The Scourge Of Racism
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Memorial Day asks us as citizens to pause however briefly to remember those in the military who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives fighting for and defending our nation. This is righteous and I do so with this post. I am also mindful with others and gratitude that during this past year many in our nation’s medical community also made the ultimate sacrifice attempting to save fellow citizens from the Coronavirus. All such remembrances are good and help us look away from our focus on self so natural to do, but which is made quite uncomfortably unnatural in the face of those who willingly give up their lives to save others.
For this reason, I will not pass up the opportunity to also remember and point up the ultimate sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to save all mankind from our sins and condemnation (John 3:16-18)! Our military personnel and any others that die in service to our nation and us as citizens do so that we might live a little longer in a temporary state of health, safety, freedom, prosperity etc. and I am grateful. However, Christ’s sacrifice not only saves from sin and its consequences, but also brings those willing to believe the Gospel about Him into relationship with God, eternal life and glory. As a beneficiary by faith of His sacrifice certified by His resurrection and ascension to the glory He has promised those who believe, I am joyfully beside myself in gratitude (John 3:36; Romans 5:6-11)!
Just reflecting for Memorial Day as requested. May you do the same and be safe while you are at it.
Consistent with His Word, the Lord would know who authorized corrupt and abominable worship in His house including the leadership of sexually perverted men and out of order women? It certainly was not Him! But it has been men seduced by the coaxing and teaching of lying spirits as well as the self seeking and exaltation, arrogance, wickedness and selfish ambition for worldly success borne of the sinful flesh that have lied on God concerning His will while usurping His authority in defiant disobedience; unrepentant men God rejects who have fed off of and copied each other’s errors (Jeremiah 23:30-32; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; James 3:13-18; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 12-22; Jude 3-19).
No one can claim ignorance of what God wants in worship since what He has required for His worship is plainly and thoroughly presented in the Bible. Rebel hearts, of course, disdain the word, “required” because they wrongly believe they have freedom under grace to do as they please; the corrupt shepherds among them even acting as lords over God’s house in place of Jesus who is Lord! Also, the experience of ancient Israel is again our example in all things not to do in displeasing God when Christians assemble to worship. Both the Lord’s instruction from His Word on worship and the outcome of Israel’s failure to heed it are summarized in this second part of my 2013 blog post.
Originally Posted September 15, 2013
True Christian worship does not spring from external stimulus such as singing and music, but internally from connection to and relationship with God through the Spirit! Out of love for Him arises in the inmost being the desire to glorify God the Father in admiring praise and worship for who He uniquely is as do the hosts of Heaven (Psalm 100; Revelation 4); to thank Him for all of His benefits not the least of which is His seemly inexhaustible riches of grace and mercy as did the saints of old (Psalm 103).
Spontaneous worship of God wells up in the spirits of the faithful as do geysers from the earth leading to vocal expression as demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 10:21-24). And when the saints assemble together as drunk men, yet, not drunk on wine but filled by the presence of the Holy Spirit, we express the joy of our hearts “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody” in our hearts together to the Lord not as a performance, but loving devotion (Ephesians 5:18-20, NKJV). From such hearts flows the sold out dedication of our lives to God in obedience with immediate confession and repentance when we sin.
If our bodies and lives thereby are to be offered as of first importance as a continual “living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” as our rational service of worship (Romans 12:1, NKJV), then it stands to common sense reason that willful disobedience of any kind in sin including ignoring how God has expressed He is to be worshipped pollutes such worship and in accord with the written Word, rather than pleasing, offends Him leading to His rejection of it!
Notice that for similar reasons the Lord Jesus--who should be considered by all as the highest authority on worship that pleases God--tells the woman at the well Samaritan worship was not accepted by God: ‘“You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews,”’ (John 4:22, NKJV). The net result historically and for us today is that untold numbers of individual professing Christians privately and their churches assembled for it at whatever time, offer worship to God without His attending presence or acceptance because of willful disobedience manifested in many ways.
