As one calamity after another strikes the U.S. whether
they be natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, or drought, or attacks
by terrorists and financial downturns, the nightly news seems to be dominated
by bad news. We can no longer claim it is just the result of better news
coverage as those who keep statistics have now shown that natural disasters of
every sort are definitely on the increase. What is the answer?
Atheism is growing in leaps and bounds in the western
world:
1.
45% of Americans say they’d be willing to
vote for an atheist for president of the United States.
2.
President Barak Obama puts them on an equal
footing as religious Americans – in his 1st inaugural address, he
said, “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.”
3.
Atheism is so big in the United Kingdom
that more than 100,000 Britons downloaded “certificates of de-baptism” off the
internet to make official the renunciation of their Christian faith.
There are at least three reasons for this rapid growth
in atheism; now at least 16% in the USA which is more than main-line
Protestants.
1.
Firstly, the amount of evil coming from
within Islam; as Jihadist commit genocide in Africa, and in countries with
Muslim majorities liberty is almost non-existent for women and for those of
other religions. (Remember atheists lump Christians, Jews, and Muslims together
as religions.)
2.
Secondly, the secular indoctrination of a
generation thanks to a de facto atheistic public school
system. If you are purported to be a purveyor of truth and you never mention
God or give credit to Him, pupils are bound to conclude that God doesn’t exist!
We now have had several generations of this mind-set.
3.
Thirdly, Christianity and Judaism have
largely failed to provide any contrast to the ever-growing atheistic secularism
of the western world. Dennis Prager writes, “It
is virtually impossible to distinguish between liberal Christian or Jew and a
liberal secularist”. All three regard the human fetus as morally worthless;
regard the man-woman definition of marriage as a form of bigotry; and come
close to holding pacifist beliefs, to cite just a few examples.
In the face of these points, fewer and fewer are
willing to stand to confront them, so atheism continues to grow.
How do we face this reality? The answer is, we must
face up to the reality of our condition:
FIRST: I
dare to suggest that we have brought this evil upon ourselves because we
willfully left our covenant relationship with the God of the Bible. When our
forefathers came to this land, they entered into covenant relationship with Him
and as a result we, their children, have enjoyed the blessings and prosperity
of that relationship. A parallel is written about in the Book of Jeremiah.
Thus says the LORD: "What injustice have
your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me, have followed idols,
and have become idolaters? – Jer. 2:5
Israel began with a covenant relationship with God but
then they turned against Him and God asked them why? Israel didn’t realize
their blessings were caused by God and not their own intelligence or industry.
They wandered from God’s commands and looked to other nations. They began to
depend on ‘the arm of flesh’ and it failed them!
For My people have committed two evils: They have
forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves
cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water. – Jer.2:13
The United States of America is doing the exact same thing and we are
beginning to experience the same results. We have forsaken the God of the
Bible; no longer mentioning Him in our schools turning instead to the idolatry
of Humanism. The 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attack on 9/11 was
recently memorialized in New York and the mayor would not let God be a part of
it. His excuse was ‘He didn’t want to offend any other religion!’ He
didn’t even know enough about the true God to differentiate between Him and all
the false gods that are so freely celebrated in our land!
SECOND: As a nation
we offend God regularly as we kill 1.6 million babies a year by abortion – the
total count is now up to 60 million. And then we wonder why a spirit of murder
is released on our nation! We are giving our country to Mexicans and Muslims
because we kill our babies and they keep theirs, often using our tax-payer
dollars to care for them.
Also on your skirts is found the blood of the
lives of the poor innocents. I have not found it by secret search, But plainly
on all these things. Yet you say, 'Because I am innocent, surely His anger
shall turn from me.' Behold, I will plead My case against you, Because you say,
'I have not sinned.' – Jer. 2:34, 35
Our church families surrender their most precious gift, their children,
to the public school where they teach against God. The churches say, ‘We have a
great Sunday School program’ where they teach the children about God for ½ to 1
hour a week but then turn the children over to the public schools where they
are taught 30 or more hours a week the doctrines of humanism, homosexuality,
promiscuity, evolution and socialism. This says nothing about the so-called
‘socialization’ process that is going on from the other kids who do not
practice the teachings of Christ. If my math is correct, that means the public
school has up to 60 times more influence on the children than the church has.
