America…In God We Trust?
Back in 2007 the Spirit of God began to stir me to write about the American economy and its relationship to its spiritual condition. As a financial professional i was concerned about the people whose millions of dollars i was overseeing and as a man called of God to speak His Word i was concerned about the things of God.
During the summer of 2007 i was on my way to work and praying about this when i saw a picture of a local shopping center and it was partially boarded up and looked somewhat desolate. Then i saw a map of the United States and little points of light appearing throughout the map. Then it was as if i was drawn into one of those points and saw strip mall after strip mall vacant and boarded up. I could feel the despair of the people and saw what looked like desolation of sorts.
After this vision i contemplated what it meant and it was then that my heart was moved to study this in far greater detail. I spent the next year and a half intently researching to get to the bottom of this. By December of 2007 my wife and i had moved most of our retirement savings out of equity mutual funds…even though i hadn’t yet really reached my conclusions.
It was during December of 2007 that i began writing what would become my book on the subject (see link). http://www.amazon.com/America-Ed-Chambers/dp/1615792406
So it is now 2011 and America has gone from being the strongest nation that has ever existed to potentially having its currency downgraded for financial strength. While i suspect the politicians will arrive at a decision to remedy the downgrade the fact this is even under discussion is troubling and evidence for concern.
Most fellow believers know the importance of trusting God and some are prophesying that everything will be alright for the believer. I agree that everything will be alright for those that know how to trust God but i do not agree that everything will be alright for America unless we either have another great awakening or another great economic breakthrough. By economic breakthrough i mean something on the level of when America built the train rails across our country, when we built the superhighways across America, or the advent of the internet. Each of these three brought huge expansion of market potential and without such another we have little hope except as God would show mercy.
Without going into all the things written in my book, i do need to point out a few salient points to justify why i am writing this. First, America has never had a decade as bad financially as we experienced from 2000-2009. Time magazine wrote that it was the worst decade in our history (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1942749,00.html) and they are right. Second, the rest of the world is taking more and more of the global economic pie for themselves. By the end of the last century America had more wealth than the next three most prosperous nations but lately the rest of the world has been eating more of the pie and we have been left with less and less. This is a simple way to explain why China, Brazil, India, Korea and other nations are rapidly growing their economy while the American economy has stalled. This explains why unemployment is high and will likely remain relatively high (to past norms).
This is also why our governments (Federal, State, and local) are struggling. The governments are very inefficient with their usage of capital (money) and look to add to their position in the market by growing themselves. For a government to grow this means they must have programs and people to employ. Each of these programs and people will have to be funded by taxes and that means the government must come up with more money to do these things. Now this works fine in an expanding economy but not so good when the economy is stalling. The government needs us working and paying taxes to fund their programs but they are biting the hand that feeds them when they overburden us with taxes. The first to feel the pinch has been the big businesses and that is why they have moved much of their work force to other countries. It had nothing to do with patriotism…it was all about the way capitalism is supposed to work.
Finally, we have an aging population and a very large portion of that population will likely be retiring over the next twenty five years. This group, known as the baby boomers, will put huge demands upon Social Security and Medicare. Additionally, many of these boomers has inadequately prepared for retirement and this mean many will have to make severe adjustments to their way of living. In other words, we will have a lot more poor people than we do now.
To make matters worse American education has not fared well against the rest of the world and many of the best thinkers are elsewhere. In 2007 we graduated 70,000 scientists and engineers while China and India graduated 970,000. The electronic conveniences such as calculators have rendered many young people incapable of simple tasks such as figuring out your change at a retail store. Texting on cell phones has become popular and many do not even spell out the words…sadly some do not even know how to spell simple words correctly. Americans are now the fattest people in the world and our increased technology has enabled medicine to keep us alive longer. Instead of treating the cause our medicines usually treat the pain.
I said all that to show that huge strains are occurring on our economy.
Spiritually, Americans do not care as much about God as they once did. This is a sweeping generalization of course because there are many in this nation that have a deep abiding relationship with the God of eternity. Rather it is that the nation in which we live has been steadily moving away from the God we claim to trust and believe in. Follow our laws and practices and you will see this. The Scopes trial brought evolution into the public classrooms in the 1920′s, and by the 1960′s the move was to rid the classrooms of any mention of God in scientific discussions. Today, it is rare to even hear that creation is a possibility as our national education system has firmly embraced evolution is as their accepted belief with little tolerance for the Christian world view.
It wasn’t that long ago that it was against the law to practice sodomy in our nation. Today we have States where homosexual marriage is legal and the trend is that more and more States will follow suit. We used to have blue laws prohibiting shops in the marketplace from being open on Sunday so familes could worship together…but today almost every store is open all day Sunday.
In 1998 when President Clinton lied to his wife, daughter, friends, and country about his sexual infidelities America still gave him a highly-favored rating. It was not that Americans are kind and prone to forgive but rather it was because the economy was doing well and the people were prospering and the President (although it had nothing to do with him) was given the credit. When America rated President Clinton so highly (after his lying) this send a message to the rest of the world about our country. That message…America cares more about its wealth than about integrity. A few years later our wealth centers – the trade towers – were attacked by terrorists. I believe the Word of the Lord in 1998 was “America has publicly declared to the rest of the world that she prefers mammon over God and she must be judged.”
After that revelation in 1998 we have seen some churches grow to huge sizes but most of them have had to water down the message. Many of the largest and most successful (in terms of numerical growth) churches have adopted new methods to attract people. These methods have come under the title of “seeker sensitive.”
Having visited many such churches over the last twenty five years i find it interesting to see that the first youth groups of those churches are now adults and many do not stay in church. In fact, some reports are made that these young adults are staying away in alarming numbers. Of those that do attend it has been noticed that most do not bring their Bible to church and prefer to go to a church where they don’t feel judged but do feel love. This is a tricky matter for the Word of God does indeed speak of holy living and we as believers need to not regard lightly our sin. To regard our sin lightly is to disrespect the very reason Christ had to go to the cross.
So America has been moving backward spiritually and so has the economy. For America to move forward i believe it will have to start with a spiritual awakening. Many of my fellow preachers scowl at such a message as i’ve just written as they think such preaching is doom and gloom. Friends, i just follow the leading of the Lord as best as i know…if i am wrong then i am ready to answer for it. God has always had someone stand up and speak during hard times. America is the midst of a hard time and if people decide our currency is worthless and only paper backed by a government that has mismanaged its resources then what if we turn against our currency and panic? Will this lead to the one world government with an economic trading system based upon a number of a man? Will this occur because we are already witnessing a falling away in America?
Time will tell and the church will be triumphant…but it not will be as many suppose. This same mistake was made when Jesus Christ arrived. The disciples expected Him to overthrow the government and make all things right…but Jesus triumphed by going to the cross and being resurrected. The future is bright but that brightness may not come as you suppose…it may come through trial and tribulation as it usually has.
Paul wrote his best letters to the church from prison. John wrote Revelation after they tried to fry him alive in oil. Count it joy when you suffer persecution. Forget about the secret escape…be a champion!
