A combination of 5. and 7. BIB 547-2 - 19-8

To put it simply and to quote CM, Idolatry equals spiritual fornication. Idolatry is not limited to non-Christians. The icons found in the Catholic Church certainly could be equated to idols. Idolatry is anything that takes the place of the true worship of God. Often this takes the form of acquisition of more and more material goods, money and power. As the expression goes, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Last fall there was a series on the History Channel titled "The Men Who Built America." Even in the case of John D. Rockefeller who was a devout Baptist, money did seem to be a lesser god to him. These men who built America were absolutely ruthless in their competitiveness.

The theory of evolution denies the creator God with the result that many worship at the altar of science. As an aside, science itself is a witness to intelligence design. The so-called right of a woman to her body has become another form of idolatry resulting in the destruction of about 50 million babies in the last 40 years. Pornography and violence resulting in pedophilia and mass killings seem to be in the news daily.

There are so many more forms of idolatry that could be cited. So just what does a righteous God do with a rebellious mankind? This leads us to discussion question #5.

Rebellion was a lesson taught in the garden by that most rebellious of God's creation, Satan. Early on in Genesis Nimrod built the Tower of Babel as the “centerpiece” of his rebellion against God and we see how well that worked out for him. The result was a “confusion of tongues.” Rebellion against God has continued in many ways as mankind insists on "doing it his way." After the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the simple message of the Gospels was often either either rejected or redacted.

To quote Dr. Missler, God's has three Alternatives in dealing with rebellious mankind:
#1 He can indulge it and allow it to go on forever;
#2 He can force man into automata;
#3 He can withdraw Himself.

In my opinion, we are still somewhat in the option #1. However, God will certainly not allow our sinful behavior to go on forever. It would seem that the current world-wide birth pains would attest to God’s losing patience with mankind.

God created man with free will him and never seemed to indicate any desire to have a kingdom of robots. So this eliminates option #2.

So we are left with opinion #3 and the fact that God can choose to withdraw himself from us. To me, this represents God withdrawing his hedge of protection from America. This hedge of protection has pretty much surrounded us since the dawn of our country. In reading the news, it would seem that any hedge of protection has long since been removed from many other countries and is occurring in American.