It’s not just fleeing from a place of spiritual danger…it’s where you flee to.
Have you found that place of spiritual safety where all your brothers and sisters are all of one mind and one truth? (1 Cor 1:10)
When the persecution of Christians was foretold, I remember Jesus telling his disciples to flee to the mountains when they saw Jerusalem “surrounded by encamped armies”. They must have wondered how that would be possible if those armies were already there, posing a threat....? (Luke 21:20-24)
After giving them the signs to look for and telling them...(vs34-36)
“But pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you 35 as a snare. For it will come upon all those dwelling on the face of the whole earth. 36 Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that must occur and in standing before the Son of man.”
This was a far reaching prophesy that pertained to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in the first century, but also describing the “time of the end” when Jesus was to return.....a time when all living humans will stand before “the son of man”....as their appointed judge.
So many years passed with no real threat to Jerusalem being seen. But we know from the Bible account that the Romans finally laid siege to Jerusalem in 66CE (over 30 years into the future)…..and the threat was very real, but inexplicably, and for no apparent reason, they withdrew, and gave the Christians the opportunity to obey Jesus’ instructions. They fled to the mountains and settled in a little town called Pella. With nothing but the clothes on their backs and a few provisions, they started a new life and stayed in Pella despite the fact that Roman armies had not returned.....many must have wondered if Jesus was right in telling them to pull up stakes and leave the area with nothing, because it seemed as if the threat had been removed. And no doubt, after a couple of years, they may have wondered if it was all right to return to their homes and businesses. Some may have done so.....but in 70CE, without warning, the Romans came back with unfinished business on their minds, and besieged the city causing mass starvation and unimaginable heartbreak for all who were caught unawares in the city. Their city and Temple were destroyed as Jesus had foretold.....”not a stone left upon a stone”. (Matt 24:1-2) Many thousands of lives were lost.
But when Jesus told them what to do, it was without a timeframe. He never said how long it would take for his prophesy to be fulfilled, but he kept the reality of the kingdom right before them as a finish line that was in sight, but knowing all the while that “the end” was still 2000 human years into the future.
God has never operated in earth time which is exclusive to earthly creatures....God and the angels operate in universal time where a “thousand years” is like “one day” to the Creator. (2 Pet 3:8)
God’s main targets for his lesson in obedience was primarily to do with the first rebel...who was not human, but who took humans as hostages in his scheme to become their god. This spirit creature challenged Jehovah’s Sovereignty....the right to set limits to the free will that he had generously given to all his children.
As part of his answer to the challenges the devil had put to him, God chose one nation to become his “special property” and by which a savior would come into the world to undo all the damage that satan had done and would still do to God’s entire creation. Every living thing has suffered under his mismanagement, along with the potential destruction of the earth itself and its many ineracting systems...only now in this 21st century do we see that man is capable of destroying everything that sustains life here. God was never going to allow the devil to finish what he started......he would “cut the days short” or “no flesh would survive”. (Luke 21: 21-22)
Now more than ever do God’s worshippers need unity and cohesion. So in obeying God’s directive in Revelation 18:4-5, where do we go in order to flee to safety today? What part of Christendom do we choose to be that place of spiritual safety, when there is no consensus as to what is truth? Would God provide no collective of people in order to give them direction and guidance? (Heb 10:24-25)
Jesus told us that “few” are on the road to life....so who are the “few”? Are these merely individuals who are scattered among those many denominations?
That would be an answer except that these individuals also disagree on what is truth. If they all agreed, then that would be the proof of the operation of Jehovah’s spirit.....but they differ as much as Christendom does.
Those who reject “organised religion” are denying that Jehovah is an organised God for whom nothing happens haphazardly. He has always gathered his people into one “nation” or “people” who all have one set of beliefs, and who all serve their God out of love, not fear. They know, like the apostles, who their God is, and who is the one who “sent” his Messiah into the world. (1 Cor 8:5-6; John 17:3)
They will be the ones out “preaching the good news of the Kingdom in all the inhabited earth” (Matt 24:14) because they are one united global brotherhood whose main objective is to serve their God amid strong opposition, just as the first Christians did. (John 15:18-21)
So again...where have you fled to?....
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