THE COMING JUDGMENT UPON AMERICA

Let me begin with a disclaimer: I am not a prophet who receives special revelation from God. Therefore, I am not predicting a date for the destruction of America in the near future. However, I do believe that this once-great nation cannot continue its present course without experiencing Divine intervention. God does not let people sin with impunity, especially those who have been the recipients of His manifold blessings, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48b). In some measure, America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles derived from the Bible. Those principles are now considered obsolete, archaic, and irrelevant to an enlightened generation in which intolerance of evil is fast becoming the only thing that is not tolerated. Sociologist Robert Wuthnow is correct in his observation that the God Americans believe in “is a God of love, comfort, order, and security. Gone is the God of judgment, wrath, justice, mystery, and punishment.” Today, we have adopted a “new morality” which is the defiant expression of man’s autonomy. Autonomy can be defined by its component parts, auto (self) and nomos (law). In many spheres, autonomy is good and necessary; however, the autonomy of man in biblical theology is the exertion of the creature’s will against the will of the Sovereign Creator. Man becomes a law unto himself. Such autonomy manifests itself in a variety of behaviors which the Bible identifies as: wickedness (Genesis 6:5), sin (Genesis 18:20), transgression (Exodus 34:7), perverseness (Proverbs 11:3), unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), and disobedience (Romans 5:19). This godless philosophy that originated with Satan, the original rebel against God, knows no barriers or limitations. His kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:13) encompasses the world of business, politics, our schools and institutions of higher learning, the religious realm, and most notably, the foundation of society, the family. It is in the latter arena that Satan has fought with a vengeance to destroy America from within. The moral absolutes that guided our founding fathers from generation to generation have long been abandoned. The America that God shed His grace upon has become like the nation of Israel in the days of Isaiah: “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” (Isaiah 1:4-6). The wisdom of King Solomon has fallen upon deaf ears and hardened hearts: “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Surely the cup of God’s wrath is filling. His consuming, fiery judgment (Hebrews 12:29) is inevitable apart from genuine, biblical repentance. This thought became very real to me as I watched the telecasts of the recent wildfires here in Southern California. Driven by the fierce Santa Ana winds, the firestorms were virtually impossible to contain. “Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them” (Jeremiah 11:11). “And the strong shall be as tow [tinder], and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them” (Isaiah 1:31). Thus will it be when the day of God’s wrath descends upon America. Israel and Judah had the prophets to warn them. America has the Word of God found in Holy Scripture to warn of the stench of her iniquity in the nostrils of a Holy God. Consider this partial list of her wicked ways: greed; gratuitous sex and violence on television and in movies; the shedding of innocent blood (abortion); the proliferation of drugs, alcohol, and pornography; the endless molestation and exploitation of our children; murder in our schools; a homosexual lobby that seeks to legalize unholy matrimony between same-sex couples; and liberal judges who will not restrain evildoers. This is why I insist that the only hope for America is not the politician, but the preacher- not just the preacher in the pulpit, moreover, but ordinary Christians who are not afraid to say, “Thus saith the Lord” whenever they have the occasion to address the sins of our day. We must get past the disinclination to pass judgment when judgment is due. America needs a holy church to proclaim the truth of a Holy God. This is no time for sleepy, silent saints who are preoccupied with their own affairs. We must redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). While I pray for revival in the short term, I know that there is no cure for America’s moral cancer in the long term. I am decidedly not post-millennial in my eschatology. Call this pessimism if you will; I call it biblical realism. Only the return of Christ will bring righteousness to this ungodly world. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). This is the end for which we must all pray. In the meantime, don’t be overcome with “rapture fever.” While we wait for that glorious day, we must be about our Master’s business. Jesus would have us heed the lesson of the parable of the ten pounds: “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).

Even so, Come Lord Jesus!


Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,

Pastor Tom