Part 1 of a series: “For we cannot but SPEAK”
“And many of the brethren in the Lord,
waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more BOLD
to SPEAK the WORD
without fear.”
(Philippians 1:14)
The “dark winter” that has been predicted is not just political speech. It is also a spiritual indication of the rampant moral depravity both within and without the church. Never was there such a time as this when people desperately need to hear us SPEAK the TRUTH that Jesus died for their sins, so that they can confess and repent, and experience the cleansing joy of His shed blood on the cross for their sins, bringing them to His salvation and the LIGHT of a new life.
“But if we walk in the LIGHT,
as He is in the LIGHT,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin.”
(1 John 1:7)
This post begins a new series for the new year to encourage, edify and admonish believers that NOW – during a crackdown and suppression of free speech, and concurrent increase in hate speech – is the time for US to SPEAK the TRUTH in LOVE of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the devil is devious and he will work to oppose and corrupt this message. Our series will also examine his methods and warn of his tactics.
Marching Orders for the Endtime Battle
In 1969 Corrie ten Boom wrote a book Marching Orders for the Endtime Battle in which she sought to prepare the last days church for the coming of the Lord. In her chapter titled “Signs of the Times” she asserts that
The end-time has started already…. I believe everything that is written in the Bible about the coming again of Jesus. Everything that was written about the first coming of Jesus happened exactly as foretold, so that which is written about His coming again will happen likewise.
From Corrie’s unique perspective, having miraculously survived the Holocaust during the Third Reich, she rejoiced to see the rise of the nation Israel. Like many who follow biblical prophecy, she believed that in 1967 there was a pivotal victory in that land. But this was also a sign of the endtimes. Immediately after America’s “summer of love” in 1967 there was a year filled with riots and hate in 1968. This is eerily similar to what we’ve just experienced in 2020 – reminiscent of labor pains that come back harder the closer it is to the end (1 Thess. 5:3). Corrie reminded her readers what this signified:
We do not know the day, neither the hour, in which Jesus will come again. But neither do we know a day nor an hour in which He could not come. The whole world lives now in this expectation; something must happen by which the great problems will be solved. When we look at world history in the light of the Bible, we can find many clear signs: “Men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world” Luke 21:26 (RSV)…. There will be earthquakes, epidemics and famines. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12).
Corrie’s admonition to the last days church was written to those of us who remain alive now, who still stand on God’s Word, and cherish Jesus in our hearts as our first love (Rev. 2:4):
The only thing we have to do is what the Holy Scriptures teach us.
• We need to raise our voices like the voice of a trumpet so that as many people as possible will awake—first of all those who belong to the Church of Christ.
• We have to proclaim loudly that the end is near, so that people will be startled out of their everyday rest and security by this godly message, as through the roaring of the lion (Amos 3:8); that they will fear and get ready to meet their God.
• We urgently need such a “blowing of the trumpet,” since the day of the Lord draws near, as the prophet Joel says: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly” (Joel 2:15).
• For we need to prepare ourselves for all that will soon come to pass.
After encouraging believers to gird up with the armor of God for the spiritual battle, and reminding us of 2 Kings 6:16 that “They that be with us are more than they that be with them,” she then recounts her own testimony:
In the concentration camp, where I was so often confronted with death, the Lord often gave me grace to see the whole situation more or less in the light of eternity, and then everything was so simple, so uncomplicated. It was as if I saw myself: I stood there, and there stood the devil. The devil was much, much stronger than I, but Jesus stood at my side, and He is far stronger than the devil. And because I stood at Jesus’ side, I was more than conqueror. That is reality.
It is essential that we realize in these days that Jesus is Conqueror! To stand at His side, to follow Him, to be hidden with Him in God; that is the safe position for every soldier of Jesus in this time and in the coming final battle.
Excerpted from Corrie ten Boom, Marching Orders for the End Battle: Getting Ready for Christ’s Return
(1969), reprinted by CLC Publications 2016, pp. 93-97. Emphasis added;
some revision in formatting was done for textual emphasis.
The Truth:
“I am come a LIGHT into the world,
that whosoever believeth on Me
should not abide in DARKNESS.”
(John 12:46)
PERSONAL NOTE:
This new year ends our partial sabbatical from writing on this blog. The Lord blessed us with rest to step aside from the heavier duties of research and writing in order to seek His face. For several years we lived and prayed the words of Habakkuk 2, asking the Lord to “reprove” our imperfect vision, like eyeglasses correcting our spiritual sight:
“I will stand upon my WATCH,
and set me upon the tower,
and will WATCH to SEE
what He will SAY unto me,
and what I shall answer
when I am reproved.
And the LORD answered me,
and said,
Write the VISION,
and make it PLAIN upon tables,
that he may run that readeth it.”
(Habakkuk 2:1-2)
May our readers be blessed in this new year to renew their commitment to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, study His Word, hear His voice, and be filled with His Holy Spirit to revive your flagging spirits and obey His calling:
“Thou therefore gird up thy loins,
and ARISE,
and SPEAK unto them all that I command thee:
be not dismayed at their faces,
lest I confound thee before them.”
(Jeremiah 1:17)
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober,
and hope to the end
for the grace that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”
(1 Peter 1:13)