Posted on 09/02/2013 10:53:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”(Ecclesiastes 1:9)
The Apostle Paul likely wrote his letter to the Romans about 25 years after Christ’s death and resurrection (sometime between A.D. 55-57). Throughout the book of Romans, Paul warned of God’s unfolding wrath against the Roman Empire – indeed, all of humanity – for mankind’s embrace and practice of pagan morality.
Approach Paul’s words with a modicum of objectivity and the reader is left with this dreadful realization: The words of Christ’s hand-picked messenger likewise paint an eerily accurate portrait of America, A.D. 2013. The negligible difference is that ancient pagan morality has been sanitized with a new euphemism: postmodern “progressivism.”
It is unbridled hubris that presumes America – lest she depart the wide path to ancient Rome – will not suffer that empire’s same fate.
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them,” he wrote. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)
Of course, an entire book could be written on this passage alone, but, essentially, Paul is noting that knowledge of God’s existence, eternal power, divine nature and moral law are self-evident. His truths are written on the hearts of every man, woman and child – Jew, Christian and pagan alike. Those who deny this reality are “without excuse.”
Yet, excuses we make.
Pull your eyes from your smartphone, America. Look around you. God’s wrath is “being revealed from heaven” once more.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:21-25)
Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. Sexual impurity in all its ugly forms – fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, et al. – is celebrated by these “progressive” “fools.” American culture revels in the degrading of our bodies while purity is mocked. God has given us over to sinful desires.
Furthermore, while good earthly stewardship is a sound biblical principle, the pantheism and idolatry of which Paul warned (worship of creation and/or false idols over the Creator) prospers yet today in its contemporary, totalitarian forms: radical environmentalism and new ageism.
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones (lesbianism). In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:26-27)
Was Paul rebuking “progressives” on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Obama, liberals in Congress and other cheerleaders for these “shameful lusts” and “unnatural relations” – or was he just describing the disproportionately powerful and “inflamed-with-lust” homosexual lobby they represent?
Probably both.
Either way, God’s “due penalty” is non-discriminating. America’s official endorsement of “gay marriage,” “gay pride,” homosexualist indoctrination in our schools, “transgender” bathroom bills and bans on counseling to help with unwanted same-sex attraction will not end well.
Ask the Romans.
“Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32)
Where to begin.
We have arrived. Shame on you, America. Our children – our adults – are depraved. They are “occupied” by envy. They attack innocent people, beating and killing them for sport. They murder one another in the streets without love or mercy. They disobey, gossip, slander and hate God. They are insolent, arrogant, boastful “little monsters.” They invent ways of doing evil. Hannah Montana is what America once was. MTV Miley is America today. She “evolved” because we “evolved.” You saw it on display. It’s ugly. It’s Satanic.
It’s “progressive.”
Still, though we have become a Romans 1 nation and, absent widespread spiritual revival, will fall as did Rome, those who embrace and follow truth – who is Jesus the Christ – are a Romans 8 people:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)
That’s the good news.
And that’s a column for another day.
Spot on ^5
Freegards
LEX
We either turn this ship of state around, or we're done for.
It will come sooner than we think too.
RAMIREZ
In his latest Ramirez covers:
Syria Denies Using Chemical Weapons
Depending on how you figure it, his judgment against Rome too 400 or 1400 years to work out.
If you track NASA’s accomplishments, you can almost see America’s rise and fall. The Apollo missions were the high point for America and we’ve declined since that time. The female liberation movement and ‘the single mom’ began the emasculation of boys (including 0bama himself) which is now deeply entrenched.. just the way the tyrannical government wants it. No one available to fight back. Goodbye America.
President George Washington and our founders knew how important the favor of God is to have a successful outcome.
This current regime and so many arrogant know-it-alls snub their noses thinking they don’t need Him. A dangerous and destructive way of thinking.
The 60’s hippies started messing up the country before the Apollo 1.
And of the makings of modern big government started way back in the 1910’s.
Proud member of the Masada Wing of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy..
Be careful how much freedom we give our elected officials less they end up hanging us all.. CONgre$$ has become irrelevant,, at least when GOP interests prevail,, otherwise, most leaders are gutless, sold out, pension secure, sad
Salute to my brother in the hills, we may be joining y’all real soon.. Too bad Bart don’t go there..
How you say in Latin
W.A.S.S.
I fear it’s too late.
Rome’s depravity grew as the Empire grew, as the power of the City of Rome grew, as the power of Caesar grew, as its people became subjects vs. citizens.
To fix this problem in the USA, we need to end the growth of the American Empire, limit the power of Washington, restore freedom, and above all, restore responsibility to the citizen.
Someone give this writer a history book. He can start with Gibbons. Nothing burns my rear more than someone spouting comic book history. The actual facts are fascinating. It can be said the Western Roman state collapse, the Eastern lasted to the discovery of America, was insignificant in that Roman culture endured. The new “barbarian” kings might have replaced the old political order, but they considered themselves a part of Roman culture, not a replacement. Every time you pass a Roman Catholic Church you are seeing a piece of the late Roman Empire.
So do I. Believing in the Bible as I do, it seemed to me this day was coming. I just can’t believe how fast we went from Reagan to Clinton to Obama.
It’s almost impossible to fully grasp the significance.
Great work
Overall, a good article, but I would take acception to his comment that God has written His truths on the hearts of EVERY man, woman, and child...Jew, Gentile, and pagan (Romans 1:18-20.
Rather, the passage is speaking about men who have a knowledge about God that is based on His creation, and who have suppressed in in unrighteousness. This knowledge about God is evident within [Or, among] them, God having made it evident to them by what He has made. This knowledge is described in v. 20 as God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, that have been clearly seen and understood through the creation, so that they are without excuse. These are men who worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, v. 25. Their practices are described in the passage.
God has revealed Himself in 3 ways: 1) Through Creation, 2) Through His Word, the Bible, and 3)Through His Son.
As far as God’s writing on the hearts of men [within]—this is a promise of the New Covenant to the remnant of Israel in the last days, described in Jeremiah 31:31-34:
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This is the same new covenant that all believers since the cross, both Jew and Gentile, up to this very day, come into by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf for the forgiveness of our sins. All who repent of their sins and turn to God through His only provision for forgiveness, the Lord Jesus Christ, enter into the new covenant. The new covenant is in Christ’s blood, which was poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
The promise to the Jewish nation, of the law within, written on their hearts, is yet to be fulfilled. It will be fulfilled when Yeshua returns. Jeremiah is not the only passage in the Old Testament that speaks of this; Ezekiel 36:25-38 also speak of the same day...and there are other passages as well.
God has not forgotten Israel and will fulfill ALL of His promises to the believing remnant—AND the church HAS NOT replaced Israel (read Romans 9, 10, and 11).
The American nation has grown.
But the arrogance and ego of our politicians has grown exponentially.
They have come to believe they ARE the nation.
To them the citizens are like milk cows who sometimes forget their place.
The Modern Romans? Garner Ted Armstrong, call your office...
One is now doing microbiological research at Stanford. The other is on a full academic scholarship at Utah State, a teaching fellow at the age of 19.
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