It does not matter what style or how excellent, energetic, emotional or sincere the singing and music or animated the worship leader in fleshy performance, worship polluted by sin is rejected by God. Quick, outward and falsely humble prayers of confession and repentance preceding what is to be served up as worship does not change the result either since God sees into the heart (Psalm 139:1-4; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Luke 16:14-15). The Lord already knows what sins we are clinging to including unforgiveness and bitterness toward along with even ongoing persecution and mistreatment of our brethren as if He is not serious about His command that we love and forgive each other (Matthew 5:21-24, 6:12, 14-15; John 15:12; 1 John 4:20-21).
Then there are the seminary trained pastors who were rightly taught that worship songs should support the preached word, but who take it upon themselves in the flesh to see to it; tightly controlling the song style and selection without any real consultation with the God to be worshipped for His guidance or reliance upon Him. Not only does God reject the outcome, but those that are His genuine worshippers in spirit and truth--aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ--recognize the divine offense and lack of attendance as well as consequential spiritual deadness in these so-called “worship services.”
While the Lord was unflinching in declaring to the Samaritan woman that the worship of the Jews as prescribed in the Law at Jerusalem’s temple was more to God’s approval than what the Samaritans were doing, nevertheless, His declaration of something “coming” that transcended what had been historically done by the Jews suggested it was superior and ultimately what God wanted--what is supposedly now to be seen in Christians!
Israel had co-opted what God had given them as His worship program and made it a thing of cold, dead, empty ritual and manmade religion in spite of the constant rebuke of her prophets. The Lord quoted Isaiah from seven hundred years earlier in a rebuke of Israel’s religious establishment that should painfully resonate within professing Christianity at this hour: ‘“These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,’” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8-9, NKJV). Connection to Him in obedience was more important to God than the sacrifices and rituals of worship as the Lord Jesus Christ--our example in all things--showed (1 Samuel 15:22; Psalm 40:6-8, 51:16-17; Proverbs 21:3, 27; Micah 6:6-8; Hebrews 10:5-7).
God’s primary concern was always with Israel’s collective heart and conduct. But the people in willful disobedience turned away from authentic worship of God to practice their own corrupt, outward form of religion. Through the prophet Isaiah God had protested their duplicity by declaring His displeasure with their phony worship and demanded to know who had required them to “trample My courts,” (Isaiah 1:10-12, NKJV)? Rather than reverence, the sacred ground of the temple was treated by the people with a disregard similar to untrained animals in a clean space that do not distinguish between the holy and the profane for they practiced all manner of perversions then assembled for worship.
Thoroughly disgusted with this endless desecration of His house and disrespect of His Person, God had had enough and told Israel ‘“Bring no more futile sacrifices…I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them,’” (Isaiah 1:13-14, NKJV). Then God says He will not hear their prayers nor accept their worship because of their disobedience (Isaiah 1:15; Jeremiah 6:20). Without repentance (which God invited), He would and did judge Israel for their sins including corrupt worship in 586BC and again in 70AD (Isaiah 1:16-20; Jeremiah 7:1-27; Matthew 23:37-24:2).
Not only do faithful Christians seeking to obey Christ’s Great Commission face a steadily closing window of opportunity, hardening and cold hearts resisting the Gospel and our witness in these latter days as I have been writing about,1 but diminishing returns on the investment of time, energy and expense made in making disciples! Simplified, diminishing returns is an economic concept companies use to help them understand how costs increase and profit margins decrease over time producing their products. They can typically predict when they need to either make adjustments in their product, spending on it or consider the feasibility of abandoning it altogether.
Faithful Christians need to understand how our preaching of the Gospel and witness of Christ as a spiritual product is also subject to diminishing returns and be encouraged. In the first place, since our product is of divine origin in Word and Person, it has had and has staying power (Matthew 24:35, 28:18-20)! After nearly 2,000 years the Gospel still saves and the testimonies of the saved remain unimpeachable. So, there is nothing wrong with our product. No adjustments are necessary in the Gospel or our witness of its life changing results in Christ though, a number in these latter days have been foolishly and corruptly making them to build their own doomed made to order churches!2
Second, our Lord warned of such days as we live in where it would cost us more in time, energy and expense including blood to present the Gospel and witness Him making disciples (Matthew 24:9; Mark 13:11-13; Revelation 6:9-11). One reason for this is that the world is now, saturated with our product! There are relatively few major population centers left in the world where the Gospel has not been preached and a witness of Christ given.3 Spiritual apathy, increasing secularization and rising hostility greet bearers of the message in nations such as our own where Christianity as biblical or manmade religion with apostasy has been settled in for centuries.
