Can't We All Just Get Along?
It's hard, well frankly, it's downright impossible for most God-loving, red-blooded Americans to "give it up" - listen, the Titanic is sinking - and no matter what you think will put Humpty Dumpty back together again, it's not in the cards. This appears to be what George Barna in his latest missive, The Seven Faith Tribes, is trying to do - salvage the unsalvageable. In trying to keep America from falling any further into a moral abyss, Barna advocates:
"Sadly, Christians in America are not seen as loving, but we currently have a window of opportunity to demonstrate our love in the midst of the hard times, confusion, and cultural chaos facing the nation. Achieving positive outcomes, though, requires that Christians work in harmony with non-Christians - and do so without a covert evangelistic agenda. The best evangelism is that which emanates from people's respect for our character and lifestyle.
"Unfortunately, the public perception of our character and lifestyle is one of the major reasons why our evangelistic efforts in the United States have been so ineffective in the past quarter century. Those who do not follow Christ watch those who do and see little reason to follow suit.
"So rather than seek to honor God by doing more of the same, which has not produced much fruit, it is time for us to take stock of reality and reinvent ourselves - as disciples of Christ who love the world, rather than argue the world, into God's presence.
"I believe that the most appropriate and effective means of doing so is by allowing people to make their own spiritual choices, with devout Christians simply peacefully coexisting with those who choose to believe differently. That can happen only if we mutually agree to focus on the things that we have in common rather than get ugly over the things that make us distinct.
"In other words, we need to stop competing, comparing, complaining, and condemning, and we must start cooperating, communicating, collaborating, and contributing. It's time to stop fighting and start loving. It's time to stop taking and start giving" (The Seven Faith Tribes, George Barna, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2009).
So, Barna is out to unite dedicated Christians with "casual Christians" with morally concerned Jews, Mormons, Pantheists, Muslims, and even "spiritual skeptics" in a grand cause to redeem the nonredeemable - making her, once again, that bright city upon that mystical hill which cannot be hid.
I ask one simple question: "What fellowship has light with darkness?" Whoops! Can't be disagreeable here, might offend someone who could join me in the grand cause of redeeming America. And, what about the Second Coming of Christ to judge Babylon? Let's not go there, instead, man the bilge pumps on the Titanic to keep her afloat; who knows, maybe the rivets will hold.
Listen, this isn't "American hate-speak" - come September 2009, 650,000 Americans will have exhausted their 79 weeks of unemployment insurance - and Obama's 1.8 Trillion (and counting will be the greatest deficit spending in the history of this Titanic (W. Bush's wasn't even $500B).
Talk about moral depravity and the greed of the merchants of the earth - who now delight in driving every man, woman and child left in this downturn into economic oblivion! You wonder why the Pope is advocating a one-world economic system posthaste - from his lips to your ears:
"There is a strongly felt need...for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. There is urgent need of a true world political authority" (The Last Days).
Yes, can't we all just get along...
Prophetic Babylon
There is a great world power referred to as prophetic Babylon that dominates the world militarily, economically, even in terms of religion and the identity of that country is hidden to most. The king (or head) of this country is the Antichrist who signs the "Treaty of Hell and Death" with Israel, a defense treaty that marks the beginning of the Seventieth Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:27). I would refer you to "In Search of Babylon", a book I wrote about five years ago but it is still relevant.
Whether America (the most "Christian country, largest economy, and most powerful military in the world) is prophetic Babylon or not, we will know if and when a leader signs a mutual defense treaty/pact with Israel. I can't imagine any other country that would and could defend Israel, can you?
It is almost impossible for us Americans to even imagine this possibility because we have been so brain washed as to our own goodness in the world defending truth, justice, and democracy around the world. Having spent my life traveling throughout the world, it is interesting to note that other people, even Christians in other countries don't have so much trouble imagining it. Again, it wouldn't be deceiving if it were easy.
Could America be the 800 pound prophetic gorilla in the room that no one sees? And, oddly enough, those sincere brethren, Like David Wilkerson or Kristie Johnson, who do see it, have got to get rid of Babylon the Great before the real action of Daniel's Seventieth Week comes down - can't imagine why, maybe they just can't handle Antichrist coming up out of the ten horns, as the Eleventh Horn, that younger kingdom and that the King of latter-day Babylon is actually the Antichrist?
Having Antichrist coming out of the United States of America as the King of Babylon, King of Tyre, is so distasteful to most patriotic Americans that it's simply overwhelming - who would have imagined it? That which we feared the most has come upon us!
We enter the realm of "deception" when everything we have ever been taught; when everything we hold dear and everything we believe with all our heart is not true. This will be the greatest deception of all time and the vast majority will go along. Only those enlightened by the Spirit of God will see through it.
The fact of the matter is that American Christians have been set up for deception because their pastors neither understand nor teach prophecy. Many expect to rapture early on. Others expect the Antichrist to rise up out of Europe, Germany, the Middle East (as a Jew from Syria or a Muslim) or the Catholic Church.
The deception is all around us on our T.V.'s, newspapers, magazines, movies, internet, and even our churches which ignore prophecy at their own peril. The economy is falling apart around us and families are afraid, hunkering down, working harder, paying off debt, trying to hold on to the "good life." There is an economic tornado approaching every one of us, but few see it coming. We are deceived.
The Scoffing Church
The result of the great deception is the scoffing church: "Where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Peter 3:4). We scoff at prophecy. We scoff at naysayers. We scoff at Israel. We scoff at those who don't believe that America is God's gift to the world. We scoff at those who think the church is lukewarm. We scoff at Christians who dare attack our sacred beliefs and our beloved country.
We scoff at words written thousands of years ago as irrelevant and out dated. We scoff at the Holy Spirit's conviction. We believe our trusted elders and clergy and scoff at any who would question them. We scoff by ignoring the Bible, ignoring the warnings.
Where is the hope of His coming? He has delayed too long. All the prophets so far have been proven to be false so why listen to any? Jesus will get here when He gets here. Why worry? Let's all just band together for the greater good and forget about all this prophetic negativity. I trust that when the time comes, He'll take care of me - that's all that matters, isn't it?
Broad is the way that leads to destruction (or in this case "deception") and there are many that go in it (Matthew 7:13). A few of my close friends (going back to the '60s) still believe God is speaking to this generation because we, above all others before, have a "need to know." But most of the younger generation scoff at prophecy (or give it lip service) and few are listening or even care "what the Spirit is saying to the churches." They are either into survival, the good life, or being good churchgoers.
And one day the scoffers will turn on true believers and deliver them up thinking they are doing God a favor. There are three types of people - the masses, the scoffers and the witnesses: unbelievers, the deceived apostate "believers" and the martyrs (lit. "witnesses") who stand for the testimony of Jesus. People are clueless, deceived, or overcomers. Which one will you be?
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11).
