Based on what I have learned thus far, this is the conclusion I’ve been coming to.

Our men's group is just starting a book that documents this abandoning of the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, specifically from the view of how American evangelicalism's Christology has been warped over time.

We started off strong in the colonies, when much of the populace had come here to flee from Charles II's oppression of the Puritan dissenters. The church here was serious about knowing God through his revealed Word, summarized in the historical creeds and confessions, and yet they were no less devoted and full of adoration for their firm adherence to sound doctrine, as evidenced by men like Johnathan Edwards.

Gradually, though, the American church abandoned a historically grounded and theologically rich foundation for their faith in favor of a "me and Jesus" and "Jesus is my homeboy" brand of irreverent and unmoored spirituality that emphasizes Jesus as our example, while downplaying his role as Savior and Lord. A church that asked the question WWJD (What would Jesus DO?) without considering what Jesus already did, is doing, and will do, or even the more fundamental question of who Jesus is, portraying him in idolatrous iconography as a white-robed hippie who somehow had modern hair products to enhance his luscious (often blonde) locks.

If this enslavement to "Israel" is a judgment from God against the American church. It's one that they have earned by abandoning the faith they inherited from their forebears. The covenant cuts both ways; blessings and curses.