Another reason is violent persecution brought upon believers in other nations as the Lord warned where once there was a toleration of Christianity, but now, due to a return to indigenous and national religions it is regarded as a threat to be destroyed. This mentality will reach its global zenith shortly under the auspices of the Antichrist (Daniel 7:15-25; Revelation 13:1-10). Consequently, nearly 2,000 years later our fishing nets are not as full as they once were as recently as the Billy Graham era just last century; diminishing increasingly until that “night” arrives and “no one can work,” (John 9:1-4, NKJV).4 Even so, all of this for us means the glorious Second Coming of our Lord with His eternal rest from and rewards for our Kingdom labor is closer still (Revelation 14:13, 22:12).5
1 Read the August 28, 2022 post, It Is Now Or The Peril Of Never, under the category, The Cause and Shaken, But Not Stirred, posted September 11, 2022, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
2 See the June 5, 2022 post, Made To Order Church?, under the category, Instruction.
3 Though these are minimal outcomes, they are important in the primary mission Christ has given His followers (Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1: 6-8). If after preaching the Gospel and witnessing Christ no disciples are made or churches planted in a locale (as is often the case in these latter days), we have done well since we are not accountable for the people’s response (Luke 10:1-12; Acts 2:36-47)! In the days of the Antichrist when his reign of evil globally ends the public preaching, witnessing, making, baptizing and teaching of disciples along with church planting by God's mortal saints, He will send an angel with only “the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth” a final time (Revelation 14:6-7, NKJV)!
4 This does not preclude spikes in the harvest of disciples made such as during the Holy Spirit sparked revival I joyfully await that ensues when He marks out the rem- nant of Israel as foretold in a second fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28-29; Revelation 7:1-8) before God’s severe trumpet warning judgments begin (Joel 2: 30-32; Revelation 8-9).
5 While as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the first motive of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in serving our Lord’s Kingdom purposes is love for Him, His promised rest and rewards are excellent biblically taught motivators also (2 Timothy 4:6-8; Hebrews 4:1-13, 12:1-2)! The book is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your fa- vorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
Just as a matter of human theological construction many professing Christians and their leaders want (and obviously need) a once and for all salvation with no continuing requirements such as faith, holiness or righteousness placed on them to walk in it, so also they want and have obtained for themselves a once and for all forgiveness that relieves them of the burden of continual confession and repentance! The days of God Almighty’s tolerance of such corruptions of the faith and His Word used to support them are nearing their end to His glory and sweet vindication of the faithful saints; every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ--hallelujah!
This nearly now two thousand year span of time God the Father has permitted to accomplish His purposes in the Gospel of His Son and the chastening of Israel is drawing to its fitting close in His judgment of all things human (Matthew 24:14; Luke 21:20-24). As is absolutely righteous, He has begun judging at His own house and before He is finished the whole world will know the wrath of the holy God against unrepentant sinners (1 Peter 4:17-19; Revelation 16:17-21)! The kingdoms of mortal man are brought down; their glory in riches, splendor and technological achievement bound up with evil allowed by God to prove their spiritual poverty apart from Him gone forever (Isaiah 2:10-22)!
Just as the prophets, our Lord and His apostles foretold would be the case near this end of the world as it has existed under the reign of Satan since man’s fall in Eden, darkness, violence, chaos, confusion and intensifying rebellion against the righteous ways of God fill it. In the midst are many professing Christians and their leaders in denial about the times, reveling in their sins and even re-defining sin to allow for example, setting aside the order of God’s house; who are also angry with anyone that might suggest they should repent because their souls are in peril. No, this group is comfy, cozy because they have constructed themselves a foolproof doctrine of salvation wherein God is locked into honoring their once and for all declared faith that Christ died for their sins.
