A MESSAGE FOR AMERICA

A MESSAGE FOR AMERICA

adapted from a Sermon by Mark Little - Atonement 2003

Greetings Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, members of Congress, Justices of the Supreme Court and my fellow Americans. I address you today with the utmost humility of mind and spirit that the God of Heaven may grant a human being, filled with so many faults and weaknesses. As the messages of the Biblical prophets and apostles of old were not well received by the people they addressed, so I fear this message will not be received by you in the spirit of outgoing concern in which it is given. This being said, I am confident that in the near future you will come to appreciate and understand the purpose and meaning of today's message.

Our fortieth President, Ronald Reagan, stated, “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under” (emphasis added throughout). My fellow Americans, strange as it may seem, our nation is about to go under. The moral and spiritual decay of our nation bears this out. Consider what is happening in our nation today:

The daily destruction of innocent human life before it is born.

Legal protection for acts of sodomy.

God has virtually been banished from public life by using the mythical phrase, “separation of church and state,” which is nowhere found written in our Constitution. John Adams, our second President, exposed the fallacy of the “separation of church and state”, when he said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Government officials who purposely violate their oaths of office, which generally end with the words, “So help me God,” receive judicial protection.

The Bible is restricted from being taught in public schools. Thus our young peoples' education is rendered morally shallow and of little, lasting value. Noah Webster, our nation's founding father of education stated, “Education is useless without the Bible.”

Constitutional protection for every vile form of speech, entertainment and conduct under the phrase “freedom of speech,” thus corrupting the Founders' intent of the First Amendment.

Our nation's ongoing view that human government is the cure for all societal ills.

With these and many other evils occurring frequently, let us heed the grave warning of John Jay, our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Jay said,

No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty, apart from the moral precepts of the Christian religion applied and accepted by all classes. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, men are certain to shed their responsibilities for licentiousness and this great experiment will then surely be doomed.

America, John Jay's prediction has come true! Our nation is full of licentiousness, the great experiment has failed and our society is doomed for destruction. Why has a nation as strong and powerful as ours failed in its moral purpose? Why is our nation presently sitting on the precipice of destruction? In order to answer these questions, we must look deeply into the scriptures of the Bible and we must review our history.

Nearly 4,000 years ago God made Himself known to a man called Abram and instructed him to leave his country, Ur in Babylon, and go to a land God would show him. Abram immediately followed God's direction. Notice what God said to Abram in Genesis 12:2-3, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (NKJ throughout unless otherwise stated).” Here we see God making tremendous promises which would have a huge impact on the descendants of Abram and all the inhabitants of the earth. And notice in verse four it says, “So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him . . . .” Abram demonstrated unquestioning obedience, allowing God to fulfill the promises He had made to him.

It is important to understand there were two aspects of God's promises to Abram. The first was of a material and national nature-a promise of race. Notice God said, “I will make you a great nation….” This promise refers to the growth and power of Abram's descendants. The second aspect was of a spiritual and individual nature. In this regard, God said to Abram, “. . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Many Bible scholars recognize this promise refers to Jesus Christ, the Savior of all people, who descended from the tribe of Judah, Abram's great-grandson. Sadly, few in our nation understand the importance of these promises. This lack of understanding has left us, as a nation, ignorant of our origins and of who we are.

Now let's look at the expansion of God's promises to Abram, whose name God later changed to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude.” In Genesis 17:4-6, God tells Abraham his descendants will become a people great in number and influence, and that from Abraham will come a line kings.

As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

Thus far, God's promises were conditional based upon Abraham's obedience. However, God's promises would become unconditional after Abraham had proven his complete obedience.

God put Abraham through a series of smaller tests, as preparation for his ultimate test of obedience to God. This would require the putting to death of Abraham's son Isaac as God instructed in Genesis 22:1-2.

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, `Abraham!' And he said, `Here I am.' Then He said, `Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'

Just as he had done before (in Genesis 12), Abraham obeyed God. Abraham was so committed to following God's instructions that he was prepared to take the life of his only son. Look at the dramatic events Abraham experienced:

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, `Abraham, Abraham!' So he said, `Here I am.' And He said, `Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me' (Gen. 22:10-12).

Abraham proved his complete obedience to God thus making God's promises unconditional. Therefore God had to fulfill His Word. Notice verses 15-18.

Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: `By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son-blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.'

Abraham's descendants were to become a numerous people on earth. In fact their numbers would become as innumerable as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore.

To ignore these promises is to ignore God Himself, which, as we will see later, the vast majority of Abraham's descendants did. These promises were passed on to Abraham's son Isaac and grandson Jacob. Notice the promises to Isaac and the reason for them in Genesis 26:3-5. It is clear from reading these verses, God was intent on keeping His Word to Abraham.

Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

Now look at what Isaac said to Jacob in passing on these birthright blessings. It should be noted that Jacob's brother, Esau sold Jacob his birthright blessings for a meager bowl of soup; then, instead of allowing God to give him the blessing confirming the birthright, Jacob deceived his father into thinking he was Esau. Jacob would later pay a heavy price for such deception. Yet, notice what these blessings consisted of in Genesis 27:28-29.

Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!

These blessings included an abundance of agrarian prosperity and dominion over other nations. God re-confirms the blessings to Jacob in a dream in Genesis 28:13-14.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: `I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'

Jacob had to flee into exile from his family because of the deceptive way he had obtained the birthright blessings. Over these years of separation Jacob had twelve sons born to him. These sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin. The older brothers were very jealous of Joseph because Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons. These brothers sold Joseph into slavery and told their father he had been killed by a wild beast. Joseph was taken to Egypt and over time he was elevated from the position of slave to second-in-command under Pharaoh. Years later, a severe famine reunited Joseph and his family in Egypt.

Joseph married the daughter of an Egyptian priest. She bore two sons named Manasseh and Ephraim. These two sons were adopted by Jacob so he could pass the birthright blessings on to them. Notice how this was done in Genesis 48:3-5.

Then Jacob said to Joseph: `God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, “Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.” And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.'

The land Jacob made reference to is the hotly contested area of the Middle East that includes Israel.

What did this adoption by Jacob mean to the descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim? This is important to understand. The Bible places significance on being the firstborn son, not because the firstborn is better than the rest of the siblings in a family, but because the family name and wealth are carried on to the next generation through the firstborn. In this case Manasseh, as the firstborn, should have received the better blessings, but notice what Jacob did in blessing these two newly adopted sons in Genesis 48:13-16.

And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near him. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said: `God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has fed me all my life long to this day, The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.'

Here we see the same blessings given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob now being passed on to Ephraim and Manasseh. But notice in Genesis 48:17-19, that Joseph objected to his father blessing the younger child, Ephraim with the greater blessings which was by custom entitled to the older child, Manasseh. These verses show us that Ephraim's descendants would become a company of nations, while Manasseh's descendants would become a great nation.

Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, `Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.' But his father refused and said, `I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.'

Shortly after passing on the blessings, Jacob died. Over the years his descendants increased, and were forced into Egyptian bondage until Moses was called by God to lead them out of slavery.

America, God's Word is very clear. These promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would make them a multitude of nations inhabiting various regions of the earth. While biblical history records the ancient Israelites entering the promised land of Canaan under Joshua's leadership, the historic record shows they never grew to encompass large areas of the earth. Even though Ephraim became the leading tribe among ancient Israel, in biblical times they never became a multitude of nations nor did Manasseh become the great nation Jacob said his descendants would become.

Originally, these tribes lived together as one nation under the name of Israel, but split shortly after the death of King Solomon. Just as the United States split from Great Britain over taxation, so too did the majority of the tribes of Israel split from the tribe of Judah over the same issue. This group, led by the tribe of Ephraim, became known as the house of Israel or the northern kingdom. The remaining tribes became known as the house of Judah or the southern kingdom. Today, the descendants of Judah are the Jews, which many incorrectly believe represents all the Israelites. Judah was a part of Israel, but not all of Israel was Judah. This separation continues to this day. At Christ's Second Coming the two will be re-united.

Both kingdoms existed side-by-side for two hundred years before the house of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and carried away captive. The house of Judah was conquered 140 years later by the Babylonians, but was allowed to return to its homeland under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah after 70 years in Babylonian captivity.

Notice the reason God allowed Israel to suffer defeat at the hands of the Assyrians.

For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day (II Kings 17:22-23).

It is important to understand what sins of Jeroboam angered God and caused Israel to be carried away into captivity. In I Kings 12:28-33 we see what Jeroboam's sins were.

Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, `It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!' And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.

Jeroboam's sins consisted of setting up idols for worship instead of worshipping God, establishing an unqualified priesthood who perverted God's laws and commandments and changing appointed feast days ordained of God. The Israelites received numerous warnings not to be led away from God into these abominable practices. Notice Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17, 19-20.

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; . . . then you say in your heart, `My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. . . . Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

The Bible plainly states that God takes it personally when His people disobey Him.

