 Well folks, it’s over. According to a well-known televangelist on TV - he, as a prophet of God, commanded that the COVID19 virus was healed and that its authority in America was over. According to him - that night - at his pronouncement and demand - the COVID19 virus was cast out of the USA. (Kenneth Copeland Ministries - telecast on March 29, 2020)
Why am I writing about such a things? Because it is dangerous and false doctrine like this that will cause great shame and reproach to come upon the church in these difficult days. Unfortunately, there will be those who will hear this, who will “name it and claim it” for themselves, and who will then take no precautions in the future. We’ve already seen what this kind of stuff can do in Arkansas. Now it has a greater likeliness of happening elsewhere among those who hold to such terrible doctrine as this. Am I saying that God cannot heal the COVID19 virus and eradicate it from the entire United States? He can. Do I believe that this false prophet’s declaration did it? Nope. The reality is that false prophecy uttered by a false prophet has not come true - because today there continues to be new cases found, and people will die of it by tomorrow. That means that this individual is a false prophet. No one should listen to him or fear or follow anything he says. He needs to repent and stop teaching and following a false doctrine that says he can make pronouncements using Jesus’ name - and they have to come to pass. The truly sad thing about this false doctrine is that when people don’t experience healing - and when, as it did, the coronavirus continues to spread in our nation - this false prophet will say it is only because those who get sick and die did not have enough faith. So, in the end, the problem is not with the prophet - it is with the terrible person who did not believe enough. Let’s take a look at Scripture for a few moments. God spoke of those He would send as prophets to Israel. But in the process God revealed that some might say, “How will we know?” Look at the passage below: "You may say in your heart, 'How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?' 22 "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. Deut. 18:21-22 God’s answer was very simple. When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if what he says does not come true - the Lord has not spoken. It is that simple. Now, if the pronouncement made - or honestly, the demand that was shouted - does not come to pass, then the ones making it are not prophets and the Lord has not spoken through them. The mark for a true prophets of God is 100% accuracy in his or her prophecies. There is no room for fudging on this. There was a false teaching out at a supposed school of prophets that we learn how to prophesy. If we get a few wrong, we will learn from it and prophesy better next time. Sadly, that does not square with God’s Word. Note what is said happened when both Samuel and Agabus prophesied below. Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail. 20 All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD. 1 Samuel 3:19-20 As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says: 'In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'" Acts 21:10-11 There we see an Old Testament and a New Testament prophet. Both had their prophecies come to pass. Agabus even prophesied of a famine that would come - and it came. Here is the danger in such false doctrine as that which happened on March 29th of this year. People who follow these two men will ignore any wisdom in going out into the world and taking precautions against catching this virus. As a result some will most likely contract it - and sadly some may even die as a result. The shame and disgrace and ill will that will come upon Christians for this will be great. We are already seeing where those in the media are mocking things like this - and who lump all Christian’s together. They say we are dangerous - and should be treated accordingly. Saints, please be wise when it comes to televangelists and supposed prophets who claim to speak for God. If their pronouncements do not come true - they are charlatans who are deceived at least, and dangerous at worst. God does want us to pray in faith - but the faith we have is in His Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. Our faith is not in what we decide to shout in demands of God. Our faith is in coming humbly before Him - even boldly to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need. It is interesting that we don’t find one instance in the New Testament of any apostle or believer commanding God to do something. Our place is not to put our DEMANDS before Him - shouting things like this: "In the name of Jesus, standing in the office of the profit of God, I execute judgment on you COVID-19...I call you gone...No more...And the United States of America is healed and well again...It's dead. At exactly 12 noon on the 29th day of March. It's over. It's over." These are the demands of a false prophet - not the humble requests of a servant of God. Just remember saints, the next day, and today the 31st COVID19 isn’t gone - it isn’t no more. It is NOT over. If anything, these two false prophets are making declarations contrary to God’s will. Consider these words of Scripture. "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.” Deut. 28:58-59 "If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, 29 whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, 30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, 31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers. 2 Chronicles 6:28-31 By biblical terminology what we are experiencing is a plague. It is honestly nothing like the Beubonic plague or the Great Plague of the Spanish Flue of 1918. Nevertheless it is a plague that has come upon the world - and upon the United States. Honestly, if you want to look at a biblical response to this, it would be that we should do the following:
