Tag: christianity

Posted in theology

Of toxic empathy, false zeal, and how satan’s demons masquerade to fool you

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Allie Beth Stuckey published a book that’s out this week, called Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion. The book is making waves and causing a hearty discussion on social media.

That’s good. Stuckey explores the concepts of the current cultural mantras, “love is love”, “trans women are women”, “abortion is health care”, “social justice is justice”, and pointedly, that empathy is not always empathy. Love, justice, empathy are good words, but they can and are appropriated by bad people who use those words to manipulate the people around them, especially Christians. Stuckey wrote in her introduction,

But empathy alone is a terrible guide. It may be part of what inspires us to do good, but it’s just an emotion and, like all emotions, is highly susceptible to manipulation. That’s exactly what’s happening today. Empathy has been hijacked for the purpose of conforming well-intentioned people to particular political agendas. Specifically, it’s been co-opted by the progressive wing of American society to convince people that the progressive position is exclusively the one of kindness and morality. I call it toxic empathy. Source: page xii)

Of course the culture will push back on a Christian re-redefining the words that the progressives have appropriated and redefined. Here we see one reaction-

Mason Mennenga @masonmennenga wrote on Twitter, “if you think empathy is toxic then you’re going to hate this guy named jesus christ“.

According to our own understanding of the word ’empathy’, of course the guy is right. But then again, this is a situation that calls for thought, not knee-jerk reactions such as “Yeah!” then press ‘like’.

The ever wise Ron Henzel @ronhenzel replied to Mennenga, (≠ means ‘does not equal’):

“toxic substance” ≠ “all substances are toxic”
“toxic waste” ≠ “all waste is toxic”
“toxic relationships” ≠ “all relationships are toxic”
“toxic empathy” ≠ “all empathy is toxic“

We must, MUST think things through. Christians are a thinking people, (Philippians 4:8). As Stuckey said, emotions can be manipulated.

Emotions are a part of life. But I bring this to your attention…what were the first emotions seen in the Bible? Shame, guilt, blame. Genesis 3. Satan manipulated Eve’s curiosity into a temptation and we know what happened from there.

Of ‘toxic empathy’, the American writer Flannery O’Connor said,

“If other ages felt less, they saw more, even though they saw with the blind, prophetical, unsentimental eye of faith. In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long cut off from the person of Christ, is wrapped in theory. When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror. It ends in forced-labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.”

AI explains the quote-

This quote, by Flannery O’Connor, argues that modern society, lacking a strong religious faith, governs itself through a detached “tenderness” that, without the grounding of Christ, ultimately leads to horrific consequences like violence and oppression, symbolized by the gas chambers of concentration camps.

And haven’t we seen that? “Love thy neighbor” was the covid-flu mantra pressuring the populace to ingest untested or unwieldy vaccinations, to close down society against common sense, and to become isolated robots. What happened was the elderly were left to die alone and society’s children were impacted negatively for a generation to come. That’s just one example of how progressives used toxic empathy against the people in their society.

Moving away from toxic empathy to examining toxic zeal, Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached a 2 part series on true zeal versus false zeal.

There IS such a thing as false zeal. False Christians who seem so zealous for God are actually not zealous for God. It’s a manufactured zeal cloaking their zeal for themselves, or for satan. See this verse-

Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).

By this verse we see there is such a thing as a zeal that is not of God. There can be zeal, or fervor, or energy around religious things, but not according to what we know from the Bible. AKA knowledge.

Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. Synonyms: passion, fervor, enthusiasm.

Photo by Luan Cabral on Unsplash

They went across the world to make one proselyte, but wound up making him twice the sons of hell they were. (Matthew 23:15). That verse is the example of zeal without knowledge. You can be passionate, you can be busy making disciples, but a false zeal will make disciples who miss the mark completely and will wind up in hell as a son of hell. Zeal, no knowledge.

Beth Moore has been consistently described through the years as “energetic”, “charismatic”, “passionate”. She puts out an energy as zealous for God. But because we know she is a false teacher, her zeal is without knowledge. She is full of emotion but lacks the tether to the Rock via faith.

