What the United States Truly Needs

Which course is America currently on, according to history? In which ways could the United States literally implode? Does God still have a plan for America? These questions, and many like them, are well presented, documented, and answered by Joel C. Rosenberg in his most recent work, Implosion: Can America Recover from Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?

Cover

Being a fan of Mr. Rosenberg’s political thrillers, it was not difficult to pick up Implosion. I found this non-fiction book very relevant, in my opinion, to the situations our nation faces in the present. The exciting and gripping style that the author uses in his fiction writings shows itself at times in Implosion as well. Facts are presented in an easy-to-understand manner, definitely not feeling too cumbersome. Several chapters of theories as to what could cause the United States to “implode” are revealed in a way that causes the reader to think, but without trying to create or expound upon conspiracy theories. Rosenberg is very mainstream in his hypotheses, yet still remains thought-provoking.

I bought this book on Amazon for my Kindle (like pretty much every book I’ve bought in the last two years), and found the quality of Tyndale’s Kindle publishing to be of high-quality, yet again. There were no obvious typos or formatting errors that I saw.

In the first chapters of Implosion, the author answers, in detail, many questions that the average American citizen (or politician for that matter) may have concerning the Bible, and specifically: end times prophecy. Several questions are answered about whether America is mentioned in Biblical prophecy, and what role she could play in the future events of this world. Again, Mr. Rosenberg is very realistic in his assumptions. In no way does he delve into implausible, manufactured theories that rely simply on being culturally outrageous. He is clear and objective in prophetic matters.

About one-third of the way into the book, Joel C. Rosenberg begins to play out multiple scenarios that could cause the United States to implode upon herself. From economic collapse and terrorism, to natural disasters and the rapture, facts are presented for each case, and how this nation could become nearly insignificant in world events in the near future. Then, as if to show the reader the truth behind all of the facts, the author declares the true implosion of America that has already begun: spiritual apathy.

After showing the reality of America’s overall spiritual condition by different modern and historical figures, the author takes the reader back 250 years ago, to the First Great Awakening. During that time, men such as George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and the Wesley brothers were used by God to literally transform colonial America from hard-necked “religious” pragmatists  into an overall Spirit-sensitive group of people. What seemed like insurmountable spiritual deadness was completely trodden down to make place for a historic Christian revival: with souls saved, lives turned around, and families mended.

Even 70 years after the First Great Awakening, though, a coldness had once again developed towards Godly things. The Enlightenment had put a damper on churches, to the point where most Protestant ministers even seemed unregenerate. Then, through prayer, fasting, and God’s Divine Providence, a revival spread from the ports of the east coast to the furthest frontiers. Whole families and towns were born-again. Church attendance and the number of churches in general rose tremendously. It was because God is more powerful than any human tendency toward spiritual decay; and because just a few of God’s people, again, prayed, fasted, and sought the Lord concerning the state of their neighbors.

What Joel Rosenberg brought to light at the end of the book was the need–not for a political revival–but a true, Spirit-driven Great Awakening. I have to admit, I have been paying very close attention to this current election cycle. It is very easy to get caught up into the politics of everything, and attach your hope of the future of the United States to a candidate. In no way am I saying that we should be disengaged (quite the opposite, in fact, as Rosenberg explains); however, as Christians, we must examine ourselves and not throw our hope into any political change. An American change back to the roots of her founding can only happen if America’s people seek the God of their founding.

Mr. Rosenberg concludes Implosion with a challenge for Christians to look inward. Are we seeing revival in our own lives? Are we praying for national revival? Are our families gathering around the Bible together daily to worship the Lord? Or are we simply too concerned about earthly things to make time to pray and seek God through His Word? Implosion was a refreshing, encouraging, and challenging book that I think any concerned American should read. I picked this book up thinking it would be political, but found that it was not just the typical current-events rant. Implosion doesn’t simply list out all of the problems with America: it gives the honest and Biblical solution.

Simplistic Complexity

Let me start out by saying that I am no scientist; nor am I a mathematical genius. Above all, I am a Christian–the kind of Christian that takes the Bible very literally. Along with that, I do understand the workings of nature that God has set in place, and have studied to some degree the origins of this earth, the laws that are set in place, and the utter complexity of things physical: especially biological matter.

