KEEP WATCH
Why do the heathen rage?
What's happening in America?
Jim Allen
(Psalm 2:2-4)
Rage is an intense emotion. It can break from its mooring of self-control and devolve into violence bordering on insanity. Rage is powerful, and when unleashed it is like a volcano spewing lava of ruin on everyone and everything in its path. Rage in America is real and growing. It is like a caldera of searing, pressurized lava trapped beneath the earth, looking for a way out. Sociologists and theologians agree the pressure caused by fear and lack in America is a new reality with the promise of more to come.
For some time now, Americans have been witnessing increasing social unrest much in the same way seismometer detects magma moving towards the surface. God said there would be signs to tell us when we are in the last days. One ominous sign is disrespect for parents (2 Timothy 3:2). "The youths of today go about in gangs having little respect for their elders and parents, and pretty much little respect for anything…and why is that? Because society today teaches them that there is no God. They have no idea what Christ Jesus has done for them, and therefore they do not have any future. So really, it's not surprising that they rebel!" [1]
Last August a small gang of teens senselessly murdered Chris Lane, a baseball athlete from Australia. Chris was attending Central East University in Oklahoma on a baseball scholarship. His father tearfully said of the tragic incident, "He was just a kid on the cusp of making his life. To try and understand is a short cut to insanity." Family and friends of this talented young man are devastated beyond words. Media ITE reported one of the killers quipped they killed Lane for the fun of it. How did this young American sink to this level of insanity?
Morest recently, on a warm Saturday evening in Chicago, gangs of teens took possession of boulevards along Michigan Avenue and State Street. As is common with these kinds of rowdy disturbances, fights broke out amongst the gang members. Innocent people were brutally attacked and robbed. Police officers were assaulted without fear. Police describe the disturbance as mob violence planned on social media, enabling various gangs to gather and do evil. In time, police were able to combat the situation and make arrests. Doreen Cohen, a resident in the area said, "I think it's horrible! I don't understand why this keeps happening. I really don't."
God knows why it keeps happening. In Romans 1, Paul writes about the consequences of pushing God aside. A godless people will be given over to debased minds to do evil in the land. Included in the long list of evil behavior are the actions of godless children who are disobedient to parents. They are undiscerning in youth and grow up to be untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful. They are evil, and hateful, and murder without remorse (Romans 1: 28). These wayward youths have become a moth-like judgment on America (Hosea 5:12 ).
"We've been in moral decline since the mid-1960s. George Gallup and Jim Castelli said, 'Americans revere the Bible–but, by and large, they don't read it. And because they don't read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.' How bad is it? Researchers tell us that it's worse than most could imagine. Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from the Barna Research Group, 60 percent of Americans can't name even five of the Ten Commandments. [1]
Doreen Cohen, the lady from Chicago, does not understand why evil keeps happening. I suspect it isshe is confused becausue she does not know what the Bible teaches about the human condition.
There is another kind of rage we never hear about anymore. It's a holy, righteous rage kindled in the heart of God who has been fed up with evil men since the beginning. God has been merciful and patient, holding back His holy rage known as the Wrath of God. Most people do not know about the Wrath of God, and even if they did, they would not comprehend it as a fearsome and terrifying thing to escape (Hebrews 10:31). The Wrath of God is like a volcano with its caldera of searing, pressurized judgment restrained until such a time He pours it out (Hebrews 12:29).
Our hearts share in the heaviness of the way of things on earth. Life is increasingly difficult for many, including all youth. Our minds are not designed to process the pool of insanity we see every day. Although I did not know Chris Lane, I was deeply troubled by his loss of life. Every day is another day of bad news. Every day brings increasing dread about this failing world. And while the wrath of God is not yet poured out, the signs of the Tribulation and Second Coming are everywhere.
David Regan writes:
Every time I think of Signs of the Times, I am reminded of a great man of God named Elbert Peak. I had the privilege of participating with him in a Bible prophecy conference held in Orlando, Florida in the early 1990's. Mr. Peak was about 80 years old at the time. He had been assigned the topic, The Signs of the Times.
Peak began his presentation by observing, 'Sixty years ago when I first started preaching, you had to scratch around like a chicken to find one sign of the Lord's soon return.' He paused for a moment, and then added, "But today there are so many signs I'm no longer looking for them. Instead, I'm listening for a sound — the sound of a trumpet!" [2]
1. CBN News -– "Know Your Bible? Many Christians Don't "– Text Presentation Reformatted
2. http://www.signs-of-end-times.com/the-last-days-end-of-world-signs.html
Photo Credit: Beacon Radio; Some rights reserved
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Published 10-8-13
