There are many indicators of the wide prevalence of the pseudo-Christianity of the harlot, but three in particular stand out:
1) The overt hunger and thirst after “milk and honey,” the mark of Paul’s man of lawlessness as described in I Timothy 6, a man who contrasts with the blessed elect saint whom Christ describes as “hungering a thirsting after justice.”
2) The overt greed evident by the visible church’s misuse of the tithe. Despite clear teaching that the tithe was primarily a means of social support for the poor, the alien, the widow, and the orphan in addition to the Levite (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). Congregations seem more intent on following the discontented building practices and political ascendency of Cain than embracing the contentedness Paul speaks of in I Timothy 6.
3) The overt despising of and oppression of the alien and foreigner, from building walls instead of “casting bread upon the waters,” to “traveling over land and sea to gain a single convert” in areas which already have churches with a far more developed hunger and thirst for the “milk” of the Law of Freedom and the meat of righteousness free from discontented covetousness and gluttony. From an historical standpoint, the pretended ascendency of the American Church and its condescension to Africans is laughable given that the theology that came out of the early Church in the melting pot of Northern Africa is more thorough and robust than any that the Reformers themselves (save perhaps Calvin and Bucer, both of whom knew they stood on the shoulders of giants) can boast of. Ironically, the boasting of the false church in America is reminiscent of the same hubris exhibited by the Donatists in Africa.
A sure sign of the man of lawlessness, who is the man of Deuteronomy 29, is his assertion that the Deuteronomical blessing is “milk and honey.” His domain of darkness is aptly described by the faithless statement, “seek first the blessing of mammon,” a statement summarily rejected by Psalm 84, Matthew 5, Hebrews 11, James, and Paul’s letters to Timothy (among other passages).
Aside from a small remnant, most of whom were America’s weak and despised, very few “Christians” in America seem to have any idea that the center of Deuteronomical blessing really is at the center of Deuteronomy: “You shall follow justice and justice alone” (16:20). The King of Kings, who is a priest in the line of the King of Justice (“Melchizedek”), emboldened and underlined this center of faith: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice.” The greatest blessing, which is salvation, is to possess “everlasting justice,” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q 21).
I use “justice” to intentionally provoke thought: the Greek word, “δικαιοσύνη” (dikaiosynē) signifies “justice” or “righteousness,” which were generally interchangeable for the early Church, since both are a right-ordering of thought, affections, and actions in submission to God and in fulfillment of the Law. In contrast to the unjust man of Psalm 144, it is speaking truly and acting justly.
Saints are saved apart from the Law, but only in order to fulfill the Law with just acts that will be their wedding clothes (Rev 19). As Augustine says (Tractates on John, III, para 2), saints are saved to be “with the Law.” Of course these are done only with Christ, but they are done by the saints themselves, and not vicariously accepted. Augustine makes this clear in his Treatise on Grace and Free Will, and the Scripture’s clear teaching and the Church’s position on posse non pecarre both refute the popular blasphemous assertion that everything saints do now is tainted with sin. The perceived “need” for “special grace” is equal to saying God’s arm is too short, namely that His active righteousness in the saint were inadequate, and the saint’s hunger and thirst for justice not deeper than merely fleshly desires.
I see clearly, now, that the milk-and-honey Dispensationalists and their cult of lawless grace have turned “sola gratia” into an abomination, just as the Israelites turned the bronze snake into an idol. Like the man of Deuteronomy 29, these “milk and honey” deceivers invoke God’s blessing while despising the Law. That Law is, as Christ observed, at its core, rendering the good due others (Prov 3:27). That Law is also the focus of those treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ (Prov 1:3). See these Pharisees for what they are: men of Deuteronomy 29. They are not law-keepers; they are lawless deceivers (Matt 23:23-24). They seek to supplant God and gain a dominion God never gave mankind: the dominion over men or women (Genesis 1:29-30, Psalm 8, Matthew 20:17-28).
I also see clearly what Grimke, Stowe, Douglass, Twain, Mencken, Steinbeck, Ellison, W. Stringfellow, and even Faulkner in his insanely tortured narratives were telling us: American Christianity, with the exception of a remnant, does not look like George Washington spurring his stallion to victory; it looks far more like a harlot spurring a beast over the backs of the afflicted, the poor, the widow, the fatherless, and “those who dwell peacefully in the land.”
God gave America a clear warning in the carnage of the Civil War, fulfilling Exodus 22:21-24 in answer to the opression of widows and orphans made by America’s auction blocks. The guilt of this lawlessness, as Stowe told us, belonged equally to the Southern Democrat Planter and his Northern Republican Investment Banker, both of whom also shared in God’s personal face-to-face repayment (Ex 34:7).
Oh that we had done then as the people in Nehemiah 9, and repented instead of retrenching after the war! The restoration of plantations to planters was pure defiance of God’s warning: “woe to those who join fence to fence!” By this lawlessness and the continuing rationalization of racial favoritism, the South became the tortured land that Faulkner and Steinbeck described in their writings. The North fared no better: the visible church’s direct involvement in New York slums (W. Stringfellow: My People is the Enemy) is horrifying!
The currently rising enmity resulting from a politicized “Christianity” is only the beginning of greater conflict. Let those who are blessed with mourning mourn over the evil done in this land, and “let the just live by his faith,” but let none give that harlot quarter when the beast turns upon her. Let those Midianites destroy each other. God is on His throne, and will burn shields and spears alike, and His people “need only be still,” and raise their heads in expectation of redemption drawing near. For now, let those who have eyes to see and ears to hear consider John’s warning to the saints, which corresponds to Christ’s warning regarding his punishment of the harlot in in 70 A.D.” “Come out of her.”