"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind"
(Hosea 8:7)
The above video is brutal ~ even though I edited out about two-thirds of it. It is very hard to watch.
I started out to write a followup essay about the epidemic of drug overdose and suicide in America ~ which, as it happens, the area where I live (southwest Ohio) is literally "ground zero" of what is now known around the world as "the drug overdose capital of America." Worse than an epidemic; worse even than a plague: what is happening in America is that this nation is just beginning to reap the whirlwind of judgment. Still, by far the worst is yet to come.
O, how I wish I could be a voice of hope to this nation! I feel so much like the prophet Jeremiah, weeping all the time for the judgment which God showed him was coming upon his people. My heart within me sometimes feels as if it cannot stand up beneath the weight of sorrow I have for this generation; whilst my pleadings seem almost always to fall upon deaf ears.
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17).America is being "turned into hell."
"And now ye know what withholdeth that he [the Antichrist] might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [restrains] will let [restrain], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked [Antichrist] be revealed...." (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8).The Word and the Spirit of God in the living Body of Christ ~ that is to say, in the lives of God's faithful people, is the power that for so long restrained the forces of evil in America. As long as the majority of Christian churches remained faithful to Christ, American society and culture was powerfully influenced by God's Word and Spirit. But throughout the course of the past generation and more, that influence greatly waned ~ though not because that the unsaved world (outside of the churches) waged any kind of war on the churches. Rather, America's erstwhile Christian churches were corrupted from the inside ~ beginning in the colleges and seminaries:
"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and turned the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man...." (Romans 1:21-23).Now that the Word and the Spirit of God has largely been "taken out of the way," not only in America but throughout the whole world, the way is rapidly being prepared for the appearing of "that Wicked" (capital 'W'), meaning, the Antichrist. Few people have any real conception of what that means. The Antichrist is not going to be a mere man ~ but he is literally going to embody an unspeakably evil and powerful being that is going to "ascend out of the bottomless pit" (Revelation 11:7). And that otherworldly beast is not coming alone. But hordes of demons that are now bound in that place (wherever that is) are coming, too. Already, it seems as if many of those ancient, wicked spirits have somehow managed to be loosed upon the earth.
Watching the above video would have been absolutely revolting and shocking ~ to a generation of Americans that lived at least a half-century ago. But it is blasé to this present generation. The young devil who filmed that video repeatedly joked about how that the two unconscious people made for "good entertainment," etc. He said he wanted to hire them because they could "draw a crowd." Indeed, everyone around them was laughing and joking ~ but no one did anything to help those two people hanging on the edge of death. Many cars passed by on that busy street, but no one stopped, unless to gawk at the spectacle. As far as I could tell by watching that video several times, no one even bothered to call 911.
I used to wonder how it could ever happen that, during the Tribulation, neighbors would willingly stand aside or even assist the authorities to track down and kill everyone who would not take the "mark of the beast." How could any society become complicit in such evil? I don't wonder how, anymore. It is because they are themselves evil.
When I was a teenager, I visited Niagara Falls. As I recall, as far as a city-block away from those Falls, it was still difficult to hold a conversation with someone standing near, due to the deafening roar of those Falls. Ever since the turn of this century, I've seen America in free-fall ~ as though I have watched, as everything that was good in this nation poured in vast torrents over the edge of Niagara Falls and was smashed to pieces upon the rocks below; innumerable souls in that torrent.
I'm not hosting any pity-party. I don't write because it's therapeutic to me; though God does use my own writing to challenge me. I believe that Revival is still possible. Possible, I say. Not guaranteed. If we don't earnestly want God to move; if we are not discontent with the way things are; if we are unwilling to pay any kind of price to receive from God that which He has promised to those who will diligently seek Him ~ then, God will let us go on down the wide path of destruction with the rest of the wicked.
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