WHAT HAPPENED?

What happened to America? Anyone hear that has reached some level of maturity have said something like this: “America is just not what it used to be.” Well, what happened? Today, and some of you may get bored, I am going to give you a history lesson and tell you what happened to America.

In 1620, a group of Pilgrims boarded a ship named the Mayflower leaving England for the New World, America. It was going to be a treacherous journey, but that did not matter to them, and it did not deter them.

These Pilgrims were leaving Europe and what they knew behind because of religious persecution.

They were seeking religious freedom and opportunity. 102 passengers and 30 crewmen sailed the stormy Atlantic Ocean and dropped anchor just off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in November of 1620.

Before disembarking from the ship, the 41 men aboard the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact which basically was a plan to govern the colony.

The Mayflower Compact is one of the most important documents in American history, and it begins with these words. “In the name of God, Amen!”

Later in the Mayflower Compact, the men attested to the reasons why they came to America, and those reasons were:

For the Glory of God

For the Advancement of the Christian faith

That is why they came to America. People try to deny the Christian heritage of America today, and they are dead wrong. Our Christian heritage is in all of our founding documents, and I believe that is the reason history is so neglected in schools. The government, the elite, the humanists do not want our children to know of the Christian heritage of America.

The Mayflower Compact led, some years later, Thomas Jefferson to write these words on July 1, 1776 in what was to be adopted as the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence declares that the purpose of government was to protect a person’s God-given rights which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that is the only reason government is to exist.

Did you know the first official act of George Washington’s presidency was to take his cabinet and Congress to a 2-hour worship service in a local church?

The United States of America began unashamedly as a nation that fully embraced God and His Divine Sovereignty. As a matter of fact, the Bill of Rights in the very first Amendment guarantees the right for a person to freely practice his or her religion wherever and whenever he or she wants.

But things are not as they once were in America.

Our nation has been in a moral decline for at least 75 years if not longer. America has no leadership, and God has been left on the outside. What happened?

How can a nation go from its first document saying in the name of God, Amen to where we are today?

I believe the answer is found in God’s Word, so let’s look to see if we can discover what happened to America.

1. America abandoned God’s Word.

Think about 1620 for a minute. The Bible had just been translated into English by King James in 1611. There was an increased interest in the Bible. The Bible being translated into English coincided with Johannes Guttenberg’s invention of the printing press just a few years before.

The print revolution was underway, and people were clamoring for the Bible. For the first time, they were able to read God’s Word in their own language.

Those people knew God’s Word was perfect and without error.

Because they knew the Bible, they could proclaim as they disembarked form the Mayflower, “In the name of God, Amen!”

They embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and eagerly carried out the Great Commission, the same Great Commission that you and I are expected to carry out.

Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

God’s Word permeated America throughout its early history. God was at the center of everything, and America prospered like no other nation had ever prospered. Businesses were closed on Sundays, so people could worship in the local church.

Businesses would close early on Wednesdays just so people could attend the midweek church service on time.

Children learned to read by reading the Bible. Bibles were read in school, in public, and in the home. Prayers were offered in schools, in public, and in the home, and America prospered beyond belief.

A Frenchman, Alexander Tocqueville, upon visiting America was absolutely stunned, and this is what he said:

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

America was good and this great because God and His Word were front and center.

But that America no longer exists. That America has been replaced by an America that has abandoned God’s Word.

Buckle your seat belts and get a good grip on something because this ride is going to get a little bumpy.

The reason I want you see that what America is now has not just happened now. It has been a regression that all of us have had a role in.

In 1960, Gallup conducted a poll in which they asked if the Bible was the Word of God. 65% of Americans surveyed said the Bible was God’s Word.

In 2022, Gallup conducted the exact same poll with only 20% of Americans surveyed saying the Bible was God’s Word.

We can blame the government if we want, but the government did not cause people to stop believing the Bible was God’s Word. We have gone from Gideon’s having school access to kindergartens reading books about changing their genders and having sex, and the schools are able to keep gender-identity stuff secret from the parents.

Tocqueville would be shaking his head in shame over America. America’s goodness has been replaced by sin. Sin that began because we abandoned God’s Word.

We have gone from “in the name of God, Amen!” to this.

What happened? God’s Word was abandoned, and it just was not abandoned in public. God’s Word has been abandoned in the home. Parents, do you sit down with your child to read the Bible more often than you turn him or her loose on some electronic device?

God’s Word has been abandoned in the church as so many totally disregard what the Bible says about so many things. God’s Word has been abandoned in the home, in public, and in the church.

The Word of God that was true in 1620 is still true today. When you abandon God’s Word, what sin is becomes distorted, but I do not determine what sin is. God sets the standard of righteousness.

Can I tell you how God describes a society that abandons His Word? See if this describes America.

Isaiah 59:2–3 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue hath muttered perverseness.”

When God’s Word is abandoned, sin becomes the norm, and that sin blocks God’s face from us.

When God’s Word is abandoned, hands are defiled by blood as evidenced by the total disregard of life in America. The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC has 58,000 names of American soldiers on it that died during Vietnam. Those 58,000 names stretch out over 500’. If you built a memorial to the 62 million babies aborted since 1973, that memorial would stretch out over 100 miles, yet it is a choice to kill the unborn.

When God’s Word is abandoned, lying comes easy. See any political campaign, and any school-aged child and their parents.

