AMERICA IN CRISIS: 9.3.22 - America Is Not Exempt From Judgment

 America Is Not Exempt From Judgment - By Grant Phillips - https://www.raptureready.com/2022/08/27/america-is-not-exempt-from-judgment-by-grant-phillips/ As I’ve heard David Reagan say so often, “God does not wrap Himself in the American flag.” He is simply saying, along with the apostle Peter, “… “In truth I perceive thatGod shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). We, as a society, think we can do or say anything we want and never have to pay the piper. Most in our society either do not believe in God or think we are so special thatGod would not dare judge us. Is God really just a big teddy bear up in Heaven that winks at sin? Is He really so impressed by us that He would consider us an exception and just hold His nose while Hegives us a big hug? I personally feel we are under judgment now, and I’ll explain why I believe that later on in this article. First of all, I would like for us to consider a few judgments by God upon others in the past and the future. These are in no particular order. PAST JUDGMENTS God’s Judgment in the Garden of Eden: Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and disobeyed God, then sin entered us and had to be judged. Judgment was handed down by God upon them and their progeny, and judgmentwas also pronounced upon the serpent. Read chapter three of Genesis. God’s Judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah: Sodom and Gomorrah were extremely wicked in every respect, much like us, by the way. Jesus’ half-brother said of them and the surrounding cities of that day the following: “In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishmentof eternal fire” (Jude 7). The account of their destruction is recorded in Genesis 19:23-29. Only Lot and his daughters survived. God’s Judgment on Those in Noah’s Day: Well, here is another group of people, much like us, who refused to repent of their evil devices. They ignored Noah’s warnings and became more and more evil. Their judgmentis recorded in Genesis 6:1-8; 7. Only Noah and his family survived. Everyone else drowned by a worldwide flood. God’s Judgment on Egypt: Because of the Pharoah’s arrogance, the people suffered, and the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea. See Exodus 14:26-28. God’s Judgment on Israel: The northern kingdom, called Israel at that time, had turned its back on God and was taken captive by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Out of 19 kings, they were all bad, from JeroboamI to Hoshea, a period from 931 B.C. to 721 B.C. You can read about their judgment by Assyria in 2 Kings. God’s Judgment on Judah: In the book of Daniel, we can get a first-hand look at Judah, the southern kingdom, following its captivity by the Babylonians from 607-586 B.C. Out of twenty kings, from931 B.C. to 586 B.C., there were only eight that could be called “good.” God’s Judgment on Babylon: In 539 B.C., God allowed the Persians to capture Babylon to punish them for taking Judah captive. In Daniel 5, we can see the beginning of Babylon’s fall. God’s Judgment on all Israel for Rejecting their Messiah: In 70 A.D., Israel’s temple was destroyed and the people scattered to the four winds. Luke 19:43-44 gives us the reason for their judgment. FUTURE JUDGMENTS God’s Judgment and Reconciliation for Israel During the Tribulation: Note Ezekiel 20:36-38; Romans 11:26; Revelation 6ff. (I will repeat this judgment at the end.) In Daniel 9:20-27, we are told of 483 years and then the additional seven yearsremaining, which will comprise the Tribulation. God’s Judgment of the Gentiles at His 2nd Coming: Read Matthew 25:31-46. There will be three classes of people at this judgment: sheep (saved Gentiles), goats (unsaved Gentiles), and brothers (the people of Israel). God’s Judgment of Fallen Angels at the End of the Millennium: Please see Jude 6. God’s Judgment of the Wicked Dead at Great White Throne After Millennium: Read Revelation 20:11-15. God’s Judgment on Gog and Magog: See Ezekiel 38 – 39. God’s Judgment of Satan: See Revelation 20:7-10. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, but it is clear that the Almighty God we serve will not hesitate to administer judgment upon individuals and nations that refuseto repent. Someone may say, “My God is a God of love!” I must reply that God is a God of love, and He is also holy. He cannot condone sin, and there are no exceptions. “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10:34-35). The United States of America was once a God-fearing country. Today every area of our society is so deep in sin that we are now a carbon-copy of those in Noah’s day and thosein the days of Lot. Our government is totally corrupt, steeped in pride and greed, and hates anything associated with a holy God. Along with the politicians, the entertainment industry in our nation is perverse and laughs in the face of Almighty God, as theworld of business robs from the people and thumbs their nose at God. Even most of the churches have been taken over by false prophets, perversion and apostasy, and are leading people by the millions straight to hell. What has happened to us, a country that at the very least once showed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob respect and recognized the Son of God as the only way to the Father? As did Ephesus, we lost our first love and turned our back on God. In our pride, we have sunk to the lowest depth of Satan’s sewers. We removed God from every