Stockade Doors at Andersonville Civil War Prison
Nearly three years ago I wrote an article entitled “Internment Coming.” Little did I know that in the two years following the post I would be brought before the courts and imprisoned on two separate occasions.
In 1999 Yahweh instructed me to begin using my first name, which is Joseph. Up until that time (I was 38 years old) my family and friends had all called me by my middle name of Bradley, or the shorter version Brad. The Spirit of Christ made it known to me that my first name was significant, and I was to use it. In the years since I have experienced many things that parallel the life of Joseph the son of Jacob. One of those parallels was being cast into jail.
Yahweh has testified to me for some years that I have been called to walk as a forerunner and explorer. I have been called to experience things that many more saints must endure in days ahead. Even as Joseph was a slave and prisoner in Egypt, and later his brethren were made slaves in the same nation, so too have I been selected by the Father to experience a number of things before my brothers and sisters in Christ in America. The time is coming when many of God’s people will have to pass through experiences similar to what I have passed through in the last 12 years. In the book of Revelation the following words are written concerning the last days before the return of Christ.
Revelation 13:9-10
If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.
Did you note the last sentence? “Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.” These words are written to Christians, members of the body of Christ. Some are destined for captivity, and some are destined for the sword. To pass through these experiences while remaining steadfast will require both faith and perseverance.
Had you told me years ago that I would twice be brought before a judge and put in jail in America because my conscience would not permit me to disobey the will of the Father, I would have found such things hard to imagine. “What, here in America where most citizens self-profess to be Christians? How can these things be?” Let those with understanding hearts consider that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers who were shepherds put in charge of their father’s flocks. Joseph had earlier brought a report to his father of his brothers abusing their duties as shepherds of the flock. These things are a spiritual parable.
In the days at hand it will be brother who delivers up brother to death and imprisonment. Many who occupy positions as shepherds of the flocks of Christ will be the very ones to deliver the sheep over to the government for persecution.
Mark 13:12-13
"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”
Both those who are part of the saints’ natural and spiritual families will turn against them. The disciples of Christ who are surrendering their lives to be led of the Spirit will be persecuted by those relations, both natural and spiritual, who have not embraced a Spirit led life.
Galatians 4:29
But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.
There are Christians who walk according to the flesh. They will persecute their brothers and sisters in Yahshua as certainly as those who are strangers to the Spirit of Christ. For this reason, Christians must walk wisely in coming days. They must be wary of carnal brethren.
I do not doubt that those who read this blog will have a difficult time conceiving of a day approaching swiftly when they will be in peril of captivity, or death. I speak with assurance, knowing those things I have passed through, and the testimony of the Spirit that I have been chosen as a forerunner, that such things are indeed coming to the people of God.
I found it very sobering today to watch the following video. I urge you to watch itprayerfully. Understand that America has been given into the hands of evil men skilled in destruction. Liberty is about to be removed that the saints might be induced to grow in faith and perseverance, separating themselves from all sin. Although those who would persecute Yahweh’s remnant have evil in their hearts, God intends the experience for good. This was Joseph’s confession, and one I have myself echoed.
Prolonged Detention
http://youtu.be/8mPZlysCAm0
An hour is approaching when the government will pro-actively arrest people. They will use profiling to determine who poses a threat to national security. Christians who hold allegiance to God, rather than the immoral government of man, will be among those deemed as threats. If you oppose abortion, homosexuality, or stand for truth and righteousness, you will face the threat of indefinite detention without trial or appeal.
The imprisonment many of God’s people will have to endure in the days ahead will be worse than what I passed through. As a forerunner I was given exceptional grace. When my Christian brothers and sisters were living lives of ease and pleasure, I was enduring reproach and persecution. This too was Joseph’s experience. His brothers were living as the prosperous sons of a wealthy father when Joseph was enduring slavery and imprisonment. Eleven sons of Jacob had great liberty and were following the course their soul dictated while Joseph was confined and restricted. Yet the day came for them to endure the same. They were enslaved and placed under harsh taskmasters and their labor was bitter. Yet, even in this, Yahweh’s eye was always upon them. The people multiplied greatly.