With Israel now being taken captive, what about the promises God was unconditionally bound to keep? Was God unable to keep His Word? Did God make promises He couldn't keep? Did the Israelites make it impossible for the great Creator God to follow through on His Word? The apostle Paul writes in Titus 1:2 that God cannot lie. Armed with this knowledge about God's character, we must look for a people, alive today, who became a great company of nations and a great nation of large populations controlling the important strategic points of commerce and defense around the world. Also, among these people there must be a line of kings ruling and governing those of Israelite descent. Since God cannot lie we know these promises will be fulfilled. The question is: What groups of people have had such promises bestowed upon them?

Through biblical prophecy, we know the descendants of Israel and Judah are alive today. Many scriptures in prophecy include the phrase, “in the latter days.” Notice a couple of examples, in this context, referring to Israel in the latter days. Deuteronomy 31:29, where Moses writes the following about Israel,

For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.

Understand what the prophet Jeremiah writes concerning Israel and Judah in the latter days. “The fierce anger of the Lord will not return until He has done it, and until He has performed the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will consider it” (Jer. 30:24). And finally, in the book of Revelation, John mentions that 12,000 physical human beings from the tribes of Israel and Judah, totaling 144,000, will be protected from the trumpet plagues, which occur shortly before the return of Jesus Christ. Revelation 7:4 says, “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:” God's Word is clear! Descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive at the end of the age when Jesus Christ returns as King of kings and Lord of lords. God's Word says they are alive, on this earth, NOW! But where?

Many Bible scholars consider the Israelites to be a lost people. On the surface it appears they simply vanished into thin air. However, the apostle James, writing in the middle of the first century A.D., addresses his letter to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. In addition, secular history provides clues as to where these descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob migrated. One work in particular shows plainly, from the scriptures and secular history, that the house of Israel migrated from northern Iraq (the heartland of ancient Assyria), around the Black Sea, across northwestern Europe, and into the British Isles. Later many crossed over the Atlantic Ocean to the continent of North America. This book entitled, The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong, provides clear indication that the white, Anglo/Saxon/Celtic peoples are the modern descendants of the northern ten tribes of Israel. These same people make up the United States, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, Australia and the countries of northwestern Europe today. Ephraim (Great Britain) did become the company of nations Jacob said it would. England colonized many territories around the world. It could once be said that the sun never set on the British Empire. Manasseh (United States) has become the great nation Jacob said it would-the world's only superpower.

No group of people has controlled so much of the world at one time with so much wealth, military power and bountiful blessings as have Great Britain and the United States. As brothers, Britain and the United States have done more than any other nations in human history to help the rest of the world obtain a level of relative peace and prosperity. No other people on the face of the earth have enjoyed the bounty of blessings God promised the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The people of Great Britain and the United States are the recipients of these promises.

There is good reason to believe our founding fathers knew they were descendants of the ancient Israelites. In a letter to Dr. Walter Jones recounting the life of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson ended his letter with these words, “I felt on his death, with my fellow countrymen that verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.” From a book entitled, Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, note the closing comments about Dr. John Witherspoon.

As a theological writer, Dr. Witherspoon had few superiors, and as a statesman he held the first rank. In him were centered the social elements of an upright citizen, a fond parent, a just tutor and humble Christian; and when on the 10th of November 1794, at the age of nearly 73 years, his useful life closed, it was widely felt that a great man had fallen in Israel.

It was fashionable in that day to view America as the new Promised Land and the settlers as modern-day Israelites casting out the Canaanites.

Why is it that the vast majority of the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel do not recognize who they are today? To answer this question, we must ask another question. Why do the Jews know who they are? All who know Jewish custom understand their day of worship is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The reason the Jews know who they are, and why the world recognizes them as such, is because they never forsook the keeping of God's Sabbath Day. By way of contrast the people of America and Britain have lost sight of their heritage because they forsook the Sabbath many centuries ago. The seventh day Sabbath is a weekly reminder of a Creator God who rested from His creative work on that day, and who commanded mankind to follow His example so that they would not lose contact with Him.

The house of Israel went into captivity for following false religious practices. They chose the many pagan customs God warned them not to partake in. They worshipped God on the first day of the week, Sunday, and honored the sun by acknowledging the cross as a religious symbol. The cross represents the three positions of the sun's daily path over the earth; sunrise, noon and sunset. History shows the cross to be a pre-Christian symbol never connected with Christ. The Bible clearly shows Christ was not crucified on a cross. Today, we share in the sinful pagan practices of ancient Israel. The cross adorns the vast majority of churches in this country. It is used as a sign of worshipping Christ; but, in reality, it is a symbol which God has opposed from the beginning.

According to W. E. Vine, the word “cross” is translated from the Greek word stauros and

denotes, primarily, 'an upright pale or stake.' On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroô, 'to fasten to a stake or pale,' are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed 'cross.' The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the 'cross' of Christ. As for the Chi, or X, which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, that letter was the initial of the word 'Christ' and had nothing to do with `the Cross' . . . (Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Cross, Crucify).

