THE PROCLAMATION HAS NEVER CHANGED! Part one

Today’s post will be a bit different from my previous posts.  I feel compelled to write about something that is on my heart, and something that I know many of my readers are concerned about as well.  This will be a two part series, but from a different perspective than is usually presented.

I love America.  I believe in America, and I hope you do too?  I believe that America, even with its faults, is still the greatest country the world has ever seen. I proudly served my country. Therefore when I look at the political and moral decay that is undeniably evident at the very heart of our great nation, it saddens me.  When I look around and see its insidious impact on today’s culture, it grieves me even more.

So what happened?  How did we get in this current state of identity despair where good has become bad and bad has become good; where heroes’ have become villains and villains have become heroes?  Did it start with political correctness?  Did it happen because good men did nothing…or even worse, sold out to a power broker who made them “an offer they couldn’t refuse”?

Well, we can talk about “the problem”. But to be aware of it; to talk about it, yet to do nothing about it, contributes zilch, nada, zip, ZERO to alleviating “the problem.” Therefore I would like to offer some ideas that are not political, rebellious, racist or terrorist in nature, but ones that I know will begin a healing process that can change the very heart and soul of this great nation. It will be a challenge, and it will take the efforts of many like-minded Americans, but the power of this endeavor can certainly be traced through history.

I have a dream that our culture will be exposed to the truth, and the truth will set us free!  The original author of that statement, Jesus Christ, was very specific.  He stated in John 8:32, “If you follow my teachings, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” 

And what did Jesus teach?  His message was simple, yet profound: to love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind; to love our neighbor as our self; forgiveness, mercy, grace and service to others.  That message is the blueprint for changing the state of one’s heart.  When a man’s heart is changed, the man has changed.  Therefore, when the “collective heart” of a culture is changed, the culture will also change.

THE PROCLAMATION HAS NEVER CHANGED

The common theme of the Bible is, and always has been, “Repent; turn from your sins and turn to God.”  This message has been proclaimed throughout both the Old and New Testament:

2 Chronicles 7:14, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” 

Jeremiah 18:7-10, “If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. But if I announce that I will build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom, making it strong and great, but then the nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless that nation as I had said I would.”

Luke 13:3, And Jesus, when speaking to a crowd, stated “…And you will also perish unless your turn from your evil ways and turn to God.”   (Additional scriptures in the Appendix)

Jonathan Cahn, messianic Rabbi, history scholar and author of the best-selling book, The Harbinger, compares the United States and the events of 9/11/2001 to ancient Israel and the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel.  The author draws undeniable parallels between the events, and presents compelling evidence that history is repeating itself.  Below are some excerpts from The Harbinger:

“America was founded on prayer. Therefore, the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God. A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.” 
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger 

“But no nation in the modern world has ever been given so much. None has been so blessed. But to whom much is given, much is required.

But if a nation so blessed by God should turn away from Him, what then? Its blessing will be replaced with curses?

Yes.

And has America turned away from God? I asked.

It has turned and is turning.

How?

In the same way Israel turned. It started with a spiritual complacency, then spiritual confusion, then the merging of God with idols and then, ultimately, the rejection of his ways. Just as with ancient Israel, America began ruling God out of its life, turning, step by step, against His ways, at first subtly and then more and more brazenly.” 
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger 

“As God was expunged from American life, idols came in to fill the void; idols of sensuality, idols of greed, of money, of success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession. The sacred increasingly disappeared, and the profane took its place.” 
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger      (Additional excepts in the Appendix)

 WHAT IT MEANS

 Did any of that reading get your attention?  Does any of it sound like America today? (If you want even more of a jolt, read The Harbinger in its entirety.)  Not that I think we should develop our point of view based entirely on this book, but Jonathan Cahn, as a Rabbinical scholar as well as a noted history scholar (and former atheist, I might add) certainly has portrayed with accuracy the social, political and spiritual climate of our great country.  And I suspect the commonality and concern of everyone reading this is… maintaining our status as a great country.  Not only great in terms of power and prosperity, but great as that shining light that exemplifies freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; tolerance and respect for others; justice, and a reverence for God.

