What is Religion
Of the many voices competing for the nation's attention, very few dare tell a really substantial part of the truth in the fields of politics or economics; and those few who do are subjected to the most evil and vicious "smear" campaign imaginable. Even in the field of religion, very few dare tell all the truth; and those few are called "bigots."
Not very many have the courage to face such a campaign of abuse, so many who know the truth are silent. Naturally, nothing like this could escape the foreknowledge of God: it is one of the signs of the Time of the End.
So God prophesied, in Amos 5:13, that
"The prudent shall keep silence in that time: for it is an evil Time."
Therefore, only a small portion of the people have the opportunity, today, to hear the full truth in and of these vitally important fields; which today are becoming literally "matters of life or death."
Instead, they hear the constant repetition of propaganda aimed to influence public action or inaction in a way to serve the interests of those who control the media of public information.
Particularly unfortunate is the fact that most people do not get to hear the word of God on these matters, matters which God considered important enough to give us specific warnings about. But again, this was foretold by God Himself, also through the Prophet Amos:
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." (Amos 8:11)
Since these are days of terrible and increasing danger, and never were God's words more needed than today, many people wonder why God would permit any interference with the teaching of His word: why isn't it made available to all? Why isn't it dinned into everyone's ears, the way Communist propaganda is broadcast in Russia? It is because this condition is not the cause of our trouble, it is the result.
We are reaping what we have sown. Time was when the full truth could be spoken or printed in this country: some people would bitterly disagree with you, of course, but they could not silence you. Then we allowed our enemies to teach us that to oppose them was "controversy," and that was always vaguely bad, in some undefined way though, by some unexplained magic, their opposition to you was not controversy, it was just a liberal recognition of other points of view (theirs only, of course). We have come to regard expressing the truth as bad taste, since the truth always offends those who are engaged in some evil activity. This Is especially true of the word of God, which always offends all evil people.
Therefore, we have allowed ourselves to be taught that the word of God must not be used, even His name must not be mentioned, in our schools or our public institutions because it offends those who hate Him. In other words this famine of hearing the word of God has come upon us, not as our misfortune, but because we have acquiesced in it, even supported the politicians who have pushed it the hardest. It is our sin. When we had the truth, we allowed it to be suppressed. The consequence is God's judgment: as He says in Hosea 4:6,
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."
As a consequence, our forgotten children have died in the jungle‑swamps of the South Pacific and the freezing mud of Korea, in the scorching deserts of North Africa and the bomb‑shattered cities of Europe, and for what? To create the hell on earth which faces us today. Perhaps a few people are disturbed because we dare mention what some would call "Political" truths, as well as "religious", on this program: for they have been taught you should never mix the two.
You see, there are some people who wouldn't worship your God if they knew you weren't a left‑wing, New Deal Democrat: and there are others who wouldn't listen to the truth on political matters if they knew you didn't belong to their church.
They think that God is a politician who must hide His principles in order to get more votes. But God has never worried whether the majority would follow Him: if they would not, that was their own tragic loss; but the truth was never compromised. In speaking to you on "economic" and "political" as well as "religious" matters, we are just following in the footsteps of the prophets. God spoke through them on all these subjects. Economic principles determine whether we shall have prosperity or poverty, and God wants us to be prosperous; political principles determine whether we shall have freedom or slavery, and God wants us to be free; therefore, He has instructed us on these matters, in the Bible.
We must speak the word of God: and if any are offended, we can't help it: truth compromised would no longer be truth. I want to review in a general way the subjects discussed in the Bible, and note into which class each falls, "economic," "political," or "religious," all in the same book. On the authority of that book, the Bible, this program takes its stand, and we will not deviate therefrom.
Now let's see what authority we have for this broad coverage. Let's start with Moses. The Book of Genesis introduces us to our God, and to that extent it is religious. But it also contains God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, ancestors of the Anglo‑Saxon race, that these people would become great nations, a blessing to all the earth; that they shall control the great gateways of the earth; that other nations shalt bow down before us; that we shall be blessed with all good things, or as we say today, the "have" nations. These promises are economic and political.
Exodus gives the religious ordinances of the Passover, the Ark and the Tabernacle, the priesthood and the sacrifices, the altar and the holy days. It also gives the Ten Commandments, of which only the first 4 are religious; the other 6 are social and political.
The next book, Leviticus, is partly religious, dealing with offerings and sacrifices, consecration of priests, and the great feasts and holy days; but it also contains the agricultural laws and the dietary laws, the rules for healing the sick, and the great economic and social laws of the Year of Rest and release of debts every 7th year, and the restoration of the poor to their lost homesteads every 50th year, and these are definitely economic and political.
