NOTES ON GOD’S LOVING TRUMPET BLAST TO AMERICA: “THE TIME FOR REPENTANCE IS SPEEDING BY LIKE CHAFF WHIRLED BEFORE THE WIND!”- (WITH VIDEO)

THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “Collect your thoughts, yes, unbend yourselves [in submission and see if there is no sense of shame and no consciousness of sin left in you], O shameless nation [not desirous or desired]! [The time for repentance is speeding by like chaff whirled before the wind!] Therefore consider, before God’s decree brings forth [the curse upon you], before the time [to repent] is gone like the drifting chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you—yes, before the day of the wrath of the Lord comes upon you!

Seek the Lord [inquire for Him, inquire of Him, and require Him as the foremost necessity of your life], all you humble of the land who have acted in compliance with His revealed will and have kept His commandments; seek righteousness, seek humility [inquire for them, require them as vital]. It may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.” – ZEPHANIAH 2:1-3, AMPC

KEY TERM: “HID.” ‘Sathar’ [תִּסָּ֣תְר֔וּ]: From a primitive root, “‘To hide by covering; to be absent;’ to keep close [to God], to become concealed and kept secret. The Hebrew verb ‘sathar’ is used in various contexts throughout the Old Testament, often referring to the act of hiding oneself, concealing something, or being hidden by God. The term can imply physical hiding, as well as metaphorical or spiritual concealment.”

QUOTATION. “Some have imagined and pretended that God’s Promises are effectual for a man in his natural state, if that man is truly earnest in his seeking and knocking. But it is visibly clear that God is under no obligation to keep such a person from Eternal Destruction, not even for one moment. It doesn’t matter how religious the man is or how many prayers he makes. Until he [truly]believes in Christ, God is not obligated in any way to protect him.” ― JASON DOLLAR, [Jonathan Edward’s] Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Updated to Modern English, 2015; edited

COMMENTARY. CThe Prophet calls to National Repentance, as the only way to prevent National Ruin. A Nation not desiring, that has not desires toward God, is not desirous of His favour and grace, has no mind to repent and reform. Or, not desirable, not having any thing to recommend them to God; to whom God might justly say, ‘Depart from Me.’ But He says, ‘Gather together to Me that you may seek My face.’

‘We know what God’s Decree will bring against impenitent sinners, therefore it highly concerns all to Repent in the Accepted Time.’ How careful should we all be to seek peace with God, before the Holy Spirit withdraws from us, or ceases to strive with us; before the Day of Grace is over, or the Day of Life. Before our Everlasting State is determined! Let the poor, despised, and afflicted, seek the Lord, and seek to understand and keep His Commandments better, that they may be more humbled for their sins. ‘The Chief Hope of deliverance from National Judgments rests upon Prayers [of Contrition].’” ― MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

II. THE ACCEPTED TIME

“For it is the time [destined] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not respect or believe or obey the gospel of God? And if it is difficult for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the godless and the sinner? Therefore, those who are ill-treated and suffer in accordance with the will of God must [continue to] do right and commit their souls [for safe-keeping] to the faithful Creator.” – 1 PETER 4:17-19, AMP

I will address this powerful and timely passage from the desk of the late DR. TIM KELLER, American Calvinist pastor, preacher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He was founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of The New York Times bestselling books including, Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical (2016). – Adapted from the Editors, Wikipedia, Oct. 4, 2024; edited

The title of his analysis of what Dr. Francis Schaeffer once called “The Great Evangelical Disaster” in 1984 is: “The Decline and Renewal of the American Church: Part 2 – The Decline of Evangelicalism” (Gospel in Life, Winter 2022; edited).

FAITH IN DECLINE. “[I]n the last quarter of the 20^th century, Mainline Protestantism essentially switched places with Evangelicalism. After distancing itself from Fundamentalism in the 1940s and 1950s, Evangelicalism grew. The Liberal theology and politics of the Mainline alienated the more conservative U.S. population, which was still more traditional. Millions left the Mainline and gravitated toward Evangelical churches. By the first decade of the 21^st century, about 30% of Americans identified as ‘born again’ Evangelicals. ‘Since 2007, however, Evangelicalism has begun its own Decline.’ All indications are that in the coming years an unprecedented number of younger Americans will be leaving churches and institutional religion of all kinds behind. But why?”

SECULARIZATION OF THE ELITES. “A process called ‘Secularization’ has been going on in Western societies for several centuries. ‘Mainly among highly educated elites,’ though it gathered steam among the general population after World War II in Europe and after the 1960s in North America. The bloody European Wars of Religion in the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries led many to search for a basis of a society that did not require a common church or set of religious beliefs. The ‘Enlightenment Project’ was an attempt to explain the human situation and arrive at moral values using only neutral, objective human logic and science, not religion. Secularization has two basic features [‘Enforced Privatization of Religion’ and a ‘Radicalized Individualism’].”

