David Reagan - A Nation Begging for Destruction, Part 2
Did you know that there are at least seven major prophetic voices on the scene today who have been anointed by God to call this nation to repentance and to warn it of impending destruction? Who are they and what are their messages? Stay tuned.
David Reagan:Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. The theme of our 2015 annual Bible conference was “Messages for a Rebellious Nation.” We had five speakers at the conference, in addition to myself. My specific topic was “A Nation Begging for Destruction.” Last week we showed you the first half of that message. In that portion of my message I pointed that God never pours out His wrath without warning, and that He warns in two ways: thru prophetic voices and remedial judgments.
We took a look at a prophetic sermon of Peter Marshall that he preached during World War II and we reviewed in detail the prophecies about our nation that were contained in David Wilkerson’s book, The Vision which was published in 1974. I concluded last week by pointing out that the Bible teaches there is a point of no return for a nation that is in rebellion against God. This occurs when, as the Bible puts it, “the wound becomes incurable.” Here now is the rest of my presentation.
David Reagan:The Bible clearly teaches there is a point of no return when a nation is in rebellion against God there is a point of no return. It is the tipping point where God decides to deliver the nation from remedial judgments to destruction. In the Bible it is referred to as “when the wound becomes incurable.”
For example, God told Jeremiah to tell the people of Judah that their nation was going to be destroyed because, “Your wound is incurable and your injury is serious because your iniquity is great, and your sins are numerous.” The Lord told Nahum to say the same thing to Ninevah, “There is no relief for your breakdown, because your wound is incurable.” God even told Jeremiah to stop praying for Judah, He said, “Do not pray for this people, do not lift up a cry or prayer for them and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.” And to Ezekiel He said something even more amazing. He told Ezekiel, “Do not pray for Judah.” He said, “I tell you if the three most righteous men who had ever lived in all of history Job, Noah and Daniel, were to pray for Judah it would not avail because Judah has passed the point of no return. The wound is incurable.”
Today, 40 years after the publication of The Vision God is raising up new prophetic voices all over America today to warn of our impending destruction. Let me identify some of these for you.
The first I would mention is this man, Albert Mohler, who is the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He has such powerful writings about our nation, let me just give you one quote. He wrote, “We are witnesses to one of the most comprehensive and fast-paced moral revolutions ever experienced by humanity. The velocity and breadth of this revolution are breath-taking, and the consequences are yet incalculable. This society is dismantling the very structures that have allowed for the enjoyment and preservation of human liberty and respect for life. We are engaged in a head-long effort to replace the convictions that gave birth to democracy and ordered liberty. We are replacing them with a new set of convictions that will lead to the emergence of a very different culture, society and civilization. We cannot pretend this is not happening. We cannot delude ourselves into believing that it will not matter. The word for the process that is driving the shift of worldview in the West is secularization which the Russian prophet, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, explained with four simple words, ‘Men have forgotten God.'”
Another prophetic voice is Jonathan Cahn, the Messianic Rabbi in New Jersey. In his sermon to the Presidential Inauguration Breakfast in 2013, which Obama skipped, he had this to say, “The city on a hill has grown dark. Its lamp has grown dim. Its glory is fading. God is not mocked. No nation can war against the very source of its blessings and expect those blessings to remain. And as it was with ancient Israel, the city on the hill now stands under the shadow of judgment.”
A third prophetic voice was the one who spoke to us last night, Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. He has written a powerful indictment of the United States titled, Twilight’s Last Gleaming. In it he said, “Over the last 50 years our Supreme Court has made four explosive decisions that have so weakened the moral and spiritual structure and foundation of our country that our inevitable collapse is certain. Right now we’re simply living between that time of the explosions that have weakened our basic foundation, and the coming implosion.”
What are those four decisions? The decision to abolish classroom prayer in 1962. The legalization of abortion in 1973. The banning of the display of the Ten Commandments in 1980. And the legalization of homosexuality in 2003. And now we can add a fifth decision to that the one that is the nail in the coffin and that is the Court’s legitimization of the abomination called same-sex marriage.
A fourth prophetic voice in America today is Erwin Lutzer, pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago. He has written a powerful book which compares the trends in America today to those in Germany that led to the rise of Hitler. Pastor Jeffress mentioned this book last night about how he points out that before the Nazis could take the step of exterminating the Jews they first had to dehumanize them, they had to marginalize them. That took several years. Just as Christians are being marginalized and dehumanized today. And then came the ovens. In a recent sermon, he said, “Despite its foundational Christian heritage, America is rapidly degenerating into a godless society. The powers in America today have chosen a path of rejecting God and His ways. Federal courts have interpreted our Constitution as requiring that the Bible, prayer and religious discussion be removed from classrooms, community buildings and places of public gatherings. Government officials and educators across the country are systematically eliminating any vestiges of God from society. Militant secularists will not be satisfied until God is expunged from every facet of American life.” As our previous speaker talked about.
