One of my all time favorite books is Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, so I am starting this post with a short excerpt from the beginning of the first chapter –
“As I walk’d through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and as I slept, I dreamed a Dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a Man cloathed with Rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a Book in his hand, and a great Burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the Book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying What shall I do?
“ In this plight therefore he went home, and refrained himself as long as he could, that his Wife and Children should not perceive his distress, but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased: Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his Wife and Children; and thus he began to talk to them: O my dear Wife, said he, and you the Children of my bowels, I your dear friend, am in myself undone by reason of a Burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our City will be burned with fire from Heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee my Wife, and you my sweet Babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered.
“At this his Relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed: But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So, when the morning was come, they would know how he did; He told them Worse and worse: he also set to talking to them again, but they began to be hardened: they also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him; sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him.
“ Wherefore he began to retire himself to his chamber, to pray for and pity them, and also to condole his own misery; he would also walk solitarily in the fields, sometimes reading, and sometimes praying: and thus for some days he spent his time. Now, I saw upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his Book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?
“ I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go…”
I believe the only wise way to “go” in order to flee the City of Destruction my friends is to “Come out of her My people.” Now please rest assured that I know John Bunyan was speaking about leaving the world and sin and seeking first the Kingdom of God. I love the book and I have read it joyfully and with tears many times. But in scripture, sometimes things we read are not just parables and proverbs for teaching us principles. Sometimes they are actual instructions revealing the will of God for His people their need to flee the wrath to come.
It is easy to find “believers” who readily acknowledge that the call to “come out from among her My people” applies to one’s spiritual life to live as it were separate from the world; I mean it’s a whole lot easier to find those who admit that than do it. But I am persuaded time is running out and it is rapidly becoming necessary (for all those who can) to wake up and literally comply with this call of God to physically, geographically, separate themselves from wherever He is getting ready to pour out His judgment and wrath, and right now it looks like it is America. (more…)
Gates of the City 