The Folly of Fleeing

By Dene McGriff

It happens all the time.  People are living quiet peaceful lives, raising their kids, taking them off to soccer practice, going to work.  Suddenly, something happens – a disaster, invasion or economic crash.  It has happened time and again through history all over the world.  All of Europe, except a few elites, was totally surprised by World War I and so it goes down through history.  German Jews refused to believe Mein Kampf, even when Hitler laid out his plans in great detail.   People living in relative tranquility in places such as Beirut, once known as the Paris of the Middle East, can suddenly find themselves in the middle of a war zone.  Zimbabwe was one of the most productive countries in Africa but was reduced to inflation ridden poverty.  Even wealthy Argentina, Brazil and most Latin American countries have at one time or another seen their savings wiped out and their lives turned upside down.

So what do we do escape or stand, flee or have faith that God will use us in the midst of trouble?  Few Christians today are prepared to stand and suffer for their Lord.  Many evangelicals are convinced there won’t be a problem because they will rapture before the Tribulation begins.  A growing minority believe that America is prophetic Babylon and that Christians should flee – move physically out of the country.  This article examines these various positions.  Which is correct?

But whether we flee the country or to the wilderness, or rapture, we are missing the point.  First, there will be escalating signs; deception, wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes but these are just the beginning of sorrows (birth pains).  Then there will be persecution, but what are we told to do?  “Stand firm to the end” and “be a testimony to all the nations.”  Do you really think you will avoid tribulation in Germany or Canada?  We aren’t told to escape to a “hidey hole” and try and make it until the tornado passes.  So what should we do?

Daniel did not flee Babylon but overcame even while he was in the King’s court.  He was not hurt by lions or fire.  His testimony was sure.  He was not a coward.  Down through the ages, there are very few instances where God’s people are told to flee.  The glory to God is when His children stand boldly realizing that any loss in this life will be more than made up by eternal gain.

It will be very difficult (although not impossible) for a person who is heavily invested in their institutional Church and America as a chosen nation to escape deception.  It will take a revelation from God.  Fleeing and escapism are folly, but standing all alone is not very smart either.  Christians are afraid of getting too close to one another.  They are afraid to leave the safety of their “church” even though they realize they’re staying there at their own peril. 

We need to let the love of Christ draw us together with other Christians and begin to experience a daily organic church life (apart from buildings, leaders and programs).  A living community of Christians will provide the protection we need from the world and apostate religious systems.

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The Church – a Source of Deception

by Dene McGriff

In the last days, there will be a falling away, tribulation and deception and Christians will be persecuted.  What will be the greatest source of deception and  persecution for true Christians?  The apostate church!  Few consider what this may mean to them personally or how this could possibly happen.  All disclaimers aside (that within the institutional churches there may be those who overcome), the modern church is a tradition bound, moribund institution that attracts a good percentage of Americans to weekly services.  But does it really accomplish anything?  Does it shine the light of God’s presence to the world?  Does it produce a radiant, triumphant testimony of Jesus living in believers?   Do the programs, sermons, counseling and entertainment produce a vital living church?

Is the modern church a glorious testimony of Jesus or merely a reflection of our culture – a religious corporatocracy, an entertainment extravaganza, endless sermons that exhort, teach and inform and programs to take care of all of the needs of the people?  Churches may bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ but do they really bring people to mature, living, fruitful Christians?  The average “born again” Christian remain as a baby who never grows up but sits year after year in the pew being bottle fed the “milk of the Word” by the pastor.  The more zealous usually turn to full-time ministry.  Most “part-time” Christians remain just that for the rest of their lives…nominal participants in “church” for most of their lives.  For the vast majority of Christians, “church” is something you do once or twice a week, not what you are 24/7.  There is little commitment or real community, certainly no organic participatory meeting life.

