America...The Lost Soul

How fast can a country lose its soul? With what degree of rapidity can a society evolve into something that it was never intended to be? Can a country survive the reinterpretation of its constitution and other founding documents and remain the same? Of course, it cannot! In the course of the last forty years America has taken such radical turns in its journey that it has finally lost its soul.

The America that this writer grew up in is almost totally unrecognizable today. It has happened right before the eyes of solid, Godly, conservative citizens and yet they have done very little to stop the degrading of the country. The educational system of America was seized by the liberals fifty years ago. They knew that the direction of a country could be radically changed if they started teaching children radical ideas at an early age. This was done slowly at first so as not to alarm the parents of the students too much. In little bitty bites the old ways were eroded precept by precept. No one noticed the difference too much until the liberals decided they had gotten things to the point that they could try something profoundly radical. So, God was challenged as a necessary part of who we are and what we do. Suddenly He was no longer welcomed in our classrooms and educational literature. I vividly remember how we used to start the school day. We stood and recited the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. Then we had a prayer in the classroom asking God to bless the students and guide them through the day. No one was offended. We had several Jewish students in our class and they prayed with the entire class. It was no big deal for them. But, try that today! You will quickly see what will happen.

Just take note of how, when God is banned, other things rush in to fill the void. So, the nation bans God from the public discourse, but welcomes witches, atheists, pagan world religions which reject Christ as the savior, and satan worship. Even our military makes room for the "religions" which dishonor God and deny Him. Now our congress is sometimes opened with "prayer" by people representing pagan religions and those who are satanists and atheists. When this can happen America has lost her Soul!

The next radical move from the liberal educational establishment in America was to teach people from an early age that the God they had earlier banned really had nothing to do with the creation of the world or anything in it. Evolution became the religion that began to replace basic Christianity in the educational system and in America in general. If one believed God created all there is, then they were simply not intelligent enough to even matter. So, when God is removed from the system then the foundational principles upon which this country was founded are being profoundly destroyed because God and Christianity were at the center of the foundation of America. If one does not believe this, then I challenge them to simply go read the founding documents and personal letters of the founders. I would remind the reader that evolution is still a "theory." Since that is a recognized fact then why is it taught as an absolute fact? That is dishonest to the core. Even highly educated scientists, who used to hold to evolution, are now saying...."Somebody had to do this" referring to creation. In studying genetics and the human genome as well as quantum physics, they now realize that this thing called the human body and creation in general is, of necessity, designed. It is too complicated to have evolved. They are now saying that it had to be designed by someone. I believe that anyone that thinks the human being, and other creatures evolved has given up their intellect in order to be accepted by peers who have done so themselves.

As God was removed and considered "old hat", and as the though process of the populace was slowly changed to more liberal thought, then it was an easy step to other activities which are destroying us. Life itself has been denigrated to the point that it means very little to a vast segment of our society. In order to do as they wished with life, the politically correct liberal world began to argue about when life really begins. They know abortion is wrong or they would not think it necessary to define when life begins. The abortionists try to clear their conscience by saying that a developing child isn't really a person until a certain point in time in a pregnancy has been reached. The developing fetus is no more than a mass of tissue until it passes a certain point of development. If a developing baby isn't a human all along, then why do they argue about when life really begins? They are looking for an "out" for their own consciences which will allow them to appeal to a "legal" definition of when life begins. All this maneuvering leads to the point that the state of New York can vote (and has) to allow parents to decide if they want a child even after it is fully born! Let's be up front about all of this. Abortion is premeditated murder at any time in a pregnancy. And now, this procedure has, little by little, reached the point that it is still considered a legal abortion even after a child is born before the parents assume responsibility and take the child into their family. If it is decided that the fully born child is not wanted for some reason, it is now accepted that they will just let it die or assist the child's death in some "legal" way. The liberal idiots who believe this is proper have lost their soul completely. They are assisting Satan in doing what he has always wanted to do: destroy God's greatest creation, man. I think that there is a spirit of death on America for the murder of sixty million little babies!!

