A Roadmap to Judgment (Part II)
Biblical bearings for a nation that's lost its way
"You are here"
Where exactly does America stand on the road to national judgment? How do we as Christians faithfully navigate the many social see-saws and political pendulum swings we are now experiencing on a regular basis in this country?
In the first part of this two-part series on national judgment, we made the case that America’s newfound optimism, while carrying many short-term benefits, will simply not redound to her long-term good if it is not unaccompanied by a profound spiritual revival marked by true repentance and faith-filled obedience to Christ, for “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
Frankly, given just how low America has sunken in recent generations, even this may only be enough to spare the penitent, and even then primarily of eternal, rather than temporal judgments. As for the nation as a whole, now virtually brimming with pagans who refuse to part way with their drunken revelries (1 Peter 4:3, 4), judgment may now be largely, if not entirely inescapable. Unless we sober up, and fast, this cup may not pass until we are all staggering at its dregs (Psalm 75:8; Jeremiah 25:15–16; Revelation 14:10; etc.).
To orient ourselves in these disorienting times, we present to you the following seven-stage “roadmap to judgment” for your consideration. It is organized based on time-tested historical patterns of national trajectories, with a particular emphasis on ancient Israel and her surrounding countries, since their dealings with God have been recorded for our benefit (1 Corinthians 10:11), with divinely inspired commentary, in sacred scripture (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).
Throughout, we will map these tried-and-true trends onto our own trajectory as Americans. We believe the many points of congruence1 between them are undeniable.
The upshot of this approach is that it enables us, with a relatively high degree of certainty, to place a big “You are here” sign on the location on which our nation currently finds itself on the roadmap. Such insight can then be used by Christians to discern the best path forward—or backward, as it were—into the blessings that God promises to bestow on a people who humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, and humbly seek His face (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Roadmap to judgment
Stage 1: “The noble founders”
As the name indicates, this period of a nation’s history is marked by great men and high ideals. Optimism soars, yet not too closely to the sun, for the people of the founding period are grounded not by pride, but by the humility that comes from hard-won victories. The founding generation is all too familiar with the costly sacrifices and weighty responsibilities entailed in life as a free people. Weaned from the toxic teat of overweening tyranny, the noble founders have cut their teeth in bondage, come of age in the wilderness, and have no intention of ever going back to Egypt.
While imperfect, founding fathers like Moses and Joshua for Israel and Washington and Jefferson for America set the bar high for future generations—so high, in fact, that few who follow them ever match, much less surpass, their lofty precedents (Joshua 24:19):
“Then Joshua warned the people, ‘You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.’”
Stage 2: “The scrappy pioneers”
When the children of Jacob finally entered the Promised Land, they did so under the battle-tested leadership of Joshua. The initial generation of Israelites came up against some enormous challenges during their conquest of Canaan, including encounters with literal giants. Though the Canaanites were vulnerable and ripe for judgment, they were still physically and militarily imposing. It would take scrappy, determined fighters like Caleb, a man who took fortified cities and sent giants to flight well into his eighties, to conquer and tame Canaan land (Joshua 14:10–12).
Yet for all their strengths, the pioneers who first expanded Israel’s and America’s borders were often too preoccupied claiming their earthly inheritance to pass on their heavenly inheritance. Although these trailblazers put in the hard work necessary for their posterity to reap the material fruits of their labors, what they handed down spiritually was a godless blight that would impoverish and plague their descendants for generations to come (Judges 2:6, 7, 10–13, emphasis mine):
“After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. […]
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.”
Stage 3: “The early settlers”
Still connected to the stark realities of life on the frontier, the early settlers of the land have grown up under the adversity and conflicts of the pioneering generation, even if they were too young to engage in the fighting themselves. Still, such experiences temper their shortcomings and restrain them from the kind of whole hog rebellion that will come to characterize their children’s and grandchildren’s generations.
Though the conquest is largely over, the early settlers still have their work cut out for them in many ways, and this too holds their vices in check. Idle hands may be the Devil’s tools, but their hands are rarely idle.
True, Israel’s first settlers did inherit a preexisting Canaanite infrastructure, so they weren’t starting from scratch like the American settlers, but the temptation for both groups was essentially the same: either stick to the hard-working, austere mentality of the founders and pioneers, or settle in for a life of ease and excess once the perks of prosperity begin piling up (Luke 12:19). Either remember where you came from and the God who helped you against all odds, or forget your humble roots and pretend like your success was inevitable.
Sadly, fallen human nature being what it is, when presented with these options our choices are as tragic as they are predictable (Deuteronomy 6:10–12, emphasis mine):
“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
For Americans, the only task that has proven more challenging than taming the West and subduing the totalitarians of World War II has been taming ourselves and subduing the excesses of the post-war economic boom. Enemies foreign are often no match for enemies domestic.
