A Weekly Meditation of Pastor Chang (January 3, 2009)

<Futurology, Soothsaying, Fortunetelling, and Biblical Prophecy>

Happy New Year! A new year has come. Although the days come and go as usual, but because of calendar which indicates: a new year comes and the old one has gone. Of course, the calendar is created by humans, yet it follows the creation of God -- the courses of sun, moon, and planetary motions.  We humans are creatures and we will never be alone that can survive. Namely, without the provision of the Creator, no one can survive more than a short moment. For example, the Creator provides us air, sunshine, water, and earth, without them, no one can live more than a few minutes. Therefore, it is better for us humble and reverent before the Creator, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now let us back and keep talking about the topic following from last Sunday: “Now the USA is declining in many ways because the Americans are shaking down their foundations of the nation.” What foundations?

First of all, they are the Christian faith and the biblical principles: When Americans become rich and powerful they tentatively become forgetful about the Christian heritage.

Furthermore, the American governing systems: which actually are the copies of the Presbyterian/Reformed Church system. The democracy and election system are derived from the church system. Yet recently, the good governing system has been abused and manipulated by the mass-media and some rich people. Because of money, some representatives even sell their positions to do some ungodly and illegal works.

The third strength that America has is “the biblical capitalism.” The USA has a free trading concept and system basically because of the biblical foundation and concepts, which are: we are all equal before God; we believe efficient work is good; honor, faith, trustworthy, and responsibility are good merits. Furthermore, knowing stewardship and recognizing that we are entrusted by God to do certain works, and because of that, we are accountable to God. Therefore we need to work well for it is holy and honorable. “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) These are very good biblical teachings about doing good business. Furthermore, there is another balance point in the biblical capitalism which is: “To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) In Jesus’ parables, he constantly teaches people to be merciful. Therefore if the country which has the biblical capitalism such as America, the charity works are very popular. And because of that that provides many opportunities for the poor to work hard and to become successful. For example, Presidents Clinton and Obama, they become Presidents were not because of their good backgrounds but because of their hard and good works.

Recently, it is because of human corruption of sins, and the works of secularism and liberalism, many Americans give up their Christian heritage and move into falsehood and tricky business – gambling in stocks and false investments. The more they do gambling works the greedier they become.  People lose the honorable system and betray themselves for materialism.  If the nation such as America does not stop and change its course back, definitely, one day the judgment of God will come. By that time, even America owns the best technology and the best resources will doom too.  (To be continued…)