The eBook, ‘Sounding the Shofar- Exhortations for the End Times’ was written mid-Sept 2011 and published Jan 2012. It was originally written for family and friends on my Facebook group in a journal format.
CHAPTER 8
THE WORLD AND THE CHURCH TODAY-
AMERICA HAS FORSAKEN GOD AND FALLEN FROM GRACE
What has happened to our nation which was founded on Christian principles, but today bans all references to God, Jesus, the Bible, and activities such as prayers, Christian meetings in public schools, colleges, in government and other institutions? Patriotic songs are not taught and sung anymore in schools, prayer and Jesus cannot be mentioned at high school graduations, Christian literature cannot be passed around in school or work place, even Bibles are not allowed in U.S. schools! Satan has found great delight in commercializing Christmas and Easter and taken Jesus completely out of these holidays! And now many families will celebrate Satan’s Big Day- Halloween, but not Christmas as the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Today, it is more politically correct to say “Happy Holidays”, rather than “Merry Christmas”! (Just a note here: Our former condo president was for a ‘holiday tree’, “Happy Holidays”, but no blessing over the food at the Christmas party; hanging an ugly witch in the lobby for Halloween was O.K.! So today, it’s all about “whatever floats your boat”, yet it depends on whose boat it is!)
If we say we love God, we should love what God loves and hate what He hates. We must love all that is holy and righteous in His eyes, that please Him, and hate everything that He regards as an abomination. One of these abominations is Halloween which has pagan origin. God HATES witchcraft and sorcery in any shape or form because the heathen nations practiced divination, casting spells, chanting, passing their children over fire, fortune telling, astrology, spiritism, magic, and the like.
In Exodus 22:18 it says, “Do not allow a sorceror/witch to live.” England, our mother land, was once a Christian nation who printed our Bible and brought us the gospel, is widely known today to have spread witchcraft throughout America and the world via the Harry Potter series. God does not take witchcraft lightly! He said,
“When you come into the land which the Lord God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of these nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer. Or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancaer. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and it is because of these abominable practices that the Lord your God is driving then out before you. You shall be blameless (and absolutely true) to the Lord your God. For these nations who you shall dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14 Amplified Bible)
Who will stand alongside Joshua who said,
“choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15).
AMERICA- A NATION WITHOUT MORALS
America has provoked God by losing its sense of morality and devising its own moral compass by rejecting the Word of God. Latest figures put over 50 million babies murdered legally in the same country where we have over 40 million Americans needing food stamps, and that many on welfare assistance.
We are the nation who by 2003 had made all sodomy laws illegal, while from 50 years prior, before 1962, sodomy was a felony in every state punishable by imprisonment. Since then reprobate legislators and leaders of our government have passed laws allowing civil unions and same sex marriages. Hawaii, at this writing is gearing up for issuing licenses to perform civil unions as soon as 2012 rings in with some United Church of Christ, Unitarian and Buddhist ministers and some judges eagerly waiting to perform these ceremonies! The local newspaper, http://www.staradvertiser.com/saction=login&f=y&id=13542489812-12-2011 reported, “Isle clergy are eager to perform civil unions.”
The issue of gay unions has divided many religious denominations, but GOD WILL HAVE THE LAST SAY ON THIS MATTER!
The institutions of marriage and family are in an upheaval where even the President of the U.S. questions whether marriage should be restricted to mean a union between a man and a woman.
This year, the last bastion holding out on its sodomy ban, the U.S. Armed Forces, openly recognized and accepted homosexuals among their ranks. President Barack Obama, on December 22, 2010 repealed the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT) military policy that banned gays from publicly displaying their homosexual behavior in the military. Military personnel may now safely and publicly display their homosexual behavior, whereas it was banned for 17 years by Presidential order of President Bill Clinton.
This is what the Bible says about homosexuality:
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”. (1Corinthians 6:9-10)
Where does the church fit into America’s moral morass?
We must judge by what is going on in the church itself, the body of Christ. It says in 1Peter 4:17:
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
And in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
We are the sinful ones who have compromised the Word of God. Our churches are mostly religious social clubs with mainly ‘feel good’ sermons, good works programs and defer to politically correct attitudes and behavior to ‘go with the flow’. Rarely do you hear about sin, repentance, hell, or salvation by believing in Jesus Christ. Many Christians are no different than most people today. They are no longer the salt of the earth or light of the world. Many attend church then go home and continue to commit fornication and adultery, indulge in sexual sins of homosexuality, and pornography, worldly pursuits, and ungodly behavior. etc. And many of these are Christian pastors and leaders.
Those who are true lovers and worshippers of God, who love God and love His Word must speak the truth, expose sin in the church, teach the whole counsel of God. We, who are the watchmen must exhort all unto holiness, to repent of our sins so that God would heal our land, and to observe the signs of the last days, and prepare for the soon coming of the Lord.
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21:36)
APOSTASY IN THE CHURCH
Jesus said, “Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?” (Mt 16:3)
The following is an excerpt from ‘5 REASONS TO BELIEVE CHRIST’S RETURNING AT HAND’ http://christianwatchman.org/5_reasons.html
“In Scripture, certain “Signs” have been prophesied to precede Christ’s return. Can you discern them? Just as leaves turn red then yellow to precede winter, so these signs shall precede the Second Coming. They include these five:
1. Wickedness always precedes judgment
2. Apostasy of the Church
3. Nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East
4. Increase in tensions between Israel and Muslim states
5. Increase and knowledge and travel.
CONCERNING APOSTASY OF THE CHURCH
One of the clearest indicators of the Second Coming of Jesus is the Apostasy of the church.
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for (the Day of the Lord) will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” (2 Thess 2:3)
First, what does “apostasy” mean? Literally, in Greek it means “to stand away from.” In other words, to fall away from the faith. Jesus asked, “When the son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?”
Second, why must the apostasy precede the appearance of the anti-christ? Because it is the strength and preserving quality of a vibrant church that would make his emersion and ascension to power impossible. Imagine what would have happened if the anti-christ tried to appear in the 1940’s to tell the world that Christianity is foolishness and that the world should follow him? His words would have been ignored at worst and challenged at best.
In vs. 6-7, Paul illuminates this point:
“And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work’ only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”
It is the Holy Spirit in a vibrant church that restrains the anti-christ. Conversely, it will be a weak, apathetic, apostate church that finally allows him to emerge.
Are we in that stage now. Look at the evidence. In Europe, church attendance is down to a dribble. In Ireland, only 3% of the population regularly attend church. In Sweden, I attended church in great cathedrals built to hold hundreds. Only a dozen or so souls were scattered over the front pews. In America, attendance is slipping as well. However, the real concern is not the quantity of faith, but the quality. Fewer and fewer Bible schools and churches teach the tenets of Scripture: the sin nature of man, the necessity of the Blood of Jesus, the reality of hell, the second coming, the inerrancy of Scripture. More and more are compromising to the postmodern secularist culture and teaching instead concepts of tolerance, multiculturalism and relativism. They embrace other religions and moral codes. Look at all the churches embracing homosexuality, even among the church hierarchy. A nearby Catholic priest even taught that all religions lead to God!
This falling away, this apathy, this capitulation surely opens the door to the anti-christ. There will only be a small number who oppose him. Surely, this is a sign of the Lord’s soon return.”
http://christianwatchman.org/5_reasons.html
(To be Continued- Part II America Under Judgment)
