What does this all mean for America from a Biblical perspective?
Is this just a string of bad weather during a time worsening geopolitical unrest or is there a pattern developing; and if so, what does it mean? This three part series will answer those questions. Although written a few years ago, this material is more relevant today then in any time in America's history. Most everyone at this point can sense that the United States is caught up in the waves of change, but many are unaware that the Bible speaks directly to the United States and to any other nation that turns its back on God in a specific pattern of judgement. May God have mercy on America.
What should be our response when we see judgment coming?
In the 11th chapter of Luke, the apostles asked the Lord what the signs of His return and of the end of the age would be. Jesus proceeded to tell them about the signs of judgement. Jesus then told them what their response to all these things should be (Luke 21:36). "Watch, therefore, and pray that you should be found worthy to escape the judgment coming upon the world and be able to stand before the Son of Man."
This bears repeating. Jesus Himself said to "watch." We are not to bury our heads in the sand when we see the signs of judgement approaching. Rather, we are to watch for the signs of His return and then pray for escape from the coming judgement.
The Bible has a lot to say about judgement, both the final judgement upon the earth and judgements upon nations who have turned their backs on God. In the book of Isaiah, we find many signs that indicate a nation is being judged. For example, an increase in natural disasters is one sign of God's judgement.
Considering all the political, social and religious upheaval in this country over the last few years, we feel it is prudent to take a hard look at the United States of America. Therefore, in this and the following issue, we are going to depart from the general signs of Christ's return and focus on what is really happening to the home of the brave and the land of the free.
There is no question that the United States is caught up in the waves of change, but many are unaware that the Bible speaks directly to the United States and to any other nation that turns its back on God. As we examine the state of the Union, we'll be looking at some very negative things. This will make many feel uncomfortable, because we don't like dealing with negative issues. This is true of us as individuals and corporately as a nation.
Anatoli Goletsin, an ex-KGB Major who defected to the United States, wrote a book in 1984 entitled New Lies for Old. In this book, he outlines the Russian strategy to deceive the West. He also reports that the Russian Government has developed a psychological profile of the West which indicates that the U.S. "does not want to know the truth." Jean Kirkpatrick, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., calls it "the will to disbelieve the horrible."
In other words, our nation, in spite of recent genocides and the like, still intrinsically wants to believe that everyone is good, that there is no evil, and that the world will have nothing but peace and prosperity. We all aspire to the great American Dream. We don't really want to hear that we are losing the drug war, that crime is out of control, that there are hidden forces attempting to force the United States into relinquishing national sovereignty and entering the "New World Order". Don't tell us that we have come under the chastening rod of the Almighty Lord. And yet some of us sense that the waves of change are driven by an ill wind which is sweeping our great country.
In Second Chronicles 7:13-14, God tells us: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people; if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Our response to judgement should be national repentance and prayer. This country must once again become a believing people, "one nation under God."
It is with this heart that this newsletter goes forth -- it is a call to repentance. As you read it, remember Jesus' words: `Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1).
We are living in an unparalleled time in the history of America.
Marriages are breaking up at unprecedented rates and the single-parent home is becoming the norm rather than the exception. The number of children living in single-parent homes has tripled in the last 30 years. The teen suicide rate has increased over 200% and is now the leading cause of teenage deaths in America. Sickness and disease are rampant, as AIDS and other venereal diseases rage out of control. Over one million Americans have developed AIDS since 2002. Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. In a study of law enforcement agencies, the FBI found that 7,163 hate-crime incidents, affecting 8,795 victims, were reported in 2005 to police departments. Todays estimates are an annual average of 191,000 incidents, affecting 210,000 victims. Violent crime on balance has been steadily increasing since the 1960s. Teen violence has exploded (murder arrests of teens jumped 92 percent since 1985) during a period in which the teen population remained steady or declined. The murder rate committed by teens has more than doubled since 1982. Since 1964, total crime in America has increased over 350%. According to the World Data Bank, there were twenty four million reported crimes in the year 1999 alone. That number would have exceeded twenty five million if statistics had included over one million unborn babies murdered through abortion. Overall, since 1960, there has been a 560% increase in violent crime.
