bible – Page 19

The Danger of Drifting: A Faith Shipwreck Warning

Posted on March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Man without Christ is a shipwreck upon the rocks, rocked by every wave of temptation, with no anchor, with no hope. Death looms before him as a door to judgment, for the wages of sin is death,” says Dustin Benge in his Hearts Aflame episode of Puritan devotionals.

In the episode above, we meet Scottish late Puritan Thomas Boston. In Boston’s well-regarded classic, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Benge explains that “Thomas Boston vividly portrays the fallen condition of humanity—alienated from God, enslaved to sin, and without hope apart from Christ. The depth of human ruin is sobering, yet it magnifies the glory of divine grace.”

Do you recognize the depth of your natural misery without Christ’s redemption?

The episode talked about man without Christ,

“Man without Christ is like a ship wrecked upon the rocks, tossed by every wave of temptation, with no anchor, no hope.”

This maritime metaphor is real to me. I have sailed about 15,000 nautical miles living in a sailboat upon the waters from Maine to Florida and across to the Bahamas and back, twice. I’ve sailed from Tampa Florida to the Dry Tortugas, and zoomed from Naples, Florida to Rhode Island in a 21 foot powerboat. I’ve crossed the Gulf Stream in calm, at night, and in a storm. Gone through the washing machine that is Hell’s Gate in New York City. I’ve been in the Storm of the Century 1993. I’ve been in Hurricane Bob. I know lighthouses, rocks, shoals, and shipwrecks (Charley’s Crab was lost in the storm of ’93, and another friend lost his boat in a different storm in the Caribbean). We came close to shipwreck ourselves, twice.

Shipwreck is a very bad thing.

Worse would be making a shipwreck of the faith.

Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) made a career out of painting maritime scenes, including shipwrecks. Like this one:

Without Christ, we can do nothing. Oh, I know the skeptic will say, ‘Doody-head, of course we do things! We live and breathe and work and have kids and play baseball and drive cars and all the things!” Correct. But the pagan without Christ can do nothing that pleases Him. Without Christ we cannot bear fruit for the kingdom, worship Him rightly, live for holiness, reflect His image, or do anything at all.

Paul advised Timothy to ‘fight the good fight’, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. (1 Timothy 1:19).

Jude wrote that the ungodly pretenders are unreasoning animals and warned that they “are the ones who are hidden reefs in your love feasts…“(Jude 1:12a). Do you know what hidden reefs do? Wreck your ship.

Hebrews 2:1 says For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. Do you know what happens when you don’t pay attention? Your mooring becomes loose and you drift away from the dock or the mothership, and untethered, you soon lose sight of land. Shipwreck.

‘Drifting’ is the thing to be afraid of. Just as some boat, not made fast to the bank, certainly glides down stream so quietly and with so little friction that her passengers do not know that they are moving until they come up on deck, and see new fields around them, so the ‘things which we have heard,’ and to which we ought to be moored or anchored, we shall drift, drift, drift away from, and, in nine cases out of ten, shall not feel that we are moving, till we are roused by hearing the noise of the whirlpools and the falls close ahead of us; and look round and see a strange country. McLaren’s Expositions.

Now, if you are truly saved, you can never lose your salvation. Judas had the rejection inside of him all the while, he just pretended to be a disciple of Christ. He followed with his feet, but his heart could do nothing.

Matthew Henry says of 1 Timothy 1:19’s shipwreck,

As for those who had made shipwreck of the faith, he specifies two, Hymeneus and Alexander, who had made a profession of the Christian religion, but had quitted that profession; and Paul had delivered them to Satan. Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2352).

Warren Wiersbe said, “Paul changed the illustration from army to navy (1 Tim. 1:19). He warned Timothy that the only way to succeed was to hold fast to “faith and a good conscience.” It is not enough to proclaim the faith with our lips; we must practice the faith in our daily lives“. Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 213). Victor Books.

A good conscience is key to the verse. Shipwreck comes when one ignores the conscience, suppresses what is good, and eventually sears it so that he or she drifts, winds up on the rocks, and wrecks their faith.

As is said in the Hearts Aflame article, The depth of human ruin is sobering, yet it magnifies the glory of divine grace.” The wondrous mystery is that Jesus relieves us of our sin burden, erases it from the record books when we repent. Those who recognize the depth of our natural misery are deeply grateful for having this burden and misery removed. The Lord’s divine grace shines so brightly that the Christian never looks away but only grows in love and attachment to Him, and as a result, we are “keeping a pure conscience.”

Further Rescources

John MacArthur: The Vanishing Conscience (book)

The Conscience, by Richard Greenham (essay)

The Puritan Conscience by J. I. Packer (essay)

theology

Curate your soul

Posted on March 15, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I have always been a museum-goer. My parents did a good job of introducing me to cultural things and museums were one of those cultural things. A museum is where I first heard the word “curate” or “curator”.

According to AI, “A curator’s role involves overseeing and managing collections, including historical items, artwork, and other artifacts, ensuring their preservation, proper presentation, and accessibility for exhibits and displays within institutions like museums, libraries, and historical sites.“

The curator selects the art pieces and decides which goes where in order to make a cohesive experience for the viewer in the museum, or gallery, wherever the pieces are that have been curated.

And that setting is where the word “curate” remained for most of my adult life.

Until the internet. Until the internet really got going with social media exploding everywhere.

Now I hear the word curate all the time. According to AI again, in terms of social media,

“In the context of social media, “curate” means selecting and sharing valuable, relevant content created by others to engage your audience and build your brand’s reputation as a credible source of information.”

Everyone is a curator. People curate their Facebook wall. They curate their Twitter stream. They curate their Instagram photos. They curate their TikToks. Everybody is a curator.

I got to thinking… do we curate our souls?

The world’s most precious commodity is the soul. Everybody has one. Someone somewhere might not have a social media to curate, but everyone has a soul.

“The sinful body is the sepulchre in which it is entombed, until Christ
giveth it life.” ~The Greatness of the Soul, John Bunyan.

