Chapter 4-To the Angel of the Church in the Place Called America
Say to these people. “The One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before My God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. But if you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come against you.” Revelation 3: 1-3
You do not love me. You are not my bride. I do not hold you in the palm of my hand. How can I say that you do not love me? You profane what you call My House. How do you profane it? You profane it with sins that you have not confessed (1 John 1:9), nor have you repented of them (2 Corinthians 7:10, 21:12), nor asked my forgiveness (Colossians 1:13-14). You think that you are safely in the palm of my hand because you are my bride. You are not My bride (Revelation 21:9). You have said that you love me, joined the church, been baptized in my name (Mathew 3:13-16). Look at you; you cannot even obey a simple speed limit on your highways (Romans 13:1). You do not keep my commandments (Luke 6:46). You are a liar (1 John 2:3-6).
“Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much.” Luke 16: 10
You do not love me. You are not my bride. I do not hold you in the palm of my hand. The only difference between you and those who do not claim to love me is that they do not lie and say that they love me. You are more evil than they are (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Your sinful nature has not been healed. It shows in your every action (Galatians 5:19-21). It will be better for them on that day than for you (Mathew 11:21-24). You are a liar and the truth is not in you. As your enemies truly say against you, you have become the great Satan.
Your shepherds are worse. They speak “mouthfuls of words and assume they are true” (Winderweedle, S., 2011). They have lost the flock I gave them and blame the flock. They say, “we will get a new, better flock that will agree with our words”. They are ignorant of My Word (James 3:1). They have forgotten My instruction from My own mouth about sheep that have strayed from the flock (Mathew 18:12-14).
The sheep run from the flock and blame the shepherds. They say, “We do not wish to hear your words. We wish to hear new words and new songs.” The sheep are themselves to blame for these shepherds because they have called them to tell them only what they want to hear; to entertain them and tell them what good, loving, people they are (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Only God is good (Mathew 19:17, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19).
You pray for me to come again, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” and you run after those who proclaim from their palaces, “The time is near!” a thing I expressly ordered you from My own mouth not to do.
“Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, saying ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Don’t follow them.” Luke 21: 8
They tell strange stories and write many novels for profit (Ecclesiastes 12:12-14). They say that I have spoken when I have not. They have forgotten the curse for those who would change My words and say that I have spoken when I have not (Revelation 22:18-19). They seek only your praise of their “wisdom” and your money for their bank accounts. Their punishment will be most severe (Hebrews 10:26-31, Mark 13:38-40)
But you should not pray for me to come until you are clean and repent of your sin that rises before me like the smoke of burning garbage (Hebrews 10:19-25). You do not want me to come because I would have to come against you.
“Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord! What will the Day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him.” Amos 5: 18-19
“Look, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who is alert and remains clothed so that he may not go naked, and they see his shame.” Revelation 16:15
Everyone sees your nakedness and shame. This is why your churches are empty and the world wants nothing to do with you, because you are not My Church (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) (Ephesians 5:1-21). You are not clean (Ezekiel 22:23:26).
You gather for your “fellowships” of gluttony and your “sermons” of ignorance from ignorant mouths to ignorant ears that do not hear. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood must be clean (1 Corinthians 11:23-34). Anyone who says they speak My Word must know it (2 Timothy 2:15-16, 22-26); anyone who says they would understand My Word when they hear it must know it, (2 Timothy 3:14-17), and they must repent of their sin. Otherwise, they are liars.
You call prophets and bishops those who have never spoken My Truth because they are going after their father, the devil, to their shame and yours (2 Timothy 3:13). They seek only recognition, praise, money, and young victims. They protect those who do evil in My Name. Even after they are revealed, you still fall at their feet.
You have your “worship services” of songs that are only entertainment and milk for babes. There is no worship in them because you are not clean. Otherwise, I would accept your praise. You hold up hands that are not holy and you plead for the Spirit to come down while you pat your feet and wave your hands and sway to the music (1 Timothy 2:8). He does not hear you because of your sin and because there is little justice in your land. The evil are not punished and the innocent suffer (Ezekiel 22:27-29). You must wash yourselves or He will never hear you. I must find some that are clean, some that can plead your case with righteousness (Ezekiel 22:30-31).
