Take My People to the Mountains

 Luke 21:20 And when you see Jerusalem being encircled by armies, then recognize that its destruction has come near. 21. Then let those in Judea flee into the mountains; and those in its midst, let them go out. And those in the open spaces, let them not go into her.

 Since the start of the Church, Christians have recognized that if the Word of God is taken literally and its warnings applied, that God’s provision and protection would be the result. Indeed, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed as prophesied in Mark 13:1, 2 in 70 A.D. by Roman General Titus, it is recorded by the Jewish Historian Josephus that almost no Christians died because they had evacuated to the mountain fortress of Petra. Then again, when the Muslims invaded and conquered Spain in 715 A.D., the Christians escaped to the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain; taking heed to the ‘surrounding armies’ and fleeing to the mountains rather than the geographical location of Jerusalem, or Judea, they escaped the horrors Spain’s Jewish population suffered at the hands of the Muslim conquerors. Then there were the Waldensians, who survived numerous attempts throughout the Dark Ages to wipe them out by Catholic Inquisitor armies with the supernatural intervention of God protecting their hiding places in the Alps.

  Numerous Early Church Fathers had recognized hidden scriptural promises of protection and provision for Christians in the mountains once they saw the spirit and the armies of the Anti-Christ begin to attack the true Church and uncompromising Christians. However, these promises of protection and provision have been largely ignored by today’s Church due to the false sense of security and collective sleep that the ‘we’ll fly away before the tribulation of the Anti-Christ’ delusion of the pre-tribulational rapture teaching. This secret (Only Christians will see Jesus) part way return of Christ was so secret the Early Church Fathers never saw it in the scriptures; they warned that the Christians (who are not under strong delusion)  should flee to the mountains:

  Hippolytus (160-240): "...the one thousand two hundred and three score days (the half of the week) during which the tyrant is to reign and persecute the Church, which flees from city to city, and seeks concealment in the wilderness among the mountains" (Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 61).

 Lactantius (240-330): "And power will be given him [Antichrist] to desolate the whole earth for forty-two  months....When these things shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes" – The Koine Greek  used here literally translates ‘high remote wilderness’ - (Divine Institutes,  VII, 17).

 Isaiah 13:2 Lift up a banner on a bare mountain; make the voice rise to them; wave the hand that they may enter the gates of nobles. 3. I have commanded My holy ones; I have also called My warriors for My anger, those exultant at My majesty. 4. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! A noise of tumult of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; Jehovah of Hosts is calling up an army for the battle.

 Interestingly, the ‘enter’ or ‘go’ translated from the Hebrew bô' in Isaiah 13:2 and the grammar of the sentence carries the idea of being offered to obtain, or being granted, nobility to any Christian who joins God’s army in the mountains. Since the idea of the ‘go to the mountains’ verses in prophecy also carry the underlying promise of provision and protection, this then dovetails perfectly with Matthew 24: 45-47:

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord has made ruler over His household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his Lord shall find him doing so when He comes.  Truly I say to you that He shall make him ruler over all His goods.

This because the Koine Greek word trophē translated as ‘food’ in verse 45 is used in the aorist tense here, with a sentence structure that implies both the literal and figurative; i.e. nourishment or rations of both ‘food’ for the body and spirit. Thus, if we are in the mountains prepared to feed and spiritually prepare God’s army, we will be granted the nobility of rulers.

Be assured that this is an offer very few Christians will even recognize, let alone take, due to the prevalence of ‘itching ear’ teachings in the Church. Which means the vast majority of Christians who escape to the mountains when they finally recognize that they ARE “…passing through it, hard pressed and hungry…” will do so with only the clothes on their back (See Isaiah 8:20-22).

 Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.