritual time by hindering my walk, but I soon learned this is more frequent in Christendom than people think. But the Romans 8:28 ‘good’ that came out was that the feeling of loss and worthless worship at experiencing a false teacher now propels me into discernment. It is my desire that this does not happen to anyone else.

My first series I listened to under John MacArthur, whom I found as another graceful doing of the Spirit, was “Battle for the Beginning“. I love beginnings and endings, that’s why Genesis and Revelation are my favorite books of the Bible.

I am a faithful member of a Reformed church led by 4 elders who preach verse-by-verse with occasional topical short series.

I enjoy taking classes through The Masters’ Seminary Institute for Church Leadership (ICL), and through Ligonier Connect. ICL offers classes to individuals. You do not need to apply through the seminary, but the courses are offered by the same men. They are not expensive, and several times a year they offer one for free or half price. They also offer certificate tracks. At ICL, I’ve especially enjoyed Brad Klassen’s course on Prayer so much, and at Ligonier, Derek Thomas’ course on Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

I’ve kept this blog for 14 years (as of this January 9), with a blog published every day, sometimes two blogs in a day. I’ve written over 6,000 blogs with few repeats (thanks to the sustaining of the Holy Spirit).

My early years on the blog was full of breathless newspaper eisegesis, but I make no apology, because finally I was beginning to have answers to questions that plagued me so! With a sudden change in worldview, now, everything made sense! I’ll never forget that euphoria at having the big questions settled. Why are people so evil? Why is Israel always hated? Why are there earthquakes and other disasters? My worldview had shifted rapidly and I blogged in order to sort it all out. Shifting from a secular world view to a biblical one gave me answers and I was thrilled! Thankfully that focus died down and I began writing about doctrine more.

I was raised in the north and was unfamiliar with Southern Gospel music but once I heard it I loved it! I especially love Southern Gospel quartets.

My heart is for discernment, that women would think critically and biblically about their savior and their walk. It’s also for missions, and being a good student of the word, and encouraging women to live a lifestyle that exalts Jesus, no matter what stage of life they are in.

Speaking of lifestyle, I was divorced prior to salvation and have been single ever since. My idols prior to salvation were marriage and husband, but being unsaved I didn’t enter into it for the right reasons or manage it properly, since, of course, it was an idol and not part of Godly living. After conversion the Lord gave me a contentment in singleness, and I use the time and space He affords me to continue this writing ministry. (1 Corinthians 7:34).

I recently had a birthday, turning 62- officially entering a retirement age/stage of life. Let me tell you, life IS a vapor! More on that in another blog essay.

I am grateful for every reader who comes to The End Time blog. Why ‘the end time’? Because we are IN the end of time, the time between Jesus’ ascension and return. Time is short. You are never closer to your eternal destination than you are each day that passes. Make the most of the time He has given us.

Knowledge that all this will come to an end suddenly and unexpectedly should give us a fervor for right living, for proclaiming His gospel, and for speaking His excellencies wherever and whenever we can. This is my goal, and Lord willing, I’ll keep doing it in 2023.

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