KEYWORDS: god, lord, generation, thou, youth

Children's Crusade, The

David Berg

—MOMAY 28‚ 1971GP—NO.400

(Taken from Dear Rahel")

1. MAYBE I'M PARTIAL TO THE KNIGHTLY REPRESENTATION OF THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER because of my own childhood fondness for the days of chivalry. I read every one of Sir Walter Scott's books, all 16 heavy tomes‚ as well as many other famed volumes on the knights and their crusades of those dark Middle Ages!

2. BUT I THINK THE LORD MUST HAVE A FONDNESS FOR THIS IDEALISTIC REPRESENTATION of His own warriors, because this is the way I have seen them in several specific visions He has given me. In fact in the first vision I ever had about us when we were only a tiny family with one or two helpers, God showed me a significant scene that at that time I did not even understand:

3. A TINY BAND OF KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR WITH THEIR SQUIRES AT THEIR SIDES RETURNING WEARY AND WOUNDED, bloody, dirty, bedraggled and even discouraged as though from some defeat in battle. They approached this walled city, great and grey, somber and forbidding as they looked for rest and refuge, but they were cruelly turned away and sent on their way.—The city system would not have them!

4. SO THEY TRUDGED ON BY, TIRED AND WORN AND SOMEWHAT DISCOURAGED till they came to a little village where a filthy beggar lay in the ditch by the wayside‚ pleading for help. They reached down, picked him up and compassionately placed him on one of their already over–loaded beasts.

5. SUDDENLY, AS THEY RODE ON TOWARDS THE SUNSET ON THE HORIZON INSTEAD OF DIMINISHING THEY GREW!—They actually grew in size and glory shining radiantly filling the whole sky and being received into Heaven. Josh will remember the vision. I told him about it when he first travelled with us on our first tiny team! Hallelujah! (Tongues and weeping:)

6. "EVEN AS I HAVE SHOWED THEE IN THE PAST SO HAS IT BEEN DONE UNTO THEE! Thou didst not understand, for thou didst not foresee the future. Thou wast this tiny band—thou and thy little ones and that city which rejected thee was the system of this world‚ ruled by the enemies!

7. AND THAT BEGGAR WHICH THOU DIDST HAVE COMPASSION ON was the poor, the lame, the halt and the blind—the rejected youth of this generation, unloved‚ unwanted and uncared for! (More tongues and tears:)—Which thou didst lift in love to bear with thee upward unto me, even as thou didst grow in stature and in size unto the day of thy reception into My Heavenly Kingdom! (Pause: ) This is the picture and this is the interpretation and this is what has been and what will be! Hallelujah!

8. "FOR INDEED THOU ART MY ARMY AND THOU ART MY WARRIORS and I will glorify thee above all thine enemies and receive thee even unto Myself in that great day when I shall judge them and the Battle is o'er!" Praise the Lord!

9. SOME OF YOU MAY ALSO REMEMBER THAT VISION WE HAD OF THAT TERRIBLE BATTLEFIELD where it seemed everyone was lying around dead, wounded or dying, and defeated—all young people. Then this Knight in black armour came along and raised a rallying cry to arise and renew the battle and march on to victory whereupon you all leaped to your feet and shouted in response and the girls were all standing around behind us backing us up like angels praying and encouraging us on our way.

10. YOU PICKED UP YOUR STREWN AND DISCARDED WEAPONS and marched on triumphantly to victory! Hallelujah! Then the Black Knight disappeared as mysteriously as he had come. I had the impression that the Black Knight was Yours Truly, used by the Lord to rally you around His banner and send you on to Victory! Praise the Lord!

11. AND OF COURSE YOU'RE ALL FAMILIAR WITH OUR VISIONS OF ABNER in both of which he appeared as a radiant Knight in shining silvery armour! Praise the Lord! The Lord must know I like this particular symbolism, so He inspires and pleases me with it.

12. RECENTLY WHEN I WAS VIEWING A VIDEO TAPE OF CBS-NEWS in which the commentator was comparing you the Children of God, to the world famous children's crusade of Mediaeval times, I was suddenly and unexpectedly struck by a witness of His Spirit that this was indeed God's own comparison, inspired by Him!

13. THIS FAMED YOUTH MARCH ACROSS THE EUROPE OF THE MIDDLE AGES was a sincere effort of youth to serve God and a condemnation of the lethargy and indifference of their elders and is indeed like unto us.

14. LIKE THEM, WE MAY BE PERSECUTED, REVILED SPAT UPON, MALIGNED AND RIDICULED and accused of every sin. And we too may be slaughtered in some future encounter with the Enemy and seem to be frustrated, defeated and scattered.

