State Of The Nation

Dear Brethren,

When we think about the Feast of Trumpets, we like to think about the return of Jesus Christ.  We think how wonderful it will be when Christ is ruling from His throne over all the earth.  But let’s understand this, before Christ returns the entire earth is going to experience unimaginable fear, horror, and dread.  Trumpets pictures the time when Jesus Christ will make a clean sweep of every institution of man that stood contrary and defiantly against the will of God.

The Feast of Trumpets is about war, misery, and the destruction of most of mankind.  “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord comes, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.”  (Joel 2:1-2)

In the grand scheme of things, where do we stand?  Some people think that all things continue to be as they always have – that is not true.  Those scoffers say, “Where is the promise of [Christ’s] coming?  For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."  (2Peter 3:4)  Let’s understand that world events are erupting into an explosive crescendo.   Jesus told us to watch for the signs that would indicate that time is very short.  “So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh [near], even at the doors.”  (Mark 13:29)  “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”  (Luke 21:36)  With these admonitions in mind, let’s take a look at the current state of mankind.

Let’s realize that in all the earth there are very few people who know the Lord.  You might say that the United States of America is a “Christian” nation, and that there are many who know the Lord.  From God’s point of view – and that is the only view that counts – the disobedient USA does not know their Creator God.  “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”  (Isaiah 1:3)  The USA, along with all the other Israelitish people, constitutes less than 10% of the earth’s population.  And, the true Church of God constitutes a very, very small percentage of that!

A wonderful world would be one in which God’s perfect way of life produced peace, prosperity, and health in abundance for every single person.  However, that is not an apt description of the world in which we find ourselves today.  Because God has been rejected, we live in a world of increasing war, poverty, and widespread disease.  Let’s take a brief look at the state of the world, the state of our nation, and the state of the Church of God.

The state of the world

The world is teeming with power-hungry, angry men driven by a spirit of aggression.  Let’s look at just a few examples.

North Korea has unleashed a new international crisis by reprocessing plutonium for the production of atomic weapons.  Their nuclear ambitions become a critical threat when coupled with their existing ICBM type missiles which have the capability of striking California.  Add to this the fact that the leadership of the country is in question.  Sixty-six year old Kim Jong-Il is incapacitated, following a stroke, and has not appointed a successor.

Iran is seeking its own nuclear weapons.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, has vowed to destroy Israel and all the Jews saying, "Israel should be wiped off the map.”  Israeli President Shimon Peres responds by calling Ahmadinejad a danger and a disgrace for making a vitriolic condemnation and "existential threat” against Israel and Zionism.

After serious aggression against the democratic state of Georgia, Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, is sending a joint air force and naval armada, including one of his largest warships, Peter the Great, and his strategic nuclear bombers to join military exercises in the Atlantic and Caribbean in conjunction with Venezuela.  The nuclear-powered flagship, Peter the Great, is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and 500 surface-to-air missiles.

Islamic peoples, with their culture, are inundating Europe.  The Islamisation of Europe is rapidly creating a clash of ideologies that can only lead to increased hostilities throughout the region and ultimately the world.  World tensions are high with fear of Islamic terrorist attacks.  President George Bush said of these jihadists, "We must see the terrorists for what they are: ruthless extremists who exploit the desperate, subvert the tenets of a great religion, and seek to impose their will on as many people as possible."

Long ago God knew how to resolve the problem of the evil kings of the earth – and His solution is closely associated with the Feast of Trumpets.  “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast.”  “The great day of the Lord is near.” (Zephaniah 1:2-3, 14)

The state of the nation

Everyone is acutely aware of the catastrophic nature of the American economy.  The economy is only one area in which our national sins are taking their toll.  Trumpets pictures the time when Jesus Christ will make a clean sweep of every institution of society and government that exerted itself contrary and defiantly against the way of God.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. was part of the financial system that has brought our country to the brink of collapse.  Federal Reserve board chairman Ben S. Bernanke failed to cry out a warning.  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox seemed to rubber stamp every measure that crossed his desk.  How could these financial leaders fail to protect the interests of the people?  We have had regulators that in many ways have been "asleep at the switch."

Washington’s solutions will not work.  They are nothing like God’s remedy to the economic chaos we are in.  God has His rules for a vibrant economy that will not fail.  One of God's laws is the perpetual use of the land by family units.  God said, "The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me."  (Leviticus 25:23)

God does not allow usury.  Usury is an exorbitant or unlawful rate of interest  –  God said, “If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury."  (Exodus 22:25 )  "Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase."  (Leviticus 25:36-37 )   "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury."  (Deuteronomy 23:19)  Without usury or interest, the monetary system stays stable and without inflation.

God knows that the land needs rest.  "In the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard."  (Leviticus 25:4)

To prevent financial meltdowns, God has a rule that prevents all the wealth from ending up in the hands of a few – jubilee years.  "You shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family...   In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession."  (Leviticus 25:10,13)

The state of the Church

Not only are the world and the nation in appalling shape – so is the Church of God in these last days.  Satan’s ministers do not teach the brethren to love God and one another according to God’s law; they do not teach men to lay their lives down to save another; they do not expect the saints to take a stand for the truth.  The Church is off-base so much in the end-time that Jesus asks the question, "When the Son of man [Jesus Christ] comes, shall He find faith on the earth?"  (Luke 18:8)

Satan’s ministers teach the brethren to look to them as the anointed ones who alone represent God’s government; they call themselves apostles, prophets, and other high titles; they cause the people’s attention to be diverted to substitute religion; and they concentrate and focus on speculative issues within subjects such as prophecy, the calendar, the place of safety, and the two witnesses.

It is God who calls these false ministers, "Satan's Ministers." "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his [Satan’s] ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."  (2Corinthians 11:13-15)

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Sermon:  "State Of The Nation"

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