Proverbs 1:31 “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way…” (NKJV)
View an online multimedia presentation of this message at www.hasgodabandonedamerica.com
Introduction
Christians are known for alarmist sensationalism, partly because of Biblical apocalyptic beliefs, and partly beca use of ignorance and opportunism. One blatant example was Y2K when Christians were leading the scare. Another would be the many proclamations of the end of the world or naming the Antichrist.
I’m not doing that. I’m answering one question: Has God abandoned America? And, if yes, in what way? How can we tell? How should we respond? Does the Bible give us clues or instruction about how to recognize this? Whether
or not this applies to other countries is for non-Americans
to evaluate in light of the principles I set forward in this presentation.
I’m an American. I would hope God hasn’t abandoned us. I’m patriotic to the core. I would RATHER stand up and lead a cheer, salute the flag and declare our world supremacy. I do believe that America still represents the greatest chance for freedom and opportunity, I’m just not sure how long that will be the case.
So as you listen, don’t think of me as a “prophet of doom”. I’m a Bible teacher. If we can see from Scripture that God has told us why, when and how He might abandon a nation or people, we should want to know the truth.
What if it’s true? What then? Well, I’ll answer that too… and it has nothing to do with giving up, getting depressed, survivalism, sensationalism, or doom and gloom.
Next to my presentation on heaven (www.seriousheaven.com), I consider this the most important lesson I’ve produced. In light of being a true patriot of the United States of America, it is my most important contribution as a citizen of this great nation… even more important than my duty as a drill sergeant or my service during a war. I have no doubt this will also be my most controversial message, and besides costing me many readers, may eventually result in me becoming the target of certain obvious and extremely militant groups in America who strive to demonize and even criminalize anyone who speaks out against them, even if straight from the Scripture.
And now, let’s answer the question, “Has God abandoned America?”
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Proverbs 1:31 “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way…” (NKJV)
People, groups and nations can get to a point where God will abandon them. There comes a point in time when God in essence says “fine, have it your way” and we end up getting our own way which is always calamitous. This can happen in both the life of an individual or the life of a nation.
Sometimes we only think of God’s relationship with a wayward nation in terms of judgment. We wonder if an earthquake, famine or an outbreak of disease is a direct judgment from God on national sin. While God most certainly does take direct action and judgment, I believe Scripture shows us that the more common result of turning your back on God whether individually or nationally, is that God simply turns His back on you. More accurately we would say that God abandons us.
God and Abandonment
Abandon:
- judicial pronouncement, handing over for sentencing, judgment or punishment – in very real terms this is when God says “okay, you can have what you want and you get what you deserve”
- wholly free from restraint – like a parent who finally quits trying to keep a rebellious and destructive child from his choices, God removes His restraining hand and allows a simple person or nation to pursue their wickedness without constraint
- given up : forsaken – in this sense, it’s n ot that God has given up on salvation or even given up the desire to want to bless and love; it is the realization that nothing can be said or done to reverse the simple course, and so the only action is to allow the consequences which in turn may bring the needed reversal
People and nations can come to a point where they are abandoned by God:
Samson abandoned
(Judges 16:20) – “And she said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ So he awoke from his sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!’ But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
Samson continually chose to sin and ignore God. After a series of events and ignoring many chances that God gave him, Samson finally came to the sad and tragic point in his life where God abandoned him, and he didn’t even know it. He lived the rest of his life reaping the consequences of his desire for sinfulness, with the Lord returning to him one last time after a moment of true repentance. Can you imagine how hopelessly sad it is to finally realize that God himself has departed from you?
Israel Abandoned
(Judges 10:11-14) – “So the Lord said to the children of Israel, ‘Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.’” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
Here we have an example of God abandoning a nation, even pointing out how many times He had rescued them and given them chances. Notice the final straw: even after being rescued, they still turned their back on God and served idols. God finally had enough. He said that He would deliver them and rescue them no more. Notice the rebuke as God tells them to go cry out to their false gods that they had willfully chosen to serve and let them come to the rescue in their times of trouble. I often wonder when things like 9/11 or Katrina occur how many times God will continue to answer the call to come to our rescue when it is usually a matter of days or weeks before we have returned to business as usual. This return to normal usually consists of criticizing God’s renewed presence in the public dialogue because of the disaster and legislating more ways to remove Him.
