THE DEATH OF EVANGELISM

I believe that people will be coming to Christ as their Savior right up to the day of the rapture of the church. However, I know for a fact that evangelism is slowing down around the world. Many missionaries and church leaders have been telling me this for some time now. This would make sense if indeed we are moving into the period Paul describes as the apostasy. But at the same time, I do not know God's plans and purposes, so I am giving an opinion based on a lot of areas of observation.

   Church history tells us that evangelism and revivals have come about in the past in almost every case based on some knowledge (even limited) of the Word of God in the society and culture. This is certainly true in American revivals. So if the Scriptures are removed from the culture and the social fabric, then more than likely fewer and fewer will be coming to Christ. Many argue, "But God can do anything!" And this I agree with whole heartedly but the issue is, how has He worked in the past? It is through the work of the Holy Spirit with the Bible. This does not mean that we stop sharing the gospel. We do not! We need to go down proclaiming the grace of God to the very end.

   It is interesting to study the great revivals of the past in America. The one that lasted for the shortest period was the one especially based on emotion and expression—yelling, screaming, hands in the air, etc. Sound familiar?
   Here is a short review of such revivals in American history:

1. THE GREAT AWAKENING. This took place roughly between 1720-1744. No one element brought it about. It was America's share in the general reaction against the relatively dead, formal orthodoxy of state churches, which in Germany appeared as the Pietistic movement. Wesley and Whitefield (the great English Calvinist) brought its spirit to Georgia. Jonathan Edwards was responsible for its beginning in New England. Before this, revival was taking place in New Jersey in the Dutch Reform congregations. The Dutch pastor, Frelinghuysen, insisted on true conversion and renewal of the heart, not simply a formal or emotional reaction without any true evidence of the Spirit's work.

2. THE EMOTIONAL REVIVAL or THE GREAT REVIVAL. This began around 1799 to 1801. It began among the Methodists and spread throughout the southern states. The revivals that took place were generally held in the rural areas. There was a lot of emotionalism with jerking, falling on the ground, and screaming. This is reminiscent of the shallow emotionalism that we see today in some circles. "Such emotional surgings, however, could not last. They quickly subsided." A lot of extremes took place. Camp meetings with prayer would often last all day. The GREAT REVIVAL brought on the Shaker Movement in which the extreme of emotionalism was exhibited. This movement, often called the SECOND AWAKENING, divided many churches. The climax came about in Kentucky near Cane Ridge where twenty-five thousand gathered in 1801.

3. THE PRAYER-MEETING REVIVAL of 1857-1858. Started in the North Dutch Church of New York, businessmen began to meeting daily at noon for prayer meetings. This was spurred on by the financial panic that fell upon the business community of the city and the country at that time. This was a lay movement with thousands coming to Christ and sharing their faith among their contemporaries. The result was that it promoted the growth of church attendance and brought about a lot of interdenominational fellowship. It was described as "a providential preparation for the Civil War," which was soon to make tremendous demands upon the spiritual resources of the nation.

4. THE CIVIL WAR REVIVALS of 1861-1865. There is no telling how many soldiers, in the north and in the south, came to Christ during that war. The soldiers had left home and were facing death on the battle field or in a hospital from the diseases that killed so many of them. As youngsters, they had learned the Bible on the knees of their parents back home. And now, it was time to reach up to the Lord and accept Him as their personal Savior! Pastors and evangelists went from camp to camp bringing the gospel to those who were so spiritually hungry.

5. THE CHILDRENS' SUNDAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT of 1868-1874. Especially in the eastern cities, thousands of Sunday schools were organized in the churches with the result that thousands of youngsters were taught the Scriptures on Sunday mornings. This also brought on church revivals with thousands filling such churches as the Brooklyn Tabernacle. While this may not be classified as a revival movement, Sunday schools became the center piece of conversion and revival for decades to come. While it is certainly better for children to learn the Word of God from their parents in the home setting, there is no doubt as to the great blessing Sunday schools have been in the past. Many Sunday schools today are poorly organized and teach ineffective scriptural lessons, and this is unfortunate for the body of Christ!