Stage 4: “The sons of privilege”
No longer pressed to the throne of grace by daily need (Hebrews 4:16), the generation that follows the settling of the land, what we might call “the sons of privilege,” soon releases its grip on the horns of the altar, eschewing such quaint and pious traditions to instead “seize the day” and “go for the gusto.” After all, life is short and you only live once, so you might as well enjoy it to the full while it lasts.
It’s not long before the prayers dry up, the pews thin out, and an insidious self-sufficiency infiltrates all aspects of life. “Rugged individualism,” no paragon of virtue itself, gives way to a sort of “smug consumerism.”
King David, having subdued Israel’s enemies all around, left nothing but wealth and opportunity to his son Solomon, who promptly abused these privileges so egregiously that the kingdom after him would never recover its former luster2 (1 Kings 11:9–13):
“And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been your practice and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”
Humbled and humiliated, Solomon would eventually come to his senses (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14), but only after a lifetime of unrivaled hedonistic opulence (Deuteronomy 17:17; 1 Kings 11:3; Ecclesiastes 2:10). By that time, however, it was already a day late and a dollar short for his kingdom, for the wicked precedents Solomon introduced into Israel’s life and worship would become snares from which his decedents would never fully escape.
Stage 5: “The sons of Belial”
It is amazing to observe the depths to which a people can descend, and the rates at which they can sink, given the heights that they once ascended to. Perhaps such falls are all the swifter, and the momentum all the harder to stop, for having occurred from such pinnacles—“the bigger they are, the harder they fall” (Deuteronomy 11:16, 17, emphasis mine):
“Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.”
Though building a nation takes tremendous amounts of patience, cooperation, and know-how, tearing down a nation often takes little to no time, effort, or skill at all. Construction requires knowledge (Psalm 104:24), but any fool can deconstruct.
Furthermore, those who construct edifices, whether natural or supernatural, out of shoddy materials, or who lack a solid foundation on which to build, have not only wasted what little time and effort they have invested in their work, but ensured a more calamitous outcome in the end than if they had never lifted a finger in the first place (Matthew 7:27; Luke 6:49; 1 Corinthians 3:10–15).
Indeed, not only are their actions a waste, in time such individuals themselves become a waste, “worthless fellows” as the scriptures refers to them (Deuteronomy 13:13–18; 1 Samuel 10:27; Judges 19:22, 20:13; 2 Samuel 22:5; 2 Chronicles 13:7; 1 Kings 21:10, 13), good for nothing do-nothings whose only marketable “skill” is doing evil (Micah 7:3). As king David himself noted from his personal encounters with such degenerates (Psalm 11:2, 3):
“For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
That is the million dollar question before us now as Americans: When a land long spoiled finally sours, how can the sweetness of its milk and honey be restored? “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). A curse lies on a people who take the fruits of the Valley of Eshcol (Numbers 13:23) and turn them into sour grapes (Ezekiel 18:2).
It is here that the political and military judgments of God on a nation really kick into high gear, chief among them: 1) the demotion of inept ruling men in favor of women and children; 2) the giving over of a nation to unjust “lawfare”; and 3) national destruction under chronic disease epidemics and merciless hordes of invading foreigners:
Unqualified rulers:
Isaiah 3:12:
“Youths oppress My people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path.”
Legal abuses:
Isaiah 10:1, 2:
“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”
Habakkuk 1:2–4:
“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen? Or cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ but You do not save? Why do You make me look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”
Wasting disease and foreign conquest:
Leviticus 26:14–17 (cf. Deuteronomy 28:21–25):
“But if you will not listen to Me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject My decrees and abhor My laws and fail to carry out all My commands and so violate My covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.”
Deuteronomy 28:43, 44:
“The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.”
We have barely even touched on the other signs of national judgment scattered throughout these passages, including soaring debt, food shortages, and natural disasters, but you get the point. If you cannot see the parallels between Israel’s national plight and our own, then it may be that you cannot see at all (Isaiah 6:9, 10).
Stage 6: “The valiant effort”
It is at this point that a people can either continue to wax worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13), expediting their trip to the smoldering crater, or else rally themselves under the leadership of courageous reformers and purge the land of its rampant rot and corruption.
In the latter case, regardless of whether such efforts lead to lasting change or not, one has to admire such leaders for at least giving it the old college try. After all, what would be the alternative? Contenting oneself with “managed decline” and pillaging the ruins of a dying civilization along with the rest of the looters? The “valiant effort” may be futile, but it is valiant nonetheless.
