Our nation has just elected the most pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, anti-Capitalist, and anti-Israel president in our history. In short, God has given us the kind of leader that we deserve — the kind we have been begging for. The new President now has the power to put his radical secular imprint upon this nation for decades to come through the appointment of activist liberals to the Supreme Court. I fear that our nation has been irrevocably changed for the worse.
Two factors in this election were particularly disappointing to me. First was the fact that only 59% of eligible voters bothered to vote. That was less than in the last presidential election. How could people be so apathetic in an election so important? The second voting statistic that hit me hard was the revelation that even among self-identified Evangelicals, the majority voted according to economic considerations rather than moral ones.
The financial woes of our nation are not going to be solved by any economic strategy, for they are rooted in our spiritual rebellion against God. We cannot kill babies in their mother's wombs, promote same-sex marriage, produce filthy movies and TV programs, worship the dollar, and pressure Israel to give up its heartland, and expect God to bless our economy. Our economy will be healed only when we as a nation get right with God.
Our Recent Financial Collapse
In 2003 I wrote a book about the United States in Bible prophecy. It was entitled, America the Beautiful? In that book I presented several scenarios to explain why the United States was not mentioned in end time Bible prophecy. I stated at the time that the one I thought would be most likely would be a catastrophic financial collapse. That conclusion was based on the fact that the god of our nation has become money, and the true God of this world is a jealous God. I felt like our Creator would sooner or later touch our false god and destroy it if we did not repent.
On September 29th when the stock market dropped 777 points on the eve of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), I could see the hand of God all over the event.
The number of points the stock market fell is significant. Seven is the number of perfection and completion. It was on the seventh day that God rested from His creation activities. Six is the number of Man, for it was on the sixth day that Man was created. 666 is the Satanic symbol of Man exalted. 777 is the spiritual symbol of the Trinity.
The timing of the stock market crash was also significant since it fell on the eve of an important Jewish holiday. George W. Bush was the first President to call for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heartland of Israel. Joel 3:2 says that God will severely judge any nation in the end times that attempts to divide the land of Israel.
How God Deals With Nations
As I pointed out in my book about the U.S. in prophecy, the Bible reveals that God has a pattern for dealing with nations. He is the one who creates them, and He is the one who decides when they are to cease to exist. He blesses as they are obedient to His Word, and He disciplines when they stray from His Word. His discipline will first of all take the form of raising up prophetic voices to call the nation to repentance. If this fails, He will resort to remedial judgments. Those judgments can take many forms, such as natural disasters, economic calamities, and defeat in wars. And sometimes a remedial judgment can take the form of giving to a nation the kind of evil leadership it deserves. If the nation still refuses to repent, God will deliver it from judgment to destruction.
God began to call this nation to repentance following the cultural revolution of the 1960's. He raised up prophetic voices like David Wilkerson, and when we paid no attention, He began to place remedial judgments upon our nation. The attacks of 9/11 were a major wake-up call. It is no accident that those attacks were against the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. — the symbols of American wealth and power. But like a sleepy person who is too groggy to wake-up, we simply turned off the alarm clock, rolled over and went back to sleep. Hurricane Katrina was another national wake-up call, in response to our forcing Israel to withdraw from Gaza.
And now, God has touched our god, and our economy is in shambles. The prospect for it improving is very slim. The newly elected President has promised higher taxes and protective tariffs. The last time a President resorted to such measures in response to a financial crisis, the result was the Great Depression.
The Christian Response
What are we as Christians to do in the face of such set-backs for our nation? We are to pray and stand for righteousness. We must pray for national revival, and at the same time, we must be willing to take a stand for righteousness by speaking out boldly about the moral rot that has infected the soul of our country. We need to pray that God will frustrate, confuse, and defeat all the efforts to further secularize our nation and promote immorality.
We also need to pray for the salvation of our new President and all his family members. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Barack Obama is not a Christian, nor has he ever been. I can say that with confidence because he is a member of the most liberal Christian denomination, the United Church of Christ. This is a church that denies the divinity of Jesus and denies His statement in John 14:6 that He is the only way to God. No one can be saved apart from Jesus, and no one can be saved by putting their faith in a false Jesus.
Another prayer priority should be Israel. Let us pray that God will raise up a new leader in Israel who will have the strength to stand against American pressure to surrender the heartland of the country to the enemies of God.
Repentance or Destruction?
Some of the saddest verses in the Bible are the ones concerning the fate of the nation of Judah. They are recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:15-17:
15 ) 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;
16) but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy.
17) Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand.
This will be our fate as a nation if we continue with our rebellion against God and His Word. Keep in mind that, just like Judah, our fate will be a severe one if we refuse to repent, because to those to whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48). Also, we are told that God repays double for the sins of those who are richly blessed (Isaiah 40:2).
Facing the Future
Should we face the future with despair? No! We are living in the most significant era since the First Coming of the Messiah. We are living in the season of the Lord's return. We are privileged to be witnessing the fulfillment of end time prophecies all around us, prophecies that point to the soon return of our Lord.
There are dark days ahead for our nation and the world. Christians in particular are facing increasing persecution. We need to steel our minds and fasten our hope on things eternal, just as the prophet Daniel did when he was forced to live in a wicked society. We need to strengthen our spiritual armor through prayer and immersion in the Scriptures.
And we need to remember that Psalm 2 says that God sits in the heavens and laughs at all the machinations of the world's political leaders. He isn't laughing because He doesn't care. He is laughing because He has the wisdom and power to orchestrate all the evil of Man and Satan to the triumph of His perfect will in history. And that will is that Jesus Christ will reign in glory and majesty from Mount Zion in Israel, and the whole world will be flooded with peace and righteousness, as the waters cover the seas.
Maranatha! (1 Corinthians 16:22)