Opus 2011-322, Have We Turned the Corner, Part 2?

Is it over?

It is not a new question.  Western civilization was asking it in the late 1700's.  In America the answer was a revolution and a miracle.  In France there was a revolution and chaos.  In England there was a renewal.  Two of the responses were beneficial.  One was ugly.  What was the difference?  One key factor was the attitude toward the things of God. 

France rejected God.  They made no bones about turning churches into stables and mocking the creator.  Short-term, it resulted in the Reign of Terror and the justice of kangaroo courts and the guillotine.  Long term they paid for it with blood and the wars brought on by the ambition of Napoleon.   It is still demanding payment.

America had a war but it had a healing because its values were rooted in Biblical beliefs.  Were all the leaders Christians as we understand the meaning of the word?  No.  But they accepted the values and moral teachings of Christianity.  They may have rejected the theology but they embraced the idea of a God and Divine purpose.  That puts a limit on how far you can go into hatred and gives a reason to work together.  The turning point in the Constitutional Convention was the observation by Benjamin Franklin that when they met to declare independence they had started with daily prayer.  He suggested that maybe they should be calling on God again.  They did and we were given a Constitution.  People differ on where Franklin was spiritually but his words brought the leaders back to the feet of the Almighty.

England avoided war.  It was poised to go the way of France.  Enter John Wesley and what was called the Methodist revival.  They were laughed at and disparaged.  They were persecuted, beaten, thrown in jail and even killed.  They brought revival.  It was expressed in tangible ways from the end of the slave trade to the founding of the SPCA. 

Revival can happen.  Think about the picture of the valley of dry bones.  Read about Hezekiah finding the law in the ruins.  Consider Ezra and Nehemiah.  God can bring revival.  He has done it before, He can do it again.

It must start in individuals.  As individuals we must be willing to call on Him and respond in obedience.  Individuals make up groups and organizations.  Groups make up a nation.  Think of the discussion Abraham had with God about preserving Sodom and Gomorrah.  All it would have taken was ten righteous men.  Do you know nine more?

Where is your life?  Where is your country?  Where is our future?

homo unius libri