She was recently interviewed by Ed Stetzer at Church Leaders. He ended by asking Moore how she prepares for a lesson. I was struck by her answer.

Question: Can you encourage teachers and preachers, especially in this season when it is hard to speak truth and there is a lot of destructive forces that are trying to take down teachers and preachers?

Answer:
“Keep asking the Lord to give you fire in your bones, to teach and preach and communicate the Scriptures so that you can’t keep it to yourself. Ask him for it when it wanes, and it’s going to wane…Nobody just keeps that naturally on their own.“

It’s love for scripture, love for Jesus, that drives the Christian to search the scriptures and then the scriptures fire up that proper zeal.

“Is My word not like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” (Jeremiah 23:29).

You get a ‘fire in the bones’ when you open up the scriptures!

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?(Luke 24:32).

But Moore said it is important that “we’re not just going to the scriptures to prepare a lesson.“

To be fair, she was talking of the teacher having a right relationship with Jesus as one prepares the lesson. I can intuit that she means not apathetic, in prayerful humility, regular church goer, etc But she didn’t say those things. She just muddily talked of the overflow (whatever that means). Consulting the scriptures is primary. But for the false zealer, it’s secondary. Emotions tops the list.

I was struck by what she said and what she did NOT say. Any thinking Christian must think of both- what is said and what is not said. Moore did not say it was crucial for the leader to pray for perseverance in staying in right doctrine. To ask for moral righteousness. Begging to rightly divide the scriptures. Her reply focused on emotion. ‘Fire in the bones’ (whatever that means) was most important to her because, as we know, she is driven by emotion. Zeal misapplied is false. Zeal untethered from the Rock will lead you nowhere good.

False teachers appear to be doing a religious effort, they look like they are on the right track, and part of that appearance is because of their fervent energy.

The Bible says that satan and his demons masquerade as angels of light. That means behavior, outward appearance. The thinking Christian must look deeper.

Do not fall for toxic empathy. Do not mistake toxic zeal for righteous fervor. Above, all, THINK!

Lloyd-Jones’ sermon can be heard here, for free: True Zeal and False Zeal: A Sermon on Romans 10:1-2. Or on Youtube with closed captions (which might help due to his accent).

Further Reading

Real Zeal vs. False Zeal part 1

Real Zeal vs. False zeal part 2

Here is a good article on turning information into knowledge by Rick Holland.

Here in this article What do you think about emotional sensationalism in the modern church? Stephen Nichols of Ligonier says there are valid emotions, but “especially in the American church, we seem to be very susceptible to this. There is a difference between emotion and emotionalism.”

Posted in theology

Spiritual accounting that counts for nothing

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I often take stock. Taking stock is something we do ‘to
review or make an overall assessment of a particular situation, typically as a prelude to making a decision‘ as it’s defined.

Sometimes the process is called “personal inventory,” when we go through some self-examination to reflect on one’s thoughts, actions, motivations, and other aspects of yourself. In other words, How’m I doing in life?

People go through a spiritual accounting as well. I used to do that before I was saved, and of course, after I was saved too. But though the process is the same, the outcome is totally different.

The main difference is the pronoun. Before salvation if one takes stock, every item in the spiritual inventory will begin with “I”, as in I did this or I did that. Afterwards, it focuses on “You” as in Jesus, the Redeemer. Let’s take a look at some examples from scripture.

The Rich Young Ruler. First of all, notice his emphasis even in the beginning, his question focused on himself:

“Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18). Jesus answered, referencing the Commandments, and the Rich Young Ruler replied, And he said, “All these things I have kept since my youth.” (Luke 18:21).

EPrata photo

His was a spiritual accounting that was of no account.

Of course, we are all familiar with the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees. Let’s review the Pharisee at the Temple.

The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ (Luke 18:11-12)

Did you notice the verse in the NASB says the Pharisee prayed in regard to himself? The focus (and the pronoun) is I-I-I.