Neglect Leads to Abandonment
(Proverbs 1:24-31) – “Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
Did you catch that? “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way.” That’s a more poetic way of saying, “fine, have it your way”. Notice that God is not saying He tried to get someone’s attention one time, and when they didn’t respond, He abandoned them. God called and was refused. He stretched out His hand and it was not taken. He offered advice and correction, and it was not heeded. God’s knowledge was hated and no one feared Him. Only after all of that does God finally say “fine have it your way”. More than that (and it should scare us silly), God declares that He will laugh at us when we’re in trouble and will mock us when we are terrified. When we are in distress and anguish, we will once again call out to the Lord for help, but He will not answer. Notice that it does not say God will not hear; it says God will not answer. We will look for God and He will hide from us. In the end, we will get the fruit of our own way and be filled with our own fancies. In other words, God will finally abandon us and allow us to have what we have been asking for.
Let Them Alone
Normally when we think of God, we think of Him as a rescuer and someone who will always attempt to correct the course of someone who is off the right path. However, Scripture is clear that there is a point in time in certain situations where God says “leave them alone, let them go their own way, do not help them”.
(Hosea 4:17) – “Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
Here we have God saying that Israel had once again become idolatrous, and rather than instructing Hosea to go and turn them back to God, the Lord simply says “let them alone”. God was abandoning Israel rather than sending someone to rescue them.
(Matthew 15:14) – “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” (NKJV)
In the same manner, we have Jesus telling his disciples not to bother responding to the hypocritical religious leaders and trying to present the truth to them. Jesus recognized that the truth had been abandoned, and so He had reached a point where He was satisfied with letting them alone to go their own way.
It’s important to recognize here that God is not forsaking someone in the sense that He does not want them to repent and be saved. In the same way that a parent might finally tell an extremely rebellious child “fine, live life the way you want and maybe the consequences will teach you a lesson”, that parent does not wish for the death and destruction of the child but for the repentance and return of him.
While God may abandon a person or nation, ultimately it is because the Lord wants us to return to Him, not because He no longer cares about what happens to us.
America Abandoned
People and nations can be abandoned by God. It is the normal cycle of history that when a country turns away from God, God eventually gives them “what they want” (abandons them). America is not the first nation to be let go by God, and it won’t be the last if the Lord delays returning. You can look at human history, both in the lives of individuals and the lives of nations, and see the clear repeating pattern. As long as a nation embraces the truth of God, He blesses and protects them, but as soon as they reject Him, God removes his hand of protection and abundance and allows them to decline and ultimately disappear. It is equally true that there is a clear historical parallel between the degree to which a person or nation embraces God and the degree to which they are protected and prosper.
It is my observation that America has been abandoned by God because we have turned our back on Him.
I wish it wasn’t, but the truth is too obvious. What’s more, the Bible clearly tells us that the wrath of God is made known to us and that we are able to objectively evaluate and determine how a life or a nation stands in relation to God. Not only is God’s wrath revealed, but we are given the clear reason for God’s wrath.
(Romans 1:18) – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
God’s wrath is revealed; it can be known. From Scripture, we can know what it looks like, how it is manifested and when to expect it. We also know the basic reason that God chooses to abandon humanity at times, whether personally or nationally. It is because we choose to suppress the truth with our wickedness. There are different ways, degrees and times that God responds with his wrath.
God’s wrathful response to sin:
1. Eternal Wrath – God’s eternal wrath comes in the form of judgment of sin. Those who are judged sinful and absent of the justification and cleansing of the shed blood of Jesus Christ will experience the eternal wrath of God in the eternal torments of hell (Matt 25:46).
2. Eschatological Wrath – Eschatological wrath has to do with God’s judgment on a sinful world at the end of human history. There are different doctrinal positions on how this wrath will occur, but suffice it to say, it is the final judgment on sinful humanity for rejecting a loving God who sent His only Son to rescue them.
3. Significant Calamity – This type of wrath is what we would see in something like Noah’s flood. God’s wrath was poured out over the earth because of the pervasive wickedness of the entire human population. On a smaller scale, we might consider whether or not a famine, a hurricane or an epidemic of disease is evidence of God’s wrath being purposefully enacted on a group or nation because of sin. Was Katrina wiping out America’s modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah an act of God’s wrath? Was an earthquake centered in the pornography capital of the world a divine act of retribution? Is a disease that primarily afflicts only a certain part of the population that practices and moral perversion obvious punishment from the Lord? We can’t know these answers for sure, but we would be foolish not to consider the possibility.
4. Individual Divine Abandonment – (Gal 6:7; 1Cor 5:5) God is not mocked and we will reap the consequences of our choices. If we make enough bad choices, then we will end up with an entire life of severe consequences. There even comes a time when the rejection of God by an individual becomes so egregious that God instructs us to turn a person over to Satan. Again, it’s not because God desires the person to be destroyed or eternally lost. God allows the person to suffer to that degree in hopes that the destruction of their flesh will result in his spirit being saved. In other words, the Lord hopes that we suffer so much because of our sin that we decide we were wrong, that it’s not worth it, and we turn back to God for salvation.
