“Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only to do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:21-25, 28-32)

It was the best of times,
It was the worst of times,
It was the age of wisdom,
It was the age of foolishness,
It was the epoch of belief,
It was the epoch of incredulity,
It was the season of light,
It was the season of darkness,
It was the spring of hope,
It was the winter of despair,
We had everything before us,
We had nothing before us,
We were all going directly to Heaven,
We were all going directly the other way…

In short, the period was like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on it being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, 1859

The fraying of America’s social fabric is fast becoming a national obsession. Three out of four Americans think we are in moral and spiritual decline. Two out of three think the country is seriously off track. Doubts about the President’s character have driven his standing in the polls to all time lows. Social dysfunction haunts the land. Crime and drug abuse, the breakup of the family, the slump in academic performance, the disfigurement of public places by druggies, gangs and exhibitionists — we certainly seem to have lost the balance between social rights and individual freedom. There are daily confrontations with almost everyone in authority. Blacks against the white power structure, women against patriarchy, feminists against feminism, gays against homophobia, children against parents, mothers against matrimony, fathers against child support, church goers against the church, students against universities. Instead of a culture of common good, we have a culture of constant complaints. Everyone is a victim. The have-nots claim victimization at the hands of the successful. Crime is sanctioned by the fact, real or presumed, that criminals had an unhappy childhood. Gone are the habits America once admired: industriousness, thrift, self-discipline and commitment. The combined effect of these sicknesses rooted in the phony doctrine of liberalism has been to tax the nation’s optimism and zap its confidence in the future, and it is the young who are strikingly vulnerable. They are being deprived like no generation before of the emotional comforts and moral nurturing provided by the traditional family. Instant gratification is the new order of the day. Personal impulses, especially sexual, are constantly stimulated by popular music, television and movies, with other forms of mass media not far behind. These things seem to honor and uphold everything that the true American ethic abhors. Violence, infidelity, drug and alcohol abuse, add to despising everything the American ethic embraces (i.e. religion, marriage, respect for authority). No wonder it is difficult to sustain traditional values and continuity. (Paraphrase of U.S. News &  World Report editorial, circa 1995.)

Although the passage in Romans 1 and those from A Tale of Two Cities and the U.S. News & World Report editorial were written almost two millennia part, the words and themes of all resonate with what is happening currently in our nation and our world around us. It is amazing that since the time God put man on the earth, people have remained quite consistent in their actions, pursuits, values (or lack of them), their immoral and unethical behavior, their lack of respect for their fellow man and their dishonor and disregard for God, their Creator. If we could go back and get a realistic, first-hand view of the life and times through the ages, I feel we would find that except for the mode of deployment of man’s injustice to man, the common factor would be, of course, man himself — born into and driven by his own sinful nature, with Satan in the background fueling the fire.

In Romans 1:28-32, the Apostle Paul uses approximately 25 descriptives of the depraved nature of men. There are probably more.

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
There is none who does good.
God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
Everyone of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one. (Psalm 53:1-3)

The current social climate in our own nation, the United States, remains troubling. Citizens are unsure of their once-firm grip on the reality of their nation’s image. In the current election year, it seems for many there is no clear-cut choice as to whom they will vote for to elect our next president. Many do not even feel secure voting straight down traditional party lines. There is great uncertainty as to the real qualifications for each candidate to meet the demands of national leadership. Our current president, in the last days of his second term, has shown himself to be untrustworthy and underhanded, manipulating the laws of the land and the powers of the executive branch to suit his own agenda. As the proverbial “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” he used fancy rhetoric and promises to disguise what he really intended to accomplish in office. His administration has tripled the national debt and crippled the spirit of the American people. He has cast off our long-lasting and crucial alliance with Israel, while from the first day in office sold our nation out to the interests of Islamic activists who pass through the nation’s borders unhindered, and are in fact welcomed with open arms, only to wreak havoc and death on innocent American citizens later on. Most notably, he got us into bed with the nation of Iran, whose calling card is “Death to Israel – Death to America,” not only giving them back their ability to manufacture nuclear weapons, but paying them for it as well with over $100 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars, or more accurately, $100 billion borrowed from the communist nation of China to pay off the terrorist Iranians. Our own national and homeland security services can no longer use information collected clandestinely about probable terrorist activities against U.S. citizens because it may infringe on their religious freedom — the freedom of religion these terrorists hide behind to kill innocent people. America, the land of the free and the home of the brave! One wonders who really has the freedom these days. Natural born U.S. citizens, who live on income and disability aid from the U.S. government, eke out an existence on an income well below the poverty level, while refugees from other countries arrive on our shores to be granted thousands of dollars in aid to assimilate into our nation’s structure. This aid may include housing, social services, medical services, stipends for living expenses such as food, clothing and utilities, educational and job training programs, and transportation services, among others. Let’s not even get started on our Congress which has demonstrated no spine in eight years to stand up to the overreaches of our nation’s executive branch. Once preaching transparency, its aims are now shrouded in secrecy.

Our nation, once revered worldwide for its opportunity and governmental system, is having its feet put to the fire. Our economy is so fragile that should one card be pulled out or even budged too much, it would cause the entire economic house of cards to come plummeting down. And we really don’t even know the minutest half of what actually goes on in the halls of economic and governmental power in America.

The fabric of our Constitution and Bill of Rights has been diluted and stretched so thin that it is hardly recognizable from the grand proposal that our nation’s Founding Fathers instituted over two hundred years ago. Our basic freedoms of speech and religion have been undermined to the point that the federal government has plans to dictate what churches can and cannot do, what they can and cannot speak about. People can now be arrested, fined and jailed in some states if what they say is determined to have the wrong intention concerning the rights of another. The implication of “rights” has become so broad by the interpretations of our courts, that the word as originally intended has no meaning at all, but now is seen to mean that each man determines what is right for himself in his own mind, and by that, it is “deserving” of respect by all others. It seems that in many ways our nation, by virtue of the wishes of its citizens, has lost its ethical and moral fiber, which if allowed to continue in free fall fashion as it is now will only lead to more chaos.

Will this continue? Probably so. Could things get better? It is hard to say, for only God knows what lies in the future ahead. The tide may be able to be turned back in a limited way, but not enough to affect the tsunami that will eventually arrive.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:6-7)

But know this, in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. (2 Timothy 3:1-4)

Does this sound familiar?

The good news is, despair not, for those who believe in Jesus Christ, in His sacrificial death upon the cross to atone for our sins with His precious blood, and in His conquering of death with His resurrection, have the hope and promise of eternal life in the presence of His glory. This is the most wonderful of gifts and it is freely offered. One cannot pay for it or earn it. We are saved through the grace of God, and His unending, all-powerful love for His creations, the race of men. He offers us the promise to transform from children of men to children of God and to live with Him for all time in the enduring, unending light of Heaven, instead of the outer darkness and torment of Hell.

Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. (Revelation 3:10-12)

To fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:25-27)

Holding fast,

Mark

But as many received Him, to them gave He the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor the will of man, but of God.
(John 1:12-13)

^{Photography by Aimee Vogelsang}