Day of Reckoning for America

 Day of Reckoning for America

John D. Reyes
Director, OSA-Dallas

      Whether Christians want to believe it or not, America's history proves that our Pilgrim forefathers entered into covenant with God concerning our nation. John Winthrop, the Founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and its governor twelve times over, stated: "Thus stands the cause between God and us: we are entered into covenant with Him for this work." Our godly forefathers understood what a covenant with God meant, the blessings that were promised if the covenant was honored, and consequences incurred if the covenant was broken. With Scripture as our proof, we can see that God does not take covenant lightly (Israel was severely judged for breaking covenant with God)! Mr. Winthrop and his fellow men had an incredible reverence for God and His holiness and knew very well to take covenant seriously or else face a severe sentence by the Lord Himself. With regard to America, Winthrop expressed his trepidation over the idea of breaking covenant with God. "For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God's sake; we shall shame the faces of any of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whether we are going."

AMERICA HAS BROKEN COVENANT!

      God will certainly hold accountable nations and leaders who have entered into covenant with Him. Just because a nation may conveniently forget about a covenant made long ago, does not mean that God has forgotten or that He will perhaps over look it. Even if the United States has forgotten her covenant with God, she is still obligated under God to maintain the national covenant made by our Pilgrim Forefathers.

      In Churches all over the United States we have been asking the Lord to visit us like He has never done before. We have been praying for a holy visitation for years, lifting our hands to heaven wanting blessing after blessing, asking for signs and wonders, and beseeching the Lord to do something extraordinary to America! What we have failed to understand is that on September 11, 2001, those prayers were answered. Jesus visited America on that day, but not in the way that the American Church had prayed for. September 11, 2001 was a day of Reckoning for the United States because she had broken covenant with Him.
   How can we tell that the United States has broken covenant with God? Our ungodly laws and statutes are a testimony of our unfaithfulness!

"Woe to you who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees." Isa. 10:1

      The Lord warned Israel through the prophet Isaiah that there would be ramifications to the nation if she brought forth decrees contrary to the Law of God. All was written in the Old Testament so that modern day people may learn and not repeat the events that had taken place in the past. "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us…." Rom. 15:4. Unfortunately, the United States has failed to learn from the past history of Israel! She has instituted unjust laws decriminalizing abortion, has allowed in some of her states the "legality" of homosexual "marriages", and has perhaps most grievously, expelled from the public arena, the One whom she made covenant with.

      Unjust laws and oppressive decrees abound in the United States! Our judicial system is corrupt and our legislators are foul! They devise injustice and mete out violence throughout the earth (Ps. 58:1-2)! America was called by God to be the standard-bearer for the world, yet she has dropped her standard as a man drops his pants, exposing the violence of filthy pornography, abortion, and homosexuality to the inhabitants of the world!

"Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised." Is. 5:25

ALLY OR ENEMY?

"Can a corrupt throne be allied with You - one that brings on misery by its decrees?" Ps. 94:20

      There is no possible way that a corrupt nation can call itself an ally of God! On the contrary, any nation that comes into covenant with God and then breaks that contract, has made God their enemy. "Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them." (Is. 63:10). God has become America's enemy because the nation has brought forth abominable degrees! She has united herself politically (both Republican and Democrat) to condemn the innocent to death (abortion)! To God there is no difference in political parties. It is either all God's way (holiness) or all man's way (sin). There is no middle ground and a holy, righteous God cannot tolerate compromise.

      Has the United States believed that all will go unnoticed by her Creator? Heaven forbid! "...to deny a man his rights before the Most High, to deprive a man of justice-would not the Lord see such things?" Lam. 3:35,36. God has seen the injustice of our nation. He has seen that we have denied our children the right to live, thus depriving them of justice. He has seen the depraved society that we have become. "...I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those...who oppress the widows and fatherless, and deprive the aliens of justice, but do not fear me, says the LORD Almighty" Mal. 3:5. Because He is just, He must take action because justice demands action! "The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: "It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses." Isa. 3:14. We have left God no choice but to chastise us. God is saying to America, You have ruined all that I had purposed for you! I placed you as a city upon a hill for the world to see and marvel at. I made you a force to be reckoned with by allowing you to defeat one of the most powerful nations in the world (England), though you had a poor man's army! It was I who gave you victory! I gave you favor among the nations and used you to destroy wicked tyrants like Adolph Hitler, but now you have become as Hitler! You have flooded yourself with the bloodshed of innocent children. America, my precious vineyard has become a desecrated place! And he looks for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. Is. 5:7. What a horrifying statement!

