Feb 11, 2010

Hitchcock Discusses the US Under Judgment

Nathan JonesBy Nathan Jones

Where is the United States right now in terms of the biblical view of judgment?

Dr. David Reagan and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mark Hitchcock on the show Christ in Prophecy. Mark is a leading Bible prophecy expert, prolific author who has penned over 20 books on the end times, senior pastor of Faith Bible Church located in Oklahoma, and adjunct faculty member of the Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also a much in demand speaker at Bible prophecy conferences all over the nation.

Dr. Hitchcock was invited to answer questions based on his book The Late Great United States. The subtitle of Mark's fascinating book — What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days — states the purpose. The book digs deep into the Bible, mining for any textual nugget that might reveal some value as to the United States' future as an end time player.

The US Under Judgment

Dr. Hitchcock: Romans 1 is a key passage that tells us what happens when God begins to pour out His wrath upon a nation or people.

I often hear people ask when God is going to judge America. My response is that He already is.

The first phase of God's judgment, I would call it the "Wrath of Abandonment," is when God begins to abandon people to their own devises. God just steps back and lowers the hedge of protection and says if that is the way you want to live, so be it. Three times in Romans 1 it says, "And God gave them over, and God gave them over, and God gave them over." So, what we see there is really a downward cycle of what takes place in this process.

The first step listed there in Romans 1:24-26 is what we might refer to as a sexual revolution, when sex just becomes unbridled in the passions of the culture. I was born in 1959 and I lived through and witnessed as a young man that sexual revolution in our culture.

The second "God gave them over" is a homosexual revolution. I have also witnessed that in my lifetime. It really began I would say in the early 1980's and it is still continuing to this day.

Thirdly, the passage talks about when people just openly encourage evil. God finally just delivers the whole society over to a depraved mind. There is an open encouragement of evil.

When we look at our country today and see those signs are a reality, we know as a nation that we are already under God's judgment.

Dr. Reagan: Throughout Biblical history and even ever since the end of biblical history, we can look and see that God deals with nations in a certain way. One of those ways is through remedial judgments, when He calls a nation to repentance. God does not wish that any should perish. He is very patient when He calls a nation to repentance. We know from the example of Jonah going to Nineveh that when a nation does repent as the King did and called the whole nation to repentance that God will forgive and relent.

Dr. Hitchcock: That's right. There are large sections in the Old Testament showing God's judgment on Gentile nations. A lot of people think that God does not care about nations, or that He only cared about Israel. Well, He cares about Israel, but Gentile nations are also judged. They are judged for violence, for immorality, for materialism, and for all those different things that are running rampant in our culture.

Dr. Reagan: You recall from the book of Judges where the cycle just goes over and over and over — they come back to God, God blesses them, they drift away from God, they begin getting involved in idolatry, God puts judgments upon them, and finally they turn back to God and say "please save us" — and then it starts all over again.

Nathan Jones: When I was a kid I used to wonder when reading through the history of Israel why by two generations the Israelites became evil. After they were brought back, within two generations they were rebellious yet again! I wondered how that was possible in just two generations, and now that I am older and I have experienced being in at least two generations, I can understand how that can really happen to a country within just 100 years.

Dr. Reagan: It certainly can. I think God is calling this nation to repentance right now, and we need to take that call very seriously.

Related Links


Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace - Alva J. McClain (Book)
Newspaper Reports Judge in Prop 8 Trial is Gay - CBN News
The Late Great United States: What Bible Prophecy Reveals about America's Last Days - Mark Hitchcock (Book)
What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? - GotQuestions.org
Military Chief Says Gay Ban Should Go - Wall Street Journal