The seventh chapter of Jeremiah begins with this: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying "Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!' " Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place, Do not trust in these lying words, saying 'The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.'
John MacArthur called it a "self-deluding slogan." R. C. Sproul made mention that the phrase, repeated three times, certainly should call our attention to its importance. God gave Jeremiah the words to warn the people of Judah, for they thought, as MacArthur put it, that "the Lord would never bring calamity on his own temple." Have we in America deluded ourselves with just such an exemption, and incorporated a similar saying....God bless America....or worse yet....USA, USA, USA!
The following is from a post after last year's National Day of Prayer. Compare if you would the Rose Garden ceremony from either last year or this year where there is no sense of foreboding or repentance....only a few generic prayers.....a little humor.....and a dab of politics.....compare this to the following proclamation from 1863.....and.....
Read....And Maybe Weep
"....When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain....I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand." (Malachi 1:8,10)
Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day
Washington, D.C.
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh. By the President: Abraham Lincoln
John MacArthur called it a "self-deluding slogan." R. C. Sproul made mention that the phrase, repeated three times, certainly should call our attention to its importance. God gave Jeremiah the words to warn the people of Judah, for they thought, as MacArthur put it, that "the Lord would never bring calamity on his own temple." Have we in America deluded ourselves with just such an exemption, and incorporated a similar saying....God bless America....or worse yet....USA, USA, USA!
The following is from a post after last year's National Day of Prayer. Compare if you would the Rose Garden ceremony from either last year or this year where there is no sense of foreboding or repentance....only a few generic prayers.....a little humor.....and a dab of politics.....compare this to the following proclamation from 1863.....and.....
Read....And Maybe Weep
"....When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain....I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand." (Malachi 1:8,10)
The following proclamation, taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org, was written by our Senate in 1863, and placed on the desk of President Lincoln to sign. I first posted it last July under the heading READ...AND MAYBE WEEP. Ted Cruz and maybe three or four other Senators might be able to pen such a proclamation today but it would evoke hoots and howls of derision if placed on our president's desk and the media would unmercifully castigate its authors.
Each and every thought in this proclamation may have you ask...who were these people? Read every sentence....please! We are now a nation of prodigals, mesmerized by the image on our Facebook page, our intellects hamstrung by Groupthink, and our individualism purposely eroded by a century of 'Progressive' education. May God have mercy on this nation as it is today that historically must rank no higher than the first quartile in its ability to accurately preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and discern God's warnings in His Word and the signs of the times. Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day
