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THE DAY OF RECKONING
By Paul Proctor
August 25, 2005
NewsWithViews.com
It’s been all over the news lately that in
the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jew has now turned against Jew. In recent
days, to the amazement of onlookers, Israeli soldiers have been forcibly
removing Jewish families and entire communities from their homes and properties
in anguish and in tears for, of all things, the sake of peace; the result of an
ungodly agreement between Israeli leaders and Palestinian terrorists whereby
Israel willingly exchanges certain parts of God’s Covenant Land in hopes of
co-existing peaceably with its sworn enemy. In a recent report by Koenig’s
International News, editor Bill Koenig described it as a battle between “secular
Jews “ and “religious Jews;” a confrontation that is sure to expedite the
intervention of God and judgment upon those responsible.
So, what’s the difference between a
“religious Jew” and a “secular Jew,” you might ask?
To put it simply: One believes God and the
other does not.
To Abraham, the Lord said this:
“And I will establish my covenant between
me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting
covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give
unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all
the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
– Genesis 17:7-8
But did you know that a strikingly similar
struggle has been underway here in America? While “secular Jews” ran “religious
Jews” out of their homes in Gaza, those I would call “secular Christians” have
been, believe it or not, running “religious Christians” out of their church
homes in this country for much the same reason: the sake of peace. So, what’s
the difference between a “religious Christian” and a “secular Christian,” you
might ask?
One believes God and the other does not.
James Sundquist, author of “Who’s Driving The
Purpose Driven Church?” chronicled a few of these heartbreaking stories in a
clever parable he put together called “Spiritual Euthanasia.” Many such victims
have written to me with their traumatic tales over the years. Some wrote about
refusing to sign covenants of capitulation. Others just could not condone a
commercialized Christianity; while more simply would not sit silent before false
teaching; and for their opposition, they paid a price. Objectors were
ostracized, victims were vilified, memberships were revoked and some were even
escorted off of church property.
You see, today’s “secular Christians” decided
somewhere back there that it was time to bring the culture into the church in
the interest of evangelism and make the gospel more relevant to reprobates,
thereby compelling Christians into a compromised co-existence with the enemies
of Christ by giving them a place and a voice once reserved exclusively for the
redeemed. It was soon learned that many of the “religious Christians,” (the ones
that believed God and obeyed His Word) would have to be expelled as “resisters”
in order to facilitate change and keep the peace. So, it was out with the old
and in with the new; or should I say, out with the reverent and in with the
raucous?
Now, secular-friendly CEOs exalt their
high-tech mega temples and all that is in them in much the same way the temple
in Jerusalem and its treasured contents were lauded by its hierarchy before the
Romans raided and ravaged it in 70 A.D. Like the first temple, plundered and put
in ruin by invading Babylonians in 586 B.C., the second was also laid waste,
leaving Jews slaughtered, scattered, persecuted and without, not only their
place of worship but also their homeland for almost two millennia. Why? –
Because they, like the church today, sought their own way while rejecting the
Lord and His.
Now it has become the driving desire of
countless congregations around this country to expand and refashion their simple
structures into grand palaces of bread and circus where believers and
unbelievers can be lured into facilitated fellowships of compromise and
consensus by way of their “felt needs” to enjoy not only the steady beat of the
street but also a steady diet of passion-filled, purpose-driven psycho-heresy
and all of the cultural relevance a secular Christian could covet; praising,
worshiping and serving one another in the name of Christ while tolerating
anything and everything at the expense of His Word so as to justify and gratify
the appetites and senses of all; creating a chaotic peace; a “unity in
diversity” by the mixing of truth with lie and good with evil; something the
bible clearly condemns.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and
what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with
Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as
God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive
you.” – 2nd Corinthians 6:14-17
Little do many Christians know that recently
reinterpreted Eminent Domain laws and zoning restrictions have made their
glorious tax-free amusement parks prime targets for confiscation by commercial
developers who can now, with the government’s own blessing and powerful arm of
enforcement, turn church members out on their ears and church buildings and
properties into revenue raising real estate. Can’t happen, you say – not with so
many red state republicans in office and an evangelical Christian conservative
in the White House? And, why couldn’t it? If the Lord would allow the temple in
Jerusalem to be taken from His chosen people in their rebellion by heathen
opportunists, do you honestly think He would not allow the very same
encroachment on His errant elect, regardless of who is in charge politically?
Today’s “church” is so preoccupied with
itself and its own “health, wealth and success,” having been cleverly captivated
by the self-empowering doctrines of demons and the ecclesiastical elevation of
everyone’s self-esteem that it can’t even begin to perceive the fate that awaits
it.
Newsweek just published a sobering article
entitled: “In Search of the Spiritual” that draws some rather calamitous
conclusions concerning the unbiblical beliefs of 21st century Christians and the
spiritual smorgasbord people in general are searching for and embracing today. I
have listed just a few quotes from the piece below for your consideration; each
followed by a short scriptural response:
1.
“According to the NEWSWEEK/Beliefnet Poll, eight in 10 Americans – including
68 percent of evangelicals—believe that more than one faith can be a path to
salvation, which is most likely not what they were taught in Sunday school.”
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” – John 14:6
2.
“…says Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American
Public Life at Boston College. ‘Rather than being about a god who commands
you, it's about finding a religion that empowers you.’"
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth
not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth
his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are
in him.” - 1st John 2:3-5
3.
‘”People are looking for transformative experience, not just a new creed or
dogma,’ says Surya Das, a U.S.-born Tibetan lama whose spiritual journey began
in 1970, when he was a student from New York's Long Island named Jeffrey
Miller’”
“And for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” – 2nd
Thessalonians 2:7-12
4.
“Stephen Cope, who attended Episcopal divinity school but later trained as a
psychotherapist, dropped into a meditation center in Cambridge, Mass., one day
and soon found himself spending six hours every Sunday sitting and walking in
silent contemplation. Then he added yoga to his routine, which he happily
describes as ‘like gasoline on fire’ when it comes to igniting a meditative
state. And the great thing is, he still attends his Episcopal church—a perfect
example of the new American spirituality, with a thirst for transcendence too
powerful to be met by just one religion.”
“Not every one 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.” – Matthew 7:21
5.
“To Bridgette O'Brien, a 32-year-old student in the recently created Ph.D.
program in Religion and Nature at the University of Florida, ‘the divine is
something significant in terms of the energy that pervades the natural world
at large.’ Her worship consists of composting, recycling and daily five-mile
runs; she describes herself as ‘the person that picks the earthworms off the
sidewalk after the rain to make sure they don't get stepped on.’"
“There is a way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” – Proverbs 16:25
In spite of all the postmodern positivism
with its Designer Christ and “new spirituality,” the Lord does not deliver the
defiant. He does, however, rescue the repentant; but repentance is not preached
much anymore because it offends; and so this country and all of its “secular
Christians” stand before a prophesied peril of poverty and perdition, cloaked in
a presumed peace and prosperity that was wrought from a pride in our own
prominence, perversion and powers of persuasion; spoken of by the prophets of
old, the Lamb of God and a couple of aging Apostles named Paul and John; all
rejected resisters who warned of a coming apostasy and the dreadful day of
reckoning that would soon follow.
“For yourselves know perfectly that the
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say,
Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child; and they shall not escape” – 1st Thessalonians 5:2-3
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first …” – 2nd
Thessalonians 2:3a
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