Are We There Yet?

 “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is the reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14: 34).

On occasion I have written about a tipping point for America. It is not the point of America being destroyed, but a point from which there is no return. Hopefully we have not reached that point. Assuming we have not, pray for repentance, renewal, revival, and restoration.

Apart from the supernatural intervention by the Lord we are on course to reaching the inevitable tipping point.

I remember fondly when the moral climate allowed me the joy of writing and preaching on pleasant positive topics. This is not that time. A call for a return to virtue and values is needed. This time gives us as a society to present ourselves to the Lord and appeal for His intervention.

In 1831 the French government sent Alexis de Tocqueville to examine our prisons and penitentiaries. He became so intrigued by our system of government and its institutions that he spent considerable time analyzing life in America.

On his return to France he wrote his classic, “Democracy in America.” Many scholars feel it is the greatest of all works on any national policy and culture. In it he wrote:

“I sought for the greatness and genius in America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there…I sought for the greatness and genius in America in her democratic congress and her matchless constitution and it was not there…

“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Tocqueville, like Solomon, was right.

Are the pulpits of America aflame with compassionate appeals for righteous conduct, civility, restoration of morality, integrity in houses of government, and renewed spiritual vitality? Is yours?

Arnold Toynbee, the distinguished historian, researched nineteen great civilizations that have existed since governments were formed. Ours is one. Toynbee observed spiritual currents running through history. He concluded no major nation has ever been murdered. They have committed suicide. They forgot the true purpose of their being, and rotted on the inside. Let’s learn!