And yet, I do not see Pastors teaching against this practice or encouraging
home schooling.
THIRD: Our leaders
promise anything to the people just to get elected, full knowing they cannot
fulfill their pledges. Washington DC is filled with self-seekers and liars and
no party is exempt from them. The news media which claims special rights in our
system because they were supposed to be the messengers of truth for the
electorate are mostly concerned with their own power and agendas. Because we
have forsaken God’s standards of truth, we are easily deceived by wickedness.
Jeremiah speaks loudly to this country -
“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your
backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and
bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is
not in you," Says the Lord GOD of hosts. – Jer. 2:19
FOURTH: America is
losing its foundation, the family, as divorce now exceeds 50%. This is a deadly
statistic for any nation as almost every institution is based upon the family.
Psalm 11 verse 3 asks, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can
the righteous do?” The answer is, NOT MUCH! When over 52% of our
children are living in single parent homes there is not the proper teaching of
faithfulness, of commitment, of kindness, of honoring your word, and a whole
host of principles a society depends upon. That is why God declares “I
hate divorce!”
We have opened the gates of our country and allowed a ‘Trojan Horse’ to
be brought in. The judgment of our own wickedness is indeed upon us and we will
see that it is an evil and bitter thing. We have made money our god and we are
about to see our financial system come collapsing down around us. All the other
things that we have made more important than our relationship with God and His
Son Jesus Christ will not save us from the calamity ahead.
But where are your gods that you have made for
yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble;
for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. – Jer. 2:28
FINALLY: We are about
to be hit with a tsunami of judgment that will wash away everything not built
on the Rock. Jesus is that Rock. His word is the only solid foundation that
will stand against the flood that is coming. As the prophet Malachi wrote, we
have “profaned the Lord’s holy
institution”, which He loves; there is no fear of the Lord in our lives; we
have allowed foreign gods to rule our lives, such as humanism, materialism,
pleasure, and we have looked to other people for our approval rather than God. Rejection
by other people is more important to us than rejection by God!
Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote to us,
16 I say then:
Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are
contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if
you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the
works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry,
sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath,
selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy,
murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of
which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such
things will not inherit the kingdom of God. – Galatians 5:16-21
Remember, it is the “little foxes
that spoil the harvest”. Great evils usually have small beginnings and so
God warns us: contentions, jealousies, dissentions, or outbursts of
wrath are as damaging as great heresies.
It has been said of me by some in this congregation that there is no moving
of the Spirit here and that we do not speak of the Love of God enough here –
but I say to you, this is the Spirit of God speaking to you and it is the love
of God revealed because He does not want you to fail, or be deceived by the
evil one. God’s message to Malachi concludes with -
“Behold, I send My
messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
2 “But who
can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner
and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness. Malachi 3
Many Christians talk about the Lord’s soon coming but do they know that when He comes it
will be a time of purging, with fire, the dross that is in His Bride, the
Church. Remember the Word of God says “If we would judge ourselves, we shall
not be judged” so let us begin now return to our true foundations in Christ and
His word.
Our President held out the promise of hope through the political
process, but I say to you our only hope is the word the prophet Hosea gave to a
backsliding Israel,
Come, and let us return to the LORD; For
He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
– Hosea 6:1
Out of love, God is warning us to check our foundations that we may not
be washed away by the tsunami that is coming. I, for one, intend to do just
that. If we do this, God will say to us what He said to the Philadelphia Church
of Revelation 3 –
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.
Pastor Charles Cooley
As
ISIS, a radical Islamic Sunni faction, including Al Qaeda, sweeps across Iraq
and parts of Syria, it is good to remember that America’s present
administration supplied them with arms through Libya as they were fighting
Assad of Syria. Now, as they are camped just 20 miles outside Bagdad, Iraq, America
is joining Iranian forces in fighting them in Iraq. 
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