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.
