Broken Church, Nation Divided: A Biblical Worldview

By Stan Rogers

America is a nation divided to the extent that some are comparing it to the pre-Civil War era of the 1860s. That Civil War was violent, bloody, and hateful; and yet when it ended, America was almost immediately restored as one nation under God. It ended not without deep and enduring scars, but as a nation reunited well enough to become the industrialized leader of the free world for decades to come. We have always been divided socially, economically, and politically; but we have always been a nation united by our faith in the Christian God, the Creator of the universe and all that is within.

The source of America's current divisiveness is ideological, propagated by those who embrace a globalist, pluralist code that carries a vision of one world apart from God. This doctrine has permeated our media, academia, sciences, and now even our churches. It is based purely on the premise that we can bring harmony and social equality to planet earth through humanist methods and that the human intellect has progressed beyond the need for mythical belief in a metaphysical god--specifically, the Christian God, the Creator of the physical universe. This is the same lie that deceived Eve in the garden of Eden, which led to the fall of man.

The purpose of this writing is to restore a biblical worldview that has been lost within the twenty-first-century American Christian church. As our culture crumbles around us, 350,000 churches stand by seemingly disengaged from the darkness that has engulfed our nation.

America used to be a beacon of light for the world. This was the vision that our Founding Fathers carried with them to America, and its source was from their faith in the Christian God. So what is happening to America, and why isn't the church having any effect upon the state of our union?

This is a call for members of the body of Christ to reignite, reunite, and reestablish the light that can only be kindled within our individual commitment to remain in Christ; to commit an hour or so each day to be alone with our Creator in the Most Holy place--feeding, cleansing, and renewing our souls. Just you and God.

The current grace-based doctrine of the modern Christian church has dumbed down the intricacies and treasures found within the contents of the Holy Bible to having little more significance than a bumper sticker. We read books written by other humans that tell us about the Bible; we read daily devotionals that cherry-pick scripture to make us feel good. However, few--if any of us--are actually committing to daily holy communion with God through his Word, the Holy Bible (all of it), and spending time in prayer in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098074531

Stan Rogers

Hi. I am a 64 year old author who splits his life between Suffolk UK and Dublin, Ohio, USA. I am married with 3 grown up kids. I have 2 grandsons and three granddaughters.I love reading including Thomas Hardy, Jack Kerouac,David Baldacci and Stephen Hawking.

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Broken Church, Nation Divided

A Biblical Worldview

Stan Rogers

ISBN 978-1-0980-7452-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-7453-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Stan Rogers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Number of Man

Conscious Awareness

The Tuning Fork

Enlightened Reason

The Data Bank

The Human Lens

At the Appointed Time

The Light of Truth

The Substance of Faith and the Fruit That It Bears

Two Realms

Seven Days

Today

The Divine Investment

The Soil: Choosing to Be Chosen

Our Condition: The Number of Man

The Antichrist: The Beast

The Boundless Cosmos: Scientific Atheism’s Giant Leap of Faith

The Arks of the Covenant

The Arks of the Covenant

The Separation of Church and State

The Source of Energy

The Sign of Jonah: A Story of Repentance

Lost Vision, Lost Culture

American Nihilism

The Remnant

The Framework of Freedom

Surrendering Our Free Will

Of Human Slavery

Of Yeast and Salt

Lampstand Lost

Babylon the Great

The Woman on the Beast

The Weapons of War: Bringing Knives to Gunfights

Homo Arrogans: Slaves of the Serpent

Word Power

Word Power

Powerless Words

Word Corruption

Divine Inference

The Name: God’s Word Made Flesh

The Book: God’s Word in Print

The Body: God’s Word in Us

The Sword

The Atonement: God’s Word Makes a Way

God Moves On

A Nation of Priests

Rabboni

The Full Gospel

So What? A Reality Check

The Reality

The Global Reality

The Christian Reality

The Gospel Business: The Christian Hedge

Being a Slave to Righteousness: The Christian Conundrum

The Target

A Kingdom and Priests

Holy Communion

Drive-by Dialogue

The Responsibility of the 21st-Century Christian

Cerebral Dysfunction

The Fifth Spiritual Law

Conclusion: The Biblical Worldview from 30,000 Feet

My Prayer

My Song

About the Author

Introduction

In the relatively short span of 175 years, from 1775 to 1950, America grew from a primitive, nonindustrialized, ragtag group of agriculturalists struggling to eke out a living from the ground to an industrialized superpower—the greatest organization of civilized humans ever to exist on planet earth. The United States of America is the greatest societal experiment that has ever existed, glorifying God Almighty as a non-imperial, sovereign nation with an unusual passion for uplifting the human race through law and order and preservation of human rights, both for its own people as well as all peoples around the world. The common thread holding us together for all these years was a nation united by the name of Jesus Christ—a people connected by a culture of Christianity.

Contrast this with the current state of the union of twenty-first century America. In the last sixty years, we have unraveled our moral standards, our media and academia are indoctrinating us with scientific and socialistic atheism, our children are taught to question their physical gender, legalized abortion has evolved into infanticide, and we are under societal pressure to accept every form of sexual impurity as mainstream human behavior. We are being systematically programmed to despise everything resembling the design of our Creator; this in the face of three hundred and fifty thousand Christian churches that now exist within the United States of America! (How Many Churches Does America Have? More Than Expected… | News & Reporting | Christianity Today)

How is this happening?

A spirit of darkness came over America beginning with the 1950s baby boomer generation. The Church of America of the fifties and sixties lost its influence over this generation through the combination of a boring, sleepy, going-through-the-motions church environment, and the angry hellfire and brimstone preachers. This created the opportunity for darkness to lead God’s church toward embracing a form of Christianity that has misguided us into a worldly grace, you can be cool and Christian theology. The Youth for Christ, Jesus Freak generation brought about a revitalization to filling church pews and keeping a form of religion alive. But did it restore the power source of the body of Jesus Christ—reviving it as the engine driving the moral fabric of the American people? Or was this an extension of the baby boomer movement to tear down the system, turn on, tune in and drop out, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll battle cry for what was really promoting the desire for us to be free from all responsibility?

The source of America’s moral dysfunction is not found in the deep state. The source of America’s moral dysfunction is not found in our schools, churches, libraries, or mainstream media. The source of America’s moral dysfunction is found within the individual American. We have lost sight of right and wrong. We have lost our moral compass. We have lost it because we no longer believe that we need a higher source to guide us. Our pride has deceived us into believing that we are god. There is us and there is no other.

A nation is made up of small droplets of life—humans. A church is made up of its individual members. A government is established by the individuals that make up the society that it governs. So it all boils down to you and me.

There are two kinds of people on earth. They are not liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, left-wing and right-wing; they are not male or female, slave or free, rich or poor; they are not black or white, Albanian or Botswanan, nationalist or globalist. They are simply those who are with God and those who are not with God.

To be with God is to have your feet standing on a rock. It is to have the house, the structure of your life built upon a solid foundation. It is to be unshaken by world, national and local events that could have a major impact upon your well-being—your happiness and inner peace—your mental, physical, and emotional health. It is three-dimensional.

To be without God is to put your faith in mankind and his ability to steer the course of personal welfare, comfort, safety, and happiness through the rough and rocky seas of life in the hope that someone or an elite group of someones out there knows how to facilitate and sustain the peace and prosperity we all desire. It is two-dimensional.

The purpose of this writing is to explore the possibility that the human race and physical reality that we exist in is the work of a Creator who desires intimate, holy communion with his creation; that it is designed and orchestrated for his benefit; that we have been given the free will to choose to be with him or to reject him; and that to be with God requires investing in our relationship with him daily—as in every day.

All humans are processing their existence through a philosophic lens by which they perceive life; and this lens is in constant flux—influenced and manipulated from the choices we make regarding how we receive information. It may be developing deliberately through an intelligent search for truth; or it may develop subconsciously; and it often develops without conscience. But most of us are not paying enough attention to care. As long as we are able to satisfy our physical and emotional appetites, at least for today, all is well. I’m okay. You’re okay. Okay…

If you seek him, you will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29; Matthew 7:7–8).

God has given man the desire to seek out truth regarding his existence; and he has provided useful tools in order to accomplish this:

Our consciousness—the awareness of our existence.

Our conscience—the tuning fork for discerning right from wrong.

Human reason—the ability to process accumulated information (data).

Spiritual enlightenment—the trigger that separates civilized man from the hunter-gatherer.

My philosophic lens is grounded in scientific method, historical fact, and rooted in my faith in God’s Word. My conclusion is that anyone who is willing to invest daily in consuming God’s manna from heaven—reading the Bible, praying to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit—will evolve toward good and move from not knowing into knowing truth.

Several years ago, I began a quest—a search for answers to all that I was witnessing within the Christian church and the effect that this is having on my country. I had a burning in my soul that couldn’t be reconciled or quenched. There was an annoying dissonance within the tuning fork of my conscience that wouldn’t let go. I sought answers within my church, church leadership, and Christian brothers and sisters that did not bring satisfaction. So I decided to take my dissatisfaction directly to God. I simply started asking him for answers. This has led me to write this volume of essays: a pouring out of my heart with how God has slowly moved inside my soul, moving me from not knowing into knowing.

Beginning with thoughts and observations regarding who we are and why we exist as the human race, I move on in section two to the symbiotic relationship between church and state; one does not peacefully exist without the other. In section three, Word Power describes the power of words, but most especially the absolute power of God’s Word; and, finally, in section four, the need for the Christian church to embrace the full Gospel of Jesus Christ—not just the feel-good parts.

This is a call for the restoration of the church in America; it is a call for reestablishing biblical truth to the church that is being misled by its leadership. With this, I hope to establish my reasoned argument for where we are and where we are going. As Christians, we should all be quite alarmed by the hounding drum beat of a nation in decline; instead, I find most Christians to be indifferent.

It is my hope that this book will resonate with enough individual members of the body of Christ to reignite, reunite, and reestablish us as the power source that God will use to bring light back into the Church of America, restoring the moral fabric needed within America’s citizenry in order for the United States of America to remain as the framework that sustains human civilization throughout the world. But even more importantly, I hope that it will lead you into a deeper understanding of what it means to be in holy communion with your Creator.

1

The Number of Man

Conscious Awareness

Ababy breaks from its mother’s womb and passes through the birth canal into a completely new reality. His mother gave her permission for him to live and breathe on his own. He has no idea what comes next. His first experience into this new world may be the bright lights illuminating the birthing room of a local hospital; it may be the sunlit walls within a third-world shanty, or it may be the back seat of a taxi cab that missed its timing by minutes. But for sure, this baby has emerged. And now he comes face-to-face with his awareness. His physical senses are on fire, and he has a burning desire to know and understand his environment.

He becomes aware of touch—the touch of his mother’s breast or the hands of a nurse swaddling him in blankets to keep him warm. He becomes aware of his need for nourishment. His eyes cannot fully understand the images that surround him. His ears are filled with noise. He is conscious. He is aware.

The first element in man’s search for truth is conscious awareness. We are conscious of our being. We exist. Our human senses telegraph messages to our brains communicating physical contentment. But then, soon after our arrival into the physical reality of our existence, we become aware of our emotional needs, and our mind wants to know, Does anyone care? Does anybody love me?

Continuing with our journey of awareness, we are inundated with information that helps us fit in with family, our tribe. As this group grows to include others, we seek to fulfill our needs and desires, both physically and emotionally. We become aware of behavior that rewards and punishes.

And then…

The sun rises in the morning and unlocks our sensory awareness of the earth, sky, and weather phenomena that surround us, only to be followed by its perfectly timed setting. Like clockwork, the sunlight no longer illuminates the earth, and darkness opens up an entirely different realm—a world beyond this planet; and we become aware of the fact that we are just a tiny piece of an enormous universe. Now we begin to ask, Who are we? What are we doing here? How did we get here? And our awareness opens into something much grander than ourselves.

Here, another facet of human consciousness awakens, one that can lead us into metaphysical awareness: the spiritual dimension. As humans meticulously investigate microfacts of our existence (DNA and the massive and intricate information contained within