As I have often made clear, nations fall in line with and take on the character of their religious leadership. Several Biblical proofs of this truth are found in the Lord’s words to and about the spiritual leadership of ancient Israel, the United States of America and Great Britain throughout recorded history. In order to view the Truth of the heading of this series we must go back in history to the formation of the nation of Israel–God’s Chosen People–then move forward to the present day where we find their biological and spiritual descendants experiencing the same Godly blessings and cursings as their ancestors–blessings when they obeyed God, cursings when they did not, which gives us our first hint as to why the heading is Biblically correct. Concerning ancient Israel–the first church-state governmental entity. Initially there was strength and success as the nation’s priestly leaders walked in obedience to God’s Law. What the people saw in them, they emulated to a great extent. Then, over time, there came a gradual falling away (apostasy) from the Lord as people “cast His Word (Law) to the ground” and created their own versions of good and evil, just as did Adam and Eve before them.

Following Adam and Eve’s rejection of God’s Law and the subsequent ending of the first church (ekklesia)–congregation) in Eden, the following congregation experienced the death of all within her except her pastor–Noah, “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5) as God drowned every human being on earth except Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives. Then later, the Lord chose Abraham to father a people whom He would put forth serve as His light to the rest of the world (Gentiles–heathen). Known as the 12 Tribes of Israel (Jacob), these people had a bright beginning. They obeyed His Ten Commandment Law and became the most powerful, most blessed, most prosperous people on earth–exactly as God promised for their obedience to His Word (Law). The 12 tribes of Israel were the envy of the world. People traveled great distances to see what Israel’s God had done for them. In First Kings 10:1-4 we find the Queen of Sheba traveling from a far away country just to see the glory of Solomon and the nation he led.

Following a national separation due to a taxation issue, ten of the tribes of Israel chose to rebel against God’s Law and found themselves separated from Him (Isa. 59:2). Known as the Ten Northern Tribes that lived in Samaria, they soon changed God’s Sabbath and eventually erected two hand made calf statues as their gods. His patience worn thin, the Lord sent the heathen Assyrians to defeat them and carry off the survivors as slaves. Those ten tribes later scattered throughout the known world where the tribes settled in various areas of what would later come to be known as Europe and took on the spiritual and social characteristics of their Gentile neighbors. Having adopted their languages and having embraced their religions, they came to be known as “Gentiles,” as they are known today. Today they are known as “the lost ten tribes of Israel.” Only a minutely few people know who and where they are. It was to those Israelite people that Jesus sent His apostles with His Gospel (Mat. 10:6). Read Who and Where is Israel Today? Key word–Who. Some of us, possibly many of us, are Israelites and do not know it.

Later, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (nicknamed “Jews”) also rebelled against God. As He did to their Israelite brethren (the other 10 tribes), the lord caused them to be attacked, defeated and enslaved by the Babylonians. Seventy years later a number of them were allowed to return to the Promised Land in order to rebuild Jerusalem and the Lord’s Temple.

By reading Who and Where is Israel Today? you will find that two of the sons of Joseph became the most powerful nations on earth. Ephraem became the greatest commonwealth (community) of nations ever to exist (Great Britain). Manasseh became the greatest single nation ever to exist on earth (the United States of America). Beginning in the early 1880’s and throughout the following century those two nations were, as their ancestors had once been, the envy of the world in terms of power, success, etc. Together they controlled approximately 80% of the earth’s production. Those two nations, specifically America, was to be God’s light to the rest of the world. As had her predecessors initially, she excelled at her task. Unfortunately, she followed in her ancestors’ spiritual footsteps and fell away from the Lord. Today we are watching the United States of America, on whose currency are written “One Nation Under God” and “In God We Trust” become one with and the mirror image of the vile, wicked world she was ordained to bring to the Lord. Great Britain has also fallen from her exalted place and has gone the way of the world. The question is, WHY?

In the following posting we will take a deep, raw, pull-no-punches, sword of the Spirit look into God’s Word where God will tell us why America and the rest of the so-called “Christian world” (composed of the other “lost tribes of Israel”) have chosen to rebel against their Creator and Sustainer and to embrace Babylonian heathenism. Today they constitute an enormous, globe-encircling counterfeit church which I call the Catholic/Protestant Religious System. This religious whore (read Rev. 17:1-5 for God’s description of her) is comprised of hundreds of God-hating, Law-breaking, Scripture-rejecting, Satan-obeying counterfeit churches, denominations, assemblies, cults, etc. Those who occupy her pews are as deceived as were Adam and Eve, having listened to the voice of the same false god–Satan–the Serpent of Eden and Revelation 12:9,14,15 and 20:22 where he is called Satan and the devil.

If you do not want to hear what God says about the religious abomination called “the church” and the so-called “Christian nations” of the world in which she exists, do not read the next posting. God has told me of late to wield his “sword of the Spirit–His Word” as never before. That sword is His Word, His Law, His Gospel, His Light (Eph. 6:17). God’s Word is God Himself in written form, just as Jesus was God in Human form, which are those who obey His Word and in which He “walks”–lives and directs his TRUE APOSTLES whom He has appoints and anoints to do His end-time work. They who hunger and thirst for righteousness and knowledge of His Truth will read, study, believe, embrace and obey God’s divine Word. So-called “Sinners Saved By Grace” must realize that they are worshiping and serving Satan. Read Revelation 3:14-20 and see what God says to the end-time (Laodicean) church of today. Then Read Second Corinthians 6:14-7:1 where the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, tells them what to do if they are part of the Serpent’s counterfeit church. As Moses told the Israelites: “Choose you this day whom you will serve,” either God or Satan. It is time for the true believer to go all-out, to sanctify (set aside) himself unto the Biblical God. L.J.