Here the message from Corrie ten Boom:
Prepared for the Coming Tribulation
Written By Corrie Ten Boom 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 Lords 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 Betsys
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, Dont
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 marty 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 Gods 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 Christians 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!
Please send this message further to all your friends and
other Christians. They will it need.
Thank You.
Joh.W.Matutis, www.nnk-berlin.de