15. NEVERTHELESS LIKE THE FAMED CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, WE SHALL HAVE BEEN A TESTIMONY against the wicked and indifferent generation of our fathers, who like theirs, when failing to repent in response to God's final warning by His own Youthful Children, will afterward also be judged by a mighty and terrible invasion of our Enemies which may wipe the older generation from the face of the Earth as it nearly did all Europe! What a comparison! What an inspired analogy!—And God set His seal upon it!

16. ODDLY ENOUGH ALL I CAN REMEMBER ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE WAS THAT ALL THE HISTORY BOOKS LAUGHED AT IT, ridiculed it and condemned it as having been totally futile, useless and nothing but some kind of a passing fad or fashion. Even my aged high school history teacher made fun of it, so typical of the older generation and their reaction who were the authors of those history books!

17. HOWEVER, THE LORD'S COMPARISON OF US TO THAT CRUSADE OF YOUTH of olden times, just before His mighty invasion judgments swept Europe has inspired us to do further researching regarding it.

18. MAYBE ITS VISIONARY LEADER WASN'T SUCH A BAD GUY as he was made out to be! Maybe he was used of the Lord to lead the youth of his day to try to bring his own generation to repentance before the judgments of God fell!

19. IT BEGAN IN NORTH EUROPE, and they say that to this very day as a result of this by-gone Children's crusade there are still colonies of fair–haired blue-eyed Nordic and Germanic types scattered throughout the Alps and other parts of Europe where you would not expect to find them!

20. WHO KNOWS WHAT AN INFLUENCE THESE ORIGINALLY YOUTHFUL COLONIES MAY HAVE HAD UPON ALL EUROPE? Who knows what impact they may have had upon other youth of their own generation to drop out, forsake all and follow in an attempt to serve God fulltime, however misguided, frustrated or defeated their parents say they became! Remember, it's the parents who write the "history" books!

21. THE PARENTS DIDN'T LIKE THE PIED PIPER OF HAMLIN EITHER, but the kids loved and followed him! And who knows where they went, or what new life they began? The parent–historians have hushed this up completely, and God only knows what the real truth was! Some believe they started a youth colony in the Alps, a new life away from war!

22. —AND WHO KNOWS WHAT THE "MINISTRY OF TRUTH" OF 1984's ANTICHRIST WORLD WILL BE SAYING ABOUT US?—"That deluded and deceived and futile generation of youth who followed a fictional fairy-tale character called Jesus‚ whom they thought was going to change the world. But as you can see, He never came to save them and we have all but wiped them out!" Most likely that will be their story in their anti-Christ history books of that day!

23. BUT HE WHO LAUGHS LAST, LAUGHS BEST AND GOD WILL LAUGH LAST when He heaps His own judgements on this derisive, scornful and Christ–hating generation for their rejection of us and our Message! Beloved, the outlook for us in this world and our future here could hardly be darker!—But the uplook could hardly be brighter or more glorious! Hallelujah!—And when our work here is done,

24. HE'S GONNA STOP THE WORLD SO WE CAN GET OFF! Praise God! Thank You Jesus!

P.S. (June‚ 1976):

25. HOW GLORIOUSLY THIS VISION IS BEING FULFILLED! From our first little tiny family colony of only six in 1968, rejected by the System but received by the poor hippies, we have now spread around the world into 72 nations on every continent with vast armies of thousands of fulltime Christian soldiers in hundreds of Colonies speaking scores of languages—and still on the move!

26. "THE LORD GAVE THE WORD: GREAT WAS THE COMPANY of those that published it! Kings of armies did flee apace!" (Ps.68:11-12.)—What a fulfilment of this promise! In only five years we have distributed over a quarter-billion pieces of literature and witnessed to over 8 billion persons—so some have heard more than once!

27. NEARLY A MILLION SOULS HAVE BEEN WON (989‚076 TO BE EXACT!) and we've reaped nearly 12,000 fulltime workers, had 515 marriages and 795 children in our Colonies! There have been over half-a-million baptisms and innumerable healings! Surely the vision has been fulfilled and is still growing!

28. WE ARE THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN'S CRUSADE!—And probably the last before God's destruction of this wicked worldly System of which we've so often warned. This world will be without excuse!—What's yours? Why not join now and escape God's wrath to come by marching on to victory with us!

29. "ONWARD‚ CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, MARCHING AS TO WAR!

—With the cross of Jesus going on before!"

Hallelujah!