Joseph Herrin (12-02-08)
When God begins to give signs of judgment, and begins speaking through dreams, visions and prophecies of the same, those who fear the Lord begin to anticipate dire things to come. One thing I have learned over the years (I am still learning this truth) is that God is much more patient when it comes to judging a people or nation than I often anticipate.
In 1985 David Wilkerson wrote the book Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth, which shared a vision he had received of God judging America. The first chapter opens with the following words:
America is going to be destroyed by fire! Sudden destruction is coming and few will escape. Unexpectedly, and in one hour, a hydrogen holocaust will engulf America — and this nation will be no more.
America has sinned against the greatest light.
Other nations are just as sinful, but none are as flooded with gospel light as ours. God is going to judge America for its violence, its crimes, its backsliding, its murdering of millions of babies, its flaunting of homosexuality and sadomasochism, its corruption, its drunkenness and drug abuse, its form of godliness without power, its lukewarmness toward Christ, its rampant divorce and adultery, its lewd pornography, its child molestations, its cheatings, its robbings, its dirty movies, and its occult practices. In one hour it will all be over. To the natural mind it is insanity to come against a prosperous, powerful nation and cry out, ‘It’s all over! Judgment is at the door! Our days are numbered!’ The Church is asleep, the congregations are at ease, and the shepherds slumber. How they will scoff and laugh at this message. Theologians will reject it because they can’t fit it into their doctrine. The pillow prophets of peace and prosperity will publicly denounce it.
I no longer care. God has made my face like flint and put steel in my backbone. I am blowing the Lord’s trumpet with all my might. Let the whole world and all the church call me crazy, but I must blow the trumpet and awaken God’s people. Believe it or not, America is about to be shaken and set aside by swift and horrible judgments. Many other praying believers who have been shut in with God are hearing the very same message – ‘Judgment is at the door! Prepare, awaken!’
Twenty-three years ago David Wilkerson proclaimed that judgment was at the door. Did Mr. Wilkerson prophesy falsely? Did he fail to perceive the mind of the Father? Since then many other voices have brought forth similar messages on the judgment coming to America. Among them was Dumitru Duduman, a Romanian Christian who came to America and traveled with his grandson Michael Boldea. Mr. Duduman spoke forth a message of repentance and judgment for many years in the 1980s and 1990s. Dumitru Duduman did not see these judgments come to pass as he died May 5th, 1997.
If we judge these men to be false prophets because their words of coming calamity did not materialize immediately, then we would have to also judge men such as the prophet Jeremiah to be false prophets as well. Indeed, many did just that in Jeremiah’s day, and this led Jeremiah to bring a complaint to the Lord.
Jeremiah 20:7-8
O Yahweh, You have deceived me and I was deceived; You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; Everyone mocks me. For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of Yahweh has resulted in reproach and derision all day long.
Jeremiah began prophesying of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity nearly forty years before it occurred. When the judgment delayed many began to revile and reproach Jeremiah. Jeremiah felt that God had set him up to be derided by the people. He became so vexed that God was slow about fulfilling His word that he determined to not speak such words anymore, but God caused the message to burn inside of him so that he had to speak it forth.
Jeremiah 20:9-10
But if I say, “I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,” then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it. For I have heard the whispering of many, “Terror on every side! Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!” All my trusted friends, watching for my fall, say: “Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on him.”
Many of today’s prophets have been decried as doomsayers. I have read numerous unflattering reviews of David Wilkerson. Many charge him with being a fear-monger, as they do others who prophesy judgment. These things are not new, and history has a way of vindicating the true prophets of Yahweh. God is patient, but He will surely accomplish what He has declared He will do.
II Peter 3:3-10
Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come…
We live in an hour of scoffers. Tragically, many of these scoffers are found among the people of God. They prophesy peace and prosperity, and offer smooth words to lull the body of Christ into complacency. They refuse to abide any word suggesting that God is angry with sin. These scoffers reject every declaration that Yahweh is incensed that His people have become as the Laodiceans, “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” They see themselves as “wealthy, increased with goods, and lacking nothing.”
