America Sliding into the Abyss

Why I Believe that America is *Collapsing (and, no, it's not primarily because of rampant evil and corruption in society and government...)

[This short essay was written in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 General Election.]

For those of my readers who have visited and become familiar with my site over the last nearly four years, you should be able to agree with factuality of these two statements:

1. The overwhelming majority of the articles on my site are devoted to Bible exposition, along with the necessary application of that exposition to call out those Bible pastors, preachers and teachers who treat the Word of God with contempt by their careless and destructive distortions of the Word, be they well-known or unknown.
2. It is rare when I make any type of political comment.

This noticeably short “essay” will be one of those times in which I want to make some political/religious observations about what has just happened in our country – and, particularly, *why it happened.

[I found a pair of articles from Michele Bachmann recently posted on the web. Her concern for our nation appears genuine and profound; she obviously knows her Bible. I support her for taking a very public stand against the evil in our country and government and for the truths of the Bible. There are, however, some items about which I’m concerned and which serve to introduce some thoughts on where our country goes from here.

Here are a pair of links you’ll need to reference for the discussion below:

Michele Bachmann: Will You Join Me in Praying for America?
Prayer Points from Congresswoman Michele Bachmann]

Michele Bachmann lists 5 specific prayer requests: the first four are imprecatory prayers (at least to some extent), while the last one is a direct prayer for President Trump.

The point of this short essay is that there are some real issues with how and why she proceeds, along with the assumptions and omissions she makes.

1. Her best-case scenario regarding “prayer warriors” is spectacularly optimistic! From all the research and review I’ve done on my site I find it utterly impossible for there to be 20 million “prayer warriors” in the country. (I tend to doubt there are 20 million in the entire world!) As I’ve presented on my site, I’ve personally reviewed well over 700 church websites (only those who would self-identify as “conservative evangelical”). In that large group representing many ten-thousands of “conservative church-goers”, only ~30% even bother to post a Statement of Faith; less than ~3% of those have a doctrinal statement which aligns to the Bible. Really, how many “prayer warriors” are to be found if the overwhelming majority of “conservative” churches don’t even bother to publish what they believe, and 99% of those who do have at least one serious error in their Statement of Faith? (cf. Dead or Alive: The Order of Salvation.)
   
   [The LORD always works through the remnant, not the majority. Remember the 600,000 soldiers in ancient Israel at the start of the Exodus and the only two men (Joshua and Caleb) who survived and entered Canaan? (Even Moses failed to enter. Deu 32.48-51).]
   
   
2. Her first four prayer requests are based on the fact of rampant and unmitigated evil which dominates our nation (and this is valid observation and assessment). But the issue is that there is no corresponding call to national repentance. (2 Chr 7.14) What she desires simply can’t and won’t take place without national repentance. To put it another way: there will never be a strictly political solution to our national woes while sin reigns. Hoping for a full culpability for and punishment of evil is right, but praying for a genuine change of heart in the sinner through "born from above" salvation is much better!
   
   
3. She makes no mention of the near-total lack of biblically-consistent “spiritual leadership” (and, no, I don’t mean President Trump one way or the other!).
   
   One of the problems which I’ve many times identified on my site concerns those who purport to preach and teach the Bible when actually they “specialize” in distorting and twisting the Bible. (cf. The Humanism of Evangelistic Apologetics, Dead or Alive: the Order of Salvation, The Biblical Requirement for Elders, The Essential/Non-Essential Doctrine Debacle, A Biblical Rebuttal of Dr. John MacArthur’s …, God Could Have Walked Away, among others.)
   
   
4. Her “very generous“ prayer for President Trump. Any Christian with reasonable familiarity with the Bible will recognize the many phrases she uses as close paraphrases of Bible texts; the issue here is that they don’t directly apply to President Trump.
   
   [Some of the statements which she applies to the President are “a poetic stretch”, to say the least, or at least can't be known with any certainty. And yes, I'm a Trump supporter.
   
   EDIT May 2023: Mr. Trump is problematic and a lightning rod for controversy. But I truly believe that he has the country's best interests at heart.]
   
   The classic NT text which directs us to pray for our leaders is found in 1 Tim 2.1-2. (Interestingly, and the point here, is that she makes no mention of 1 Tim 2.1-2.) The reason the Holy Spirit gave in that text as the basis for those prayers is “so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”
   
   [I'd like to illustrate this point.
   
   I've many times heard well-meaning “Christians” pray for Barack Obama (for example) such as “Please, LORD, give President Obama wisdom…”. Since when does the LORD "give wisdom" to someone who openly, actively and at essentially every opportunity degraded the LORD, the Lord Christ, the LORD’s Word, and the LORD’s people (both before and after he was elected)? You may be sure that the LORD will NEVER give wisdom to such a person, especially when there are only about a hundred Proverbs which identify that type of person both as foolish and a fool–the polar opposites of wise and wisdom!
   
   Does this rule out praying “wisdom” for those leaders who are faithful to the Scripture? Of course not! But in the context of 1 Tim 2 the basis of the prayer is how our lives as believers are protected and affected, not how the leader is affected. The LORD alone chooses how He will answer that prayer; whether He maintains or removes any leader is strictly according to the "purpose of His will", not ours!]

Will America recover from this election debacle?

I don’t know, though I tend to doubt it.

[EDIT May 2023: The first 2+ years of the administration of Joe Biden demonstrates without a doubt that the LORD is very displeased with our country. Judgment has begun to flow forth on this nation.]