Joseph Herrin (08-12-09)

Stockade Doors at Andersonville Civil War Prison

Those things written here are shared as a word of prophecy for the body of Christ in America. There are times when I have a profound sense of the Father ordering my steps to communicate some truth, and the past couple days have brought forth a sobering message.

Randy and Kathy Furman, a precious brother and sister from Arizona, were in South Carolina to visit family. Since they were “close” by, they decided to drive down to Georgia and spend a day and a half with me. The Father revealed how he had gone before us to arrange this meeting. I had borrowed my daughter’s pop-up tent trailer to go camping about a week earlier. This provided the means for me to act as a host for my guests. If I had been staying at another person’s house, as I often do, I would not have felt the same liberty to invite people over.

Randy and Kathy had hosted me at their home outside Kingman, Arizona this past April as I was traveling across the country. They had served as tour guides and were wonderful and gracious hosts, and I was blessed to serve them in a like manner. It was while I was at their home that I wrote the blog series titled Thorns in the Desert.

https://heart4god.ws/wordpress/2009/04/thorns-in-desert-part-1.html
https://heart4god.ws/wordpress/2009/04/thorns-in-desert-part-2.html

I found it notable that growing in my campsite in Georgia were two cactus plants. They seemed to symbolize these wilderness wanderers and desert dwellers who were coming to visit with me.

As I considered what sites I might take Randy and Kathy to visit, one in particular came to mind, and it did so with a force that I recognized to be the inspiration of the Spirit of God. I sensed that we were to go together and visit Andersonville National Historic Site.

http://www.nps.gov/ANDE

Andersonville is the site of a Civil War prison where Union troops were held in a large walled stockade. It has become associated with the greatest abuses of one American against another. The camp was in operating only 14 months, and in that brief time 13,000 Union troops died. Among the causes of death were starvation, disease, exposure, vermin, and harsh treatment.

At its peak in August of 1864, 32,000 men were crowded into an area consisting of 26 acres.

Conditions were so terrible that they were burying up to 100 men a day in mass graves.

Lest some think it was only the South who treated their prisoners, they need only look into the history of Camp Douglas in Chicago, or Elmira Prison in New York. At Camp Douglas, the Union general in charge intentionally kept the men in a malnourished state to make them “manageable.” Starving and thirsty soldiers were warned that they would be shot for transgressions as slight as eating snow to quench their thirst. They were routinely tortured by hanging them by their thumbs, or making them “ride the rail.”

This form of torture would often leave men crippled, and it caused extreme pain to the genitals.

This inhumane treatment of one American by another was not widely known among the public. The media in that day did not have the scope and immediacy that is common today. Undoubtedly, if more had been known about what was going on insider these prison camps, there would have been significant public outcry.

We live in an hour in which there is less outrage by the public over such inhumane treatment of mankind. The recent revelations of the shocking abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the blatant and unapologetic endorsement of torture techniques such as waterboarding, have caused only a modest outcry. Even when it became known that President George W. Bush had authorized torture to be used on suspected terrorists, the employment of stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding continued unabated.

Such things do not bode well for the things that millions of Americans will soon suffer at the hands of their brothers. The concept in the minds of many that such atrocities could never happen in America, for we are too civilized, are instantly shattered when one takes a visit to Andersonville. The truth is, Americans have already manifested the willingness to treat one another in the most cruel and careless manner, and the Spirit is testifying that days akin to the great Civil War are returning to America. This time things will be much worse.

I have cited on numerous occasions the parallels between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. The Obama campaign made much of the similarities during the Presidential race. Both men were Illinois politicians. Both came to power at a time when the nation was facing a great crisis. Both men were tall and lanky. Barack Obama even took his oath for the Presidency with his hand upon the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln.

The Spirit has been testifying that America is about to experience a great fall. The Union will disintegrate. The country will be divided. The evidence of the fault lines upon which the fractures will occur are already visible. The recent democratic ads characterizing conservative protestors at town hall meetings as “the mob” reveal that the division is observed from the grassroots to the halls of Congress. Barack Obama’s ill chosen words saying that Cambridge, Massachusetts police acted stupidly in arresting a black Harvard professor resulted in a storm of response that was very much polarized along racial lines. This past week a prison in Chino, California was destroyed by inmates who rioted along racial lines, Hispanics against African Americans.

As millions of jobs are being lost and people’s unemployment benefits are ending, the number of unhappy, and often angry citizens of this nation are increasing. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of the state of California, is proposing the early release of over 27,000 criminals from state prisons to reduce the budget for the Department of Corrections. These criminals will be turned back out on the streets in a state where employment is hard for skilled laborers to find. Those who are unskilled and have a criminal record will have little chance of finding employment, and crime will escalate.

I can foresee the day fast approaching when states petition the Federal government to use military bases and Federal troops to hold those they can no longer care for. Many of the pieces are already being set in place to pave the way for the government to begin acting as one massive police state.

