Some have suggested (me among them) that the sexual perversion rampant in America today will call forth God’s judgment on this nation. And while that is certainly true, perhaps a greater truth lies beneath that, namely, that widespread sexual promiscuity and perversion are actually a substantial part of God’s judgment on a nation that has rejected Him. Paul states this reality specifically in his letter to the Romans. Note one of three specific examples. “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (1:25-27; also vv. 18-24, 28-32).

            Similarly, it has been suggested that the civil unrest and violence rampaging through the nation today will provoke God’s judgment. May I suggest, rather, that, like the example above, the current display of destructive anarchy, rather than provoking God’s judgment, is actually the opening salvo of God’s judgment on a nation that has rejected Him and rebelled against the truth.

            Scripture is replete with examples illustrating the fact that God allows and even orders violent disruptions—sometimes exclusively domestic in nature, other times going so far as to use foreign invasions—to chasten His people and to judge the ungodly.

            Consider Solomon, who departed so far from the Lord that he constructed high places for worshipping numerous idols. “So the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant’” (I Ki. 11:11). Jeroboam, Solomon’s servant, built a capitol, Shechem, in Ephraim; ten of the original twelve tribes rebelled against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, giving allegiance to Jeroboam. Hostility, even open warfare, persisted between the two nations until both ceased to exist. Civil strife, rather than being the catalyst for God’s judgment, is often the evidence that God has already begun judging a nation. That initial phase of judgment may then be followed by devastating warfare from a foreign source.

            Listen to God’s warning to His people through the prophet Isaiah. “Woe to those who enact evil statutes and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice and rob the poor of My people of their rights, so that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans. Now what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain” (Isa. 10:1-4a). In short order, God sent Assyria to invade and harass the nation.

            Notice Jehoram, king of Judah, whose apostasy and idolatry provoked the Lord, who “stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who bordered the Ethiopians; and they came against Judah and invaded it, and carried away all the possessions found in the king’s house” (II Chron. 21:16, 17a). (For a partial list, see also I Chron. 5:26; II Chron. 33:11; Jer. 25:27, 32; 43:10.)

            Yes, God will judge anarchists, rebels, and perpetrators of violence personally for their sinful deeds. But their existence is proof positive that God has withdrawn His hand of blessing upon America and has begun tightening the jaws of a vise that will ultimately bring her down. How soon that will be only God knows. But there is no hope for America as a nation. If you are looking to government for deliverance, your hope is vain. Salvation is personal and individual. Turn to the Lord.