When God’s Word is abandoned, no one cares for justice.

When God’s Word is abandoned, people trust in vanity which means they trust in themselves more than they trust in God.

When God’s Word is abandoned, do you know what God does? And this will open your eyes as to what is going on.

Judges 2:1–3 “And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.”

When a nation abandons God’s Word, God allows certain things to become thorns in the sides of that nation. As more and more people in our abandoned God’s Word for the Elephant and the Donkey, politics has become a thorn in the side of the nation, but there are other thorns, I believe, that are directly related to America abandoning God’s Word.

Abortion/Disregard for life

Homosexuality and sexual perversion

Corrupt justices and judicial system which makes decisions based upon who you are instead of what you are

Lying and ineffective politicians

We have prayed and prayed for God to remove these thorns, but He will not because America has abandoned God’s Word. Instead of throwing these things down, God has allowed them to be thorns.

When a nation abandons God’s Word, He prepares judgment for that nation.

I know I mention Habakkuk often, and God leads me that way often, and I think it is because God is trying to tell us something, and He is using this redneck preacher who knows nothing to make His point for Him.

Habakkuk, in his book, opens his book with his concerns over Judah’s sins just as many of you are concerned about America’s sins.

Habakkuk 1:2–4 “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me: And there are that raise up strife and contention.

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: For the wicked doth compass about the righteous; Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.”

Sounds like something from Fox News and CNN.

In responding to Habakkuk’s prayer or concerns, God tells Habakkuk that He is preparing the instrument of Judah’s judgment.

Habakkuk 1:5–6“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: For I will work a work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, Which shall march through the breadth of the land, To possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.”

Judah had abandoned God’s Word and left it so far behind that Ezekiel said Judah was worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. As a result, God was raising the Babylonians to judge Judah.

Is America worse than Sodom? Read Ezekiel Chap 16 to see for yourself. I know America has abandoned God’s Word, and I do know that God judges nations that abandon His Word, and I believe He has been judging America.

America is a laughing stock before the world politically. Inflation is rampant. Prices are outrageous. Morals are lacking. Covid ravaged America. America has not won a war since World War 2 ended. As a nation, we do not look upon those things as God’s judgment, but it probably is, and if it is not, who is God raising to judge America? No nation that so openly and defiantly abandon God’s Word will stand.

You can read the Bible and find a roll call of nations that abandoned God’s Word and paid the price. Is America going to pay the price for abandoning God’s Word? Is America paying the price for abandoning God’s Word?

2. America abandoned absolute truth.

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

There is an absolute truth, and that truth is Jesus Christ.

Now, I am about to share some incredible numbers with you that explain this passage that I am about to read.

Matthew 7:13–14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Keep this passage in focus. Broad is the way that leads to destruction because there are many people headed for destruction because they will have denied the absolute truth.

Since 1992, Gallup has conducted this poll, and the results have held steady.

Since 1992, consistently, 75% of Americans surveyed have answered the survey by saying there were no moral absolutes. In other words, 75% of Americans do not believe in absolute truth.

America has approximately 350 million people. Statistically, that means that 262 million Americans do not believe in absolute truth which, I believe, is reflected in our society, and it is proof of what Jesus said so many years ago.

262 million Americans believe that as long as something is right in their own eyes it is okay to do it regardless of what God says about it, and you wonder why America is the way America is.

The Bible even tells us why people do not believe in moral absolutes or absolute truth.

Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

Weak leadership or no leadership leads people to doing what is right in their own eyes. America desperately needs godly leadership. The home needs godly leadership. The church needs godly leadership. All of those institutions suffer from too many people doing what is right in their own eyes.

Here is the shocking part of the survey concerning absolute truth.

43% of those claiming to be born-again reject absolute truth.

That is amazing, but Christ said the road that leads to destruction is wide because so many will have rejected the truth.

I promise you, dear friend, there are some absolute truths.

What God says is absolute, and He says that if you are going to get to heaven that you are going to get there by Jesus Christ.

What God says is sin is sin.

Sin separates you from God.

Sin means you are going to die.

All of us are sinners, and because we are all sinners, none of us can get to heaven on our own, and that is the absolute truth.

Jesus Christ is the truth.

You wonder why we have the leadership that we have in this country. We have evil leaders because the electorate has rejected the absolute truth. Truth is not subjective. Truth is concrete.

The truth is this.

Romans 10:9–10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

There is only one way to heaven, and the name of that way is Jesus Christ. You can believe there are other ways all you want, but you believing that will never make it true.

I know what’s in America’s future. In the distant future, as soon as 7 years from now, America will be judged at Armageddon. The nation that started in the name of God, Amen will be judged as all other ungodly and sinful nations of the world.

If the Lord tarries, America is ripe for judgment. America has forsaken the purposes for which she was established which was for the glory of God and for the advancement of the kingdom of God.

As those Pilgrims did so many years ago, it is time for us to embrace God’s Word and the absolute truth. It is time for us to take the banner of Christ to the world. Unfortunately, too many Christians had rather the elephant or donkey lead the way.

We can never forget this from God’s Word.

1 Peter 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

2 Chronicles 7:13–15 “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;

then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.”

It is not too late for America, but God is waiting on His people. He will not act arbitrarily. He will not act against His Divine Law. He has given us a great promise.

Isaiah 59:1 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: