Rampant Apathy Proven in the US

By Ray Gano

Annise Danette Parker was elected mayor of Houston on Saturday, winning her seventh consecutive city election and becoming the first openly gay person to lead a major U.S. city. Houston being the fourth largest city in the US.

Unofficial returns show that Parker led with a comfortable victory of about 52.8 percent of the vote to 47.2 percent for Locke, her election rival. Out of the 2.2 million citizens of Houston, the turnout was just 16.5 percent or roughly 152,000 people showed up to the polls to vote. Of Houston's 2.2 million people, an estimated 60,000 of its residents identify themselves as gay or lesbian. In fact a recent poll by the Houston Chronicle found that 77 percent of respondents didn’t care about Parker’s sexuality.

To win the mayor seat, Parker or Locke, her opponent, had to earn the support of 70,000 voters — slightly more than 40 percent of those who cast their ballots in the general election. Parker won with approximately 81,000 votes.

Folks, this mayoral election paints a very sad picture of the rampant apathy that grips this nation of ours.

Only 16% of Houston's population decided to go vote.

As an American and a Christian, this sickens me to my core. I think of the blood that has been spilt for this nation and basically 84% of Houston's population mocks those fallen heroes who paid for their freedom to cast a vote.

Locke, who was running against Parker won approximately 52,000 votes.

Do you realize that is just a difference of 29,000 votes?

Do you know that the nation's largest church is located in Houston Texas, pastored by none other than by Joel Osteen. Lakewood Church has approximately 30,000 members according to Forbes. In 2005 the church was renamed Lakewood International Center, and moved into the newly renovated 18,000-seat worship complex at Houston's Compaq Center in order to facilitate its rapid growth. Joel's #1 rated inspirational television program by Nielson Media Research is seen worldwide in 100 million households on ABC Family, BET, PAX, and CNBC Europe and Australia, among others.

What I have to ask is if Joel Osteen alone would have come out and called sin a sin and stood for what God's Word clearly states, would Houston have elected a lesbian mayor?

Lakewood is not the only large church in Houston either. There is First Baptist with a large congregation pastored by Pastor David Self, and then there is Second Baptist Church out on highway 10 Pastored by Ed Young. You may have even heard these guys on the radio. The interesting thing about Second Baptist is that they have many church campus' all over Houston. That means they have numbers.

Just think about it, together these two churches could have turned the tide of allowing a lesbian in Houston's highest office. That is if they preached God's true word from the pulpit instead of sugar coated "purpose driven life" sermons that they preach. If you don’t believe me, Google their websites and see for yourself. Both present your typical "psycho-babble Christianity" preaching "self and service" over the proper Biblical Christian walk God's Word calls for.

Were there any churches in Houston that took a stand on God's Word and come out against this grievous event? If so I would really love to hear from any pastor that was willing to stand on the pulpit and call a spade a spade, proclaiming the truth of God. If you are a pastor and voiced the error that took place, please contact me. I would love to interview you and the next time I am in Houston, I would be honored to attend your church if I am there on a Sunday.

The problem is that most pastors today will not preach on hellfire and brimstone from the pulpit today. No longer is sin a popular sermon topic because pastors want to keep happy fannies in seats that have deep pockets that tithe and give lots of dollars, and that is a fact.

Sin is running rampant and the church is oblivious to it. One of the reasons they are oblivious to it is that no one knows God's word anymore. I mean why not; when we have a bible version for just about every pet sin there is out there. Just look, there is the Gay bible, The Feminist bible, the Green bible, there is the gender neutral bible and a one hundred and one other different bibles that water down God's Word. Folks, it is Satan's oldest ploy in the book, "Hath God Said." He did this with Eve in the Garden and both Adam and Eve fell for it when they fell from grace. That serpent the devil has had close to 5000 years to perfect his art and he is doing a great job causing people to doubt God's Word more and more each day.

Want Proof? Just look at Houston.

But what I am interested in knowing is how many Bible believing Christians who love the Lord and are looking for his soon return did not take an interest in this election? Because they did not "occupy till He returned," they now have a lesbian in Houston's highest office.

Yea, I am now pointing at some of you, what excuse can you give? Why didn’t you occupy?

There is a complacent attitude going on out there that I have been rather surprised about. I have written about this before, but there seems to be a complacency in Christians who basically have given up the fight. These are good bible believing Christians too, but instead of occupying till Christ returns, they have just given up.

I hear excuses like "Christ is returning soon so why should I care?" Or "the rapture is coming and we will all be gone." It is like people have just rolled over and "since we are living in the last days, there is nothing they can do about it. So why try to fight the good fight when God says that the end of the world is coming?"

Folks, we have to fight the good fight because that is what Christ told us to do. Be good stewards over what He has blessed us with and stand firm on His Word.

But are people doing it?

When the fourth largest city in America, which happens to be located in what many view as the "bible belt" and elect a open lesbian, I clearly see apathy and complacency taken to a whole new level. In fact, what we are witnessing goes beyond that. What we are witnessing is out and out rebellion from God's own people, who in fact love the world more than they love God.

1 John 2:15-17 (KJV) "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

1 John 2:4-5(KJV) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Right now some of you are saying "how dare you judge…"

Well, to be honest, yes I am judging the people of Houston, but also the mere numbers speak the truth.

When you have 2.2 million people which only 152,000 showed up to vote; knowing that 60,000 of those are from the gay community, one can clearly see the picture that is being painted.

Most of Houston and her Christians don’t care anymore and the numbers prove it.

It is apathy like this as to why we have a man in the white house who clearly sides with the enemies of Israel and profess more of a relationship with Islam instead of Christianity.

It is apathy like this why we have leaders more bent on corruption and greed instead of having the fortitude to do the right thing in the eyes of God.

It is apathy like this why this nation is going down in flames just like the Hindenburg and no one is doing anything but standing around watching her burn.

The 80's rock band Def Leopard said it best in their song "Rock of Ages" when the lead singer said "it is better to burn out than fade away."

The worlds wisdom at its best and we as Christians have bought into that warped sense of wisdom.

What Others Are Saying.. Is It Too Late?

This last week I had the chance to interview many of those in bible prophecy at the Pre-Trib Conference in Dallas. One of the things I asked these men…"is it too late for this nation?" I mean have we as a nation strayed so far from God that it will basically take harsh judgment to bring us back to Him? Everyone I asked agreed that we as a nation have gone past the point of no return. I can hear some of you "nay sayers" right now saying… "Nothing is too great for God." I agree with that, but what needs to happen first is a changing and repentance of the heart of America's Christians and in fact her people over all.

But will that happen on its own? Based upon our sin nature, I really doubt it.

Today's Christian population no longer care and if we did care, most are to ignorant of scripture to do anything about it. All the Bible Prophecy teachers I spoke agreed that there are still pockets of righteousness spread here and there across this nation, but is that enough to make a difference?

All agreed that our numbers have dwindled to a point that this nation will most likely see God's hand of Judgment come down over this nation. Many believe that It is through chastisement that will get America's Christians attention again where it belongs, that being on Our Father in Heaven.

In fact several people I spoke to already believe that the judgment is beginning due to the leadership this nation now has in her highest offices.

We as Christians have allowed greedy, crooked, sexually deviant, heathens in about 98% of all our government offices from our local cities all the way up to the white house. The very fact that now the fourth largest city in our nation has a lesbian cements that fact too.

But even looking at this, does that mean we as Christians just roll over and give up?

NO!

So what can we do? We need to start in the home and start holding ourselves accountable to God's Word. Then we need to move that accountability to local churches and start holding our pastors accountable to God's Word. If they do not want to change their spineless ways, then we need to find new pastors who have the moral and spiritual fortitude to do the right thing and preach God's Word once again from America's pulpits. We need to be willing to walk away from the 501c3 status that has just about ever pastor out there shaking in their boots, afraid to say anything in fear of rocking the boat. If you are not willing to preach that we are all sinners in need of a savior and if we do not turn our lives over to the Lord, we will burn in Hell; then you do not need to be occupying the pulpit. We need to kick these hirelings out on the streets and replace them with pastors who will preach the conviction of God's Word. We want pastors who will preach that Jesus Christ is THE WAY… THE TRUTH...and THE LIFE and no man comes to the Father but by Him. AND… if one fails to accept this 100% fact, then they will burn in Hell….just as God's Word clearly states in Revelation 20:11-15.

But since we have become apathetic Christians, we now have pastors refuse to preach the conviction of sin and hell for fear of losing those happy fannies in seats with deep pockets.

So that is where we stand today. Basically a bunch of spineless, lack of conviction people who claim the title Christian, who play by our own rules just like Cain did and refuse to follow God's Word and His commandments.

Christ said in John 14:15 (KJV) If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments.

Looking at the state of the union today, not many love God anymore.

So when that day to cast our vote comes what do we do? It is one of two things, one, we do nothing or we elect Bible haters, gays and lesbians, lovers of money, crooks, thieves, legal hair splitters and the list goes on instead of filling those positions with Godly men who will stand for God.

But what is worse is now that we have made our bed, we are now complaining about sleeping in it.

So what can we do?

We need to get back to God and His Word and reject the ways of the world.

We need to choose who we are going to serve and then get off this fence we are sitting on and stand for who we have chosen to serve.

Joshua said it best…

Joshua 24:15 (KJV) And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.

Who Do You Serve?

Jesus stated the following…

John 14:6 (KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

If you do not have Christ in your life, you will spend eternity in hell. This is a fact. It does not matter if you believe this or not, it is the truth spoken by Jesus himself. If your name is not written in the Lambs Book of Life you will go to hell for what you have not done and that is accepting Christ as your personal savior. To be placed in the Lamb Book of Life, you need to turn your life completely over to Him. Having “head” knowledge or “just believing in Christ” is not the same as having “heart” knowledge with Christ living in your heart. We know that even the devils believe in Him, where are they spending eternity?

James 2:19 (KJV) Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

We work hard at Prophezine to show that Bible Prophecy is coming to pass. Because of this fact, the Bible is true. Since the Bible is the true and inerrant word of God, there is a heaven and there is a hell.

If you claim the title of “Christian” then take account of yourself this day. Many claim the title, but we read in God’s Word that the title does not get you into heaven.

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Who you serve will determine where you will spend eternity. If you are not serving Christ and a true child of God, then you are serving Satan and a child of the enemy.

If you are not 110% sure, then take account of yourself, your very life depends upon it.

1 John 1:9 (KJV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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About the Author

Ray & Tracye Gano are the Executive Directors of Prophezine. Prophezine deals with Bible Prophecy and World Events from a Pre-trib, pre-millennial, dispensationalist stand point. They currently serve close to 70,000 (and growing) people world wide with a weekly newsletters, daily news updates, community based website and internet radio shows. Ray recently released his latest project “TEOTWAWKI - The DVD focusing on how to escape the trappings of mammon, learning how to live simply in God’s abundance and other useful bits of knowledge.

Please visit Prophezine by going to http://www.prophezine.com