The ugly results of banning God from the culture

It seems like every time we read what is happening in our world today, there is a lot of bad news. I think we all could use some good news in a bad world, don't you?

The Old Testament talks about a dark time in Israel's history when good news was in short supply as well. They had fallen on hard times because of their disobedience to God. A famine had swept the land. Things were so bad and food was so scarce that people had resorted to eating things like donkeys' heads and bird dung. Some had even turned to cannibalism.

What brought Israel to this all-time low? These dire circumstances were a direct result of their constant idolatry. Though God had warned them again and again not to turn to other gods, they continued to worship false idols, live immorally, and break God's commandments left and right.

God had told the prophet Isaiah, "I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8). We might read that and think, Well, God is just a little insecure, isn't he? What's his problem? Why is he so jealous? But let's think of it in today's terms for just a moment. Imagine how you would feel if your spouse went out with someone new every night of the week. Would you be good with that? Of course not.

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Israel was reaping the inevitable repercussions of disobedience to God, which in this particular case was a famine that swept the land. Hearing of the cannibalism, the king ripped his robes. Underneath was sackcloth, which was a symbol of mourning or repentance. But he wasn't truly sorry for the wrong choices he had made as ruler over Israel, evidenced by the fact that he sent out his servant to murder Elisha, God's representative. Elisha had done nothing wrong, but because the king felt this was God's fault, he took it out on God's servant. It sounds like the king was more in the mood for murder than for repentance. In effect, the king was saying, "Look, I have tried the whole wait-on-God thing. I have tried the religious deal. It's time to do something. And I am going to murder Elisha."

The king was only making the situation worse. In spite of his royal power, in spite of all the resources at his disposal, there was nothing he could do to fix the problem. What he needed to do was turn to God. But he didn't want to do that. That is often the case when people are sinking deeper into sin and reaping the consequences of it. They will strike out at God – and even his representatives – instead of coming to their senses and changing their ways.

Years ago, G. K. Chesterton made this observation about our culture: "You are free in our time to say that God does not exist; you are free to say that He exists and is evil. ... You may talk of God as a metaphor or mystification ... and it is not merely that nobody punishes, but nobody protests. But if you speak of God as a fact, ... as a reason for changing one's conduct, then the modern world will stop you somehow if it can."

We are living in a time when it is unpopular for people to speak up for their faith in Jesus Christ or have the audacity to say the Bible is true and is God's message to humanity. Openly mock and insult Jesus Christ and His people? No problem. Dare to proclaim Jesus as the one who has changed your life and can change others' lives too? Big problem.

Some assert that Christians are part of the problem, that Christians are so heavenly minded, they are no earthly good. Yet the very opposite is true. History has proven that those who have thought the most of the next world have done the most for this one.

We have come to a time in our nation in which we need to turn back to God. We need to call on His name, because as we look at the calamities we are facing, I believe we have brought many of them upon ourselves. We have done our best to get God out of the courtroom, out of the classroom and out of our culture, and look what is happening in our nation. Malcom Muggeridge said, "All new news is old news happening to new people." As it's been said, if we don't learn from history, then we are destined to repeat it.

We are told that "without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6 NIV). The Bible is filled with the stories of men and women who have reached out to God in faith and had their lives changed. Have you?