Truth gets around. “Every house divided against itself shall not stand,” said Jesus, said Lincoln, said historians.
Oh, and Satan! Surprised?
You shouldn’t be. He used this principle to divide heaven originally and for millennia has reused it on Adam’s unsuspecting children. He has first divided, and then destroyed, many nations, including Israel and countless churches. Ethnic rivalries, envious leaders and doctrinal contentions keep us criticizing and separating when God would have us uniting and fellowshipping—and we stay blind to Satan’s nefarious operations.
To expose his deviousness among us and propose a solution, I pose four questions: (1) What were we once? (2) Where are we now? (3) How did we get here? (4) What’s next?
America was originally a melting pot of all nations and races. Flawed by slavery, we recognized our wrongs and, through ardent abolitionists, a bloody war and brave civil rights activists, righted them. E pluribus unum was our motto and, indeed, out of many rose one nation under God. Our prosperous unity peaked in the 1950s, then began unraveling during the Vietnam War era. Race relations, however, steadily improved. As the century turned, it seemed our motto would become our manner.
But today, deep, painful divisions exist. Our culture is a perfect dichotomy, half sanely conservative, half insanely liberal. False race, gender and equity theories, and rampant media lying, poison our national psyche bitterly dividing our house. Millions measure others by color, not character, divide binary from non-binary and fill jobs by demographics over qualifications. Opportunist Black Lives Matters leaders exploited falsified public incidents to foment anti-white hatred, excuse rioters, encourage police resistance and garner vast wealth—promptly spent on themselves!
Tribalism is growing; millions vote only for candidates who look like them. The legal vs. illegal immigration controversy, trillion-dollar budget deficits and the Israeli-Hamas war further divide us. Partisanship has slain justice; politically driven rulings have replaced it. Our formerly magnanimous melting pot has melted, leaving us poured out into many petty cast iron cups. Our new motto is, out of one, many!
We have not arrived here randomly. Diabolical fingerprints are all over our current body politic. Satan has inspired unceasing chatter emphasizing our differences and ignoring our common interests. Obama’s presidency greatly exacerbated this by encouraging race, gender, wealth and other social divisions. Days before Trump’s inauguration, Obama hatched a White House conspiracy to cripple Trump’s administration. Four years of unwarranted congressional investigations and groundless impeachments followed, narrated by a media propaganda blitz worthy of Joseph Goebbels! Today, Trump seems poised to return to office, but pandemonium looms.
So, what’s next? Three strata need reform: spiritual, social and political. But the spiritual must lead. Only something from above can cure the craziness here below. Unity cannot be restored without Christ’s help. Christians led America’s past great reforms: abolition, temperance, child labor, women’s rights, civil rights. But there is a problem.
Today we ourselves are divided! How can divided Christians unify a fractured nation? Churches are separated denominationally, doctrinally, socioeconomically and, yes, racially. Doctor King lamented the most segregated time was Sunday morning, and little has changed.
Second Chronicles 7:14 still awaits our response: “If my people…” If Christians repent and rally around Jesus’ standard— obedience to His teachings before political tribalism—our fervent prayers and gracious social and political interactions will help heal America. For a season. Why not permanently?
Despite our best efforts, Bible prophecy soon will overtake us. The end times are at hand. History ends in God’s glorious kingdom, not our good but inglorious nation. America is not mentioned in end-times prophecy, while primary Tribulation players Russia, Europe and China are rising. Trump’s second election is unsure, but Christ’s Second Coming is sure. His Spirit is preparing His bride, a transformed, unified ecclesia from all nations and races. After His return, Jesus’ theocracy, not our democracy, will rule the world; and from Jerusalem, not Washington. Truly, “Our God,” with His prophetic Word, “is marching on!” And no social nor political reforms, however temporarily effective, will halt His steadfast, sacred tramp.
In our day of widespread falsehood, this is the biblical, prophetic truth.
And truth gets around.
Dr. Greg Hinnant is a bible expositor, teacher and writer who has published numerous books. A long-serving faculty member and regent of Christian Life School of Theology Global (CLST-Global), he speaks at churches and conferences and contributes to Christian periodicals. Greg resides in high point, North Carolina.
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