Saul before he was Paul, prior to salvation, thought he was earning his way to heaven with all his spiritual deeds,

If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. (Philippians 3:4-6).

Before salvation it was all about him, wasn’t it? But Paul found out different, didn’t he? His spiritual accounting was based on wind.

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; (Isaiah 64:6).

Boasting in one’s self displeases God, but relying on God does please Him.

Job’s spiritual accounting changed from the beginning of the book to the end, where Job, though spoken of as a righteous man by God, finally acknowledged his inadequacy.

Therefore I retract, And I repent, sitting on dust and ashes. (Job 42:6).

Humility. Focus is on God. Not self.

The Tax Collector near the Pharisee who was boasting in himself, had a total focus on God and a right view of himself. He knew he was a sinner, he knew he was unworthy.

But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!‘ (Luke 18:13).

In all of Paul’s post-conversion pleadings, his repentance and please were bundled into one word, CHRIST.

In our repentance, in our prayers, when we take stock or do a spiritual accounting, let us (me) be focused on our Good Savior, the only good, the only worthy, the only One who can receive our prayer AND do something about it- Jesus, The Trinitarian Godhead persons who delight in humility and penitence.

Posted in heaven, jesus

Your new name!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Here is a prophecy to look forward to!

Believers, if you have been faithful and your persevering walk is evidence of that faith, you will be given a pass into eternal glory upon which the Lord of Hosts, the Ancient of Days, the Holy-Holy-Holy Lord has written upon it Himself, personally for just YOU!

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17)

“But there’s an interesting little historical note, when a victor won in the games, whatever great games were being held, it was not uncommon for the victor to be given as part of his prize a white stone. And the white stone was his admission pass into the festival that was held following the games for all the victors. Could it be that the overcomer will receive the ticket to the eternal victory in heaven?”

Commentary on that verse from John MacArthur:

“And then He says, “And a new name written on the stone,” and I read where they would do that. They would give the victor, like a trophy, a stone with his name and he alone could use it as his pass. “A new name written on the stone which no one knows, but he who receives it.” I can’t tell you how many people have asked me…what is that name?”

“A lady will come to me any time I preach on the book of Revelation and say, “What is the name that no man knows?” Folks, I don’t know what the name is. If I knew what the name was then this verse couldn’t say what it says, it would have to say, “And no one knows except John MacArthur.”

“The only one who knows what it says is the person who receives it, that’s how personal it is. What it is to me is some kind of personal message from Christ to the one He loves which is given as an admission pass into eternal glory. I’ll know mine and you’ll know yours and we’ll know the Lord wrote them for each of us and for none of the others of us.” (source)

It is huge to think of the precious Savior not only saving me, not only guiding and protecting me, not only providing for me, but when He brings me to glory (amazing!) He gives me a personal message just for me, out of the millions thronging there!

Friend, if you have ever been picked last, if you have ever had unwanted divorce thrust upon you, if you have ever been fired from a job, marginalized at home, or left in any feeling invisible and unwanted, THIS should pick you up. A secret message/name is waiting for you, just for you, with the Savior’s love and care personally imprinting it and gracefully extending it to you in heaven. What a day that will be!!!!!!!

 

Posted in theology

Culture of death/culture of life

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There was a woman taking out trash in the early pre-dawn who was hit by an illegal alien. His car knocked out of her socks and her body was a hundred feet from her trash can. The DA decided not to press charges.

We read stories like this all the time these days. I’ve mentioned several times recently that we are living in a culture of death. That culture will climax in the moment when all the world rejoices that the Two Witnesses of the Tribulation are killed and lay putrefying in the street. They celebrate their deaths by giving gifts. As opposed to Christmas when we celebrate the life of Jesus birthed on earth in the flesh to live among us.

The dignity of life is nothing these days. The fact that humans are made in the image of God means nothing to an increasing amount of people.

We have become inured to death. There have been over 63Million abortions since it was legalized in 1973. Abortion is death. It kills a human being.

