This tweet thread is making the rounds. Its points are good if narrow in scope.

What is meant by Christians that believe in a negative world? We think he means those who hold a positive view of the state of affairs in America are dull of spiritual senses. Well, they are, and perhaps not actually converted, either. Clueless Christians deny sin; perhaps that’s it? Denying sin is certainly a positive view though erroneous. Those don’t believe the Bible and their own eyes. The notion that men are generally good is an infection taking hold in Christianity: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one!

We don’t disagree with the thread; we’ll broaden the historical spectrum, recalling God’s stated purposes and Goals lest we lose sight of the end.

America is not simultaneously supposed to be blessed by God and immune to judicial determinations and instruction in righteousness from God. That’s the God of the New Religion (positive world?), not the God of the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible teaches God’s great purposes in judgment, grace in salvation by His mercies, and for instruction in righteousness. This is not a menu from which America may choose one or another; none are immune to these workings of God.

We’re negative in the short run on America and Western Civilization, but that doesn’t change God’s plan. If only Christians understood that they are no longer citizens of this world but ambassadors for Christ to this foreign and hostile land. They see these words in their Bible but do they get it?

Before you think we’re promoting abandoning our obligations on earth, that’s not what the Holy Bible teaches; see yesterday’s post.

What are the larger view of God’s plan and our purpose in it?

Sin has consequences. The rapid decline of western civilization is directly correlated to the growth of rampant sin (degeneracy, perversion, abortion, war, sexual promiscuity, etc.), as the thread rightly points out. The catalog of corruption is not necessary to review. What’s essential is to call it what it is, Sin. That’s God’s word for it; that’s what it is.

What is the Holy Bible, if not a history of the onset of sin and God’s dealings with the wicked, but also by His mercies choosing a people He desires to live for Him in righteousness?

America finds itself on the waning side of the last significant growth era of faith in the Almighty. That previous growth era was the most extraordinary yet in size and depth of fundamental belief, for this God’s blessings rained down from the throne of heaven upon western civilization.

Don’t, brothers and sisters, lose sight of the fact that Christ had conquered three continents and significant areas of one other over the last 500 years or so. You’ve heard that weak men bring hard times. The Bible’s view is that those weak men are the leaders you get, perverters of all that is holy when the people reject God’s Law. But even that scope is too narrow.

Christ is conquering the world. That’s hard to see for us because of the narrow point of view of a single lifetime and the skewed antichrist perspective of the history books. Christianity has grown geometrically in 2000 years, from 122 souls in that upper room who awaited the promise of the Holy Spirit to millions and millions of professing people from the center of empires to the farthest reaches of distant and strange lands. This didn’t happen by accident.

As our Lord gave us in the Great Commission, the Christian project is a long road with ups and downs, perils and pitfalls, evil seducers and sorceries, and the raising and razing again of kings and kingdoms, religions, and whole ways of living. But God’s power prevails; souls are converted, entire courses of history are subsumed under the power of the Gospel, the Father is glorified in the work of His saints, and civilizations are birthed as the blessings of God are poured out upon a faithful people. The name of Jesus of Nazareth continues to spread, which also doesn’t happen by accident.

The point here is that sin has brought trouble from evil rulers to a dying civilization, so what? These are not our kingdoms; they belong to Christ to do with as He pleases. It doesn’t gladden God to have to destroy them any more than it satisfies us that He will. But it’s necessary; every knee will bow. We’re sure God would much rather men accept His word and do it without a fight, but we are sinners making ourselves the enemies of God.

Which leads to this point; How could God do anything but destroy a wicked and adulterous generation? (That adultery in the Bible is meant as cheating on God.) There are vestiges of European pagan roots left, antinomianism, and spiritualism not of the Spirit of God, but today our current form of adultery is self as god. Father God will have no partners, no equal; He will not compete for His throne. He destroys the inhabitants of His planet over and again to bring them to the knowledge of His Son, that through Christ, all peoples would hear and fear Him, the Just One, judge of heaven and earth.

Our day is not one to lament except that we be grieved deeply by the depravity of our fellow man, troubled of heart, for they will not (re)turn to God and be saved. But, have you asked them, you know, if they need to be forgiven of their sin and saved from hell? Maybe nobody told them how! Perhaps the whole problem today is Christians’ fault for not doing what Christ said to build His Kingdom. And so you see, neither does His Kingdom get built by accident.

But know, Christ is putting down all rule. His project is for as many thousands of years as the Father chooses, bringing the whole earth to heel. Rejoice that He cares enough to destroy your wicked civilization. Praise His holy name that the Lord God Almighty puts down sin with vengeance, for righteous is He, just and perfect, and will not tolerate the ways of wicked men forever. Be not deceived; there are things God hates!

You are here now. You should find out why. What is it that God is calling you in service to perform? Teach the next generation to call upon Him? Spreading the seed of the word of God that souls be converted, prepared of God to carry forth the next explosive growth phase of the Gospel after God, sadly, deals with the trash now rampant among us? Hard times breed hard men, but are you training them, above all else, to fear God and keep His commandments, preparing them for the way of Christ?

In the coming hard times, people will be looking for answers. God is that answer. Do you know how to explain clearly and purposefully what sin is, how saving self from hell is impossible, how all sinners without Christ will die being cast out into eternal hellfire, and only those belonging to God’s own Son will be saved? Can you explain the purposes of the cross to scared, cold, hungry men who need a Saviour? That’s the Christian project; that’s the generations of work, century after century, a long hard slog of doing the works Jesus commissioned when He created His Church, the body of Christ.

Having heard of Christ’s commission, do you even know your purpose and calling in the Kingdom of God? Will you pray? Will you read the entire New Testament, examining what you are supposed to do? Will you train yourself to carry on the works of God, the Holy Spirit in you, to bring glory to the Father through Jesus Christ?

Now in heaven, there are millions of the most productive and faithful saints of God that nobody has ever heard of who labored in obscurity, year after year, for decades of their life, that you might one day, in God’s providence, hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, repent, and find salvation. Are you up to this task? Thankless hard work, ridiculed, derided, a nobody, and very soon persecuted for the name of Jesus, can you do it?

The churches no longer teach the blessing of obedience and the curses of disobedience. The people don’t want to hear it. They have no fear of God, do you?

Christ has already won when He rose from the grave. The writing, as they say, is clearly on the wall. All power and authority in heaven and earth are given unto Christ. Death, hell, sin, and the devil who has tried to steal God’s throne are all defeated in the Kingdom of God that now reigns by the Spirit. But the day is coming of no more tears, no more sorrow, no more death when the Lamb of God shall have put down all authority by His own power, the kingdom of death and hell will be called forth and cast into the lake of burning brimstone for all eternity.

Those in Christ from all ages will be left, and the greatest King that ever was, with the utmost contrite act of humility, will turn and hand us all, with His Kingdom, up to the Father, that God may be all in all.

Having suffered the entire grieving process of anger, tears, and sorrow for America a decade ago, living for Christ should have been the first choice. But I had to see the ugliness of this world and the futility of its politics with the fragility of its kingdoms before getting it; Christ is King. His is an everlasting Kingdom.

Two thousand years ago, a new Kingdom was birthed; the Stone not cut by hands is growing into a mountain crushing all other power. Daniel’s vision is sure and true, coming to pass in the person of Jesus Christ.

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” – Daniel 2:44

In today’s narrow scope, the war between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of death and hell is ugly and disturbing, but our King wins! Sometimes we think that evil is winning, only to find that God is withholding His blessings so that judgment might march across a land, destroying His enemies. This prepares the way for the next growth phase as the Gospel of Christ, by the Spirit of God, begins again to convert His people by the many millions, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.

The job of the Christian is not that of an observer of the machinations of evil during the death throws of empire: but to be doers of the word, telling the lost of salvation at the foot of the cross, teaching and training Christ’s disciples, carrying forth the good news of the resurrection, bringing to bear our coming victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, our King.