So, we’ve seen 3,580 since February 29th, when the first man died of Coronavirus in the state of Washington. The numbers we have reflect deaths in 30 days due to COVID19. Since February 29th, a rough estimate of the abortions in the United States has been around 2300 per day (that is a low number because it does not take into account abortions induced by medicines - that number would be more like 3000 per day). That would mean that since COVID19 began taking lives in the United States, we’ve taken the lives of 69,000 babies in the womb. We’ve seen 65,420 more deaths by abortion than by COVID19 since it started. Worldwide, the abortion rate is conservatively said to be 125,000 per day (Other reliable estimates say it is as high as 170,000 per day - but we will go with the Guttmacher Institute’s numbers). That means that while COVID19 has resulted in roughly 41,660 deaths since the first reported death in Wuhan, China on January 9th, abortion in that time (82 days) has resulted in 10,250,000 babies being aborted. So, we’ve seen 10,208,340 more deaths due to abortion than COVID19. Why did I go through all that morbid math above? It is because our nation and our world is deep red in the death of the unborn. 10,208,340 more dead from it than even from the dreaded COVID19. Please stay with me because there is a reason I went through all this. Our false prophets (remember them) made a declaration that COVID19 was over on the evening of March 29th. It was a false prophecy. But do you think for one moment that God is willing to cut us free from this plague, or any other plague, when during the same amount of time we’ve killed 65,000 more babies in the United States, and over 10,000,000 more worldwide? I am neither a prophet or a son of a prophet. But I am a student of the Scriptures. Oh, and by the way, I am writing this to speak to the biblically orthodox, conservative Christians in America, not those who do not know Christ. Brothers and sisters in Christ - we are in God’s crosshairs. It is not time to embrace false doctrines or false teachers who would dare proclaim COVID19 over and done - while the blood of 69,000 babies in the U.S. still remains. We’re responsible for 60 million plus babies aborted since 1973. Do you really think that we are not under God’s discipline for this - if not His judgment? Now is the time for serious, deeply repentant, broken-hearted prayer in our nation. We don’t need false prophets to declare false prophecies to ease our burden in this time. We need a greater burden. We need for prayer to begin to grow at a rate far more exponential than what we are seeing with COVID19. We’ve now had 2 weeks with more time on our hands than usual. Unfortunately, too many have decided that the purpose for this time is to binge-watch old TV shows and movies. I have to honestly say I’ve watched too much on TV - and spent too little time crying out to God for my own heart, as well as the hearts of those in God’s church. If there was ever a time for prayer meetings to be flooded with the concerned (albeit through platforms like Zoom instead of in person) who are praying for a reviving among God’s people and awakening in our nation it is now. If there was ever a time to cry out to God that deaths due to abortion would cease, it is now! My prayer is that we would not listen to false prophets, but that God would raise up true ones to speak to His people. Prophets who would write down our sin with an iron stylus and call us to repent and return to God. Those who prophesy only good things, according to God’s Word - will have plenty who flock to them. They will find in the end that they will be disappointed because of the lies they believed. But may God grant us true prophets who will remind us of the following. "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (emphasis mine) Think about it. We quote this verse over and over again and yet, are unwilling to go back 7 words and see that the context for this kind of prayer is NOW. And what is said seven words earlier? God says, ". . . if I send pestilence among My people". That is an astounding thing to read, isn't it? My hope then is now that we have read it - we would respond. Let us pray. (Photo used by permission, CDC via Unsplash - cdc-L0jLHqF7Q94-unsplash.jpg)
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 May God give us wisdom to see calamity and disaster as a call to Himself. May we not give in to a world defined only by what is visible - explaining the problems of our world only in humanistic terms. May God give us grace to grasp His transcendent hand behind all that is allowed on the earth.
