Asleep No More: The Coming Persecution

The Coming Persecution
By: Joe Schimmel

The coming persecution has already begun to one degree or another. Street preachers in South Carolina have been handcuffed and hauled off to jail due to "noise pollution." Christians in the Middle East are put to death in the name of Allah. Even a friend of mine, Wally Tope, was beaten into a coma by looters as he shared the gospel in Los Angeles during the riots. True, persecution has been the lot of the church since it's inception and books like "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" have testified of this fact down through the corridors of time.

The scriptures testify that persecution would increase in the last days due to the increasing lawlessness of mankind (2 Timothy 3:1-13). This coming persecution will be so intense that a worldwide mandate will go out in the name of the Antichrist to the effect that all who do not conform to the coming New World Order "must die."

"And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of man. And his number is six hundred and sixty six" (Revelation 13:16-18).

Christians will have to face this intense persecution in what the Bible refers to as the "Great Tribulation." The word of God reveals to us that a "great multitude" of believers from "every nation" and "all tribes, peoples, and tongues" of the Earth will "come out of the great tribulation" (Revelation 7:9-14).

Jesus revealed to us that the Antichrist will "make war with the saints" and "overcome them" as the beast establishes his world government and is given "authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation" (Revelation 13:7). Perseverance will therefore be required by those who have "their faith in Jesus" (Revelation 13:10, 14:12). Those who refuse to take the mark of the beast will be killed by the Antichrist and will be resurrected in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:1-6). In contrast, those who follow the beast and receive his mark will be damned by God and finally thrown into the lake of fire, the second resurrection (Revelation 20:1-6).

The Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us that mystery Babylon will be responsible not only for bringing the Antichrist to power, but for the atrocities of having both Christians and Jews put to death. New Age Babylon is referred to as being "drunk with the blood of the saints" and "the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" (Revelation 17:1-6). Since the great whore of Babylon rides the beast, she fuels his cause with religious terror and spiritual reasons as to why Christians and Jews must be put to death. Thus Christians will be put to death because they are a hindrance to the spiritual development of the New Age revolution. Jesus told his disciples that the time was coming when "everyone who kills you" will be deluded into thinking they are "offering service to God" (John 16:2). Even now, the secular media is on an obvious campaign to present Jesus Christ, Christianity, and the nation of Israel in a bad light. Jesus told his disciples,

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name" (Matthew 24:9).

It is therefor not surprising that we find many references to the destruction of Christians and others throughout the agenda of New Age Babylon. In fact, when one takes a close look at many of the writings of New Age authors and those pushing for a world government, it soon becomes evident that not all is peace and harmony; a massive "blood bath" is considered by many New Agers to be imperative to fully usher in the New Age. Consider the following as evidence.

Gus Hall, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, U.S.A., stated:

"I dream of a time when the last Congressman is strangled to death on the guts of the last preacher and since the Christians love to sing about the blood, why not give them a little of it." (Gus Hall, speaking at the funeral of Eugene Dennis, February 1961, None Dare Call It Treason-25 Years Later, Liberty Bell Press, 1992, pp. 39-41)

It is ironic that the New World Order is coming in the name of New Age spirituality and democracy. The scripture never forecasted world dominion under Communism. To the contrary, Revelation 17 and 18 reveal a free enterprise system in the last days along with the influence of sorcery. This spirit of Antichrist, though, is detected in all movements seeking world domination.

The primary target of New Age Babylon and of the Antichrist will be Christianity. Their reasoning, of course, is spiritual. It is taught that the sun, the moon, and the stars have ushered the Christian era out. One New Ager states:

"...the Piscean Age, as you know, lasts two thousand years or so, as do other zodiacal signs. Its inception marked the beginning of the Christian era. It is passing out of manifestation now, as the new Aquarian age is coming in." (Vera Stanley Alder, The Initiation of the World, Samuel Weiser, Lucis Trust, p. 245)

Hollywood Hills Astrologer Ed Steinbrecher, regarding the so-called Harmonic Convergence that had taken place, claimed that those who were not in tune with what was taking place "could" experience "death."

A New Ager who anonymously identifies himself as "Solar Questor" writes in his book, The World Restored, Not Destroyed:

"These are wondrous times ... because the world has gone through this terrific experience as it spins slowly back to its rightful orbit in the position that it should be in the heavens ... And as this happens more and more, more comfort and well being will come upon this world ... And those who hinder will be removed ... liquidated ... [they] must be wiped clean off the face of the earth." (Solar Questor, The World Restored, Not Destroyed: The Astounding Revelations of the Solar Quest)

Brian Jones, former guitarist and leader of the Rolling Stones, stated:

"I believe we are moving on to a new age in ideas and events. Astrologically we are at the end of the age called the Pisces age, at the beginning of which people like Christ were born. We're soon to begin the Age of Aquarius, in which events as important as those at the beginning of Pisces are likely to occur. There's a young revolution in thought and manner about to take place." (Brian Jones, from Rolling Stones In Their Own Words, Quick Fox, 1980, p. 29)

New Age writer John Dunphy writes:

"The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old an new - the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of 'love thy neighbor' will finally be achieved." (John J. Dunphy A Religion for a New Age: The New Faith of Humanism and Teachers in The Humanist Magazine, Jan-Feb 1983)

New Age writer Foster Bailey has taught that those who do not live up to "New Age standards" will end up "irreconcilable outcasts." (Foster Bailey, Things to Come, p. 39)

New Age leader, Barbara Marx Hubbard, has stated, "people will either change or die," for "that is the choice." According to those who would concur with Hubbard, Christians will need to be more open minded so they too can receive the mark of the Antichrist. If they will not join with the global community and its agenda, they will be killed by the "opened minded" New Agers. Hubbard states:

"This act is as horrible as killing a cancer cell. It must be done for the sake of the future of the whole. So be it: be prepared for the selection process which is now beginning. We, the elders, have been patiently waiting until the very last moment before the quantum transformation, to take action to cut out this corrupted and corrupting element in the body of humanity. It is like watching a cancer grow; something must be done before the whole body is destroyed... The destructive one fourth must be eliminated from the social body." (Barbara Marx Hubbard, Manual for Co-Creators of the Quantum Leap, pp. 55-57)

New Age channeler Ruth Montgomery claims that "millions of people will not survive the transition into the New Age."