The New Testament is FULL of wise advice, admonitions, and exhortations on how to curate this precious item, this invisible, ephemeral, but real and actual thing. A soul dwells inside all who are unborn and who are born. It emerges wrapped in flesh and lurks in the heart to do only evil against God.

Upon Adam’s sampling the fruit, Boston wrote, “Death also seized his soul; he lost his original righteousness, and the favor of God; witness the pangs of conscience which made him hide himself from God. And he became liable to eternal death…“

But God’s mercy is such that He did not leave us in that hopeless state. He sent His own Son to live the perfectly holy life that we could not ever live. He was killed for this, dying on the cross, and buried. But He rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father. His feet are upon the footstool of all enemies, including death.

“Turn your eyes, O prisoners of hope, towards the Lord Jesus Christ; and embrace him, as he offers himself in the gospel. “There is no salvation in any other,” Acts 4:12.” Thomas Boston, “Human Nature in its Fourfold State“.

If you have been redeemed, dear reader, how do you curate your soul? The very soul wrested from death’s grip at bloody expense? Have you committed your interests to the Glorious Savior?

Boston again, “Be frequently reflecting upon your conduct, and considering what course of life you wish to be found in, when death arrests you; and act accordingly. When you do the duties of your station in life, or are employed in acts of worship, think with yourselves, that, it may be, this is the last opportunity; and therefore do it as if you were never to do more of that kind. When you lie down at night, compose your spirits, as if you were not to awake until the heavens be no more. And when you awake in the morning, consider that new day as your last; and live accordingly.”

Further Resources

Human Nature in its Fourfold State by Thomas Boston at Monergism, read online for free

The Greatness of the Soul, John Bunyan at Chapel Library, download for free

theology

Diligence in Hearing: A Path to Spiritual Growth

Posted on March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

When we receive the word of God, we have a responsibility to it. Before we are saved, our responsibility is to repent and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15).

After we are saved, we still have a responsibility regarding our response to the word. Here is my pastor:

“What you receive from it will be directly related to how you receive it. Look at the verse in Mark 4:24. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you. Now that’s a very simple principle. What you get out of or from God’s word will depend on how well you pay attention to it. In other words, there’s a reward for diligent understanding of God’s word, diligent effort. If you apply yourself to carefully understanding and heeding God’s word, you’re going to be richly rewarded for your efforts.”

The pastor continues with other verses along the same principles, earnestly devoting yourself to the Word as you receive it will yield wisdom, discernment, joy, and more. Pastor again:

“In Proverbs 19, verse 27; Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. But if you take heed of what you’ve been taught, then the truth will become a guard over you. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:16, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers. And so don’t be careless in how you receive God’s Word. Pay attention to what you hear. And like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. Have you been careful in how you hear? In our scripture reading today in Hebrews 5, the author criticizes the audience. He says, you have become dull of hearing, Hebrews 5, verse 11; “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” In other words, this is a classic description of someone who has not taken heed of the truth. They have not received it, thought carefully about it, and applied it to their lives.”

On the next day’s devotional, I heard Dustin Benge’s reading of the Puritan John Owen from his classic “Communion with God.” The principle of hearing well was brought up again. These ‘spiritual coincidences’ delight me.

The father’s love “was fixed on us before the foundation of the world. Before we were, or had done the least good, then were his thoughts upon us, — then was his delight in us; — then did the Son rejoice in the thoughts of fulfilling his Father’s delight in him, Prov. 8:30, says Owen. Why did the father love us? There was “nothing in us for which we
should be beloved” and “though we change every day, yet his love changeth not. Could any kind of provocation turn it away, it had long since ceased. Its unchangeableness is that which carries out the Father unto that infiniteness of patience and forbearance…”

Seeking the special closeness with God through our prayers and receiving of His word is a special privilege of the saints. “Men are generally esteemed according to the company they keep. It is an honour to stand in the presence of princes, though but as servants.
What honour, then, have all the saints, to stand with boldness in the presence of the Father, and there to enjoy his bosom love!” says Owen. “What a safe and sweet retreat is here for the saints, in all the scorns, reproaches, scandals, misrepresentations, which they undergo in the world.”

“His love is not ours in the sweetness of it until it be so received. Continually, then, act thoughts of faith on God, as love to thee, — as embracing thee with the eternal free love before described. When the Lord is, by his word, presented as such unto thee, let thy mind know it, and assent that it is so; and thy will embrace it, in its being so; and all thy affections be filled with it. Set thy whole heart to it; let it be
bound with the cords of this love.” ~John Owen

Receive His word faithfully, earnestly, knowing His love is immense and directed toward His children. Receive it, do diligence with it, and return this love in worship and in all our strength, mind, and heart.

Fly to the fountain, once filled with blood, now gushing love to all who are in Him. Receive His word with joy, implant it in your heart, do not delay, for within is a bountiful mercy. Owen concludes,

“Indeed, the great sin of believers is, that they make not use of Christ’s bounty as they ought to do; that we do not every day take of him mercy in abundance. The oil never ceaseth till the vessels cease;
supplies from Christ fail not, but only when our faith fails in receiving them.”

Further Resources

Hearts Aflame: John Owen Communion with Christ

CCEL, Communion With God by John Owen, online

Embrace the Challenge of Reading ‘Communion with God’ by John Owen, by Mike McKinley: summary of key points in Owen’s work

theology

Don’t be a pig’s snout- Lessons from Proverbs for Women

Posted on March 12, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

As a ring of gold in a pig’s snout, So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion. (Proverbs 11:22).

It’s obvious what this means. But…is it obvious?

That’s the beauty and the wonder of God’s word, especially Proverbs. On the surface, it’s easy to understand what it’s saying. But the word of God is living and active, so digging into it yields further depths of understanding.

Bibleref explains the overall sense of the proverb: “The comparison made here is meant to be slightly shocking, as pigs were considered unclean animals. Beauty is represented by something small and insignificant, as compared to the disgusting, filthy, and enormous problem of indiscretion.“

I find that if I ask questions of the text, it will yield answers. I wondered after reading this proverb as part of my daily Bible reading yesterday, I asked myself, what exactly does the proverb mean by ‘discretion’?

