In New York's Manhattan, 1857, Spiritual conditions in the United States had deteriorated. people followed after secular pursuits, and turned their backs on God! But a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a prayer meeting in the Dutch Reformed Church in Manhattan. It grew from 14 one week at the church to 6,100 men in twelve meetings daily! Then a landslide of prayer began. People began to be converted. (10,000 a week, in all more than 1,000,000) in New York City. The revival spread throughout New England, then to Europe, Asia and Africa. Then they were meeting three and four times a day! There were so many Baptist conversions that they broke ice, and began to baptize in the Hudson River in the cold of winter! The effect of this revival lasted 40 years! From The Rebirth of America, P. 63

In 1905, there was need for another awakening in America! Special Prayer meetings were held in the Moody Bible Institute; at the Keswick Convention in New England; in Melbourne, Australia; in India, Korea, and around the world. God sent another awakening in answer to prayer in 1905.

At Yale 25% of the student body was enrolled in prayer meetings and Bible studies. In Atlantic City, N. J. of a population of 50,000, only 50 adults were known to be unconverted. In Portland, Oregon, 240 department stores closed from eleven to two for prayer. This revival was linked to the great Welch revival of 1904, where 100,00 were converted. After five years 80,000 could be found still standing true! Ibid, PP. 63,64

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is Just, that his justice cannot sleep forever." A. Lincoln

America was not formed a nation apart from God, but a nation under God! Ibid, P. 70

With the dissolving of absolutes, America's crime rates have spiraled. By 1986, crime cost Americans over $2,000,000 a year. It is much higher today! Suicide is the second largest killer of teenagers. By 1986, the IRS had made abortion clinics tax exempt as charitable institutions.

Militant atheists and socialists have gone very far in imposing their view of life and man on almost every American institution. And what have we reaped as a nation from our many personal and collective delinquencies? Atheistic schools, rampaging crimes, God- forsaken homes, drugs, abortion, pornography, permissiveness, a sense of cynicism, and spiritual desolation absolutely unprecedented in our country's history. By and large, our people look in the wrong direction for their deliverance. As Christians we need to work with missionary zeal to reinstate the rule of Christ in our sadly demoralized country. Senator Jesse Helms, Ibid P. 78

When God listed the valiant warriors of Israel, He added a significant comment about the men of Issachar. They "...were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do..." It is imperative that Christians apply the principles of God's word in refuting the false concepts of our day. Bill Gothard, P. 88. The Rebirth of America.

We have all seen the statistics that reveal the breakdown of the family unit in our society... more than one out of every two couples who walk down the aisle to get married will eventually change their minds and end up in a divorce court; last year over 600,000 children were born to unmarried women; each month the lives of 125,000 children are cruelly ended before they ever have a chance to leave their mother's womb; an estimated 10 million Americans are engaged in a perverse, homosexual relationship. The tragedy is that these statistics represent human lives... real people who are experiencing the consequence of refusal to follow God's plan for the family. Del Fehsenfeld

Though crude, pornography is a philosophical statement. It says: there are no rules about sex; sex is trivial; sex is for entertainment. Though debased, pornography is a theological statement. It says: there is no God who says I should limit my lust or channel my passion or give as well as get. Pornography is: anti-woman and anti-child. It is anti-marriage and anti-permanence. Thus it is profoundly anti-civilization. Since civilization is social support to the dynamics of life, pornography is anti-life. William Stanmeyer, The Rebirth of America, P.103

With a rise in the "New Morality," America is becoming a "New Sodom." Homosexuality is almost as old as man. The first mention of it in history concerns Sodom and Gomorrah, over 4,000 years ago. The word sodomy, copulation with a member of the same sex, has come to stand for homosexuality. Gay magazines boast of wide circulation. Towns and cities have enacted ordinances forbidding discrimination against homosexuals. Many large corporations have announced policies of non- discrimination against homosexuals. TV and movies are treating gay themes more openly and sympathetically. Special churches are organized either for or by homosexuals. Legislation is being promoted that would elevate homosexuality to equal status as heterosexuality. Even churches may not discriminate against them in their hiring policies.

