Time of Great Danger for the U.S.--Post 1

By David Hobbs

(This is the beginning of a string of posts that all flow together, based on a word I received from the Lord to "Call the church to a war footing.")

There has come a time of great danger to this country and to the church, especially between now and when the next president is inaugurated in Jan. 2017.

The very foundations of this nation are being shaken by an accelerating collapse of our moral order and its replacement by an ungodly, sodomistic one. Christians, who over and over again have been unable to stem this tide, are expecting God to step in and judge this horrific state of affairs. But the church is making a serious mistake. The Bible declares in 1 Peter 4:17 that judgment, when it comes, must begin with the house of God. Before God can judge the evil in this nation, He is bound by His word to judge the evil in the church. And the church is woefully unprepared for such judgment. It has been so focused on the speck of sawdust in the nation’s eye that it has missed the plank in its own.

On the recent National Day of Prayer (May 5^th), there were 300-400 at the breakfast sponsored by the CBA—food and a speech in a comfortable setting. That evening, at the prayer-at-the-fountain event, there were 18. On previous National Days of Prayer, we used to have prayer meetings all over town: City Hall, Yuba County Courthouse, even Wheatland. Now we’re down to one event that drew 18 people. But the truly amazing thing was that out of the 18, only 1 was a member from the regular, mostly white, Evangelical/Pentecostal churches that dominate Yuba-Sutter. Only one out of thousands! The church is dwelling careless and at ease. Someone I shared this with said, “Not all people are called to intercession.” Well, how many from our 100+ local churches has God called to intercession? One hundred? Two hundred? Then where were they? When the dike starts to break, everybody swarms up to try and plug it, whether they are trained dike repairers or not. But nobody in the church thinks our dike’s about to break.

When I asked the Lord where the church was, the Lord showed me they were all over town. Doing what? He gave me the scripture of 2 Tim. 2:4 where Paul exhorts Timothy to be a good soldier. (How many Christians today even consider themselves called to be spiritual soldiers? Listen, unless you were a “special needs” student who went to school on the short little school bus, you’re called to be a soldier in this war!) Then Paul told Timothy what was required of God’s soldiers if they wanted to please their commanding officer (Jesus). They had to “refrain from becoming entangled in civilian affairs.” That was God’s answer to my question “Where is the church?” They weren’t in brothels or bars. But they were busily engaged in affairs of this life which had entangled them to the point they had forgotten they were supposed to be soldiers about the Master’s business. When I wondered what could be done about this situation, the Lord told me, “Call the Church to a war footing.”

The church is trying to fight a war with a handful of valiant intercessors, while the rest of the body takes its ease in Zion: living carelessly, going to church when it’s convenient, going to prayer meetings if no ball games are on, glad to be saved by grace and not works! It’s the same way our nation has fought its last few wars: Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The wars raged and people died—55,000 in the case of Viet Nam—But the nation was never put on a war footing. We were never called to sacrifice anything or do anything other than live life as usual. Many veterans have said we could have won the Viet Nam War if we had only prosecuted it whole-heartedly. It’s the same way we are fighting ISIS today, with one hand tied behind our backs, trying to pick off a leader here or there. And the church has done the same thing in its war against a spreading culture of evil.

Most of the church doesn’t even realize it’s at war. If you want to know if we’re at war, ask an intercessor. Do you know one?.

Before God can judge Barack Obama, He must judge the church. He must judge the lukewarm, the complacent, and those who put their lives in this world ahead of their calling in God. Many who are sitting at ease in Zion today, waiting to be raptured to heaven, will be shocked to find themselves spewed out of Jesus’ mouth like it says in Rev. 3:16. That is the startling teaching of the Bible. Jesus would rather we were atheists than lukewarm Christians who have lost our first love.

(Keep reading the next post down to continue with this thread)

Lisbon

By David Hobbs

This is a letter-to-the-editor I wrote that was published 1/9/16, the same day of our Solemn Assembly (which went quite well). It was based on a book entitled The Gulf of Fire b y Mark Molesky that my brother Jesse sent me. It  was a message that God dropped into my lap out of the blue to publish in our paper. 

"Lisbon," as quoted in  the book from The London Magazine of Jan. 1756, "might be said to be at once the most visibly rich and the most abandonly wicked and superstitious city in the world." The godly priest Malagrida saw Lisbon as being a "new Babylon," whose "theaters, songs, immodest dances, obscene comedies, amusements [and] bullfights" made it guilty in the eyes of God. The lesson this story holds for America in the present day is indeed chilling.

Dear Editor,

Does the name Lisbon ring any bells? Most people today would draw a blank, but it’s the capital of Portugal, a country many people also have never heard of.

            Yet 260 years ago, Lisbon was the premier city of Europe, wealthier and better known than London, Paris, or Vienna; its glory compared to Solomon’s splendor. Its people were very religious, but the religious system was deeply corrupt. Their idea of religion was what we would today call idolatry: clinging to images, statues and icons of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and giving them credit for their prosperity, with no real attempt to live godly lives. Roughly 10% of its 200,000 population were homeless; convents routinely doubled as brothels. Any dissenters to the corrupt system were brought before the Inquisition Court and punished, often severely.  

