False Gods of our Time

INTRODUCTION

False Gods of Our Times. That was the title of a book by Iwin Lutzer in which he dealt with New Age Religions, and I might add, he dealt with the subject very effectively. Sadly, far too few Christian leaders took the subject very seriously, and consequently, the line between true Christianity and New Age religious movements became blurred to a disturbing degree. To many people, New Age was just another passing fad. To put it in perspective, the world held a theistic world view from Adam until recent times (with some notable exceptions, like the Renaissance emphasis on man). In recent history, beginning in the 19th century, many well placed scientists, philosophers, and other professional people began to embrace a humanistic world view. To be more specific, the world move from a belief in God, a false god, or gods, to a world view we may call atheistic evolutionary humanism. Francis Shaeffer taught that England entered the post-Christian period in her history in 1895, America in 1935. That which pushed that world view was the rejection of special creation in favor of evolution. During the nineteen sixties and seventies, it seemed that every where you turned someone was preaching against “secular humanism.” To me, if it was secular, it was humanism, and if it was humanistic it was secular.

I well remember around 1990 when new polls showed that more Americans believed in God than in previous polls. Evangelicals celebrated, “We are reaching America for Christ,” they proclaimed. Evangelists declared that we were about to see a revival sweep America. What they were overlooking was that for the first time, those polls were not asking, “Do you believe in God?” They asked, “Do you believe in God, a higher power, or a god-like force in the universe?” What was also disturbing was the fact that those polls showed that more people believed in God (or a god-like force) than in the past, but it was having less impact on their lives. Can you believe that?! When a person believer in the Christ of the New Testament, it changes his or her life forever. That is not the case with the New Age Christ, or the Jesus of Islamic lore. We must been keenly aware of the false gods of our times. Some of them are so deceptive that many people will bid them God speed, never realizing that they are looking at one of the false gods of our time.

Today, I would like for us to take a look at the subject of idolatry, not the idolatry of ancient Israel, but the idolatry of Jeremiah’s America. Americans are not going to high places and setting up altars to Baal and conduction weird religious ceremonies. Well, most of them are not, anyway. First, we will look at idolatry in the Old Testament, then the New Testament, and then idolatry today.

I. THE BESETTING SIN OF ANCIENT ISRAEL WAS IDOLATRY.

A. Sadly, Israel’s History Is a History of Spiritual Infidelity.

1) The Israelites went down to Egypt where they spend 400 years in an idolatrous culture. They moved into the land of Goshen looking for food, but stayed long enough to come under the influence of false worship. God delivered His chosen people from Egypt, but only after 10 demonstrations (10 plagues) that Yahweh God is the only true God. Every one of the ten plagues was directed toward a false god of Egypt.

2) The dust of the Exodus had not settled before the Israelites turned to an idol. They had been miraculously delivered from Egypt by the mighty hand of God, but quickly returned to idolatry when their faith was put to the test.

3) Any study of he Period of the Judges is a study of spiritual infidelity to God. The Israelites were living in a theocracy, with God as their Lord and King, yet every new generation rebelled against Him and turned to idols. When you read Judges, make a note in the margin and then apply it to every judge of whom you read. Here is the cycle they repeated over and over:

1. They rejected the true God for false gods (idols).
2. God sent an enemy to subject and oppress them.
3. The repented and cried our for God’s deliverance.
4. God sent a judge to deliver them.
5. They lived in peace until that judge died.

When that judge died, the next generation rebelled and began the cycle all over again. It is hard to believe those people would continue to repeat that cycle, isn’t it? But that is just the point. They didn’t. The next generation did! We are never more than a generation away from paganism, and even though there have been many powerful preachers and dynamic churches, America had been moving deeper and deeper into the post-Christian period in our history, and in doing so we are sinning against a far greater light than those ancient Israelites.

4) Any study of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, is a study of a people who continually turned from God to idols. Jereboam I led the revolt against Rehoboam, King of Israel because of his repressive regime, and established a new nation of Israel, made up of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel, leaving Judah and Benjamin to form the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The first thing Jeroboam did was to introduce idolatry to Israel. Israel never had a godly king, in spite of the fact that God sent some of His most powerful prophets to try to persuade them to return them to Him: Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea are examples. When Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of a Phoenician king, she brought with her prophets of her false god Baal. She launched a persecution against the prophets of God, even as she spread her false religion. When they absolutely refused to return to God, He sent Amos with a message, “Prepare to meet thy God, O, Israel!” The Lord raised up the bloody Assyrians to destroy that nation in 722 B.C. Only a small remnant was spared from Israel.

