Government by Crisis

By Hal Lindsey

 

At the beginning of 2017, no one could have foreseen the series of massive hurricanes that hit the United States.  Even minutes before it happened, no one could foresee the large earthquake that recently hit the Gulf of Alaska.  And if we had foreseen these events, we still couldn’t have stopped them.

 

We know that natural disasters will come, but we don’t know when.  And we can’t prevent them.  To some extent, we can prepare.  But mostly, we respond.

 

A budget crisis is not a natural disaster.  It is completely manmade.  But because it is a crisis, government reacts instead of acting.  The recent budget agreement funds the US government through February 8.  Even after all that effort, and all that drama, the continuing resolution will end in a matter of days.

 

This is an example of America’s dysfunction.  For many years now, the government has lurched from one crisis to another.  Like the budget, most of these crises have been of our own making.  When it takes the threat of a long-term government shutdown for Congress to get anything done, it precludes the thoughtful, deliberative process envisioned by America’s founders.

 

The problem is not with the system, but with the spiritual condition of the country trying to operate that system.

 

John Adams was the second President, and one of the architects of the American model of democracy.  He said, “We have no government… capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.  Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net.  Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate for any other.”  

 

During the 1992 Los Angeles riot, the man at the center of it all, Rodney King, made a television appearance.  He said, “I just want to say — you know — can we all get along?  Can we, can we get along?  Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids?…  I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while, let’s, you know let’s try to work it out.”

 

Can we get along?  The US economy seems to be in high gear.  A lot of good things are happening.  But the underlying divisions in this country grow wider and deeper by the day.  We’re divided into a thousand tribes.  Some are based on race or gender.  Others have to do with religion, or political affiliation.  It’s popularly called “identity politics.”

 

Jesus warned us about “identity politics” as a sign of the end times.  In Matthew 24:7, He said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”  (NASB)

 

At first glance, it looks like He’s being redundant, saying twice that countries will rise against one another.  But as I’ve pointed out before, the word here translated “nation” is the Greek word “ethnos.”  It means race or tribe.  In our time, we might say, “People group will rise against people group.”

 

That’s “identity politics.”  When people group rise against one another, it tears at the seams holding civilization together.  And in a country as diverse as the United States, there are a lot of potential seams.  

 

Oddly enough, while societies around the world are being fractured, they are also headed for consolidation.  Eventually, the whole world will briefly unify under the control of the Antichrist and False Prophet.  But the consolidations have already begun.

 

It’s fascinating that the people who are most passionate in their identity politics are also the ones pushing global government.  In other words, the chaos of people group rising against people group is actually good for globalists.  In chaos, people cry out for imposed order.  Those who seek out their different groups for security will for a short-while think the world leadership of the Antichrist and False Prophet will give them security. 
They will only find utter destruction.

 

The followers of Christ must stand on biblical principles, and those principles will increasingly become more unpopular as the coming of Christ draws near.  But when “people group rise against people group,” we don’t have to take part.  Ephesians 2:14 speaks of Christ bridging the gap between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  It applies to all potential divisions among real believers.  “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.”  (NKJV)

 

Christians should never be at enmity with one another, or with the world.  The most famous verse in the New Testament begins, “For God so loved the world….”  (John 3:16) That He loves the world means He loves everyone.  If He loves everyone, so should His followers. 

 

The Lord Jesus is rapidly coming to catch us up to meet Him instantaneously in Heaven.  That event called the Rapture is very near.  Be sure that you have asked the Lord Jesus to receive you as your Lord and Savior, and received His death on the cross to pay for all your sins and Forgive you.  If you prayed that prayer and meant it, you have just entered God’s Kingdom forever.