No doubt Israel was blessed from the beginning: first as a people group because they were descendants of righteous men, (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ), then later as a nation, delivered from bondage to the most powerful nation at that time-Egypt, to be led  through the wilderness to their Promised Land.  God chose to show his power through Israel because it was the smallest and weakest of nations at that time. (FYI: that’s how He works.  When we let Him, by His grace He turns our weakness into our strength!)

As Rabbi Cahn so emphatically pointed out, America was the only other nation to receive such a blessing.  And why was that?  Because this was a nation founded on prayer and built on Judeo-Christian principles.  “Therefore, America would rise to heights no other nation had ever known. Not that it was ever without fault or sin, but America did aspire to fulfill its calling.” And what was that calling, you ask? “To be a vessel of redemption, an instrument of God’s purposes, a light to the world. It would give refuge to the world’s poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed. It would stand against tyranny. It would fight, more than once, against the dark movements of the modern world that threatened to engulf the earth.”

As God’s chosen nation, he put a hedge of protection around us (just like he did with Israel) and was with us in times of conflict.  But as clearly stated above in Jeremiah 18, “But if I announce that I will build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom, making it strong and great, but then the nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless that nation as I had said I would.”  (Remember, this quote is from the Bible, not from the other best-seller, The Harbinger!)  In other words, when we turn from God’s way and become embroiled in evil, God will withdraw his hedge of protection from us.  Do you doubt that?  What about 9/11/2001?  Rabbi Cahn refers to that event as the first harbinger, which means “warning”.  Has there been a second harbinger?  Hummm… What happened in 2008?

So I ask you…are the wheels coming off?  Are we headed in a good direction?  What’s the answer?  Well, this was just the prologue.  Next week I will talk about the “problem” and what I believe are sound ideas for a solution.

So my questions to you today are… “Are you concerned about America?”  Do you talk about it?  Are you willing to become involved in a solution? Feel free to respond to this post.

May God Bless Ya,

Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)

                                                                                                           APPENDIX

Ezekiel 18:21, “But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my laws and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die.”

Mark 8:38, “If a person (nation) is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person.” (nation)

Excerpts from The Harbinger 

“The reason was tolerance?” I asked.

Yes he replied, the same tolerance that overtook ancient Israel…a tolerance for everything opposed to God, a growing tolerance for immorality, and a growing intolerance for the pure.  A tolerance that mocked, marginalized and condemned those who remained faithful to the values now being discarded. Innocence was ridiculed and virtue was vilified. Children were taught of sexual immorality in public schools while the Word of God was banned. It was a tolerance that put the profane on public display and removed nativity scenes from public sight…contraband, as if somehow they had become a threat-a strangely intolerant tolerance.

“But still, I countered, how does all that compare to what happened in ancient Israel? America doesn’t offer its children on altars of sacrifice?

“Does it not? he said. Ten years after removing prayer and Scripture from its public schools, the nation legalized the killing of its unborn.” 
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger

But there was one other – a civilization also conceived and dedicated to the will of God from its conception…America.  In fact, those who laid its foundation, the Founding Fathers…no, long before the Founding Fathers… those who laid America’s foundations saw it as a new Israel, an Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as in covenant with God?

Meaning?

Meaning its rise or fall would be dependent on its relationship with God. If it followed His ways, America would become the most blessed, prosperous, and powerful nation on earth. From the very beginning they foretold it.

And what they foretold would come true?

America would rise to heights no other nation had ever known. Not that it was ever without fault or sin, but it would aspire to fulfill its calling.

What calling?

To be a vessel of redemption, an instrument of God’s purposes, a light to the world. It would give refuge to the world’s poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed. It would stand against tyranny. It would fight, more than once, against the dark movements of the modern world that threatened to engulf the earth.” 
― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger

“Which do you think is greater,” he asked, “the moral distance that separates us from the most monstrous of Nazis or that which separates us from God?” ― Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger