by Anita Fuentes
"God will give us the love to be able to forgive our enemies".
- Corrie Ten Boom
Miss Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch survivor of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Her family had hidden Jews during the German occupation of Holland. For this they had been captured and sent off. Corrie was the only one to come out alive. Corrie was just one of the many evangelical Christians sent to concentration camps during the World War II. Her life hung in the balance during an ordeal that went on for years. But God was with her. Her faith was preserved in and through those terrible trials. She lived to testify all over the world of how God kept her in, through, and out of that time of tribulation. Corrie and her sister Betsy made this wonderful discovery.
Corrie was finally released because of a typographical error.
For this slip-up to occur in the highly efficient Gestapo was surely a miracle.
The definitive book that tells her story is called, 'The Hiding Place'.
Corrie Ten Boom has become a beloved light bearer for evangelicals around the world.
She is a shining example of a Western Evangelical Christian who was tested under fire.
She was proven and refined in the crucible of history. And she came through as gold.
In this capacity Corrie Ten Boom has earned the right to be heard.
She is eminently qualified to present this special word of warning to the Western Church.
In her worldwide travels Miss Ten Boom met with many Christians abroad. Many in the Suffering Church were enduring persecution just as she had. She met with Church leaders of the underground church in China. There she became aware of what had happened to the Chinese church in 1949. At that time Mao Tse Tung was bringing China into communism. The American missionaries had left the country. Chinese Christians entered into a time of intense persecution.
During that period the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine had been the accepted teaching. But there was a problem. And it turned out to be a serious one. This Biblically unfounded doctrine had not prepared the Chinese Church for witness under trial. Christian believers were interrogated and brutalized under the Red Guard. Many fell away from the faith in those times.
Other Christians found the promised spiritual reserves. They endured these tribulations and came through victorious.
(See the wonderful video 'China Cry' by tested and proven Chinese overcomer Mrs. Nora Lam.)
The Chinese experience with Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is a telling one.
You will look for that doctrine in China today, and you will not find it.
It is extinct, ...... as dead as the Dodo bird.
It seems that this shameful escapist doctrine has been tried in the crucible of history.
And it has been found wanting!
The Chinese Church leaders asked Corrie to bring a word of warning to the Christians in the West by the Holy Spirit.
Responsible evangelicals realize that our present religious freedom will not remain forever.
Corrie knew her Jesus in a deep and personal way. She also knew her Bible very well. Her life of victorious witness under persecution demonstrated and burned into her soul the truths found in its pages. The life and witness of Corrie Ten Boom is a rare example of a true saint. Here we see an otherwise ordinary modern Christian who embraced blood covenant devotion in the midst of great trials to emerge as an overcomer.
The letter Miss Boom wrote in 1974 has been entitled "Prepared for the Coming Tribulation".
In this letter she expressed a plea.
She exhorts Christian believers to prepare themselves in Christ.
Bible believing Christians in the west are wise to pay close attention here.
The present political cover we have will not be with us forever.
And one autumn day we may wake up to a different world, even a New World Order.
In such a situation our faith will surely be put to the test.
If we are not forewarned and forearmed we might not be prepared for the trials.
Christians not rooted and established in the faith could be offended, and many probably will be.
Our Apostle Paul prophesied a great apostasy, a great 'falling away' from the faith. (2Thes.2:3) Many of which will surely occur due to the rapture not taking place before the Great Tribulation.
Carnal Christians may be offended by this word of exhortation.
Many just don't want to hear such messages and will denounce it as "negative"..
But the woman of wisdom is still crying out in the streets. (Prov.1)
Unfortunately, most of those who pass by are just not listening.
But the true saints will pay attention and discern the spirits here.
These are the wise virgins, out finding the oil of the Holy Spirit.
They are preparing their lamps against the coming night.
And they, at least, deserve to know the truth.
So this message to the western church is exceedingly important.
Miss Boom's message of warning and encouragement is set forth below.
'CORRIE TEN BOOM AND THE RAPTURE'
- (Written in 1974)
"The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.
Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.
My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.
We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.
Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" for I have found where it is written that Jesus said,
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things:
and I will be His God,
and he shall be My son."
This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.
Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.
"Yes, the Lord will heal me,", Betsy said with confidence.
She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.
It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.
There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.
In China, the Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured." Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,
"We have failed.
We should have made the people strong for persecution,
rather than telling them Jesus would come first.
Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution,
how to stand when the tribulation comes,
– to stand and not faint."
I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it.
We are next.
Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation." Then I write it down and learn it by heart.
When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, "Nothing could be any worse than today." But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.
"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you;
on their part evil is spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified."
(I Peter 3:14)
I found myself saying, "Hallelujah!
Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!"
In America, the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.
Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.
The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, "Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?"
The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.
"When I was a little girl, " I said, "I went to my father and said,
"Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ."
"Tell me," said Father,
"When you take a train trip to Amsterdam,
when do I give you the money for the ticket?
Three weeks before?"
"No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train."
"That is right," my father said, "and so it is with God's strength.
Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.
He will supply all you need – just in time…"
My African friends were nodding and smiling.
Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing,
" In the sweet, by and by,
we shall meet on that beautiful shore."
Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed.
I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.
But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.
How can we get ready for the persecution?
First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.
Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History,
but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive
and sitting at the right hand of God.
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.
In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other.
But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting.
The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian's life.
Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also.
But then I read the Bible and I am glad.
When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", (Job 13:15)
for I know that to all who overcome,
He shall give the crown of life.
Hallelujah!"
- Corrie Ten Boom - 1974
Movie Hiding place at this link:http://fightforyourfaith.blogspot.pt/2013/12/the-hiding-place-movie-hd.html
Website Designed by Anita Fuentes © 2014 at Homestead™
1 Comments:
A word of warning from Corrie Ten Boon, Christian Missionary from Holland who lived through a harrowing experience in a Nazi concentration camp. Her story made to movie in "The Hiding Place.".
Post a Comment