Save America Ministries

Official Transcript

Guest (Male): This is Viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now with today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.

Chuck Crismier: He said the State of the Union is strong. Well, it's strong in some ways, but not in others. When you look at the condition of the floor of Congress with the split of the parties directly, almost totally, you find that the condition of the nation is not strong, especially that of the Union. You see, union means united. It means you've come together.

Indeed, when you have a group of people, half of the Congress that cannot bring themselves to stand to affirm even the slightest thing that is good, that is honorable, that is just, well, that the American people would right love to see happen in our country, you know that there's a problem in the country. So no, indeed, the State of the Union is not strong. On the other hand, there are things that are strong.

A recitation of many wonderful and good things that have been taking place and indeed, perhaps from my estimation, this State of the Union address was perhaps the best that I had ever heard. I liked particularly the fact that not only was there a recitation of the things, the progress that had been made to rectify things that had been destroying the nation for so many years, but also the calling to attention in the most open and, well, what would be the right term?

The most open and obvious way, the absolute stubbornness and rebellion of half of the nation through its representatives. It was glaring. It was painful to watch, but it revealed a reality that is exactly what we know to be truth. The division in our country is 50-50. So today on Viewpoint, we want to talk a little bit about that, but that's not the primary purpose of our conversation here today, even though our president said during his speech that the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, and he talked about how our destiny is written by the hand of Providence.

That brings back images of George Washington. He used that kind of language. Our destiny is written by the hand of Providence, in other words, by the hand of somebody other than us. In other words, God, by implication. Our destiny is written by the hand of God. Well, do you agree that that is true? And if so, what's happened to our destiny? If our destiny is written by the hand of God, then what has happened to our destiny? Where is it going? How can we understand where things are going?

I was thinking back to my book, Renewing the Soul of America, that came out in 2003 as I recall. In that book, endorsed by 38 national Christian leaders—actually, it was 2002—I recite some of the statements that were made by our national news magazines. For instance, on March 2nd, 1992, Newsweek recorded how our American dream unraveled. January 13th, 1992, Newsweek stated "The Glooming of America".

March 2nd, 1992, Newsweek stated, "We believed that prosperity would create the good society. We were wrong." February 3rd, 1992, Time Magazine, "The Fraying of America". January 21st, 1992, "If America doesn't watch out, it's going to be judged as finished by the world." That was the Associated Press. April 27th, 1992, "Voters are demanding in their leaders the personal virtues they decreasingly demand of themselves." Newsweek, March 2nd, 1992.

"We unwittingly adopted a view of human nature that assumed spiritual needs could ultimately be satisfied with material goods." According to U.S. News and World Report, politics became unabashedly devoid of principle. Interesting. That was in 1992. In 1992, that was the year the Lord spoke to my heart when I was sitting in my law office in Pasadena, California, saying, "Son, you've been pleading the cause of man long enough. I want you to plead my cause in the land as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation in America's greatest crisis hour."

Were we in America's greatest crisis hour? Indeed, we were. In that book, it not only describes the condition that we were in under the reign of William Jefferson Clinton, but it also described the direction that we should be going if we were to see Providence truly guide our nation. What would it mean if Providence truly guided our nation? Our destiny written by the hand of Providence, that is God.

Well, you would think that it would then mean that we would be fulfilling God's purposes and that we would be walking in righteousness and truth and justice and judgment and all of those things, for it's written that righteousness alone exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people. That's what you would think that we would be heading toward. But instead, it's been just the opposite until Donald J. Trump came along.

Then, even though the whole nation is wrapped up with Epstein, Epstein and his sexual skullduggery that seems to have enraptured many of America's leaders, we find ourselves at least heading in a direction that seems on the surface to be heading in a good and rehabilitative direction. But have we forgotten our purpose? Have we forgotten the purpose of freedom? Tony Perkins, who heads up the Family Research Council, wrote a very interesting piece. It came out in the Christian Post today: "When a Nation Forgets the Purpose of Freedom".

