MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN and the USA

Part III

By Jason Lovelace

 

 

Key Scriptures:

“And this is the writing that was written.  Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.　This is the interpretation of the thing…Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”

– Daniel 5.２5, 26, 27

 

“Righteousness exalteth a nation:  but sin is a reproach to any people”

– Proverbs 14.34

 

“For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them…For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah:  their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.”

– Deuteronomy 32.28, 32-33

 

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:  I would that thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;’ and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.  As may as I love, I rebuke and chasten:  be zealous therefore, and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:  if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.  He that hath　an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches.”

– Revelation 3.15-22

 

For decades, the United States of America was known as the place to live if one wanted to live in freedom.  In the USA, every man is free to do as he or she chooses, live as he or she wishes to live, and climb the ladder to the proverbial “American Dream”.  Throughout her history, the United States of America was a bastion of not only freedom and the ideology of equality for all, but she was also the eminent example of a country bound my good morals, based by solid traditions, ruled by laws made by the people, of the people, and for the people.  The USA was also known as a Christian, God-glorifying nation which, as a result, God had blessed time and time again.  Though not quite like the Jews and later Israelis, of whom God made direct and specific promises, the United States of America has undoubtedly been blessed, and the hand of the Almighty clearly seen in her way of life.  Because the US of A elected leaders who respected God, kept God first in all things, and – on many occasions – actively sought his direction, God, in turn, blessed the USA.  Because the people respected God’s laws, taught them, his Son, and his Word in Public School, thereby giving succeeding generations a firm, moral foundation, God, in turn, blessed each succeeding generation.  Tragically, those days are now over, and God has placed the USA, once again, in the crosshairs of his just wrath and holy judgment.  As the passage from Daniel States, God has weighed the United States in the Balance, and we are being found desperately wanting.

 

A Fateful Event; A Monumental Case; A Catastrophic Decision

In 1962, Madeline Murray O’Hair – an avowed atheist – brought before the Supreme Court of the United States of America a case involving her son and his public school’s practice of Bible Teaching and Prayer Time.  Declaring that such practice violated the separation clause of the Constitution of the United States of America, Ms. O’Hair sought the end and banning of public prayer and Bible Study in public schools.  Incredibly, Ms. O’Hair’s plea was upheld, and the Supreme Court of the USA edicted that Administration-Led Prayer and Bible Study in public school were unconstitutional and thereby banned.  For one hundred and eighty-six years prior to this decision, God had been welcomed into school and taught to students of every age and grade level., yet in one swift stroke, the dam was burst, and – quite literally – all hell broke loose.  Further decisions by the Supreme Court strengthened this decision, to the point that students must wade through a sea of red tape in order to start a student-led Bible or other Christian Club, must meet in a non-essential room, and must start either long before regular school hours or long after.  Teachers who bring a Bible to class or to school – even to study or read on their break time or planning period – face immediate termination of employment, or, at best, suspension without pay.  While these results are in and of themselves monumental, what has been the fall-out of this “victory” by atheists and Ms. O’Hair?  Further, what does God’s written Word, the Bible, have to say about all of this?

 

Peace, Love, Drugs, Sex, and Rock-`N-Roll

Changes in U.S. society – amazingly – changed almost overnight.  In fact, within just a few months of this decision and case, violence – in the form of a school shooting at the University of Texas and a Presidential assassination in Dallas, Texas, along with a military crisis between the USA and the Soviet Union (which nearly brought both to nuclear blows) – became a thing all too familiar.  By the end of the decade of the 1960s, in which this decision was made, two more national leaders had been assassinated (Robert F. Kennedy, brother of slain President John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.), United States’ Military involvement in Vietnam had greatly escalated, with the USA becoming involved in Cambodia and Laos as well before the decade was out.  However, as monumental as these all were, the greatest changes came in society itself.  While Rock and Roll music had been around since the 1950s (with Bill Halley and the Comets being the first true Rock Band in the USA), it hit all new levels of both popularity and moral decay in the 1960s.  The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimmie Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Doors, Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, and others began singing on social mores, glorifying rebellion against parents, use of drugs, sex, and any other pleasurable outlet open and available.  Drugs and the drug culture sprang up in the 1960s, ushering in a new wave of societal degradation and decay.  Also in the 1960s was the so-called sexual revolution, and with the introduction of “the ‘pill’” – birth control – more and more people at younger and younger ages began experimenting with sex.  With all of this came “peace” marches and “peace” rallies with people “protesting” against the war in Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia.  Probably the most immediate decadent examples of this decision to excuse God from public school were the “rock ‘festivals’” held at a field in Woodstock, New York.  Though touting such big music names as Jimmie Hendrix and Janis Joplin, to name a couple, these festivals were really nothing more than sex, drug, and decadent orgies of the most morally bankrupt displays.  People in their late teens to early thirties and forties camped out in any manner of shelter indulging themselves in drug-induced oblivion, sexual orgies of the worst kinds, alcohol-induced hazes, and relishing in rebellion and disobedience.  It is also not surprising that during all of this that young men, called up for military duty (and usually sent to Southeast Asia) through Selective Service, began a practice that would carry through until the end of the Vietnam War:  draft-dodging.  It also brought out Hollywood Stars who openly and brazenly showed their true colors (enter “Hanoi” Jane Fonda).  By the end of the 1960s, the USA looked far different from the country it was at the end of the 1950s.