How difficult it is for those who have prophesied judgment, and have called the church to repent and return to truth, to abide the scorn and mocking of the pillow prophets of this hour. David Wilkerson, in the same book, wrote the following:
Pillow Prophets
Ezekiel stood alone against all the false prophets of Israel. These prophets would have nothing to do with the message of righteousness and impending judgment. Instead, they prophesied an era of peace, ease and prosperity.
Ezekiel 13 is the very word of Jehovah against preachers and prophets who accommodate people with flesh pleasing words they said were from the Lord. Their words were designed to make God’s people comfortable in the face of impending judgment.
In fact, they were not satisfied to prophesy good times ahead from their great houses and ivory beds of ease – they sought to provide a pillow for every elbow (Ezekiel 13:18). “Woe to those who apply pillows unto all elbows…” (Original Hebrew by Spurrell) “…Behold, I am against your pillows wherewith ye entice souls…” (Ezekiel 13:20).
Ezekiel was horrified at the sight of prophets who had developed an art of making God’s people comfortable. The Lord had said, “My people have set up idols in their hearts; they are brazenly setting up stumbling blocks in iniquity; they are all estranged from me because of their idols” (Ezekiel 14:1-5).
The true word of the Lord was, “Jehovah says – eat your bread with trembling, and drink thy water with grieving and fainting – and say unto the people, her land shall be emptied of its fullness, because of the violence – cities will be laid waste, the land made desolate – there shall be no more vain visions or flattering prophecies” (Ezekiel 12:17-24).
While Ezekiel went about calling the people to humility and repentance, trying to prepare God’s people for the soon coming judgments, these pillow prophets went about prophesying the dreams and imaginations of their own hearts. God had not spoken to them, even though they prefaced their predictions with, “Hear the Word of the Lord.” God said, “I did not send them: they do not speak for Me.”
They carried with them fancy pillows to place under every elbow for all who flocked to hear their false prophecies. They placed handkerchiefs on the heads of every one of their disciples, a statement to others that meant, “Nothing but good times ahead. I see nothing ahead but peace and luxury.” They walked among the poor and sick, with a lace kerchief on the head, as a sign of their confidence in the message of the prophets of self indulgence and comfort.
Ezekiel thundered the Word of God at them, as the masses congregated to hear their pleasant words.
“You see for God’s people a vision of prosperity, when there is no prosperity, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
(Ezekiel 13:16, Spurrell)
“You follow after your own imagination – when actually you have seen nothing.”
(Ezekiel 13:3)
The pillow prophets are still with us! They talk about the Word of God, about prophecy, and they salt their soothing messages with a lot of Scripture. But there is a falseness in what they preach. They are not preaching the Cross or holiness and separation. They make no demands on their followers. They seldom speak of sin and judgment. They abhor the very mention of suffering and pain. To them, the heroes of Hebrews were faithless cowards and penniless losers who were afraid to claim their rights.
Like the pillow prophets of Israel, their one supreme desire is to promote luxurious lifestyles and make people comfortable in their pursuit of the good life. They are not speaking for God. All they are doing is passing out pillows. One for every elbow of every follower. No wonder the crowds flock to sit under their message – it’s painless. There is not the call of Christ to deny self and take up a cross.
The Spirit burns within me as I read the words written here. I perceive that David Wilkerson has spoken truth, and my heart is drawn toward it. Despite the fact that it has been nearly a quarter century since he stated that judgment was at the door, I know that he did not lie, but spoke truth. God is patient, and what is 23 years in His sight? It is but a vapor that passes in an instant.
I am certain that, like Jeremiah, David Wilkerson expected God to move much more quickly than He has done. He did not reckon on the patience of God. I have often misjudged the timing of God myself. I have mentioned in blogs that I anticipated the collapse of America very soon. I am surprised that the hand of final judgment has been delayed this long. Yet I do not doubt the basic facts that God has revealed. Judgment is coming. America will collapse and she will not rise again. The church must experience a fiery wilderness in order to purge her from sin and to loose her from the embrace of the world. Many will fall away, having listened to the smooth words of false prophets. They will say, even as they are now, that the woes of the nation have nothing to do with sin and judgment. Because they did not love the truth, God will send them a spirit of delusion that they will believe lies.
God’s judgment is already here. Who can read the news and not see that America’s great economy is reeling? Every week a new bailout is in the news. Housing prices are collapsing. Mortgage companies are going bankrupt to the tune of trillions of dollars. Huge investment banks that dealt in collateralized debt obligations have crumbled. Main street banks are now collapsing, and the government has been propping them up by buying hundreds of billions of dollars in deflated stock. America’s biggest insurance company, AIG, collapsed and went into government receivership. Citigroup, the largest bank in America would have already collapsed without government intervention. America’s “Big Three” automakers are begging for financial aid in the billions of dollars to keep from collapsing. They are now called the “Detroit Three,” for they are neither the biggest or most highly valued automobile manufacturers in the world anymore.
Today’s newspapers are announcing that America lost more jobs in November (533,000 jobs) than she has lost in 34 years. The official job loss for the year now stands at 1.9 million. What is not reflected in these numbers is that the job market must expand by 135,000 to 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with increasing population. The cumulative result of the shrinking economy actually reveals that there are approximately 4 million less jobs available for the population of America in one years time.
On top of this, America has experienced her second most costly year of hurricanes on record. (The most expensive was in 2005.) The Midwest experienced devastating floods and billions of dollars of lost crops. California continues to press forward to expand homosexuality and has been plagued by an extraordinary number of fires. California is also experiencing a budget shortfall and is asking the Federal Government for money to pay her bills. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently released a report stating that 41 of the 50 states face budget shortfalls, as well as the District of Columbia.
[source: http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm]
I can testify with assurance that the hour is later than it has ever been before. Truly judgment is at the door, even according to man’s measure of time. The nations of the world are entering a time of great distress. Economies are failing. Homes are being foreclosed by the millions. Unemployment is growing at an alarming rate. Banks, insurance companies, automobile manufacturers, and a host of other industries that once seemed like impregnable fortresses, flush with profits, are everywhere disintegrating.
The governments and bankers and global elitists are propping things up, giving an appearance that trouble might yet be averted, but the situation is now beyond resolution. A great flood of trouble is being held back by an inadequate dam that is beginning to leak ominously.
God has given so many signs. The conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon in the constellation Sagittarius earlier this week is one more testimony that the great work appointed for the end of this age is at hand.
God has not shown me the hour or the day when terror will fall upon men on every side. Yet He has given abundant testimony of what is coming. There have been signs in the heavens, and signs on the earth. I gave a message to a group in Fort Wayne, Indiana detailing many of these signs back in August. Afterwards I made it into a video, and it can be viewed online.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5636414345511666155&hl=en
Signs of collapse are all around. The American dream is about to be the American nightmare. It is time for the people of God to let go of the world. It is a time to cease a pursuit of mammon, pleasure and comfort. Do not willfully forget that God destroyed the world before in the days of Noah. Are we not living in similar days?
Matthew 24:37-39
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Today I was sent the following prophetic vision received by a pastor in Germany.
Pastor Joh. W. Matutis, (Berlin / Germany)
www.nnk-berlin.de
While praying this morning, God gave me a vision. He showed me a great, world-wide “mobilization.”
I saw myself strolling along a beach. Suddenly, there sounded a loud boom, which became stronger and more massive. It was not the noise of the sea or of the wind. It was completely still outside. The sea water was as smooth as glass. The deep booming sound which was like the sound of the mountains about to cave in, a banging sound which I had up till now never heard in my whole life, came from the other side of the ocean, from far away. It became so strong and mighty, that the earth began to quake and shake. It sounded like the blasting of a deep bass trumpet. I had never heard this sort and depth of bass sound before now. The whole air vibrated. I holed myself up in the dunes of the embankment, face down, and waited to see what would come out of this natural spectacle.
When the booming refused to stop, and instead became stronger, I saw myself begin to pray in the vision, and to speak with my God. Then I heard a voice saying, “my child, fear not. That is my mobilization call, a signal, from the other world. I am calling my people out from all peoples. I myself am shaking the earth and the sea. The sinners and godless will pass away for fear and the fearful expectation of the things which are to come. Understand, my child, that all these have been initiated by the financial crises. That was just the beginning of ruin. The foundation of today’s society will be so shaken that the people will lose all that they have acquired, and saved up till now.
