As anyone in the Church of God who has spiritual discernment can see, this country is going downhill fast. We are turning away more and more from God. We are not the same people we were even 50 years ago. Atheism and materialism is becoming the dominant culture in the United States, and government, education, and media are leading the way.
As we decline morally, we are also declining in power. We are a sick nation. We are financially sick. Government, which is supposed to protect and strengthen the nation, is helping to ruin it. Spending keeps increasing, and the deficit keeps increasing, and we are bankrupting ourselves. In the end, the direction government is leading the country will pay a major part in our final ruin. The collapse, when it comes, can come suddenly, in a moment, but the preparation for the collapse has been going on for a long time.
We are like a building that is being weakened at the foundation. It hasn't collapsed yet, but it is growing weaker and the collapse is approaching. When the collapse comes, the building will fall in a few seconds, but only because it has been weakened for a long time before the collapse.
It should be clear that a major contributing cause of the disaster that is coming will be financial. A crippled economy will lead to military weakness, and military weakness will set us up for a defeat.
It is our national leaders who are setting us up for disaster. They are not making responsible decisions.
But who has chosen these leaders? The president and the members of Congress who are putting into place irresponsible budgets that will in the end help to destroy our economy were elected by the people. Many Americans do not want their government benefits cut, so they vote into office politicians who will not make the hard decisions necessary to save and protect our economy. Many Americans, who themselves are liberal in their thinking, vote for politicians who will support their liberal, anti-God agendas. That is where our leaders came from. That is why we have the leaders we do.
God is allowing our own ways to correct us. "Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you" (Jeremiah 2:19).
And democracy is part of our ways that will correct us.
What does this mean for the Church of God in the years ahead?
There are Church of God fellowships that do not trust Christ to appoint leaders in the Church. They want the ministers to vote to select the leaders through the democratic process. This is the same process that has given the United States the leaders it has today, the same process that is contributing to the disaster that is coming on the United States. And in choosing the democratic process, these fellowships are disregarding what the Bible says on the matter of selection of leaders of the Church. They are showing the same contempt for God's word, to a lesser degree probably, that the United States is showing towards the Bible.
The majority of American people do not believe the Bible. They disbelieve God in matters of morality and doctrine. Church of God fellowships who practice balloting to select their leaders do not believe God in matters of governance. They may agree with God about marriage, the Sabbath, and many matters of doctrine, because that is their tradition, but not governance. They won't believe God about that.
But the same spirit of distrust and disbelief towards God is at work. Just as the American people do not believe God about homosexuality, abortion, or creation, likewise some Churches of God do not believe God about governance.
Will God protect from the tribulation members of the Church of God who support democratic governance of the Church rather than the rule of Christ when it is that same democratic process that is helping to lead this country into that very tribulation? Will He protect members of the Church of God who practice the same distrust and disbelief towards the Bible in the matter of governance that our nation practices in matters of morality and doctrine?
If we refuse to believe what God says about governance, we are like spiritual brothers and sisters to those in the United States who believe in homosexual union (I refuse to call it marriage), abortion, the teaching of evolution in the public schools, and our materialistic culture. We would be like spiritual brothers and sisters because we would have this in common with them: we don't believe God.
Here are links to related chapters or sections in Preaching the Gospel:
CHAPTER 8 - GOVERNMENT IN THE CHURCH OF GOD
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The United States is not supposed to be a democracy, we are supposed to be a constitutional republic. The difference is that in a democracy, the majority (which could be as little as 51%) gets whatever they want, unconstrained by any principles. But the Founding Fathers warned that this is bad. That is why we have a Constitution which takes precedence even when the majority disagree with it. The problem is that we are becoming more like a democracy because no one knows the Constitution, no cares about it. Even conservatives mostly just know about the 1st and 2nd amendments--these are important but are only a small portion of the document. The tenth amendment says that the federal government only has the powers delegated to it by the Constitution and all else is to be left up to the states. Thus Social Security, Medicare, and countless other socialist programs, unnecessary government departments and agencies, burdensome regulations and other wasteful spending are not just unwise, but are in fact unconstitutional.
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