What on Earth is Happening: Today's Headlines Written in Advance

Nearing the end of his life, the Apostle Paul wrote these words to his younger protege, Timothy: "But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days, People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God---having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV)

Today, not even in the peaceful hamlets and villages of New England are exempt from such things dominating the daily news. Here's just a sample from today's Norwich Bulletin: "Man pleads not guilty in Yale killing." "Man who tormented families gets 3 years." ""Facebook, MySpace ax offenders' profiles." "Convicted murderer charged with rape.""Physicist: Tiny aliens may inhabit Earth now." "North-South Korea exchange artillery fire." The world is shrinking and we are connected to what is happening everywhere. It is becoming more and more obvious that government social engineering projects do little to slow down these predicted trends, much less eliminate them. In fact, we have ample evidence that most government attempts to "fix things" in this country only make them worse, even for the people who were supposed to benefit most from the fix. Unfortunately, during tonight's State of the Union address, we will probably hear about more plans to fix things.

All great civilizations of the world have passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Some historians have listed these in ten stages.

1. From bondage to spiritual faith

2. From spiritual faith to great courage

3. From great courage to liberty

4. From liberty to abundance

5. From abundance to selfishness

6. From selfishness to complacency

7. From complacency to apathy

8. From apathy to moral decay

9. From moral decay to dependence

10. From dependence to bondage

This is not to say that every citizen of the USA experiences this regression. There are still those in this country possessing great faith, who take courageous stands for liberty. However, it must be stated that the root problem for any civilization is never political, economic, educational or spiritual; it is spiritual. The Scriptures declare: "Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a disgrace to any people." (Proverbs 14:34, NIV) Unfortunately, righteousness has been on the decline in this country for decades. Some point to the Supreme Court case in 1962 which eliminated prayer in public schools as the watershed moment. [Ironically, Madeline Murray O'Hare, who instigated that case died in obscurity, a broken woman. Her son, William Murray, became a Christian and is the founder and chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition.] Eleven years later, there was the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision, resulting in the killing of more than 50,000,000 babies in our country. It appears that the USA is rapidly approaching, or perhaps has entered, the ninth stage.