Do we live in a God-forsaken land?

The other day I was driving down the freeway and heard on the radio a message by John MacArthur spoken on the national day of prayer. It aired on the Focus on the Family radio program and can be heard online at the following links:

A Nation Abandoned by God, Part 1

A Nation Abandoned by God, Part 2

What he spoke of brought silence to his listening audience and myself as well as I listened. His message can be summed up with this one quote:

"I am going say something. You are going to have to hold on to your seat a little bit: I am convinced beyond doubt, that in the same sense, God has abandoned America. I know that is a strong thing to say and I am going to show you why I believe you can see that clearly in Scripture..."

He gave examples in the Bible of God abandoning nations who had forsaken him. But the focus of his talk centered around a passage of Scripture found in the first chapter of the book of Romans. In this passage it speaks of God giving up a people in his wrath. The passage outlines a progression of steps that occur when God has had enough and gives a culture over to their own devices and does not restrain them from evil:

Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

The first thing that happens when a nation is abandoned by God is a sexual revolution. We saw this begin in the 60's. Today our culture is obsessed with all kinds of sexual sin. There millions and millions of pornographic websites. It is a multi-billion dollar industry. Rape and child abuse are so common that most people have either been victimized or know someone who has. Adultery and other sex outside of marriage is so common that it is looked upon as normal behavior.

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Secondly, the sign of abandonment is the wholesale rejection of truth. Our culture has abandoned the faith that was originally central to it. Prayer and Scripture were first barred from schools. Today there is litigation going on that seeks to remove God from every area of public life. It is relentless. Lawsuits for saying "Merry Christmas". Lawsuits against student led prayer at graduation. Lawsuits for even using color schemes of red and green in December school events. Instead evolution and other alternate explanations are mandated upon all. In our colleges and universities, the Christian faith is routinely mocked and laughed at by professors. Secular scientists are vehemently intolerant of any scientific theory that posits the existence of the Creator.

Romans 1:26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Third, the sexual revolution takes on unnatural deviations. The next step in abandonment is that following a sexual revolution is a homosexual revolution. Today the homosexual movement is growing and at very fast rate and the pressure to accept it as normal is immense. The entertainment, news and political media relentlessly promote homosexuality as normal. Our culture embraces and celebrates it.

Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

The next step is the culture is given over to a depraved mind. MacArthur points out that the word depraved means "non-functioning". The mind of the culture no longer thinks clearly in the moral sense. It no longer functions how God created to. In other words, the cultures' morality is turned upside down and no longer functions reasonably. Not matter how much misery, grief and disease the morality may cause, it goes forward with full force. The list of behavior resulting from this is described:

Romans 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Sounds like the evening news. The result of abandonment is a decaying morality. Even non-religious people admit that our morality is going the wrong way. A depraved (non-functioning) morality is infested in every part of our culture from the government to corporate America to our campuses and workplaces and worst of all to our families. Crime, violence, hate and deceit are everywhere. Our political system is full of slander, deceit and arrogance. Our television is full of shows on celebrity gossip, violent images, talk shows that celebrate perversion. Our corporations and institutions are fully of corruption and dishonesty. We hear about it daily.

Romans 1:32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

And finally, not only is the morality turned upside down, but it is heartedly accepted and promoted in the culture. What is right is deemed as wrong. What is wrong is deemed what is right. This will reach its culmination when the society starts punishing its people for doing right and excusing people for doing wrong. It will result in the persecution of those who hold to the righteous standards and beliefs of the Bible.

I know that with God all things are possible. I know that He can bring about a revival and turn our culture around. But what struck me is the stark claim of America's abondment. It is shocking because the unspoken assumption, even in the Church, is that God's blessing is upon America. This is the first time I have heard is such outspoken terms otherwise and it is making me think.

I leave it up to each one to search this out for themselves in their own hearts. But if God has abandoned this nation, then it will continue down the path it is heading UNTIL we acknowledge that God has abandoned us because of our evil; until we humble ourselves and confess it and call upon God for forgiveness and renewal:

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.