It being the Fourth of July, it seemed appropriate to comment on the state of the Union, i.e. the United States of America.
It’s been common among Christians to talk about American decline as if it was obvious and irreversible. I’m not convinced it is either. As I’ve discussed here before, I believe many Christians have the wrong philosophy of history, which leads them to the wrong conclusions from current trends.
As to whether apparent declines are irreversible, imagine you were a Christian living in Europe in the mid 700’s A.D. Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire but in the last 100 years, the militant Muslims had taken back the Middle East from Christians encroached on the Byzantine Empire and attacked Constantinople, had take all of North Africa, moved into southern Italy and Spain and was threatening what is modern day France from the south.
Add to this the threat of the pagan Saxons in Northern Europe. My guess is Christians were pretty pessimistic. Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye could have sold a ton of books.
But all that changed by the end of the century because of a Christian king named Charlemagne who (with the help of his grandfather, Charles Martel) saved Europe from the Muslims and in his reign brought about the conversion of the Saxons and ushered in the Carolingian Renaissance.
I don’t know what the future holds for America. I am convinced the future of the kingdom of God on earth is not dependent upon the well-being of America, or any other country for that matter. King Jesus is too strategic and resourceful for that.
What I do know is the spread of the Gospel in a country can reverse a decline, spawn renaissances and make nations great. Therefore, to say the decline of any country is inevitable is to ignore the power of the Gospel. GS