One day during our conference in Jerusalem, as I was about to go up to speak, I felt that the spirit of holiness was going to be released in the meeting. So I whispered to the worship leader, I said, "Don't stop. Sing a song about the holiness of God and lead the people into a holy presence of God." And as soon as I said that, the worship leader, a very godly man of God, he knelt down. And as soon as he knelt down, his entire worship team knelt down and lifted up their voices and began to worship the holiness of God. And when they did, without a single word being spoken, every one of the 800 delegates, they all knelt down and began to worship the holiness of God.
And I was on the stage and as I was kneeling down, the Lord Jesus Christ manifested before me and when l saw his face he was weeping. Not only he was weeping but there was great sorrow on his face But in such an atmosphere of worshiping the holiness, we would rather expect him to be like in either Dietrich Bonhoeffer in as a God of holiness or as a King of glory.
That was what I was expecting. But I was moved with a wonderment, shock and bewilderment to see the sorrow on his face and the tears that were rolling down like rivers. And I was wondering what was the problem. And then Lord Jesus said, "Persecution and martyrdom is coming. My people are going to flee and be persecuted but they are not prepared for it.
Saying that he again he was crying weeping with tears and more importantly I saw the great sorrow on his face.
Persecution and martyrdom is coming. But my people are not prepared. They're not prepared at all.
Nominal Christians as well as all those who claim to be remnant Christians, they're not prepared.
And the reason why we are not prepared is because we have been wrongly taught that before all this persecution, martyrdom takes place, we'll be raptured. So it's all inside us an escapist theology. A mentality that not to worry about all this. Before the mark of the beast comes, we'll be raptured. before the persecution comes, before the antichrist comes, we'll all be raptured. So, we need not worry about all that. You know that theology is absolutely wrong.
I started my ministry in the 80s under old Pentecostal teaching and the old Pentecostal teaching teaches all this. So, I grew up under that and I was also very furiously preaching that about the rapture. He comes first and then followed by all the other things.
But in the year 2006, in the last week of the month of May, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared before me and he said, "The time has come for some for Matthew chapter 24:8 to be fulfilled." So I looked at my Bible and it says these are the beginnings of sorrows.
So I wondered what that word literally meant beginnings of sorrows. So I asked the Lord Jesus and then he explained to me that all these persecution are going to come one after another. So I told the Lord Jesus, but we need not worry about all this because the rapture will come and we'll all be caught away. And the most important factor, isn't it that we should get ready for the rapture?
The Lord Jesus looked at me and he said, "All you guys are wrong. All your theology is wrong." And then for the next 90 minutes he sat by my bed, went through the book of Revelation explaining clearly how the events will take place that before the rapture, the persecution will begin. The mark of the beast will be introduced. The whole world will be tried. The whole world will be forced to make a decision concerning their allegiance to who? To the one true living God Jehovah or through the so-called self-proclaimed God antichrist. Who this will be the challenge that will be before us.
A global persecution resulting in martyrdom is coming all over the world. Not just in one nation or two nations. So all over the world includes the United States. Am l right? It includes everybody.
You know a global persecution was prophesied not by the prophets, yesterday and today is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Revelation 3:10, he says like this, "Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth."
From the first century till now, such a thing of a persecution or a test or a trial on a global scale has not happened yet. It has happened on a national scale. In this nation there, in that nation there, nations like China, nation like Russia, pockets here and there, and then one nation here, one nation there, but not on a global scale.
So this word that the Lord Jesus prophesied is for these last days. These last days. So in these last days, a trial is going to come upon the whole world. And the trial will result in a test.
Now look at these two important words in that scripture. Trial and test. The word trial in the Greek means a putting to proof by experience of evil.
You will experience an evil that will put you to the test of your faith.
You will be allowed to experience evil. Just like how you may have heard of stories of ministers of God in Russia and China been persecuted. They experienced the evil in their bodies, in their minds. They experienced it. And that was a trial they went through. Some came out gold. And some fell away, backslided. They couldn't take the torches. They couldn't take the pain. And they denied the Lord Jesus Christ and embrace communism or atheism.