For the eleventh hour reformer, the tasks are daunting, the supporters few, and the opposition numerous. It’s hard enough governing a nation with the wind in your sails, but try steering that ship in tempestuous headwinds with a barnacle encrusted rudder and mutiny afoot. It’s no wonder such vessels more often shipwreck than correct course (1 Timothy 1:19).
This is roughly where the nation of Israel stood during the time of king Josiah3 and it appears to be where our nation stands at this very moment. In other words, get out that handy “You are here” sign you’ve been holding onto and plant it squarely on “the valiant effort” phase on the roadmap judgment.
We as Americans are clearly at a spiritual pivot point in our nation’s history: Either we truly comes to our senses and make a 180-degree turn back to God in repentance, or we merely turn a half-hearted 90 degrees to the right, only to pivot back full-bore to the left a few short years later. Reformed policy without a reformed polity is destined for regime whiplash.
Let us not mince words regarding what’s at stake here for America and her people:
Even if the incoming administration pulls of every last item on its agenda with a speed that would make your head spin, if such changes in our nation’s governance are not accompanied by a profound spiritual reckoning among the governed—one that acknowledges and forsakes the very sins that got us into this mess in the first place and turns back to the God of our fathers in genuine repentance and lasting obedience—then not only will such policy changes fail to address the root causes of our national decline, but mark our words, our decline will resume faster than it appeared to reverse, and we will all be worse off in the end.
This is the clear testimony of both scripture and a thousand fallen nations before us. “American exceptionalism” will not exempt us from these inescapable realities.
A generation or so preceding king Josiah, the godly king Hezekiah implemented similarly comprehensive reforms in Judah, changes that likewise appeared to happen overnight (2 Chronicles 29:36, emphasis mine): “And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had provided for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.” Think of this as Israel’s “Reagan revolution” before its later “MAGA movement.”
But as history shows us, the downside to sudden changes lies in their very suddenness, for with suddenness comes shallowness, and with shallowness, irresolution. Executive orders from one president can be quickly reversed by the next. Vacillating majorities can undo what they demanded only four years prior. In other words, “Easy come, easy go.”
After Hezekiah stepped down, his son Manasseh picked up right where is wicked forebears had left off, hardly skipping a beat. How could he do such a thing after so much evil had been reversed, and so much good had been accomplished, under his father? The answer would appear to lie in the same sin that caused Satan to be cast out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12–14; Luke 10:18): willful, arrogant pride. It is pride that keeps us from humbling ourselves before God and man and admitting that we are on the wrong track, that we are the primary cause of our own problems (2 Chronicles 32:24–26, emphasis mine):
“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the Lord, and He answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.”
Here, as is often the case, the sins of the fathers are visited on the children (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18)—“like father, like son.”
Hezekiah’s hubris toward the end of his reign not only fed into his son Manasseh’s prideful folly, it also bore a striking resemblance to his great-grandson Josiah’s fall at the end of his reign, an untimely and seemingly uneccesary demise that was also precipitated by pride (2 Kings 23:29, 30; 2 Chronicles 35:20–27).
Worse still, when judgment was finally pronounced on Hezekiah’s descendants, he famously shrugged it off with a sigh of relief, since, after all, he himself would be long gone by the time trouble came around on his account (2 Kings 20:16–19, emphasis mine):
“Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?’”
Although this is admittedly a rather stunning display of selfish, short-term thinking, Hezekiah ain’t got nothin’ on our nation’s current crop of “leaders,” men and women who display little to no qualms about sinking their children and grandchildren into a pit of financial ruin from which they are likely to never extricate themselves.
The point is this: Just as external reform does not necessarily indicate internal reform, so too rapid change does not necessarily lead to lasting change—indeed, it would seem that the very opposite is the case more often than not.
A nation can flip the script so quickly that it fails to actually pause, take full stock of itself and its circumstances, and ask the truly difficult questions regarding just how deep the problems go. Because of our moral flippancy, we dress our mortal wounds lightly (Jeremiah 6:14), as if they were a small thing, not realizing that the outward symptoms of our depravity are but the tip of the iceberg of our true spiritual sickness, demons so deep that only God can cast them out (Matthew 17:19–21; Mark 9:28, 29).
Will we as Americans turn from our many evils4 at their true spiritual source—our own wicked hearts (Matthew 15:19)—and avoid the full brunt of judgment, or will our reforms remain only skin-deep, merely delaying the inevitable?
The choice is ours (Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:15). We will decide.
Stages 7a/7b: “The foregone conclusion”/“the road less traveled”
Before us now as a nation lies a great fork in the road.