 

Like Sliding Down a Greased Pole

The slide into moral and Spiritual decadence has only increased as the years have worn on.  Along with further and further Supreme Court cases further and further alienating God form public school, in 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision also changed the social and moral fiber and character of the United States forever:  for the first time in history, killing an unborn baby (merely for convenience) became legal and declared constitutionally protected.  Homosexuality – once declared a mental disease by the American Psychiatric Society – was declared to be a normal mental reality, and steps have been undertaken ever since to declare homosexuality to be natural and acceptable.  Though in 31 states in the USA (including California in 2008 and Maine in 2009) have declared homosexual “marriage” illegal, in other states (Massachusetts and Vermont) it has been declared legal by State Courts.  Further, other deviant lifestyles – such as “threesomes” and “man-boy ‘love’” – have come to the fore in American Society.  Divorce – once a pariah – has now become easy and guiltless since the advent of the “no fault” Divorce.  More than half of first-time marriages in the USA now wind up in divorce court.  Since the sexual revolution in the 1960s, sex is literally portrayed everywhere.  Television – once portraying virtues such as sexual purity as positive – now portrays sex as a casual act with no attachments, responsibilities, or consequences of any kind being shown.  Movies – falling under a rating system in the 1970s – now portray full frontal nudity, sex acts, and sexual themes in movies rated “PG” (with any manner of sexuality portrayed in movies with freer ratings, such as “R” and “NC-17”).  Sex is even used as an advertising strategy, and with the advent of home movie sites – such as YouTube – common people are now getting into the swing (no pun intended) of creating sexually licentious movies.  Music – at one time singing mostly of puppy love between sweethearts and bubble-gum crushes between boys and girls – now regularly speak of sex acts in one form or another, with music videos being even heavily  sexually graphic.  Violence in television and movies has also escalated – or, rather, degraded.  Where once the worst violence was someone being shot with little or no blood being seen, movies and television programs now offer portrayals of people being dismembered, usually in grisly fashion.  Movies such as the Saw series (Saw VI released this past Halloween [2009] to great appeal, and movies such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and My Bloody Valentine have all been “re-envisioned” with even more blood, violence, and gore than their originals), Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, and television programs such as NYPD Blue have all been landmark events, all being avenues through which violence (and sex, sickeningly enough) has escalated in every genre of film, particularly horror, military, and action films.

 