The Scriptures testify that there is an afflicted path that leads to life and few there are who find it. The apostle Paul declared:
Acts 14:22
"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
Is your faith strong enough to endure persecution? Can you remain steadfastly committed to obedience to Yahweh when you have home and possessions stripped from you? Will your faith remain steadfast when your obedience to Christ results in captivity? The days ahead will try many men’s hearts. Yahweh will not subject His children to such things for their destruction, but rather for their spiritual welfare.
James 1:2-4
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Following is the post I shared three years ago on this topic. As stated, I was not aware that some months later I would be cast into prison. I believe in sharing this message again, there are those who read this who will find themselves in a matter of months facing similar things. I would assure you that as God was with Joseph in prison, and He was with me in both of my times of captivity, so too will He be with you. Be strong and courageous. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.
Internment Coming
Joseph Herrin (08-12-09)
Those things written here are shared as a word of prophecy for the body of Christ in America. There are times when I have a profound sense of the Father ordering my steps to communicate some truth, and the past couple days have brought forth a sobering message.
Randy and Kathy Furman, a precious brother and sister from Arizona, were in South Carolina to visit family. Since they were “close” by, they decided to drive down to Georgia and spend a day and a half with me...
As I considered what sites I might take Randy and Kathy to visit, one in particular came to mind, and it did so with a force that I recognized to be the inspiration of the Spirit of God. I sensed that we were to go together and visit Andersonville National Historic Site.
http://www.nps.gov/ANDE
Andersonville is the site of a Civil War prison where Union troops were held in a large walled stockade. It has become associated with the greatest abuses of one American against another. The camp was operating only 14 months, and in that brief time 13,000 Union troops died. Among the causes of death were starvation, disease, exposure, vermin, and harsh treatment.
At its peak in August of 1864, 32,000 men were crowded into an area consisting of 26 acres.
Conditions were so terrible that they were burying up to 100 men a day in mass graves.
Lest some think it was only the South who treated their prisoners badly, they need only look into the history of Camp Douglas in Chicago, or Elmira Prison in New York. At Camp Douglas, the Union general in charge intentionally kept the men in a malnourished state to make them “manageable.” Starving and thirsty soldiers were warned that they would be shot for transgressions as slight as eating snow to quench their thirst. They were routinely tortured by hanging them by their thumbs, or making them “ride the rail.”
Riding the Rail
This form of torture would often leave men crippled, and it caused extreme pain to the genitals.
This inhumane treatment of one American by another was not widely known among the public. The media in that day did not have the scope and immediacy that is common today. Undoubtedly, if more had been known about what was going on inside these prison camps, there would have been significant public outcry.
We live in an hour in which there is less outrage by the public over inhumane treatment of mankind. The recent revelations of the shocking abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the blatant and unapologetic endorsement of torture techniques such as waterboarding, have caused only a modest outcry. Even when it became known that President George W. Bush had authorized torture to be used on suspected terrorists, the employment of stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding continued unabated.
Such things do not bode well for the things that millions of Americans will soon suffer at the hands of their brothers. The concept in the minds of many that such atrocities could never happen in America, for we are too civilized, are instantly shattered when one takes a visit to Andersonville. The truth is, Americans have already manifested the willingness to treat one another in the most cruel and careless manner, and the Spirit is testifying that days akin to the great Civil War are returning to America. This time things will be much worse.
I have cited on numerous occasions the parallels between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. The Obama campaign made much of the similarities during the Presidential race. Both men were Illinois politicians. Both came to power at a time when the nation was facing a great crisis. Both men were tall and lanky. Barack Obama even took his oath for the Presidency with his hand upon the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln.
The Spirit has been testifying that America is about to experience a great fall. The Union will disintegrate. The country will be divided. The evidence of the fault lines upon which the fractures will occur are already visible. The recent democratic ads characterizing conservative protestors at town hall meetings as “the mob” reveal that the division is observed from the grassroots to the halls of Congress. Barack Obama’s ill chosen words saying that Cambridge, Massachusetts police acted stupidly in arresting a black Harvard professor resulted in a storm of response that was very much polarized along racial lines. This past week a prison in Chino, California was destroyed by inmates who rioted along racial lines, Hispanics against African Americans.
