Dear Saints,
Just over a year ago, around Christmas time, I was invited with my wife and two children to a small gathering at the house of a fellow believer. As I do not attend any church, I always welcome such occasions to share my faith in fellowship with others in this way. Unfortunately the visit did not go well. Indeed, it fairly quickly descended into open and quite ugly spiritual warfare.
Which was interesting, because while we had been travelling on our way to the house, I had received a very strong impression in my spirit that I was heading into an ambush. I did not have any idea as to why it was going to be an ambush, only that I was being warned to expect trouble. At the time, I was unaware that the fellow had been reading some of Joseph Herrin’s writings here on Parables, which I had just taken over due to Joseph’s health concerns. The friendly invitation to a gathering had not in fact been a sincere one. What the fellow desired most of all was to confront me on his own home ground, and to ‘put me right’ about the errors I was falling into.
This quickly became apparent to me upon entering his household. It was hardly the first ambush I had ever walked into, indeed I had already experienced quite a few over the decades before I even came to Christ. But I was given confidence from the fact the Holy Spirit had warned me this time of what was to come.
In the midst of the strange vibes in the house I began to pray silently, and peace settled upon me.
It was when we were alone together in the gloom of the kitchen that the fellow’s manner began to grow heated towards me, until I was only too aware that I was engaged in spiritual warfare.
The reason for this warfare? In my huge naivety, I had begun to talk about the signs all around us of the End Times. And this had lead to a discussion about Israel. The fellow I was speaking with was appalled that I considered the political country of Israel to be a ‘counterfeit’ of prophecy. Apparently to criticise the State of Israel in any way was to criticise God’s Chosen People, therefore placing me firmly in the camp of the devil.
The more I calmly spoke truth on the matter, the more his hostility grew towards me. He refused to admit the most basic of facts about the situation, but instead responded with growing emotional irrationality. When I eventually pointed out that even many Orthodox Jews had also considered the Israeli State to be a counterfeit upon its creation, since they believe that modern ‘Israel’ is to be the creation of their Messiah, not of man, his temper snapped entirely, to the point where he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, jerking around bodily, and contorting his reddened features. In his eyes was not light, but a burning darkness.
I am not that good with socialising, never mind confronting demonically triggered people in their own homes with my family present. As I often find in these cases, unable to really cope with the situation in my own flesh, I began to enter more and more into the Holy Spirit. In a way I became an interested observer to what I was saying and hearing and seeing while the storm raged around me. I tried love. I reached out and touched him, looked him straight in the eye, tried to break through his blind rage with some kind of brotherly connection. He would have none of it.
When I asked him why he was being so angry towards a fellow brother in Christ (not to mention a guest in his home), he recoiled for a moment, put on the spot, before declaring that his anger was ‘righteous anger’.
‘Oh,’ I replied, as his hostile words still echoed in my ears, and I wiped a drop of his spittle from my cheek. ‘Like Christ, you mean?’
He threw me out his house at that point. My family and all.
I have not seen or spoken to him since. I pray he may find some deliverance from the deceptions that have ensnared his soul. I pray he may find his peace in Christ.
All of this unpleasantness, this strife between two believers in Christ, was caused merely by a difference of opinion concerning modern ‘Israel’ and the Jewish people.
For some time now I have wished to broach this same subject on Parables. But I have held back. Last year I even had some discussion with Joseph on whether I should introduce this vital matter to the blog, and I also sought guidance from another trusted advisor to the ministry. Yet despite their affirmations, it is only now that I feel lead strongly enough to do so.
So please forgive me if I cause any undue distress to your present belief system. It is nothing personal. It is only that truth must never be shied away from for the sake of other’s feelings. And this particular truth is paramount to the times we are in and the times we are entering upon. It is central to the rise of the ‘Antichrist’ in the Last Days.
Besides, you may already know of this matter already.
I offer the following writing in the spirit of peace and love and understanding. It is not written by myself but by Tal Brooke, author of When The World Will Be As One, who has now passed away, and it has taken some work to reproduce the article here in a readable form.
Please read and consider his words carefully.
Colin Buchanan
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