Because the Lord has already spoken to us about the events that are now coming to pass, we have been researching prophetic words previously published by us. I have been amazed, and encouraged by how clearly the Lord has spoken about them, and given us directions on how to be prepared for what is to come. We will be republishing many of these words in future bulletins, and even republishing some of our prophetic books such as The Harvest, and Epic Battles of the Last Days, adding to them the now abundant additional understanding that we have.
For many of these prophetic scenarios that we were shown were to come, and now are, I had begun to feel that they might have been changed by repentance and/or intercession, because they were shown to us many years ago and had not happened yet. I was honestly not taking into account that the Lord really was giving us more time to prepare as we had repeatedly asked Him to do. Bob Jones had been caught up before the Lord in one experience and shown a clock that had stopped. When Bob asked what this meant the Lord told him that it was His "end times clock" and that He had stopped it to give us more time. September 11 was obvious evidence that this clock is running again. So what happens next?
We had a large group of people who were given 911 in prophetic dreams and visions. It seemed fitting that this is the date that woke up the world to the emergency. Even so, I think that there must be at least several times as many people who have been given 11-11. We do need to earnestly pray that the future attacks on the West will be thwarted, and please do especially pray for this coming Sunday, November 11. Unquestionably many evil things that have been planned against America, and other Western nations, have been prevented. Worse things were planned for us on September 11 that were stopped by the quick reaction of the government to ground all flights that day. Even so, there is still a huge evil lingering in the spirit that I believe represents an even more tragic attack. It can be stopped by prayer.
Again, September 11 was more than just an attack on America. Civilization is under attack, and it is in serious danger. Many of our basic freedoms were taken from us in one day, not by a government, or by laws, but by the devil. He knows very well that "... where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Corinthians 3:17). Fear is the basic instrument of bondage through which the devil keeps mankind in slavery. Fear of death is the ultimate yoke of bondage, and Jesus came that He "....might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Hebrews 2:15).
Our first goal in this present time must be to stay free. As I have said, and will repeat often, we must not let fear dictate what we do or do not do. If we let fear control us then fear is our lord. We are called to walk by faith, not by fear. Now is one of the greatest opportunities that we will ever have to grow in the faith that pleases God, and can save our world from some of the most tragic consequences that the devil is trying to impose through fear.
Again, this is not just a battle against Islamic extremists, but against the devil who is trying to tighten his grip on the whole world with fear. One of the basic ways that we overcome fear is by facing it, or facing the thing that we fear. This is not the only way, or the best way, but it is a way, and it is one thing that we need to do now. The next couple of Special Bulletins are going to be entitled "The Worst That Can Happen." They will be followed by "The Best That Can Happen." However, please understand that these are not going to be based on speculations, but things that I have derived from clear prophetic revelation of the events that are now unfolding.
The point of doing "The Worse" followed by "The Best" is because repentance and intercession can change things, and will determine which it is. The church's faith, repentance, intercession, and actions will all be determining factors. The actions of our government will also be a determining factor, which is why we must redouble our prayers for our government leaders on every level.
This present bulletin is to get us directed toward some of the ultimate issues that the whole world is now going to have to face. It is designed to stir up more questions than to give answers. The answers will come later. Asking the right questions now, and finding the right answers to them, are much more important than finding Osama. I am not saying that we should not pray that he is found, and stopped, but even if he is this will not be the end of the war that we are now in. The Lord is not going to allow this present conflict to end until we ask the right questions, get the right answers, and take the right actions that result in righteousness and justice to far more serious issues.
As we covered in a previous bulletin, if we are to understand things rightly we must understand the difference between the mandate given by God to our civil government and the one given to the church. Our civil government ".... does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil" (Romans 13:4). Our government must use the sword that has been given to it, and must use it until there is a decisive victory. The war we are now in will not be over with the capture or death of Osama Ben Ladin, or Saddam Hussein, or any number of other leaders. If this war is not won so decisively that terrorism is no longer considered a viable way to accomplish political goals, future attacks will kill millions, not just thousands.
Even so, the church has a different mandate. The civil government may be winning its battle with the death of every enemy soldier, but the church loses with the loss of every life in Afghanistan, Iraq, at home, or anywhere else because of this war. Are our interests therefore in conflict with the civil government? No. In fact, those who love life, freedom, truth and justice, should be earnestly praying for our governments to win this war, and win it decisively. However, we need to understand that the church lost a great battle just by the fact that this war started. We need to understand this if we are going to win the future battles, or the world will soon be covered by the greatest time of troubles it has ever known. These troubles are prophesied to come, and they surely will, but whose timing has not yet been determined. Even though the clock is ticking again, it can be slowed, or stopped for awhile. If we are given more time, and we use it rightly, things can be much easier. We can still judge ourselves lest we be judged.
The Questions
Why is Israel the linchpin issue in this conflict? There are other issues, but this is the main one. The modern terrorist movements began in Palestine with the birth of the modern state of Israel. However, there roots go even further back. They take us through Nazi Germany, but they go back even further. The trail does not lead to Islam, but the church. The trail leads through some of the abominable doctrines about the Jews promulgated through Martin Luther that will forever be a fly in the ointment of his great work. They go back through the Crusades. The first Crusade was led by Peter the Hermit who formulated the most evil doctrine that Christians should kill the Jews to atone for Christ's death.
