The famous philosopher Aristotle once wrote: “Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.” Those two characteristics are also the final manifestations of a dying church. And since the church sets the moral tone for the nation, both statements are true. During the first two hundred or so years America was the globally recognized example for the world-wide church and her host nations to emulate. What America sold, the world bought. What America did, the world copied. What America had, the world wanted. What the American church believed and did, so did the rest of the world’s churches. And rightfully so. America was created to be God’s “city on a hill that could not be hidden” (Mat. 5:14)–His light in the spiritual darkness that enveloped world. Since America’s founding, the global church and her national hosts have followed her lead in both the spiritual and the social realms.

But something happened to God’s good island within Satan’s evil sea. The phenomenon is Scripturally known as APOSTASY, MEANING TO FALL AWAY FROM GOD that was prophesied to take place in the end times before the return of Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 2:3). As a result of the church’s fall, her host nations have also fallen. Both church and state have become overtaken by darkness, making them indistinguishable from the world around them. America and her church system had led the way for the world to follow. America has written on her currency that she is ONE NATION UNDER GOD–THE GOD IN WHICH SHE TRUSTS. for many years that was true. However, an honest examination will reveal that the god she operates under, and in whom trusts, is the “god of this world”–Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) whom, Jesus said, “… has DECEIVED the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). This includes the church world.

Over the past several generations sin has seeped into the spiritual river that once was America. By allowing the Catholics to come to her shores she knowingly allowed sin to infiltrate her spiritual life. Spiritual leaven was knowingly allowed to infect the entire American loaf. For many years such Catholic abominations as the observance of the Sunday Sabbath, Christmas and Easter were outlawed in the colonies. Other beliefs such as the rapture, the trinity, the Friday death and Sunday resurrection of Christ, original sin, etc. were also rejected by the Christians early on. As a result of the people’s obedience to Him, God blessed the fledging nation greatly. Beginning with a few hearty souls she soon became the star God intended her to be. Her constitution was based on Biblical principles. In some cases, colony law prohibited not-Christians from holding public office.

However, once the nation’s floodgates were opened, a steady stream of Satan’s people were allowed to enter, thereby polluting the spiritual bloodstream of the nation. Over time the principles established by the Lord in His Holy Bible were pushed aside. America’s apostasy, though small in the beginning and slow in its development, could have been predicted by studying the Old Testament. In the series titled Who and Where is Israel Today (Today=key word), I show how the Israelite nation of old and the American nation are attached at the heart (mind),

From early on America’s first Christian residents recognized the connection between Israel and America, some going so far as to call her “New Israel.” Instead of the Eagle, some wanted to have Moses leading Israel into the Promised Land as her national emblem. Those who recognized America’s place in God’s Master Plan understood the part she was to play in the spreading of His Holy Word throughout the world.

However, God had given man free moral agency. As the nation grew in size and power she became less dependent on the God Who had created her. As Satan’s theology came to occupy a higher position in the church he was able to exert increasing power over her beliefs and customs. This could take place only if God’s Biblical way lost its influence over the beliefs and activities of the church, which is exactly what happened. The result is the Garden of Eden debacle on a much larger scale.

I grew up during the final stages of the Philadelphia Era of church history as written about in Revelation 3:7-13. Therefore I was able to witness the beginning of the Laodicean Era characterized in Revelation 3:14-22. We are now living in that era which will end with the second coming of Jesus Christ. His return will bring the world as we know it to an end. Read those Revelation passages carefully and notice how Jesus characterizes each era. As I describe in the series titled God’s Letters to the Church Eras (key word–Eras), each era had a distinct character/moral tone. Each also had within it some believers from the previous era. During the last of the 1980’s when I was coming into this walk with the Lord ministry, He was moving within a tiny group of believers scattered throughout the world who had seen His light in the midst of the Laodicean darkness and had come to that light. I was one of that tiny group. Therefore I, along with a few others are Philadelphians living in the Laodicean Era.

The religious and social world in which I now live is totally Laodicean. As I have noted before, within the geological area in which I now live I know of only one other true believer. In the past I wrote extensively in the area’s main newspaper and broadcasted on the area’s main radio station where I proclaimed God’s Truth as I do on this website. During the 40 years I have been doing so in this area there have been perhaps 25 people who have proclaimed their faith in God’s message–to a point. When I called for them to go all the way with the Lord, all but seven balked because proclaiming their belief in ALL of God’s Word would have placed them outside the of the Catholic/Protestant church’s range of acceptance. They would have been placed in the “peculiar” category. Due to pride and fear, church people do not want to be seen as different from other religious people. This in spite of the fact that seven times God calls His true saints “PECULIAR,” meaning that they believe and obey His Holy Scriptures. Because His saints are totally different from the usual church crowd, the Lord commands us to leave the Institutional Church and to follow Him (2 Cor. 6:14-7:2. He tells us that then, and only then, He will be the believer’s God and the believer will be His child.

The ultimate question is: what happened to the church God established in America? The answer is: TOLERANCE AND APATHY HAPPENED TO HER. Today anything goes in the Laodicean Church–EVERYTHING IS TOLERATED AND NO ONE CARES. Believers are told that all they need to do is to “love Jesus.” They prove their love for Him by thanking Him for allowing them to get away with their inevitable sins. Read John 14:15,23; 15:10 and First John 2:3-5. The modern-day church tolerates anything as long as one shows up, ‘fesses up and pays up. Doing so guarantees that one will go up. Obedience to God has become a joke to the Law-breaking, sun-worshiping Sabbath-deniers who, if God is to believed, have broken His entire Law, thereby becoming guilty of iniquity (Gk.–Lawlessness) for which Jesus declared that He would cast them away on Judgment Day (Mat. 7:21-23). No one cares about God’s Words to the contrary.

Let us be God’s light in this dark world. LET US BE PECULIAR. Let us not be tolerant and apathetic. Let us not join in the flow of religious apostasy as the church separates herself ever farther from God. L.J.