Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God —the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1-7)
“Those who don't know history, are destined to repeat it” Edmund Burke
Four hundred years after the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland from Babylon captivity, the nation of Israel found itself being occupied by the Romans. The Romans were a polytheistic nation, yet an intelligent nation. They knew, the best way to assimilate a conquered nation, was to allow it to continue certain aspects of their culture. One thing that the Romans did, was to allow the nation to continue to worship the way that they saw fit. The Jews, therefore, prospered during this time and even traveled throughout that Roman lands, without fear of destruction. One of the major cities for Jews to congregate was the capital of Rome.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was common to spread the Gospel of Jesus, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Rome became a place of contention among the Jewish Christians. Some Gentile Christians were bringing their pagan practices into the synagogue, while Jewish Christians were demanding the Gentiles convert to all the Jewish practices. Paul wrote the letter to the church in Rome to encourage both sides and to help both sides to accept the others.
In the opening chapter, Paul shows the wrongs of Roman paganism. These practices by the Romans, eventually led to the demise of Rome. He writes how God will judge the wickedness and godlessness of Rome. In America, how much of this godlessness is true today.
Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” It has been established through history that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, upon Christian ideals, for Christian to worship peacefully. As a nation, do we continue to glorify God?
Romans 1:22-24 “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” There have been many people who claim intellectual superiority yet bow down to other things. There is a resurgence of New Age philosophies, which incorporate ancient religions and mythologies. Wicca, (based on the ancient druidic religion) unheard of thirty years ago, is gaining acceptance in society. The Babylonian religion centered around Mithras is growing, as is the Egyptian religions concerning Horus. Amongst these religions is the teaching that Christianity stole their ideas from these ancient religions, so they can denounce Christ to gain their own followers. These religions teach freedom of sexuality and lust. Some of these religions have held “breeding parties”. Sexual promiscuity is accepted and taught as normal. They teach there is no sexual sin.
Romans 1:25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” The education system of the United States promotes the teaching of evolution as fact, yet denies the teaching of creationism as a viable option. They have exchanged God's truth for the lie of the Big Bang and evolution. (Why don't people point out that Darwins teaching of evolution includes the teaching of the subhuman race known as the African people. Yes, Darwin taught that those who are descended from people from Africa are not fully human, they are a subhuman species. Yet, they will hail Darwin as a scientific genius? I will pass on that bit of racism.)
The good thing about this opening, even with all the bad things Paul has opened with, he still pauses to praise God. Something we all should do, stop and praise God.
Romans 1:26,27 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” The purity and satisfaction of sexual relationship within the confines of God order, became profaned. Women began unnatural relationships and men turned away from “natural relations with women” and turned to other men. Something that God called an abomination (Leviticus 18:22), something that Paul said is indecent and unnatural.
Romans 1:28 “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” Because the turned their back on God, He allowed them to sow what they would soon reap. He allowed them to give into their depraved mind, knowing that what they do, they shouldn't do.
Romans 1:29-31 “Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.” This is pretty much self explanatory. Crime, especially violent crimes, have increased over the last 40 years. Corporate greed is running amuck in our capitalist society. People will do anything unethical to get ahead in the business world. Marriage promises are being broken daily. There is a complete lack of forgiveness in our society, people would rather give up than work it out.
The part of this passage I want to focus on is “invent new ways of sinning.” Watching the news, at least on a weekly basis, someone will say, “I never thought a person would ever be capable of doing this.” Parents are drowning their children, child predators are becoming more sly, pregnant women are being murdered for their babies, or worse, pregnant women are murdering their babies and told nothing is wrong with that. God despises the death of innocents, especially the death of children.
Is America becoming a second Rome? Remember Edmund Burke.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
America & Ancient Israel Pt 3: The Turning Away
I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. (Lev 26:11,12)
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32,33)
Israel was God's chosen nation. He called them out out bondage from the Egyptians. He led them through the wilderness. He promised them a land to call their own. All they had to do was obey his commands. It was a simple task: Obey God. A task that they fell short on.
As they got into the promised land, surrounded by other nations, they slowly began to embrace the ideologies of those nations. They began to get involved in idolatry (Judges 8:30), polytheism (Jeremiah 2:28), murder(2 Chronicles 21:13), child sacrifices (Jeremiah 19:5), etc. God was patient for a little while. He sent judges to rebuke them, followed by prophets and kings. God continued to be patient, until His patience ran out. He then removed His hedge of protection and the Assyrians invaded and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and a few years later, Babylon conquered the southern kingdom of Judah, and took many captives. God allowed the Jews to return home after being held captive for many years.
God gave Israel many opportunities to reform their sinful ways. Many times they did, but many other times they did not. After God's wrath came upon Israel, they were no longer the strong nation they had become. After the Assyrians conquered Israel around 570 BC, Israel didn't exist as a nation again until 1948, almost 2400 years later. Because of repentant nature of Judah, they were allowed to return to their homeland, but never to be the dominant nation it was under the kingship of David and Solomon.
“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” Winston Churchill
The United States became a very strong a powerful nation. The founding fathers, made reference to the United States being a Christian nation. They wrote in their journals, speeches, and articles about the foundation of the United States being God driven and centered. The United States rose through the ranks of other nations, to become a prized nation. A model on the way a nation should become. The first “Super Power”. The United States represented all that was good in humanity. The national motto became “In God We Trust” (Psalm 56:11). Just as quickly as the United States rose to world prominence, they forgot who raised them up.