As the first Crusaders left Cologne they slaughtered the Jews all the way to Vienna. They followed this with some of the most abominable atrocities against Moslems that are a deep and festering wound to this day. There was a terrorism released in the earth then that not only led to millions of deaths, but many of them by the most grotesque forms of torture that demented human minds could devise. These are still remembered by both Jews and Muslims, but hardly at all by Christians. This is why Osama is trying to inflame his fellow Muslims by calling them to arise against the modern "Crusaders." That is probably the most offensive single word to both Moslems and Jews.
During those evil times that truly were "the Dark Ages" more terrible things were done in the name of Christ than anyone wants to remember. Even though it is obvious to all true Christians that these things could not have been done by true Christians, but in fact only by an anti-Christ spirit, we must face them, understand them, and be delivered from their continued influence in the church. We must then turn what the devil meant for evil into good. Such gaping wounds in civilization do not heal with time, as most of the conflicts in the world today testify. They must be closed and healed by repentance, and in some cases, restitution.
Am I advocating that we start paying the Jews and Muslims for the sins of the Crusades? First, these are spiritual realities, not financial ones, and the restitution is spiritual. It is our Western "enterprise mentality" that often causes us to think first in terms of money. This is bigger than money. The most valuable commodity in all of the universe has already paid for these terrible sins--the blood of the Son of God. The cross is enough, but the cross that has been offered to the world since the third century has, for the most part, not been the cross of Christ at all. The things that were done in the name of the cross have in many ways been the most contrary to the Spirit of the cross of any events yet done under the sun. During this time the gospel was perverted so that it would take life instead of give it. However, a gospel is about to be preached over the whole earth that will give life instead of take it.
I am not saying this for shock value, but I am speaking the truth when I say that Islam was right, not only to reject, but to fight against the Christianity that was presented to them in the Middle Ages. Likewise, the Jews were more noble to reject it and pay the terrible consequences that they did for doing so. In fact, there was more truth, more freedom, more culture and learning, in the Islam of the Middle Ages than there was in the corrupted form of Christianity that prevailed over the West in the Middle Ages. During that time the true Christian faith could survive and prosper better in the Islamic countries of the East than it could in "Christian Europe." Now we must ask another ultimate question--do we yet have it right? Why is the present form of Western Christianity such an affront to both Moslems and Jews?
Please understand, I could not be more thankful than I am for the religious liberty that we enjoy in most of the West. I am also thankful for the basic culture and freedom that we have to be different and think different. This is a liberty worth fighting for, even for the sake of those we totally disagree with. However, speaking to the church alone, is the gospel that we often try to promulgate more culture than spiritual truth? How can we say that we are setting men free by the truth when it is now estimated that 60% of Christian men in America are addicted to pornography? How can we say that we are setting men free with the truth when studies show that the same percentage of Christians justify lying as non-Christians? How can we say that our integrity is greater when a higher percentage of Christians are now getting divorces than non-Christians? How did this happen? The salt lost its savor. The light went out. As the Lord Jesus Himself warned would happen in Matthew 24:12:
"And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold."
You may be thinking that we have enough to worry about with the terrorists without going back a thousand years in our history and stirring up things then and now that only make us feel bad. I am not doing this to make anyone feel bad, but it is better to feel bad for a time and live, than feel good in a delusion that will lead to our death. I am saying this so that many more can live. This is war. War is hell because it is the worse form of hell that can be released on earth. I am only rubbing sticks together to try to re-light the fire before darkness completely overtakes us.
America has been raised up, along with other great Western nations, with the means and the opportunity to begin healing some of the ultimate wounds in the hearts of nations and cultures. In fact, we have already done much in this area without understanding it, but there is much more to be done. If we do not take this historic opportunity to heal the wounds of the past, we are headed for a conflict that will result in a virtual meltdown of civilization. We are headed for either the best of times or the worst of times, and we still have time to choose.
As Jack Taylor said recently, "The good news is that the devil cannot do one thing unless the Lord allows it. The bad news is that He is obviously allowing it." Why? I know that many of my fellow Christians believe that this is the beginning of the end, that the anti-Christ is about ready to take his place. However, as I shared in a previous bulletin, even when the anti-Christ is setting up the "abomination of desolation," the scriptures say that "those who know their God will display strength and take action" (see Daniel 11:31-32). Do we know our God? We must never give up the fight to see good prevail over evil. We must never give up doing the right thing. Even when the anti-Christ sets up the "abomination of desolation," or as it literally reads, "the abomination that desolates," we will still not give up. Regardless of what the devil is able to do, righteousness and truth will ultimately prevail. But if we are going to stand for righteousness and truth we must first have it.
In the next few bulletins I am going to be addressing some of the most critical issues I have ever addressed. These times are far more dangerous than almost anyone knows. They also present the greatest opportunities that just as few seem to be aware of. September 11 was a wake up call. It could have been even worse. There could have easily been ten times as many casualties. Grace is still on this whole situation, but we must wake up. We must also face some of the ultimate issues that neither the church nor civilization has yet been willing to face. Now these issues are inescapable. This conflict will not go away until we face them, and overcome them.
If you are now feeling even more unsettled after this bulletin, do not seek to just be comforted--seek the truth that can set you free from all fear. It will set you so free that you can sing hymns in the darkest dungeon. In fact, you will be so free that it will be impossible for any force on earth to imprison you, and your joy in the Lord will increase every day regardless of what is happening on the earth. When we see Him, beholding where He sits above all rule and authority and dominion, we will have peace.