David Reagan - Reagan on America's Spiritual Crisis, Part 1
Our nation is spiritually sick to the very core of its existence. We have lost all sense of decency. We have been desensitized to evil. We are shaking our collective fist at God. And in the process, we are literally crying out for the wrath of God to fall upon us. For the gory details, stay tuned.
David Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. Over the past three weeks we have been sharing with you some excerpts from the presentations that were made at our 2014 Bible conference whose theme was “America’s Spiritual Crisis.” If you have missed any of those programs, you can find them on our website at lamblion.com. This week, I want to show you a portion of the presentation that I made at that conference. It consisted of an overview of our nation’s rebellion against God. It was a very hard-hitting, and extremely sad presentation of the evidence of our rejection of the very One who has blessed us so richly. Here now is the beginning of that presentation.
Well I’ve got some new strange church names. How about Battle Axe Church? I took that picture myself, that’s right outside of Greenville, the Battle Axe Church. I’ve known a few like that but they didn’t advertise it. The Little Tavie Old Regular Baptist Church. The Desperation Church? And this next one, oh, brother, the Serpent Mound Mission. Now I wouldn’t want to go there. And then probably the strangest name of all The Church of Uncertain, they don’t even know what they stand for. And then just a few that I have received recently: Whoever stole our AC units keep one it is hot where you are going. I think that’s in Lexington, Kentucky. And then how about this one: Government making sin legal does not make it right. Amen. And then I got really tickled at this one: Independent, Old Time, Hell Fire, Brimstone, King James preaching, hey. And then my all-time favorite sign: The Rapture separation of Church and State, come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well my topic this evening is an overview of America’s Spiritual Crisis. And the purpose of this presentation is to lay the foundation for all the other speakers that you will be hearing tomorrow who will be focusing on various aspects of the problem. And of course there are many things that contribute to this problem but the fundamental problem is rooted in the apostasy that is in the church today running rampant, and some of our guest speakers will be emphasizing that. And here is an example of such rampant apostasy actually advertised on a blasphemous church sign: Jesus had two dads and He turned out just fine. Can you believe a church would put that on a sign? It’s unbelievable. Ok, I’m going to be touching on some very sensitive political issues, so I want to begin with two disclaimers.
First, I am neither a Republican or a Democrat. I am a Monarchist. And I say that because I have devoted my life to doing everything possible to prepare the way for the coming of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He’s going to reign with a rod of iron from Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and He’s going to bring righteousness, and justice and peace to this earth and I can hardly wait. Here is the way social commentator, Todd Starnes, recently put it in one of his books: “We don’t need more Americans bowing down to the Democrat donkey or the Republican elephant. We need more Americans bowing down to the Lion of Judah.”
And that thought brings me to my second disclaimer. I do not believe that either the Democrats or the Republicans are the hope of America. Rather, I believe that Jesus is our only hope. And, because I believe Jesus is our only hope, I therefore believe we have little hope because we have turned our backs on God.
The point was illustrated after the horrible Connecticut school shooting when someone designed this T-Shirt it says: Dear God, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools? Signed, a concerned student. Dear concerned student, I’m not allowed in schools. Signed, God. That pretty well sums it up.
I would like to begin with two foundational scriptures: The first is Psalm 33:12: “Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh.” The second one is in Proverbs 14:34: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
In 2003 a book of mine was published entitled, America the Beautiful? The sub-title was The United States in Bible Prophecy. The third edition was published in 2009, and most of what I’m going to share with you is in this book. I began the book by outlining some principles that the Bible reveals about how God relates to nations. In the book I go into each one of these in detail and provide all the scripture references, but in this presentation I will have time only to mention each one briefly.
First, God establishes nations and defines their boundaries. Consider these words of Paul, spoken in his sermon at Athens: “God made from one man every nation of mankind having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.”
Second, God determines when a nation will cease to exist. A nation can be the most powerful one on the face of the earth like Ancient Babylon or modern day Russia but all of its power will be of no avail when the Lord decides the time has come to bring it down. And that can happen overnight, regardless of the nation’s power.
Third, God has a purpose for each nation, both general and specific.