Recent events have had us reeling in our minds when it comes to grasping what is happening in our world. One of the reasons for this is because our news reporting agencies and our governing officials have a humanistic world view. When they see the Paris attacks, the Colorado Springs and San Bernardino shooting rampages - they only see things from human perspective. They have rejected even the thought of God - and some even shame anyone who says that they are praying for those whose lives have been devastated by these events. "God is not fixing this," is their rallying cry. Therefore WE have to fix it. The inference in this is that there is no God - only human understanding and human action. Things were not always like this. There were those in our past who saw God's providential hand and dealings in all that He allowed in this world. When calamity broke loose upon a people our leaders turned to God - especially if such things came in a time of spiritual decline in the hearts of those throughout the nation. Abraham Lincoln called for a day of fasting, prayer and public humiliation (meaning humbling of oneself before God and confession of sin) in the midst of the Civil War. He spoke of things like our national pride and arrogance - and urged humbling ourselves before Him. This happened often in the early days of our nation because our leaders - and especially our pulpits were filled with men of God who did not shrink from declaring the Word of God to our nation. Today I read one of the passages that they would turn to in times of distress - and it spoke like a thundering from heaven to me. I hope it will prove helpful to you as I share it this week. “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment? Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl from his den unless he has captured something? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it? Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all? If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it? Surely the Lord God does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy? Amos 3:2-8 | NASB Amos prophesied in Israel in a time of horrific sin and decline in the nation. The early chapters of his prophetic word from the Lord were filled with what God was going to do because of the gross sins of the nations. The pagan nations were being punished because of terrible sins that are shocking to our senses as we read of them. But when the Lord speaks of Israel and Judah - their worst sins were departing from Him and turning to other gods who led them into godless and sexually immoral living. To read of the disaster that was to come is to read of far more than shootings - it is to read of entire armies destroyed and cities demolished. Just as in our day - those in their day asked the question, "Why?" Amos starts with a statement: "I chose you among all the families of the earth - and therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Whether we get it or not - that is a very loving promise, because the Lord disciplines those He loves. After Amos makes this statement from God - he goes into a series of easily understood analogies. All of these statements are those that no one would question until he reaches his last question. "If a calamity happens in a city has not the Lord done it?" We find ourselves nodding in agreement without question until we read over this last and most important statement. Well - we do in our day. But that is because we've bought into the lie that we are the masters of our own fate. God, through Amos, presents a different view of things. First of all - calamity - is from the Lord. This is especially the case when it is calamity in a nation that has rejected Him and run after wickedness. God brings calamity to turn us from our godlessness. That is the kindest thing He can do considering the facts of eternity and His final judgment that is coming. But Amos gives us more to think about here. God also does nothing unless He first reveals His secret counsel to His prophets. You see a loving God also warns us when He is about to do something. He does so through His prophets as He reveals Himself to them. It is their responsibility to announce His Word to the people. The way that Amos refers to this is by saying the following, "A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord has spoken but who can but prophesy?" Maybe we should take a look at this. When God speaks in this situation, it is as a lion roaring. That is a figure of speech that is meant to incite a sense of fear and trembling. God acts in allowing calamity in a nation to bring it to a point where it fears God and turns to Him. But this is only known when God's prophets speak - and do so boldly. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks America seemed to turn to God - at least the churches were much more full than they were before the attacks. But for the majority there was no prophetic message coming from the men of God. After our current string of attacks we find rather than a turning to God that there is a mocking of Him. Prayer is considered by many as a useless platitude that changes nothing. Those who would pray are shamed for doing so. But in all honesty - who can blame them when what passes for prophecy lately is the words of the false prophets who say that all is well. When prophets steal their words from one another saying that God is going to bless you with health, wealth, and prosperity even as you act wickedly and spend your faith-obtained riches on yourself and your pleasures, there is not a true prophet in the whole lot of them. They are blind guides leading the blind - and both will fall into a pit as things continue to turn worse in our nation. We need a true prophet of God who will speak boldly against sin - first his own in broken repentance before God in his personal times with Him - and then that of a church and nation that has turned far from God. He needs to