A letter to the False Teachers who teach that
the American Church will escape persecution.
Corrie Ten Boom,
Christian survivor of Ravensbruck Nazi Concentration Camp begs to differ.
Forwarded by Al Cuppett,
US Army & Action Officer, the Joint Staff (JCS), Retired
TO: Concerned folks... Am Israel Chai
I don't usually
"shotgun" stuff out, but this bears distribution to those who
think we're gonna be pre-tribulation "raptured". This is a piece
written by Corrie Ten Boom. a "Jew-hider/rescuer" in
Holland. She wrote this many years after 1945, before she was "called
home". It surely reinforces all that I have been warning people
about. She and her sister Betsy were "SS-interned" in
Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, having been caught rescuing Jews in/around
Harlem, The Netherlands. The movie and book, "The Hiding Place",
also told it all.
In the name of the Lord,
Al Cuppett
From: Kevin
To: Folks
This is a letter from
Corrie Ten Boom, a sister in Christ who survived
the Nazi regime of WW2. She's been there and done that; we should take
heed to her experiences.
In His Service,
Kevin
______________________________________________________________
Corrie's letter
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, for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life.
Hallelujah!
Corrie Ten Boom
1974