The Shadows of a What May Be?

As we have looked back at the past, examined the present and taken a glimpse of the future and saw the devastation that debt and entitlements and moral decay will lead to we ask ourselves as did Ebenezer Scrooge “Are these the shadows of what will be or the shadows of what may be only?”

Let us make no mistake if the course of the nation remains unchanged the end will not be pretty. Debts will be paid one way or the other. Eventually their will not be enough producers to supply handouts to the takers. If we continue to surrender our self reliance to the government then we necessarily surrender our freedom as well, If the right of all individuals (born or unborn) to live remains subjective rather than inalienable than the nation cannot continue as a free or prosperous land.

This is really not opinion. The specifics the times of these events, the shape that they take the suddenness or slowness which with they transpire is anybodies guess but the principle that we reap what we sow is a constant. We can therefore ascribe truth to the first part of Scrooge’s statement “Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends.”  This is equally true of nations.

There is another consideration. All the predictions of man are guesses, but the prophecies of scripture are as certain as the rising of the sun. There is no direct mention of the United States in the scripture, though some theologians have linked us to Rome or “spiritual Babylon”. It is of great interest to examine the nations that do figure prominently in prophesies of the end times, Egypt, Babylon (Modern Iraq) Persia (Modern Iran) and of course Israel, clearly God does know the end from the beginning. All the end times’ events all the focus of the end of all history revolves around a country roughly the size of New Jersey, and to one city, Jerusalem and to one plot of land the temple mount, yet no mention of Reagan’s “shining city on a hill”. Some take this to mean that the fall of the US is inevitable and we can only brace to survive it. This is true in one sense, II Peter 3:10 warns us  “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up”. On the last day, the Day of Judgment all the works of man including the marvelous constitution of the United States will pass away. Only the nation of Israel is guaranteed to survive right up until the end of time and Christ is set to return to the Jewish temple and establish his thousand year reign. So the question for us becomes not rather these prophesies are true, to reject them is to reject the Bible itself, the relevant question is what happens to US in the meantime.

There are two other events focused on the end times, the Rapture of the Church, or the calling away of believers in Christ to be spared the pouring out of the wrath of God, and the Great Tribulation, the last seven tumultuous years of human history. We do know that the coming of the tribulation will be associated with the rise of the Ant-Christ or the world’s” Messiah of peace” as he may call himself (purely speculation on my part), when this happens the political systems of the world corrupted since the day of Adam’s fall will finally bow their knees to the adversary of God, appearing as a man and uniting the world in his unholy purpose, a coordinated effort to cause the whole of the Earth to shake its collective fist in the face of Creator God. This hardly seems like something “One Nation Under God” would do. One theory as to how this comes about is the view of a majority of Christians that the Rapture occurs prior to the Great Tribulation. If all influence of Christianity were suddenly removed from the United States then the nation would no longer stand for the founding principles it was established on and what survived of the military and economic strength of the United States would be easy pickin’s for the “New World Order”.  I am one of a minority of Christians that hold a different view of the Rapture, it was only in the last couple of years that I became aware that any other Christians saw things as I do or that this view even had a name- I hold to a pre-wrath view of the rapture. I could write for days on all the interpretations of Biblical prophesy that lead to the various views but in truth there are probably only half a dozen or so less qualified people on Earth than myself to do so, so I will continue on with a concept that our pre-trib friends bring to the debate. What if America ceases to be one nation under God?

You can make a legitimate argument that we are already there, that our culture is already post-Christian. Certainly public education has attempted to create a non-Judeo-Christian culture. The horrendous court decisions that reinterpreted the separation of Church and State to mean the exclusion of Christianity and with it the teachings of basic morality, from the educational system coupled to the teaching of evolution as a scientific fact rather than theory has led to a culture that has no anchor with which to hold itself from floating adrift. Then there is the popular culture. We see in Hollywood a decadence that is as epic as the great movies of the past, sweeping and devouring. Even if you limit viewing of TV to “family oriented” programming your kids will be watching commercials that could be called soft porn by the standards of yesteryear. The sexualizing of the culture has caused women to be objectified, a thing to be used rather then a treasure to be loved cared for and protected. Meanwhile the feminization of education and society has left men confused and “impotent” as to what they are and need to be. Husbands and fathers to provide and protect their wives and to mentor and guide their children, wives and mothers to support and nurture their families, these are the things God designed and we as sinful man cannot improve upon it. This is not to mention the crushing burdens of regulation that limit the standard of living or the ridiculous level of taxation that forces people to spend four months of the year working to feed the beast that is Washington spending. The question is not are we on the wrong road but are we passed the point of no return. This is the best encouragement I can offer; we may be speeding towards the cliff but we haven’t driven over it just yet!

God’s prophetic clock will stride midnight at some point, but what time is it now? Could it be 11:55pm? Yes, it could, the final moments of human history may be ending even as we live out our everyday lives. But what if its only 9:00pm, what if the night is still young? Do we want to loose the “last best hope of man on Earth for freedom” as we approach the coming dark times? The founding of America was not merely a political revolution nor was it strictly military; it had a definite spiritual element. Where does just government derive its power? Prior to the founding of America in western culture the belief was that the Province of God placed authority in the hand of “titles” hence it was God’s will that the “Dread Sovereign” king ruled as his interpretation of justice dictated.

Our founders did not dispute that rights originated with God but rather than endowing those rights on the crowns of state God endowed them upon all men. This is mind blowing. I believe that there has always been and remains now a spiritual root in the American struggle for freedom. (Perhaps in the near future we’ll examine the Biblical role of government) this is relevant because if indeed America’s founding was at least partially spiritual in nature then the forces that oppose the first principles of the founding must be spiritual as well. This is tricky ground, someone will ask “Are you saying Barrack Obama is working for the Devil?” and while I do not have one suspicion that Barrack Obama has a single cultic belief I do not believe his stands on most issues reflects the foundational principles of this country or of our Judeo-Christian heritage. I do believe that liberalism, socialism and secularism are all ideas that did not originate with a Biblical world view, they are deceptive and the author of all deceit is the Devil. Do liberals work for the Devil? Not on purpose.     

To turn America back from the brink the first most important thing is spiritual renewal. The founding principles were based in a Christian worldview. We are endowed by our Creator…yet our schools stand forbidden to even mention the concept of creation. John Adams warned   “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Yet the courts do not allow even the posting of the Ten Commandments and the teaching of moral relativism is adhered to like the Iranians hold to Sharia law. Unlike many though I believe this time of revival is at hand.

In ancient Judah a king rose to power who was a despot unlike all who preceded him his name was Ahaz. He was a bad one, worshipped false gods ruled with a disregard for justice, and even sacrificed children to his idols. It would seem that the predictions of Judah’s coming destruction were at last to take place even as they were about to in Israel proper. But Judah’s story did not end there, following the dark days of subjugation and cultural depravity that the nation was experiencing a new golden age was about to fall on them like a thief in the night. I am persuaded that a “Hezekiah time” is coming up on our nation. Next time we will detail how this may be.

Until then keep on the firing line.

PS over the course of summer I may be posting every two weeks instead of weekly