speak without reservation about what IS happening in our nation - and where God is acting to bring us back to Himself. He must speak as the roaring of a lion publicly - and yet have the heart of a Jeremiah who weeps over the wound of his people. We desperately need such men in this hour. Dear saints of God - here is the truth. What has happened in San Bernardino - and in many other places is only indicative of what IS going to be happening in the days ahead. The shootings and rampages will get worse - and no law passed by government will be able to stop them. What is happening with the growing unrest and discontent over race relations is only going to increase to the point of riots that cause smoke to rise from our cities as they burn in the throes of raging protests. What happened in 2008 where we saw the stock market plunge with trillions being lost and fortunes being lost - is only a drop in the bucket of what is on our horizon. In addition to this we are going to begin watching as our military is decimated in future encounters as they no longer have the blessing of God upon their endeavors. I fear worst of all is the specter of a mushroom cloud billowing over one or more of our cities as the discipline of God reaches its peak. Fear and trembling will grip our nation as it reacts in horror to these things. And yet - as long as there is the possibility of repentance and return to God - there is hope. Recently a young man asked me whether there is any hope for America. My answer to him was that Nineveh was 3 days from being destroyed - and when the people repented - God showed them mercy and relented from the evil that was coming. Therefore there is hope - but not a hope in government (on either side of the aisle). There is hope - but not in manmade solutions of no guns or more guns. There is hope - but not in our bank accounts - fancy new cars - massive homes - or even new jets for a television false prophet. Our hope is in the mercies of God. Our hope is in people turning to Him in prayer - in repentance - and in humbling themselves and turning from wicked ways. I do not say this lightly saints - but outside of this - there is no hope nor is there any future for our nation. God is disciplining and punishing our cities. God is speaking through His prophets. He is roaring in our land. Are we listening? Have we heard? Will we respond? What is happening in our world today? It seems that over the past several years the world around us has become much more dangerous. The recent Paris terror attacks are a reminder of the ability of our enemies to strike at the very heart of western nations. As I thought about such things recently I read in the book of 1 Kings some things we should take very seriously. We should read these things and fear God - and turn to prayer for our own hearts, the hearts of those we love, and the hearts of those who lead our country in this hour.
As many of us labor to understand what is happening to our nation, we unfortunately labor under the thought that this is a Christian nation. While this nation was founded for the most part on wise and godly principles, we need to come to grips with the reality that our nation no longer functions under those principles. Our nation moved away from God in the 1950’s and 1960’s and adopted a lax attitude toward heterosexual immorality and divorce. That was followed by the abortion decision in 1973 and the greed that began to seriously infect our land in the 1980’s and 1990’s. By the 2000’s we had left just about every godly principle there was to abandon - and had become a very godless nation. The leadership of our Republic had abandoned itself to the radical immorality and godless attitudes that had infected the airwaves for decades. What I am trying to recount for you is the fact that our nation has abandoned following and serving God - and has chosen instead to follow and serve the flesh instead. There is a biblical example of this kind of abandonment of God by a nation. It happened in the latter years of king Solomon of Israel. He is not the only example of it - but because of how God dealt with him - we need to take a closer look at the late years of his reign as king. Solomon began as a godly man - but his love of “many foreign women” brought him low. God warned of this - but Solomon chose his sensual desires over God’s Word and ways. As a result in his latter years he did not follow the Lord , but turned away from Him. He began to worship other gods as his foreign wives influenced him more and more. Note the narrative given to us in 1 Kings 11 - “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 1 Kings 11:4-8 (NASB) As Solomon turned away from God he was led to worship other false gods. The worship of these gods involved sexual immorality, the depreciation of marriage, and eventually homosexual acts and even the sacrificing of babies to the horrible god Molech. It was a descent that almost mirrors that of our own nation. Thus it should be no surprise that God is dealing with us much like He did with Solomon. It might be wise of us to see how God disciplined Solomon and judged his sin. “Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. 