Self-Induced Destruction (It Doesn’t Have To Be)

 

A little over a year ago, commentator Victor Davis Hanson listed a number of dangers and evils plaguing American society in a piece featured in the publication, American Greatness, citing rising crime in our major cities, an increasingly unreliable justice system, a weakening economy, vulnerability to outside hostile forces, emboldened adversaries, and the dissolving of the credibility of the institutions that were once considered honorable and trustworthy. [1]   He also stated that these things are but self-induced and need not have to be [2] and while he is right about that much he still, like most others, even within the conservative MAGA movement, overlooks a vital factor and that founding component is not one that is economic or political but rather a spiritual one upon which the liberty, security, and prosperity that we have enjoyed to this day and have taken for granted, and now are in danger of losing rest.
 
If we are to retain what we have left and ever hope to recover the prosperity, security, and any liberties that have been lost to us then we have to return to the those founding principles and virtues upon which those things were built and upon which our most trusted institutions were once established.
 
If it is not by chance that the minds of our children and college students are being poisoned by lies by their teachers and professors,
If it is not by chance that the quality of our public education has diminished,
If it is not by chance that the media is no longer trustworthy in its reporting,
If it is not by chance that we are less secure within our borders than we once had been,
If it is not by chance that we are seeing the innocent condemned while excuses are made for the actions of the wicked,
If it is not by chance that our precious liberties are being attacked and violated,
If it is not by chance that we are witnessing greater division within our nation than ever before,
If it is not by chance that we should be under a government in which there is increasing corruption at every given level and even across party lines,
And if it is not by chance that our economy is in danger of collapsing,
Then it is not by chance that our institutions to which we have looked to be the pillars of our society were once more trustworthy,
It is not by chance that our justice system could once be counted on to uphold the innocent law-abiding citizen while bringing swift punishment to the evil and the lawless,
It is not by chance that our quality of education was far better than it is today, even during those times when information did not travel as fast or was as easily accessible as it is today,
It is not by chance that we once more secure within our own borders and within our own homes than we are today and that we were once able to count on those responsible for our security to maintain it.
It is not by chance that the media once possessed more integrity in their reporting than they do today
And it is not by chance that corruption within our halls of government had a minimal presence and that our governing officials could be trusted to retain and enact policies from which the general public, regardless of age, gender, occupation, economic status, skin-color, ethnicity, lineage, and even religion, benefited.
 
So, what happened that caused our government to become corrupt and evil at every level?
How is it that our judicial system and law enforcement end up taking the side of criminals against law-abiding citizens?
How is it that those governing officials who swore to uphold our Constitutional freedoms and liberties are now undermining and violating them?
How is it that our education system went from being amongst the best in the world to becoming amongst the worst?
Why are we less secure within our borders than we once had been?
How is it that our media has become so dishonest?
 
There can only be one answer to that question and it has to do with what we have adopted as our founding values, virtues, doctrines, and philosophies which are determined by what manner of spirit that we have given ourselves over to and what spirit we give ourselves over to is going to determine the very course of our lives and society itself be it for the better or the worse.
 
And if our government be corrupt, if our private sector be given over to greed and selfishness, if our entertainment industry be promoting depravity and evil, if our media be dishonest, if our academic institutions be full of deceit, and if our religious institutions remain silent in the face of all of this and not only that, but even go so far as to affirm and appease the injustices, corruptions, depravities, immoralities, and evils of our day instead of being the spiritual and moral conscience of our society that they were established to be, it is because we have embraced a spirit of greed, selfishness, corruption, deceit, dishonesty, immorality, injustice, prejudice, needless division, depravity, and one that has come to “steal, kill, and destroy.” (Jn 10:10)
 
And if the one that comes to steal, kill, and destroy has been gaining in strength in recent years, it is because we have turned away from that spirit which gives life, which builds up, and is a provider and have rejected that spirit of generosity, justice, purity, fairness, and from whom comes true knowledge and wisdom because we had more love of the things of darkness instead of the things of light and have taken pleasure in evil rather than in those things that are good, and have pursued after self-centered ambitions rather than those things beyond our own affairs.
 
