This inner deterioration which is taking place in America shows itself in our relations with other nations. Senator Fulbright has said, “We have cast ourselves indiscriminately into the role of the defender of the status quo throughout the world. As a nation that prides itself upon will ingness to experiment, to abandon outworn tradition of a bygone age and move on to new horizons, what have we done? We defend a feudal system which the Arabs wish to change. In the Arab countries, for centuries there have been kings and princes and sheiks, and the great mass of the fifty millions of Arabs have had no say in government and have received very little support from the revenues of their oil fields. Iran and Iraq are somewhat exceptions.” News correspondents in Beirut and Bagh dad have said that the prestige of the United States in these countries ap pears to be “ sliding to zero — and fast.” Another wrote, “ Today the Arab nationalists 'have come to see the United States as a major foe.” In a world of confusion we wonder if decisions are being made in the interest of business rather than upon sound moral principles; if profit takes precedence over those principles of righteousness upon which our nation was founded. Little wonder Billy Graham has said: “The Communists are the world’s greatest evangelists. In one generation they have evan gelized the world with their gospel. Why? Because they are willing to endure hardness, sacrifice, pay any price, to make the world Communist. Ins t ead of being awakened and alarmed, we have been lulled to sleep. With the narcotic of constant pleasure and entertainment, the obsession with sex, believe me, this country stands on the threshold of disaster.” The parallel between ancient Is rael and modem America is all too clear to miss the similarity. The warning of this book of Lamentations is that people often do not wake up until the harvest of their sin has overtaken them, and the judgments of God overwhelmed them. Read the descriptions of sorrow in the after- math of divine judgment—read them in this book of Lamentations: “ she is become a widow . . . all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies . . . she is in bitterness . . . her enemies prosper . . . all her people sigh . . . abroad the sword bereaveth . . . at home there is death . . . the elders sit silent, dust covereth their heads . . . the children faint in the streets *Dr. Hart, a graduate of The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, is pastor of the Immanuel Baptist Church of Pasadena, California.
. . . is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.” Too late they awakened to the fact that sin was the cause of all their sorrow. It is so easy to forget God when we are pros perous and well. When a loved one hovers near death, or employment is uncertain, or friendships have been shattered—then we want God. But when we are not in trouble, God is unnecessary. We can live without Him. From this book of sorrow we learn another great truth, that righteous ness cannot be a quality in the life of the nation until it first becomes the character of an influential number of individuals in that nation. Right eousness in a nation is the result of righteousness in individual experience with God. Did not Jehovah say to Abraham concerning wicked Sodom, “ If there be ten righteous in Sodom I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake” ? God was looking for right eous individuals in a civilization that was corrupt from center to circum ference. Ten righteous could not be found and Sodom was purged by di vine judgments. With all the awak ening among sinners in America, a revival has not come to the church of Christ in America. It is there that the tragic deterioration is taking place. Sinners cannot love righteous ness until they love Christ. But what of those who profess to know Christ? Another truth comes from this book of Lamentations to answer our ques tion, What shall the righteous do? It is this, that sin has a cumulative effect. You cannot confine in the past
the results of the sins of a previous generation. Its evil effects flow into the present generation. The “ sins of the fathers are visited upon the chil dren unto the third and fourth gen eration.” America in our day has a higher rate of juvenile delinquency than in any nation on earth, a higher divorce ra te, a greater per capita con sumption of liquor. This is but part of the breakdown in righteousness in individual living in our nation. The indifference to the Lord’s Day is a warning every week-end that “ God is not in all their thoughts”—profess ing Christians being among this wor shipless throng. But let us thank God, that right eousness also has a cumulative effect upon the life of a nation. You cannot confine the victory of Christ in your life. It will bless others about you. What is the place for an individual Christian in a world like this? “ Ye are the salt of the earth . . . the light of the world.” But, “ if the salt have lost its savour?” What then? The in evitable results Jeremiah proclaimed over Israel, “ all that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of beau ty, the joy of the whole earth? All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee; they hiss and gnash their teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up; certainly this is the day that we looked for” (2:15,16). Shall this become the exulting cry of the enemies of righteousness in America? It is certain to come if the Christian salt loses its savour! Make no mistake about it — non-Christian society of our time would rejoice if the preaching of the pure gospel of
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JANUARY, 1959
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