5. National Divine Abandonment – As we have already shown from Scripture, a national abandonment means that God’s protection and constraint of evil is removed; God lets a nation have what it has corporately chosen. This is a cyclical historical wrath that has happened over and over through man’s history.
When I think about America and the possibility that God has abandoned us nationally, it is very difficult. I am a true patriot and believe that giving your life to defend your country is a good and honorable thing. I come from a military family. I was a drill sergeant in the Army and served in a war. That God has abandoned America is not something I want to believe or state lightly. It is something that with all my heart I wish were not true, and I pray will be reversed.
There is no doubt that America has a strong Christian heritage and a long history of honoring God, and at a national level we’ve been proud to serve God. For a couple of hundred years, we were unmistakably known as the world’s foremost exporter and protector of Christianity and religious freedom. In the last 40 years, what started out as a slip in the 1960s has now become an avalanche.
We don’t have to dwell in the realm of speculation or opinion. The Bible gives us clear and objective ways to measure where we are as a country and whether or not we are at the point of godly abandonment in our cycle of history.
The Bible Tell Us How to Recognize When God Abandons a Nation
As (Romans 1:18-25) – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man-and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
Foolishness
It is amazing to look at our country and see the silliness and foolishness that is passed off as conventional wisdom. Whether it’s quasi-scientific scams like global warming, meant to increase the political power of certain groups, or the awarding of Nobel prizes to elitist for absurd documentaries, the nation is filled with foolish people applauding and awarding other foolish people.
It’s humorous to note that the word translated “foolishness” is from the same word that we get moron. So, what we have is morons professing their wisdom, passing out awards to other morons. This may not sound like very kind or Christian language, but it is exactly accurate as the Scripture describes it. Whether it’s humanist psychology that seeks to describe every human sin as some sort of syndrome or chemical imbalance, or the latest political movement that moves ever closer to policing thoughts and motives, or higher academia which relentlessly presses to remove all hints of God from education, our country is filled with foolish people attempting to pass off their foolishness as wisdom.
The foolishness can also be seen in the upside down nature of some of our laws and practices. A 16 year old girl can get an abortion with the full knowledge and assistance of school officials WITHOUT the permission or knowledge of her parents, but a 20 year old cannot drink a beer even though he can be shot and killed in combat defending his country. A famous athlete can beat a murder rap with expensive lawyers or by crying “race”, while a 6 year old is suspended for a semester and ordered to psychiatric evaluation for drawing a stick figure with a gun while in school. It’s insane… it’s foolishness on display.
Idolatry
We don’t worship idols in America, right? Let’s look at the definition of idolatry: the worship, adulation or divine honor given to any created object which can take the form of Festishism (the worship of trees, rivers, hills, stones etc.), nature worship (the worship of the sun, moon, stars and the opposing powers of nature), or hero worship (the worship of ancestors or heroes).
Does that change your mind about idolatry in America? Of course, that definition didn’t even mention the worship of money, materialism, science or culture that is so prevalent in our nation today. Environmentalism is nothing more than a fancy name for worshiping the creation instead of the Creator (sound familiar from the above verse?). We’re not talking about being good stewards of the earth, taking care of blessings that God gives us in resources and nature. We are talking about the elevation of the environment to where it is literally being worshiped as God. The terms “mother nature”, “mother earth” or even just the generic use of the word “nature” (i.e. “Nature has given us the perfect environment to live in”) displays this idolatry.
New Age, Eastern mysticism, astrology and all manners of metaphysical variations have become the new religions in a postmodern age. No longer the domain of fringe kooks, it is now considered culturally advanced and spiritually mature to embrace some sort of worship of nature.
While few would say that it is hero “worship”, it is hard to categorize it otherwise when one evaluates the state of celebrity and sports in this country. That the adoration and elevation of the entertainment industry has reached obscene levels can hardly be argued. To the discerning eye, it is clearly idolatry of national proportions.
Sexual Revolution
One of the first signs that a nation is abandoning God will be a sexual revolution. This is also true in the life of an individual who is abandoning God.
If you think about it, it makes sense. God has placed restraints on the exercise of our sexuality for our own good and our own protection. These constraints allow us to experience the most fulfilling and satisfying sexual experience possible through marriage. However, sinful mankind seeks to gratify their sexual impulses outside of God’s constraints. It is perfectly natural that the first fleshly pursuits apart from God are the gratification of sexual appetite. Therefore, when a nation begins to abandon God, it is both historically true, logically true and scripturally true that a sexual revolution and a disregarding of sexual constraint follows.
This began in America in the 1960s. During that time, the loosening of sexual constraints, the reversal of sexual taboos and the acceptance of impulsive sexual gratification became a symbol of freedom and enlightenment. Of course, we know that this was just one more example of foolish people professing their foolishness to be wisdom. The more we cast off God’s absolute instruction concerning sex, the bolder we became as a nation at casting out God himself.
We have now reached a point in this country where it’s even hard in Christian families and churches to instill the absolute guidelines found in the Bible about sexual behavior. The dress, behavior and attitudes about sex areas loose today inside the church as they were outside the church 30 years ago. Adultery and fornication are kind of ho-hum yawners that are simply accepted as inevitable behavior in today’s culture. The worship of youth and the body has resulted in a now almost uncommented on style of dress that accentuates the female body, where a man looking to indulge his eyes can find as much of a lustful feast at church as he can at the local mall. Yet, that comment will either surprise most people or be met with a lot of eye rolling as it is seen as extremist or prudish.
Sex is everywhere. Billboards, magazines, advertisements, commercials, TV, sporting events, movies… barely dressed, half naked and nude women (and men) are everywhere you look. We recently got a vitamin catalog at our home in the mail which had a barely dressed athletic woman on the front. Of course, the obvious message is that if you take their vitamins, you will be healthy and athletic like the woman on the cover. Even after several minutes of trying to explain to my teenage boys why they couldn’t look at that magazine and had to throw it away, I still could not convince them that it was wrong to look at, because in their estimation “it’s just a vitamin catalog”. From their point of view, after an entire lifetime of seeing underwear ads, lingerie sections in the newspaper department store flyers, and barely dressed athletes, it’s not hard to see why our children today are so desensitized to seeing skin.
To demonstrate how far we’ve come in such a short period of time, when I was a teenager less than 25 years ago, it was the scandalous talk of the entire teenager population in our community when one of us found a Playboy in a trashcan. That one issue made the rounds behind all the backyard fences for weeks before it was finally lost. If we saw pictures of a naked woman, or even a woman in underwear, more than once or twice a year, we thought that we had descended into the depths of pornography. Now I have to steer my kids clear of the public magazine rack at a convenience store, which would have easily been considered pornographic 10 or 15 years ago. Catalogs like Victoria’s Secret, magazines like Maxim or FHM, professional football cheerleaders and even underwear commercials like Hanes, carry no label of being inappropriate today, and they would most certainly have been considered adult and pornographic in the not too distant past.
Homosexuality
(Romans 1:26-27) – “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” (NKJV)
A telltale sign of a nation that has been abandoned by God is sexual perversion. As people begin to abandon God, they first seek the desires that most fulfill their flesh, and of course, sex is right at the top of the list. As people abandon God, they get closer to the point where God chooses to abandon them and give them their own way. The fruits of this unconstrained pursuit of sexual gratification becomes a perversion of sex in all manners. Most typically, this begins as the practice of changing the natural sexual desires that God instills between man and woman.
Men desire men sexually, and women begin to desire women. At first, homosexuality is universally rejected and in the inherent conscience of the nation, it is not only wrong, but disgusting and perverse. Then, through sheer amounts of exposure, a nation is desensitized to it through attempts to demonize those who oppose it, acceptance of humor concerning it and the attempt to portray it as natural.
Once a foothold is gained, then uncomfortable toleration is no longer enough, and the process of normalizing homosexuality begins. It is no longer enough to simply allow it, but now it must be applauded and accepted as simply an alternative or difference. Then, we have the foolish professing their wisdom again by presenting their evidence that people are born homosexual rather than choosing, ignoring the obvious fact that people are born selfish too, but that doesn’t make selfishness right. It is irrelevant whether people are born homosexual or choose it because God declared it to be sinful and perverse, an abomination to Him (Lev 18:22; 1Cor 6:9). No matter how clear the Bible is in its condemnation of homosexuality, you’ll hear endless comical attempts from foolish people telling us that the Bible does not come out against homosexuality, proving exactly what the Bible says, “suppressing the truth and unrighteousness”.
Homosexuality is almost completely normalized in America. You can’t watch an hour of TV without homosexuality being completely portrayed as normal and good. You can’t watch an award show for anything related to entertainment without having homosexuality paraded in proportions exponentially higher than the percentage of homosexual population. Anyone who dares in any way to speak the Biblical truth about homosexuality is immediately and thoroughly demonized, harassed and shouted down. There will come a day very soon in our country where any negative statement about homosexuality will be criminalized. After that, it will become a criminal offense not to promote and educate about homosexuality. It’s already happened in other countries, and if we continue on this course, it will happen in ours. Many people have a hard time conceptualizing the atmosphere of Sodom and Gomorrah and how the population demanded homosexual relations with two strangers who wandered into the city. In light of what is happening in America, is it really so hard to imagine any more?
Why are women mentioned first?
(Romans 1:26) – “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.” (NKJV)
Women are the last to turn their back on God. Their instinctive desire for nurturing, family, child raising and their openness spiritually to God makes them the last element of a society that accepts perverseness. When lesbianism becomes rampant and even erotically snickered at by otherwise godly men, you know the culture is on the verge of being abandoned by God. Lesbianism is rampant in America, growing and becoming increasingly if not completely normalized.
Ironically, though Eve was the first to be deceived, it was Adam who willingly chose to embrace rebellious sin. In our society, our mothers, sisters and daughters have been the last holdouts against sexual perversion. Feminism, the sexual revolution, the degrading of the standards of modesty and the absence of solid Bible teaching have finally engulfed even the heart of women into the perverseness that men have embraced.
First, there is a heterosexual revolution, then a homosexual revolution beginning with the man. Finally, the women who are pursuing their lusts without constraint and suppressing anyone who speaks out against it are signs of the nation that is abandoning God.
Depravity
(Romans 1:28-32) – “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (NKJV)
The word depraved means “nonfunctional”. When the word is used in regards to our mind, it describes a mind that cannot think, reason or comprehend accurately. The foolish mind suppresses the truth and becomes completely nonfunctional, unable to even recognize the truth anymore.
Once the natural fleshly desires have been degraded to unnatural desires in the form of homosexuality, then those abandoned by God are now posed to embrace and pursue all manners of wickedness. In America, we have every type of porn imaginable, no matter how disgusting or taboo. The different types of sexual perversion are far too perverse for me to even list. Pedophilia, bestiality, sexual violence and perversion that would shock even the most worldly people are not only available, they are increasingly gaining tolerance and acceptance.
On top of the sexual perversion, we are actually at a point in our national life where we not only tolerate the mass murder of babies but we have made it the right of every citizen. The exercise of a woman’s legal ability to murder an unborn child is subsidized, encouraged and applauded.
Entire populations divided along ethnic, religious and cultural lines now internally promote and welcome the use of violence against those outside their group. American prisons, far from rehabilitating criminals, are creating monsters with no remorse, no conscience and no restraint.
America is experiencing a massive moral disaster of pandemic proportions made up of all manners of perversion, violence and destruction and none of our leaders will stand up and call it what it is. Why? Because at a national level we’ve become depraved, unable and unwilling to expose sin and call it what it is. The most fearful part of this is knowing that we are now at this stage of the national rejection of God and we can’t objectively measure His abandonment of us by evaluating the depravity of our society and its leaders.
The Key Element of Abandonment
(Romans 1:18) – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
In America’s history, what has been the key or the catalyst to our rejection of God and His abandonment of us? I believe it has been the systematic removal of God from our public life and our national education. I don’t mean just from the school system but from every aspect of most lives. God has been removed from the schools, from the courts, from politics and for the most part from families and parenting.
In large part, solid, Biblical, uncompromising preaching and teaching have been removed even from the pulpits of Christianity, and without a doubt, most of the halls of academia, Christian or otherwise. We suppress the truth as a nation by removing the truth from our focus of attention and by somehow solidifying the idea that religion should somehow be totally separate from the rest of life.
When you have generations of children who have not been grounded in the fundamentals of the Bible and have grown up in households with parents whose faith in the Bible has been shaken by science, politics and academia, you now have an entire population not only unwilling to stand up for the truth because they don’t know it, but they are also ready to accept any truth that fits their personal lusts or desires.
God is truth, God’s Word is truth… remove those and you suppress and persecute truth. The truth becomes unacceptable and sin becomes celebrated freedom. And then God abandons you.
How America suppresses the truth:
- Evolution – A personal Creator God is denied, making time, chance and the universe our god. Of course, if no God is needed to create us, then no Bible is needed to reveal His Words to us (since even the Bible would be a process and product of random chance and time). No Savior is needed to rescue evolved apes from their sin.
- Academia – In the halls of higher education in America, God is mocked, absolute truth is sneered at, and relativism is now the religion of choice.
- Environmentalism – The environmental movement elevates the creature over the Creator, and all things human become subservient and inferior to all things material or subhuman.
- Humanism – The intellect of man becomes superior to the Word of God. Man declares that he knows the heart of man while denying the truth of what God says is true about man, creating a religion in which man is good and his “sin” is caused by external circumstances and internal chemical imbalances.
- Abortion – The complete devaluing of life and the convenient murder of inconvenient children allow for an utter disrespect for the sanctity of life to leak over into all other areas of society.