It has happened in the past. It will happen again in our days. It will always go in a circle. So the word test in the Greek means to test or discipline.
So it'll be a discipline. A discipline is something of like punishment, of like tortures.
So if you put these two words together, it conveys a concept that tests of an experience of evil that will be a proof if our faith can test, can stand the test, will be subject to evil.
Evil will come in many forms. Evil can come through legislation, a law being passed and as a result of the law, you can do this, you can do that. And if you try to do that, be imprisoned, persecuted, put to jail, or even die in jail.
You know recently, just about two years ago, President Putin of Russia has signed a new law that you cannot even conduct a Bible study in your own home. *¹
You cannot be a Christian, cannot read his Bible on the public anywhere. If you want to read your Bible, you read it at home. That's number one.
Number two, no foreigner is allowed to go to Russia to preach. Not allowed. Even if there is a sponsoring church or church in Russia that will invite you, you are not allowed.
And even Russians cannot go from house to house conducting a prayer meeting. You can't do all that. This is not during the cold war before the Berlin wall 🧱 came down. This is right now. Right now.
So how far away from all this in the whole North Korea? America is now shaking hands with North Korea. But do you know how much of persecution takes place in North Korea?
Similar to what I just told you about Russian, in North Korea, there's one religion called juche. *³
And the religion of juche is the worship of the president of North Korea. He is the god. So everybody, every North Korean, they must bow down and worship him. him the present president Kim that president you must have seen pictures of President Trump meeting President Kim (at Singapore) right him his father and his grandfather. So every Korean homes have three portraits of these three generations and they all bow down and they worship them . So Christianity is outlawed in North Korea.
So the nations are facing this. This has begun in pockets. But now it will become worldwide on a global scale. Every nation will persecute Christians. It is coming and it will result in martyrdom.
In Revelation chapter 6, verses 9-11, you read about a vision that the Apostle John saw when the fifth seal in the scroll that the Lord Jesus had in his hand was broken. And he saw a large altar in one place in heaven. And below the altar, he saw a huge company of men and women and children. Standing there and they were crying.
A few weeks ago, I had an awesome experience of seeing this exact scene in the exact place and the exact spot where the Apostle John stood in heaven.
And I saw in greater detail than what you read in that script three scriptures. There was a river of blood that flowed from the altar and it flowed down all the walls of the altar fresh warm blood and it's flowing nonstop.
You know, last week when we were in Canada, we had a day off and we went to see the Niagara Falls. And the one thing that amazed me about the Niagara Falls was the waters flow nonstop from where they were coming, where they were going. I stood there and wondered for a long time, non-stop. That was how I saw the blood on the altar. It was flowing nonstop, flowing and flowing and flowing. And below the altar stood a company of martyrs and these martyrs came and told me how they were killed. Every one of them shared their testimony how they were killed.
And then the Lord Jesus told them. So they cried to the Lord in Revelation 6:10. 19
How long, oh Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? How long will you keep quiet? How long will you remain patient?
The blood of Thomas, like them, have been crying for 2,000 years. for against all those who killed him in India. India is a blessed land because the apostle Thomas was sent there and do you know how he was martyred?
His back was skinned that his back was peeled. They peeled the skin and they threw chili powder on his back and he was screaming and crying and they forced him to run up a hill. As he was running they took spear and it speared him. That's how saint Thomas died.
So does every martyred saint in every nation. They all standing there lifting up their hands. Have you heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? I saw him standing in the center of Germany. He lifted up his hands looking up to heaven and was praying for Germany. And the words come out. How long Lord? How long?
But there is a different perspective to the word how long. This I was
Note:
*¹
Vladimir Putin signed the Yarovaya law package in July 2016, which effectively banned religious evangelism, missionary work, and religious gatherings in private homes and online, restricting such activities to registered church buildings only.
Scope of Restrictions: The law prohibits sharing faith, teaching, or recruiting in residential spaces, on the internet, or in public areas without a government permit from a registered religious organization.
