I want to begin by saying that I do not relish having to write what I am about to write – but feel that we need to be warned and aware of what is possibly lurking around the corner for our nation.  Please read all of this post – because there is a message of hope and encouragement at the end of it. 

In my mind’s eye I am watching a horrific scene – one that terrifies me the more I watch it.  The scene is of a small child who is dancing along with mincing steps along an unguarded precipice that if stepped over will mean certain death for the child.  The child, for his part, is totally unaware of what is going on around him.  He is completely ignorant of what just a few steps can bring about for him and for his safety.  But he is oblivious to any warning because he has chosen to turn a deaf ear to anything that is unpleasant to hear.  Therefore he continues to dance, not grasping the seriousness of his situation – or the growing danger of stepping off the precipice the next time he draws near to it in his dance of joyous ignorance and bliss.

This is a picture of the United States in March of 2012.  We are that child who is dancing on the precipice of disaster – and yet for the most part are ignorant and oblivious of how much danger we are in at the moment.  Let me address this in a number of ways.

Scenario #1 – Israel, Iran, and Nuclear Hide and Go Seek.

For quite a while our leaders (at least in the White House) have pretty much ignored this growing threat.  Iran IS moving toward a weaponized nuclear program – and it is clear from their own press statements that they intend to use these warheads on Israel soon after getting them.

We’ve danced around actually dealing with this situation to the point where Israel is going to have to act.  I fully expect that some kind of response from Israel will happen before the coming election in November.  When that happens – another blind dance of our leaders will be exposed.  We currently have enough natural resources (and yes, I am referring to evil fossil fuels) to become energy independent.  If we were to act NOW – we could stave off much of what is coming our way – but our leaders continue to stick their heads in the ground.  The fact is that WHEN Israel has to defend themselves, the strait of Hormuz will be closed – war will ensue on oil tankers in the Middle Eastern waterways – and gas and oil exportation will be slowed to a bare minimum.  When this happens – we will wish we could have 4-5 dollar gas prices again.  Instead we will have probably 9-12 dollar gas prices for at least several months.  This will send our economy into an immediate tail-spin of “great depression era” statistical proportions.  We will watch inflation hit our economy to the tune of 15-20 percent almost overnight.  Unfortunately, we may even have situations like the Weimar Republic  had in pre-WWII Germany – where you had to pay for a cup of coffee before they made it – because the price would go up by the time they brought it to you later. 

Unfortunately, I also see riots coming if this happens – as gas lines will return to our society.  There will also be an explosion of gas thefts and robbery at stations nationwide.  We may see gas stations become something akin to Fort Knox with the security that will be required to keep them – and their customers safe.

Scenario #2 – Terrorist Attack and Subsequent Cancelation of the November Elections

I can imagine at this point that many of you think I should be put away – or at least relegated to the trash heap of conspiracy theory mongers.  This particular scenario would involve an attack that is “allowed” by some in our government – whose authority and power is threatened by upcoming elections.  I write this with more than a little fear and trembling – because saying such things can get me in a tremendous amount of trouble.  Yet this is what I see in my heart – and tremble over when I know that history will not be made – but repeated if this happens.

Such an attack – especially if it comes in the Fall of this year (2012) will be used to cancel our elections for the near future.  We will be told that we need to establish order before an election can proceed.  If you are thinking an attack of 9/11 proportions – think again.  The Islamic radicals who are planning such things always seek something MORE spectacular than their last attack.  This one will come close to shutting the nation down because of its intensity – and possible multiple locations. 

You might want to be ready for such a thing especially if the election looks like it is radically turning toward those who respect and honor our constitution.  If our current president is looking like he is going to lose power – I fear that this may even be more likely.  Remember that the Reichstag fire  was used as a ploy to shut down government opposition in Hitler’s day – and was quite effective as an impetus for the current government of that day to strike its enemies as they scapegoated them as responsible for the fire in the first place.