As millions of jobs are being lost and people’s unemployment benefits are ending, the number of unhappy, and often angry citizens of this nation are increasing. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of the state of California, is proposing the early release of over 27,000 criminals from state prisons to reduce the budget for the Department of Corrections. These criminals will be turned back out on the streets in a state where employment is hard for skilled laborers to find. Those who are unskilled and have a criminal record will have little chance of finding employment, and crime will escalate.
I can foresee the day fast approaching when states petition the Federal government to use military bases and Federal troops to hold those they can no longer care for. Many of the pieces are already being set in place to pave the way for the government to begin acting as one massive police state.
One of the first acts of the current 111th Congress was to pass legislation to authorize and fund regional detention facilities across the nation. The legislation can be read at the governments websites.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.645:
An internet article reports the following:
Yes, U.S. Officials Are Quietly Preparing for BIG Trouble Ahead
A new report by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute states flatly the U.S. military must prepare for "a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States" that could be provoked by "unforeseen economic collapse" or "loss of functioning political and legal order."
Late last year, The Washington Post noted the incoming Obama Administration is going to "earmark" at least 20,000 troops returning from Iraq to deal with "domestic emergencies." Since then, the Army Times has broken the story that the domestic emergency army unit has been increased to 80,000 troops, who are being trained right now in Georgia.
[Source: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.09/pandemonium.html]
Returning to the witness of the Spirit of Christ concerning these things, my friends who went with me to visit Andersonville had been reading the book The Heavenly Man, and had brought it with them. This is the remarkable story of a Chinese Christian who was arrested by the government and imprisoned. This is a scenario that is soon coming to America.
Yun's book claims both extreme persecutions and miracles of deliverance similar to ones found in the Biblical narrative. Despite a life of poverty in China, he since has spoken to thousands internationally, possibly millions, with the gospel message. Seen as a rebel among some Chinese for not joining the 'official' government-controlled Christian organization (see: Three-Self Patriotic Movement), he was imprisoned and tortured by the government authorities. His book claims that he became a highly wanted man across several provinces. He was finally arrested and sentenced to many years in prison. However, Yun continued his ministry while in prison, with more claims of miraculous results. As a result, many prisoners and even some prison officials reportedly became born-again Christians. Apparently, while he gained increasing favor from some officials, he also became a target of increased persecutions by others. He was repeatedly beaten and became severely malnourished. It is claimed that while in prison, Yun undertook a total fast without food or water for 74 days.
After many years in prison, he escaped from Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison from which it is reported that nobody had previously escaped. He described how he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, telling him to simply walk out the heavily guarded prison gate. Risking being shot to death on the spot, he wrote later that he obeyed the voice, and walked straight through several prison doors that were somehow left open in front of many prison guards, across the prison yard and finally out of the main gate. Yun stated that it was as if he had become invisible to the guards who stared straight through him. Although many expressed doubts that such a thing could happen, some prison guards had apparently lost their jobs for this 'embarrassing mishap.' It is reported that the official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded that "Yun received no human help in his escape." It is claimed that these reports have been also confirmed by numerous prisoners who occupied the same prison cell as Yun. Apparently, he remains the only person to have escaped from this notorious maximum security prison.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Yun]
Our visit to Andersonville was a very sobering one. It was not a feel-good jaunt in the sunshine. A museum with many exhibits from prisoner camps across the world is located on the property. A film is played that shows the terrible suffering that many have endured, with personal testimonies and appalling photographic evidence...
It is difficult to comprehend those things that are coming to America, but the Spirit of Christ is testifying of them. He is speaking to His people that they might prepare their hearts and lives for the days ahead. Many are even now being directed by the Spirit to make preparations to flee in coming days. It is necessary that all the people of God be wholly surrendered to the direction of the Spirit. It is in God that we will find our safety and refuge.
The current series I have been publishing on Living Epistles - Testimonies of Faith, is intended to promote the faith of God’s people. We live in a nation where faith has been infrequently exercised. This must change. Will your faith be adequate to carry you through the days of distress that are approaching? If you are unsure, then begin seeking the Lord now that He might direct your steps to a more robust, practical faith. He is faithful, and His eyes are ever upon His children.
May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.
Let me end this post by strongly recommending the following audio broadcast that was aired on April 18th on the TruNews website. The testimonies of the various men, and what they are individually being led to do in preparation for the days ahead is instructive. I would specifically direct you to the testimony of Gary Kah and John Price.
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