He says freedom in the Bible is never abstract. It's purposeful. It's directional. It is given so that a people might serve the God who delivered them. The truth did not escape the attention of America's founders. We want to take a little bit more look at that here today on Viewpoint, and I'm glad that you've joined us. It's conversation as always with ever-increasing conviction, talk that transforms. And you may recall that early on, I wrote a book called Out of Egypt: A Prophetic Call to the End-Time Church. In that book, chapter four is entitled "Doing Church in Egypt".

Now, that may sound a bit strange, but maybe it's not as strange as it may sound. From conservative politics to the church growth movement, the American church is deep, chest-deep, in the spirit of Egypt. The Israelites may have come out of Egypt in body, but the American church is infatuated with the leeks, onions, and garlic of the land of Pathros. Our rhetoric is the power of God, but our reliance is on the power of politics. Our talk is of salvation in Christ, but our walk is of salvation by Congress. Written in 1997. We'll be right back, friends. Stay tuned. This is Viewpoint.

Guest (Male): Once upon a time, children could pray and read their bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint, where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide really relate to the fourth commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station, or anytime at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" were the words that echoed out of Pharaoh's mouth. You may recall that, reading there in the book of Exodus. "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" That seems to be the language echoing over the airwaves of America. And I'm not talking about radio and television per se. I'm talking generally speaking across the country. "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" We have an entire party in this country that cries out in Pharaoh's language, "Who is the Lord that we should obey His voice?"

And so when righteousness is discussed, when talk of bringing about a more righteous nation, they don't like it. They say, "Who is the Lord that we should obey His voice?" And so they refuse to stand, they refuse to give any kind of credit for anything that is good, anything that is honorable, everything that is lovely, everything that is of good report—they refuse to stand for. They stand for everything else, everything else that's contrary to the word, will, and ways of God. So it's as if the entire party has gone back to Egypt.

Gone back to Egypt, loves the ways of Pharaoh. "Who is the Lord that we should obey His voice?" On the other hand, within the broader Christian community, the evangelical community, we've got our own serious problems in the same way. Suppose we had a Congress full of born-again Christians. Suppose that every elected office in the United States were full of professing Christians. Would we see change in America? Well, according to Don Hodel back about 20 years ago, they headed up the organization that was begun by Pat Robertson.

When they took it over, the Christian Coalition, they said, "You know, if we were to fulfill or fill every one of the offices of our government, elective office, with born-again Christians, America still would not change." Why? Because they said America will not change until the hearts of the people change. And for that, they were summarily released from their headship over the Christian Coalition by Pat Robertson. Why? Because they didn't speak the language of America's trust in politics.

They spoke the language of the Bible, that is, our trust should not be in Pharaoh, should not be in chariots and horses, should not be in all of these other things, but our trust ultimately should be in the God who made and preserved us a nation. So actually, my very first book was called Preserve Us a Nation. Where did that come from? It came from a godly lawyer by the name of Francis Scott Key. Francis Scott Key was out there in Baltimore Harbor and as the bombs were bursting in air, he penned America's national anthem.

From that national anthem came the words, "In God We Trust". Also "Preserve us a nation, praise the God who hath made and preserved us a nation." And from that came the title of my first book. Later, the iteration of that came in the form of Renewing the Soul of America, endorsed by 38 national Christian leaders, to call America back to the God who made and preserved us a nation, to help us to understand the purpose of freedom, the purpose of the freedom that we have been given.

Unfortunately, a Congress full of Christians operating in the spirit of Egypt cannot save America. We're just going to elect more Pharaohs and rule with another fist of bondage. You and I, friends, are engaged in the War of the Ages but have to be prepared for the battle of a lifetime. It's a battle for your life, for your mind and your heart, for your eternal destiny. It's not the culture war. It's a spiritual war and it's a matter of authority.

So if it's a matter of authority, then that's where we need to go when we take a look at the State of the Union. Where is the authority? Who is the authority? If Jesus is not Lord of all, is he Lord at all? And Americans have had a specially hard time with authority, even Christian Americans. In fact, our inbred hyper-individualism has convinced us that we're the captain of our soul, the final arbiter of what will be true. So our international reputation as a rebellious people is translated in a new national anthem—well, not really new.