Professed Satanist and patron saint of rock n roll Aleister Crowley (who died in the early 40s) taught that, "Judaism is savage and Christianity a fiendish superstition" (The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, p. 72). Crowley knew that true Christianity was at dire odds with the establishment of a New Age world religious system under Antichrist. Therefore Crowley taught that there would have to be a massive blood sacrifice to initiate the New Age. Crowley instructed:

"...the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious, and for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best ... There is a magical Operation of maximum importance: the Initiation of a New Aeon [age]. When it becomes necessary to utter a Word, the whole planet must be bathed in blood. Before man is ready to accept the Law of Thelema [will], the Great War must be fought. This Bloody Sacrifice is the critical point of the World Ceremony of the Crowned and Conquering Child, as lord of the Aeon [age]." (Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice, p. 95)

Ozzy Osbourne wrote in his song "Mr. Crowley" of the coming New Age and execution. The song states in part:

Mr. Crowley, you waited on Satan's callMr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horseMr. Crowley, its symbolic of course

The white horse rider in Revelation 6:1-2 is symbolic of the Antichrist counterfeiting Christ and inaugurating the tribulation period. The song goes on to state:

Approaching a time that is classic [the New Aeon or age]
Approaching a time that is drastic
Standing with their backs to the wall [execution]

Significantly, Barbara Marx Hubbard wrote:

"We are in charge of God's selection process for planet Earth. He selects, we destroy. We are the riders of the pale horse, death... We do this for the sake of the world." (Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Book of Co-Creation, p. 59)

Christopher Hyatt, leader of the New Age group called the Golden Dawn Society (Crowley had also belonged to this order), reiterates Crowley's statement in an interview for the New Age magazine Magical Blend:

"I foresee on a mass scale, that the New Age is not going to come into being as so many people believe and wish to believe. I see it as requiring a heck of a lot of blood, disruption, chaos, and pain for a mass change to occur." (Christopher Hyatt, interview in Magical Blend Magazine, 1987)

Sadly the world is uniting in its opinion that Christianity must go. It was approximately 2000 years ago when the people of this world system crucified the very Lord who created them, and now those who follow the Lord must go as well. John Lennon said:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that, I'm right and I will be proven right. We're (The Beatles) more popular than Jesus now." (John Lennon, interviewed by Maureen Cleave for The London Evening Standard, 1966)

John Lennon, like Crowley, understood that to establish the New Age world order, Christianity had to be abolished. John Lennon was anti-Christ, as were all of the Beatles. The Beatles press officer, Derek Taylor, stated:

"It's incredible, absolutely incredible. Here are these four boys from Liverpool, they're rude, they're profane, they're vulgar, they're taking over the world. They're completely anti-Christ. I mean I am anti-Christ as well, but they're so anti-Christ, they shock me, which isn't an easy thing to do." (Derek Taylor, Saturday Evening Post, July 1964)

According to Larry Geller, in his book If I Can Dream, Elvis Presley stated:

"Someday in the near future we'll see how the so-called ministers of God react as they see their worn-out ways and the whole 'old age' start crumbling...they'll get theirs. They've been building up some bad karma. I can't wait till this new age comes, so this stuff will stop." (Elvis Presley, If I Can Dream: Elvis' Own Story, Larry Geller & Joel Spector, p. 140)

John Randolph Price of World Instant of Cooperation related how his spirit

guide, Asher, revealed to him that two billion people would have to be wiped off the earth:

"Price told his spirit guide, 'But wiping more than 2 billion people off the face of the earth is a little drastic, don't you think?' His spirit guide Asher assured him, 'Who are we to say that those people did not volunteer to be part of the destruction and regeneration for the purpose of soul growth? Never forget that each individual has free will and free choice.'" (John Randolph Price, Practical Spirituality)

According to Newsweek Magazine, July 27, 1987, Shirley MacLaine warned, "tune into your higher self or else."

Repeatedly the Word of God refers to the "spirit of antichrist" which is leading the world to receive the ultimate Antichrist, the man of sin, and the son of destruction. Biblical scholars are in virtual agreement that the Lord was making reference to "gnosticism" when identifying the teachings of this satanic "spirit of the Antichrist" in the first epistle of John (1 John 2:18, 4:3). Is it any wonder then that New Agers of our day often refer to themselves as "neo-Gnostics"? The world is being prepared for what the Lord called a "strong delusion" and to accept "the lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). The Lord revealed that the lost world would be so deluded that in the midst of their plight they would be saying, "Peace and safety." But in reality "There is no peace...for the wicked," (Isaiah 57:21).

True peace can only come through a relationship with the Heavenly Father through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians would do well to rely totally and steadily on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in these last days, who will return in power and glory, "with His mighty angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). We would do well to heed the words of our Lord, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell" (Matthew 10:28).

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.