Warning: A Lesson to Be Learned

The time of justice is drawing nigh. It is racing towards us like a herd of stampeding stallions neighing and thundering destruction with the pounding of their hooves. The earth shakes with their approach. Time is speeding up as lives are crammed with more and more things to do and own. The love of gold, pleasure and power has driven many into the herd. Our actions have swept many into a lifestyle of destruction.

The prophets of the Old Testament warned Israel of her impending demise. Inspired by God, Ezekiel spoke these words, “The end is now upon you and I will unleash my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity or spare you” (Ezekiel 7:3-4). God judged Israel for her “detestable practices” such as child sacrifice, worshipping other gods, arrogance, love of gold and hardness of heart toward God and His ways. More and more, America reminds me of Israel. Not to say there aren’t pockets of true believers, there are. I believe they are part of why God has not judged us yet as a nation, but as the prevailing society becomes less tolerant of Christianity, we hover closer to the end.

As I write this, New York state is considering a bill that would “dehumanize” the unborn. A law which states that a fetus is not “viable” till it is born, opens up the door to not only late term abortion, but no rights of protection for them until the day of their birth. The consequences could be chilling. Already, millions of abortions have been performed in America since the Roe v. Wade case, though there has been a slight decline lately. With a law like this, the language is trying to convince Americans that the unborn are not human even at nine months old! This practice is surely detestable in God’s eyes. Even the Native Americans, who some wrongfully viewed as savages, knew that a child was human from its inception. When an infant was born, they considered it a year old.

Yet abortion is only one of the evils that have permeated our society. What of the rise of adult and child photography, sex trafficking, school shootings, opioid addictions, alcoholism, murders, idolatry (worshipping other gods) and kidnapping? The statistics for internet pornography are staggering. Every second twenty-eight people view pornography and over $3,000 is spent every second. Many marriages are destroyed because of this evil and people’s lives ruined. And what about the growing number of deaths due to drugs? In 2018 over 72,000 people died from opioid overdoses and it has become the number one cause of death. We are losing our youth to addictions of all kinds. Here’s another evil. Sex trafficking around the world is the fastest growing criminal enterprise with forty million people being traded around the world against their will every year! These statistics are sobering and illustrate the demoralized state of our country and the world. (I could go on, but the point of this article is to wake you up to a spiritual reality, not depress you.)

God judged Israel for sins less than these. He declared, “The day is here. It has come. Doom has burst forth as a rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed” (Ezekiel 4). God was judging Israel for arrogance? Yes. Well there is a plentiful crop of that here in America, especially in New York. Just the other day I received an e-mail about a comic strip series DC comic is about to publish. The super hero, based on a sun god, saves the day, while his blundering side kick, Jesus Christ, is made out to be a fool! How more arrogant and blasphemous can you get?

Before you think God will not judge America because of our Christian heritage, learn a lesson from history. Israel had been the apple of God’s eye, but He allowed and actually called for its destruction because of Israel’s despicable ways. Jerusalem and the surrounding lands laid waste for hundreds of years, occupied by jackals and wandering nomads. If America and the church continues this downward spiral we are in eminent danger. So is all lost for the fate of Americans? Absolutely not!

It’s never too late while you still have life. Repentance is key, even though it might appear to be a message like the sidewalk prophets in New York City who preach doom and gloom unless you repent. There’s nothing wrong with the message, it’s just the way they deliver it. Repentance and change are still sorely needed. Just look at the state of our country and you will know it’s true—families in disarray, rebellious teens, mental illness on the rise, an opioid crisis, gun violence, the rise of pornography and so one.  Yet is it only the unbeliever who must repent? No. Churchgoing Americans need to take a look at the spiritual state of their soul.

 In Israel, like America, the church had been diluted with man made rules and a form of religion that was void of God and His ways. God judged all of Israel and allowed the temple to be defiled because of their great sin of idolatry and pride. “I will put an end to the pride of the mighty and their sanctuaries will be desecrated” (Ezekiel 7:24b).  Though the Babylonians desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, by destroying it and removing all the precious items, the Israelites and the priests had already defiled the temple by their practices. “With their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces to the east, they were bowing down to the sun” (sound familiar? Eastern mysticism, nature worshippers, animists etc.…) (Ezekiel 8: 16).

We have allowed God’s church in America to be defiled by participating in the same sins as the world: abortion, divorce, pornography, fornication (sex outside of marriage), adultery (sex with someone else's partner) etc. Perhaps we have not participated in these evils, but if we are part and parcel of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, slothfulness and wrath then a cleansing in our temple is in order. Repentance, which simply means to turn away from our sin and follow God and His ways, is sorely needed. We are most fortunate; while we have breath, there is still time for us.  

What is needed? For some a complete turnaround, for others a softening of the heart, surrendering to God’s will, reading our Bibles on a daily basis and prayer, just to name a few. Let’s just look at two key practices for now: Bible reading and prayer. Lifeway Research did a study and discovered that only one in five church goers read their Bible daily and one in five never read it. Only 45% read it once a week. This has made for Bible illiteracy. If you don’t read the Bible you don’t know the truth. You won’t be able to guide your life by biblical principles. You can easily be swayed on important moral issues and navigate over to a nonbiblical world view. How about prayer? According to a different Life Way study, the number one problem in evangelical churches today is a lack of personal, fervent prayer on an ongoing basis. Jesus himself called his church “A house of Prayer,” but ours have grown cold and dispassionate. So the solution? “Whoever would love his life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil (what God calls evil, not the world) and do good” (I Peter 10-11).

So what is good? Read my next post to find out.