Most readers would disagree with this post but some would agree to some extent. Would you consider reading this in a Bible study to generate conversation, or around the dinner table, or in general conversation at the Student Union? Is not the topic even worth considering?
American society has utterly collapsed. The United States of America is no longer what it used to be. I lived in both the older one and now in this one and they are different entities; and my generation, the late 60s, was already on its way to oblivion. Our government has completely rejected Jesus Christ, as both political parties consider the Lord of Glory, the benefactor and sustainer of all our blessings, to be excess baggage, even a hindrance to saving this sinking ship. The church, in an attempt to rally the secular world to its side, has become adept at devising new theologies that have meliorated the Christian Faith such that God is portrayed as much more open-minded in accepting our perceptions of what love and compassion truly are. What is left to our Christian heritage is not even a facade; the facade was in my day. If you don't believe this, well, there's nothing I can write to convince you...just stay tuned, for God has been warning us for decades. If you think that He will continue to warn us for more decades without our repentance then you have gone beyond faith into presumption.
The following is an older post from a few years ago that I bring back from time to time:
The further one's mind is from God on a daily basis the less one will feel imminent judgement upon a rebellious world. That is to say that if you have filled your glass up with sports and entertainments and accumulating riches, do not expect the remaining space in the glass to hold much in the way of discernment. The Bible was once an American's most valuable possession. Today it is either an artifact, a talisman for prosperity, or a rather large and bulky ticket one must have in their possession to enter heaven...should heaven really exist. In reality it is the Omnipotent God's Word to fallen man, the greatest treasure on earth, which brings the greatest joy, draws forth the most ardent love and applies a devastating guilt followed by a torrent of mercy that elicits praises upon praises for mercies undeserved.....all given because of faith, faith alone, in the One who took our sins to a tree on Calvary. If my words seen overly pious or even syrupy, might I suggest that there may be an underlying cause for your hesitance to shout praises yourself; or if the Bible does not captivate you as God's Word to you, you might never have truly seen those words.
The following post is political and temporal yes, but only in as much as we are citizens of a nation that God blessed for a purpose, a purpose which may very well have completed its course.
All Is Lost.....Or Is It......January of 2013
It was heroic at times and trying at times but always set apart by a common creed.…life as an American in these United States of America. God blessed this endeavor from the beginning as pilgrims left their homelands where tyranny had enveloped even the church and they saw this new land of America as a new beginning for them and an extension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the new world. The long distance from the heavy hand of the King of England encouraged them to see beyond being merely a colony or an extension of England to being a nation unto themselves.
Liberty is a powerful force and freedom empowers one to reach beyond what would otherwise be available. In the mid-eighteenth century, after the First Great Awakening, the Gospel began to wane as great political minds filled the void and a secular government…that nonetheless proclaimed its dependence upon God…. came forth. Economic growth followed as the frontier was conquered but we faced an enormous stumbling block, the separation of two peoples in two different geographic areas over the issues of state’s rights and slavery. God’s heavy hand of judgment came upon a nation that had forgotten who had bestowed upon it its blessings. We turned to Him momentarily but a brand new frontier of industrial growth drew us away again only this time our educational institutions followed. An already weakened church was at that time under full scale attack from European theological liberalism. God’s judgments now began to come upon the entire world in wars and economic collapse. We retained the sense of being Americans, of being free and of having liberty and defending the liberties of others while the Gospel went throughout the world... and then we hit our peak.
We were the most powerful nation on this earth both economically and militarily. We had a creed that bound us together as Americans. We had heroes and causes and confidence. There’s a scene in the classic Marlon Brando film The Wild One where a girl asks the young Brando what he is rebelling against. His answer was “What do you got?” This became the hidden mantra of the 60s generation…my generation. Everything was available to us and little of it was good. America found itself in smaller wars, trying to do what it had done before but the mantle was gone. We were then a lost generation when a former“B” actor in Hollywood revived the memory of that which was good in us but the rebellious generation of the 60s had produced our college professors and they in turn trained our media, the source of most information and news. Our creed that once bound us together was being hacked away at. We were now not only ignoring our heritage, we were attacking it, ashamed of it. Old heroes are old news. Heroes today are created for a purpose irrespective of what they might have done…good or bad. We were no longer “one” as a people but groups, each one out only for themselves.
God had watched all of this. The Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical which ultimately became the Karl Rove evangelical. Our pulpits, no longer capable of preaching Christ, preached whatever they thought would bring people in. The Democratic Party fell first, taken over by Progressives and then Communists. The Republican Party fell next, taken over by political machinery without a soul. Our country essentially lies in ruins, the demolition notice just hasn’t been served. Yet most of the people party on but that's not unusual, for history is replete with empires that fell while it’s people were oblivious to its nearing demise.
All is lost! Or is it? From the vantage point of observation and reality it is. Common sense and truth are utterly impotent in the postmodern mind. The blessing of capitalism became the God of capitalism and then a scourge of profiteering. We pray to it but it does not answer. Our culture is in shambles. We have disasters ahead and we may as well know it beforehand. Fill in the blanks on what they might be. God’s hand had departed from us long before we even heard the name Barack Hussein Obama. If His will is to awaken us one more time it will not be within a political party but over all the land and upon all those who suddenly see what we have done...and who we have become....a people who have forsaken their God. Should God open our eyes and revive us there is no power on earth that can stop it. Those on the outside will utterly abhor what they see happening.
