As some of my friends, family, and readers may know, I often become quite frustrated about the current state of America and our relationship with Israel. With the Great Recession worsening, the national-debt exploding, the utter lack of sensible leadership in the capital, and the rising chaos in our society, there is much to be concerned about.
However, many Americans are waking up from the fantasyland of 2008 and are starting to see what we are now facing: an anti-American President of the United States. More and more, I’ve been hearing the term “Jimmy Carter II” to describe Obama’s presidency, and the malaise we’re all feeling (and his poll numbers) certainly seem to be reflecting that. Fortunately, I was only a child during the late 1970’s and was blissfully unaware of the politics of that time. Like most Americans, I fondly remember the 1980’s and the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when the country appeared to be coming to its senses after the Sixties and Seventies.
There are several significant differences between Carter and Obama, but the main one is that Carter took many by surprise at his naivety and executive incompetence, while Obama’s utter lack of experience and radical ideology was clearly on display even when he was a US Senator. If you have a Senator who votes “present” most of the time while in office, did people think he would execute the duties of the Presidency much differently? Carter bungled his way through office, while Obama appears to be following the radical ideology of his Columbia professors in that he’s trying to collapse “the system” in order to turn us away from free-market principles and into a socialist democracy like Europe. And we can all see how well that’s working out for Europe.
Many people are now asking, “Is God punishing America?” I would emphatically say “Yes”, but that judgment began long before Obama. The strange weather and earthquakes of the last few years are meant more to get our attention than outright punish us. God’s judgment on a once-faithful nation is Him simply turning away from us and leaving us to ourselves and our own “wisdom”. With the election of Obama, our nation is now clearly in decline, and the White House is not only happily presiding over it, but encouraging and worsening it.
The last thirty years – and even the last hundred — have made America very prosperous, but we’ve used those blessings for evil. Today, America is filled with deception, adultery, perversion, theft, and evil of every sort on every level of society. The land that was settled to promote the free exercise of Christianity and the Gospel has banned it from most of our society. Most of our churches are little more than social clubs with steeples, which exist for no other purpose than to serve their members. How many communities would notice if their churches closed? Well, that’s happening all over the country, and no one seems to notice – or care.
Sadly, we’re watching the United States reap the natural consequences of our actions and choices of the last century, though the last fifty years have been the most significant in turning America and her churches away from their foundations. The most significant assaults on the American republic have been the direct-election of Senators, the voting rights of 18-year olds, generous welfare policies, and the enslaving of the nation through the private bank known as the Federal Reserve. When the State feeds the hungry, clothes the poor, and heals the sick through generous welfare programs, it seems that the Church turns inward and begins to exist for only itself.
But rather than feel like the sky is falling all the time, we should recognize that we’re living in the greatest time in the history of America – if not the entire world: the best of times and the worst of times. We have amazing technology available to us and can watch events on the other side of the world in realtime, and can travel to any point in the globe within 24 hours. And I’m certain that if we were able to speak with the Founders of the United States and those who lived at the time of the Revolution, we would find that they felt much the same as we do today. Our faith, our freedom, and our way of life are being threatened by forces much greater than ourselves, but we must stand against those threats. And we will.
In America, we are still free to speak, assemble, and worship, and because of Obama and his radical policies, many are rediscovering both our national heritage and the wisdom of our Founders. But the lessons we’re relearning will be long and difficult. The Founders started the nation with a clean slate, while we will have to “unlearn” most of what is being taught in our state-funded schools and universities. The Founders frequently espoused that religion and self-control are essential to self-governance in a republic, while we’ve taken our society for granted and abused those freedoms, assuming that we can behave any way we want and still remain free. We will have to relearn that either we govern ourselves or someone else will govern us — and without personal self-restraint the State will always be ready and willing to step in and restrain us.
From a global-perspective, our generation is the only one to be able to watch Biblical prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes. For the last sixty-odd years, we’ve been able to pick up a Bible and read about its fulfillment in the newspaper and the nightly news. Next to the Coming of the Messiah, the Rebirth of Israel is the most significant prophetic fulfillment in history. Every day, we can see firsthand the faithfulness of God in preserving and prospering Israel, in spite of the massive forces gathering against her. We are literally watching Israel being regathered from the nations after their two-thousand year Diaspora. Only the gospel-period could rival this time in history!
In the days to come, there will likely be more and more chaos and strange weather throughout the world and it will seem that everything is coming apart. Nation will rise against nation, there will be wars and rumors of war, and many earthquakes in diverse places. The nations will plot and rage against Israel and while she may falter, God will watch over her and preserve her. Israel’s future is certain, but America’s is not.
But in the midst of these times, Jesus told us emphatically to watch and not fear, for such things would transpire as the End approaches.
Of all the peoples on the earth, we Christians should recognize these times and prepare ourselves to be called home. Let none of us be found with idle hands and slumbering as that Day approaches.
Ezekiel Watch 