America, you fail to know who you are because you have lost the knowledge of God's Sabbath, which is the identifying sign of God's people. Notice this in Exodus 31:16-17.

Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

The Sabbath identifies those who are God's people and those who are not. As noted, the descendants of the ten northern tribes of Israel are unaware of who they are today because they lost sight, nearly 3,000 years ago, of the Sabbath and its identifying importance.

But ignorance is not an excuse with God. In truth, America, you have no excuse for not knowing who you are. You have no excuse for not knowing the Sabbath is the identifying sign of God's people. For over 50 years this message was proclaimed, identifying who you are; but, you rejected it! America, you have made the same choices Jeroboam made. You worship before the cross just as the Israelites of old worshipped the sun god, Baal, and his wife, Easter (Astarte). Your ministers falsely represent God's Word, teaching and promoting ideas which God did not instruct His people to follow. Like your ancestors, you keep your own feast days instead of God's commanded assemblies. America, you are no different than king Jeroboam. You have devised all these things in “your own heart.”

How does God view your religious practices today, America? What does God think of the many treacherous deeds which occur daily in your land? America, do you really think God will bless a nation that refuses to acknowledge the biblical principles on which it was founded? Let us look to God's Word to find out His answers to these questions. Notice the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: `I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.' Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. . . . Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah: `. . . Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood' (Isa. 1:2-6, 10-15).

These scriptures describe you, America, and your modern brothers. Without repentance, God cannot and will not hear your prayers to bless this nation. When God would tolerate no more, He punished your ancient forefathers for their godless behavior. America, God is sickened by your continuous godless behavior and His punishment is soon to come. The prophet Jeremiah speaks about this corrective punishment as “the time of Jacob's trouble” in Jeremiah 30:4-7.

Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. `For thus says the Lord: “We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob's trouble . . . .” '

God compares the suffering of this time to the suffering of a woman during childbirth. Notice these scriptures refer to both Israel and Judah. Keep in mind that when this prophecy was recorded, the northern ten tribes of Israel had already been defeated and taken captive by the Assyrians. Judah, at the time, was being destroyed by the Babylonians.

Why is the time of Jacob's trouble so severe and painful? Consider Jeremiah 30:12-15.

For thus says the Lord: `Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased. Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.'

The “lovers” mentioned here are the nations Israel (ancient and modern) paid and relied on to support her foreign policy. God wants His people to rely on Him alone! It is a multitude of un-repented sins which cause modern Israel to be punished so severely during this time.

Now you may be wondering what sin is. Look at I John 3:4 (KJV) for the biblical definition; “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” There you have it America, sin is the breaking of God's law and that law is defined by the Ten Commandments. For years churches have taught God's law was nailed to the cross. This is a false teaching. Your courts have ruled there is a separation of church and state recorded in your Constitution. This too is false. As a matter of fact just the opposite is true. The Founding Fathers established your governing foundation upon the Ten Commandments.

Notice the words of James Madison, the primary author of your Constitution.

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.

This nation is going to be severely chastised because it continuously violates the country's founding principles, the Ten Commandments. The following are examples of these violations.

The first commandment says: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” As a nation you put everything from money to fame before God. You worship on holidays you say are Christian, but really aren't, such as Christmas and Easter. These days pre-date Christ's time on earth by thousands of years. A simple read through an encyclopedia will reveal their origins. No one can show where, in the scriptures, Christ commanded these days to be kept. As a matter of fact, He commanded just the opposite. Notice Mark 7:8-9, 13:

`For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men . . . . All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition . . . making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.'

`. . . Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” ' (Mk. 7: 6-7).

None of the “Christian” holidays observed in this country are found in the Bible. Worshipping on these days puts another god before the true God who established this great nation.

The second commandment says: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image . . .” This commandment deals with making a physical representation of God and then worshipping it as God. Today your nation worships many such images with the cross being the primary one. Take a drive throughout your nation and you will see thousands of these images on the roofs, walls and exterior grounds of most churches. The scriptures clearly show such images have nothing to do with Christ, but people pay homage to them anyway. Prior to entering the promised land, notice what God said to your ancient forefathers about worshipping images:

Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, "the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage (Deut. 4:15-19).

This is said in the context of religion, not art. The cross, as explained before, is a symbol of sun worship. It also represents the sexual union. The upright piece representing the male sex organ and the cross piece being a circle on its side, representing the female sex organ. This symbol of religious worship is a corruption and an abomination in the worship of the True God.