Not the “which way Western man?” fork with “Christian Nationalism” on the right and “drag queen story hour” on the left. That false dichotomy is unraveling before our very eyes, with both sides now showing their true colors.
No, the real fork before us is three-pronged, like a devil’s pitchfork.
On the far left side is a sign pointing to “Diversity, equality, and inclusion,” and on the far right is a sign pointing to “Blood, soil, and nation,” all good things, but not in a disordered, godless vacuum, as one quickly realizes after following the internal logic of these paths for only a short distance.
In fact, though these paths at first appear to be diametrically opposed, in reality they merge seamlessly together into a single, broad, easy road (Matthew 7:13) just beyond the horizon, a road that leads straight into the proverbial “dustbin” of history. We might call this road “the foregone conclusion,” for that is precisely what it is for the nation dead set on rebellion.
Straight ahead, veering neither to the left nor to the right (Deuteronomy 5:32; Joshua 1:7; Proverbs 4:27; Isaiah 30:21), lies the third path forward—God’s path. However, unlike the first two paths (which, again, are really only one path), the third path and the gate that opens into it are exceedingly narrow (Matthew 7:14), with few nations ever trodding it—at least for long. Had they done so, they would have surely endured to this day (Matthew 11:23), for the straight and narrow path, though difficult, ends in eternal life. We might call this path “the road less traveled.”5
The question is, will we take it, or instead succumb to the myriad temptations on the well-worn path to perdition?
Until the evidence proves otherwise, all signs in both the American Church and State currently point squarely to the latter, to the foregone conclusion that the people of the United States, taken as a whole, are indeed too far gone to escape further, and perhaps even final, judgment.
Our nation may very well be on the cusp of an historic civic and political resuscitation. The only problem is resuscitated people still die. What we need as Americans is no less than a national resurrection, a spiritual coming to life from the dead.
Short of this, we believe there is simply no turning this colossal governmental, cultural, and spiritual shipwreck around. The Titanic is sinking, and unless we truly repent, we will have merely rearranging the deck chairs on our way down to the shadowy abyss.
Heading off the objections
At this point, several objections may have come to mind as you’ve considered our take on the current spiritual pulse of America.
As Christians, we are called to be like the men of Issachar, “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). We do not want to be caught flat-footed and wrong-headed like the Pharisees, men who could read the daily weather patterns but were lost at sea when it came to reading the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3; Luke 12:56).
To further bolster the case we have been making here, below are our responses to three common objections to our assessment that we hope you find helpful as you wrestle through these topics for yourself and reach your own conclusions.
Objection 1: “America is not Israel. These principles do not apply to our nation.”
The first half of this claim is indeed correct, and is an important point to underscore: the United States of America, for all the good, bad, and ugly of her civil religion, is not in the same covenant relationship with God as the nation of Israel of old. Much more could be said to flesh this point out further, but that would take us beyond the scope of our purposes here.
Suffice it for now to say that America has neither supplanted Israel’s status as God’s chosen nation nor assumed an equivalent position. Israel as a nation and people group received special covenantal promises from God pertaining to specific demographic, geographic, and spiritual blessings that have been, are being, and will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ, the ultimate Seed of Abraham (Genesis 15; Galatians 3:16).
The United States of America on the other hand, though providentially blessed by God in many undeniable ways at her founding and thereafter, holds no such unique, ethno-national covenant with God. Of course, many U.S. citizens have been in covenant with God as New Testament saints, families, and churches. However as a nation, America may be our land, but it is not the Promised Land. We should therefore avoid carelessly misapplying Old Testament promises made exclusively to the nation of Israel to our own nation, tempting as it may be.6
Having said all that, it is important to also keep in mind that not all of God’s dealings with Israel were unique to Israel and the national covenant He established with her.
In fact, the Bible makes it crystal clear that God judges any and all peoples (Psalm 82:8) that collectively abandon their God-given consciences and reject the revelation of God available to them in nature and/or scripture (Romans 1, 2). The universal principle at work here is always the same, no matter what nation or people is under consideration: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
Indeed, the timing of Israel’s initial entry into the Promised Land was due in part to the fact that “the sin of the Amorites,” the land’s current occupants, had reached its full measure (Genesis 15:16). Judgment day had finally come to all the various “-ites” of Canaan—the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, etc. (Deuteronomy 20:16–18)— and the Israelites were God’s chosen instrument for bringing that judgment down upon their hairy scalps (Psalm 68:21).
Are the sins of the American-ites yet full? If not, then boy, we must be getting close.
Think about it for just a minute.
