Living in a World with No Conscience

Our country is filled with a spirit of hatred, violence, lawlessness, and deception. At the same time, a spirit of foolishness and arrogance seems to permeate a greater majority of the American public. There is a growing sense of suspicion and disrespect toward each other that is ripping the nation apart. We are politically, morally, spiritually, and racially divided. While this present state of crucial deterioration has been going on for several decades, it is apparent that it is gaining momentum, moving America toward national suicide.
The very fabric of decency that was the foundation of this nation during my childhood years has disintegrated. There appears to be a wholesale abandonment of the old values that have sustained America for more than 200 years. There seems to be a growing rejection of reverence for God, the Bible, marriage, biblical morality, and the rule of law. Long ago, the psalmist said, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do” (Psalm 11:3)? In the context of this psalm, the psalmist speaks of a time when the wicked will have the upper hand and will attack the righteous. In other words, the culture will reach a tipping point when right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. God has warned, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20)! When this happens, it will lead to the suicide of that culture. When people no longer recognize sin and have no sense of wrong, their sin will enslave them, deceive them, and destroy them. This spiritual insanity will cause them to rush with great passion toward the door marked “death.” This is the description of a world with no conscience.
At the heart of all of this is the elevation of humanism, which promotes self, and the willful rejection of God and His laws. At best, the people in this culture may pay lip service to the reality of God, but practically they have made themselves god. What they think and how they feel is what drives them to choose their lifestyle and pursue their self-appointed goals.
Does the Bible hold the answer to how this has happened in America? And if it does, what can we do to warn others and protect ourselves from falling into this same deadly trap that has ensnared so many around us?
That is the purpose of this book. I am sixty-nine years old and I have been in the ministry for forty-six years. I must confess that what I am about to share with you in this book is rarely understood in Christian circles today or taught in churches. I am absolutely convinced that if believers could grasp what the Scriptures teach about our God-given conscience and how it works, we would know how to pray and to have victory over the evil that is all around us and even in us.
The plight of our nation is being exacerbated by the church, which is out of touch with the urgency needed to address the collapse of our culture. Many pastors and church leaders are locked in their own traditional ministry treadmills, unaware of the actual condition of the real world all around them. The Lord has not called us to develop a monastic type of ministry that is isolated from the world. He wants us to be keenly aware of the spiritual needs of the people around us.
It is vital for all believers to have a biblical worldview. A biblical worldview means we are constantly looking through the lens of Scripture to see our world as it really is. This also takes into account the times in which we live in light of God’s eternal plans as detailed in the prophetic Scripture. When the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica about the conditions that would be prevalent at the time of the Rapture, He commended them for their awareness of the nature of that day (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). While speaking about the end times, Daniel, almost six hundred years earlier, wrote, “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12:10). According to the context of this chapter, the Bible is indicating that those who have an understanding of prophetic Scripture will be wise and understand the times in which they live.
The message of the end times and the details of the second coming of Christ have been absent from many of the pulpits of America for several decades. Many church leaders have concluded that prophetic Scripture is not practical and irrelevant to our times. What these church leaders do not understand is that eschatology (the biblical doctrine of last things) is the glue that ties all of the biblical doctrines together. If we are not focused on the personal and practical end of our faith, then we have no hope. While writing about the resurrection of Christ and its connection to the hope of our resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19).
It is my prayer that this book will enable you to develop a true biblical view of the American culture. I believe that when we examine the prophetic Scriptures and what the Bible teaches about what happens to individuals and cultures with a seared conscience, that it will give us a true sense of urgency to pray for America. America and our world are ripe for the judgment of God, just as they were in the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah.