Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
Lamentations 5:1-21
California is beset by wildfires; extraordinarily so. The Midwest by flooding and tornadoes, the Southwest and Southeast as well. Natural disasters abound.
California has also begun to allow homosexual marriage, which is a perversion of God's natural order; a decision hailed by many as a good thing...
...who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them...
Romans 1:32
While those who oppose such are mocked.
The price of oil continues to climb, and Democrats don't care. They do not care how high the price of gasoline gets because they see in this a path to greater political power... which does nothing to feed the hungry who can no longer afford to drive to work, much less buy food.
Does God still judge nations? How would he do it?
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
Lamentations 2:1-3
If He did it once, would He not do it again? If He drew back His hedge of protection from Israel, how much more so America? Did God hold back His protection on 9.11? Katrina? The Myriad of tornadoes, floods, and wildfires? What about AIDS?
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:27
"Lie down with dogs and come up with fleas?"
Why is it so difficult for those who claim a belief in God to also believe that God is judging this nation, and that it's likely to get worse? You can safely bet your last dollar that if gas reaches 6-8 dollars a gallon that everything else will become that much more difficult to obtain: food, housing, energy, medical treatment... everything.
I guess it's easier to ridicule men like Falwell, Parsley, and Hagee for declaring these many events and circumstances are the chastisements of God, than it is to repent and turn again to God and His precepts.
This fall we will all stand at a crossroads. Will we elect a man whose policies reek of Marxism? Whose past votes reveal him to be a man devoid of any compassion for the unborn? When God decides to chastise a nation He raises up weak leaders, and the only thing strong about Obama is his rhetoric and his desire to move this country further away from God.
How many who call themselves Christians will stand against the evils men like Obama want to spread. Is there anyone out there with eyes open? Can anyone see what is happening here?
Or am I all alone in this?
Will this be our lament?
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?
Psalm 137:1-4
It is true we are strangers in a strange land, but when the land becomes even stranger to those who believe in God? Even in the midst of judgment the LORD will not forsake the righteous.
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
Psalm 37:25-32
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Of course it's silly to say that one knows that such is happening, but again, there is precedence and that is what is pointed out. Or have I assumed too much, Eric?
In any case, one needn't be a prophet to understand the negative impact upon our nation should the Obamanable one be elected.
No doubt they did. Verses written 1800 years ago, and several thousand as well do apply today. They teach us general principals that are timeless. God doesn't change. Neither do people as a whole.
Politics changes, but it remains the same. Geography stays the same (for the most part, over humanities time if not geologic time), but the distribution of peoples and nations changes. People though, are still much as they were 5,000 years ago.
The tendency of all things is rot and decay unless we work at preserving them diligently. This is especially true of a nation's morals.
"That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." -- Ecclesiastes 1:9
I'd say that the verses that Eric has chosen do apply to our nation, and to all nations. It's up to God's people to make wise choices and do something about the moral and even political decay about us. The secularists certainly aren't doing anything about it.
And Ben, since you are an "unbeliever" by your own nomenclature, no one here expects you to understand the connection between books and verses written 1800 years ago, and the events of present-day United States.
But the fact that you do not understand it does not mean that these connections do not exist.
So when you attack things that you know to be important to other people, but of which you personally have absolutely no understanding, try to be a little less arrogant yourself.
You don't know whether or what the scriptures address.
Amen!
[And to be absolutely clear, here Tug, THAT was a mocking of you, mixed with some bittersweet irony. My prior support for you was not. Since you apparently have problems discerning reality from your own delusions, I thought I'd spell it out.]
I'm just sayin'...
How long would you like for us to turn Eric's blog into "The Tug and Dan Show"? (If you notice, I have top billing...)
(Since I'm a Megalomaniac and all...)
Okay.
You're lying, Dan.
You are a liar.
You said what you said on the previous post because you want Obama elected, and you believe that a vote withheld from McCain is an indirect vote for Obama.
That's the only reason... You know it and I know it.
(You see, I can know this because I am apparently a megalomaniac with a god complex, and we know everything.)
Now deny it, and tell another lie.
I want you to.
We should not thusly monopolize Eric's blog.
My apologies, Eric. Both from me and from the moron.
