Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:33:22 AM
The OT nation of Israel was built on truth and blessed of God. In Jeremiah’s day it had turned away from truth, and he began to see the judgment of God prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 28. For example…
‘The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed…’ [Deuteronomy 28:43-45].
In that respect we deserve a greater condemnation than Israel because we have seen greater things and more evidence of the salvation of God than they did in their deliverance from Egypt. The types and shadows of Christ have come to full light in the NT revelation.
America’s founding generation understood that liberty must have a sure foundation for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ; “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
The Protestant churches today have little in common with the Reformed churches that were the backbone of colonial America and that influenced the writing of the founding documents and the state constitutions.
Now if the apostle commended the Bereans for searching the Scriptures to prove his preaching, then surely we ought to test our own pastors and teachers. ‘Test all things; hold fast what is good.’ Our authority is not men or church, but the Bible alone.
The Bible says to ‘study to show thyself approved unto God.’ Will you begin a study of the Great Awakening? Will you start by reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards? If you will, then consider that he was preaching to his colonial American congregation, not to an assembly of masters of theology. This will demonstrate to you the level of degeneracy that has infected the Protestant churches. By that we mean that the emphasis is no longer on the teaching ministry and preparing the saints for the work of ministry.
http://www.apuritansmind.com/JonathanEdwards/JonathanEdwards-Sermons.htm
“My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water…Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls…” [Jeremiah 2:13; 6:16]