      God looks throughout the nation of America for justice in the land but all He sees are waves of blood like that of a roaring sea! He looks for righteousness from amongst the leadership but can only hear the cries of His dead unborn image-bearers, screaming out for vengeance. To the ears of God, the constant cries must sound like the repeated scraping of fingernails across a chalkboard.

"Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised." Is. 9:12

DAY OF VISITATION!

"What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?"
Is. 10:3

      What did America do on the day of Reckoning? She was stunned as a deer is paralyzed in the headlights of an automobile. America felt the hand of God sweep down upon her in the form of a nation from afar-Islam! Americans could not flee the disaster. Airports were shut down, the borders of our nation were closed, and all forms of transportation were halted. At the moment of visitation, there was no concern over her god of money. Her riches really didn't matter much. Survival and fear was on the mind of most of America as she wondered how such a thing could happen to such a great country! "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?" Lam. 3:38

      America watched in horror on television as the planes swooped down from out of the sky and hit the Twin Towers. Terror filled her heart. Who could have done this and why? "The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young." Deut. 28:49, 50.

      In an hour, with a swift blow, America was visited. Her government scrambled to try to find interpreters to dissect the language used by the terrorists for no one could understand the language well at all. Chaos filled the city of Manhattan as a fierce - looking people in the Middle-East rejoiced over the calamity.

      Within a few hours, those whom the anger of the Lord burned against, the leadership of the nation, proudly clasped hands and sang "God Bless America" as if God were some good luck charm to be toyed with! Oh, how that must have enraged the Lord!

"Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised." Is. 9:17

AMERICA GODLESS?

"I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me...to trample them down like mud in the streets." Is. 10:6

      Anyone who denies (does not confess and profess) the true God of the Scripture, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, is godless. America, though founded on Biblical Law, with the fear of God, has denied Him. Jesus Christ has become nothing more than a fable and He isn't tolerated, even amongst the sea of gods worshipped here. This arouses God's jealousy! "I am the LORD your God...You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…." Ex 20:3-5

      God's jealous anger was aroused on September 11, 2001. We saw people trampled upon like mud in the streets. We saw men and women covered with dust and dirt running, crawling, dazed and confused, in shock on the streets of Manhattan. The Day of Reckoning was upon America.

"Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised." Is. 9:21

WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIANS?

"Tell the righteous that it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds." Isa. 3:10

      Through times of severe national chastisement, those who know Christ intimately will be safe. You may ask, But what about those saints who perished in 9-11? They weren't safe, they died horrible deaths! Those precious brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ are safe! Death has no hold on the believer! "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 1 Cor. 15:55. Remember, for the believer there is no death, but an assurance that when one falls asleep (Acts 7:60), he or she will awaken victoriously in the arms of King Jesus! Though the many who believed are now gone from this earth, they are enjoying the fruit of their deeds! You may ask, Is it just for God to allow a believer to die in the midst of a national judgment? Yes. "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matt 5:45." The prophet Jeremiah, even though he was chosen by God to prophesy repentance to the people of Judah and was clear before the Lord of any wrong doing, as a resident of the nation, was affected by God's judgment. He was carried away into Babylonian captivity along with the rest of his fellow citizens. National sin affects all of the inhabitants of the land, both righteous and unrighteous. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people." Prov. 14:34. Those most innocent may have to partake in the suffering placed upon them because, "Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?". 1 Cor. 5:6, 7. Sin affects everyone! You or I may not physically survive the next Day of Reckoning for America, but we will enjoy the fruit of our deeds!