We have taken for darkness that which is light and that which is of the light for a thing of darkness.
We have called that which is good evil and that which is evil good.
We have called that which is depraved to be pure and that which is pure to be depraved.
We have made the profane out to be sacred and that which is sacred out to be profane.
We have taken for lies that which is truth and have taken for truth that which is a lie.
We have taken for wisdom and knowledge that which is foolishness and have taken for foolishness and ignorant that which is wisdom and knowledge.
We have even taken for freedom that which leads to oppression and bondage and have called those things that are necessary for freedom and liberty to be oppressive and tyrannical and that is because we have turned away from and no longer know that which is the source life, the Father of lights ( Jas. 1:17) who is the sole definer of good and evil, the decider of what is right and wrong, the originator of law and order from whom comes wisdom and knowledge and who has been the founder of the liberty we claim to seek from the beginning.
We have, as it is written, placed our faith in broken cisterns which fail us and are not able to hold water rather than in that cistern that never breaks and will always hold water (Jer. 2:13) and those broken cisterns come in many forms whereas they be civic authorities, educators, teachers, professors, men and women of celebrity and influence, a job or career, wealth and resources, or even religious leaders, friends, family, our own strength, power, wisdom, and intellect.
 
Granted that all of these things may carry us to a point but are subject to failure even at the post critical conjunctures and when we do come to the end of ourselves and find ourselves facing an adversity or hardship against which we find ourselves powerless and defenseless in whatever form or fashion that might be, will we continue to place our faith in those broken cisterns even after they have clearly failed us and even betrayed us and to our own destruction or will we then surrender ourselves and fate to that Cistern that is unfailing? Will we then throw ourselves at His mercy and cry out to Him alone for deliverance or will we stubbornly continue to reject the salvation and deliverance He offers? Will we then turn away from our selfish, wicked, sinful, immoral, vile, depraved, rebellious, and foolish ways or will we persist at our own peril in following a path of evil and in rejecting that unfailing Cistern who is that very God by whom all things are made, who is the source of our liberty, our provider and sustainer, who brings order and purpose to our lives, who is able to sustain us in times of trouble and deliver us from adversity?
 
If we will but humbly fall upon our faces before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and turn away from our perverted, corrupt, selfish, evil, sinful, ungodly, and dark ways and earnestly seek Him out and be willing to submit ourselves to His rule of law, embrace His truth---for He is the source of truth, just as He is the source of all life---(Jn. 14:6), and if we will but cry out for the forgiveness of sins, and to walk in the way that He has set before us, abide in His wisdom and counsel, perhaps then we shall experience restoration and restitution.  Perhaps then we shall see our hardships, perils, and adversities at the very least diminished if not eliminated altogether.  Perhaps then we shall see the forces of evil weaken.  And perhaps we shall see and experience the blessings that come with a humble and sincere devotion to our Maker in everything that we do.
 
But if we continue to reject the call to repentance and if we persist in the rejection of our Creator, His truth, wisdom, knowledge, and His moral laws, precepts, and standards, then what right do we have to expect any favors from Him?  What right do we have to expect His blessings and His protection?
 
When we exclude God from our schools, colleges and universities, our public activities and events, when He is no longer a the center of every household, when He is mocked misrepresented and even vilified in our entertainment, when we reject His moral laws and precepts, when He is kept out of our day to day living, when we place our trust in anything and everything but the God who made us, when we deny and reject the truth that comes from Him and embrace everything that is contrary to what He has revealed to us and set before us, when we affirm and celebrate that which God calls evil, and when those who are supposed to be the spiritual and moral conscience of our society remain silent in the face of evil or worse, even affirm that which is evil in the sight of God, should it then be any wonder that we are left vulnerable to hostile powers from without and face treachery and sabotage from within?
Should it then be any surprise that we should systemic corruption at every level of government?
Should it ever be a shock to us that we should be fed lies and misinformation by those whom we trust to give us the truth?
Should it be an unprecedented thing to see our economy on the brink of collapse?
Should it be an unexpected thing to see our children’s minds being poisoned and their innocence lost?
 
The evil, immorality, corruption, and injustice that we witness in every branch of society is but an end result effect.  But what is the cause? From where does it arise?  It didn’t just all of a sudden happen but rather is influenced, shaped, guided, and directed by forces unseen and it is those unseen powers and principalities that inspire the very ideologies and philosophies that motivate and drive the evils that we witness but just there are evil principalities and powers that inspire the wicked ideologies which then become an excuse and a justification for the evil deeds and acts that we see, so then there are also forces of good that preach a truth and doctrine that inspires and motivates those things that are good what we give ourselves over to will determine whether a nation retains the greatness with which it was blessed or faces eventual destruction.
 
And if we are spared foreign occupation, if we are delivered from the threat of hyper-inflation, if men and women are placed in positions that empower them to purge our civic institutions of their evil and corrupt members, if there remain academic institutions who still hold onto integrity, if there remain media outlets dedicated to honest reporting of current happenings, if there is still entertainment that affirms and celebrates that which is good and honorable, if there continue to be businesses and corporations who regard the welfare of their employees and deal honestly with their customers, if there continue to be those who wish to be upright productive contributing members of society, if their still be parents determined to preserve the innocence of their children and raise them up to be God-fearing contributing members of society, and if there be those who still stand for that which is good and right and who seek to abide in that eternal truth that comes from God alone, and if the perils and threats from within are purged from our borders, then it is only because God continues to be merciful and gracious and that is only because there remains still enough among us who both love and fear Him.
 
But there will come a day when the sins of the nation will reach their full measure and when that measure is reached, judgment and destruction will surely come just as it came upon the earth in the form of a great flood in the days of forefather Noah, (Gen.  6-8) as it came upon the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of the patriarch Abraham, (Gen. 19:1-30) and as it has come upon every nation that has persisted in their rejection of and rebellion against their Creator and have sold themselves to serve the forces of darkness and to do that which is evil in the sight of God, and as it will eventually come upon the entire world when the sins, evil, and darkness of this present world has reached its full measure.
 
But no one need ever have to face the judgment of God but yet we invite it upon ourselves by choosing a course and a path that brings it upon us and the path that brings the judgment of God upon us is the path of sin, evil, darkness, the rejection of and rebellion against our Maker.
 
Our salvation and our deliverance is not going to come from a just and trustworthy government.
It is not going to come from an honest media.
It is not going to come from a good quality education.
It is not going to come from secure borders or a strong and powerful military.
It is not going to come from a robust, strong, and thriving economy and private sector.
And it is not going to come from people of authority, power, and influence.
 
It is only going to come by us embracing the God from whom salvation, deliverance, greatness, security, and prosperity come in the first place and it is only when we once again embrace the God upon whom our nation was founded, commit ourselves to abiding in His truth alone, and living in accordance to His laws, counsel, and precepts, and placing our trust in Him for the much needed knowledge and wisdom to direct us in the way that we should go every day and that is what will restore our nation to greatness and is the fear and love of God that was the secret to the greatness of America that a foreign statesman had reported back to his respective government when he came to visit America sometime back in the nineteenth century:
 
 
 
I went at your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their valleys. I visited their manufactories, their commercial markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ, as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America was great and free, and why France was a slave [3]
 
 
 
And the Lord God Himself, through the prophet Jeremiah says this in the scriptures:
 
 
 
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. (Jer. 18:7-10)
 
 
 
But at present, instead of doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord and instead of giving Him due reverence, honor, and devotion, we have turned away from Him and have done evil in His eyes.  As commentator Mike Huckabee stated some years ago:
 
 
 
we've systematically have attempted to remove God
from our schools, our public activities, but then at the moment we have
a calamity we wonder where He was...It's far more than just taking
prayer or Bible reading out of the schools; its the fact that people
sue a city so that we aren't confronted with a manger scene or Christmas carol,
and lawsuits are filed to remove a cross that's a memorial to fallen soldiers.
Churches and Christian owned businesses are told to surrender their values
under the edict of government orders to provide tax funded abortion pills.
We carefully and intentionally stop saying things are sinful and we call them disorders;
sometimes, we even say they're normal, and to get to where we
have to abandon bedrock moral truths: then we're asked, 'Well, where was God?'
And I respond that as I see it, we've escorted Him right out of our culture
and we've marched Him off the public square, and then we express
our surprise that a culture without Him actually reflects what it's become. [4]
 
 
 
But if we would invite God back into our schools, our public activities, if we will but fall upon our faces before Him, commit ourselves to both the learning of His Word and to the teaching thereof to others, if we will but call out evil for what it is and deal with in accordance to what the Word of God commands, if we will but dedicate ourselves to doing all that is good, right, and pleasing in the sight of our Maker, if we will but turn away from celebrating that which is evil, vile, perverse, and abominable in the His sight, and instead celebrate and affirm that which is pure, godly, holy, honorable, and righteous in His eyes, if we will stop condemning the innocent and cease repaying evil for good and instead bring swift punishment upon the deeds of the wicked and commend and reward they who do good, and if we will make Him the centerpiece of our culture and commit ourselves to abiding in His truth alone, then perhaps we will see the moral and spiritual decline in our society reversed.  Perhaps then we will be delivered from the threat of economic collapse, security threats from without and within and from the lawlessness plagues so many of our respective communities, see the wicked and corrupt purged from civic positions and replaced by better and more principled men and women in whom resides the fear of the God who made us.  Maybe then we will see the innocence of our children better protected and also see them raised up to be God-fearing upright contributing members of society.  Perhaps we will also see integrity restored to our media, academic institutions, and our private sector and perhaps we will see business show better regard for the welfare of their employees and conduct honest dealings with their customers.  Perhaps then we will see a much greater respect for authority from our youth than at the present.  It may be also that generosity, selflessness, and genuine love for our fellow man will also increase as the love of God also increases within us as well, and we might also see the raising up of men and women endowed with the knowledge, wisdom, resources, and innovative capabilities needed to address the various problems, dilemmas, and concerns of our day, and perhaps we shall also see the powers of darkness start to weaken.
 