The Book of Numbers gives the laws of conscription, military training and war, which are surely political, as well as religious.
Moses’ last book, Deuteronomy, reviews the Ten Commandments and the holy days; but it also gives the organization of the nation, the dietary and agricultural laws, the economic laws and the laws of warfare, which are surely social and political. Moses wrote under direct inspiration FROM God; he intermixed what some call "religious" (because it pertains to the forms and ceremonies with which we like to dress up our expression of our relation to our God), with the rules governing all the practical aspects of our civilization, all the rules governing man's relation to his fellow man, both as an individual and as organized society. And remember that Moses wrote this at the dictation of God: the "economic" and "political" rules ARE STATED UPON THE SAME AUTHORITY AS "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," or "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," the direct commandment of God. The prophet ISAIAH wrote some of the grandest religious statements and prophecies ever expressed by man. But also he gave many political explanations and prophecies to the people, some of which applied to his own times, and some of which are clearly directed to our own day. He warned the people that they had not kept the nation pure, that they had allowed alien elements to rise to power in their capital city of Jerusalem, saying,
"For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory. THE SHOW OF THEIR COUNTENANCE DOTH WITNESS AGAINST THEM: AND THEY DECLARE THEIR SIN AS SODOM, THEY HIDE IT NOT. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves!"
For this cause, he warned them, God would judge them: their enemies would invade and conquer the land; no alliance with other nations could save them. This warning of existing political evil in their government, and its penalty of military invasion and defeat, surely deals with so‑called "political" subjects. Don't tell me,
"You must separate politics and religion, economics and religion."
God does not separate or distinguish between them: He separates right and wrong, good and evil; what is right and good in economics and politics He commands by His religion, as part of it. No prophet in the Bible wrote entirely for his own days: part of his message was a warning to us who live in the 20th century. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10:11,
"They are written for our admonition, upon whom the End of the Age is come."
This is especially true of Isaiah. In his 8th chapter, he gives us the clearest warning against our wicked folly in joining the United Nations.
God warned us in clear and strong language:
“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and YE SHALL BE BROKEN IN PIECES; and GIVE EAR, ALL YE OF FAR COUNTRIES; GIRD YOURSELVES, AND YE SHALL BE BROKEN IN PIECES; GIRD YOURSELVES, and YE SHALL BE BROKEN IN PIECES. TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER, AND IT SHALL COME TO NOUGHT; SPEAK THE WORD, AND IT SHALL NOT STAND: FOR GOD IS WITH US. For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. " (Isaiah 8:9‑14)
WE HAVE BEEN WARNED NOT TO ASSOCIATE OURSELVES WITH THESE PAGAN AND CHRIST-HATING NATIONS, for those who do join this association shall be broken in pieces. And isn't this a perfect picture of the utter futility of this pagan organization: ‘Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; Speak the word, and it shall not stand.’”
Just 17 words perfectly sum up years of effort to govern the earth by the power of Satan, in an organization where the name of Jesus Christ cannot be mentioned.
How could we claim to be speaking the word of God, the true religion, if we failed to bring you this warning, spoken by God to His prophet Isaiah, a warning essential to our very survival in the near future? Isaiah gave many other warnings, directly inspired by God, on matters which may be called "political"; but let us leave him, for the present, and go on to some of the other prophets, for a fair cross‑section of the Bible on this question. Let's take Jeremiah next. Jeremiah opens with God's denunciation of mongrelization, intermarriage with other races, in Chapter 2, verse 21 :
"Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a true seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?"
In this, Jeremiah is reminding us of GOD’S STERN WARNING AGAINST INTEGRATION AND MIXED MARRIAGES.
For example, in Leviticus 20:24:
"I am the Lord thy God, which have separated you from other people."
Moses taught this to the people, in Exodus 33:16,
"So shall we be separated, I and all of Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth."
In Deuteronomy 7 :3, God again emphasizes the point:
"Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son."
And Joshua repeats the warning,
"If ye do in any wise go back and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, know for a certainty that they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you."
After this ample and repeated warning, God challenges us to answer Him:
"Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a true seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine?"
So also Hosea 5:6‑7 reminds us,
"They shall go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him: He hath withdrawn Himself from them. THEY HAVE DEALT TREACHEROUSLY AGAINST THE LORD: FOR THEY HAVE BEGOTTEN STRANGE CHILDREN." (The Hebrew word translated "strange" is "Zuwr," and means "of a different race.")
