“…for their sin has not yet reached its full measure.”
─ Genesis 15:16
The United States of America—home of the free, land of the brave, global economic leader, military superpower, land of opportunity—walks a razor’s edge.Having already forsaken many of the Christian tenets on which her forefathers founded this great nation, she abandons all religious constraints without regret. Lady Liberty stares blithely into the future. Her cup of iniquity overflows, spilling faster and faster, unstoppable in the downward spiral toward ruin. Destruction does not come right away, but the course is set. Judgment has been rendered, and a mighty and terrible woe approaches.
For now though, dawn breaks with languorous effort, in red and gold smudges that strain against the purple bonds of night. The colors intensify on the horizon heralding a newborn morning sun that ascends into an endless sky. It is the recurring promise of a new day, a glorious day.
Weather patterns turn erratic. Natural disasters abound. Violent crime disturbs even the most jaded. But we become inured and our outrage eases. Despite all the privilege and plenty granted to Americans, the generations have grown soft. Wickedness finds a foothold as the current populace turns their backs on our heritage.
The American government, already immense, reaches monstrous proportions. It becomes more inefficient and corrupt with each passing year, requiring the citizens to feed its insatiable hunger for more power. The many branches delve deep into personal lives to control housing, food, payroll, retirement savings, healthcare, and education. Legislative mandates take away parental rights and force Christian organizations to close their doors. The Gospel is considered hate speech, while radical Islam is idealized.
The cowed people withdraw into cocoons of isolation, caring only for their own circumstances, fearful of losing their islands of comfort and ease.
The United States is a country in circular transformation.
America’s founding fathers would be appalled. Our ancestors fought against bondage and oppression. Their faith and courage led them to demand liberty, but freedom commands a price and the cost is always paid in blood. Liberty under a free market advances abundance, which must be judiciously and individually guarded, for overabundance leads to an inevitable complacency, which quickly turns to apathy. Apathy transmutes into dependency and—well, everyone knows where dependency leads. Today, a new form of bondage looms on our horizon.
What one generation tolerates, the next generation condones, and the generation after that embraces. The good people of these great United States have abdicated their right to decide what is best for them and their families. They look instead to the government to provide every need, dictate every move, and manage their lives. Taxes are raised again and again. The country teeters, continually on the brink of recession. The proud nation that once cried, “Give me your tire, your…” is now tired and poor herself.
Politicians make blatant promises they never intend to keep. Track records mean nothing. Truth is ridiculed by a corrupt judicial system and debased by the media. Laws in force since the days of our founding fathers are flagrantly bent or even broken without repercussion. The people of the U.S. grow more jaded with each election. They want so much to hope, to believe in the change promised, so they do. What other choice do they have? After awhile, they stop being disappointed and just…accept. Apathy arrives, dependence approaches, and slavery lurks around the corner.
But the U.S is not the only nation in trouble. Mother Nature is in a fury. She unleashes her wrath over the entire planet. In South America, volcanoes roar to life. Floods in India sweep entire towns away. Trails of devastation follow in the wake of Caribbean hurricanes. Mudslides bury entire villages in Central America. Raging forest fires threaten the American est. Massive snow storms immobilize Russia where people freeze to death in their homes. Massive earthquakes wrack Asia. Mammoth sea storms plague the European coast, spawning monstrous waves that capsize oceangoing freighters.
The natural disasters are indiscriminate in the carnage they bring, but it is the lack of rain around the world that takes the greatest toll. This year alone, millions of people will die—some from starvation, some from disease that always follows such events. But the highest price will be paid the innocents caught between opposing forces. Weakness draws the hungry wolves. Hostilities always feed off endemic hardship.
The world’s armies double and triple in size because ruling governments grow uneasy about their neighbors’ military posturing. Sabers rattle and armaments proliferate. Terrible weapons, already in the making, are no longer measured in the tons of destruction energy they emit. Instead, they are gauged by their kill radius, by how far the devastation will extend.
Tempers flare between world powers until the smaller nations withdraw into self-imposed isolation, fearing for their very existence. At some point they know a decision will be required, a side chosen. They cannot stand alone indefinitely. The price is too high.
All of these catastrophes and world unrest were described by the prophets thousands of years ago. Many of the signs foretold in the Bible have already come to pass, so we watch and wait for the remaining prophecies to unveil. The United States, once unshakable in her Christian beliefs, has turned its back on God. She rejects His favor and now falters on the threshold of eternity. America is coming full circle, just as all great democracies have done throughout the history.The lessons of the past are not heeded again. The world around us erupts in chaos, ripe for global pandemic, primed for another world war.
We are left with a terrible question to ponder: What is America’s role in the future? More to the point, what will our personal role be in the times to come?
