Vision 1948
The divine message and his interpretation of the scriptures by Abraham Leenhouts
is extraordinary because of the prophetic vision he experienced in 1948.
His interpretations are heavily based upon the Scriptures and lacks most
of the speculation which often can be seen otherwise. The text below is
taken from "Competition of the Altars" and "My
Vengeance is Merciful" pages 8-9 and 29-33. It deals with his
experience and his reaction afterwards:
Called in 1948
The Lord intervened in my life in a very extraordinary way after I had come
back from a holiday in 1948 and wanted to take up my work again as minister
of the Reformed Church at Enschede.
Suddenly there was the impact of a miracle, so stirring for one who experiences
it, that any description must be a failure. Suddenly my study was ablaze.
In spirit I heard a violent storm and had the experience of the apparition
of an angel. I went to the window and saw that outside there was not a breath
of wind and not a leaf was stirring. Then I went to the bedroom, looked
in the mirror, and observed that I looked like a dead man. After wards I
went back to the study, and as led by an invisible hand, I took hold of
a pad and sat down behind my desk. Then the Lord spoke literally, word for
word:
My children have prayed, and I answer...
The Lord spoke about Israel's future and about the coming revival of the
world. He gave messages for the churches. And afterwards, for many days
at a stretch, He showed me in burning visions the identity of the last text
of Malachi and Revelation 10.
Each word swept through me like a flame. The sweat of death was dripping
from me, and without having any control of my hand or mind, sentence after
sentence was written down on paper.
God revealed the secret of Revelation 10: the secret of the thunders, the
sealed-up pcnultimate mystery. In spirit I was confronted with Christ's
agony in the gardcn, with His sufferings on the cross, and His abandonment
of God, but also with the immense power of His resurrection and His future.
In turn I had to see our infinite guilt for His blood and the riches of
His pity in the coming revival.
Into the desert ...
Afterwards came the temptations.
An experience of this nature makes one abysmally alone. Especially in respect
of the time and surroundings, when these particular workings of the spirit
were completely beyond the ecclesiastical horizon. Whoever then - in 1948
- appeared as a minister of religion with a prophetic vision, was faced
with two possibilities as far as the church was concerned; suspension for
heresy or forced psychatric treatment.
I dare blame no one for feeling like this: how would I, myself, have reacted
before this intervention of God? Probably the one most opposed to his own
vocation was the person called: myself.
I knew enough of the history of the church and above all I was reared with
a servere re-reformed upbringing.
That God should still speak thus in actual fact, was a completely strange
thought for me: so also the idea that Israel would play a major part in
the Kingdom of God.
I had, as a "streamlined" re-reformed minister, always warned
against spiritualism, false mysticism, chiliasm, fanaticism and similar
phenomena, whenever I thought it necessary by virtue of my office.
Even now I always see subjectivism as an abyss.
Is there not a clear line to be drawn from medieval mysticism, via the fanatics
of the time of the reformation, to liberal protestantism? How many houses,
built on the drift sands of all types of subjectivism, have been destroyed
by storms and heavy downpours? How many false prophets have gone out into
the world?
Furthermore, neither the subjective honesty with which a message is executed,
nor the intensity of the spiritual experience with which it is received,
is any guarantee of its objective truth. How much the more is this true
of an inspiration of the Spirit!
We are but mere mortals and with the best intentions in our minds, we nevertheless
can err and even be totally infected with religious delusions. Consider
for example the delusions of the witches! For centuries these religious
delusions plagued Europe. Millions of women lost their lives by being burnt
at the stake, after suffering terrible martyrdom at the hands of the Inquisition.
It was a spiritual eclipse.
Thus also can the false messianism of a political ideology become a sort
of epidemic, with the result that the expectations that erroneously are
evoked will sooner or later unleash destructive powers as soon as it appears
that their fulfilment is endlessly postponed.
This is the very reason why all prophecy is such a serious matter.
However, if the Lord does speak, keeping silent in respect of His message
is nevertheless impossible.
All prophets have experienced this and Jeremiah has honestly admitted it:
"Then l said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more
in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in
my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay." (Jeremiah
20:9)
Thus it is impossible for me to keep silent about the message and the visions
I received, as given to me in direct words and images, of the last days.
I wish in this account to make a declaration that has before the Face of
God, the power of an oath:
"God, my Lord, You are aware how I am conscious of nought else other
than that which You spoke word after word in 1948, and I pass on this experience
and its immediately consequent exegetical insight as far as I am able to
do so."
However, on the other hand, all those, who believe in the Name of Jesus
Christ, and who have a prophecy announced to them, have the duty to act
as in the example set forth in First Thessalonians 5:20,21.
"Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which
is good."
Paul does not mean by this that we must again go back to prophets such as
Jeremiah and Isaiah, in order to review and test them! He means: Whenever
the Lord speaks in the midst of the community of the New Testament, or whenever
someone professes to have received a message from God, one should not simply
wave it aside without more ado. One should not "despise" it, but
should put it to the proof according to its content, and according to whether
it is in harmony with the intention of the Holy Spirit and with the message
of the Holy Scripture.
Contents of the Direct Messages
"My children have prayed and I answer.
No, I shall not give the anti-christ the honour of driving My people together,
I shall do it with the lashes of My Word.
See, I stand on the border of your existence.
Do not say there is no interim-period and do not say that there is an interim-period:
You should expect the miracle.
If I remain silent for two days, do you think, O man, that a day of fulfillment
for My bought ones will never dawn?
If I should shrink the universe to the size of a marble, would you perceive
it?"
(Messages to the churches are excluded)
In regard to Israel, the Lord spoke thus:
"I shall take over the call of those, who taunted Me when I hung
in the depths of hell, in vengeance and call Elijah and My vengeance is
merciful. My Spirit roars for Elijah."