The decision from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now official: all clergy are banned from next month’s 9/11 ceremony. Once more there shall be no spiritual minister allowed to speak at the ten-year memorial service for the 9/11 victims and their families. At a time when people’s thoughts and hearts instinctively turn to God and prayer, the organizers of the memorial service for this national event are consciously and deliberately omitting God from their thoughts. Nonetheless, “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity” (Ps. 94:11). The thoughts of these godless organizers are, as the Bible says, empty.
Many years ago, the nation of Israel turned away from the Lord and left Him out of their thoughts. In matchless grace, God sent the people prophets to call the nation to repentance. Then He sent His only begotten Son. With a loving heart and in tender mercies, the Lord would have gathered the children of Israel together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but they (the Jewish leaders) would not (Matt. 23:27). As a result of this divine dismissal, God turned in righteous anger against His people. Judgment reigned down upon the Holy City as the Roman army came and destroyed Jerusalem leaving only one wall standing so people over the centuries could weep and wail and remember their house was left unto them desolate (Matt. 23:38).
The scene shifts from ancient Israel to modern America. History is now repeating itself. Once more the loving kindness and mercy of God is being rejected. And once more a nation has been left desolate. The events of 9/11 past are but a preview of terrible days yet to come for God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a nation sows, it shall reap. America has reaped its own desolation.
America is financially desolate. The most prosperous and wealthiest nation in the history of human civilization is now unsustainably in debt with no end in sight to the monetary greed which consumes the heart of our elected leaders from the nation’s highest elected office and below.
America is generationally desolate. Since the legalization of abortion on January 22, 1973, with a 7 to 2 majority decision in the infamous case known as Roe v. Wade, Americans have slaughtered millions of innocent unborn babies leaving the nation with a missing generation. Who can comprehend the potential doctors, lawyers and scientists the nation has butchered? While condemning genocide in Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Rwanda and elsewhere, America has left the wombs of woman desolate with its approbation of infanticide under the guise of a “woman’s reproductive right.”
America is morally desolate. The pornographic industry alone generates billions of dollars each year, generating more money than the four major sporting industries combined (NFL, MLB, NHL, and the NBA). And child pornography is among the fastest growing criminal segments on the Internet. In addition to that perversion there is the homosexual lifestyle that is openly militant and successful in legislating its way into the social fabric of society. Despite trillions of dollars spent on the welfare program there are more children born out of wedlock and fewer fathers in the home than ever before. According to Enrichment Journal the divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41 percent; the divorce rate in America for second marriage is 60 percent; the divorce rate in America for third marriage is 73 percent. The number of rapes, robberies, and riots that take place in this nation are appalling. America is morally desolate. The social fabric of society has been torn asunder.
America is spiritually desolate. In the public schools of our nation a Christian prayer is not allowed. In public ceremonies where the nation should come together to weep and repent such as the 9/11 memorial service, prayer is not allowed. Is it any wonder that satanic themes dominate the movie industry along with the exaltation of animals? Without being unfairly critical of what they are watching, millions flock to see movies such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Fright Night and Harry Potter.
The Lord would gather Americans as a people together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but, like Israel of old, there is a high probability that Americans, as a nation, will not return to the Lord and so we will keep on inviting God’s wrath. And the wrath of God will come, for America is, even now, like ripe fruit; it is there for the picking. Perhaps China will pick the fruit. Perhaps militant Islam will pick the fruit. What is certain is that America is now desolate and the final judgment is yet to come.
When Jesus spoke the words of Matthew 23:37-38 in AD 30, forty more years passed before Jerusalem fell to the Roman army in AD 70. During this short interval of time, a biblical principle was manifested: grace always precedes judgment. God always warns a nation before He finally allows its disintegration.
Let us hear now the words of Jesus and make personal application. Let us as a nation turn from our wicked ways and repent for our house has been left unto us desolate. We have already invited the wrath of God by our dismissing of Him when we need Him the most.