aspect of oursociety and have never looked back since at least 1963, when we chose to remove Him from our schools. As I said earlier, I believe we are already under judgment, for Romans 1:24-25 says that God gave us over to sinful desires. Romans 1:26-27 says God gave us over to shamefullusts, and Romans 1:28-32 say God finally gave us over to a depraved mind. In other words, God backed away and gave us what we wanted, and now we are reaping what we have sown. Yes, God is love, and He proved it at the cross, but He doesn’t save anyone by His love. He saves all who will come to Him by His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). God’s Judgment at the Cross of Calvary: The greatest judgment of God was upon Jesus Christ at Golgotha (Calvary). On that cross, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and died for us so that all who come to Him willbe saved from wrath. Please read John 12:30-33. Self-Judgment During the Church Age: Every person who comes to Jesus and asks Him to save them will be saved and never face judgment because Jesus paid the price for us that we could never pay. 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 tells us, as true followers of Christ, to judge ourselves so as not to bring any disrespect upon our Lord. Also, we learn of Him and serve Him in whateverway He leads us. In turn, there is another judgment. God’s Judgment of the Believers Works After the Rapture: 2 Corinthians 5:10 and 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 promise that Jesus will judge the works of every believer, not sins, but works. He paid our sin debt at the cross, but this judgmentis to reward us for serving Him. Even though our country has placed itself in God’s crosshairs, as did the Pharoah of Egypt and so many others, we must stay true to God’s Word. There is another judgment that many will face. God’s Judgment During the Tribulation (Repeated): The Church will not be here for the Tribulation (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). We will be in Heaven with Jesus, preparing for the greatest wedding of all. All who have rejectedJesus will remain upon the earth to suffer through God’s wrath (Revelation 6:17), a time so terrible that all mankind would die if not for His grace (Mark 13:20). In my opinion, our once great country has crossed the line, and there is nothing remaining but the judgment of God. We are in the last days just prior to the Tribulation,and the only thing the Bible says about this time period is that it will get worse and worse until the Church is first removed, and then the Tribulation will begin. Our leaders and the majority of our populace want nothing to do with God, but the good news is that any who are willing can come to Jesus right now and be saved from the wrathto come. How do you avoid the Tribulation? Call upon Jesus now. Out of the list of judgments I have mentioned above, how can we be so naïve in thinking we are exempt simply because we are the United States of America? We are not exempt.Do we not realize that God has waited two thousand years in order to give the world plenty of time to repent? “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:12). Grant Phillips ------------------------ America�Sheep or Goat? � Terry James - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Will the United States of America be a sheep nation or a goat nation? That is perhaps a Shakespearian question in the vein of �To be or not to be?� The question, of course, is rooted in context of the Millennium, at the beginning of which Jesus Christ will judge which will be, symbolically, a sheep nation or a goat nation�basedupon how these entities dealt with God�s chosen nation, Israel. Believers in Christ who survive the horrendous Tribulation will inhabit the sheep nations. All who survive the Tribulation but who have not accepted Christ will be placed in the goat nations,then be cast into what is described as �outer darkness,� and will remain in that state until the white throne judgment at the end of the one-thousand-year reign of King Jesus upon the millennial earth. Our quest here is to wonder just a bit on whether America is destined to be a sheep nation. You can guess without much speculation what I, personally, hope is the answer. One thing that comes to mind in these contemporary times regarding the United States is its magnetic attraction to peoples around the world. This nation might be likened tothe planet Jupiter. It is huge in most of the ways human beings see as alluring, giving it the greatest gravity�materially speaking�of any nation-state to grace earth�s surface. God has indeed blessed America �from sea to shining sea.� While all other nations orbit this one, realization about the liberty that is synonymous with the US to worship, move about, work, play, or even just be slovenly doesn�t escapeeven those kept from knowing much about things going on around the rest of the planet. Indeed, America�s gravity dynamically has drawn all peoples toward its irresistible opulence. With the exception of very few, no one makes noises about leaving this nationto live elsewhere. Billions look in America�s direction as the �shining light on the hill,� as President Ronald Reagan once called it. Even the defectors who sought to dodge the draft during the Vietnam era have since done all they could to come back to the nation they deserted. The Hollywood types�like BarbraStreisand, for example�who periodically threaten to leave America because they don�t get their way politically, decide to stay when it comes down to the moment of leaving or staying. In southern parlance, they know on which side their bread is buttered. Perhaps to get right to the heart of what has made America the center of the universe of nations, and to try to determine its status so far as involvement in Bible prophecymight be concerned, I would like to consider a well-known historical observation by a man outside this country�a Frenchman, no less. French social philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, while touring the United States in the 1800s, said about America: �America is great because America is good. If she ever ceasesto be good, she will cease to be great.