As I was writing the article “You Were Warned,” the verses in Deuteronomy chapter 30 came to mind: "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and calamity" (Deuteronomy 30:15). The contrast here is striking! Yahweh spoke through Moses to the nation Israel, that a choice must be made. A decision that is white or black. There is no middle ground. Choose to be blessed or judged.

However, a question should come to mind: What does the right choice look like? Certainly there is a right choice and a wrong one. But how do the people know they have made the right choice? Verse 16 provides the answer, "I am commanding you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it" (Deuteronomy 30:16).

The command is as clear as the choice. Rational common sense says, "life" is the obvious choice. The right choice will be evident when people love Yahweh by keeping His commands, statutes and judgments. All of which leads to "life and prosperity."

Obey or Not

These verses in Deuteronomy outline the final section of chapter 30. The command given was concise and crisp, meaning brief with no ambiguity. Scripture documents the history of Israel, and from those pages we read concerning the choice they made. Israel was a nation blessed by God and made prosperous and greatly multiplied. However, in time they became comfortable and lazy, then compromise crept in, followed by decay. The result? Judgment.

Today these same words stand as a choice all nations must make. A nation must decide, will it pursue life and prosperity? Or, death and calamity? Within these words is a sense of urgency. A choice must be made now, this moment: "See, I have set before you today." No dawdling. Time to ponder is not needed. What is laid before you is plain. Every nation is subject to Yahweh's command and faced with the same urgent choice.

This nation of America, has made her choice. It is a nation that has fallen from life and prosperity to death and calamity.

Gone Wrong

Present day America is following the same steps that lead Israel to judgment. Even though Deuteronomy 30 was known at the founding of this nation, as time progressed and the blessing of prosperity took hold, the command given in verse 16 was forgotten: "love Yahweh your God."

There can be no doubts regarding America’s history. A nation that experienced much life and prosperity, and became rich in so many ways. A nation of tremendous influence. America overflowed with blessing, so much so that the rest of the world experienced that blessing as well. However, what we see now is an America that has gone horribly wrong.

Hearing Loss

"If your heart turns away and you will not listen"(v.17a). As America began to reach the apex of prosperity, people's hearing became dull. In the comfort of prosperity she began to slide down a slippery slope. Comfort leads to dilution. Dilution leads to dullness of hearing. Dullness of hearing descends finally into "will not listen."

Willful deafness, can be demonstrated from one simple example. For millennia the created order of male and female in Genesis 1:27, was never disputed. Why? Because the obvious is so self-evident that  even a minimally lucid person would not deny the reality of such truth. A denial of two genders was a trait of the insane and body mutilation was considered deranged. However, today the irrational has become normal, the absurd becomes truth.

Here we have the visible evidence of these words: "if your heart turns away ... you will not listen." This is hearing loss in the extreme. And it is spreading! Why? Because God now has given "them over to an unfit mind" (Romans 1:28). These are people given over to insane minds. Then Romans 8:6 tells us where such minds take people; "for the mind set on the flesh is death."

What are people refusing to listen to? In short, Yahweh's commands. A refusal to be guided by His Word. The Bible was given to us for this purpose, to provide everything for life, everything necessary to fulfill His command (cf. Peter 1:3).

The issue then is the heart of man - the very nature, center, or soul of a person. It could be said that one hears with the heart. The heart that turns away from the Word, is a harden heart that will no longer hear. Deafness results in mindlessness, a willful turning away. This is a decision of the people that put America on the path to self-destruction.

All About Worship

When man turns from the true God, he will turn to follow another god. Here it is necessary to look at the whole of verse 17; "if your heart turns away [from Yahweh your God] and you will not listen, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them." Again, there is no middle ground. Man will either be drawn to Yahweh or be drawn away to other gods.

