Hello everyone, today, in episode number 13 of our multi-part series involving a thorough consideration of the 18th chapter of the Book of the Revelation,
we will shift our focus slightly so as to look primarily at America's Church.
Has the presence of the White Churches been sufficiently visible and strong so that these United States can justifiably be written off as a truly Christian nation,
one, under, God and with which he would readily bestow his stamp of approval?
Again, this is the Bible Prophecy Masterclass, in which we will be studying from the book Judgment Day, volume 1, Prelude to Armageddon, part 1,
The United States of America in Bible Prophecy, written by Mr. Alvin Mitchell.
I, Erica, will be your host on this segment of this show.
Christian, religious, America. The ugly duckling heaven doesn't want. In God we, or, in us we trust.
Fundamentally, the problem for America in the eyes of the Holy One of Israel may not ultimately be so much a matter of a few warts,
shortcomings and failings as much as the fact of its prevailing, hypocritical stubbornness across the board,
among the churched and the unchurched, that hypocritical streak was never completely washed out by the blood.
During its colonial days, the settlers were chiefly religious Protestants protesting against what they felt was the tyranny and corruption of the Crown
as well as Britain's Anglican version of Rome's Catholicism, who came here in search of religious freedom.
It was not cleansed by its own blood, during the Civil War years fought chiefly to eradicate the horror and the inequity of the slavery it had grown to cherish, and to nourish or any war since.
While said hypocritical streak was indeed exposed to the eyes of the world, it was yet not eliminated by the Bible in black hands,
during the Civil Rights years, to demolish the inequity and double standards promoted by Jim Crow and its black codes' last great, mass struggle for equality, orchestrated and led by an African-American preacher.
Again, that streak remains an unyielding, arrogant blight of stubbornness and pretense that persists to this very hour, as the whole country teeter-totters on the brink,
the very edge of that which is both anti-God and anti-Christ, both in the churches and out.
Nonetheless, God bless America, is a common refrain, particularly in time of duress and uncertainty words penned in the early 20th century by an American Jew named Irving Berlin,
repopularized by G.W. Bush following the 11th of September 2001.
The potential for any reality on his part is acknowledged only in time of need, when per their social gospels, they demand that God show up on their behalf,
as if he were some sort of cosmic butler, a jack-in-the-box, a bottled-up genie, or just some extraterrestrial, cosmic, jackass,
whose job it is to jump up or pop out, on demand whether from his box or his bottle-working magic, in their favor.
Few and far between are the pastors and congregations who actively, regularly seek his face, via his word the Bible, when times are good.
During those times, the money-based expression to which certain white pastors, preachers like to allude, in God we trust, could better be rendered, in, us we trust, God, be damned.
It might be argued that the trick in American ministry borders on a calculated risk, assume that God does not exist, while keeping his name before the public, yet out of reach of the church's hearts.
He may still break forth in a soul-saving spat, but done properly, all churches, or at the very least multitudes, could still be doomed and damned forever.
Thus, many an American saint today who professes a walk with the Lord, teaching, preaching, even rejoicing and praying in his name, is destined for an eternity in the lake of fire and everlastingly hot sulfur.
That being so, he is much closer to Hades than he ever will be to heaven.
There the flames will never be quenched, and the memory of his past and the Savior he spurned will never fade.
The Lamb's Bride, or the Devil's Workshop.
It is said from time to time that, some folks are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly value.
In addition, it has been observed that some foreigners are appalled when they come to this country, and they behold the jaded spiritual climate here.
In their eyes, America the Evangelist should really be dubbed America, the one in need of being evangelized.
It was said by the Lord himself, relative to his church within one hundred years of his resurrection, even as it might well be said of us today.
The church is so earthly minded, or, otherly minded as to be of no heavenly value.
Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 29, Revelation chapter 2 and 3.
Just as has been recorded by the Church Fathers as having been the case during the latter years of the early churches, Satan is now, today.
Having himself a banner season, reaping huge dividends on his investment in God's churches in America.
Exactly as the Scriptures forecast would be so, in his never-ending, relentless bid to undermine the work of Kingdom building, and or of building the body of the resurrected Christ.