� De Tocqueville no doubt was speaking of how he viewed cultural and societal good. But, upon observing the nation�s Christian church foundation he encountered, he must have based his conclusion on the fact that America�sgoodness in the societal sense was a result of Christianity running throughout the country�s cultural fiber. What he likely didn�t understand was what that �goodness� really means in God�s economy. God�s Word speaks of this �good�: �And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God� (Mark 10:18). Jesus was not saying to the man who fell on his knees before the Lord that He, Jesus, was not �good,� but the Lord was acclaiming that God, alone, is the only good. Jesuswas�and is�the only �good� flesh-and-blood person to ever walk the earth�s surface following the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. That is because Jesus IS God. De Tocqueville now looks from the past at America�s once pretty face, and his words of warning are reverberating: �If America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to begreat.� America, A Golden Cup Again, is the name �America� given anywhere in Scripture? Of course not. But the influence this nation has exerted since coming to its full bloom as earth�s greatest superpowerin history makes it a prophetic nation. The Creator of all things continues to use America in His mighty hand to accomplish two very distinctive, supernatural purposes. As a matter of fact, the United States, in my view, has an overwhelming presence in Bibleprophecy. Its place is at the very heart of the end-times things that we see developing�matters unfolding in daily, even hourly, news reports. In this sense, I am of the conviction that God is speaking of America�in type, if not by name, when His Word tellsus the following: �Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in the LORD�S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad� (Jeremiah 51:7). Certainly, the United States of America has been a �golden cup� in the Lord�s hand. No other nation of modern vintage can come close to claiming that achievement. Some nations of Europe were formative in bringing forth Christianity into the world, thus shedding a degree of gospel light into a world of sin-darkness. But it is America that, despite its great shortcomings and more recent degeneration, has been a shining beacon, reflecting from that golden cup in God�s hand. Being the first nation in spreading to the whole world the gospel message�that Jesus� sacrifice on the cross makes possible the only way to redemption for lost mankind�isa feat no other country can claim. This, ultimately, has been done not by the offices or under the auspices of American ingenuity, but by the omniscience and the omnipotence of the One holding the �golden cup.� It is God�s grace and mercy that have put Americaas a beacon of God�s light upon that mountain of gospel dissemination. God�s providence gave this nation the industrial and technological genius�a fact that is denied, or that is so taken for granted today. All of the grace God has shed upon America from sea to shining sea, it must now be noted here, means nothing in addressing the question we are seeking to answer: Will Americabe a sheep nation or a goat nation? The United States has been extremely generous with its wealth at every turn. Whether rebuilding war-torn nations far away, such as through the Marshall Plan, or providingbillions of dollars whenever there are tragedies to be funded, our country has seemed to be the good Samaritan. But our largesse as a people also will not determine whether America is destined for sheep-nation status. Again, according to the prophetic Word, it seems national status in this regard is to be based on how other nations have dealt with God�s chosen nation, Israel. It is based upon this factor�US/Israeli relationship�that I have great hope in trying to answer our question. America was chosen by God, Himself, I have absolutely no doubt, to act as national midwife in Israel�s rebirth into modernity. Any true reading of history will attest to thisreality. The revisionists, the Marxists, the evil from the mind of Satan cannot change this fact. America has, despite its egregious acts of late against the God of Heaven, has been friend and protector of the fledgling Jewish state as it entered again asa nation in the mid-twentieth century. Will America face God�s judgment? Again, there can be no doubt. We have allowed the murder of more than sixty million children in their mothers� wombs, just as a start onlisting the absolute wickedness we have seen recently. God will judge this nation. But there will be a glorious rebirth for America, I�m believing, once its sins are purged and the Lord again counts our nation as �good.� -----------------------