What will it take for God's people to truly repent? What are they willing to sacrifice? What are they actively doing to initiate true revival and usher in true repentance, without which, God will not hear our prayers and not deliver us...? What are God's people willing to invest and when will they invest it?
[Note: by revival, I am not referring to the phoney annual "revival" meetings that most churches have (often even scheduling a year in advance, which sort of implies that they plan on backsliding the rest of the year). True revival takes place in a house, a church, a community, a nation, when God's people, not being content to continue on in sin, just getting by, ignoring their own sin, shame, irresponsibility, and sad state, rend their hearts, not merely their garments, fast and pray, confess their sins and the sins of their people, and cry unto God to pour out His Holy Spirit as water upon a dry and dusty, cracked and hardened ground—and lay hold on th]
We see evil close in around us more, day by day. We simply close our eyes to it, ignore it, allow ourselves to be absorbed by it. God commanded, "Come out from among them and be ye separate... be holy for I the Lord your God am Holy."
Yet the majority of Christians, side with the world and God's enemies, rather than with God. You can hear, all over again, the mournful, incomprehensible, lamenting, broken-hearted confession of God in Isaiah chapter 5 (which crescendoes in verse 4):
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild [lawless] grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild [lawless] grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment [justice], but behold [instead there was] oppression [injustice]; for righteousness [godly people standing up to deliver others from oppression], but behold a cry [shriek from oppression]."
People have been deluded to ignore what is right and ignore discipline. My father raised us (my 2 brothers and I), as Captain van Trapp raised his children in the Sound of Music (I think he idolized him). There was no talking back, no saying "no," no rebellion, no disrespect. If we did what was wrong, we were punished. While it was no fun at the time it builds character. I remember when about 5 or so, if we would be visiting my grandparents in Philadelphia, if I would touch a nick-nack on my grandmother's coffee table that she did not want me touching, she would lovingly smack the back of my hand, and say, "no." I learned rather quickly, I would then touch the nick-nack, smack the back of my hand myself, and say, "no" and giggle. That is just a humorous story and the touching of a nick-nack was not any grave sin. However, most people today are taught that discipline and spanking is wrong, cruel, etc. But that is a lie and God commands discipline and punishment. God says he that spareth the rod hateth his son. And that is why our prisons today have over 2 million, and why most families are dysfunctional and why the schools and society and the government (and even the churches) are filled with immorality, irresponsibility, corruption, sin, and vice. I have written in numerous writings of mine that the purpose of a spanking—and this is a mind-blowing concept—is to prevent all future spankings, so it has to be a good one. Decades ago I bought a shock rod/cattle prod to discipline my dog (pit bull). I shocked her once, she yelped and jumped about 8 feet off my grandmother's stoop across the 8 steps or so into the yard. I could have taken it back for a refund. After that, I never had to shock her again; I would point my finger at her and make a sound like the electric shock, 'bzzzzz' and she would straighten right up. Discipline is not cruel; it does the job if done right; not disciplining is what is cruel, because if not trained right from infancy, the child is ruined for life; because as the twig is bent so grows the tree... if allowed to grow without discipline, untrimmed and untrained, certain bushes or trees will be a brambly, wild, uncontrollable mess.
God's people are in denial. They don't truly admit the problem exists; like someone with cancer, being eaten alive, being in denial thinking he is perfectly healthy; like coating over the termite-riddled house with another coat of paint; as Christ declared of the Pharisees, "white washed sepulchures full of dead men's bones." Christians don't admit or recognize the depths of the depravity and immorality in our nation, or somehow think they they are not responsible for it. WE ALL are responsible for it. We all are guilty of our own sins (and if unconfessed, God cannot hear our prayers for deliverance from evil or the greater sins of others). WE ALL are responsible for it, for not speaking out vehemently against evil, but allowing it to relocate in our community and be given government funding and protection--even promotion.
God's people, like the Prodigal son before his repentance, are content to lie down face first in the pig stye all-the-while thinking, "This ain't so bad." When we are children of the King and have paradise and blessings beyond imagination awaiting us, we choose judgment, sin, and shame. It is not rational. Sin is not rational. God's people need to cry out to God. But sadly, most are content to simply go on with their lives, ignoring our nation—our people, our family, our very race, our once-beloved country for which our ancestors bled and died, which was built upon the sacrifice of the Reformers—as it crumbles around us and hostile, godless aliens swarm in around us like the alien creatures in some sci-fi movie swarm in to devour the few remaining humans left. Yet, even as the Titanic sank in the icy deep waters and people were facing imminent death, "the band played on." While there was not much people on the Titanic could do, other than embrace death, there is something we can do, so why aren't we doing it...?
The below is from my book, What's Keeping God From Delivering America, Britain, and Europe From Destruction...?
