Sunday, April 2, 2017

Part 2 of Another Warning From God About America

Another Warning to America From God (part 2)
by Pastor Paul J. Bern



Last week when I finished my message, I left off at verse 6 of Isaiah chapter 24, fully intending that my message as I perceived it from the Lord was over and done with. But, as I wrote in last week's message, I felt the prompting of the Lord as I put forth His message, which I take no credit for. I give Jesus all the credit instead. But I am adding a second part to last week's commentary because some additional warning is needed with respect to the United States. Frankly, not enough people are paying attention to what God is trying to say to us all, and those who do pay attention don't always take these warnings as seriously as they should! I know, I know, there are a few out there who think I'm crazy, stupid, or both. Lord knows I've been called all kinds of things in the six years that this website and my blog have been on the Web. But I don't care so long as I have the opportunity to preach and teach about the man in the Glory, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior! Plus, I discharge my duties as such with a distinctly leftist interpretation, which is more in line with the teachings of Christ as well as the acts of the early Church than the contemporary conservative slant on Christendom. As a colleague of mine likes to put it, it's the same old gospel using new methods of evangelism and new ways of teaching, but it's all still the same Jesus.


As we left off last week, the prophet Isaiah had prophesied that the earth would be burned up, and that very few will escape. So this week allow me to further expound on the prophet's pronouncements over the fate of our civilization, as well as for that of the US. “The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, and the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth. The city is left in ruins; its gate is battered to pieces. So it will be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.” (Isaiah 24, verses 7-13)


I can sum this up in 3 little words: The party's over! Whole vats of new wine will evaporate because there is no one to drink it. The vines on which the grapes grow will wither because there is no one to tend to them. “The merrymakers groan” because the party is over and they nothing left but mean hangovers. “The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, and the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers.” This country, and particularly its highly vaunted capitalist economy, is about to be decimated! Please so not misinterpret my meaning here – I mean no offense, nor do I wish to appear unpatriotic, hateful or intolerant. Moreover, I am no communist either! But all we have to do is examine the meaning of these words and we realize their direct application to modern America. The partying has stopped because of a big, ugly buzz-kill that has hit the entire world, starting with the USA. This will occur one of three ways – a nuclear war, an economic collapse, or some kind of unprecedented natural disaster that will pretty much trash the entire United States, and you can probably include at least some of Canada as well. As we read on, we find out the destruction will be even worse than that.


The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth.” This makes me wonder what it was that put such an abrupt end to all the festivities. Well, since it takes money to throw such big and lavish parties, something must have made the money run out. The only thing that could do that would be some kind of economic calamity, and a thoroughly disastrous one at that! I don't care to speculate on how that could occur, since many others already have. “The city is left in ruins; its gate is battered to pieces. So it will be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten.” What city is this? Nobody knows for sure. Some say New York, still others Washington D.C., still others say it's Jerusalem. The beating of olive trees is an ancient way of harvesting – (what else?) – olives. The olive tree is synonymous in Scripture with the greater Church. There are those who say it's a symbol for the nation of Israel, and they are correct in their assessment. But this includes those non-Jews who are “grafted in” as the apostle Paul wrote. Meaning, both Jew and Gentile will be saved together, and that by a Jewish Messiah! And now let me add just 3 more verses to complete this week's message.


The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls – never to rise again. In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.” (Isaiah 24, verses 18-21)


The floodgates of the heavens have opened? Was Isaiah writing about a torrential rain? Actually, the Bible gives us the answer back at the end of the New Testament, in Revelation chapter 8, verse 7: “The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” The “floodgates of the heavens” isn't rain, it's a meteor shower! It describes the “first trumpet” in Revelation 8 to a tee! Hail and fire literally rain down upon the earth, and it's mixed with blood, meaning there will be a lot of casualties. A third of the trees will be burned up by the widely scattered meteorites, exacerbating climate change. Moreover, there won't be any grass left, which will be a death sentence for half the insect life on the earth, and every kind of earthworm will go extinct. Not a pretty scene, to be sure. Humankind will soon suffer a disturbingly similar fate.


“.... the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.” Without a doubt, Isaiah was writing about a massive earthquake of Biblical proportions. This too can be found in Revelation, but further back in chapter 6, verses 12-14: “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sack cloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” These two prophecies were written down nearly 900 years apart, and yet they match up nearly perfectly! Here you can see a good example of how it pays off to study God's Word. You can't find these hidden nuggets of truth unless you dig for them!


Mountains and islands are thrown out of place, or leveled altogether, wrote Isaiah. This is bad news for countries like Japan, New Zealand, and Iceland, and even worse for small ones like Jamaica, the Bahamas, Diego Garcia, the Falklands, and numerous others. Small island nations, as well as entire coastal areas and the state of Florida, would be decimated. The same goes for most of Central America and Indonesia, and neither of America's coasts would be spared. “The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls – never to rise again. In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.” Much of our current civilization is going to be destroyed, although I believe there will be substantial sized pockets of survivors throughout the globe. However, I don't believe any of the survivors will be in any coastal areas.


What did Isaiah mean when he wrote, “the guilt of its rebellion”? Did he mean 'nonconformity', that those who fail to conform to the Bible and to religion will be punished or even killed? If some Christian “fundamentalists” are to be believed, yes, but I don't agree with those people about that plus a few other things that I'll overlook for now. It's talking about the United States, which brings me to my conclusion. “The rebellion” is a reference to Capitalism, which started in the US after WWII and has since spread globally. As you will recall from one of my weekly commentaries from a few weeks ago, capitalism is considered a sin against God and others (see Exodus 22: 21-27). To apply this directly to modern life, God considers the charging of interest on goods and services (excluding government) to be immoral because it amounts to exploitation of the needy and those who have suffered misfortune. This, by the way, includes mortgages, car loans, and the whole gamut of “financial services” – stocks, bonds, futures, commodities, etc. They all amount to legalized gambling!


Although the US will eventually recover from this series of natural disasters, as will the remainder of the world, the economic system will be shot to pieces and most infrastructure will be destroyed. Hundreds of millions will be dead, and there's not much I can say about that to make it sound or read any better. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the fate that awaits America if she does not change her ways. This is what will happen to the whole world if we don't repent and turn away from sin, or if we don't dedicate our lives to God and to the service of humanity, or both. But if we turn away from our errant behavior, and if America turns away from waging global war and its debt-based economic system and replaces them both with something sustainable, then God may yet relent and allow us to live in the absence of calamity and disaster. The ultimate decision is ours.

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