5) Judah, the Southern Kingdom, in spite of those great prophets, continually flirted with false gods.
Since Judah had seen how the Lord dealt with their kinsmen in the north, when they refused to obey Him, they were sinning against a greater light. They had know revival under Hezekiah, Isaiah and Micah. They had experienced the beginning of revival under King Josiah and Jeremiah, but when Josiah was killed by Pharaoh on the Plains of Megiddo in 608 B.C., the nation continued their love affair with false gods.

B. Now, Let Us Look at the False Gods of Jeremiah’s Day.

1) They followed worthless idols and became worthless, Jer. 2:5.

“Here is what the Lord says: What fault did your fathers find in Me that they went so far from Me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves? They stopped asking: Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived? I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled My land; you made My inheritance detestable. The priests quit asking: Where is the Lord? The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the rulers rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols” (Jer 2:5-8, HCSB).

Paul was inspired to write of the folly of idolatry: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became as fools” (Rom. 1). The late, J. B. McBeth says the literal rendering is “they were made fools.” Who would make fools of them, but Satan.

2) They exchanged the true God for false gods. What we read here is God’s message, not Jeremiah’s opinion: “Has a nation [ever] exchanged its gods? (but they were not gods!). Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols. Be horrified at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled. This is the Lord’s declaration” (Jer 2:11-12). Godly people should be shocked at idolatry anywhere they find it. What about you? There is idolatry of one kind or another all around you. Are you shocked by it. Are you horrified by it? Are you appalled by it? Then maybe it is time for you and me to repent of that attitude which accepts the false gods of our times, the gods who are not gods.

3) They rejected the fountain of living water for a broken cistern. The Lord explains why we should be horrified by idolatry: “For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:13). They has “exchanged their gods” (vs. 11), meaning that they had made a choice.
Those who worship and serve false gods do not do so because they are poor ignorant savages who simply do not know any better, no matter how valid that arguments seem to us. The anthropologist may strongly oppose missionaries who want to take the Gospel into the hearts of the jungles of South America because they want to protect their culture. God sends missionaries because those people need to hear the message of salvation. God does not look upon idolatry as ignorance, but iniquity.

4) Jeremiah’s Judah persisted in their infidelity to God. They should have been horrified at the thought of exchanging Almighty God for gods who do not exist. The message gets a lot stronger:

“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Wouldn’t such a land become totally defiled? But you! You have played the prostitute with many partners— can you return to Me? This is the Lord’s declaration. Look to the barren heights and see. Where have you not been immoral? You sat waiting for them beside the highways like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. This is why the showers haven’t come—why there has been no spring rain. You have the brazen look of a prostitute and refuse to be ashamed” (Jer 3:1-3).

This really is strong language: “You have the brazen look of a prostitute and refuse to be ashamed.” When Israel was a theocracy, the punishment for adultery was death by stoning. That is how seriously God takes it. The idea here is that Israel, viewed by covenant as the bride of Yahweh, had committed, not just an act of infidelity, but had progressed in their idolatry to the point he calls it prostitution. They refuse to be ashamed.

5) When false god are compared to Yahweh, the come up short, Jer. 10:1-16. God gives a vivid picture of the folly of idolatry. Only one who has been made a fool by the prince of this world could possibly see what God says here and persist in rejecting the true God for false gods. God says: “Do not learn the way of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them for the customs of the peoples are worthless” (Jer. 10:2-3a). Now, He will illustrate the absurdity of idolatry: “Someone cuts down a tree from the forest; it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel” (10:3b). No one could possibly state the case better than the Creator:

1. He decorates it with silver and gold.
2. It is fastened with hammer and nails, so it won’t totter” (10:4).
3. Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak.
4. They must be carried because they cannot walk.
5. Do not fear them for they can do no harm—and they cannot do any good (10:5).

Now contrast this image with Yahweh, the true and living God:

“Lord, there is no one like You. You are great; Your name is great in power. Who should not fear You, King of the nations? It is what You deserve. For among all the wise people of the nations and among all their kingdoms, there is no one like You” (10:6-7).

Now look at the folly of idols:

“They are both senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz from the hands of a goldsmith, the work of a craftsman. Their clothing is blue and purple, all the work of skilled artisans” (10:8-9).

“But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His rage. You are to say this to them: The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, and spread out the heavens by His understanding. When He thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from His storehouses” (10:10-13).

Now, whether we are speaking of ancient idols or the false gods of our day, here is God’s assessment of idolatry:

“Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed. Jacob’s Portion is not like these because He is the One who formed all things” (Jer 10:14-16).