I like Biblehub.com because it has the Bible in every translation, commentaries, original languages, lexicon, word dictionaries and much more, all in one spot. I looked up the word discretion in Strong’s Hebrew:

Usage: The Hebrew word “taam” primarily refers to the sense of taste, but it extends metaphorically to denote discernment, judgment, or understanding. It is used to describe the ability to perceive or evaluate situations, often in a moral or spiritual context.

Cultural and Historical Background: In ancient Hebrew culture, the concept of “taste” was not limited to the physical act of eating but was also a metaphor for experiencing and evaluating life. Just as taste helps one discern the quality of food, discernment helps one evaluate moral and spiritual matters. This metaphorical use reflects the holistic view of human experience in the Hebrew mindset, where physical senses often parallel spiritual insights.

“Just as a gold nose ring in a pig’s snout is incongruous, even so indiscretion in a beautiful woman is incongruous. Outward beauty should be accompanied by inward virtue. The negative illustration is Jezebel while the positive is Abigail.” Gingrich, R. E. (2005). The Book of Proverbs (Volume I) (p. 29). Riverside Printing.

Discernment is important. Yes, the proverb is alluding to a woman’s virtue, taste, and beauty, but a key point is her ability to evaluate spiritual and moral situations.

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).

Discretion, or discernment, or using proper evaluative methods, are important for the biblical woman. Far from the improperly used ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’ verse (out of context) a Proverbs woman or wife who lacks discernment is as ugly as a pig’s snout. We can dress her up with jewelry and fine clothes, but her inability to cling to hat is good will make her ugly as a pig, which is offensive to the Bible people because as stated, pigs are highly unclean.

Peter makes this same point in the New Testament:

1 Peter 3:3-4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes, / but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

A women attains unfading beauty by communing with God and training her senses to distinguish between good and evil so as to better obey and love what God loves and hate what God hates. This is discernment.

And Jesus made the same point in Matthew 23:27-28
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. / In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Prettying up the external does a man or woman no good if the internal is devoid of discretion.

1 Timothy 1:5
The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.

theology

The Truth Behind Heaven Tourism: Biblical Perspectives

Posted on March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There is a social media story going around that alleges a man died in a hospital and spent 11 hours in heaven. It’s an older story, 6 or 7 years old, but getting traction now. The man said he got a full tour, complete with glowing-eyed monsters, demons climbing out of the pit to claw his back, fires, green grass so beautiful and symmetrical, feathered angels hugging him, and Jesus face to face.

“Jim was never a religious man. When it came to matters of God and faith, he was ambivalent. But as he lay in the hospital bed, clinically dead for more than 11 hours, his consciousness was transported to the wonders of Heaven and the horrors of hell. When he returned to this world, he brought back the missing peace his soul had been longing for.“

He told his story on Youtube, saying he was never particularly religious, if anything, he was agnostic. He said, “I hoped that someone was in charge of the chaos but I never sought it out.”

Stop and think, if the people who Jesus has chosen from the foundation of the world to be one of His, and this man was a Jesus-rejecting sinner, why would Jesus give him, and not others the opportunity to preview what he would be missing if he continued in his unsaved state?

The man has traveled around North and South America, having spoken to about 20,000 people so far.

“James, my son, this is not yet your time. Go back and tell your brothers and sisters of the wonders we have shown you. While he now attends church, Woodford doesn’t affiliate with any denomination, eschewing labels. ‘Labels do not matter to God. He knows your heart better than you do,’ he states. For Woodford, it boils down to living a life of kindness and service. “That’s how simple the love of God is. It requires nothing more of you other than a dedication to doing good for others.” source.

Didn’t the Rich Man in Hades beg Abraham to send his servant Lazarus to his brothers to warn them of their impending doom? And didn’t Abraham say,

‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.‘” (Luke 16:19-31).

some heaven tourism books, still popular

Was Abraham wrong? This man’s friends will listen to him since he rose from the dead? You see how the contradictions mount up.

It is not your time? Doesn’t the precision of God dictate perfection in birth and death? Was his entrance to heaven a mistake?

The man said that the experience apprised him of how wasteful his life had been, accumulating wealth, being unkind, unhelpful. These are normal things a convert says when truly converted, we recognize that. But the method of his alleged conversion is distinctly false. Jesus is not giving guided tours of heaven, personal messages or warnings, and then sending the person back to their body. In normal life, a near-death experience often changes people, but the change is not sourced from the blood of the Lamb to His elect. It’s a moral decision from inside the person.

And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment, (Hebrews 9:27)

Tim Challies said of one particular book during the height of the heaven tourism era 12 years ago, “I am not going to review To Heaven and Back. It’s pure junk, fiction in the guise of biography, paganism in the guise of Christianity.”

In fact, there came to be such an outcry against the spate of these books being pumped out, that in 2014, “LifeWay Christian Resources has stopped selling all “experiential testimonies about heaven” following consideration of a 2014 Southern Baptist Convention resolution on “the sufficiency of Scripture regarding the afterlife.”

Paul reluctantly, very reluctantly described some of his experience in heaven, not for titillating or self-serving purposes, his trip to third heaven. He refused even to name himself as the ‘traveler’, and he said specifically there were some things man was not even permitted to say.

And yet all these people allegedly return from ‘heaven’ and gush about their experience. And make money off them…

Did Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus write a parchment and travel around telling his story of being dead for 4 days and his experience of the afterlife? No.

One minute after you slip behind the parted curtain, you will either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ or catching your first glimpse of gloom as you have never known it. Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable. Erwin Lutzer, One Minute After You Die

Our eternity should be taken seriously. It is a weighty matter, and not one for merchandising, flippantly joking about, or bearing tales about. Lutzer again,

And so while relatives and friends plan your funeral- deciding on a casket, a burial plot, and who the pallbearers shall be— you will be more alive than you have ever been. You will either see God on His throne surrounded by angels and redeemed humanity, or you will feel an indescribable weight of guilt and abandonment. There is no destination midway between these two extremes; just gladness or gloom.

