Our eternal almighty God created the universe, all growing things, all creatures, and then Man, some six thousand years ago. A bit later, God gave mankind several basic rules to follow to insure they stayed out of trouble. These rules were named the Ten Commandments or The Decalogue. He gave us other behavior rules in scripture.
When men followed God by worshipping Him, keeping His rules, and serving others, mankind prospered. But when men turned away from God and His requirements for an honorable and righteous life (those rules again), and lived as they wanted to live, following the desires of their own hearts, things got ugly. Surprise, Surprise!!!
About two thousand or so years into mankind’s history, things on earth had become so bad, so evil, that God simply had to step in and do a reboot. He brought the most amazing catastrophic worldwide deep-water upheaval and rainstorm for forty days that covered the earth in water for almost a year. The only people who escaped were a family of eight stalwart people who followed God’s ways. The father was named Noah. Surely, you’ve heard of Noah’s Flood. It’s strange, even nuts, that when you don’t want to believe something, you won’t – even though you are looking smack-dab at volumes of rock-solid evidence. Willful ignorance! [Not surprisingly, the same exact “I refuse to believe” syndrome attaches itself to the proven idea that the Universe is some six thousand years old.]
After the horrendous Flood reboot, things got started right for a time on earth. But shortly mankind basically told God to take a hike; that they were going to do it their way. And they did for a time, until God did another partial reboot. Why? God noticed the people of Babel trying to build a monstrous structure up into the heavens to show God just how great they were. But one morning, they discovered that groups of them had been given other languages. So, not being able to communicate well with each other, they split up and went their separate ways. Thus were formed the many nations and people groups that inhabit the earth today. Only a few of them followed God. So it has been since the beginning.
At about two thousand years after the Flood, God, being fed up with man’s continuing rebellion and sin, sent His Son to earth as a human to be a witness to the Truths in scripture and to pay the penalty for the sin of those who would acknowledge not following God’s laws. That Son, Jesus the Christ, became quite literally the Savior for every human in the world who would admit their disobedient lifestyle and ask Him to save them from Hell’s fire of punishment. Even with that awesome and inspiring act of love by suffering crucifixion for humankind’s sinfulness, people still reject Jesus. Many of us know God raised Him from the dead proving Jesus to be God’s intended Savior! Those who have prayed to ask Jesus to forgive their sin and now follow Him know they, too, will be resurrected when their course on earth is run.
So now we come to today, the year 2023 in America. What has happened to us? What do I mean? I mean, look at the growing evil in our land, or is your heart so hard you can’t or won’t see it? It might help us to back up and review our nation’s history.
In the late 18th century, a small group of American Patriots decided enough is enough from the dictates of King George III of England. These 56 Godly men, after Declaring our Independence from England in 1776 and fighting a devastating war against them, also helped write the single most admired constitution in the world. It was fashioned in great measure from many of the principles found in the Holy Bible. [Bible means Book, Holy means Set-apart; so it’s The Book Set-Apart from others. And it is Set-Apart by God Himself – it’s His Book to us, for us – if we’ll heed its wisdom!]
For many people, that immediately calls our Constitution into question because the Bible after all, in their view, is an out-of-date document. Which, of course, is absurd because the Bible, in one of its main tenets, is about man conforming himself to and obeying his Creator. The sinful heart of ancient man is no different from the sinful heart of modern man. The Bible is, therefore, still the book that must be used to address man’s sinful, evil behavior. But I digress.
After our victorious revolution against England, our forefathers began to build what became the richest and most admired nation on the earth. People from other nations flocked to America as the land of new opportunity. The French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville after touring America for nine months in 1831, stated in his book Democracy in America, , “The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of Liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”
So, again – what happened to us – to the US? Most of us have turned away from God and His Christ and are reaping the terrible result of His removing His hand of Blessing and Protection. Oh sure, there are many millions of genuine followers of Christ in America, but the leaders in authority at all levels of government in America are now, in the main, not Christians or, if they claim to be, are not all actual followers of Jesus and the Bible. The proof of our ugly predicament is obvious to all. Our Federal, some State, and some Local Authorities have supported in law and edicts all manner of evil and perversions identified as such in the Bible. They have even taken to flouting our laws, especially as it relates to immigration and even crime itself. We are doing what seems right in our own eyes. Evil abounds.
So what can be done? Frankly it’s chicken soup simple. God has made it very clear. We must humbly admit we have been wrong and ask His forgiveness – each of us and all of us must do this – from the depths of our hardened hearts. Then turn to Jesus and ask Him to be your Savior. And we MUST see to it that the evil and sinful laws are overturned, thrown out, and replaced with laws that reflect God’s ways outlined in His Bible.
This would surely usher in another Great Spiritual Awakening in America – a mass movement of the Holy Spirit of God across our land from Sea to Shining Sea and from Border to Border! We must wake up and see the terrible degradation of evil we have allowed and then DECIDE to never allow this to come into our nation again. God has promised that He would hear and answer such national prayers humbly uttered from hearts broken by what we have done to our once-godly nation. He will Revive His Church to Holiness and He will Restore our Nation to Righteousness, if we all do our small but crucial part. Let’s get to it right now – and keep it going all across America!
Prepared with God’s help on December 31, 2022
by: Tom McDonald, a Christ Follower…