Movies and televisions shows today routinely show death, and as a culture, we are fascinated with seeing death, watching serial killers, true crime, and horror movies. Even TV show title covers and movie posters are literally dark.

I watch the Aussie TV show City Homicide which started in 2007. They begin every episode with this title card:

In today’s real world, there seems to be rare honor in preserving life, caring about life, bringing justice to a life cut short. Oh, I know it exists, but increasingly what we see in the news is that the loss of a human life just doesn’t have the same punch for people. Children raised on vicious and violent video games laugh when someone gets hurt, shot, or killed. They think it’s funny.

But God! We Christians are released from death to live life and live it abundantly! We have life eternal. We among all people know what Life IS, and what death really is. We can and should display the joy that comes with this sure knowledge.

When we are in Christ, we are In the Person who will never die. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind, (John 1:4).

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms on account of My name, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29).

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46).

You will make known to me the way of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:11)

You have put joy in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine are abundant. (Psalm 4:7).

So therefore let us be joyful, let our faces shine with peace and happiness that we are saved and entered into full life of joy with the savior. In a culture of death, this will stand out to those staggering under weight of sin and specter of death. As death gleefully chokes our culture with its maniacal joy, let true joy of eternal life flow out from us who know the savior.

Posted in prophecy, theology

Why we are not “Easter Worshipers” and why it matters

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Words matter. The words we choose to use form a basis for discourse, in teaching, and through the exchanging of ideas in a civil society.

I’ve said this many times, but when a group in one culture decides to dispense with or change the meaning of words the rest of us have commonly understood for centuries, it’s important to pay attention to the shift in meaning. The intentional use or disuse of certain vocabulary words within a language is different from the natural evolution of language. Just think Shakespeare. In Shakespeare’s day, the commonly used alack for oh no! fell into natural disuse. We don’t say alack any more.

What I’m talking about today is the intentional changing of a commonly understood term.

Communication is all about creating meaning based on comprehension of what commonly understood words mean. When those meanings change, our perceptions change too.

As a journalist, I was taught that word choice flavors a story, which in turn germinate biases in the mind. Read these sentences and see how each one presents a slightly different aspect:

The protester was standing on the sidewalk.
The activist was standing on the sidewalk.
The fanatic was standing on the sidewalk.

The new health care plan would benefit Americans, the President argued.
The new health care plan would benefit Americans, the President suggested.
The new health care plan would benefit Americans, the President stated.

This is a good and balanced article about bias and the words we use.

Language is the overlay to any society’s well-functioning. Ask the builders at Babel. No longer able to understand each other, they were forced to migrate in order to preserve knowledge and advance one’s culture.

One’s culture is not simply vocabulary, but it’s also the inherent meaning inside each of the commonly used words. When one group decides to pull a swithcheroo and abandon using a word, especially when it is a word important to the faith, we must do our best not to succumb to cultural pressure but instead keep using the words all the more. As Charles Spurgeon noted in his sermon “Christian Conversation”,

The Christian is the aristocrat of the world; it is his place to make rules for society to obey- not to stoop down, and conform to the regulations of society when they are contrary to the commands of the Master…they must make others, by the worth of their principles, and the dignity of their character, submit to them.

We’ve seen such a massive change of late in the use of the world tolerance. Also, sin has been replaced by messiness or brokenness. We see sodomite changed to homosexual then gay to same sex attraction. Each intentional change dilutes the meaning and power of the word and creates different biases. The dilution causes change from commonly understood perceptions into misperceptions. The result is that civil dialog becomes corrupted and connecting through relationships gets harder.

A new one popped up this weekend. Many people suddenly started using the term “Easter worshipers” instead of Christians. Nobody ever said that before. Literally, it’s not a thing. What it is is a blatant attempt to obscure the fact that Christians were murdered.

Aside from the just plain silliness of the term, like, what do you call Christians when it isn’t Easter? Sunday worshipers? And it makes it sound like we are worshiping Easter, not Jesus.

