Power Under Pressure
ZADOK PUBLICATIONS - Dr. C. R. OLIVER
May 1, 2011

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ZADOK PUBLICATIONS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

May 1, 2011

Power Under Pressure

1 Peter 1:4-8
You, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.

NKJV

Eph 1:18-21
that you may know...
What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
NKJV

April 12, 2011, TruNews.com began an interview with the author on the subject, "What should believers expect to do under the current economic and political circumstances?" Primarily, the show-host honed in on the fact there would be repercussions as Japan begins to pull resources and monies away from world investments, in order to use their currency on infrastructure repair (fostering devastating effects on the world's stock markets and other investment ventures).

My answer was flavored by having just attended a weekend of memorializing the Cambodian "Killing Fields" and the devastation surrounding them. The First Cambodian Baptist Church hosted the two day conference themed, "From Killing Fields to Living Fields," featuring my friend, Barnabus Mam, as guest speaker. Barnabus truly emulated Paul's assistant (for many of Paul's associates suffered trials and mistreatment). Barnabus began by telling his personal experiences during the "second holocaust." In each example, he told how the Holy Spirit gave him direction. With quaking knees and trembling voice, he recounted the many times he felt would be his last day on earth. Moved from prison to prison and suffering hunger and deprivation, he often wondered why God refused to take him home and exit those circumstances.

Over and over the Spirit prompted Scriptural promises to him; promises that he had memorized and kept in his heart. Sometimes the Spirit would direct him what to speak or when to be silent. Some of those times, he did not know the meaning of the words he was given, but things turned out in his favor. One thing Barnabus emphasized repeatedly, "The saint will be given grace to endure." Dynamically, he recounted the swift take over of his country.

In April, 1975, while the nation celebrated their New Years---troops entered and changed their world. People were ordered to evacuate Phnom Penh that day! Some gathered a few belongings, but all were herded into busses, trains or vans. They were instructed not to return until told. Chinese business persons took sacks of cash, only to have them confiscated and told that currency in Cambodia was worthless--as banks were closed and the government was suspended. Many of those Chinese jumped to their death into the waters of the Big Lake.

People could not imagine the "change" that was ordered. Intellectuals who had supported the Communist agenda were shot or herded along with the masses. Buddhist priests, who were promised high positions, were murdered along with 2 million others in three years. Many of the two million were believers. One man, brought before local authorities, was questioned and told if he did not renounce Jesus Christ he would be injected with poison and he would die. He refused and the nurse entered the room, injected a fluid into his arm and shortly he died.

People were introduced to five tenets of communist take over. As these tenets were being purveyed, I thought, "these are the goals of the administration in Washington."

Level income disparities (redistribute the wealth).
Make law an instrument of policy (enforcing and not enforcing according to politics).
Monopolize the press.
Limit movement (High gas prices, inflationary fares, scare news about border areas).
Control postal and telecommunications (regulation of the internet).
(Short, Philip, Pol Pot, Anatomy of a Nightmare, Henry Holt and Co, New York, 2005, page 11)

I heard example upon example of inter betrayal by people wishing to preserve their lives. As Barnabus chronicled the horrible excesses of the communist Democratic movement, the question of Philip Short to his readers became more glaring, "The holocaust that consumed Cambodia required the complicity of so large a proportion of the population that one has to ask how the victims would have behaved if the roles had been reversed."

Indeed, Short was touching one the common nerve of Nazi or Communist or Muslim. Hear Short as he pursued the issue of mass complicity.

The question 'Why?' must be rephrased. The cardinal issue is what it is about Cambodian society that has allowed, and continues to allow, people to turn their backs on all they know of gentleness and compassion, goodness and decency, and to commit appalling cruelties seemingly without conscience of the enormity of their acts and certainly without remorse.

(Answer)….the weaker the moral code, the easier evil becomes to commit.
(Ibid. Short, page 13)

I looked around the audience of several hundred Cambodians as they assented to Barnabus' descriptions all the while urging their children to make note and keep alive the memory of the horror which befell their friends, relatives and countrymen. (It was like being among Jewish survivors of the Nazi holocaust.) Every soul in that building had loved ones disappear, only to discover they were executed without cause. My mind could not take it all in, but my spirit went out to that gathering and to all who are experiencing the encroachment of a world holocaust yet to be unleashed but surely coming.

