The Place of Safety
Sermon by Mr Carn Catherwood(1979)
GTA popularized a belief that true christians would not necessarily go to a particular place of safety when the tribulation would come upon us - that we probably would be protected where we are at that time. It is a heresy that we will be protected in our homes. What kind of character could I acquire locked in my own home - what lessons could I learn?
Ultimately it became sort of popular back then to laugh, to scorn those who believed in a literal place of safety - you were said to be petrified. You had to go underground with that sort of belief because it wasn't popular to state it. Some of the brethren would ask - those who hadn't got the point it was better not to do that. The old members knew they should button their lip. I knew the scriptures were there that we should flee but somehow we couldn't deal with them.
Nobody in the anti-place of safety clique never made any attempt to explain away the scriptures about the place of safety. They condemned dogmatism - you mustn't be dogmatic. They avoided the issue completely.
Now we can only inspire the people of God with some of the most precious promises contained within the Word of God. They are full of hope. Some of you will try to camp out in your living rooms - you will not survive for 3 1/2 years. People thought protection was in their own hands. The point is this - Ted would have you believe that the teaching that the people of God will be preserved in a literal place of safety makes people survival oriented and that gets people hung up on physical circumstances. It's too physical - "It destroys faith" he used to say. But if you teach people there is no place of safety and you stress that maybe you'll be protected in your living room then people will get more spiritually oriented, have more faith and confidence in God and everything would be so much better he claimed.
Just the opposite occurred - the doctrine built an unbelievable fear reaction in so many members who expected to die as martyrs - it destroyed faith in God. The truth makes you free - the truth about the place of safety will free you from a lot of anxieties and enable you to have more faith in God - because God does it anyway. It increases faith and love for God.
In Revelation 12:14 we read, "But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent." Here is the promise of physical removal. Some will not accept that promise of physical protection, some will not want to flee, some do not want to flee now. Not everybody who believed you'd be protected in your homes have left and gone with Ted. Some have stayed with that idea. There's plenty of warning to them - because that idea is going to come back as time goes on, you'll see it and you'll hear it. It'll come back. God says so.
Now go back to Revelation 12:10 "...the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down." Here we see a lot of that accusation that probably will come through the media and government sources. Satan works through government and the media.
Verse 12 now. "Woe for the Devil has come down to you, having great wrath because he knows he has a short time." Great wrath!
Verse 13. "Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child." He will do it through the government and the media.
Verse 14. "But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent." As persecution grows something happens. It talks about a bird here. It's something symbolic.
In Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 32 God pictures the literal removal of a people, a large nation, Israel, in large numbers from one place to another and he uses the symbol of a bird.
In Exodus 19:4 God says, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself."
In Deuteronomy 32:10 we read, "He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness, He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye". He began to work with Israel there in the wasteland or howling wilderness. He encompassed him with angels. He led them around, He instructed them - an analogy.
Verse 11. "As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings." She'll take her eaglets who can't fly yet to safety. That symbolism is a picture of something.
Verse 12. "So the Lord alone led him and there was no foreign god with him." God's protection here.
Verse 13. "He made him in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields. He made him draw honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock" - symbolizing miraculous feeding etc. A promise of a removal into a wilderness. God is like a great eagle on whom the people of God can hang like eaglets and He will take them to another location.
Now back to Revelation 12:14. It talks about the wilderness. Is it Petra? - maybe.
Down now to verse 15. "So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood." Water is a type of armies. Here is government harassment of the people of God even as we prepare and as we literally flee and sometimes people have said they are going to throw us out. We'll leave when they throw us out. Brethren it says here they are going to try and stop us and to bring us back. They'll be so upset when we leave that they'll do everything in their power to stop the flight of the people of God. Water is a type of armies and they'll be sent by Satan - government involvement. Brought back, perhaps imprisoned by the representatives of a certain country.
Verse 16 - "But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth." An earthquake will be between us and these armies, maybe in California. Who has Satan used the most? - the state of California. Satan is thwarted and goes back to that location geographically where the woman once lived to the remnant of the woman where those people lived and he attacks people who said, "I won't go". He goes back and finds a remnant in their homes and these aren't unconverted people, they're brethren who keep the ten commandments and have the truth of Jesus Christ and they will die as martyrs in their homes.
It seems the anti-place of safety idea may come again in some way. I think the anti-place of safety clique will make its appearance some day, I guess it's possible. Maybe they'll become very vocal. Even as we prepare to flee some unconverted relatives could call up the newspapers as we'll have several weeks the Bible indicates that we'll have to get ready. It won't sort of happen, we'll have time to prepare certain things and there will be headlines connecting us with the satanic Jim Jones cult. It will be hard to take, especially in southern California.