   As with most of America, early in our history, there were no public schools organized for children. The colony of Massachusetts set forth laws in 1642 and 1647 to establish village schools. This was repeated in Connecticut in 1650. The purpose was stated: "That the children were to be taught, especially to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of this country." And also the people were reminded: "It being one chief project of the old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures."
   It was written in 1645 that the schoolmaster was "to commend his scholars and his labors among them unto God by prayer morning and evening, taking care that his scholars do reverently attend during the same." As well, each Monday he was to examine them as to what they had learned from the Sabbath sermon "in the principles of the Christian religion." The students were to learn to read "in order to be able to duly read the Scriptures."

   Everyone agreed on the basics of what could be taught from the Bible in the village school. The teachers could teach anything scriptural but they could not teach sectarianism, that is, particular doctrines that would be denominational in nature. But it was after the Civil War that the nation became more secular. Many school systems cut out any teaching of the Word of God in the classrooms. No matter what was being taught, most towns required that the new teacher be a Christian and that she or he attend church each week.

   However I can remember being in school in the 1950s when the Bible was read each morning over the PA system along with a closing prayer. Gideon Bibles were passed out to all in my grade school class. We always had assembles in school for Thanksgiving, Christian, and Easter. These were spiritual in nature. I am convinced that many of my classmates were touched spiritually and even came to Christ because of that. In my high school graduating class, over 75 percent of my classmates took Bible courses for credit. Can you imagine that happening today!

   To show how bad it has become we have school teacher friends who say that kids will come up to them and ask, "Now just what is this Christmas thing all about?" The biblical and spiritual ignorance is part of the growing apostasy destroying America and the west! In fact, I would say that it is all over. And, we are coming up to one of the most drastic change in American history. The churches will be both blessed and tried! – Dr. Mal Couch

WE ARE ALMOST THERE!

I need to be very careful in what I write in these next few paragraphs. It is very possible that things are about to collapse far more quickly than we could have imagined. I have spent two hours talking on the phone with several economists who say that there is no way to recover from what is now taking place worldwide!

A latest report from China points to the fact that there is a concerted effort to put all the blame on America who they claim, has plundered the world economically with the dollar. There is a call for an Asia-Europe two day meeting to find a new base for world economics that will cut America out of the picture. One Chinese economist says:

How can Europe and Asia grasp each other's hands and together confront the once-in-a-century global financial crises sparked by the U.S.; how can they construct a new equitable and safe international financial order [that will cut America out of the picture]?

He went on and said: "The grim reality has led people, amidst the panic, to realize that the United States has used the U.S. dollar's hegemony to plunder the world's wealth."

Christians, it is time to wake up and prepare for a judgment against us as a people! How foolish for Christians to say, "Oh God, bail us out of our immorality and sins!" Turn your TV on and see what is happening with the younger American generation and crowd! For so many, there is no holding them back from doing just what they want to do! A judgment from the Lord is about to fall upon us, and even upon the entire world.

Deuteronomy 29:18-20 which is about the sins of Israel, reminds me of the rebellion presently in this country against the Lord. God said that all the Jewish people had turned their heart away "today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of the other nations" (v. 18). Then those who hear the words of God's curse will boast, saying, "I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart [with the result] to turn the watered blessed land into a dry place" (v. 19). Then

The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. (v. 20)

America could be on the way out! Economic and military clashes could be on the horizon! A depression, with millions out of work, could fall upon us sooner than we can imagine!