Dr Denny Burk is professor of biblical studies at Boyce College. He commented today on Twitter on an 8-tweet thread, the following. I liked his take on the sudden influx of “Easter Worshiper” into the culture and language. I personally believe it’s deliberate, and part of a ramping up of Christian persecution, both hard and soft.

Denny Burk @DennyBurk

I’ll refrain from speculating about the motives of those referring to Christians as “Easter Worshipers.” But I will say this, people would do well to understand how God’s word uses the term “Christian.”

The term “Christian” only occurs three times in all of the Bible—in Acts 11:26, 26:28, and 1Pet. 4:16.

In Acts, the term “Christian” designates those who are followers of Christ (i.e. disciples).
The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” -Acts 11:26

In 1 Peter, the term “Christian” designates those who are willing to be persecuted for following Christ.

“If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” -1 Peter 4:16

The reference in 1 Peter is important because it commands persecuted believers to “glorify God” in the name “Christian.” The term allowed followers of Christ to identify themselves explicitly as partisans of Christ—to identify their own sufferings with Christ’s.

There is a reason that persecuted Christians want to be known as “Christians.” They want the world to know that their suffering MEANS something. They want their suffering to bear witness to Christ’s suffering.

“Easter worshipers” fails to capture this. “Easter worshipers” also fails to disclose how Christians actually identify themselves. We are followers of Christ, “afflicted in every way, but not crushed… always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:8-10).

The term Christian was originally assigned to Jesus’s disciples by those outside of Christianity. Christians later came to use the name for themselves. The key thing, however, is that the term identified for WHOM Christians suffered when they were persecuted.

“Easter worshipers” obscures the meaning of their suffering. The term “Christian” clarifies that they suffer not for any specific act of wickedness but simply for being followers of Christ. I cannot think of any good reason to deny such clarity.

—end Denny Burk—

The length that society will go to erase Christianity from collective consciousness and even Christians themselves from the world is amazing. The reason for the tweets and discussion mentioned above was that Muslims had bombed 7 targets across Sri Lanka. A zoo, three hotels, and three churches (2 of them Catholic, one was Bible-believing) were bombed on Easter Sunday, hence the term ‘Easter worshipers’ thrown about when referencing the bombings. One tweeter wryly said, ‘Let’s call Muslims Ramadan worshipers- works both ways.”

So the devil incited another round of violence against God’s people, in his never-ending attempts to wipe Christianity off the world. Though it’s always been present in the world, do you believe hatred against Christians is increasing? I do.

In response to the bombings, the non-believers reporting on the incidents also participated in wiping the name of Christ off the public discourse, by refusing even to call us “Christians.”

Dr Burk ended his tweet thread by saying “I cannot think of any good reason to deny such clarity” in simply using the name.

I can. You can. Revelation 12:17 says

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

Since Eve and Adam, the devil has been trying to thwart God’s plans and kill God’s people. He wants to supplant God and be worshiped instead of God. God’s people are in the way of satan’s plan. The Revelation verse is set during the time of the Tribulation, when satan’s plans against the Jews have been thwarted, so he turns his attention to killing Christians. The world began and it will end with satan trying to harm God’s people in any way he can, through lying, stealing, destroying, and killing.

Some people say it doesn’t matter what they call us. Initially we were called disciples. Then a Sect of the Nazarenes. (Acts 24:5). Then followers of The Way. (Acts 9:2). Then Christians. (Acts 11:26). It has stayed Christians since 90AD when Acts was written. For almost 2000 years, the term Christian has been used to delineate who we are and with Whom we identify. I believe that words matter. What we call ourselves and what others call us matters. Reject anything different from the Christ-deniers. Keep the name of Jesus public and prominent.

Janet Mefferd noticed the bias, too:

I believe that one tweet shows very clearly how words can render something simple into an unclear, unintelligible mess.

We’re Christians.

Posted in discernment, theology

Can you leave Christianity?

Posted on by elizabethprata

This essay appeared on The End Time on August 5, 2010.

