“… for their sin has not yet reached its full measure.” Genesis 15:16
(Prologue from early manuscript, Edge of Eternity, by Elizabeth Noyes)
Each day we hear of atrocities committed against innocents. Journalists present these graphic, horrifying images under the guise of journalism in their search for even more heinous crimes to sensationalize. But the horrors pass. The people become inured, which prompts the newshounds to greater heights. Or depths.
As if man’s capacity for cruelty wasn’t enough, the weather seems to have turned on us as well. Natural 
disasters wreak havoc across the world. Massive earthquakes. Volcanos. Floods. Hurricanes. Tsunamis. Tornados. Freak storms. Mudslides. Wildfires.
In many places, temperatures soar past century levels. Lake levels plummet. Water supplies dry up. Records highs are recorded only to be surpassed again and again. Droughts give birth to famines that decimate the population. Disease follows. Epidemics rampage. Millions succumb to heat, 
starvation; illness; and escalating hostilities. In many places, survival has become a raw, basic need.
And in the background, never before seen cosmic events fill the sky.
Tensions between countries are stretched to the breaking point. Strife reigns. Smaller nations withdraw into self-imposed isolation and brace for an unknown future. Armies double and triple in size as the world powers grow uneasy about the military posturing of their foes. The world appears ripe for a global pandemic … or another world war.
Back here in the most favored nation on earth, we go about our abundant lives without a care, but we aren’t immune from the misfortunes of the world. Some of us begin to worry.
Illegal immigrants flood our nation. Terrorists infiltrate our land. Insanity seems to be the order 
of the day as senseless killings become commonplace events. Heinous crimes multiply in our copycat culture. Nothing seems too outrageous or evil. We acclaim monsters while reviling the innocent; applaud narcissism while disparaging true heroes. All the while, the economy falters and the national debt spirals out of control.
Americans have grown soft, complacent, and yes, wicked. We abandoned the Christian foundation established by our forefathers and now, instead of truth and justice, we pursue wealth, fame, and depravity. Respect for life is a luxury only the powerful can afford.
The government grows larger and more inefficient every year, requiring its citizens to feed an insatiable hunger. Its branches pierce deep into personal lives with controls over housing, food, payroll, healthcare, purchasing, taxes, and education. They have supplanted
parental rights over children enrolled in public schools. They prescribe medications to keep the kids controllable, promote sexual promiscuity, require acquiescence to foreign religions, ban all things Christian, and require teaching of a rewritten history that is the antithesis of truth.
Legislative mandates renounce Christianity, labeling much of its doctrine as “hate” speech and punishing anyone who dares express an opposing view.
The American populace has been cowed, coaxed into personal cocoons of isolation for fear of retribution. Exceptions are the rule. Minorities have usurped the power of the people in a classic case of the “tail wagging the dog.”
The United States of America is a country in circular transformation. When oppression and bondage once motivated our ancestors to search for a new home, the taste of freedom gave them the faith and courage to demand freedom. Liberty under a free market always leads to
abundance. Unfortunately, history tells us abundance will inevitably lead to complacency, and complacency to apathy. Apathetic Indifference will succumb to dependency, and we all know what happens when we rely on another for everything. We find ourselves back in bondage.
Lazy or unknowing, the good people of these great United States have embraced the promise of the government to take care of them. We’ve taught a whole generation of our children to look for a handout. The redistribution of money from wealthier citizens – money hard earned 
under a free market capitalist society – is no longer theirs to spend as they want. Our politicians make blatant, outrageous promises they never intend to keep, but big money carries a lot of weight and special interest groups use their financial clout to elect and keep in office those “career” senators, representatives, and governors they can manipulate.
Track records mean nothing. Promises are everything. The American citizen wants so badly to believe in a higher road again … so they believe. What other choice is there? And after awhile we stop being disappointed.
Apathy is already here. Dependence is underway. Slavery lurks around the corner. Lessons of the past had not been heeded again. The United States is coming full circle, as all great democracies throughout history have done when they abandon the sovereign God.
And all the while, our enemies sit and wait, slavering like jackals.
