Some Words Against L.A.

Sept 2001, Viv Grigg

Background: A Reluctant Call

When we left LA six years ago, it was because of a very clear word to me to not allow our third child to born in this city, (much to my pregnant wife's chagrin) as a sign of God's judging the city.  We named her Bianca, or white, for purity, as we left this place of hideous impurity.

It came as a surprise to me some two years ago, when the Lord told us to return and to speak of his judgement on the city.  I checked with LA city leaders, and they believed it was a time of God's blessing on this city.  But when I checked with our urban poor workers, they affirmed his sense of impending judgement. It seemed to me they understood the issues of the city.

Having no resources, we waited a while, then decided to relocate for a season.  Once we decided,  the Lord provided enough to arrive, and we believed he would provide the rest along the way as he did for Elijah through the ravens.  He has. While en route, he spoke to wait for the right time.  A friend indicated there would first be a cataclysmic event that would open people's hearts.  Last week (Sept 11) was certainly cataclysmic.

Prophecy Precedes Judgement

In  Manila, Calcutta, Auckland, Sao Paulo and in other contexts and cities, I have enjoyed the visionary or prophetic calling of people forward into blessing.  But speaking judgement is not a very pleasant task.  As I have sought the Lord, the reason for his asking his servants to prophesy of judgement, is that he always forewarns.  He wants to forewarn and lay out his argument against you, Angelenos, before his judgement. When Noah was told to build the ark, the Lord allowed him 100 years of warning the people.  When Jonah finally got to Ninevah, it was a warning voice.  The people heard, obeyed and God lifted his judgement for 150 years.  When Egypt was about to face a famine, God sent Joseph to prophesy, and then to save, that the people might not die.  The voice of the prophet is not an angry voice, but one of loving care for the people.  They speak of judgement that people might turn and not face the just return on their deeds.

Warning, Response and Outcome

In dealing with the most evil King, Ahab,  the prophet Elijah, the Tishbite, obeyed God and went down and told him of disaster saying "I will consume your descendants, and dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."  And then the Lord sent him back, "Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah... "Because Ahab has humbled himself I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son" (1 Kings 21).  Even with the most evil, God responds to their repentance. Thus, biblically, we see first the warnings, then the option of repentance.  The future is your own hands, Angelenos, you may repent at this time, and the Lord may stay his hand, at least for a season, or you may carry on in the direction of your unmitigated sins, and his judgement will most surely come speedily.

Having stated the Biblical sense of the mercy of God, my sense below is that he has already given up on L.A. and is now warning of impending judgement.  This does not mean it will be today or tomorrow, but it will come in his time.  This could be years or a generation.  He graciously warns us ahead of time.

Viv Grigg,

Sept 2001

Prophecy Against L.A.

Cause 3: City of Incest

It is too late to salvage your honor, so many raped, sexually molested, so that the city seethes with guilt, cries out with mental pains, with images no-one ought to bear.  The wounds of immorality lie like great wounds across whole communities, as if a butchers cleaver has carved up your fabric.  Houses and homes destroyed into bitterness, violence and incest. And you export this! You talk about it on shows!  Shows to show evil? And you call it news!  How depraved can a  city  be? And no Christian effectively raises their voice against such abominations?

Cause 4: City of Perverted Christianity

Except of course in church.   I forgot about your churches.  So many! So many! So corrupted!  So filthy!  Greed in the offering basket, oppression and manipulation in the leaderships, tinsel on the stage.  But there are some struggling congregations that have not denied my simplicities.  Some that seek truth in choosing different pathways of quiet humility.  For their sakes I have been trying to speak and have withheld my hand. Tinsel, greed and immorality abound within your walls and reflect in your weekly shows.  I cannot abide immorality and worship, injustice and celebrations.  An empty Christianity, from liberal to evangelical to Pentecostal to Catholic, there is little difference.  Yet there are some who have walked in godly obedience.

Cause 5: A City Symbolizing Perverted Justice

My children, how I would have lead you to become truly a people.  But in the name of freedom you have perverted justice.   Are there no law courts that cannot be overturned by the wealth of your wicked?  Your Rodney Kings, your O.J.s are only the tip of the iceberg of legalized injustice that marks your land.  I cannot bear it.

Cause 6: Perversion of Your Gifts to the Nations

I hate you, Los Angeles, with a fury, a vengeful hatred for what you have done to your migrants, those who came seeking new life, new hope, and to them you gave only bonded labor.  I hate you, Los Angeles, for what you have done against the nations, the shattering of centuries, shattering of marriages and clans.  So much I gave you of creativity, and you turned it into evil.  Such a great city of literature and research, of books and ideas.  And you perverted them into weapons of evil.  Called to be a blessing to the nations, you are known as the scourge of the world.  Called to be a light, your media has become a purveyor of darkness.  My soul knows nothing but fury.  Why should I not release on you all the destruction my hands can muster? Why should I not wipe you out of existence?  Give me one reason for allowing you to continue in your pornographic fantasies, in your lust and wine, in your screenplays of barbarity? But you can give me no reason.  Yet I wait.  Yet I delay.  I hesitate.  For in this great city there are many who know my name.  Why did they not rise up?  Why did they not speak out?  Why did they not even try to mobilize? Was the technology of evil too strong for them?

Cause 7: Pastors Failing to Seek Justice

How I have loved the pastors of this city, such a bulwark against a collapsing culture, such people of strength when all around is crumbling.   There is unity in leadership.   But they have not done my will in leading a city into righteousness in its public squares.  And there is now insufficient time to redeem. Pastors have played church and failed to organize the workers across the city, across the disciplines into effective strike teams to combat the evil,  industry by industry.  The pastors wanted the tithe, not the victory outside their churches of societal change for righteousness, loving their own voice, they would not listen to the voices of the workshop, the artisan and the factory worker.  So injustice has blossomed and can no longer be cured.  Like the bugs on the roots of a dying plant, there is no solution except to root the plant out and burn it. They  have  loved revival and church growth for it fills their churches.  They love events, and even prayer events, but they do not organize for justice.  They know nothing of consistent planning to overturn the communal sins.   They do not organize to speak to the sins of the city fathers.  They do not know the city fathers. They do not know their hidden sins.  How is it that to them I have given the gifts of discernment - special gifts to see in and beyond the hearts of men?  Yet they have not taken them into the streets , the legal dens and the marketplace!  The hour glass is near empty.  The city will be no more.

For these sins, I will destroy it all.   This is what the Lord says,