A few days ago I was considering Satan’s end-time onslaught against humanity in general and Christians in particular. Satan has singled Christians out for gruesome neck-slashings and murder in these dark days. America’s own government has turned against her people. Vileness and fear lurk on every side. In the midst of this many Christians teach us to buy guns and other weapons and to fill our homes with months of stores of food. Some of them counsel us to be ready to kill, yes kill, those who would come to our homes to share in our bounty if they did not likewise prepare. They tell us that if we fail to prepare to kill, and then actually kill, those who would attack us or seek our aid, then we are worse than infidels because “we did not provide for our families.” Some of these people talk about their hideouts and the cities of refuge they will have when things finally devolve into total chaos. In effect these are their own “mountains” or governments that they will seek to control and rule by force of arms.
I have heard these things often and by many seemingly sincere Christians. I do not think that I have all the answers or that I am always right, but I try to be. I have thought through these issues many times, have discussed them at length with my prophetic wife, and we both have rejected this teaching. Nevertheless, a few days ago I decided to revisit it and I asked God for a specific prophetic word. I thought that certainly one of God’s prophets had addressed this issue so I prayed, “God lead me to a word from one of your prophets that deals with this issue, but not Isaiah.” (I did not want to go to Isaiah because I use his words so often!) So, I grabbed the nearest Bible and turned to what I thought would be a prophetic book after Isaiah. I was very much surprised when I ended up in the Book of Psalms. I then decided to focus my eye to one place on the two pages open (which included about 4 full Psalms) and this was what I saw:
In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.” (Psalm 11:1)
Immediately I knew I had my answer. All of these Christian prophets were telling me that I needed to prepare in the flesh and be ready to flee to their type of mountain of defense. David himself had faced this dilemma when wicked men sought his life, his soul. But David found his refuge in the Lord. So should we. Our help does not lie in the grandeur of our preparations or the greatness of our weapons of war. Who are you prophets to say to God’s people that we must be ready to flee to a carnal mountain of safety, to “your mountain.” No, I will take refuge in the Lord upon his mountain.
It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
2 and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,[a]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5 For all the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever. (Micah 4:1-5)
And so, with David I say,
In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
“Flee like a bird to your mountain.” (Psalm 11:1)
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