Our school systems have become havens for the teaching of new age philosophy, which has tried to erase God from every tenet of society. And what is the result of turning away from God? We have lost our Anchor and our Way. No longer able to tell good from evil, we have become a hedonistic society.
Crime is out of control. There is a spirit of lawlessness rising in America. Teenagers kill each other for sneakers and jackets. Teens are committing unthinkable crimes but, when interrogated by police, show no remorse for their actions. In New York City, robbers tore the leather jacket off a pregnant woman and then made her watch as they fatally shot her husband. Three children in the Midwest, aged eight to ten years, have been charged with beating a homeless man to death. In a small town in Mississippi, teenagers involved in Satan worship killed three children under ten years of age.
`The U.S. News and World Report' estimates that more than three million crimes are committed in or near the 85,000 U.S. public schools. A University of Michigan study reports that nine percent of eighth-graders carry a gun, a knife or a club to school at least once a month. An estimated 270,000 guns go to school every day. Twenty percent of suburban high school students surveyed by researchers at Tulane University thought it appropriate to shoot someone "who has stolen something from you." Eight percent believed it is acceptable to shoot a person who has "done something to offend or insult you." One authority said a "Juvenile Armageddon" may be approaching.
Young children are being killed and abused in escalating numbers. The government's response? An unsuccessful attempt to liberalize the nation's laws against child pornography. Nine out of ten young people slain in the industrial nations are slain in this country. The U.S. homicide rate for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 is five times greater than for any other country.
A new pattern of teen homicides being committed by younger teens has emerged from FBI and census data. The homicide rate for 17-year-olds jumped 121% between 1985 and 1991. The rates for teens between the ages of 15 and 16 grew even faster. Criminologist James Fox, Dean of Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice who headed the study, says that "the trend is troublesome, because this young and ruthless age group is increasing and shows no remorse for their crimes." These trends have not abated in the new Millenium.
In California, there is an epidemic of hate crimes. There are now more then 2,500 members of organized hate groups in California which are becoming increasingly violent.
There has been a dramatic increase in racism in the U.S. The pro-Nazi movement is escalating. One talk show host even had a "church" representative that made the statement: "Before all of America can be truly free, we must kill all the Jews." And it's not just the Jews under attack. A recent media survey found 98% of newspaper and television executives to be Anti-Christian. The Club of Rome, a futuristic organization, met in Los Angeles last year. Their conclusion: "The real thing standing in the way of the world's progress is fundamentalist Bible-believing Christians." Their enlightened solution: "They will have to be eliminated."
Christians are now being painted as evil, a thorn in the side of progress. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil ..." (please read Isaiah 5:20-25).
The L.A. riots of the past demonstrated the height from which we have fallen. To us it was just another TV movie filled with horror and bloodshed. We view so much rioting, looting and murder on television that we have grown accustomed to it. We watched one helpless truck driver almost beaten to death. The perpetrators' consciences seemed to be seared as they methodically performed their gruesome attack, without restraint or remorse.
What in Heaven is happening to America?
Homosexuals are becoming more and more blatant. They curse God to His face and are trying to force acceptance of their life-style through legal means. In September, the U.S. Congress, which governs our nation from its "model city", the District of Columbia, has allowed Washington D.C.'s sodomy laws to lapse -- thereby making the act legal for the first time in the city's history. Washington, D.C. has also become the nation's first jurisdiction to actively recruit homosexuals to adopt children. And the Boy Scouts of America, a model of wholesomeness and value, are currently dismissing about 90 scoutmasters a year for suspicion of molesting boys.
This year California lead the way in legalizing gay marriage and inconcert with these events the tornadoes started marching across the country and California is now burning with record acrage on fire.
Life is becoming valueless. We have sacrificed over 50 million innocent children to the god of convenience and greed. It is now legal to have an abortion at any point in the pregnancy, even five minutes before birth. This will allow babies to be "harvested" for their brains and hormones; they call this "fetal tissue research." And, in spite of this mass slaughter, illegitimate births have increased 419% over the last 30 years.
God have mercy on America!
The Government's response to this insane slaughter is to apply the RICO law against the Pro-Life Movement, which allows prosecution under the same anti-racketeering laws as organized crimes. The danger of this precedent is that it could be abused to the point that even lawful assemblies, unless politically correct, will be impossible without criminal proceedings. Many of our rights guaranteed under the constitution are being eroded. For example, our right to bear arms and our right to due process of law: Last year 52,000 Americans had their assets seized without due process.
In the decade of the 90's Jack Kevorkian continued to promote "Euthanasia" (mercy killings), and the courts to date have ruled that it is unconstitutional for the states to have anti-suicide laws. Michigan Circuit Judge Richard Kaufman ruled that "terminally ill patients have a right to commit suicide." John Pridonoff of the Hemlock society called the ruling "a significant step."
The U.S. economy, the envy of the world, continues to see-saw. In only ten years, the United States has gone from the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor nation. We are no longer leaders in exporting. We no longer lead the world in any manufacturing field except machine tools, a lead which is rapidly dwindling. The mighty U.S. dollar has been devalued time and time again. Our debt is now greater than the debt of all other nations in the world combined. Based on present estimates, the interest on the national debt alone will exceed all personal income taxes paid in this country by the end of 1995. A day of reconing is on the horizon.
New hidden taxes continue to take an ever-increasing bite out of disposable income; high paying industrial jobs are being replaced by low paying service jobs; our imports far exceed our exports. The leadership of this country has gone from bad to worse. There are avowed homosexuals and lesbians in high-ranking government positions. The Oval Office during the previous Presidency was busy issuing executive orders (government by decree) which clearly promote anti-Christian agendas, such as support for homosexuals and abortion on demand.
The United States has continued to experience increases in natural disasters. From Hurricane Andrew, the most expensive hurricane in U.S. history, destroyed over 20 billion dollars worth of property in Florida alone to the recent disasters in Louisianna. We are seeing flooding in one part of the U.S. and at the same time fires and draught are taking their toll on other parts of the country. Rember Hurricane Andrew? In a law suit involving Prudential's action to cancel insurance in the Florida area, the lawyer for the company stated that they had to borrow money from reserves just to pay the claims and expressed concern over the fate of the company should another disaster befall it. The weather disasters are continuing to escalate. This may not be the "rock" you want to put your trust in when the winds blow. There have been reports in recent years of 50 inches of snow on the Carolinas which paralyzed the eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine. There have beem late June or even early July snow falls in Colorado that caused skiers to take to the mountain slopes on the 4th of July. In 1993 a record 1,381 tornadoes touched down in 1993 and the Mississippi river basin became the largest flood in U.S. history, causing billions of dollars of damage and ruining millions of acres of rich farm land. Tornadoe rates today are at record levels.
Firestorms in California have again consumed hundreds of thousands of acres. The last Los Angeles earthquake went down as the most expensive earthquake in U.S. history, with an estimated 30 billion dollars in damage. There were 3,500 after-shocks at that time, some significant enough to do additional damage. Is the recent 5.4 earthquake in L.A. a harbinger of more to come? After the L.A. earthquake, a group of seismologists, monitoring the increase in frequency and intensity of earthquakes around the world, stated: "It's as if someone is picking up the earth and is starting to shake it." Sound familiar? Read Haggai 2:6-7.
Newspapers proclaim: "mother nature" appears to be going mad. Newspapers across the country have even posed the question: "Are these acts of God?" And
What in heaven is happening to America?
America has turned its face from God! America, a country whose principles of government are based on the Bible, has sought to remove God from every tenet of society. America, the land of the free, has become the home of the politically correct. We have, as a nation, gone beyond ignoring God. We are now openly antagonistic toward Him, parading Gay Rights in the streets and openly attacking and mocking God and His anointed.
America has been blessed for over 200 years. As a result, we have developed an attitude of superiority and spiritual pride. We think that no matter what we do, God will overlook it. This is not true!
God is not slack concerning sin, but is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:7-9). However, God will judge sin. Except for Noah and his family, the Lord once destroyed an entire world because of rampant sin. He also destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and many other cities of the plain because of homosexuality. God is not mocked. When He says homosexuality is an abomination, He means just that. We have lost sight of the fact that God judges nations for both the sins of the nation and the sins of the nation's leaders. A nation will reap what it sows (Gal 6:7).
Consider Elijah. After winning his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on top of Mt. Carmel, he cried out to God to take him home -- because he thought no one else believed in God but him. God told him he was wrong. God told Elijah that there were 7,000 men left in the nation who loved Him, men who had not bowed their knee to Baal, men of integrity and righteousness. However (notwithstanding the 7,000 righteous in the land), because of the wickedness of Ahab and Jezebel, God's judgement fell. The entire nation (including the 7,000 righteous), went three and one-half years without rain. Just because there are righteous in the land does not mean judgement will not fall.
Another example of God judging a nation for the sins of its leaders is found in 1 Chronicles, Chapter 21. David, because of his success in battle, came to the point where he felt he was the source of Israel's success. He insisted on numbering his troops, even though he was cautioned by his general to remember that it was God who had won the victories. But David insisted on taking the census of his fighting men. As a result, God gave David a choice of three punishments: God would either bring three years of famine on the land, or three months of fleeing before their enemies, or three days of plague. David chose the latter. As a result of the sins of Israel's leader, 70,000 men died of the plague. God judges sin. He judges nations for their corporate sins and for the sins of their leaders.
Many of us are familiar with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we overlook the warning in Jude, Chapter 1, verses 5 through 7, which tell us that Sodom and Gomorrah were an example of what will happen when the people are given over to sexual immorality and perversion. With the rise of government-sanctioned homosexuality in America, especially in cities like San Francisco and New York, Billy Graham's statement "If God doesn't judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah", takes on prophetic significance. On November 28, 1993 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors created a 20-member group, including three former prostitutes, to consider legalizing prostitution and other steps that might help neighborhoods where men and women sell sex on street corners. It is provocative to contemplate the fact that the devestating Los Angeles earthquake of the last decade had its epicenter in the middle of the U.S. porn industry.
America is not exempt from God's redemptive chastisement ("God is no respecter of persons" [Acts 10:34b]). These recent events are a harbinger of additional judgment if national repentance is not forthcoming -- and that includes the way we treat the Jews (Gen 12:3).
The wisest man in the world once noted: "That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecc 1:9) In 1863, the United States was embroiled in a great civil war. On March 30, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued an historic Proclamation appointing a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. As you read this proclamation below, please note that President Lincoln clearly saw the hand of God in the affairs of men. Ask yourself if the reasons noted by Lincoln for God's action against America are not the same as today.
"Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of the Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations has by a resolution requested the president to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation.
And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God: to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon: and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious land, which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us:
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace."
2CH 7:14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Is America about to be judged by God for its national sins? In the next issue, we will examine what the scriptures have to reveal in this area.
"I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty." (Hag 2.7)
"Watch and pray, therefore, that you would be counted worthy to escape the judgment that is coming upon the earth and be able to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36).
Maranatha!
Prophetic Links:
What in Heaven is Happening to America - Part 1
What in Heaven is Happening to America - Part 2
What in Heaven is Happening to America - Part 3
How to Be Saved Through Jesus
Please Join Prayer Warriors Against Abortion
The Towers Have Fallen
Is Your Name Written in Heaven?
How to Pray for Your Moslem Neighbors
America's Real Enemies Revealed
What in Heaven is Happening to America - Part 1
What in Heaven is Happening to America - Part 2
What in Heaven is Happening to America - Part 3
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