A Nation Without An Anchor: What Must I Do?

Terrorism, mass killings, violence, hatred … what’s going on?

Still reeling from the recent pipe-bomb threats, we were shocked by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter saying, “All Jews must die!”

And what about the poster pasted on trash cans in New York City, showing a white woman wearing a red Trump hat, holding a Bible in her hand—with a giant X marked across her?

Before that we had the ricin toxin mailings and the backlash against Senator Susan Collins for her reasoned argument defending Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court: “Their attempts to intimidate me … are becoming more intense with each passing day.”

We must wake up and ask, what’s wrong, God?

My friend Ralph Nault suggests: “The heart of our nation is sick, affecting the entire country—our cities, our towns, our people. We have a serious decline in values, morals, and honesty. It’s sad, but we don’t seem to be aware of how sick we are!“ (www.RalphNault.com).

You say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked —Revelation 3:17

Lost our moorings

Our nation was founded on religious and spiritual freedom, but it seems that we have lost contact with our spiritual heritage: heart-based faith. Because of this, we are unable to deal with the problems we face.

We give lip service to a creed, follow ethical principles, or belong to a church, yet remain “indifferent” and untouched in our inner core. Lacking real faith in a living God, we are unable to draw up the living water Jesus promises and previous generations relied upon.

In The Book of Virtues, William J. Bennett writes, “A human being without faith, without reverence for anything, is a human being morally adrift.”

In the midst of this spiritual vacuum, ungodly forces have moved in and convinced us to take prayer out of schools, remove the Ten Commandments from the public square, and tear down our historic symbols. We kill our unborn children, confuse our youth about what is a father, a mother, a wife, a husband, a girl, a boy, and allow our sacred symbols like the flag to be taken from us.

Over a half century ago Dr. Carl Jung warned, “The individual who is not anchored in God can offer no resistance on his own resources to the physical and moral blandishments of the world” (The Undiscovered Self).

Destroying our foundation

Forces are at work trying to destroy the foundation upon which we have thrived: The Constitution and Bill Of Rights. They want to take away your freedom to speak, to stand up for what you believe, and to live your faith at home and in the public square.

For years we have seen a concerted effort to rob us of individual rights and separate us from our heritage of optimistic faith. If they succeed, there is nothing to hold back the totalitarian forces that our founders left their homes to escape.

Sheltered by our humanitarianism and sense of justice, subversive groups are spreading their destructive lies. Jung suggests the only way to stop them is through “the critical reason of a single, fairly intelligent, mentally stable substratum of the population.”

Yet scarcely seven percent of Americans have independent minds, Dr. Paul Tournier claims. This means it’s possible to control the opinion of a vast majority of the nation (The Meaning of Persons).

Socialist Erich Fromm opined that “the majority of people are suggestible, half-awake children, willing to surrender their will to anyone who speaks with a voice that is threatening or sweet enough to sway them.”

We need to understand that when our emotions are aroused, we are unable to listen to the voice of reason, the insights and reflection of thinking people, or the voice of God within us.

Motivated by hatred

Underlying these vicious attacks is a hatred that says we do not have a right to live, at least not in their presence.

This hatred is directed toward anyone who loves and affirms life; who loves others more than themselves; and who loves American values of independence, individual responsibility, and personal freedom.

Have you noticed how they try to destroy good people by assassinating their character with words, by deceptive reporting, by deformation of truth, by distorting everything they say?

We must recognize these forces—anti-God, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian—that are working deep within our institutions, our media, our colleges and schools.

Shortly after the fall of Communism, a Romanian woman told me how one night she ran to the bridge to drop her beloved typewriter into the Danube River because agents were coming to seize it. Her crime? A passion to write and publish Christian material for children.

This is where we are headed—unless we wake up, go to Jesus Christ, and ask Him, what I must do?

• Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God (Revelation 3:2)
• Submit therefore to God, Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you (James 4:7-10).
• Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:10-12).