The general purpose of all nations is to enable their citizens to seek God by providing an atmosphere of freedom, security and tranquility. Additionally, God will call nations to perform specific duties. The greatest example of all of course, is the nation of Israel, a nation called to be a witness of God. But it’s interesting to note that God has called other nations to relate to Israel in specific ways. For example He called some nations to bless Israel, some to test Israel, some to discipline Israel, and some to judge Israel. In regard to specialized purposes, have you ever stopped to ponder: What was the unique role that God might have had in mind for the United States when He raised up this nation? As I look back on the last 200 years of our history, I have concluded that God’s special purpose for America was to evangelize the world for Jesus, working through our incredible natural resources and technical ingenuity. And, of course, another special purpose for us was to serve a key role in the establishment of the nation of Israel and the protection of its security.
Number four God blesses and disciplines nations in accordance with their obedience to Him and their treatment of the Jewish people. With regard to the Jews, God told Abraham, “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.” Accordingly, history is literally littered with the corpses of nations that came against Israel or who persecuted the Jewish people. And those that survived, like Spain, Britain and Russia, were stripped of their world empires.
Number five, God holds nations in contempt. Now on the surface this may seem contradictory in nature. After all, God is the one who creates the nations and He is the one who has them for His purposes. Why, then, does He hold them in contempt, as we are told very plainly in Isaiah chapter 40, that God holds the nations in contempt. Why is that? Well it’s because of their pride and their rebellion and because they serve as idols. This is beautifully illustrated in the book of Daniel in the contrasting visions that God gave Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, visions of great world empires, Gentile empires. The vision that Nebuchadnezzar had was a great statue with a gold head and silver chest, and so forth, it was great, it was beautiful it was glorious because this is the way man sees the kingdoms of the world. But when He gave the same vision to Daniel, it was a vision of ravenous animals devouring each other that is the view of the nations in God’s eyes.
Number six, God forgives and blesses a nation when its people repent. The only thing that touches God’s heart as deeply as faith is repentance. This is illustrated throughout the Bible. One of the greatest examples is that of Jonah. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to tell them of their impending judgment. But the king put on sack cloth and ashes, he repented before the Lord, he called the entire nation to repent. And the result was that God relented from destroying them.
Number seven, God destroys a nation when its rebellion becomes entrenched, reaching a point of no return. I want to look at this particular point in more detail because it is one that is very important for our nation. I want us to see how God deals with a rebellious nation for the Bible says there is a definite pattern that God uses and dealing with such a nation. First God will always raise up prophetic voices. Prophetic voices to call the nation to repentance. He does this because God never pours out His wrath without warning. Second if there is no repentance, God will place remedial judgments on the nation. And these can take many forms. For example in Deuteronomy 28 there is a long list of the types of remedial judgments God will place on an nation, including such things as natural disasters, political confusion and corruption, crop failures, economic calamities, rebellious youth, rampant disease, even epidemics of divorce, defeat in war among many other things, including, including, giving the nation the kind of leaders it deserves. Think about that, that’s sobering.
And, if the people of the nation still refuse to repent, God will deliver the nation to destruction. In this regard, the Bible makes a chilling revelation: namely, there is a point of no return. A point of no return. Thus, many years after Jonah, God raised up another prophet to send to Nineveh, a prophet by the name of Nahum. This time Nahum was told that Nineveh had a, notice these words, “an incurable wound.” And sure enough, there was no repentance as before, and the nation was destroyed. Later, the prophet Jeremiah used the same terminology, “an incurable wound” with reference to the nation of Judah.
In fact, Jeremiah was told by God to stop praying for Judah! Ezekiel was told the same thing, but he was told it in even stronger terms. Ezekiel was told that if the most righteous men who had 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. There is a point of no return. When the wound become incurable, when God delivers the nation from judgment to destruction. My friends God is patient, He is long-suffering, but He cannot be mocked. He will deal with sin sooner or later. Consider these words from Nahum chapter 1, “A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh; Yahweh is avenging and wrathful. Yahweh takes vengeance on His adversaries. He reserves wrath for His enemies. Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power; and Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
Now, let’s quickly apply these particular principles to the United States. As I pointed out, I believe God raised up this nation with the purpose of using our great natural resources and technical ingenuity to spread the Gospel all over the world. As we fulfilled this purpose, He poured out blessings upon us, blessings like unparalleled freedom, prosperity, immense power, worldwide influence. He blessed us as no other nation has ever been blessed since the time of ancient Judah. But we became enamored– He even gave us the blessing of serving as the key nation in the rebirthing and nurturing of the nation of Israel. What a blessing that was. 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 a national pastime. Sex became our obsession. We became the largest consumer in the world of illegal drugs. We kicked God out of our schools. We legalized abortion. We are in the process of legalizing same-sex marriage. And we became the moral polluter of planet earth through our violent, immoral and blasphemous movies and television programs.