On the Saturday, March 11, 2006, Faith and Values page of the Monroe, LA version of Gannett News, there is a three-quarter page story, complete with color pictures of a young woman, the daughter of a minister, who is trying to blend Yoga with Christianity, a blend of New Age mysticism and Christianity. Of course, this paper can always find the weird and ridiculous (make that “stupid and ignorant”), while ignoring New Testament Christianity. What churches are doing in south Mississippi and south Louisiana is not new. Hundreds of high school and college young people are going to New Orleans to help clean up houses destroyed by Katrina, but a young woman with two students is news?

C. It Took the Babylonian Captivity to Purge Judah of Its Idolatry.

1) They returned from Babylon without idols. No judgment since the Exodus had caused the people to turn from their lifeless idols, but when they returned from Babylon the remnant that returned would resist idols to the death. During the Interbiblical Period many did choose to die rather than worship idols.

2) That does not mean they were always faithful. They did not worship false gods, but they were often guilty of the false worship of the true God. In other words, they professed a faith in the true God, but did not obey Him. They had all the ceremonies and rituals of religion, but they neither loved God nor obeyed Him. Sound familiar? They did not worship physical idols, but they worshiped other false gods of their time, just as many professing Christians do today.

II. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.

A. The New Testament Prohibits Idolatry.

1) Paul was inspired to detail the sins of the Gentiles in the first chapter of Romans. This is a powerful statement about the folly of idolatry. In the first place, Paul writes, “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:18-19). Please don’t tell me the poor savages cannot help themselves, they just don’t know any better. Tell it to the God who here holds them accountable for “what can be known about God”, because He has revealed it to them. Those who worship idols are without excuse:

“From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles” (Rom. 1:20-23)

“Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Rom 1:24-25).

2) Paul, on Mars Hill, contrasted the true God with idolatry. Paul was teaching the Jews in Berea when non-believing Jews from Thessalonica showed up and stirred the people up against them. Believers took Paul and put him on a ship to Athens, leaving Silas, and Timothy at Berea. They would join him later. In Athens, Paul began to debate with some of their philosophers, which led to an invitation for him to speak to them on the Areopagus.

“Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

“Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it— He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. From one man He has made every nation of men to live all over the earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live, so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Being God’s offspring, then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. ‘Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:22-31).

B. God’s Law Is in Effect Today.

1) Christians may not bow before idols, but they may still bow before the false gods of our time.
My younger brother Mike is a highly disciplined. I hate that! It ain’t natural. But he’s always been like that. When he was a very young child, I invented a game which my mother played with Mike and our sister Linda all the time they were growing up. It was like a biblical Charades. Mike was very good at it. As a matter of fact, by the time he was 13 years old he probably knew more about the Bible than most adults will ever know. For three years, when his pastor, David Terry, was having some heart problems, Mike taught his pastor’s class. He often called me on Sunday morning while he was putting the finishing touches on his preparations. One day, he told me he was going to make a certain statement, and, he added, “I anticipate this question....” He continued, “I am going to respond with this answer.” He continued, “When I do, I anticipate this response.......” He kept going, “Then, I am going to say.....” Next, he said, “When I do, someone may ask this question...... And when they do, how do you think I should answer it?” Whew! Like I say, I hate disciplined thinking. It ain’t natural. I began by telling him that no one would ever think of that question.

Mike is a highly disciplined attorney and every attorney in the area know it. He specializes in injury litigation on the defense side and he has been very successful. He loves to do trial work. He has told me he loves to have someone throw something unexpected at him because he likes to think on his feet. One day, Mike asked me to define idolatry. He added that a strict definition would be worship of idols, but could it be expanded to cover everything people today often call idolatry?

I pointed out the passage in Colossians in which Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to expands the concept of idolatry to cover anything that one places between himself and the Lord.

“So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

“Therefore, put to death whatever in you is worldly: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry” (Col 3:1-6).

Idolatry, according to this passage may be anything, anyone, any interest, or even any impulse which you place between yourself and God. One may make an idol of a car or a house, but the issue is not so much what you possess as it is whether or not that possession possesses you.

A lady lamented the fact that her husband had moved out after confessing to an addiction to pornography. This man had been involved in a church ministry and had apparently served in various positions on the staff of more than one church. Pornography, like immorality, can become idolatrous, a false god.

2) New Age

At the beginning I asked you to look with me at the subject of idolatry, not the idolatry of ancient Israel, but the idolatry of Jeremiah’s America. Americans are not going to high places and setting up altars to Baal and conduction weird religious ceremonies, but neither are we without our false gods. Many church leaders totally ignored the New Age movements of the eighties and nineties. They thought it was a fad that came and passed from the scene, never to be considered again. To some, it was a matter of New Age music, weird ceremonies, or environmental movement. The church missed the significance of it then, as it does now.

What went gone wrong? What had the church missed? Why did Christian leaders miss it? How do we know they missed it? We know something was wrong because it was not changing lives for the better, but for the worse. More and more ,church members lived more and more like the devil than like Jesus. Social drinking, immorality, and other sins were practiced by some who were coming into the church, but less and less was said about it from the pulpit or the pew. The church embraced the New Age concept of tolerance and diversity. The social gospel gained greater acceptance. The church could print stories of disaster relief, ministry to broken homes, and greater attention to cultural and social issues, all good things.

The church proclaimed a gospel that made it more acceptable to the world and consequently, some churches grew astronomically. In some cases, pastors stopped preaching as John the Baptist preached. They no longer pleaded, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” The church was embracing moral relativism, a carry-over from humanism. In addition, when people like Irwin Lutzer and a number of others began warning America about New Age religions, New Age leaders stopped using the term. I have had well educated pastors to tell me that had heard a little about New Age but really didn’t know much about it. It was worse than you may think. According to one expert, a major evangelical denomination published a Bible study for young adults that advocated New Age healing techniques. One major Christian conference center rented their facilities to a New Age group and didn’t know it until it was too late.

What had happened? Humanists were not converted to Jesus Christ. It was simply injected with a religious content. New Age religious movements make room under their tent for almost any group except Christianity. They are not open to any monotheistic religions, including Judaism or Islam. The New Age umbrella is big enough for almost anything and everything, as long as it is not Christianity. Somewhere along the way, they dropped the name, New Age in favor of “postmodernism”. First, we had a theistic world view, then a humanistic world view, and now a blend of the secular and the religious that has really blurred the borders between the secular and the religious.

A leading denominational worker asked a group of us a few years ago, “Have we moved beyond New Age to animism?” Since he was a friend, I contacted him with an answer: “How do you move beyond anything and everything?”

When some New Age leaders stopped proclaiming that we are all gods and that you are your own Christ, and began sounding more like an evangelical preacher, the church pronounced it another passing fad and then opened the doors of the church to it. People are a lot more receptive to a church that does not dwell on sin, repentance, or hell. One televangelist has stated that he does not preach on sin and repentance because he just wants people to feel good. Around 1990, I invited the leader of a state convention to speak for me. From the pulpit he told our church that people today do not want to hear boring sermons about the Bible and biblical history. They want to hear about things that concern them today. He added, “If a preacher is going to deal with Bible doctrines, he had better go it quickly and get on to something that concerns people today.” What this denominational leader was saying was that Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is irrelevant! That is what happens when we waver on the inerrancy of the Word of God. Today, rather than using the term, New Age, we hear about people who are “religious”, or “spiritual”, especially from the media, rather than the term Christian.

3) Now, I would like for us to take a look at a few of the false gods of Jeremiah’s America.

Bob Hostetler highlights conditions in America in a new book entitled, AMERICAN IDOLS: The Worship of the American Dream. This pastor received a copy “hot of the press” from Broadman and Holman, the publishing arm of LifeWay Christian Resources. The book should be in the stores very soon. The author begins:

“You love God. You’ve experienced salvation through faith in Christ... but something is wrong. Something is missing. Something is not working. You are not alone. There are thousands like you...They feel like they fall short...of their full potential. Why?

“I’ve become convinced that often the cause is idolatry. Not so much the ancient, pagan-altar-on-a-hill-top variety, nor the light-a-candle, chant-a-mantra sort of thing, either. No, it usually a more modern form of idolatry. More antiseptic. More American.

“We seldom realize it when it happens, but out lives can easily become infected with modern idolatries that look utterly harmless, sometimes even virtuous. But these “user-friendly idols distract us from a wholehearted, single-minded devotion to God, and become the enemies of our souls. They insert themselves between us and God. They hinder our prayers. They dull our spiritual sensitivity and impede our spiritual growth.”

What are the idols to which the author refers? What about “the desire to acquire” - the “eBay attitude”, which holds that having more will make me happy? There is also the idol of individualism - which cries, mine, mine, mine - the gospel of the Me Generation. He also mentions the micro-wave mentality - I want it right now! He also discusses the “cult of personal experience. Jeremiah’s America is very much like Jeremiah’s Judah!

