SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons :  How to Survive the Coming Apocalypse, Part 1: Fear Not Them Which Destroy the Body

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( 1 | 2 Next Page )
PosterThread
proudpapa
Member



Joined: 2012/5/13
Posts: 2936


  How to Survive the Coming Apocalypse, Part 1: Fear Not Them Which Destroy the Body

By Michael Pearl

...Thirty or forty years ago, even before it looked like the country would descend into anarchy or civil war or financial collapse, before it was obvious that social engineering and overregulation would prevent us from living our convictions, I was concerned about keeping my family in a position to survive all the crazy, dire possibilities of doom and destruction.

When I was in my teens, I knew several “whacky” adults who followed the John Birch Society. I passed them off as conspiracy nuts. Wikipedia says of the John Birch Society:

The organization identifies with Christian principles, seeks to limit governmental powers, and opposes wealth redistribution and economic interventionism. It opposes practices it terms collectivism, totalitarianism, and communism. It opposes socialism and fascism as well, which it asserts is infiltrating US governmental administration. In a 1983 edition of Crossfire, Congressman Larry McDonald (D-Georgia), then its newly appointed president, characterized the society as belonging to the Old Right rather than the New Right.

In the fifties and sixties, the warning cry was against creeping communism. The USSR was spreading its philosophy around the globe, and our leaders spoke of the “domino effect.” One by one the countries in Asia and Africa, and even our neighbors 90 miles away in Cuba were falling to the “Reds.” At the time there was serious concern about an eventual communist invasion of our homeland, taking away the liberties granted to us by God, as denoted in the Constitution.

I must confess, back in the late sixties and early seventies, I saw nothing that indicated our freedoms might be at risk from within. The prophets crying doom seemed to be fringe indeed. Then the USSR dissolved and sought democratic reform. We won! Our republic would survive. No communism for us.

With the “fall of communism” and the arrival of the prosperous eighties and nineties, the John Birch Society and other like organizations faded from the public eye, appearing to be discredited prophets now irrelevant. Little did I know that the “communists” would not come to America in landing craft and parachutes; they would come from our universities, be called “progressive,” and be voted into office by the people who wanted government to be the source of their prosperity. Our personal, family awakening came when the progressives (socialists) tried to engineer our family for us.

By the late seventies, Deb and I had begun homeschooling, a practice unheard of in Memphis, Tennessee. After three hostile visits from Child Protective Services (CPS) with threats to take away our children, and then our big day appearing before the judge, we were beginning to wonder about a 1984-like scenario and Big Brother. Could the John Birch Society and its kind be right? We were pressed to form plans to escape the hand of those who “knew best what was good for our children.” The kids knew the signal that meant they were to go to the basement, climb up on the washing machine, open the window quietly, and slip through the woods to an old, abandoned barn about one mile away and wait for their grandparents to pick them up and take them out of state to a secret location.

After several visits and warnings from CPS, a certified letter delivered by a sheriff notified us to bring our children and appear in the judge’s chamber on Monday morning at ten o’clock. We stowed the children for hasty departure from the state and went to see the judge alone. It was the first volley in a battle we fought and eventually won, but it did not give us any confidence in the goodwill of what I now knew to be our socialist government.

We had raised the kids in the country, fifteen miles outside of Memphis, providing them with a pond in which to swim, free access to the woods and bottom lands, hunting and fishing, planting a small garden, and working in my wood shop. They had lots of Christian friends, most of them adults who shared their interests. We were part of a strong ministry of winning the lost to Christ and building them up in the faith. The kids saw God save thousands of people and change their lives. They knew God was the center of it all.

But by 1988, with five children and the oldest having gone through puberty and one other not far behind, knowing the time of great temptation for the children was approaching, we had enough of the rat race and of trying to provide artificial community for the kids. Many of the people who shared the ministry with us did not fully embrace our convictions. It was obvious that their children would not grow up to be what we wanted ours to become. Their sons and daughters would not make good spouses. And young people tend to pick the fruit closest to the ground, hanging over the fence in their own backyards. So we sold our four-acre estate and moved to a 100-acre piece of unimproved ground in the hills of Middle Tennessee.

