I was about five and my grandfather was going to pick up nightcrawlers around ten that night. I asked him if I could go and he told me if I was awake when he was ready to go that I could also go. He may have thought I would fall asleep for the night while he was napping until time to go, because he still had to get up early in the morning to go to work at Fisher Body. I asked God to help me stay awake; God answered my prayer. I was awake when my grandfather got up from his nap; I was wide awake for the approximately two hours we were out on the golf course filling our buckets with crawlers; and I was awake until the TV station signed off at whatever time it signed off in the late fifties in Pontiac, MI.
Other than being with the grandfather I dearly loved, what I remember most about that night is watching the giant, blown-about flag on the TV screen as music played—I assume our national anthem. Mysteriously, I cried. I have NO idea why this sight and sound would so affect me, but it made me cry profusely. From then on I could hardly experience that sight and sound without feeling tremendous love for my country. I have just always been so proud to be American. I have always been impressed with our power; I have always been encouraged by our morality; and I have always been so thankful to God that He made me an American. I have even loved it and been proud of it after I came to believe in my early college days that we had no divine right to rebel from England. I have loved this, my country, despite Vietnam, riots, rock-and-roll, miniskirts, and the free love movement. I LOVE MY COUNTRY.
UNTIL NOW. America has tipped; we have crossed a line of no-return. I first began having this sense in September as the school year began. We help home school our grandchildren; on Wednesdays we spend time with them doing above and beyond activities. The first part of our day is spent in a log cabin school room I built for them. Our time together for the first four years began with our putting our hands on our hearts and reciting the pledge of allegiance as we faced our flag. (Really, our day began on the porch of the cabin where we would stand and recite the word on the red steel sign: LISTEN.) This year, I am sad to say, I have no interest in encouraging my grandchildren to pledge their allegiance to our country. This does not mean I hate my country or wish I lived elsewhere. Maybe I feel as if my country has reneged on its allegiance to me.
I understand that America was founded on the will of the people, and in their great wisdom our founders provided for the flex and pull of this dynamic. As governments go I think they set up a pretty amazing system. But something has changed; something is sinister; something just ain’t right. In my lifetime I have watched America move from seeking a fair and reasonable profit to the exploitation of most of its people, from being a people of neighbors who care to neighbors unknown to whom you better be careful what you reveal about yourself, and from a nation proud of itself to a nation bent on imposing its way on the world.
In the last couple of decades I have gone from being proud to be an American Republican to being aghast at the buffoonery of this party! I have watched “Christian” presidents push for globalization, the creation of Democracy at the end of a gun barrel, the allowing of corporations to fleece its citizens, and the insane thirst for debt! I won’t even mention the insanity of turning our food supply into fuel! Idiots! Actually, they are worse than idiots, they are God-haters. How do I know they are God-haters? I know this because I know God and what God stands for. What does God stand for? Reasonableness.
Is it reasonable, much less Christian, to make treaties with other nations when the Bible makes it clear that God HATES most treaties? God hates these treaties because treaties almost always indicate a lack of faith in God and a looking for security in some other place than God. Is it God-reasoned for one country to have the audacity to MAKE other countries into an image of itself? God is the one who establishes national boundaries, who ordains the powers of the world. He would act more favorably to a country who takes over another nation as opposed to changing it. Is it God-reasonable for a country to allow the powerful (corporations) to take such advantage of its citizens as the powerful have been allowed to do for over twenty years now? The plight of the Middle Class may be a judgment come from God, but that does not make it right for a government to allow so many of its citizens to be abused. And does it make any sense that God would ordain a system based on such tremendous debt? If this is Christianity, then Christianity is crazy; and if this is God-like, then God is goofy.