However, while it is certainly true Christ died for our sins “once for all” meaning He in place of all men and no more sacrifices are needed or forthcoming, God’s gracious gift of salvation built on it is entered into through repentance from sin and faith as a beginning point which is expected to continue until death or the Lord’s return (Romans 1:16-17; Hebrews 10:10, 35-39, NKJV). Salvation then at present, is only a done deal in accord with the promise of God in the Gospel, His power and guarantee through the Holy Spirit along with our continuing, growing faith in Him and His Word demonstrated by faithful and obedient lives of godliness (Romans 8:24-25; Ephesians 1:13-14; Colossians 1:21-23; James 2:20-26; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 2 Peter 1:1-11). Interested persons can learn more about biblical salvation in blog reposts, The Faith That Saves under the category, The Faith.
God is so committed to seeing every soul that initially comes to Him persevere, He helps us in our weakness and has suffered this long from Christ’s first coming giving men time to repent because He does not desire to see any soul perish (Romans 8:26-27; 2 Peter 3:9). Alas, though, the end is at hand and the sober truth is many have and will perish among professing Christians and their leaders because they in free will refuse to repent from their sins. No sinner practicing the deeds of the flesh will inherit the kingdom of God and eternal life (2 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21). Truly, salvation by God’s grace through our faith is not a license to sin without temporal and eternal consequences as the Lord judges (Romans 2:1-11, 6:1-23)!
Knowing sin which Christ died for offends Him, we who believe, love and honor our holy God seek to steadfastly obey His Word while confessing and repenting from our sins daily, as they occur and/or are revealed by the Holy Spirit. The title and words of that most excellent 1983 song by Candi Staton sum it up nicely for the aspiring strong man and great woman of God: Sin Doesn’t Live Here Anymore! I have heard it said a few times in my journey though, “it’s too cumbersome to do all of that confessing and repenting.” Are you kidding me? God only asks us to confess and repent before Him in prayer to include quietly in our hearts or would you prefer Israel’s system of daily and the annual Day of Atonement animal sacrifices Christ’s superior once for all sacrifice as our High Priest replaced (Hebrews 7:11-10:18)?
Also, spiritual maturity lessens our sinning and therefore, the frequency to confess and repent over time (Philippians 3:7-16). However, the willfully weak in spiritual immaturity enjoy no such experience (Hebrews 5:12-14). Though in Christ’s sacrifice our sins are atoned for forever, this speaks to the thoroughness of God’s satisfaction not the lack of necessity for us to continually confess and repent from our sins to draw upon the unending river of forgiveness He wills to release to us as a benefit! When we enter salvation through repentance and faith, all of our past sins are forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus; as we have need (and we do), in confession and repentance going forward our sins are forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus, the eternal “Advocate” of the willing who look to Him by continuing faith (Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:9-2:2, NKJV).
Otherwise, know that God remains eternally opposed to sin and His holiness demands the death of the sinner whether he calls himself a Christian or not (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians 6:7-9; Hebrews 3:7-19, 10:19-31). Pastors, elders, church leaders and teachers who truly love Christ’s sheep with His love will teach them this truth. Others of you need to repent and in fear take heed to the terrifying warnings of James, pastor of the first local church at Jerusalem and the apostle Peter (James 3:1; 2 Peter 2:1-22). Stop this sentimental, make them feel good, “we are all going to Heaven anyway” lying you are doing to unrepentant sinners dressed in sheep’s clothing that gladly fill your auditoriums and dreams for worldly success about to end. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
As the Holy Spirit leads, in this post I circle back to last week’s and specifically the fourth footnote to glorify God and celebrate faithful black Christians from slavery!1 The footnote challenges the lie that Civil Rights leaders after Dr. King’s death had no other option but to align themselves with liberal professed Christians rebelling against God and His Word to successfully destroy the remaining barriers of bigotry, discriminatory acts and oppressions of America’s systemic racism denying black Americans the full rights and privileges of citizenship. This action was a clear break from the faith of our faithful Christian slave forefathers and those that suffered even martyrdom during the King years.
I have heard and seen it all before as well as been guilty of it myself more than a few times in my near 47 year journey with Christ; how guilty professed Christians so easily justify the need to help God out in a situation by making choices and decisions that seem right only to discover afterward, He was not in it at all! Having lived through the years I write about, I saw how many Civil Rights leaders once so devoted to God in dependent faith, the non-violent strategies of Dr. King and suffering arising out of biblically conservative Christianity sold out to back room deals and agreements with strange bedfellows supposedly in similar need to further the cause of racial justice for black folk.