It was a wild, crazy adventure. We logged with mules, sawed our lumber on a homemade saw mill, and built our house, barns, shop, and outbuildings. We cleared new ground, plowed, strung fences, milked cows, chased chickens, trying to recover their eggs, grew our vegetables, killed deer for our meat, ground wheat and corn for our bread, and generally lived very poor, plain lives. We loved every minute of it and the kids grew strong and resilient.

None of our neighbors went to public schools or public churches. Every kid had to work hard all day long. They met at the swimming hole in the late afternoons and sometimes spent their days exploring the wooded ridges within a five-mile radius. The kids never went to a mall or movie theatre. There wasn’t—and still isn’t—a television in the house. Not one in the barn either. We did get a 15-inch screen and a VCR and on occasion let the kids watch 101 Dalmatians, The Sound of Music, and other like movies until the tapes wore out.


In the final analysis, it is not the community or the church that produces great children and tremendous adults; it is home life rooted in sincere, relaxed love of God and family that bears eternal fruit.

In the evenings we played checkers and “bored” games (spelled correctly). The girls sewed while the boys constructed spear guns or glued fletches on their arrows or practiced their fast draw. We had Bible reading and told Bible stories. Two or three nights a week we had Bible studies with other families with the kids listening attentively, participating as they were able.

I took any kind of job I could get where the boys and girls could work with me, building barns and outbuildings, laying stone, or cutting hickory sticks for sale to rustic-furniture makers. The boys got a small percentage of what we made—7% and 5%, based on their age and abilities. In the spring and summer we grew organic vegetables and sold them in Nashville. That is the most difficult way to make a dollar. In the end I think I made about $2 an hour, and the kids got about $2 a day. Everybody was glad to see the end of our truck patch farm.

Even in our “Christian community,” there were some families with whom we associated who matured into immaturity. Not all reaped sweet fruit. A form of godliness may conceal, but it will never heal the depravity on the inside. In the final analysis, it is not the community or the church that produces great children and tremendous young adults; it is home life rooted in sincere, relaxed love of God and family that bears eternal fruit. A rotten relationship, or just an empty relationship, between husband and wife and parents and kids is a soul poison without an antidote. Genuine, laughing love immersed in creativity is a miracle cure-all that supercharges the soul and grows up children that are too healthy to come down with soul diseases.

My children now range from 29 to 39 years old and they have given us 21 grandkids—so far. I can say without reservation that the fruit of old age is sweet indeed. There is nothing but harmony and goodwill in the family. God has blessed us beyond our deserts. He gives us grace for grace.

What God began in a 13-year-old boy (when I was born again) and a 9-year-old girl 54 years ago, he has been faithful to continue in ways that leave us wanting for nothing and without regrets. From personal experience I can highly recommend the Christian life based on the Spirit of grace and mercy.

Fear Not

Now, it seems like I have gotten away from my subject of preparing for hard times, but I haven’t. I just want to testify that the dark curtain coming down over our nation does not cause us to fear. Hard times on the outside don’t have to translate into hard times on the inside. We do not want to be numbered with those whose “hearts [are] failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26). Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body…” (Matthew 10:28). And again he said, “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7). And again Jesus reassures us, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

As to hoarding for hard times ahead, Jesus said, “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth” (Luke 12:33).


Hard times on the outside don’t have to translate into hard times on the inside.

No doubt most Christians need to make some lifestyle changes if they want to be prepared for societal unrest and economic depression. But our starting point must be faith, not fear. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). We need to be celebrating life and liberty in the spirit, not complaining and whining about the poor state of the state. We must claim the promise, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10). I have a ticket out of here before the Great Tribulation (Jacob’s troubles/the time of wrath). More on that later in this magazine.

Come What May

So come what may, if the worst does happen, our generation will not be the first to suffer deprivation or persecution. The writer of Hebrews indicates that the trials that come upon us are to give us the opportunity to become overcomers, to crown us with glory, to build faith. He says of sufferings, “all are partakers” (Hebrews 12:8).
The writer of Hebrews dedicates an entire chapter to those in adversity who did not fear but established a testimony of faith.