A serious question: Do you have at least six months of food stored up? I urge you to do just that! I am not being radical just book-of-Proverbs sensible! – Dr. Mal Couch

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

I've recently been asked, is justification equal to becoming saved? The answer is yes, though many other things also take place when one is saved. To be made just or righteous, is first mentioned in the OT though there are a lot of details that are not explained. In other words, the OT saints were declared justified. This is done by the work of Christ on the cross, applied back to the believers of dispensations past. This does not mean that they are placed into the church, into the spiritual body of Christ, or that they are now seen "in Jesus," or "in Christ." But this "declaration of righteousness" is how both the OT saints and the NT saints are saved!     Justification comes from the Hebrew word tzad'deek and a family of related words. The root idea is to make something right, straight. The word is used dozens of times in the OT. One of the key passages is Daniel 8:14 with the Niphal verb form. "Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed, made or declared righteous or vindicated from wrong." Also, God is said "to be our righteousness" (Jer. 31:16; Dan. 9:14).     One of the most significant verses is Isaiah 53:11, using the Hiphil verb form: "My righteous Servant (the Messiah) shall make righteous, justify the many." The Hiphil is a passive form. The many shall receive justification from God's Servant, the Messiah! The action of justification will come upon them! Concerning OT saints, Romans 3:25b is extremely important. It reads: Christ as a propitiation "was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed." Kroll rightly points out: "The righteousness of God is declared by atoning for present and future sins as well as past sins. Therefore God is the justifier of any man or woman—past, present, or future—who places his or her faith in the blood of Jesus Christ." A. T. Robertson concurs: "The sins before the coming of Christ (Acts 14:16; 17:30; Heb. 9:15)."     Abraham became the key OT example of one who became justified by his simple faith in what God had told him. The Lord told him he would have an heir from his own body (Gen. 15:4). He then told him to count the stars, "So shall your descendants be" (v. 5). "Then [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness" (v. 6). This verse is quoted several places by Paul, and by James also. It became the standard illustration of justification (being declared righteous) by faith and trust. The Scofield notes say:   If man is to be just in God's sight, God must reckon His own righteousness to man's account through man's trust in Him. The quotation of this passage in Rom. 4:3 indicates that the method of salvation in the OT and NT is the same. Galatians 3:3, 6 affirms the Christian life is one of faith.     The word reckoned means to account or put to the credit of. Paul writes this idea in many places. Another great verse is: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:23-24).     This justification is the greatest gift made available to the human race. One by faith is declared as righteous as Christ, in fact, those who trust Him, have this acquittal applied to them in a positional way. That is, if I die tonight, I go into the very presence of the Lord, completely justified and seen as righteous in His sight. This may be said to be the greatest expression of His love for sinful mankind. There is no other way of entering into His presence except by having His perfection, His holiness, and righteousness applied to me. Eternal life is the result of this justification.     Every child of God needs to daily give Him thanks for this wonderful gift of salvation! – Dr. Mal Couch

CHRIST IS THE NEW COVENANT

There are a lot of great truths in the OT about the Lord Jesus that are missed in our Bible study. For example, the great Messianic chapter, Isaiah 42 tells, us that Christ will be both a covenant for the nation of Israel, and a light to the nations (v. 6). This ties in with Jeremiah 31 where it is said that God "will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (v. 31). It will be in contrast with the Mosaic covenant (the Law) (v. 32). This new covenant has a spiritual connotation for the Jewish people. It brings "forgiveness of their iniquities," and because of it, God says "I will remember no more their sin" (v. 34b). This new covenant is first for the house of Israel and house of Judah. One cannot allegorize this and say this refers to the church, which the amills foolishly do!

   The Lord Jesus ratifies the new covenant by His blood. "This cup is poured out for you [and] is the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:20). The new covenant then was launched at Pentecost. This was prophesied in Joel 2. But it is important to note that the Bible does not say that it is fulfilled in the church. The church indeed benefits by the new covenant, with forgiveness of sin and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but it will only be fulfilled with the Jews in the future Davidic and millennial kingdom.

