Desert Ridge Baptist Church

On this Independence Day weekend, our nation is celebrating 250 years of freedom from foreign rule. On July 4th, 1776, these British colonies in North America adopted the Declaration of Independence from the British Crown. The battles of Lexington and Concord had already occurred the previous year, and many colonists were being drawn into the conflict for various convictions and pursuits.

Traditionally, many Americans have been taught that the tenets of the Declaration of Independence were directed by biblical principles, that the war was a just war, and that it paved the way for the establishment of a Christian nation. However, true history is not as simple as this, and some of the actions of our nation’s secession from the British Crown are not as biblically justifiable as we might like to believe. There were, at times, great moral compromises. Even the text of the Declaration of Independence itself is not entirely biblically accurate, or in some of its content, biblically justifiable.

However, in the complexities of man’s sinful depravity, the Lord in His sovereignty saw fit to raise up an independent nation that, at the very least, recognized that there is one God who was universally understood to be the God of the Bible. Also, the establishment of this independent government accomplished protection for true Bible-believing Christians to worship God according to His Word. According to this protection of the freedom of true Christianity, God has protected and even blessed our nation. Throughout our existence, disciples have been made, and churches have continuously been established virtually unhindered by the government. At certain times in our history, God has even chosen to pour out His Spirit on the land powerfully and bring many souls into salvation through great awakenings to the truth of the gospel.

Unfortunately, despite all of this, we now live in a day when the nation culturally and in its official stances has rejected God. Choosing to accept secular humanism as the national belief system directing both government and education, we are now seeing the consequences very clearly of this rejection. “For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21). The foolishness of our sin has led us to justify sexual immorality of the most depraved kind, the murder of the unborn on a massive scale, and the pursuit of every manner of covetous idolatry. Not only is this wickedness tolerated, but among many it is celebrated, “… although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32). The American experiment, an independent society that requires government to protect the individual pursuit of liberty and happiness, has utterly failed. The total depravity of human nature has revealed what end people come to when the restraints of sin are pulled away. We have used our freedoms as license to sin, and the population is infected by wickedness.

So, on the 250th anniversary of this nation’s independence, we should not take pride in what we have become, but rather, declare our dependence upon God. We must humble ourselves as a people before the righteous Judge of the universe. We must confess that we live amongst a sinful, depraved people and seek the Lord for deliverance. Let us use this occasion as an opportunity to pray to the God of salvation, asking that He may convict this people and bring about true spiritual change. May we see a move of God upon the individual souls of the lost to such a degree that across the nation are cries to Him for grace and submission to Him as Lord.

We are thankful for all of the blessings the Lord has granted to this nation, but, as we celebrate independence from an earthly king, we must profess total dependence upon the eternal King of heaven and earth.

“And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be the only one, and His name one.”
Zechariah 14:9

The evil and depravity of the Pride movement in America is a perversity that will utterly destroy an entire civilization. Not only have we tolerated this wickedness in our midst, but in our government, professional sports, entertainment, and even within liberal church buildings, sexual perversion has been celebrated. America must repent of its evils and cry out to the God of the universe for mercy or destruction will be the end of our society.
"Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, 'Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.' And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes..."
"...Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them."
-Jonah 3:4-6, 10

Evangelicals who regularly promote social justice are often very uncomfortable with accurately defined biblical justice.

Biblical Ecclesiology: The Mission of the Church
Sundays at 9:30am

Desert Ridge Baptist Church is very excited to welcome our newest addition to the leadership team, Pastor Cory Scheid. Cory and his family are a wonderful blessing to our congregation and we are looking forward to serving together for the Lord's glory here in St. George, Utah!

On this holiday weekend, many throughout the world are recognizing a day that they truly do not understand. "Easter" is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. However, the celebration of the resurrection of the dead has no meaning if we do not comprehend the great tragedy of death. Scripture says, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and that "the wages of sin is death." Death is a result of sin, and all those who die in their sins will spend eternity suffering the consequences of their sin. When Jesus died on the cross, His death was a perfect sacrificial payment for all of the sin of all of His people. When He rose again and conquered death, He provided the solution to our great problem. Now, those who trust fully in Him and His work of salvation will be resurrected after they die. This is our great hope, that all true followers of Jesus Christ will escape the finality of death and eternal punishment through resurrection to eternal life. "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4