I originally titled this chapter “The Church – the Heart of Darkness” because I truly believe that the church is the greatest source of deception, lulling Christians into a feeling that they are okay.  They think their spiritual lives are being taken care of by those who watch over them and they have nothing to worry about.  Not only is this keeping them from developing the kind of relationship with the Lord and other Christians that they should have, but it is putting many in harms way as they listen to lukewarm teaching that lulls them into a false sense of well being and deadens their prophetic senses.  The institutional church is the greatest impediment to the growth of the saints, to their ability to get their own fresh living Word from the Bible, to the establishing of their own gifts and ministry and the building up of the saints as a glorious corporate expression to the world.

If you see how far the church has strayed from God’s ultimate intention, how corrupt and worldly it has become, how there is such an internal conflict that it can’t really stand for the truth any more, you will see a church that is falling away.  That institution many hold to is not really the church.  The people in it are but pawns in a worldly corporate system that has no resemblance to the church envisioned by Jesus.  If you want specifics as to what to do, I would urge you to order and read the books by George Barna and Frank Viola mentioned at the very beginning.  I know you have many questions as to what to do, but there are answers.  We may see prophecy as clearly as can be, have the chronology of events down pat, but the point of “the tribulation network” is that God still wants a glorious triumphant testimony in the face of the worst tribulation the world has ever seen.  And that will only happen if we rediscover the true meaning of and the simplicity of church – a body of believers who simply share the life and love of Jesus with a frightened world.

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Russia has a Cameo Appearance in Bible prophecy 

Part XXII
Rise or Fall of American Empire? 

By Doug Krieger 

While Barack Obama was vacationing in Hawaii, John McCain talked with the Columbia Law School educated president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, and declared: 

“Today we are all Georgians.” 

McCain’s style was markedly different from the “moral neutrality” Obama expressed about the Caucasus crisis, prior to his inauguration at the Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado. Then came the bravado from the Russians, and the put down from the Americans: 

“Forget about Georgian sovereignty” – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

“Meaningless ‘bluster’” – US Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino.  (Bush Won’t Compromise on Georgian Sovereignty, BreitBart.com, August 14, 2008) 

And, from the former satellites of the Soviet Union, now members of NATO: 

“We, the leaders of the former captive nations from Eastern Europe and current members of the European Union and NATO– Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – are extremely concerned about the actions of the Russian Federation against Georgia.  We strongly condemn the actions by the Russian military forces against the sovereign and independent country of Georgia.” (Joint statement on Georgia-Russia War by Presidents of Poland, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, georgiandaily.com, August 9, 2008) 

And in Prague, remembrance of the Soviet invasion during the Prague Spring of August 1968 brought this response from the Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg:  “It is a sad coincidence.” 

But it was Ukraine’s Orange Revolutionary President, Viktor Yushchenko, who put the Russian Fleet ported in the Crimea on notice that they would not be allowed to use Ukrainian territory for their fleet if vessels were used to destroy Georgian independence – “If they put under question democracy and independence in Georgia, then they can undermine democracy and independence in other states,” he said.  His vehemence was all the more foreboding given the charge by Russia that Ukraine is supplying arms to the Georgians against the Russians. 

At the same rally in Tbilisi, the Capital of Georgia, Premier Ivars Godmanis of Latvia said:  

“Always be united, and we - Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Poles, and Ukrainians - will always be with you.”

 Latvia has joined the United States in warning that relations with Russia are bound to suffer following the conflict. 

IMPLICATIONS OF RUSSIA’S ACTION AND AMERICA’S STANCE 

Before we delve into the morass of Gog and Magog (because of its alleged eschatological ties to the Caucasus and Russia), let us throw our geopolitical hat in the ring with the rest of the political pundits as to the implications of Russia’s agitation toward the West, the “New West” and the leadership of the West, the United States of America. 

First of all, there appears to be no clear winners here: Russia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Ukraine, NATO and especially Poland who was told by Russia’s deputy Chief of General Staff that by signing their nuclear defense system pact with America, they now, as of August 15, 2008, are exposing themselves to nuclear attack by Russia!  

