David Reagan - America's Destiny, Part 2
Has our nation reached the point of no return in its rebellion against God and His Word? Can our nation really be great again, or are we destined for destruction? Stay tuned.
Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. Last week I shared with you the first half of a presentation I made at our 2018 annual Bible conference whose theme was “God’s Prophetic Voices to America.” My presentation was titled, “America’s Destiny.”
In the first half of that presentation, I began by searching for our nation in Bible prophecy. I considered several places in the Scriptures where people claim they have found the United States, but I concluded that none of them are really references to our nation.
However, I then pointed out that our nation really is in the Prophetic Scriptures in symbolic type and that symbolic type is the ancient nation of Judah. Like Judah we have been blessed with great leaders, freedom, prosperity and spiritual blessings. But like Judah we have become victims of pride and rebellion. And the result is that God has sent warnings and judgments. And when Judah refused to repent, God sent destruction.
I then asked: Why we should think that God will deal with our nation any differently? I proceeded to point out that the sins of Judah that are spelled out in detail in Isaiah and Jeremiah are exactly the sins of our nation today. In today’s program I want to pick up at that point in my presentation.
Dr. Reagan: Now, from this history of Judah, we can draw certain conclusions about how God deals with a rebellious nation which He has greatly blessed. 1) He raises up prophetic voices to call the people to repentance. 2) He places remedial judgments upon the nation. 3) If the nation repents, He forgives and blesses. But if there is no repentance, God destroys the nation when its rebellion becomes so entrenched, reaching a point of no return.
The Bible says that this point of no return occurs when “the wound becomes incurable.” This is used over and over in the Old Testament scriptures. Nahum declared that Nineveh had “an incurable wound.” Jeremiah used the same terminology with reference to Judah. And Jeremiah was told to stop praying for Judah. Ezekiel was told the same thing, but he was told in even stronger terms. Look what God told Ezekiel about praying for his nation. Ezekiel was told that if the most righteous men who have ever lived, Noah, Daniel and Job were to intervene for Judah, it would be of no avail, except for themselves and their families, because the nation had reached the point of no return and was going to be destroyed.
All of which reminds me of the words of the prophet Nahum in chapter 1 of his book where he wrote, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
Now, let’s quickly apply these principles to the United States. I believe God raised up this nation with the purpose of using our great natural resources and our technical ingenuity to spread the Gospel all over the world.
As we fulfilled that purpose He poured out blessings upon us. Blessings like unparalleled freedom, and prosperity, and immense power, worldwide influence. And the greatest blessing of all sharing the Gospel with the world. He even gave us the blessing of serving as the key nation in the rebirthing and nurturing of the nation of Israel.
But we became enamored with our wealth and our power, and we began turning our back on God. The Almighty Dollar became our god. Greed became our motivator. Gambling became our national pastime. Sex became our obsession. We became the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs. We kicked God out of our schools. We legalized abortion. We endorsed moral perversion. And we became the moral polluter of planet earth through our violent, immoral and blasphemous movies and television programs.
As we wallowed in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s, God began raising up prophetic voices like David Wilkerson, calling this nation to repentance. And in the years since that time, he has raised up many more prophetic voices, 13 of which I identify in my book, “God’s Prophetic Voices to America.” When we refused to repent, the remedial judgments began to fall. And let me just pause here to say that I do not believe all calamities are remedial judgments. I believe that some of them are just simply products of natural forces. A true remedial judgment can be determined by its magnitude, or its timing, or by both.
Considering those factors, I believe that some of the remedial judgments we have experienced in recent years, some of the greatest are these: The Vietnam War which occurred on the heels of the sexual revolution of the 60’s. The 9/11 Attacks in 2001. God allowed — I don’t know if you ever thought about this or not — God allowed the terrorists to be successful in attacking the two symbols of American power: The Twin Towers in New York the symbol of our wealth; and the Pentagon, the symbol of our power.
Then came Hurricane Katrina in 2005, undoubtedly God’s response to our immorality of our nation and our forcing Israel to abandon the Gaza Strip. This hurricane didn’t come across the Atlantic. It formed in the Gulf of Mexico, most powerful hurricane in modern history. It popped up suddenly on the last day of withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, well something we had forced on Israel. On the last day of that withdrawal this hurricane popped up. And it hit New Orleans just as that city was ready to host its annual homosexual festival.
The Sept 2008 Market crash, again, a response to our attempts to strong arm Israel into surrendering its heartland. This occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the market fell by 777 points, 7-7-7 the signature of God.
And then another of these remedial judgments, the Bible teaches that one of the remedial judgments God will put upon a nation is give the nation the kind of leaders they deserve. And so it is no accident that this man was elected president. It is no accident that President Obama turned out to be the most pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, anti-Capitalist, anti-Israeli leader in the entire history of our nation. The man who promised this nation hope proceeded to destroy that hope with his myriad of ungodly programs and actions.
Let’s consider the parallels once again between Judah and the United States: Ancient Judah was blessed with Great Leaders, freedom, prosperity, spiritual blessings. But then they also began to experience pride, rebellion, and as a result of that God sent warnings, and God sent judgments, and finally God sent destruction.
This brings us to a very important question: Why should the United States of America be treated any differently? The answer, of course, is that God is not treating us any differently. He has raised up prophetic voices to call us to repentance. He has sent the remedial judgments. And our response has been one of patriotism, patriotism, when the needed response has been repentance.
After 9/11 my wife noticed an explosion of bumper stickers saying, “God Bless America!” Everywhere we looked they had one of these on their car. One day she turned to me and she said, “Those bumper stickers are wrong.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Because God has already blessed America.” Said, “That is to what we need.” So, she designed a bumper sticker that she thought was more appropriate: “America Bless God!”
The 9/11 attacks were a wake-up call for our nation. But instead of awakening to the need for repentance, we reacted like a sleepy man who hits the snooze button on his alarm clock, rolls over, and goes back to sleep. And so our society has continued to slouch toward Gomorrah.
Let me take a moment to emphasize to you how serious the decay of our society has become. Only a person my age can appreciate how radically and how quickly our society has disintegrated.
I was born in 1938 when autos still had running boards and they had no turn signals. And gasoline was 20 cents a gallon. When I was born: Abortionists were sent to prison. Pregnancy out of wedlock was thought of as scandalous. Homosexuality was considered unnatural and immoral. Pornography was despised as a perversion. Drugs were something you bought at a drug store. Marriage was sacred. Living together was taboo. Divorce was a disgrace. Same-sex marriage was beyond the wildest and most depraved imagination. Homemaking was honored, and day care was provided by mothers in their homes. Child abuse was almost unheard of. Ladies did not curse or smoke. The word, damn, was considered flagrant language in a movie.
In fact in 1939 the first curse word appeared in an American major movie, it ended with it. The last line in that movie was “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” That movie was held up for three months. Three months it was held up while they decided whether or not it could go to the theaters with that word in it. Let me show you have far we have come. This movie here, this movie came out in 2013 “The Wolf of Wall Street,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, it had the “f-word” in it 544 times in 180 minutes!
In 1997, the veteran television star, Steve Allen, founder of the “Tonight Show” denounced the growing filth in movies and television by making this statement, “We have become a society where vulgarians entertain barbarians.” And, folks, that was 20 years ago!
It is true that in His grace and mercy, God has given this nation a temporary respite, a window of grace through the miraculous election of Donald Trump in 2016. Incidentally, I believe that the crucial factor in producing that miracle was Franklin Graham’s prayer crusade that he took to every state of the nation.
Some of you probably attended those. They were great. And at each stop, everyone, he began his presentation with the same words, these were the words “I have no hope in the Democratic Party. I have no hope in the Republican Party. Zero hope. Our only hope is God.” And he proceeded to call this nation to repentance and prayer.
I think it is very interesting that back in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected, Francis Schaeffer, one of God’s prophetic voices to America, also referred to Reagan’s election as a “window of grace” from God, and it was. But as soon as his term ended in 1989, our society took up where it had left off in its rejection of Judeo-Christian values and proceeded in its downward spiral into the secular, pagan pit of Humanism.
President Trump is doing a lot of things right, as Bill Koenig pointed out this morning. He does a lot of things right while he continues to proclaim that he is going to “Make America Great Again.” But don’t count on it. No one can make our nation great again as long as we continue in our outright rebellion against God and His Word.
Our nation, like Judah, has gone too far in its rejection of God. I believe our wound is incurable. I believe the election of Trump is not a portent of the future. And I can prove that with four brutal facts.
After eight years of the most ungodly administration in American history President Obama left office with a 60% approval rating. In a poll last week showed the majority of people in America think he is the greatest president in their lifetime. After eight years of the most ungodly administration in American history his designated heir, Hillary Clinton, received three million more votes than he did. After eight years of the most ungodly administration in American history our nation’s future, the Millennials, 18 to 29 year olds supported an out-and-out Socialist for president. And when he failed to get the nomination, they voted overwhelmingly for Clinton.
But there is a fourth factor, more important than those three and that has to do with the fact that we have been ignoring Scripture. The ignorance of Scripture is the fundamental problem in this nation. And it is reflected in polls by the Barna Association. For example, put your seatbelt on. The latest Barna poll shows only 9% of Americans are Bible believing. And even more shocking, only 17% of professing Christians are Bible believing. And what determines a Bible believing Christian? Well, you answer these following six questions for yourself: Does absolute moral truth exist? Is the Bible totally accurate in all of its principles that it teaches? Is Satan a real being and not simply a symbolic force? Can people earn their way into Heaven by doing good works? Did Jesus live a sinless life? You will be shocked how many evangelicals, claiming to be evangelicals answered, “Yes, He sinned.”
Number six: Is God the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator of the world who still rules the universe today? Yes! Again, only 9% of Americans can answer these questions biblically, and only 17% of professing Christians. We are a biblically ignorant nation. Is it any wonder that in a recent national poll just one week ago George Barna revealed that as of today: 77% of Americans believe divorce is acceptable, 71% believe sexual intercourse between unmarried adults is acceptable, 69% believe having a baby out of marriage is acceptable, and 58% believe viewing pornography is acceptable. Or, consider what public opinion polls are showing regarding same-sex marriage: Acceptance of this abomination has increased rapidly from 37% in 2007 to 62% in 2018. The acceptance among white Evangelicals has increased from 14% in 2007 to 35% today.
And the latest poll in 2018 shows there is only one state left in the United States where the majority of people oppose same-sex marriage. And we have some people here today from that state. The state of Alabama.
Our nations needs to wake-up to the fact that legalizing an abomination does not make it moral. Here is how one organization has put it: “Legality does not equal Morality. Slavery was wrong, even when it was legal. Abortion is wrong, even though it is legal. Gay marriage is wrong, even though it’s legal.”
My friends, we need to face up to the fact that we have lost the culture war in this nation. Humanism has triumphed. We are now a nation begging God to deliver us from judgment to destruction. If President Trump is succeeded by another radical liberal ideological person like Obama or Bernie Sanders, supported by a radical liberal Congress, the turn around will be swift and it will be breathtaking. All of Trump’s executive orders will be reversed overnight. The 2nd Amendment will come under concerted attack. Abortion will be promoted. Hate speech legislation will be broadened to prevent people from even speaking out against the Sexual Perversion Movement as it is in Canada now. Israel will be abandoned. And expressions of Christianity will be confined to church buildings.
People say, “But the Supreme Court will stand as a wall against the tide of paganism and secularism.” And my response is “Do not count on it.” I speak as one who taught Political Science for 20 years. A radical President with a supporting Congress can undercut the Court overnight by passing legislation to increase the number of members on the court from 9 to 11. And to allow for additional appointments for every judge who stays on the court beyond the age of 70.
FDR tried to do that in 1937 when he was at the height of his political power and he failed. But what most people forget or don’t know is that six times in American history the size of the court has been changed by either increasing or decreasing the number of justices. And each time it was done for political reasons. Our Constitution does not specify the number of judges on the Supreme Court. The Congress determines that. The first Supreme Court had six judges. It was increased to 7 in 1807, it was increased to 9 in 1837. It was further increased to 10 in 1863 it was reduced to 7 in 1866 to prevent President Andrew Johnson from making any appointments. The current size was set in 1864, but it is not set in concrete.
I think Romans chapter 1 makes it crystal clear that the fate of our nation is sealed. It says, it says that the wrath of God is called down from Heaven by these things: ungodliness, unrighteousness, suppression of the truth, and the worship of the creation rather than the Creator.
And that’s exactly where we are in our nation’s history. We are practicing ungodliness as we kick God out of our schools and all aspects of public life. We are practicing unrighteousness in our daily murder of babies. We are suppressing the truth of the origin of life and the universe. And we are worshiping the Creation rather than the Creator.
Romans 1 tells how God responds to this kind of rebellion against Him and His Word. He steps back, He lowers the hedge of protection, He allows evil to multiply. And the results are: a sexual revolution, which occurred in our nation in the 1960’s. A plague of homosexuality, which followed in the 1980’s and 90’s. And the society being delivered over to a depraved mind, which is where we are today.
What else but depravity of mind could explain our nation’s celebration over the Supreme Court’s decision to legalized same-sex marriage? As we celebrated, God must have wept. Or consider the depravity of this sordid spectacle: The White House lit up in the colors of the Sexual Perversion Movement. I have no doubt that we signed our nation’s death warrant on June 26, 2015 when our Supreme Court rendered its despicable, ungodly decision.
