Chapter 3: The Golden Calf

When Israel worshipped the golden calf at the base of the Mount, it was offensive enough that God expressed a willingness to destroy the entire nation and start over with Moses. This alone should make us realize just how serious it is to cast God out of His position as King over all nations. This is especially true for America, whose beginnings were seen as a direct parallel to Israel's deliver-ance under Moses from the “Pharaohs” of the Old World, as the people crossed the “Red Sea” of the Atlantic Ocean.

This deliverance was so evident to our founders that Benjamin Franklin even proposed this theme for our nation's Great Seal (pictured on the left). It shows Moses stretching his rod over the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army being inundated by water. America was thought to be God’s new Israel leaving the old world’s bondage to “Egypt.”

Unfortunately, America has done what Israel did under Moses, rejecting God’s rule and establishing the golden calf in His place.

The Priesthood Problem

In Moses' day, God's anger was directed not only at the nation itself but at the priesthood of Aaron. Deuteronomy 9:20 says,

²⁰ And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

The same situation exists today as many in the priesthood, who claim to worship the God of heaven, instead accommodate the people who wish to dethrone God, to violate His right to rule what He owns, and to substitute other gods in His place. Aaron himself might have been destroyed, had not Moses interceded for him. Likewise, the church today (in whole or in part) would be destroyed if it were not for the intercessors in the land.

It is apparent that when the Israelites refused to draw near to God and to hear the law, it showed that the First Commandment was not written on their hearts. The people had vowed obedience in Exodus 19:8, but only a few weeks later they were worshipping the golden calf. Unfortunately, we are again faced with the same problem today and are in danger of receiving the same judgment that endangered Israel under Moses.

If we read the full story in Exodus 32:21-24, we see that Aaron made excuses for himself and blamed the people. “You know the people yourself that they are prone to evil,” he said in verse 22. In other words, “the people pressured me into making them a god, so I told them to give me their gold,” he said. “So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf” (verse 24). In other words, Aaron used the people's gold (money, wealth) to build a golden calf, rather than to establish the rightful rule of Jesus Christ and His government on earth.

Consequences

God was not impressed with Aaron's excuses. God did forgive, but that forgiveness did not cancel all consequences. Aaron was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. The people were not destroyed that day, but neither did they enter the Promised Land. They all died, though not immediately.

So also with the church during the Age of Pentecost. Only the overcomers will inherit life at the time of the First Resurrection. The rest will remain mortal and die without receiving the promises. They will have to await the general resurrection of the dead to be given life, as Jesus said in John 5:28 and 29.

In other words, the church needs to repent for its own sin, instead of merely focusing upon the sin in Washington D.C. They need to understand that if the Christians in America had voted for true Christians (especially in the early years of the nation's existence), Washington would truly be a Christian city today. The government would not have been taken over by non-believers.

A good example of how the church is responsible for electing non-believers to positions of government was apparent in the election of President Bill Clinton. He had been governor of Arkansas during the time that I lived there. It was common knowledge among our own circle that Clinton was the drug kingpin of the South, overseeing the drugs being flown to Mena, Arkansas from South America. We even knew the Conoco fuel station where the drug drops were being made each week. We could not call the police, because they were in on it.

We also knew how many innocent people were being killed for discovering Clinton’s role in the drug trade. Most people called it the Arkansas Flu, which people might contract by close contact with the governor. Yet Clinton was in office only because Christians voted for him. Arkansas is often said to be the buckle of the Bible Belt.

I recall in 1992 when Clinton was running for president, the public schools tried to instill in the children an interest in the political process. They set up mock voting booths, and it turned out that my children were the only ones who did not vote for Bill Clinton. We know that children generally follow the lead of their parents, for that is what they hear at home. So this told us that virtually the entire town of 1900, with its 20 churches, would vote for Bill Clinton. After all, he claimed to be a Baptist.

Of course, he was elected, and his first act was to legalize gays in the military (as long as they did not take an open stand on the issue). Our entire town was suddenly in a state of shock, and suddenly no one wanted to claim credit for voting for him. Of course, after four years had passed, everyone had calmed down, and most of them again voted for Clinton. Then they were shocked again at all of his womanizing as it was reported in the press. For all of their shock, they soon adjusted their views and continued life as usual.

We have always gotten the type of presidents that we deserve. Our presidents reflect the hidden condition in the heart of the Christian church, which has comprised the majority of voters for two centuries. Will God not hold the church accountable for the nation’s lawlessness and for expelling God from government, education, and public life?

This corruption has taken place over a long period of time. It started long before any of us were born. The church stopped teaching the laws of God and made allowances for their party's officials to act in a lawless fashion. The church allowed the nation to be transformed into the secular state that it is today.

That is why “Aaron” today (church leadership) is being held accountable to God for its role in building the golden calf, not only in America but in all the nations settled by the ex-Israelites of the dispersion. I cannot speak for other nations, of course, for God has raised up voices in every nation to deal with their own peculiar problems of lawless behavior. But I know that America as a nation is without excuse, and the church in America led the nation into its current golden calf experience. They may claim—as did Aaron—that they were pressured into it, but God nonetheless holds the church accountable.

If the church had not become lawless, and if the church had not refused to allow the Holy Spirit to write the law of God in its heart, Washington would not be what it is today, the Murder Capital of the world. In fact, if the church had not rejected the Holy Spirit but had used its spiritual authority in the manner that God intended, the whole world would have been transformed into the Kingdom of God a long time ago. Unfortunately, the church has followed the pattern of King Saul, Israel's Pentecostal but rebellious king who both prophesied and persecuted David, the overcomer.

Hence, this is not a new problem. America is only one end-time manifestation of the problem. The lawlessness of King Saul had to run its course for 40 years, and the lawlessness of the church had to run its course for 40 Jubilees (33 to 1993 A.D.) But since 1993, when we began our Jubilee Prayer Campaign, history began to move toward its final climax as God watered the seeds of Babylon's destruction.

The death of prophetic “Saul” in 1993 began the rise of prophetic “David,” as the overcomers were raised up and anointed with the spiritual authority to bring this age to a close. These are the “kings” that God has anointed to rule in the Tabernacles Age that lies ahead. As kings, they are called to write a copy of Deuteronomy for themselves and to study it prayerfully (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). This is the law that must be written on our hearts if we are ever to lay claim to a New Covenant way of life.

It is time that the overcomers break free of the lawless constraints that have bound both church and state.