LET US DELVE INTO THE ESCHATOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS… 

It is this alienation from the West, as now orchestrated by the USA (and don’t be so foolish to think otherwise), that leads to “news (rumors) from the . . . north will trouble him; therefore he (i.e., Antichrist) shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many” (Daniel 11:44).  To suggest that Gog-Magog (from the “far north” – Ezekiel 39:2), which has been utterly annihilated (Ezekiel 39:2 – Heb. “shaw-shaw” or “to annihilate” Strong’s 8338 – not “shashah” or “sixth-part” Strong’s 8341) can now mount a counter offensive that will “trouble” Antichrist, who will go forth in that direction to annihilate many (Dan. 11:44), is to suggest that Gog’s initial annihilation was perfunctory, incomplete and distorts the true meaning of the text as found in Ezekiel 39:2a and confirmed by Antichrist’s further annihilation beyond Israel’s immediate “far north.”  Naturally, and obviously, the biblical expositor must connect the eschatological dots between Ezekiel 38-39 and Daniel 11:40-44 as two different aspects of the same Gog-Magog War; otherwise, confusion will reign between these latter day texts—which is precisely what John Walvoord has done and which we have in the past addressed at length.  (Please see our E-book entitled:  Antichrist and the Gog-Magog War)

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Babylon on the Cheap
Part XXI of "Rise or Fall of American Empire?"

by Doug Krieger 

“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore…the merchants of these things, who became rich by her…will stand at a distance…weeping and wailing…for in one hour such great riches came to nothing…and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning…WHAT IS LIKE THIS GREAT CITY?…all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth!...for in one hour she is made desolate.”

(Revelation 18:11, 15, 17-19)  

What do the USS George H. W. Bush and the Emma Maersk have in common?  WEALTH & POWER – to be exact (although the cost of the USS George H. W. Bush was $4.5 Billion and the Emma Maersk a paltry $145 Million). And, if you can’t SEE this, then you’re probably suffering from a rare disorder known as “narcissistic Americana myopia” (NAM) – an awful contagion contracted primarily in America (aka “americanus denial hyperactivity-disorder” or ADHD) but spread throughout the planet by the same hyper-active militarists and opulent merchandisers to the unsuspecting, mimickers, pleasure-seekers and, in sum, all who especially benefit from trading with “that Great City” so clearly identified in Revelation 18. 

Berating those evangelical prattlers who deny America’s end-time role as Babylon the Great – the ultimate expression of Gentile World Power and the extremity of the King of Tyre’s acquisitions and fortune – has reached a refined and superlative expression on this web site.  It is at the crux of the “Rise or Fall of American Empire?” in that it is the thesis of this author and a growing number of believers, as well as geopolitical, economic and social scientists, that never has there been such an amalgamation of riches gathered nor heaped up on behalf of fellow plutocrats by one such nation upon this globe as these United States of America! 

Here the world buys and sells – here the WHOLE EARTH (at least its merchandisers) can be made rich through trading with her!  Listen, as much as we’d like to sound the proverbial alarms that Babylon’s going through so-called “economic hard times” – it’s barely a burp, a slight disturbance in the force, a glitch in the indomitable apparatus of consumption – in brief:  We’ll pass the gas of our present eating binge and regroup for the next food fest! 

Before we examine through casual observation the complexity of America’s sell off and consequent extensions of globalization and general wealth integration throughout the world – remember these prophetic bursts from the prophet Ezekiel’s pen: 

“There is no secret that can be hidden from you!  With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself, and gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches” (Ezekiel 28:3-5).

America’s EMPIRE OF DEBT is naught but a furtive allusion wherein she is able to sustain herself and her friends, the merchants of the earth, through thick and thin.  These same merchants, who traffic in the bodies and souls of men and who have been made rich through trading with her, have no qualms of perpetual indulgence before her altars of commercial expectation and expediency.  The Bible’s portrait of this great end times’ commercial empire will one day be “remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath” (Revelation 16:19).  Because, you see, it is through “the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within; and you sinned” (Ezekiel 28:16).  In order to garner, as well as to protect, her abundance, she has had to resort to violence—war after war after war to extend her commercial umbrella.  But prior to her sudden dissimulation, she shall be the delight of the world’s traders and of their kings, the “great men of the earth.” 

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Some symbolism that the United States may fit into? 

Part XX

Rise or Fall of American Empire

By Doug Krieger 

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place.  And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John” (Revelation 1:1) 

The title of this, once again, provocative piece of apocalyptic preciosity is designed to expand the eschatological fervor of God’s people to immediate Biblical relevance, while challenging the geographic restriction of evangelical Premillenarian confinement to all things Euro-centric (e.g., revival of the Holy Roman Empire) . . . for the Image seen in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream began to walk the face of the whole earth colonizing the earthlings and now sits like a Queen overlooking her imperial horizons from sea to shining sea.  Simultaneously, the “earthlings” who deign to observe our food fight might just be enthralled to know of our interior constipations or why they are convinced in their disenchantments when considering our apocalyptic wars; hopefully, however, the Holy Spirit just may ignite an illuminating fire within someone’s soul  - for “the truth is out there!”    

Notwithstanding, content taken from the Apocalypse – the “unveiling of Jesus Christ” – was and is transmitted to us through a most unusual, yet time-proven means . . . allow us to share the late Ray Stedman’s explanation from his commentary on the Revelation – God’s Final Word: 

“The book is called the ‘revelation of Jesus Christ,’ and John says that Jesus Himself ‘made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.’  The English phrase ‘made it known’ actually has a deeper meaning in the original Greek, where instead of three words there (i.e. ‘made it known’) is just one Greek word, semaino.  The word should be translated ‘signified’—or, if you want to really get the true sense of this word, pronounce it aloud:  ‘SIGN-I-FIED.’  In other words, Jesus made His revelation known to John by signs or symbols.  Once you grasp the symbolic ‘sign-ificance’ of this book, you can begin to understand and apply the book of Revelation.  Revelation is a book of symbols, and these symbols are important.  Symbols help to simplify difficult concepts and to clarify things which are baffling or murky . . . The book of Revelation, however, uses symbols with great precision and clarity . . . The key to understanding the symbols of Revelation is recognizing that almost all of these symbols have been given to us elsewhere in the Bible.  If you try to read Revelation without any understanding of the rest of the Bible, you are doomed to confusion.  But if you use the rest of the Bible as a guide and interpreter of the symbols of Revelation, most of these symbols immediately become understandable.” (God’s Final Word, Ray C. Stedman, Discovery House Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI, 1991, pp. 3-4) 

Now, we could further disparage our concerns and imbibe in Paul’s “little folly” to have you all “bear with me” – for this ministry—the Tribulation Network—is “not inferior to the most eminent apostles”…though we may be considered by some to be “untrained in speech” (II Corinthians 11:1, 5-6).  That said, it is with some consternation that the dissemination of a great deal of what passes as pertinent prophetic platitude designed to prepare the people of God in America, North America and throughout the planet for the coming of the Lord, is fraught with what the prophet Micah called a severe case of “PRATTLE” – to wit: 

“‘Do not prattle,’ you say to those who prophesy (lit. ‘drip words’)” (Micah 2:6) 

And, just who might these “prophetic prattlers” be?  Alas!  For they come bearing gifts and announce all is well, fat and sassy amongst the people of the Lord: 

“If someone showed up with a good smile and glib tongue
   and told lies from morning to night—
‘I'll preach sermons that will tell you
   how you can get anything you want from God:
More money, the best wines...you name it’—
   you’d hire him on the spot as your preacher!”
(Micah 2:11 – From “The Message”) 

Therefore, having announced these peculiar caveats (pick and choose what’s appropriate to sundry sites), allow us to delve into the more popular disseminators of the prophetic – knowing this – most are beloved in Christ; however, most are awash in a protective Laodicean-mindset wherein the “Gospel of Wealth and Prosperity” has skewed the prophet’s vision.  Compounding the myopic gaze of these visionaries are what is seen as benign attempts at “financial responsibility” (before the Lord, no doubt) – coupled with a preoccupation to obfuscate the United States of America as having little, perhaps-yet-undiscovered or nothing to do with Biblical prophecy, no matter how these aforementioned “symbols” signify to the contrary; i.e., America insinuates herself as the epitome of Revelation’s most ghastly symbolism:  The SUPREME CULPRIT - BABYLON THE GREAT – of the latter days!

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