Make no mistake: AMERICA WILL NEVER BE GREAT AGAIN. Ruling the whole world would not make her great again. Every person in America making $100 per hour would not make her great again. In the first place, one has to know what makes a nation great. The answer to this question is simple—GOD’S BLESSING. Then one has to ask the question, “Well, what does God bless?” The answer to this question is twofold: One, God blesses those who believe, trust and obey His Son, Jesus Christ; and two, God blesses the nation who is moral, a nation which honors the ten commandments which have been put into the heart of every person ever born.
Clearly, America has never been a Christian nation, so her greatness does not flow forth from her honoring of the Son, except that God may have taken note of the few German Lutherans who honored the Son in Word and deed. Rather, America became great because she was a moral nation. To a very great degree we didn’t cheat or steal wives; we expected our children to obey, punished crime fairly, and paid our bills. We were pretty moral, even though our religiosity was blasphemous. (Of course, any religion which does not agree with Martin Luther’s teachings is an affront to God.)
God tends to bless nations and families if they are “good.” God is good and He does not want anyone to be able to say to Him, “You were unfair!” Thus God pays His debt to “good” people—people who deny themselves to do the right and proper thing. God tends to bless these people with the good things of this world—power, money, property, health, etc. But once these “good” people die, God is paid up; He owes them NOTHING more than to send them to Hell for not believing in His Son for the forgiveness of their sins. PAID IN FULL. They have been given their reward in this life, but will suffer the pangs of Hell in the next.
So…if you accept my premise—and I just do not care if you do or not—that God blesses groups of people who practice self-denial, who work at being a little selfless, who try to love their neighbor as themselves, and who really try to be moral, then you will understand why I say AMERICA WILL NEVER BE GREAT AGAIN. Actually, America is under a curse because our religious leaders—slim that they are– en masse, encourage and teach people to expect God to bless them because of their morality, good deeds, paying it forward, etc. This curse for insulting God by living as if He needs YOUR WORKS to get to Heaven is bad enough.
But we are also under the curse of God because of the filthiness of our morality. The perverted Democracy we have today is teaching each of us that each individual decides what morality is. This false freedom, which is really a bondage to the self, has fostered an attitude that the individual is greater, much greater, than the group. Self-expression has become the morality of the individual. We have just become a corrupt nation in every sense of the word.
I can prove what I am saying by giving some examples of the spirit that has made us a cancer on the world. When I watch “Dancing with the Stars”, I watch older adults encourage young ladies to lose their natural, God-given inhibitions and dress and act as provocatively as possible. “American Idol” teaches our young to be an “idol” rather than to selflessly serve their community. When I watch “Shark Tank” I see adults having orgasmic reactions over great margins. To me, this is so telling because I like and enjoy watching and learning from these “mature” adults who anchor these programs. But look at their spirits. Look at their attitudes. Look at their moral structure! It is all based on THE ME.
Thinking America is going to become great again is akin to being excited about a child you raised, sent off to the best school, and who embarks on adulthood with great promise. The child gets a great job and makes a lot of money, advances up the ranks and becomes powerful, etc. Does this in itself define greatness? Is he still great if he cheats people? Is he still great if his overarching concern is profit so that he has to make his product cheap, cheaper and cheapest? If he is just a disgusting individual is he still great? If he only defines himself by his bottom line, is he truly a great citizen? If her popularity is greatly based on taking off as many clothes as possible without getting arrested, is she great? I could go on and on, but I am sure I have made my point.
Our chickens are just coming home to roost. America was founded on willfulness and her sin has borne much fruit. More fruit remains, as evidenced by the rise of the willful Donald Trump. He may never be anything more than an overbearing businessman, but he is showing me what we deserve. Much of the nation is even craving and clamoring for this judgment! This is just how God works; He sends delusions to people who have left Truth and reasonableness.
The big mistake with Democracy is the idea that man should rule himself. Today, we are seeing the end result of this terrible mistake! Democracy has enabled Luther’s prediction that the time was coming when each and every individual person would be his own prophet, priest and king! Here we are! Now that the Individual reigns supreme, can we ever really be a great nation again, though we rule the whole world? Does might make right? Is it really an advancement that our society has done away with shame? Where shame should abound, brazenness prevails.