Americans have absolutely saturated our land with innocent blood to the point of overflowing. In terms of our share of global homicides, the U.S. (20%) is second only to Mexico (~30%).7 On top of that, Americans have murdered over 65 million innocent children since Roe v. Wade (1973),8 reaching record highs of over one million abortions per year even after this monstrous court decision was overturned!9 How can we possibly escape our own blood being shed on account of this unprecedented massacre of the innocents (Genesis 9:6; Matthew 2:16–18)? Numbers 35:33 (emphasis mine):
“Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”
As if these crimes were not enough, the United States also has the ignoble distinction of being the world’s leading promoter of pornographic materials, hosting more porn sites on the internet than any other nation by far.10
Will God just inexplicably overlook all these sins, unlike the sins of the Amorites, the Israelites, and every other nation He has ever judged, in spite of the fact that our evils have outstripped them all by several orders of magnitude, and despite our refusal to acknowledge, or even so much as shed a tear over, these grievous offenses?
Don’t count on it!
In fact, while we should always hope for the best for our nation (1 Corinthians 13:7), it is both Biblical and prudent to plan for the worst. We know that’s not a popular message nowadays, but we mustn't delude ourselves with pollyannaish notions of a rosy national renaissance while we continue to engage in the sort of gross immorality described above, thinking we will somehow get off scot-free.
Nope. Sorry. Not going to happen.
Apart from a nationwide “Great Awakening” that would make the first two pale by comparison, we must continue to brace ourselves for more judgment, even in the midst of a partial reprieve.
As Ruth Graham once said to her famous husband, the evangelist Billy Graham, “Billy, if God doesn't come soon and bring judgment upon the United States, He's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!”11
Objection 2: “God only gives pagan nations over to sin and judgment, not Christian nations, and certainly not individual Christians.”
Unlike the first objection, this one misses the mark on all counts.
Regarding the first part of the objection, as we have seen here, God repeatedly gave both Israel and her pagan neighbors over to the evil and destruction they so persistently and stubbornly demanded.
This same is true for ostensibly Christian nations, and even “secular” nations comprised of either a plurality or majority of Christians.
Christianity has been around for over two millennia, and in that time we have seen many Christian nations like America12 rise in faithfulness and fall in apostacy, most notably in Europe and now in much of the remainder of the old Christian West. Most countries in these regions are now not only thoroughly post-Christian, but implicitly and explicitly anti-Christian.
Even if it were true that God never judges Christian nations, could anyone fault Him for judging America, thoroughly paganized as she now is?
Furthermore, we can derive the rebuttal to the second part of the objection simply by establishing the entailments of the rebuttal to the first part, for in giving a nation over to sin and judgment, it is plain that God is giving the peoples that comprise said nation over to the same, for a nation is nothing less than the peoples that comprise it.13 In meting out national judgment, it is not as if God merely judges a nation’s infrastructure, institutions, and territories in some sort of abstract sense. Though such entities are surely impacted by judgment, it is precisely because they are thoroughly human entities that they are so effected.
Moreover, Paul’s classic description of this same process of judgment in Romans 1 is distinctly centered on fallen men and women, rather than on fallen nations as such: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Note that Paul does not qualify this statement as one applying only to pagan, non-religious people. On the contrary, Paul’s statement, taken in context, clearly includes both Jews and gentiles alike, as Romans 2 and 3 make abundantly clear (e.g., Romans 3:9).
And, yes, to reiterate, even professing Christians who act like pagans (or worse) can be given over in judgment—perhaps even especially so—as Paul also teaches both in word and deed (e.g., 1 Corinthians 5:1–5).
The principle at work here is both simple and profoundly Biblical: To the extent that we as believers actually believe and obey God, He will reward and bless us both in this life and in the life to come; and to the extent that we disbelieve and disobey God, He will withhold reward and blessing from us, even to the point of eternally condemning us along with others whose hypocritical profession of faith proved, in the end, to be empty and meaningless (Matthew 7:21–23, 24:51, 25:31–46; Luke 12:42–48; 1 Corinthians 3:12; James 2:14–26).
This is the consistent, clear testimony of the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), including both the Old and New Testaments, and nothing regarding the nature of the New Covenant, or the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, indicates otherwise.
Objection 3: “So you’re saying all is lost and it’s too late for America. That’s a defeatist mentality that does more harm than good in the long run.”
On the one hand it is true that some, upon hearing our assessment, may feel rather “bearish,” as opposed to “bullish,” regarding America’s future, and the temptation to simply hunker down and hide out until the rapture comes may rear its ugly head.14 Not only would such a response make matters far worse by exacerbating our complicity and guilt, it also ignores a crucial silver lining that God holds out to His people in the gospel (more on this point in the following section). Let us call this response “the pessimist’s retreat.”15
On the other hand, many in our day have been opting for the “white pill,” rather than the “black pill,”16 so to speak, rallying the troops to “win one for the Gipper,” even if the score at halftime is fairly lopsided. Basically, this perspective, which has grown leaps and bounds in popularity in recent years, encourages more, not less, cultural and political engagement, as well as more, not less, optimism for the future. Believers who adopt this mentality are “in it to win it,” and not just down the road, or up in heaven, but right now, and “down here” on earth, where apparently things really count, at least in their view. We might call this approach “the optimist’s gambit.”17
While acknowledging at least some practical good in both both the “fight” and “flight” responses described above,18 we believe a more balanced and Biblical response to our nation’s current predicaments is to, again, as we alluded to above, “hope for the best while preparing for the worst.”
This approach is: 1) highly optimistic when it comes to the long-term, eternal prospects of the Church and its gospel (Matthew 16:18); 2) deeply pessimistic that fallen, totally depraved humanity (Romans 3:10) and the satanic systems of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 5:19) will ever get their acts together and come to Jesus prior to His return in judgment; and 3) perfectly realistic regarding the Church’s short-term prospects for global domination in this present evil age (Galatians 1:3–5).19
This stance is not only theologically and historically robust, it of immense practical value, for instead of either hightailing it in retreat at the first sign of a fight, or hard-charging into fleshly battles without first inquiring of the Lord (Numbers 14:40–45; 2 Samuel 5:22–25; Matthew 26:52; John 18:36; Acts 19:15, 16), this approach simply refuses to budge in any direction at the enemy’s empty provocations, holding the line where God has placed it in His word, come what may. For this reason, we can refer to this approach as “the realist’s stand”20 (Ephesians 6:13):
“Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand.”
This approach strikes us as not only deeply conservative,21 but also profoundly Biblical, for which of the true prophets did not shout to the wayward people of their day something to the effect of “Stop! Turn around! Amend your ways and the Lord will show you mercy, even in the midst of judgment” (e.g., Jeremiah 7:3, 26:13, etc.).22
As bad as things are, and as bad as they will become before getting better, we as Christian must never forget that our “Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).
It is for this reason that the Biblical realist is, in his own way, the most optimistic believer of them of all.
Hope for the faithful
And this brings us to perhaps the most crucial point of our analysis in terms of its personal application:
Just because America as a whole may be lost does not mean that each and every American need settle for a similar fate.
Far from it!
Dear friends, do not misread what we have been claiming here.
We are not claiming that judgment is a foregone conclusion for each and every individual in our nation, even if it may be for the nation in general. Though we are not privy to the eternal, inscrutable counsels of God, we do have access to His revealed word (Deuteronomy 29:29), and that word tells us of good news: today is still the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).
Are such changes easy to make, even on the individual level? No. Are they even possible with man alone? Never (Jeremiah 13:23)—but with God, all things are possible for him who believes (Matthew 19:26; Mark 9:23, 10:27).
With God, even the most hardened, habituated sinner can not only be forgiven, but be radically changed if he genuinely turns from his sins and places his trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sin-bearing Savior of the world (Isaiah 1:18–20):
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Truer words have never been spoken. If you were to search high and low over the entire face of the earth for the rest of your life, you would never find a better and more gracious invitation than that—O, do not refuse it!
Our nation and our people have indeed lost their collective mind. But in light of eternity, a return to “common sense” alone means very little unless it is also accompanied a return to God and a turning away from sin, which are truly the first precepts of wisdom (Job 28:28; Proverbs 1:7, 3:7, 9:10, etc.). Our sanity will never be fully restored without “coming to our senses” in the very same sense that the prodigal son came to his senses in that fateful pigsty (Luke 15:17; cf. Daniel 4:34).
Unfortunately, not all pigsties lead back home to the Father. Some sows soon return to their filth for more wallowing, and some dogs just can’t seem to get enough of their own vomit (2 Peter 2:22).
Parting warning: A house swept clean
Our nation’s previous president23 ran his campaign on the notion of “restoring the soul of America.” But that, frankly, is not the government’s job. It’s the Church’s job. It’s our job as Christians.
Can governments lift our spirits with righteous policies, and cause our hearts to sink with wicked ones? Yes (Proverbs 29:2).
Can they do both great good and great harm, in ways that have far-reaching temporal and eternal ramification? Yes (Proverbs 14:34).
Nevertheless, we maintain that it is the Church and her undershepherds that have been given charge and responsibility to keep watch over the souls of men.
