Saturday, July 28, 2012

Musings off the London Olympics: is there any hope God would yet turn us back to Him?

I didn't get to see the opening ceremony for the London Olympics, but saw a few pictures, read a few descriptions, and if there's a video out there of the whole thing I suppose I might eventually see more. I watched the wedding of William and Kate. I'm an Anglophile, partly no doubt because my paternal great grandfather was a lithographer in London, and my mother's family were mostly English as well, but maybe more because I know a little about England's history.

The wedding of over a year ago now was full of Christian references because of England's Christian history, although it's sadly clear they've lost their Christian worldview and the Christian rituals have become for the most part empty forms. The Archbishop of Canterbury is either a liberal or a Romanist or both.

I wouldn't expect their Christian past to show up in the Olympics ceremony and I'm sure it didn't, and besides, the whole Olympics thing has a pagan origin.

I know I'm a "fanatic" to many, even to some other Christians. I think it's the only thing to be if you're truly a Christian. To be honest, I don't think I'm enough of a fanatic really, I have all the symptoms of the worldliness of most Christians these days. At least I regret them.

So I see the Queen of England at the Olympics opening, not looking very happy in her photos for some reason, don't know why, usually she's smiling in her pictures. She's supposedly the "head of the Church" of England. I wonder what that means in reality, what she really believes, what with all the liberal influences in the Church of England over the last century or so.

Mitt Romney attracted some negative attention by the British press while he was there, and a snarky put-down by the Mayor of London, for some remarks Romney made about what he saw as an apparent ("disconcerting") lack of preparedness for the Olympics. I'm no particular fan of Romney, but as the frontrunning Republican candidate for President against Obama he represents America and I found myself resenting the London mayor's nastiness. Romney did run the Olympics in Utah after all, and if the task was in any way less demanding because of its location than running them in a busy city like London, one ought to expect that those who are used to running things in that city should be able to demonstrate their ability to do as well there as Romney did in Utah. In any case he should be treated with some respect for that experience. But I was also disappointed in the mayor because such snarkiness against a foreign leader is just not in the spirit I associate with England. Grace and charity are what I expect in such a situation, humility, grace and charity, not rudeness. Sure, perhaps Romney should have said nothing, but it wasn't anywhere near the rudeness of the mayor. And I'm also disappointed in Romney for changing course in response to the rudeness and saying only nice things about the London preparedness after that.

So goodbye to England's illustrious past in more ways than one. Not that its degeneration is new, it's been on its way down for decades. Too bad. England was once great. BECAUSE IT WAS CHRISTIAN. Because of its great Christian preachers, leaders, and general culture. That's the ONLY reason it was great. When it began to lose its Christian foundations it started to fall from grace. Now it's undergoing God's judgment just as America is, just as Europe is. Being overrun with Muslims is certainly God's judgment. Being attacked by terrorists is certainly God's judgment.

I don't know if The Harbinger will have much of an impact on America or not in the end but I have to believe God has sent it to us as an unavoidable proof of His displeasure with us, and a warning that if we don't turn back His judgments against us are only going to escalate. He brought down ancient Israel and they never recovered, and Isaiah 9:10 was certainly a marker or harbinger of their doom. He can do that to us as well. The harbingers the book reports on spell out our doom in an unusually literal way, as clear signs of God's speaking to America through the appearance in America of some Old Testament signs and principles, starting with Isaiah 9:10 (or Isaiah 9:8-14 to get the whole context). If we don't heed them and turn back, they will stand as testimony against the nation until it is destroyed.

Maybe God has given similar signs to England or Europe but nobody noticed them. It's possible, I suppose, though perhaps not very likely. He'd also have to give someone to notice them and bring them to the attention of the public, as He did with Jonathan Cahn.

America was once great because of our adherence to the God of the Bible and the predominantly Christian mindset of Americans. The same was once true of England, and particularly after the Reformation much of Europe. I've been for some time in a state of mourning over the great loss in both cases. America was once GOOD. Is there any of that goodness left in us after our murder of millions of our unborn, our "sexual revolution" that has violated everything related to sex that God spells out in His Word as the Law that brings blessing if obeyed, cursing if disobeyed; the great apostasy of the churches, the liberalism that gobbled up so many of them, the cults that sprang up in the 19th century (Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science), the increase in militant atheism and ridicule of God and religion?

There are those who are sure God won't send us a revival at this late stage in the history of the world. There are certainly reasons to think this could be the case, especially the apostasy itself which a revival would have to correct to be a true revival, but which could just swallow it up instead. Perhaps it's a new Reformation we really need. Mormonism is not Christianity but they want a revival. Catholicism is not Christianity but they'd certainly like to see a revival of Catholicism. Muslims want to see Islam spread. The New Agers even have their own notions that some kind of "revival" is coming, some kind of great evolutionary leap from what they see as the retrograde influence of Christianity into some wonderful new world of peace and light. Kind of what the UN envisions as well.

Christians know all this could only be the ascendancy of the spirit of Antichrist, ultimately over the whole world, and not true revival, and this is certainly what COULD happen instead of true revival at this stage in history. It would fit prophecy of course. Well, God knows, God is in charge. I still hope true revival might come and wake up what's left of the true Church and turn the hearts of the apostates to the true God. In America, in England, in Europe, where God first laid down the principles of His word through the New Testament and brought civilization where there had been nothing but the darkness of paganism and witchcraft. To which we're all now reverting if He doesn't intervene.