The scriptures are sufficient to tell us how to prepare for the moments after our bodies cease, and our souls go to its place, awaiting judgment and a fitted body for heaven. Failing to prepare, which means failing to repent and believe in the resurrected and ascended Jesus, a person will be fitted with a body for hell.

A way to determine that these stories are false, aside from the time that one author came out and said he had been lying all along, is that the people who claim to have gone to heaven claim to have spoken with grandma or seen family or been hugged by friends, and had been shown green grass and beauty…fail to mention the ONE THING that will capture our attention: Jesus on his throne.

Here is Todd Friel with a one minute comment on that: Auto-start at 5:07- ends at 6:29

https://youtu.be/o_pmjd0Zggg?si=yxLroACZO5_2GKP1&t=307

For a longer treatment on the issue, here is a biblical talk by Justin Peters, Mysticism: The Deadly Dangers of Trusting Personal Experience Over Biblical Authority

Anytime somebody tells you they’ve been to heaven, do not believe it. This is mysticism. This is trying to get in touch with the divine, with deity through subjective experience and disengaging the mind
Source

Just as visions are not happening today, just as God isn’t directly speaking/whispering to anybody today, trips to heaven are not happening. They either come from a lying tongue or a deceived mind.

theology

The Masters University’s New Movie, Review of “The Descent”

Posted on March 10, 2025March 10, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“The Descent” follows the story of a small, tranquil community suddenly grappling with a series of horrifying attacks from mysterious creatures that have emerged from the depths of darkness.

The Great Tribulation of Revelation is one of the next prophetic events on God’s timeline. Many Christian filmmakers have made movies about this period in Earth’s life. Some were fairly successful, others not. The main issue people usually have with these kind of movies is the poor production values make some of these films nearly unwatchable. The Descent’s production values are excellent, stunning in fact.

The main issue with movies based on events in Revelation is that the prophesied events are so horrific, the worst of the horror genre movies cannot capture them realistically. Nor would we want to. Even Jesus said in Matthew 24:21,

For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again.

The Descent is a film made by the Department of Cinema and Digital Arts from The Masters University, a Christian University. Its premise is that the Tribulation had begun three years ago, and now the Great Tribulation is beginning with the opening of the abyss to let out the demon horde. Here is the passage, which is read to several characters in a pivotal scene in the movie:

Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him. 2 He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the shaft. 3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!

Movie Recap (skip down to avoid spoilers)

The movie opens in stunning scenes of a spacewalk, displaying the Milky Way, the universe, and the Earth, the blue marble that sustains the only life. The character says in communication with ground control at Houston he is looking forward to returning to earth in a few days. As he is speaking, static enters the communication lines and soon all communication is lost. On Earth we see with numerous bombs going off that global war has erupted. The movie later calls this ‘Red Friday.’

The tension building in the cold open is excellent, as are the visual effects. Next we see a slick advertisement for the Unity program, “working toward the greater good” in a push for a rebuilding earth’s damage.

We see a montage of chaos and war and death in quick-flashing fashion. All the things you’d expect to see if the earth was at war with itself. It’s explained that though the world’s social and civic infrastructures were crumbling, there were small pockets of relative normalcy, and we soon join the characters in the US Northeast in one of those pockets.

The characters are meeting with an older man who is a leader in this global party called Unity. He is singing its virtues, and there is one character, Wyatt, who is hesitant to join, though his girlfriend Mia is all-in.

As they conclude the meeting the couple go outside to dispose of trash and they see a man sitting on his porch, whom they get a weird feeling about and try to avoid. This is Markus, a Tribulation saint (played by Jubilant Sykes). He later explains that his wife tried her best to evangelize him but he rejected her push to convert and didn’t listen. “The she was gone” he said, in a moment the earth’s remaining unsaved call “The Abductions.”

As characters in the neighborhood go about their business this night, they hear strange chattering sounds and the music builds the tension. One by one, ‘something’ takes them, and there are some scenes of screaming, and some blood, though the rating is (if I remember correctly) TV-14. Nothing gory is shown. Only parts of the creatures are shown, leaving the rest to the imagination. The tension builds as the creatures stalk and drag away characters, and this is effective. I did slide forward a bit, myself, to relieve the tension.

Jubilant Sykes is ‘Markus’, the tribulation saint who later explains to the curious (and wounded) characters what is happening and what will happen. The leader of Unity slowly descends into madness, the unsaved entrench further into their deception, and the fence-sitter Wyatt eventually parts with his stubborn girlfriend, and walks over to Markus’ house, presumably to learn more about Jesus.

The movie ends with ‘Wyatt’ deciding to join with Markus, not with Unity.

My Review

A critic who reviewed the movie was perplexed as to why the producers chose to call this movie The Descent. I was quizzical about that myself. He said that there is another, more famous horror movie with the same title, and people no doubt would get the two mixed up. Additionally, he said he didn’t see what the title had to do with the movie. Me either. Unless, since I know about the events in Revelation, that the world descends into chaos and sin?

Anyway, I am not a cinephile but I thought it was pretty well acted, and also the shot composition, camera placement, and pacing were good. Some complaints I have read say it has a lot of talking in rooms, and it does, but the conversations are interspersed with outside scenes of the creatures and other goings on.

My Conclusion

Rating: Cinematically: B+. Good job on the first feature length movie!

Rating theologically: F. There was a glaring error, omission, and flaw in this film. It is Gospel-less. None of the scenes where Markus is talking about his conversion or what was happening to the world contained the words sin, repent, wrath, grace, nothing.

Markus’ first conversation with seeker Wyatt was that Markus’ wife tried her best and she read the Bible and prayed every day, but Markus would not listen. After the ‘Abductions’, AKA the rapture, Markus read the Bible “and it all made sense.” WHAT made sense?

In another conversation Markus had with Wyatt and his girlfriend, he said the Bible is the “very word of God” and that these events are ripped straight from the Bible, “I heard the truth. I hadn’t listened to it. The Bible changed my life, man.” The Bible doesn’t change your life, it changes your position in front of Jesus the King from wrath-bound sinner to saved penitent rightly worshiping the Savior. It changes your eternity, your soul, and then, yes, your life.

