The Prophetic Call part 7

To the Nation

            The prophet does not speak to individuals typically. The prophet is to the nation before to individuals. He knows the proverb better than any other, “Righteousness exults a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any nation.” When the prophet speaks an oracle, though it might be to a certain audience, it goes beyond that audience. The prophet speaks as one speaking to the whole people and nation.

            Mankind continues to war against one another. It is the humanity of the nations that brings Rwandan massacre and genocide. It is in the lack of righteousness that causes many African nations to be poor and devastated and suffer severe famine. God has set up the nations and their boundaries. He is the one who has ordained their rule.

            What is strange to evangelicals is that the Proverb doesn’t even mention repentance or coming under the Lord. It is almost as if righteousness and justice and equity bring about a certain kind of living. In the righteousness of itself, we find the nation being exulted. But what is righteousness?

             We’re brought back to that discussion of morality. When a nation can implement torture on war captives, they have lost the righteous ground. When a nation can persecute a certain kind of person because of their race, ethnic background, or culture, we have already lost the righteous ground. The Middle Eastern nations that oppress any other people group that are not masculine dominated Moslems are going to continue to suffer war and famine and destruction.

            The European and American society that scoffs at religion and claims that godlessness (which looks a lot like Satanism) is the only formidable lifestyle will crumble. Righteousness exults a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any nation. Degradation of a generation comes from a national amorality.

            It is the for lack of a prophetic presence (which is supposed to be the Church) that the nations rage and conspire. If they do not follow the path of the Lord, they will follow the path of the gods of this Earth. This is why they are called principalities and powers of the air. They are the powers of the nations. They are the leaders and directors of the nations. This is why they lead the nations against God.

            It all stems back to the tower of Babel. Men made bricks instead of stones. They manufactured something when it was obvious that God had not given the area for something to be built. The generations past had built with stones, but this generation desired to make a tower unto them. They were going to make a tower that reached to heaven that they may crown themselves as gods.  It is the root of national pride.

            What is the root of World War 1 and World War 2? The nations were proud and arrogant. The ethnicities and cultures and differences in nationalities caused for a pride of kinds that would actually devastate and destroy one another. The prophet cries out against this pride. The prophet is identified with something greater than nationality, and therefore is able to oppose the nation and point out the root of its sin. When a culture can be raised on passing by the slums and not thinking anything of it, that generation is heading for destruction. How much more a whole world system that is designed to build slums?

            Of course, it also says something when the nations have their own religions and state churches that cannot oppose them. In Germany, you cannot receive your birth certificate until you have been baptized as an infant. In America, we have 501C3 forms to be tax exempt. In having this tax exemption, you sign over your rights to say anything against the state (meaning government). You no longer can speak truth.

            The government tells the church what they are allowed to say, do, and speak out against. Because of this, we have no power to oppose the demonic system that is government. How can you oppose something that you are a part of? The churches will not bite the hand that feeds them. Thus we have a regression.

            Then you have people getting up into the pulpit saying that there are no such things as prophets anymore. There are no apostles anymore. That was a 1^st century phenomenon. The prophets are only Old Testament. God doesn’t need prophets to speak to His people anymore. They miss the whole point. The don’t understand the function and role of the prophets. The Church is supposed to be prophetic. They lack this prophetic distinctive, and thus I would say that we need prophets very much. I would even use the word dire. They are a dire necessity to our world today.

            The Charismatic movement has set up a band of false prophets for the lack of the true. In this, they have distorted the crux of the faith. What is supposed to be a hinge and foundation upon which the Church is built and swings has now been torn down. If that foundation is false, how can anything true be built upon it?