The Radio interview was tainted by the Cambodian experience. My time with them was sweetened when everyone of that audience forgave those who murdered their loved ones and those who caused them to leave their homeland.

Central to the theme of Barnabus was this premise: God is able to protect you and to lead you and to comfort you and to preserve you through the most difficult of times. He shared that during those tribulations a vision appeared to him about preaching to multitudes in a mixed Asian audience. (That vision is being fulfilled.)

(Back to the Radio interview:) Now, how must one answer the question concerning the circumstances the believer is confronted with today? As sure as there is hope for a mass revival, there is a propensity for a great falling away as well. When souls aren't raptured, but instead are maligned, tortured and murdered, there will be a falling away. There will be multiple attempts to sell out one another, even among the fellowship of the church. Families will have members turn against them and friends will betray their neighbors. BUT, there will be many who will stand strong. A vast multitude will believe God and His promises, whether life or death approaches them. Those decisions are being made now.

God's people will be protected by the Fire of God's Presence and the saints will enter that "fellowship of the flame" passing through the fire of persecution and refinement in order to join the congregation of the overcomers.
(Quote from April 12, TruNews Broadcast)

I Peter 4:1-8 testifies of this (Text scripture above).

Look at its parts:
Kept by the power of God

Grieved by various trials

Tested by fire.

These are not scriptures for "other generations," these are scriptures for "last times" believers! The testimony of those who "refused deliverance (Hebrews 12)" will bring glory to Jesus Christ.

According to Scripture, there is "mighty power" issuing toward us. The Ephesians passage in the text says it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, seated Him in the heavenlies, made Him ruler over all things by putting them under His feet and establishing Him as Head over the church.

How then could we even ask the question, "What are saints to do in these perilous times?" We are to persevere and believe the Word of God! We must ingest these passages until they come out our ears when squeezed! We are to be what we say we are, SAINTS….Holiness ones with a sovereign Holy God.

The martyrologies state that during the first two hundred years of Christianity over six million Christians were entombed within the catacombs of Rome-murdered. How many more were buried within the other unexplored catacombs is difficult to say… The total number would be appalling. It is claimed that if the passages of the catacombs of Rome were measured end to end they would extend to a length of 550 miles, from the City of Rome into the Alps.

(Further into this book:)

Let us remember that, when it seemed as though Christianity was crushed on the Continent by the murderous Diocletian persecution, it was a British king with an army of Christian British warriors who crossed the seas and smashed the Diocletion-Maximian armies with defeat so catastrophic they never rose again. …it was not Peter who nationally Christianized Rome but Constantine, the great-grandson of Arviragus, and son of the famous Empress Helen, a British princess.
(Jowett, George F, The Drama of the Lost Disciples, Covenant Publishing, Durham, 2004)

The fact that freedom reigns in any of the countries of the world is not their move toward Democracy, it is because honor toward Jesus Christ was given and God's protective flame preserved that freedom.

The sin of Saul was he resorted to the astrologers to find his answers instead of coming to God. God dethroned him and established the Davidic Throne because of that. Today, we may pride ourselves as believers that we do not consort with such. Yet, medical science, mass media and cultural standards pervade the society of Christians, and their answers are from their own rationale and not through the Spirit of God. BUT, there are a few who hear none of these and through prayer and supplications find their rest in Him.

Hear Paul:

2 Corinthians 6:4-10
In all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Paul endured hardships to the degree that most Cambodians could relate to and find similar expression. This will be the worldwide norm rather than the exception. (Back to the conf:)

As I sat breaking bread with men and women speaking Khmer, I noted one communality: They did not verbalize their sufferings. They knew the depth of suffering others had endured and related to them by their kindness to one another. They did not have to verbalize, they understood one another by their eyes and the broken, contrite spirit of each toward the Lord. They shared the communion of the flame without raising cup or wafer. They epitomized "we shall know as we are known."

1 Corinthians 4:20

The kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

Those who fellowship in the flame know their counterparts without having to investigate or inquire; it is written in their faces and played out in their demeanor. Factors that determine one's admission or rejection disappear into that "oneness in the Spirit" that no interfaith group can conjure and no constitution can contain. It is written in the verse:

He that endureth to the end…the same shall be saved.

Matthew 24:9-14
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

May Pentecost turn into Tabernacles.

Until Next month,

Dr. Cosby R. Oliver, PhD.

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