Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

If you asked most professing Christians in America if there was any conflict between supporting such statist holidays as “Memorial Day” and their alleged faith and trust in the Lord, most of them would not only fail to see a contradiction, but have positively found themselves in agreement with such holidays and are prepared to put their idolatry on display for the day (e.g., get the American flag up on their house if it wasn’t already proudly flying there).

In many ways, though, such holidays as “Memorial Day” are not only contradictory to Biblical faith, but are rather explicit substitutes for the basic confessions of faith. Rather than “Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins,” for instance, we are told of “the soldiers who sacrificed themselves for our freedom” — when, in truth, they died advancing the world system and its ability to ensnare the global population in its net. The social engineers adopt theological language and apply it in ways that are intended to dupe the simple-minded into celebrating and revering those who do the dirty work for the empire. Billy Graham once said, for instance, that all the men who fought wars for the American empire have “purchased by their blood the freedoms that we enjoy today.” He went on, “Thousands have died for honor and freedom, and what we have today has come at the price of shed blood.” 

Of course, he also obligatorily mentions the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but more so out of an obligatory aside and out of such propagandistic efforts to seamlessly blend the two ideas together in the minds of foolish listeners. But really, according to this speech, “the bells of liberty ring in America today because these men we honor today got through for us.” Being even more clear that he elevated deceased veterans above Jesus Christ, Graham says, in perhaps the most evil appropriation of the story of Jesus for use in state idolatry in this speech, that “the freedoms we enjoy…were bought…primarily by the blood, sweat and agony of those whose names on this day we honor—those who died that we might live” (emphasis mine). 

This Memorial Day sentiment that fallen soldiers—not the Lord—are to thank for “our freedom” is popular among millions of professing Christians today. Such a holiday couldn’t be further from the truth of where liberty comes from, or any further from where Christians ought to be looking when it comes to expressing their gratitude — whether God, or as the militarist shill Billy Graham calls them, the “war dead.” Tyrants are only raised up by God to rule when a people have become thoroughly wicked, idolatrous, and vain — like when, on days like “Memorial Day,” they nearly universally praise Egypt and its military might for their many blessings. Men who fear states so much that they erect one of their own are given over to these very evils themselves. As God has said,

“I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not” (Isaiah 66:4).

Those who participate in “Memorial Day” mourning and believe that the State and its workers of iniquity keep us safe and free and that no one is tougher than them resemble those spoken of in Revelation 13:4: “They worshiped the dragon, because he had given his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who can fight against it?'”

Contrary to what probably most professing Christians would (unfortunately) tell you, “Memorial Day” is an ungodly holiday of the evil empire, meant to entice men into even greater idolatry for the State than they already have in them, like voting for rulers, deifying them as gods and saviors, singing national anthems, and celebrating other statist [un]holy days like the Fourth of July. It is just another propagandistic holiday that trains idolaters to partake in the rituals and ceremonies of this false religion of statism and teaches them to join in with the overt and unrepentant sinners of the world who support these pagan kingdoms of human sacrifice.

These “holidays” do not come from the Lord, but from men and their idolatrous traditions. When men revere government agents as their “heroes” and honor them for their “sacrifices,” they are not following the Lord, but rather are “eating the fruit of their own way” and are “filled with their own devices” (Proverbs 1:31). Such acts of state worship are the very things that blatantly provoke God’s anger (Deut 5:9, 7:25, 32:16, 32:21; Judges 2:12; 1 Kings 14:22; Psa 78:58, 106:29; Isa 1:29, 3:8, 65:3; Jer 2:25).

Who should we remember?

Given that we’re not free, but rather are living under an Egyptian occupation, it’s hard to wonder how anyone is foolish enough to find something to celebrate (or mourn) on this day. Never mind that such a day condones the murderous and plunderous wars of the empire that God’s word clearly condemns as out of step with His will. And so much for Jesus’s call to “love your enemies,” men on Memorial Day agree that they should bomb their “enemies,” sacrifice some young folks in the cause, and then set up a holiday to honor them. (And we would have to also ignore that many of these people who have been murdered by the American state and its agents were far from qualifying as real enemies or threats).

But what are some reasons that Christians should oppose such rituals as take place on these supposedly sacred holidays of the State?

That “Memorial Day” is not a Biblical holiday should be a good enough reason for men who claim to know God to want nothing to do with it. But since most people have been tempted by the world and all its evils, they have seen no incompatibility between things like “God and country,” “support the troops,” and other statist slogans which they have readily embraced. They have bought into the lies that any freedom or wealth that we may have comes from governments and their agents, rather than existing in spite of them and by the grace of God. 

To look to the State as one’s source of freedom is most certainly to take one’s eyes off of God — or rather, it is to make the State into one’s “god” rather than the Lord. 

While many other things could be said against the idolatries and evils of such statist holidays as “Memorial Day,” let us make one simple argument against “Memorial Day” that such things shift remembrance and praise from God to men. Contrary to those who look toward the Salvation State on days like this as being the source of freedom and prosperity, men of God are told to look to the Lord.

“You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

But rather than our ability to produce, trade, and enrich ourselves being attributed to God, the “Memorial Day” mourner attributes such things—the false, unsustainable, credit-based economy of the American empire that they think is permanent—to the “sacrifice” of soldiers in the murderous adventures of the empire which they call “fighting for freedom.” As mentioned above, the “American soldier” takes the place of Christ crucified, becoming the sort of Jesus-on-the-cross figures who have essentially died for our sins and saved us from trouble. 

Nowhere in scripture, however, are we told to remember Pharaoh’s armed forces (which is what American soldiers amount to) for anything more than being contributors to a system of slavery and captivity. They fought for the power, control, and riches and central bankers and government rulers, not the myth of “the people” under which these acts are perpetrated. We are told to remember, and to thank, God for anything and everything that we have — especially His ability to remove us from under the boot of Egyptian rulers, like that of the American regime. 

As always, we see a great difference between the thought-patterns and words of the Biblical writers, who God spoke through, and the absurdities that we hear among the average person these days, who tell us that “governments” save us from evil that would otherwise (supposedly) abound if (they don’t say this but this is what it means) we trusted in God and His liberty to provide for us instead. Such a contrast of ideas is very prominent when comparing the psalmists to the state-worshipers of today.

Far from placing their faith in Pharaoh’s army to save them, the psalmists speak of having “hope in God” and remembering Him for everything (Psalm 42:5-6); of God having “been my help,” being in the “shadow of [His] wings,” and being “upheld” by His hands (Psalm 63:6-8); of remembering God in the night (Psalm 119:55). 

For the man of God, it is the Lord that is supposed to be on His mind for everything he has — and this means at the exclusion of the false-god agents of the State who try to take God’s place by pretending to protect and prosper men, all while they plunder them. 

For the man of God, there is no place in his heart for the worship and veneration of agents of Egyptian political systems like the “American” one, whether its presidents, politicians, soldiers or police. God proclaims that He opposes such systems as the ones that men find themselves worshiping on the holidays of the State, which are designed to kick men’s idolatry into gear and exploit any evil that may lie dormant in their hearts. Whereas statists admit to their love of presidents and soldiers, God says, “Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Ezekiel 29:3).

Judgment upon statist societies

The giddy and idolatrous heart that statists have on the empire’s holidays, which leads them to think that these systems last forever so long as men throw their hearts behind them and praise them as ‘the best’ that there ever was, are what become the downfall of a people — rather than, as a Billy Graham might tell us, the reason we’re all still standing here today.

But as God always promises throughout the scriptures, the idolatry for state agents as the saviors and protectors will cost men the liberty that God has given. For God always has the opposite in store for those who believe that their rebellious political systems are unstoppable and permanent. Far from these evil systems going on forever, God makes promises of destruction for statist systems as ours.

“The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate” (Ezekiel 29:9-10).

For the sin of believing that “veterans” have “fought and died for our freedom” and that we can’t do without men ruling over us, God hands such people over to tyrants as a lesson in their own evils.

“I will make the streams dry up and sell the land to the wicked. By the hands of foreigners I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it. I, the LORD, have spoken” (Ezekiel 30:12). 

Those who trust in agents of the state to secure liberty and prosperity will—as a law of God—get the very opposite of what they expect these systems to deliver. Such state-worshiping, which is not coincidentally rampant in our world, is one of the main ways men rebel against God. And it must be punished. But far from seeing what God may do to those who refuse to fear Him and abandon their worship of men, such unholy days as these trick men into thinking that everything is going well and there is no need whatever to look to God and remember Him; it is soldiers, we’re told, who are to thank (and mourn) for “our freedoms.”

Statism as a denial of God

The belief that government agents have secured our freedom through their sacrifice on the battlefield—this is the main sentiment of Memorial Day—demonstrates one’s lack of faith and trust in God. It sounds harsh, because so many lost souls who celebrate such an evil day as this one also claim to know God, but anyone who buys into such a statist celebration as this, and believes in all the lies associated with it (e.g., soldiers “fight for our freedom,” we should “thank a vet” for everything we have, etc) proves thereby that they do not know the Lord. 

For if a man knew the Lord, he would never for a second think that men who call themselves “the government” have given us the things that, by His grace only, we have. Instead, he would see that these men are nothing but plunderers of God’s good creation who are in need of recognition and repentance for their evils if they are ever to find true liberty.

To throw one’s support behind political systems demonstrates just how much a man hates God. There is no reason to think that a man truly knows the Lord because he professes to know Him, all while he goes on to idolize agents of the State as (supposedly) giving him everything he has. The scriptures do not tell us that we must accept men on their word alone. As the Apostle Paul wrote, applying just as well to the idolatry of statists, “They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him” (Titus 1:16). Jesus similarly tells us of the people who claim to know the Lord but really don’t (Matthew 7:21-23, 15:7-9, 25:12; Luke 13:25; John 8:47, 10:26). Men who bomb children for a paycheck simply do not know God and are walking against Him.

