Removing God And His Word

So we claim we are a fallen nation. A peoples that complain about the influx of evil within our borders. Striving hard to embrace a mentality of love, peace, and happiness. Throwing social consciousness at perceived problems so that equality and justice prevail for all. That together we can overcome the issues that plague our nation. Well, I’m sorry to inform you that these matters will not be corrected to their desired ideology. You see, the self-driven motives do not fix the true, underlying, problem. First thing is to identify not what is wrong, but why things are wrong. So, how did we get here?

• The problems escalated when prayer and the Bible were removed from schools so that secular indoctrination training could begin.

• The problems amplified when “churches” took the Bible out of context; subsequently removing its authority as the Word of God.

• The problems flourished when sin was embraced as good and the truth of God was jeered as bad.

• The problem is man worshiping man and not God. Man desiring the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life over God.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:21-23

The issue is that many claiming to be believers have left their first love: God.

Jesus answered the religious leaders by summarizing the entire Old Testament under the two main points of God’s commandments, which man is supposed to follow: 1) to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and 2) to love your neighbor as yourself. This is where the churches have failed. 

So much emphasis has rested on the second part from the modern pulpits. And because the first part has been challenged and questioned so much in the past as to what it really means to love God with your entire being or who God even is, the clouds of uncertainty created by man has cast the definition as unanswerable. And, since they have diminished and pushed aside God by this flagrant and irreverent act, they have essentially mimicked the footsteps of the Israelites in the Old Testament. As God proclaimed through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 18;

“For my people have forgotten me, they have made offerings to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk into side roads, not the highway; to make their land an horror, a thing to be hissed at forever; every one that passes by shall be astonished, and shakes his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.“

If you think for one moment that God’s decrees are only applicable to the Old Testament Israelites, you don’t know the Bible. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. Times change, people change, circumstances change, but His Words never change! You look around today and you will see the same mentality on display by self-proclaimed “Christians” as you did with the Israelites and early churches. The church is filled with Pharisees preaching secular ideologies and man-made doctrine. The people have put aside the God of the Bible for their own gods. Society has erected temples to pagan gods and vilified God’s people. The very same thing that angered God in the past is happening still today!

The clearest remedy for all people is simple: repent and turn to the Lord. Turn aside from your ways and follow God’s ways. No, you don’t have to put on sackcloth and sit in ash piles and lament your sins. Our cultural identities may have altered, but the Bible even defines our modern age: to rend your hearts and purify your minds. Confess your sins before God through Jesus Christ and be baptized into newness of life. Then, and only then, do you begin to walk a new path in life. Not returning to your old ways, but onward walking in His ways. 

And though many attending church started this way, a lot of false professions of faith easily crumble. Even though some would have a season or two attended to God and His Word, the lure of worldly things easily draws people away from God and shifts their focus back on to their own lusts. This falling away eventually leads the secular world, who rejects the God of the Bible, to seep into the church walls and disintegrate doctrinal truths and Biblical beliefs. Essentially, the very same thing that caused sin to enter humanity is the same infection today: “Did God say…?”

With a diminishing understanding of who God is, the modern church has had an easy conversion to secularism because the weak leaders desire only to fill up their congregant’s itching ears with superfluous fluff and feel-good teachings. Eventually, they incorporate programs designed to soften theology enough to allow introductions of other religious practices such as numerology, social sciences, philosophy, and mysticism. And by redefining or rewriting what the Bible actually says, the messages of repentance and reverence take on new meaning (or is avoided all together) and is replaced with the notion that everybody gets a free pass into heaven, completely skipping God’s commands and duties. Completely removing God’s wrath to come.

Quoting from Deuteronomy 6: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” This statement from God through Moses is followed with instruction that we are to “…fear/revere only the Lord your God; and you shall worship/serve Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, and of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.”

That is a serious and a very clear command! That is not a soft threat. That is the God of the universe, the One who created and sustains ALL things, speaking. He didn’t stop after Israel either. He didn’t change after the Old Testament. He didn’t send His Son Jesus to pay the penalties for our sins on the cross just to sit back and let us run amok on this planet, waiting for us to ‘get it out of our system’ so He can bring us ALL home to heaven for eternity. No! That is NOT what the God of the Bible is doing! Again, if you think that, you don’t know the Bible!

His patience with His creation is but for a short time. 

Because of the lack of reverence, awe, and honor to God and His Word, the complacent attitudes of people have usurped Biblical morality and shifted to a debased primal ideology that worships evil, hedonism, and chaos. Again, that doesn’t change who God is. His wrath is coming soon and those who deny Him will face eternal damnation. And as for the pastors, preachers and false teachers who twist, distort, and deny Scripture, they will find the greatest condemnation from God! Leading flock astray is an abomination to the Lord! No one who denies God will be spared!

Why have we fallen? Why is the world headed in the destructive and evil path that it is? Because of the rampant sin throughout the world! And it is ordained by God that the devil and his minions will continue their demise over this planet. God knows what is going to happen, and best of all…knows how it will end! The prophecies of the Bible spell out the end times coming. Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their savior will endure to the end and will be taken up out of this world into eternal glory with Jesus! Those who remain will be brought through a literal hell-on-earth. Unless God in His mercy extends His grace to them, they will all be forsaken by God and cast into the lake of fire for their unbelief. His warning in Jeremiah should frighten all those who claim themselves heaven bound; “I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.”

So what do we do? First things first; repent of our sinful ways (which means to turn around and away from where you are) and follow Jesus. In Matthew 16:24-26 it says; Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” We walk in this world, but we don’t have to participate with the evils in this world. It may seem that giving up friends, family social interactions, and the like will cause ridicule, conflict, and chastisement, but better that suffering for a little while now rather than the suffering for eternity. 

Next is immersing yourself into the complete Word of God! Psalm 119: 9-12 says “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!” That is our map, our compass, our guidance, our strength, our encouragement, and our hope through the storms and challenges we will face. Most of all, the Word is our knowledge of who God is, His words spoken to us, His plans for our life, His promises of inner peace and joy, His way that is the true way to the Celestial City! 

Afterward, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The old will pass away.

Jeremiah 6:16a: “Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.” But many churches are refusing this by answering ‘We will not walk in it.’ (Jeremiah 6:16b)

The modern church has left the Word for the world. They embrace the new side roads and not God’s roads.  So it is imperative that you seek out a Bible-believing church to fellowship with, learn and grow with, and commune with people that revere the God of the Bible. People who submit to His Word and His ways. People who, like the Bereans, search the Scriptures daily to see if what is being taught or preached is according to the very Words of God.

We’ve seen what happens when man compromises faith and trust in the one true Lord God. Not only do the cities and governments of the world crumble into evil, but so do its’ citizens. Choosing to leave the ancient roadway to heaven, they sacrifice eternity for temporal pleasures on the side roads of this broken world. 

Time is short

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 1 Thessalonians 2:9-11

Where do you stand today?

Amen