   As Isaiah 42, chapter 49 is also a Messianic passage. In this chapter it is clear that the Messiah "was called by the Lord from the womb; [and the Messiah says] from the body of My mother He named Me" (v. 1). In verse 8 the Lord is speaking to His Messiah and says: "I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, to restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages." Thus it is by the new covenant also that the Holy Land will be restored to the Jewish people. This has to do with the actual land, the dirt, the acreage of the Holy Land! THE RESTORED LAND, THE INHERITANCE, THE DESOLATE HERITAGES. You cannot allegorize this idea!

   How in the world can the allegorical guys, the amillennialists, foul up this passage and spiritualize it? But that is exactly what they do! The amil guy Ellicott destroys the passage when he writes on verse 8: "The prophet Isaiah may have thought of a literal fulfillment such as was probably in part accomplished by Zerubbabel, but we now see the prediction in the light of its fulfillment [in the church], and look to the spiritual inheritance." Talking about being blinded! So the literalness of the land no longer has any meaning?  --Dr. Mal Couch

THE COMING DARK AGES

Can you guess what is the fastest growing "religious" movement in America? You probably can't! It is atheism! People becoming atheists are increasing in number at an alarming rate. This is because this nation cut the ties with Christianity at least five decades ago. We removed any vestige of the Bible and Christianity from the public schools and from the public arena. We have millions now in this country who have no idea of what the Word of God is all about. By the way, the fastest growing cultural/religious group is Muslims.

   Dispensationalists are correct. We understand Paul's words that in the end times there will come about a religious apostasy. I believe we are galloping into that prophesied period. Also, coming along with it is a kind of explosion of worldly, cultural and social apostasy, a turning to an immorality like never before. Paul prophesied this in 2 Timothy 3:1-9. He is writing about the end times, the growing evil that is overtaking the world. The world has always been depraved but the apostle sees the expression of evil growing worse and worse. He says this specifically in 3:13: "But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Does not 3:1-5 indicate an exploding form of immorality in "the last days when the difficult times ("the hard to bear times") arrive"? Read the list of evil happenings Paul lists in these verses. We are moving into this depraved period. All of this evil is an expression of a depraved ideology; it does not have to be learned by man. It is what is coming out of the evil soul. But the Reformation and the proclamation of the Bible in the culture of the past several hundred years, is now gone. And now what is left is the interaction of the human race by communication that is accelerating the practice of sin, as never before.

   The covenant guys have nothing to say about what is happening culturally. They have no true understanding of what Paul is talking about. And, they deny an apostasy, the rapture, a tribulation, and a literally coming kingdom.

    Though Proverbs 28:4-5 is written concerning the Mosaic Law, the point is well applied to our day. "Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand all things."

   Godly and righteous people see what is coming upon the earth. They understand there is no turning back. The evil have no point of orientation or ability to know what is coming in our world! –Mal Couch

FRIGHTENING SURVEY!

  The Institute for Jewish and Community Research recently did a study of 25 public school history and geography textbooks as reported in The International Jerusalem Post (Oct. 10, 2008). They found some 500 glaring errors concerning Christianity, Israel, and the Middle East. Researcher Dr. Gary Tobin said that the textbooks cited are used in all 50 states by Millions of school children.

 

  The inaccuracies and lies are too numerous to number in this article, except to say, that the information leans towards Islam and slams Christianity and Judaism. Millions of kids then will be brainwashed and have no correct knowledge about God's people and what is happening in the Middle East.

The material is being published by some of the largest publishing companies in the world. One grosses 8 billion dollars in sales, and another, about 2.5 billion.

There is no turning back! We are getting closer and closer and our children are being lied to as to world history. What is interesting is that these textbooks have to pass muster with the two biggest states, California and Texas. These books were approved without any objection!

 

  We are indeed into the apostasy!

  Dr. Mal Couch

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING?

  My answer again is, we're moving into the apostasy! Strange things are taking place though we have been warned in Scripture that the last days are coming!