There will be a concerted organized attempt on the government to prevent and stop the flight. And some of our brethren will say "I don't want to be a part of that". There will be pressure not to flee, not to go, to keep on representing God in our homes and our community and people will be saying, "There's got to be a witness back here. God will protect us. You can't go off and sell your house and sell your car and give up your job and leave the dog home by himself and you can't haul your kids out of school and maybe Ted was right. I didn't expect all this publicity. We'll be protected in our homes." The seeds have already been sown for a flee or not to flee controversy. Ted began it. Somehow it may begin to roll again. I know what Mr. Armstrong would say. He will say "flee!". There'll be pressure there, an anti-flight bias.
I want to show you a little bit about that kind of a bias and what we should understand about Lot's wife. In a very important passage of scripture we read in Luke 17:26-28, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man they ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built."
When was this? It was in the days of Lot before Sodom was destroyed. The others around were not affected by Lot's warnings. As soon as Lot arrived in Zoar it happened. As we are preparing to leave, as we are doing what Lot and Noah did. Often we apply this to the return of Christ. It isn't describing His return. It's referring to the way of life of people and the reaction and attitude of people towards fleeing and the place of safety and some are going to say "I won't go".
Let's go back to the story in Genesis 19. What actually happened before the destruction of Sodom, before the tribulation? Beginning in verse 12 we read, "Then the men said to Lot, 'Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city; take them out of this place!' For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it." The angels said get out. As it was in the days of Lot so shall it be. They didn't believe.
"So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, 'Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!' But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, 'Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.' And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city"(verses 14-16) He was attached to the city. There were questions in his mind.
"So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, 'Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed'"(verse 17). Finally he gets the picture.
"Then Lot said to them, "Please, no, my lords!"(verse 18) I'm not going to the mountains. "Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die"(verse 19). Some evil may overtake me in the mountains and I might die up there. Some ministers scoffed. "Petra has no food or water. You'll die." As it was in the days of Lot. The story of Lot is about escaping to a place of safety.
"See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. And he said to him, 'See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken'"(verses 20-21). God does as he asks.
"Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt"(verses 22-26).
Flashback! Lot's wife wasn't sure she wanted to go into this place of safety. She liked Sodom and thought maybe God will protect me back in the city. She was about to turn all the way around and she was going to go back, turn around and march back into the city. She wasn't going to have anything to do with this place of safety idea. She turned around and she became a pillar of salt! That is a memorial for us!!! It means when the call comes to flee, when the directive is given, we must go - we must not linger as Lot did, we must not turn back around as Lot's wife did, we must go all the way! We must not give into some anti-place of safety bias or reject the promise of a literal physical protection.
Now back to Luke 17. "Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back"(verses 28-31).
Don't come down to get your stuff. Some of our brethren apply this to the return of Christ but it doesn't make any sense. At Christ's return there would be no question of going back to get your stuff. When? It's so totally clear brethren that this is referring to the example of Lot and Noah, the Ark and fleeing into a place of safety. If you are on the roof don't come in to get your suitcase. If you are in the field don't go back to your house to get it. And as you're going through the trauma of leaving brethren please remember Lot's wife - what happened to Lot's wife and why. She became a pillar of salt on the way to a place of safety because she was turning around and she was going to go back.
Christ says in verse 32, "Remember Lot's wife." Some of you will forget what Lot's wife did.
Christ goes in verse 33 and 34 - "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left." This is not the night of Christ's return. You can use this as a type of what might happen when Jesus returns but the context is not that.
Further he said in verses 35 to 37, "Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left. And they answered and said to Him, 'Where, Lord?' So He said to them, 'Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.' " Here's a clear promise of protection. Learn the lesson of Lot's wife!
God promises in Revelation 3:10, "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." For those who keep God's word of perseverance He says He will keep you from - out of, away from, the hour of trial to try the WHOLE world!
In Isaiah 26:20-21 God says,"Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation is past. For behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain." Here is a promise of God of a literal physical removal and protection. Verse 21 indicates a worldwide tribulation. In verse 20 it says chambers - that is an enclosed location. God shut the doors of the Ark and nobody could get into it. You can't hide in your homes. Hide where? A little uncertainty generates faith. Maybe Petra is a type.
In Revelation 12:14 it talks about a wilderness which means a desolate, deserted place. A howling wilderness. A desert. It'll could be Arab land where the Bedouins live. There is the indication of it maybe being within a day's driving or flying distance from the city of Jerusalem. The Bible indicates it might be less than a day to make the trip from Jerusalem to the place of safety.