By Richard Bennett and Robert Nicholson
September 11th, 2001 was for Americans and the world an unforgettable day. We all know the details. Four commercial jetliners were hijacked shortly after taking off from the east coast of the USA bound for the west coast. Two, from Boston, were flown into the gigantic twin towers of the New York World Trade Center, completely demolishing them. A third, from Washington’s Dulles Airport, was flown into the Pentagon. The fourth, from Newark, New Jersey, failed to reach its target and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, killing all on board. Besides those maimed and injured, more than 3,000 people were killed that day. From a natural perspective, the terror created by such clearly premeditated evil events can be devastating. Yet God is still God; He has not ceased to reign. He remains sovereignly in control of all events. We therefore must ask the question, what was His purpose in allowing such atrocities to be perpetrated?
The human mind as constituted by its Creator has an innate need to understand, that is, to know how events and their circumstances relate to the world He made and governs. Men are compelled by their own nature to try to make sense of things. The testimony of Holy Scripture and history is that man by his own resources and research cannot adequately understand God. The depths and riches of His wisdom are past human comprehension. The Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed the means by which the believer is to know who God is, and how He acts. He said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” God’s Written Word not only contains the truth but rather, it is truth itself. This is consistent with the declarations throughout the Old Testament in which the Holy Spirit continually proclaimed that the revelation from God is truth as, for example, Psalm 119:142, “thy law is truth.” The Lord Himself therefore identified truth with the Written Word. There is no source, other than written Scripture alone, to which the statement, “thy word is truth” can apply. That source alone, the Holy Scripture, is the believer’s standard of truth in his search to know the One true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. No creature of His can know Him beyond how He chooses to reveal His character and purposes in His Written Word. Hence the foundation of all true knowledge and understanding of God and His works is the Bible. Such is the God-given means to know God, in Himself, and in His purposes.
A Pattern from the Past
As believers, it is wise to try to make sense of the events of September11th, 2001, according to biblical faith. In this regard, there is a remarkable parallel between our time and condition and those of the believers of the Old Covenant to whom the Prophet Habakkuk wrote. Habakkuk was living in a nation of professing believers, that is, among a people at least nominally adhering to revealed religion, but only nominally, as redemptive history records the terrible political circumstances and woeful spiritual condition of this professing people. As profoundly disturbing to the prophet as the apostasy and declension among his people were, they were not the main cause of his perplexity and distress. He was mightily perturbed by God’s expressed intention to raise up the Chaldeans as an instrument of judgment against His covenant people! The questions in his mind were basic ones. It seems there were at least three of them. (1) How can God, righteous and holy as He is, use a patently wicked and evil nation to execute judgment on His own people? (2) Why was it that a people at least nominally more moral, and comparatively more righteous than the Chaldeans, were to be made subject to the most terrifying and destructive means of warfare imaginable to them at the hands of men that are obviously enemies to all truth and goodness? And, (3) what final Divine ends and purposes could follow from judgment and overthrow of His covenant nation?
Now while this does not encompass the entire content of the book of Habakkuk, and there obviously remain elements distinct and unique to the time of the prophet, it is fair to note that the parallel between his time and ours cannot be called accidental. No true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ really thinks that any event in history, past or present, can be accidental. History has a design, a meaning, and an aim because God is working all things according to the counsel of His own will. The questions rising in the mind of Habakkuk concerning the ways and works of God are the very same in substance that have always occurred to the minds of sincere believers. These same serious questions are for us to address right now.
Our Sovereign God
As a Christian, the only way one can understand the events of September 11th 2001 and their aftermath is in the light the sovereignty of God as explained in His Word. He is the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity. Scripture states that it is He “who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” The failure of many men in their ideas about God is that they imagine Him as being subject to circumstances and events rather than being the source and fountain of all things. Such a concept of God disgraces the basic knowledge of God as all-powerful and absolutely supreme, including over evil and wickedness. Ignorance regarding the nature of God is the mother of destruction—for lack of the knowledge of God is ruinous to any person or people. In the words of Scripture, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” In stark contrast to that, the Scripture also states, “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits....” Those that rebel against the knowledge of the sovereignty of God can expect no other than to perish in darkness. God’s absolute supremacy and unlimited sovereignty naturally flow from His omnipotence and from the fact that He is the origin and support of all things. Moreover, if it were not so He would not be God, for such is His essential nature. As God He is all good and perfect in wisdom. He will not and cannot err. Being perfect in holiness, He can do no wrong; being supremely just, He always acts in accordance with the principles of His holiness, justice, and truth. Even His loving kindness is holy, as He is holy, for God always corrects and chastises His own people in accord with His beneficent purposes for their eternal good. It was not from want of power that He allowed evil men to do extreme wickedness on September 11th 2001, but rather it was His purpose to so allow. In that purpose, His actions were perfect and wholly just.
There is not one single verse in the Word of God that concedes the slightest ability of mere creatures to originate any purpose or execute any intention independent of the Divine Will. The supreme example in history was the murder the Lord Jesus Christ by wicked men, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Hence we must acknowledge God’s hand in everything, and ask this question: was one of His main purposes on September 11,th among many, no doubt, to bring judgment on our modern secular Western civilization and chastisement on His people, the Church of Jesus Christ? Here we make no statement whatsoever concerning the destinies of the thousands of individuals who lost their lives. Christians died along with those who knew not salvation in the Lord. Our Lord taught us not to judge concerning individuals in these matters. The Lord’s admonition and command are given in Luke 13:1-3, “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” He cautioned His hearers not to make an ill use of these and similar events, nor take occasion thence to fault the great sufferers, as if they were therefore to be accounted great sinners. While judging no one and offering heartfelt sympathy to the families and friends of those killed that day, what should not be missed is the Lord’s strong warning, “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Surely, this present tragedy should drive everyone to repentance before a Holy God, and especially those who profess His name but will not acknowledge His sovereignty or the glory that He will not give to another.
Some Great Works of Christ in History
In history, the Lord raised up the King of Babylonia to destroy and exile the nation of Judah. The overthrow of Jerusalem by the Babylonians for their idolatry prefigured its later razing by Titus and the Roman army for rejecting Christ and His Gospel. The destruction of the Jews at the time of the exile and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD are examples of God using huge disasters to typify the destruction to be brought upon the despisers of Christ and His Gospel (Luke 21:20-24). To prepare for the calling of His people from the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation, the Sovereign Lord used Islam to substantially weaken the power of the corrupt Holy Roman Empire and debased Eastern Orthodoxy across Europe and Asia. Like dominoes, many cities and countries fell to the sword of Islam. The Muslims invaded Greece and the Ukraine, and captured the Crimea in 1475. Islam moved up toward eastern Germany, where Luther was to be born in 1483. Albania was crushed in 1500, Moldavia in 1512, Romania in 1516, Montenegro in1517, the same year that Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Church door. Belgrade and Serbia fell in 1521, and Bosnia in 1527. Vienna was besieged in 1529, and the zealots of Mohammed marched through Hungary toward Austria, Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. In the midst of that judgment, the Lord brought forth the five principles of the Gospel anew for the salvation of millions of souls during and after the Reformation. These principles were, (1) in all matters of faith and morals, the final authority is the Bible alone; (2) before the all-Holy God, an individual is saved by grace alone, (3) through faith alone, (4) in Christ alone, and following on this, (5) all glory and praise in the salvation of men is due to God alone.
The Right of Christ Jesus to Rule
The Lord Christ Jesus Himself declared, “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” All right and power of administrative judgment and correction has been given to Christ Jesus as ruling King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Lord Himself declared, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father;” and “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” The good news is that the revival and renewal that comes from correction is also from His hand. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” The Lord Christ’s judgments and chastisements are always just because, as His own words explain, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” The events of September 11th 2001, and the subsequent war against fundamentalist Islam appear to have come upon us as a parcel of chastisement from Christ Jesus on His people, and of His judgment of sinners, east and west. In the words of Scripture to the Church, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” And for the unbelieving world, the Scriptures portray Christ Jesus as the ruler and judge of the nations, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Judgment of Spiritual Blindness?
