"We, in the U.S., need to discern whether this tyranny is a punishment from God which we richly deserve or an evil force that must be resisted."
Save Our Nation - Attend To Sin
By Al Cronkrite
The Covenant News ~ April 18, 2009
"Do not have two differing weights in your bag-one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house-one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly." Deuteronomy 25: Begin at 13.
Following a recent breakfast at Cracker Barrel we saved one of their small bottles of pancake syrup. These little bottles are an attractive supplement to their breakfast fare. When we arrived home we put it in the refrigerator next to another bottle we had saved from a previous breakfast. We noted the new bottle was slightly smaller than the former. Further scrutiny revealed the label on the new bottle read "100% Pure Natural Syrup" while the label on the older bottle read "100% Pure Maple Syrup". Also, the contents went from 1.7 oz. to 1.5 oz. This subtle change was designed to deceive the public and increase profit.
The Bible maintains that all have sinned and fallen short of the mark. God's Law concerning honest weights and measures is a reliable gage to the universal mendacity of human beings. God hates transactions that fail to produce honest value for both sides. Even bargain hunting may sometimes cheat the seller. The maxim "Buyer Beware" is popular because sellers frequently cheat buyers. Dishonest weights and measures is a major evil.
Unfortunately, our society has become inured to dishonesty. Ubiquitous fine print is designed to deceive the buyer. Wal-Mart's contention that the peaches were formerly $ 2.98 a pound seldom jibes with perception. Most items that are listed as "On Sale" are not really on sale. It is dishonest to sell familiar packages at the same price when the weight has been slightly reduced without prior notification. Calling a stud 2x4 when it actually measures something less has been appropriated by the Chinese who now export 8 foot diameter rugs that measure 7'6". The cost of visits to Dentists and Doctors is purposely obscured so that billings can be administered without arbitration. Hotel rooms sell at different prices depending on where you pay; airlines are the same. Banks charge exorbitant fees for occurrences that are often not anticipated by customers. Elected officials lie to their constituents by forsaking their oath and by allowing nefarious forces to rob our wealth. Read this excellent description. Even individual proprietors have joined the fray. In my town if you fail to confirm the price of a job before having it done you will generally pay double. Dishonesty and fraud are pandemic. A little thought can add dozens of instances to this list.
As previously mentioned the Government is a major offender. It surreptitiously robs citizens of wealth and freedom by devaluing the currency and colluding to wipe out liberty by progressively moving them and their nation into a tyrannical world order. When 3 or 4 percent inflation is accepted as normal trillions of dollars are being robbed from citizens who have become so accustomed to the robbery they no longer protest. Because Democracies are easily manipulated and our Constitution restricts government our nation is deceitfully referred to as a Democracy instead of a Republic. Trade agreements and laws that entangle us in the United Nations are passed by duplicitous elected officials who either know or should know they are threatening the freedom of their constituents.
Deception itself has become a form of religion at the highest levels of our nation.
Consider what a difference it would make in our social structure if the paper money we use was backed by a steadily valued commodity that would support its worth. Think what a difference it would make if honesty was a legal requirement for public announcements. What a difference the United States of America might have made in the world if it had evolved into a nation governed by God's Commandments; a peaceful, prosperous, trustworthy nation characterized by honest weights and measures!
Instead our fall into secularism has brought us gross debauchery, endless deceit, perpetual war, and the brink of bankruptcy.
Looming over the world are elite bankers and tycoons who seek to exert their growing power. We, in the United States, need to discern whether this pending tyranny is a punishment from God which we richly deserve or an evil force that must be resisted.
The Prophet Jeremiah could have been speaking to our day when he predicted the demise of Jerusalem and victory for the Chaldeans. He told the king that if he fought against the armies of the Chaldeans he would not succeed (Jeremiah Chapter 32) and the city would be burned along with "the houses where people had offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out libations to other gods to provoke Me to anger".
In spite of Christian allegiance encoded in our state constitutions and considerable verbiage supporting a perceived Christian intent in our national Document, we have been a secular nation since the ratification of the Constitution. Religious freedom is a violation of God's First Commandment. Religions that elevate bogus gods are an abomination to the One True God. Under our Constitution secularists can be amoral Darwinists and ascribe to the survival of the fittest. They can lie, deceive, cheat, and collude without violating our humanistic law. Honest weights and measures are of no importance to those whose religion encourages deception, and deception is both legal and rampant.
