What will future historians say about the United States of America?

More Historical Perspective

    So many of us see our beloved United States of America slowly “slouching toward Gomorrah” (to borrow the title of Judge Robert Bork’s 1996 book). It would be interesting to hear Judge Bork’s opinion of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell (same-sex marriage). Bork wrote another book with a similar theme: The Tempting of America (1990). It is unfortunate that President Reagan did not fight harder for Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Ted Kennedy took over and changed the course of history. If Bork had been on the Court, perhaps Obergefell would not have occurred.

    Is America “slouching toward Gomorrah”? In some ways, it seems we’re running toward Gomorrah. Have we reached the point of no return? Only God knows. Does it matter? That is a more serious question.

    Mankind lives in extremes. We live on a pendulum. It was not just Israel during the time of the judges who was faithful, then unfaithful, then faithful, then unfaithful. America has also had her times of extreme ungodliness. It was those periods of time that produced what historians call the First Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. The American Restoration Movement, with its call to get back to speaking where the Bible speaks, grew out of the Second Great Awakening. That was good that came from bad.

    Clearly America is not as wicked as she could get. Nor is the world as wicked as it can get. Is it getting more wicked? Maybe within our lifetimes. Yet, remember the quote from Dr. George Ladd which I shared Tuesday. He was lamenting way back in 1959 that the world was not seeking the advice of the “Church” any more. When has the world sought the church’s advice?

    Is the world as wicked as it can be? And, is the “slouching toward Gomorrah” we see from Washington, DC to Hollywood an indication of the coming of the Son of Man, the Apocalypse? Hardly. It is a shame that so few people find so little interest in history…

    According to numerous passages in God’s word, the Israelites tolerated “sodomites” among them: 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7; Jeremiah 32:35; Ezekiel 20:26-31. If they had not passed a “same-sex marriage” law, apparently it was de facto legal.

    King Ahaz “burned his sons in fire” (2 Chronicles 28:3). That was a pagan practice, not unlike abortion, that Ahaz picked up from his “Hollywood.” King Manasseh did the same (2 Chron. 33:6). During the calamity of the Babylonian siege, the Israelites lamented the fact that because they had quit worshiping the “Queen of Heaven,” they said, “we have lacked everything” (Jeremiah 44:18). How distraught Jeremiah must have been to hear God’s people say such things. In fact, it was God’s people who tolerated the sodomites in the land. It was God’s people who burned their sons in pagan worship. It was God’s people who were worshiping the Queen of Heaven.

    The United States of America today has many faithful Christians in it. I do not know if we have more faithful Christians than there were in the days of Israel. I do know we have more faithful Christians today than there were in the days of the Second Great Awakening.

    The faithful Israelites, like Moses wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, had to suffer when God punished the unfaithful Israelites (through the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles). But, they kept preaching. They kept preaching. They kept preaching. We also may suffer.

    What will future historians say about the United States of America? When they look back, what will they say was the key turning point in our moral decline? Will it be Obergefell or something else? Only God knows.

    But, may it be said that the Lord's churches were there, all along, preaching and teaching (and living) the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, calling men and women to return to God in view of His coming wrath.

--Paul Holland