Posted in theology

Days of Noah

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

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

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

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

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!

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’?

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?

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?”

Posted in theology

How to Visit Heaven

By Elizabeth Prata

I visited heaven last Sunday.

Am I going to write a book about it? No. A book has already been written about what I saw there. It’s called the Bible.

I’m fascinated with glimpses of heaven. I love to read the visions Ezekiel had, and Isaiah, and John. (Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6, Revelation 1, 4, etc). Interestingly, the details all three men recorded are consistent with each other. None of the details that other alleged visitors to heaven who allegedly visited there are consistent with each other nor with the Bible.

I read and re-read those glimpses because that is our home! It is where we believers are headed and will dwell for eternity!

Though I’ve read through Exodus before, I had overlooked (or the Spirit just now applied the words to my mind) the little nugget nestled in  Exodus 24:9-11.

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, And they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

WUT???

Well how beautiful, another glimpse of His holy habitation! Jamieson Fausset Commentary says,

sapphire—one of the most valuable and lustrous of the precious gems—of a sky-blue or light azure color and frequently chosen to describe the throne of God.”

Let’s compare that scene with Ezekiel’s in chapter 1:26,

And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.

Barnes notes says of the Exodus scene, “The pure blue of the heaven above them lent its influence to help the inner sense to realize the vision which no mortal eye could behold.

When I read these and get to the jewels part it’s hard to visualize (how did he know it as sapphire when it’s clear?) but I envision sparkle, brightness, and purity. With the world becoming more and more wretched, I delight to ponder the purity that awaits.

One final thought, Nadab and Abihu saw, supped, and were blessed to behold. Yet that was not enough! They still failed to do as the LORD commanded and they offered strange fire in worship. They got lazy and would not worship as He had commanded. Perhaps they took their eyes away from the LORD, though it’s so hard to believe, since they had seen Him, or at least, His majesty.

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. (Leviticus 10:1-2).

How easy is it for us to do the same, we who have not seen? O, keep your eyes on the Lord! Behold Him always. And when you need a pick-me-up, read of the visions of heaven as recorded in the Bible. What a wonderful day awaits us believers!

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