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept [them]; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.” Amos 5: 21-24
The women, wearing their jewelry and finest clothes, parade through the streets and enter what you call My house as though they are in a contest for a new groom---a thing My apostle Paul said in My Word that you should not do (1 Timothy 2:9). They go up stairs and show their nakedness. They allow their daughters to dress and dance like prostitutes for your pageants and the little girls like an evil man’s playthings for your games in your arenas. Then you say you do not understand why they act the way they do (Ezekiel 16:44).
You allow the murder of babes in the womb before they can be stained by your corruption, before they ever have a chance to do My Will. They are with Me. Their murderers will be cast into outer darkness. Your punishment and condemnation are deserved.
You gather in your coliseums just as the Romans to see your gladiators fight their fights and play their games while the young women dance and music plays. You make little gods of your best gladiators and all the others who can keep you entertained for the moment with their politics, songs, acting, and scandals. You spend the earthly treasures I have granted you on your worship of these little gods while My people starve and are homeless in disaster and the good news remains untold. You revel in their glory. But their glory is of this world and of man; the things that you love I consider vile and disgusting.
“You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God’s sight.” (Luke 16: 15)
How can I say that you do not love me? You are ignorant of my word and you do not do what I say. If you loved me, you would know and love my word and keep my commandments.
You do not love me. You are not my bride. I do not hold you in the palm of my hand. How can I declare that you are not My bride? Because My bride is pure, washed in My blood, clothed in white, filled with My spirit. You are defiled, washed in the filth of the world, clothed in the filth of the world, filled only with the filth of the world and with yourselves---naked, sick, and alone.
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br /> You cannot be My Bride because My bride is clothed in fine white linen, the righteous deeds of the saints (Revelation 19: 6-8). Your righteous acts are few and far between. You are as scantily clad as a dancing girl. Everyone sees that the Spirit has never been with you at all (Galatians 5:22).
I will plead with you to return to Me no longer. You have turned your back on your only true Bridegroom (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8). You have lusted after your entertainments and toys (1 John 2:15-17). You have taken them as your lovers and abandoned your love for Me, the only one that truly loves you as His bride. Why do you not love Me as you once loved Me, as a young newlywed, with passion (Song of Songs 5:9-16)? You will remain naked and alone. You say you are not alone because the world is your bridegroom and your lover; you will perish with it when all is made new. For I have said that I will make all things new and My word is good (Revelation 21: 5).
America, you have turned away from me to other gods that are not gods and so I must say against you, “I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you.” This is the written bill of divorcement that is required. I loved you, but you will be dead to Me and I will not mourn (Ezekiel 24:15-17).
You do not love me. You are not my bride. I do not hold you in the palm of my hand. How can I say that I do not hold you in the palm of My hand? You were never there. You went out from Us, so you could not have been one of Us. How can I say that I do not hold you in the palm of my hand? Because I cannot touch sin and you are clothed only in your own sin, leaving you naked and poor, surrendering the riches that I blessed you with to be trampled underfoot by the ungodly. For My riches are eternal and not of this world.
You have mistaken the earthly for that which is holy, the things of the world for the things of the kingdom (Romans 14:17). You have thrown away My peace for the pursuit of the world and all that is in it. Now your so-called intellectuals and scholars laugh at you. They claim to know the truth, and---to your shame---you believe them. But they cannot know the things of the kingdom and the ways of God (Luke 7:10). They will never know (Ecclesiastes 8:7-8, 16-17). They will not laugh on that day; nor will you.
“Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.” Mathew 7: 6
And yet, I wish that even you would not perish. So I ask you one last time, America, why have you turned your back on Me? I knew you in the womb of your mother countries. I birthed you in a land of your own that was not even a land of promise. There was no promise of land to you. Instead you yourselves were children of promise (Galatians 4:28).
I gave you freedom (Galatians 5:1). I picked you up from the mud of your revolution still covered in bloody afterbirth and I cleaned you and loved you (Ezekiel 16:1-14). When no one else would help you, I saved you from a king more powerful than you ever thought to be. As you grew and became fit to wed, I took you for My bride.
When evil men came against you in latter times I fought against them, gave you new knowledge and terrible weapons, and they could not win even though they were ruthless murderers of my chosen people (Deuteronomy 28:64-67) and more powerful than you.
America, have you forgotten My power? Did you ever know of it? Do you not remember the hurricanes, the whirlwinds, the earthquakes, the volcanoes, the floods, the droughts? You call these “acts of God” even in your legal documents but you do not believe it for a moment; otherwise, you would repent and turn to me.
Have you forgotten the long dormant fault lines and volcanoes under your country? Are you so ignorant that you do not know of them? I promise you this; in the days to come, you will both learn and remember if you do not return to Me as My pure bride. Do you not know that they are all for My glory? Do you not know that they all serve Me (Job Chapters 38 and 39)?
You were once prosperous and able to stand against all your enemies. Now you are struggling and your enemies within and without come against you. With each passing generation, their success increases. I will bring them against you (Ezekiel 24:1-14); though they do not know me, they will serve my purposes (Isaiah 45:1-5). Even your own land will become your enemy.
“…so that all may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is no one but Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Isaiah 45: 6-7
Yet, there are a precious few in America that have not soiled their garments. They remain My Bride. They have remembered what counts in their actions (Galatians 5:6b). I will come in to them and eat with them. They will rule with Me forever on that day in My New Heaven and My New Earth. It is only for their sake that I have not destroyed you. They have remained true to Me and not taken other lovers.
When they have strayed, they have repented. They have begged My forgiveness. I forgave them for they are covered over in the atonement that is My blood. They are hidden with Me and in Me. They have kept My commandments and glorified My Name. Their very lives glorify my name. They have remained Holy from their time of redemption. They are the only ones that love me. They are the only ones that are My Bride. They are the only ones that I hold in the palm of My Hand and no one can take them out of My Hand because they have done the will of the Father.
The evil one cannot touch them. The world does not know them. They love Me because I loved them first. They are the only ones true to Me. I will be true to them.
America, will you not listen to My Word? Will you not even listen to John---the disciple I love---my brothers James and Jude, or even Peter, My rock? They have written to you. You are without excuse.
If you will not listen to My prophets, or even if I rise from the dead, then there is no hope for you (Luke 16.31). There is no Comforter. There is no salvation. Your divorce decree will stand in the Court of the Almighty One, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. You will spend eternity separated from the One that would love you. It is your own wish and choice.
The few who have remained true to Me will be saved. I give them the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7). They will never be harmed by the second death (Revelation 2:11). I will give them some of the hidden manna. I will also give them a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it (Revelation 2:17).
I will give them authority over the nations. I will give them the morning star (Revelation 2:26-28). They will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy, and be dressed in white clothes. I will never erase their names from the book of life, but will acknowledge their names before My Father and before His angels (Revelation 3:4-5). I will make them a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and they will never go out again.
I will write on them the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God---the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God---and My new name (Revelation 3:12). And I will give them the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also won the victory and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:21). They do love Me. They are My Bride. I do hold them in the palm of My hand. No one will ever take them away from Me, ever. They are Mine, My true love.
“Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.” Revelation 22:12-15
America, will you still not repent?
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Please direct all inquiries to:
Brother Lance Cypert, Pastor
First Baptist Church of Logansport
PO Box 380
1009 Gum Street
Logansport, Louisiana 71049
Or phone 318.697.4481 or visit our website
at www.fbclogansport.com
Chapter 5-About the Author
Tom Radcliff was born in 1952 in Helena, Arkansas. He has a bachelor’s degree in science education from ULM in Monroe, Louisiana and a master’s degree in educational technology from NSU in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He currently lives in Logansport, Louisiana where he has taught high school sciences for eighteen years. He and his wife Beth are longtime members of First Baptist Church of Logansport. If he’s not at school, church, or home, you’ll likely find him on the river. Dear wife Beth and bloodhound Rosie will be waiting.
Interested parties may contact him at PO Box 264, Logansport, Louisiana or through First Baptist Church, Logansport, Louisiana, or at [email protected].
Other works by this author: Fisherman's Rig, a journey through colorectal cancer with four weeks of lessons on how a fisherman can spread the good news of Jesus Christ using illustrations from the things he already knows, boats, lines, hooks, bait, and all of our other equipment.
To the Angel of the Church in the Place Called America Page 4
