A Dark Day for America, by HJL

June 26, 2015 will forever be marked as one of the darkest days in its history. On this day, the SCOTUS released a decision on a case that should never have been before the court in the first place. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court violated the Constitution of the United States and created legislation from the bench in declaring that all states must recognize the sexual perversion that they call “gay marriage”. However, this column is not about taking to task the SCOTUS for a decision that will literally tear apart this nation. Nor is this about taking liberal progressives to task for fundamentally changing the fabric of our nation. They have merely done what they told us they were setting out to do.

There are two groups of people who must change their ways in order to stop this insanity.

The Church

The first group, who bears the brunt of the responsibility, is the organized “church”. It’s not the organized religions themselves but the people who makes up the membership of these organizations. These are men who think they are doing the right thing but are not.

“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. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:21-23

But who are these people who “work iniquity” (or as some literal translations put it “you who practice lawlessness”)? One needs only read a few verses further in Matthew.

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27

Notice that the foolish man didn’t build a bad house; he just didn’t build it upon a solid foundation. That’s exactly what we have done today in our churches. We have built good looking houses, but when the floods have come we have now discovered that those houses are not built upon solid foundations. We have churches that allow open homosexuality as well as other stated sins within not just their congregations but within the leadership of those congregations. Wikipedia: List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality lists the major denominations and their stance on homosexuality. The list of those denominations that allow this perversion within their ranks should be zero, but it is disturbingly large. The fact that there is any green in the chart at the bottom shows that there are churches that claim to be Christian but that will fall squarely under the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:23. They are workers of iniquity.

The root of this problem is the 1700 years of church doctrine that divorces the New Testament from the Old Testament, falsely claiming that Christ nailed the “law” to the cross. That doctrine is squarely rooted in historical antisemitism. The church’s desire, beginning in the 4th century, has been to be as separate as possible from the Jewish people and led them into the apostasy of declaring separation from the Hebrews and the declaration of replacement theology. This generation will uniquely reap the compounded consequences of that doctrine, and this SCOTUS decision is only the beginning.

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.” Dueteronomy 13:1-5

The majority of today’s churches are that false prophet. They preach a gospel different than what Moses taught, even claiming that God’s promises of “everlasting covenant” were not really everlasting. They say God’s “everlasting” covenant only lasted until the New Testament, but that is not what Jesus taught:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-19

And again:

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” John 5:46-47

So what exactly did Moses teach concerning homosexuality?

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” Leviticus 20:13

“There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a Sodomite of the sons of Israel.” Deutoronomy 23:17

Contrary to what many Christians today believe, the New Testament is consistent in the message:

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Romans 1:26-27

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27

Despite man’s attempt to distance himself from the Law of Moses, the message is clearly transmitted through. Those churches that openly ordain homosexual clergy or leadership will clearly face judgement, but what about those churches who have declared that they will openly allow homosexuals into their congregation just not as leaders and then “love them into submission”? These leaders are clearly deluded and are allowing evil to enter their doors, which results in where we are today.

For the first 30 years of Christianity, after the resurrection of the Messiah, the church was built of Jewish believers. These believers followed Mosaic law and clearly lived by the principles found within. They did not have issues with sexual immorality creeping into their congregation because the very culture deemed it an abomination unto God. However, as the message spread to the Gentile world, believers came from backgrounds other than that of Mosaic law. Most of the Pagan cultures had religions that revolved distinctly around sexually impure practices, and this is what Paul dealt with when he wrote 2/3 of our current New Testament. He did not write about things that people were already doing; he wrote about acute issues that needed to be fixed, and his ministry was to the Gentiles. In Acts 15, the Jerusalem council gives us a clear declaration of what is required of new believers. After repeating the words of Amos– the prophet who affirmed that salvation was for all men, not just Jews– James recognized that no prerequisites were required to be saved. However, then he gave these instructions to the new believers:

“Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.” Acts 15:19-21

To the astute reader, it is readily apparent that James is giving the new believer instructions, not on what is required for salvation but on what is required for fellowship. If that same reader has done their homework, they will also readily recognize that these same instructions are what is considered the “core” of Moses teachings: Leviticus 17, 18, and 19. Additionally, the new believer is asked to attend synagogue and learn about Moses.

If a new believer is required to abstain from “fornications”, which includes homosexuality and the so-called gay marriage, for fellowship in the church, then where is our church discipline? New believers cannot continue in their sin and fellowship with the body. If the body does not act with discipline then it does not act with love. Love requires discipline; any good parent that raises children can attest to that.

Conservative Christian Politics

The second group responsible for our circumstance is the conservative Christian who insists our nation was founded on Christian principles and wants to enact laws to enforce what they believe those principles were. This group bears the responsibility for empowering the Federal government to meddle in areas that it has no business being in.

