America Faces Judgment, But Christians Live With Hope

We as individuals and a society are under judgment. Trump is like Josiah, who was a good king, but the judgment prophecies brought by Jeremiah (who began prophesying during the reign of Josiah) to the effect that Judah would be destroyed were still in effect. Even though he's "good," Trump is also like Cyrus who allowed a large contingent of Jews in Babylon to return to their homeland. He was a sympathetic and wise ruler, but he did not worship God. Trump is not a born-again Christian, but to his credit (not his salvation), he is in sympathy with some of our beliefs.

A national right to an abortion guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution was overturned, but the right of individual states to allow abortion is still allowed. So infant murder continues at a high level even though certain more Christian states are allowed to disallow or opt out of most abortions.

Hopefully, Obergefell v. Hodges will also be overturned like Roe v. Wade, and so-called "gay marriage" (anything but "gay") will be overturned as a Constitutionally enjoined "right." I'm a bit more optimistic because 36 states have already voted against homosexual marriage (including California twice). So, if it goes back to the states, hopefully, almost all states will reject it as a legally authorized arrangement.

Meanwhile, birth rates outside of marriage are high. Divorce rates are 50%. People are marrying later in life, or they are increasingly living together without being married. Drug use is up, and marijuana is legalized in many states. Dependence on government is increasingly replacing belief in the individual's responsibility to live a responsible, moral life and to provide for himself or herself unless they are disabled by a physical or mental impairment. Birth rates are down among evangelicals and people of European descent as we are overrun by people of Asian or Middle Eastern descent, or by Roman Catholics (practicing and non-practicing) from Latin America. 

Further, too many people see themselves as "impaired." They are living off their parents and spend long days playing video games, hanging out, and smoking joints. Trends like this can only be changed by born-again faith in Christ. When we believe we are impaired, many times the hope that Christ ALONE provides (not therapy) inspires a renewal and/or renovation of our minds and personalities, so that the helplessness we may have experienced dissipates. Through Him, we achieve a self-sufficiency that we did not experience prior to coming to Christ. 

All people are not "created equal" in the sense that that phrase is used by a demonic and obsessed Left. The Declaration is speaking about being created equal in terms of our quest to sustain "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This does not mean that if one man knows how to make a wagon and another does not they should both be hired to make a wagon because they both "deserve" the same work opportunity. That is not promoting equality.  It is promoting either stupidity or communism, depending upon the person's frame of reference.

The Bible is clear that the employer decides whom to employ and how much to pay those whom he hires. Once we understand this clearly, we will not be surprised that false ideas of equality were the basis of communism, which collapsed in the USSR and had to be drastically modified in the 1980s, even in the cruel, dictatorial People's Republic of China (PRC).

Further, as any philosophy major will tell us, the pursuit of happiness was an Aristotelian goal. Happiness ("eudaemonia" in Greek) was the result of developing contemplation of many habits of balanced living. Balance for Aristotle was the "hexis" (balance) between excess or deficiency in our decision-making in the many ethically challenging situations we regularly face.

However, because of the Protestant Christian influence on our Declaration of Independence, happiness moved from being a result of right decision-making as with Aristotle to a God-given right (one of our "inalienable rights") - a goal legitimized by a holy God. It is God, not simply a formula for good decision-making, who opens the door to personal happiness. It is He who calls us to happiness despite the inherent suffering found in the human condition. We are also called by Him to liberty, despite the network of duties and responsibilities that bind us on a daily basis. And lastly, perhaps most importantly, we are called by Almighty God to life despite the apparent finality of death, which appears to defeat our determined clinging to life. Because He is our life, the apparent victory of death proves to be an illusion.