If you had been an official in the State of Rhode Island in September 1787 it is likely you would have harbored a severe distrust of the new United States Constitution. Of the 55 delegates who attended only 39 were willing to affirm it and in spite of considerable political pressure your state would not ratify it for three years and then by a razor thin margin of two votes 32 to 34. The new Constitution formed a Federal government that robbed the individual states of sovereignty, creating another level of power over their citizens, and posing a threat of potential tyranny. Rhode Island had refused to send a delegate and the document had been crafted in secret by representatives from the remaining twelve states. It was a product of powerful men and was imposed on the states without a national referendum; in that sense it was a humanistic tyranny.
Read what our forefathers in the Faith wrote concerning our duty toward evil rulers:
"For if there are now any magistrates of the people, appointed to restrain the willfulness of kings. I am so far from forbidding them to withstand, in accordance with their duty, the fierce licentiousness of kings, that, if they wink at kings who violently fall upon and assault the lowly common folk, I declare that their dissimulation involves nefarious perfidy, because they dishonestly betray the freedom of the people, of which they know that they have been appointed protectors by God's ordinance." John Calvin's Institutes, 1536
"So then, verily, we ought not at any time to defend the tyrannical power, and say that it is of God: for tyranny is not divine, but a devilish, kind of government; and tyrants themselves are properly the servants of the devil, and not of God." Henry Bullinger, 1558
The Church of Jesus Christ has a sacred duty to defend freedom and righteousness against evil tyrants. Unfortunately, in spite of the burgeoning number of Christians in our nation we have failed to stand for righteousness. We and our pulpits have avoided confrontation. Instead we have expected to be served rather than to serve, we have engaged in self centered worship, defended faulty eschatology as an excuse for lethargy, sought blessing without obligation and peace over the conflict of righteous confrontation. While we have failed to hunger after truth the Devil has filled the void distorting and destroying it.
Few American Christians are aware of how far they have wandered from the ways of the One True God. Many are proud that United States is polluted by a religious polyglot. T. D. Jakes a popular Black preacher writes: "A country that has one national religion as its only compass is much more of a theocracy than a democracy. That kind of tyranny leads to witch burning, spiritual genocide, forced and fraudulent expressions of faith, and God knows what else. As wonderful as faith is, faith out of control can be lethal." He continues, "More wars have been fought over the name of God, the will of God and through the people of God than any other issue confronting mankind. Holy wars dominated the dark ages and filled the trenches of battle fields with the blood of young, hopeful men breaking the hearts of their parents - all for God.
Bishop Jake's opinion is a reliable measure of how far contemporary Christians have fallen. Though we claim to believe God's Word we filter the Bible through our sinful minds and allow the Devil to rescind the most important parts. Jakes professes to be more astute than the God of the Bible Who ordered the annihilation of all of the inhabitants of the Promised Land in an unsuccessful effort to protect His chosen people from the pollution of foreign religions. Jakes, and all who embrace multi-religionism, work against the clear Biblical doctrine of exclusivity. They, as well as most contemporary Christians, are heretical New Testament Christians. They dismiss God's Law which is the heart of the Old Testament and gut the Gospel of Jesus Christ as thoroughly as Samson was defanged by the cutting of his hair.
I regularly receive pictures of warships, military aircraft, soldiers in foreign lands and other information urging me to support our military. Americans are a patriotic people. However, when patriotism becomes a "kick butt" belligerence God is offended. The United States military has killed, maimed and manipulated millions of individuals; all created in the image of the One True God. The American Revolution was a just war but most succeeding conflicts were either avaricious or contrived. We began with the American Indians, continued with the wholesale slaughter of our own people in Lincoln's aggression against the South, then the Philippines', Mexicans, Japanese, Germans (twice), Koreans, Vietnamese, Serbs, Iraqis and several less flagrant. Each of these wars debased the righteousness of our culture, contended with individual freedom, and failed to fit the Christian criterion for a just war. Most Americans believe these wars were fought in defense of freedom but freedom's enemy has never been the host of nations we have manipulated, murdered, ravaged, and maimed. Freedom's real enemy is and always has been our own government.
The American people have been deceived, propagandized, under informed and misinformed. As a result they have supported government actions that did not warrant their support, actions that should have been resisted.
On top of evil military adventurism the Christian church has allowed sin to infiltrate and overrun our society. Antinomianism is the doctrine of the day. Without God's Law righteousness cannot exist. In spite of the fact that all law is moral many intelligent Americans will still contend that morality cannot be legislated. God's Law is the legal standard for a Christian society; man's law is the standard for a humanistic society. The will to obey the Law cannot be legislated but penalties for infractions can be legislated and should be carried out according to God's Word.
God's people have been nurtured on the blasphemy of improper doctrine. They have been served by leaders whose agenda is similar to that of our democratically elected government officials. Just as our elected representatives forsake their oath and the best interests of the nation by putting their personal interests ahead of the nation's welfare, Christian leaders forsake God's Will in favor of their churches, their ministries and their own aggrandizement.
