Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

It’s a difficult position to be in to be among professing Christians and yet have to point out that many of them are fools who are not walking in the way of Christ, but are indeed chasing after the false god systems of men, i.e., “governments.” It is interesting to have to point out to men that you can’t serve the Lord and Caesar, despite Jesus Christ making it clear that a man cannot have two masters (Matt 6:24).

But the “United States” is full of these people who call themselves Christians and yet subscribe to the statist ideology of the world, many who use scripture to defend their idolatry. Rather than repent for their ungodly idolatry for the systems of men, or at least admit that they aren’t Christians, they attempt to hang on to God’s name and look for any excuse for their worldly ways. As one of our Christian anarchist brothers writes, “The vast majority of Christians are hardly ever concerned with the pursuit of truth, but rather the justification of their own idolatry using twisted scripture to assuage the fact that they take Christ’s name in vain.”

No one wants to be the one to tell another that they’re not a real Christian. But their fruit—in this case, anger, mocking, and hatred for those who don’t idolize the system of government like them—suggests otherwise.

Despite what these men profess, we’re on pretty solid scriptural ground to make such accusations. Scripture well supports this idea that not all those who profess the name of the Lord—this is easy enough to do—truly know Him or attempt to follow His ways (Isaiah 48:1; Jeremiah 5:2; Zephaniah 1:5; Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46; Romans 2:13; Titus 1:16, 1 John 1:6, 2:3-4, 3:6). Even Jesus Christ, citing the prophet Isaiah (29:13), observed that many men claim to be with God and are yet walking in the path of evil. 

“These people honor Me with the lips, but their heart is kept far away from Me” (Matthew 15:8). 

This is why Jesus also taught that we will know people by their fruit (Matt 7:16) — because many people profess to be one thing, but it doesn’t change who they really are. Anyone can claim anything, but it matters more what a man does and who he really is than who he says he is. As a proverb says, “A young man is known by his actions — whether his conduct is pure and upright” (Proverbs 20:11). It is not good enough to paint “In God We Trust” on your police vehicle when your job is to drive around robbing and caging people all day for the kings of the world, or to hang a cross on the walls of your home while you still subscribe to the worldly ideology of statism.

There are an endless amount of liars out there who may claim to be Christians but don’t really walk in the ways of Christ. These supposedly godly men were all throughout the Bible. As a prophet said, they “swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness” (Isaiah 48:1). Men who are not godly have always operated under God’s name — hence “In God We Trust” plastered on the extortionists’ court houses, fiat paper currency, and patrol vehicles.

So there is no necessary reason to accept that men are following God just because they say they are. The prophets had always witnessed a scene of backsliders who knew not God, even if they thought they did or professed His name. 

“For my people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good” (Jeremiah 4:22). 

Notwithstanding claims of our Egyptian society being “God’s country,” Americans are largely a people who worship the State rather than God, and who have found themselves thinking that “patriotism” (a thing most abhorrent to God) is more acceptable in the sight of the Lord than refusing to take part in such pagan-statist rituals as singing a national anthem. The prophets saw the same thing in their day. 

“Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them” (Jeremiah 9:14). 

As much as we try to correct these people, most of them refuse to listen and turn back to the Lord. They keep chasing after their false government-god. 

“Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward” (Jeremiah 7:24). 

So we’re not on shaky ground to suggest that many who claim to be Christians are indeed not walking in the way of the Lord — that most men are giving into the evils that we are told to walk away from. We could hearken back all the way to the pre-flood creation story and remember that God had seen the same thing. 

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in His sight, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). 

The scene

Another difficult thing about criticizing some people—in this case, I am looking at some conservative “patriots” who think God is on their side of supporting idol worship and against those who don’t—is that it sometimes seems to imply that we’re siding with the people they were criticizing. At least, this is how men’s brains work. Men are often black-and-white in the worst ways, i.e., they’re red-team or blue-team people rather than knowing the good from the evil and avoiding all evil. This often makes speaking difficult all around. If you criticize conservative idolaters, for instance, they will say “You must be a Democrat.” If you criticize Democrats, they will call you a “right winger.” If you point out anything wrong with someone’s criticism of others, they will think you are defending their enemies. (A humorous, small-brained example was when I had criticized some Army guys a few years ago, and the best they could conclude was “you must be Air Force!”).

In a recent news story a female soccer player, who I’m not interested in learning about or criticizing here, injured her knee while playing her last game. Since she had for years been refusing to stand or salute for the “national anthem,” hoards of conservative idolaters have used this injury as an occasion to laugh at her fall and to say, basically, “That’s what you get for not worshiping my idol.” I came across hundreds of them writing online, “That’s what she gets for disrespecting the US flag!”

They are angry that not everyone wants to participate in the sacraments of their false statist religion, and thought this deserves a laugh at anyone who doesn’t. (Let’s not even talk about how they are the very socialist “snowflakes” they accuse others of being, crying when people don’t worship the State with them. Remember the Colin Kaepernick drama years ago that proved the conservatives to be just as PC as their enemies?). One of the commenters hoped that the injury would prevent her in the future from avoiding the state sacrament by taking a knee. He said, “Can we all just say a little prayer that the knee injury is severe enough that [she] can’t kneel during the National Anthem anymore?” And another, “Have fun kneeling during the National Anthem with one knee.”