We could expand this to cover anything that gets between the believer and the Lord. First, consider those things with God has blessed you, that you may turn around and place between you and the Lord. They may include family interests, health, wealth, recreation, or Sunday at the mall. It may include Sunday movies - or Monday movies. It may well involve the Internet. Countless people buy lottery tickets, raffle tickets, bet on athletic events, or go to casinos. They are bowing before an altar to gambling.

Now, we are talking about things that may well be good. A job is a good thing, but if we get it between one’s self and God it is a false god; it is idolatrous. Vacations are great, unless they get between you and the Lord. When I moved to Bastrop I discovered that people who worked for International Paper Company could get up to six weeks vacation. Some took one week at a time. They packed up the camper and left town on Friday evening and returned to town the following Sunday evening. That is twelve Sundays they missed church for vacations during the year. But they communed with nature! Those were planned absences. Add the national guard once a month, personal illness, and Grandma’s surgery and they were out more than they were in services.

We have mentioned the good things with God has blessed us that we may turn around and place between ourselves and the Lord. Now think of the bad things that may become a false god today. Many television programs aired during what used to be the family hours are not fit to see by anyone, let alone Christians. And Christians have been going to movies that portray nudity and immorality for so long they think the Christian who questions it is a fanatic. Language has gotten increasingly worse with each television season. More and more movies are not fit for anyone to see. More and more professing Christians are drinking alcoholic beverages. I know all the arguments, but I also know something of the lives destroyed by alcohol. I was amused by the comment I read somewhere: Ninety-nine percent water and one percent cyanide will make you one hundred percent dead.

Popularity is a cruel and fickle god. What ever the latest fad is, many Christian mothers are so determined that their daughters are going to be popular that they buy degrading, ungodly clothes for them and send them off to school or to the mall, wanting them to look sexy. Fathers keep silent for some unexplained reason, perhaps to pretend that they do not make comments about others young women who wear suggestive clothes.

The pastor of an African American church in central Mississippi, so I was told, got up to preach and noticed that his organist, who had just taken a seat on the front row, was trying to stretch her mini skirt to cover as much of her legs as possible. He said, “Sister, It is not going to be long enough, but it is no shorter than it was when you left home.” Immodest dress can be a sign the one is bowing at the altar of popularity. I won’t even bring up swim wear.

A good work ethic is great, but if your job gets between yourself and the Lord it becomes a false god. Success in business is good, but if you let the business get between yourself and God it becomes a false god.

Privacy is a good thing. I love my privacy. But if privacy keeps you out of church, away from Bible study, away for worship, away for witnessing, away from fellowship with other believers, you may be bowing at the altar of your own privacy or individualism.

It is good to maintain your home, but if it gets between yourself and the Lord it becomes a false god. One lady did not go to church because she just couldn’t worship God if her house was in a mess. So she sent her children and stayed home to clean the house.

Patriotism is wonderful, but if you put your nation before your God, or politics before the Kingdom of God, you are bowing before a false god. The list could go on and on. Perhaps there is some false god you need to confess right now. There is but one true, living God. Worship Him, and reject the false gods of our day.

CONCLUSION

False gods are everywhere today. They include, gambling, drugs, alcohol, lust, greed, pornography, materialism, and various kinds of entertainment and recreation. Consider what the false gods of our time are trying to do to America today. Humanists demanded that prayer and the Bible be taken out of our schools. The Supreme Court agreed, and as Bill Bennett has demonstrated, or morals have been in a downward spiral ever since.

The false gods of our time demand that we keep the Bible out of our of our schools. The false gods of our time demand that we keep prayer out of public places. The false gods of our time demand that military chaplains not pray in Jesus’ name. The false gods of our time demand that we remove every display of the Ten Commandments from public places.

The false gods of our time demand that we keep prayer and Bible study in the home and in the church where it belongs. I would like to endorse that right now! I would love to get prayer and the Bible back into Christians homes. I would love to get prayer and the Word of God back into the church - it really does belong there! Am I compromising? No! I just want the secular world and the those who have embraced the false gods of our time to see what will - not may - will happen when we get prayer and the Bible back into the home and the church.

If you will make a total commitment to the Lord right now, we can get prayer and the Word of God back into our homes and when we do that, He will fully equip us to be victorious Christian soldiers, marching as to war. If we will commit ourselves, our homes, and our church totally to Jesus Christ, witness for Him and serve Him, America will no longer look like Jeremiah’s America, but a little corner of heaven on earth.