Frank Sinatra's the one who spilled it out over America's airwaves, "I'll do it my way." So where does that leave American Christians on the road into or out of Egypt? Are we heading to the Promised Land, led by Divine Providence, or are we heading back to Egypt under the lordship of Pharaoh? If we only religiously believe in God without believing and obeying Him as God, we remain in Egypt, or disqualified from the Promised Land, notwithstanding all of our religious confessions, our protestations, or traditions to the contrary.

So there's only one way to be happy in Jesus, as a country and as individuals and families. It's to trust and obey. To trust and obey, and that's where Israel fell short when they came out of Egypt. I want to make available to you my book Out of Egypt because I believe that it's going to help you understand a much bigger picture of what God was really after when He called the children of Israel out of Egypt. Did you know that the words "out of Egypt" are that phrase or similar words can be found over 400 times in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation?

Over 400 times. The word "Egypt" can be found over 600 times. There's something about the spirit of Egypt that was highly offensive to God, and He brought His people out of it. The problem is having brought His people out of Egypt, they yearned for the leeks and onions and garlic of Egypt, and from their spiritual perspective, God said, "You've already gone back into Egypt and you're not entering my Promised Land." Wow. This is a much bigger picture than anybody really contemplates generally speaking, and I want to make it available to you on our website, saveus.org.

Out of Egypt. Could this be God's final call to come out of the spirit of Egypt? It's a big deal, friends. A very big deal indeed. It's a matter of eternal destiny. It's a matter of being able to please God, both individually, as families, as congregations, as cities, and as a nation. Out of Egypt. Fifteen dollars will put the book in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org, saveus.org. You can call us at 1-800-SAVE-USA, 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255. Remit a check and add six dollars for postage and handling.

What is God's purpose for our country? State of the Union addresses or not, what is God's purpose for our country? Is it that we be the wealthiest country on earth? Is it that we be the most powerful country on earth? No, it's that we be the most godly country on earth, and that we understand that the purpose of the freedom that God provided to us, just as the freedom that God provided the children Israel coming out of Egypt, was to lead us out of the spirit of Egypt and into the spirit of the Promised Land.

So where are we going right now? I'm not here to denigrate Donald Trump, by the way. I think, as I said, I thought that his speech last night was one of the best and many people have agreed, whether or not you liked it. But the problem that we're dealing with right now is not the contents of the speech. It's what is the purpose of our freedom here as we're preparing to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the country. What's the purpose of freedom?

So I thought the piece from Tony Perkins, the head of Family Research Council, was very appropriate. "When a Nation Forgets the Purpose of Freedom". He said in 1776, when Congress requested designs for a national seal, Benjamin Franklin proposed a striking image. Moses standing at the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his army overwhelmed, and beneath it the motto, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Isn't that interesting? Benjamin Franklin proposed a striking image for our national seal.

Moses standing at the Red Sea, Pharaoh in his army overwhelmed, and beneath it the motto, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." It was never adopted, by the way, but the proposal reflected how deeply the account of the children of Israel being delivered from Egypt through the Exodus shaped the American mind, heart, and imagination. It's amazing. There is a reason why the Ten Commandments are engraved over our national superior court dais. Barack Obama wanted to cover it up, the Ten Commandments, but they're still there.

Deeply engraved in base on over the judge's bench there, so to speak, of the Supreme Court. Where do they come from? The children of Israel coming out of Egypt. They came from Mount Sinai, God delivering His message of how to live righteously as a free people. From New England to the southern colonies, pastors drew explicit parallels between Israel's deliverance from Egypt and the colonies' struggle for independence. Sermons returned to a familiar refrain. What was it that Moses was sent to tell Pharaoh? "Let my people go. Let my people go."