“It’s all real, it’s all foretold,” Markus said. He said he’s “a Christ follower” but he never says what it takes to become one, nor WHY these events were happening (wrath for sin).

When Wyatt seemed ready to convert, that would have been the moment, but Markus simply gives Wyatt a Bible to read. It wasn’t even open to the Gospels, but to Revelation.

I didn’t hear the Gospel and this is a heinous omission. Even the self-identifying atheist reviewer I listened to gave the movie props for acting and a good job on a limited budget for its production values, but he said the the movie “doesn’t really give you a lot of context about what’s happening.” I agree. And who better than an atheist to hear the Gospel in context?

The movie is here at Tubi (it’s hard to find there if you search, but here’s the direct link: https://tubitv.com/movies/100034175/the-descent. It will also be on Amazon later, they say.

I recommend it as a watchable movie in itself, and as a well done thriller. The movie does a good job of showing the unsaved’s reactions to the events unfolding in front of them, and giving very plausible reasons, too. But theologically there is no excuse for the lack of gospel. For all the ‘talking in rooms’ in the film, just once I’d liked to have heard the gospel and the biblical explanation for the events happening. Shame on TMU for leaving this out.

theology

A question about Lifeway Resources and my response

Posted on March 6, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was asked about the Lifeway Bible Study “When You Pray.” The study involves a collection of authors, who wrote a chapter each. They are- Kelly Minter, Jackie Hill Perry, Jen Wilkin, Jennifer Rothschild, Jada Edwards, and Kristi McLelland. It is a 7-session lesson designed for small groups, self alone, or a retreat accompanied by the separately purchased ‘Group Experience Kit’. Each session was written by the different author listed above. It includes a video component for each session. The study uses 6 different Bible translations, including the NLT.

GotQuestions: FMI and Review of the NLT here.

It is not best practice to use multiple translations in one study.

Using many translations in one study: AI says, “A Bible teacher should generally not use six different translations in one study as it can be overwhelming and confusing for students, potentially detracting from the focus on understanding the text rather than comparing translation nuances; it’s usually better to stick with one primary translation and only reference a few others when necessary to clarify meaning or highlight translation variations in specific passages.”

I thanked the questioner for the query and for the encouragement and for reading my material here on the blog. Discernment is always good.

I am sorry to say that uniformly, almost anything from Lifeway is going to be bad. They unashamedly platform false teachers. A while back Lifeway published a spate of “heaven tourism” books where people who said they’d died were given a tour of heaven, some of them claiming to have met Jesus. Lifeway continued to publish these books for years until a big outcry finally pushed them off Lifeway’s shelves. Their years-long persistence in publishing these books, some of which contradicted each other and all contradicting the Bible, despite appeals, petitions, and rebukes, displayed a wanton lack of concern for the spiritual state of their customers, a lack of discernment, and a prioritizing of greed over truth.

As for this specific study titled “When You Pray”, I’ve written several times about the authors Jackie Hill Perry, and Jen Wilkin. Both are egregious Bible twisters. Perry came out with an announcement that she receives direct revelation from Jesus and was instructed to tell people the different pieces of news ‘He’ tells her. Like this: “Ok ok. I’ll say this. God primarily deals with me in dreams. I’ve been enlightened, warned, and led to intercede for others through them.” She has since removed this Twitter announcement. You can read a transcript of it at the link above.

G3 on Why Modern Prophecy is False

Jen Wilkin is obsessed with two things, preaching and women. This equals women preaching, she twists almost every sermon, Q&A, panel, or interview into a women need to be leaders WITH men (in roles the Bible denies us, of course). In one famous sermon she likened period blood (excerpt) from women to the blood on the cross, saying women have a better understanding of the gospel because of this. I am not kidding.

As for Minter & Rothschild, Michelle Lesley has written about them, discerning that these women preach to men and they support and promote false teachers. She does not recommend either of these women.

Alternatives to Lifeway’s When you Pray ‘study’ might be:

At Ligonier, there is a 6-week lesson series with video etc, called Prayer, where RC Sproul “uses the acronym ACTS and the Lord’s Prayer to teach us how to pray” 24 min each. It costs $9.00/month.
https://connect.ligonier.org/library/prayer-27945/about/

G3 Ministries has small group studies, https://g3min.org/resource-category/small-group-study/?

The Hidden Life of Prayer by David MacIntyre is a classic gem, video on youtube (https://youtu.be/ODz1aOo6EOk?si=-P_LP270APU8PqwN and 39 page book can download for free at Chapel Library, https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/hlop/hidden-life-of-prayer-the-macintyredavid?

Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney is a small book and 5-min youtube videos by the author go thru how to pray daily without falling into the rut of saying the same old thing. https://youtu.be/A-HziKu5Ot0?si=yU70QoTBvrklUrbw

Grace Community Church led by MacArthur has a huge small group ministry section for men and women, many of the lessons are taped or video’d and have accompanying pdf or notes.

I’d say any of those alternatives are better than Lifeway. 🙂

Lifeway is not a trustworthy source for any Christian material, sadly.

theology

Pulpit Fashion

Posted on March 5, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Pulpits. If you attend church, you’ve got one. It may be a music stand, a desk, a simple or an ornate traditional pulpit. But the preacher needs to stand somewhere to face his audience, and preach the truth visibly and audibly. A pulpit, in Western church architecture is “an elevated and enclosed platform from which the sermon is delivered during a service.”

Here is Spurgeon opining on how horrible many pulpits are, lol. At the time apparently, the Pulpit was enclosed in some way, either by rails or a box, and between being confined and having gas lamps near the head, Spurgeon said, “is very apt to make a preacher feel half intoxicated, or to sicken him. We ought to be spared this infliction.” More here, Pulpits–

Remarkable are the forms which pulpits have assumed according to the freaks of human fancy and folly. Twenty years ago they had probably reached their very worst. What could have been their design and intent it would be hard to conjecture. A deep wooden pulpit of the old sort might well remind a minister of his mortality, for it is nothing but a coffin set on end: but on what rational ground do we bury our pastors alive? Many of these erections resemble barrels, others are of the fashion of egg cups and wine glasses; a third class were evidently modeled after corn bins upon four legs; and yet a fourth variety can only be likened to swallows’ nests stuck upon the walls. Some of them are so high as to turn the heads of the occupants when they dare to peer into the awful depths below them, and they give those who look up to the elevated preacher for any length of time a crick in the neck. I have felt like a man at the mast-head while perched aloft in these “towers of the flock.” These abominations are in themselves evils, and create evils.

