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Many Christians and even the unsaved are wondering: "Will God judge America for its ungodliness and if so, when might that happen? Are recent natural disasters, economic downturns or terrorist attacks a sign of God's judgment in progress already?" Well in case you haven't noticed, God already started to judge America, even before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. When you have a nation where children murder children, women kill their unborn babies by the millions (condoned by the US Supreme Court), homosexuals march in the streets and adopt children (with government approval and corporate backing), and political leaders and church leaders are convicted of scandalous behaviour - when you witness these things over and over again - you are witnessing God's judgment on a Church and a nation that have abandoned the God's laws and are in full scale rebellion against those laws. There are many examples of the sins that precede the judgment of God against a nation. Here are some sad examples in America:
God's warnings to ancient Israel are warnings to us today also:
Look at that last verse above (Isaiah 3:12). We now have leaders that are like children in their understanding of right and wrong. We now have women ruling over men in government, in the church and in the home, and we think this is a good thing! Those in government and in church leadership 'cause thee to err'. They say that good is evil and evil is good. They preach a gospel of "tolerance", rather than a gospel of holiness and righteousness. Romans chapter one is a clear description of this judgment that we are seeing all around us:
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS THAT GOD'S JUDGMENT HAS BEGUN? The signs that God's judgment on a nation is on the way, include these attitudes and behaviors in the hearts and lives of people: "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful" (from Romans 1:29-31 above). The signs that God's judgment on the Church is coming or is already here include:
In other words, RAMPANT SIN in the Church of God in America today and COMPLACENCY and IGNORANCE about its pathetic spiritual condition. There is rampant idolatry in the Church today: "For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols." [Ezek 23:28-30]. Many Christians today measure the quality of a church by its signs and wonders and by the size of the crowds its draws with its Madison Avenue crowd-pleasing 'techniques': "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" [Matt 16:4]. It is as if the Church was trying to compete with Hollywood for the attention of the masses and in competing, trying to use the wisdom of the world. Christians in America crave the same toys and earthly interests as their heathen neighbors. There is increasing spiritual blindness encroaching upon the Church: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." [Rev 3:17-19] More and more, Christians are becoming desensitized to sin. Behavior that true believers would at one time have had nothing to do with, they now justify just like their unsaved friends and neighbors. For example: cheating on taxes, not paying sales tax on taxable purchases, gossiping on the phone, violating the speed limit, going to movies, talking bad about people, watching TV including programs that mock people and God's laws as a form of entertainment - like those 'wonderful nature programs' that mock God's story of creation by insisting that we evolved from who-knows-what. Other examples include: reading worldly literature, going to amusement parks, partying, pigging-out, listening to secular music, using minced oaths (slang versions of swear words like oh my gosh, gosh darn, my Lord, my heavens, my Word, golly gee, gee-wiz). It is not a question of 'Does the Bible approve of such worldliness?' because the answer is a resounding NO! It is a question of - Why do true blood-bought saints have such a thirst for the corrupt and defiled things of the world and such an apparent lack of hunger for things above? There is an increasing state of slumber encroaching upon the Church: "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept." [Matt 25:1-5] The above parable is a sad but true commentary on the Church in America today. Notice that they ALL slumbered and slept. NOT JUST THE UNSAVED (those who had no oil for their lamps)! What Jesus warned us about has already happened. Telling the difference between Christians and the unsaved is becoming more and more difficult, and not because the unsaved are becoming more godly in their behavior! Most Christians are unaware of the wolves in sheep's' clothing all around them. They are ignorant of the ecumenical movement and its affect on a Christian's ability to preach the truth to others whom they are unequally yoked with in various ministries and movements like Promise Keepers, The Pro-Life movement, the Charismatic movement, etc. Also, most Christians don't see the danger of modern Bible translations and how they promote confusion in the Church and how they create a distrust of the accuracy of the Bible among unbelievers. Many Christians don't see the danger of women teaching and preaching men in the Church. They don't see how it ties in with the feminist movement in America and how it creates havoc in the God-ordained roles of men and women in the home, in church and throughout society. WHY IS THE CHURCH ASLEEP? 1. For one thing, the shepherds are to blame: "My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers." [Jer 50:6-7] Many pastors today are afraid of offending their congregations so they never preach against specific sins, but rather in generalizations, if they even preach about sin at all. So their flocks are not convicted or challenged. Jesus was not afraid to rebuke Peter or the other apostles. He told them like it was even if it meant that they all would abandon him. Pastors need to remember that Jesus marched to Calvary alone. Not a single disciple was crucified with him. Church leaders should get out of the pulpit and stop hindering the work of God if they are just going to scratch itching ears. If they wish to be true shepherds they need to lay down their lives for the sheep, not just be willing to lay them down, but to actually lay them down. In other words, when they prepare their messages for their congregations, they need to tell them whatever they need to hear - things that may not be very popular in this self-indulging society that we live in. In the process, God will help them clean the skeletons out of their own closets, because the Holy Spirit will soon convict them of hypocrisy if they preach hard against specific sins. The net result will be a cleansing effect on the whole local body of believers. 