The Pied Piper of Hamlin

As in the old children’s story of the piper who played a tune and caused all the children to follow him out of town, so today Americans are following the “pied pipers” of the media.  Since the 1960s, when prayer was outlawed in public school, American society has spiraled almost out of control.  In the early and Golden Days of Television, family values were always portrayed prominently and positively.  The role of the Television Dad was one of authority, wisdom, and respect to be given him (“Father Knows Best”, “The Andy Griffith Show”, “My Three Sons”, “The Beverly Hillbillies”).  Children were portrayed as obedient to parents giving them the respect they deserved and the love due them.  Wives and mothers were portrayed as partners with the husband and father, supportive of him even if she disagreed with him.  The family was shown as a cohesive unit.  Even into the 70s and early 80s, the family and parents were portrayed in positive manners, figures of authority to be honored and obeyed, even if disagreements arose (“Little House on the Prairie”, “The Brady Bunch”, “The Partridge Family”, “The Waltons”, “Happy Days”, “Eight Is Enough”, “The Cosby Show”).  In these television shows, God was honored or – at the very least – acknowledged, church and pastor uplifted and respected, and deviant values mocked and laughed at (probably everyone who has seen an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” is familiar with the character of Oscar, the town drunk).  However, somewhere along the way, things changed.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, American Media introduced us to “Married:  With Children” and Al Bundy, a television show which mocked the family and knocked around moral values.  Al Bundy, the father of the family was shown to be an ignorant, selfish buffoon.  Peggy Bundy, the mother, was portrayed as a dim-witted airhead who cared less for her family than herself.  The children – a daughter and a son – were shown to be immoral sexpots and unintelligent morons.  The neighbors were portrayed as intrusive, grating, and troublesome.  Anything religious or Christian in nature was cast aside as irrelevant if portrayed at all.  About the same time, an animation called “The Simpsons” came along, furthering this notion of a dimwit father deserving of reproach and disobedience, and a sheltered and sheltering mother who didn’t have a clue as to real life around her.  Tragically enough, the “hero” of the show, Bart Simpson, is regularly portrayed as a loser, a rebel, and a conniving boy who relishes in mischief, and thumbs his nose at any authority he tends to encounter.  As if “Married…” wasn’t bad enough, “The Simpsons” introduced the character of Ned Flanders, a Christian neighbor of the Simpson “family” who seems more bookish, less heroic, and more cumbersome and troublesome to his community than anyone deserving of the title of Follower of Jesus Christ (the Flanders are actually portrayed as more akin to Mormons and their beliefs, than actually Christian).  Following the immense popularity of these shows, others of a similar nature and genre began to appear, such as “Seinfeld”, “Friends”, “Beavis and Butthead”, “South Park”, “Beverly Hills 90210” and others which, in an ever increasing (or, decreasing, rather) nature continued to portray anything as morally right, traditionally good, and Christian as things to be rejected out of hand, narrow and limiting, or, at the very least, ignorant and totally naïve.  Deviant lifestyles, such as those uplifting adultery, homosexuality, immorality of all kinds, murder, violence, death, drug use and abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, and other illicit and sinful lifestyles have been portrayed as positive and even heroic.  More and more television shows have not only a tolerated and accepted, but embraced homosexuality, single motherhood, and unmarried couple living together despite sociological statistics, medical reports, and psychological analyses showing the opposite.  Biblical truth has been downgraded, displaced, and mocked as “old fashioned”, yet despite Television’s attempt to make light of the above, the fact remains that deviant lifestyles produce a myriad of problems.  Like the children following the Pied Piper, Americans today are following television and emulating lifestyles that will eventually lead to nowhere but destruction.

 

Movies and “Sports”

If morals have taken a tumble in Television, as far as movies are concerned, the slide has become more like and avalanche.  In the past, especially in the Golden Age of movies between the 1940s and the end of the 1960s, movies, again, generally portrayed Christianity, The Church, Christian Values, the traditional family, and Pastors and Clergy in positive modes.  In fact, from this time period, we have such great movies as “The Ten Commandments”, “Ben Hur”, “Quo Vadis” “Barabbas” and other such movies which not only positively portrayed Biblical and Christian Values, but lent support in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a great degree.  In movie productions that weren’t based on the Bible, Christian values were openly upheld with respect and honor, the name of Jesus Christ being given admiration at best, and honorable indifference at the very least.  But then things changed.  As with Television and its downward spiral, movies and cinema productions also took on more and more deviant themes, uplifting violence and gore, even to the point of portraying grisly scenes of murder and dismemberment.  Even horror films form the 1980s – movies that were considered horribly violent and brutal – have been remade with even more blood, greater violence, and even more grisly scenes of death and dismemberment.  Whereas in the Golden Age of film, we had movies that positively portrayed Bible Stories, we now have movies such as “The DaVinci Code”, and its sequel, “Angels and Demons”, and “The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ” which openly blaspheme the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and call into question his Holiness and his teachings.  And movie and cinematic productions coming out of Hollywood continue to get worse and worse, all the while, Americans flock to them in ever greater numbers.  What was once an art form that uplifted or in the worst cases, treated with belligerent respect, the values as found in the Bible, we now have movies that openly question, mock, and ridicule the Name of Jesus Christ, many movies blaspheming him.  In the world of Sports, we are seeing more and more acceptance of the barbaric United Fighting Championships (UFC) and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).  Unlike other sports – including boxing – where blood and brutality often end the contest, and where the violence is often regulated (such as in American Football), in MMA scenes of horrifying violence and blood spilling are not only encouraged, but viewed with glee and joy by the fans in the stands.  Fighting and contests that would have warranted arrests and jail sentences are now being accepted and embraced with ever greater numbers of people filling into arenas and stadiums to watch.  Even in the area of Professional Wrestling, blood and violence are encouraged, along with acts of sexual deviance and whoremongering being shown and portrayed as positive.  How much longer will it be before such arenas and venues are used for another type of “blood ‘sport’” which was popular two thousand years ago, that of executing Christians in the arena before bloodthirsty mobs?

 

When In Rome…

All of the above brings back to mind Ancient Rome.  What started out as a Republic, built by the people and for the people gradually, over several centuries, became a cesspool of debauchery, anarchy, corruption, and deviant lifestyles.  Though they were stopped in the 4th Century by Caesar Constantine, the Gladiatorial Games and Contests more and more became spectacles of blood, mayhem, and scenes of grisly executions of criminals…especially those of a new sort of “Crime”, Christianity.  So great was the lust for these games, these visions of blood and death to the Roman Mob that coliseums and amphitheatres sprung up and were built across the Empire, from the Cold North of Britain to the subtropical areas of Mesopotamia.  Even today, in the large centers of commerce and trade for Ancient Rome, these coliseums and stadiums glorifying “the games” can be seen, the greatest of these being in Rome itself, and having a seating capacity that matches many sports stadiums in the world today.  When we look at modern America, do we not see the same thing?  In 2009, New York City built a brand new Yankee Stadium for Yankees Baseball team.  Along with this new stadium, we see one for the New York Mets baseball Team, the New York Jets and Giants football teams, and arenas for the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Nets, and the New York Islanders.  Many other great and large cities in the USA boast similar types of arenas and stadiums.  Some colleges and universities have stadiums and arenas that dwarf many professional teams, and even high schools are getting into the same mix.  The sad and tragic aspect of these places is not in the fact that sports teams play in them or people come to watch, but how much and often these places are filled.  On any given Sunday in the USA, these stadiums are often filled to overflowing, while church membership has been in a startling downward spiral for the last two decades at the very least.  More often than not, arenas will be filled with people wanting to know a coach’s strategy, or wanting to watch a team’s game plan or game tactics, rather than in the House of God learning the eternal Word and Gospel that is capable to save.  More people will go to see a sports match between two rivals, filling stadiums to overflowing, rather than hear a famous pastor preach the inerrant Word of God.  And the world of sports isn’t alone in this.  When famous and popular musicians tour, stadiums, arenas, venues, even public parks in larger cities, are filled to overflowing, yet advertise similarly for a famous preacher or pastor, and the crowds are dismally small by comparison.  American Culture – yea, Western Culture and the Technologically Advanced areas of the World – is more and more mirroring that of ancient Rome.  Even the internet, a tool created to make access to information and learning, as well as communication, easier for people has become a cesspool for all forms of pornography, terrorism, evil, and debauchery.  It is said that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two perpetrators of the Columbine Slayings in 1999, found the recipes for their pipe bombs on the internet, and that Al Qaeda and the Taliban, along with other terrorist and Muslim organizations, regularly use the internet for recruitment of new members.

 

The USA – The Home of the Laodicean Church

This attitude of “When in Rome…” has even affected the Church of Jesus Christ in the United States of America.  As Media and Society has withdrawn itself from the truth of Jesus Christ, so, too, has the church gone right after them.  No longer is it acceptable in many mainline church denominations to proclaim Jesus as the Only Way to the Father (John 14.6); other ways being explored, even in denominations that were once strong in Biblical Doctrine and teaching.  No longer do pastors regularly teach and preach on the dangers of sin; nowadays, most pastors don’t even use the word “Sin” treating it similarly to a curse word.  More and more seminaries are tuning out teaching of Holiness in favor of an all-inclusive Gospel that offends no-one yet accepts every lifestyle as “normal” and even “Christ-like”.  Fewer and fewer churches are preaching on the dangers of Hell, the reality of the Lake of Fire, and the destructiveness of the Devil; instead, we are hearing messages, sermons, and teachings that include everyone being saved, whether they want to be or not.  Even deviant lifestyles that were once declared and viewed as abhorrent are now being openly embraced.  In 2oo2, for the first time in history, an openly practicing homosexual man was elevated to the second-highest office in the Episcopalian Church and Anglican Fellowship.  Eugene Vickie Robinson, an Episcopalian priest from New England was declared and installed as Bishop, regional prelate, and diocese leader for several states in the Northeastern USA.  More and more churches and church denominations in the USA have followed suit, and have ordained and consecrated openly homosexual church leaders, despite the fact that the Bible speaks clearly against homosexuality and living a homosexual lifestyle.  Even further, many church denominations, startlingly enough, have also questioned the sinfulness of premarital sex.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PC-USA), in its annual national assembly, began to question whether or not premarital sex was sinful.  In later assemblies and meetings, the PC-USA later declared premarital sex as not sinful, and, in the years since, has also opened the way for practicing homosexuals and those living in an unmarried relationship to be church leaders and pastors.  In our key from Revelation for today, we see Christ’s attitude towards the Laodecian Church.  Are we not living in such an age?  Has not the church thrown out the Gospel of Holiness, the Truth of Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine of the Bible?  Even the great Billy Graham is said to have questioned whether or not there really is a Hell and alluded, in a video feed to the Crystal Cathedral and a service led by Robert Schuller, that Jesus Christ really wasn’t the only way.  Is this not the epitome of the Spirit of the Church of Laodicea?  Is not the Lord Jesus Christ himself ready to pew the lukewarm American version of His Church out of his mouth, should we continue down this apostate road?

 

“But Turn And Thou Shalt See Greater Abominations…”

As if all of this weren’t bad enough, we have seen political leaders and government administrators come and be elected to office who, a generation ago, would have been (and often were) laughed out of contention.  In the 1980s, Senator Gary Hart made a strong, challenging bid to be president in 1984.  In 1988, he again made a strong, near-successful bid.  Then, out of nowhere, his challenge came to an abrupt halt when allegations of infidelity and photos of him carrying on with a mistress came to light.  In 1992, the United States Electorate placed into office then-Arkansas Governor William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton, despite the fact that eleven women had accused the governor of sexual misconduct, and several in-state conservative groups warning the general population concerning his carrying on as Governor.  Mr. Clinton’s administration would prove to be the most immoral in history to that point, allowing homosexuals to serve in the military under a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy; further strengthening the advocacy of special homosexual rights and furthering the homosexual agenda; lending strength and giving American Tax Dollars to such organizations as the National Organization for Women, a rabid and extreme feminist group which supports lesbianism and abortion on demand; strengthening abortion on demand through the funneling of US taxpayer money to groups such as Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, and other pro-abortion groups, all the while attempting to dismantle pro-life groups and organizations; initiating Hate Crimes Legislation, enabling special crimes charges to be laid at the feet of those who commit crimes against minorities, including those choosing deviant lifestyles; and lending support and recognition to groups and organizations which seek to totally separate Christianity and Jesus Christ from Government.  It was under President Clinton’s watch that homosexuality became more and more accepted in media, that abortions on demand occurred in an alarming rate, and that drug use and abuse reversed form the decline it had undergone during the Reagan years and First Lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say ‘No!’” program.  As if this wasn’t bad enough, the US came within a hair’s breadth of electing to office Mr. Clinton’s left-of-left Vice-President Al Gore of Tennessee.  After eight years of leadership under President George W. Bush in which much of Mr. Clinton’s proposals and actions were reversed, including the passage in both Houses of the US Congress the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, outlawing the barbaric practice of killing a partially born baby, the USA, in November 2008, elected to office the most liberal US Senator and Presidential Candidate in History, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama.  During his campaign for president, Mr. Obama has promised to tear down the laws established by the previous Bush administration concerning Homosexuality (he made a speech to homosexuals in 2009 promising to revisit “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” and eliminate it, allowing homosexuals to practice their deviations and abominable lifestyle openly in the US Military, as well as revisiting state-by-state bans on homosexual “marriage”), Abortion (he has promised Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice America, among other pro-abortion groups, to enact the Freedom of Choice Act [FOCA], a law which would totally reverse any and all previous pro-life statutes and bans, further entrenching abortion as the law of the land in the USA), Freedom of Religion in Public School (already he has criticized several lawmakers and governors for attempting to reinstitute prayer and Biblical Study in public school, all the while saying nothing concerning the teaching of Hinduism, TM, and Islam – all on the public’s dime – at state universities and public schools across the land), and has already pandered to Islam by apologizing for the USA’s stance on Christian values, going so far as to state in a speech abroad that he USA is no longer a Christian Nation (with the above facts could he be correct on this one?).  This situation is very similar to what happened in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Following a time of Civil Strife, the people of Israel supported a man named Omri, a general in the Northern Kingdom’s Army, as he sought to become king.  With the peoples’ support, he defeated two rivals and was crowned king, establishing himself first ion the city of Tirzah, and later founding and building the city of Samaria as his capital.  The Book of First Kings states this about King Omri:

 

“But Omri wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him…he made Israel to sin, and to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities.”

– 1st Kings 16.25-26

 

Does not President Clinton easily fit this description?  Was it not under his administration that the United States fully turned the corner on homosexual “rights” empowering them to take the steps that they’ve taken?  Was it not President Clinton who ;led the charge against pro-life organizations by further strengthening Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice America, NARAL, and other pro abortion organizations?  Was it not President Clinton who helped to malign the Church of Jesus Christ in the USA by allowing laws to pass and issuing Presidential Executive Orders against Christianity?  While, yes, it is true that there were Presidents before Mr. Clinton who made very bad choices, or let them stand (President Kennedy and the Supreme Court Decision against Prayer in Public School, and President Nixon and the Rose v. Wade Decision of 1973), none of them advocated the kind of evil, debauchery, and abomination that President Clinton supported.  As a modern parallel in the USA, King Omri has no other prime subject than President Clinton.  However, if the reign of King Omri wasn’t bad enough, his son and his son’s reign were even worse.  Here is what the Bible has to say:

 

“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.  And it came to pass, as if it were a light thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.  And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.  And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”

– 1st Kings 16.30-33

 

If President Clinton can so easily be compared with King Omri of Ancient Samaria, then cannot President Barack Hussein Obama be just as easily compared to King Ahab?  Has not President Obama stated clearly that the United States of America is not a Christian Nation, when his predecessors, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and others so clearly declared otherwise?  Has President Obama not re-opened the federal dollar spicket, sending Us Taxpayer dollars overseas to help fund abortions on demand in third world and developing countries?  Has he not advocated making abortion one of the included clauses in his National Health Care scheme?  Has the President not promised to make FOCA the law of the land, further adding to the already river sized flow of innocent blood, shed on America’s shores by abortion (to the tune of 50 million since 1973)?  Has Mr. Obama not promised to rid the military of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” scheme, and allow for the opening up of homosexuality as a preferred lifestyle in the military?  And all of this has been done in just the first year of Mr. Obama’s presidency:  he still has three more years (at least) to go., and has already done much to remove the statutes and laws that protect traditional American Values.

 

What God Has to Say

In the above Keys for Today, we already see a glimpse of God’s opinion of the kind of debauchery, hedonism, and sin that the USA embraces.  Here is what else God has to say…

 

“And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.  And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass.  And your strength shall be spent in vain:  for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the field yield their fruits.  And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.  I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.  And if ye will not be reformed by me by all these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.  And I will bring the sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant:  and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you: and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.”

– Leviticus 26.18-25

 

“Only rebel not ye against the Lord…”

– Numbers 14.9

 

“How long will this people provoke me?  And how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs I have shewed among them?  I will smite them with pestilence, and will disinherit them…”

– Numbers 14.11-12

 

“Your carcases shall fall…and all that were numbered of you, according to the whole number…which murmured against me…”

– Numbers 14.29

 

“…and ye shall fall by the sword; because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.”

– Numbers 14.43

 

“Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent...If these men die the common death of all men, if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent…But if the Lord make a new thing…then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.”

– Numbers 16.28-30

 

“…be sure your sin will find you out”

– Numbers 32.23

 

“So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are:  for blood it defileth the land:  and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein…Defile not the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children…”

– Numbers 35.34

 

“Then beware lest thou forget the Lord…”

– Deuteronomy 6.12

 

“…thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.  There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord:  and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them before thee.  Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.  For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto diviners:  but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee to do so.”

– Deuteronomy 18.9-14

 

“There shall be no whores of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.”