But was Pharaoh prone to let the people go? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. The spirit of Pharaoh is the spirit of Antichrist. It's the spirit of rebellion. It's the spirit of the world. It is the spirit that says we are going to keep your people in bondage. We are going to keep you under our dominion. we are not going to let you go. That's the spirit of the Democrat party. Yes, you heard me correctly. That is the spirit of the Democrat party. It's also the spirit of many people in the Republican party, but it is the spirit of the Democrat party almost in toto.

Would they be willing to let black America go? Absolutely not. They have enslaved black America economically. A different kind of slavery, but that's what they've done. They want to do that using immigrants, illegal immigrants. It's a different form of slavery. They do not want to let people go. They want to keep them in bondage to their political gain. It's wickedness. Utter and total wickedness. But our leaders, the early founders, didn't stop there.

On December 23rd, 1776, Sylvanus Conant preached directly from the full text there in the book of Exodus, "Let my people go that they may serve me." Ministers like Samuel West and Samuel Langdon made the very same point clear. The goal was not autonomy, that is, freedom for its own sake. The goal was ordered liberty under God. What does that mean? Ordered liberty under God. Is it just that we can do what we want, or is it that we're free now to do what we ought? We're going to further talk about that here on Viewpoint today. But until we do, go get that book, Out of Egypt. It'll change your life and it will inspire you.

Guest (Male): There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry marriage and morals, saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage, what does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org. And many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcast live and archived, Save America Ministries' website at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: Why liberty? The Scripture says where the spirit of the Lord there is, there is liberty. We often use the words liberty and freedom in tandem, or one replacing the other like synonyms. But we're talking about freedom. Freedom isn't free. We know that. Freedom isn't free. On the other hand, what is freedom for? Is freedom a license to do what we want, or the liberty to do what we ought? Without constraint, without order, without mandate from some Pharaoh in our presence?

Early on in our country, our leaders, back there all the way back to 1630 and beyond, increasingly saw the relationship between the leaving of Europe to come to America for religious freedom as similar to the children of Israel being led out of Egypt into the Promised Land. And that's why you found, and you would find along the East Coast, many names of places that were taken from the Bible. It was as if the Exodus from Egypt was a metaphor that governed the oversight and guidance and teaching and instruction and leadership and vision of those who came to America.

So how did we get from there then to where we are today, where we've lost that sense of the purpose of freedom? It's interesting when you read the book of Exodus, there is a phrase, "Let my people go that they may serve me." What was the purpose for which God was instructing Moses to tell Pharaoh "Let my people go"? It was that they may serve me. So the purpose of the freedom was not freedom to do what the people wanted to do regardless. It was the freedom to do what they ought to do to please God, that they may serve me.

And that phrase appears seven times in the book of Exodus. Seven's the perfect number, right? It appears seven times. And it seems that the repetition is deliberate. God wanted Israel to be free so that they could do not what was right in their own eyes, but so that they could do what was right in God's eyes and be blessed accordingly. Therefore, if they did not do what was right in God's eyes, they would not be blessed accordingly. And that's where our conundrum is in America today.

That's why going back to 1992, all of those articles that I quoted from, from Newsweek and Time and Associated Press and so on, all of those articles pointing out how our nation—we were on our way back to Egypt, big time. Just like the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Now, perhaps, we're being given a window of opportunity to get it right before we go wholeheartedly back to Egypt again. What will we do with it? What will we do with it?

When our president said that our destiny is written by the hand of Providence, what will our destiny be? The hand of Providence gave Israel as the chosen people two choices. Two choices, that's all He gave them. Two choices: either do what I ask you to do and be blessed, or refrain from doing what I ask you to do and be cursed. It was very simple. If you want to find out what it was that God said concerning that, go to Deuteronomy chapter 28. If you'll do what I ask you to do, then all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.

Blessed you be in the city and blessed you be in the field, blessed be your basket and your store and so on. But if you will not do what I ask you to do, if you refuse to obey my voice, if you insist upon doing your own thing in your own way, whether you claim to be a Christian or not, then all these things, these curses are going to come upon you. And the majority of things that are written there in Deuteronomy chapter 28, starting with verse 15 through about verse 66, I think it is, they're all the curses coming upon the chosen people of God.

