Entanglements

Satan, the master magician, has done and will do anything and everything possible to bring the world, the flesh, the devil into the lives of every Christian. Nothing makes Satan happier than to have Christians compromise with the Word of God, to have a Christian church accept any pea-brained scheme.

Mark Twain said that India is the ultimate travel destination. I have spent much time in India, am well-exposed to the frauds and fantasies of Hinduism. Perhaps the greatest hopes of Hinduism lies in its offshoot, Yoga...and its doctrine of universal life-force energy. About 5000 years ago, so-called Hindu “holy men”, not satisfied with monkey and sexual perversion temples such as that at Khajuraho (which I have visited). Yoga, which started as a stretching exercise, and possibly could have been accepted as such, now has 15 million Americans involved in the chanting and other “scientific-spiritual” aspects of this fake religion. This stretching and meditating, derived from eastern religions, is not Christian, but many liberal, modernistic church groups have brought this hoax/ritual into their own churches.

Any practice that will cause your brother to stumble is wrong. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12) I have heard that one of these liberal Baptist churches in my town has incorporated Yoga into their activities program. The same church would compromise by having a bingo night, a Halloween haunted house, or even, God help us, the men's Bible class goes on an annual trip to Las Vegas for gambling. Again, is that what God was talking about in this marvelous chapter to the church at Corinth. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Even though apostasy has taken over Western civilization, the foundation of Christianity and freedom, we are accustomed to seeing houses of worship in all countries affected by Western culture. It is an awakening experience to visit countries without such...Godless, communist countries such as Russia and China. All traces of Christianity and liberty have been erased from China, the churches, mosques, cathedrals, monuments, gravestones, have all been beaten into gravel, used to build highways.

The only semi-spiritual activity you find in China, in the mornings, everyone practicing Tai Chi. When I took my early morning walk, my guide would tell me about whole communities together, in their Tai Chi exercises. Tai Chi is a martial art practiced for both mind and body. Confucius introduced this fusion of “yin and yang”, now not only practiced in China, but around the world.

The 44 countries comprising the Muslim world, mostly in North Africa and the Middle East, it is safe to say profess or possess rituals of any type in their Islamic worship. When you go to a mosque, and I have been to many, the entire process is male dominated, women are strictly on the sidelines, and you seldom see children in any activity. I cannot distinguish anything showing love or humility, from your studies in the Koran, a religion of domination, strict rules, intolerance of everyone else. Muslims do not mind killing one another... 90,000 killed as fodder in the Iran/Iraq war of 1989, the massacres taking place in Egypt, Libya, Somalia and other places show the empathy of Shira law.

From the beginning, mankind was entangled with sin; rebellious, not willing to follow even one law given by God, not to eat the fruit of one tree. The human heart is wicked, deceitful (Genesis 6:5). Of the billions of our first ancestors, all were so wicked that God destroyed all except 8 around 5000 BC. Of the descendents of Noah's family, God selected one: Abram, from the Ur of the Chaldees, and sent him on a 600 mile trip north without a forwarding address. He did not know where he was going, the first Jew. But from a long process found in the Old Testament, we have a history of Judaism, and other people only as they affect the Jews. Much history, many leaders, God dealing with the stiff-necked people, Sennacherib, Assyria, the descendents of Joesph, locating in the Caucus mountains of present day Russia, from which the race called “Caucasian” comes. They migrated westward...Europe, then to America, there is more scripture about America in the Bible than any other nation...powerful, despised (America gets little support at the United Nations). It has all come back to the conflict between Isaac and Ismael, Ismael's descendents now supported by Godless Russia and China, Isaac's descendents, Israel, America, no nations more despised than Israel and America.

On this side of the cross, redemption through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God's only Son (John 3:16). Western civilization, particularly America, on the pathway of Christianity, entangled in every communist, Godless philosophy to come our way. The prophet-preacher Ezekiel (586 BC), wrote about these problems (Ezekiel 38).

Under the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient hand of God, the west prospered, become powerful. America has become the world's greatest power, source for most of the world's development, spiritual foundation for world Christianity...90% of all missionaries, great houses of worship, great Christian literature, art and music. Through the freedom and liberty given to us through Christ (John 8:32) we have become entangled with slavery to the world, the flesh, the devil rather than the abundant life in Christ. (John 10:10, John 14:6) Shed the entanglements, the snares of the Godless world, for the redemption found in Jesus Christ and Him alone, salvation by faith, through grace, plus nothing.