Restoring the Foundations begins with You. First step – Acknowledge God as the Sovereign
By Jim Mettenbrink
Last week we considered that in order to restore the destroyed foundation of our society will actually be a rebuilding of the foundation. And that to establish a nation of real tolerance and liberty, requires theists to have an unwavering commitment to God in the depths of their spirit. That this is a perpetual war to establish righteous nations and for your eternal destiny (heaven or hell) between God and Satan has always been evident. The current battle in the USA has been ongoing for over 100 years – Biblical faith vs Secular Humanism (man made himself his own god).
That the war is constant and continuous is known peering into the 19th century – British atheist forerunner of today’s Secular Humanism, G. J. Holyoake (1845), that the doctrine of morality “should be based solely in regard to the well-being of mankind in the present life, to the exclusion of all considerations drawn from a belief in God or in future life.” This premise begs the question by what or whose standard is morality based? He ruled out God, implicitly the Bible – God’s unchangeable standard. That society has become essentially Humanist, to God’s standard will require each of us to have an deep unwavering commitment to God’s standard. This was God’s appeal via His prophets when His chosen nation, Judah, was headed off the cliff of self destruction. “‘If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord, ‘Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved’” (Jeremiah 4:1). Judah refused and some 40 years later God destroyed the nation. What were these abominations?
The first is they had forgotten God –““Therefore I will scatter them like stubble….“because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood” (Jer 23:24-25). Implicitly they no longer read God’s word to know His standard. Thus, Judah had no conscience of right and wrong –“You have had a harlot’s forehead; you refuse to be ashamed” (Jer 3:3).
Judah had been hoodwinked by false teaching, but worse, they refused to listen to the truth – “Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord” (Jer 9:6). The closed mind! “This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing” (Jer 13:10). Refusing God in their lives was the first abomination.