Wednesday, August 25, 2010

You Fear Mongering - Post Tribber - Survivalist

By Ray Gano
I woke up this morning and came upon an article that hit me in the heart. The headline read…
This Economy Is Ripping Millions Of Unemployed Americans To Shreds
"If you can still put a roof over your head and food on the table for your family, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate.  There are millions of Americans out there right now that are really, really suffering.  The cold, hard reality of it is that there aren't even close to enough jobs out there for everyone right now.  It is almost as if we are all caught in a really bizarre game of musical chairs where the losers get stripped of their tickets to the middle class.  What this horrible economy is doing to the dignity of millions of middle class Americans is incredibly saddening. "(1)
Folks, for the past couple of years I have been trying to warn of this. Millions out of work, no home, no job, no hope.
We have pastors out there who claim the title, but they are nothing more than hirelings in it for the pay check, glitz and glamour.
In the past several weeks I have gotten some emails that really brought me down.
Here is one…
Ray,

I have definitely seen a decline in the quality of your newsletters as such that I really don't want to receive anything anymore. Marianne has also told you about your gone off the deep end with your survival fear mongering. You seem to think in your head that you are a modern day Joseph.
You have gone the way of the post-tribbers who think that they have to have enough to survive the tribulation period.
The rapture is near and you are telling people to store food for themselves. You are deceived in your thinking. You have gone off the deep end.

