Mariners in the north Atlantic are occasionally treated to a phenomenal sight – the migrating iceberg. Towering above the ocean surface like a 40-story office building, the floating ice mass travels southward at several knots per hour – no matter what the obstacles.
Hurricane force winds and mountain-sized waves hurl themselves at the berg, attempting to drive the ice northward, or simply divert it from its path, but to no avail. The mariner watches with fascination as the wall of frozen water moves ahead calmly and steadily, impervious, it seems, to the rage of nature's two great forces.
The mystery of the iceberg's mastery over wind and wave resides below the ocean surface, where nearly 90 percent of the frozen mass, though hidden, can reach downward over a thousand feet into the unseen depths of the Atlantic. There, in the dark realm below, vast ocean currents control the migrating mountain of ice, and determine its course. The wind and waves are powerless – the current alone commands the iceberg.
Similarly, I don't see the anti-God, anti-Christian forces in America overly deterred by the red-state surge, the conservative agenda, or the church's fight for the culture. Despite the latest, greatest efforts to secure traditional values and preserve Christian society, the iceberg of spiritual and cultural destruction steadily migrates into the heart of America.
Homosexuality continues to become more mainstream and brazen, both in the political and cultural realm. Marriage and family are still under serious, foundational onslaught. Bible banning and Christian censorship are on the march, though we see an occasional reversal, here and there. Our public-school system steadily indoctrinates millions of our kids into humanistic, anti-faith, worldviews.
If surveys mean anything, for the first time in American history, less than 10 percent of our teenagers consider themselves to be born-again Christians. Media and entertainment interests persistently push sexual explicitness and perversity past every moral barrier. When it comes to politics, surely I'm not the only Christian in America who resents our government's ever expanding authority and control over our lives and its dictating of right and wrong.
Of course, anyone who chooses to make a case that "day by day, things are getting better and better" in America can find enough upticks in the stock market, enough new conservative judges, media polls and local feel-good stories to piece together a bright picture for our nation's future. Then again, you can buy a beautiful manure sculpture of a rose in my home town of Petaluma.
Frankly, I think we're going insane, as a nation. Our incapacity to secure our borders, act on illegal immigration, and supply our energy needs with our own resources are the latest evidences of our degeneration into an irrational, incapacitated people, hell-bent on destroying ourselves. The liberal, anti-Christian agenda slowly and steadily prevails like a migrating iceberg.
Some of us thought re-electing George Bush, appointing new judges and challenging the mainstream media were going to save our nation. Has it? Is it? Will it, really? The conservative revolution of '94, the Bush presidency, the release of the "Passion of the Christ" and even the mighty voices of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have hit the country like waves, like hurricane winds of change. The wind and waves are powerless – the current alone commands the iceberg.
Our great nation – its culture, government, youth, values, morality and so on – is controlled by the deep waters of a dark, destructive spiritual current. The winds and waves of politics, conservatism, activism, protests and so on are powerless to alter the course of a nation that's pushing away from God, and denying Him His proper place in its institutions.
Be sure of this: As a nation, we've abandoned God, and He's abandoning us. He's leaving us to the powerful currents of self-deceit and self-destruction. Changing our nation's course means changing the spiritual current that runs deep below the news cycle. Beneath the politics and voting blocs is the issue of Jesus Christ and His place in our hearts and national institutions. Fortunately, the same Hand which commands the ocean currents of the iceberg's path also commands the spiritual currents of a nation's future.
God alone has the power to change the course of America. The church alone – through repentance and prayer – has access to both His heart and His infinite power. When will we turn to Him, and begin praying for our land as if our future depended on it?