As we see the political discourse turning more vitriolic, we need to see that lines are being drawn – enemies are being named – and hatred is being fueled at multiple levels.  What is truly frightening is how the News Networks are becoming more and more clear of who and what they want out of the upcoming elections.  It is also somewhat disconcerting that conservatives and conservative news organizations are also being targeted for destruction – now by attacking their advertisers – and possibly in the future by attacking their very locations with violence and protest. 

If this happens, the possibility of fair and free elections will be out the window.  By the time order and the opportunity of a free election come around again – much of the opposition will have been removed from the equation.  Our elections will pretty much look like those of any other puppet government in the world.

Scenario #3 – Riots Based on Race, Religion,  and Socio-Economic Lines

This scenario has its genesis in the current political climate in our country.  There are things being said and being reported (or said by commentators) that are pouring gas on the fire of already strained relationships between various polarized groups in America.  The rich are being pitted against the poor.  People of Color and different Nationality are being pitted against each other.  Certain religious views are being openly denigrated and lied about on network news shows – as well as in print.  There are very specific lines that are being drawn on the basis of race, religion, sexual preference, socio-economic views and politics.  These things are being exacerbated more and more by the rhetoric being used  in the lead-up to this election. 

As this reaches a fever pitch – we may watch as election day turns into a day of rioting and rage at polling places.  In the previous election – people were openly intimidated in Philadelphia by those who did not want them to vote against their chosen candidate.  This time – with a greater possibility of their person being defeated – we are going to watch these intimidation tactics turn violent. 

Occupy Wall Street and the shenanigans of some of our Unions have already broken new ground in the erection of political, religious, and socio-economic walls that are seriously dividing us in this nation.  We are dancing around the precipice of serious rioting in the streets – and even more serious violence against those who dare vote against our current administration.  This will not be pretty – but it will be violent – and will be used to intimidate people into compliance with politically correct views of our day.

When this happens – I also fear a backlash from those who are more conservative – if out of nothing more than years of pent-up frustration.  The danger is that such reactions to existing violence will most likely be used to “outlaw” certain views as well as certain groups.  The South and the mid-states of our union will be particularly hit by such reactionary anger to the prevailing tyranny.  This will ultimately be to harden the lines that have tried to be drawn for many years.  Again – races, religions, and classes will be turned upon each other – as they are painted as more extreme and reactionary to others.  I fear that literally thousands will die in these clashes.

OK, Let’s Breathe – and Listen for a Moment for Some Hope

Yes . . . I know . . . either I am crazy – too reactionary – or just plain scary in what I’ve just written.  But I want you to know that there is hope.  What I have written, by the way, is really not too terribly different than what Old Testament prophets wrote to Israel and Judah.  Please understand, though, that I do not for one minute claim to be a prophet in any way shape or form.  If you must know – I write these things for a couple of reasons.  First, because I am a historian.  What we are seeing is nothing terribly new – it is simply a repeat of Biblical history – and the history of the past hundred or more years.  Second, I am a Bible nerd.  What we are seeing is not the fault of Democrats or Republicans - of Obama-care or Liberal politics.  What we are experiencing is not the fault of atheists or pornographers or abortionists.  Dear precious saints - these are symptoms only - they are judgments released upon us for what has happened in the church - long before the world manifested these things.  What we are seeing is the inevitable consequences of a nation that once served God – turning from Him to serve other gods.  When this happens – God removes His hand of blessing and begins to oppose that nation – in hope that the nation (or the church within such a nation) will repent and return to Him. Third, I am a pastor – who loves my congregation, my city, and my nation – and wants to see it return to God in nation-shaking revival – so – that these things DON’T happen in our future.  I know that God is angry with our nation for how we have turned away from Him – from His Word – from His gospel – and from His warnings.  I also know that our God is also MERCIFUL – and if we repent, return, pray, humble ourselves, and cry out for Him to restore our land – He has been faithful to do this – not just in Biblical times – but in something called the first and second great awakening – and the prayer revival of the mid 1850’s! 

Is there hope for us?  YES!  Please read such things I have written prior to this point as a warning from a loving – yet holy God who desires for us to repent of our pride, our immoralities, and our sinful rebellion against His Word – and return to a life of fearing and honoring and obeying Him. 

What can we do therefore to avert such things as these?  Well, first off – I cannot guarantee that these things can be averted completely.  You must remember that we’ve murdered over 40 million innocent babies through abortion.  You must remember that we’ve chosen sexual immorality first with the sexual revolution against God in the 60’s with rampant heterosexual immorality – and then in the 80’s to the present with homosexual immorality as well as a host of other perversions that involve pornography, child sexual abuse, and every kind of perversion imaginable as we’ve thrown God’s Word to the side – not only in the world – but far too often even in the church.

Our hope is in falling to our knees – in repentance and restoration to God – and then in heart-felt intercession for God to move first in revival in the church – and then second, in spiritual awakening of the lost to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ for salvation from their sin and the wrath of God that rightfully falls upon unrepentant sinners in the day of judgment.   My concern, if there is a primary one, is that too few see the desperation of our days – and are unwilling to give themselves to extra-ordinary prayer.  This is NOT the time for a few words of perfunctory prayer – it is the time for us to don the proverbial sack-cloth and ashes – and cry out to God with weeping between the porch and the altar of God!    If we will not turn to Him this way – I see little or no hope for our situation.  I will vote in primaries and even in the general election if allowed – but these are not the answer for our current situation.  Even if conservatives win in a landslide – that will NOT be the remedy.  We MUST return to God, crying out for mercy – confessing our sins and the sins of our fathers – calling for God to rescue us – and committing to live afresh under His sovereign Lordship.  That is the ONLY ANSWER for where we are and what is coming.  May He have mercy upon us – may He sovereignly pour out His Spirit upon us – and may we be granted the most wonderful gift called “broken-hearted repentance” as we call upon the ONLY ONE  WHO CAN DELIVER US IN THIS HOUR – OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

OK, I understand that the vast majority of us are pretty much at a point of tuning out anything that has to do with the words, “debt ceiling.”   I know that I am.  Yet what is happening currently is part of what God is doing in our world.  Let me explain a little more by sharing a section of Scripture that I believe will shed a great deal of light on our problems.  It is found in the wildly popular book of Habakkuk.

Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.  Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home.  He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied.  He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples.  Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him and say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his— for how long— and makes himself rich with loans?'  Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken?  Indeed, you will become plunder for them.  Because you have looted many nations, all the remainder of the peoples will loot you— because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants.  Habakkuk 2:4-8

Here we have Habakkuk warning of problems that are coming to Israel because of choices – moral choices that they have made.  His first warning is not about budgets or spending bills – rather it is a warning against pride and not being right with God.  He warns about those who give themselves to drunkenness – to being out all the time – and to an appetite that never seems to be satisfied, no matter how much he gets.  These sins are at work – and lead to a “woe” statement God makes about them.

Before I proceed to the “WOE” that is given I must comment on what has just been said.  We have those in our government who think our greatest problems are economic.  They fear the debt ceiling, the mounting debt, the lack of jobs, the anemic economy – and see these as the problems.  But to co-opt a phrase that was used several elections ago – changing it for our current scenario, “It’s our morals stupid!”  Now I am not a fan of using the term, “stupid” and have only done so for the point I am about to make.  The core of what God says through Habakkuk has to do with the morals of the people of Israel – not their current economic plans and packages. 

We are going to have to wake up some day (the sooner the better) and grasp that our problems in America are moral ones.  The economy is only a symptom of our malaise.  The real problems have been moral – and have been building since the 1940’s or earlier.  Really our problems have been building since before the turn of the century.  But let me get back to the Habakkuk passage.  The “WOE” that is given here is part of a song that is sung taunting this nation.  The song, believe it or not, is about accumulating too much debt.  The reason the debt is incurred is because the people of that nation want to make themselves rich with their loans.  The problem that is presented is that one day, their debt will no longer  be sustainable.  Then their creditors will rise up suddenly and make their nation plunder.  Then, on the back end of this song, we also learn that another reason God is bringing this down upon them is because they have  filled their own land with violence and bloodshed. 