2. The sheep are also to blame: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." [2 Tim 4:3-4] God implicates both sheep and shepherd in a single verse - Jeremiah 5:31: "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so". The danger of living in a highly integrated society as America is the pollution from world. A Christian's interaction with people of other belief-systems is constant and unavoidable. The number of religions and idols in this country is enormous. The most popular idol is self - which explains why the American public spends so much time and money on self-gratification. And just like Lot in Sodom and like ancient Israel in Egypt, the Christians in America have become heavily influenced by the culture of sin all around them, to the point where godly Christian parents can't even trust their children with other Christian children. Christians have become so caught up in the world that they don't realize that things they do are NOT Christian (i.e. not approved by the Bible). They call evil good and good evil. They often do this by putting the word "Christian" in front of some worldly activity like Christian Rock or Christian movies or Christian singles groups. What's next? Christian beer? Christian porn? Do people think they can fool God? God knows that the motives of people's hearts is not to glorify Him but to please the flesh when they engage in many of today's so-called Christian activities. Is there any hope for the Church? There is hope, but not for the majority. Only for a remnant: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." [Romans 11:5]. Many professing Christians are self-deceived or have been deceived by others. They think they are saved but they are not. They may go to Bible believing churches, they may have recited a salvation prayer, they may even be pastors, but they have never been supernaturally CONVERTED: "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" [Matt 18:3]. SELF EXAMINATION IS ESSENTIAL Regardless of the spiritual condition of the Church in America today each Christian needs to be primarily concerned with their own personal walk with the Lord. If a Christian cares about their walk they WILL engage in continual self-examination: How great is my love for God?
How great is my love for holiness?
How great is my love for the lost?
How great is my love for the brethren?
How heavenly is my conversation?
How spiritual are my priorities?
What is my attitude about prayer?
SOME THINGS ALL CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE PRAYING ABOUT 1. THEMSELVES: to be conformed to Christ, to hide God's Word in my heart that I would not sin against Him, to grow in my love for Him and for all His commandments, to surrender my will to His completely, to have a forgiving spirit, to have self-sacrificial love, to have the joy of the Lord as my strength, to rejoice and be exceedingly glad when being persecuted for Christ's sake, to hate every false way, especially in myself, to have a genuine love for the brethren and for the lost as exemplified by my thoughts words and deeds, to be anxious to let the world know how wonderful is my blessed Savior and Lord, to live a life of thankfulness for God's grace in my life. 2. COMFORT AND HELP FOR THOSE WHO ARE: sick, dying, elderly, physically and mentally handicapped, hungry, homeless, jobless, divorced, separated, widowed, orphaned, crime victims, ravaged by war, abused (by parents, children, spouses, etc.), persecuted for preaching the Gospel. 3. GODLY WISDOM FOR: myself, missionaries, church leaders & congregation, rulers and anyone in a position of authority, parents, people taking care of others, people facing major decisions in their lives (jobs, marriage, divorce, relocation, surgery, etc.). 4. SALVATION FOR: relatives, friends, neighbors, landlords, tenants, coworkers, store clerks, gas station attendants, people who come to my door, people who call me on the phone, people I contact by mail, political leaders, judges, teachers, youth, people who are dying, police, prisoners, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, cult members, atheists, drug addicts, alcoholics, homosexuals, fornicators, liars, adulterers, gamblers, smokers, pleasure seekers, abusers of themselves, abusers of others, mockers, people who use, manipulate, abuse or harm me in some way, and any people God will put in my path as I go about my daily activities. When we pray for the things of God and with the mind of Christ, God straightens out our priorities, but this will not happen if we are not faithfully reading and STUDYING the Word of God: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." [Psalm 119:11] Can the world tell that I am a Christian:
Have I really counted the cost of discipleship?
The story of Jonah and Nineveh - God's judgment abated God's judgment on a people and a nation can be avoided as noted in the story of Jonah and the whale. God commanded Jonah to preach repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh: "Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." [Jonah 1:1-2] The people of Nineveh took heed to God's warning's of coming judgment... "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." [Jonah 3:4-10] Now more than ever, we need to take heed to God's warnings of judgment in Scripture...
Remember, holiness and obedience to God's commandments is not something to be loathed, postponed or trivialized. It is what identifies us as true blood-bought Christians. Yes, we have an old nature that wars against the Spirit in us. But, nevertheless, greater is He that is in me (i.e. the Holy Spirit), than he that is in the world. Related articles:
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