Beating America’s Unseen Enemy

Most of us do not thank God enough for the “simple” things in life. One of my blessings is the array of flowers in my backyard. It hosts a vivid arrangement of yellows, reds, violets, and greens. What miracles did it take to put it there? The alignment of the Moon and the Sun, the engineering of the atmosphere and systems like photosynthesis. With all this proof, how can anyone deny that God exists?

My flowers do not experience life as fully as I do. They are indeed adorned more lavishly than Solomon, in all his splendor. But my flowers cannot see, hear, taste, touch, or feel anything. If they could talk, none of them would understand me when I told them that I can ‘see’ the sky, and that it is ‘blue.’ How could you explain sight to creatures that cannot see? They would never understand the ‘feeling’ of a cool rain or a soft gust of wind.

Humans are also blind to certain things. There are colors that we cannot see and senses that we cannot imagine. God warned us in the Bible when He wrote, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

I also have some major blessings to be thankful for. I (and anyone reading) live in one of the most privileged civilizations to ever exist. The United States has nearly eradicated horrors like starvation, slavery, and war. We have conquered cures for many once fatal diseases.  We enjoy the right to assemble, speak, self-defense, and the right to worship freely. Not even King Solomon was adorned with luxuries like smartphones and air conditioning.

Life is good. But the Bible also warns us about people who live a little too high on the hog. We inevitably turn our backs on God. Remember Exodus? The ancient Israelites were freed from slavery and blessed with manna and water. They repaid the Lord with idolatry. Human beings are always getting ourselves into trouble. We are still here because of God’s mercy.

Today our country is under the influence of ‘something’ rotten. I can’t put my finger on what the ‘something’ is, but I suspect that it feels a lot like the ‘golden calf’ episode in ancient Israel. I cannot see ‘it’, but I know we are under the influence of ‘it’ in the same way that my flowers are under the influence of the sky they will never see and the rain they will never feel. There is malaise hanging over our world.

One sign is that we are running from the truth. American schools are aggressively screaming that there are many different genders, that people can live ‘virtuously’ in any family arrangement (except the nuclear family), and that any ‘birthing person’ within this arrangement can give birth if they so choose. The Bible tells us that God made man and woman. Their sex is assigned at birth. The best path for both is monogamous marriage. And within a monogamous marriage, only the woman can give birth to a child. Can a teacher still say that in front of class?  

Another clear sign of malaise is the fact that our country is actively encouraging and rewarding sin. Remember when American business leaders were known for ingenuity and integrity? Today they are better known for ‘ESG’ scams and government bailouts. Hollywood movies are so sexualized that the Chinese Communist Party, a Party of atheists, is rejecting them for moral reasons. Obesity is now celebrated as beautiful. And I will not even talk about the American political class or the media. It pays big money to be the “big guy.”

How do we fix it? Mankind is a naïve and flawed creation. We have no power over the things we can’t sense. Under our power, the ‘principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness’ will continue to run wild. Fortunately, we do have a friend in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To tame these problems, we need to turn the American people back to Him.
 

“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” -Matthew 21:22