Just a few days ago, Jesse Jackson made a public statement that the Jews will lose power when Obama is elected. It was clearly an anti-Semitic proclamation. This is telling us where his heart is, and, he will have a lot of influence on thousands of others who follow his pronouncements!

 

  Also, Barack Obama, when asked about taxing those who made $250,000 or more, said that he wants "to spread the wealth around." This is a standard socialistic and Marxist doctrinal philosophy and statement!

 

  The frightening thing is that those who will vote for him have no discernment as to what this is all about. Andy Woods and I will probably be doing a series of CDs that discuss what the world will be like after the elections! Look for them when they are completed. –Dr. Mal Couch

PRE-WRATH INVASION OF ISRAEL?

Psalm 83 is a most interesting chapter in the OT. It is about an invasion of Israel that has no citing in the Middle East history of the OT. The psalmist Asaph asks God to no longer remain silent and "not to be still" (v. 1). The Lord's enemies hate Him and "have exalted themselves. They make shrewed plans against His people," the Jews (vv. 2-3). His people are called "the treasured ones" (v. 3b). The enemy, the peoples surrounding the Holy Land say "Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more" (v. 4). With one mind they conspire against Israel, and "against Thee do they make a covenant" (v. 5).

Note again, this has never happened in history past. And it happens when Israel is one people, one nation, and who are back in the land! Assyria is mentioned last, because they simply assist the smaller nations that circle Israel and who invade. Today, Assyria would be Iraq and even maybe Iran, the territory of ancient Assyria.

On these nations God's wrath falls with a tempest. Note that the passage does not mention large Jewish divisions fighting these invading forces. Something spectacular happens that destroys them. God pulverizes them, "makes them like the whirling dust; like chaff before the wind. Like fire that burns the forest, and like a flame that sets the mountains on fire" (vv. 13-14).

The Lord "pursues them with His tempest, and terrifies them with His storm" (v. 15). When their destruction takes place, the enemy will recognize that God is absolutely sovereign, and they "will know that God alone, whose name is the Lord, is the Most High over all the earth" (v. 18).

This chapter does not seem to fit with the seven-year tribulation but with some period before. Unger writes:

It is difficult to fit this confederacy into the prophetic picture of either Russia's future invasion (Ezek. 38-39), but probably before the Tribulation, or that of Antichrist and his invading hordes at Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation (Rev. 16:13-16). Probably its fulfillment will come in some pan-Arabic coalition and attack on the Israeli State before the church is taken out, or at least before Daniel's seventieth week begins.

—Dr. Mal Couch

AMERICA IS DYING!

I recently received an email by a good brother that said "All we have to do is pray for our nation, and God will spare us! He is just waiting for us all to pray together." It closed with "We must invite God to the fray!"

The brother who sent this means well but he needs to look also at the fact that God is the Author of history—He brings blessing and judgment. The question I want to ask is: "Why should God be good to America?" In at least the last four decades this country has spat in His face, denied His grace, and turned to abominable and evil secular humanism. Sinful psychology has ruined our court system, our schools, and our homes. Abortion, homosexuality, drugs, feminism, and other sins are ruining our society. Certain foreign cultures have infiltrated, have destroyed our laws, imported ways that are foreign to the founding principles that were at one time biblically based.

Why do we believe that "God only must be good to us"? Or argue, "God can only do good for America!" With all due respect my friend does not believe in the sovereignty of God and the fact that He has not counseled with us as to what He must do with this once great nation! To say "We must invite God to the fray" implies that He is upstairs with His arms folded, and that He is impotent in handling His own history! He is not! It also implies that He is helpless and that He must wait on us before He can act!

Do we not believe that collectively as a nation we deserve His judgment? Why do we think He can only be gracious? Someone has well said this little ditty:

"God has a line in the sand before us unseen, that line crosses every path, but there is also a hidden boundary that lies between God's patience and His wrath!"