What Does God Think About it?

In Genesis 1:27, it says: "Male and female created he them." Homosexuality is not a third natural sex or alternative orientation in God's diverse world. Instead, it represents a choice, in some sense, to set one's desires and satisfy one's physical drives in a way contrary to God's appointment and creation. There is no natural homosexuality, for homosexuality is precisely a perversion of nature. Homosexuals are made, not born; their disorder is developed contrary to their God-given identity; learned in opposition to the created order; pursued in defiance of the marriage ordinance." Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." According to Paul, homosexuality is the cultural culmination of rebellion against God. It is symptomatic of a society under judgment, inwardly corrupted to the point of collapse. Six mandates for the Christian: 1). Don't Be Put on the Defensive. 2). Don't Water Down What God Has Said. 3). Don't Accept the Notion That Christianity and Homosexuality are Compatible. 4). Don't Give Up the Fight Against Homosexual Activism. 5). Don't Forget that Homosexuality Destroys Normal Family Relationships. 6). Don't Reject the Homosexual, But Reject His Sin. The Rebirth of America, P.P. 106, 107

VI.     The Hidden Holocaust

Abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are but dominoes in a line; abortion has fallen, infanticide is tottering, and euthanasia may soon follow.

Recently a California company which had rented a storage cubicle fell behind on its payments; men were dispatched to clean out the facility and repossess the cubicle. What began as a simple clean-up assignment resulted in an unbelievable spectacle and bitter controversy. Seventeen thousand pre-born babies were discovered floating in formaldehyde-filled containers. The sight of so many babies, many of which were completely formed and developed to the seven and one-half month stage of pregnancy, caused many of the men to quietly withdraw and vomit.

The seventeen thousand babies were buried more than 3 years after their discovery due to the controversy which raged over whether or not they are "persons" worthy of burial. Those who opposed burial said that the containers do not contain "victims" or "corpses," but "pregnancy tissue." These seventeen thousand are the murdered "rags" and "puppets" of our generation.

Abortion. No other word is as likely to divide the American populace. Abortion advocates promote a woman's right to be child-free and her right to privacy. Those who call themselves "pro-choice" insist upon the right to an abortion for those women who bear children as a result of rape or incest, never considering that those children are worthy of the life which has already begun in them. Pre-born babies that are predicted to be deformed or "defective" are elected for termination even before the medical science which can so thoroughly explore them before birth is given a chance to help them after they enter the world.

It is a fact: abortions in the United States for rape, incest, to protect the life of the mother, or to void a defective fetus comprise less than five percent of all abortions. Over one million babies each year are killed simply for the sake of convenience.

Rape practically never results in pregnancy. Even if a pregnancy does result, an abortion does not remove the guilt or the trauma from the victim. Abortion is the same kind of violence as was the rape.

One renowned surgeon remarked that in thirty-six years of pediatric surgery he has never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother's life.

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a leading gynecologist, believes that fewer than twenty of 100,000 pregnant women will die as a result of their pregnancy. The Rebirth of America PP 111-113.

We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life - the unborn - without diminishing the value of all human life. There is no cause more important. Former President Ronald Reagan

Outright persecution of Christian liberty is permeating our society. Christians are called to recognize these attacks, and repel them with stalwart Biblical action.

Christians have the remarkable message of Christ's Gospel to proclaim to the world. Unfortunately, that message is being increasingly stifled and censored. We live in a nation whose founders considered free speech and free exercise of religion so important that they deliberately sealed their protection in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Today, however, Christians, and other religious persons, are being victimized by a determined, powerful secularistic effort to suppress both of those freedoms.

When the apostle Peter was ordered to stop preaching and teaching about Jesus, he refused, saying, "We must obey God rather than man. Acts 5:29. Peter was jailed, beaten and finally executed for his commitment to spreading the truth of the Gospel. To him - and to the first-century Christians - faith was not a "personal" matter, something to be quietly confined to church and home. It was God's universal truth given to redeem a crumbling world. Ibid P.133-9

The foundations of present day America are no longer solid rocks cemented in its Christian heritage: They have become brittle clay crumbling under the judgment of God.

Nations, once great, let moral decay from within bring them to ruin. Consider Rome. Once a great nation with strong family values, crumbled under moral decay. Greece, one of the first attempts of man for a democracy, fell because of moral decay within.

IX.     Is America Next on The List?

Is God blind to the sin of our own nation? Will he continue to bless us as He looks on our idols of silver and gold, on our pride of personal achievement, or our prevailing rebellion against Him?

"Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."

America is not big enough to shake her fist in the face of a holy God and get away with it. Hasn't the black shadow of judgment already begun to cross our land?

As America has permitted homosexuality to establish itself as an "alternate lifestyle," it has also reeled from the frightening spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Sin begets its own consequences, both on individuals and nations.

Stories of crime, corruption and sex scandal fill the newspapers. Conservatives and liberals alike agree that our beloved nation has some gaping wounds. Sadly, though, the combined attempts of analysts, politicians, educators and sociologists are failing miserably to provide any lasting solutions. Why? Because we have failed to understand the cause of our problems. As a result, we are merely treating symptoms, while ignoring the real roots

Civilizations do not just die. Their leaders and people are first deceived; then they are destroyed by God. "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Eph. 5:6

When a Nation Listens to "The Lie", 1). it dethrones God and deifies man. 2). It exalts human reason. 3). It replaces God's moral standards with situational ethics. 4). It promotes sensual pleasure and instant gratification. 5). It makes the State the sovereign over everyone.

The hour is late; God's judgment has already begun to fall. Western civilization as we know it, is clinging precariously to the thin strand of human effort and achievement. All of man's combined attempts, time, wealth, and ability alone are not adequate to hold back the destruction of our nation. We are engaged in a great spiritual battle between the very forces of Heaven and Hell. Human weapons will not suffice. Only divine intervention will return this nation to a solid footing. If judgment is to be averted, we must meet God's conditions. "If My people which are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (II Chron. 7:14) (Joel 2:12-13)

America's future depends on the prayer of its people - we need to know how to kneel before the LORD: 1). Confess personal and national sins. 2). Ask for forgiveness for both. 3). Plead for His mercy upon us and our nation. 4). Pray for our political leaders and authorities. 5). Pray for the spiritual leaders.

Letter from Belize
By Brother Charlie Joe Green

I just got in from the first funeral at Hattieville church in many years. One of the faithful ladies (Mrs. Francis) died this week. I learned today that these families don't just go to other churches when a church is dormant. Being without a pastor for a couple of years I would have thought these people would be members of other denominations. But, they just don't go anywhere else. Anyway, it was a good opportunity for ministry building and pastor Donovan Grinage did a good job. He has really established himself as pastor for those people. The place was packed and they had three tents up in front. I was embarrassed that we didn't have the ceiling in yet but, I don't think anyone cared. I will send you a letter from the church outlining their immediate needs for growth. They are simple asking for any donations to help them renovate the parsonage into Sunday School classrooms. They are going ahead with the "tithe" money they have and are praying for God's help to finish the project. Pastor Donovan also has shared with me his vision for planting churches. He says as soon as God sends a pastor-leader for Hattieville church he is already praying for the next village God would have him go. I think he is serious.

Missionary's Report
Bro. Charlie Joe Green

Hi to all of you again. Except for Continental Airlines refusing to "freight" one of my containers my trip down was a pleasant one. They would only allow two pieces of luggage...period. It seems those lawnmower parts are "predestined" not to make it to Belize. Thanks to Jerry Jones for picking up the "left behind" container for me at the airport! Hopefully, we can bring it down later.

Thanks to all the churches and everyone I visited during this Christmas season. Some were short visits as my schedule was hampered with necessary doctor appointments and hearing aid problems. I truly appreciate the support and warm welcome from everyone. All of the churches I visited, even for a short stop-by, really made me feel at home and showed their continued support. All of the church meals, meals with friends, meals with family, were delicious; and my "expanding" waistline proves it. I did enjoy the opportunity to share the vision and work of Belize. It was a "widespread" visit; from Kosciusko down to Neely, and from Monroe Louisiana to "Sand Flat" Alabama. No, I didn't get to make representations at every place I visited, but I tried to see as many of you as I could in the short time I had. All I can truly say is I did cover a good bit of ground.

