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God
gave mankind only Ten Commandments, and provided a corollary set of two laws
that summarize the Ten by imparting a most necessary ingredient to the obedience
to God – LOVE! “35 Then
one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting
him, and saying, 36 Master,
which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
(Matt 22:35-40)
Some have argued that these two stipulations to the Law somehow modified the
Ten Commandments, or changed them. Not so! They made obedience to them even
more rigid. Something was ADDED thereto, and that was LOVE. First, we must love
God. This is evidenced in our keeping of the first table of the Ten
Commandments. Then we must love others as evidenced in our keeping the second
table. How simple is the government of God in advancing these Ten Commandments
and not a thousand laws instead!
In
a simpler age of our nation, there were more than two million Federal laws on
the books. Today that number of laws would be profoundly higher. Justice always
suffers when laws proliferate in a nation. Legality of action becomes confused
and the practice of enforcing ‘select’ laws against political opponents become
commonplace. We have reached that point in our American government; and justice
is denied some, and for others, laws are enforced to favor the friends of the
political rulers.
But
our God is a God of Justice. He is also a God of mercy, grace, and clemency to
those whom He claims as His elect people. But God still exacts justice in all
cases of sin. It was to satisfy the Law of the Justice of God that Christ came
to pay the penalty for the sins that we deserved to suffer and die for.
Often,
the Children of Israel were rebuked by God for their careless disobedience to
God. He sent prophets to warn them. They rejected the prophets, and killed some
of them. He brought famine and draught upon His disobedient people; yet, they
continued in sin and a spiraling spiritual decadence. He gave them over to
bondage for a time. Once freed from that bondage in Babylon, the old Israel
never regained her former grandeur in government of man, or of their Lord.
Finally, following the crucifixion of our Lord, Israel was finally and
completely conquered and Jerusalem sacked and burned around 70 Anno Domini.
There was not left a stone standing upon the other of the Temple.
Of
one thing we can always be certain – that is the JUDGMENT of God on an apostate
people! He may send Godly ministers to warn the people, followed by a gradually
escalating series of tragedies revealing His hand of Judgment. At any point in
this matter, the people of God have available to themselves the mercy and grace
of God if they do as commanded in Chronicles: “If my people, which are
called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7:14) But there comes a point in
time at which judgment becomes assured. As in old Israel, the innocent suffer
with the wicked as will be the same case in the modern Israel of God.
In
2007, a great storm struck the southeast of the United States. It spawned a
tornado that destroyed the high school in Enterprise, Alabama. I was present at
the school when the storm struck killing eight students. As the storm struck,
some of the administrators moved under their desks for shelter and began
praying to be spared. That was the right thing to do; however, these same
administrators forbid the children in public schools the benefit of prayer to
protect themselves from such grave calamities. I mentioned that God had been
disinvited from every public forum in America and, therefore, we have no right
to expect God to protect us in places from which He has been exiled. There was
an avalanche of backlash to my letter – mostly from sweet-talking ministers.
They said that my comments were nonsense, and that God did not send tornadoes
to kill innocent children. Of course, I had not said that. I said that we have
no right to ask God’s protection in places from which He has been denied
entrance.
It
is quite noteworthy to observe the natural catastrophes that have beset America
since denying public prayers, and allowing the murder of innocent children in
their mother’s womb. We lost our first war during this era – Vietnam. Victory
was won by our troops on the battlefield, but that victory was forfeited by
political intrigue and big money interests.
Look
at the shambles and degradation to which our social order has been lowered. We
imprison more of our citizens than any other industrial power. Our children do
not know God. They wonder in a moral morass the likes of which we have never
before witnessed as a people. They are addicted to drugs, immoral sex
(including the disgusting practice of homosexuality), alcoholism, deranged
music and language, etc. The streets of our cities are filled with beggars,
homeless people, criminals, and the decay of formerly alabaster structures. Our
monuments honoring our past are being destroyed by fascist-minded rebels paid
for by the enemies of freedom.
Please
remember the Twin Towers of New York (WORLD TRADE CENTER) which represented the
ultimate in our economic stature. In two hours, these were brought to ruin
before the eyes of the world. Men “Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that
great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And saying, Alas, alas, that
great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked
with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! And they cast dust on their heads,
and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein
were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for
in one hour is she made desolate.” (Revelations 18:10,16,19). The entire city of New York, indeed,
every state of a Godless land, can likewise be destroyed in ONE HOUR if God
deems it needful.
The
destruction of the pride of New York, I believe, was an early warning to
America. I am reminded of similar warnings given to ancient Israel: “And
there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and
streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.”
(Isaiah 30:25). “And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes
he shall break down thy towers.” (Ezekiel 26:9). “A day of the trumpet and alarm
against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.” (Zephaniah 1:16) “I
have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets
waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no
man, that there is none inhabitant.” (Zephaniah 3:6).
We
must look, too, to the natural disasters besetting our country – forest fires,
earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. Many simply disregard as irrelevant the fact that
a large so-called ‘gay’ pride (homosexual) parade was scheduled for Monday in
New Orleans following the Friday in which the city was destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina (29 August 2005). The parade did not take place just as surely that no parades happened in
Sodom after Lot and his daughters were driven out of that sinful city. We are
continually being subjected to whirlwinds of judgment resulting in great floods
and loss of life and property. Hurricane Harvey has just passed through Texas
and Louisiana leaving a trail of ruin in its path. And just this past weekend,
another storm of unsurpassed intensity – Erma – has laid waste to the Florida
peninsula leaving flood waters and ruined hopes behind. These may be the
incidental tides of nature, but they seem to come on us at a time when our
morals have sunk to the lowest level of any nation on earth today.
God
has often used such natural phenomena to both awaken and to destroy a people
and nation. “For they sow the wind
And they reap the whirlwind The standing grain has no heads; It yields no
grain. Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.” (Hosea 8:7). “The
LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave
the guilty unpunished In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the
dust beneath His feet” (Nahum 1:3). “"Behold,
the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will
swirl down on the head of the wicked.” (Jeremiah 23:19).
Well,
friend, if you have read thus far, you know what meaning I have attached to the
biblical prophecies; and you have read many relevant verses as well. It may be
true that I have misinterpreted the will and intent of God for our nation, but,
then again, I may have read His Word aright. If God does delay, or foregoes,
the punishment of America for her wickedness in the modern day, why would He
make such an exception when He has executed judgment on so many others of the
past for the same sins?
America,
turn away from the dark path and turn to the former light that led us on from
our primitive founding as a nation among the nations of the earth.
