Message From The Pastor

New Jerusalem or Babylon

The LORD appeared to him at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. ~ 2 Chronicles 7:12-14 (BSB)

I have an interesting memory from my high school days. My junior history teacher, who was an evangelical Christian, proposed to the class that America was the New Jerusalem mentioned in Scripture. His main point was that the middle three letters of Jerusalem were…wait or it….USA! Even then this seemed ridiculous. My thought was why is the English language being used to propose such a controversial position. I continued on this to think “why isn’t Greek or Hebrew being used instead”. If this was the case, it wouldn’t spell “USA”. I use this humorous example of faulty biblical interpretation to point out that the end time prophesies mentioned in Scripture are not based upon America being the center of action, but it is the nation of Israel that is at the center of them. We live at a time in which Israel is in the news every day. There is so much going on that people are starting to look at the book of Revelation in light of what is going on. I want to use this opportunity to point out some important truths.

The first truth is that Jesus is going to return and that there is going to be an end to this age that we live in. Too many Christians have gotten complacent about our mission to make disciples. We must return to our calling. There is no guarantee that America will even be around when Christ returns. The evil that America indulges in on a daily basis is more equivalent to the prophesies about Babylon than the New Jerusalem. The common link between God wiping out a nation or not has always been that those who know better, in our case the Christians that live here, are also participating in the evil of the nation. God will spare a nation if there is a solid remnant of His people who are being faithful to Him.

The second truth that I want to emphasize is that we are the key to revival. Look at the passage mentioned above. It states that God says, “if my people, who are called by my name…” do these things: humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then He will forgive us our sin and heal our land. We really are the key. Too many are pointing the finger at the pagans in our culture as the reason for God’s judgment coming. It is our participation that is going to bring the judgment. The non-Christian really can’t change the destiny of our country, but we can.

Now is the time to humble ourselves and ask God if there is anything that we can repent of. We must also get back on mission. Please seek God on what your mission is. There are so many who would come to Christ if only a real Christian would invest in them. A final thought on all of this is that we must eagerly await the Revelation events. We must not be terrified of them. I Corinthians 1:7-9 says “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” (BSB)

In Christ,  Pastor Ken

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May 2024 Newsletter