As always, I felt I did not spend enough time with my family. However, I especially enjoyed what time I had with you this year. All of you are in my prayers and my love is with you. I am always encouraged to see how God is working in your lives.

Back to Belize and back to work. I didn't have to meet but a few folks coming in to the village yesterday to know that much has happened while I was away. I have a lot to do to catch up. I thank all of you for your prayers and support.

Pray for our Spanish area revival starting February 22nd.

Pray for the work team to finish the school bathroom.

Pray for the medical team coming down March 27th through April 3rd.

Repentance and Revival
W. Arthur Burgess

In the revival which had its origin in Charles Grandison Finney's preaching in Rochester, NY in 1830, one hundred thousand souls were estimated as having been converted to God in one year.

In his lectures on Revival in Religion, Finney says that a genuine revival always includes deep conviction of sin on the part of the church. Christians will be brought to a deep repentance with a forsaking of sin and a new beginning of obedience to God. Christians must repent of their sins before unbelievers will repent of theirs.

Revival is needed - in other words, Christians need to repent - "When there is a lack of brotherly love in the church; when there are dissensions, jealousies, evil speaking's and a spirit of controversy. When there is a worldly spirit in the church, and Christians conform to the world in dress, worldly amusements and what they read (and nowadays of course, watch). When it finds its members falling into gross and scandalous sins.

In "Preparation for Revival" Finney quotes Hosea 10:12 - "Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you." To break up your fallow ground you must examine thoroughly the state of your heart, review your past history, look at your sins one by one and repent of them one by one. Sins of omission: want of love to God. "Have you not given your heart to other loves?" Neglect of the Bible, of prayer, of the means of grace "when you have suffered trifling excuses to prevent you attending meetings. How often have you neglected to watch your conduct, and having been off your guard, have sinned "by your rudeness, your curt reply, your offhanded article to your brother or sister, lacking any real warmth and Christian affection? How many times have you seen your brethren growing cold or falling into sin and have not spoken to them about it? Self-denial is neglected. Some are not willing to deny themselves comfort, convenience of even luxuries. Some give of their abundance but only give of their surplus wealth."

Sins of commission: "worldly mindedness, including love of property and possessions." It is easy to fall into the snare of limiting our availability to God by adding job to job or increasing our secular interests and responsibilities. Robbing God: "misspending your time, squandering the hours which God gave you to serve Him, in vain amusements or foolish conversation. You have squandered money on your desires, on things you did not need and which did not contribute to your good. I will not speak of intoxicating drink, for I presume that there is no professor of religion here that would drink it. And just think of a professor of religion using God's money to poison himself with tobacco. Hindering others "by insinuating against them. Some have circulated letters calculated to create distrust."

All of your sins must be recalled, confessed, repented of and renounced."Let there be this deep work of repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God, and you will have as much of the spirit of prayer as your body can bear up under. And this leads to the next lecture, which is on Prevailing Prayer. Revival may be expected, says Finney, when Christians pray for is as though there hearts were set upon it; when they begin to confess their sins one to another, when they are willing to make sacrifices to help forward God's work; and when they are willing that God should come in His own way and promote His work by whatever instruments He pleases.

More extensive revivals followed. In 1857-8 it was estimated that fifty thousand professed conversions per week occurred for six or eight weeks in succession in the northern parts of the United States. The proof of the pudding is in eating.

Emmanuel News

Please don’t forget that February is the month to renew your subscription to the Methodist Protestant Faith. I appreciate each and every one that gets the MPF each month and the people who have sent articles. Our subscription number is about 1030 (which includes individuals and bundles sent to churches) and I hope that we can get all the churches to really support this drive for the paper in the year of 2004. Some of our churches have very few people on the MPF mailing list. Send a donation of $4.00 or $5.00, I will put you on the list. If you cannot afford that, let me know that you want the paper and I will send it to you!

Andy Jenkins, Editor