“I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the
blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of
Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer... Be faithful until death, and
I will give you the crown of life.”
An ancient prophecy of Jesus to his church in Smyrna
“It’s coming—sooner than you think! An end that you don’t expect, even if you
were told about it. People have read
about this end for years, but they still won’t expect it when it happens!”30
“Joanne, Joanne? Hi, it’s me, darling. It’s Lindsay, from church. What are you doing out here? You are talking so loud, I’m sure that you’re
disturbing someone. Joanne? Can you hear me? Are you in some kind of trance?....
Joanne?”
“There’s no rapture for you—no ecstatic lifting up to
the heavens. It matters not about
deserving. It is a law, the laws of
justice. You think that people who
worship blindly and give no thought to justice or suffering will just be lifted
up? Will the comforted be rewarded for
basking in their comfort?”31
“You don’t have to be yelling
at me, I’m right here. And I’m sure I
don’t know what you’re talking about. I
haven’t stolen from anyone. I haven’t hurt
any poor folks. I have immigrants
working in my home. They’re nice
women. They don’t speak English, of
course. But they work hard. Very good workers. We pay them what we can and they’re very
grateful. They are so happy to get what
money we give them. And this way we
don’t have to work through an agency.
Agencies are so expensive! It’s
much better to hire someone from the street.”
“Never was a matter of sinning. We all screw up, seriously. Repent!
Repentance is the key! We got to
do right by God else God won’t do right by us!
But no matter how much you repent, you still don’t get a rapture. No purple pie in the sky that delivers you
from the suffering that you ain’t got yet.”32
“Dear, you are yelling so
loud. It hurts my ears. I’m right here, really! If you want to talk theology, we can do it
more politely than this. I go to a
woman’s Bible study. Perhaps you’d like
to join me. We’re doing a study on the
book “The Goal Oriented Life”. It’s
wonderful! So comforting, really. I’m sure you’d like it.”
“I saw it! I
saw the future! I saw the Beast! The chaos Beast that looks like order! Only one order, that’s God’s. But the Beast comes and makes an order that
is chaos! At his birth was the epitaph:
‘Chaos on earth and destruction to men of God’s will!’”33
“Oh dear, Joanne. Are you having those visions again? You’ve stopped your medication haven’t
you? You have such awful dreams! You’re dreaming of beasts? Perhaps you’ve been watching the wrong
movies. I saw one secular film that
scared me like that—“Maze of the Faun” or something like that. That gave me
nightmares, I’m sure! I swore that I
wouldn’t watch another secular movie.
Except Hallmark features. They’re
wonderful. You should watch more of
those. That would give you pleasant dreams.”
“It’s true, I saw it all! The Beast is the supporter of the church, the
lover, the seducer! ‘Join me and you
will be strong, you will never be weak, no, not ever! Join with the wealthy and you will never be
poor. Join with the violent and you will
never be weak. Join with the popular and
you will never be hated.’ This evil I
saw in a vision—but it happens! It
happens everyday!”34
“What happens dear? What do you think you see? You should really come to church more often,
darling. This last week we had a special
speaker, the chief of police! She was so
pleasant. Sometimes we get the image of
the police as being so gruff, but she was nice!
I sat with her at the potluck, and we chatted. Did you know that my son goes to school with
her daughter? We teased him that he
might like her, but he denied that he even knew her. It was so much fun! Joanne?
Hello? Maybe we could go to a
coffee shop and get off of this terrible street…”
“Your church is the apostate church! The Baptists, the Methodists, the
Presbyterians, the Catholics, the Mormons—you are all the heretics, all the
haters of the Truth! You have all joined
to the Beast, the seducer of that which seems good.”35
“That isn’t polite at all,
Joanne! What would Reverend Stein think
of such gossip? He works so hard for
us. And the church has done so much for
us! Why, you know when I was having a
tough time after Richard left me they gave me a job as secretary to get us
through! I was able to meet so many
people. The mayor, the local army
recruiter, a number of important writers, and even a presidential
candidate. Republican, of course. It is such a shame he lost, he would have
been wonderful. I feel so much more
secure with a Republican in office.”
“And so it must be!
The Beast, the Empire, will draw in the church by becoming friends with
it. It will pay salaries, it will offer
protection, it will be the strength of the church—and then it will make
demands. Demands a good Christian should
never pay! The Empire will demand
worship for itself—flags in every church with allegiance being given to the
Beast. Every church who receives the
Beast’s money must worship the Beast.
The worship of God, and living for Jesus will be set aside for the
salute of the Beast and obeying the Beast’s laws. All this will happen—until the Beast pulls
out their last trick.”36
“That is enough, Joanne! You must stop this immediately! First of all, I believe that you are speaking
some treasonous speech. Are you calling
our country this horrible beast? That is
terrible! I love our country, and so
should you! If it weren’t for all
they’ve done you’d have no freedom to speak your terrible speech. Or to worship in church. But most of all, Joanne—Joanne? Are you
listening to me? Look, you are
disturbing people—look at the children there!
You are scaring them, Joanne! I
think that you need to go home and take your medications. What you are saying is just horrible. Joanne!
You aren’t listening to me at all, are you? Well, I need some help. I can’t drag you where you belong.”
“I saw that the Beast will demand that every citizen
worship the Beast—raise their hands and pledge allegiance to the Beast, and
sing their praises to the Beast—or else they are not citizens. And if not citizens, says the Beast, then no
food, no buying or selling of anything. Everyone who is a worshiper of the
Beast, the ‘true citizen’ will receive a tattoo—the Mark to show their true
worship. It will seem so reasonable, so
logical—but the real worshipers of God, the true citizens of God’s kingdom
will refuse. They will refuse to offer
worship to the Beast, refuse the tattoo, refuse citizenship of the Empire.”
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Officer Gordon. We received a call that you were disturbing
the peace. I’m going to need your ID. Ma’am?
Look, I don’t want to have any trouble here. I just need you to move along. Ma’am.
I need you to leave this street.
Hello? Hey, Tom, come here for a
sec, will ya?”
“The Beast will then lash out and attack the true
believers in Jesus. They will die by the
thousands, the hundreds of thousands.
Millions will bow down to worship the Beast, but millions will be killed
for refusing to take the Beast’s mark.
These martyrs will be the key to bringing in the final age of God. In their death, they will cry out to God for
justice from the Empire. And God, being
true to the faithful martyr, will hear their cries. He will step down and destroy the Empire—all
man-based empires—from the face of the earth.
He will visit upon the Beast plague after plague—such as Egypt
“I think she’s in a trance,
Gord. I don’t think she can hear us at
all. I know, I know, it looks like she’s
staring right at you, huh? But look at
her eyes. No, I don’t think she’s on
drugs. Just loony. I think she’ll break out of it
eventually. I don’t think she’s
dangerous, but you never know. I think
we should put her in the drunk tank overnight and she’ll come out of it, I
bet. Yeah, let’s call for back up, just
in case. Doesn’t look like she’s going
anywhere.”
“After the great martyrdom, the true church will be
but a shadow of it’s current self—only a hundred and forty four thousand spared
from compromise and the sword. These
shall be given the True Mark—that of faithfulness. But those who pledge
allegiance to the Beast will be marked with the dark mark of God’s judgment.”38
“There they are. I’ll go talk to them.”
“She’s bolting!”
“You are already there! You are already worshiping the Beast! Dare you to raise your hand across your heart
to worship that which is less than God?
Dare you sing worship to the Empire?”
“Hey, get her!”
“Grab her, don’t let her get
away!”
“Stop—Stop! This is the police…”
“What you doing little lady…
hey, ow! You piece of shit, take this!
Do you like it?”
“The great mark, though, is choosing to do violence
for the Beast… oh…”
“You think you could get
away? When I say… stop… then.. you
stop.”
“He who is destined for captivity, to captivity he
will go…. uh… But you—you are destined
to kill by the sword and by the sword you will die! …oh… You will die by your own hand—your own
actions will condemn you!..... Let him
who does evil do evil still—but you who do what is right, do not fail to…”39
“Stop it! Stop it Rick!
What are you doing?”
“She was trying to get
away. And she twisted my finger!”
“Tom, how is she?
“I’m not sure. I can’t get a heartbeat.”
“Look, I was just protecting
myself.”
“Shut up, Rick. Let’s get some of these layers off.”
“Rick, call 911.”
“She’s not hurt. I barely kicked her.”
“Rick, shut up! I saw you kick her, hard maybe fifteen
times.”
“It’s not my fault.”
“Just call the paramedics,
would you?”
“She doesn’t need it!”
“Damn you… hello, we need
medical attention at 35th and Roberts…”
“Forget it.”
“What is it, Tom.”
“I can’t find a heartbeat.”
“Just keep trying. Revive her, something.”
“She’s dead, Gord.”40
Notes
30. Habakkuk 1:5; Joel 1:1-2; Amos 5:18.
31. Amos 5:18-24; Luke 6:24.
32. Luke 13:2-5; Acts 14:22.
33. Revelation 13:1-8.
34. Revelation 3:17-19; Luke 6:24-26.
35. Revelation 13:11-17.
36. Revelation 13:10.
37. Revelation 6:9-11; 12:10-11;18:24. Revelation 8:1-9:21.
38. Revelation 7:3-10; 14:1-5; 14:9-11.
39. Revelation 13:10; 22:11.
40. In 2008, James Chasse, a man diagnosed with a mental
illness, was urinating in public in Portland, OR. The police found him and he ran because he
was fearful of all police. A group of
officers chased him, tackled him to the ground and kicked him. He died on the way to the hospital. His autopsy found a number of bruises and
cracked and broken ribs. The police
officers received no discipline for their actions in this case.
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