2018 roundup and thank you

By Elizabeth Prata

Y2K! Stock up! Computers will crash! Hysteria!

That was the year-end feeling on December 31, 1999. It seems like yesterday that the millennium changed and we said goodbye to the 1990s and hello to the 2000s. Now we are looking at climbing into the last year of the second decade of the 2000s! Time flies, it really does.

My Plan for 2019

I've been writing this blog every day for ten years. TEN YEARS! Can you believe it! My first essay was posted on January 6, 2009. This blog was born from a weekly newsletter I was composing and sending out via email. That was born from an increasing drift in content from secular essays to Christian ones on my other blog, The Quiet Life. I started that blog in 2006. When it became obvious that my main interest was Christian content, I started this blog so I could maintain a sole Christian theological focus and not mix in recipes or cat stories in it, lol, like I do on my personal blog.

So for 13 years I've been writing publicly.

It's normal, I think, for a Christian blogger or anyone in any kind of ministry to occasionally wonder if it is doing any good. Is it edifying? Is it helping? Is it honoring to Christ? Or is it adding to the general confusion? Am I mature enough to handle the word of God in this public way? Should I quit? Does the Lord want me to move into a different ministry using the gifts of the Spirit in a different manner?

I've asked myself all those questions and more. Just because the Lord started me on this path doesn't mean it's a forever thing. I was asking myself those 'take stock' questions the other day. I received an answer. A kind lady emailed with some encouragement, letting me know that indeed some things I've written had alerted her to an unwanted spiritual state, had strengthened her, and had pointed her toward good ministries and sermons.

Not that we look for personal accolades, but we do look for Spirit delivered affirmations that we are obeying in the manner the Lord wants us to obey. I take to heart these signs that the Lord is pleased with the ministry and wants me to continue.

As long as there is even one woman out there who is edified, I'll continue.

I love writing. I am grateful for this ministry and for the women who read it.

The outlook for 2019 is more writing. I'll continue in the same vein as I always have been. I've tried to do schedules and write on similar topics on each day of the week, but that just doesn't work for me. My style is more organic. I like waiting to see what the Spirit brings to mind. Don't you think it's amazing that for over 4,600 essays every day He has been faithful to bring something to mind? That's one of the things I love about writing, the clear working of the Spirit to guide my mind into insights, or revealing biblical truths, or helping me adopt a biblical worldview instead of my formerly secular one.

The one series I do is of the more old-fashioned theological stuff I write on Sundays. I've been writing about the Word of the Week Since June. I fear a decrease in Christian literacy and a lack of mutual understanding of the important words of the faith. I had with a 22-year-old who was raised in a strong Christian home who was confused between what sanctification and justification meant. I decided on the spot to do my part in promoting the understanding of the important words.

I've written in the series that resulted, Word of the Week, about Justification, Transcendence, Immanence, Propitiation, Sanctification, Glorification, Orthodoxy, Heresy, Omniscience, Perspicuity, Aseity, and Immutability. Then in October I shifted to the Fruit of the Spirit, writing about each of the 9 characteristics in succession. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and last week, self-control. I enjoyed that series. I think the Word of the Week is a good Sunday kind of essay. As of now, I plan to continue it.

Launching off the Word of the Week I create scripture photos based on that word, my own visual interpretation of the word, to extend the theme throughout the week. I'll keep doing the scripture pictures, too.

Top Ten Essays of 2018

The top essays this year on this blog (it's different on the other End Time Wordpress blog, interestingly) are the same essays that have been in the top ten for a few years. Interest in Dr. David Jeremiah's apostasy, the sideways necklace, the hypocrisy of Chip and Joanna Gaines, Beth Moore anoints Kevin Jones, anyone can find the dirt on someone and The End Time About page are all in the top ten. Here is the rundown-

1. Written in 2015, Dr. David Jeremiah's Shocking Apostasy essay remains at the top of the leader board year after year. It is a discernment essay in which I raised three huge issues with his ministry. Those concerns remain important to me and I have seen no retraction or change in course for his ministry. I'm glad to see others are questioning his drift as well.

2. This question I'd asked in 2013 certainly has staying power too. Is Wearing a Sideways (Horizontal) Necklace Good or Bad?  Well, would you be offended if your church laid the cross at the church altar on its side?

As 5 1/2 year old essay, I looked back at the necklace piece to see how cringeworthy it might be. I was satisfied that the lesson in the essay is still a good one, well taught. Phew.

3.Anyone Can Find the Dirt in Someone was a response in 2016 to a good-feeling scripture meme being re-posted on Facebook. It (hopefully) taught how to think about how scripture is being used, and how to look deeper before pressing 'like' or 'share'. Not all scripture used in memes are accurate. As Christians, we're expected to adhere to a higher standard.

4.Chip and Joanna Gaines are a merchandising juggernaut, and their brand is their family. In 2015-2016 their television show Fixer Upper took the Christian world by storm, since Joanna and Chip are church going believers. Joanna even published a video testimony of her faith, in which she claimed that 'God' personally and audibly and specifically told her He will make all her career dreams come true. This is wrong-wrong-wrong a million times wrong. A testimony where God speaks to you audibly to comfort you for enduring some career lows does not demonstrate strong faith, it demonstrates NO faith.

Always willing to be the gadfly, I looked into the Gaines' lives and matched what they were saying they believed to their lifestyle to the Bible and what came out was not belief but hypocrisy.

The essay caused a massive tsunami of criticism toward li'l ole moi, but I maintain that no matter how popular, or because of how popular someone is who claims Christ, we must always look to what they are saying AND how they are living to see if it is so. We can't promote people or follow people who are hypocrites. And the Gaines most certainly are. You're welcome.

5. In 2014 I took a look at the She Reads Truth and If-Gathering women. The series was 4 parts. As sadly usual, their doctrine is fraught with softness bordering on error, several of women who wrote for the SRT Bible studies at the time are hypocritical social justice warriors and secret feminists, and the entire If Gathering was founded by Jennie Allen based on an audible direction from, in her words, "a voice from the sky."

In case anyone wonders if discernment essays are still needed, they are. Four years after I wrote that essay women are still looking for information on this ever growing ministry (there's a He Reads Truth Bible study series now). Ladies please, please, just read your Bible. Most Bible studies aimed at women from the Christian publishing industry continually promote lies (Heaven tourism and God Spoke to Me genre), proffer error-ridden books (Beth Moore, Sarah Young), wind up diverting you from your own fellowship (Great Banquet/De Colores/Walk to Emmaus) or give you books and studies that simply weaken you. The mainstream publishing industry is not your friend. Neither are the parachurch organizations like If Gathering and the ladies ministry conferences glutting the market.

Go to church, read your Bible. Pray. Repeat. No matter how many ladies claiming to have heard from God tempt you to buy their books, there is no magic formula and there are no short cuts.

6. People are very interested in the political state of the world as it relates to Christianity. Two older essays are of this vein. Syria and the Burden of Damascus discussed the geography given in the oracle of Isaiah 17, and discussed various scenarios that could play out in modern day based on the ancient prophecy. I love Isaiah 17 and Isaiah 19! The prophecies intrigue me and move me.

7. My "About" page gets a lot of traffic. That's good. People should be looking at who is writing this stuff, what I believe, and what credentials I have, if any. Check me out, email me with questions or concerns, and don't just take my word for it, but always read with your Bible open and next to you.

8. Beth Moore looms large. Her publishing blitz since 1995 with the issuing of her first 'study', A Woman's Heart - God's Dwelling Place Bible, launched her writing career. By 2018 and 342 published materials later her glut goes unabated. Books, studies, Spanish editions, CDs and audio books, leader guides, fiction books, DVD's, storm the Christian world year after disgustingly relentless year. In 2015 Moore even delved into acting, taking a speaking part in the War Room movie. She continues to make news, and not in a good way. In 2018 Moore tweeted something that insightful believers would know is effectually an anointing of Kevin Jones as a Third Adam. I wrote about that here.

9. 10. Various Beth Moore essays. See above.

Blog Stats: The End Time is not an echo chamber, thankfully!

This year saw a 13% growth in the blog despite Google having monkeyed with the search algorithm and ruining my SEO standing, which had been #1 in the end time search query result. This isn't just pride, it is a concern that when people search for end times stuff, it's the crackpot end times stuff that hits them in the face for pages and pages of search results. I used to be the first result and now I'm somewhere between Svalbard and Siberia. I am trying to be a biblical watchman without newspaper exegesis, but treating the subject soberly and properly.

I'm not kidding with the concern. Search for 'the end time' on Google and you get post-tribulation rapture newspaper exegete Irvin Baxter as #1 result whose famous essay "The US discovered in the Bible", comes in at #2, a Jehovah's Witness page, and Catholic World Report's essay on the enduring attraction of the end times. Grrr.

Despite that, each year since the launch of the blog in January 2009 has seen growth. I'm grateful to the Spirit for that. It's kind of dizzying when I think about what I write going all around the world in an instant. Left is a screen shot of readers currently reading the blog. Between the blogspot blog and the wordpress blog this year there were 633,000 views of the material published here.

I remember what John MacArthur said of his ministry when someone asked him if he ever thought it would go far,

Early in my ministry I committed, before the Lord, that I would simply worry about the depth of my ministry, and I would let Him take care of the breadth of it.

Facebook came on strong this year too. I received 49% of my referrals from Facebook and 28% from Pinterest. This shows me that the bulk of my readership is female and I'm glad, because ladies are my target audience. It also tells me to curate those social media outlets well. Twitter was in there too but not as much as I'd thought it would be.

In looking at my stats I see that 55% of my content is read on mobile while 44% is read on desktop or tablet. This is the first year that desktop has fallen to 2nd place. Last year it was still on top. I don't have a smartphone or a tablet and I pay little attention to the issues around content for those mediums. I need to start paying attention.

The all-time views on The End Time have been 9,655,793. It is a humbling number and a painful reminder that the responsibility to handle God's word and behave like His ambassador is weighty.

Thank you for a great year!

Thank you to all my wonderful readers. I truly appreciate you and value you. I appreciate the people who have sent me questions or asked for advice, who have emailed encouragement and sent donations. Thank you for the donations! I am really grateful.

Thank you most of all for your prayers. I love this ministry. Sometimes when things get into a conflict and I have to go against popular opinion, it gets hairy. I am thankful for prayers to strengthen me. I also appreciate prayer that helps me stay doctrinal. Please, please don't let me drift. That is an important prayer to pray for me, if you are so inclined.

I pray you all have a wonderful New Year! May this year be the year of the rapture!