Judgment is Coming America

Anyone who is a student of the Old Testament cannot help but see the parallels between the history of Israel and America. Since the early 1900’s America has been in a steady spiritual decline.  The Church, in general, has become more secular than spiritual. Secularization is the process by which society becomes more and more distant from its Christian roots.  Secularization is the fact that the culture no longer depends upon Christian symbols, morals, principles, or practices. 

Just as Israel allowed the world around them to influence them to turn from God, America is doing the same. The prophets, priests and leaders of Israel led the people away from God.  Today the prophets, priest and leaders are leading America away from God. It is the same spirit of evil that influenced Israel that is influencing America today.

What is this country coming to? Anyone who pays attention to religion in America can see monumental changes and conflicts affecting the present and looming in the future. And anyone with a bit of historical awareness knows that religion has always been at the core of American society just as religion was the core of Israel.

Christians in America are divided over issues that were once considered sin.  Americans can’t decide if gay marriage is a sacred vow or a heinous sin.  Americans are increasingly following the path of SBNR (“spiritual but not religious”) in their pursuit of the sacred.  American Christians still believe in God but do not agree on how to define and understand God.

What does all this turmoil and contestation, argumentation and confusion say about the state of Christianity and its place in American society?

For the armchair theologians, the increasing fragmentation of religion is a sign of secularization. All religions are losing their influence and a more secular frame of mind, anchored by natural sciences, economics, political science, and self-interest, rules the day in American culture. With the loss of social power and cultural authority the Church no longer has the influence on American society.

The America Church is a battlefield, and the future of its very soul will depend on the outcome of this war. The conflict between the faithful followers of Jesus Christ and the secular Christians are so pervasive because the stakes are so high that there is a feeling of hopelessness of many faithful Christians.  The struggle among conservative Christians is, do we uphold American ideals about justice, democracy, and freedom, or pray for the LORD to return and bring all this to an end?

The secular “Christian” believes that diversity is a good thing and enriches society. This diversity values tolerance, however, the tolerance is a one-way street.  Christians who base their beliefs on the Bible and identify the socially accepted sins as unacceptable are not tolerated.  The fact that Americans can’t agree on the right religious values for any issue is a signal of spiritual decline.  Christianity has explicitly lost its authoritative power across society. What we are witnessing today, and what has been especially visible in the past for some time now, is the secular world has become the norm within the Church.

Just as Israel was given time to repent, I believe that America has been given time to repent.  However, I feel that the time is quickly running out and that we are at the point of no return. 

As a nation, America has benefited from the longsuffering patience of God.  But when will that run out?  It is not the evil of the non-believer that brings about judgment on a nation.  It is the sins of those who call themselves Christian, followers of the LORD, that will bring judgment. What believers sow in terms of obedience to God in a secular nation largely determines what that nation will reap. Again, this is the guiding light of 2Chronicles 7:14. It informs us that God holds believers responsible. In the NT, this same idea is underscored in 1Peter 4:17 which states,

 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Jeremiah 22:21 informs us that Judah was a materially prosperous nation like America – but the prosperity served to buffer God’s intended impact of His messenger and His message.

The American Church no longer has need of the LORD in a vast number of  churches: Most everyone is just playing church, going through the motions. Why? Because in our material prosperity there are very few in desperate need of God as their only solution!  Few cries out to Him from physical and/or spiritual poverty! Few are America’s believers who have any needs today (that is revealed by the majority of prayer requests which are dominated by medically related needs). In the Book of Revelation, the Church of Laodicea serves as a replica of today’s American church.  Rev. 3:14-17  

The Church of Laodicea and the Church of America are parallels to ancient Judah, such similarities in attitude and condition in our country exist for God to rock our nation.  The blood of the innocent cries out for justice.  Our country has carried out the exploitation of the most indefensible of all individuals – the unborn!  Such terrible, continued practices of exploiting the innocent child – coupled with the callousness of “Christian” political leaders and judges who do little about it will evoke the fury of The Almighty! How can the LORD not bring judgment on a nation who continues the practice of shedding innocent blood?  Jeremiah 22:3 and 22:17 speaks respectively in this regard-

Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. 

But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

The Book of Lamentations can be applied to America and should be understood as a warning and motivation for those who are His chosen in our nation. 1Peter 4:17 underscore the principle of God’s chosen ones being the guiding force by which God determines to bless or else curse an entire nation! Again, take careful note as believers go, so goes the nation.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God.

The American Christian needs to wake-up if God is not afraid to judge His own people in the Old Testament, then He is not afraid of judging His people in the New Testament – and the nation(s) wherein they reside. Deuteronomy 32:21-22 states regarding God’s “sinning Christians.”

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. ²² For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

American Christians have been blinded by the teaching that the judgment of God will be in the future and that the Christians will be removed from what happens to this nation.  Here is a thought that should give this teaching of escaping judgment some consideration.  God’s uses surrogates to enact His judgment. It is interesting how this theme is illustrated in the Book of Jeremiah, versus the Book of Lamentations. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon brought about the destructive calamity that was a result from the sin of God’s people.  The Book of Jeremiah mentions Babylon at least 150 times.  In Lamentations, however, Babylon is never mentioned – only the Lord is specified as the one who will deal with Judah’s sin. The conclusion is that Babylon is the surrogate instrument of the LORD to achieve His ultimate purposes. Note this by comparing Jeremiah 50:23 to Lamentations 2:1

How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

This insight more than suggests that God uses other individuals and other nations (whom He dislikes too!) to invoke His wrath. It is well within the scope of the LORD judgment to use America’s most detested enemies to manifest His judgment on our nation.  Could the jihadist be the instrument of the LORD’s judgment on America and the other nations that have forsaken the LORD? 

That is the application of this surrogate principle; it is often His way of accomplishing shame, total humility, and repentance. Likened to Babylon ransacking Jerusalem, such godly actions bring the greatest disgrace – embarrassment that is both warranted and intended from and by the LORD for our good.

Jeremiah is giving us a warning that we should heed.  Christ is standing at the door of the American Church today knocking, asking to come in.  Will we heed the advice of Jeremiah and open the door and repent?