FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER THREE- Part XXXIX
Revival, Repentance, and Reformation – Part II
Will All America be Saved?
Michael Thompson of WorldNetDaily (WND) wrote 09/13/2013: “The movement was born in a commentary by Joseph Farah, CEO and founder of WND in April. He explained that while millions flocked to churches and houses of prayer after the terror attacks, ultimately, America did not change its course. “As Jonathan Cahn pointed out so effectively in ‘The Harbinger,’ and ‘The Isaiah 9: 10 Judgment,’ he said, ‘America prayed after Sept. 11, 2001. But America did not repent.”
“Farah explained he called for the day out of a sense of frustration with politics and the decline of morality in the country. He suspects there is a connection between the revealing of national ‘sins’ and a desire of believers to confess their own sins to God in unity with other believers.’ [emphasis mine]. Farah said the key to this call is 2 Chronicles 7: 14. This is the prescription of the Holy God for national healing. He tells believers they are to do four things: humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways. In turn, God says He will hear their prayers, forgive their sins, and heal their land. Honestly, I believe if believers across America do this, we will see miracles.” www.wnd.com/2012/09/2500000-join–911-day-of-prayer-and-repentance. Let all remember that ultimate salvation is individual; not corporate.
However, The Southern Poverty Law Center says this of Farah: “As editor and publisher of WordlNetDaily, Joseph Farah pushes theories from beyond the lunatic fringe.”https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremists-files/individual/joseph-francis-farah.
Veteran journalist Troy Anderson, posted 09/04/2013 on WND the first of a seven-series entitled: “94-Year-Old Billy Graham’s Warning for America.” He said the famed evangelist, as “God’s Prophet,” is praying America will experience another ‘great spiritual awakening.’ Anderson also said, “International evangelist Reinhard Bonnke whose ministry records 72 million people responding to the call of salvation in Africa and elsewhere—says God told him the time has come for a ‘mighty wave of salvation to sweep the USA.”
“The movement began in February when Bonnke declared to 5,000 people in attendance at the two-day Gospel Fest in Vero Beach, Fla., that “All America shall be saved!’ Bonnke is best known for his crusades in Africa and for his cry, “All Africa shall be saved.”
Call for repentance. “The crusades and other events come as a number of spiritual and political leaders have made calls for repentance in recent years, arguing the nation is in a downward spiral of economic decline, corruption, immorality, secular humanism and attacks on religious liberty. WND.com founder and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farrah is calling for a nationwide day of prayer, repentance and fasting on Sept. 11—in response to the ‘ongoing downfall of our nation.’ The plan is embraced by thousands around the country, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, Chuck Norris, Greg Rabbi Jonathan Cahn.
Cahn, author of the New York Times bestselling book ‘The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that holds the Secret of America’s Future,’ said there is strong awareness among believers and Christian leaders that America is in ‘great spiritual danger.’ ‘The speed of its departure from God has accelerated,’ said Cahn, the senior rabbi at the nation’s largest messianic congregation, the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, N.J., and [allegedly] a descendant of Aaron, the brother of the biblical prophet Moses. . . .’We stand at a tipping point,’ Cahn said, “I believe that that’s why the Lord caused ‘The Harbinger’ to be released as this exact point in time. It’s a warning, the sounding of the trumpet, the call to return. The only hope we have is that of turning of course, repentance, revival, a return to God.’”
NOTE. See Dr. Jim Eckman’s “The Harbinger: Right Message, Harmful Exegesis.”https://graceuniversity.edu/iip/2013/02/13-02-23-1.
Anderson wrote: “The movement comes as Graham, the 94-year old [now 96 years old] New York Times bestselling author and evangelist who has preached to more people—2.2. billion—than any Protestant in history and has provided spiritual counsel to every president from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush, released a letter last summer titled ‘My Heart Aches for America.’ In the letter, Graham wondered what his late wife, Ruth, would think of a nation in which ‘self-centered indulgence, pride and lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.’
Graham compared America to the ancient city of Nineveh, the lone superpower of its time. When the prophet Jonah traveled to Nineveh [to be Biblically accurate, God deposited him there via a whale that swallowed him and then coughed him up there for he initially ran away from this calling for fear of the inevites who practiced human sacrifices] and proclaimed God’s warning [for 40 days], the people repented and escaped judgment, Graham wrote.”
On Nineveh, E. G. White wrote in her Prophets and Kings, chapter 22, “Nineveh, That Great City” the following which we quote:
“Among the cities of the ancient world in the days of divided Israel, one of the greatest was Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian realm. Founded on the fertile bank of the Tigris, soon after the dispersion from the tower of Babel, it had flourished through the centuries, until it had become ‘an exceeding great city of three days’ journey’ (Jonah 3: 3).
In the times of its temporal prosperity, Nineveh was a center of crime and wickedness. Inspiration has characterized it as ‘the bloody city. . . full of lies and robbery.’ In figurative language, the prophet Nahum compared the Ninevites to a cruel, ravenous lion. ‘Upon whom,’ he inquired, ‘hath not thy wickedness passed continually?’ (Nahum 3: 1) . . . As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to ‘cry against it’ the message ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’ (Jonah 3: 4). From street to street he went, sounding the note of warning.
“The message was not in vain. The cry that rang through the streets of the godless city was passed from lip to lip, until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart, and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins, and to repent in deep humiliation. [Jonah 3: 5-9 quoted].
As kings and nobles, with the common people, the high and low, ‘repented at the preaching of Jonas” and united in crying to the God of heaven [not to or through Mary or the dead saints], His mercy was granted them . . . .Their doom was averted; the God of Israel was exalted and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and boastful pride.” So that national repentance was not a permanent one.
“There is coming rapidly and surely an almost universal guilt upon the inhabitants of the cities, because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. The corruption that prevails, is beyond the power of the human pen to describe. Every day brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, and fraud; every day brings its heart-sickening record of violence and lawlessness, of indifference to human suffering, of brutal, fiendish destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide.”
Tracing from Cause to Effect. – “From age to age Satan has sought to keep men in ignorance of the beneficent designs of Jehovah. He has endeavored to remove from their sight the great things of God’s law,—the principles of justice, mercy, and love therein set forth, Men boast of the wonderful progress and enlightenment of the age in which we are now living; but God sees the earth filled with iniquity and violence.
Men declare that the law of God has been abrogated, that the Bible is not authentic; and as a result, a tide of evil, such as has not been since the days of Noah and of apostate Israel, is sweeping over the world. Nobility of soul, gentleness, piety are bartered away to gratify the lust for forbidden things. The black record of crime committed for the sake of gain is enough to chill the blood and fill the soul with horror.
“Our God is a God of mercy. With long-sufferance and tender compassion He deals with the transgressors of His law. And yet, in this our day, when men and women have so many opportunities for becoming familiar with the divine law as revealed in Holy Writ, the great Ruler of the universe cannot behold with any satisfaction the wicked cities, where reign violence and crime. The end of God’s forbearance with those who persist in disobedience, is approaching rapidly.
“Ought men to be surprised over a sudden and unexpected change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Ought they to be surprised when punishment follows transgression and increasing crime? Ought they to be surprised that God should bring destruction and death upon those whose ill-gotten gains have been obtained through deception and fraud? Notwithstanding the fact that increasing light regarding God’s requirements has been shining on their pathway, many have refused to recognize Jehovah’s rulership, and have chosen to remain under the black banner of the originator of all rebellion against the government of heaven.
“The forbearance of God has been very great,–so great that when we consider the continuous insult to His holy commandments, we marvel. The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over His own attributes. But He will certainly arise to punish the wicked, who so boldly defy the just claims of the Decalogue.
“God allows men a period of probation; but there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted, and the judgments of God are sure to follow. The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard, and the rebellious element that continues to reject the light of truth will be blotted out, in mercy to themselves, and to those who would otherwise be influenced by their example.
“The time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life an property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God’s purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.”
“God’s message for the inhabitants of the earth today is, ‘Be ye also ready; for in such an hour ye think not the Son of man cometh.’ Matt. 24: 44. The conditions prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God’s judgment is come [Rev. 14: 6, 7], and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another,—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. We are not to be surprised at this time by events both great and decisive; for the angel of mercy cannot remain much longer to shelter the impenitent.
“’Behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.’ (Isa. 26: 21). The storm of God’s wrath is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy [not of the pope, but of the Almighty God Creator of heaven and earth], as did the inhabitants of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler. The righteous alone shall be hid with Christ in God till the desolation be overpast. Let the language of the soul be:
“Other refuge have I none;
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, Oh, leave me not alone! Still support and comfort me.
“Hide me, O my Savior hide.
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the heaven guide;
Oh, receive my soul at last.”
(To be continued next week)