By Elizabeth Prata

The news is always bad. That is the nature of news. But it seems lately (2020) the news has been relentlessly troubling, perplexing, and dismaying.

The virus scare that began in March 2020 caused people to do a spiritual inventory. This is because the new virus was supposed to be a rampant killer, and we Americans, as well as citizens in other nations, were told that lots of people were going to die from the virus. We weren’t going to have capacity to handle the thousands predicted to need hospital rooms, ventilators, and other life-saving equipment. Death was coming for us, they said. Fear became the prevailing atmosphere of 2020.

The saved are secure about our eternal destiny. The unsaved are scared out of their minds.

More and more, evangelicals demand all manner of social justice. The predominant issue is reparations for racial inequality, but the umbrella also covers women’s rights and LBGTQ concerns. The Black Lives Matter crusade is actually a cleverly marketed program to transform the culture into a Marxist society.

People are buying it because they’ve ignored history to the point of not understanding that socialism really amounts to communism, and communism is infinitely more oppressive than the alleged systemic racism and binary patriarchy of our present culture.

Although it troubles me that non-Christians embrace this velvet gloved Marxism, I can understand how they fall into such deception. It bothers me to a far greater extent that evangelicals (even some within the Reformed camp) have jumped on various corners of this bandwagon, many going so far as to claim social justice as a Gospel issue.

I thought of this dangerous false teaching as…

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday, Sunday, September 13, Pastor-Teacher John MacArthur opened his service with an announcement. In an ongoing legal battle the church is fighting against the County of Los Angeles, Dr. MacArthur told his congregation the requirements that LA County is demanding that churches (and other large venue gatherings) fulfill in order to meet (an not inside, either, just outside). In the latest legal skirmish, the Judge this week ruled against the Church, saying they may not meet unless the ‘health restrictions’ were met. After all, the County wasn’t denying them the opportunity to meet at all, just that they could not meet in the way they desired.

I suppose that is one way to circumvent the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. In effect, the Judge on behalf of the County…

Have you ever been in school and your teacher suddenly announced, “All right close your books and put up your notes- it’s pop quiz time!” Then, in an attempt to ease the panic amongst the students faces, the teacher says, “Don’t worry! You’ll be fine….as long as you’ve been keeping up with your readings.”

Our entire existence on this earth is filled with daily, multiple pop quizzes. We are constantly being tested on what we know to be true.

Think about what has been told to you most recently. What pretty, scripted quote is coming up on your news feed? Is it from God? What “random thought” has been entering into your mind most recently? Is it from God?

Now for the follow up questions: how are we going to know the validity of what is being told to us unless we’ve read the Word of God? How are we…

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Colossians 3:1-3

I’m pondering today what an absolute mess we make of our lives when we reject the most simple truths given to us by our Creator.

When we are born again in Christ, we have new life. Our minds, spirits, even bodies are renewed, redeemed and no longer slaves to entangling sin or it’s consequences. We aren’t perfect, we will stumble and get back up many times, but but if we accept who God is and who we are in Him, we are changed.

Something we often forget though, is that in order to have that new…