PRÉCIS ON A FAMINE FOR THE WORD OF GOD IN AMERICA: STARVING TO DEATH IN THE LAND OF PLENTY

SCRIPTURE. “And how will they preach unless they are commissioned and

sent [for that purpose]? Just as it is written and forever remains written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’ But they did not all pay attention to the good news [of salvation]; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ.” – ROMANS 10:15-17, AMP

KEY TERM: “THEY DID NOT PAY ATTENTION.” ‘Pisteuó’ [ἐπίστευσεν]: “To fully entrust one’s spiritual well-being to Christ [without any reservation whatsoever].” Also: “To be firmly persuaded of something with the idea of hope and certain expectation.” NOTE: “The Greek verb ‘pisteuó’ primarily means to believe or to have faith. It conveys a sense of trust and reliance upon someone or something. In the New Testament, it is often used to describe the act of believing in Jesus Christ for salvation, trusting in God’s promises, and having faith in the truth of the Gospel. ‘This belief is not merely intellectual assent but involves a deep, personal trust and commitment.’”

QUOTATION. “As Hannah Arendt wrote in her 1951 book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, ‘The ideal subject of Totalitarian Rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the Reality of Experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.’” ― MICHIKO KAKUTANI, The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, 2018; edited

COMMENTARY. “There is not one God to the Jews, more kind, and another to the Gentiles, Who is less kind [or the other way around!]; the Lord is a Father to all men. The Promise is the same to all, who call on the name of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, as God manifest in the flesh. All believers thus call upon the Lord Jesus, and none else will do so humbly or sincerely.

‘But how should any call on the Lord Jesus, the Divine Saviour, who had not heard of Him?’ And what is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer? It shows that we feel our dependence on Him, and are ready to give up ourselves to Him, and have a believing expectation of our all from Him. It was necessary that the Gospel should be preached to the Gentiles. Somebody must show them what they are to believe. How welcome the Gospel ought to be to those to whom it was preached!

‘The Gospel is given, not only to be known and believed, but to be obeyed!’ It is not a system of notions, but a Rule of Practice. The beginning, progress, and strength of Faith is by hearing. But it is only hearing the Word, as the Word of God that will strengthen Faith.” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710, edited

DK’S TAKE. I will be brief, since I have already made the case with extensive documentation for what follows in staccato, bullet point format.

• TREACHERY. The American Pastor has chosen for at least the past ten years to preach a safer, ‘Partial Gospel.’ One that will ensure people return to Church, pay their tithes, and generally nod in often blind affirmation (faith) that what they are hearing is the unabridged truth of God’s Word. All of this his been further enthroned by our preachers by the Advent of Donald Trump and his rancid Heresy of Christian Nationalism, to which they respond by either zealous support or abject silence.

• TRUTH. Therefore, Truth is not being proclaimed to the land, either by the seminary-trained Pastor or his subjects in the congregations. Such a travesty has been the case in the American Church at least for the last decade, and very likely and increasingly for the past two generations or more. The idea of a “Seeker-Friendly” (Church Growth) Model is now clearly the norm, whereby, still again, the objective is not transformed lives so much as a solid financial base from which to expand the Church into myriad programs, conferences, seminars and study groups that do no more than transfer the Emasculated Gospel to more people, exacerbating the Crisis of Truth.

• TRUMP. In the anemic wake of these sweeping Compromises of God’s Word, we have now a Postmodern generation of American Christians, mostly older, who swear by their allegiance to the Super-Patriot Donald Trump. ‘The One’ who has effectively deceived the White Church into believing that Jesus and America are a ‘Simulacrum’ – “An [exact] likeness, semblance or representation or imitation of a person or thing.” This grotesquely distorted view of the Gospel has a name: Christian Nationalism – “A form of Religious Nationalism that focuses on promoting the Christian Views of its followers, in order to achieve Prominence or Dominance in political and social life.”

CODA. Combined with the nearly now inarguable probability that Trump is the Biblical Antichrist, America has campaigned hard against Christ on behalf of Antichrist. This to absolutely ensure her Self-Destruction as God’s Nemesis, Babylon the Great.

As I have argued vehemently before, our only hope now is not to save a Providentially Condemned Nation, but to first ‘Secure’ our own Salvation by remaining true to Jesus until The End (Matthew 24:13). Then ‘Rescue’ as many individuals from The Fire as possible in these Last of the Last Days (Jude 1:22).

Selah.