“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
“Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
“Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
“And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
“They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
“(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
“God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 11:32–12:3).

Caring for Our Own


If you are like me, you feel a strong, instinctual need to make provision for your family’s safety and comfort.

But just because we have peace on the inside and can overcome the world, that does not mean I want to be thrown into the fiery furnace, or go hungry, or be vulnerable to a political system hostile to traditional family and Christianity. It would be foolish to sit on my faith and take lightly the possibility of coming hardship and deprivation. We should prepare but not panic. We should plan while we pray. We should get ready but remain steady. While laying up our treasure in heaven, we should lay up a store for the day of famine here on earth. Did not God warn the Egyptians of hard times coming? And did not their preparation see them through the days of dearth? Noah received a warning of coming judgment and “prepared an ark to the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11:7). While believing in God’s care and provision, we can save him a miracle by using the brain he gave us to take care of ourselves. “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).

If you are like me, you feel a strong, instinctual need to make provision for your family’s safety and comfort. A farmer should have faith, but he must also put his hand to the plow. The Pearl family has made preparation against the days of trial, and we are comfortable with our position in a worst-case scenario. So we dedicate this magazine to some very practical suggestions that, if heeded, can cause you to feel sufficiently prepared come what may.

We can say with the apostle Paul:

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
“As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31–39).

http://nogreaterjoy.org/articles/how-to-survive-the-coming-apocalypse-part-1-fear-not-them-which-destroy-the-body/

 2013/10/5 23:47Profile
murrcolr
Member



Joined: 2007/4/25
Posts: 1839
Scotland, UK

 Re: How to Survive the Coming Apocalypse, Part 1: Fear Not Them Which Destroy the Bo

Quote from article: I have a ticket out of here before the Great Tribulation..

So his plan to survive the coming apocalypse is not really a plan to survive the apocalypse but rather the birth pangs leading up to it??? -- His real plan or hope is having a priorty pass out of here and he is just going to survive until that day comes...


_________________
Colin Murray

 2013/10/6 10:36Profile
proudpapa
Member



Joined: 2012/5/13
Posts: 2936


 Re:

Hi murrcolr

murrcolr wrote : ///So his plan to survive the coming apocalypse is not really a plan to survive the apocalypse but rather the birth pangs leading up to it??? -- His real plan or hope is having a priorty pass out of here and he is just going to survive until that day comes...///

Pearl is strongly pretrib. Which as you know, I am not.
But I feel that their are some usefull truths that can be taken from the artical.

I personally do believe that the pretrib view will make it difficult for those whom hold such doctrines to discern what the future holds for Us, but never the less those whom are Trully His, God will awaken as things continue to unfold.

 2013/10/6 15:49Profile
Jeremy221
Member



Joined: 2009/11/7
Posts: 1532


 Re: How to Survive the Coming Apocalypse, Part 1: Fear Not Them Which Destroy the Bo

I would take everything Pearl says with a grain of salt. I am concerned that this exhortation does include any reference to the chastisement of sons spoken about in Hebrews 12 which is the fundamental precursor to preparation. I am also concerned by the absence of reference to spiritual warfare and the repeated references to his battles against men, especially in authority. We need to be sure we really know the voice of God in leading us to prepare and be ready and what comes from our fears and lusts. I've been confronted by God for hording things He had not directed and seen it turn to ash. Especially as an American, I need to be careful of rebellion that underlies the whole of my country such that because I stand against the wrong I see in my country or refuse to follow along does not mean that I am obeying God's direction. I may simply be serving my own lusts to be my own boss and do my own thing. There are likely many things that sound right from Pearl's "No Greater Joy" ministries but beware that there are likely those that are not but if you are filled with the Spirit you will not need to worry because the Spirit will bear witness to that which is of Christ. For those who have deified through No Greater Joy and Charity Life Fellowship (Kenaston), it is a valid reminder to embrace the message of Christ that if you do not hate your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children and your very life, you are not worthy. Yes, your family. If you are taught otherwise, turn away and run.

