A Story of Two Nations

                                                                                                                                                             By Pastor F. M. Riley

                                                                                                                                         January 11, 2014

    “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God,” Psalm 9:17.

Introduction

           Once there were two nations on the earth.  One nation through having Communism forced upon their people by their ungodly leaders, became the most ungodly, immoral, atheistic, nation on the face of the earth.  It infected and contaminated all of the other nations around it with its immorality and  ungodliness.  Most of the other nations on the earth feared and hated Communism and refused to follow the example of the United Soviet Socialist Republic, known today simply as Russia.   

     The other nation was once the most God fearing, moral, evangelistic, missionary minded nation on the face of the earth.  Most of the other nations of the earth looked up to it for moral, spiritual, and even political guidance.  This once God fearing nation is the United States of America!

     This article will briefly deal with the contrast between these two nations and their ultimate destiny. 

   

The Road Downward…..

     The United States of America…..During the Second World War the churches of America were filled with people seeking for the mercies of Almighty God upon their sons and husbands who were fighting on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, supposedly to preserve the freedoms that we as a nation held sacred.  One often had to arrive at church early on Sunday morning in order to get a seat.  If one got there late, it was standing room only.  I have witnessed with my own eyes the crowds of people filling the churches of America even to the point that people stood around the walls and at the back to attend church services.  Therefore I personally know this to be true!  The Lord God mercifully heard the cries of the American people and answered their prayers, and gave to this nation a great victory in both Europe and Asia, and brought many of their husbands and sons home safely.   

     But following the war, the people in America began to desert the churches and the “faith” they had once “professed” to hold dear. Laodicea had begun! The Lord God had mercifully answered their prayers and brought their sons and husbands home from the war, so they no longer needed to continue the pretense of loving and serving God anymore. Their turning their backs on the churches and no longer seeking the leadership of Almighty God was the expression of gratitude which many Americans showed to the Lord God for having spared the lives of their men during the war.  Not all at once, but gradually fewer and fewer of the American people attended church services and prayed and studied God’s Word and sought the leadership of the Lord for their lives.  It began showing up in the immoral conduct of the people of this nation.  When the 1950’s came to an end, the “good times” were over.  Remember the “silly sixties,” the “hippie” generation, so-called “free love” and the dawn of “rock and roll” and the drug “culture”?  Sic!

      The morals of this once Godly nation continued to decline after the war until Bible reading and prayer were “officially” removed from the schools and classrooms of America in the 60’s by the nine so-called “justices” sitting on the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  Sadly, they handed

down a ruling in favor of a wicked atheistic old woman.  The theory of Godless evolution [the pagan  religion of humanism] was allowed to continue being taught in the classrooms of America, but no one could even mention the God of Creation and the Bible without supposedly being in violation of the

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Constitution of the United States of America, according to the Supreme Court “justices.” Strange indeed!  I can read as well as any one of those “justices” sitting on the Supreme Court, and I don’t find a thing stated in the U.S. Constitution which forbids Bible reading and prayer from the classrooms and schools of America.  Nevertheless the children of America have now been taught for the past 50 years that mankind is nothing but a mutated freak of nature, having “evolved” from single cells over millions of years into a higher class of animal. Sic!  As a result of being taught that they are only animals, the children of America are now acting like animals. Lying, cheating, deceiving, biting, devouring, stealing, fighting, drinking, drugging, killing, and copulating like dogs in heat. This is what has followed in the years after Bible reading and prayer were removed from the classrooms of America.  And today there are multitudes of the American people too blind and spiritually ignorant to even acknowledge the connection.

      But even that wasn’t the worst of it.  A few years after Bible reading and prayer were removed from the classrooms, then along came Roe vs Wade.  Once again the “justices” [Sic!] on the Supreme Court handed down a ruling “legalizing” the callous, cold blooded, pre-meditated MURDER of the innocent unborn.  Since that time in 1973, there has been somewhere between 56 and 65 MILLION totally innocent unborn babies callously murdered in this country by the wicked who have lost all respect for human life and all fear of God.  Enough blood of the innocent unborn has been shed since 1973 to stain the streets of every village, town, and city in America.   But even that is not the worst of the matter.  Because most of the nations of the earth looked up to this nation for moral guidance, nearly every nation on earth has now “legalized” so-called “abortion” [a polite word for cold-blooded murder] of the innocent unborn.  After all, if America, the most “righteous” nation on earth, said it was okay to kill the innocent unborn, then why shouldn’t the other nations on earth follow America’s  example?  Sic!

     Isn’t this sad?  And strange!  The people in this once Godly nation had watched and rightly condemned Adolph Hitler and the Nazis for “legalizing” the murder of the innocent unborn in Germany preceding the Second World War, and also for “legalizing” the murder of the Jewish people in the concentration camps of Nazi occupied Europe during the war. But when this once Godly nation “legalized” the callous, cold blooded, pre-meditated murder of the innocent unborn, there was hardly a ripple of protest across this entire nation.  Something STINKS here, and it smells an awful lot like gross HYPOCRISY! 

     How far we have fallen…..and how quickly!

Truly Ironic!

     The Nation and people of Russia…..Now comes the breaking news that Russia, one of the most atheistic Godless nations on earth, has now outlawed all advertising of abortion; the callous, cold blooded, pre-meditated murder of the innocent unborn, in their country.  Why!  Because the physical, mental, and emotional effects of it were and are destroying the women of Russia.  Hello!

     Are the people of America really so morally and mentally STUPID that they actually think a woman can murder her innocent unborn baby, and it has no physical, mental, or emotional effect upon her?  Even the atheistic Russians were smart enough to finally figure out what was happening to their women, their families, their homes, and their whole society in Godless Russia.  It is sad that we here in America don’t have that degree of intelligence?  Hello! 

 Divine Principles of Judgment

     None other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself explicitly stated,

     “And that servant which knew His Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 

     But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.  For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more,” Luke 12:47-48.  

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     The very first God ordained principle of Judgment is then that “To whom much is committed, the more shall be required.” Think about it!

     But there is yet another Divine principle of Judgment set forth in God’s Word.  It is found in Galatians 6:7-8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” 

     Folks, nations are made up of men and women with a fallen “sin nature.”  Therefore, the same principle stated in these Scriptures applies to the whole nation, just as it does to individuals within that nation.  If the moral course sown by any nation is evil, then that nation will reap the evil they have sown.  Like it or not, our readers can count on this principle in God’s Word being fulfilled to the letter.      

     Folks, America was founded on the Christian principles of the Judeo-Christian Bible.  For many years following the founding of this nation, the Bible was actually taught in our public schools and even used as an early textbook to teach America’s children how to read.  Even after publishing companies were established and school textbooks were published, many of those early textbooks still contained Scriptures from the Bible and frequent references to the moral truths of God’s Word.  In other words, those early children in America were clearly taught the moral differences between right and wrong, and the moral values set forth in God’s Word.  But with the passing of time, the old time Godly educators [teachers] were replaced with teachers with a “formal university education,” which, according to the “teachers with degrees,” knew so much more about life and teaching than the old time God fearing morally righteous teachers.  As a result of this scholastic change, those early textbooks were abandoned and removed from the classrooms of America along with all references to God and the Bible.  It glaringly shows in American society today!

     The American people cannot plead that they did not know, for there was a time when God and His Word were very much involved in the business, politics, schools, churches, and family life of this whole nation. Right to this day there is still a small Godly “remnant” of the American people who cleave to and embrace the Lord God of Heaven and the Word of the Lord, but the masses of the American people pay little to no attention at all to anything this Godly “remnant” has to say. In view of America’s knowledge of the truth of God’s Word, and the availability of such knowledge to the people, then what should the American people in this nation expect in the day of God’s visitation of judgment upon America?  Hello! 

     On the other hand, from the time the Bolsheviks overthrew the government of Russia and established Godless Communism as their “official” governing policy, the Christian Bible had no place in the classrooms of the schools of Russia, and the children of Russia had drilled into them Communist indoctrination, along with all of its precepts, examples, and immoral values. Sic!  Nearly three whole generations of the Russian people have grown up knowing nothing about God or the righteous principles set forth in His Word.

     Yes, it is also true that there is a “remnant” among the Russian people who out of a desperate spiritual hunger sought and found the Lord God of the Holy Bible, but they are regarded as renegades,  rebels, and fools by the predominantly Communist people of Russia, and are viciously persecuted.  Since the Russian people have been deprived of the knowledge of God’s Word and kept in ignorance of the moral values of it for nearly three generations, then what should the Russian people expect as a nation and people in the day of God’s visitation of judgment upon Russia and all the nations?  Well..?? 

What the Prophetic Scriptures Reveal

     It is more than “coincidence” that there is little mention of this once great Godly nation of America in the prophetic Scriptures.  Yes, I do believe it is mentioned in the Scriptures, but it is so obscure that any mention of it has to be carefully sought out.  Try Jeremiah 49:31 carefully noting that this Scripture speaks of a “wealthy nation that dwelleth without care,” which has “neither gates nor bars,” and which “dwells alone.” In the preceding Scripture, the Lord God through His prophet, Jeremiah, is urging the inhabitants of Hazor to “Flee, get you afar off.” Then He tells them in 49:31 to

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flee to this “wealthy nation.”  Now what one nation on earth best fits this description?  Yes, I am well aware that America had not even been founded as a nation at that time in human history, but I am also aware that the Jews have spent centuries wandering from place to place, and that today there are more Jews in and around New York City than there are in the present population of Israel.   Hello!  The clear absence of any direct statement about America in the Bible prophecies leads me to believe that this nation will have ceased to exist just before or immediately after the beginning of the Tribulation period. 

     Right now as I write, this country has experienced a number of falling asteroids in the past three months, apparently from Comet ISON.  This bombardment by asteroids is only going to become worse, because what remains of ISON has crossed the orbit of the earth in advance of the earth’s arrival at that point, and the earth will soon pass through the tail of space debris following ISON.  Considering where we are at on God’s great Plan of the Ages, it is “possible” that earth’s passing through the tail of ISON will fulfill the sounding of the first trumpet in Revelation 8:7, in which one-third of the earth will be burned up.  I am made to wonder if it is just “coincidence” that the population of the western hemisphere; North and South America make up approximately one-third of mankind upon the earth?  Interestingly, I received a report from a professional astronomer, claiming that according to his calculations, it will be the western hemisphere that will be facing into the space debris from ISON the day the earth intersects ISON’s orbit.  This means that it will be the western hemisphere which will be bombarded by asteroids, rocks, dust, fire, and other space debris on that day.  I highly suspect that this will be the total end of America as a people and a nation, Psalm 9:17.  Remember the principles of judgment set forth by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  “To whom much is committed, the more shall be required.”

 

     But what about the atheistic, immoral nation of Russia?  What will be her judgment? 

     The prophetic Scriptures clearly reveal that the armies of Russia and her allies will invade Israel and the Middle East.  This will occur at or just after the middle of the Tribulation when Israel is living in relative peace, Ezekiel 38:8; 38:11-12. Israel’s peace at that time will be due to the covenant of Daniel 9:27 and Isaiah 28:15. Russia will invade and occupy the entire Middle East during the last half of the Tribulation, Isaiah 33:8; Jeremiah 1:14-15.  At the end of the Tribulation all of Russia’s armies and those allied with her will be totally destroyed when the Lord visibly and bodily returns at the end of the Trib, Ezekiel 39:4.   However, while Russia’s armies and allies are destroyed,  the nation and people of Russia will be spared, and will flee to far northern Siberia, Joel 2:20.   The Russian people will live there throughout the 1,000 years of the Millennial Kingdom.  Following the Millennial Kingdom, and the temporary release of Satan, they will once again ally themselves with Satan.  The Lord God has not forgotten the 70 years of God denying Communism that the Russian people were willing to tolerate, when as a people they could have risen up in revolt and thrown off the Communist yoke.  When Satan is then released “for a season,” he will go right back to those same people dwelling “in the four quarters of the earth” [Siberia…where the four angles of the earth come together] and they will once more follow him.  The Lord God will then totally destroy the Russian people by fire falling out of the heavens, causing them to cease to exist forever as a people and a nation, Revelation 20:7-10.  Almighty God has a long memory, and a keen sense of true justice! 

     It find it ironic that Russia, the nation which embraced atheistic anti-God Communism as their “official” state religion for 70 years will survive much longer than the once God honoring nation of America.  Again, “To whom much is committed, the more shall be required.”  Wake up folks, to this principle of Divine Judgment.  Here is the same principle stated again in God’s Word with just a little different wording…..

     “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them,” 2 Peter 2:20-22.  Our readers might also read the Book of Jonah again, and remind themselves of what happened to Nineveh about 150 years after that whole city had repented under the preaching of Jonah.  During that 150 years the people of Nineveh turned away from the faith they had professed under Jonah’s preaching.

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The Foolishness of Men and the Certainty of Judgment

     With every passing day I am bombarded with emails from politicians, patriots, and pathetic preachers in this country urging me to write or call my Congressman, send a fax, write a letter, sign a petition, join their patriotic movement, and “We will save this country and turn America back to God.”  Sic!  Don’t these people ever study the prophecies of God’s Word?  If they do, don’t they believe them?  If they do believe them, don’t they even know how to “rightly divide the word of truth,” 2 Timothy 2:15? 

     I am not trying to be deliberately offensive, but where is the Scripture telling God’s people that our business is to “save a nation?”  Any nation?  Book, chapter, and verse, please!   The Commission the Lord gave to His disciples was to be His witnesses, proclaim His gospel and way of salvation, and call men and women, boys and girls, to come out from among the nations to be His people.  John 17:16 and Philippians 3:20 are still in the Bible!  Make up your mind whether you belong to this present evil world, or whether you belong to the Lord God of Heaven!   

     I could write a whole study on this subject, however the words of our Lord should settle the matter for anyone willing to believe God’s Word.  The Lord Jesus Christ Himself explicitly stated,

     “…Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand,” Matthew 12:25. See also Mark 3:24-25 and Luke 11:17.  Now for an up-to-date description of our American society today read Luke 12:52-53.

     Folks, in my entire life of nearly 80 years, I have never previously seen such a mess of confused division in this nation as that which exists today.  The politicians are divided on nearly every issue they have to deal with, the educators are constantly putting one another down and seeking to exalt themselves, the medical doctors and researchers are divided and at one another’s throats, the military is even divided and falling apart, and the common people on the streets of America cannot agree on much of anything.  The homes and families of America are torn apart by drunkenness, drugs, sexual promiscuity, adultery, divorce, the murder of the innocent unborn, homosexuality, pornography, lying, cheating, stealing, robbery, muggings, home invasions, rape, and many other grievous sins.  Bible study and prayer in the “average” American home is a non-existent thing of the past, and most of America’s children are brought up never attending church and Sunday School, and therefore never learning about God or the moral values of His Word. Unbridled GREED rules in the commerce and marketplaces of America today!  There isn’t even the slightest sign that it is getting better, but daily grows only worse and worse.  Yet these Patriots, politicians, and preachers, and sadly, the “average” man on the street, are so dogmatically certain that if we just write or call our Congressman, fax or email them, sign a petition, join their movement, get out the votes,  and even march on Washington, we will “turn the nation back to God.”  Sic!  Folks, I have been listening to this same stupid claim since the end of the 1950’s; “we must get out the vote and we will change things,” and the only thing that has changed in all of that time is that this country has morally become worse and worse.  

     Where is the national repentance for what this nation has become? Where are the weeping, broken, souls crying out to God for mercy upon this sin cursed nation?  Are all of these politicians, patriots, and preachers spiritually STUPID?  Do they really think their “wishful thinking” is going to turn this entire nation back to God?  The Lord God said that every kingdom, city, or house, divided against itself “shall not stand.”  Now tell me…..did the Lord lie?  Or…is it these “willingly ignorant” patriots, politicians, and preachers who are teaching and preaching lies today, and giving to the people a totally false hope and sense of security?   Well…???  Folks, no nation in the history of the world has ever been “saved” by a change of its politics!  Not one!   Nations are “saved” by the people turning to the Lord God of Heaven with their whole heart and soul, Jonah 3:7-9.  PERIOD!            

     Folks, just as sure as there is a God in Heaven, so this nation who has turned its back on God who created and blessed it so abundantly in the past, is going to meet its day of Judgment and reckoning.  Romans 6:23 is still in the Bible, and God’s Word is still true!  Keep in mind our Scripture text for this study, Psalm 9:17, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” 

     This reminds me of another “forget” passage in God’s Word…..

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     In Ecclesiastes 8:10 Solomon was inspired of God to write, “And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city were they had so done: this is also vanity.”  I don’t know how the moral history of America could be summed up any better in a single verse of Scripture.  Once a nation that feared and loved and served God in the “holy places” [churches] of America, and NOW a nation which has turned away from the Lord and “forgotten God.”  Folks, in a few years during the Tribulation period, what is left of mankind on earth will not even remember that America, “the land of the free and home of the brave,” even once existed.  America, as a nation and people, for the past 50 years has been following a course of sin and  immorality and rebellion against God, which will ultimately lead to this country being destroyed by the righteous judgment of God, and “forgotten.”  Galatians 6:7.      

     Those readers who think they can live worse than junk yard dogs in this present world and then blow the smoke of their wickedness and rebellion in the Lord’s face, are truly living in “fool’s paradise.”  This entire nation, once blessed by the mighty GRACE OF GOD, has turned from God’s grace and is swiftly approaching the well deserved judgment of Almighty God.  Nothing could change that except genuine remorse and repentance as a people and a nation, and there is not the slightest indication of that happening.  Therefore nothing is going to stop America’s downhill slide into hell.    

     It is highly ironic that once Godly America, because the people have “forgotten God,” is going to end up experiencing the righteous judgment of God, just like ungodly God hating, Christ denying, Communist Russia.  Think about it! 

A Glaring Overlooked Truth

     What part or parts of the earth were involved in the first 4,000 years of human history as recorded in the inspired Word of God?   The answer is glaringly obvious!   The entire Old Testament had to do with the nations of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.  Not one word is written in the Old Testament Scriptures referring to anything that went on in North or South America during the first 4,000 of human history.  This also holds true for most of the New Testament Scriptures. 

     Now turn to the inspired prophecies of God’s Word.  What nations are these inspired prophecies dealing with as they record the major events of the end-time?  Well…???  It is glaringly obvious that the prophecies deal primarily with the same nations and peoples in the end-time that the inspired Word dealt with in the beginning centuries of human history.  In other words, the Lord God began human history with the three continents in the eastern hemisphere of the earth, and that is exactly where the prophetic Scriptures indicate that human history will be brought to a close.  Hello! 

     It is then glaringly obvious that North and South America in the western hemisphere of the earth have no major role to play in the prophetic events of the end-time.  They are conspicuous by their absence.  What are we to make of this?  It appears to me that both North and South America will no longer even be in existence as the Lord God brings His great plan for present day mankind to a conclusion.  You can read all about it in the inspired books of Daniel and Revelation.

Conclusion

     If this conclusion is Scripturally correct, then America’s days are numbered and time is swiftly running out.  I am well aware that some of my readers will not like this study, but I didn’t write it to tickle ears or please men.  I wrote it in one last effort to get the American people, especially God’s people, to face the truth about where this nation is headed, and hopefully to cause some to turn to the Lord in true repentance.  Will some readers go down with the ship?  Or…will they truly seek the Lord in repentance and faith for salvation while there is still time and opportunity to do so?      

     I urge every reader to seek the Lord God as your own personal Savior NOW, while you still have time and opportunity!  Read carefully John 3:3-7, 3:16, 3:36, 5:24, 14:6, Acts 16:30-31, Romans 10:8-13, and Ephesians 2:8-10.  I would like to meet every reader in glory when our Lord comes to receive His own unto Himself, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.  Please don’t disappoint me!

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     Permission is granted to any true believer or Bible believing ministry to reproduce this study to share with others, or to quote from it in context as written. 

     2013 is over and I am deeply grateful to all those readers who sent gifts to help us send forth the great truths of God’s Word this past year, and who also held us up in prayer.  Souls have been saved and God’s people have been blessed.  Thank each of you so very much for your part in this ministry.

      Please address all comments, questions, and correspondence to:  Pastor F. M. Riley, Last Call Gospel Ministry, 184 County Road 108, Harrisburg, Missouri 65256, or I can be reached by email at: fmr7sngn@centurylink.net.

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