Therefore, when the prophets give God's warning that integration and mongrelization are a terrible sin against Him, can we be silent upon this? Not if we propose to speak His word; call it "social" or "political" If you will, but it is the direct commandment of God. Therefore, to us it is part of our religion, and must be preached as such.
Jeremiah knew this: in the 6th chapter, he says:
"But to whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? See! their ears are sealed, and they cannot give heed; the word of the Lord has become to them scorn, they find no pleasure in it. Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the gatherings of young men also." (6:10‑11)
So also do we see our duty on this broadcast.
The Bible is not just a message to the individual, telling him how to gain salvation: that is only a small part of it.
Over five‑sixths of the Bible is a message to the nation, telling us the laws of God by which the nation should be governed, and warns us of the terrible consequences of violation of those laws. No matter how good the individual may be, if he allows his nation to become corrupt and evil, he must pay the penalty of living in corruption and evil. If he will not heed God's warning that certain national sins bring war and invasion as their penalty, then he must send his sons to die upon the battlefield and he must endure the bitterness of conquest and slavery. Call this "political" if you will: but we find it in the Bible, and what we find there is our religion. But who should be most concerned with speaking the whole truth boldly, letting the chips fall where they may?
Surely the Men of God, the clergymen, should take this duty seriously. But no, most of them have been trained to avoid anything "controversial," sticking to those things so carefully selected that Satan can find nothing to oppose in them. You see, "This avoids controversy and hard feelings, it never drives anyone away, it takes in everyone and makes for unity: isn't it wonderful?" OR IS IT??? They prefer to forget that the most "controversial" figure in all history was Jesus Christ, and that He never shrank from controversy, never compromised right or truth, never remained silent for fear of offending the wicked. It is our basic principle in the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, that God's truth shall be spoken: If it offends those who hate our God and hate our nation, then they will be offended, for God's truth must be spoken; If the forces of the anti‑Christ choose to attack it and make it "controversial," then it is their controversy, but God's truth must be spoken anyway.
In the 8th chapter of Jeremiah, he denounces those scrambled eggheads who pretend that we can have peace with those who hate our God and our nation, men who pompously pretend to be "intellectuals" and wise,
"The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them? From the prophet even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. FOR THEY HAVE HEALED THE HURT OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE BUT SLIGHTLY, SAYING 'PEACE, PEACE' WHEN THERE IS NO PEACE! Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, they knew not how to blush; therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold! trouble!"
That is: Those who have talked of "peaceful coexistence" with the very essence of evil have spoken the doctrines of Satan, and are misleading us to our destruction.
We are compelled to learn that there is no peace, while evil is permitted to rule. We must fortify our cities and hope thereby to escape death; but this necessity comes upon us because we have sinned against our God in ever making treaties of friendship with His enemies; and we find the fruit of our own doing bitter as gall. It is some comfort to know that God will punish those who have led us into this impasse: but where they led we followed, so we must still face the situation which is of our own making. This is the actual fact, today.
This warning is no easy afterthought, in the light of hindsight: it was written in the year 600 B.C., 2560 years ago, and it has been in the Bible ever since. It was just as plain and clear when Franklin D. Roosevelt gave life to the dying monster of Communism in Russia because "some of his best friends were "Communists," and he would do this revolting wickedness to gain their support; it was just as easy to read when we betrayed Chiang Kai Shek and all of free China and helped Mao Tse Tung turn friendly China into an enemy; it didn't take a 7th son of a 7th son to understand this warning when our own President sold out our brothers of White, Christian Europe to Stalin at the infamous conferences of Yalta and Potsdam, in return for the assistance of Stalin and Satan to accomplish what? What good had we any right to expect from such a source?
Hadn't all Communist leaders, from Marx and Lenin to Stalin plainly and often stated that the only agreements they would ever make with us were those intended for our own destruction? Can we be silent about such things?
God's warning to us, in His book, the Bible, is surely as much a part of our religion as His warning not to steal; hence all churches, all men of God, should be giving this and the other divine warnings with all the force they have.
Ezekiel also gave this warning against the lying prophets of peace, in Ezekiel 13:3‑10.
"Woe to the foolish prophets who prophesy out of their own mind, concerning things they never saw. O Israel, your prophets are like foxes among the ruins: they have not stood in the breaches, nor built a wall for the House of Israel that it might stand in battle in the Day of the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: because ye have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God. And Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of My people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the House of Israel. Because, even because they have deceived My people, saying "Peace!" and there was no peace."
