America Today: Calling Evil Good And Good Evil Updated

America Today: Calling Evil Good and Good Evil

Being an old man, I have lived through many changes, changes that caused Americans to disagree, but never have I seen anything like the division and outright hatred we see today. Here are a few of the things that are causing the division: immigration policies, rampant crime, gun control and legalization of drugs. Making solutions more difficult are news media that over time have fragmented into niche offerings so that consumers can “enjoy” only those viewpoints that reinforce the consumers’ opinions. This is not progress; it is neglect. As a pastor, I see our basic problems as religious.

Through the Twentieth Century, church membership in America stayed at roughly 70% of adults. In the last two-and-a-half decades, church membership has declined from 69% down to 50% today. As a young man, I could go to virtually any protestant church and hear the Word preached, not today. We have more than a few churches that sanction things that the Bible clearly says are wrong. Oter things have changed, and it seems for the worst. As a young man, I have lived through the Asian Flu in 1957, the Hong Kong Flu in 1968, and the Swine Flu in 1976 but never have I seen anything like we went through with Covid-19. Moreover, eighteen nations are currently at war. People ask me, “Are we in the last days?” I am no prophet, but I doubt it; I do think that God wants us to consider why all of this. Are the American people, doing something wrong? I turned to the scriptures looking for answers, looking for wisdom and understanding. I present my worst thoughts not to convince you one way or the other but do please listen and just think about what I have to say.

What do the scriptures say about times that resemble our time? 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” In this scripture, “truth” refers to the Bible. Are we living in a time when many Americans have forsaken the truth of the Bible and have wandered away to pursue their own sinful desirers?

Isaiah 5:20-21 voices a similar warning, “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. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” Are people now calling evil things good and good things evil? Do these people think that they are wiser than God is?

God’s rewards for following His laws are wonderful. Deuteronomy 28:1, 3, “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. … You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.” America started as a Christian nation and, as the results, God has blessed us; we have become to the richest most powerful nation the world has ever seen.

What happens to a disobedient nation? Chapter 28:15-16 & 20-21, “But if you will not obey the LORD your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees, which I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country … The LORD will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.” Are we cursed in the city and cursed in the country? Are you frustrated with much that is going on? Is disease plaguing us?

For the people and nations that failed to do even the minimum God requires judgments came. Examples: Noah and the great flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of the Canaanite nations, the destruction of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) by Assyria, the destruction of Judah (the southern Kingdom) by the Babylonians and on and on. Has God changed? America has fallen away; even in some of our churches, we are seeing people calling right wrong and wrong right. Does the God of the twenty-first century still punish nations, even powerful nations?

I am now going to address briefly one of the ways America has fallen away. Proverbs 6:16-17, “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood.” If you ask any American if they are against the shedding of innocent blood, I expect you would get a yes.