THE DESTINY OF AMERICA: Practical Application
John’s vision recorded in Revelation 6:12-17 doesn’t describe America specifically, but it does speak to any nation that rebels against God.
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
That day will certainly come for all the nations that forget God.
As I look to America’s future, I fear for this land. There are three great concerns I have:
SPIRITUAL DECLINE
Bottom line—we’ve rejected God. We mock Him and flaunt His laws. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11 there was a dramatic increase in church attendance, but now it is worse then before. It is as though we were roused from slumber, and have rolled back over into a deeper sleep. Even in the church there has come the great falling away. If that light is dimming, how dark is the world becoming!
FINANCIAL DEPRESSION
I don’t know how a financial collapse is avoided. It would take a miracle for us to survive—and God is capable—yet, why should He bail us out? A financial meltdown here will drag down the whole world economy and the ensuing anarchy will pave the way for Antichrist. The Bible is clear—it isn’t a question of if, but only when.
MORAL DEGENERATION
There are enemies abroad to be sure, but the greatest danger is from the enemy within. America is not so much threatened by the woodpeckers on the outside of our borders, as by the termites inside them. A malignant moral cancer is eating away at our soul, draining away our moral life force.
These are the choices: revival or ruin; repentance or retribution.
Old Ben Franklin wasn’t a Christian. He was a deist. Still, he had a moral framework and an understanding of Scripture perhaps greater than that possessed by most pew sitters today. It seemed that America would be a miscarriage—never seeing the light of day as the Continental Congress quibbled and quarreled. Here is the solution Franklin proposed:
“I have lived, sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men! And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? —We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that, ‘except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe, that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a by-word down to future ages. I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business; and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.”
Pray—pray--pray! God is still on the throne, and He may not be finished with us yet! Jonah came preaching, “Forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed!” But they repented, revival came and a reprieve was granted, as God stayed His wrath for a space. He can do it again, if we will turn to Him with all our hearts!
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