When life means so little, then people have few qualms about destroying it. It is easy to observe this as one reads the daily news or watches the television broadcasts. Witness the murders in America. People have been so twisted by this wicked society they find some crazy reason to validate a decision to shoot any number of other fellow human beings and then turn the gun on themselves! It not only proves a total disregard for human life but it also proves that the killer has no fear of an afterlife in hell. Why? It's because they have little if any fear of judgment. If God isn't real or if He no longer matters, then why fear judgment? The "downgrade" of America finds its motivation in rebellion against God or a rejection of His existence at all. There is not enough space in this article to fully discuss so many other exhibitions of how America has lost its Soul. Child abuse, pornography, the massive use of drugs (an effort to dull the effects of a person's way of life), murders and just plain ole wickedness could all be explored with articles which would take thousands of words.

One other thing that I believe has devalued and cheapened life is the massive use of realistic video games. Children are started on them by the time they can barely talk. Their minds absorb the intuitive lessons taught to them as they employ a massive number of hours with their eyes glued to a video screen. Many of our most violent criminals, it is discovered, reached their point of violence after spending twenty hours a day or more on violent video games where they kill people by the hundreds. And, these games have now progressed to the point that the "people" being killed are very realistic looking. They are no longer stick figures or crude representations of human beings. They look REAL and act REAL. After many games and many hours, the person begins to get acclimated to killing. Then, one day, they carry out what they have loaded into their brain...murder. I believe that the mass killers somehow think that they are in a video game. They begin to believe that if they kill someone, all they have to do is delete the game and start another. Somehow, they believe that people don't really die, they just need to be "refreshed." All one needs to do is read the description of one of these mass killer's lives and they will discover that they literally live in a violent video world. My wife and I met a man in a restaurant. He was a psychologist with a highly respected medical institution. He said that they have discovered that the minds of children are being "reprogrammed" in a specific area of their brains by the use of video games. Something is instilled in them that makes them think differently to the point that common sense and proper thinking are negatively affected. He was very concerned about the implications of this on society in the future as these people mature and assume adult roles.

Video games are addictive. Sorry, but they are! Just ask a young person to give up their video games even while they eat a meal with the family. They fuss and fume because they have to put the game down for a bit. Parents are to blame because they allow their kids to get addicted. Those games keep them quiet. They are electronic baby sitters. The parent doesn't have to spend time with the child. Just let them get immersed in a game and they are quite for hours. Now, people who love these games, (many are violent as already mentioned), will fight one tooth and toenail when something negative is said about their electronic world in which they reside for hours a day. I care little about what they say, those violent video games are programming them to have little value for life and other things which have always properly ordered life. So, we have millions of young people who now have a different value attached to life and other basic values because their minds have been affected to the point that they are opened up to a different way of thought and actions.

But, although such things have a major bearing on our society today, they are not the primary source of why America has lost her Soul. The root problem is a basic moral problem caused by the rejection of God. Take Him out or denigrate Him and life falls apart. What we have now is a country that is following human reasoning and politically correct mores. Yes, America has lost her Soul, and I think that condition harks back to the devaluation of life as exhibited in America today. Since abortion was legalized, sixty million babies have been aborted! That is so vast that it goes right over the head of a person who might hear that statistic. But, let me define it in such a way that the average person will stop and marvel at this tragedy. The top ten cities in America, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio and San Diego all together have a total population of 25,800,000 living in their cities proper. The number of aborted babies is approximately two and one-half times the population of those TEN cities. That puts it into perspective. God cannot bless a people who make such a thing legal and actually carry it out. We hear politicians end a speech with the words...."God bless America." Hear me good! God would have to violate his own holiness to bless a country which allows such a thing to happen. He can bless individuals who live in such a country as they seek to live a Godly life in the midst of such debauchery but He cannot bless the nation itself. His own nature would have to be violated to do so. One can look at the situation in the United States at this present time (6-8-2019) and clearly see that there is confusion and division everywhere and it is getting worse year by year. Clearly, God's blessings are being withheld. If we would return to the position we held for so many years on Godly morality and a recognition of where our blessings come from, I think we could expect Him to feel better about blessing us as a nation. But as long as our government funds and encourages abortion in America we, as a nation, should not expect Him to fulfill our statement: "God Bless America."