And while a little progress was enjoyed mainly among those blacks politically, educationally, socially and financially positioned to lay hold of what came trickling out of governments and big corporations, the masses remain in dire need to this day. Poverty is still the norm. Black males disproportionately overflow prisons and graveyards while black females murder their unborn at a rate higher than any other group. Also, marching to protest real and alleged racial wrong doing against blacks continues plainly demonstrating that a generation after King, leaders who made the decision to take the tack of seeking allies among those rebelling against God were mistaken (Proverbs 14:12).
According to the Bible, the foregoing is not what happens when God fights your battle! This is as king of ancient Judah, Jehoshaphat, learned when he faced the daunting reality of war with neighbor nations making up a massive force already on the march for the battle. The king as a man of faith in God did what he was supposed to do: call on the Lord and led the people to do the same (2 Chronicles 20:1-13).2 Isn’t this what was done under Dr. King? Then, the Lord answered giving instructions through a Levite, Jahaziel, He used in the moment urging all not to fear ‘“for the battle is not yours, but God’s,’” (2 Chronicles 20:14-18, NKJV). Isn’t this what was done under Dr. King?
After spending time worshipping God “with voices loud and high,” the king encouraged the people to ‘“Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.’” Then they went out marching to battle continuing to sing the Lord’s praises in worship (2 Chronicles 20:19-21, NKJV). Isn’t this what was done under Dr. King? And though they routinely suffered physical violence and incarceration, most as Christians believed they were serving the higher purposes of God He validated by convicting the nation of its oppressive evil and unjust laws tied to systemic racism and making it begin to tear these down (2 Chronicles 20:22-30).3
Even before this our faithful Christian slave forefathers looked to God in faith and waited upon Him to fight their battle for freedom. In the meantime, they prayed and sang in worship resulting in a legacy of spirituals in the thousands that serve as tangible proof of their faith in God we their descendants ignore to our detriment as the West African fathers who heard the Gospel in their native lands, but largely rejected it (Psalm 78:5-8). Having been brought to this land in chains for what God intended to only be a temporary remedial judgment to humble the hearts of many which He accomplished, through the nation’s Civil War He fought the battle for their release when its time came (Psalm 107:10-16, 39-43). He had brought us in, He would bring us out (Lamentations 3:22-42)!4
But now, what was left to be done to help our nation righteously and justly overcome the debilitating sin of racism using a humbled, faithful people of faith in God, will never be fulfilled this side of Christ’s return since those in the liberal majority and their leaders have refused His help in exchange for that of rebels against Him and His Word as it is written (Isaiah 30:1-5, 31:1-3; Jeremiah 2:9-19, 32-37).5,6 This means of course, the promise of a bright future built on rebellion against the divine order as with feminists most who also sanction the murder of the unborn, the perverted ends of those that practice same sex relations and gender confusion will be exposed for the demonic deceit it is in the face of God’s near severe judgments and coming wrath (Psalm 75; Jeremiah 25:29-32)!7
1 Read the February 25, 2024, Liberal Black Professed Christians To Lose, under the category, Black History and Call To Repent!
2 Such was also the confidence of many other biblical characters where God showed up to fight their battles including the slaves from Judah taken to Babylon, Daniel and his three companions. Read the February 27, 2022 post, Daniel: Slave Of God, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History.
3 Beginning with the important 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision rendering public school segregation based on race unconstitutional and following the historic non-violent activities of those with Dr. King which began in 1955, unjust racially discriminatory behavior across the nation was outlawed within ten years by na- tional government measures in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act and in 1965 the Voting Rights Act.
4 Visit this Ministry’s From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site for more of a biblical worldview on slavery and God’s good ends.
5 It is an egregious sin and offense to God to be unfaithful to Him (Psalm 73:27)! Just ask another king of Judah, Asa, the father of Jehoshaphat who having previously en- joyed God fighting a victorious battle for the nation (2 Chronicles 14:9-15), afterward looked to a pagan king to deliver him from the attack of a brother Israelite king (2 Chronicles 16:1-9).