1 Kings 11:9-10 (NASB) God was angry with Solomon for his actions and choices. As a result of this, God began to take the kingdom away from Solomon - and eventually all but Judah revolted against his son. But even while Solomon was alive God began to do something to him and his kingdom. He began to raise up “adversaries” against Him. Before chapter 11 is over we read that there were two different adversaries that God raised up to discipline Israel. These adversaries began fighting against Israel militarily. But they did not fight with a full war - but in ways that eerily match that of the current adversaries of the United States. The type of problems they caused were by being “marauding bands” against Israel. They would attack an unsuspecting town and wreak havoc against it - killing people and destroying homes. These were the precursors to the type of terrorist activity we see in our day. Let me be very clear with you. I believe that ISIS and Al-Qaeda are adversaries that God Himself has raised up against the United States of America. These groups have been allowed to strike us - and the rest of the West in order to be a disciplinary measure to help wake us up. What is happening in our world in regard to these two groups is that they are being allowed to be a kind of marauding band among us. It is truly a sad thing to watch - because if I am interpreting accurately what our response is - it is not good. Instead of reacting with horror and repentance toward God for our gross sins against Him and His holiness and Word, we are reacting with anger toward our enemies - and a doubling down in wickedness. We are NOT turning toward the Lord - but we are hiding our heads in the sand. We think that we are winning this battle - that this is just the JV team that we are beating. But unless we repent and return to the Lord - this is only a small portion of what is coming our way. I fear that things are only going to get worse - with attacks that have biblical proportions to them. God said through His prophets that things would happen to Israel that would make their hands hang limp. They would be the kind of things that would blow the minds of the people of Israel. And I fear that our continued and amped up rebellion is only making such a future inevitable for our nation. I fear that in the days to come there is going to be a destruction that will make our earlier discipline seem like nothing in comparison. We are going to face a military defeat or a disaster on our own shores that will make our mouths hang open and our ears tingle as we hear of it. It will be greater than that which happened to us earlier on 9/11. I do not rejoice in this - but instead want to weep and wail over what is going to happen. I love this country and do not desire its destruction. I love our military and do not want to see it demolished. But if we do not repent and return to God - that is what is in our future. I don’t know of any timetable - nor is this meant to be some sort of prophetic warning. It is just a clear understanding of the Scriptures and of how God deals with those who turn from Him in rebellion. To close out this article - I want to answer a question that some of you may have. What can we do? How can we avoid this? I am not sure we can avoid it - because our sin is stacked to the heavens - and we’ve shed innocent blood on our land unlike any nation before us. But our own hope is in repentance and return to God. I truly believe with all my heart that our choices are revival or ruin. I would urge everyone to pick up some sort of study that deals with repentance and return. A good one I’ve used recently is called, “Fresh Encounter” by Henry Blackaby. But a study alone is not what we need - we need action - brokenness - true repentance - and a radical return to God. The things we are seeing and the sense of inevitability that is brooding upon our land and indeed upon the world lately is because our God and Father will not be merciful forever. There is a day of reckoning - especially for the church who should know better. May God grant us a heart broken over sin and rebellion and a shock and horror of how far we have gone individually and corporately into sin. May He graciously work in our hearts and may we see true repentance in the days ahead. It is truly our only hope in this hour. I awoke this morning to the same news many of you did, that the enemy of our nation, Osama Bin Laden, has been killed by our armed forces. Just like all of you this news made me proud of our armed forces and those in our Intelligence Community who worked so hard to find and dispose of this mass murderer. I am grateful that this man is no longer out there plotting new and more horrific terrorist actions that seek to destroy innocent citizens. Now he is facing the judgment of God—not in the presence of 72 virgins, but in hell where all those who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ will face their eternal demise. I do not delight in this end for him – for I wish that he had come to Christ and had been saved as a result of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now let me share something that may not paint so rosy a picture. I share this only because I have a bad feeling that all this will blind us to what is really going on—and was the whole reason for Bin Laden’s rise to prominence as an adversary of the United States. Many, in light of the recent events of Osama Bin Laden’s death, have viewed this as a tremendous victory for the United States. I even heard one commentator call this a sign that the United States is not on the decline. If that is how the majority of people in our nation see this, as a sign that we are now on the rise, they really don’t get why Bin Laden ever came on the scene in the first place. To help you understand where I am coming from I will take you to a section of Scripture that will help illumine us to God’s purposes in all this. In First Kings chapter 11 we read of how Solomon’s heart turned from the Lord. Solomon married many foreign women who in turn led his heart from following the Lord. He began worshipping other gods because of the influence of these women (something God warned of in the book of Deuteronomy). As a result of Solomon’s sin—we read the following in verse14. “Then the LORD raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the royal line in Edom.” It is wise for us to see that due to the sin of God’s people—GOD raised up this adversary. It was in fulfillment of God’s promise to discipline His people if they turned away from Him. Before we leave this chapter of Scripture it would behoove us to also look at verses 23-25 as well, “God also raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah. He