Then, on the morning of Nov. 1, 1755, a tremendous earthquake struck the city. It happened at the worst possible moment—it was All Saints Day, one of their major holidays. The churches were packed with worshippers, while the streets were thronged with people coming to the next service. The churches collapsed into rubble, killing the worshippers inside and those outside in the streets. Survivors fled to the waterfront to escape the falling buildings, only to meet a powerful tsunami. The prisons broke open and the convicts looted what remained (people kept their money in strongboxes in their homes). A fire broke out and raged for 5 days. An estimated 40,000 people died.

The churches were destroyed, but the brothels in the outskirts were mostly spared, which caused some to question whether it was really God’s judgment. Yet it was totally consistent with Jesus’ actions on Earth. He spent time with the prostitutes and sinners while being angry only with the religious, especially the religious leaders, who in turn had Him crucified.

            Lisbon never recovered, but remains a backwater city in what has become arguably the least-known country in Europe.

            What’s the point? There are chilling parallels to Lisbon in its heyday and America today. They never thought they could ever lose their wealth and splendor, yet it vanished overnight. Their glory days lasted some 250 years, about as long as we have been a nation.

            Let’s not tempt God by thinking we are beyond the reach of His judgment.

The End of America?

By David Hobbs

[This is a Letter to the Editor I wrote that was published in our paper today. As you can see, I think we are in very serious times. Sin always has a payday and I think our payday has come.

A prophetic friend of mine was woken up in the middle of the night recently with Jesus speaking to him. He said that because of the flood of ungodly laws passed by our legislature, and because other states look to our state (Calif.) as a bellwether state, Jesus said He was going to bring judgment upon us, "I will send fires upon you this summer and floods upon you this winter." So the fires are now raging and scientists tell us we have the largest El Nino in history developing out in the ocean. The state is starting to brace for catastrophic floods this winter. God is not fooling around. My friend also said that He had never seen the Lord so serious and somber. ]

Dear Editor,

Back in the 1980s, I was surprised by conservative commentators like George Will predicting the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union. It looked strong enough to me, threatening America and projecting its power around the world. Were they crazy?

            A short time later I was stunned when it did suddenly collapse: the Berlin Wall came down, it lost its satellite states and ceased as a world power. What brought it down was not military defeat, but economic failure. It lost its ability to compete with the U.S. in the arms race.

            Then I read a book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy traced the fall of every world empire (like Spain in the 1500s), to the same thing—they ran out of money just like the Soviets had.

            That alone would be enough to accurately predict the coming fall of the U.S. from the world stage. We are trillions of dollars in debt, which we can never repay. What good are the most sophisticated weapons when we can’t afford to build or use them? Our new bombers will cost one billion dollars each!

            Yet we’re also a nation filled with hubris, thinking we can take on God. We cannot even take on earthly powers like China. How in the world can we take on Almighty God? Yet we defy Him on abortion, pornography, gay marriage, cutting up babies and selling their parts… the list goes on and on. Now we’ve turned against Israel, making a covenant with Iran to defend it against Israel. If Israel tries to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, we will shoot down their planes! Once again we are defying God, who’s said He will bless those nations that bless Israel, and curse any nation that opposes her.

            There is much more that could be said. But the point is this: the handwriting is on the wall for America just as it was in the 1980s for the Soviet Union. No Republican, not even Donald Trump, can save us. In fact, more than one prophet has said: “there will not be another election—amidst the coming chaos, it will simply be canceled.” Those who are not in Christ and cannot hear His voice will fall. America’s sports loving, beer guzzling, Kardashian watching days will end suddenly. Please get ready!

The Ineffectiveness of Law, and the Perils of a Christ-less Nation

By David Hobbs

Here is a letter to the editor I wrote that was published in our local paper (the Appeal-Democrat) on Jan. 18, 2013. I am including it here because of all the letters I have written, this is the one I felt God's presence most strongly in writing it. He did not dictate it, but Holy Spirit was feeding me the ideas as I was writing. I was so caught up that if I couldn't come up with the right word to say, I would pray desperately for the word (desperate not to break the flow) and it would pop into my mind (neat experience!). While the initial idea of the ineffectiveness of laws to control human behavior was standard doctrine from the Bible (logos), where it went from there (rhema) was smarter than myself, which is a good way to tell when God gives you something.

Dear Editor,

There is a blindness in our society that’s breathtaking. It has to do with the power of laws to accomplish things—as if all we had to do to prevent tragedies like Sandy Hook was outlaw multiple clips and assault weapons and require strict background checks. It is already illegal to shoot students and teachers on school property! Did that prevent it from happening? Those guns were stolen, and you don't need a background check to acquire guns by stealing! Why would more laws produce a different result?  How about our drug laws, have they curbed the drug epidemic? 

We try to create desired outcomes with laws yet fail every time. Ever heard of New Year’s resolutions (laws we enforce on ourselves)? How do they work? 

The real problem is the sinful nature of man. Laws can reveal that rebellious nature, but cannot change it. Only God can change the human heart. But wait, isn’t God the One we kicked out of our schools and try to exclude from public life? 

The mass murderers aren’t concerned with human laws because they think they can escape justice by killing themselves when their rampage is over. How are more laws going to change that? But how would it affect them knowing that right after their killing spree they would be standing before an all-holy God? You see, they can and do evade man’s justice, but they can never escape God’s justice. Within moments of their death they are suffering in agony that will never end. Wouldn't knowing that be a greater deterrent than a hundred new gun laws? Yet we can’t teach that in schools because we kicked God out—remember?