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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Blood on the Door

1 of the greatest calamities of history struck the land of Egypt many years ago.

Every family lost at least 1 member by death in the massive national tragedy.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about this midnight massacre.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

It was 5 minutes till midnight in the Sendarkan land of Egypt.

It was a tense, exciting time and a solemn soul-searching time as well.

In the land of Goshen there was prayer and watching.

The death angel was passing over, and in some parts of Egypt the cries of anguish were rising into the midnight air.

Only where the blood showed on the door was their safety for the people.

This was the night God would lead out His people and take them to the land of promise.

You know, friends, something very, very terrible happened in the land of Egypt that night.

The mercy of God had been violated by that stubborn, obstinate people for the last time.

God had tried to reason with the king, that proud monarch of Egypt.

He had said, Let my people go, and Pharaoh said, No, I'll not let them go.

God did everything he could to convince this man that he was in serious, dead earnest about this matter.

It was a matter of life or death for the King, as it was for all the people.

God worked miracles in front of him to show how urgent it was.

He brought plagues down to cover the whole land to show that this was it.

In fact, the very dust of Egypt turned into lice.

Frogs came and coated the landscape everywhere.

God said, I mean what I say, Pharaoh, let my people go." Even the people seemed to be impressed that they were dealing with the God of the universe.

But friends, listen, the attractive pagan religion of Egypt was much dearer to the hearts of those people than obedience to the true God.

And from the king right down to the smallest peasant out in the field, they turned away from the commandments of God and decided to follow their own will instead.

Don't ever think for a moment Egypt didn't have a beautiful form of religion.

The temples of those sun-worshippers were magnificent.

The beautiful robes of the singers and priests were also attractive.

Everything about the religion was intended to appeal to the carnal taste and impulses of the people.

In fact, those rituals and ceremonies held no restraint whatsoever.

They were immoral and licentious to the very deepest degree.

But listen, God even pleaded with the Egyptians, too.

He was willing to save them along with the Israelites, if They were willing to obey his commandments and let the people go and leave themselves, but they steeled themselves and hardened themselves against the Holy Spirit until finally they committed the unpardonable sin.

God said, This is it now, I'll speak no more.

This will be the night that shall take my people out of the land.

Now what does all this mean for us today, friends?

In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11, we read that everything that happened to them was for our learning.

Now all these things happen to them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Now there is something in this story for us.

Well first of all, let me say there are some remarkable parallels between the days of Egypt and the times that we live in.

For example, the religions of that day and some of the forms of godliness are very, very close in resemblance.

We have a great form of godliness today all over the world, but very little power.

And I think many times of these empty shells that must be like the pleasure-loving religion of the Egyptians.

Many great religious institutions are turned into secular social activities.

A lot of visiting, a lot of feasting, a lot of dancing even taking place, and all in the name of religion.

Now, I don't want you to misunderstand me, friend, because we don't want to be harsh and judge wrongly.

But the scriptures and prophecy tell us a time comes when men will choose easy, smooth ways that are convenient.

They want to hear the truth, because it is too sharp, too cutting, too restrictive.

Today some of the greatest religious denominations have actually denied the virgin birth of Jesus, the Deity of Christ, the blood atonement even, and the plan of salvation.

Some of the largest seminaries in the country, some of the leading theologians of the time have said that Jesus was just a good man, that he was not the Son of God, that his blood sacrifice does not really cleanse anybody of their sin.

Now, lest you should doubt what I say, let me tell you of a little experience that happened a few years ago.

I was driving through a little town in Georgia, in fact it was a town of Calhoun, Georgia.

And we passed along the way a nice, clean-cut young man, well-dressed, beside the road.

We passed on by, and as we did, he flashed 1 of the warmest, friendliest smiles that I've ever seen.

And my wife and I both felt that we had made a mistake, so we turned around and went back to pick up this young fellow.

Well, he happened to be the principal of the local high school at Calhoun, Georgia.

He found out that I was a minister, and he said, You know, once I started to be a minister, I attended Emory University down here, this large seminary, this theological school in Atlanta, Georgia.

I'm really an atheist." I said, My, my, that's strange.

You're an atheist, and yet you had intended to be a preacher?

Well, he said, I went to this seminary and they taught us there that Jesus was just a good man, that the Bible had much legend and falsehood in it, and that there is no such thing as a miracle, that prayer is just a psychological comfort to the mind.

After 1 year I went down to Stetson University and took up education.

Well, I could hardly believe my ears, friends, because that school of theology is 1 of the largest seminaries in the South.

I said, Now listen, all the professors didn't teach those things.

You're just talking about 1 man who was a little misguided and mixed up.

Oh, no, he said, every professor in that school taught the same thing.

They did not believe that Jesus was more than just a good man.

Now friends, that's just 1 small example.

There are multitudes of seminaries all over the land that are teaching the same thing.

I think most of you have heard of the Riverside Church in New York City.

Several years ago, when this church first began, it was located on Fifth Avenue.

It was called, in fact, the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church of New York City.

They wanted to expand, so they moved over to Park Avenue and built a very large sanctuary, and it was called the Park Avenue Baptist Church.

But they wanted to grow some more, and so they moved over to Riverside Drive, and this time John D.

Rockefeller put 4000000 dollars into building 1 of the finest and most expensive churches in the city, and they dropped the name of Baptist.

It was no longer called the Riverside Baptist Church, but just the Riverside Church.

When they put up on the front of this building a large, massive stone plaque, it was filled with carvings of people.

It had these forms carved right into the stone itself over the entrance, the main door.

The other forms were Einstein, Darwin, Confucius, Buddha, and Emerson.

Harry Emerson Fosdick, the pastor of this Church, was trying to tell the world that Darwin, the great agnostic, was just as deserving of recognition by the Church as Jesus Christ.

He was trying to say that Einstein, who completely rejected Jesus, and Emerson, who thought the religion was all fable, that these men deserve to be recognized by that Church.

So there they are, all up there together, and Jesus standing right with these men.

I tell you, friends, I protest that sort of thing in the name of religion.

Call it anything you want to, philosophy, education, but not Christianity or religion.

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Blood on the Door

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