When a man’s gaze is set upon the State and its servants, when a man is waving the flag of a State in the belief that those who died while wearing it are the virtual “saviors” of mankind, they show—no matter how much they may profess to be on God’s team or how many days a year they attend church—just how much they are into false gods. God is not impressed by men who claim to know Him, and sees men’s actions—celebrating such idolatrous state holidays as Memorial Day—as the determining factor. As one prophet (which Jesus cites) puts it, 

“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (Isaiah 29:13).

The statist who supports the false heroes of the State (veterans, police, etc) and fails to see any contradiction in such slogans as ‘God and Country’ may indeed “swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel,” but he does so “not in truth, nor in righteousness” (Isaiah 48:1). 

Far from honoring men as the ones who secure our liberty, the scriptures point to God as the liberator and show that men are the very enslavers who we need to be free from. 

“Remember this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; for the LORD brought you out of it by the strength of His hand” (Exodus 13:3).

The only thing fallen soldiers of the State should be remembered for is furthering the cause of political slavery. They fought in support of Egypt, not liberty. We are told that it is the Lord who has “redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:8). But on “Memorial Day,” men reverse this and praise the hand of Pharaoh and his agents as their saviors and liberators. 

Conclusion

While many older folks, who think the “good old days” didn’t contain the seeds of what we’re reaping now, might be going around telling people that “the problem with this country is that there isn’t enough patriotism anymore, not enough flags in the classrooms, or not enough celebration of holidays like memorial day,” we know that these are the very things that led social order into decline by substituting statism for godly order. When men throw their hearts behind the State, God—though reluctantly and sadly—is more than willing to give these people over to the very things they inadvertently wished for: state rulers who turn out to be plunderers rather than protectors.

As the cracks of “secular” empires of the world (they are necessarily “religious” like all systems) begin to reveal themselves, it is more relevant than ever that we remember God and get back to the Lord and His word. True liberty will come only through God and men getting back to the Lord. This false worship for the “heroes” of the State are what keep men enslaved to false gods.

On this “Memorial Day,” let us remember God — who brings His people out of Egypt. The supposedly “heroic” soldiers who many millions will venerate today as their saviors do just the opposite: they help bring us into Egypt — i.e., the enormously evil and expensive statist warfare-society that plunders and rules over its subjects (who, however, are trained to think of themselves as “proud citizens”).

Men of God are not in need of state militaries to protect us, but trust that God will provide for us if we put our faith in Him alone. But when men put their faith in politicians to save them, when men claim that what they have comes from the “sacrifice” of soldiers in war, their ways of thinking keep them trapped in political slavery.

If anything, “Memorial Day” should be another day for us to weep at what we have gotten ourselves into: A political slave society that doesn’t just rule by the sword alone and perpetrate evils against men, but is celebrated among the slaves, who think that all is well in Babylon.

Far from spending a day mourning the “fallen heroes” who supposedly secured our liberty for us and praising men for “fighting for our freedom,” God’s people, who know of the captivity we’re living under, should be lamenting the statist enslavement and crying out to God for help. As the prophet Jeremiah began his call for restoration following the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, 

“Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners” (Lamentations 5:1-2).

Rather than to maintain complacency and rejoice for a false “freedom” that we don’t have, which is the sentiment expressed on such days as this, we should get back to fearing God and the judgment that always comes—by providential law—upon evil systems like the one we have set up today in our sin.

Those who are thanking veterans on this day for a freedom that we don’t even have see the world backwards from the reality and from that of the prophets, who knew full-well that statism is sin that leads men into slavery. Not only did they call for men to remember the Lord again, but as Jeremiah expressed above, for the Lord to remember us. 

Prayer

Lord God, our people are so lost today. They are clinging to the failing gods of empire with every little bit of idolatry that they have in them in hopes that these systems that brought on their destruction will somehow restore them. Even as they know things are not alright, they still can’t help but to honor the poor young souls who were sacrificed in vain for the wars of wicked men as their “heroes” who secured “our freedom.” They are channeling the memory of false sacrifices on this day under the delusion that these men’s deaths are the only reason they’re standing where they are today. Remove from men this evil spirit that constantly tempts them to support the empires of the world and turn them back to You and Your word. Please Lord, if You are hearing us this day, there are millions of people slumbering and not aware of their evils. Turn at least one man away from the celebrations, the parades, the veneration of veterans and soldiers, or whatever other festivities they plan on engaging in for this evil day. Bring at least one stranger of Your word to this message. More than anyone, Lord, lead some of the men who profess to know You (churchmen, etc) away from hosting such evil events in their congregations, and wake them up from these evils and bring them to a state of repentance. Put them in disbelief that they were ever foolish enough to celebrate “Memorial Day.” Humble them enough that they may see their idolatry and the lies of men. Amen.