Nor are we alone. Europe has rejected Christianity, and Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered worldwide. Our world is a ticking time bomb. And one of the tragedies is that the average person is just going about his normal business as if nothing is wrong, oblivious to the fact that the wrath of God is about to be poured out.
Is there any hope for our nation? I do not believe so. But we should not despair for several reasons: First, what we are experiencing is a fulfillment of end time Bible prophecy. The biblical prophets, including Jesus Himself, all prophesied that the end time’s society would disintegrate into violence and immorality, that it would become as evil as in the days of Noah. And that people would go about their business as if everything was normal. And that is exactly where we are today. People just going about their business as if everything was normal. And thus, we are witnesses to the very signs that are heralding the soon return of Jesus.
This is why the great pastor, Adrian Rogers, once said, “The world is growing gloriously dark.” You don’t understand that unless you know Bible prophecy. Or, as Jan Markell likes to put it: “The world is not falling to pieces; rather, the pieces are all falling into place.”
The second reason we should not despair is because there is individual hope for those of us who are believers. God has promised He will never forsake us.
A third reason we should not despair is because of what God is doing in Heaven right now.
The Bible say in Psalm 2 that while all the political leaders of the world conspire against Him, and conspire against His Word, conspires against His anointed Son, He sits on the throne and He laughs. He does not laugh because He doesn’t not care. He laughs because He has it all under control. He has the wisdom. He has the power to orchestrate all the evil of mankind to the triumph of His will in history. And that will be the triumph of His Son. And don’t forget, we have a fourth reason for hope, and that is the incredible hope of the Rapture of the Church.
There is also hope for unbelievers. As Robert Jeffress likes to point out: “When the darkness deepens, the light of Jesus will shine more brightly, like a diamond on a black cloth, and more and more people will be drawn to Jesus and be saved.”
Meanwhile, as the darkness deepens, those of us who are believers must serve as salt and light, standing for God. Standing for His Word. Refusing to give in to the demands of a pagan society, regardless of the cost. We must be beacons of hope, pointing people to the God of hope. While urging them to put their hope in their only hope, which is Jesus, the Son of God and the soon returning King of kings and Lord of lords. Maranatha! Maranatha! Maranatha! Come quickly Lord Jesus!
Thank you.
Part 2
Dr. Reagan: Two of the saddest verses in the Old Testament can be found in 2 Chronicles 36. They were written about the rebellion of Judah and the consequences of that rebellion. Here’s how they read: And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place, the Temple; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people, until there was no remedy.
This is where our nation is today. God has raised up many prophetic voices to call us to repentance, and He has emphasized that call by sending remedial judgments.
The prophetic voices are presented in detail, together with their messages, in my book, God’s Prophetic Voices to America. There are people in the past like Peter Marshall, David Wilkerson, Francis Schaeffer, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. And there are prophetic voices who are still speaking out today, like, Donald Wildmon, Erwin Lutzer, David Jeremiah, William Koenig, Jan Markell, Albert Mohler, Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress and Jonathan Cahn.
Many believe our nation can still experience a great spiritual revival as has happened numerous times in the past when our nation has grown cold in its relationship with God.
But folks, that is no longer the case. Our relationship with God has moved far beyond coldness. We are now in outright rebellion against God, shaking our collective fist at Him and His Word. I believe we have reached that biblical point where the “wound has become incurable.” And as a result, we have put ourselves in the position of literally begging for God’s wrath and destruction.
But as I pointed out in my presentation you just viewed, although there is no hope for our nation, there is hope for individuals both for believers and unbelievers. Believers have the hope of the Rapture, the promise that God will take the Church out of the world before He pours out His wrath. Unbelievers also have hope because God is calling them to repentance and faith in His Son, Jesus so that they might be born again, have their sins forgiven and thus have the hope of the Rapture and eternal life with God.
If you are one of those who have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I urge you to repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus. He is your only hope in this steadily darkening world. Simply tell God you are sorry for your sins and ask Him to forgive you. Next, reach out to Jesus in faith and receive Him as your Lord and Savior. And then, seek out a Bible believing church where you can publicly profess your faith, manifest it in baptism and get involved in Bible study so that you can grow in your faith.
Well, that’s our program for today. I know it was a tough message, but I hope you were blessed by the hope we have in Jesus. I hope, too, that, the Lord willing, you will be back with us again next week. Until then, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our Redemption is drawing near.”