One of the first acts of the current 111th Congress was to pass legislation to authorize and fund regional detention facilities across the nation. The legislation can be read at the governments websites.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.645:

An Internet article reports the following:

Yes, U.S. Officials Are Quietly Preparing for BIG Trouble Ahead

A new report by the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute states flatly the U.S. military must prepare for “a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” that could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.”

Late last year, The Washington Post noted the incoming Obama Administration is going to “earmark” at least 20,000 troops returning from Iraq to deal with “domestic emergencies.” Since then, the Army Times has broken the story that the domestic emergency army unit has been increased to 80,000 troops, who are being trained right now in Georgia.
[Source: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.09/pandemonium.html]

Returning to the witness of the Spirit of Christ concerning these things, my friends who went with me to visit Andersonville had been reading the book The Heavenly Man, and had brought it with them. This is the remarkable story of a Chinese Christian who was arrested by the government and imprisoned. This is a scenario that is soon coming to America.

Yun’s book claims both extreme persecutions and miracles of deliverance similar to ones found in the Biblical narrative. Despite a life of poverty in China, he since has spoken to thousands internationally, possibly millions, with the gospel message. Seen as a rebel among some Chinese for not joining the ‘official’ government-controlled Christian organization (see: Three-Self Patriotic Movement), he was imprisoned and tortured by the government authorities. His book claims that he became a highly wanted man across several provinces. He was finally arrested and sentenced to many years in prison. However, Yun continued his ministry while in prison, with more claims of miraculous results. As a result, many prisoners and even some prison officials reportedly became born-again Christians. Apparently, while he gained increasing favor from some officials, he also became a target of increased persecutions by others. He was repeatedly beaten and became severely malnourished. It is claimed that while in prison, Yun undertook a total fast without food or water for 74 days.

After many years in prison, he escaped from Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison from which it is reported that nobody had previously escaped. He described how he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, telling him to simply walk out the heavily guarded prison gate. Risking being shot to death on the spot, he wrote later that he obeyed the voice, and walked straight through several prison doors that were somehow left open in front of many prison guards, across the prison yard and finally out of the main gate. Yun stated that it was as if he had become invisible to the guards who stared straight through him. Although many expressed doubts that such a thing could happen, some prison guards had apparently lost their jobs for this ’embarrassing mishap.’ It is reported that the official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded that “Yun received no human help in his escape.” It is claimed that these reports have been also confirmed by numerous prisoners who occupied the same prison cell as Yun. Apparently, he remains the only person to have escaped from this notorious maximum security prison.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Yun]

Our visit to Andersonville was a very sobering one. It was not a feel-good jaunt in the sunshine. A museum with many exhibits from prisoner camps across the world is located on the property. A film is played that shows the terrible suffering that many have endured, with personal testimonies and appalling photographic evidence.

Upon returning back to my campsite I found that two different people had sent me a link to an article that served as a further witness to those things that are coming. The Spirit truly orders our steps that we might consider what is coming and prepare our hearts.

The article I was sent a link to focuses upon a new recruitment drive by the Army and Army National Guard for Internment Officers. This very unusual, and unprecedented recruitment of Americans to be trained and deployed to serve as prison guards at Internment Camps has alarmed some who are watching closely those things that are occurring in this country.

Why is National Guard recruiting for ‘internment’ cops?
Ad campaign seeks workers at ‘civilian resettlement facility’
Posted: August 07, 2009
11:45 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

An ad campaign featured on a U.S. Army website seeking those who would be interested in being an “Internment/Resettlement” specialist is raising alarms across the country, generating concerns that there is some truth in those theories about domestic detention camps, a roundup of dissidents and a crackdown on “threatening” conservatives.

Are you an enemy of the state? Get the bumper sticker that lets everyone know you have no apologies for being right!

The ads, at the GoArmy.com website as well as others including Monster.com, cite the need for:

“Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel…

The new ad says successful candidates will “provide external security to… detention/internment facilities” and “provide counseling and guidance to individual prisoners within a rehabilitative program.”
[Source: http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106304]

The Army National Guard has a video as well as a description of the jobs they will be training people for. I encourage you to watch the video.

http://www.nationalguard.com/careers/mos/description.php?mos_code=31E

Seeing that the government and military are making plans for “a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” one may well understand the reason for this current recruitment drive for Internment Camp/Resettlement Soldiers.

It is difficult to comprehend those things that are coming to America, but the Spirit of Christ is testifying of them. He is speaking to His people that they might prepare their hearts and lives for the days ahead. Many are even now being directed by the Spirit to make preparations to flee in coming days. It is necessary that all the people of God be wholly surrendered to the direction of the Spirit. It is in God that we will find our safety and refuge.

The current series I have been publishing on Living Epistles – Testimonies of Faith, is intended to promote the faith of God’s people. We live in a nation where faith has been infrequently exercised. This must change. Will your faith be adequate to carry you through the days of distress that are approaching? If you are unsure, then begin seeking the Lord now that He might direct your steps to a more robust, practical faith. He is faithful, and His eyes are ever upon His children.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063