America Is in a State of Spiritual Crisis
In a recent essay, Harvard Law Professor Mark Tushnet boastfully opined:
“For liberals, the question now is how to deal with the losers in the culture wars. That’s mostly a question of tactics. My own judgment is that taking a hard line (“You lost, live with it”) is better than trying to accommodate the losers, who—remember—defended, and are defending, positions that liberals regard as having no normative pull at all. Trying to be nice to the losers didn’t work well after the Civil War, nor after Brown. (And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.)”
Having surrendered to secularism in the last half-century, America now finds herself in a spiritual crisis and nearing a point of no return. The rot has worked its way through every institution and corridor of power: public and higher education, media, big business, Hollywood and the three branches of government.
In particular, Professor Tushnet gloats about the judicial branch:
“Right now more than half of the judges sitting on the courts of appeals were appointed by Democratic presidents, and—though I wasn’t able to locate up-to-date numbers—the same appears to be true of the district courts. And, those judges no longer have to be worried about reversal by the Supreme Court if they take aggressively liberal positions.”
Tushnet, however, is not the first to rebel against God’s truth and seek the spiritual ruin of a people. So did pretentious Shebna (Is. 22:15-19), Jehoiakim (Jer. 13-19) and Haman (Esther).
God, the One who sees all, speaks to those who see nothing. Secularists cannot claim to found and establish America. They have no performance history for sustaining freedom. In fact, Secularism as a worldview possesses a structural flaw, John N. Oswalt noted in his Isaiah Commentary:
“Any scheme of beginnings that does not allow for a personal Maker cannot have any concept of purpose in existence nor can it long maintain a coherent system of ethics. Human beings will do what they please, or they will submit their wills to some other human being, neither of which offers any ultimate purpose for life.”
By its very nature, Secularism will destroy the foundations of America. Or we will push back and wipe out secularism. The apostle Paul warned Christians, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).
God demands that His people trust Him. We offend Him and rob Him of glory when we seek alternatives outside of Himself for eliminating the crises around us. He sends the refining fires, and He will end them when they have finished their completed task.
The recent SCOTUS ruling codifying into law same-sex intercourse and marriage, and the revelry that followed by corporate America each serve as perfect examples of how our nation stands on the bring of a moral collapse. Instead of deep grief and remorse over the immorality of five Supreme Court Justices, big business gloated in the systematization of sexual deviancy and abnormality.
Where are the prophetic leaders of America? And why are they not moving into the public square?
There is a stirring in America at the local level, as David Brody’s lead story on 700 Club told:
“For Such a Time as This? Hundreds of Pastors Seek Political Offices.”
God’s wisdom is robust and strong, able to march right into the marketplace of modern humanity and lead people to life and light. God’s wisdom is not for obscure places.
“Wisdom does not recoil from the rough and tumble of the marketplace with its busyness and noise. She operates where the competition is fiercest. She picks a place where the human traffic is heaviest, whether on a natural pulpit at the side of the road or at a cross-roads or beside the gates which give access to the city, where there is a continual movement to and fro and where the forum on which all manner of public transactions focus is located.” —William McKane, Commentary on Proverbs
In a very real sense, forget the frenetic presidential campaign because the kingdom of God does not need Air Force One in order to advance.
(ACTION NOTE: Pastor, find out who your local city councilmen, school board members, mayor, state rep and state senators are and bring biblical values to the public square.) Either run for local office, or help godly men and women in your town run for local office. Evidence a close relationship with God and a thorough knowledge of His Word and local elected officials will flock to get your counsel. You will be the vehicle that God uses to speak His message of forgiveness, love and justice “on top of the high hill, beside the way, where the paths meet” (Prov. 8:2).
A few years ago, I was helping my wife, Cindy, shop for a ball gown. The search led us to Woodland Hills, California, a wealthy, heavily Jewish, area located in the San Fernando Valley. This is “The Valley” that produces and distributes 90 percent of pornography in America—an industry with larger profits than General Motors.
As we sat down for some Chinese cuisine, Cindy asked, “What is that I hear?”
“I don’t hear anything,” I said.
“You can’t hear that?” Cindy said “That’s the beginning of Trust in Jesus, by Third Day.”
Cindy jumped up from the table and walked over to the young woman at the cash register.
“Are you the owner?”
Responding in broken English, she said, “No, I manager.”
“This is Christian music,” Cindy said. “Is the owner Christian?”
“No! I Christian!” she proudly made known—with a large smile beaming.
This little Asian Mary had just broken an Alabaster box of costly perfume and poured it on the head of Jesus (Matt. 26). The little Asian David was doing all she could with the weapons that she possessed (1 Sam. 17).
If we are going to turn America we need a Gideon or Rahab to stand.