– Deuteronomy 23.17

 

“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all of his commandments which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:  Cursed thou shalt be in the city, and cursed thou shalt be in the field.  Cursed shall be thy basket and store.  Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.  Cursed thou shalt be when thou comest in and when thou goest out.  The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies…”

– Deuteronomy 28.15-19, 25

 

“Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods:  wherefore I will deliver you no more.  Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of tribulation.”

– Judges 10.13-14

 

“If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God:  but if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you…ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and turn not aside:  for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain…but if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.”

– 1st Samuel 12.14-15, 20-22, 25

 

“For as much as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel; and thou hast waked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins;  behold, I will take away thy posterity…and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat.  Him that dieth…in the city shall dogs eat; and him that dieth…in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat.”

– 1st Kings 16.2-4

 

“And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.  And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.  Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left…And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight…For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did; they departed not from them; until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets.  So Israel was carried out of their own land to Assyria unto this day…Unto this day they do after the former manners:  they fear not the Lord neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel…”

– 2nd Kings 17.16-20, 22-23, 34

 

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel:  which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  As we said before, so say I now again, ‘If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.’”

– Galatians 1.6-9

 

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?  This only would I learn of you…Are ye so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

– Galatians 3.1-3

 

“Be not deceived;  God is not mocked:  for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh receive corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

– Galatians 6.7-8

 

“But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as saints; neither filthiness, no foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God.  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.  Be not ye there fore partakers with them.”

– Ephesians 5.3-7

 

“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly, and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God…”

– 1st Timothy 1.8-11

 

There are many, many more Scripture passages that could be laid here, in testimony of God’s opinion of the debauchery and the sinfulness that has become the United States of America.  The warning is clear, the danger imminent:  God does not play games, and his Written Word is as clear as a bell concerning his attitude towards abomination and abominable practices, such as those espoused by much of American Society.

 

The Bottom Line – The USA is In Line for God’s Passage of Sentence

Many people think and wonder if the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, and the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C. were God’s Judgment on the USA.  What happened on that fateful day doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what God will allow to come to pass when nations, cultures, and civilizations turn their backs on God.  Both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah were wiped out and carried into captivity by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and were again destroyed by the Romans on two occasions because of their sinfulness.  Israel didn’t return as a nation for almost two thousand years.  Ancient Assyria, the civilization that conquered the northern half of Israel fell in similar fashion, followed by the Babylonians, then the Persians, Greek-Macedonians, Seleucids, and the Romans in ancient times.  Even in modern times, the nations that initially were strong in the Lord – such as Germany, France, Great Britain, and Austria – rose and declined.  As we have seen in the two previous lessons in this series, Mene and Mene II, the USA has risen, and is falling.  The Terrorist Attacks on September 11th, 2001 were just a foretaste of worse things to come should the United States of America continue on its sinful, depraved course.  A prominent Christian leader once stated, “If God doesn’t judge the USA very soon, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”  Such is the depravity of the USA.  The USA is in God’s crosshairs for the pouring out of his wrath.  It is no longer a matter of if, but when.

 

Conclusion – It’s Not Yet Too Late

God promises restoration and blessings if we will turn back to him as a nation:

 

“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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

– 2nd Chronicles 7.14

 

“Righteousness exalteth a nation…”

– Proverbs 14.34

 

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

– 2nd Peter 3.9

 

“…but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness…”

– Nehemiah 9.17

 

“For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.”

– Psalm 86.5

 

“’Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’ saith the Lord God: ‘and not that he should return form his wicked ways, and live?’  ‘For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,’ saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.’”

– Ezekiel 18.23, 32

 

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered…”

– Joel 2.32; Acts 2.21

 

God has promised in his written Word that he will turn back to us if we repent.,  It is not too late to avert the coming destruction and execution of sentence that the Lord has promised.  Let us, both collectively as a nation and society, and as individuals, turn to Jesus Christ for Salvation.

 

Prayer – God of Heaven, King of Eternity, and Sovereign Father, we pray for the US of A.  We pray for revival to hit our shores, and for repentance to come upon our people.  We also pray, Father, for lost individuals and friends that we know.  Help them to come to you, O Lord, in repentance and forgiveness.  We pray for a Great Awakening in our world, the likes of which will shake the very foundations of hell itself, and we pray for the salvation of the billions on this planet.  We pray these things in the Precious Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen!

 

Verse to Remember:

“Righteousness exalteth a nation:  but sin is a reproach to any people.”

– Proverbs 14.34

 

?>