Our founding fathers did not base our nation on Christian principles; they built it upon the principle of tolerance. This blog has long taken a Libertarian stance that Federal involvement in local affairs causes more problems than it solves. The conservative Christian has not yet learned this lesson. As the tide of civilization turns against conservative moral standards, the Christian has a tendency to get fired up and demand legislation that enforces his moral code. He has not yet learned that the simple act of passing legislation does nothing to stem the moral decay, yet it does give the government a purchase in the issue. When the tide has turned sufficiently, the progressive simply takes the legislative toehold, given to him by the Christian, and uses it to set his own moral (or immoral) legislation.

Had the Federal government never passed DOMA, I seriously doubt that the issue of gay marriage would be before SCOTUS today. Even before that, if the individual states had not tried to regulate marriage how would any government have the ability to legislate against it? If marriage is a Biblically-defined covenant relationship between one man, one woman, and God, then how is it that the state has any say in marriage at all? Sure there is a contractual obligation of property sharing and even one of inheritance, but we also have standard contractual agreements that deal with those issues outside of the marital status. Why do we have to have a marriage license from the state?

I have two documents stating that I am married– one from the state and one from the church. For all intents and purposes, the churches document is meaningless. Why isn’t the marriage document from the church defining my marriage and the document from the state simply defining the status of my property and inheritance?

These problems will continue as long as we empower the government entities to get involved in our private, personal, family business. We really can’t complain when the government is simply using the very door that we opened for them to bludgeon us over the head. We shouldn’t have opened the door in the first place!

How Do We Fix It?

One thing is clear at this point: the problem cannot be fixed by more legislation. I believe that the issue has gone so far that the legislation that has passed will not be undone by the political process alone. I have zero faith in any elected official at this time, but that doesn’t mean the problem can’t be fixed or reversed.

Start with yourself.
Quit playing games with your faith. You can’t very well complain that our leaders are lying, when you yourself are lying even if it is to yourself. Getting serious about your faith means living by the commandments of God.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15

“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” 1 John 2:4
Then move to your family.
The family is the core structure of civilization. Enough with the broken homes and the parentless children. If you don’t have your family, you are living a lie. Yes, we have all made mistakes. We have all made a mess of it. God excels at restoration. When you have your life straight with God, then get your family right with God. Quit fighting the worldly battles of feminism and freedom. Embrace the roles that God ordained for each of us. Men, get up and provide for and protect your family. Lead your family in faith! Women, quit fighting your man for supremacy in the home and be his #1 cheerleader. Children, stop with the disrespect. Honor your father and mother. Each of us must learn what God intended for us in our positions in the family. Each position is equally valuable, but they are not the same. Each must fulfill their role for the machine called a family to function properly and to produce good fruit with harmony, peace, love, and so forth.

“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8
Stand for what is right.
What does it matter what the SCOTUS ruled? Who are you truly afraid of, God or man? If the SCOTUS gave us an immoral, unjust ruling, then we have an obligation to ignore it. The SCOTUS itself recognizes that an unjust ruling is no ruling at all. Know what is the proper ethical position on anything that affects you or your family, and make sure that your own morals line up that those ethics.

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” – Revelation 18:4
Get your finances in order.
We are living a lie right now. Our entire nation is fueled by unsustainable debt from the top echelon down to the lowliest person. The amount of debt the average person carries is unbelievable. Get out of debt! If that means you have to quit pretending to be middle class, then just do it. When you are in debt, you are another man’s slave, even if it is over your house or car. The American dream is over, and I’m not sure it ever really existed at all. The illusion of home ownership, two cars in the driveway, the 100” flatscreen TV with the latest smartphone is killing us.

Understand that you may be persecuted for standing up for what is right, and the primary way that persecution will come is by threatening to take away your “stuff” and your money. What you “owe” on will be the easiest to capture. Understand that while the Bible does not forbid debt, it never shows provision through financial debt.

“The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” – Proverbs 22:7
Churches, get your act in order!
The Gospel that the Messiah taught is the same message that Moses taught and the same message that the apostles and Paul taught. Quit trying to be popular and easy. Teach the commandments of God, including the messages of repentance, redemption, salvation, restoration, obedience, and discipline, not just the message of easy and abundant grace. Teach your members to be strong in the Lord and to stand in their faith! Stick to what the Bible teaches rather than what man thinks.

“But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” – Matthew 15:9

“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Mark 7:7

This mess can be turned around, but it will only start from the bottom up. We must fundamentally change ourselves first. We cannot just point the finger and blame someone else. In the end, we are all accountable for our own actions before God. When we stand before the judgment seat of God, we will not be standing as a nation, state, community, church or even as a family. We will be facing judgment for our own actions with no one to take responsibility except ourselves. A friend of mine once told me, “Don’t tell me what god you serve. Show me what commandments you follow, and I’ll know what god you serve!” I will not comply with any SCOTUS ruling that is contrary to God’s word! I serve the one, living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will obey His commands! Who is your god?

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” Revelation 22:14-15