The fourth commandment says: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work . . .” In America today, the vast majority of worship is done on the first day of the week, Sunday. Earlier we saw that modern Israel lost sight of their identity because they forsook the Sabbath. Only God can make time holy. He made the Sabbath day holy by resting from His creating work. The weekly Sabbath focuses our attention back to our Creator and allows us to remember that He is our Maker and our God. God gives us six days to do our work, but on the Sabbath we are to stop our work and turn our full attention toward Him. This is not happening in America today. Business is conducted twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in this country. Very few take the time to stop and turn their attention toward God. Those who do turn their attention to worship meet on Sunday, which from God's perspective is the first day of the work week.

The sixth commandment says: “You shall not murder.” The blood from this violent society runs deep in the streets of America. There is murder at every level. However, it is in the sanitized abortion rooms of this country that murder is most horrific. People cringe at the mention of Hitler's death camps and the atrocities committed against the Jewish people and the more recent news of Saddam Hussein's murder rooms where people were thrown into shredders, head or feet first, to be ground up like tree mulch. What a hypocritical nation you are, America. You denounce the atrocious acts of others, yet murder your own unborn children! America, God is deeply angered by your heinous acts and He will punish those who condone the murder of unborn children.

The seventh commandment says: “You shall not commit adultery.” In America, sex is king! God intended sexual intercourse to be enjoyed solely within the confines of marriage; its two purposes being the expression of love with one's spouse and the creation of children. God's Word also defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman!

God never intended for something He created as a gift for human beings to be lost in the abyss of self-gratification. Selfish misuse of sex creates a whole host of problems. Marriages today are wrecked by adultery. Sex outside of marriage produces unwanted children.

Young people are engaging in sex at earlier and earlier ages. A recent study showed that young people engaging in premarital sex are more prone to depression and suicide than those who are not (The Heritage Foundation, Analysis Report 03-04). Of those questioned, a majority wished they had waited until they were older to have sex. From AIDS to Chlamydia, a plethora of sexually transmitted diseases are wreaking havoc on this nation. People and their families are suffering the ravages of diseases that could be so easily prevented by obeying God's seventh commandment. Breaking the seventh commandment has also resulted in homosexual activity, the sexual abuse of children and many other deviant forms of sexual activity.

America, God is tired of your ever-increasing sins. He has had enough! You have been tried, judged, convicted and sentenced by the God of heaven and earth to face the most severe of punishments. It would be wise, as you prepare to serve your sentence, to consider the words of our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln's proclamation for a day of national fasting occurred during the midst of civil war. His words for Americans then, are equally appropriate for Americans today.

. . . it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. . . . we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and full concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863 as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. . . . this is being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

America, today's message is being delivered to you on God's holy day, called the Day of Atonement, some 140 years after President Lincoln's National Fast Day Proclamation. Most people know this day as the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. Fasting is a means of humbling oneself and showing remorse for sins committed. It reveals to a person his physical limitations and complete dependence upon God. Fasting helps a person to repent of his sins and draw closer to his Creator and Sustainer. God requires this repentance before He can work with any man or woman. Notice Isaiah 66:2, “. . . But on this one will I look: on him who is poor [humble] and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” America, shortly you will realize, through catastrophic world events, that you must turn to God in humble repentance, acknowledge your sins, and appreciate and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ-made for mankind's sins.

America, you no longer look to the “Hand of Providence” our Founding Fathers looked to for liberty and freedom. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy made this clear in the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which established a “right to privacy” under the 14th Amendment. Justice Kennedy wrote, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life.” America, you are like those in the period of the judges in ancient Israel when, “. . . everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdgs. 17:6). As a nation you have taken upon yourself to decide what is right and what is wrong. Your decisions no longer consider the Moral Code of our Founding Fathers!

America, Abraham Lincoln is no longer with us but his words still ring true. The danger is imminent! It is my sincere hope, when you find yourselves in the midst of God's punishment, that you will humble yourselves and acknowledge “the offended Power” who kept His word to our father Abraham and blessed us, his descendants. Soon, God will punish America and the rest of Israel for their disobedience and rebellion. But, America, there is still hope. The final part of Jeremiah 30:7 states, “…But he shall be saved out of it.” Yes America, you and your modern brothers will be delivered from your terrible punishment, but only after you have seen the error of your ways and only after you have developed a humble and contrite heart, in conformity with God's Word.

My fellow Americans, let me close with the following words from William Holmes McGuffey whose textbooks were used to educate the children of America, both morally and academically for over one hundred years in your public schools, until they were banned in 1963.

The Christian religion is the religion of our Country. From it are derived our notions on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions. From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible, I make no apology.