Peace and Safety

 Peace and Safety The apostle Paul gave a warning to the church at Thessalonica that we would do well to heed: For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them,as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (I Thessalonians 5:2-3) Far from being a reference to Sunday—or the Sabbath, for that matter—the "Day of the Lord" is when Jesus Christ returns, overthrows the governments of the earth and anyone else opposing Him, and establishes His Kingdom on earth. Though the ultimate end will be happy, the Day of the Lord signifies a great deal of calamity and destruction! Those who believe in a sovereign God know that human military might is of no consequence to Him. God protects whom He chooses to protect and destroys whom He wills to destroy. The size of the armies was irrelevant when Gideon's 300 men conquered 120,000. Physical stature mattered not whenDavid brought down Goliath. The Empire of Egypt was all but eliminated without Israel so much as raising a sword. Even Satan was powerless to harm Job until God lessened His protective hedge. This may be impossible for secular Americans to grasp and even difficult for religious Americans to comprehend if they do not take God at His Word. But from these examples, it is evident that neither the sizenor skill of armies is relevant. What is relevant is God's will. What matters is which side God is on. How much longer will God be on our side? How long until our sins—national and individual—demand a reckoning? There is little doubt that America is still on top of the world right now. Economically and militarily, we remain essentially unchallenged. Ancient Israel also stood at or near the height of her power when God saw fit to allow Assyria to conquer her. Her wealth and armies could not save her, just as America'svaunted power will not save the United States if God's will is contrary. If God is against us, who can be for us? As history tends to rhyme, the same stench that arose from ancient Israel is now wafting up from modern America. The book of Amos records an almost exact parallel account to what is happening in our day. It chronicles the social, political, economic, military, and religious conditions and attitudes prevalent in ancient Israel in about 760 BC, about forty years before Assyria invaded and completely devastated the nation. So awesome was Israel's defeat that, as far as the world is concerned, her people disappeared from history andare now considered the "Lost" Ten Tribes of Israel. What were ancient Israel's sins? Ezekiel 20 lays the charges of idolatry and Sabbath-breaking at their feet. Amos goes into great detail in describing greed, materialism, pride, oppression of the weak, perverted justice, an overall moral degeneracyincluding sexual sins, and a religion that allowed them to feel good about themselves even while bringing in heavy elements of paganism. They were complacent about immorality—within themselves or in the culture at large—because of their wealth. They were "rich,and increased with goods," and by their own accounting, they needed nothing—physically or spiritually. Are things so different today? Are we not mistaking our physical blessings as signs of God's acceptance of our behavior? This nation collectively crowed over the capture of Saddam Hussein and again at the elimination of Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Qassem Soleimani of Iran. But have not more innocent human beings been legally killed in the wombin civilized America than at the commands of all these evil men together? This fact cannot stand as a defense of Islamic despots or terrorists, but it should make one question this nation's appropriation of the moral high ground. America has been blessed farbeyond the nations descended from Ishmael and Esau, both materially and in having access to God's Word. Yet "to whom much is given, from him much will be required" (Luke12:48). God truly is merciful. But He is also just, so He cannot allow blatant sins against Himself or His creation—of which mankind is preeminent—to continue indefinitely. Without national repentance, national calamity becomes a certainty. Using ancient Israel as a guide, being the world's sole superpower matters not a whit if God is against us. In this past year, decade, and century, a steadily increasing moraldecline has been begging for His intervention. The biggest threat to the United States is not a bellicose Russia, a rising China, or an Islamic uprising in our midst. Our greatest threat is our own proclivity to trample on the instructions and the intentions of the Sovereign who decidesthe fate of nations. - David C. Grabbe