If there ever was a time for turning our eyes and hearts to God, current events scream that this is that time. The United States is bogged down abroad in unwinnable wars against undefined and unidentifiable enemies, at a present cost of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. At home, metaphorical bears have emerged from the jungles of high finance to ravage the stock market, which this past week saw the greatest losses of any week since the Great Depression.
Desperate and clueless, the federal government is borrowing first-aid kits from Socialism’s warehouse, in hopes it can save the demigods of capitalism and free enterprise. Treasury officials worldwide are collaborating in hushed tones, the citizenry are venting their outrage at the ungodly compensations and bonuses netted by the actual culprits, and everyone seems to have forgotten that the two most powerful engines driving Wall Street have always been greed and fear.
Meanwhile, less than a month away from a presidential election with no coherent vision offered by either side, extremists in both parties are now resorting to empty cliches, unequivocal misrepresentations and outright lies. The configuration of presidential candidates, international banking interests and general sense of panic has created a field-day for biblical prophecy speculators who, armed with the internet, are adding their own layer of End-Time doom and gloom to the fearfulness that already exists.
In the midst of such circumstances, believers do well to remember that God has no special deal with America, and America has no guarantees from God. However, actions do have consequences, and societies cannot plant one crop and harvest another. Whether God still chastens nations directly or simply allows their own moral corruption to take its course, the effect is the same. Godly people often suffer and die alongside the scoffers and scoundrels. Faith does not mean that God will always protect us from evil now. It does enable us to trust him, whatever may come, in the confidence that he will have the final, victorious, eternal word.
