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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