In addition, we might even, therefore, argue that America the Beautiful, because of its churches, is at best in God's eyes akin to the ugly duckling that nobody in heaven wants.
The Apostle Paul, on two occasions writing to his young pupil and son in the faith, painted two non-flattering portraits of the Church of the Future.
Now the Spirit speaks expressly, saying that in the last days, some will turn their backs on the faith, as it pertains to and is centered around the Christ and the teaching of the Bible.
Choosing rather to listen to the seduction of demons, and the doctrines of devils, as they learn to speak lies in hypocrisy, their consciences having been destroyed, as if with a hot iron.
Thus far, the churches have not turned their backs on the names of God and the Christ altogether, strictly speaking.
Rather, they are as religious as ever and to a degree busy as bees in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost albeit, on a level like hungry fish in various ponds, going in circles, demanding, getting and feasting on spiritless meals of religiosity designed to stunt growth, not to promote it.
They will lie in a heartbeat about a professed, personal relationship with the Lord and a love for Him, but do nothing else, as far as study of the Bible, or conformity of their lives to it.
Nonetheless, Paul continues, proclaim, or preach the Word, stand upon it, in and out of season.For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound teaching or preaching.
Rather, according to their own desires they will hire for themselves teachers, who will tell them what they want to hear, to appease their itching ears, in which case they will turn their ears away from the truth, in preference for fables.
1 Timothy 4 verses 1-2, 2 Timothy 4, 2-4. Consider also the letter to the churches at Ephesus and at Sardis, per Revelation chapter 2 and 3.The reality is, whereas God has not allowed him the luxury of wiping out, or completely taking over the American churches, yet as he did after approximately 500 years of the early saints, or to shut them down as he did in Europe following the Church's resurrection, as led by Martin Luther nonetheless,
in terms of what God wants or expects of His people, they have been largely spiritually dead almost from the very beginning in this country.
Or so it might well be argued, if Christ showed up today to render an evaluation, most would be ranked with either Ephesus, Sardis or Laodicea, relatively few with Pergamos or Thyatira, practically none with Smyrna or Philadelphia.
Certainly there has never been a time when the devil's seeds of disruption and destruction, his counterfeit, religious brand of Christianity has not been present and in full force often, if not always to a degree, and a level of prominence and prosperity, far greater than that of the real Church the One, such as there is, truly submissive to the Word and will of the Almighty, see the sidebar, King of the Hill, God of this world.
P.1.26. To facilitate his efforts to lead the Churches astray, the devil has successfully devised and implemented a relatively clever, if less than genius, scheme of deception.
By means of this deception, his aim is to derail the work of the Lord amongst the members of his own body, a body which, while existing, operating, anticipating, and expecting blessings in the meantime, and, rewards in the hereafter in his name, will yet not submit itself to his feeding and leading.
Their Bible studies and or preaching schemes involve systematic approaches which lead them in set circles, as it were, beyond which they never venture, covering certain topics over and over again, time after time, year after year.
i.e., they are designed effectively to keep the saint ignorant, and to lock God out of their midst, not to invite him in c. Hebrews 5.11-6, 1-3.
They profess to want to know Christ, and to be Christ-like, although on the other hand, they cannot stand or stomach any kind of meaningful, systematic and systemic, Bible study, as it relates to Christ.
For this reason, they are ignorant of the fact that the Christ they feigned to emulate was sold out completely to first knowing, then to executing or doing the Father's will, even to the point of exclusion and a virtual subversion of his own, such was his drive, enthusiasm and passion for the Father's commands.
He lived as one who had no will, but for the Father's will.
Hence, to these, the Lord of all glory would ask, Were he here? Why are you calling me Lord? Just as he queried in the hearing of some of the half-stepping followers of his day. And you do not perform the things I ask of you. Luke 6.46.
Thus, having made Satan's implementation of the deception easy, taking to it readily, they willingly follow the devil's cunningly devised fables.and his damning heresies. 2 Peter 1.16.2-1.
