12/29/20 THE TRAP IS SLOW BUT SURE

12/29/20 THE TRAP IS SLOW BUT SURE

Western (including American) Christianity has been so aligned with human Government that it thinks of the Government as having the right to rule over Christians as part of the Church (following the faulty example of Roman and Reformation religion). This has lured believers into a fallacious view of the kingdom of God and the State.

Some very important issues and doctrines are skewed because of this errant alliance. Some really good things took place through the Reformation, but the idea of Church-State alliances was a continued mistake from Rome, dating back to the time of Constantine.
Lordship of Christ over His Church is not shared with anyone, any ruler, any nation. We are obliged to obey government, as long as the rule of government does not conflict with the Divine revelation of moral behavior.

One of the major mistakes made by Christians is the idea that "Caesar" has absolute or nearly absolute right, authority, power. When the State is not in opposition to God and is not seeking to take the place of God, Christians should obey the State, even when it is inconvenient and uncomfortable. However, the State never has the right to usurp the Rule of Christ over His Church or over His people. 

I have posted articles, which I hope will encourage believers to evaluate their relationship, loyalty, alignment with the worldly State. We need to know that this world is no friend of grace and the State is not God's channel of grace and holiness. The State is God's appointed channel to protect the righteous and punish the wicked. The State may do more than these two things, but the State never has the right to stand against God.

When the State rebels against God's directives for government, then the State has become the anarchist. These articles are consistent with my Biblical position and my teaching throughout the previous 50 years of my ministry.

I am not a Johnny Come Lately in this generation. I have been sounding the alarm concerning the corruption in our society and the Church, here and around the world. I have been telling folks that America (as my generation knew it) has disappeared, leaving only torn remnants behind.

The longer we go in this direction the quicker we are seeing the corruption and collapse of our country and society. Christians better wake up and realize this world is a war zone rather than an amusement park. We have lost most of the children from the past 30 years because of our naivete, our gullibility, our dependence on the State.

I believe we are in the Laodicean Period of Church History. Read the defining characteristics of the end times Church. I don't know when the Rapture will take place or when Jesus will Return, but I know that this passage foreshadows the lost condition of the Church before the Second Coming.

Revelation 3:14-22
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.