It has been noted that the only thing we learn from history is that we DON'T learn from history! It's as plain as day with the sun shining brightly at high noon as to what brings about a nation's downfall. But even in what some still mistakenly claim to be the "Christian" United States, we refuse to learn the lesson, with the evidence mounting day by day that we shall in time simply prove to be another "rerun" of the disaster experiences of other cultures from out of the past!
As mentioned in an area of Range 1, our culture, due to our choosing to walk the same road as the ancient Isaelites did in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, has forgotten Who is in charge -- can we expect any different consequences than what those people did? The adoption of heathen gods and goddesses, and the forsaking of the living God of Israel, paved the way for their destruction! Only the foolish and the ignorant would deny the fact that the alien deities we have permitted to invade our culture will most certainly make the same contribution!
There can be a rather embarrassing moment when in a time of crisis a nation of people calls on God for help (you know like a few years ago when in Operation Desert Storm, someone got the idea that we ought to pray and ask God for help -- all over the land this happened, and even the mighty Supreme Court had no objections to this -- my, my!!!!) and then God makes this quite shocking response such as seen in Jeremiah 2:26-29:
"As the thief is ashamed when he is found out, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they and their kings and their princes, and their priests and their prophets, Saying to a tree, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave birth to me.' For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise and save us.' But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. "Why will you plead with Me? You all have transgressed against Me," says the LORD."
Three things to note: First, notice that the political and religious "establishments" paved the way for that sorry state of affairs in which God was nothing more than an emergency fire alarm in a moment in which they found themselves in a real crisis!
Second, since these political and religious "establishments" refused to repent over a period of time as called upon to do so by the faithful prophets whom God had raised up, then God's only course of action left was that of bringing forth devasting judgment! The formula which spells out how a culture self-destructs is really quite simple. Review 2 Chronicles 36:11-21 very carefully:
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He also did evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD God of Israel. Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the LORD which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand. And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