FAILURE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT. “The result of the Individualism of the Enlightenment has been the ‘Decline of all human communities’—institutions, neighborhoods, and families—leading to greater isolation, loneliness, ‘Anomie’ [French-Jewish sociologist Émile Durkheim’s term for “Lawlessness”], anxiety, and depression. This did not happen all at once. The ‘Cultural Capital’ of Christianity continued to provide unity in Western culture for centuries, since the vast majority of the population went to Church even if the ‘Elites’ were largely Secular. Even today the main values of Western Secularism are those derived from Christianity. But as the percentage of the population going to Church declined, and as the Radical Individualism of the West became more pervasive, the Original Enlightenment Vision of a society based on secular human reason alone came largely to pass. But it has not led to unity at all. ‘Western society in general and U.S. society in particular are polarized, fragmented, and ungovernable as everyone adopts their own meaning in life and moral values.’”

THE DECLINE OF EVANGELICALISM. “In the past few years, an enormous amount of attention has been given to the influence of Evangelicalism. One reason for this is that it remains the single largest category of Religious Americans. Another reason is that ‘80% or more of white, self-identified ‘Evangelicals supported DONALD TRUMP in 2016 and a new Right-Wing Populism and Nationalism. Arguably, they were the main reason for his ascendency.’ Despite some conflicting data readings, most agree that Evangelicalism is declining in the U.S. Meanwhile, within Evangelicalism there are a number of factions seemingly battling to the death over control of the movement, even as academics and social scientists argue about the actual definition of an ‘EVANGELICAL.’ All this creates confusion. What is Evangelicalism? What crises does it actually face? And are there any reasons for hope for it?’”

SIX REASONS FOR EVANGELICAL DECEASE. “(1)The United States is slowly running out of Traditionally-Minded Americans to be converted, and Conservative Protestants on the whole are unwilling or unable to reach the highly secular and culturally different. (2) Furthermore, in both Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism there have been many churches and leaders guilty of spiritual and sexual abuse. (3) Notably, Conservative Church Politicization has turned off half the country. (4) Conservative churches, both Fundamentalist and Evangelical, continue to have a race problem. (5) Fundamentalism is an Anti-Intellectual Movement, and even Non-Fundamentalist Evangelicals tend toward Pragmatism. (6) Conservative Protestants lack a Model for relating to a Secular Culture.”

This is largely why the American Church has turned on the Unsaved as their Mortal Enemy: ‘They have rejected the Great Commission for their new-found obsession with Domination!’

III. IS IT TOO LATE FOR AMERICA?

Without telegraphing the Punch Line for today’s Commentary, I must remind you that an AGE-OLD PRINCIPLE that interfaces both Church and State that shall govern My Answer to this vital Question: Can America Be Saved?

‘As the Church fares, so fares the Nation.’

ALEXIS DE TOQUEVILLE. Alexis de Tocqueville, through his observations of American Democracy, believed that the health and morality of a Nation is closely tied to the state of its Religious Institutions, essentially stating that ‘As goes the Church, so goes the Nation’ – meaning that a strong and active Religious Community is vital for a stable and well-functioning Democracy. Bearing in mind that he was clearly referring to the Christian Religion, he effectively argued:

‘Where Christian Religion thrives, so does the Nation’s overall moral fabric on which its central institutions rely for effective functioning.’– Adapted from an AI Overview, ret. Dec. 17, 2024

FORMER AMERICAN GREATNESS. I am frankly in awe of the confounding reality that despite America’s Founding being ‘Fundamentally Syncretistic,’ joining the Western Common Law Tradition of Classical European Christianity with the Secular Traditions of Greco-Roman polity, that God still blessed us!

The Reason? Though not founded as a “Christian” Nation by any stretch, we did in fact pay sincere homage to the God of the Bible in both Testaments. Therefore, while God was deeply grieved and angered over our institution of slavery, our savagery of the Native peoples, our ribald and violent theft of half of Mexico under the synthetic mask of “Manifest Destiny,” and the treachery of Freemasonry among too many of our elites, He still honored our greatly flawed commitment to His Kingdom.

But as with all Sustained Rebellion against the Kingdom of God, AMERICA’S COLLECTIVE SINS began to mount up on the wings of Carrion Birds by 2020: When the Church voted a SECOND TIME for the demonically inspired Anti-God, Donald John Trump.

By 2024, when the vast majority of White Evangelicals spit in the Face of Christ Himself by their THIRD, now successful, celebratory demand for The Beast of Babylon, to be their Unrightful King, God was pretty much fed up with us! So do I hear it first uttered at Cain when he slew his obedient brother Abel in that Primordial Garden Millennia ago:

“America, what have you done? Church! What have YOU done?”