 2013/10/8 1:51Profile
proudpapa
Member



Joined: 2012/5/13
Posts: 2936


 Re:

Hi Jeremy221


RE: ///For those who have deified through No Greater Joy and Charity Life Fellowship (Kenaston), it is a valid reminder to embrace the message of Christ that if you do not hate your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children and your very life, you are not worthy. Yes, your family. If you are taught otherwise, turn away and run.///

No one is worthy Jeremy.

One way that I can tell when I am on the teeter totter of accetrism, The Love vanishes from the heart and I become obssessed with fault finding and being critical, The teeter totter of accetrism tilts back and forth, from pride to condemnation.

When we become critical of men such as (Kenaston)or even Pearl, we have created a measure to live up to, one that I am not convinced that any of us can live up to.


Edit add: Lets not allow anyone to beguile us out of our reward by insisting on voluntary humility , asceticism and other such will worship.



 2013/10/8 8:00Profile









 Re:

So what exactly are Pearl and Kenniston advocating in. ttheir ministries?

Bearmaster.

 2013/10/8 16:27
proudpapa
Member



Joined: 2012/5/13
Posts: 2936


 Re:

Hi bearmaster,

bearmaster asked ///So what exactly are Pearl and Kenniston advocating in. ttheir ministries?
Bearmaster///

It appears from what I am understanding of Jeremey's post that he feels that those like Pearl and Kenaston have exalted the family above Jesus Christ.

Here is another thread that Jeremey expounds similar thoughts. I feel that their are many flaws in Jeremeys judgment of Kenaston including a misconseption of what Kenaston was repenting of in "Jealous for the Testimony of the Lord"

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=26775&forum=35&start=10&viewmode=flat&order=1

edit add PS: When we feel that our exceptance (worth) is based on anything other than the Perfect Sacrifice than I feel that we are off track.












 2013/10/8 21:23Profile
proudpapa
Member



Joined: 2012/5/13
Posts: 2936


 Re:

I want to appologize to Jeremy221


RE: /// For those who have deified through No Greater Joy and Charity Life Fellowship (Kenaston), it is a valid reminder to embrace the message of Christ that if you do not hate your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children and your very life, you are not worthy. Yes, your family. If you are taught otherwise, turn away and run.///

When I first read this I was offended because both of these ministries have greatly influenced me and have been a great blessing to me, and my responses where a reaction of that offence.

A couple of weeks ago I was searching through Jim Cymbala's sermons and something just from the title of one of the sermons convicted me that I need to be willing to let go of my family, instantly I was reminded of my responses to Jeremy's post on this thread, as of last night and early this morning I have felt strongly convicted to publicly confess that my response was inappropriate and to warn others that we need to be very carefull at judging the intents of others.

 2014/1/24 12:15Profile
Jeremy221
Member



Joined: 2009/11/7
Posts: 1532


 Re:

Apology accepted Proudpapa. I didn't see your initial post because the Spirit forbid me from looking at the thread after I posted. Now you will face the hard part because you will be tested. But don't fear that if you fail because God will test you again and you will be filled with joy seeing what He has done in your character in the meantime.

 2014/1/24 23:28Profile
rookie
Member



Joined: 2003/6/3
Posts: 4821
Savannah TN

 Re:

Proudpapa

Thank you for this post...

It seems that the life one lives, the evidence of what one hopes for, becomes the joy that the Scriptures testifies of. It is of God who calls men for a certain work. And it seems that Pearl is living "evidence" of the work of God.

This morning was the first I have heard of him, yet his testimony is familiar in that the Scriptures are in his heart and the Lord has blessed him with the love of God and family. By the practice of the things found in Scripture, he has become wise in the discernment of good and evil.

It is the life lived that prepares one for what is coming. The men of Scripture, did not all of a sudden, overcome the adversity of their day. Their foundation was built on Christ by the Holy Spirit, one day at a time. All men of Adam are not perfect in understanding or action. We all have "theology" which we believe is right. And we will carry our "theology" to the grave. The men of Scripture are not fearful of imperfect "theology" because they have themselves have been taught by God, and through experience, understand they see only dimly in this life. Fearful men are those who live only by doctrine of Scripture. Those who have the testimony of someone like Pearl have found life because they have prepared day by day being yoked to Christ.




_________________
Jeff Marshalek

 2014/1/25 9:54Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy