Has America Reached Its Expiration Date?

Walking around the smoldering ruins of Ground Zero less than two days after 9/11 was not something I would exactly call a “privilege.”

But the experiences of those days are times I will never forget. Though sad and somber, it was an honor to be serving as part of a ministry team in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks. We counseled individuals blindsided by grief, prayed with hundreds of New York’s first responders, and listened to the stories of people from every imaginable background.

 As news outlets commented round the clock on the attacks, many of the stories analyzed the physics of how the World Trade Center Towers fell:

• The planes crashed into the buildings, instantly spewing thousands of gallons of jet fuel everywhere.

• Fire engulfed nearly 10 floors in each building on impact, first in the North Tower, and then in the South

• Two buildings that had taken eight years to construct lay on the ground in rubble just 56 minutes from impact (South Tower) and after 102 minutes (North Tower).

The trifecta of physical destruction began as the hijacked jets breached the Towers’ concrete and metal exterior, weakening the structure overall. Intense heat from burning jet fuel compromised and eventually melted steel support beams throughout several floors. The incalculable weight of floors above points of impact was, tragically, mass enough to crush everything below.

The awful spectacle of the Towers’ fall (and the destruction of entire city blocks of buildings and property nearby) is acutely painful to watch even two decades later. The deaths of more than 2,700 people, the loss of feeling safe on American soil, and the omnipresent sway of Islamic terrorism has caused the world to feel since 9/11 changed life to a degree that overstatement is near impossible.

At Risk of Extinction?

Just as multiple contributing factors coalesced into the falling of the Towers, the combination of several detriments is bringing down (what was) the greatest nation on earth—the United States of America. The pathological irony in the case of our unraveling nation is that three dynamics key to the preservation of America are being actively suppressed and opposed.

Family, Morality, and Human Life

Far too many high-profile influencers can’t be counted on to take unflinching stances for marriage and family, objective truth, and moral accountability, nor for the sacredness of life and human rights. Elected officials, public educators, and celebrities prattle endlessly about rights, but virtually always from a perspective of moral relativism. We hear, “It is my right to marry whomever or whatever I choose,” or, “It is my right to define my gender for myself,” or, “It is my right to have an abortion.” These “rights” are assumed and asserted. Meaningful discussion to the contrary is rarely allowed.

Suppressed and Opposed in Education

American public education has been overwhelmingly secularized for several generations. It is hardly mysterious why most Gen Xers, Millennials, and those younger reject Christianity, traditional family structures, morals, and patriotism, or are clueless about such things altogether. Public education is programmed to crank out masses of compliant little socialists. We are uploading our kids with vacuous, bankrupt, unlivable philosophies, and this will ultimately mean the loss of our Constitution if it does not stop.

It has been at least four decades since high school diplomas and college degrees represented a type of promise that graduates had learned to truly think, live morally, and to cherish our nation. The left fights hard against school choice because public classrooms have been blinding young minds from content about morals and patriotism, if not steering them away completely.

Suppressed and Opposed in Entertainment

Pop media and the entertainment industry pulse out imagery and narrative that captures, or at least greatly influences, the imaginations of all ages. Again, with rare exception, values that contribute to the weakening of our society are repeated and reinforced. From the latest blockbuster film, the uber-liberal pages of Rolling Stone, to the logic-bereft desk of The View, leftist views about sexuality, family, religion, and politics are endlessly echoed.

Volumes of data affirm the positive outcomes, long and short term, of what are called “traditional values.” Described favorably or dismissively, depending who you’re listening to, “traditional values” are at the core of the battle for our nation’s future. Notice, however, an irony regarding those who would have us redefine marriage, relativize morality, reimagine gender, and thoroughly revise America. The very same influencers who reprehend traditional values have a platform and enjoy prosperity due to those values.

The Atlantic published an insightful piece several years ago titled, “Why is it Hard for Liberals to Talk about ‘Family Values’?” The essay pointed out that for all of the pontifications about the oppressiveness of marriage and the need for sexual liberation, “…stable marriage and community are the secret sauce of economic well-being that nobody on the left wants to admit to using.”

The left’s stance that traditional social structures are inherently oppressive and “bad”—a presupposition held to, defended, and enforced for decades—makes for impassioned talking points. But successful, influential Democrat progressives do not live this way, nor do they encourage their kids, if they have them, to do so. But they’re quieter about the ways that traditional “family values” are guiding their own choices.

Democratic candidates advocate for leftist/progressive policy positions with lockstep predictability. Ironically, the affluence and social standing enjoyed by liberal leaders came about in the context of “traditionally married,” two-parent households. In other words, Dems “talk it” but they don’t “live it.” Research documents that economic success is directly tied to family stability.