Are we so ignorant of the Word of God that we fail to remember that He can send to us evil for our sins by His angels? He did just this with Israel when they were in the wilderness. And upon Egypt, He sent the hailstones and bolts of lightning to kill their cattle (Psa. 78:48). "He sent upon them His burning anger, fury, and indignation, and trouble [by] a band of destroying angels" (v. 49). And, "He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, but gave over their life to the plague" (v. 50). Why do we think He cannot act this way again with a sinful nation. God is the Author of all of history. All wars, all plagues, and storms, come from His hand as a judgment upon evil men. And unfortunately, the righteous of that nation will also suffer, being part of that culture.

The case of the prophet Jeremiah is apropos for America today. The people of Israel were living out their full-blown evil ways. They challenged Jeremiah and mocked him when he said "It is hopeless!" (2:25a). Then they answered: "No [it is not]! For [we] have loved the aliens, the strangers, and after them [we] will walk" (v. 25b).

In their sin, the Jews thought they were free to do as they pleased. God asked: "Why do My people say, 'We are free to roam; we will come no more to Thee'" (v. 31). They then denied their sinful ways. They did not think God would be angry with them. Jeremiah speaks of them and says: "You have said, 'I am innocent; surely His anger is turned away from me'" (v. 35a). God replied, "Behold, I will enter into judgment with you because you say, 'I have not sinned'" (v. 35b).

Just as with America today, the people of Israel in their sin still thought of themselves as being wise. And they argued that they still followed the law of God. Jeremiah asks: "How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us'? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made [what they write] into a lie. The wise are put to shame, they are dismayed and caught [in their lies]; behold, they have rejected the Word of the Lord" (8:8-9).

America's shepherds, the nation's pastors and politicians, have become dumb! Jeremiah writes about Israel's leaders: "For the shepherds have become stupid and have not sought the Lord; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered" (10:21). And as with America, the people of Israel no longer wanted to hear from the Lord. They threatened Jeremiah and said: "Do not prophecy in the name of the Lord, that you might not die at our hand" (11:21). In other words, they promised to kill him if He mentioned God's name and prophesied what He said about the nation's evil ways.

Of Israel, God said:

Why then has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in continual APOSTASY? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return. I have listened and heard, they have spoken what is not right; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turned to his course, like a horse charging [wildly] into the battle. (8:5-6)

The word APOSTASY is the Hebrew word meshoovoh that means to be faithless, to defect, to commit apostasy. This describes America today. We are a nation that has departed, moved away from the truth, and spat in God's face!

The wayward Jewish people did not believe they could be judged for their sins. Jeremiah accuses them of "lying about the Lord" (5:12a). They said, "Not He; misfortune will not come on us [from Him]; and we will not see sword or famine. And the prophets are just as the wind, and the word is not in them" (5:12b-13).

American believers should always be praying for this nation, but interestingly, Jeremiah was told to stop praying for Israel. It was time for judgment and not blessing. God told the prophet: "As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?" (7:16-17). God continues: The fathers are burning fires to the gods "and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out libations to other gods in order to spite Me" (v. 18). The Lord adds: "I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster [coming upon them]" (11:14). "Do not pray for the welfare of this people" (14:11).

Finally, God says: "When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence" (14:12).

The people will someday ask, why has God forsaken us? Jeremiah is to answer: "It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me, … and followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but they have forsaken Me and have not kept My law. You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers … walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not know …" (16:10-13).

On this passage the Jewish Rabbis write: "Instead of being warned and deterred by the evil of former generations, the people have wandered still farther along the path of APOSTASY. Their guilt is therefore greater and the penalty more severe."

Believers in the Lord, be prepared! Our greatest moment of witness may be just before us, as this nation faces a wrath from God never before conceived! –Dr. Mal Couch

AMERICA: THE POTTER AND THE CLAY

   Without repentance, America will face a terrible judgment. And presently, there is no sign of any sorrow and confession of sin. In fact, though people are fearful of the loss of the material, there is no contrition before God for the sin that is compounding and growing even greater by the day.