Simply put, the point of this article is that God knew what he was doing when he created everything, and no man can ever fathom just how perfect everything has been set in motion. What has gotten me to think about this? Man’s imitation of God’s creation.

At work, I deal with probably some of the more advanced automated systems in the world. The level of imagination that dozens of highly intelligent individuals have drawn together is mind-blowing to me. Every day at work, I find new things to “wow” at: enormous mathematical algorithms, super-advanced computing, and highly precise robotics, to name a few. The whole idea behind the system is unfathomable to most people’s minds. And what is all of this? Simply a machine that tries to emulate human actions…and at times, utterly fails.

People often look at computers as highly complex pieces of machinery.  In a sense they are; but truthfully, computers are very stupid.  Did you know that a computer will only do what you (or the programmer) tell it to do?  A computer cannot make a decision.  Yes, it can be told to make a decision, or told how to make a decision, but it cannot make up its own mind.  Thus, essentially, computers are highly unintelligent.  Only the people who design the computers can truly be labeled as intelligent.

Photo Eye Sensors

Let me illustrate this: where I work, we have robots that have eyes–yes, I said eyes.  They are unintelligent eyes, though.  The photo-eye, as it is called, is a laser (not much different than those $3.00 laser pointers bought at flee markets) that illuminates a direct red beam of light to a reflector opposite the photo-eye, which reflects the light back, thus triggering a signal that says “clear” or “not clear”.  The concept works great, unless that little photo eye is bumped a few millimeters; then everything goes “up in the air”, causing an exception.  A robot cannot go around this exception by itself, unless it is built into the program, or a biological being (human!) tells the robot that everything is okay.  The robot cannot think.  True, it can run mathematical equations through its system, but it cannot make its own decision that everything is fine.  It cannot say, “Okay, even though I cannot see, I know that everything is okay, so I’ll go ahead and do what I was doing before.”  If it was able to think like that, some kind of utter destruction will eventually occur.  Why?  Because robots are unintelligent (sorry, Wall-e).

It’s the same idea when you get that dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” on your computer.  What basically happened is that the computer came to a decision where it had no clue of what to do, so it shuts itself down, and requires the operator to restart it.  Yes, and whatever you were working on just might be gone for good as well.  The brains that created the machine might be considered intelligent, but for sure not the machine.

But can the brain behind a machine be considered intelligent compared with the Great Creator?  Most definitely not.  God created biological humans that can make their own decisions.  God also made us with the potential to make errors because of the Fall.  The potential to make physical mistakes (I am not speaking of morality) is humanity at its core.  We can trip and fall because of a buckle on a sidewalk one day, which should trigger us to remember that buckle and either step over it, walk around it, or avoid it next time.  A machine (human creation) cannot make these kind of decisions without being told to by something.  A human (God’s creation) can make any choice that his free will desires: with the possibility of error.

Look at a tree.  Could man every emulate a tree?  Man can cross-breed trees.  They can make look-a-likes out of plastic and rubber.  But could we ever take raw matter, and craft a living, growing, reproducing, oak tree?  I think not.  And evolutionists think that it just happened by itself of all things!

Therefore, man can only try to emulate the creation of God.  Robots and computers may seem highly complex and intelligent, but they are nothing in comparison to the miraculous creation of our Lord.  He created every part of you to work in synergy.  He created the universe according to his perfect plan.  And at the same time, you can “error.”  Perhaps after the fall we were made to physically error not just because of the curse of sin, but so we can see our helplessness, and come to Christ.  He alone can make us whole!  He alone that created the universe so much better than we could ever emulate!

“…Fearfully and wonderfully made!”

“For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created!”

“…That we should be to the praise of his glory!”

Smacking the Liberal Elites Upside the Head

It is becoming more “strange” to be a Christian living in the 21st century.  I wonder why the majority of American citizens think of us, the ones which held the standard of our nation for two centuries, are looked down upon as extreme–and even compared to the Taliban of Afghanistan sometimes.  Why is this?

