The Death of America

TNG Radio, where today's culture and timeless truths come together. It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Hi, Alex McFarland here. Welcome to Truth for a New Generation.

Let me ask you the question. Whether you're a Christian or not, what would you consider the greatest miracle of human history? Well, chances are if you're a believer, you probably would say the resurrection of Christ, the empty tomb. Jesus rose from the dead, and indeed that is a great miracle. Now C.S. Lewis, the great defender of Christianity, he said the grand miracle was the incarnation that God took on a human body.

And those are wonderful. Creation, the incarnation, Christ's resurrection, those are great miracles. But I want to submit to you what an author I was reading says that the greatest miracle in human history is America and the West. Now I want to talk about the death of the West. What is the West? Well, the West is the opposite of the East. The East, you know, we hear Oriental. The West beginning with the Hellenistic Greeks and coming up through the Europeans and then the emergence of, in the Middle Ages, Great Britain and then finally the birth of the United States of America in the 1700s. Oriental and Occidental, East and West.

Oriens and Occidens refers to the rising and the setting of the sun. Where the West, because the sun sets in the West, the Occidens, it goes down. Well, you know, history itself may be setting as the West unravels.

But I would submit to you that the death of America and the West is one of the greatest tragedies in human history because it is the ending of one of the greatest miracles in human history. Now I am going to explain in a moment. And very often on the program we talk about the Judeo-Christian world view. Much time I have devoted to talking about how the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, in fact our judiciary, go to the Capitol, go to the Supreme Court. You're going to see throughout Washington carvings of and references to the Decalogue and Moses and the Ten Commandments because in America, like the West, we believed in some things that were, at the time of the Revolution, radical ideas. Okay, what were the radical ideas? That our rights come from God, not from government. That the government belongs to the people, not the people belonging to the government. One of the radical ideas is that the individual is sovereign.

You have the right to make decisions and you are the captain of your soul and you're not bound and locked into the circumstances of your birth. If you engage in hard work and live morally and practice deferred gratification, in other words you can say no to yourself, you can go places and you can elevate yourself from the strata in which you were born. One of the core beliefs of the American Revolution and the West itself was that the fruits of our labor belong to us. Now you know that all of these ideas are under attack and we're watching this nation after decades from the post-war era, from the Eisenhower years until the present day. We've watched basically liberal clergy, progressive politicians, and secular academics chip away, chip away, and finally we're watching America nearly destroy itself. Okay, where we are in history is such a miracle with the freedoms, the stability, the prosperity, the opportunity that we've enjoyed. I'm going to comment on that in a moment, but I want to say that where we are is the result of bad ideas and bad laws, bad philosophies believing that truth doesn't exist and God doesn't exist and morals are fluid rather than absolute. Really it began with apostate clergy that inherited a Judeo-Christian platform. Ministers for the last 75 to 100 years had a Judeo-Christian platform.

They had home court advantage and they really squandered it. So the death of America and the West, look, liberal politicians worked for it, utopian academics wished for it, and we hardworking citizens are witnessing it. We really are.

Now let me ask you the question. Do you use or appreciate running water, paved roads, electricity, dentistry, medical care, air conditioning, telecommunications, democracy, the rule of law, stability? These things that make our lives so livable are rare, rare, rare in history. Now I was reading a book by Jonah Goldberg and he says in the book he's not an atheist per se, but he doesn't believe in God. And so I want you to know what I'm about to quote is not from some right-wing evangelical, but a very serious academic. And he wrote a book in 2018 called The Suicide of the West. In other words, we're killing ourselves.

The subtitle is very, very telling. The subtitle says this, quote, how the rebirth of tribalism, populism, nationalism, and identity politics is destroying American democracy. Let me say this, I know the Bible does say evil men will wax worse and worse and violence and perilous times will increase as we become nearer and nearer to the time of Christ's return, but every thinking person, every rational person should care about the state of America. I want to read a scripture and then I'm going to talk about how rare, how rare and precious and frankly fragile the constitutional representative republic that we've enjoyed and perhaps even taken for granted is, and what we can do to pray and do our best to save America. Revelation 21 verse 8, speaking of the masses of the unevangelized at the great white throne that will enter eternity forever separated from God. And I'll unpack this verse after this break, but Revelation 21 8 says, the cowards, the unbelievers, the vile, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur or brimstone, which is the second death.

Stay tuned, when Truth for a New Generation returns, we're going to unpack this and talk about the death of America and what we might do for God's glory and with God's help to see that death prevented. Have you ever wanted to raise your hand during a sermon? Well, here's your chance. Hi, Alex McFarland here from the nationally syndicated radio program Exploring the Word. For more than 10 years, my cohost Bird Harper and I have taught scripture and answered hundreds of Bible questions. We've compiled a brand new book of the top 100 Bible questions from listeners of all ages, from questions about supposed Bible contradictions to apologetics facts that prove the truths of scripture. This new book features practical content that will make the Bible come alive for you.

