The Day of the Lord

 

The day of the LORD is great;

it is dreadful.

Who can endure it?

– Joel 2:11

 

 

My Dear Friends,

This is the day I wrote of in my very first post.

When I first wrote, it was to tell you that God was coming. To warn you to get ready. And to tell you what that day would bring. That day is now upon us.

I had thought to explain why I believe that is so. I thought I would tell you, as I always do, where God has led me and what he has shown me. But that may have to come later. I have an unbearable burden that grows heavier daily. I have spent several months knowing I must write and asking God what I should say. Strangely, although I’ve been in Habakkuk for more than a year, it never occurred to me that I should write the vision and make it plain. Until tonight.

Over the past few years I have written increasingly of war. I always knew God was coming with a sword but I was never entirely sure what that meant. I believed (and still do) that the sword would take many forms. I have already written about the sword bringing division. But over time I came to understand that the sword wasn’t simply metaphorical or symbolic. A very real, hot war is on the horizon.

On the 27th of April 2017 I wrote in my journal, War is Coming!

Then on the 29th of June 2020 I filled an entire page with those words so strongly were they impressed on me. I didn’t know when, and I didn’t at first know where. The US came often to mind, and at first I thought there could be another civil war.

“I can’t escape the feeling that we’re heading for a war,” I wrote in my journal in March 2021. The next month I wrote “NEAR AND HASTENING FAST” – a phrase from Zephaniah that speaks of the Day of the Lord.

The great day of the LORD is near,
      near and hastening fast;
                  the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter;
      the mighty man cries aloud there.
            A day of wrath is that day,
      a day of distress and anguish,
                  a day of ruin and devastation,
      a day of darkness and gloom,
                  a day of clouds and thick darkness,
            a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
                  against the fortified cities
      and against the lofty battlements.

I will bring distress on mankind,
      so that they shall walk like the blind,
      because they have sinned against the LORD;
                  their blood shall be poured out like dust,
      and their flesh like dung.
            Neither their silver nor their gold
      shall be able to deliver them
      on the day of the wrath of the LORD.

– Zephaniah 1:13–18 (ESV)

 

The Progressive Christian and the Thornbush

It was at that time that God spoke to me from Judges Chapter 9. The story describes a plot whereby the citizens of Shechem agree to eliminate the children of Gideon and install Abimelek, the illegitimate son of his slave, as ruler.

The story is not unlike certain recent political events of a certain global superpower. As the citizens of Shechem had betrayed Gideon, murdered his heirs, and chosen Abimelek to rule them, so this global superpower had deposed their Hitler, targeted his supporters, and installed the village idiot in his place. But not just any village idiot. This was a man who had already ingratiated himself with powerful people, enriched himself through decades of public “service,” and achieved nothing of note except to be a tool for the purpose of both national buffoonery and national demolition. Progressive Christians saw him as their savior.

Note that the Bible says of the people of Shechem that “their hearts were inclined to follow Abimelek.” A fairly apt description of so many Christians today whose hearts are inclined to follow whatever seems good to them. These are the people who appointed a fool to lead them and congratulated themselves for doing so. Their hearts are inclined in a certain direction – one that seems very right to them (Pr.14:12). Scripture speaks frankly of where their choices lead.

Anyway, back to the story. Jotham, Gideon’s youngest son, is the only one to escape the murderous intentions of the people of Shechem. From a safe distance he calls to them and tells them the parable of the thornbush. He ends with this warning:

Because of your unfaithfulness, your choice of an illegitimate leader (one about as useful and desirable as a thornbush in a garden ) and the treachery you have employed to install him, fire will come out from that thornbush and destroy you, and fire will come out from you and destroy him.

Just three years later Jotham’s curse was fulfilled.

 

On July 1st, 2021 I posted “The Progressive Christian and the Thornbush,” sending that same warning to progressive American Christians. I don’t know how many of them are too proud to admit the folly of their choice, or how many now have buyer’s remorse. Not sufficient, it would seem, to prevent the fire that is about to come from both sides and devour them.

I didn’t understand at the time why God impressed that parable upon me so strongly. American politics is, in a sense, none of my affair. But now I understand that support by so many who call themselves by the name of Christ, of government that is so clearly anti Christ, is a key factor in what is about to take place. They have brought this upon themselves. Instead of calling on God to heal the fractures in their nation they have put their faith in their leaders. Now fire is about to break out from the thornbush they have chosen, and it will likewise breakout from them. And, sadly, a lot of people are going to suffer because of it. 

As I’ve prayed and meditated and studied the scriptures God has been speaking to me this past year, I’ve come to understand that war is most certainly coming. Not this present Ukrainian conflict. As horrific and tragic as it is, that is only the pilot light, the ignition switch. The war that will come as a consequence of this conflict is far more devastating and will bring an end to an empire.

 

Write the Vision and Make it Plain

The United States will be invaded. I believe it will involve a coalition of Russian and Chinese forces. I don’t know if other weapons will be involved but there will be a ground invasion, and America will not recover. Its days as a super power are over. Regardless of whether this has been orchestrated or will come as a surprise, behind it all is God – just as he was at the head of the invading army in Joel, and just as he used the wicked Babylonians in Habakkuk to execute his justice. God hands us over to the things we have chosen in order to show us not to choose stupidly. Most of us don’t learn that lesson because, in our arrogance, we refuse to believe our choice was stupid to begin with.

I don’t know if the US will be drawn into this current Ukrainian conflict or whether the invasion I speak of will take place years from now. I only know the two events are connected and, given the weight of the burden I am carrying, it is not far off.

That’s not to say it cannot still be averted. Even now, God says in Joel, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Who knows? He may turn and relent.

But I believe that window is closing now.

 

I have always been very cautious about making predictions. That’s mainly because I have a thing about false prophets: I don’t want to be one. But this thought of invasion returns to me over and over and over. And I believe the US, and in particular its military, has been set up to fail. And it will fail.

I think often how many good people there are in that land – people who love God fervently – and I’m reminded of Abraham’s intercession for Lot. I pray for mercy for them and particularly for those who are dear to me there, knowing full well that my own nation is not immune from such a visitation of God, and that I would hope others would weep and pray for us were it to come.

But I also pray for justice to be done: justice for those who have experienced American tyranny, and justice upon those who perpetuate it. Many of them have perpetrated the most heinous acts in the name of “human rights” and “democracy,” as if that somehow justifies the decades of coups and assassinations, the warmongering, the pillaging of nations, the casual indifference to “collateral damage,” the malignancy of alphabet agencies, the promotion, funding, and celebration of murder in the womb, the undermining and deliberate perverting of justice, and above all the lies. It isn’t only the leaders who bear guilt. There are millions who are complicit in such acts, as I have indicated above. 

God does not forget. Prayer for justice upon these people was Habakkuk’s prayer and it has become mine also. If God’s tool to deal with a wicked nation is a nation still more wicked, I cannot argue with God’s justice. 

 

We are now in what scripture calls the day of the Lord. That too, God has made clear to me. But that is not a discussion for now.

Some of you will be wondering why God would let this happen. Surely I am mistaken. I have now truly become one of those unbearable prophets of doom.

Let me share with you the scripture God gave me when I said the same things to him.

“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals!

Yet there will be some survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought on it.

You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

– Ezekiel 14:21–23 (NIV)

God does nothing without cause. One day you and I will understand.

I warned you to cover your head. Now is the time.