- Materialism – Rampant greed and covetousness leave multitudes of empty souls searching for the next pleasure or possession to fill a void that only God can fill.
- Post Modernism – Relativism is the loss of absolutes. You are encouraged to find your own truth, beliefs and religion. The failure of science and materialism to bring purpose and meaning to life causes foolish and blind people to aimlessly embrace any notion of spirituality, metaphysical practice and demonic deception.
- Moralism – This is the religion of being good. Ask a hundred people randomly “when you die, will you go to heaven?” and about 95 of them will tell you yes. When you ask them to give you the reason why, 99% will say “because I’m a good person”. This is a product of our self-esteem, “people are inherently good” religion of morality that is propagated today not only on the radio and TV but from the pulpits of professing Christians.
- Removal of God -The removal of God from society is not just the dismissal of Him from the political scene in public life, nor is it the extraction of God from the education system or the increasing censuring of speaking God’s truth on controversial matters… it is also the watering down, compromising and ear tickling nature of what passes in most part today as Christian preaching and Bible teaching.
Just like the Bible clearly predicts, when we reject God and He abandons us, a nation will end up with Romans 1:29-32:
- Wickedness – the continued state of wickedness; being evil by nature and in practice
- Covetousness – excessively desirous of wealth, greed, and the lust to have the possessions of others
- Maliciousness – deliberately harmful, spiteful, vicious and evil on purpose
- Full of envy – a constant feeling of discontent, coveting another person’s good fortune
- Murder – the taking of life by violence or force for any reason other than God- ordained justice and self-defense; abortion, euthanasia, gang violence, crime
- Strife – bitter conflict and discord, quarreling, rivalry and antagonism
- Deceit – the distortion of truth through misleading, exaggeration, fraud, trickery and cheating
- Evil-mindedness – having a mind that is continually weakened, a bad character and being completely desensitized to sin
- Whisperers – spreading gossip and rumors
- Backbiters – people who slander and speak evil of other people, back stabbers and betrayers
- Haters of God – those who actively and publicly defame God, blaspheme Him and denounce Him
- Violent – those who are uncontrolled, who wish to cause injury and destruction, furious and unconstrained, unrepentant of any pain or damage they cause
- Proud – people who have high opinions of themselves, having pride in their behavior and their own wisdom
- Boasters – those who exaggerate about themselves, vanity and excessive pride, to actively promote oneself
- Inventors of evil things – people will not only do the evil, they will sit around and think up ways to be evil, actively trying to invent and promote new ways to hurt others
- Disobedient to parents – dishonoring, neglectful and refusing to submit to the authority of parents; rebellious
- Undiscerning – people lack the ability to comprehend or recognize truth easily, accepting evil ideas and being unable to distinguish or discriminate right from wrong
- Untrustworthy – people will not keep their word, they have no conscience about keeping vows or doing what they know they should do
- Unloving – those who do not give love and affection, and except for selfish reasons, are incapable of it
- Unforgiving – people with no mercy who are completely unwilling to forgive any wrong or offense, no matter how slight
- Unmerciful – cruel and without pity showing no mercy for any reason, even pronouncing the very presence of mercy as a weakness and undesirable
Folks, this is a list of characteristics straight out of the Bible that describe the type of people in a nation or group that has been abandoned by God. This simple question is on the table: do these things describe America? I don’t mean we go out and find one or two extreme examples. I’m talking about on a general, demonstrable level, are all the things that I discussed about the sexual revolution and all the sinful characteristics we just defined generally true about a significant if not major portion of American society?
Has God abandoned America? If you are answering that question based on facts not feeling, not wishful thinking, not fear or disappointment… what would your answer be?
The Results of Abandonment
What does this mean for us? Some people see the problems of America as the CAUSE of our decline. The reality is, these problems are signs of our rejection of God and His abandonment of us. As discerning Christians and hopeful patriots, we should be alert and aware of what is going to happen if America does not repent and return to God.
Violence
You can expect increasing violence. The violence in our country today is bad. It’s not at the crisis level and we are not in a state of anarchy. However, when compared to 40 or 50 years ago, or even 20 years ago, violence is on the increase.
When I was a kid, our parents would let us leave the house early in the morning and go play with our friends all day long anywhere in a community or radius that was sometimes measured in miles. We would go out into the woods or into town or to just about anyone’s home with no worry. Today that would be considered the height of neglect and irresponsibility. We will hardly let our children play out in the front yard by themselves much less run around the neighborhood or town.
There is hardly a day that goes by when we don’t hear a story of a child or a teenage girl who was abducted, sexually abused and murdered. This trend of violence will only grow worse and increase the need for society to segregate into units of self protection and suspicion.