   Just yesterday the State of Connecticut determined to be the third State to approve same-sex marriages! This is spitting in God's face, turning against Him as the Creator of man and woman! Secular humanism rules in America and no longer the Word of God.   

   Jeremiah 18 makes it clear that God is the Potter and a nation or a kingdom of this world is the clay (v. 7). He told the Jewish people that, "like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel" (v. 6). With a country, God can at any moment uproot, or pull it down, or destroy it (v. 7). If that nation does evil and not obey His voice "then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it" (v. 10).

   Jeremiah was instructed to speak to the men of Judah and Jerusalem saying: "Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you" (v. 11b). The people were rebelling against the Lord and saying to Him, "It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart" (v. 12).

   God responds with these words of judgment: My people have forgotten Me. They have stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths, to make their land a desolation, an object of perpetual hissing. They answered back: "Let us give no heed to any of Jeremiah's words" (v. 18).

   The Jewish Rabbis rightly conclude:

God disposes absolutely of the destinies of Israel and every other nation, in the same way that the potter does whatever he pleases with the clay. This is true notwithstanding previous predictions of blessings or disaster, because such are always conditional: the blessings will be forfeited if the people become unworthy of them, while the disaster may be averted if the people repent in time.

   On the eve of the Day of Atonement the Jews read this liturgical poem:

Lo! As the potter moulds the soft clay to display, to form his varying fancy; So in Thy hand, O God of love, are we: Thy bond we must regard, please let our sin be veiled, be covered from Thee!

—Dr. Mal Couch  

Foreign Language

While many languages may be spoken in a nation, there must be one that is dominant and preeminent in the affairs of that country. In America, English is the national language. All business and commerce must be carried out in English or there will be confusion. In many of our States illegal foreigners are pushing for more than one language to be accepted as the official language. Some of the small towns around Dallas, Texas are being swamped with illegals (one out of five) who are political activists and who are pushing for Spanish to be accepted as a second official language. This would cause these cities hundreds of thousands of dollars to have official city documents and signs translated. It would also mean that many official business meetings and court cases must have Spanish used also. Businesses of any size would have to have people employed who speak Spanish. The hospitals and schools would be required to do business in Spanish. But never mind, they are pushing to have it their way!

There is a saying, whoever controls the language controls the culture. And America cannot exist with two "official" languages. English must be the prime language. The Jewish Rabbi ben Yehuda knew this at the turn of the last century. He realized that the immigrants arriving in the Holy Land were coming from many cultures, speaking different languages. He spent the rest of his life turning ancient biblical Hebrew into modern Hebrew, which in time, became the official language of the land. This was a miracle from the Lord—the Jews returning to their Promised Land, were required to learn the language of their ancient forefathers.

When the Jews had returned from Babylon, language became an important issue. God instructed Nehemiah to make the returning Jews speak only Hebrew. Many had married pagan wives—those from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Their children were speaking Ashdod-ian and "none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people" from whence he came (Neh. 13:24). Unger says the language of Ashdod was probably a mixture of Philistine and Aramaic languages.

Nehemiah got furious! He said "So I cursed with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, 'You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves'" (v. 25). The issue of the language spoken played a role in how they were gravitating to pagan young men and women, with the result that intermarriage was taking place. Nehemiah then reminded them of the wives of Solomon who caused him to sin. By intermarrying, the "foreign women caused even him to sin" (v. 26). The language played a key role in the problem. It brought about isolation and a splitting of the people with language and communication barriers.

As Americans we are virtually cursing our European and Anglo heritage. Our culture was greatly imprinted by the Reformation and Protestant heritage. This impacted our laws, our spiritual heritage, our thrift and economic practices. We are not Latin (as in Spanish) in our way of culturally thinking and living!

We are into the apostasy, and we are forfeiting our rich Anglo-Germanic heritage! America as we know it, is disintegrating! –Dr. Mal Couch