Tag: heaven

Posted in theology

What we have to look forward to

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I love beginnings and endings, borders, edges. I love to see how things begin and how they end. That’s why I love Genesis and Revelation as my favorite books of the Bible.

Did you know that those two books are the only books of the Bible that have no sin in them? Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22. No sin. Bask in those chapters, my sisters, because those are a glimpse of what is to come. The rest of the Bible displays man’s sin-sin-sin all over the place. But Genesis 1 & 2 and Revelation 21-22 are pure and beautiful.

In Genesis 1 and 2 we have the honor of watching God create the world. His intellect is stupendous, the variety of the landforms, flora, and fauna are incredible. Even more so to know God did it all in 6 days. Even more so to understand He did it with a word.

Revelation 21-22 are even better than Genesis 1 & 2. Why? The glory of the LORD shines even brighter in people who have been redeemed by His son, and who have no more chance of sinning. The Sword of Damocles no longer hangs over Adam and Eve, and the glorified Bride shines in sinlessness in a place where no sin ever touched. How good is THAT?

In fact, the only man made thing in heaven will be the nail scars on Jesus’ hands.

Both the aforementioned chapters of Genesis and of Revelation have the Tree of Life. Eden had a river flowing out into the world past the Tree of Life, but New Jerusalem has the River of the Water of Life flowing past the tree! There was a marriage in Genesis 2, (Adam and Eve), but in Revelation 21 there is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

This world is terrible. It has been since Genesis 3:1. Sin gushed in. I looked for named or blatant sins in Gen 3-9. We have the Original Sin: Disobedience to God’s word. Then shame and blame. We have murder, mocking God, lying. We have polygamy, violence, and threats of violence. And I’m only up to chapter 4. When God told Cain that sin was crouching at the door waiting to have him, He wasn’t kidding. Give sin an inch and it will take the world. And it did!

But the world will be remade so there will be no death or bones or sin. Everything will be pure, holy, and joyous.

What a day that will be.

Posted in theology

Days of Noah

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. (Matthew 24:37).

“Jesus’ emphasis here is not so much on the extreme wickedness of Noah’s day (Genesis 6:5), but on the people’s preoccupation with mundane matters of everyday life (“eating and drinking…marrying and giving in marriage – v. 38,) when judgment fell suddenly.” ~John MacArthur

“They had received warnings in the form of Noah’s preaching (2 Peter 2:5), and the ark itself which was a testimony to the judgment that was to come. But they were unconcerned about such matters and therefore were swept away unexpectedly in the midst of their daily activities.” ~John MacArthur

Whenever I had read those passages either in Genesis 6 or Matthew 24, I did always focus on the extreme wickedness. I liked the nudge from my study Bible to look at the mundanity of the people instead. I can relate to that. It is so easy to go along every day, day by day, and be involved in the details of living. Gradually our heads lower and view becomes myopic- preparing that next meal, getting ready for tomorrow’s work, fixing the car…we get so wrapped up with today’s tasks sometimes we forget the eternal tasks.

It is important to always lift our heads to envision heaven. We look at the glory to come, rest in the hope He gives, see the future, too, not solely the now.

Did you ever hear the phrase, “She’s so heavenly minded she’s no earthly good?” That is wrong. It is false. You can’t be too heavenly minded. Our great God should occupy our thoughts constantly. He should be the motivation for our deeds always. His glory is paramount!

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Posted in theology

Heaven Week: Links, Wrap up & Resources

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

This past week, I published 6 essays looking at what heaven is from the Bible. I did this because I sense that in my world here in America it’s darkening at an extremely rapid pace. Our once free and open capitalist society is sliding down fast into socialism and totalitarianism. John MacArthur said

Continue reading “Heaven Week: Links, Wrap up & Resources” →
Posted in theology

Heaven Week #6: What we can’t understand and what we can

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

This week we have looked at heaven. If we focus on Jesus and His heavenly habitation, we tend to enlarge our perspective and fixate less on the darkness flooding the earth at present. It was an encouragement week here at The End Time, and a reminder that as dark as things get, we will not be here forever. It’s only our temporary home. We have a permanent citizenship in heaven, where everything is perfect.

Continue reading “Heaven Week #6: What we can’t understand and what we can” →
Posted in prophecy, Uncategorized

Heaven Week #3: Heaven won’t have time

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Missionary to Vanuatu in the late 1800s, John G. Paton, writing about the death of one of his first native converts in his book Thirty Years Among the South Sea Cannibals, said:

“While staying at Aneityum, I learned with as deep emotion as man ever felt for man, that noble old Abraham, the sharer of my Tannese trials, had during the interval peacefully fallen asleep in Jesus. He left for me his silver watch one which I had myself sent to the dear soul from Sydney, and which he greatly prized. In his dying hour he said, “Give it to Missi, my own Missi Paton; and tell him that I go to Jesus, where Time is dead.”

That converted cannibal had a real and profound grasp of his position in Christ. I have read many times that in heaven sin will be dead, tears will be dead, sorrow will be dead, but I never read anything put quite like that. In heaven, time is dead.

Continue reading “Heaven Week #3: Heaven won’t have time” →
Posted in theology

Heaven Week #2: It’s a real place

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday I wrote about heaven and we defined terms and talked about how exciting the first space trips were when we got to look back and see earth from the heavenly perspective. How wonderful it will be to look to Jesus when we are all really in heaven and see the universe from HIS heavenly abode!

J. C. Ryle wrote:

There is a glorious dwelling place provided by Jesus Christ for all His believing people. The world that now is, is not their rest: they are pilgrims and strangers in it. Heaven is their home.
There will be a place in heaven for all sinners who have fled to Christ by faith, and trusted in Him : for the least as well as the greatest. Abraham took care to provide for all his children, and God takes care to provide for His. None will be disinherited; none will be cast out; none will be cut off. Each shall stand in his lot, and have a portion in the day when the Lord brings many sons to glory. In our Father's house are many mansions.
Continue reading “Heaven Week #2: It’s a real place” →
Posted in theology

Heaven Week #1: Saints, we’re headed there!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The unsaved man says, I am a good person, it’s just that the world doesn’t give me a chance to show how good I am.

The saved man says, I am no good. I was of the world and the world is evil.

This is why Jesus had to come from elsewhere than this world to save us.

“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13).

Continue reading “Heaven Week #1: Saints, we’re headed there!” →
Posted in theology

Exactly what ARE the ‘Treasures in Heaven’?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal …” (Matthew 6:19-20).

That is a familiar passage to us. We know what it says. We understand that we cannot serve two gods, mammon and Jesus. We comprehend that the love of money is the root of all evil. We all feel sad when the Rich Young Ruler turned away from Jesus, rejecting eternal salvation because he clung to his earthly wealth.

But what does treasure in heaven truly mean? What are the treasures in heaven, specifically?

Continue reading “Exactly what ARE the ‘Treasures in Heaven’?” →
Posted in theology

When we’re ‘up there’, will we know/see what is happening down below?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Some believe that the souls in heaven have absolutely, not one iota of a visual of what is happening down below (John MacArthur). Others, for example, Catholics, (a false religion) think that the souls in heaven hear our prayers and intercede and even visit down below. The Catholic stance, I believe, has led to the popular culture’s opinion that the souls in the heavenlies are “looking down on us”. Certainly their false notion that we can pray to the dead saints and they will intercede for us adds to the misperception. Let’s explore this a bit more. Do dead saints know or see what is happening on earth? Continue reading “When we’re ‘up there’, will we know/see what is happening down below?” →