There are steps and stages of departures from Deity, of courting carnality, and dealing with the Devil, until total apostasy is embraced. The gravitation from fully believing in God and His Word to gross godlessness may be so gradual that it is both deceptive and dangerous. The Devil patiently moves one’s mind from Truth to toleration, with baby steps of departure, until the Fatherhood of God is exchanged to “You are of your father ,the Devil, and the lusts of your father, it is your will to do” (John 8:44). Jesus said those words to ones who claimed to be Abraham’s children (vv. 33, 39).
In Israel’s past, they went from believing in the Lord (on the banks of the Read Sea—Ex. 12:31), to a murmuring, rebellious people, who did not trust in God (Deut. 1:26f, 30-32, 35; 2:14f). That generation (over 600,000) formed an elongated cemetery of shame, located from Mt. Sinai to the Plains of Moab! They moved from believers to an evil generation in one lifespan! Whether gradual or in one generation, the fickleness of the flesh is a sad, sobering reality!
The stages of going from godly to godless are graphically given in God’s Word. Under good leadership, Israel was faithful to God in the days of Joshua (Judges 2:7), but even then they failed to remove some of the people God told them to remove (Deut. 12:13, 29-32; Jud. 1:21; 25-35). They soon failed to obey God, and their courtship with the carnal and idolaters was the sobering result (Jud. 2:1-3, 11-15). Their drifting from God is another sickening story! One named Micah thought he could bribe a Levite to be his priest, thinking the Lord would then prosper him (Jud. 17:6-13). Morals were a mess! A mob, seeking homosexual relationships (which were denied them), settled on a “group rape plan,” until they killed an abused woman (Judges 19:22-27; 20:5). Chapter 20 of Judges surveys how over 50,000 Israelites died, fighting each other! A similar scenario happened over 300 years later, resulting in Jeremiah mournfully writing, “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, and do not trust any brother” (Jer. 9:4).
Why mention this step by step journey of social and spiritual shame?? Because the United states has been taking these same subtle steps of social and spiritual suicide!! From a nation whose Pledge of allegiance speaks of “one nation under God,” we have advocates who want to put a tribute to Satan on the State Capital lawn! Freedom of speech has selected sex as the best sales symbol; freedom of religion promotes toleration of the terrible more than tributes to Truth; homosexuality and other Bible labeled sins are promoted as “rights” and any reaction thereto is “wrong!” Our money still bears the words, “In God We Trust,” but its value is deteriorating because of indebtedness, frauds, identity thefts, crimes, and carnal conduct. Locked doors and fear-stricken souls relate to well-paved highways, loaded with vehicles heading, not to church, but to a casino, seeking another “get-rich high” hallucination! People seek security more from the Lottery than form the Lord!!
Wake Up America! Hear the prophet, Isaiah: “Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, O My People! Those who guide you, lead you astray, and confuse the direction of your paths” (Isa. 3:11,12). Read carefully Romans 3:4.