6 This general judgment of God does not preclude faithful, individual black American remnant Christians from laboring alongside those of other hues in biblical conserva- tism for the cause of racial justice issues that arise with Him leading as the Ally nor pursuing racial unity within conservative evangelicalism, my appeal in The Scourge Of Racism. The printed book is available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores. The E-Book is available at major E-Book sellers. Learn more about the book, survey some reader endorsements and see its trailer at https://www.opendoorcommin.org/featured-publishing-resource.
7 Rather than anger at me for telling the truth, why not consider that if you are reading this post it has been another gracious opportunity God has provided you to return to Him (2 Peter 3:1-9)! Watch this Ministry’s thirty minute Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on our YouTube channel.
Patriotism is found among individuals in all of the nations on earth! It becomes idolatry when the love for and devotion given to one’s nation including service and gifts exceeds that which is given to “the only true God,” (John 17:3, NKJV). This prescription for idolatry also applies to anyone or thing that we may become devoted to beyond our nation. For the first commandment of ten proclaimed by God to and written for Israel that also embodies the uppermost of His eternal transcendent spiritual principles is ‘“You shall have no other gods before Me,’” (Exodus 20:3, NKJV).1 Excessive devotion to a nation in idolatry is as precarious and detrimental as it is with any other god of this age!
Adam at the beginning and all mankind thereafter in whatever ethnic and/or national groupings were supposed to exclusively bow to and worship the God of the Bible as our Creator and sovereign Ruler (Genesis 2:7-9, 15-17; Acts 17:22-28). However, Satan, that fallen angel, worked to turn the first man’s heart from God by successfully enticing his wife, then he, to disobey Him (Genesis 3:1-11). Later, God did what He had never done or would do again. He purposely formed a nation through the elect men Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Personally acted to bring them out of bondage to another nation to be His own people, Israel (Exodus 2:23-25; Deuteronomy 4:32-40; Romans 3:1-2, 9:1-5).2
It is in the context of making a covenant with Israel that God gave them His Law contained in Ten Commandments He audibly spoke to them then, along with Moses wrote them and related ordinances, statutes and judgments (Deuteronomy 5:1-22, 9:9-11, 31:24-29; Psalm 147:20). I opened this post quoting the first commandment. The second is related. It prohibited the making of and bowing to an image of anything in the sky, earth or water. In it God transparently declared He is “a jealous God” as the reason (Deuteronomy 5:8-10, NKJV). Not the nation as a first priority, but God was to be the primary object of loving devotion by every individual Jew and the nation as a whole.
The Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the foregoing when He quoted from the written Law answering a question about the chief commandment saying, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength,” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:28-30, NKJV). Clearly, the Lord also applied His answer to Himself as the Son of God (Luke 14:25-26). Despite this, many professed Christians revere and exalt our nation to such an extent as to easily be idolaters and offensive to Heaven. Some even attempt to justify their excessive devotion by asserting America is “a Christian nation” and imply God established it as He did Israel.3
If in fact America is a Christian nation it has apostatized and will suffer fully as Israel over the millennia, but with no hope for a future recovery through deliverance by Christ since the nation now, willfully rejects Him they once all believed in (Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26-31)!4 And as it concerns the good intentions of the professed Christian founders of the nation to anchor it to the Bible’s morality, the guilty began the slide to where we are today by retaining slavery. Others even corrupted the Bible by ripping out pages to take the hope of freedom away from slaves.5 Besides this, a Christian nation apart from all being born again Christians precludes submitting to God’s moral Law (Romans 8:6-9).6
In a prophetic context that announces the time near at hand when God in majestic greatness will show up in Person to “comfort” His doubly punished people, Israel, with all of the accompanying upheaval on the earth and in the universe, He makes known in no uncertain terms what He thinks of the Gentile nations formed by men (Isaiah 40:1-14, NKJV). The prophet declares, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and counted as the small dust on the scales…All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless,” (Isaiah 40:15-17, NKJV). The normal meaning of “all” here would have to include our nation too. In His sovereign will and for His temporal purposes, “He makes nations great, and destroys them,” (Job 12:23a, NKJV).7
