Sunday, August 27, 2017

Christian Principles

Principles are fundamental truths which are the foundation of our belief system. It seems that the world has more principles than Christians because they take a more solid stand for what they believe in. For instance, people demonstrate in great numbers in favor of abortion, for same-sex marriage, and for social justice. They strongly believe that they are on the side of truth, and take a firm stand in favor of their ideals. They are, in fact zealots. Christians are not! At least most seldom demonstrate it.

As Christians we have the idea that all we need to do is believe, and God will take care of evil. We never even consider that God allows evil as a test of our principles.

In 589 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem and within a year or two, Jerusalem and God's temple (Solomon's) were destroyed. King Zedekiah  attempted to escape, but he was captured, blinded and taken to Babylon as a prisoner, along with the elite of Judah. Only a few remained to tend to Judah, and most of them fled to Egypt. In other words, although Jeremiah constantly warned the people of the impending destruction, the people never accepted his prophecies. Their attitude was: God will take care of us, and we can never be destroyed!

The Jews had become a worldly people. They claimed God but God was not theirs. If you remember, with the Abrahamic Covenant, the Hebrew people were promised all the land from the sea to the Euphrates, and from Egypt northward to what is now Turkey. God fulfilled his promise starting with Joshua, and ending with Solomon. King David ruled all that land promised to them by God, with one provision - that they be his people.

The Hebrews emancipated themselves as children of God. They became the offspring of Baal, never quite forgetting God but more often accepting other gods on high places. Jeremiah warned the people, but they failed to listen: we are God's people, and it couldn't happen here!

On a much smaller scale, even I have been of that mindset: I watched the big ship General Motors Corporation sink, thinking that it was too big to sink. There were many prophets of doom but I still stood on his damp decks watching the waves overwhelm it, but I kept my common shares and even bought more. At the end of the storm, General Motors ceased to be, and my portfolio was depleted.  I refused to accept the inevitable, and went down with the big ship GMC!

Just as Israel and Judah were the promised land, and the Hebrews God's chosen people, America was founded upon the precepts of God, and us Gentiles were its chosen people. Being an everlasting covenant, we inherited the Abrahamic Covenant after the Hebrew people squandered it. 

Some theologians believe that Revelation Chapter 13 is America, the beast which arises from the land. It does describe us quite well! If so, then we are mentioned in the Bible. At any rate, since we are a nation that arose, we are included in biblical prophecy, and as a Gentile nation, we were elected by God to be his chosen people after the Hebrews rejected Him.

I am no Jeremiah, but my warnings are the same as Jeremiah's: we must be  God's people or we'll cease to exist. We all know that the West, and even the United States, is in decay, and that God has little place in the average American's life. Outside of a few attending church, many of which are  apostate, Americans are not faithful to God! Our lack of faithfulness is revealed with the lack of Christian principles. While others are zealots for the destruction of America, we merely sing a little louder, and complain, sit idly by, and let it fall. God is testing us: we are Jerusalem in the sense of divine planning, and our faith is Solomon's Temple.

Christ is daily undermined, and Christians are under persecution. However, we sit by, even us more strong in the faith, and think: God will take care of us. That is true to some extent. Just as a few Jews fled safely to Egypt, some Christians will be spared as well. In the long term, we shall be saved when the world as we know it falls after we're raptured to heaven. God's promise is to take care of our souls, but the destiny of our humanity lies on our shoulders as well. We must be faithful to God, and stand up for His name sake. We must be principled enough to speak loudly for Jesus even when we face persecution!
1 Samuel 12:22 "For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people."
God will never leave us, but He allows us to leave Him. This passage refers to the Jews. God never left them, but they left Him. Now, this promise belongs to the Gentiles because Christians are now His people. We must be principled enough as well - for his name's sake!

The beginning of many sorrows are:
Matthew 24:9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. "
Few have to worry about persecution because few have Christian principles - to stand up for Jesus's name. Tribulation is having to endure persecution. Those who do will fight for Jesus's name until the end. The apostles were all persecuted for Jesus's name. When to the days of Noah the world returns, then persecution begins to be the rule. Christians, we have arrived; we are as in the days of Noah! How is that? We are beginning to be persecuted; God's elect, for His name's sake. Our belief system is under attack. That's our faith!

Strangely enough, the church is on the side of the world. Maybe even your church! As we enter into the like times of Noah, churches will be neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. God will vomit them out of His mouth, (paraphrased from Rev. 3:16). Churches which support same-sex marriage, feminism, and abortion - the rotten food which God will puke.

Right now, the destruction of statues is in vogue. The vehemence is not really about the confederacy; we are just in the initial steps of destroying the true Church,  not that those statues are part of what is right, but they are part of our history and tradition. Already, because the Church has tolerated slavery, they too will fall victim to persecution. I'm not worried about Christian icons but the Church itself, and ironically, the church is one of the main persecutors of the Church!

Major denominations preach against hatred, but limit it to certain groups, even as more hatred comes from others. They show a bias toward the ideas of the world. Sin is sin without regard to the political leanings. The sins of the left and the sins of the right are all sins. God allows this to happen to test principles. Mob rule, where everyone does what is right in their own eyes, is anarchy, and the result is chaos! (Judges 17:6). When civil rule is destroyed, so are its institutions. Marx very plainly says that property, families, gender roles, incentive, our institutions, and even our faith must go in favor of the state, and here we go: handing to Marx our land on a platter. I'm speaking of socialism, social justice, and liberation theology. They are all of the Devil.

Finally, finally, the truth has come out! Elizabeth Warren recently accepted what we Christians have been saying for quite some time: that the Democrat Party belongs to the progressives. They are admittedly the Marxists, and that was demonstrated when socialist Bernie Sanders was allowed to run openly as one. Now Warren is the standard-barrier for Marx.

As did Jeremiah, I am warning you from scripture. Because we Christians lack principles to fight back, we will fall, just as Jerusalem and the Temple fell. The foundations are being undermined as I write. The statues are the first to fall, but as a divided nation and divided Church, we will fall with it. To where will you run? It is a world-wide attack on Christian faith?

Marx wrote of revolution. The violence you see on the streets are of his making. He was Satan's representative on earth, but his banner is now held high by most. Republicans can't save us. Democrats are destroying us, but God can protect us if we turn to Him. That doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, unprincipled Christians are drifting further away! Just watch as statues of Moses and Noah are defaced or removed, just as those of the Ten Commandments are now.  We are already seeing statues of Mary and Jesus hidden, as if they are shameful! Jeremiah was the weeping prophet - weeping for Judah and the Hebrew people. I'm not a prophet but I weep for America and Christianity.

We are headed into charted waters. God's people have been there before. We forget easily, even as it was written for future generations. Surely God must be wrong! I bet that He is not.

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