Loss of National Identity
You can expect the loss of an American identity. With the acceptance of “hyphenated Americanism”, unrestrained illegal immigration with no expectation of assimilation, and the tolerance of religions that barely try to mask their intended goal of overthrowing America, we have invited and embraced the degradation and eventual loss of American culture and identity. Not only are we no longer able to be proud of our European Protestant heritage, it is both implied and many times directly stated that it is racist and bigoted to promote or preserve either.
Our country is disintegrating at record speed towards partisan groups of self-interest, self protection and self-promotion that threaten to fracture the “United” States of America into the Divided States of America.
National Instability & Economic Decline
You can expect our nation to become increasingly unstable. The American culture and ideals that have made us one of the strongest and most successful nations in all of mankind’s history is collapsing and being deconstructed along the lines of political self-interest, ethnicity, religion and class.
An economic crisis of apocalyptic portions looms as fiscal irresponsibility and record out-of-control spending force us to sell off more and more of our country to foreigners. Then we can temporarily enjoy the unfunded benefits of social welfare and cheat consumers, causing the dollar to sink to historic lows with almost daily announcements of another foreign government or world trade commodity that is abandoning the dollar.
Social Polarization
You can expect our society to become increasingly divided and opposed to each other. Contrary to politically correct multiculturalism, people naturally and comfortably gravitate towards their own groups of people based on bloodlines, language, culture and religion. This is natural and provides social cohesion.
When society declines, this natural grouping turns into racial division motivated by hatred and the desire to dominate, control and harm the other groups.
Violent gangs and hate groups like white supremacists, black/Hispanic/Asian gangs and Islamic fascists seem to be how it is shaking out.
Government Control
You can expect a sharp increase in government control. Environmentalism, scientific crisis-scams like global warming, social policing, governmental regulation and the rising need to keep “religious extremists” from doing anything to hamper the personal freedoms of other people will continue to inspire an increase in government control over every aspect of our life.
In the name of security, we give up freedom and increase government control. For the cause of environmentalism, no matter how spurious and unproven, we accept more government control. For the purpose of maintaining our consumerism lifestyle, we allow the government more control.
As people reject God, they lose their innate ability and desire for personal responsibility. Their depraved thinking clamors for cradle-to-grave control, security and care from the government and takes away the productivity from one segment of the society by force to give it to another segment.
Persecution
You must absolutely expect a rise in persecution of all true Christians and patriots. Hate crimes, hate speech, and religious intolerance were unheard of a decade ago and now are on the cusp of being routinely prosecuted activities. Any person who dares proclaim the absolute truth of Christianity or the virtuous promotion of European Protestant heritage is immediately labeled an extremist and dangerous. Persecution of Christians, while largely ignored by the American media, is already an accepted worldwide “standard operating procedure” which is well on the way to the shores of America.
Any Christian who chooses to ignore this does so at his own peril. Any Christian parents who choose not to begin to prepare and educate their children, family and friends neglect their responsibility to them. Persecution is a historical fact when a society has been abandoned by God. It is not a matter of “if” for the shrinking, authentic American Church, it is a matter of WHEN.
Turmoil
You can expect growing turmoil and conflict as a whole in our society. The hatred, name calling, viciousness, politics of personal destruction, race bating, class warfare and rabid partisanship that we are witnessing today is only a taste of what it will become when you add economic decline and growing violence to everyday life. As the economy falters, a society segregates into self protecting and aggressive groups, and as our justice system degrades into Third World corruption, daily life in America will cease to be the unending pursuit of our next source of pleasure and leisure and will instead become a constant vigil of self-preservation.
Anxiety
You can expect the stress and anxiety of people to increase dramatically as they will have more to worry about and have no God who will hear the cry. The pandemic of OTC drugs and humanistic psychology to counter depression, stress, anxiety, worry and hopelessness
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Are you kidding me?
At this point I’ll have many readers or listeners that have begun to dismiss this as exaggeration and sensationalism. I understand that. There’s a big part of me that hopes none of this will ever happen. However, there’s a bigger, more discerning part of me that can read the Scriptures, look back in history, view the rest of the world and dismiss the current “suspension of this belief” that seems to be a national American trait summed up as “that can’t happen to us”.
It not only can happen to us, it is an absolute fact that it will, as long as we refuse on a national level to repent of our blasphemy, wickedness, idolatry and our rejection of the Living Creator God. To think otherwise is not only futile, it hastens the fulfillment of what awaits every nation that turns their back on God and then is abandoned by Him.
How should Christians respond to this?