Part 2
David Reagan: In case you tuned in late, let me explain that you are watching a presentation which I made to our 2014 annual Bible conference. The theme of the conference was “America’s Spiritual Crisis.” I have been showing you parallels between ancient Judah and the United States, parallels that point to inevitable destruction of our nation. Two of those parallels are the raising up of prophetic voices and the implementation of remedial judgments — both for the purpose of calling us to repentance. Let’s return now to the presentation.
As we wallowed in the sexual revolution of the 1960’s, God raised up voices like Dave Wilkerson, calling this nation to repentance. When we refused to repent, the remedial judgments began to fall. And let me just pause here and say that all things that happen bad to a nation are not necessarily remedial judgments. Many calamities are just simply the products of natural forces. A true remedial judgment can be determined by its magnitude or by its timing or both. Considering those factors, I believe that some of the remedial judgments we have experienced in recent years are these:
First the Vietnam War which occurred on the heels of the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.
The 9/11 attacks where God allowed the terrorists to be successful in attacking the two symbols of American pride. Have you ever thought about that? They were successful in attacking the two symbols of American pride. And what were those symbols? The Twin Towers in New York which represented our wealth; and the Pentagon in Washington, DC that represented our power.
Then Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Undoubtedly in my mind its God’s response to our immorality and our forcing Israel to abandon the Gaza Strip. We forced Israel to get out of Gaza and you can see what the result of that was, it became a terrorist nest. The storm formed suddenly in the Gulf of Mexico on the very last day of the Gaza withdrawal. It was not a hurricane that came across the Atlantic Ocean it formed in the Gulf of Mexico. The very last day of the Gaza withdraw and it hit New Orleans just as it was getting ready to host its annual homosexual festival.
Then the September 2008 Market Crash, again a response to our attempts to strong arm Israel into surrendering its heartland. That crash occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the market fell; I tell you I nearly fainted when I saw this in the paper. The market fell 777 points, 7-7-7 it was like God signed it with His signature. The symbol of man is 6-6-6. The symbol of God is 7-7-7, perfection to the utmost. And that is exactly how many points it fell.
And another of these judgments is the type of leaders that we deserve. It is no accident that our current President is the most pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, anti-Capitalist, anti-Israel leader in the entire history of our nation. And his mistreatment of Israel should be of particular concern to us because the Bible says God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. Also, we are told in Joel 3:2 that God will severely judge all nations who are involved in dividing the land of Israel in the end times. And that is exactly what we are trying to do.
Regarding the fate of our nation, I do not believe that the United States is specifically mentioned in Bible prophecy, but I do believe we have a prophetic type that can be found in the Bible. If you’ll remember, after the death of Solomon, the kingdom of David was split into two nations, Israel and Judah. That northern nation of Israel was apostate from the very beginning. It was founded in rebellion against God and it continued in that condition for 208 years until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC. During those years it had 19 kings, and not a single one was considered righteous in the eyes of the Lord. The southern nation of Judah lasted 136 years longer for a total of 344 years before it was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC. It had only eight kings who were considered righteous in the eyes of the Lord, but at least it had eight.
Now, I believe the nation of Judah is our prophetic type. No other nation has ever been blessed by God as much as we have except Judah. Think about it look at the parallels, this was a nation that had great leaders, it was a nation that had freedom, a nation that had prosperity, a nation that had great spiritual blessing. The Shekinah Glory of God resided in Jerusalem in the Temple, what a blessing. I wish I could end there, but I can’t, because there are other parallels both negative. The nation became engulfed in pride as it looked around and saw all of its blessings and began to claim that the blessing were of their own. And it became rebellious against God.