Nevertheless, all blame does not rest with leadership. American citizens who claim the Name of Christ are stubborn, un-teachable, selfish, belligerent, dishonest, and often worthy of the flawed leaders they support.
Some or our leaders create confusion.
Gary DeMar is a fine Christian minister and a powerful force for righteousness. However, his position on the 2008 election is difficult to reconcile. Here is what he wrote prior to the fall election: "Many Christians are pushing Chuck Baldwin and the Constitution Party. Baldwin doesn't have a chance, and he knows it. The system is against him. Moreover, he doesn't have any electoral experience. The same goes for Alan Keyes who has no business running for president when he couldn't win a Senate seat in Maryland in 1988 and 1992 and couldn't beat Barack Obama in a Senate race in Illinois in 2004. At least Ron Paul and Bob Barr have won some elections and have a legislative track record." (The link to this piece is not longer intact.) (My comments on this statement.)
On April 6th Gary wrote this: "Christians must elect representatives who will abide by the Constitution, not only in word but in deed. All candidates running for public office should be required to take a comprehensive test on the Constitution with the results of the test published so all can see that they really know and understand the Constitution they will swear to uphold. All schools should offer courses on our Constitution's history, purpose, and application today. Citizens should understand the Constitution so they can vote intelligently on issues which confront them daily. Responsibility must return to the people while we still have some of our freedoms intact." Read the entire article here.
Pastor Joe Morecroft, another fine Reformed preacher, contended before the election that a vote for George W. Bush was not sinful. In 2009 he wrote the following: "What is the future of all politicians who refuse to obey and enforce the Word of God in submission to Jesus Christ? Answer: God will severely punish them. What is the future of all those voters who vote for, believe, and are willingly influenced by these evil politicians so that their desires and behavior are not governed by the Word of God but by the word of man? Answer: God will punish them." (emphasis mine) Read the entire article here.
It is a sad testimony when Reformed Christian leaders lend support to secular establishment candidates and fail to support candidates whose positions are more righteous. Our God is not pragmatic. It is not the perceived ability of a candidate to win that should determine our support. We are to support the most righteous candidate and leave the results to God. If Christians had been doing this over the past several decades we would be living in a far different nation.
Now, gentle reader, consider the behavior of contemporary Christians in light of Biblical Christianity and understand the need for both national and individual forgiveness. In the "Spectator" Ron Little writes this scathing indictment of the Church of England, "It has become an institution which is more politically correct even than our government; you look to it for moral leadership and it offers none whatsoever". If you live in America, measure your behavior and the behavior of your nation against the criterion God demands. If you are honest, you will find that the integrity of weights and measures has been physically and spiritually violated.
Is tyrannical messianic government a punishment from God for continuing Christian complacency with evil secular government? Can we hope that God will assist our efforts to stem losses of freedom when we are still pregnant with un-confessed guilt?
If you are a Christian leader who has attempted to redeem our nation by referring to its Christian roots or by encouraging your followers to support its military, are you no part of the problem? Are you not a Pharisee? If you are advising your followers to prepare for the end times or for the imminent return of the Savior, are you not in need of repentance for attempting to play God? Do your followers understand that Christians have been predicting the imminent return of Christ since His death and for over two-millennium, all have been wrong?
Do you leaders and you laypersons really want to know what you can do to stop the decline in America and the remainder of the Western World?
Here is what you should do: Leaders should begin their Sunday services by opening the Bible and reading God's Law as it was given to Moses. The reading should be excerpted from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy excluding the ceremonial law but including the civil and behavioral Law. Following the reading a time should be set aside to repent from the gross disobedience and disdain of God's Law that has been pandemic in the Western World. Then leaders and lay persons alike should vow to obey God's mandates and to seek obedience throughout His creation.
If American Christians, leaders and laypersons, would follow this Biblical precedent, God might forgive and heal our nation. If we don't, our prayers and our resistance are useless and our fall will continue.
Easter (the Paschal Festival) was celebrated on Sunday. Celebrating the resurrection of Our Lord should be a daily event but that does not preclude the sweet aroma of making Easter a more specific celebration. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with bunny rabbits, eggs, and candy. When I was a boy there were Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, and Easter egg hunts but since The Hound of Heaven apprehended me all of that has been replaced by a deep gratitude that my Savior rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God as King of the creation. Hallelujah! He lives!
Published originally at EtherZone.com
Al Cronkrite is a free-lance writer from Florida.
He can be reached at fmsinfla@hotmail.com
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