America/Sodom/Gomorrah ... J. D. Longstreet

America/Sodom/Gomorrah
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I began writing this piece on "Good Friday," the day upon which we Christians remember the crucifixion, death,  and entombment of Christ.

Christians have waited since for the sun to rise on this Sunday, Easter morning.

Today, Easter Sunday, we rejoice as we celebrate Christ's resurrection, his victory over death, hell, and the grave. The Christian faith is founded upon the events of the period from Christ's arrest until his ascension.

Sadly, today the tenets of the Christian faith have been turned and are now being used by those of little or no faith against the Christian Church.

Where are the Christian warriors?  (Maybe we need a modern day Knights Templar organization to confront those who have turned America on its head.  Just a thought.)
America used to be a Christian nation.  She can not lay claim to that title any longer. 

Look.  The very word "Christian" means "Christ-like."  There is very little in America that could be classified as Christ-like today.  In fact, America reassembles Sodom and Gomorrah more than a nation that subscribes to the teachings of Christ.

The scriptures tell us that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining fire down from heaven  and incinerating both towns -- and all within them. 

As I write, America is under a threat from North Korea to rain down fire from the heavens upon our nation.  You don't suppose there is a connection  -- do you?

America's culture is a carbon copy of the wicked culture of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The leaders of our nation have sanctioned the very same culture, for which Sodom and Gomorrah paid the ultimate price.

Let's be clear.  Those two ancient cities were NOT destroyed by God because of bad hospitality (inhospitality) .  They were destroyed by God for the sin of practicing every kind of vice imaginable -- including the practice of homosexuality.  The scriptures are exceedingly clear about that.

 "America, is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within." ... Joseph Stalin 

Uncle Joe was spot on with that assessment. His accuracy is evident all around us today.  America is, indeed, collapsing from within.  Practicing Christians know this.  They see the evidence, they recognize it for what it is, for they live, like everyone else, in the muck and mire of the degenerate decadence that is modern America.  It is all around us day in and day out. America's indulgence in sensual pleasures, its excessive and immoral activities involving sex, alcohol, food, and drugs has swamped our beloved country much like a tsunami embracing a beachfront village.  We are awash in hedonism. We have created a society that values the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good.  

The perversions of Roman Emperor Caligula can barely hold a candle to the "egalitarian" hedonistic escapades of we Americans.  We have even gone so far as to urge our Supreme Court to decree such behavior as constitutionally protected.

This behavior by a people, a nation, is nothing new.  Thousands of years ago a prophet wrote:   "The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves." -- Isaiah 3:9 .  Read that short piece of scripture again and then turn on a TV news channel and observe as "they parade their sin as Sodom."

I ask you:  How much farther can America fall before she hits the bottom.  Instead, maybe the question ought to be how much farther MUST America fall before she hits the bottom.  I pose the question because our arrogance, our stubbornness, will not allow Americans to recognize and then accept our enslavement to a death wish.  For, believe me, it is a death wish.

No less an authority that the Scriptures tells us flat-out that:  "The wages of sin is -- death." (Romans 6:23 -- The Bible)

There has been a complete moral breakdown in American society.  Since the 1960's there has been a spiraling descent of Americans into the depths of hedonistic squalor.  "Moral relativism," in my opinion, has greased the rails leading to chaos, ruin, and eventually, to  perdition for our once great country.   We know it by another name today -- political correctness --and -- at least SOME of us can see the hefty price tag.

Social conservatives championing "family values" were mocked and shouted down just a bare few years ago. It was reminiscent of those who laughed at --and derided -- a fellow named Noah as he sweated profusely to build a huge float-able barge in the heat of a dry, dry, desert.  The laughter and derision ended abruptly when the water began to rise.  By then, of course, it was too late.

Thomas Huxley once said: "It doesn't take much of a man to be a Christian, but it takes all there is of him."   In America today Christians are fighting a holding action.  We hear often of the war on Christianity. It IS real and no quarter is given by the opponents of Christianity.

I had not intended to deliver a sermon when I began this piece. It just sort of evolved into, well, whatever you may chose to call it.

To America's Christian community, I offer encouragement.  But -- we MUST take a stand.  In fact, those are our instructions: "Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."  (Ephesians 6:13 -- The Bible)

As we look around us, there can be no doubt THIS is the EVIL DAY.

As Brother Martin Luther, the Great Reformer, was on trial for his life, he refused to recant and he left us with words that echo down through the ages.  As he refused to recant he said:  "Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me. Amen."

So, I would call upon my fellow Christians to "stand".  Don't give an inch. And may God help us.  Amen.
 
© J. D. Longstreet