For this reason, it is no overstatement to say that it is the Church of Jesus Christ that is the true heart and soul of America, and indeed any country in which she is present. As the body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26), so too America, for all her shining seas and amber waves of grain, is spiritually dead apart from the power of God’s word and Spirit working through the members of His body, the Church, within her spacious borders.
And by “the Church” we are not primarily referring to historic church buildings or Christian cultural heritage, lovely as those may be, we mean living bodies of Spirit-filled, born-again, sin-hating, Bible-believing, God-fearing Christians.
Give us one broken-down, beat-up, sold-out, true-blue believer who truly stands on God’s promises over ten thousand sell-out Christians and politicians who think they are doing God a favor.
The most important work of all in restoring our nation to its former glory can only be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit working through ordinary Christians who, in the words of the late, great Leonard Ravenhill, not only know the word of God, but also the God of the word (Daniel 11:32, emphasis mine): “Those who do wickedly against the covenant he [Antichrist] shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
It is right to rejoice over the many blessings that have come to us by way of recent political developments, but we must not lose sight of the facts that the real war is not against flesh and blood enemies (Ephesians 6:12) and that the Christian’s greatest weapons are not the weapons of this world (2 Corinthians 10:4).
Even if God calls you as a Christian to political office, your true mission in that office must transcend the passing affairs of the day, pressing though they may be, as they, much like the ebbs and flows of the economy, are destined to wax and wane, to come and go. As dual citizens of heaven and earth (Philippians 3:20), we Christians cannot treat the things pertaining to this life—or even our very lives themselves (Matthew 16:24, 25; Mark 8:34, 35; Luke 9:23, 24; Acts 20:24, 21:13; etc.)—as if they were more important than things eternal, than things unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18): “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
The worst possible outcome for our current cultural and political moment would be to completely “clean house,” only to leave that house an empty, spiritual vacuum, neglecting to fill it with the Holy Spirit of God. Nature and nature’s God may abhor vacuums, but the devil finds them most inviting (Matthew 12:43–45, emphasis mine; cf. Luke 11:24–26):
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
The implication of Jesus’ words to Israel and her people for our time and for our people are unmistakable, and so we repeat:
If our current political renewal is not coupled with authentic, lasting spiritual revival, then we will be in a worse condition in the end than if the reforms had never been implemented in the first place.
We simply cannot afford to miss this most crucial of points!
Jesus, in commenting on the times that would immediately precede His second coming, said the following (Matthew 24:37–39, emphasis mine; cf. Luke 17:26, 27):
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
A nation swept clean will be unwittingly swept away in the coming judgment if its people do not consciously rebuild their cultural ruins (Isaiah 61:4) on the foundation of Christ and His teachings (Matthew 7:24–27, Luke 6:47–49).
Lincoln’s famous “House Divided Speech” borrowed its central metaphor of national division from Christ’s refutation of those who claimed that He was only casting out demons by the prince of demons, and blasphemous non-sequitur if ever there was one (Matthew 12:22–28; Mark 3:22–26; Luke 11:14–20). As many others, both on the political left and right, have noted, our nation today in 2025 is in many ways even more divided than it was when Lincoln gave that speech on June 16, 1858.
The same temple Jesus cleansed during his ministry (Mark 11:15–18; Luke 19:45–47; John 2:14–16) would soon collapse, stone by stone, in a nationwide judgment He predicted only a few decades before it took place (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6).
If God did not spare that ancient, specially hedged vineyard of Israel from such a reckoning (Matthew 21:40, 41; Mark 12:9; Luke 20:15, 16), what makes us think He will spare America, young and wild olive shoot that we are (Isaiah 5:5; Romans 11:17–24)?
Truly, unless we repent, we will all likewise perish (Luke 13:3).
O Lord, the God of our fathers, You have called Your redeemed people “the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth”(1 Timothy 3:15). Help us as American Christians to walk worthy of such a high calling in our nation and in our day (Ephesians 4:1).
Grant all Americans, starting with us your people (2 Chronicles 7:14; 1 Peter 4:17), a repentance that leads to salvation and never looks back (Luke 9:62, 17:32; 2 Corinthians 7:10), that we may finally and forever forsake our many sins (Revelation 18:5) and once again hold fast to You and You alone in loving, faithful obedience (Revelation 2:4, 5).
Apart from you, our nation is but ash and rubble (Daniel 4:35; John 15:5). Indeed, compared to you, all the nations of the earth combined, in all their pomp and glory, are nothing but a drop in the bucket and dust on the scales (Isaiah 40:15). If we as a nation and people gain the entire world, but lose our soul, we have gained nothing, and have lost everything (Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:25).
