Dear Christian Friends,
I have been sensing an urgency in my spirit that few in the Body of Christ are prepared for what is coming upon us, and part of that is because we have been seduced to believing in a pre-trib Rapture, believing that we will escape the troubles coming upon the earth. I have been concerned that when we face life-threatening persecution many will lose faith in God because they have swallowed this harmful doctrine.
So I believe this commemoration of Corrie Ten Boom and her strong warning to Christians 40 years ago is truly timed by God to us all right now.
Watch the You tube clips. (The 2nd article below is the script of the first clip.)
I believe all Christians should see this. It’s a wake up call. Why should we escape what those in the Middle East and many other places are experiencing at this very moment?
Be strengthened by His Might in your inner man. He who endures to the end shall be saved. For the joy set before him.
15 April Birthdate of Corrie ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom Warns against Pre-Tribulation Rapture False Doctrine
Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom was born on 15 April 1892 in Haarlem, Netherlands, near Amsterdam.
Known as “Corrie” all her life, she was the youngest child, two sisters Betsie and Nollie, one brother,Willem.
Father, Casper, was a jeweler and watchmaker. Cornelia was named after her mother.
Corrie grew up in a devoutly religious family. During World War II, the family harbored hundreds of Jews, protecting them from arrest by Nazi authorities. Betrayed by a fellow Dutch citizen, the entire family was imprisoned. Corrie survived, started a worldwide ministry, told her story in a book entitled The Hiding Place.
In 1977 at age 85, Corrie ten Boom moved to Placentia, California. The next year she suffered a series of strokes leaving her paralyzed, unable to speak.
She died on her 91st birthday, 15 April 1983.
Her passing on this date evokes Jewish traditional belief, only specially blessed people are granted the privilege of dying on the date they were born.
Many Christians are unaware of the warning written in a letter by Corrie ten Boom, where she warns against pre-tribulation rapture false doctrine.
Dutch Christian and a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust concentration camps, Corrie spearheaded a rescue operation in Holland, helping hundreds of Jews escape Nazi extermination camps. See the family museum with panoramas, photos, more information.
Corrie travelled the world as an ambassador for Christ, telling her story. Miss ten Boom met many Christians abroad in the Suffering Church, enduring persecution as she had.
She met Church leaders of the underground church in China. There she became aware what happened to the Chinese church in 1949. At the time Mao Tse Tung was bringing China into communism. American missionaries had left. Chinese Christians entered a time of intense persecution.
Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine had been accepted teaching. There was a problem, very serious. This Biblically unfounded doctrine had not prepared the Chinese Church for witness under trial. Christian believers were interrogated and brutalized under the Red Guard. Many fell away from the faith in those times.
Corrie ten Boom’s story is told through her book The Hiding Place, and the motion picture released by the same name in the 1970s. See a 1974 interview below.
Corrie ten Boom went home to be with her Lord on 15 April 1983. Her inspiring testimony for Christ will endure. In this capacity Corrie ten Boom earned the right to be heard. She is eminently qualified to present this special word of warning to the Western Church.
This is the letter Corrie left, warning against pre-tribulation rapture false doctrine Christians especially in America, need to take very seriously.
An excerpt of the letter was published in When Jesus Returns by British evangelist and Bible teacher David Pawson. It is the highlighted section on page 199 copied from the book in the image.
This video is a reading of the lightly edited letter below 10:56 m
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“The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.
Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. Because of our presence here, things will change.
My sister Betsy and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck, because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium, were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.
We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We too are to be overcomers, bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.
Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and look in this world to see all tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible, coming true. Now I can tell you if you too are afraid, I have read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” I have found where it is written Jesus said,
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things
and I will be His God,
and he shall be My son.”
This is the future and hope of this world, not so the world will survive, but so we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.
Betsy and I in the concentration camp, prayed God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.
“Yes the Lord will heal me,”, Betsy said with confidence.
She died the next day. I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor with other corpses of women who died that day.
It was hard for me to understand, to believe God had a purpose for all of it. Because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling the world telling people about Jesus.
There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, Christians will be able to escape all this.
These are the false teachers Jesus was warning to expect in latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where saints are already suffering terrible persecution.
In China, Christians were told, ” Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated, raptured.” Then came terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. I heard a Bishop from China say sadly,
“We have failed.
We should have made the people strong for persecution,
rather than telling them Jesus would come first.
Tell the people to be strong in times of persecution,
how to stand when tribulation comes,
to stand and not faint.”
I feel I have a divine mandate to go tell people it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.
Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, every time I read a good Bible text, I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” I write it down and learn it by heart.
When I was in the concentration camp where only twenty percent of women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” We would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse committed to memory, gave me great hope and joy.
“If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of the glory and of God resteth upon you;
on their part evil is spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified.”
I Peter 4:14“
I found myself saying, “Hallelujah!
Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”
In America the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation.” In China and Africa, tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Things like this never get into newspapers because they cause bad political relations. I know. I have been there. We need to think about this when we sit in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death this very moment, yet we continue right on, as though we are all going to escape tribulation.
Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night there, some Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and the same night executed. Next day the same thing happened with other Christians. Third day it was the same. All Christians in the district were systematically murdered.
Fourth day I was to speak in a little church. People came filled with fear and tension. During the service they were looking at each other, eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”
The room was hot and stuffy. Insects came through screenless windows, swirled around naked bulbs over bare wooden benches. I told them a story of my childhood.
“When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said,
“Daddy, I am afraid I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“Tell me,” said Father,
“When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket?”
“Three weeks before?”
“No Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.”
“That’s is right,” my father said,” so it is with God’s strength.”
“Our Father in heaven knows when you need strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“He will supply all you need just in time.”
My African friends were nodding and smiling.
Suddenly a spirit of joy descended and the people sang,
“In the sweet, by and by,
we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”
Later that week, half the congregation of the church was executed.
I heard the other half was killed months on.
I must tell you something: I was so happy the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible, discovered Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.
How can we get ready for persecution?
First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put principles to work in our lives.
Next we need to develop personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History,
but the life-changing Jesus of today who is alive
sitting at the right hand of God.
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary.
Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under persecution of the Jews and Romans, had they not waited for Pentecost. Each needs our own personal Pentecost, baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in tribulation without it.
In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other, encourage each other.
We must not wait until tribulation comes before preparing.
Fruit of the Spirit should be dominant force of every Christian’s life.
Many are fearful of coming tribulation, they want to run.
I too am a little bit afraid when I think after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, I might have to go through tribulation.
I read the Bible and I am glad.
When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we had power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when tribulation comes. You will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus. Not once has He ever left me, or let me down.
“Though He shall slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15
for I know that to all who overcome,
He shall give the crown of life.
Hallelujah!” SEE Corrie Ten Boom in a 1974 interview 7:20 m