I woke up this morning with a profound sadness at the thought of what my once-beloved nation has become. In my lifetime America has become raunchy, ridiculous, and repulsive. We are living in a day and age where, to put it in King David’s words, “The foundations have been destroyed.” Other than being human, I have no common ground with these people. Across the board, across all political spectrums, across all religious spectrums, my once-beloved people have left a godly and reasoned approach to life. The very few people who may have some sense left are too afraid to speak up because of political correctness. The only freedom left in this country is the freedom of the extremists to say whatever they want.
I am ashamed and disgusted with my once-beloved nation because I believe Adam and the world were created 6,000 years ago. I am ashamed and disgusted with my once-beloved nation because I believe a husband should be in the home and the head of the home. I am ashamed and disgusted at my once-beloved nation because I believe children should be expected to do what they are commanded to do. I am ashamed and disgusted with my once-beloved nation because I believe those who call themselves Christian should speak with dignity and honor and sincerely pray for their leaders. I am ashamed and disgusted with my once-beloved nation because I believe men should give their word and keep their word even if they suffer loss. I am ashamed and disgusted with my once-beloved nation because they we elevate greed, lust and pleasure, rather than fairness, sobriety and hard work. And I am ashamed and disgusted with my once-beloved country because it allows a company to sell us pipe dope with a brush that does not come within an inch of reaching the bottom of the container. It is just shameful that we are a nation where so many lose sleep over how to cheat their neighbors more and more and more and more and more!
Well, a Beast is coming with a vengeance—the vengeance of God on an arrogant country. “All you beasts of the field, come to devour—all you beasts in the forest. The watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. But they are leaders who have no understanding: They have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all. ‘Come,’ they say, ‘let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.’” Isaiah 57
God is sending a vicious person who will drive the world to an exasperated exclamatory: WHO CAN FIGHT AGAINST HIM? He will break up “the ease in Zion!” Why would God do this? Because the world, with America as its preacher of the gospel of globalism, wants easiness—easiness of speech, easiness of responsibility, easiness of religion, easiness of easy profit—easiness, easiness, easiness! God is sending a person who will MAKE people act how God wants people to act. How does God expect people to act? (I speak only of the outward behavior, which God expects even godless leaders to drive their people toward.) God expects people to SHUT UP! God does not believe in free speech when it comes to respecting even the poor leaders He has ordained. Can you find anywhere where the Apostle Paul railed against the Roman Emperor? Of course not. Can you find where Daniel and his three friends protested Nebuchadnezzar’s decrees? Of course not!
God expects people to act in unison; He knows nothing of free expression for the sake of free expression. It is government’s responsibility to limit free expression, because most human expression is the expression of depravity. President Obama said a short time ago, “This is the best time in the history of the world for self-expression and personal fulfillment.” I love my president, but even he has been taken in by the spirit of this age. But what he said is true, absolutely true. This world now values with religious fervor what God hates. And my last railing is that God knows nothing of unjust margins. God is a capitalist—just not a greedy one.
Please notice I have not addressed the first three commandments, which pertain to the true worship of God. I have only addressed the last seven commandments, which address social intercourse. When this intercourse is sound, God tends to bless nations and families. BUT, the situation we have today is also untenable because faith has died out on Earth. The Salt has lost its savor. “Christians” act just like the world, except that they headline their life arbitrarily with the name—JESUS! And the religious leaders allow and encourage them in their apostasy. What is apostasy? Any worship of God which does not conform to that of Martin Luther. God shook the world up 500 years ago through this one man, who “dusted off” the Word of God so the world could get a clear look into It. How did the world respond? By shitting upon It—for 500 years now! Oh! God is coming with a vengeance with another one-man revelation! You will learn your manners!
I survived, with damages, a broken home. I am surviving, with damages, a broken nation. I will survive, with damages, a broken world. I just want to go Home. I just want to go Home! Come, Lord Jesus.