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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Cultural
Suicide Whether you are
politically left, right, centre, or just confused and conflicted, I
believe Daniel 2:21 and 4:17 state that God causes civilizations to both
rise and fall. Furthermore, I
see no Biblical support this has changed in these New Testament days.
It's just a fact of history. So
how might God cause a nation to fall?
Romans 1:18 through 32 provides one answer to this question.
Romans 1:18 states God's
wrath was being revealed from heaven in Paul's day.
If that was true back then, there's no reason to think it's not
true today. Romans 1:24, 26 and 28
state that God gives the sinful civilization over to its sins, the
greatest sin being the rejection of God.
In other words, God steps back, or withdraws Himself from that
godless nation. Without His
influence or restraint, that nation indulges in sin.
Paul listed many of these sins in Romans 1:28 through 32 that are
as prevalent today as they were in his day.
"Furthermore, just
as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God
gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be
done. 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, slanderers,
God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing
evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity,
no love, no mercy. 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." Romans 1:32 states that
the godless nation does not only commit sins, it approves of sin.
Western democracies might approve of sin by electing blatantly
sinful leaders, by supporting sin through the legislative process, and by
legalizing sin through the judicial system.
Of course, these means of approving sin stem from the general
cultural approval of sin, which in part is due to God's people not being
the salt of the earth, or in this instance, the salt of the nation
(Matthew 5:13). I conclude that one way God causes a godless nation to fall is by withdrawing Himself from it. With no godly restraint, the nation is consumed with its sinfulness, and we know the wages of sin is still death (Romans 6:23). The nation's fall or death, then, is self inflicted. It's cultural suicide.
Post
Script I do
believe God gives a nation ample time to repent, but once He steps back,
I also believe that is it. The
nation falls. I also believe
that repentance is an individual matter where those within the culture
come to Jesus. Apart from
individual salvation the grass roots culture of sin will prevail.
Like the apostle Paul, we must preach Jesus.
Jesus, not a political preference, will prevent cultural suicide.
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