Even 200 years ago they were looking for that sweet spot of design for a pulpit. Seems like at some point, Spurgeon found it.

Here is HB Charles on the making of the only 3rd replica of Spurgeon’s pulpit desk from which HB will now preach. He was overcome with joy at how this structure supports and aids the preacher in his preaching: The Charles Spurgeon Pulpit at Shiloh

https://www.firstfam.org/media/spurgeon-pulpit

Pastor David Tarkington was asked by a woodworking congregant what kind of pulpit he would like if he could design one, and he promptly said, ‘Like Spurgeon’s- go see HB Charles’ to see what it looks like.‘ Then he wrote,

Why the Pulpit?

What is the significance of having a replica pulpit of Spurgeon’s? I know that throughout our community and around the world, God’s men are preaching God’s Word faithfully while standing behind home-made stands, music stands, milk cartons stacked up, ornate pulpits, tall tables, and some with no stand at all. Yet, in our church, with the facility God has blessed us to have, this stage set-up and pulpit says more than most know. The desk where the copy of God’s Word is opened each Lord’s Day for the preaching of the word is more than just a piece of furniture. It is a heavy responsibility for the pastor to preach the Word, rightly divide it, and feed the flock well, trusting the Holy Spirit to empower the spoken words from the written Word so that God may be glorified.

Rebecca Van Doodewaard wrote an 8-part series on Ecclesiastical Architecture. I enjoyed that series very much. Here is an excerpt from that series, the entry focusing on pulpits:

So, “because the Word is indispensable, the pulpit, as the architectural manifestation of the Word, must make its indispensability architecturally clear” (Bruggink and Droppers, 80). The sacraments are necessary. Congregational singing is important. Prayer is needed.

Proclaimed gospel, however, has historically held and should hold primary importance in Protestant worship. Everything else in worship and the sanctuary should revolved around it and point to it. Presbyterians, low Anglicans, Baptists, and Methodists (among other Protestant groups), despite their differences, all originally put the preached Word front and center, theologically and architecturally.

This most basic element of biblical Christianity found consistent architectural expression across the board. You will see in old churches that have not renovated their sanctuaries, that even in times of strong denominational affiliation, large, beautiful, central pulpits were ubiquitous.

The pulpit was large, not only so that it was visible from all parts of the sanctuary, but also so there was space to hold the preacher’s notes, a hymn book and a copy of the Scriptures which the congregation could see. The other reason that pulpits were large was to make the minister look smaller, hiding most of the man behind this architectural manifestation of the Word. Source Rebecca Van Doodewaard, Ecclesiastical Architecture.

The Pulpit at Grace Community Church, By Phil Johnson:

Pastors often express interest in the pulpit at Grace Community Church. It is famous as one of the first pulpits ever mounted on a hydraulic lift, so that it can be adjusted for height, (side note: Spurgeon complained that as a short person “They are generally so deep that a short person like myself can scarcely see over the top of them, and when I ask for something to stand upon they bring me a hassock…” which is unstable.)
and it can even descend all the way beneath the platform, all at the touch of a button.

(This was made necessary by the placement of the baptistery, which is at the congregation’s eye level, in the platform behind the pulpit. The pulpit was built to descend so that it could be permanently located at the very front of the platform, yet be easily moved—almost imperceptibly—so that the baptistery can be seen.)

I’ve often said this is my favorite pulpit to preach from, for several reasons. Of course, it’s a historic pulpit with an unrivaled reputation as a place where biblical preaching always meets an eager congregation.

But I like the pulpit for pragmatic reasons, too. It offers more real estate for notes than any pulpit I have ever preached from anywhere. Its top is almost flat, not slanted like a music stand. (Slanted pulpits always allow my notes to slide beneath the reach of my bifocals. I’d prefer a totally flat pulpit-top.) Our pulpit is high enough that the line of sight between my notes and eye-contact with the congregation is very short.

As a piece of furniture, our pulpit is not particularly remarkable. There’s nothing ornate or extraordinary about its craftsmanship. But what it lacks in aesthetics it more than makes up for in serviceability.

CR Wiley says, “I was recently asked, “What makes a good pulpit?” Here’s one I designed and had built for me at my last church. Here are a few convictions and practical considerations that went into the design of this one.

1.A pulpit has a liturgical function—it isn’t a lectern, it is the throne of the Word in Reformed churches. Consequently, it should make the pulpit Bible visible from every part of the sanctuary. It’s not supposed to enhance the status of a preacher, instead it should say something about the authority of God’s judgements. To reinforce this I had what appear to have armrests on either side of the pulpit Bible—and it just so happened that these provided places for a preacher to place his hands.

2.It should be substantial, even heavy, made of the highest quality materials a congregation can afford. This pulpit is made of quarter sawn red oak from the Berkshires in Massachusetts and it weighs roughly 400 pounds.

3.On the practical side of things, it should have places to put notes and books that might be used during preaching. As you might be able to tell, this pulpit provides plenty of space on either side of the pulpit Bible for those things. Source

What is your opinion on pulpits?

theology

Elisabeth Elliot: Faith, Controversy, and Legacy

Posted on March 4, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

A reader asked me about Elisabeth Elliot. This is the answer I gave.

Elliot was one of the five wives whose husbands were killed by the unreached Ecuadorean Auca Indians back in 1956. She decided to remain in the mission field and minister to the same natives who had speared her husband. Later, returning to the US, she remarried and began speaking on a circuit. Her second husband, Addison Leitch, died agonizingly of cancer 4 years later. Elliot wrote books and hosted a radio program for 13 years called Gateway to Joy. She married for a third time in 1977 to Lars Gren and remained so until her death caused by dementia in 2015. She had one daughter, Valerie. Elisabeth was seen as a graceful, valiant, strong woman, but she was also disillusioned at times, complex, and had bouts of depression.