DEATH OF THE AMERICAN ORDER. I close with a moving lament from the pen of foreign correspondent in Europe and author, ANDREW GUMBEL, writing for The Guardian in his piece, “The US has lost faith in the American dream. Is this the end of the country as we know it?” (December 2024; edited). What follows are his MAIN POINTS.

THESIS. “The Republican’s Second Presidential Term heralds a more inward-looking US where Resentment has replaced Idealism and nobody wins without someone else losing.”

IRONY. “A dozen years ago – an eternity in American politics – the Republican Party was reeling from its fourth presidential election loss in six tries and decided that it needed to be a lot kinder to the people whose votes it was courting. No more demonising of migrants, the Party resolved – it was time for comprehensive immigration reform. No more demeaning language that turned off women and minorities – it needed more of them to run for office.”

HARBINGER. “‘Just One Voice on the Right begged to differ: DONALD TRUMP. ‘Does the @RNC [Republican National Committee] have a death wish?’ he asked in a tweet. His objection received little attention at the time, but it wasn’t long before he was offering himself as flesh-and-blood proof of how wrong the autopsy was. In announcing his first campaign for president in 2015, ‘Trump called [all] Mexicans rapists and criminals.’”

DARKNESS. “No serious presidential candidate had ever talked this way, and for several months, Mainstream Republicans regarded his approach as electoral suicide. Even once it became apparent Trump might win the Party nomination, they still feared his candidacy would go down in flames because swing voters in the presidential election would ‘flock away from him in droves,’ as Party stalwart HENRY BARBOUR put it. ‘Then Trump won – and American Politics has not been the same since. [Indeed], the Country has not been the same since. It’s true, the US has NEVER been quite the Shining Beacon of its own imagination.”

CONSEQUENCES. “What drives American Politics now is, rather, the unfettered ‘Power of Money!’ Much of it managed by groups outside Party control who do not have to declare their funding sources and can make or break candidates depending on their willingness to follow a preordained set of policy prescriptions.”

TELOS [“An Ultimate End”]. “[So] here we are. [Flashback] In January 2021, at Joe Biden’s Inauguration, the young poet Amanda Gorman invoked the spirit of the Civil Rights Era in describing ‘A Nation that isn’t Broken but simply Unfinished.’ It now appears that her faith was misplaced. ‘The US we thought we knew is Broken indeed, and may well be Finished.’”

Beloved, I believe that both Mr. Gumbel and Ms. Gorman are correct. But there remains some GOOD NEWS out of the Rubble of their Tragic Conclusions.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

Ove the many years on this Earth as an educator, I have come up with some sayings that sum up certain things that my long experience has taught me in the form of Aphorisms. One of them is this:

“God never wastes anything.”

To state it another way: He always has a Benefit or Blessing in mind that only He can draw up out of the Detritus of endless human failure. Such is the case here, at the very End of History as we have known it.

THREE DIVINE CAUSES. Permit me to Conclude then on the strong shoulders of God’s Love for Redemption at this very Late Hour of Church and National Collapse. ‘Great Opportunities’ if you will, that we can take with us in the Road Ahead.

AWAKENING! Clearly for those of us in this small community, an immeasurable blessing has been the ‘Opening of our eyes’ to the Truth of American Corruptions. This includes both Individual sins, National Sins, as well as Church Sins in sanctuaries and seminaries that have been perpetrating GENERATIONAL LIES ‘about how wonderful we all are!’ When in all Reality we have not been quite so “wonderful,” as the insightful essay by Mr. Gumbel points out. JESUS SAID: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” – LUKE 12:14, NKJV

ACTING! Following such an extraordinary miracle of clearer, cleaner perspective, we are then positioned to Return to The Great Commission found in both Testaments: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow … Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you” – ISAIAH 1:17; MATTHEW 2:19-20, AMPC

ANTICIPATING! Of all the things that we could possibly hope for, beloved, of all the Events in all of human history that should set us on the very edges of our spiritual seats is THE RETURN! “For this we declare to you by the Lord’s [own] word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall in no way precede [into His presence] or have any advantage at all over those who have previously fallen asleep [in Him in death]. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first. Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord!” – 1 THESSALONIANS 4:16-17, AMPC

CODA. To these TWO POINTS: (1) I don’t believe “Saving America’ is our Commission to the King; she is far too lost for that and I not convinced that was ever our Mission by the Scriptures. (2) However, ‘Saving Souls’ is what we are to be all about for all the reasons stated previously.

For those who will Answer the Call: Incalculably Great Wonders lie just ahead beloved, both Terrifying and Magnificent. Yet again, I say: All depends on what we each decide to DO with them in The Times immediately ahead of us. ‘Ignore them. Be crushed by them.’Or:

‘OVERCOME THEM! By the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, that we would not love our lives even to the death!’ – cf. REVELATION 12:11

This, and only this, beloved, ‘IF we truly Love Him.’ SELAH.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/R28SULfPhIc