Sound The Trumpet : America the Beautiful, America the Blessed and America the Powerful.

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14560

“America the Beautiful, America the Blessed and America the Powerful.”
by Art Sadlier
September 1st, 2011

Several months ago a picture was published which showed a bolt of lightning hitting the Whitehouse. More recently an earthquake shook the Washington monument and put a crack in the top of the monument which caused it to be closed to the public for safety reasons. At the same time damage was also done to the National Cathedral in Washington.

For some time the US dollar has been losing credibility as the world’s reserve currency. The US dollar is under attack and is in danger of collapse.

These four things are symbols of America as the world’s most powerful and influential nation. It seems improbable that these events are anything less than a warning from God of impending judgment on America.

What has brought such a disastrous change in America and its position in the world?

I believe that America is repeating the mistakes made by Israel 2,500-3,000 years ago. Those mistakes brought the judgment of God down upon Israel.

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13).

God blessed Israel and prospered and protected her. Israel made two tragic mistakes. She turned away from God and turned to the world. Israel made alliances with the nations around her. Those alliances were intended to bring protection and prosperity to the nation. Those alliances proclaimed that Israel was no longer trusting in God to protect her and to prosper her, “They have forsaken me.”

Israel not only forsook the Lord, they turned to other gods. They worshipped the gods of the nations around them. They set their hearts to seek their satisfaction in everything but the Lord.

America has made the same two mistakes. At one time a significant portion of the nation professed faith in Christ and gave indication of commitment to Him. At one time many in America, a significant minority, were committed to Christ and held the things of this world rather lightly.

In the last fifty years we have witnessed a dramatic change. First, many Evangelicals forsook their commitment and devotion to Christ. They did not forsake their profession, but their hearts were turned away from Christ as they fell in love with the things of this world. Material things, entertainment, sports, worldliness, approval of the world, pride of life, compromise and the encroachment of sensuality have deeply intruded into their lives. Love of the world and the things of the world have crowded Christ out of his rightful first place in their lives.

At the same time the average American was caught in a downdraft, a free fall of moral decline and self indulgence. We might add that Canadians have participated in this same tragic decline.

Jeremiah dramatically describes this departure of Israel from the lord in Jeremiah 2:17-19, “Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.”

What a dramatic change has taken place among those who claim to be a part of the body of Christ over the last few decades! The generation of believers that has preceded us would not accept us as a part of the body of Christ if they were to stand on the earth today and behold the changes that have taken place among us.

The toleration of the sensual and provocative dress styles of professing believers; the toleration of compromise with the world and the love of the things of the world; the acceptance of the world’s rude and sensual music that fills the places of worship in the name of Christ; the acceptance of a worship style that turns the house of God into a scene that was found only in a nightclub a few short years ago. All of this takes place without any seeming realization of what they are doing.

We are reminded of the cry of the Psalmist in Psalm 79, “O god, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled...”

We have watched as the Evangelical Church has slipped into apostasy and now we are watching the Fundamentalist Church slipping into the very same decline, all the while resting in the confidence that we are the people of God.

Immediately prior to the Old Testament Day of the Lord Israel boasted confidently that they were the people of God. After the Day of the Lord had passed there was not a living Jew remaining in the land. Those Nebuchadnezzar had left fled into Egypt where they were destroyed.

After the trumpet sounds and the tribulation period begins there will not be a living believer left on the earth, though multitudes will be saved during the tribulation. After the tribulation period is over and Christ comes to judge and reign there will not be a living unbeliever left on the earth. If the world could only know and understand what awaits it, perhaps in the very near future!

One of the nagging themes of the message of Christ is the repeated reference to the fact that only a few will be saved. “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (Luke 13:23-24). “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14).

Christ repeatedly called for a total commitment and denied that anything less was acceptable to Him. In a church of such compromise and self centeredness and worldly lifestyle our hearts are filled with fear as we listen to so much shallow profession of faith and activity in the name of Christ.

“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23).

God hates sin and apostasy and He will utterly judge and destroy it where there is no repentance. God has judged sin in the person of His Son on the cross of Calvary. If that substitutionary atonement is applied to you through faith in Christ, you stand before God in the righteousness of Christ. If the atonement of Christ has not been applied to you by faith in Christ, you will bear the eternal judgment of God in hell.

No one has ever been saved tomorrow; you can only be saved today. Now is the accepted time.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13