The question I was asked about Elliot was, was her theology off? It seems a bit off to the reader. I answered, yes her theology IS off. Elisabeth seems to be something of a sacred cow in evangelical circles, and has escaped scrutiny or critique. She gets a pass.

Some years ago I read an interview a Catholic lady was involved in with Elisabeth Elliot. A remarkable exchange occurred which the interviewer put in her resulting article. Elisabeth’s evangelical brother Thomas converted to Catholicism. He became an apologist for Roman Catholicism and wrote many books on the religion.

She said of her brother, the Catholic, that she wished she was brave or she’d be a Catholic too. From Catholic Exchange, an interview:

“Do you know my brother, Thomas Howard? He entered the Catholic Church some years ago. I only wish I had his courage. … “Cowardice, I suppose. My listeners and readers simply would not understand.” Source: Courage to be Catholic

No, we would not.

Though these things happen, it wasn’t solely wanting her child to go to American schools that made Elisabeth leave the mission field, it was constant interpersonal conflict with fellow widow Rachel Saint that was the final straw. They could not stand each other. Though Elisabeth apparently tried to heal the fracture, it never did heal. It’s really not here or there, but the press gives Elliott a winsome graciousness or a settled placidity which was not always true.

She also preached to men. Christianity Today wrote, “Elliot, like many prominent conservative women, also manifested certain contradictions amid her complementarian advocacy. Though she insisted that only qualified men could serve as pastors, she taught church audiences that typically included adult men. Along with her second husband, she joined the Episcopal Church, one of the denominations most adamant about ordaining female pastors.“

In her early life and especially when courting Jim, she had weird ideas about personal will and divining the will of God, using almost mystical means such as circumstances and experience. Her Keswick Holiness upbringing instilled this in her. This led her to excessive self-introspection and sometimes paralysis in decision making.

Elliot biographer wrote in her essay Why Elisabeth Elliot Changed Her Beliefs about Finding God’s Will, “She saw God’s care as dependent on her perfect obedience, and obedience as including not only her actions and her will but every aspect of her life right down to her natural inclinations. Human free will involved only the choice to obey or disobey God’s direction, and God’s will was so minutely specific that even an earnest seeker could miss the narrow path of obedience.”

The fear of missing God’s direction caused Elliot much grief. While it is admirable to want to lay down the whole body, mind, strength, and heart down for the Lord, it is a kind of personal sovereignty that thinks our own decisions can and do thwart God’s will.

Did not Mordecai say to Esther, “Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14), making it clear that Esther could decide what she wanted to decide, but that God’s plan would proceed regardless of Esther’s decision.

Elisabeth developed a rubric for divining what God wanted her to do,

(1) the circumstances,
(2) the witness of the Word,
(3) peace of mind

It’s an unstable thing to depend on emotions to confirm a personal decision. Whether it’s fear or peace, emotions should not figure in. No doubt Paul did not ‘feel peace about it’ when he got up from the road from being beaten almost dead to confront the mobs again, or when he floated on a shipwreck plank for days. In Acts 9:16, Jesus tells Paul, “For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Knowing the certainty of suffering was ahead, I am sure Paul didn’t feel a spiritual placidity all the time. Our emotions should not be a guide for obedience.

On the plus side, Elisabeth was staunchly against feminism, and spoke frequently about headship submission, roles in marriage, and resisting cultural norms. On the downside, she often said these things at predator Bill Gothard’s events. And she began this professional relationship with Gothard in the mid 1990s, AFTER accusations began to come out against Gothard, which were later confirmed by his Board.

She certainly endured horrific tragedies, martyrdom of her first husband, agonizing long death of 2^nd from cancer, and a semi-abusive relationship with the 3^rd, and a 10-year battle with dementia, which caused her death at age 88. Her work on the mission field is beyond admirable, and her writing no doubt has helped many, as well as her popular radio program.

However, her legacy is definitely complicated, wrapped in grace under suffering, obedience to the Lord even under the most difficult trials, and an advocate for gender roles- which are all good things. However her search for HOW to obey God, her yearning for Catholicism, and her evident hypocrisy in preaching to men, are sad complicating factors in her life’s story.

theology

Victim Mentality: A Biblical Critique

Posted on March 1, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Over the last five or eight years, I’ve seen a dramatic rise in what people term a “victimhood culture.” This is a culture which declares all power is evil, privilege is ill-gotten and leads to oppression, and victimhood is virtuous. Victims are allowed to opine on anything without facing critique, because, after all, it was their experience, or in the current parlance, “their truth.”

It’s the idea that that suffering and persecution (and any slight, wound, or grief is ‘persecution’ to victims) are a source of status. The deeper the ‘persecution’ the higher the status.

The notion that suffering or persecution can become a source of status is testimony to two things: 1) how satan twists anything, even the good things of the Bible, and 2) how me-centered Christianity can become if allowed to fester unfettered.

How does satan subtly twist the Bible away from Jesus toward ourselves? In this identity politics sphere anyway, the Bible says that the foolish shame the wise, the the weak are made strong, the king becomes a slave so that the slaves may become kings, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Satan took this and ran with it to create victimhood mentality.

Victim identity is not new. Prior to Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideas infiltrating his 1700s culture, participants in civil society counted their status based on what they had contributed positively to it. After Rousseau, who invented the category of ‘the disadvantaged’, it became based on a lack or a negative. Source.

But its infiltration wholesale into the faith is fairly new. Slowly, incrementally (because satan is subtle) me-centeredness crept into the faith in the form of sermons, books (self-help), and famously platformed ‘wounded women’ prancing about their stages opining about how they were ‘hurt’. Thus, one’s faith is based on how the person overcame the hurt in their own power, instead of focusing on and glorifying Christ by their teaching. Their experience becomes the focus.

