America's New Religiousity
Posted By: Jay (reposting James)
Date: Wednesday, 26 September 2001, at 5:53 p.m.
Allow me to repost James from the Cross Fire Board
and agree with him totally that to be a Christian that believes in a Biblical Lord now
in America is a very difficult position to take.
So whether this is James the co-ordinator from Pro-Family or another james..it
matters NOT because the words are true and scriptural in my humble opinion, (and
yet the flagites will still wave their flags and pray for more violence and revenge).
Here's James' words
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NewDayNews Crossfire
Americas New Religiosity: "God Bless America, But
Posted By: James
Date: Wednesday, 26 September 2001, at 4:29 p.m.
Don't You Dare Tell Us To Repent!"
Christians are unpopular folks today. I mean by that, anyone who takes seriously
biblical truth and biblical principles will find himself on the sharp end of angry
stares if we dare speak the truth in the midst of today's national crisis.
To what do I refer?
America has all of a sudden gotten very religious. There are vigils and candlelight
prayer services on every corner. People who hadn't said "God" except in profanity
for years are all of a sudden very pious and reflective.
Radio personalities who were focused upon tax cuts or some other political issue
on Monday, September 10th are now mulling over the role of "evil" in our world.
The past week has turned the landscape upside down in many ways, to be sure.
Lest anyone think this new religiosity is a reason for rejoicing for Christians, it
most surely is not. Oh yes, we are hearing old Christian hymns being sung.
Ostensibly Christian churches were full this past Lord's day. But there is no such
thing as "partial Christianity". And surely, there is no Christianity that does not
speak of repentance from sin.
The new religiosity of America has two basic foundational pillars:
1) There is one God, unknown, but addressable under any variety of religious
epithets, who has revealed absolutely nothing of objective value regarding His will
regarding worship or human behavior.
2) This God has no wrath; knows nothing of sin or judgment; and hence, any
person who dares to say that God would punish a person, or a nation, is a glowing
heretic to the new American religiosity.
The problem is easily seen: Christians believe, fundamentally, of necessity, that
there is one true God. Our God went to great lengths to differentiate Himself from
all the gods of the peoples and religions that surrounded His ancient people, and
that for a purpose He Himself proclaimed: He seeks true worship, worship based
upon a knowledge of who He is in reality, based upon His revelation to man.
He does not grant to man the freedom to worship Him in a manner that pleases
the creature rather than the Creator. God is particular about His worship.
His worship is intimately, vitally connected to truth. Without truth, there is no
worship of the Christian God. And the truth revealed by the Christian God in the
Scriptures is without question when it comes to the matter of His law, sin, rebellion,
punishment, wrath, and judgment.
One of the most amazing things to observe is the willingness shown by
"evangelicals" to jump right onto the "we shall never utter a word about wrath or sin
or punishment" bandwagon.
Is the remnant so small that almost no voices will be raised to cry out against this
foolishness?
To withhold the truth about sin and judgment out of fear of man's opinions and
feelings is to make the Cross of Jesus Christ a travesty! There is no Cross, there
is no sacrifice, where there is no sin, no offense that demands forgiveness be
wrought through His perfect sacrifice! The person who refrains from speaking of
sin and judgment to "win" a person over is doing so through unfaithfulness to the
very gospel itself!
And to what has such a person been won over? Where is the gospel when there is
no sin to be forgiven at Calvary? But it is right here that the new American
religiosity clamps its hands over its ears and refuses to hear.
America wants God's blessing. America wants God to protect us from more
horrific visions of airliners flying purposefully, relentlessly into our national
monuments. We want God to be near us as we board our aircraft. We want Him to
protect us from the horror of thinking about what it was like when the towers
collapsed. We want Him to guide our military and allow us to flex our muscle and
launch our missiles with impunity. We want a blessing God, a caring God, who
simply panders to our wants and whims.
This is the "God" of the new American religiosity. But what America does not want
is a God who is holy, who is just, and who has revealed His will concerning how
we, His creatures, are to live. America is a land soaked in blood. We glory in
violence.
We are so selfish, so bound in our avarice, fornication, and sexual lust, that we
murder our own offspring in the womb (or at birth as in partial-birth infanticide).
Our hands are covered in blood, and yet we think lighting a candle and lifting them
up while mumbling "God Bless America" is going to bring Gods favor? Listen to
the words of God to another nation that likewise was "religious" but refused to
hear the word of repentance:
"So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes,
even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with
blood." (Is.1:15).
Is America so arrogant, so utterly self-absorbed, so diseased by religious
liberalism and philosophical subjectivism, that she thinks she can ignore all of
history itself and demand from God blessings when she refuses to repent of her
evils?
Do we really need to be reminded that Planned Parenthood has killed more little
children in our land [125/hour] in the week since the attacks than died in the
attacks themselves?
Are we so blind? Surely the scourge of abortion would be enough to warrant the
unleashing of the wrath of God, but there is so much more! We are a nation on a
"crusade", a crusade to wipe from our history books every vestige of our former
religious past.
The religion of scientism, with its chief idol in the person of Darwin, has become
enshrined in our very governmental policies. There is no creator, we are told, to
express His law for us in the first place. We want to banish God and His law from
our courtrooms, our schools, our every public institution.
If God says it is wrong, we celebrate it. Every form of sexual debauchery is found
in the land. The airwaves are filled with programs that exalt fornication and
adultery. Major film stars are lauded for the most sinful lifestyles. Homosexuality is
not only turned into an acceptable "lifestyle," it is made a political right, a political
force, a test-case for being properly "tolerant."
The list goes on and on and on. The widow and orphan is oppressed, while the
nation indulges in every creature comfort, sits back in its luxury, looks about upon
the bounty of the land, and says, "Ah, what the labor of my own hands, my own
intelligence, my own insight, has accomplished."
Religious liberals may mock our "literalistic" reading of the Bible at this point,
preferring to simply label us "fundamentalists" and ignorant, but the fact of the
matter is, they know they could never win a scholarly debate on whether the Bible
actually teaches that these things are sins which must, inevitably, bring God's
judgment upon a people.
They know that is exactly what the Bible teaches. They are just embarrassed by it,
and hence seek to suppress that truth.
As I said, Christians who believe the Bible are an unpopular lot today. If they speak
in accordance with the Word they may well find themselves being called
"unpatriotic" and "judgmental." In fact, given that the new orthodoxy demands of us
the confession "Everyone is Gods child" over against such clear biblical teaching
as John 1:12 (remember how Christians refused to say "Caesar is lord" and died
as a result?), we must be ready to "count the cost" in engaging in formal, cultural
"heresy" by speaking the truth.
We need to realize: this new American religiosity can take on the same kind of
fanatic zeal that kept the hijackers hands steady all the way to their end.
May God grant His people the strength to proclaim loudly Gods demands upon a
wicked nation, and may He be pleased to bring repentance and revival in a land
where darkness reigns.