Not upon the world, upon the chosen people of God. Now, we have forgotten to think the way the Bible thinks. We've forgotten to think the way God thinks. We like to tell ourselves we're the chosen people, we're the elect, we're this or that, and we attach those words to us without living according to them. And it's a slap in the face to the God who made and preserved us a nation. It really is. We're thumbing our nose at Him. How do we know that?

Well, the most classic illustration of that, among many other things, is the massive breakdown of the family, which was the second creation ordinance, marriage, in Genesis chapter 2. And since the mid-1960s, certainly 1968, all of that has collapsed. Not just in the nation as a whole, but in the church house. Pastor and people alike have embraced Pharaoh's yoke by telling the people you can do what you want to do and it's okay as long as you feel good about it, running right back into Egypt, right back into Pharaoh's grasp.

And so we have brokenness. Everybody likes to use the word brokenness. Really, what it is, the brokenness is the consequence of rebellion. Rebellion in the house of God. Are you listening? What is it that kept the nation of Israel, the chosen people, out of the Promised Land? You say, "Well, they didn't get—they made it into the Promised Land." No, listen very carefully. The Bible's explicit about this. There were 600,000 men plus women and children that God with a mighty hand delivered from Egypt, from Pharaoh.

Six hundred thousand men 20 years of age and older, plus women and children. None of those men were allowed into the Promised Land. None of them, except for two. Only two out of 600,000 were allowed into the Promised Land. Why? Because only those two agreed with God. Only those two chose to live as chosen people. Only those two chose to live as the elect. The others were all elect as a people group, but they didn't get into the Promised Land. And that's our problem with our view of the word elect and election.

We think just because we made a profession that we're the chosen people, we're the elect, and we're on our way to the Promised Land of a certainty. No, that's not what the Bible teaches at all. You say, "Well, are you sure? Are you saying that we have no expectation of entering the Promised Land?" No, I'm not saying that at all. We do. Just as the children of Israel coming out of Egypt had an expectation of getting into the Promised Land because that's what God intended to happen.

But they didn't get there. Why didn't they get there? Because they yearned for the leeks and the onions and garlic of Egypt. In other words, the ways of Egypt. What were the ways of Egypt? The trust in the power and provision of Pharaoh. Where's your trust? The issue before God right now in our country is now and has always been, who will you trust? So the phrase "In God We Trust" means nothing if we don't trust in God. How do you know if you trust God? How would you know if you trusted God?

Well, let me ask you this. Let's keep it very simple. If you're a parent, how would you know if your children trusted you? The best way you would know, the clearest way you would know, is if they did what you asked them to do, right? Because they would know that you had their best interests at heart and that you would protect them, you would provide for them, and they would receive the promise of being part of your household and the blessings that you would be able to pour out upon them as Mom and Dad.

It's the same thing in the kingdom of God. It's the same thing with Israel. It's the same thing with professing Gentile believers in Yeshua, Jesus. The only measure—there's only one measure from God's viewpoint as to whether or not we trust Him, and that is whether we do His will, whether we obey Him. And what is the most hated word in the church today? The word obey, O-B-E-Y. So while we have been delivered as was Israel from the spirit of Egypt or from Egypt, God could never get the spirit of Egypt out of them because they still lived according to the ways of Egypt.

How about you? How about me? How about us in America today? How about the church? How about your congregation? How about all of us, you see? We have a serious problem. We lust after Egypt. We kind of have a little affair with Pharaoh. These are dangerous, dangerous spiritual times, friends. It's not about the State of the Union from a political viewpoint. It's about the State of the Union from God's viewpoint. Who do we trust? We can say we trust God, but whether we do His will determines the truth of it. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a heart longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by His spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family, and it was said by all who observed, "Behold how they love one another." Incredible, but the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click Cell Church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click Cell Church.