Penalties: Violations result in heavy fines (up to $765 for citizens, $15,000 for organizations) and deportation for foreign nationals, with individuals as young as 14 subject to prosecution.
Motivation and Impact: While framed as an anti-terrorism measure, critics and religious groups argue it targets evangelical Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other non-traditional faiths to protect the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Implementation: The law went into effect on July 20, 2016, leading to immediate arrests, fines, and the closure of home Bible studies across Russia.
*2
A New Russian Law Targets Evangelicals and Other ‘Foreign’ Religions.
Published Sep 15, 2016.
On a recent Sunday morning, Donald Ossewaarde, a Baptist preacher from the United States, hosted an informal Bible study group at his home in Oryol, a small city 225 miles south of Moscow. Most of the dozen or so people who attended had been coming to Ossewaarde's weekly gatherings for years, and they were looking forward to an hour of Christian song, prayer and discussion.
But as the lesson began, three police officers walked into Ossewaarde's house. They waited silently until the lesson was over, then started questioning everyone, and they eventually insisted that Ossewaarde and his wife, Ruth, accompany them to the local police station. There, the police told Ossewaarde that a woman had filed a complaint against him, saying she was outraged that "foreign religious cultists" were allowed to operate in the city.
At a hastily arranged court hearing just hours after his arrest, a judge found Ossewaarde guilty of illegal missionary work and fined him 40,000 rubles (about $600). For Ossewaarde, a fluent Russian speaker who has lived in Oryol since 2002, the court's ruling was shocking. "We had been perfectly free all these years to give out literature, to talk to people on the street," he says. "People have either been friendly or indifferent."
Not anymore. In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law that cracks down on missionary work and evangelism. Among other things, it mandates that people share their religious beliefs only at state-registered places of worship. Critics say the law, which was approved as part of a swath of "anti-extremism and terrorism" legislation, contradicts Russia's post-Soviet constitution, which guarantees citizens and foreigners the right to disseminate their religious beliefs. "Soviet history shows us how many people of different faiths have been persecuted for spreading the word of God," wrote Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of the Protestant Churches of Russia, in an open letter to Putin. "This law brings us back to that shameful past."
The law comes at a time when the Kremlin is pushing a major anti-Western propaganda campaign, from accusing the U.S. and U.K. of plotting to overthrow Putin to boasting about Moscow's ability to reduce the U.S. to "radioactive ash." And so far, the consequences of the law have exclusively affected members of minority "foreign" religions—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants with Baptist, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist roots. Believers of these religions have frequent problems gaining state permission for churches and temples, and they often have little choice but to gather informally at the homes of their congregants.
The Russian Orthodox Church, a powerful Kremlin ally that has traditionally been hostile to minority faiths, has not been affected, and Orthodox officials have dismissed criticism of the law, saying it does not prevent believers from sharing their faith. Russia's Muslims, who make up some 10 percent of the population, seem divided on the legislation, with regional muftis split on whether it's a gross violation of human rights or a necessary step in the fight against Islamic extremism.
Ossewaarde believes it's the former. Two days after his conviction, he received a warning from his court-imposed lawyer, Andrey Butenko; if he and his wife chose to stay in Russia, the lawyer said, they could be in danger. Concerned that Butenko's warning was an indirect message from the authorities, Ruth Ossewaarde flew to the United States on August 22. Donald Ossewaarde remained in Oryol to appeal his conviction.
Butenko tells Newsweek he was not acting on anyone's orders and says his warning was inspired by genuine concern for the couple's well-being. "All religions except traditional Russian faiths are being slowly forced out of Russia," he says. "The state will do whatever it thinks it needs to do in order to achieve this. This is how the security forces work. If they need to, they could do something bad to him."
The Ossewaardes are not the only ones who have been affected by the crackdown. In late July, police officers detained Ebenezer Tuah, a student from Ghana, as he carried out a baptism at a swimming pool in Tver, a small city near Moscow. Tuah and a group of Ghanese nationals had rented the pool for their Protestant group for the day, and there were no Russian citizens present. The officers handcuffed Tuah and kept him overnight in a police station. The authorities later fined him 50,000 rubles (about $780) for "conducting religious rites and ceremonies" without the necessary documents. (He declined to comment on the matter.)