“To whom” or what can God be compared to? Surely, nothing in creation or made by men in idolatry will do which is another reason God forbids making images of anyone or thing and worshiping them; nation worship being no exception since you insult the only living God (Isaiah 40:18-20, 44:6-8; Romans 1:18-23, NKJV)! He looks down from Heaven on the earth and “its inhabitants” in the midst of the universe He in wisdom and power created (Isaiah 40:21-26, NKJV). He rules the nations as He raises them and their rulers up and brings them down (Psalm 22:27-28; Daniel 2:20-21).8 “Blessed” indeed, “is the nation whose God is the LORD,” (Psalm 33:10-12, NKJV)! Yet, God is also gracious to rebel nations; giving them opportunity and time to repent if they will (Jeremiah 18:7-12).9
1 Faithfulness to God is one of several eternal character traits of Christ He forges in the hearts of His aspiring strong men and great women in His Son’s image I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. I invite you to pick up a Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Edition of the book as well as the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
2 Read the July 2, 2023 post, Christians Are To Fulfill God’s Written Law, under the category, Instruction. Continuing His original intent with Israel under the New Covenant still to be fully realized by them at Christ’s return, God has included Gentiles at present in fulfilling His creation of a “holy nation,” (Matthew 22:1-14; 1 Peter 2:4-10, NKJV).
3 I have already asserted directly from Scripture why such a thing could not be the case in the second paragraph of this post and others previously. See for example, part two of the two-part post that begins August 2, 2020, Flavorless Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 An apostatized America is preposterous! Read footnote 8 of the above cited post.
5 See and learn more about The Slave Bible on this Ministry’s The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site.
6 Here is absolute truth from apostolic instruction that cannot be brushed aside without seriously corrupting the faith. The Lord recently led me to warn that the attempt to force obedience to His moral law upon our secular nation through legal means will be disastrous. Read the August 7, 2022 post, Saving Souls Not Nations, under the cate- gory, The Cause.
7 In the eyes of God, America is not exceptional or too big (important) to fail! Rather than the arrogant stance of exceptionalism, professed Christians holding to this belief should be humbled and petitioning God not to righteously destroy our nation for its wickedness while repenting from their sins displeasing Him beginning with arrogance as well as those of the nation’s fathers with it idolatrously venerated! Watch the Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on our YouTube Channel and consider this from His Word along with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
8 God is not being capricious, but is working all things toward His predetermined end in Christ (Daniel 2:44; Ephesians 1:7-10)! See the January 10, 2021 post, Praying At Cross-Purposes With God, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
9 Israel is the poster child for the nation both blessed of God and punished for rejecting His call to repentance from sinning against Him (Jeremiah 18:13-17; Ezekiel 36:16-38).
True to the epilogue of a literary work, the Lord leads me to provide some hopefully clarifying and helpful additional information on some issues not more fully presented or addressed at all in the three-part post, Jacob, God Named Israel, under the category, The Cause, just concluded June 18, 2023. In doing so, I am being especially sensitive to help those who have only recently become Christians and aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ to develop a basic understanding of our God; His ‘“thoughts’” and ‘“ways’” which ‘“are not’” and infinitely ‘“higher’” than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9, NKJV).1 He is after all, God Almighty who made us and not the other way around (Isaiah 40:12-26)!
First, God is sovereign. This means He is the highest authority in all of existence (Psalm 9:1-2; Isaiah 44:6). Whatever He chooses to do in Heaven and His creation is His business for which He has no obligation to give an account to anyone. In accord with the foregoing, God’s election of Jacob over his fraternal twin, Esau, to be the heir of the covenant of promises made to their forefather, Abraham, and father, Isaac, was His sovereign business He does not have to explain nor does anyone have the right to question (Romans 9:6-21)! That said, neither Ishmael nor Esau rejected as heirs of the covenant of promises went unblessed (Genesis 17:18-22, 27:38-40; Deuteronomy 2:1-5).
