I Kings 12: 25-33 …And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David … If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.

I used to listen to a radio program called unshackled which broadcast late at night and always had wonderful dramatized stories of people who had been to the gospel mission in Chicago. Their lives were a mess, and then Christ delivered them. But in my generation, that of the post-war baby-boomers, to be unshackled meant to be free from moral restraints, especially religion. During this same time the Supreme Court of the United States echoed that agenda by bolstering the idea called “separation of church and state.” This court-imposed interpretation of the first amendment of the U.S. contstitution called the Establishment Clause, states:”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In the Bible we can see an excellent example of that folly in King Jeroboam, the king of the confederate tribes of Northern Israel after King Solomon. God swore that He would tear the kingdom from Solomon after his death because Solomon fell away from the God of Israel through his foriegn wives and concubines, who turned his heart to their gods. So the Lord raised up Jeroboam, who had been in exile in Egypt, to lead the 10 tribes in  Northern Israel. However Jeroboam did not follow Jehovah, but made for himself another temple, and another religion of his own devising! God had given them freedom from opression by their enemies on every side, but now they were being pulled away by idolatry and false gods back into bondage. For the Lord surely sent them away to captivity into Assyria.

History repeats itself as you read this. For a nation that had freedom and security on all sides is now under attack and has no security. Strange enough, but there is more: for a government that is forbidden to establish a state religion - has done just that. By eliminating all reference to God or Jesus in any public or governmental forum, the elites and leaders of our nation have by proxy established a state religion! We see it every day. This new religion has arisen by the devices of men’s hearts to supplant the oracles and commandments of the Supreme God. This new religion has it’s doctrines, which I will list for you: 1. Persecute (or prosecute) anyone who disagrees with the authorities (Priests). 2. Ban any reference of a personal God, only the word “god” may be used. 3. Tolerate any god except the God of Christians, or Jews.
4. Make any belief or practice morally acceptable and equal except the belief that there may be a belief or behavior that is morally wrong. 5. Elevate evolution to the status of explaining anything concerning origins. 6. Disregard history as a guide for defining what is good or bad for people. 7. Establish special rights which supercede already established rights for special groups, and if anyone’s rights are infringed upon always chose the rights of the special group with special rights status. 8. Isolate groups by their economic status and disregard the will of the majority. These are only some.
Think this hasn’t happened yet? A bill currently in the House of Representatives, H.R. 1592 is a serious threat to free speech and freedom of religion. This so-called Hate Crimes Bill begins to lay the legal framework to persecute and prosecute those who refuse, for moral and religious reasons, to agree or teach their children that homosexuality, transgender, cross-dressing, etc., is normal and desirable. Ultimately, a pastor’s sermon concerning homosexuality could be considered an incitement to violence and punished with a fine or prison. This has already occurred in Sweden, Canada, and England, and efforts are underway in Brazil to punish any person who speaks out against homosexuality.

Here’s more: School officials in Burlington, N.J., who wanted to stage a “hostage situation” drill have portrayed the attackers as Christians, including one who was upset that his daughter was expelled for praying before class. School Superintendant Chris Manno praised the exercise to test the response of the school and police, explaining, “You perform as you practice. We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they’re as effective as possible.” Lifesite News reported that the Christian students in the school were offended when the student body was told the alleged gunmen were “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the ‘New Crusaders’ who don’t believe in separation of church and state.”

I guess I had better be careful, I could get arrested for writing this, and you could have the S.W.A.T. team let loose on you for protesting my arrest! Every day that we endure in this landscape it will continue to worsen, even though some small victories are won: Today, the Boy Scouts of America survived a lawsuit by the ACLU to force them off any event at government or military installations. (See Story) However, the Boy Scouts are pulling the charters of thousands of scouting units from public schools in an effort to spare them from lawsuits threatened by the American Civil Liberties Union. In a letter sent to the BSA last month, the ACLU vowed to take legal action against public schools and other taxpayer-funded governmental agencies that charter Boy Scout groups, claiming their sponsorship amounts to religious discrimination and violates the separation of church and state. The ACLU specifically takes issue with the Scouts’ pledge of allegiance to God and country and the organization’s prohibition of homosexuals as scout masters.

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced, we are living in a modern day version of the errors of Jeroboam X 10.