A fifth and powerful voice on the scene today that God has raised up is David Jeremiah, the pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California. He has written a condemning review of our nation’s rebellion against God which is entitled, “I Never Thought I Would See the Day.” In it he wrote, “When I look at the changes that have occurred in the land I love, in the church I love even more just in my lifetime, I have to pinch myself to see if it’s a dream gone bad. The changes are coming so fast and so furiously. The truth is, we can echo the words of Pogo in the old Walt Kelly comic strip, ‘We have met the enemy and he is us!’ We have allowed the world to conform us to its image instead of allowing the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to transform us into the image of Christ.”
Another prophetic voice that I greatly respect is that of Don Wildmon, the founder of the American Family Association. He is one of my heroes of the faith. Sadly, he has often said that his greatest detractors are pastors. I’ve heard him say that over, and over again. The hate mail that he gets from pastors. He says, “They are always writing him and saying, ‘You are spinning your wheels, Don, you’re wasting your time. Think of it you have been opposing the immorality in our nation for years, and it just keeps getting worse. You are not winning.'” His response has always been this, “God did not call me to win; He called me to stand. We will not win until Jesus returns. But in the meantime, we must stand!”
Perhaps the most influential prophetic voice on the scene today is Franklin Graham. The press hates him with a passion because he refuses to compromise on any issue that involves God’s Word. Look at that headline, “Franklin Graham is still the worse thing to happen to God in a while.” When I was researching the major article for our magazine that just came out I typed into Goggle, “Franklin Graham” and 95% of all the articles that came up were mean spirited, vicious, blasphemous, articles just attacking him for anything and everything. This man is under great attack.
He has already announced that next year he is going to go to every state in the nation and hold a prayer rally before the national election, in every state of the nation. You need to pray for him. You need to pray for those prayer rallies. You need to pray for his protection there are people who hate him with a passion who would shoot him the moment they could see him. Pray for his protection because he is under tremendous attack.
He has spoken out against homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgender restrooms, abortion, the legalization of drugs, gun control, and the coddling of Muslims. He has even strongly denounced cowardly ministers who are afraid to take a stand against the sins of society. In fact Don Wildmon often says, “The greatest problem in America today is 300,000 silent pulpits.” Where people are afraid to speak out for fear that somebody’s feelings will be hurt. Here is one of his recent statements, “We are experiencing a full-scale assault against Christianity and the followers of Christ. When prayer is banned from the public square; when our President fails to defend biblically defined marriage, and he openly and zealously advocates for gay rights; when legislators rush to overrule existing laws to promote gay marriage; when schools and courts consistently suppress religious freedoms; we know we are locked in a war against the Christian faith. And folks, that’s what this is all about, it’s a war against Christianity. As I’ve gone blank on his name, the former governor of Arkansas, yeah, he just recently said, “What we are witnessing in America today is the criminalization of Christianity.”
In addition to raising up prophetic voices to call our nation to repentance and to warn us of impending destruction, God has sent remedial judgments to call us to repentance. Let me just mention a few of these. One was the Vietnam War which occurred on the heels of the culture revolution, the sexual revolution of the 1960’s. Then there were the 9/11 attacks. God allowed the terrorists to be successful in attacking the two symbols of American pride, I don’t know if you ever thought about this. Who did He allow them to attack? The towers in New York that represented our pride and our wealth, and the Pentagon which represented our pride in our military power. God was calling us to repentance and like a sleepy man we just rolled over, hit the snooze alarm and went back to sleep.
Then there was hurricane Katrina in 2005, undoubtedly God’s response to our immorality and our forcing Israel to abandon the Gaza Strip. This is an amazing hurricane, this didn’t come across the Atlantic Ocean this storm formed suddenly in the Gulf on the last two days of the Gaza Strip, it hit New Orleans just as New Orleans was getting ready to have its annual homosexual festival.
September 2008 the Stock Market Crash again it was a response I believe to our attempts to strong arm Israel into surrendering its heartland. It occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and it fell, the stock market fell by 777 points. What is the number of man? 666. What is the number of God? 777. It was like God signed off on the Stock Market Crash to get our attention.