      For those believers who did survive God's Holy visitation upon the United States on September 11, 2001, they too will enjoy the fruit of their labor! Opportunities to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ were available at every corner! We must be prepared to speak God's Word in and out of season! After September 11, many were confronted with their own immortality and received Christ with genuine repentance. The floodgates were opened and the Gospel melted away the sin of the heart!

"Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress."
Jer. 15:11

      I truly believe that this promise made by God to Jeremiah is relevant for us today. In time of duress, God Himself will allow good to flow. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Rom. 8:28. Many enemies of God (unbelievers) will plead for the mercy of Christ in times of tribulation. They will see that through times of suffering, the believer is at great peace and this will in turn give the unbeliever a desire to hear about Jesus!

      We must understand that the "good purpose" spoken of in Jeremiah 15:11, is not about the money that we make, the nice houses we live in or the sport-cars we drive. The "good purpose" is sharing Jesus Christ (speaking the truth) with the lost, no matter what the circumstances may be. When the Lord visited America on September 11, He delivered His own for a good purpose-to preach Jesus Christ crucified, died, and resurrected so that His enemies may become His friends!

      Also, because America has broken covenant with God and has now made Him her enemy, when more disaster strikes, she may call upon the Church of the Living God for answers! We have the answer! We must speak the truth of repentance to her so that there may be reconciliation and restoration made.

HAS AMERICA REPENTED?

"If you had responded to My rebuke, I would have poured out My heart to you and made My thoughts known to you. But since you rejected Me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out My hand, since you ignored all My advice, and would not accept My rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster;…" Prov. 1:23-26

      When God laughs, it is not funny! Jamison, Fausset, & Brown's Commentary states, God will at last laugh in derision at those who now laugh to scorn His loving appeals. America has not repented of her national sins. The Lord has appealed time and time again to the nation. He has said, Oh America, if you had only responded to my correction, if you had only repented of your guilt, I would have given you my heart and restored you back to me. That is how much I love you! But when I stretched out my hand and spanked you for your disobedience, you in turn hardened your heart against me!

      The Lord has been calling America to repentance for years, yet she still stands guilty before God for her idolatry, perversions and child-sacrifice.

A NEW AMERICA?

      Many say that we have a different America post 9-11, and I couldn't agree more! But this is not a repentant America. We have embraced more foreign gods through "tolerance" education than ever before. America failed to see the distinction between righteousness and wickedness, those who serve God and those who do not. President Bush stated recently in an address to the nation that "America values all life." This is not true! If America valued all life, why are we still murdering 4500 babies a day through "legalized" abortion? Also, instead of repenting and seeking true godly counsel, America has invited an "inclusive", "interfaith" people to lament to their gods over the destruction of the Towers and Pentagon.

      America still desires false teachers who will give her what her itching ears want to hear by telling her that she is perfect, and without blemish! "This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, 'I've done nothing wrong.'" Prov. 30:20. America, through her covenant breaking has committed adultery! How it must have grieved the heart of God when he saw the false prophets and priests gathered around the country praying to their idols for help and peace.

      However, those who do have discernment in the land, are able to distinguish between the wolves and the lambs. "And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not." Mal. 3:18.

"Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised." Is. 10:4

IS THERE MORE TO COME?

"I will mock when calamity overtakes you-when calamity overtakes you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you."
Proverbs 1:26

      When a nation refuses to listen to the rebuke of the Lord and remains stiff-necked, God has no choice but to send more rain upon her. Yes, America has become a stiff-necked country, so there is more to come. Through His people, He has sent warnings of more affliction. "Here I am and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion." Isa. 8:18.

      We may not know how it will come, when it will come, in what ways it will come, but it will come, if there is no repentance.

      So, saints, when King Jesus visits America again, we will have an incredible opportunity to proclaim the Lord's justice and goodness, as we did after 9-11. All will be well with you, and you shall enjoy the fruits of your labor whether it be on this earth or in eternity with Him. Be on guard, God's hand is still upraised and sooner or later it must come down upon the United States. Let's pray that next time America doesn't miss the message.