We have the truth confirmed out of the mouths of two witnesses, Isaiah and Ezekiel, according to the Bible's own law that there shall be two witnesses to prove a fact. If our churches are Christian, and take their religion from the Bible, how can they fail to take this? Yet how many of them ever raised a voice in protest or warning, when false leaders started our nation down this path to destruction?
This is what I have been saying: that they had accepted that devil's doctrine that religion must be kept out of politics and politics must be kept out of religion. They have been taught to concern themselves only with what they call "saving souls." How many souls do they think they are saving in Russia today? Or in the enslaved nations of eastern Europe? You never "save a soul," by helping Satan and his children to gain supreme power over a nation; no, you merely commit the ultimate wickedness of delivering the innocent into the hands of the evil for martyrdom, and their innocent children to be raised under the doctrines of Satanism.
No true religion can be silent about this: not when God has spoken so clearly about it in the Bible. The Bible has warned us very plainly not to fall into that death‑trap, the United Nations. Not only does the 8th chapter of Isaiah contain a clear warning, but there are others which are unmistakable in the light of present day conditions. God prophesies that He will gather all nations together for simultaneous punishment, in a great war; something which could not happen, except through the United Nations.
Note these examples: Jeremiah 24:31‑33 says,
"A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth."
Zephaniah 3:8 adds,
"Therefore wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My Jealousy."
How is this unlikely event to be brought about? What will bring all the nations, with their diverse and conflicting interests, together for this purpose? Now let's go on to Zechariah 12:2‑3, and 14:2‑4
"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. For I will gather ALL NATIONS against Jerusalem to battle."
Other scriptures tell us that this last event will close the final conflict of the Day of the Lord, the so‑called Battle of Armageddon. Now think it over: how could you get nations like Spain and Japan, Bulgaria and India, Burma and Peru, which have nothing in common with each other, and no interest of their own in Jerusalem to protect, how could you get these and all the other nations of the world gathered together to fight a great battle at Jerusalem?
Except through the machinery of the United Nations, whose actions represent them all, it couldn't be done. What will be the occasion for this battle? As we have stated in our book "Russia and China Will Attack The United States and Be Defeated,’ the Bible clearly shows that Russia will make a double attack, some time in the near future: one will be directed at the United States, and will come against us out of the north, from eastern Siberia and from Russia over the North Pole.
Do you say, "Well, that is fine: they are fighting against Russia"? Don't be too sure: how many of them will be fighting WITH Russia, instead of against her? Remember, God expressly says that He is gathering all these nations together for judgment upon then. Do you expect India or any of the Asiatic nations to oppose Russia when it is making an attack upon the White, Christian world and invites them to join in the attack and share in the spoils? Do you expect the pagan cannibals of Black Africa to oppose Russia in any such attack against the White, Christian nations? You can be absolutely sure that they will eagerly join in any such attack against us, if it appears to have even a chance of success.
The United Nations is not an organization of freedom‑loving peoples: those are in the small and hopeless minority in it. It has become just a council of our enemies; yet one in which we participate, and agree to be bound by their vote, when we know in advance that vote will be only a demonstration of their fundamental and undying hostility to us, our ideals and our God. How silly can we get? God foresaw all this, and warned us not to become entangled in that nest of spies and wickedness.
In 2 Corinthians 6:14‑18, we are commanded,
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath Righteousness with Unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Wherefore COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM AND BE YE SEPARATE, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Can any man say that this is "political"? It is the direct commandment of God Himself; what could be more definitely religious than that? True, our Senate ratified the United Nations treaty, and our President defies the laws and commandments of God to work for its evil purposes. But can wickedness and defiance of God change God's commandment so that it is no longer a religious matter? Or can the fact that politicians have chosen to act for their own purposes in this matter take it out of the Bible?
We have manmade statutes in our law‑books, which forbid theft and murder under legal penalty; but does this deprive churches of the right to teach the Ten Commandments because they also say "Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou shalt not commit murder"?
We started out asking the question, "WHAT IS RELIGION?" It must include not only all religious ceremonies and forms of worship, but also all that God has commanded man to do and all that He has warned man to avoid, both individually and as a nation. Whatever is the word of God is a part of our religion. If some of the wicked make money out of violating God's laws, and they say "This is now an economic matter;" or they seek political power by pandering to the lowest instincts of the mob in violation of God's commandments, and so they say, "This makes it political;" they cannot thus change God's truth: it remains a matter of religion because God so commanded it. All that God has spoken is pure religion; and all churches should so teach it. This church intends to preach the words of God on all subjects He has commanded it! (Taken, in part, from an article entitled “What is Religion,” by Pastor Bertrand L. Comparet)