“Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” Jeremiah 2:21. In this verse God is speaking to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, but is He saying the same thing to the people of America today?

There can be no doubt that the U.S. is floundering. I don’t mean just financially, although that is certainly a very real concern. No, what I’m talking about is the moral and spiritual degeneracy currently permeating our land.

Down we go, down to new depths of depravity. Most people in America haven’t a clue of what’s just around the next bend in the river concerning this nation, still, to some it obvious. America is currently wallowing in total depravity, but too many Americans see only what they want to see. Instead of a united nation, America is horribly fragmented. Increasingly we’re seen as a populous of “What’s in it for me” and “The devil take ya” attitudes. Something’s rotten in America, people, and I don’t think it’s oily fish.   

Since America has given God the boot, American’s no longer give God the glory as the provider of their needs. Being thankful for what they’ve received from God has become a foreign concept. Americans have kicked God out of every aspect of life, even many churches no longer allow Him in. Is there still a question in anyone’s mind as to why America is riding the toilet rim?

Because these days are filled with bad news and economic down turns people keep turning to one political figure after another as a cure-all to fix everything, Instead we should be turning to the only One whose great pleasure it is to heal and restore. This One is mankind’s Savior, Jesus the Christ. According to a recent poll taken in America approximately 80% of Americans profess they are Christian. If that be the case, then we need to ask ourselves two very serious questions: First why, if 80% of America is Christian is there a Muslim determining America’s fate? Second, as a nation that claims its foundation stone was the rock Jesus Christ, why have we done a 180 degree turn away from Him and His teachings? America would not be in the toilet today spiritually and morally if we hadn’t turned our backs on God some decades ago.

Since 80% of American’s claim they are Christians, it tells me many are either lying or they don’t really have a clue as to what it means to be born again. It’s impossible to be a Christian without being born again. A person can’t just claim to be Christian yet have no knowledge of what that designation entails. They can play Christian but we can all see where that gets us.

“Ye are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:14. God surely planted a noble vine when He planted America, a light to a lost world. But that once very influential light has diminished and is now in jeopardy of going completely dark. Many theologians say America never was a Christian nation, only that God, for a time in the past, could claim a much larger portion of the American populous as His children. After doing extensive research into America’s past I’ve come to the conclusion those theologians may be correct. I don’t doubt 80% of Americans claim to be Christian, but I do doubt their spiritual conversion. And it’s as plain as day as to why I have my doubts.

“Ye are the salt of the earth:” Matthew 5:13a. To be a Christian means we adhere, as best we can, to the percepts put forth in the Bible. In the past we made it known to the world that America was a nation of Christ’s followers. If Americans as a majority are Christian, then they certainly aren’t following the Bible as their guide to living that Christ filled life. “...but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” Matthew 5:13b.

God gave us everything we need in His word, and by that I mean He’s given us His commandments which are to be our guide in all life’s endeavors. But how many of the American’s polled who make up that 80 percentile group above actually read and study their Bibles? Or for that matter, how many even believe the Bible to be God’s inerrant word? It’s only my educated guess, but I would guess that only a small minority of those who claim to be born again (Christian) actually study and believe what they learn from God’s word, and even less actually apply what they’ve learned to their lives.

If I’m correct in my assumption, then as a nation we’re in real trouble, and we have been for some time. Our Liberties, those basic freedoms most take for granted have begun to deteriorate and are in danger of reaching levels not previously seen on the US’s portion of this continent. For this reason, the scarcity of true born again believers in Christ, America may well be beyond help when it comes to re-establishing our once revered republic.

How did the United States of America ever go so long without slipping into a totalitarian run country before now you might ask? I believe the numbers of those who actually placed their faith and their lives in Christ’s hands and allowed Him to have dominion over all aspects concerning their lives as well as their families was at one time much higher than the artificially inflated numbers we see today. In years past there were many more truly born again Christians who stood firm on the morals and precepts proclaimed in God’s word. They are the ones who did the voting and they placed their vote for individuals who had morals and were of good character. This just is not the case today; morals of the majority of American government officials are at an all time low. If we are voting for these folks as Christians, we are voting with our eyes closed. 

