Friday, February 8, 2013

Judgment of Abandonment

I recently ran across a teaching about Romans 1.  On a quick reading of the passage, one would think that God punishes homosexuality or a society that condones homosexuality.  But look again. That isn't the thing that brings about judgment.

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  Rom 1:18-20  NIV

God's wrath is incited when people ignore Him as being the Creator.  At that point, God turns them over to their own desires - none of which are righteous. 

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  Romans 1: 21-25 NIV


God "gave them over".  He left them alone to fall into the ditches they themselves have dug.  God abandons the nation that abandons Him.

Ladies and gentlemen, haven't we arrived at this point?  Do you see the judgment of God in the leadership of our country?  In our slavery to debt?

Our founders set up a nation under God with freedoms built in for a people who were dedicated to faith  - or at least morality.  We used to know right from wrong.  We sent out missionaries as a national passion. 

Then evolution crept in and undermined our thinking about God.  It was swiftly followed by secular humanism.  Humanism was not properly declared to be a religion by the Supreme Court, but at least one justice added it into his notes in this case:

"In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, Justice Hugo Black wrote in a footnote that:
Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God is Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.
As a footnote, this statement qualifies as an obiter dictum — this means that it is simply a personal observation of the judge and hence is only incidental to reaching the opinion. It has no real weight when it comes to legal precedent and cannot be properly considered the "decision" of the court. "
http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/SecularHumanismReligion.htm

The more our country figures out ways to eject God from our society, the more we as a nation will come under judgment.  If falling prey to our own sinful natures (children having children, children killing children, "bread and circuses" mentality, etc.) doesn't make us draw back to God, then the judgments to come will be worse.

It's worth thinking about.

Kathi Linz

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