|
|
The following article was copied from a
Moody Bible Institute Monthly publication
which was then reprinted on the biblebelievers.com website.America's Sin in Forgetting God
By Evangelist Joseph T. LarsenAmerica's greatest sin and the real cause of the present depression is forgetting God. That means failure to obey God, to listen to His Word, and to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Godlessness leads todisregard for law, corruption in politics, fraud in educational and state life, and hypocrisy in the Church.
America has forgotten God! Its parents, youth and citizens as a whole — these have forgotten God. Even ministers, educators and church officials have forgotten God. True, millions of Christians have not yet forgotten God, but the wholetendency in state life, school life, commercial life, and even in religious circles, is to forget God.
Though there are fifty million church members in the nation and many more Christians who are not church members, yet there are about seventy million outside the churches, living as if there were no God or hereafter.
America's History Has Been Phenomenal
From the first there were many immigrants coming to America seeking religious liberty. In godly worship they settled our eastern shores, and then moved westward, until they settled almost three million square miles of territory. They built cities, made marvelous inventions, improved everything possible, and now support approximately 124,000,000! For 157 years, God has been the God of this nation, piloting us safely through the pioneer periods, the five wars for freedom of oppressed peoples; and as a culmination, the people following the recent period of prosperity, have turned largely away from God! Then came the events which brought a generaldepression!
How Has America Forgotten God?
By largely banishing the Bible from schools and by misinterpreting it in universities, criticizing it in theological seminaries and colleges, and scoffing at it among the infidels and atheists of the nation. False cults numbering nearly ten million are sweeping the land withpropaganda of denial, deceit and devilish doctrines. Atheists, modernists and communists have formed a deadlyalliance against God, Christ, the Church, and the Bible. "But he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shalthave them in derision." Psalm 2:4
Pleasure, newspapers, magazines, business and society have largely taken the pre-eminent place that God and Christian living ought to take. Crime getsthe eye, not Christ! Society not salvation, business and not betterment of souls, money and not missions, earth and notHeaven is foremost in thinking. True, there are a few million Christians inAmerica who still adore, worship and serve Him; but they are like salt in a rotting nation.
Judgment Is Coming
Ancient Babylon, Greece, Rome, Medo-Persia, Assyria, and other empires all forgot God, and have been ruined and forgotten; but only until the judgment!
Oh, citizens of America! Will you ever learn a lesson from past history, from experienced adversity, from former judgments on the nations, that forgetting God does not pay? Can the professing church of today continue to exist if she joins the world, praises the communists and denies God's divine rulership?
Macaulay, the English historian, writing nearly one hundred years ago, said of America, "She will be pillaged and looted in the twentieth century by vandals, and forces within her which will cause her destruction." Indications prove him to be right, and unless something can be done by godly people to stem the tide of lawlessness, communism, modernism and immorality, she will go the way of the ancient nations. Will Christians, will governmental leaders, will its citizens awaken in time or too late?
Only a nation-wide revival of Christian teaching, the preaching of a crucified Christ, the return to the Bible, banishing communism, deposing false cult-teachings, baring worldly and sinful amusements, and all dangerous teachings in our public schools will cause America to return to God. God must find His rightful place in human hearts, the family altars must be restored, and the Church must cease pandering to worldly aspirations
The prodigal son "came to himself," and America must come to herself. God's voice calls upon her to repent, confess her sins and return to the God of love and life. Mercy pleads with justice, grace pleads against judgment, truth opposes falsity, and wisdom foresees coming disaster, unless there is a change through national revival.
May God's faithful ones keep crying to God for a revival and "give him no rest" until He responds from Heaven with a mighty power as of old. Let us pray unceasingly, "Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?" Psalm 85:6
End of Article.
(Note: One interesting fact about Mr. Larsen's article is
that it was written in 1933.)The only parts of the above reprinted article that are not up to date are the statistics. Obviously in the last 83+ years they have changed significantly. However, the spiritual truths are timeless. Spiritual conditions in our beloved country have not changed for the better. Why? What happened in the late 1800's and the early 1900's? In the last 120+ years we have exchanged the truth of God's word for trashy perversions of the Bible which have had virtually no effect upon the world around us. When men leave the solid foundation of the Authorized Version for perverted, watered down versions of the word of God, God's power is subverted.
Matthew 13:58
And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.Isn't it sad that although the writer of this article from Moody Monthly saw clearly the reason for the coming destruction of America, his article did not stop the school with Moody's name from adopting and embracing the emaciated texts of the word of God by the Bible perverters of the day? The RV was followed by the ASV 1901 which then led to the RSV, the NIV, and the seemingly endless parade of corrupt Bible versions that swirl around us today. As a result, The Moody Bible Institute of 2009 is a far cry from the beloved school envisioned by Dwight Lyman Moody when he established it in 1886. They have fully embraced the tenants of the 1880 Westcott and Hort Revision Committee with its attacks on the greatest English Bible of the ages. The Devil has effectively supplanted the pure word of God with defective, corrupt versions that have virtually no power to change lives individually and nationally. As a result America has continued her slide into darkness.
Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
As Mr. Larsen said, if we don't return to God's word we will see our beloved Republic destroyed. Only God can give us revival, but will HE?
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
We must fall on our knees individually and nationally before the Thrice-Holy GOD of the Holy Bible (AV-1611) and pray that He will heal our land.
If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, please do so before it is too late. God is real and His word is true. People who are without God are ignorant, deceived and in terrible peril of spending an eternity in hell.
Romans 10:8-13 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
If you would like some more information please contact:
This tract is available as a PDF file. (just click on PDF)
