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I’ve had people ask me in recent times, “Is the West under divine judgment.”

Let me give you some insight in regard to America first.

Is America under judgment is a question I’ve been pondering, especially when we find examples like an evangelical pastor who was reported to have said the following according to a Christian news outlet:

“Materialism, drunkard pleasure seeking, arrogant conceit, defiant sinfulness, moral perversion, and corrupt leadership . . . . Do you not see [them] in America? . . .
“[P]eople [ask] what is wrong with this country? . . . They have rejected the Word, the law of the Lord, the Holy One Himself.”

In explaining the use of his words arrogant conceit, this pastor added that America was largely guilty of this sin because: “When a society does not want to hear from God, but wants to be its own authority where every man does that which is right in his own eyes and feels that he is the ultimate authority, he is the ultimate source of truth.”

The pastor further observed: “We are not a covenant people in America, but we have been a privileged people.” He stated that while America did not have a “divine promise as a unique nation called out,” it had nevertheless been given “exposure to the divine promises of the gospel in Jesus Christ.”

The pastor further explained: “No other nation has literally been born out of a desire to be faithful and obedient to the living and abiding Word of God.”

Yes, I believe America is under divine judgment. To show you how, just consider some of the ways America has progressively been trying to remove God from this culture:

In 1962, school prayer was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1963, Bible reading in public schools was also ruled unconstitutional.
In 1973, restrictions on abortion were lifted, and abortion clinics began to permeate the nation (through the infamous Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court).
In 1985, nativity scenes in public places were ruled to violate the so-called “separation of church and state.”

Many people will recall one of the most horrific acts of school violence in America in 1999. Beginning at 11:19 AM at suburban Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, high school seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher, and wounded 23 others. It was a massacre that shocked the United States—and the world.

Serial killer Eric Harris wore a T-shirt on the day of the Columbine massacre that simply declared “NATURAL SELECTION.”

Such acts as this—and numerous others since—sent a warning that something was happening in our culture—something many were perplexed about. Why would such situations occur?

From a biblical perspective and an understanding of a sovereign God, the ultimate answer of course is sin. The Bible makes it clear we live in a fallen world, and because of the effects of sin and the Curse, we now experience violence, suffering, disease, catastrophes, and so on.

But on the individual level—even understanding we are sinners in a fallen world—we ask what could lead persons like Harris and Klebold to kill their fellow students?

In 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, a teen in Finland, shot and killed students at a high school in another shocking act of school violence. In a video posted on YouTube prior to the shooting, Auvinen stated:

“I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. . . . I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection. No, the truth is that I am just an animal, a human, an individual, a dissident . . . . It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!”

We live in an era of history in which the idea of atheistic evolution is taught as fact in much of the education systems of the world. In the USA, it is claimed that by removing teaching about creation, Bible reading, and prayer from the classrooms in public schools, religion has been removed and students are only educated now in a “neutral” environment.

However, the science textbooks used in most public schools only explain things in terms of natural processes—the supernatural is not considered. That’s not neutral. Students are being taught the philosophy of naturalism, which is—in essence—the religion of atheism.