The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

Election results came in fairly early last night, and Obama is our new president. It seems that some Christians believe this vote has ushered in the last days and the end of life as we know it. I remember thinking the same thing when Bill Clinton was elected, but I’m still here.

Many Americans no longer fear God, it is true. And I am very concerned about the social and economic issues of our day, just as you probably are.

But America is still a great country.

I’ve lived overseas for several years. I’ve also traveled extensively to other nations. None of them can compare to America.

When we moved to post-communist Hungary in 1993, the abortion rate was 130 abortions for every 100 lives births. You read it right: there were more abortions than live births. Currently, that nation assumes that its people are so corrupt that taxes are set at 100% of a person’s reported income. This puts Christians between a rock and a hard place. If they report their income honestly, they won’t have anything left for their family at all.

Western Europe, the birthplace of the Reformation, is very hardened toward the Gospel today. New Age runs rampant, pornography is openly displayed in public places, and social issues such as homosexuality and abortion aren’t even voted on because the issues have long since been decided and accepted as common practice. A very low drinking age assures that bars are full of teenagers, and promiscuity is a given.

These issues, while grave, all pale in comparison to the genocide that is ravaging Africa. Christians are routinely martyred in many areas, and children are orphaned by AIDS or sold into slavery in exchange for a few meals. The rich and powerful grow fat while the poor languish and die. Reports have come out of China that some pregnant women were kidnapped from their homes and given forced abortions when they dared to defy that nation’s “one child only” policy.

Has God abandoned these nations? Are they under His judgment? Did we believe that we were somehow favored by Him in a way that these nations were not, and that the results of one election have now cast us from His hand?

There is not a nation in the world that doesn’t deserve God’s just wrath. Just as every man is a sinner, so every nation is populated entirely of sinners. It is no different with us. This election may make it easier for evil to thrive in our country, but it does not mark the beginning of our rejection of God’s laws. It simply reveals where we already are as a nation, on a path we’ve been following for decades.

This month’s issue of Tabletalk magazine is titled The Church of Jesus Christ and its Impact Around the World. Take a few minutes and read some of the articles. It will quickly become clear that the American church is not the only place where God is at work. God is working throughout the entire world, using His people, His Church, wherever they are found.

I don’t like where we are as a country, nor do I like where we are headed. But I am not in despair. There is still a large and faithful Church in our nation. Our liberties, while perhaps not as secure as they were yesterday, are still plentiful when compared with other nations around the world.

Dear Christian sisters, let us not give in to fear. Let us walk forward with hope, knowing that every day of our lives was written in the Lord’s Book before one of them came to be! Even this day.

Let us pray for the furtherance of the Gospel in this nation. Our people are crying out for “Change!”, and we alone know that the Gospel is the only thing that truly transforms people–and nations.

Who knows? Perhaps this is not the day of our judgment, but the day on which the Lord will begin a mighty work of repentance and salvation amongst our countrymen.