In Christ, Brendan
Here is the email the person above mentioned from Marianne.
 Ray, you're not bringing the gospel to the world by hawking survival equipment.  I don't see anywhere in the epistles where we are supposed to do any of this.  What you're doing is scaring God's people, who are to trust the Lord to provide in bad times. Marianne
To be honest it brings me down when I get emails like this. I have to ask "are people not paying attention to what I am saying and writing at all?"
First … Let me say this very clearly.
I am not post trib!
And when someone calls me that, those are fighting words in my book. So to all those out there who think I am, please stop spreading these lies about me. And if you think this, then have some fortitude and common courtesy to come talk to me first so I can set you straight.
I have said over and over again that I stand upon the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For those who may not know what the word Imminent means, it means "anytime, immediate, now" to name just a few descriptors.
Second … we here in America need to get off our elitist horse and stop thinking God's Will revolves around what we do here. I have said over and over again that God's Throne is not draped in the American Flag. We are just another empire that is falling. We need to come to grips with that.
Third … We need to separate our economic downfall that we are facing in America from the coming tribulation. These are two separate things having nothing to do with each other.
Finally … If you are looking for the rapture because America is about to go down in flames, you are wrong in your ideas and wrong scripturally.
Nowhere in scripture does America's financial woes have anything to do with Last Days Bible Prophecy. The idea that we are not named in scripture has nothing to do with it. South America and Australia isn't mentioned either, do we base our interpretation on those countries too? No we don't. We need to stop this elitist US western centric idea and we need to stop now.
This nation has experienced financial downfall three times in the past. During the revolutionary war we were thrown into a depression, during the civil war we saw hyperinflation and in the 1920-30s we saw the great depression. These historical events had nothing to do with Bible Prophecy and the financial downfall we are going to soon face will have nothing to do with Bible prophecy.
As a side note, you will also notice that each financial downfall was approximately 70 to 100 years apart.
Can you guess where we are today? Yep, right around that point where America will perform a nose dive into a financial down fall again.
Those ignorant of their past are destined to repeat it.
The Civil war had nothing to do with Bible Prophecy, neither did the great depression. In fact during the 1930's Great Depression there were Christians out there looking at Hitler as if he was the coming Antichrist and they too were saying the rapture was at hand. There was economic woe, hard times, starvation, crime and deaths, all the biblical indicators were there, but the tribulation was not upon them nor did Christ return for the Church.
There are many people out there today associating what is taking place here and equating it to the rapture.
The doctrine of the rapture clearly states that there are no indicators to when the Lord will return for His bride. All we know is the season, that season began when Israel became a nation. Only our father in Heaven knows the time and the hour. We have got to remain sober and remember this.
Now If I have described your way of thinking you, like many in the past, are setting yourself up for a severe disappointment.
Right about now some of you may be saying "There he goes, he is proving Bible prophecy right there… he's a scoffer."
Did I ever say that Christ is not going to return?
Did I ever question the rapture?
In both cases no.
So if you are thinking that, please don’t. What I am pointing out is, that the church in America have become elitists in our ideas and thinking; that because we are facing hardship here, surely Christ is returning just for us with the rest of the global church in tow.
This is the attitude that is becoming very prevalent, and it is very upsetting.
I have to ask about our Christian brothers and sisters in China who are living under constant persecution, why didn't Christ rapture them out first and then the rest of us?
What about Christians in Sudan, Ethiopia, Africa,  Asia etc? Are these Christians facing persecution not as special as we are here in America?
The time is now to wake up and smell the coffee and put away this elitist idea about ourselves here in the US and get with the program.
This nation is coming into a serious time of economic hardship. It is not the tribulation and it is not an indicator of the rapture. It will be a time of severe economic woe, hard times, unemployment, homelessness, famine, starvation, sickness, plague, crime and death.
I know this is not what you want to hear, and you want it to just go away; but it isn't.
Like financial downfalls of our past, we are facing yet another. And like the financial downfalls of the past this nation will come out on the other side living in the "new normal."
I want to share with you an email I got just the other day. It was an email strait from God, through one of the PZ Insiders named Gerlinda.  Gerlinda is a survivor of Hitler's Germany.
If you read nothing else in this report, please take the time to read this email from Gerlinda…
Ray,
 It is becoming increasing clear that those who have not learned from history are doomed to repeat it.  Is that why those words were coined; because it happens over and over again?  I am a person who stood in the bread lines of Germany with my mother.  Sometimes, there wasn't any more bread left.  Even after coming to America, for the longest time, I wadded up bread in little balls and hid them for a future time.  Those lesson don't leave you.   We were suppose to be on the winning side.   How could this have happened?  Didn't the Furher promise change and a wonderful new world?   He called it The Third Reich, which would last a thousand years.   The German people were all commissioned to be Kingdom Builders.  They were zealous, proud and put their trust in the words of their leader.   
 Why am I even mentioning this term, "Kingdom Builders"?  Because we have a generation of Christians that honestly believe they are helping to build God's Kingdom.  They are zealous and proud of what they are doing.  Will they also be sorely unprepared as other generations were?  Regardless of what a person's viewpoint is of the Rapture, shouldn't we take note of the rising unemployment?  How about the shortage of food that will fill the shelves of the grocery stores?  Will a Rapture happen before it gets to that?  What if it doesn't?   There was a generation of Christians in Germany that believed in the Rapture too but man's inhumanity to man knocked on their front door before it happened.  Tens of thousands starved to death.  Only those that lived in the country or little village were able to grow gardens, have a few head of sheep, pigs or cows that saw them through and it was these who were used of God to help His Chosen that hid for their very lives.
 A  "Kingdom Builder" person would rather give money to a denomination or TV Evangelist that will build bigger parking lots, provide transportation for their clergy that equals those of the politicians as they spew their silky words of deceit that they are using God's Money to build God's  Kingdom?????  Can one really trust one's hard earned money is going to Missionary Work when we see the evidence of worldly "things" that the coffers of the churches have purchased?  Jesus said His Kingdom wasn't of this world, didn't He?  John 18:36
 As a survivor of WWII, I am stupefied by people's words that God even provides for the Sparrow, there-fore there is no need to put aside, despite all the signs of hard times beginning to stare us right in the face. 
 The last I saw, the birds are eating worms, seeds and the things of the earth.  They know how to forage what God provided.  They don't  hop into the stores to get their daily rations.  Does man remember how to plant a garden in the very earth that God has given and put up his provisions for a future day?  I think the answer is obvious.  Most birds don't live in pretty little Bird Houses  that some man build either.  They build their nest by gathering the sticks and other things that they can use to make it strong to withstand the worst of storms that come.  They don't just assume God will hold back the wind on their behalf.
 With eyes wide open, we can see where this so called Kingdom is going as it marches on to Babylon.  Don't be offended, God's Word calls it Babylon because it includes many path-ways instead of proclaiming the message that Jesus Christ is the only way.    With old ears that are not as sharp as they once were, I've heard the drums beat out the tunes of  love and brotherhood  in the churches.  They are lulling people into a coma of "dumbness".   Don't people think for themselves anymore?  Did they ever?  History shows that most do not.  By and large, most Europeans learned the hard way.  Just think..... when is the last time a message of repentance and calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive and come into one's heart got preached? 
Never, until just recently, did I think I would witness a repeat of those days in Germany but here I am.   I would be utterly foolish to say, "It can't happen".  It is happening! 
Please do not think this message includes each and every church; it does not.  They know who they are.  Each Christians who understands God's Word and history knows that all the signs are there warning of hard times on the horizon.  Shouldn't we work while there is light to work, put aside while we can and prayerfully, while we are still here, we can be a blessing to those that will need our help so desperately. 
It is not easy to try to warn others because most do not want to be told the truth; it is too uncomfortable.   Well, that comfort level is going down, way down. 
History does repeat itself.  We can't change everyone's thinking but we can change our own.
Gerlinda
The Lord has put it on my heart these past couple of months to write about the dire condition of the Lukewarm Church and the urgency of the hour. 
We are living in the last days of the last days, but we cannot let what is happening here in this country over ride what scripture clearly teaches.
We are not to impose our own ideas, experience, feelings onto God's Word. We are to submit to what God's Word clearly says, not hunting and pecking around for pet verses, taking God's Word out of context so it fits our ideas, feelings and experiences of today.
Millions here in America are hurting. The lukewarm church lacks compassion for the great commission and does not see that it is their concern to reach out to the lost.  It’s always someone else’s job and not theirs. To top that off, they do not want to be involved what so ever.

