Order (2)

The problem described in the previous post also affects the United States of America. For the first couple of hundred years, most migrants came from Europe, so they accepted Christian moral standards, even if they were not overtly Christian themselves. Regular revivals refreshed the wells of Christian faith and expanded the acceptance of Christian values. Migrants from Africa usually accepted Christianity soon after they arrived. This unity of values sustained an orderly society.

During the twentieth century, two things happened. The United States started accepting migrants from a diverse range of nations and cultures. At the same time, the church went to sleep on the job. The revivals which had swept a Christian perspective across recent newcomers came to an end. The United States is now a strange and diverse ethnic and religious mix without any unifying culture. This diversity would fling society apart, if it was not held together by force.

I read the other day that there will soon be 20,000 uniformed troops based in the United States to maintain homeland security. This is the inevitable consequence of the loss of a unifying culture. The homeland security troops will keep the lid on, but the tensions will always be there ready to emerge, when the right trigger comes along. They will establish an uneasy order, but it will not be the same as the order that comes from human responsibility and cooperation.

Unless the church in the United States forgets about waiting for Jesus to come and gets off its bum and spreads the gospel, the situation will get worse. Society will become more diverse and more divided. If there is no revival, the “United” will shrink and the “State” will expand to counteract the shrinking until it becomes “The State”.

I have real doubts as to whether the American church is capable of preventing this from happening. It is so blinded by end-times teaching and properity prophecies that it could not cope with a real revival. I think we have already moved onto Plan B in which God prepares a remnant to survive the ensuing chaos. Plan A where the church rises up to proclaim the gospel in the power of the Spirit to tranform the nation and unify the culture has already passed its use-by date. I hope I am wrong, but most of the evidence points the other way.