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   We don't fear God Posted: March 27, 2010 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 For those of us who believe, as the old "deist" Benjamin Franklin did, that "God governs in the affairs of men," we face a real conundrum as we see the raw reality of tyranny coming from our own government. For example, what rational person could think that adding 16,000 reinforcements to the most feared entity in our nation – the IRS – and unleashing them as Enema Enforcers has a basis in anything this nation has ever believed or is based upon? The answer is simple but terrible – they are not rational. The evil perpetrators of Obamacare – and please don't overlook the key word "evil" – are themselves suffering from a malady far beyond our health-care system's best abilities. It is called a reprobate mind. They are not just liberals, not even "just" Marxists; they have minds darkened by depravity that have rendered them incapable of even recognizing their own condition. How many times have you asked yourself, "How can anyone think that way?" There are many reasons we are in this condition, but the most important, in my humble opinion, is not that the Democrats have a majority in Congress and control the White House, but that we have a nation filled with people who no longer fear God. As we move toward the celebration of Passover, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday in the coming week, the reply of a criminal should reverberate through our national soul: One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!" But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." (Luke 23:39-41) One criminal nailed to a cross for his offenses spat out a selfish demand to be freed from the consequences of his sin, while the other confessed the justification for his, then displayed reverence for the person and purity of Christ. Sound familiar? I believe God is judging America for the legion of our collective sins, and I'm not talking about past wrongs of slavery, discrimination, injustices or corruption of previous generations. We may be suffering consequences of the sins of our fathers, but our God has promised to show "love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:6, NIV). Our judgment is because we are murderers, adulterers and thieves. He also told the people of Israel to stop using their fathers' disobedience to rationalize the judgment they were facing for their own rebellion against God: In those days they will not say again, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. What I am placing before you is that God cannot bless a nation collectively which rejects him collectively, although his mercy and the prayers of the remnant who fear Him have stayed His hand of judgment to this point. Just as surely as God used wicked nations to punish and purify His people through the ages, I believe He has allowed our current political leadership to rise as a means of exposing how shallow we are as a church and as a nation. The self-serving prosperity gospel, church-growth driven, market-oriented, seeker-friendly, "peace at all costs" evangelical church has sold our collective soul and rejected the true and historic role of our mandate to be stewards over all of God's creation. (Column continues below)
Michael Catt, senior pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. (the church that produced the blockbuster "Fireproof") stated in an article: Sometimes the prosperity gospel and the feel-good gospel tell people what they want to hear. … [But] when you lay that by the side of Jesus' teaching [to] take up the cross – the only reason for the cross in the first century is to die – and to die daily, to crucify your flesh then you have to think, how does this fit? Government has become our god and our provider because our pulpits have abdicated our role to "preach the word of God to the issues of the day", as Pastor O'Neal Dozier of Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, Florida has done for years. His congregation votes 180 degrees opposite of the rest of Broward County…I'll let you connect the dots for yourself. I am down on record as believing that for any Christian not to vote in every election and not to vote consistently with God's priorities is a sin. We also must begin raising up godly elected leaders out of churches in every city in America. With that said, please ponder the words of Pastor Erwin Lutzer of Moody Church in Chicago in his book, "Is God on America's Side?" Please understand that God does not owe us such a deliverance. No nation has turned away so much light in order to choose darkness. No nation has squandered as many opportunities as we have. … But if we humble ourselves, weeping for this nation, God may yet intervene and restore decency to this crazed world. … We are in God's hands, knowing that people change minds only when God changes their hearts. Pastors of America, will you rise to the task? Dave Welch is the founder and executive director of the U.S. Pastor Council and Houston Area Pastor Council, interdenominational and interracial ministries of and for pastors based in Houston, Texas. Over the past 24 years, he has held numerous leadership positions including founding executive director of Christian Coalition of Washington, national field director of Christian Coalition and executive director of Vision America.
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