Scripture says…

Matthew 28:19-20  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Now more than ever we have a great opportunity facing us as Bible believing Christians. The problem is that many do not see the opportunity nor are they ready for that opportunity.

That opportunity is the chance to share the gospel with a hurting nation. The chance to share the blessed hope of our Lord Jesus Christ to those facing hard times, unemployment, homelessness, famine, starvation, sickness, plague, crime and death.

In fact, we are going to face those very same things ourselves. But what makes us different is that we have the Lord at our side. With Him, all things are possible to those who are called according to His purpose.

Problem is that today to many do not care and see it as someone else's job. They do not care or they are too busy to be part of His purpose.
Our "hireling" pastors are worthless, and many have no idea what the Bible really says. If asked if they could lead someone to Christ they will hand them a little yellow card to the person asking them to fill it out and state  " if you believe, check the box."
These hirelings are sending multitudes to hell.
80% possibly 90% of those sitting in the pews today have been put to sleep or worse, they have no idea what the real deal is in the first place. They are C.I.NO.'s - Christians In Name Only.
That means that it is up to us Bible believing Christians to position ourselves and be ready so that we can be used of the Lord.
Folks, God uses those who are in the game, not those who are sitting on their hands doing nothing.
Now is it everyone's job to be out there hitting the streets evangelizing?
No, I don’t see that.
But what you need to do is be ready. 
Do you realize  there are people out there that only YOU can reach for the Lord. I could sit and talk to that person till I am blue in the face and it will not amount to a hill of beans. But if you sit down with them, they will be all ears and most likely make a decision for the Lord. This is why it is so important to be ready. But to be ready, you have to be alert.
We need to be asking God to lead people to us so that we can share the gospel.
In fact I challenge you to pray that prayer and see if God does not lead someone to you. But for you to know who that person is, you need to be ready and alert to your surroundings. You also need to be sensitive to the tugging of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, how the Holy Spirit tugs me is in my belly. I just get that feeling in my inside that I am to stop and talk to a person. In most case I just say hi and ask how they are doing today while making strong eye contact.
When you have a caring smile and make strong eye contact, the person who is hurting will usually open up to you. Just show that you really care and God will do the rest.
If that was not the right person, then on to the next. If anything, you planted a good will seed in that person and they will remember you the next time they see you.
But no matter what, you will not be able to do this if you are not prepared.
Why?
Because you will be concerned about everything else except the Lord and His Will. I know it has happened to me, and it has probably happened to you too.
That is why I have been stressing so hard that people prepare and set up your pantry, it will be one less thing that you have to worry about, thus freeing your time and efforts to do the things of the Lord.
Please understand this. Having one less thing to take up my time in this crazy world gives me more freedom to share the gospel and the blessed hope of our Lord with those who have no hope.
I wish that you were cold or hot
Revelation 3:15-16  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
In this verse the Laodiceans were being criticized by Christ for their lack of zeal. They were more concerned about themselves and what was going on in their lives than that of the Lord's and being busy with the Lord's work.
We are the Laodiceans today. We are not willing to surrenders completely to the will of the Lord. We want things our own way, we name the rules, we live how we want to live. The world has us wrapped up in all its trappings and we are too busy running the rat race to be concerned with sharing the gospel.
To tell you the truth, odds are that if this is you, you have already missed thousands of opportunities to share the hope the Lord has to offer, and that is a fact.
In today's world of tattoos, piercings, scantily dressed women and feminized men it is hard to tell who is the church and who is the world.
Scripture says…
James 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
We need to get to a point where we are sober and looking at things clearly. We are living at a time in America's history where we are going to go through another great depression. This is a fact. This has nothing to do with the tribulation nor is it Bible Prophecy come to pass. We are a nation standing on her last legs and we will soon experience what is being called a "new normal" weathering the financial storm.
Bible believing Christians are being given a chance to build their ark and weather the storm.
That is if one makes the effort.
We are not building an ark to escape the tribulation. We are building our arks to weather the financial storm that will soon be upon this nation.
There is no going back to the old days or how it used to be. Things are going to change and we need to be ready always to share the hope that is within us.
By our actions we will choose to either be in the game or sit on the sidelines doing nothing.
Sitting on the sidelines being lukewarm is not the answer.
We need to be busy about the Lord's work.
The time is at hand, the time is now.
Build your ark today so that you can be a service to the Lord tomorrow while you still have the time.

Endnotes
1 - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/