The events of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 have shown that in modern times there are great inadequacies in understanding of the present rule of the Lord Christ Jesus in His kingly role. On one hand, the Roman Catholic Church is still vainly attempting to usurp His kingdom as hers exclusively to rule over as she wishes through her own power and authority. To do this, she must quench the Gospel and substitute her sacraments, as in centuries past when she attempted to do this by force and flames. Now, with her goal still unchanged, her method is to usurp His authority and reign by civil concordats establishing her right to teach and rule her subjects according to Roman Catholic law within a nation, and by false ecumenism with those who will not bow to her ancient agenda requiring reunification of Church and state under one earthly head. On the other hand, some systems of Evangelical eschatology are so intent to establish Christ as the future King to come that they have understood His present rule and dominion primarily to be as an actor waiting off stage for His hour to come. In contrast to both of these, the Apostle Paul declares that His future coming will show forth the fact that He now “is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
Many Evangelicals, because of their mindset that Christ Jesus is to be the future ruler and Lord instead of presently reigning, leave themselves open to be seduced by patriotic fervor and worldly religious interests that in fact run contrary to the principles of the reigning Lord Jesus Christ. Some, by confusing the aims and interests of the Kingdom of God with the political concerns of the United States of America, have stumbled blindly into the pit of an ecumenical and inter-faith religious synthesis. Such confusion leaves them vulnerable to the insidious but rampant idea of salvation by patriotism. This was seen clearly in their whole-hearted participation in the national prayer meeting on the Friday after the attack. The unholy union before a thoroughly civilized multicultural god was visible in the representatives who gathered there, and was expressed in words by Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon when she identified the participants, “Those of us who are gathered here, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, all people of faith....” The hocus-pocus meeting was comprised of a Muslim cleric, a Roman Catholic Cardinal, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Billy Graham. The disgraces called “prayer” were typified in the invocation offered by the Methodist minister from Houston when he said, “God of Abraham and Mohammed, and the Father of Jesus Christ.…” In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations…they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.”
Darkness in the Daytime
It is plain that large sections of the Church of Jesus Christ in the United States are under the judgment of Christ Jesus the Lord, a judgment of spiritual blindness consequent to departing from the Word of God in general and the revealed truth of the Gospel in particular. The leadership of major Protestant denominations and Evangelical institutions has openly joined in company with the Roman Catholic Church and other false religions. Even an elementary knowledge of the rule of Christ as portrayed in the Scriptures, indicates that the Lord is now abandoning much of the Evangelical leadership to the consequences of their corrupt and anti-Biblical opinions. Over the past forty years they have ignored clear biblical teaching of holding the "mystery of the faith in a pure conscience", by having fellowship with "the unfruitful works of darkness" unmistakably manifest in ecumenical apostasy. Continued “loving dialogue and discourse” with the Roman Catholic Church is becoming their undoing. In sanctioning the Roman Catholic system as “Christian”, they have publicly denied the distinctive character of the worship, service, and salvation of the one true and living God of the Bible, who has revealed Himself only in and by His Son. The final personal cost to them is obviously now terrible beyond all anticipation! Now sadly this false ecumenism seems to be propelled by a wave of patriotic fervor consequent to the terrorist attacks. An entire generation of Evangelicals love the worldly ways of humanism more than they love the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ found in the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church, a worldly instrument prepared for the destruction of any who go in to her, is at hand—even as Israel in her confusion found Egypt to be at hand. Now for the fatherland, many in the Evangelical Church seem willing to sacrifice the very distinctives that in the first place made them Evangelical.
It might be argued that such a thesis is emotive and unkind. Consider, however, that official State prayer meeting held the Friday after the attacks at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. which was itself alone enough to warrant more of Christ Jesus’ judgment on the Church and the nation. The god addressed that day was not the true God; it was a god under many names, those of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and false or nominal Christianity. It was a god that is politically acceptable but non-existent. The worship and service offered to this deity of the national imagination was an insult and blasphemy against the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because the Scripture not only establishes Who God is, but it excludes all others from that glory. “Look to Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Is there not corporate arrogance and idolatry in our day, as in Israel of old?
Confusion of Face: Then and Now
In his confession and lamentation over the sins of the Old Covenant nation that led to their chastisement in the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Daniel prayed, “O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.” Overall in this intercession, Daniel acknowledged the corporate guilt of Israel, the justice of the Divine chastisement presently experienced, and the “confusion of face”, or otherwise stated, the rebuke of shame that adhered to them. They had reaped exactly what they had sown. Public wickedness, idolatry, and stubborn refusal to obey the commands of the Lord to keep separate from the other nations had led to their undoing. Daniel did not assign the low condition of God’s people and the state of the true religion to the opposition of the world, nor even the manifold evils in it. He laid the blame squarely where it belonged, as was testified in the book of Haggai. It was the refusal to stop, think, and measure themselves by the Word Of God and His adverse dealings toward them that perpetuated their self-deceit. What eventually came upon them was in accordance with the Word of God in Jeremiah 2:19, “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.” Has not the foolishness of the American and Western Evangelical Church today through its compromise of its own principles and its unholy alliances also fallen under this judgment?