gathered men to himself and became leader of a marauding band, after David slew them of Zobah; and they went to Damascus and stayed there, and reigned in Damascus. So he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, along with the evil that Hadad did; and he abhorred Israel and reigned over Aram.” Solomon and Israel had a problem on their hands. It seems that two people, Hadad and Rezon, were causing serious problems for Israel. When I read of Rezon’s actions, I see an eerie parallel to what we are experiencing today. Rezon had a “marauding band” of men who did evil in Israel similar to the evil that Hadad was doing. One might even see them as an ancient counterpart to the terrorists that are causing so much trouble today. Yet the part of this passage that causes me the most discomfort is the statement that God was the One Who raised up these two, might we go as far to say, terrorists. His reasons for doing so were that Solomon and Israel had turned from Him and turned to other Gods. They had turned to Ashtoreth and her sexually immoral worship. They had turned to Baal and the sexual immorality that attended his rituals. They had turned to Molech who required his followers to offer up their infant children as part of their worship. Because of these things God began to discipline Solomon and Israel. They did not listen – but continued in their ways – and the result was Israel’s demise. If, during that time, either Hadad or Rezon had been caught and killed, Israel would have rejoiced. They may have even broken into spontaneous choruses of “God bless Israel” on their streets and in the subways. Yet in spite of their adversary being brought to justice, they would have missed the whole point of God’s purpose in raising up such an adversary in the first place. God did not raise up these men to help Israel become more patriotic – he raised them up to wake up Israel and bring her to repentance. He wanted Israel to notice that they were no longer protected by God. This was because Israel had lost favor with God – DUE TO HER SIN. If these “terrorists” were killed – God would only raise up new ones because His purpose in all this was to bring Israel to repentance. No repentance and return to God – no end to the adversaries that would be raised up to get her attention. Now, let me take what has been said to this point and apply it to our current situation. What I am about to say will upset many. Let me state here that I am a patriot – and that I bleed red, white, and blue. But we need to face facts today – biblical facts. Our greatest enemy is not – nor has it ever been Osama Bin Laden. What is destroying the United States is not a terrorist or any group of terrorists. What is destroying our nation is the sin which we have embraced. We have turned from the Lord and turned to our own set of false gods. We have worshipped materialism, power, money, and sex in America. Since we have called ourselves a “Christian nation” (which I believe is accurate due to how our forefathers founded this country), we need to realize that all Bin Laden was to us was a manifestation of God’s discipline and call for us to repent and return to Him. Yes, Bin Laden is dead – but God can raise up a thousand more just like him to continue our discipline. The truth is that there are already thousands of other Radical Islamic terrorists who want nothing more than to destroy our nation and our way of life. But our problem is not Radical Islam either. It is our sin – it is our immorality – it is the murder of the innocents that we call abortion on demand – it is our embrace of homosexuality – it is the lack of God’s power, prayer, and passion for the gospel in His church. I am going to be bold enough to say that God did not allow Osama Bin Laden’s discovery and subsequent destruction so that we could sing patriotic songs and think that we’re back on the rise as a nation. My guess is that this will become clear in the next 6-12 months. During that time I fear that terrorism will rise and new attacks will happen on American soil. I fear that our financial system will continue to deteriorate if not collapse altogether. I fear that things like famine and plague may strike our nation in ways that we’ve never seen before. If we think that this has happened so that we can rejoice and celebrate without repentance and brokenness, without tearful confession of sin, without calls to prayer for revival in the church and awakening among the lost, we are doomed. This has happened to show brief mercy in the midst of God’s discipline. That discipline will continue if God’s desired purpose of repentance and return are not embraced in the church and in our nation. I will end this article by asking a question. With this event have we seen repentance among God’s people today? With this event have we experienced a greater conviction that our nation is on the wrong track morally and spiritually? With this event have we watched a turn from worshipping the gods of our culture, sexual immorality, homosexuality, and abortion to name a few, and a turn instead to the God of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as His message to the whole world? If we are not watching these things happen, I would strongly suggest that what we will watch is God, raising up an even more formidable adversary to continue His discipline until we do repent? May God bless America . . . with a repentant, broken, praying church who has returned to Him with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength. |
 What is the Prophecy/News Update?At Calvary Chapel of Jonesboro, we believe that history is moving toward fulfilling God's plans and purposes. In an effort to help us be prepared for His appearing - and also to chronicle news items you just won't see in the national media - this page is devoted to sharing those items and their possible significance to 
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