7-18-16<\/p>\n
Our recent essay \u201cWelcome To the Revolution\u201d has excited a bit of discussion, some readers claiming I am an alarmist, and others granting that I might be predicting the future instead of, as I believe, reporting on the present. To the charge that I am an alarmist, I would reply that doctors operate when there is disease; firemen rush to houses on fire; when I see alarming things, I sound the alarm.<\/p>\n
There are many subjects that American schools do not teach any more, and we generally are an anti-intellectual society. In that vein \u2013 specifically, the danger of even right-thinking Americans being ignorant of the Current Crisis \u2013 I recall what Alexander Boot wrote about Hellenistic Man, that \u201che was not ignorant of history; he simply did not see how it affected his life.\u201d <\/p>\n
For the immediate future, I believe we are headed for the Summer of Our Discontent. Where once a polite diving-line was drawn between Democrats and Republicans, even liberals and conservatives, now there are bottomless chasms between family members. Ugly schisms divide former friends. \u201cOccupy\u201d and \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d partisans ascribe blood libels to Tea Partiers, and vice-versa. <\/p>\n
Those who think murdered soldiers and policemen are victims of random gunfire, and those who think we are seeing war in the streets. Now, Baton Rouge. Next?<\/p>\n
The conventions and campaigns will be ugly \u2013 and the Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas parties of many families likely will be bloodier. These rifts will slowly \u2013 if ever \u2013 heal: people must first desire healing; and for all the empty clich\u00e9s about Getting Along, the contemporary American is quite happy to excoriate his opponent. Hate Thy Neighbor.<\/p>\n
So this is a classic case of \u201cinability to see the forest for the trees,\u201d America\u2019s fatal state of decline. We have gone from decadence to destruction, and when we catch a glimpse of the \u201cforest\u201d \u2013 an active society where things continue to happen, where we still wake up, go to sleep, and scurry about our affairs \u2013 it is rather a case of inertia that masks the crisis. <\/p>\n
Our fall has not been the result of a sudden explosion, but gradual poisons in our cultural water supplies.<\/p>\n
One of the favorite Bible verses of Christians in recent years has been II Chronicles 7:14: \u201cIf My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n How many of us are guilty of quoting that verse, even applying it, superficially? For one thing, it seems, in a forest-for-the-trees manner, like a fortune-cookie aphorism. \u201cStraighten up your act, people,\u201d to be followed by spontaneous revival and Heaven on earth.<\/p>\n But the verse needs to be parsed \u2013 examined phrase by phrase. In the first place, linguistically, it strictly is not a promise of God. It is a conditional statement: \u201cIf\u2026 then.\u201d The Bible is filled with many such conditions, warnings, threats, and yes, promises. But God requires things of His people. Humility. Prayer. Seeking Him. Repentance. All of them \u201cbig time.\u201d <\/p>\n THEN He will forgive transgressions and heal the land. <\/p>\n \u201cIf.\u201d That is the condition \u2013 a big \u201cif.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy people.\u201d Not necessarily the entire population, but the Children of God. The saved; today, Christ-followers.<\/p>\n \u201cWho are called.\u201d All of us must be open to the specific call of God on our lives: His will for us. <\/p>\n \u201cHumble themselves.\u201d This does not mean to stop being haughty in church, but to adopt true servants\u2019 hearts.<\/p>\n \u201cPray.\u201d Jesus Himself prayed fervently before every important act. How less should we?<\/p>\n \u201cSeek My face.\u201d Request guidance and acknowledge God as the source of all good things. <\/p>\n \u201cTurn from their wicked ways.\u201d Here God means true repentance\u2026 transformative changes in our personal lives.<\/p>\n Then you \u201cwill hear from heaven.\u201d Prayers will be answered.<\/p>\n Then He will \u201cForgive your sins.\u201d<\/p>\n Then He will \u201cheal your land.\u201d<\/p>\n That makes this verse more than \u201cwords to live by.\u201d Or something for Christians to claim in agreement or to memorize for a Bible study or Sunday School class. Not those things alone \u2013 good start \u2013 but incomplete. Even the famous verse is incomplete! It is the second half of a sentence, not a new sentence in Two Chronicles, as Donald Trump would call it. <\/p>\n Can we, o average American and Christian Patriot, read the context, and learn what the Lord was really saying? Starting with Chapter 7, verse 11: <\/p>\n Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king\u2019s house: and all that came into Solomon\u2019s heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house, He prosperously effected. The most sobering of lessons, chastisements, and warnings of punishment (indeed, God\u2019s promise) is a few verses later:<\/p>\n 19 \u2026If ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; + + +<\/p>\n
\n12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to Myself for an house of sacrifice.
\n13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
\n14 If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
\n15 Now Mine eyes shall be open, and Mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
\n<\/em>
\nFirst, that is a lot of IFs. Second, there are severe warnings. A third point might be that these are specific instructions to David\u2019s son Solomon and the people of ancient Israel. However, it is valid for us to draw lessons.<\/p>\n
\n20 Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of My land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.
\n21 And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to everyone that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?
\n22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath He brought all this evil upon them<\/strong>.
\n<\/em>
\nIn effect: We bring this evil upon ourselves.<\/p>\n