A major exhibition of how America has lost her soul can be observed in the state of Godly religion in the country. So much can be said about this subject that I must focus on some of the basics and leave the peripherals for another time. First, evidence the falling number of people who are attending worship services. Two generations have been taught that God isn't all that important and He can be left out of most of life, and should be banished from national life. They see worship as an option in life. It's a good option but an option nevertheless. And, when they do go to church, they want it to be entertaining. If it is not, then its dull and not worth their time. The idea of worshipping a Holy God is not in view but how good does it make me feel and how little am I convicted of sin? Church services have been turned into something akin to rock concerts and discotheques. So much of what is going on in churches which attract the larger crowds has been borrowed from the rock concerts and the previously mentioned discotheques and dives. They certainly didn't adopt their current crowd-pleasing activities from the examples given by people who know the value of worshipping a holy God. Sorry, but excuses for such activity in our churches today fall on the deaf ears of those who have listened to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The confusion that exists in Christianity today can be traced to contemporary worship tactics. I know many will decry this statement but it is true. It has taught a generation that God is a casual God and that He is really glad that a person has come to spend a little time with Him in worship. He doesn't care what one looks like or how much of the world's methods are brought into His worship. He's just glad you are here! You don't have to change anything about yourself. The bar is lowered concerning dress, music and expectations of a person. Masses are being taught that you come and have a good time with us, feel good about yourself for having come and you are right with God when you walk out the door. They are being led to believe that worship is about "them." The idea that they should come and exalt a holy God is not at the center of their motivations. They want to go to heaven but it's got to be something I enjoy. The quest for hearing God's Word and ordering my life by it stands in the background. It seems that the wilder and edgy a preacher becomes, the more who want to go hear him. Sorry, but the environment will determine what is expected from a gathering and what is taken away from the experience. In years gone by a person sought a church to attend where the Word of God was faithfully presented. They wanted a preacher who was dedicated to preaching the Bible with Godly authority. That was the most important thing. They wanted this because they knew how woefully short they fell and that judgment was only a breath away. Today, people want a church that can do something for them. They select a church based on its ability to satisfy what they think they need and want. They do an a la carte church search with satisfying their own desires as the major requirement.

Another characteristic of the contemporary scene is the way people dress to attend the worship of the God of this universe. They go to church looking like they just washed their dog or mowed the lawn. A good question: "Would they go visit the President in the Oval Office dressed the way they come before a holy God." Then, the tired worn out statement is employed which is: "God looks on the inside not on the outside." I beg to differ. Just because He looks on the inside, does that mean he doesn't care about the outside? I think not. It exhibits just how much they value worshipping Him. One needs to read how God designed the clothing a priest was to wear before that priest was to come before Him. He is the same God on the same throne in heaven and I don't think he has changed his mind. The people saw the priest as an authority when they viewed him clothed as he was. I think preachers of today should set an example before their people as someone set apart by God to guide them. Sorry, but skinny jeans which are faded and filled with holes just won't project a Godly authority the pastor should project. If one is trying to be "cool" then they must accept the fact that they will no longer stand apart as a representative of God in the eyes of their people. And, if their people have been conformed to the point that they accept such in their pastor, then they have already crossed the line and would never understand what this author is talking about.

All of this, and more is a part of America losing its soul. The reasons that America was so stable for so long can be found in the fact that the pulpits were not trying to please the people, but they sounded out with the clarion calls that led to holiness in the people. People found guidance on the issues of life at that particular place, the pulpit. Our people are not being led and informed as they were in the past and one reason is that the federal government is holding the pulpits of this nation hostage for the price of whatever tax monies they might have to pay for telling the truth. We need and must have a revival in our churches and in the hearts of those called to preach. Stop trying to be the biggest thing in town by pleasing the people, and stop cowering down because of the IRS. If one is called of God, there is no higher calling, and it must not be cheapened by acquiescing to what the world wants!

Finally, (I must close this), America is a lost soul floundering around trying to find out what to do. When national legalization of marijuana is now an agenda, when pornography pollutes the souls of so many, when child abuse is so prevalent, when drugs are putting the nation in a stupor, when God is banished, when worship is cheapened, when abortion now includes (in several places) children fully born, when people can't tell the difference between right and wrong, when our government is so confused and vindictive, it is evident that America is a Lost Soul looking in all the wrong places banishing and dishonoring the One who could give the country its soul back. Regaining the soul involves honoring and following the One who gave us our soul in the first place and the only one who can restore it....God. Until this happens America is a Lost Soul.