 Ronald Reagan famously said that government programs, once enacted, never “die.” Our 40th President joked that government programs and agencies are “the closest thing to eternal life” seen on this planet. Perhaps that is why the left so tenaciously continues to build its platforms of demonstrably flawed planks.

Though career politicians on the left would hardly admit it, responsible government really does have a vested interest in promoting what our Founders (and those who influenced them) would call, “the virtues.” According to Federalist writer Alexander Hamilton, true social justice is experienced only when objective morality (commonly referred to as, our “Judeo-Christian heritage,” or simply called, “the Ten Commandments”) is assumed. Over time, our pervasive belief in God, morality and personal accountability, and consistently a high view of human life has resulted in what philosophers call, “the good.”

But God, family, personal accountability, sexual abstinence until marriage, self-restraint, patriotism, absolute morality—these are all things that the left incites each new generation to fight against. They have successfully imparted their viewpoints to millions. Yet it is impossible to argue that morally and socially our nation is better off for the left’s decades-long campaign of “progressivism.” As Matt Walsh observes in his book Church of Cowards:

Homosexuals, far from being called to purity, are encouraged to “marry” each other. Raucous parades are held across the country to applaud sodomy. Perversion is promoted and advertised everywhere. The heathens see that some of the men here in this Christian country dress in skirts and pretend to be women, and everyone else plays along with the charade. They see drag queen story hours at libraries, cross-dressing child models on television, and many other forms of debauchery—all tolerated and even celebrated.

Teddy Roosevelt on the Decline of France

Some 30 years after Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, published works coming from the man who would become our 26th President consistently demonstrated a keen understanding of what made for the success of this nation. In Theodore Roosevelt’s analysis of America, he contrasted our history with that of another, not-so-fortunate people, the French during the period leading up to their revolution. Roosevelt noted that France, in the years that would coalesce into social and political overthrow, was a place of great impiety. “They did not believe anything,” Roosevelt wrote.

He cites American revolutionary Gouverneur Morris (who had written to General Washington regarding the conditions in 18th century France): “There is an utter prostration of morals, but this general proposition can never convey to an American mind the degree of depravity….

The great mass of common people have no religion but their priests, no law but their superiors, no morals but their interest.”

In chronicling the birth of America, documenting parts of its early history, and championing what he saw as its superiority to other nations, Roosevelt frequently warned of things that he saw as threats to the country: loss of God, loss of morality, loss of national spirit, absence of decisiveness and conviction. Roosevelt saw these deficiencies for the threats that they are. What would Roosevelt say about college professors today, that majority of whom identify as politically liberal and spiritually agnostic? What would he think of the left removing his own statue from the American Museum of Natural History, with a CNN writer noting, “Removing the Teddy Roosevelt statue is just the beginning”? Loss of morals, loss of family, and loss of reverence for human life have been the undoing of cultures ancient and modern.

Knowing this, why are Dems, influencers, and other leaders zealously hanging on to policies that are causing, and will continue to cause, further national erosion? Why? Leaders who care about this country should advocate for moral truth and personal accountability, and for a high view of life. Anyone who speaks out against the prevailing relativist/hedonist/socialist narratives will need courage, confidence, and resilience. Do you have these?

 Political correctness be damned; we’re talking about America’s survival and human thriving.

Where Are We Headed?

Liberal-progressive ideas are contributing to the weakening of our culture, and the tide must turn if our Constitution and its liberties are to be preserved. Leftist powers have held majority sway in politics, education, and culture for decades. Dare we hope that someone within the ranks of Democratic leadership has the moral courage to ask, “Why are we continuing down this toxic path?”

Whether the hope for a moral awakening among Democrats would be justified, only God knows. But since we’re on the subject of God, let’s pray to Him that liberal demagogues will not only experience an epiphany but would also turn back from their systematic demolition of America.

Is This the End?

Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe the scene. It was an evening I will never forget.

It was about 8:30 p.m. on a Saturday night, and I and the group with me had spent nearly three hours in the police station. This was not just any police station—we were in one of the most famous cities in the world— Jerusalem! Our tour group had been robbed. Cell phones, laptops, and wallets were gone, but most troubling of all, many of us had been relieved of our U.S. passports.

There in the office, the police chief was speaking with investigating officers, staff, and our group members. For over a week we had been in Jerusalem, all of us deeply stirred, walking where Jesus had once walked. But even the most awestruck spiritual pilgrim becomes singularly focused when they’re 5,000 miles from home and in our situation. The one question on our minds, was, “How can we get a new passport?”

The Jerusalem police were extremely helpful. Though our possessions were not recovered, they did get us to the U.S. embassy and helped with temporary IDs and other needs. The Jewish officers were empathetic and reassuring during the process. They sensed our anxiety and talked with us encouragingly. One officer asked about my occupation and I told him I taught apologetics at a university. “Apologetics? What is that?” he asked. I explained that apologetics deals with evidence for the Bible. “So, you teach theology?”

