America at the Crossroads
America at the Crossroads
America is at a critical moment.
For years, our nation has suffered monstrous crises. We have witnessed attacks on our Constitution, political division, a stolen election, attempted assassinations and the murder of political opponents. We have seen illegal immigration ravage our cities and terrorists kill our loved ones.
We have seen attacks on our families, our most precious resource. Marriage has been redefined. Children have been scarred for life by transgenderism and woke culture. Our unborn children have been killed by the tens of millions in abortion clinics.
Amid these horrific evils, many people have been crying out to God.
What we have seen is the affliction prophesied in 2 Kings 14:26: “For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.” Ancient Israel was the forefather of several modern nations, chief of which is America. Israel here refers prophetically to America. (Request The United States and Britain in Prophecy for proof.)
What did God do about that affliction? “And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash” (verse 27). This is a prophecy of an end-time leader of America whom God uses to stop that affliction. As I explain in my book America Under Attack, this leader is President Donald Trump (request your free copy).
President Trump talks about saving America. But it is not him saving this country, but God, “by the hand of” this man.
In many ways, the affliction caused by previous administrations has been checked. However, the curses on America continue. The hatred, division and violence that Satan the devil is provoking and fomenting are still boiling. And shocks like Charlie Kirk’s assassination in Utah show they are growing worse.
Kirk was 31 years old. He was a prominent conservative and supporter of President Trump. He was a religious man, and he fought against many of the curses that have beset America. Some demented person thought that was reason enough to murder him in broad daylight.
As horrific as the assassination was, even more horrific was people demonically celebrating Kirk’s murder. This shows how sick our society is!
God’s assessment of America is that we are a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.” The “whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint” (Isaiah 1:4-5). This is not a popular message. But we must come to see this reality as God does. America is so sick, we must realize that none but God can heal us.
More and more people are looking for answers. After Kirk’s murder, millions of Americans are asking important questions. Some even seek to repent of what has led to these awful curses. They sincerely want the sickness at the heart of America healed. Some have turned to the Bible for answers. Many are flocking to churches for guidance.
America is at a crossroads. Our next steps will determine where this religious resurgence leads. Will it lead the nation to God, or will we remain in wretched sins that have caused our massive problems?
The Bible reveals where we are heading. And Donald Trump is playing a critical role. What does the Bible say about following him and his religion?
Religious Resurgence
Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was attended by tens of thousands in a packed stadium and watched by millions more online. It turned into a deeply religious event for millions of Americans, and it resonated around the world.
“While the event had its discordant notes, the overall theme was akin to a religious revival—reminiscent of Billy Graham’s tent crusades of the 1930s and 1940s or the ‘great awakenings’ of the 19th century,” wrote the bbc. “The memorial service celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Christianity and promised a new enthusiasm among young Americans for traditional values with an evangelical fervor” (September 22).
Kirk promoted reading and following the Bible. He advocated for strong families based on biblical instruction. He kept the seventh-day Sabbath. These points are truly praiseworthy. People who are following them will find their lives far better for it.
President Trump spoke at Kirk’s memorial, but he didn’t say much about religion. He has spent his entire life relying on his own abilities. Even amid these terrible curses, this has not changed. Yet he also sees that people yearn for religion. That is why he gathers religious leaders around him.
This is going to lead to the fulfillment of a critical prophecy in Amos 7 that I have explained for years. President Trump was prophesied to lead a religious resurgence, but instead of leading people to God, he is causing them to look to him.
Trump’s Religion
Back in 2016, Donald Trump received over 80 percent of the white evangelical vote and a large portion of the Catholic vote. He was leading most of America’s “religious” people. But as I asked at the time, “Where is he leading them?”
We need a leader who will lead our people to embrace the living God—not a puny, helpless man!
When he was campaigning for president in 2015, Mr. Trump was asked if he had ever asked God for forgiveness. “I am not sure I have,” he replied. “I just go on and try to do a better job from there. … I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”
That is the opposite of pointing people to God! In fact, this reasoning is why our world is suffering such horrific curses!
From the time that Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, people have left God out of the picture—and look at the horrific results in our world today!
In a follow-up interview with cnn, Trump added, “I have a great relationship with God. … I like to be good. I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don’t do a lot of things that are bad. I try and do nothing that’s bad” (Jan. 17, 2016).
President Trump has said, “I will make America great again.” I will make America great—not God—like I made myself great. That attitude is going to usher in disaster! Men vainly think they can do magnificent things. That is one of the most deceitful thoughts anyone can have!
This same reasoning plagued the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel after it split from Judah anciently.
A Historic Parallel
King Jeroboam i was “a mighty man of valour” and “industrious” (1 Kings 11:28). But he ended up being a disaster for Israel, turning the people away from God by institutionalizing false religion (1 Kings 12).
The book of Kings is part of what is called the former prophets, and it is prophecy mainly for this end time. (Request a free copy of my book The Former Prophets—How to Become a King. It explains how relevant these biblical books are for us today.)
After Jeroboam i received rulership of the 10 northern tribes of Israel, what did he do? He feared that the people would return to the house of David, so he built an alternative center of worship (1 Kings 12:25-26). They had just broken away, and he wanted to keep them separate from King David’s throne. God had explained to Jeroboam the importance of the house of David (1 Kings 11:29-39), but he rejected God’s instruction.
This man was vain, and he lacked trust in God. President Trump would do well to heed this lesson.