By Elizabeth Prata

Ann Rice is famous for her vampire series of books, her bi-sexual erotica, and her very public conversion to Catholicism ten years ago. Her announcement that she is quitting Christianity is, of course, just as public. She said:

“Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out,” she wrote. “I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious and deservedly infamous group. For 10 years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else…. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

Note: Catholicism is not Christianity. That is why it is so evil- it looks like it could be a form of Christianity, but it is not. Adherents are deceived, sadly. Many of them are deceived eternally!

Rice wrote that she cannot get behind a religion that is “anti-gay”. The culture of our times, here in the last days before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, is such that man’s personal choices and ideas always trump God’s. His standards for morality and purity are that His men and women refrain from sexual indulgence until marriage, that the married are opposite sexes, that they stay married, that they remain faithful until they die. This notion is mocked and scorned today. The literati firmly claim that it is hopelessly outdated. Even Federal Judge Walker said that the notion of opposite-sex genders as the only qualifiers for marriage is an “artifact from a past time” when he overturned the California constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Equally, the notion that God renders consequences on those who choose to set aside His standards is anathema to today’s culture. No one wants to be held accountable and no one wants to think that anything they do has any consequences whatsoever. Ann Rice’s renunciation of the religion, the Bible, yet claims of remaining faithful to Jesus are just another example of the tendency for fallen humans to pick and choose ideals with which they can remain fleshly and indulge in their favorite pastimes.

It is particularly poignant that she states that she remains “committed” to Christ but quits adhering to His standards, and in His name, no less. One cannot remain committed to someone or something after you selectively decline so many precepts the entirety looks like a foundation-less house. It is not possible to remain “committed to Christ” and repudiate His Word and His standards for purity, marriage, life, and culture. It is simply not possible.

Further, her statement reveals just how little she understood genuine conversion. Upon renunciation of your sins, seeking forgiveness of Jesus for them, and last, submitting to His will for your life, The Holy Spirit then enters and seals you. (Ephesians 1:13). Thinking that even for a minute that man can tell the Spirit to come or go is ridiculous. Thinking for even a minute that man has the power to break a seal that God Himself set is even more ridiculous. And Jesus promised that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His church. (Matthew 16:18). Ann Rice never was a Christian. You can’t leave something you never went to. And sadly, Ann Rice believes she is a friend of God, has the power to break His seal, and can select at will the precepts to which she will adhere. This attitude is prevalent today, held not just by author Rice, but many, even most, Christians and non-believers.

Of course there is no such thing as an ex-Christian. (1 John 2:19). But it speaks to how far we have fallen and how blinded we have become to even say such a thing with a straight face. The only thing left in Ann Rice’s spiritual landscape is the name of her Savior; the very God who hung on the cross so that she would be allowed to claim Him as savior- or reject Him. Unfortunately, Rice, and all of who believes as she does, will discover the devastating choice she made when Judgment Day rolls around. She can refuse to be anti-gay, anti birth control, anti-feminist all she wants. And she, and all who refuse the Way of Jesus will hear this:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Christian, if you have the Spirit in you, your walk should be closer each today to Him. If you wonder whether you are saved (or are considering “leaving Christianity”), then pray, pray hard and do a heart-check. Appeal to Him to forgive your sins and then repent, which means turn away from temptations and lifestyles that draw you back into lawlessness. It’s now, or then. And for eternity’s sake, turn from lawlessness NOW.

 

Posted in evangelism, Uncategorized

Unpopular The Movie

Posted on by elizabethprata

New movie coming out this month! The good folks at Red Grace Media asked:

“Would love your help getting this out with the Hastag #UnpopularTheMovie and the Link http://www.unpopularthemovie.com”

Their description reads:

Unpopular The Movie is a Evangelism resource for the church. Unpopular is a gospel presentation by Emilio Ramos, Dr James White of Aomin.org, and Paul Washer from Heart Cry Missionary Society. Unpopular is meant to serve as a tool to evangelize non-Christians with the gospel of Jesus Christ. To stay up to date visit http://www.unpopularthemovie.com

Here is the trailer