The Enemy Within
By Ricardo Barber
Amos 3:6
If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble?
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?
Is there is voice in the wilderness speaking for God in this postmodern world today? Has the pulpit become a sounding board only declaring what people want to hear? I marvel at the politicians and media who always paint God as a blessing machine and protector neglecting His wrath and judgment. We dare not say God caused 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. That would be politically incorrect. God only blesses America; He cannot possibly judge us. The trumpet has blown in our nation. Are we afraid? Yes, of an economic meltdown, money, the god of America, but in no way do we associate our current crisis with God’s judgment. God said that He was going to judge Israel. They failed to respond. It should have had an effect on their lives, but they did not listen to the prophet. Is our nation listening to the Word of God today or to Wall Street? Is there a preacher with enough boldness to step up warn our nation of coming judgment. “If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?” This word calamity means judgment. There must be a cause for the effect. God is in control of His universe, therefore when calamity strikes, there is a lesson to be learned from it. America’s love for money is what God is using to get our attention. Did we learn from the first depression? No, and we still are not listening to God. God will not let any nation dwell in peace and prosperity when it is in sin. There may be a brief period of it but judgment will come. Many years ago an article in the Wall Street Journal was produced at the start of the Depression:
What America needs more than railway extension, western irrigation, a low tariff, a bigger cotton crop, and a larger wheat crop is a revival of religion. The kind that father and mother used to have. A religion that counted it good business to take time for family worship each morning right in the middle of wheat harvest. A religion that prompted them to quit work a half hour earlier on Wednesday so that the whole family could get ready to go to prayer meeting.
America’s problem is the same today; it is a spiritual problem. Instead of new innovative energy plans, lower taxes, universal health care, and more jobs, America needs a spiritual awakening. An editorial from a major metropolitan had this to say:
This betrayal of Christ in the name of Christianity is one reason for the moral and spiritual malaise with which this country is afflicted. The melancholy fact is that the churches no longer influence the development of national character. People go to church mainly because of an impulse to participate in a service of worship, not because of any spiritual guidance they expect from the clergyman.
The historian Edward Gibbon in his book, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire gives five reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire:
The first step down is the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
Second, higher and higher taxes, the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
Third, the mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, and more immoral.
Fourth, the building of great armaments when the great enemy is within — the decay of individual responsibility.
And fifth, the decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.
We are in serious danger as a nation. All the political pragmatism won't fix the problem. We see in this current election season the bashing of one political party against another. I hope the American people are not so simple-minded as to think if we can get a certain party in office or a certain candidate, our problems will be solved. If there is some success in solving the mess that America is in, will the American people do like Amos said Israel did, “You who rejoice in Lodebar, and say, "Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves (Amos 6:13)? Will we continue to trust in the strength of military and money as Israel trusted in Jeroboam II? “Reverse natural laws, reverse national fortunes and the world takes note; reverse moral values and no one thinks anything significant has happened.”[1] It is obvious that there is a moral breakdown in America that is unprecedented in our history, or the history of any other nation, yet it is not treated as such. Economy, energy and war are at the top of the list of America’s major problems. In one year, Americans spend 65 billion dollars on alcoholic beverages. Sixty percent of the young people under age 25 have tried some form of illegal drug. 1 in 5 American over the age of 11 has a sexually transmitted disease. Everyday 8000 tenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease. Billions of dollars a year are spent on pornography. Homosexuals have banded together to form one of the most powerful, intimidating forces in politics.[2] Thirty percent of high school students have experimented with same sex activity. I get reports from the kids I minister to, that it is starting in junior high now. Every 2 minutes there is an alcohol related traffic injury and every 31 minutes there is a fatality. 16,885 people died in alcohol-related car crashes in 2005. Alcohol was involved in 39 percent of all crash fatalities in 2005. My prayers always goes out to our fallen soldiers that have lost their lives in Iraq, but no one is rising concern over the victims of drunk drivers (at least the media isn’t). One and a half million babies are aborted every year in this country. What about the consumers we are losing from abortion, 43 million consumers murdered since Roe v. Wade in 1973. The greatest threat America faces is ourselves and if we don’t speak up and own up our moral decay ultimate doom will come.
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Can you see our nation fall?
Headlines scream of our decay.
Is there any hope today?
Smog doth blind and traffic choke,
Wages bind and buildings smoke.
Welfare roles are soaring high,
And hard drugs cause one young to die.
Villains are heroes on TV
While legal loopholes set them free.
“Morality” is a foreign word,
Love with marriage is absurd.
Campus riots, no win war,
Busing is a festered sore.
Candidates are often shot
When they seek a major spot.
Highjacked planes, a lefty press
Schools are in an awful mess.
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Is there any hope at all?
-Author unknown
You will not see this poem on T.V. or in a newspaper today. What’s so striking about all of this is that our rebellion is not ignorance. We are a miniature of Israel; we have had God’s word more than any other nation besides Israel. Yet America is in the spiritual state that it is in. “Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth (Amos 9:8).” The enemy is within and change must first start with a repenting church if there is any hope for America. A former U.S. Senator states that the average life of the great civilizations of the world has been about 200 years. And they go through the following stages:
From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to selfishness
From selfishness to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy back to bondage
What stage do you think we are in? How long is this nation going to last?
[1] J.A. Motyer, The Message of Amos (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1974), 146.
[2] J. Vernon McGee, America Needs a Declaration of Dependence, 8.
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