[Tug, tell me now: Was that last line a lie?]
Whoops! Sorry again, Eric...
I want you to deny your motivations for your comment, and prove to anyone who reads this that you are indeed a liar, and the truth is not in you.
Or, you can take this opportunity to tell us the truth about it, and admit that you were lying up until this point.
You know I'm right.
I don't know if you were lying then, or not.
Probably.
Piffle.
Dude, there is no state more conservative politically or more evangelical-fundamentalist, as a whole, than Oklahoma. Others states are our equal, but there is none more so than Oklahoma.
And the epicenter of Tornado Alley? Right here! Timothy McVeigh? 15 miles due south of where I sit! Meth epidemic? Here! Divorce? Common as June bugs on my front porch (I just fought them to get back in the house).
Yer premise is false.
This whole God as judge via weather conditions is ... well, let me use one of Marshall's favorite words: Crap.
And I'd be ashamed to use, and misuse, the Bible like a stacked deck of Tarot cards the way you do!
You just keeps gettin' curiouser and curiouser, dude.
Gawd!
Dan makes a CAREER out of monopolizing the blogs of others with his deceit and distortion.
"And I'd be ashamed to use, and misuse, the Bible like a stacked deck of Tarot cards the way you do!" - Reverend Redneck
Double Gawd!
You revel in misusing scripture, ER. You wallow in pride at perverting the Holy Word of God.
Probably why there are so many perverts of the same mind frequenting the shrine to yourself that is your blog.
And then they claim some sort of superiority over anyone who does not do the same.
If you will notice, Dan tried to take what he thought was the easy out when I challenged him on his lies.
I called him a Liar, and he said "Maybe we shouldn't talk about this anymore."
Your silence speaks volumes, Dan...
Oh, lighten up, ER. There's precedent for believing that God might withdraw His protection from us, and it's not really a stretch to believe that we at least had His protection at some point or other, if not still. That He might use weather to punish, doesn't mean every incident is of His direct influence. It's all speculation, not conviction that it is happening. Sheesh! Don't forget, as per your own comments time and again, we can't know His Mind, so you can't say it isn't possible.
I try to focus on what we know. Examples: Abortion is a moral wrong, and we should work to protect the innocent. Oxymoronic "same-sex marriage" is an affront to God and encouraging same-sex parenting, which can NEVER provide a mother and a father to a child, is child abuse. And so on.
But our primary focus should be on sharing the Gospel and making disciples. When pagans act like pagans we shouldn't be surprised. It is in their job description.
It is when Christians drop the ball and don't do our jobs to protect the weak, to proclaim the Good News, and get rid of the false teachers in churches, among other things, that we are at fault.
What's unusual are the many tornadoes that have sprouted up in places that aren't known for tornadic activity such as here in Virginia, and Maryland, and Colorado. Other unusual weather patterns are cropping up throughout the United States in unusual or...shall we just say... "Diverse places." A couple of weeks ago a tornado touched down just a few blocks from this very spot in which I now sit.
Could these tornadoes and other unusual meteorologhical phenonoma be the catastrophes in divers places about which the Bible warns us?
Probably not, but they could easily be a forewarning of bigger things to come, and wouldn't that fit neatly into Eric's premise?
I don't claim to know the workings of God's perfect mind or His ways, but I think the recent events warrant a closer study of God's prophecies with the possible relevance to our country in it's breakdown of morals.
I think it highly presumptious and arrogant to suggest there is no connection. When it comes to God and His judgment, I think it best not to rule anything out.
I am a Christian as is my wife and everyone in my house. I am not a particuarly good Christian, but I certainly don't deny Christ.
Nevertheless, not even one shingle on our roof was damaged in spite of the force that seemed to damage nearly every other house in the neighborhood. No trees or anything else on our property was damaged in the slightest. Maybe, like the prostitute in Jericho, God spared this house because we have been found righteous in God's eyes. Hmmmm?
Maybe it was, as Biblical skeptics would pronounce, simply a coincidence. Who knows? I don't. Do you?
1700 wildfires in California alone? Catastrophic flooding, tornadoes...?
I'm not saying God IS causing all this to happen. But I am suggesting America certainly deserves God's judgment.