God will not deliver us from evil until we truly hate it. The average Christian has no concept of Holiness. Most modern Christians do not really hate evil. They tolerate it. They ignore it. They call it by softer-sounding names and they even allow it to become a legislatively protected life-style. Modern Christians only really “hate” sin when they become victims of it themselves. Then, they feel “violated” as if they—more than any other person on earth—has been terribly wronged; when in reality, it happens to our very neighbors-kinsmen day in and day out and hardly anyone even bats an eye. (Shame!) Once they are victimized themselves, modern Christians are “outraged.” The rest of the time sin, iniquity, and immorality are merely embarrassing or tedious inconveniences. God will not deliver us from that which we acquiescently tolerate and willingly endure. Only when we truly hate evil—without apology!—as He commanded, will He deliver us from it. To be even more blunt, if we do not hate evil—we do not even love God. What support do I have for that statement...? The Word of God itself:
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil...” (Proverbs 8:13)
“Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10)
[To love the Lord is to hate evil, ergo, to not hate evil is to not love the Lord. Further, God Himself (contrary to false doctrine of modern preachers) does not merely “hate the sin” yet “love the sinner.”* Scripture tells us that God actually hates the soul of the wicked, unrepentant sinner (Psalm 11:5; Deuteronomy 7:10). We are told King David was “a man after the Lord’s own heart” (I Samuel 13:14)—what did David have to say?:
{* It was Ghandi—not God in His Word—who coined this phrase in his 1929 autobiography. Yet Christian preachers preach it as if it was “Gospel Truth” when it is Satan’s lie.}
“20For they speak against Thee wickedly, and Thine enemies take Thy Name in vain. 21Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee? 22I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. 23Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139)
Until we hate God’s enemies—and all their evil—the way King David did, we do not truly love God. We are lovers of our own selves and pleasure not lovers of God (II Timothy 3:2-4); we seek to be friends and pleasers of the world (Ephesians 6:6; Acts 5:29); not of God. And when we seek approval and acceptance of the world (or even seek to appease it) we actually render ourselves the enemies of God—in fact, God even calls those who would seek to please the world, instead of Him, “adulterers” (James 4:4). Rather strong words. Christ Himself declared that if we are not for Him, actively pursuing His agenda, we are actually against Him and we attempt to undo His very work (Matthew 12:30). As we saw earlier, Christ, the embodiment of Wisdom declared that those who hate Him (His truth/wisdom/Law), love death. Joshua famously declared his allegiance,
“...choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
Similarly, the prophet Elijah threw down the spiritual gauntlet:
“How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” (I Kings 18:21)
Likewise, the Apostle James declared:
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” (James 4:8)]
In his excellent book, Abandoned to Christ*1 (1955), L. E. Maxwell*2 recorded some very shocking, yet illuminating confessions by 3 different individuals: 2 communists (one who was a die-hard, ardent supporter of communism and one who afterwards became a Christian and forsook communism) and 1 former Nazi:
[*1 Inquire for all 3 of his excellent books. *2 (1895-1984) professor, principal, and then president (for 58 years) of Prairie Bible Institute (Canada’s premier missionary training center), and author.]
“In the face of such insipid and shameful consecration, the Communists boast, ‘We do not play with words. We are realists.... Of our salaries and wages we keep only what is strictly necessary and give up the rest for propaganda purposes. To this propaganda we also ‘consecrate’ all our free time and a part of our holidays. You (Christians), however, give only a little time and hardly any money for the spreading of the gospel of Christ.... Believe me, it is we who will win, for we believe in our Communist message; we are ready to sacrifice everything, even our life... but you people are afraid to soil your hands....’
“A young German doctor, now an earnest Christian, but once a member of Hitler Youth and a soldier in Hitler’s armies, after speaking of the kindness of the young people in British churches, added,
‘I am concerned with the casual quality of their faith. They do not give to Christ anything like the devotion which we once gave to Hitler’ (Sunday School Times, Nov. 1950)....
‘The Communists’ power,’ said Whittaker Chambers,* ‘is the power to hold convictions and to act upon them. Communists are that part of mankind which have recovered the power to live or die—to bear witness—for their faith.’ ” (pp. 15, 24)
[* (1901-1961), born Jay Vivian Chambers; a.k.a. David Whittaker.
This was written 60 years ago. How much more apathetic and indifferent have Christians become over the past 6 decades...? This is a sad indictment upon modern Christianity. What has Christianity truly accomplished over the past 70 years (that is, with real and measurable benefit and lasting effect); and what has communism accomplished?* Chambers (who eventually forsook communism and embraced Christ) was right; the Communists have resurrected the self-sacrificing faith that Christianity once had. Though their motives are wrong and their morals nonexistent—they at least fight for what they believe in. How many Christians can say that? How many patriotic Christians surrender to evil—without a whimper?
* People are easily fooled. Communism did not die with the dismantling of the Soviet Union—communism resurfaced in the West under the name “Democracy”!]