I give one example among many, perhaps the best known example to this day- Beth Moore. On her instagram recently, she wrote,

Here is how Beth Moore was ‘hurt by her denomination’: She was given a Sunday School class to teach by her denomination (Southern Baptist Convention pastor John Bisagno, Moore’s pastor). When it outgrew the room, she was given an auditorium. Then she was given opportunity to ‘speak’ (AKA preach) to her congregation on Sunday evenings. Moore’s pastor John Bisagno is widely seen as having launched her ministry career and ’empowering women’ in ministry in modern times. When Moore’s first manuscript was rejected by Lifeway, an arm of her denomination, her friend Lee Sizemore advocated for her and got the manuscript published. Moore went on to have a lucrative relationship with Lifeway for decades, with a Lifeway worker noting “no one’s products brings in more money for Lifeway than Beth Moore’s”.

Her denomination via Lifeway paid for half of Moore’s private jet travel for decades as she rose in prominence and became known as the most famous conservative evangelical woman in the world at the time. Supported by her denomination she was puffed by Christianity Today and even the secular magazine The Atlantic in long articles. Moore made millions, and at one time enjoyed owning 4 homes scattered across Texas from Galveston to Tomball to Menard.

But … the ‘denomination hurt her’. She called all this support ‘misogynistic’ even though she was specifically launched as an ’empowered woman in ministry’ BY her denomination, and supported for decades BY her denomination, petted and jetted BY her denomination. Now wrung dry, Moore’s noisy and divisive exit was the thanks they got.

That’s the victimhood culture- as long as it serves the person and their goals, they will play the victim. Playing the victim keeps the focus on the individual and away from Jesus.

Oh, I know they will say the word ‘Jesus’ a lot. They may even attribute their overcoming their hurt to Jesus. But the focus is squarely on themselves, their hurtful experience, and their power to overcome.

While reality constrains us to acknowledge genuine suffering and oppression exist and obligates compassion, it also requires us to acknowledge that the doctrine of perpetual victimhood—an ideology that frames individuals as powerless, blameless, and entirely at the mercy of external forces—stands in opposition to reality and starkly contradicts the teachings of Scripture. Source The Doctrine of Victimization and the Destruction of Personal Agency

At root of the victim mentality is pride. It says ‘I was hurt. I deserve better treatment than that.’ The word deserve is key here. In fact, what we deserve is hell. What did John the Baptist deserve? He was beheaded. Did he deserve that for speaking the truth? No. Is he deemed a victim in the Bible? Jesus said he was the greatest man. Did Paul deserve to be imprisoned? No. Did Paul claim to be a victim? He went through a lot. He counted it all as joy in service to the King.

If you have a victim mentality, you will see your entire life through a perspective that things constantly happen ‘to’ you. Victimisation is thus a combination of seeing most things in life as negative, beyond your control, and as something you should be given sympathy for experiencing as you ‘deserve’ better. Source: The Victim Mentality: What it is and Why You Use It

A true Christian will see whatever happens to them as being FOR them. Why? Because Jesus is sovereign and is the cause of all things.

Today a person’s moral authority is directly proportional to how many different ways he or she can claim to have been victimized.
Social Justice and the Gospel, part 1

I could easily trade on being a victim. I grew up in a neglectful and abusive home. I am a child of divorce. I was a latchkey kid. I was stalked by an actual rapist in college and helped the police catch him. I was betrayed and abandoned by an adulterous husband. I was a congregant in a spiritually abusive church. I was a congregant in a church whose worthless pastor blatantly plagiarized every sermon he gave, even ripping off the original pastor’s life anecdotes as if he had lived them. Do you know what all of that adds up to? LIFE. It’s life. That’s all.

Pagans and Christians alike have things happen to them. Just because Christians have wounds and hurts doesn’t make us special. Playing a Christian victim is a devolving sphere of self-pity and a heaping up other victims to affirm your self-pity.

Herbert Schlossberg has said of victim mentality that it, “exalts categories of weakness, sickness, helplessness, and anguish into virtues while it debases the strong and prosperous. In the country of ontological victimhood, strength is an affront.” (see source below).

This is exactly why strong Christian men are seen as oppressors and Christian women crying over ‘misogyny’ in the faith are seen as the strong and ‘brave’ ones.

It is OK to feel sorrowful once in a while. Do I ever feel sorrowful for a lost childhood? Sure. But I focus on the positives. I have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, though I do not deserve it. I have His strength, provision, and support every day. I can boldly approach the highest throne with my petitions. I have an eternity to see the face of God and dwell in glory. What a joy that the Lord shepherded me even before my moment of justification to turn me into the person I am today, including the life trials before and after salvation! What minuscule things my wounds and hurts are when compared to the weight of glory!

I am sorry if you were hurt by family, stranger, church, denomination, anyone. I am sorry if you are feeling sorrowful. But we are not victims. We are to love, forgive, bring our cares to Jesus and lay them at His feet. Some of the people who ‘hurt’ me are not saved. They were just living their unsaved lives in sin, and their sin affected me. Some have passed into their eternity unsaved as far as I know. Others are near death’s door as an unsaved person. How can I feel sorry for myself when their eternity hangs in the balance? May it not be that I sit in the safe seat of justification and point to myself when others around me are destined for eternal wrath and torment!

Both Paul and Moses were so torn by the fact of their countrymen being unsaved they pleaded for them, even to suffer in their stead. (Romans 9:3, exodus 32:32). This kind of self-abegnation is unheard of today.

It would be logical for pagans to wonder, ‘what kind of Jesus do Christians serve who constantly moan about being a victim? What a sad, ineffectual religion!’

The cross of Jesus defeats all self-pity, victimhood, pride, anger, bitterness. Yes, we may need to work hard at claiming this defeat depending on the depth of the crime. But we certainly do not need to inflate our wounds in order to garner attention and pity. Jesus is too precious for that.

Further Resources

G3 Ministries: video, The Intersection of Victimology and Evangelicalism | Ep. 90

The Cult of Victimhood, The Master’s Seminary blog article

Source for Schlossberg quote- Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: Christian Faith and its Confrontation with American Society p. 69–70.