American society has utterly collapsed. The United States of America is no longer what it used to be. I lived in both the older one and now in this one and they are different entities; and my generation, the late 60s, was already on its way to oblivion. Our government has completely rejected Jesus Christ, as both political parties consider the Lord of Glory, the benefactor and sustainer of all our blessings, to be excess baggage, even a hindrance to saving this sinking ship. The church, in an attempt to rally the secular world to its side, has become adept at devising new theologies that have meliorated the Christian Faith such that God is portrayed as much more open-minded in accepting our perceptions of what love and compassion truly are. What is left to our Christian heritage is not even a facade; the facade was in my day. If you don't believe this, well, there's nothing I can write to convince you...just stay tuned, for God has been warning us for decades. If you think that He will continue to warn us for more decades without our repentance then you have gone beyond faith into presumption.
The following is an older post from a few years ago that I bring back from time to time:
The further one's mind is from God on a daily basis the less one will feel imminent judgement upon a rebellious world. That is to say that if you have filled your glass up with sports and entertainments and accumulating riches, do not expect the remaining space in the glass to hold much in the way of discernment. The Bible was once an American's most valuable possession. Today it is either an artifact, a talisman for prosperity, or a rather large and bulky ticket one must have in their possession to enter heaven...should heaven really exist. In reality it is the Omnipotent God's Word to fallen man, the greatest treasure on earth, which brings the greatest joy, draws forth the most ardent love and applies a devastating guilt followed by a torrent of mercy that elicits praises upon praises for mercies undeserved.....all given because of faith, faith alone, in the One who took our sins to a tree on Calvary. If my words seen overly pious or even syrupy, might I suggest that there may be an underlying cause for your hesitance to shout praises yourself; or if the Bible does not captivate you as God's Word to you, you might never have truly seen those words.
The following post is political and temporal yes, but only in as much as we are citizens of a nation that God blessed for a purpose, a purpose which may very well have completed its course.
All Is Lost.....Or Is It......January of 2013
It was heroic at times and trying at times but always set apart by a common creed.…life as an American in these United States of America. God blessed this endeavor from the beginning as pilgrims left their homelands where tyranny had enveloped even the church and they saw this new land of America as a new beginning for them and an extension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the new world. The long distance from the heavy hand of the King of England encouraged them to see beyond being merely a colony or an extension of England to being a nation unto themselves.
Liberty is a powerful force and freedom empowers one to reach beyond what would otherwise be available. In the mid-eighteenth century, after the First Great Awakening, the Gospel began to wane as great political minds filled the void and a secular government…that nonetheless proclaimed its dependence upon God…. came forth. Economic growth followed as the frontier was conquered but we faced an enormous stumbling block, the separation of two peoples in two different geographic areas over the issues of state’s rights and slavery. God’s heavy hand of judgment came upon a nation that had forgotten who had bestowed upon it its blessings. We turned to Him momentarily but a brand new frontier of industrial growth drew us away again only this time our educational institutions followed. An already weakened church was at that time under full scale attack from European theological liberalism. God’s judgments now began to come upon the entire world in wars and economic collapse. We retained the sense of being Americans, of being free and of having liberty and defending the liberties of others while the Gospel went throughout the world... and then we hit our peak.
We were the most powerful nation on this earth both economically and militarily. We had a creed that bound us together as Americans. We had heroes and causes and confidence. There’s a scene in the classic Marlon Brando film The Wild One where a girl asks the young Brando what he is rebelling against. His answer was “What do you got?” This became the hidden mantra of the 60s generation…my generation. Everything was available to us and little of it was good. America found itself in smaller wars, trying to do what it had done before but the mantle was gone. We were then a lost generation when a former“B” actor in Hollywood revived the memory of that which was good in us but the rebellious generation of the 60s had produced our college professors and they in turn trained our media, the source of most information and news. Our creed that once bound us together was being hacked away at. We were now not only ignoring our heritage, we were attacking it, ashamed of it. Old heroes are old news. Heroes today are created for a purpose irrespective of what they might have done…good or bad. We were no longer “one” as a people but groups, each one out only for themselves.
God had watched all of this. The Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical which ultimately became the Karl Rove evangelical. Our pulpits, no longer capable of preaching Christ, preached whatever they thought would bring people in. The Democratic Party fell first, taken over by Progressives and then Communists. The Republican Party fell next, taken over by political machinery without a soul. Our country essentially lies in ruins, the demolition notice just hasn’t been served. Yet most of the people party on but that's not unusual, for history is replete with empires that fell while it’s people were oblivious to its nearing demise.
All is lost! Or is it? From the vantage point of observation and reality it is. Common sense and truth are utterly impotent in the postmodern mind. The blessing of capitalism became the God of capitalism and then a scourge of profiteering. We pray to it but it does not answer. Our culture is in shambles. We have disasters ahead and we may as well know it beforehand. Fill in the blanks on what they might be. God’s hand had departed from us long before we even heard the name Barack Hussein Obama. If His will is to awaken us one more time it will not be within a political party but over all the land and upon all those who suddenly see what we have done...and who we have become....a people who have forsaken their God. Should God open our eyes and revive us there is no power on earth that can stop it. Those on the outside will utterly abhor what they see happening.
This is our hope. It always has been our hope. Apparently we have to reach bottom to see this and we are not there yet. May God have mercy upon us once again and do so entirely for His glory alone.