About God and the Christ. As he guides them around the Word of God. In a system of easy beliefism, in which what one believes, feels and or thinks, is the Word or will of God, carries more weight than the actual Word, the Bible,
which has stood the test of time, and every anti-argument imaginable.
Any discussion or argument with this type of Christian, will often find him fishing, grasping and groping for what one thinks, feels, or believes as opposed to what, thus set the Lord, or using Scripture only to lend credibility to, and, to bolster his own beliefs, over the Word of God and or whoever happens to be his opponent, for the moment.
He simply does not want to know. Hence, notwithstanding the similarities, in the end, the God and Christ of modern theology, according to American white Protestant churches and their denominations, are actually not the God and Christ of Holy writ.
The Christ espoused and taught by the Bible is, virtually, totally foreign to even the best educated of today's evangelical leaders. See the mystery, Christ Jesus, also by this author.
They do not know him, see sidebar, fools gold saints.
P1 26. These things are every bit as much true of African American churches as they are of Anglo American Protestant churches.
For the most part, all are self-serving in their outlook and approach to worship, leaning to their own understanding, personal viewpoints, ideas, the way they want God to be, and trusting more in themselves, than the true and living God.
This is the way young people are serving the Lord today. Chief preacher at the now-faith Christian center in or around Denver, Colorado said during one of his services, whereupon a group of youth began to twist and twitch, and to contort their bodies and shoulders in what one supposes was intended to be some sort of praise ritual in honor of God.
The point is, the young, who know nothing of the subject, thanks in large part to uninspiring adult supervision and guidance, in one way or the other directly or indirectly define what it means to serve God.
In many a congregation nowadays, some churches have gone so far as to, apparently, do away with Sunday morning Bible study classes, thereby, depriving their young of perhaps the only formal, structured, systematic, guided exposure to the Word of God they may ever experience.
And yet, that might be a good thing, where popular church culture is concerned, considering the nature of some of the materials they use, or the method of instruction.
God's giving of the young to rule over his rebel, non-submissive people in OT times was a punitive gesture, Isaiah chapter 3 verses 4 to 6, an act of ridicule from on high, given his inexperience and his lack of wisdom, which only comes with time and experience.
No doubt, perhaps, we have arrived at such a time in our day.
Herein, then, lies the justification of the Lord's anticipated future declaration in which he promises to, Shu and Bu, these wayward saints from his presence in the final judgment, consigning them, along with those never saved, to an eternity of hellish fire and burning sulfur.
Their many works on his behalf notwithstanding, their much activity will not save them.
Depart from me, you who have been workers of iniquity, for I have no recollection of you, having never known you.
Matthew chapter 7 verse 23.
It should be noted, again, with emphasis that this is a reception tailored for believers, church people, not for unbelievers.
See the sidebar.
The trembling of demons.
P 1 26.
In addition to all of the aforementioned, while and although a kind of tolerance is affected and practiced in many churches to the degree where many a pastor will lead his congregation in a charade, of a sort, before the public, which they know often includes foreigners, portraying one face off stage, they at the same time, on the other hand, entertain and actively maintain a climate awash in the old, white American segregationist mentality.
A spirit of racial bigotry actually carries more weight than does the spirit of Christ, as its staffs, owns and operates many, if not most churches.
Black people do not want whites in their churches, and, of course, whites would just as soon not have blacks in theirs.
The heady, educated, successful folk of our day will only welcome or invite others like themselves into their Christless, hypocritical assemblies.
Ministering cross-culturally is an endeavor for which we are not ready or equipped. The congregation of one Phoenix-area white church let it be known during a mid-80s visit there.
Having preached one or more, racially, accommodating messages, another suburban Denver-area Southern Baptist preacher expressed befuddlement with one of his congregants as he pondered aloud why one, being of another race, black, chose to come all the way out here, during a 2005 visit to his church.
Evidently that message was designed and skewed to first nullify the negative impact of any public observance of their historical, racially tainted and tarnished past, and thereby leave foreigners with an earshot with the impression that they are no longer, that people.
Oh, the prevailing, never-ending treachery of the American white conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists.
On one or two earlier visits, that pastor had been away leading a foreign missions trip to evangelize in China. Even as this bigoted, racist mentality engulfs and controls either, or, black or white, or, Mexican, etc., each yet dares claim for itself a place in the resurrected, body, of the ascended Christ.
They flaunt and practice their hypocrisy as if it were a gospel, beyond the gospel, itself.
Churches that hate Christians. Man, get on away from here. One was so greeted by a board member of a prominent black Denver area church with that venomous welcome once. Course one continued to go, even joining ranks, for a time, just to see what would happen next.
The benefit of the doubt having been extended, and subsequently expended, attempts to participate or contribute to Bible studies attended here were also met with scorn and anger.
Though often subtle in the extreme being educated as they were, they let it be known that they had no interest, per se, in the things of the word of the living God.
Most of the members of this church, not unlike the vast majority of all churches, never attend any form of Bible study group. They make no effort to familiarize themselves with the things of God on their own.
All teachers, regardless of intellect or educational background, were ultimately theologically inept, indifferent, and therefore spiritually profitless, where the kingdom of God is concerned.
It is impossible to breed a practical, saint based squarely upon their work.
Good. A devil's advocate in this elitist African American church muttered with contempt under her breath as one promised, due to time, not to cover certain details of material prepared for the devotion held before the Wednesday, midday Bible study, on that day.
Y'all know I don't believe in either heaven or hell. The then pastor of this same Denver area church said to his goats, as opposed to sheep, while one was in attendance there. You the one who keeps running folks off the road, an insult muttered with contempt by a Tacoma, Washington pastor, as one of the members sought to make the introduction during an early 90s visit.
Oh man, you a long way from home, reverse psychological welcome from a Richmond Virginia area pastor who wished it known that one was, apparently, not welcome in her assembly.
I ain't never seen nothin' like him. I don't know nobody who ever studies his Bible.
Words of a South Bend Indiana preacher, on one's behalf, concerning the attitudes of fellow pastors, not dedicated or in any way committed to the study of the word of God, said to have been remarked to his daughter, who at the time lived in the Chicago Illinois area, before her death a number of years ago.
Is there a Christian in the house? Query put forth by a Waco, Texas African American pastor during a worship service attendance after Sunday school there, where one's presence was tactfully made known.
The idea the minister wished to convey was such that, his was a congregation not unlike most, religious, but not right with God, nor concerned about the things of God.
Nobody likes you, was the angry assurance one received repeatedly while approaching an acquaintance made while students at Grand Canyon College, now University, during the late 80s.
The young woman making that comment as she walked arm in arm with this gentleman, who later revealed that he at that time was only recently separated from his wife was then a member of the same Bible study class at a large Phoenix area Southern Baptist Church.
Knowing that the man was married only a short while before, when last he was seen with his wife, it was simply assumed that these two were good friends.
Apparently, this young woman's frustration vented, upon inquiry as to how the man's wife was doing, was meant to convey otherwise, among other things, including her bigotry and disaffection for what she knew was Christian.
That attitude, suspected and expected though it might well justifiably have been, had previously been much less forthcoming.
Even in my early years as a Christian, I was prone to taking some controversial, unpopular stands shall we say, for the cause of Christ.
Since the days of my youth, when I might have been anything but Christian, it has been fairly clear that faith on any plane higher than mere religion or religious expression is frowned upon in many a black church.
This fact was driven home, at home, by the reaction of my own mother and a neighbor, as we all witnessed the approach of another neighbor who was said to have, then, recently, got religion.
It seems, the faith of this individual his life having been impacted to the point of change, God's anticipated and expected sign of true repentance, was a little too real for these folks.
This was true in spite of the fact that they generally, also considered themselves Christians.
Under their breaths, while he was yet at a distance, they observed him with consternation, though they were, of course, careful not to show it in their greeting.
Things have changed little since those early years, certainly, in these times, not for the better.
That book will mess up your mind, that is, it will have a definite and undesirable impact upon your thinking.
A certain late uncle and church choir member of mine confided once in an expression of his disdain for the Bible.
Moreover, churches in general, under a guise of acceptance using language sandwiched into word games, mind games, psychology, reverse psychology, etc. are subtly, but, sometimes openly, hostile toward those who are in fact known, or suspected Christians among them, as the above expressions show.
Why can you not just be like everybody else?
Hoping to serve the Lord in their midst, a young white friend found himself the recipient of just such a welcome at a white church in Ogden, Utah as we served our country at Hill AFB, during the mid-70s.
Heaven and hell is what you make of life here on earth.
Y'all know I don't believe in either, the well-educated black pastor of a relatively large, educated, spiritually bankrupt and dead African-American Baptist church in Denver, Colorado, having his Ph.
D. Assured his congregation during a morning service in, the late spring or early summer.
2004. Like most churches today, black or white, they initially put on a fine if not spectacular show for life during one's short stay among them.
Sunday after Sunday, the Bible study teacher of a class attended at this same black church had an increasingly difficult time containing his venom, at the sight of one's presence each time he entered the room.
In the midst of chronic back pain, management of his poisonous disaffection became even more difficult, if and when one aspired to participate, and, contribute to the class discussion, regardless of tact.
This continued until one's disassociation with them, having witnessed their hypocrisy and hostility long enough.
That same pastor's attractive young college-educated assistant intoned in disdain regarding Bible training received during her days in seminary.
I can't figure out why they teaching me all of this.
She was a graduate, having attended and received theological training from Massachusetts Boston College, if one recalls correctly.
As she during one of her pseudo-Bible study sessions almost proudly, lay her utter ignorance of and apparent apathy toward the written word of God bare, plain for all to see, she continued arrogantly,
"'Cause I ain't never going to teach this stuff."
Just goes to show that some of the people being graduated from already bad seminaries, Bible schools and colleges are equally as bad, and, rebellious even against the bad teaching they pay handsomely to receive.
Another worker in that same church intimated that, business, not the things of God, was the chief objective of their organization.
Profit, and financial gain is their ultimate motive.
In fact, the pastor of that church boasted once,
We spent fifty thousand dollars to have some expert fundraiser teach us how to run our own fundraiser, or to raise money.
In so many words, teaching his congregation to think and give biblically, in accord with the word and will of God, is either not an option or, his methods are too restrictive for their agendas.
Instead, this church's preference is to employ slick, psychological methodology to pressure parishioners into giving according to his and the board of directors' plans and ambitions, very common practice in today's church culture.
As of earlier this year, sometime during the summer, that church is now pastored by a relatively young man who is quite fond of promising to have his congregation out after only twenty minutes of preaching, teaching.
Remember that, in addition to its poorly attended Sunday school classes, that church has two weekday classes, neither of which is worth the time it takes to drive there.
The point is, if one in ministry intends to devote only the barest minimum of time to the cause of Christ from the pulpit on Sundays, then he needs to have a top-notch teaching program at other times, so as to teach and train others for the work of God the Almighty.
No pastor of any church can reasonably expect to breed a Christian congregation of any spiritual substance, where there is an investment of no greater than the least amount of time and effort, one day a week, for less than one hour, on that one day, see Sidebars, Devil in the Pulpit, Christians Scorned in Church, page 126 and Youth in Church, Frustration Vented.
p 127. But then, any church that will embrace a pastor who openly admits that he does not believe in either heaven or hell does not want a true man of God to lead them, in the first place.
Thus, they get both what they bargained for and what they deserve. Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 to 20. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 to 4. 2 Timothy 4. 2 to 4.
No doubt, these things are as much true as they are typical, in some respect, of all or the majority of all our churches today black, white, good, bad or indifferent.
Thus, in their secular minds, given their secular bents, worldly mindsets, aspirations, and concerns, they have chosen to disbelieve the true and the living God. Thereby, they make him a liar, relative to the subjects of heaven and hell, as well as to the apocalypse, which will proceed and usher them in.
And so, once again we have come to the close of another podcast on the Bible Prophecy Masterclass. We hope that you have found this study profitable and that you will share it with others.
Please give us a like, as we depart and plan to be with us for the next presentation in episode number 14. Until then, may God richly bless you, each and everyone.