Every infrastructure and welfare will collapse with time. Life will be very difficult for very many people. The general security will get out of control and there will be a proliferation of crime such that life on earth will be massively threatened. But you, who fear my name will I save from ruin. I am holding my arm of protection over you.
Although not even a silent wind blew, and not even a small wave was seen on the sea, the booming was so mighty, that my heart threatened to stop beating. Then I thought to myself, “I will now also die.” And then the Lord said to me, “my child, do not fear. You are to live and continue to declare my works. Arise, go home and tell your loved ones. Let them know that the coming of my son is very close at hand, at the doorstep. I am setting everything in motion in order to take my people home, and I am now stripping them of everything that is holding them back, or blocking them.”
As I stood up to obey God’s voice, starting to make my way homewards, I saw very many people, lying in the dunes. They had come out from their houses, racing towards the sea to see and experience this extraordinary natural spectacle. They lay on their faces as if paralysed, exactly as I had lain a few minutes before now. As I passed by them on my way home, despite the continuous distant booming sound, these people called to me saying “you are crazy; you cannot make it home in this situation. It is too dangerous”. They then buried their heads even further in the dunes, because they feared what would happen next. They no longer wanted to hear or know of anything.
And then said the Lord to me: “for you, my children, who fear my name, this is the day of my “mobilization.” For you my “sun of salvation” arises, with which I gather my true children, and bring them together. Go, my son, and tell this everyone you can reach.”
Then I asked the Lord “what shall I tell them?” “Tell my children,” He said, “they are no longer to occupy themselves with perishable things, but rather, much more with the immortal, the eternal things. They are to seek me and study my word. They should forgive one another, so long as there is still time, and make peace with one another.”
“They should stop being envious of, and pointing fingers at one another. They should neither accuse nor suspect one another. Everyone should do what he is supposed to, and can do. Tell them to free themselves of every unnecessary thing, and to stop fighting spasmodically (intermittently) for their rights. From now on, I will ensure your rights, and provide for justice for you. Great changes are about to occur all over the world, in every area of life. Adjust yourselves therefore and be prepared. Nothing is going to be as it has been before now…”
The further I moved from the beach, the less of the booming sound I heard, even though I was of the opinion that the sound had become stronger and even more massive. I felt as if I had been secured in a glass case.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying “I will bring my children into safety in my own way. You will see everything I will do in the world, which will experience all the “plagues of Egypt” before I withdraw my children unto myself, before Pharaoh releases you forever. My people hold together! Stay with one another, encourage one another. Soon, you will have made it!”
That was the last thing I took with me from this vision.
As I thought about all that I had seen, and what I should do with it, the Lord spoke to me saying “spread this revelation I have given you this morning about my “mobilization” overall further to my children, and encourage them to do likewise, for I am at the door (I am coming soon). And tell them, especially my people, that they should be serious about their relationship with me (God), before it is too late….”
Do help me spread this message overall. Send it to your friends and acquaintances. Spread it your churches and house fellowships. Translate it into other languages.
Maranatha! Our Lord comes.
Pastor Joh. Matutis
I believe this prophetic word finds a great harmony with the recent sign in the heavens that occurred on December 1st. The Lord is coming to judge His people. He will cause His bride to make herself ready. Great tribulation is coming upon the earth. The hour is late.
What is coming will not be tarry long. God has been sending His message of judgment for many years. Miss USA falling the past two years at the Miss Universe pageant is a sign of that which is at the very doorstep of this nation. The repercussions will be felt around the world.
Seek God with a whole heart. Pursue righteousness. Pursue humility. Show compassion to the poor and needy. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.
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
I read David Wilkerson’s books regarding the situation Believer’s find themselves in. The major denominations shun away from any judgment message. Pastor Wilkerson suffered much pain and rejection from others. I am still drawn to his messages from Time Square Church and World Challenge websites; I have not suffered in any way such as he, but I feel the rejection and unbelief of the messages of the Prophets against nations that ignore God and His commandments from my friends; who are Believers.
I told one dear friend recently that I would not speak of what is happening in the USA any longer; I would not have to say anything, it is here now for all to see.
Hopefully, many will come to the knowledge of the truth in these difficult days. God’s judgments are first and foremost redemptive; He is not willing that any should perish; but the dread release of judgment and punishment follows soon there after if change is not made toward Him.