The American identity and national way of life stand on the brink of total disintegration, dependency, and slavery.

The machines of men and demons incrementally ratchet the gears tighter with each passing day, while the people of this nation have steadfastly ignored the warnings and alarms issued by the timeless Scriptures and wisdom of old. There is a great and terrible time of judgment quickly approaching that will overthrow what is left of the American way of life.

This nation is sound asleep. The shrewd and subtle ways of evil operate like a dimmer switch turned down on hundred-year increments so that no one notices until things are truly dark. We live in these times, crowding into ever smaller islands of light where everyone acts as though it is normal. It is not normal. This is the present circumstance of the United States. We are on the road to perdition. It is wide, well-travelled, and has no speed limit until the destruction at the bottom.

This coming destruction is a form of God’s righteous judgement, and when it comes it will be righteous and much deserved. There is a kind of comfort in knowing that God’s judgment is just. All his works are good, and we ought to praise him, even if it is our own nation that is under judgment. This is the correct posture towards God in this moment and it points us toward our future deliverance as well.

Origins

To trace the roots of this societal collapse would require a long road back. It goes past the feminist revolution that celebrated feminine discontentment and normalized divorce, past the industrial revolution that separated man from his land and family. It goes past the capture of institutions by Marxists and the theology of greed and discontentment. It goes past progressive education over a hundred years ago, past naturalism and Darwinism, past the rise of theological liberalism. It goes past the victory of Washington D.C. over the states, past Hegel, Kant, and the European enlightenment. It goes all the way back. We are a sinful people born as slaves to sin.

The human race is destined to slavery of some sort. We will be slaves to our appetites and indulgences, or we will deny ourselves, submit to God and declare him our lord.

When a people turns from submission to Christ and turns toward self-indulgence, it inevitably becomes enslaved. First the slavery is a soft slavery to appetite and comfort, but it does not take long for tyrants to rise on promises of greater comforts and indulgences. In this way, enslavement to government does not appear as tyranny, but as benevolence and provision. Later, when the governments of men bring war and disaster on their people, their comforts come under threat. At this point the ever-larger government swoops in with a greater power grab and all the fat slaves of comfort rush to bow to their new savior.

In this way, all rejection of God’s lordship inevitably leads to enslavement to men. It is one or the other. The fear of God will keep men humble under his righteous authority, or the fear of man will keep men enslaved under man’s tyrannical authority. America has chosen to trust in the comforts of men rather than God, and it will reap what it sows.

America will get worse before it gets better, and getting better is not guaranteed. It will go on getting worse perpetually until someone makes it get better.

Preparedness

Emergency preparedness is a big trend of our day, because nearly everyone recognizes the precarious position of our entire society. This kind of preparedness is wise and reasonable in these times, but it is only a short-term solution.

When disaster strikes it will not be short-lived. The government will use it as a bridge to total enslavement. The governments will grasp their power long after the emergency is over, and it is this long game that God-fearing people must win. We need to not only survive and defeat the dark forces ahead but must also lay the foundations to rebuild a new Christendom.

Our civilization, which took centuries to build, is burning to the ground on our watch. The Calvinist work ethic that built this nation has been exchanged for discontentment, entitlement, and wage slavery. Those who built America did so under duress and hardship. They did not wait until times of prosperity and freedom before they began building. They did not wait for a peaceful and limited government to form. They did not survive on stored emergency supplies until things got better on their own. They built their independence in hard times, and the communities they built created the times of prosperity and freedom which our late generations have squandered.

Our task is greater than survival and homestead subsistence farming. We are the generations that allowed Christendom to burn, and at minimum we owe it to our descendants to lay some foundations on which they can build a better future. We must be nation builders, not merely emergency survivors.

How To Win

Our ancestors built this nation with churches in the center of every community. This fact is forgotten and scrubbed from history, but it is the building block of all freedom. These churches pounded the pulpits with the fear of God and the grace and good works for which he made men. These men mobilized communities with God-ordained purpose, and the communities built classical schools for their children. These schools multiplied into every community, and students learned Latin and English by sixth grade followed by skilled trades and apprenticeships that built their community. Small businesses, sawmills, and shops filled every town with industry and independence. Those who continued in education became teachers and preachers who exhorted their communities to the productive fear of God that keeps men and women humble and eager.

From within these communities the Great Awakenings took hold, hospitals and universities were built, and eventually, in 1776, they began the overthrow of the tyrannical government that ruled them. The fear of God set them free from the fear of man, and they became impossible to enslave.

The American people will need to learn this lesson once again. Government slavery is coming around the corner. The choice will be self-indulgence and comfort with slavery, or the God-fearing hard work of true independence and freedom.

The cost of discipleship begins with self-denial. The hope and promise to those who deny themselves is that they will not be tempted by the comfort slavery of a tyrant. Those who know the voice of the good shepherd will not be tempted by the voice of evil shepherds.

This is the great hope and victory that is possible. It will be the dividing line of our age, and future generations will look at the heroes of our day who counted the cost and rejected slavery over those who indulged in comforts and sold their souls to worldly masters.

T.S. Weidler is a pastor in Pennsylvania, and writes regularly at City on a Hill.

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