Call to Repentance for National Idolatry

Two days ago I gave some background for this call to repentance. If you did not read it earlier, you may read it here:

https://old.godskingdom.org/blog/2021/09/the-rise-of-the-saints-part-4

We are the children of Abraham, because we have the same quality of faith that Abraham had. Abraham believed that God was able to fulfill His promises, vows, and oaths, and so his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness (Romans 4:21, 22). We too understand His promises, and we believe that God is able. Our faith is in His ability to fulfill His vows, not merely in His ability to help us fulfill our vows to Him.

As children of Abraham, our overall calling is to bless all nations (Genesis 12:3). The true interpretation of this is found in Acts 3:25, 26,

²⁵ It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ²⁶ For you first, God raised up His Servant [Jesus] and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

Biblically speaking, then, to bless means to turn people from their wicked ways. When we ask God to bless someone, it does not mean that we ask God to condone their wicked ways. Rather, we ask God to cause them to repent. We have faith that He is able to do this, because He has promised to fill the whole earth with His glory.

That cannot happen apart from turning everyone from their wicked ways. Wickedness will not be glorified, nor will it endure forever. Repentance precedes glory.

How to Repent

One of the major problems in the world is that people often do not know what they need to repent of doing. This is because they are largely ignorant of the law. The purpose of the law is to set the standard of righteousness according to the nature and will of God. Paul says in Romans 3:20 that “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Again, Paul says in Romans 7:7, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’.”

Here Paul singles out the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet” (Deuteronomy 5:21). Covetousness is “idolatry,” Paul says in Colossians 3:5. The Tenth Commandment is like a summary and a conclusion to all the Commandments, because every sin is a form of idolatry.

In fact, if one breaks any of the commandments, he breaks all of them (James 2:10), and John defines sin as "lawlessness" (1 John 3:4) or "transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4 KJV).

Long ago, the church as a whole rejected the law of God, because they thought it was replaced by grace, faith, or love. They did not understand the law, nor did they see that grace was in the law of Jubilee. They did not realize that faith itself is a law (Romans 3:27). They did not comprehend that there is no way to fulfill (be obedient) to the law apart from love (Romans 13:10). That is because one cannot love God while giving preference to an idol. One cannot love his neighbor while stealing from him or bearing false witness against him.

The summary of the law is in loving God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). This is the command in God’s law (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). Those who put away the law are left with half a Bible and understand only half of the word of God. Any time we reject any portion of the word of God, we become blind in that area. Blindness is a judgment from God, which really traces back to Adam himself.

Blindness, then, is a symptom of lawlessness (anomia), which is a generational disease often passed down from long-distant forefathers. Israel’s blindness was seen by Moses (Deuteronomy 29:4) and later by Isaiah (Isaiah 6:10). This blindness was to remain “until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate” (Isaiah 6:11).

This is the condition in which we find ourselves today, for we, as a nation, are no different from Israel in ancient times. We suffer from the same blindness. The church today is as guilty as Israel in the days of Isaiah, putting away the law and replacing it with the traditions of men (Matthew 15:8, 9).

Jesus condemned lawlessness (anomia) in Matthew 7:22, 23. Paul condemned lawlessness (anomia) in Romans 6:19. We are to follow the example of Jesus Christ, not the example of the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

America’s National Sin

America had a remarkable beginning, which established liberty through the revelation of Scripture. Nonetheless, the nation failed to apply this liberty to all in an impartial manner, as the law commanded (Leviticus 19:34; Numbers 15:15, 16; Deuteronomy 10:19), but instead retained the institution of slavery. The government broke most of their treaties with the Native Americans as well, which was contrary to the law. On one occasion, Israel suffered three years of famine because Saul had broken the treaty that the Gibeonites had made with Joshua (2 Samuel 21:1).

America must repent of its partiality in the courts.

America also invented the modern prison system—something that is a complete violation of biblical law. Those guilty of sin against their neighbors were to pay restitution, and if they did not have the means to do so, they were to work to pay their debt to sin. But instead, America imprisons them in a penitentiary, supposedly to isolate them so that they can ponder their sins and become penitent. Some are put into a reformatory, as if to reform them. Such warehouses largely failed to make anyone penitent or to reform anyone, and in the end, the victims of crime seldom received compensation for their losses.

America must repent of its prison system.

The Constitution in 1789 gave congress the right to create money for the economy and the financial system without having to borrow money at interest. However, they failed to outlaw usury itself (Deuteronomy 23:19). God allowed Israel to charge interest to a foreigner (Deuteronomy 23:20), but not if that foreigner was living in Israel and subject to the laws of God (Leviticus 25:35, 36, 37). Equal rights were guaranteed for all who lived in Israel.