Now it must be pointed out that from the moment man was created, he was given an innate need to worship. In other words, man will worship because it is baked into his nature. That worship was intended to be directed exclusively toward the Creator. This simple statement "I am Yahweh your God" found in Exodus 20, defines who man is to worship. This fact is clarified in the next verse. Man is to worship no one or nothing else. The idea that there is some sort of neutral space man can occupy that is void of worship, does not exist.

Willful deaf hearts then, are those who will be "drawn away and worship other gods and serve them." America is doing this very thing. Her worship is drawn away to another. The compelling question then, is what god are the people worshiping?

Man god

Perhaps the worst of all wrong worship, is when man turns to himself - the god of self. This self-worship is the religion of humanism. The principle dogma of this religion, as stated by the Greek philosopher Protagoras', "homo mensura," meaning "man the measure." Self becomes the ultimate norm. Therefore, he is not to be subservient to anything or anyone outside of himself. In other words, with unrestrained pride, man defines himself by himself as the standard for all things.

This self-worship is evident as radical autonomy - self-law, self-governed, self-rule, allegiance only to self. A world view defined by oneself. Of course then, morality can only be determined by the individual. Homo mensura must conclude that one’s accountability extends only to the god of self-sovereignty.

Men and women are so committed to the self-glorification of humanism that they assume divine authority. The principle doctrine of which is "my will be done." This is "my life," and I will determine and define what I am and how I will live. I even have the right to determine life and death.

So man becomes the other god. The dogma preached is one of self-volition and worship. It is himself to whom he is drawn away to worship and serve. Humanism is nothing short of a cult, a false religion of creature-worship.

Death Cult

Humanistic ideology states: If a woman is pregnant, and if her baby is inconvenient or may be a burden, she may choose to kill it. If she wants the child, she determines the baby can live. Self is the only consideration. This cult gained legal status in the 1970's.

Once baby murder was legalized, Humanism quickly moved to focus on the elderly. Once an aged person becomes an imposition, they need to be put down. The younger generation who aborts their babies will not have an issue with murdering their parents.

This love of death, however, is not satisfied with merely killing others. It now it has moved to "self-murder." Arbitrary killing under such euphemisms as: "Medical Aid In Dying (MAID)" or "Death with Dignity" and one more, "death gives life meaning." Such incongruous absurdities is repugnant to any sane mind with even the slightest capacity to reason.

Today there exists a DYI death pill to kill babies. Is there any reason not to think a DYI suicide pill will soon be available? Such cultic behaviors are marks of a nation in complete moral freefall.

When humanism promotes such extreme autonomy, in the end it can only lead to death. Such autonomy takes to self authority that belongs to God alone. At its very foundation is God hate, hate for Yahweh and rejection of His Law - an in-your-face commitment to self-government.

Final Solution

Humanism preaches death as the final solution to all problems. Death is the humanist's savior - salvation from life. An unwanted baby? Kill it. Have mom or dad become a drain of time and money? Put them in the grave. When one’s own life is not meeting expectations of happiness, then die with dignity (as if there were such a thing). And, fellow cult members will be happy to assist. Where will this stop? If given enough time, how can humanism not destroy itself?

This is a cult with only one answer to the trials, sorrows and guilt of people. No matter how one shuffles the cards, the end game is the same. A death march! To free oneself from life, is to die. This is the only salvation man can offer. How opposite is this to the salvation from death to life given in Jesus Christ.

America and many other nations have made a choice. The evidence is unavoidable. The prevalence of "death and calamity" is obvious. To chronicle the reality of this requires looking no further than the nearest newsfeed, as this self-worship has spread into the general population. And in actuality, it is worse than what you typically read about. Romans 1:24-32 details what our country has become.

Second of Three

To conclude, what was intended to be a one-off article, evolved into a series three. It began with the shocking realization and discovery that a death cult member is that ordinary person sitting next to me.

We as a people, the American nation, are in deep trouble. Lady Liberty has put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. The bullet is on its way - it is just a matter of time. Like the nation Israel and every other nation in history, we were given a choice. "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and calamity." America has indeed made her choice.

And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 3:19

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