Rocks and Trees and Speeches and Prayers of Hope and Comfort or Defiance of God?

I'm still reeling a bit from that last post, especially seeing that David James wasn't alert to the false theology of St. Paul's even through their mushminded sentimentality if nothing else, certainly their utter lack of a gospel context of any sort whatever, but also that he allowed himself to suspect that perhaps the idea of the "divine in all of us" was REALLY from Jonathan Cahn himself although it couldn't be confirmed. That hits me as really low.

But the main problem is that if David James and the other critics don't understand that it is defiance of God after He has brought judgment against us to try to comfort the nation with symbols of "hope" and promises to rebuild, perhaps it's hopeless to try to get the message across. This is a failure of spiritual discernment, or perhaps, also a failure of biblical hermeneutics, to hand them back their own criticism. That is, since their hermeneutic makes it impossible to apply Isaiah 9:10 to America despite its being such a perfect fit, they are going to be blind to the whole message of The Harbinger for that reason. Or perhaps it's theology: if you aren't committed to the view that God is sovereign over all things, in control of absolutely everything, you may fail to recognize disasters as the work of God, and in that case you may also fail to see that attempts to offer hope and comfort on the basis of human strength alone amount to defiance of God.

This in fact seems to describe the majority "Christian" response to 9/11 at the time, which is exactly what The Harbinger is intended to expose, exactly what the harbingers themselves are meant to sear into the collective American mind if anyone can be made to pay attention.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN WHO WAS NOT EVEN A CHRISTIAN AT THE TIME KNEW THAT THE CIVIL WAR WAS GOD'S JUDGMENT AGAINST AMERICA FOR OUR SIN OF SLAVERY, BUT "CHRISTIANS" TODAY SEEM TO THINK OF GOD AS EVEN MORE REMOTE THAN THE DEISTS DID, A GOD WHO DOESN'T HAVE CONTROL OVER HIS WORLD, OVER NATURE OR OVER HUMAN ACTIONS. EVEN GEORGE WASHINGTON THE MASON WHO HAD A FALSE IDEA OF CHRIST BELIEVED IN "PROVIDENCE" AND KNEW THAT A NATION MUST HONOR GOD'S LAWS IF IT IS TO PROSPER. HOW DID THIS "CHRISTIAN" NATION LOSE THIS FUNDAMENTAL BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE NATURE OF GOD?

Cahn is dead-on right that the spirit of America's reaction to 9/11 is defiance of God, just as it is described in Isaiah 9:10. If you really do have discernment you should have known that without the revelation of The Harbinger, but it seems to me the revelation must have been sent to open some eyes, which must be understood as God's merciful condescension to a spiritually dull people if so. The vow to rebuild, restated in so many ways by so many American leaders, even actually quoting Isaiah 9:10 itself in the delusion that this is a positive and reassuring statement of national hope and pride; the fatuous sentimental delusion of making a bronze memorial of the roots of the fallen sycamore tree as if such a creepy image could by any stretch be an omen of anything good whatever; and planting the wishfully misnamed Tree of Hope, all of these things are unwitting testimonies to God's judgment against the nation rather than the positive symbols they were intended to be. They all reflect Isaiah 9:10 despite the critics' bizarre and hairsplitting attempts to undermine the obvious connections. Cahn has nailed it. James and the other critics are missing it completely.

I looked up some scriptures that it seems to me apply to the kind of thinking that treats these events as symbols of hope rather than symbols of God's judgment against the nation:

The theme is RITES AND PRAYERS AND EMPTY WORDS IN THE ABSENCE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. I'm thinking here of the sad refrain "God bless America" that was sung and said so often in the wake of 9/11, typical of America's appeal to God without acknowledging God's warning in that attack that we are out of His will. The only right thing we could possibly do under those circumstances is repent, as The Harbinger preaches over and over and over. Acknowledge the nations sins and do what we can to turn the country back to Him.

Prayer is useless when we are out of God's will. He will not listen. The story of the defeat of the Israelites at Ai because of the sin of Achan comes to mind:

Jos 7:10-13 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put [it] even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, [but] turned [their] backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, [There is] an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

Oh but we aren't ancient Israel, are we? I guess that means that if WE commit sins God won't judge us the same way but will still listen to our fatuous prayers even while we're tolerating idolatrous religions as equal to God (and those making such prayers are part of those false religions), murdering our unborn in the tens of millions and up to our ears in unrighteous laws and legalized immoralities of every kind? Right. THOSE things only bothered God if ISRAEL committed them. I dunno, though, maybe we could TRY it. Stop asking God to bless this corrupt nation, get rid of an accursed object or two and see if it helps.

Here's a similar message from God to Israel (oh but far be it from me to suggest it might have implications for modern America. No, I'm just including it here because, well, because. Oh well.)

Isa 1:13-17 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

The blood of the unborn is on our hands, God is sick of our empty ceremonies like dedicating a rock to rebuild what He knocked down to call our attention to our sins, like planting a "tree of hope" where He uprooted a sycamore to call attention to our sins, and praying over it too, prayers for God to bless a sinning nation with not the slightest intention of doing anything to make the nation obedient to His will. Oh but that's all just for Israel. God loves America even though we've removed His Commandments from our view and from our laws and now have laws almost reversing them. Right. It was just those bad Muslims who attacked us, that had nothing to do with God. Right. We're going to rebuild and God will bless us. Right.

Jer 7:9-16 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen [it], saith the LORD. But go ye now unto my place which [was] in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto [this] house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, [even] the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

The abominations America commits in His house such as that abomination of an ecumenical prayer service in the National Cathedral that G W Bush assembled right after 9/11, with all the false religions including Islam that he called "the religion of peace" and Catholicism whose Pope he said reminded him of God. God has said He doesn't hear the prayers of those who deny Him and follow other gods. And I don't know if St. Paul's, the church where George Washington and his team prayed for the nation was a true church back then but it certainly isn't now and its clergy offer prayers that are an abomination in God's ears, and ceremonies performed with empty idolatrous words that deny Him and celebrate human works. Our churches and the nation as a whole are following all kinds of other gods, and the nation has legalized all kinds of sins including adultery and stealing and murder but we still "stand before Him in His house" as if we are "delivered to do all those abominations in His house." But we expect God to "bless America."

And the prophet Amos gives a similar message:

Amos 5:21-27 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept [them]: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name [is] The God of hosts.

And again, of course we mustn't take this to apply to America because we don't observe the same feast days that Israel did so God must not hate OUR feast days, and we don't offer offerings any more as Israel did, and we don't sing vain songs to God, and we don't sacrifice to false gods and besides He can't send US into captivity beyond Damascus so OBVIOUSLY none of this applies to America.

Just one last thought. Was 9/11 REALLY God's judgment on America?

Amos 3:6 Shall there be calamity in a city, and the LORD hath not done [it]?

We need a new Protestant Reformation. Send us fearless preachers of Your gospel, Lord, to turn this nation back to You, Your true Gospel that overthrows darkness, turns hearts to righteousness and brings people into Your Kingdom by the blood of Christ, God in human flesh who died to pay for our sins. THIS is how You would bless America, Lord, if You would have such mercy on us.