I'm Not As Smart As The Prophets Of Doom, I Gotta Trust In The Lord. (reworked)

 by Jack Hectormann

 

"...our God is full of compassion. The Lord protects the simple-hearted..." __Psalms 116:5-6

 

 I am as willing as any man alive to look the problems and dilemmas of America (and the West) square in the face. I will not bury my head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and pretend that all is just peachy fine and dandy. Because all is not, and much is seriously and dangerously very un-peachy. I will list the problems and dilemmas and even emphasize them, but never outside the context of the Sovereignty of God and His control of history, and never apart from "hoping and trusting" in Him to work things out for the best for His people in accordance with His plan.

 

 A few of our Conservative friends do not want to do that. The Conservative Movement has several (perhaps well-meaning ?) journalists and pundits that NEVER look to the Lord and His word the Holy Bible for hope and help. Significant numbers of very influential Conservatives, some of them true Christians, see only the problems and dilemmas, and NEVER mention the part the Lord plays in restraining the evil men of this world and in protecting we His people in spite of our flaws, sins and stupidities. They could at least mention "hope in God" once in a awhile, they don't have to preach long windy sermons. :-)

 

But they refuse to mix in the old-time religion of the Bible and it's "faith and hope in the Lord" as applied to the present American (and Western) political problems and dilemmas that are here now and surely to intensify in the coming years. They seem to think they can successfully fight this political and culture war now raging in America without God's intervention to help them. I note that the Biblical heros never looked at the battles they fought as "battles they would fight alone", but always said that "the Lord helped them" and they "trusted in Him" while they fought as hard as they possibly could. Joshua, David, Caleb, and all the rest fought on doing it exactly that way.

 

 It's one thing for the pessimists to call attention to a set of serious problems, but it's another thing altogether when they do that and leave the Lord totally or even mostly out of the equation. Here they become little more than Prophets of Doom, and a very depressing group of people to read. I can take 'em only in small doses and even then I have to mix in verses from God's word with the dose, even though the dose they give is the truth. There are also other truths that need to be mixed in with the "dose" of the problems and dilemmas that they so accurately list, and those other truths are verses from God's word (the Bible) that stress the Sovereign control of God over this world and His long history of watching over and protecting His people in dangerous times.

 

 Here is a truth. It is possible that the Lord has decided to preserve America in spite of the serious flaws and sins and stupidities of us all. The Prophets of Doom do not KNOW that He will not. They, as mere men, do not KNOW the future. That truth should be constantly stressed. They do not KNOW the future and they do not KNOW the plan that God has for America in the coming years.

 

 The Lord declared that He would in fact spare the totally wicked and totally corrupted city of Sodom if Abraham could find just 10 righteous people in that city. You can, most likely, find 10 righteous people in just your Sunday School class on any given Sunday. There are over 16,000,000 Southern Baptists in America . How many righteous people do you think might be in that group ? Probably a whole herd, wouldn't you think ? A huge majority of Southern Baptists are making a decent effort, it appears, to do right and live right, and to raise their families in the fear of the Lord. If the Lord would have spared Sodom for the sake of just 10, it is reasonable to assume that the Lord will preserve America just for the sake of the 16,000,000 Southern Baptists who have, for certain, at least hundreds of thousands of God-fearing born again Christians in their ranks.

 

 It is unreasonable to assume that He will not. The Lord has never thrown out the baby with the bath water. The truth is there is a "nation within a nation" here in America. We, "the people of God" form a large "nation" of people and we are in the tens of millions and we depend on the security of America for the well being and safety of our families. And for sure, Christians in America are far more numerous than just the Southern Baptists. In some polls, as I recall, 86% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. How many in that 86% ( roughly 258 million people) are right-living born again Christians ? Only God knows the answer to that one, but I would think a whole big huge group, wouldn't you ?

 

Maybe the Lord will preserve America for the sake of His children in spite of our flaws and sins and our political indifference ? Or in other words, maybe the Lord will continue to give "grace and mercy" to His people here in America. Maybe he will preserve America because the decision NOT to preserve America would be certain and absolute world wide political, military, and economic catastrophe on a murderous scale. That isn't even arguable. If America is allowed to self-destruct there would be an immediate return to the Dark Ages. There would be world-wide economic chaos, major wars would break out all around the globe, and for all practical purposes we would be plunged back into the times of "Genghis Khan" and the "law of the jungle" where war-lords and thug nations ruled by tooth and claw.

 

 The bottom line here is that the Prophets of Doom can be precisely RIGHT on every problem and dilemma they identify, while being precisely WRONG on how they predict or suspect those problems and dilemmas will actually play out on the time line in the real world. Only God knows that, and they're not God even though you'd never know it from reading their writings.

 

 But I'm a simple man. When I read in Holy Scripture the hundreds of simple verses that teach God is in charge of the unfolding of history, that He is Sovereign over the affairs of men, and that nothing....NOTHING... happens that He has not either predestined or permitted to occur, and that He will never leave nor forsake His children, then I take hope and I put my faith in Him and His word. And NOT in the words of the Prophets of Doom, even though they are exactly correct in identifying the problems and dilemmas.

 

 These Prophets of Doom are NEVER satisfied with the simple answers. Clear and simple Bible verses are not enough for them. They must keep searching "for answers" and the answers must be sophisticated and complicated and they must come from philosophical sources, and not from some Book as primitive as they perceive the Bible to be. They must always somehow "keep the discussion going", and nothing for them can "ever be settled."

 

 

They never even mention the Bible verses that teach that God is in control of history and that He has promised to never forsake His people no matter what the political circumstances. All that want that approach to life can certainly have it, but there are many of us out here that are not going to live our lives thinking like that. We quote "All scripture is given by inspiration of God", and we stand without budging an inch on that great truth. And two clear truths in Scripture is that God is in control of human history and that we have every reason to believe He will preserve His people even in such times as the despicable and highly dangerous 21st century.

 

 

"...The Lord Almighty has sworn, Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand..." (Isaiah 14:24) Some of us out here believe that the Sovereign God has purposed and planned to protect His people here in America for the sake of the Lord Jesus, His Son, who died for us and thereby redeemed us by His shed blood at Calvary, and to Whom we now belong, having been made sons and daughters within the family of God by His mercy and grace.

If we are right on this point, then the Father would protect His people for the sake of His Son who "bought us" and whose Life and Death and Resurrection

established for us, by grace and mercy, great worth and value as a special family of God's sons and daughters.

(Note: Isaiah 14:24 is only a general statement declaring that God's plans and purposes always stand firm. We must learn from other Scriptures what God's plans and purposes actually are for His Church who are His people. The Bible is full of nothing but encouragement for the "...people of God...", there is not a single verse in all of Holy Scripture that discourages the faith and hope of the soul that has trusted in the Lord Jesus as his Savior and is putting forth a consistent effort to please the Lord and live according to His word. And there are tens of millions of born again Christians in America that are in fact doing that.

 

Let us consider standing with the Scriptures on this issue and NOT with the Prophets of Doom as noted in the article above.