“Well, yes, that’s part of it,” I replied.

Cutting his eyes left and right, the officer leaned toward me, asking in almost a whisper, “What about the end of time? Do you believe God, uh, Jesus will truly come back?”

The holy city is no place for the unholy act some street thieves did to us. But getting to talk with an officer about what Scripture says regarding the end times made the hassle a little more bearable. He seemed deeply interested in learning more about this question. Increasingly, I find he is not alone. Many are asking, has our world—or has America—reached its expiration date?

 The Bible has a lot to say regarding the culmination of history and the final judgment of all people—and much about the end times we learn from the words of Jesus Christ. As the COVID-19 situation has enveloped the globe, and as the impact on all our lives has ranged from hours not worked, wages lost, to increasing shortages at the grocery, anxiety is only growing. People are scared, economies are crumbling, and many rightly wonder, “Just how permanent is the loss of civil liberties COVID-19 is creating?” Online and on-air, our organization is daily receiving numerous inquiries about how close humanity might be to the end times, and specifically, to the return of Christ.

Why are so many people discussing the end of our world as we know it? What will be some of the precursors to Jesus’ return? Will America even exist by the time of “the world’s end”? The Bible lays out at least ten areas to consider when answering the question regarding the last days, and whether America has reached its expiration date. Signs that we may be near the end of history:

1.       The growth of the Christian church.

 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14 NASB).

2.       Increase in evil.

 “Iniquity shall abound” (Matthew 24:12 KJV). The Bible predicts in the last days there will be much hedonism (pursuit of pleasure as the highest good) and relativism (everyone makes their own “truth” for themselves).

3.       Increase in false prophets.

The apostle Peter warned against false teachers in the end times (1 Peter 2:1; see also Jude 17-18). The Bible warns that in the end times people would forsake salvation in Christ for various types of occultism. Demonically inspired false religions would proliferate (see also Matthew 24:5; Mark 13:6).

4. The land of Israel.

“I will bring you from the nations…where you have been scattered” (Ezekiel 20:34 NIV; see also 37:1-14). Though the Jewish people were without a homeland for 1,878 years, Isaiah 43:5-6 says that in the last days, “I will bring your children from the ends of the earth.”

5.Conflict in the Middle East.

In the end times there will be “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6-7). Ezekiel 38:1-6 predicts an invasion of Israel in the last days. Though written around 597 BC, the prophet Ezekiel assumes that Israel is in their land when armies attack in the “latter days.”

6. The increasingly godless world system.

The final book of the New Testament, Revelation, depicts a coming era in which many facets of society will be organized around a centralized, unified entity. There will be a one-world economy (13:16-17), a one-world government (13:8; 17:1-18), and a one-world religion (13:8-12)

7. Increase of apostasy within the church.

Pastors often point out problems in the world; let me also admit that there are pockets of sin embedded within the ranks of the church. One of the signs of the end times relates to a Greek word that means, “rebellion” and “revolt.” It is the word “apostasy,” and its meaning is somewhat akin to the word “riot”—a free for all.

The Bible says that near the end of history many preachers will not preach the Scriptures, but will instead preach lies. They will speak pleasant words people want to hear and not the truth that will convert their souls. Having spent my life in all types of church work, let me say, we are in an era of serious theological apostasy (1 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Timothy 4:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:3).

8. The wiring of the planet.

The book of Revelation describes several scenarios that people of previous generations found hard to believe. In fact, skeptics used to scoff at the idea that there could be a one-world money system, apart from which no one could buy or sell (Revelation 13:17). Skeptics mocked the idea that events happening in Israel could somehow be watched by the whole world at once (Revelation 11:3-12; 18:9-20).

We now live in a world of real-time video streaming, cyber currency, and digital footprints. We are constantly tracked via phones and other electronic cameras and devices, from Siri to Alexa, to personalized tracking of every purchase and online search. Along with the rise of influential leaders calling for socialism and global unification, the events in Revelation—fantastic as they may sound—are not only possible, but increasingly likely.

9. The rise of Islam.

The Bible predicted that the “children of Ishmael” would struggle against “the children of Isaac” throughout history (Genesis 16:12; 25:18). Aggression toward the Jews by Ishmael’s descendants existed for centuries. But in AD 622, the founding of Islam would escalate this hostility immeasurably.

Past political leaders (such as Winston Churchill) and religious leaders (such as the Reformers) believed that near the end of history there would be an uprising of “Mohammedism.” Much speculation has been raised about the 200 million soldiers predicted to assemble for the battle of Armageddon (Zechariah 14:1-4; Revelation 9:16-17). What worldview could summon that many followers of a warrior spirit who desire the extermination of both Jews and followers of Jesus? One theory suggests this army could include today’s Muslims that oppose Israel. Even if this is not the case, the list of nations opposing Israel in the future described in Ezekiel 38 are predominantly Muslim, closely reflecting the attitudes of these nations toward Israel today.