And then another type of remedial judgment that we have experience is that God has given us the type of leaders that we deserve. That is one of the greatest judgments that God will put on a nation. He’ll give them the kind of leaders they deserve. It is no accident that our current President is the most pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-Muslim, anti-Capitalist, anti-Christian, anti-Israel leader in the entire history of our nation. And his mistreatment of Israel should be of particular concern to all of us because the Bible says God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel.
Also, we are told in Joel 3:2 that God will severely judge those in the end times who are involved in dividing up the land of Israel, Joel 3:1, “For behold, in those days,” speaking of the end times, “and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of Judgment. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom I have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.”
When you consider our nation’s refusal to repent in response to the prophetic voices and the remedial judgments, I am reminded of some of the saddest verses in all of the Bible. You can almost hear God weeping as you read these verses found in 2 Chronicles 36 speaking of Judah where the Temple was located, “Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.” That’s the Temple. “But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”
Oh, my friends in Nahum we have the same type of comment, this is the prophet who was sent to Ninevah and look what he says, “A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh; Yahweh is avenging and wrathful. Yahweh takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. Yahweh is slow to anger, great in power, and Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” There are Christians in our nation, and I am not exaggerating, there are Christians in our nation who refuse to believe that God will ever touch us. That He will never allow us to be destroyed. They seem to think that God sits on His throne in Heaven draped in an American flag.
But, my friends, God cannot be deceived. He will not tolerate unrepented sin. The Jews of ancient Judah thought the same thing about their nation. When Jeremiah warned them of imminent destruction, you know what their response was over and over? Their response was, “The Temple, the Temple, the Temple.” They mocked Him with that. What were they saying? God will never touch us, we’ve got the Temple. His Shekinah glory resides in our Temple. God will never allow anyone to touch us. But God did allow it. God is gracious. He is longsuffering. He warns and warns before He pours out His judgment and ultimate destruction, but He will not tolerate unrepented sin. He loves our nation. He was the One who raised it up, He is the one who raised it up on the foundation of His Word. He is the One who has blessed it so abundantly. He is the One who worked through us to spread the Gospel all over the world. But the Word of God says in Luke 12, “To those to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Our judgment is going to be far worse than the judgment of Russia or any nation that has not been blessed like us. Our nation is in full-blown rebellion against God, and God is not going to tolerate it much longer. Romans chapter one reveals how God deals with a nation that is in rebellion against Him. Look at this passage, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
Now, what in the world do these verses say? They are saying that the wrath of God is reserved for any nation that rejects God in attitude, and actions, and suppresses the truth about Him. And they further say that there is no excuse for denying the existence of God because God has given to each person an innate knowledge of His existence and has made that existence apparent in nature, in His Creation. Are we a nation guilty of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness? Absolutely! We refuse to allow our children to be taught the true origin of the universe and the true origin of life. Instead, we indoctrinate them with the lies of Evolution and teach them that life in the womb is of no value.
We have started filtering out of all of our history books the truth regarding the Christian foundation of this nation. And we are teaching them to worship the Creation rather than the Creator.
Beginning with verse 24 in Romans 1, we are told how God deals with such a nation. He steps back, He lowers the hedge of protection around the nation and He allows sin to multiply in the form of a sexual revolution. Notice Romans 1:24, “Therefore God gave them,” the rebellious ones, “over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” God steps back lowers the hedge of protection, says, “You want to live in that kind of filth, I’ll let it multiply.”
And the first thing that happens is a Sexual Revolution which occurred in this country in the 1960’s. It’s exactly what occurred here in this country during the Sexual Revolution.
If that action proves insufficient to produce repentance, then Romans 1 says God will take a second step back and lower the hedge of protection again and look what happens, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.” So, the result of that second step back is a plague of homosexuality. And we have been in this second phase here in the United States ever since the Supreme Court struck down all sodomy laws in 2003.
Romans 1 continues by revealing what God will do if the rebellious nation sets its jaw and refuses to repent after the outbreak of the homosexual plague. God will step back a third time and it says that if a nation persists in its rebellion God will turn them over to a depraved mind and allow the nation to be destroyed either by themselves or by an outside force.
I believe we have reached that point. God in His grace may decide to give us a little more breathing time, in order that more might be saved, but there is a limit to His patience. You know that is exactly what He did in the history of Judah. The most horrible king in the history of Judah was, King Manasseh, who ruled for 55 year and burned babies in the Valley of Hinnom. But God raised up a righteous king, a boy king named Josiah who led a nationwide move back to God. It was amazing what this young king did. He reigned for 31 years; he led a national spiritual revival. But when Josiah was killed on the battlefield, the nation immediately fell back into its rebellious ways, and God destroyed it. Why did the nation do that after the great spiritual revolution that this young man had carried out? Here’s why I think it happened: the problem was that evil had become too ingrained in the fabric of the nation. Too ingrained, and I believe that is where we are today.
Which brings me to a crucial question: Is there any hope for our nation? My answer is: How could there be? We have turned our back on God. We have rejected the very One who has given us our blessings. And we need to be clear as to why it happened. It was not due to the attacks of the Secularists, Humanists, Atheists or even Sexual Libertarians. No, it has been due to the failure of the Church to preach the Gospel, call people to repentance, and stand for righteousness. In short, the Church has sought popular approval, and in the process, it’s gotten in bed with the world. Well the Bible prophesies in many places that in the end times as our previous speaker pointed out there will be characterized by major apostasy and we are literally up to our ears in it right now.
It all began in the 1920’s when our seminaries were captivated by the German School of Higher Criticism which argued that the Bible is not God’s revealed word, but, instead, it is Man’s search for God and therefore the Bible is full of myth, legend, superstition and errors. This produced the liberal Social Gospel that soon came to characterize the mainline denominations as they focused on social and political action rather than preaching the Gospel. This spiritual virus has since spread to the Evangelical sector of American Christianity in the form of the ungodly Emergent Church Movement.
Sixty years ago in the 1950’s to be an Evangelical meant that the Bible was your source of authority for all beliefs and all actions. Today, the term, Evangelical, has lost its meaning because there are professing Evangelicals, professing Evangelicals who believe: The Scriptures contain errors. Who believe there is no Hell. Who believe there are many roads to God. Who believe homosexuality is a valid lifestyle. Who believe Evolution is the true explanation of life. And who even, I know you are going to find this hard to believe, but I can prove it professing Evangelicals who believe that John 3:16 has nothing to do with the salvation of souls but it has to do with the salvation of the planet.
It is no wonder that our nation is wallowing in spiritual darkness and rebellion against God. How could anyone truly believe there is any hope for a nation in the midst of such gross spiritual apostasy? Here’s how I put it in my Prophetic Manifesto, “We have turned our back on the very God who makes us great and showered us with blessings. We have forgotten that God’s Word teaches that to those to whom much is given, much is expected. We have stubbornly set our course. We have determined to live as we please and not as God has dictated. We have chartered a course of self-destruction, and God is going to allow us to have our way.”
But there is good news in the midst of the growing spiritual darkness and the consequent decay of our society. First of all there is individual hope for those of us who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. God has promised repeatedly in His Word that He will never forsake us. For example, in Isaiah 43 He has promised to walk through the high water with us and to walk through the fire with us. And consider Deuteronomy 31:8, “Yahweh is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
We also have the incredible hope of the Rapture of the Church when true believers will be taken out of this world in the blinking of an eye to be with Jesus forever. There is also hope for those who do not know Jesus. As the darkness deepens, the light of Jesus will shine more brightly, like a diamond on a black cloth, and more and more people will be drawn to Jesus and their hearts will be penetrated by the Gospel. This is a time for evangelism. The message of the Holy Spirit for believers in these end times: commit your lives to holiness, and share the Gospel with as many people as you can, as quickly as you can. The message for unbelievers is, “Jesus is coming soon. He is returning to pour out the wrath of God on those who have rejected His grace, mercy and love. Reach out now, receiving as your Lord and Savior before it is too late.”
I must add that there is an ironic way in which there is good news that can be derived from the collapse of civilization around us. It can be found in the statement of Jesus in Matthew 24 for He said that He would return at a time when society went in full circle back to the way it was in the days of Noah; the immorality and the violence that characterized that day. In 1996 a federal judge named Robert Bork published a book; this is 1996 about the moral drift of our nation. It was titled, “Slouching Towards Gomorrah.” Folks, we are no longer slouching toward Gomorrah. We have arrived. And that terrible fact points to the good news that Jesus is coming soon.
As we look around the world today, we can see that evil is multiplying. I keep on having people say, everywhere it just looks like the world is falling to pieces. The world is falling to pieces. Let me tell you something folks, from the biblical perspective, from the biblical perspective the pieces are all falling into place for the return of Jesus Christ.
Closing
David Reagan:Well folks, that’s our program for this week. I hope it’s been a blessing to you, and I hope you will be back with us next week.
In just a moment the announcer will tell you how you can get a full copy of my sermon, together with the other five presentations that were made at our annual conference. One other thing I’d like to invite you to visit our website at lamblion.com. I think you will find it a valuable resource for you study of God’s Prophetic Word.
Well until next week, the Lord willing, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries, saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our Redemption is drawing near!”