As a Christian who studies the Bible, I know the answer.  It is simply that those that love Christ will be hated by the world (John 15:18).  The problem is that most of the world today has made Jesus Christ out to be someone who he is not.  As an example, to see Christ as a preacher of social justice and social welfare is completely fraudulent.  All one has to do is read the four gospels and know that Christ was preaching the Kingdom of God to the hell-bound world, not trying to make all of the classes “equal.”  Yet most mainline denominations (United Methodist, UCC, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, etc.) preach the “social gospel” instead of the real gospel.  They make Jesus Christ, our Savior, out to be someone who He is not.  He is not what some author says (Mark Driscoll, William P. Young).  He is not what my minister says.  He is not what my high school teacher says.  He is who He says He is.  The only truly foundational picture we have of Jesus Christ is in the Bible.  That is all just one example.

Something that tends to irritates me as a fundamental Baptist is the fusing of Protestants, Catholics, and Baptists together as “Christianity.”  The “intellectual” elite tend to do this most unashamedly.  They will say things like, “The worst atrocities committed in history were in the name of Christ.”  Or, “Religion has caused more bloodshed than anything else.”  In one strain, they are right; but when they lump me in there as well, that is when the line is crossed.  Did you know, that in history, it was the Roman Catholics mainly, and to a lesser extent, Protestants, that made war in the name of religion?  I doubt that anyone can name an atrocity committed by Baptists as a whole.  In fact, we were the ones being persecuted by the Pope, John Calvin, and Philip Melanchthon. We never have persecuted other denominations just because they believe differently.  We have always been for what Christ has preached: loving your neighbor, and your enemy! It comes from a complete lack of understanding by these intellectuals when Baptists are lumped together with every other religion under the sun.

All of this to say that we are a very strange people to the world.  They do not understand that I, who am called by God to be in His ministry, do not concern myself with making “the big buck” in life.  Sure, I will make as much as I can to provide for my family, and work for every bit of it; but I did not attain a degree in higher education to make a lavish career for myself.  This is one of very few things that people go to college for, caring little if any for the amount of money they make.  It is foolish to the world to go to school for four years, just to be a pastor some day, never making a six or seven digit salary.  Often, God calls his people to do what will seem very peculiar to the world–and the joy that comes from this money could never buy.  This is what the world could never understand.  They may try to hyper-analyze and say that, “Oh, he is just given security by his religion.  That’s good for him.”  I can stand up and say with all confidence: I get all of my security from my God–not some “made-up” religion.  The more that the sociologists and physiologists try to analyze, the more foolish they become.  I just wish they could know God, and how great He is.  Then, they would fully understand.

None of this is esoteric.  I am for sure not “duped” by religion, or “brainwashed as a child.”  Everything about my faith and belief in God is my own decision.  They call us anti-intellectual.  I say that they make intellect into something that it is not: secular humanism.  They hate to hear it, but humanism is just as much of a religion as anything.  Their god is their mind.  Their church is the extremely dumbed down universities (compare them to institutions of the 19th century).  No, they are the ones duped by their finite minds.

They compare us to this???

Then, they call us the “American Taliban.”  What???  First off, I would never kill someone unless they threatened me or my family.  Second, I don’t kill civilians.  Third, I don’t kill people from other religions to instill fear and make them convert.  Fourth, I don’t advocate modesty police for every citizen.  Now what are the similarities?  “Oh, you both want our government to be a theocracy.”  Now, I believe that government is best run by non-hypocritical Christians, but I would never impose by force or politics my religion on anyone else.  Then they say, “Just like the Taliban, you want to impose your morals on everyone.”  Again, that is a false and non-informed statement.  Do I think that our society is better without alcohol?  Without a doubt.  Do I believe that people should never live together unless they are married.  Definitely.  But to do that through politics or mass forced conversion would be like trying to paddle up a waterfall.  This is foundational: without people genuinely–by their own decision–being born again, the moral makeup of a nation will never completely accommodate the Christian.  Of course, I believe that we should never let our country become Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abortion should be outlawed because it is murder.  This is not a religious argument!

Altogether though, I simply wanted to illustrate a few points where the liberal elite–religious or not–are so blinded by their own pattern of thinking.  They believe what they want.  They cannot tell me what I believe nor try to hyper-analyze who God is.  God is my creator, savior, and life.