Are We Better Off Since 9-11?

Novelist and author/speaker Joel Rosenberg has written a great piece asking the question, "are we better off since 9-11?" I have included some of his comments in today's blog entry. This entry is a bit longer than what I normally post, but I think the editing of it would destroy the impact. It's worth your time to reflect where we are on God's time clock of His return to earth.

On this anniversary of 9/11, are you morally and spiritually better off ten years ago? Is your family? Is your church?

Now is an appropriate time to take a spiritual audit — to assess how you’re doing morally and spiritually, how your family is doing, how your congregation is doing. Ten years ago, God shook us – the question is: Were we listening?

In the Book of Hebrews we read: “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” Hebrews 12:25-26)

Our Lord Jesus Christ — sitting with His disciples on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem — also warned in Matthew 24 that we would be shaken in the last days, those days leading up to Jesus’ return. “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the power of the heavens will be shaken,” Jesus said. And then, when men least expect it, Jesus said, “the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:29-30)

America was shaken on 9/11. Today, God is shaking us again.

• Nine of the ten costliest – most expensive – hurricanes in American history have happened since 9/11. The worst was Hurricane Katrina which nearly wiped out an American city and ended up costing $108 billion.
• Hurricane Irene will likely rank in the top five and has made 2011 the worst year in American history for natural disasters, with ten separate catastrophes costing $1 billion or more.
• This year, we’ve seen the worst outbreak of tornadoes in nearly half a century.
• The worst fires in the history of Texas – amidst the worst drought in the history of the state.
• The biggest earthquake on the East Coast since 1875.
• The biggest earthquake in Colorado since 1882.

At the same time, our economy is being shaken to its core.

• 42,000 American factories have shut down since 9/11.
• Fourteen million Americans have lost their jobs just in the past few years.
• Millions of families have lost their homes.
• Washington is running up the national credit card to jump start our economy, but it’s not working.
• Our federal debt is now more than $14 trillion – that’s trillion with a “t.” It’s hard to imagine so much money. But put it this way: if we were to pay one dollar per second every hour of every day of every month to pay down our national debt, it would take us more than 32,000 years just to pay off $1 trillion – but we have more than $14 trillion of debt.
• No wonder nearly eight-in-ten say America is on the “wrong track.”
• No wonder nearly half of all Americans fear we’re heading for another Great Depression.

People are beginning to wonder if we can turn this thing around, or whether we’re heading towards an economic collapse, an economic implosion. Sometimes, it feels like we’re out on the middle of a frozen lake and suddenly we begin to hear the ice cracking under our feet. We haven’t plunged down into the icy waters yet, but we’re not sure where to step, or whether we can get back to the safety of the shore. 

That’s the economy.  But what of the state of our culture?

• Since 1973, more than 53 million abortions. More than 53 million children murdered, and there is no end in sight.
• Pornography revenues today exceed the revenues of ABC, CBS and NBC – combined.
• Today the pornography industry is larger than the revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink – combined.

Where are the Christians? What difference are we making? The answer is painful too hear. Too many people who say they are Christians are asleep, or distracted, or intoxicated by the world. Like the old country and western song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places,” too many people who say they are Christians have been looking love and meaning and purpose outside of Christ and His love.

George Barna, the Christian pollster and researcher, has just released a fascinating but sobering book entitled, Futurecast, Which I commend to your attention. In it, he devotes consider time to analyzing the state of Christianity in America today, and it is revealing:

• 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.
• “84 percent consider it a holy or sacred book” and “the typical American household owns four Bibles” 
• Yet only 56 percent believe that “the Bible is accurate and without error.”

Clearly, there’s a disconnect between who we say we are, and what we say we believe, and how we’re living. Barna offers many examples. Let me share just two.

• First, there is no statistical difference between the percentage of non-Christians who get divorced (33 percent) and the percentage of “born-again Christians” who get divorced (32 percent).

• Second, only half of all born again Christians say they even try to share the Gospel with even one unsaved person one time – one time – a year.

How is this possible? How can we be salt and light to the lost world around us if we are no different than that lost world? How can possibly hope for a spiritual revival or a Third Great Awakening in this land if we are barely all sharing our faith in Jesus Christ with one person a year? Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” This is an important question for us tonight.

Yet God isn’t merely shaking America — the Lord said through the prophet Haggai, “I will shake all the nations.”

• Japan is suffering what her Prime Minister calls the worst disaster since World War II – a devastating earthquake, the resulting tsunami, and multiple nuclear meltdowns all at once.
• Australians have faced devastating flooding this year – one headline read: “Australia Faces Biblical Floods”
• God is shaking the Arab world through revolutions and uprisings. The prophet Haggai said, “I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.” And sure enough we have see rulers and regimes overthrown and destroyed in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya – and more may be coming.
• Russia is suffering the worst drought in 100 years.
• China is currently suffering its worst drought in 200 years.
• The earthquake in Christchurch last year was the worst in the history of New Zealand and left 1/3 of the city’s buildings facing demolition.
• Last year, God shook Haiti – the deadliest earthquake in nearly 500 years, and the second deadliest in all of human history.

The question is: Why is God shaking us?

That of course is the question of the day. Why?  He is preparing us for what is to come, are we ready? Will we be ready?  That is a question only you can answer.

Keeping it honest and truthful....K