The Bible has a number of covenants, but the one that ought to be of great interest to a nation such as ours is recorded in Deuteronomy Chapter Four. It was and still is "God's roadmap for individuals and nations." Moses summarized it for his people before they took possession of Canaan.

It is not a new idea for humans to sit in judgment over God. The human mind is capable of concocting the absurd. It thinks, it can measure the immensity of an energy that is invisible. How can a creature be evaluated by a colony of ants, when the creature itself is not able to create an ant? Especially, when the creature regards himself as worthless or mere dust, and that he/she needs to prove him/herself by eliminating others in order to please a higher being. Who can keep such behavior in check? Job is an example of what Satan's work is all about and that a just man can outlast the worst the devil can do. Like Job, man thinks God is targeting him/her. The general conception was and still is that God was either disciplining or punishing Job for having overstepped his bounds. The author of the Book of Job introduced a concept that contradicts our human perception on what God is about when misery overwhelms and defeats humans. Like Jesus, 17 centuries later, the author assigned human suffering to Satan (Job 1-2; Lk.13: 16).

History teaches us that when politics separates from religion, demotion soon follows. The U.S.A. is in the process of being demoted to a second rate country by a new kind of progressivism. It began some time ago when her Judeo-Christian principles that guided the Constitution were replaced with secular progressive laws that "the Glory of the Lord" also departed (I Sam.4: 21-22; Ps.106: 20). These secular progressive laws have proven to be inadequate and opened the way to a more socialistic religious pogressivism. It is based on the idea that man cannot govern himself and therefore requires a Karl Marx or a religious system like Islam. A fusion of the two appears to be the glove that fits a hapless hand that now runs this country. We now have leaders that seem to think Marxist Islam can become what Christianity once was. The question that may escape us is, "Will this system be as flexible and tolerant as Christianity was?"

Jesus said to his disciple, I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest" (Jn.4: 35). Luther, along with Zwingli and Calvin were the beneficiaries of those that preceded them in seeding and planting for the harvest. There would have been no crop without the martyrs. The Roman Christian Church curtailed and restricted forcefully all individuals and groups that attempted to reform their religious system. The Pope and the priests had become the Church or body of Christ. The priests only were the administrators of salvation at a price. Saints, relics and indulgences had become the way to heaven and works had replaced grace. That was the religious system Luther lived and served under.

Jesus confounded his generation when he said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." (Jn.8: 57). Abraham has become the father of those that believe that God grants grace to those that put their faith in Jesus. God justifies or accepts man for his faith and not for his work. Man's work is too sinful to matter in his redemption. God's grace alone can regard man fit for redemption, secured by the work of Christ. That is what Paul and all his followers believed and still do. But what did Abraham really believe? He believed that God would give him a piece of Land that shall become a permanent home for his offspring at a time when he had none. It was not about saving his soul but about an earthly heritage. It was his faith in that promise that motivated Abraham to take his cattle and sheep to Canaan and inspect the territory. In other word, he was testing God whether such a place existed. It was that promise of God that kept him believing and even seeing some fulfillment when he fathered Isaac. It was faith against hope and that is the kind Paul asked of his followers. Abraham did not sit still and let God do all the work neither should Christians expect grace to do it for them. Like Abraham, we too must believe that God, because of grace, will do what His Son promised. It is also correct that Abraham's faith grew by obeying God and so will our faith. We too must venture out into the world and remain faithful to Christ. There was a transformation after Abraham believed and separated from a polytheistic idolatrous society (Ge.31: 19). Christians too must separate from "Belial's world."(II Cor.6: 14-18). Before we were in Christ, our works gained us nothing, but in Christ works are expected (Eph.2: 8-9).

The sound of "brotherhood" is music to our ears. There is much talk about all men being brothers. Then I remember reading about Cain and Able (Gen.4: 8) or what the prophet Amos said that the ordinance of brotherhood has long been violated when a brother pursued his brother with the sword (Am.1: 9-12). It is the sword, rather than agreements, that have sustained brotherhoods. Even peaceful brotherhoods are suspicious of each other. In its narrowest definition, it is an exclusionist concept. Members have to subscribe to certain rules. My parents attended a Church that did not regard other Christians as brothers or sisters. On one visit, their minister would not or could not extend his hand to me. We all belong to some circle that does not allow us to break that brotherly trust. We know, from the past, that even the best of such brotherhoods were flawed. Particularly, religious brotherhoods are not at liberty to disclose their objectives.

I am intrigued by the history of Christianity (L.P. Qualben). It has not traveled a steady and straight road. It has been more like a roller coaster. It was most helpful during crisis. I was nine when Germany invaded Poland and betrayals, persecutions and miraculous rescues began. Churches were closed and we were driven from our homes. Our people began to pray as never before. After Poland was liberated, the Poles returned to their churches in drones. The German people did not flock to their places of worship. They felt that God had let them down. However, they could not stop the refugees from renewing their Christian faith and spark a new awakening in Christianity. I did belong to such a group.

A hypochondriac complained constantly that he was sick enough to die. No one believed him. He purchased a cemetery plot, erected a headstone with the inscription, "Now You Believe Me." The prophet Ezekiel wrote an epitaph against the King of Tyre, one of the enemies of Israel. The King and his people had become morally delinquent and were erased from history (Ez.28: 1-19). How is it that the brightest minds in our day cannot see the hand writing on the wall that spells the end of our way of life? It is not some foreign influence or threat, but a corroding morality. We keep on refusing to accept, the fact that bad morals have been behind the decline of the freedom we have and the prosperity we have enjoyed. It is not war that has destroyed humans and nations, but moral decay. It is a cancer that is killing the family and the fabric of the nation. It is affecting our politics and our religion. It is not the end of the world, but the end of what we hold dear.

Ramah has historical and moral significance for us today. What happened in Ramah has happened on a much larger scale in the U.S.A. During the invasion of Babylon, The King of Judah held Jeremiah in prison. He was taken to Ramah, freed and then killed by those who escaped to Egypt. Before he died, he had this vision: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more" (Jer.31: 15). The same voice was heard in Bethlehem when Herod killed all the male children under the age of two (Mt.2: 18). For some time now, the same voice has been heard in our land, while women were allowed to abort their children who could be paying for their retirement.

Jesus encouraged His disciples, "that they should always pray and not give up" (Lk.18: 1). One of the things they were to pray for was, "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt.6: 10). Being human, He, too, had second thoughts what God's will really was. Three times, He fell on His knees and begged the Father in heaven to find an alternative. God gave Jesus no answer. He could not alter the will of God. He then accepted God's will, "not what I will, but what you will" (Mk.14: 36). Just think, what would have happened, to a lost humanity, if God's will had yielded to the human cry and anxiety of facing death?