King Jeroboam feared that people would look to God instead of him. He reasoned, “If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah [Solomon’s son], and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:27-28). Jeroboam took them right back to the false gods they had worshiped after they escaped Egypt and rebelled against God and Moses (Exodus 32).
Jeroboam then polluted the priesthood by ordaining priests from “the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi” (1 Kings 12:31). He changed the dates of God’s sacred holy days from what they were under David and in Jerusalem (verses 32-33). He had his own holy day plan—his own “master plan.” He rigged the system so he could lead the people and keep them away from the house of David. That was his great sin. Sadly, the people just went along.
This same sin is being committed today! The modern-day Jeroboam fights for many good causes. But in the process he gets people to look to him as the solution—not the omnipotent, all-powerful God!
This is going to end the same way it did anciently.
The King’s Chapel
In February, Trump announced the creation of a White House Faith Office. Who did he appoint to lead America’s faith? Paula White, an American televangelist linked to the Pentecostal movement and the prosperity gospel. White has been married three times and faced serious allegations of marital infidelity. Her preaching neglects essential biblical truths about sin, repentance and the pursuit of holiness.
White once told a women’s conference in Florida, “Anyone who tells you to deny yourself is from Satan.” That directly contradicts Jesus’s instruction to “deny” yourself and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). Many Christians recognize that White’s commercialized “gospel” has little to do with the Bible. In one of her latest cash-for-blessing schemes, she promised that if you donate $1,000 to her ministry before Easter, you would receive “seven supernatural blessings,” including a guardian angel, prosperity, healing and a long life. This is not the kind of religious leader that will call our nation to genuine repentance! (article, page 7).
You can study the lives of virtually any popular religious leader and find a lot of immorality and false doctrine.
Amos 7 prophesies about what happens when God sends a prophet to such religious leaders.
King Jeroboam ii walked in the footsteps of Jeroboam i and was the final Israelite king to receive a warning from God before the nation went into captivity. He refused to heed God’s warning.
Amos 7 speaks of this Jeroboam, but the prophecy is for our day.
In verses 12-13, it appears Jeroboam has directed his spiritual adviser to tell God’s servant: “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.”
Notice this is the “king’s chapel,” a religious place of worship that looks to a human king—not God!
Verse 9 has more religious imagery. God warns: “And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
The “high places of Isaac” refers to God’s own Church that has turned spiritually lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-20). The “sanctuaries of Israel” are the religions of this world, like the evangelicals. (This is explained in my free booklet on Amos, The Lion Has Roared.)
God has a warning against the religious people of our day! It’s not enough to reject transgenderism and other societal evils. God is telling us there is something terribly wrong with our religion! (You can read about some of the specific problems in other articles in this Trumpet issue.)
Americans are looking for answers; many are seeking God. But something is wrong with most religions today—even those that claim to follow the Bible and to understand God.
Here is one example. Charlie Kirk kept the seventh-day Sabbath. God commands that we keep this day (Exodus 20:8-11; article, page 4). But have you seen the president’s spiritual advisers address this issue? No. They would rather bury it because it condemns their religion and our entire society!
Look closely at this passage in Amos 7, and you can see something deeply troubling about Jeroboam’s spiritual advisers.
Verse 10 mentions “Amaziah the priest of Bethel” being at the king’s side. “Bethel” means house of God. Amaziah must be a religious leader who came from within the Church of God in this end time.
Yet this priest of Bethel is fighting alongside Jeroboam against God’s prophet—specifically, against God’s message delivered by God’s prophet! Something is terribly wrong!
I believe Amaziah the priest is the same man as the leader of God’s Church we battled against for copyrights to the truth and message of God. (Read about that court battle in The Lion Has Roared.)
If these are the religious leaders our president and country are looking to, then this current religious revival will not lead our people closer to God. In fact, it will lead America into rebellion against God and His message!
Rejecting God’s Warning
The primary focus of Amos 7 is the message from God that Jeroboam and the “king’s chapel” reject.
“Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words” (verse 10).
Here Amaziah is accusing Amos, God’s true prophet, of treason—“conspiring against” Jeroboam. Amos is a type of the man in this end time who is proclaiming God’s warning message to Israel today. This is a prophecy of a real clash between a false minister and a true prophet of God.
What is it that Amaziah hates so much about Amos’s message? It has a lot to do with Bible prophecy.
Our religious leaders and politicians reject Bible prophecy today because it condemns them. They don’t want to hear what God has to say about the nation’s sin and where it is leading. So they say, “Prophesy not” (Amos 2:12).
By rejecting prophecy, they reject the most profound revelation of the Bible that reveals the gospel and our incredible human potential!
One of the books we fought for in court was The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by the late Herbert W. Armstrong. This book reveals the identity of ancient Israel and how David’s throne was preserved through the ages—and it opens the understanding to all Bible prophecy and the key of David vision (Revelation 3:7). This spectacular vision is about Jesus Christ’s divine intervention to end Satan’s deception of the world and assume rulership (Revelation 12:9; 11:15).
As you watch this religious resurgence in America, you really need to study your Bible to discern what is happening. It is leading to this prophesied confrontation between false religion and true religion!
Can you recognize the difference? Do you know your Bible well enough? Can you see who is truly willing to humbly come under the rule of God and proclaim God’s message no matter the opposition?
In this Trumpet issue, we want to point you to what the Bible says. I hope you will study this material carefully alongside your Bible.