In Isaiah chapter 5 the prophet tells how God asked him to compile a list of the sins of Judah. God knew the sins, He knew all the sins of Judah but he wanted Isaiah to know them. So he said Isaiah you go out and you come back and you report to me a list of the sins of Judah. And Isaiah reported back that he had found: injustice, greed, blasphemy, moral perversion, intellectual pride, intemperance, and political corruption. Sounds like America today. Seventy-five years later, 75 years later God raised up another prophet in Judah by the name of Jeremiah, and God asked him to do the same thing, compile an inventory of Judah’s sins. Jeremiah came up with the same list as Isaiah but he added one, he said in addition to all the things Isaiah found I have found religious corruption. He said the prophet’s prophesize for money. The priests work for money not for the Lord God Almighty so they even had religious corruption.
He concluded his report with three summary statements, and boy look at these statements. He said, “Their faces are harder than rock.” “Their faces are harder than rock.” “They have a stubborn and rebellious heart.” And then finally “They do not know how to blush.” I tell you every time I read that I think of my dear wife. She is so sensitive to that sort of thing. She knows how to blush. And she is just horrified by the ads on TV and the things that they advertise. And she says, “You know is there no sanctity anymore? Does not anyone have any sensitivity anymore?” She covers up her eyes, hits the mute button when some of the ads, these are advertisements we are talking about; advertising all kinds of things that shouldn’t even be mentioned in public. And that is where we are today. Let me give you two examples that we are right there.
Here is a recent edition of Archie Comic Book, a publication aimed at children. It features and celebrates a same sex marriage on the front cover. This is aimed at children. Or, consider what the U.S. Air Force did in June of 2013. They ordered the removal of a painting by this man one of the greatest Christian artists in the world, Ron DiCianni they ordered that his painting be removed from the dining hall of Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. The painting was titled “Blessed are the Peacemakers.” As you can see, it depicts a modern-day policeman in front of a medieval knight. At the bottom of the framed version, there was the word, “Integrity,” with a reference to Matthew 5:9 which says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The Air Force ordered this removed from the dining hall because one person complained to the Pentagon and said, the painting, listen to this, made him quote, “feel terribly uncomfortable, disheartened and disappointed.” This man needed a psychiatrist. Two months later, two months later in August of 2013, the Air Force used your tax money and mine to invite a drag queen and her group called Jewels and the Brunchettes to perform at a Los Angeles Air Force Base on Diversity Day. When challenged, an Air Force spokesman defended the action by stating that drag is a symbol of gay pride and unity. That is just unbelievable; it is beyond my comprehension to believe this sort of thing is going on.
Let’s consider the parallels once again between Judah and the United States. Ancient Judah was blessed by great leaders, freedom, prosperity and spiritual blessings. Like Judah, we have drifted into pride and we have drifted into rebellion. And as with ancient Judah, God has responded with warnings and judgments. And now we are courting His destruction.
Which leads me to two of the saddest passages in the Bible, I can almost hear God weeping when I read these. They are found in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16: “And Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers,” this is speaking of Judah. “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 Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”
This brings us to a very important question: Why should the United States be treated any differently? Well 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 national judgments, remedial judgments. And our response has been one of patriotism, when the needed response was repentance.
After 9/11 my wife noticed an explosion of bumper stickers saying, “God Bless America!” And one day she turned to me as we were driving down the road and she said, “Those bumper stickers are wrong, because God has already blessed America.” So, she went home and she designed her own bumper sticker which said: “America Bless God!” Not, “God Bless America.” The 9/11 attacks were a wake-up call for our nation. But instead of awakening and instead of getting on our knees in 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 Sodom and 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 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 the drug store. Marriage was sacred. Living together was taboo. Divorce was a disgrace. Homemaking was honored, and day care was provided by mothers in their homes. Child abuse was unheard of. Ladies did not curse or smoke. And the word, damn, was considered flagrant in a movie.
In fact the very first movie to have that word was, Gone with the Wind in 1939, and they held up the release of, Gone with the Wind for three months while Hollywood debated what they were going to do. They finally changed the Hollywood code and they allowed the movie. It ended with that word. One time in the whole movie that word was said. Last year 2013 a film called The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio, had the “f-word” in it 544 times in 180 minutes!
Closing
David Reagan: Well, folks, next week, the Lord willing, I will show you the second half of my presentation. At that time, I will continue presenting the evidence of our nation’s rebellion against God. If you have missed any of our programs in this series about our 2014 Bible conference, you can find them on our website at lamblion.com. Until next week, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries, saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our Redemption is drawing near.”