10. A major outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, just prior to the rapture of the church.

The Scriptures speak of a great move of God before the final judgment of history ( Joel 2:28-32; Zechariah 12:10-13:1). COVID-19 is prominent in the news, but spreading even faster than that life-threatening virus is the life-giving message of Christ. Surprisingly, the ranks of believers seem to grow fastest in the regions of intense persecution.

We may not see this as much in the U.S. and Europe, but in much of the world Christianity is growing exponentially. As the world battles COVID-19, it may ignite one more great revival of Christianity—and this may comprise the West’s final visitation of the Holy Spirit, before Christ’s return.

God has Called Us to Live Prepared

While spending that evening in the Jerusalem police station something occurred to me—the station was certainly in an interesting location. The Garden Tomb of Jesus was only one street away, and the Golden Gate entry into Jerusalem’s Old City was just across another street. I remember waiting in the lobby, noting that the main window was partially shattered as if a brick had once been thrown at it. And yet, only a few feet from that precinct office was the empty tomb of the One who once told the people, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

My group and I were frantically working to obtain new passports— our tickets “home.” Jerusalem also is the city where purchase was made for another kind of passport. On a skull-shaped hill outside of Jerusalem, Jesus was crucified to purchase sufficient documentation into heaven for anyone who wants it. One Israeli official helped us get passports for home; yet another made it possible to get a passport for heaven.

 “Is Jesus really coming back to earth? Literally? At any moment?” Let me say what I tell the people who have repeatedly asked me this in recent weeks: I absolutely believe the answer is, “Yes.” Three decades of research, writing, and following world events convince me that this is true. But no one needs to be obsessively afraid regarding the end of time if they’ve accepted Christ’s gracious offer of forgiveness before God.

Memes in a World Hungry for Meat

Most preachers today could be described as B-grade motivational speakers. Think about it—from the breakdown of the family, to unrestricted abortion, to Marxist BLM rioters descending on cities across America, to the June 2020 SCOTUS ruling classing transgender activity as an ethnicity—if there was ever a time for the pulpits of America to cry out for God’s help and intervention, this would be that moment. Yet many church leaders remain silent.

In this land predicated on freedom of religious expression, July 2020 saw California churches warned that parishioners may no longer sing during worship services. And where was the unified, defiant cry from God’s prophets and preachers, forcefully telling the Democrat-socialist-pharaohs of our day to repent from their disregard of God, their undermining of liberty, and persecution of His church? It wasn’t heard. Most pulpits today whimper forth with timid platitudes about “tolerance” and “social justice,” while few cut through sin’s darkness to lead sinners toward Christ’s light.

The Christian experience can’t be adequately presented when reduced to memes and soundbites. As Paradise Lost author John Milton wrote in his poem of 1638, Lycidas, “The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.” That’s Christianity in 2020 America: The nation teeters on the brink of extinction, having reached this depth of lawlessness and sin—at least in part—because the church is more polite than prophetic. Conventional wisdom by expert “ministry strategists” over the past fifty years has coached generations of clergy more about how to be liked by people than approved by God. We look at the state of the home, the church, and the public square and have to ask, “How’s that working for ya?”

Having spoken in more than 2,000 churches and having heard plenty of sermons, let me say that I passionately love the American church. I do. But it appears many of the 250,000-plus ordained ministers in America appear utterly impotent to preach in such a way as to begin igniting the spiritual awakening our country so desperately needs. When is the last time you heard a sermon calling lost sinners to flee from the eternal hell of which Scripture warns? When is the last time you have heard a minister speak on 1 Corinthians chapter 6, delineating various iniquities—moral offenses, sexual sins, including homosexuality—that if not repented of, will land their practitioners eternally outside of heaven? When?

When have you heard of ministers boldly organizing their cities to fast, pray for national awakening, and to beg God that churches and families be restored, and the Holy Spirit to subdue evil in this nation? Perhaps most of the exposure you’ve had to church services contained little more than milquetoast platitudes, cherry-picked servings of Bible-lite, and “God’s helpful tips on how to become a better you!”

Dear friend, please know that the uncontrollable, all-powerful, living God of Scripture does care about you passionately—but He has so much more in store for you than merely being the “life coach” who is called on when needed. For America—and for you personally—Jesus Christ is offering rescue and restoration; but to do so, He must become Leader and Lord.

 If you’ve spurned God, or if you think sin and eternity are a joke, then I humbly suggest you have more to fear than you could possibly realize. But to “whosoever will come,” Jesus promised a peace beyond anything this world can offer. The One who is coming back to earth assures us, “…Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” ( John 14:27 NKJV).