Can we really be sure that God exists? Are there contradictions in the Bible? I need a book that will help me understand the Bible better.

There's so much good content in this book. 100 Bible Questions and Answers, published by Broad Street Publishers and available online at your local bookstores and also through AFASdoor.net. Where in the Word Are You? with Bill Campbell, inspiring your read through the Bible in 90 days. Do you know your destiny?

I know that sounds kind of impossible, but there's one who does, of course, God. There's a book that tells how He can reveal it to us called the Bible. Where in the Word Are You? If you join us today, we're going to look at common people, folks like you and me, Jacob and Rachel, Joseph.

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Alex McFarland here. We're talking about the death of America and the West. Before the break, we read Revelation 21 verse 8, and it's got eight, in this one verse, of the lost nations and the people that stand before God. And I think about Matthew 7, 21 through 24, where Jesus, on the judgment day, says to the unbelieving masses of lost people, I never knew you. You had a chance to have a relationship with Me, and you rejected God.

I never knew you. It says, the cowards, the unbelievers, the vile, and some translations say, the faithless, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake of fire that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. It's very interesting because, and I'll come back to our facts about the loss of America and the West, but look at this list of eight characteristics of those that constitute the lost masses at the great white throne. Eight traits that are so characteristic of our culture today. Cowardly. Now the word in the Greek is delos, which really means fear of losing. And people that won't take a stand, won't act on convictions because of fear. I think so much about businesses and corporations that won't stand for the very moral foundation that gives them their financial success and prosperity, but they cave in to activists, whether it be Black Lives Matter or the gay rights protesters.

They're cowardly because they fear losing a dollar. Okay, the faithless. Now some translations call this vile. And the word is apostasy, apostois. And it literally means in some translations, unchristian. Now apostasy is the Greek word for a riot. It means people that know truth but they turn away from it. And I think about the liberal clergy that really are fall away from truth and from scripture. And ultimately the possible, if not likely, loss of our nation itself began in the pulpit.

It really did. One of the words in the Revelation 21 is detestable. And it really means abominable, loathsome. And it's interesting, the word there refers to not only a state that's very unappealing, but detestable or vile stench in the presence of God, but even very often in their person itself. But then there's another word in Revelation 21, eight, murderers.

And it's funny, the Greek word is phoney, I mean really, phonais. And it means someone who commits homicide or an assassin, but honestly in committing murder, they're really committing an act of untruth against God because we're made in God's image. That's Genesis 1 27. And so our view of the sanctity of human life really reflects the views we may or may not hold about God himself.

And for those that can't stand up for the unborn, and those that don't believe in the sanctity of human life, and yes those that physically commit a murder, in Revelation 21 it says that such homicidal assassins who also in the process are killing off truth, they're ultimately put into the lake of fire. Okay, the word sexually immoral, perhaps you've heard ministers preach on this, it's the word pournoi from which we get the word pornography. Now listen carefully because I know we think about sexual immorality in terms of adultery, that's cheating on your spouse. Fornication, that's sex between two people that are unmarried. But we might think about immoral things, but the word pournoi from which we get pornography. The word in Revelation 21 means, quote, a male who prostitutes himself, or anyone who engages in sexual immorality. So falling under this umbrella would have to be the use of, toleration for, and practice of pornographic materials. And this is absolutely incompatible with those that claim to serve the true and living righteous God. And yet studies show that Christians, the use of pornography and looking at objectionable websites and sexually explicit materials online is not appreciably different among Christians from the rest of the lost world. And the Bible warns that those that are inheriting the kingdom of heaven should not practice immorality. Sorcerers, the Greek word is pharmacos, from which we get pharmaceutical or pharmacology. Now it's interesting, among those that don't inherit heaven, they're thrown in the lake of fire, the word means magician, sorcerer, use of drugs within religious incantations, or to drug people to living in an illusion.

These are two thousand year old words and they sound so modern. I think about Afghanistan that produces 90% of the world's heroin. I think about the streets of America so ripe with people using meth and cocaine.

I think about the states and the elected officials foolishly legalizing marijuana and the stores to marijuana light, hemp products. The Bible calls drug use sorcery and I believe it opens the door to demonic activity. But then it goes on in Revelation 21 8, those that are cast into the lake of fire, it says idolaters and liars. Now an idolater is a servant or worshiper of an image or an idol. And liar, we know what that is right? But the word there interestingly in Revelation 21 8 is a Greek word sudason, from which we get pseudonym.

You know if somebody uses a pen name, a false name on a book or a writing, it's a pseudonym. Well a liar is a person, according to the Greek lexicons, an untrue person. Someone who doesn't tell the truth, who tells lies.

And oh my goodness, we're in a culture rife with lying. And the Bible says for all these cowardly, faithless, detestable, vile murderers, immoral sorcerers, idolaters, liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. And we're going to come back and pick apart what their share, lake, burn, fire, sulfur, death, what all this means.

