Words of impending judgment fill the pages of scripture. History is filled with the reality of God bringing judgment upon the earth. Yet we live in such a so-called sophisticated society that we believe we’re far beyond such “ancient superstitions.”
Even many Bible believers have jettisoned all thoughts of God bringing judgment. Certainly, there is little to no preaching of judgment with our modern sensibilities.
If God is allowed a mention in the public square, he must be the God of soft-spoken love, of thinking well of all, of only smiles and compliments toward human beings. Any suggestion of the historically held Christian belief that he is a God of judgment is vastly scorned. Any voice that speaks a word of judgment is seen as intolerant, backwoods, worthy only of absolute rejection, the next victim of a cancel culture.
Our churches are full of language about this God. He apparently exists as a cosmic self-help guru, enabling us to fulfill our ambitions, desires and shoot-for-the-stars destiny.
None of this changes reality. Truth is not determined by popular opinion or political correctness. We in America are under the judgment of God.
An uncontrollable virus, killing hundreds of thousands, might suggest that God is up to something in some other season, trying to get our attention and wanting to wake us from our sins, societal sickness and gross perversions.
Yet, there is much more than the virus. Our political upheaval is unmatched since the Civil War. Riots in the streets and the storming of our nation’s capitol building halted government proceedings and ran out our national leaders. Some of those leaders close prayers with words like “amen and a-women,” do away with the God-given clarity of gender and lead a culture of devastating confusion over sexuality, calling perversion good and good perverted.
We are sick; we are leaderless; we are killing babies by the millions; we hate, steal and kill by the thousands as murder rates in our cities skyrocket.
All of these are clear signs of a profoundly sin-sick society.
Yet, we still hold onto a sense of self-rightness and self-purity, saying, “Surely God would not criticize, condemn or judge such a nation as ours.” But no nation under judgment has ever thought it deserved it or even thought it possible to come under judgment. Few even believe there remains, if there ever was, such a thing as the judgment of God.
We have forgotten the Flood, scorned Biblical warnings, disbelieved the plagues of Egypt. Yet the truth about God’s judgment, proven over and over, is that it often gets worse until it is addressed. So until we see our present reality as a merciful wakeup call from God and repent, we’ll drown in ever-rising waters as time goes on.
Do we not see this? Are we so blind? Have our hearts become so calloused, our ears so deaf? If there are Biblical and historical accounts of actual judgments of God on nations, including America, and if they proceed as they have in the past, then what we’re seeing now is only the birth pangs of what’s yet to come.
Violence will grow worse and worse. Anarchy will be more destructive than ever. The rising level of fear in American homes, especially those in major cities, will cause a growing mass exodus. But there will be nowhere to go. Stores will be closed because of government shutdowns due to the coronavirus and from mass looting, rioting and burning of buildings.
The worst judgment of all is when God gives up on a people. He judges not by force but by absence. This is where we are headed unless we have a national spiritual awakening, a recognition of our waywardness, a heartfelt mourning over our wickedness.
Right now, our situation seems bleak, not only because of the first fruits of this present crisis but because of a deep, unrelenting commitment to wickedness. Far worse, those leading the way in wickedness don’t even know that what they’re doing is absolutely opposed to God. Nor do they seem to care. They have become seared of conscience, given over to sin. That is the worst judgment of all because it is the most hopeless.
Rarely in history has such a deepened lack of contrition, with no recognition of calling evil good and good evil, been reversed. More often, as this tragic form of judgment takes place, culture exists in despair. Its lostness and slow death go unrecognized. Such a nation doesn’t disappear; it just exists in Godless, lifeless, loveless self-despair.
At one point in our history, the church could have held out in hope for an awakening and a return to God. This may no longer be true. The church in America is anemic, compromised and confused, trying to appeal to a sin-sick culture by appeasing it. We easily compromise our truth to fit in with the culture. Much of the church is now changing its view on homosexuality. The newly elected senator from Georgia who calls himself a pastor is fighting for greater abortion rights. In that same state, a conservative pastor recently suggested we untether ourselves from the Old Testament. He’s referring to two-thirds of the Word of God; no wonder God is bringing judgment and may soon leave us to our own devices, which is the final ruin of any culture.
If in the midst of this wicked generation you have any godly conscience left, I plead with you to ask him to soften your heart to his truth, to repent and turn to him. He is willing to heal and restore you.
If you are part of a compromised church, I pray that God will take hold of your heart and that you will return to the faithful embrace of scripture rather than compromising with the culture you’ve been immersed in.
If you want to see America saved from ultimate judgment and a withdrawing of God from us, it is time to engage in desperate yet hopeful prayer. Perhaps we may yet turn and find the deep, Christ-centered hope that remains for us.
Gary Wilkerson