We have heard tell of your mighty acts of salvation and great awakening in our country in days long past; renew these works in our day, O Lord, and in Your wrath, remember mercy (Habakkuk 3:2).
In the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13), the first, last, and only hope of the earth, Amen.
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A point of congruence is a point at which two images align with one another. After a certain threshold of congruent points, forensic scientists, jurists, etc. can reasonably conclude in a court of law that two images (say, of fingerprints obtained from a crime scene and a suspected criminal) are derived from the same object.
At least not in the hands of a mere earthly king. King Jesus, David’s greater Son (Matthew 22:45; Mark 12:37; Luke 20:44), has, is, and will make the throne of David greater than even Solomon in all his glory could possibly have imagined (2 Samuel 7:12, 13; Matthew 6:29, 12:42; Luke 1:32, 33, 11:31, 12:27; etc.).
For more on Josiah’s reign and its parallels to our current cultural moment, see part I of this series.
For specifics, see our ongoing series on “The Seven Deadly Sins of American Christianity.”
An allusion to the famous poem “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost.
At the same time, it should be noted that one of the promises made to Abraham and his seed (ultimately, Christ; Galatians 3:16) was that “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 22:18, emphasis mine). This blessing is currently being fulfilled through the gospel and the great commission (Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; etc.), which many nations, including America, have certainly been beneficiaries of.
“Murder Rate by Country 2024,” World Population Review.
“Abortion Statistics: United States Data and Trends,” National Right to Life Council educational factsheets.
“Two years after Roe’s overturn, there are more abortions in America — but they’re harder to get,” Shefali Luthra, The 19th, June 24, 2024.
“60% of Porn Websites Are Hosted in the United States,” Felix Richter, Statista.
As quoted in “If God doesn't soon bring judgment upon America, He'll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” by Dr. Dale A. Robbins.
America is referred to here as a “Christian nation,” not in the sense that it was founded as a theocracy, but in the sense that its core logic and founding principles were set forth by Christian men whose thinking was profoundly shaped by Christian principles derived from sources like the Protestant Reformation, English common law, and the Bible itself. For a helpful summary of this position, see Mark David Hall’s report “Did America Have a Christian Founding?” published by The Heritage Foundation.
Nothing less, but of course also much more, since the peoples that comprise a nation also establish its boundaries, laws, culture, etc.
Although we should point out that we profess, as scripture and the Early Church Fathers clearly affirm, that the only “rapture” to speak of in the Bible occurs only after the Great Tribulation and Christ’s public, visible second coming, where the Church comes out to meet Him in the air like victorious subjects pouring out of the city gates to escort their conquering king back to the throne room, his proper dwelling place among the people (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).
Some would associate this with a “pessimistic” understanding of eschatology (the study of the last things, or end times) called “dispensational premillennialism,” which holds that God will rapture believers off the earth before the Great Tribulation and Christ’s second coming (a position that we strongly disagree with; see footnote 14 above).
Borrowing from an analogy drawn from the film The Matrix, in which the protagonist was offered a red pill and a blue pill, the former of which would reveal to him the true nature of reality and the latter of which would allow him to remain in his ignorance, the “white pill” in modern internet slang represents the most optimistic outlook on a dire situation, whereas the “black pill” represents the most pessimistic one.
This position is most at home in an “optimistic” understanding of eschatology known as “postmillennialism,” which holds that the entire world will be Christianized through the triumph of the great commission and Christian culture (i.e., “Christendom”) prior to Christ’s second coming.
Depending, of course, on both the particular context and application.
The scriptures repeatedly warn us that things will get much, much worse as persecution and trying times intensify like crescendoing birth pangs prior to Christ’s second coming (Matthew 24:7–22; 2 Timothy 3:1, 12, 13, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, etc.).
This approach would be most compatible with those who hold to a “realistic” understanding of eschatology, exemplified by either “amillennialism”—the view that the millennial reign of Christ from heaven over the affairs of earth occurs in between His first and second comings—or, better yet, “historic premillennialism”—which holds that the earthly, millennial reign of Christ commences at His second coming—the position that in our opinion best harmonizes all the pertinent Biblical texts on the end times.
One thinks of, say, William F. Buckley’s famous adage: “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop,’ at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
Not only this, but contrary to repeated claims from those who favor the optimist’s gambit, the realist’s stand is also highly motivational, inspiring, and (perhaps somewhat ironically) moving. Standing one’s ground in the face of overwhelming opposition is indeed a very brave and manly thing to do, yet not in a romantic or self-aggrandizing sense, for the one who stands in such a manner clearly does so by faith, and it is by faith the he is ultimately delivered—to God alone be the glory!
An illegitimately elected president is still a president, albeit an illegitimate one.