Morals and character are two forgotten godly characteristics relegated to a by-gone era. These two lost biblical concepts are no longer taught in our public schools nor, I would gather by the evidence, in most American homes today. America’s school children are now taught more about sex than any other subject previously taught in those once hallowed halls. Why? It is and has been the agenda with the sexual revolution crowd for many years. It’s the old “anything goes mindset” the current mantra is “Let’s get today’s children indoctrinated in all manner of sexual practices and perversions at the earliest of ages possible” (in Montana sex education now begins with kindergarteners).

At some point in the not so distant future Americans will be living in a society where everything goes and immorality will be overwhelmingly practiced. Promiscuity will no longer be taboo but demanded from every child and applauded when they’ve reached the pinnacle of sexual depravation. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Matthew 18:6, 7.

Evil is ever present, and when not held in check spreads like cancer. Who holds evil in check? Holy Spirit filled Christians. The degeneracy of America has been coming for some time now, which tells me Christianity has been diminishing right along. So when we read of polls taken proclaiming an 80 percentile range of Christians in this country know this, something is amiss.

With little or no moral or spiritual education as children, and even less discipline, crime flourishes in America. Thus the national crime rates are continually rising; hence America builds more prisons to accommodate the ever increasing criminal population.

A very real and current danger arising from an over taxed populous is that many local and state principalities can no longer afford to hold onto their prison population. For example, the duration of court assigned sentences are being drastically cut because of a lack of funding to increase the size of county jails and for the jailers who supervise the criminals. This carries over on a larger scale when related to state and federal prisons. So criminals are being released back into the unsuspecting law abiding population long before they’ve paid their debt to society and where they may, with impunity, continue their lives of crime. That old adage of “If you can’t do the time don’t do the crime” is no longer relevant.

So criminals are turned back out on the streets and it becomes a never ending cycle of crimes leading to more crimes leading to more regulations which also become just as impossible to enforce because of the lack of enforcers. And it’s all because America has turned from being a nation made up of moral Christ followers, to a majority of followers of the religion of secular humanism where anything goes. The truth of God’s word is no longer embraced but debased.

The fault for the flourishing degeneracy of America lies with all Americans, but even more so with those who profess to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We allowed this evil to progress by what we allowed to be taught to our children in public schools. When our children, while attending public schools for twelve years, are taught that there is no God, that humans evolved from pond scum, and that our prehistoric ancestors were primates, we must expect and accept the consequences of those teachings.

Ultimately what happens to human beings indoctrinated with the lie of evolution, which is pure satanic, is a migration toward animalistic tendencies. Since those who are taught this lie are being convinced they evolved from an animal with no moral restrictions, they no longer perceive any moral absolutes, and the sky’s the limit when it comes to depravation.

When degeneracy is allowed to flourish in any society, all too soon that society will be transformed into a wasteland no longer fit for human occupancy. A nation that continues to loosen its morals and discards its character will, before long, end up as did the people that existed in the days of Noah just prior to the great deluge. And we all know what happened to those sick and depraved individuals, or do we? The Bible must be believed and interpreted literally to understand the account of Genesis 6 properly and to understand why God sent that worldwide flood. Those who don’t believe history, or who allow history to be changed to fit a more civil concept or even forgotten for that matter, are doomed to repeat it. “But as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:37.

The key to a moral society is to live by God’s word. When His word is disparaged, or eliminated completely as it has been in our public school system, as well as in many homes in America, moral decay inevitably moves in. How can degeneracy and moral decay be abated? It can’t. At least not without God. Personally, I don’t see God being embraced by the majority of Americans any time soon.

America – 80% Christian? Not hardly. America – flourishing in degeneracy? Now we’re getting to the truth. America – willing to make changes and head back toward God? Not so you’d notice. America – a nation headed for self-destruction? Likely, very likely. 

God save us from our own foolishness,

Ron Graham

twotug@embarqmail.com

All scripture is from the KJV