Chuck Crismier: Can we do church in Egypt while laying claim to the Promised Land? Interesting question, isn't it? Can we do church in Egypt while laying claim to the Promised Land? You see, all of those 600,000 men 20 years of age and older, plus women and children, had the right to claim their direction to the Promised Land. Why? Because they were the seed of Abraham. They were heirs according to the promise. But they didn't get the promise. They were heirs according to the promise, in other words, they were of the people group that were entitled to proceed to the Promised Land, but they didn't meet God's criteria.

What was the criteria? The same criteria that God judged Abraham on. Abraham obeyed God by faith. That's why he's called the Father of the Faithful. So the children of Israel actually were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you see, heirs according to the promise. They were heirs to the Promised Land, but they didn't get there. They didn inherit the Promised Land as they were promised because the promise was conditioned on the biggest little word in the Bible: if.

As 2nd Chronicles 7:14 says, "if my people". "If my people". "If you, then I. If you, then I. If you, then I." The biggest little word in the Bible is if. All the promises of God are conditioned on that word, if. Salvation itself is conditioned on that word. For instance, going back to Deuteronomy, "if you will obey my voice, then..." "if you will obey my voice, then..." You see, the same problem occurred to Adam and Eve in the garden. God had given them everything. They were heirs according to the land of promise, the Garden of Eden.

God had created it all for them. Everything was wonderful. Everything was beautiful. Everything was total freedom except one thing: "Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it, you'll surely die." And "if you do eat of it, you'll surely die." You see, if you don't, you're going to surely live. If you eat of it, you'll surely die. Pretty simple, isn't it? But then Satan put a spin on what God had said, the simplicity of what God had said. And he's been putting that spin on it ever since in our lives under the, shall we say, the mantra of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh is a type of Satan himself, a type of the Antichrist. And he continually tests and tempts us today. "Oh, well, you don't want to do that the way God says because you're not going to have freedom anymore. You're not going to be able to do it your way. You're going to have to do it His way. And then what are you going to miss out on? Oh, you're going to be like God." Okay, wow. We certainly want to be like God. Therefore, we'll do it Pharaoh's way. We'll do it Satan's way.

We'll do it Frank Sinatra's way. "I'll do it my way." And so as a nation, we've been doing just that. We'll do it our way. The church has done exactly the same thing. Conformed to the ways of the world. Conformed to the ways of Egypt. We have in effect gone back to Egypt. And because of that, we cannot walk in the freedom and the joy and the purpose of the Promised Land. It eluding us. It's a very dangerous time, friends. God's truth over the past 30 years has been relativized, trivialized, sometimes even pulverized to conform to our tastes and traditions. In other words, what we want to do.

God's authority in our lives, our nation, has not been eradicated or undermined overnight. Generally, God's authority in our lives has been undermined by the erosion of small choices day after day. We've made choices one at a time that have shifted our authority base away from God. When you shift your authority base away, you also have shifted your trust. And trust is what God is after. That's the bottom line. Evangelical Christians today and for the past 25 years or so have looked nearly identical in cultural ways and beliefs to the world of just 40, 50 years ago, with a dose of religious tradition and jargon that we toss on for good measure.

But in truth, our unbelief, disbelief, or disobedience as Christians today is laying the foundation for an unprecedented vacuum of faith and obedience in the next generation. And we've seen that. You go from the baby boomers to the baby busters and then on to the millennials and then on to Generation Z. You see exactly what's happened. It's not a mystery. So if professing Christians in this country with impunity and in mass refuse to do as God says, are they righteous? Or have we even called ourselves righteous gradually shifted our authority to another father, the father of lies, i.e., as it were, Pharaoh?

So the reality is America's crisis today and over the past 30 years has not been a moral crisis in and of itself. You know what it's been? A lordship crisis. That's what it's been. Lordship means I trust God and because I trust Him, I will obey Him. You can say, you can scream your faith all you want, but if you don't obey God, you don't have true faith. Faith is not some abstract term. It's not a feeling. It's directly linked to the word believe and trust and faith.

