Over the last week we’ve been talking about Secular Morality, and while I think you’ve read the most accurate view of recent events right here at Think-Biblically.com, we’re not the only ones who have noticed. Several authors have written treatises regarding the decline of the American Spirit – our unique blend of Christian morality with a capitalist economy and a republic government. All three compare our current nation to Rome after it had been sacked in 410 AD. Some talking-head journalists and commentators have called America a nation in decline, but in truth its scarier than that – we’re a nation in transformation.

I warned my community back in the early 1990’s that the 1992 Election was possibly the most important in our nation’s existence. Nothing over the last 25 years has happened to change my opinion. We elected Bill Clinton, a man who ran on no principles and who campaigned on “Character doesn’t matter.” The Clinton’s started us on the road to Europeanization. Europe has been known for over a hundred years to be a place devoid of faith and champion of secular policies and values. Certainly the Obama administration propelled down that road further than Bill Clinton did, but without Clinton Obama would not have been possible. Republicans are not innocent in all this either, when they have had power to make real change they largely sat on their hands and did nothing. It looks as if the founding fathers “great experiment” of a democratic republic has come to an end. The question that remains is, “what now?”

When Rome fell, Christians lost a rich heritage that had been protected by the state for a few hundred years. Believer’s a couple generations later had no understanding of what that meant, and the same will be for our upcoming generation. Back then, Christians built monasteries and communities that helped keep civilization through the dark ages, and it is my contention that the church again must become a place of community and refuge from descending darkness. In our case, however, it isn’t the institution of the church to which we must ally ourselves, or even a favorite denomination but the brotherhood of Christianity across all boundaries – a people who consider themselves citizens of Christ’s kingdom first and of their respective nations second.

To be clear, this is not a circling of the wagons. It means those things we took for granted, Christian community in particular, are now needed as foundation stones for building a new life. This new life will likely result in persecution, lost wages, and lower ceilings in the work place. Currently YouTube is evaluating which of their patrons are "too offensive" to be able to participate in their advertising program -- one of the few ways one can make money on the site. It doesn't take much of a leap to see how Christian channels might be viewed as to homophobic, or too anti-Muslim to continue to receive advertising. The character assasination of Christianity is only beginning.

This sounds very doom and gloom, and some may accuse us being chicken little, but it is better to be prepared for the current movements to take hold than to put our hope in the righting of a rolling ship. If our nation should right itself, much praise is in order but we need to be aware that the danger our society faces is very real. Food for thought:

These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. – Hebrews 11.13-16