Consider Your Ways
Plainly it is the determined path of many so-called Evangelical leaders to associate the Church of Jesus Christ and His people in an apostate multi-faith association to support instrumentalities of human government and its political interests. What their real motives are the Day of Judgment will show. Certainly it is not wrong for the Church to decry the stupidity, wickedness, and evil of man manifest in the catastrophe of September 11th. Nor, of course, is it wrong to mourn the great loss of life, to comfort those in sorrow, and to help alleviate whatever sufferings have arisen from this tragic event. But it is obviously wrong for the Church to confuse its worship, service, and Gospel message with the designs and interests of civil power. When it does this, it breaks down the biblical distinction between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world and denies the clear teaching of the Word of God on separation. Suddenly, the Church is not merely in the world, it is of it. The consequence is an inevitable loss of privilege as being the “Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Simply, there is no way to maintain a biblical-evangelical testimony for the Gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone while granting legitimacy in social-civil associations to false religions like Judaism, Islam or Buddhism. Likewise it is impossible to hold out that one is a Bible-believing Evangelical Christian who accepts both the inspiration and authority of the Word of God and still give standing as part of the Church of Jesus Christ to institutional elements of apostate Christendom, like Roman Catholicism, which forthrightly reject that principle. Such behavior is an affront to Christ in His work of redemption and likewise to the Holy Spirit in His ministry of convincing the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.
The Reason for the Curse
It is a heavenly disgrace to the Church of Jesus Christ when men, alleged to be its leaders, are found in company with the wicked, making a pretence at civil religion. It is a mark of Divine displeasure when God gives men up to their delusions in this way. It is not the world’s fault, however, that Christian men fall to worldly allurements and enticements and bring shame on the Gospel. This disgrace is not caused by the corruption and wickedness in the world, which Evangelicals have become so foolishly fond of denouncing in corporate right wing moralistic organizations instead of preaching the Gospel. Rather, the roots of this disgrace lie in the corruption of the Church; that is, in the Church’s abandonment of the Gospel message with concomitants of biblical doctrine and the divine authority of the Word. In the rush of the last generation of Evangelicals to validate their faith to the world by demonstrating the “intellectual veracity” of the Gospel and by building bridges to the religious enemies of Christ, the very substance of truth has been laid aside in order to make Christianity palatable and acceptable to unconverted men on their own terms. Consequently it has becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the Church and the world. Small wonder now that programs of psychological renewal, Church growth recruitment, and sociological research from the pit of academia have supplanted the biblical doctrine of the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in evangelism and conversion.
Frankly, it seems that the leadership of large sections of the professing Evangelical Church have no idea what is the Gospel. It appears that the “household of God” is on the verge of transforming itself into a house of entertainment. Such an assessment, while disconcerting, is obvious on the face of it to anyone prepared to measure our spiritual condition by Holy Scripture rather than what has lately arisen from a seething swamp of sentimentality called Evangelical Christian pop culture, represented in glossy magazines like Christianity Today.
Death of America: Fault of the Church?
In its rush to self-promotion by creating a form of religion acceptable to the natural man, the Evangelical Church in the United States has been blatantly unfaithful to its heavenly calling. In trucking off to indulge in evil associations with Romanism and Liberalism, it has discarded truth at the siren call of a human sentimentality that makes a mockery of authentic Christian love. It is not Christ-like love to promote and entertain lies and call it sincere dialogue. It is not a mark of spirituality or nearness to Christ to shake hands with, to unite in worship with, or to grant some ethereal brotherly legitimacy to the ambassadors of hell from false religions! The biblical view is that this behavior is born of the roots of human pride and love of the world’s applause. The fearful message to the unfaithful Evangelical Church and its leadership in this generation is the same as that given by the Prophet Ezekiel to the people of old, “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”
Measured by the Word of God rather than the sentiments of men, the United States is a kingdom of this world that rejects the Lordship of Jesus Christ; it flagrantly violates every one of the Ten Commandments in its public life. Socially, it is an empire of political craft, institutionalized theft, covetousness, and tolerated sexual perversions, awash in the blood of the unborn. The victims of the abortions since September 11th far out number the victims of that day’s disaster. But worse, it is a kingdom of this world with a civil religion that daily prays, bows and does homage before images and icons of the “Father” and statues of “Christ Jesus”, “Buddha”, “Shiva”, “Mary” and the “Saints”. It is over-run with moralizing and graceless legalistic cults such as Mormonism, Adventism, and hundreds of others, all promoting “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” And it is stylishly draped in an outward respectability and moral order cut from the cloth of humanistic tolerance of diversities of social and scientific wickedness that most assuredly must invoke the judgment of God against it.
The Present-Day Message for the USA
The message of the true Evangelical Church to the people of the United States is that if they do not repent and believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will die in their sins. If this people, as any others of the nations on the earth, continue to harden their hearts, then the Lord will not be merciful and calamity will continue. As the Apostle Paul wrote under the direction of the Holy Spirit, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Some of this judgment has been seen in the events of September 11th but who can bear with the devouring fire of God’s everlasting wrath? The Scripture also says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” The Lord Himself declared, “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” The Lord will always be merciful to those who turn to Him in faith for the remission of sins. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest to your souls.”
True Repentance and Hope for the People of God
Finally, the warning of Holy Scripture stands toward the Church in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” The professing Evangelical Church is guilty of all of those things and much more! What audacity, to pray and ask God to bless America apart from the Gospel call for genuine repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ! What futility and prideful presumption there is in such for professing Evangelicals to abandon the cause of God and truth in favor of indulging civil-religious patriotic fervor for a kingdom of this perishing world! Have we forgotten entirely that “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”? The only appropriate biblical lesson for the people and leaders of the Church in these circumstances is to address themselves to their own repentance. We live in New Covenant times and if, as a people, we truly call our sin what it is and repent, we can expect grace from the Lord. “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” The parallel between the day of the prophet Habakkuk and our own has been shown. In those ancient days, after seventy years, there was repentance and a return to the Lord God. We have a High Priest over the house of God, the Lord Christ Jesus! “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.” “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.”
A Warning for the Years Ahead
The Lord Jesus Christ will also exercise discipline and care over His Church on earth--even upon those who, while calling themselves believers, refuse to accept His authority as the head of the Church. These have a name of being alive but are dead. They have high thoughts of their Evangelical substance as “being rich, and increased with goods”, but are so far departed from the cause of truth as not to possess even the vaguest sense that by the measure of the Word of God, they are already “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” A signal evidence of this is the silence of the majority of Evangelicals while some of their well known leaders trample under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant in proclaiming to the world that Roman Catholics are “our brothers and sisters in Christ”
The Evangelical decline into doctrinal and practical apostasy, that is, the departure from the faith once delivered unto the saints into a religion of sentiment and fleshly experience, should be our gravest concern. The delusion that doctrine, faith, and practice are separable elements in the Christian life is widespread among their popular teachers. Likewise, an appalling ignorance of the Word of God is manifest in the general Evangelical constituency. The Ecumenical-Evangelical vessel of “love” now lies a beached derelict on the shifting sands of subjectivity. Hundreds of thousands of souls, likely now millions, around the world have succumbed to the presentation of a false gospel vomited tiresomely from Neo-Evangelical pulpits and presses. Consequently grandiose Evangelical Church buildings and teaching institutions are presently overrun with people that have been taught by their leadership to confuse their motions of psychologically manufactured human religious feeling for a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. Multitudes credit themselves as being “born again Christians” while rejecting the Lordship of Christ and authority of His Word that is the mark of authentic discipleship.
The Word of God teaches that when men prefer lies in the place of truth it is a sign from heaven of God having already delivered them up to their fleshly religious preferences. If there is not true repentance and a crying out to the Lord for forgiveness, more serious chastisement on the People of God can be expected in the form of increasing spiritual stupor and blindness and a further increase in the population of sociologically sanctified worldlings inhabiting our pews. This will be a judgment upon the professing people of God more to be feared than aircraft flying into buildings, bio-terrorism, and general warfare. The Holy Spirit strongly warns of the apocalyptic consequences of religious self-will resulting in the judgment of being delivered over to endorsing and promoting lies in the name of God.
No Human Remedy
The Lord will sift His people; he will search out and try His visible Church, and will discover and detect those who say they are Evangelical believers and are not, but act as the synagogue of Satan. He, who punished the sinners in Zion with great severity, warns the believers of the New Covenant that He will be even more severe. The Lord God is always true to His Word. “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord.” The terrors of the Lord are known both by revelation and reason; both now sound the alarm for New Year 2002. What has been forgotten is that for the Lord God, the sanctification of His People is His first priority and He will certainly attend to that business. Only a gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our time, to turn the hearts of His people back to Him, will be a sufficient remedy. Pray then that the Lord may be pleased in mercy to heal the affliction of spiritual blindness that plagues the contemporary Evangelical Church rather than to permit it run further into darkness. It is mercy for which we are praying. Given the pattern of stubborn and sinful rebellion manifest these last years in trucking off to make a false peace with the enemies of Christ and the wicked denial of the truth in so doing, it is certain that the Evangelical Church deserves nothing but a severer dispensation from His hand. This is no time to presume on the grace of God, but rather to pray urgently for it! The Lord’s Glory, Gospel, and promise are at stake! “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” ♦
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