All those three words come from the same Greek root word. They all do. And they're linked by the word obedience. Do you know why Jesus was able to be the captain of our salvation and lead us out of Egypt if we would follow Him? Because He obeyed the Father's voice. He said, "My will is not to do my will but the will of Him that sent me. I do what I see Him do. I say what I hear Him say, and I do His will." That's my purpose. That was the purpose of His birth, and that's the purpose of our rebirth if we're in Christ.

If our number one purpose is not to do the Father's will and obey His voice, then we are not walking in true liberty. We can scream liberty all we want. We can scream freedom all we want. But we're abusing the whole concept of freedom and liberty. So it's been said if Jesus isn't Lord of all, He's not Lord at all. And Americans have had a very hard time with authority, even, yes, Christian Americans. It's kind of like, "Yeah, we'll do it God's way if we like it, but if we don't like it, we'll do it our way."

So pastor and people have agreed with that idea over time in order to placate the people and make them feel good, to keep them in the church rolls and keep them paying their tithes and building buildings and so on. But we've lost God's authority. And power and authority are everything to God. We don't have a user-friendly God. The deceiver wants us to have a user-friendly God. Time Magazine, April 5th, 1993, declared on its front cover that America's a nation that forgot God. Wow. So maybe we can say in a sense, belief in God is killing America.

The problem is not that we believe in God. It's that we believe Him. If we only religiously believe in God without believing and obeying Him as God, we remain in Egypt, disqualified from the Promised Land, notwithstanding all our religious confessions, protestations, or traditions to the contrary. And Jesus left no doubt about that. He said, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." You see, without obedience, Jesus is not Lord and God is not God in your life.

It's a matter of trust. We can't do church in Egypt while laying claim to the Promised Land. So indeed, what we need to do is realize how important this issue is. How does it play out in all of the various theological teachings of the Bible? If you would be interested in knowing that, you'll get a copy of the book Out of Egypt: A Prophetic Call to the End-Time Church. People have said when they read this book that it's changed everything in their life. It has helped them to understand the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation in ways that they therefore had never even thought about or considered, that it's a much bigger deal.

Helps us to understand so many of the theological positions and so on that are not just idle theological statements, but they have living reality for us, like the spirit of adoption. What does that mean? Are you living in the spirit of the city or the spirit of the Kingdom of God? Are you doing church in Egypt? How about redemption and atonement? What do they really mean from God's perspective? Are you a true covenant person? Are you a person of the covenant?

Israel claimed to be people of the covenant because the covenant was given to them and they said at Mount Sinai, "I do," yet they turned around and said, "We won't." And how about the words of your tongue? What do they reveal? What do the words of your tongue reveal about your trust and your faith? So many things, friends. And God is saying today, "Let my people go." He's saying that to the spirit of Pharaoh. "Let my people go." He's saying that even to pastors who want to control but are not teaching the fullness of the word of God that is going to enable people to live in total trust in the very God who they claim has saved them by sending forth His only begotten Son.

You see, Jesus was able to become our Savior because as the last Adam, He, unlike the first Adam, chose to do the Father's will and obeyed the Father, notwithstanding all the temptations, notwithstanding all the trials, notwithstanding persecution. He obeyed the Father. And because of that, the Scripture says, because of that, God was able to give Him a name that was above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That's what the Apostle Paul wrote, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the issue. Is He Lord? There are whole people in certain theological camps that argue to say Jesus is Lord is to teach works salvation. Nothing could be further the truth. No, it's by grace through faith that we're saved. But God's grace is actually His enabling power to enable you and me to obey His voice and to do His will.

Get a copy of the book Out of Egypt. It'll be so encouraging and eye-opening to you, heart-opening actually, and encouraging. Fifteen dollars will put it in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org, saveus.org. Call us 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255, and add six dollars for postage and handling. And also become a partner, friends. We really are confronting the deepest issues of America's heart and home. Maybe the deepest one here today on Viewpoint. Don't let Pharaoh control. Don't let the spirit of Pharaoh or the spirit of Egypt take dominion over you.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.