Also, concerning Esau, Jacob and their divergent interests and dispositions, I was led by the Lord to point out Esau’s wild outdoorsman persona passed off as prototype manhood by some in the Christian men’s movement is not biblical.2 Truly, no portrait of manhood coming from the will of sinful men (and there are many) finds favor as a preference with God our Creator. The portrait of manhood God designed and exalts begins and ends in His Son, Jesus Christ! For this cause, more important than any manhood persona devised by men or what we do as responsibilities in all other roles of biblical manhood is who we are as “sons of God” in Christ’s “image” (Romans 8:12-30, NKJV)!
Second, Jacob came by his use of deceit in his affairs honestly from both Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 12:10-20, 26:6-11).3 How could God be so favorable to such men? How can God be so gracious to all sinners including us saved through the blood of Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Besides being back to His sovereignty and the fact He can choose to work with any sinful man He wills, you have conveniently forgotten the patriarchs were saved by faith as we are (Romans 3:20-4:25; Galatians 3:15-18). So, if God had not interacted with sinful men, none of us would be here because as Scripture shows, He would have destroyed all by now (Genesis 6:5-8)!
Third, Jacob’s attitude toward Leah in what amounted to a forced marriage was not right, but understandable in the sinful flesh. He did not love Leah, but mechanically fulfilled his marital expectations including sleeping with her. God did not make Jacob love her as He does not force us to love Him! Instead, He intervened for and blessed Leah with fertility while making Rachel infertile during the first fourteen years of the polygamous marriage. Too, He worked in the mess Jacob had made from failing to seek Him to serve His purposes and grow him as He does with us. Meanwhile, the Lord also took Rachel from him without apology as she died giving birth to only their second child.
Fourth, incestuous polygamy was dealt with in this year’s Mother’s Day post.4 As noted then, marrying two sisters became sin and all of the sexual sins that come up during our examination of Jacob were later addressed with his descendants and the world through the one and only written Law God gave them. Marriage to sisters was forbidden in Leviticus 18:18. Raping an unmarried virgin and sex with the wife of one’s father both arise in the final Jacob, God Named Israel post (Genesis 34:1-2, 35:21-22a). God’s commands about these two issues are found written one after the other in Deuteronomy 22:28-30.5 His perpetual moral standards in these and all the commands of the written Law are integrated into the New Testament as well (Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 5, 6:9-20).
Finally, among the ways I was taught and built up by the Lord writing as a focus on Jacob of the three Jewish patriarchs, is having a greater appreciation for the end of the journey. Abraham, followed by Isaac and Jacob appeared on God’s generational stage performing their parts ultimately in the drama of His plan from eternity to redeem fallen mankind through their greatest Descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, then died. How the sons and family of each patriarch gathered to and buried them touched me deeply. Giving me a right now, application, the Lord took pioneer Christian broadcaster, Pat Robertson, 93, home during these posts. He was clearly a patriarch to his family, those at CBN, other ministries he founded and many Christians during his time on God’s stage.6
1 While acknowledged, nowhere in the Bible will one find God being okay with weak and feeble devotion to Him! To the end of helping professed Christian men passionately press to “be strong in the Lord” as He wills, I wrote the book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics (Ephesians 6:10, NKJV). Its Hard and Soft Cover or E-Book Edi- tions as well as companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study are available in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
2 Read the June 4, 2023 part one post, Jacob, God Named Israel, under the category, The Cause.
3 Despite all of the good God did through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they left a legacy of using deceit in situations especially of fear with their descendants (technically, Abraham did not tell the whole truth which is still deceit--see Genesis 20). Beyond what was noted in the June 18, 2023 post about the use of deceit by the “sons of Jacob” after the rape of their sister and making him with all the rest of the family believe Joseph had been killed and eaten by an animal (Genesis 34:13-29, 37: 23-35, NKJV), it has played a role in their biblical history and attempted even to the face of God in Christ (Exodus 2:23-25; John 8:31-33).
4 See footnote 5 in the May 14, 2023 post, Motherhood: A Female’s Greatest Gift, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
5 No one guilty of sin before the written Law got away with anything! Reuben, Simeon and Levi are examples of those who received enduring divine judgment from the lips of their father, Jacob, for their sins (Genesis 49:3-7). And note the fear of retribution in all of his guilty sons concerning their brother, Joseph (Genesis 42:18-24, 50:15-21).
6 CBN stands for Christian Broadcasting Network.
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