America must repent of its partiality in judgment and its inequality of justice.

On December 23, 1913, America passed the Federal Reserve Act, which put the nation into financial bondage on account of its allowing the sin of usury in the land. Twenty years later America was bankrupted, and the banks (creditors) foreclosed on the government, its institutions, and its citizens. The new government was named in Scripture Mystery Babylon.

America must repent of its sin of allowing usury to be practiced in the land.

In 1933, when the banks foreclosed on the American government, turning the Christian Republic into a Socialist Democracy, our new masters immediately began working to dethrone God and to create a secular nation. Our new rulers did not want anyone to think that they were accountable to a higher Power. Men then became our national idols, having replaced God Himself as King.

America must repent of its violation of the First Commandment.

America’s tax system now demands far more than the ten percent tithe that God commanded in Scripture. They justify their policies by claiming to use the money to help the poor—by stealing from the “rich” and giving to the poor. Such is the basis of Socialism, not God’s government.

America must repent of its theft.

America has legalized fornication and seldom even prosecutes adultery. It uses the right of free speech to include pornography, while restricting the right of Christians to speak the truth that might “insult” sinners. The Babylonian rulers have turned the hearts of the people to a debauched culture, knowing that God will not deliver the people in such a state of sin. By this, the rulers of Babylon hope to rule the earth forever. (They will fail, of course, because God will fulfill His vows to turn the hearts of the people.)

America must repent of its violation of the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” and the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”

America has legalized the murder of the unborn. More recently, New York has legalized the murder of children even after they are born.

America must repent of its murder.

America has many idols. Perhaps the most basic sin is idolatry, which is not only a violation of the Tenth Commandment, but also of the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” We tend to put people and things before God. We worship sports stars, actors and actresses, political leaders, billionaires, and religious leaders.

America must repent of idolizing men/women, for they are fallible and corruptible. They cannot heal the sick, raise the dead, or change the heart. They are as weak and helpless as idols of stone. America worships man instead of God. This includes worshiping one’s self—that is, the flesh, the “old man.”

We all must repent of seeking our own will instead of seeking the will of God.

We are no different from the people in the days of Samuel, for they desired a man to reign over them instead of rejoicing that God ruled the nation directly.

We must recognize Jesus as our King, to whom all the governments of the world must bow (Philippians 2:9, 10, 11). Our Declaration of Independence established this by proclaiming that “Nature’s God” was the Source of all rights and that governments were instituted to be the enforcer of God-given rights. Perhaps we ought to repent (on behalf of our founders) of not stating this with greater clarity, so that future generations no longer misunderstand God’s inherent right to be worshiped and obeyed.

America must repent of rejecting Jesus Christ as our King, Lawgiver, Healer, and Defender.

What more can I say? There are many more examples we could give. If America were to repent of even one of these sins, it would show a change of heart and mind that would soon spill over into every other area of sin.

Model Prayer of Repentance

Heavenly Father, I bow my knees to you and declare that You alone are the Creator and Ruler of the Universe and the King of the Nations. My “old man” of flesh bows to you and submits to the leading of my spirit, which in turn is filled with the Holy Spirit. I declare my absolute allegiance to You alone.

I give up all idols in my heart and declare that their authority in my life is null and void.

I declare my faith in You, knowing without doubt that You are able to fulfill Your original intent in creating the heavens and the earth. I believe Your promises will be kept, and that You will succeed fully in restoring all things to Yourself. I believe Your glory will cover the earth and that You will indeed rule all nations by Your power, wisdom, and love.

Heavenly Father, I appeal to Your promise to shake the heavens and the earth, so that only those things which conform to Your will and Your Kingdom will remain standing. Come now as Fire and consume all flesh, so that the heavens and the earth may be purified and that our minds may be renewed in conformity to the mind of Christ.

When you shake the earth, let me be part of the gleanings company which cannot be shaken but which are devoted to You in order to feed the hungry.

Protect Your people, those who seek Your face, and be merciful to them. Let Your glory-fire be seen upon them, that they may be a beacon of light in the darkness that draws all men to Your presence. Be merciful to all who come to that light and forgive their sin. Fill me with Your glory, that I too may be a light in darkness and a witness in the earth of Your presence.

Heavenly Father, I ask that You would remove the curse of blindness that has hindered the people and the prophets from hearing Your word. Let the scales fall from their eyes, so that all may have a clear revelation of Your nature, Your law, Your plan, Your promises, and Your intention for that which You have created.

Thank-you, heavenly Father, for Your great love and for hearing this prayer of repentance, for I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.