Excerpts from the book Europe and America in Prophecy
Has America’s Pride Been Broken?
God said our people would experience a terrible weakening of, WILL; of the PRIDE of our power! Notice, “And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power…” (Leviticus 26:17-19).
That prophecy has already begun to be fulfilled!
We don’t know why we are. America has no great cause. There is no great goal toward which we unitedly press. There is no great single unifying bond, no common spiritual dedication, no deep, transcendental purpose for which we strive.
During World War II, we had the goal of putting an end, once and for all, to oppressive dictatorships and attempts by madmen to rule the world. Our goal was not only to “make the world safe for democracy, ” but to fight the war to “end all wars.”
We won the war—but we lost the peace.
Where went our patriotism? Did something kill it? Did it just gradually die? Patriotism is, after all, a deep, prideful love of one’s country, a thankful appreciation for the freedoms and liberties bought at such a dear cost by the tens of thousands who paid the most horrible of prices. Patriotism is love of country. But, like the love within a tight-knit family, a completely patriotic American can become very, very angry at trends within his country. Parents, who dearly love their children, become angry when they witness the child making a decision they know will harm him.
Patriotism can never be blind flag waving, a flag-shrouded refusal to admit family difficulties, a blind determination to remain studiously ignorant of deep family sicknesses.
Most Americans have forgotten how to sacrifice.
We’re sick. Our greatest sickness is our stubborn refusal to acknowledge our own moral and spiritual poverty. To diagnose our many illnesses is to invite sneers from a rising number of superpatriots whose stock-in-trade is the big-business, chamber-of-commerce attitude of “let’s talk about what’s right about America.”
Fine. Let us do so. We are the greatest single power the world has ever known. We have risen to dizzying heights of technological development and scientific achievement. American footprints dot the moon. Our language, our culture, our products have girdled the globe. We have been blessed with the most fabulously rich piece of real estate on the good earth. Our standard of living has risen to opulent heights never imagined in the science fiction of yesteryear.
But where did we get our wealth?
Let Abraham Lincoln answer: “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own…” (Presidential Proclamation, April 1863).
Those words are truer today than they ever were before!
That famous president recognized that our fantastic wealth was given to us directly by the Creator God. It came because of Abraham’s obedience!
The fabulous lands of our peoples, our mineral resources, our stands of timber, our sprawling grazing and farmlands, our coastlines, our strategic sea gates, our favorable climate—all were given to us by the God we—in this generation—have forgotten.
To understand what’s been happening to us, you need to look back as far as 1950, and Korea. We lost in Korea. Since then, we have lived through the Gary Powers incident, the Bay of Pigs, the Hungarian Revolution, the Pueblo, the years and years of the Berlin Wall, and a decade of horror abroad and frenzied protest at home over the futility of war in Vietnam, and the hostages in Iran.
We have lived through eight years of utter shamelessness, blatant hypocrisy, and moral degradation in the highest office in the land.
Just as Abraham Lincoln said, we forgot the God who gave us our liberties! We forsook the Creator who blessed and enriched us above all peoples who have ever walked the earth.
Our laymen plunged into materialism with greedy delight, and our churchmen gave them all their blessing, calling the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments a “new morality.”
And that God says to us, “…And if you will not yet for all this listen to Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
“AND I WILL BREAK THE PRIDE OF YOUR POWER.”
It’s been broken. We don’t keep the Ten Commandments. Can you, in good sense, deny the connection?
“And I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain…” (Leviticus 26:18-20).
We have spent our strength—oh, how we’ve spent it. We have wasted our energies, our vast wealth, our young, strong men—we have spent enormously, vastly, prodigiously. And we have done it all in vain.
We have spent our homes and families, our farms and produce, our factories and their products. We have spent our time and our concern. We have spent dearly. In vain.
Something terrible has happened to America. What is being destroyed is the keystone of a healthy, viable people. Some leaders have recognized what made America great.
Prosperity and Decay
President Eisenhower said, in his State of the Union message, Jan. 7, 1960: “America did not become great through softness and self-indulgence. Her miraculous progress and achievement flow from other qualities far more worthy and substantial: adherence to principles and methods consonant with our religious philosophy; a satisfaction in hard work; the readiness to sacrifice for worthwhile causes; the courage to meet every challenge to her progress; the intellectual honesty and capacity to recognize the true path of her own best interest.”
It was only a few days previous to this outstanding speech, which seems in retrospect prophetic, that the late economist, Roger Babson, said: “The test of a nation is the growth of its people––physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Money and so-called ‘prosperity’ are of very little account…
“Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Spain and France all had their turn in being the richest in the world. Instead of saving them, their so-called prosperity ruined them.
“Our nation is now rated the richest, but it could easily become a second-class nation and head downward: Money will not save us. Crops will not save us. Stock exchanges and banks will not save us. Already our gold at Fort Knox is diminishing. Only a sane spiritual revival which changes the desires of our people will save us. We must be filled with a desire to render service, to seek strength rather than security, to put character ahead of profits. Even the democracy for which our fathers fought and bled could result in our downfall.”
It was only two weeks previous to these prophetic statements that another famous American, historian George Kennan, said before a Washington audience: “If you ask me—as an historian—whether a country in the state in which this country finds itself today, with no highly developed sense of national purpose, with the overwhelming accent of life on personal comfort and amusement, with a dearth of public services and a surfeit of privately sold gadgetry—with a chaotic transportation system… with insufficient social discipline even to keep its major industries functioning without grievous interruptions—has over the long run good chances of competing with a purposeful, serious and disciplined society such as that of the Soviet Union, I must say that the answer is ‘no.’”
Coming at the beginning of the 1960s, such words now seem prophetic.
The Moral And Spiritual Decline of Britain and America
From the beginning of the 1960s, both Britain and America began a toboggan-slide into spiritual and moral degradation. Our “cultures” began to drift toward more and more hedonism, materialism, and even nihilism. We abandoned those deep-seated patriotic sentiments of the war years, and embraced the concept of self satisfaction. Every facet of our societies reflected our moral and spiritual decline.
Think of the incredible difference between the decades of the 30s, 40s and 50s with those of the 60s to the turn of the century. Back then, “Gone With The Wind” was banned in Boston because of Clark Gable’s infamous and daring use of the slang term “damn.” Today, millions flock to the theaters to hear “rap stars” mouthing hideous obscenities and blasphemies out of a mouth resembling an open sewer. His spittle-flecked, hip-gyrating, glazed-eyed screeches are laced with urging the killing of cops, or the raping of one’s mother. Television, that one-eyed monster of sex, sadism, violence and inane “soaps” contributed massively to the moral and spiritual toboggan-slide. Britain led in the rush to knock down moral barriers, allowing full frontal nudity on television in the 1960s. America dutifully followed suit. Eventually, movie moguls were convinced they needed cautionary “ratings” for the never-ending flood of filth they purveyed. Along came “G” and “PG” and “R,” while “X” stayed in the sleazy movie theaters and drive-ins in the disintegrating pockets of communities long since taken over by pimps, prostitutes, drug pushers and gays.
Today, X and XXX have moved into American and British living rooms.
Now, the most hideous displays of perverted sexual activity from sodomy to sado-masochism are beamed to millions of living rooms from space, and available to 10 and 12 year olds on the family computer. There are no further restraints. Hedonism reigns.
Whether you review the covers of the various and sundry scandal rags available near every supermarket checkout stand, or the covers of the dozens of magazines in the magazine rack, you will see almost nothing but sex, sex, and more sex; who is divorcing who, who is having whose illegitimate bastard child, who has “come out of the closet” and pronounced he or she is “gay,” or the latest case of murder, wife beating, drug addiction, or pederasty. All this, of course, written about the “stars” who are worshiped at the box office and on television.
God says, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
“Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these [saying “We are God’s People; This is God’s country”];
“For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
“If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
“Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
“Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit [witness many Supreme Court decisions on everything from abortion to school prayer to pornography].
“Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
“And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? (Jeremiah 7:3-10).
Today, there are “gay” (read “perverted sodomites and lesbians”) churches in America! Several of the most formal and staid old denominations have authorized the ordination of openly homosexual ministers and priests. Not only this, but openly “gay” men are in some of the highest offices in the land. Read Genesis 19 for God’s attitude toward homosexuality. God produced a miniature Gehenna Fire to consume Sodom and Gomorrah as His perpetual witness against “abusers of themselves with mankind” (Romans 1:24-27).
The youth of our country is being denied youthful innocence. Instead, they are plunged into the cesspool of pornographic slop, slime, swill and vomit forced upon them by the judiciary and legislative bodies of government itself.
Yes, it is “they which lead thee,” from judges to legislators, and from the clergy to the teacher who set the trends, display the examples, and work to expunge from Britain and America the last vestige of moral restraint. Millions want an orgy, and God is going to give it to them!
God inspired Ezekiel to write, “Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
“Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
“Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
“Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
“The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 7:23-27).
You need not look very deeply into the trends in our societies in the last fifty years to admit to yourself that our peoples are deserving of these powerful indictments from God.
When we are no longer worthy to inhabit our lands; no longer worthy of God’s mercy and protection; no longer fit to survive, God will PUNISH our heedless, God-defying, lawbreaking, hedonistic societies!
It’s not too late for Britain and America—not too late, yet, for inspired leadership, clarity of goals, unanimity of purpose, dedication to great cause, and collective sacrifice to push the world’s greatest single power into broad avenues of peace, into a bright new tomorrow, into a utopian era of the realization of man’s fondest dreams. It’s not too late for America to see the vastness of her wealth. It is not too late for a spiritual answer to our deepest problems of the spirit. But it’s much, much later than you think!
The measure of a nation’s greatness is not its industrial capacity, not its natural resources, not its GDP. It is the quality of the character of its people. America is losing character. Is there any willpower left? Any spirit of sacrifice? Any dedication to great cause? Have we forgotten how to repent?
Needed: National Repentance
Can you envision government leaders dropping to their knees in real heartfelt REPENTANCE before God, crying out to Him to deliver us from our awesome national problem? “Ridiculous!” some would say.
And, because such a picture of national repentance is so “ridiculous” to even imagine, our peoples are headed for perhaps the greatest national punishment that ever came on any nation.
Notice this striking prophecy from the biblical book of Ezekiel:
“The iniquity of the House of Israel [our modern English-speaking peoples] and Judah is exceeding great and the land is full of blood [America leads the world in crime] and the city full of perverseness [our cities have become asphalt jungles of crime, immorality, drug addiction and sensuous pleasure-seeking], for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and, the Lord seeth not” (Ezekiel 9:9).
And isn’t that exactly what millions say today: “God doesn’t exist,” “He’s gone way off somewhere,” “He’s gone into retirement”?
But God is not in retirement. He really does exist. And He does say in His Word—the Bible—that He punishes people who are constantly breaking laws and bringing all the awesome problems we see everywhere around us today upon themselves. It does matter to Him how we live!
He says, “I… will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations [our national crimes and sins] and mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee” (Ezekiel 7:3, 4).
Does this sound a little vague—perhaps a little archaic—a little too much like some “Old Testament fire and brimstone”?
Don’t delude yourself! God is going to punish our peoples severely for our national and individual crimes and sins—unless we really repent—and turn to Him.
Our Own Ways
So far, God is not yet directly punishing our peoples. He is merely letting us begin to kill ourselves. He is letting us suffer the automatic consequences of our own ways. We abuse the earth He gave us: polluting our rivers and streams with pesticides and chemicals; killing the nutrients in the soil; striving by our own humanly devised mechanical means to produce crops.
God says, “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee…” (Jeremiah 2:19), and “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself but in Me is thine help” (Hosea 13:9).
Our Creator says it’s not too late for Britain and America yet. We could still repent—and He would help us.
Notice the conditions: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place… For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger [minority groups], the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood [brutal murders are commonplace in America today], neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your Fathers, for ever and ever” (Jeremiah 7:3-7).
Otherwise a national captivity and scattering of our peoples to the four winds is foretold in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 5, verses 11 and 12.
God says He’s willing if we are. He wants us to repent. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11).
Prayer and Fasting
Can this nation follow the example of Abraham Lincoln? Continue with his presidential proclamation quoted earlier “…Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace [apparently Abraham Lincoln understood the real meaning of grace], too proud to pray to the God who made us.
“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness:
“Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer… All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.”
I wonder if a president today could get away with calling a national day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting?
There Is a Way of Escape
But, even if the nation stubbornly continues on its present course—does not repent—there is a way out for you personally. You as an individual can repent and escape the direct future punishments of God Almighty.
Yes, there is a way of escape for you—even in this modern age—if you’re willing to heed—if you’re willing to seek your God.
Read the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel. Read how God says any who will really heed the voice of His watchman will be protected from these perilous times ahead! Read His promises in Psalm 91.
True to the prophecies—the pride in our power has been broken. Unless we repent, it is only a matter of time until our nation will be broken, our cities destroyed, and our peoples taken captive by powerful enemies we do not presently suspect.
