Wednesday, June 28, 2017

The Decline of the Culture – Part 1


Secularism and the decline of the culture was the topic of a recent symposium at Biola University.  Featured speakers were Ravi Zacharias, a Christian Apologist and Dennis Prager, a prominent Jew who embraces the ideals of America's Founding Fathers. Read the Suicide of Christianity in America by LaMay. This book emphasizes America's decline resulting from forsaking her foundational Christian virtues. According to President Abraham Lincoln, no foreign power could defeat America ... America's demise would not come from the mighty hand of a foreign despot, rather her death could be inflicted only by her own hand. The threat to the union is not from without, but from within. Jesus said that there would be gnashing of teeth outside of the door during the last days.

Matthew 25:29-30 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

American Christianity is weakening. In Matthew 13, Jesus spoke a parable about the Sower who went out and sowed good seed in his field. While the workers were asleep, an enemy came into the field and planted weeds among the wheat. The master did not send workers into the field to pull weeds however. Rather he called his workers to gather in the harvest. Leave the separation of the wheat from the weeds to the Master after the harvest. He will separate the wheat from the weeds and the grain from the chaff. God has called us to live among the weeds and the chaff of this world. As God's harvest, our mission is to plant and to water, so that God can give the increase.  

God did not call us to be influenced by the world but rather to influence the world. The greatness of America is that our Founders valued the truth of the Word of God. The United States was not founded like other nations on a common heritage or a common geographic land area. Rather it was founded upon virtuous ideals based on the Holy Scripture of the Bible. The Founding fathers understood that good men and women, whom God called to defend their God-given unalienable rights, would stand in the gap to uphold the virtues of these United States as “one nation under God”. They understood that laws were not for the righteous, but for the unlawful.  They believed that righteous men and women, in whom the Spirit of The Lord abides, could "stand in the gap" to bless the nation in spite of the unbelieving lawlessness of ungodly people.  


The distinction of the United States was that this "experiment of self-government" was founded on the ideal that free men and women would , aligned with God’s holy Word, Will and Way, govern themselves according to unalienable God given rights. According to the American Declaration of Independence, We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (virtue.) To these ends the Signers of the Declaration pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in firm reliance upon almighty God.

Let's continue with Part 2 of Michael's message on the next post.
In Christ, Brian

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