But if we persist the rejection of the God who made us, and in taking pleasure in those things that are evil, sinful, and displeasing in His eyes rather than in that which He has deemed to be good, pleasing, honorable, upright, and righteous, if we continue to align ourselves with the forces of darkness rather than the things of the light, to affirm and celebrate that which is wicked, vile, and perverse instead of that which is pure and holy, if we continue to embrace a culture of death rather than a culture of life, and if we continue to place our faith and trust in anything that is not God instead of the God who will never fail us, then we can only expect a worsening of our present state and we can only expect eventual destruction because our deliverance is not to be found in men, in governments, in wealth, nor in academia, or expert opinions, but only in the Lord God Almighty who is the source of all wisdom, knowledge, understanding, liberty, moral order and governance, and from who alone comes meaning and purpose in life, and who is able to meet every need, address every fear, worry, and concern, and who is able to sustain us in difficult trying times, and who alone is able to deliver us from peril, and who alone is able to dispel the present darkness with His Holy light.
 
But deliverance does not begin with any outward deliverance as many seek out, but rather it must first begin with an inward deliverance; a deliverance that liberates us from an unseen bondage and an invisible poverty and purges from us an inward corruption.
 
For the Lord God never intended for the world we live in to be subjugated to death, decay, corruption, perversion, evil, darkness, immorality, poverty, famine, wars, violence, oppression, pain, suffering, hardship, grief, sorrow, sickness, or destruction but created to be a place of peace, harmony, happiness, contentment, and joy and a place in which only goodness, purity, righteousness, life, and light dwell for He Himself is good, pure, holy, righteous, light, love, and light and not only that but perfectly and flawlessly so whereas our goodness, righteousness, purity, holiness, and love falls short of His perfection due to an inward corruption that resides within everyone and causes us to be contrary to what God made us to be.
 
Why is government corrupt?
Why is law enforcement corrupt?
Why is our justice system corrupt?
Why is the military corrupt?
Why is academia corrupt?
Why is the media corrupt?
Why is the entertainment industry corrupt?
Why is it that businesses and corporations succumb to corruption?
Why is it that even religious establishments become corrupt?
 
It is because they are built and operated by people who are by nature corrupt and corruption can only beget corruption and it is this inherent corruption that causes all the aforementioned institutions to become far removed for what they were originally established to do which is why only that which is incorruptible, and only God is incorruptible, is worthy of our full faith and trust.
 
When God had first made the heavens and the earth, they were without corruption just as He Himself is without corruption but corruption entered into the world by one act of disobedience by mankind.  But before that one act of disobedience, mankind had far greater liberty than any of us have ever experienced since that time.
 
But a lying voice led the first man Adam and the first woman Eve, Adam’s wife to believe that they could achieve even greater liberty and greater power by doing the one thing that was forbidden to them by God:  The eating of a fruit that came from a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
 
They were warned by God specifically that if they ate of that forbidden fruit that they would die (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3) but that lying spirit who was that serpent who came into the garden deceived them into thinking that they would not die, but that they instead would become more enlightened and greater than they already were (Gen. 3:4-5) thus offering the promise of a greater liberty which turned out to be a captivity to which all men are born into to this very day.
 
For after eating of that fruit, instead of becoming wiser, they were open only to shame and instead of being turned into gods as they were promised, they were reduced to a lesser and an inferior form to that which they were created to be.
 
For it was in that day that when they ate of that forbidden fruit that the condition that scripture calls sin, which is but the corrupted state of human nature, entered into them and with sin came the sentence of death; (Gen. 3:19) that sentence not being confined to just the first man and woman, but also being passed down to all of mankind since all of mankind descends from them and with the inherent sinful state that resides in all people, also comes death to all (Rom. 5:12) for as it is written, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) which comes to all people because everyone sins in some form or another and thus falls short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23)
 
But the consequences of that first act of disobedience were not confined to just mankind, but to all of creation over which man was to be given dominion (Gen. 1:26-31) but to all of creation itself which is why it is written that the entire creation groans and travails in pain to this day. (Rom. 8:19-22)
 
By a lie was man led into the bondage of sin, death, and decay and which subjugated all of creation to every kind and form of misery, hardship, pain, grief, sorrow, suffering, darkness, and evil that there ever was or could be and it was by a lie that the father of lies (Jn. 8:44) who is also that thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy (Jn. 10:10) claimed lordship over the kingdoms, nations, and empires of the earth (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 4:6-7) and is now called the prince of this present world (Jn. 12:31, 16:11) and oppresses all they whom he is able to take and hold captive.
 