"They treated him like a common criminal," says Konstantin Andreev, a lawyer at the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, which has filed appeals against the convictions of both Ossewaarde and Tuah, as well as others charged under the new law.
Andreev, who is also a Protestant preacher, believes the legislation is part of a broader crackdown on civil liberties that has occurred since Putin became president for the third time, amid mass protests, in 2012. He says the courts and police officers enforcing the law are doing so with a flawed understanding of it, as the law technically concerns only members of organized religious groups who are attempting to convert those who do not share their faith. In reality, critics say, the authorities can label almost any religious activities not carried out in state-registered churches as missionary work or evangelism.
"This law has been joyfully welcomed by nationalist-minded people, who say at last we have a means of fighting against those who are not Russian Orthodox Christians and do not share our ideas," Andreev says.
Mormons in particular have experienced problems since the law came into effect. In August, Russian authorities deported six Mormon missionaries for allegedly violating compulsory registration requirements. Although the deportations were not directly linked to the law on sharing beliefs, analysts say the expulsions are part of a new intolerance for foreign religions in Russia. "Lawmakers have decided that missionaries are dangerous people," says Roman Lunkin, a religion analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. "They have been stripped of the right to the presumption of innocence."
Some members of the Russian Orthodox Church have also criticized the legislation. "This law plainly contradicts the Gospels," wrote Karina Chernyak, who runs an Orthodox Christian youth club in Moscow, in an article for the Sova Center, a nonprofit that monitors religion and Russian society. "It is the mission of every Christian to go and teach his or her belief to others. In many ways, this is the essence of belief."
Back in Oryol, Ossewaarde is preparing for his appeal, which is set for September 19. And for now, he has shuttered his Bible study group. A Russian-language notice on the door of his home reads: "Dear friends! Until further notice, there will be no meetings here. There is an official assertion that these activities are illegal. Sorry for the inconvenience. Donald."
*³ Juche
Juche Religion: Juche permeates all aspects of the North Korean society. Juche is most often thought to be a socio-political ideology. In reality, Juche is a religion, and North Korea's 25 million adherents make Juche the world’s fifth largest religion after Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Moreover, Juche is modeled after Christianity. Instead of God the Father, Juche worships Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea who died in 1994 yet continues to rule today as North Korea's "Eternal President" and official head of state. Juche teaches North Koreans that upon death, they will be reunited with Kim Il-sung and live with him forever.
Instead of God the Son, Juche worships Kim Il-sung's son, Kim Jong-il, who until his own death in 2011, reigned as his dead father's surrogate. And instead of God the Holy Spirit, Juche worships Kim Jong-soko, the mother of Kim Jong-il and the wife of Kim Il-sung.
Juche requires North Koreans to bow daily to the three Kims' portraits (above), which must hang on the “best” wall of their homes. Neglecting proper care of the portraits is a capital crime and North Koreans are praised for rushing back into burning homes to save the portraits of the three Kims.
The death of Kim Jong-il in 2011 led to the accession of his son, Kim Jong-un, who is expected to eventually replace his grandmother in Juche's idolatrous trinity.
How did Juche come to be modeled after Christianity?
Before it was ruled by Kim Il-sung, North Korea was the site of an early 20th century Christian revival. So many Christians lived in and so many churches dotted Pyongyang, the present North Korean capital, that the city was even called, “The Jerusalem of the East.”
The son of Christian parents and the grandson of a Christian pastor, Kim Il-sung was intimately familiar with Christianity and witnessed Christians choose martyrdom over worshipping the Japanese Emperor during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of Korea.
Recognizing the power of Christianity, Kim wanted it to be directed at himself. So he took Christianity, removed God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, set up himself, his wife and son as the new trinity, and called it Juche. At its core, Juche is a counterfeit Christianity that is deathly afraid of the True Gospel, and rightfully so.
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