Not with Despair or Hopelessness
No matter how hard things are or in what situation we find ourselves in, Christians should never despair or be hopeless. Life on this earth, no matter how difficult, is but a whisper of time compared to the eternity we will spend with God. Any despair that we feel now is based on a lack of understanding of God’s sovereignty and is aggravated by how accustomed we have become to comfort, leisure and personal freedom. No matter what, we are to live for Jesus and know that the day is coming soon when all the hopelessness of this life will be no more:
(2 Corinthians 4:8-11) – “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed– always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
Prayers of Repentance
(2 Chronicles 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.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
(Psalm 81:13-16) – “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, And turn My hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, But their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.” (NKJV)
National repentance starts with personal repentance. We must repent individually and then move on to teach our families, friends and those we influence. Scripture is abundantly clear that God will always forgive and accept back the repentant. While the promises and the verses above were specifically meant for the nation of Israel, history tells us that in principle, they generally apply to all nations, as it is measurably proven that God blesses and protects any nation that honors Him in obedience.
America is at a point where it will still turn to God if a national tragedy occurs, but it is taking a much shorter time to return back to its evil ways. So far, God has continued to honor us when we call out to Him, but it is obvious that once the urgent need is over, America once again turns its back on God, and God abandons us to our wickedness.
Pray for Godly Courage
Pray for preachers, teachers and leaders who will proclaim the truth and wake up America. Pray that when the time comes, no matter what the circumstance, you will choose Christ over all else.
(Matthew 10:32-33) – “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess befor e My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. “(NKJV; emphasis mine)
Expectation
Christians should respond with expectation and the knowledge and awareness of the decline of our country. We should look ahead and wisely see what is coming. We should not stick our heads in the sand and simply hope that America is incapable of falling apart, and “like always”, the stock market will rebound, we will crush our enemies, the good times will roll and America will reign supreme.
Oh, believe me, dear friends, as a patriot and a man who loves my country dearly and wants nothing more than a life of peace in abundance for my family, I would be first in line to embrace that pipe dream if the Bible were not so clear and the evidence not so voluminous against it.
Discernment
Instead, as wise Christians, we must be discerning in knowing the truth from a dream. We must not embrace optimism simply because it is popular and makes us feel good. We embrace optimism based on Biblical truth and evidence. However, we must embrace concern and speak the truth when that same Biblical truth and evidence prophesies of our impending chastisement or destruction.
(2 Timothy 3:1) – “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” (NKJV; emphasis mine)
In context, this is speaking of the last days of humanity, but in application, it is equally true that in the last days of the nation’s existence, perilous times will be the natural result.
Longing for Heaven
It is a Godly byproduct of suffering in trials that our longing for Heaven is naturally increased. It is ironic that the very abundance and prosperity allegiance to God brings, can also be the very thing that causes us to tighten the grip on this world and lose sight of eternity.
Barring national repentance in America, take hold of the fact that your expectation in heaven will grow,, and a cessation of all things wicked will become increasingly real to you, directly parallel to the increase in turmoil and uncertainty.
(Revelation 21:3-4) – “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (NKJV)
Opportunities for God
All the troubles of this world open up the doors of opportunity for the next. As our country moves from an era of prosperity and abundance to its age of decline, uncertainty and want, Christians will have an unprecedented time of opportunity to live a life of hope and joy that will draw others like a magnet to them so that they can share the good news of salvation and eternity with an increasingly hopeless and despairing nation.
In a very real sense, if the decline of America will bring about true hope and salvation, then it is a decline that we should hope for, even if it scares us.
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Has God Abandoned America?
Of course, no one can answer that with certainty for man cannot hope to know the secret decisions of the Almighty Creator unless He chooses to definitely reveal them.
As His children, we are left to take what God has revealed, and to the best of our ability try and discern the truth. God has given us clear and measurable indications of what occurs when He has chosen to abandon someone, or perhaps when He is on the verge of that choice.
So the final answer to our question must be a series of possibilities:
- It is POSSIBLE, given the clear signs, that God has already abandoned America.
- It is CERTAIN, given the clear signs, that America is definitely heading towards being abandoned by God.
- It is LIKELY, given the clear signs, that if we have not been abandoned in totality yet, we are perilously close to it.
- It is also just as likely, given the presence of authentic Christianity in America, that God has not totally 100% abandoned us as a country* yet, and is still trying to get our attention. (*God never abandons His own children as individuals)
- It seems clear as well that God is still answering our cries to Him when disaster or danger threatens us even though we appear to be taking greater and greater advantage of His patience and mercy. How long can we take advantage of God’s goodness and patience?
Has God abandoned America? Yes, no, partially, maybe… regardless, there is still time to repent and turn back to Him.
Are you ready for the exciting eternal kingdom opportunities we will have to put our hope and trust in God, and share salvation and grace with desperate and confused Americans?