And just as man was led away from that perfect liberty they had in the garden by a lie, so also by a lie are people and nations led into bondage and eventual destruction for it is a lie that offers a promise of a freedom greater than that which they have in the God who made them but which instead only turned out to be slavery, bondage, oppression, misery, grief, sorrow, and despair; not the greater freedom that is ever promised. 
 
I would like one example as to how abolishing prayer and scripture reading in schools and expelling God from public affairs ever made us a more peaceful, more free, more prosperous, and a more secure and greater society.  It never has done so.  Instead, it has only contributed, and largely so, to an ongoing moral and spiritual decline in our society of which every danger, peril, and evil that Hanson has listed in his American Greatness column has been the product and result.
 
The deliverance of any people and any nation and the restoration of the greatness thereof begins with a spiritual deliverance which God offers to every man, woman, and child for God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all would come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) and He has offered redemption to us on our behalf through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior being the only begotten Son of God who came into the world to take away our sins and this He did by offering Himself up to be killed upon the cross and in doing so, the demanded penalty for sin was satisfied and mercy was given and after having shed His blood on our behalf, He was raised from the dead so that we might be justified in Him (Rom. 4:25) and just as our souls are cleansed from sin thus liberated from what would otherwise be an unimaginable everlasting torment, so one day we will also be liberated from even bodily death itself when these corruptible forms of ours, in which sin dwells, are transformed into forms incorruptible and in which no sin dwells (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) and lastly, creation itself will be liberated from the curse of sin when the present prince of this world is cast out of it and receives his final sentence and this present world, with all of its evil, hardship, griefs, sorrows, pains, miseries, and suffering, is done away with and the universe is made anew and when it is made anew, there will be no sin, death, decay, evil, nor any curse, pain, grief, sadness, sorrow, heartache, misery, nor suffering or hardship of any sort or kind. (Rev. 21-22)
 
There will only be life, light, goodness, purity, peace, rest, contentment, joy, and happiness before the Lord.  If you have not done so already and wish to be assured of your salvation and become a citizen of the new and better world to come, then I urge you this day to call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins so that you need not worry about the judgment that is to come nor fear the fiery torments of hell to which all sin and all they who remain therein are subject but instead receive the forgiveness of sins and be granted entry into the heavenly kingdom that is above and which will one day join itself to the new and better creation to come.
 
It is but a sincere and heartfelt prayer away:
 
 
 
"Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen."
 
 
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1.  Victor David Hanson, “Imagine The Unimaginable,” American Greatness, May 11, 2022
https://amgreatness.com/2022/05/11/imagine-the-unimaginable/
 
2.  Ibid.
 
3.  Madison Clinton Peters, “Empty Pews & Selections from Other Sermons on Timely Topics,” pg. 35, Philadelphia A. T. Zeising & Co. , Printers And Publishers, December, 1886
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Empty_Pews_Selections_from_Other_Sermons/f54PAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
 
4.  Mike Huckabee in response to Neil Cavuto’s question, “Where was God?” during the terrible Sandy Hook elementary school shooting that took place in December of 2012; air date: December 15, 2012
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2038135300001/huckabee-where-was-god/?#sp=show-clips
 
 
 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
1.  John 10:10
 
2.  James 1:17
 
3.  Jeremiah 2:13
 
4.  John 14:6
 
5.  Genesis 6-8
 
6.  Genesis 19:1-31

7.  Jeremiah 18:7-10
 
8.  Genesis 2:16-17
 
9.  Genesis 3:3
 
10.  Genesis 3:19
 
11.  Romans 5:12
 
12.  Romans 6:23
 
13.  Romans 3:23
 
14.  Genesis 1:26-31
 
15.  Romans 8:19-22
 
16.  John 8:44
 
17.  Matthew 4:8-9
 
18.  Luke 4:6-7
 
19.  John 12:31
 
20.  John 16:11
 
21.  2 Peter 3:9
 
22.  Romans 4:25
 
23.  1 Corinthians 15:51-55
 
24.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
 
25.  Revelation 21-22