“Without God, there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.” - President Ronald Reagan
There were thousands of special worship services across the country in the days following the attacks. For the first time since D-Day in 1944, a U.S. President declared a National Day of Prayer. On the Sunday after 9/11, churches across America were packed with people seeking consolation and guidance from God.
Sadly, it did not take us long to put our thoughts of God back up on the shelf and once again turn our attention to self-gratification. We soon went right back to business as usual.
Then, exactly seven years later, America suffered another calamity in September of 2008 as our banking system collapsed. This triggered a world-wide recession that shook the global economic system to its core. We still have not recovered completely from that financial crisis.
It would have benefited us greatly if those shocking wake-up calls had caused us to turn back to God. But that was not to be the case. With each passing day, we continue to drift further away from him.
We have ejected God from our schools. We are removing him from our political discourse. In recent years, the federal government has engaged in a steady assault upon our religious liberties. Now we even prohibit our military chaplains from praying for soldiers in the name of Jesus. The State is fast becoming our god.
We Are Reaping What We Have Sown
The signs of collapse in our society are all around us: sky-rocketing amounts of public and personal debt; corruption at all levels of government; record high numbers of people depending on government assistance.
America’s families are disintegrating. Statistics from The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate a divorce rate of 50% for 2012. Even more alarming, the concept of marriage has now been entirely discarded by many young people. The CDC also reports that in 2013, 40.6% of the nation’s children were born to unwed mothers. A record high number of children are growing up without a father in the home.
Like it or not, God has strong ideas about the importance of morality. Because we continue to reject his moral standards, we are suffering the ill effects of the breakdown of our society.
We have forgotten the lessons of history, which clearly teach what happens to nations that forsake God. When a nation turns away from God, there is nowhere to go but down.
If the only thing that will turn our hearts back to the Lord is catastrophe, then catastrophe is exactly what he will allow for us, because above all else, God wants us to pay attention to what he has to say. He will send us increasingly strong doses of divine judgment to awaken us from our stupor and get our attention.
What We Can Learn From Ancient Israel
Throughout the Bible, God has gone to extraordinary lengths to wake up his people when they have strayed away from him. The history of ancient Israel is a roller-coaster ride of judgment and restoration.
The Jews were slaves in Egypt when God sent Moses to redeem them and lead them out from the land of Pharaoh. Most of us know the familiar story of how God led Moses and the Hebrews through the desert for forty years and brought them to the edge of the Promised Land.
It was there that Moses died, and God appointed Joshua to take Moses’ place and lead the people across the Jordan River to begin the conquest of the land he had sworn to give them as an inheritance.
In the ensuing years, as the Jews became established in their new country, a tragic cycle began to repeat itself.
God would bless Israel. The nation would prosper. The people would become contented and comfortable, and soon they would forget about their covenant with God. Before long the Jews would descend into idolatry. Then God would send prophets to warn them that judgment was coming if they did not turn back to him.
Sometimes the Jews would listen to God’s prophets and repent. There would come a time of healing and restoration across the land.
However, most of the time the prophets were either ignored, persecuted, or killed. Nobody likes to listen to a kill-joy talking about judgment when there is a party going on! Being a prophet was never a way to win any popularity contests.
Once the people of Israel had chosen to ignore God’s prophetic warnings, he would resort to chastising them with a variety of judgments designed to get their attention. I believe there is a lesson for America here in these words spoken by the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel:
“Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:30-32, NIV)Our Nation Is At A Crossroads
Our culture is in a serious downward spiral. The Bible is not respected; crony capitalism corrupts our political and business sectors; our debt is out of control; families are disintegrating; children are abused; babies are aborted; and immoral lifestyles, gay and straight, are glamorized in our media as progressive and liberating.
How bad do things have to get? How deep does America have to sink before we get the memo? We are fast becoming a pagan nation, and God will not remain silent as we continue to turn away from him.
He will do whatever it takes to get our attention. He will chastise this nation so that we wake up and realize we are on the pathway to destruction. If pride is our problem, he can humble us. If our prosperity is blinding us, he can reduce us to poverty. If our military strength gives us a false sense of security, he can withdraw his divine protection and allow our enemies to strike our homeland again.
In the Bible, God promises to protect the people who serve him and call upon his name. But just like ancient Israel, we are forsaking our spiritual heritage and placing ourselves outside the boundaries of God’s blessings.
I am afraid we are near the tipping point. So the question becomes, will America choose judgment or revival?
“If my people will humble themselves and pray, and search for me, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14, LB)