Stay tuned because we're praying for not the death of America, but a revival and how desperately we need it. Don't go away. Alex McFarland here with Truth for a New Generation. We'll be back in a moment.

We'll be back in a moment. Are you tired of liberal agendas ruining our country, but you don't know what to do about it? That's why Truth and Liberty Coalition was founded. We want to equip you to take back our country and impact the world. Here's how we do it. We educate through broadcasts, conferences, and our website with resources that inform, equip, and motivate. We unify by collaborating with like-minded organizations like the Family Research Council, the Family Policy Alliance, and My Faith Votes. We mobilize by providing practical tools you can use to impact your local community.

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There's a teen track. There are group and hotel discounts on our website, truthforanewgeneration.com. You will learn a biblical response to the woke movement. You will learn a biblical response to critical race theory, why these things matter, and my dear friend, the life that you will live till you leave this world and the America your children will inherit and live in is in very much measure dependent on what conservatives and Christians do. Come to Truth for a New Generation. We've got very special music by an award-winning group from Nashville that I've worked with for years called the Bird Songs.

They're amazing. It's our next conference on worldview and apologetics, Truth for a New Generation, October 15-17. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, brought to you in association with the American Family Radio Network, KARAS, Bible College, so many partners. We're working, we're linking arms to proclaim truth and God's awakening to this nation, and so please pray, please promote, please plan to attend. But let me talk a little bit about America and the West. Jonah Goldberg wrote this book, The Suicide of the West, and he said this. Now, he doesn't believe in God, but he definitely recognizes how unique our nation is, and I don't believe in the old earth numbers that you're about to hear him use, but just for the sake of his very excellent book, The Suicide of the West, he says, quote, only once in the last 250,000 plus years did humans lift themselves out of their natural environment of poverty, hunger, violence, tribal hatred, and early death. Now what he's saying is, look, for all of history, whether you believe, as I do, that history is 6 to 10,000 years, or even if you're an old earther and you believe history goes back a quarter million years, he says, look, the state of humanity for all of those years, 200,000 years, has been poverty, hunger, violence, tribalism, and early death, but Goldberg, a secularist.

But he says, look, it happened only once beginning in the 18th century England, and it was an accident. And he talks about the emergence of democracy, our opulent life of freedom, stability, self-determination, and he says this, quote, if democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind's destiny. Now the reason he brings this up, listen carefully, progressives and secularists that are trying to usher in and really enforce their utopianism, oh if only we could punish the corporations, if only we could punish the rich, if only we could throw money at the inner city, people would just happily walk into this utopian future. And this is our destiny, say the progressives. Now Goldberg, and those of us that actually study and teach on history, we know that the emergence of a free, safe, prosperous America happened because people intentionally, carefully, repetitively worked to weave biblical principles into American life.

And it was the careful going to church, being a disciple, building Christian families, literacy, schools that began with the fear of the Lord as the basis of wisdom. And this wonderful accident, quote-unquote, this anomaly on the landscape of history that after a quarter million years of poverty and pain suddenly we've got prosperity, opulence, and people throughout America were actually getting fat because we're so prosperous. That too is an anomaly in human history. Now the progressives say well heading into a socialist Marxist utopia, that's our destiny. So Goldberg asks this question, if democracy and all of this opulence were our destiny, why didn't it take hold earlier in the evolutionary record? The emergence of freedom and prosperity is nothing short of a miracle. And Goldberg says that America with rights coming not from government but rights come from the hand of God and the government belongs to the people, the people don't belong to the government.

He calls this the greatest miracle in all of history. And I, second only to the resurrection, I would agree. But you see folks, today youth are being taught and groomed, coached to believe that America is evil, America has thoroughly and traditionally been oppressive, a system of exploitation, privilege, and folks the core values, the principles of liberty and following the rule of law, these things are under attack from the left and they may as well be attacked from the right because the majority of the political right, and yes religious leaders too, are doing almost nothing to defend truth and liberty. Now we're going to have to unpack this more in a future show how you and I with God's help and for God's glory and for goodness sakes for the future of our kids and grandkids, we can, there is a pathway of hope but it's narrow and the window of opportunity to embark on this path is limited as well. There's a pathway toward revival and the saving of our nation but it must include prayer, repentance, and turning to God. And when we pick up in part two of this, we're going to circle back to Revelation 21.8. But I want to ask you if you would pray, be informed, and if you would stand for truth, and yes, pray for our ministry, come to our conferences, get involved, my website is AlexMcFarland.com, read our brand new book on a hundred Bible questions and answers published by Broad Street Publishing. Folks, there is hope but we've got to turn to God and we as individuals, every one of us, we have to realize that we can make a difference if we'll take our bold vocal stand for truth. 1-877-YES-GOD and the number 1 or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to program archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event or contact Alex with a question or comment, AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG radio.