1962.
The United States began to worship an idol known as “Separation of Church and State”. The year was 1962 and with three Supreme Court rulings within 16 months of each other, the United States began a short process of turning its back on God. Engel v Vitale (public schools can not require recitation of prayer) Murray v. Curlett and Abington School District v Schempp linked together (public schools can not require reading of the Lord's Prayer or reading of Scripture) With the removal of any mention of God during the school day, it became increasingly difficult to teach morality. Something George Washington said would happen. But then something even worse happened. Legalization of the murder of children.
On January 22, 1973 infanticide became legal. The United States was duped into sacrificing children to Baal. Something that God would never approve of, nor anything He would ever demand of anyone. With the decline of God as a moral foundation, the United States began to compromise the founding fathers principles. Reverend Jeffery L. Osgood, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Dover, wrote in the Delaware State News: Back in 1962, when prayer was removed by the Supreme Court, something happened to America's soul and America's schools. Our nation became increasingly secular and less tolerant of moral standards and values. Since America became too proud to pray to the God of Heaven who created us, we have been reaping the rewards. Crime is way up. The family has broken up. The test scores of students have taken a submarine dive. It's time for a change!
( http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~jlynch/prayer/pro.html )
September 11th, 2001 a great tragedy occurred in the United States. War was declared against the United States. This tragedy brought some people back to God. But within a couple of months, Americans began to doubt God again. They would ask why God would allow this to happen. On September 13th, Anne Graham Lotz was interviewed by Jayne Clayson on the CBS Morning Show, this is the question and her answer: Jayne Clayson – I've heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say? Anne Graham Lotz – I say, God is angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. ( http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/index.php/Interviews )
America is repeating the sins of Israel. If we don't repent as a nation, we soon will be taken captive by the “Babylonians” and the “Assyrians”. Will God allow us to return or not? That is the question.
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32,33)
Israel was God's chosen nation. He called them out out bondage from the Egyptians. He led them through the wilderness. He promised them a land to call their own. All they had to do was obey his commands. It was a simple task: Obey God. A task that they fell short on.
As they got into the promised land, surrounded by other nations, they slowly began to embrace the ideologies of those nations. They began to get involved in idolatry (Judges 8:30), polytheism (Jeremiah 2:28), murder(2 Chronicles 21:13), child sacrifices (Jeremiah 19:5), etc. God was patient for a little while. He sent judges to rebuke them, followed by prophets and kings. God continued to be patient, until His patience ran out. He then removed His hedge of protection and the Assyrians invaded and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and a few years later, Babylon conquered the southern kingdom of Judah, and took many captives. God allowed the Jews to return home after being held captive for many years.
God gave Israel many opportunities to reform their sinful ways. Many times they did, but many other times they did not. After God's wrath came upon Israel, they were no longer the strong nation they had become. After the Assyrians conquered Israel around 570 BC, Israel didn't exist as a nation again until 1948, almost 2400 years later. Because of repentant nature of Judah, they were allowed to return to their homeland, but never to be the dominant nation it was under the kingship of David and Solomon.
“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” Winston Churchill
The United States became a very strong a powerful nation. The founding fathers, made reference to the United States being a Christian nation. They wrote in their journals, speeches, and articles about the foundation of the United States being God driven and centered. The United States rose through the ranks of other nations, to become a prized nation. A model on the way a nation should become. The first “Super Power”. The United States represented all that was good in humanity. The national motto became “In God We Trust” (Psalm 56:11). Just as quickly as the United States rose to world prominence, they forgot who raised them up.
1962.
The United States began to worship an idol known as “Separation of Church and State”. The year was 1962 and with three Supreme Court rulings within 16 months of each other, the United States began a short process of turning its back on God. Engel v Vitale (public schools can not require recitation of prayer) Murray v. Curlett and Abington School District v Schempp linked together (public schools can not require reading of the Lord's Prayer or reading of Scripture) With the removal of any mention of God during the school day, it became increasingly difficult to teach morality. Something George Washington said would happen. But then something even worse happened. Legalization of the murder of children.
On January 22, 1973 infanticide became legal. The United States was duped into sacrificing children to Baal. Something that God would never approve of, nor anything He would ever demand of anyone. With the decline of God as a moral foundation, the United States began to compromise the founding fathers principles. Reverend Jeffery L. Osgood, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Dover, wrote in the Delaware State News: Back in 1962, when prayer was removed by the Supreme Court, something happened to America's soul and America's schools. Our nation became increasingly secular and less tolerant of moral standards and values. Since America became too proud to pray to the God of Heaven who created us, we have been reaping the rewards. Crime is way up. The family has broken up. The test scores of students have taken a submarine dive. It's time for a change!
( http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~jlynch/prayer/pro.html )
September 11th, 2001 a great tragedy occurred in the United States. War was declared against the United States. This tragedy brought some people back to God. But within a couple of months, Americans began to doubt God again. They would ask why God would allow this to happen. On September 13th, Anne Graham Lotz was interviewed by Jayne Clayson on the CBS Morning Show, this is the question and her answer: Jayne Clayson – I've heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say? Anne Graham Lotz – I say, God is angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. ( http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/index.php/Interviews )
America is repeating the sins of Israel. If we don't repent as a nation, we soon will be taken captive by the “Babylonians” and the “Assyrians”. Will God allow us to return or not? That is the question.
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