You see, our problem is not the debt – the debt is only a glaring symptom that is supposed to point us to the disease.  The disease is pride, greed, a lack of self-control, a desire for excess, violence, and bloodshed.  There is one thing I’ve not mentioned – even though it was mentioned in the passage.  That is that they no longer live by their faith.  Their faith is history – and instead their society now lives as a monument to consumption!  The lack of any kind of moral fiber in the nation at large has led to this.  They learned to live for their wants – their desires – and spent every penny they had and did not have to try to fulfill them.  In the end, they were left still wanting – wanting more – and going in debt further to get more.  But there were other problems – which were that they were also shedding blood in the process of living for themselves and their lusts. 

Let me comment very plainly on all this – and how Habakkuk speaks to the United States of America in our current situation.  I know that what I am about to say will really upset some Republicans, fiscal conservatives, and Tea Party members.  It really does not matter what financial plan is decided upon by our government leaders – because God is going to judge our nation for reasons other than an insufficient number of Republicans or Tea Party members in our government.  By its policies and practices the United States of America has embraced grossly immoral positions.  That is what God ultimately is dealing with – and it is those kinds of grossly immoral positions that have led us to the precipice today.

Early this century, our society began to embrace sexual immorality.  The flappers of the 1920’s shocked society – followed by more immorality through the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s – which was mostly hidden from the public.  In the 1960’s what was hidden by one generation was openly embraced by the next.  Their open immorality led to the growing experimentation with homosexuality in the 1970’s.  In the 1980’s this perversion came out of the closet – and began to assert itself so that now – it is pretty much accepted as mainstream – and has even been legislated as normal by a growing number of states.  God, sees such things this way – sex outside of marriage is fornication.  Sex outside of marriage vows is adultery.  Sex with the same sex is an abomination.  What is truly sad is that these issues really aren’t even being debated much any more.  The mainstream political agenda has left such things behind – and has decided that moral conservatism has run its course – lost – and has been left on the ash-heap of political discourse.  God, on the other hand, has not changed His views – and is going to bring us under judgment for such things.

In 1973 the infamous Roe v. Wade decision was made – and it became open season on unborn babies.  Since that “Hitleresque” decision we’ve killed over 40 million babies.  I say Hitleresque, because we’ve actually dwarfed that man’s genocide by over tripling the number of deaths we’re guilty of as a nation.  Hitler did not do his genocide openly – but tried to hide it.  Ours is done openly – legally – and at quite a profit to those who run the abortion clinics.  But God sees it as the spilling of innocent blood.  He sees it as violence of the worst order.  We cringe at Hitler’s ovens, showers, and mass graves – yet we continue to burn babies alive in their mother’s wombs, chop them to pieces  and vacuum them out, or just let them grow to full term and execute them by sucking their brains out of their heads.  Yes, I know what I just wrote is shocking – and many in the Christian community may even criticize me for writing it.  Problem is – they will not speak with the same passion about stopping it! 

I will make a prediction for our country.  I hate to make it – because I love the United States of America.  But unless we turn morally – it matters little what is done about the debt ceiling or the debt.  Our problem is that we’ve left God as a nation.  We are arrogant and do not grieve over sin.  We don’t pray.  We don’t weep over the wound of our people – a wound that may be incurable.  We debate what GOP Senators and Representatives should be on the “super-congress,” horrified about whether they will support higher taxes or not.  What we should debate is how to get the anemic church of God on her knees to avert judgment that is coming because of the millions of gallons of innocent blood that have been spilled on our land.  How can we get ourselves first, then the true church in America to repent and fall on her knees?  That is the ONLY issue that matters in this hour.  God’s discipline for our nation has far more to do with a sinful church, a moral bankruptcy, and a lack of any spiritual urgency than it does any kind of debt or deficit deal.  If you want to know the truth – God is far more concerned with a brokenness deficit among his people – than any monetary deficit in Washington.  Until we are moved to action and concern about that issue – it matters little what we do about any other.