Even worse though, many commenters were saying—suggesting God was on the side of those who don’t even see the idolatry of National Anthems—that this was God’s way of punishing those who don’t want to salute the flag of Babylonian empires! One of them said, “God works in mysterious ways.” Another, “God works in awesome ways.” Another, “Vengeance is the Lord’s.” And, “God’s vengeance.” Another one of the idolaters somehow concluded, against God’s understanding of things, that not idolizing the State is what’s sinful. As he said, “God sure has an awesome way of getting back at evil people.” Despite that God’s judgment is precisely upon idolatrous people, there were hundreds of comments of people saying this was the work of God. Another said, “It’s rightful karma that God prepared for her.” One statist, however, confessing that his god is a man, did attribute it to not supporting his favorite Pharaoh. “Trump curse strikes again.”

The controversies around kneeling for national anthems present a good example of how lost our people are who think they have God on their side: For while God hates idolatry and commands us against it, these conservative state-worshipers attack the person who doesn’t stand to “honor the flag” and think that it has to be God’s punishment and scorn. As another said of the player’s knee injury, “[It’s] proof that God does have a sense of humor.”

They think people who don’t worship their false god should experience injury as punishment for refusing part in the state sacrament, whether at the hand of God or the mysterious forces of “America.” As another idolater said, “If you take a knee for the anthem, America might take your knee one day.” And, again assuming “America” to be a real entity, another says, “America takes a knee…her right knee!” And another, “You take a knee during the National Anthem, and your knee will be taken.” And another, “This is a repercussion for kneeling to our National Anthem. America Wins.”

The false god State

The idolaters were mad before when this player didn’t worship with the rest of them (not to suggest she doesn’t in other ways). As one of the Pharaoh worshipers said before, “She mocked our president, and she took a knee during the national anthem.” (Again, how do they not see they’re the same crybabies who they regularly deride Democrats as being?). 

But it makes perfect sense why this issue is big enough and touches their hearts: They are “triggered,” so to speak, because people are not supporting their false god: the State. So the conservative idolaters get offended and use it as an excuse to hate others and laugh at their injuries. They don’t want anything to do with people who offend the idolatry in their sinful hearts. As another said, “Because of the US Women’s soccer team’s complacent attitude towards Anti-American behavior, I will never support them ever!!!” (I guess he didn’t see that U.S. Soccer was not happy with it and seems to expect state worship from their players).

In fact, one of the conservatives’ favorite Pharaohs himself had mocked this same soccer player before. He said, like all his idolatrous followers, that this player “should never disrespect our country, the White House or our flag, especially since so much has been done for her and the team. Be proud of the flag you carry.” This is the same guy who is calling for jail sentences for burning the flag, which many conservatives happily agree with.

These same conservative idolaters would have also been angry with August Landmesser, the man who refused to salute Hitler in a famous photo. This picture of Landmesser (linked above) shows just how scarce a man is who isn’t giving into the ways of the crowd as the Pharaoh-worshiping conservatives do today. 

It’s amazing how backward these people have it. The thing that God hates is not taking a knee to the “national anthem,” but precisely those people who worship the State and sing national anthems. One day, God will have had enough of these flag-worshipers, anthem-singers, and those who kneel to the boot of the State. 

The post I saw online essentially amounted to a “that’s what you get for not worshiping my idols!” But it is pretty representative of the hearts of many of these conservative idolaters, who have no idea that they are not in the favor of God for their state-worshiping. This post probably doesn’t seem that important, but it’s easy to realize that these are the same people who would approve of Pharaoh’s agents hauling you off to a jail or a labor camp for “treason,” “subversion,” “terrorism,” or “backtalking an officer” or any other number of fake crimes. These are the same people who tell you to “leave the country” if you point out its evils. As one commenter said of her, “Trader [sic] to our country. If she tries to live in the USA we need to make sure she knows she is not wanted here.” If you don’t want to worship the State, the conservative idolaters want you gone.

Whatever is the ideology of the person with a knee injury, this response among conservatives shows the wickedness in men’s hearts that prevails in this world, even among men who don’t think they’re socialists and claim to have God on their side.

Prayer 

Lord God, I’m just a lowly little worm, a mortal man among others. But all I see are lost idolaters who have no idea of their sins. Help me to wake these people up and lead them back to You, because they are lost and driven away from You. Many of them have somehow convinced themselves that their “patriotism” has courted Your favor, and that You punish those who don’t worship the State like they do. All I can do is shake my head and find myself exhausted and speechless. Please give me the energy and words to heal these people, for they are sick in the head. They use Your name in vain to cover their worship of men. Help me to be tactful rather than hateful and bitter, because I do hate what I see. Lord God please snap these idolaters out of their sin, for they have brought the sword upon us, and the cage, and the shackles, and great persecutions. Heal them of their sick minds. Amen.