Dr. Dobson: Hello everyone, I'm Dr. James Dobson and you're listening to Family Talk. Today is election day 2020, this is the day that we've been anticipating for more than a year. As I've said many times in the last few months either on the air or in my monthly letters, this is such a significant day. I think, and I want to repeat what I said yesterday, I think this is one of the most critical elections since 1864, when Abraham Lincoln was running for his second term as president of the United States. America was bitterly divided at that time and involved in a brutal and devastating civil war, if Lincoln had lost the presidency, our nation would have been split and slavery would have continued for who knows how long, maybe centuries. Thankfully God intervened and preserved this union through the work and life of Abraham Lincoln, which cost him his life.
We're not asking you to give your life, we're asking you to go and use your sacred responsibility to vote. We're not dealing with the same issues today, but again, everything is on the line. The expansion of the LGBTQ agenda threatens to perversely indoctrinate the minds of our children. Millions of babies are at risk for being murdered through abortion on demand. Religious liberty, a concept that was given to us by our founding fathers is at risk of being snuffed out. There are countless other issues that I could highlight, but I think you get the picture. To those of you who are yet to vote, please exercise your right and go to the polls as soon as possible. To those who have already cast their ballots, I pray that you use biblical wisdom in picking candidates and deciding on amendments and propositions in your home states.
So today we're going to conclude a meaningful presentation from my dear friend, Joel Rosenberg. He is a New York Times bestselling author, a passionate speaker, and a proud patriot and follower of Jesus Christ. Today, Joel continues to answer a question he posed at the beginning of the program we heard yesterday. That question is: where is America headed? So, let's get started by rolling back a part of yesterday's broadcast so you can get a better context on the remainder of this presentation. Here again is Joel Rosenberg on this edition of Family Talk, and God bless America.
Joel Rosenberg: So we know that Americans are worried. We know that the headlines are emphasizing, reinforcing our worry. And I'm not talking about just the fake news that gins us up, I'm talking about actual facts that, that's bad, that's why we're worried. And we can see it, we can feel it and we're worried that we're going to implode. That we're not just in a bad patch, that we're not just in a period of decline, that the country is going to implode, that's what we fear, and we should fear this.
What is the Bible telling us? A few passages, among them Galatians 6:7, " Do not be deceived, God will not be mocked for whatever a man sows, this he will reap." True of a man, true of a nation. Haggai 2:7, "God says, 'I will shake all the nations.'" I don't believe we're in judgment yet, I believe God's shaking us so that we will let go of anyone or anything or any ideology or any political philosophy or any religion, anything other than faith and trust in Jesus Christ and his word for our hope, for our salvation. He is going to shake us in his mercy, so we'll let go of anything else other than him, and judgment is coming.
Look, let's be honest, "Joel..." God says, "I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat ..." Which means God is the judge, that's in Jerusalem, that valley. "And I will enter into judgment with them there." All the nations coming to Jerusalem to be judged by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Where is America headed? Well, ultimately we're headed towards judgment. Now you're like, "Okay, Joel, that's a little strong." When I wrote Implosion, when I was sitting with Mike Pence back in 2012, while he was still a Congressman, before he ran for governor, I said, "The key fact in the book Implosion that you need to know is one that you already know, Mike, but 53 million abortions have taken place since 1973." 53 million abortions, at that time, in my lifetime. I was born in '67, so 53 million abortions.
Today, we are over 60 million, in your lifetime and mine, our nation has murdered 60 million unborn babies. That's 10 times the number of Jews that the Nazis murdered during the Holocaust. Is there any way out of judgment? No. Judgment is coming. The blood of 60 million babies is crying from the ground for justice and they will receive it. God has His sovereign reasons. One of those reasons that perhaps that He hasn't brought judgment on the country yet, or let it implode, is that there is still a remnant praying, pleading, preaching. God is using this nation to create the technologies to broadcast the gospel, not only through this country, but around the world, satellite television technology, radio technology. Thank God for Al Gore inventing the internet. Take the gospel to every nation. But there's a day of reckoning coming.
Now what is there a way out of? There's a timing thing, God may relent if we repent. That's the principle of 2 Chronicles 7:14, that's the principle that my friend goes around the country talking about in almost every speech. "If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn, repent from their wicked ways..." He promises that He will hear from heaven, that He will forgive our sins and that He will heal our land. That's the promise we want, that's the promise we need, but can I tell you something? As a Jew, as an Israeli, as a student of the Bible, as a follower of Jesus, that promise actually isn't for America. The promise is actually explicitly for the state of Israel, the nation of Israel, go read it. It's God's response to King Solomon's prayer when he's dedicating the temple.
But it's a principle for any nation, for any individual who turns from their wicked ways and humbly seeks God, that God will hear, that He will heal, that He will forgive. I have a son named Jonah, and when I was invited to teach at a pastor's conference in Iraq, I learned that the Iraqi pastor who was inviting me and our ministry, The Joshua Fund, they wanted to take me as a treat to Nineveh. And they said, "There's a town called Alqosh, and that's where Nahum the prophet was from, Nahum the Elkoshite. We'd like to take you there, his tomb is there. There's Hebrew writing on the walls from 2,600 years ago. We'd like to take you." I said, "Wow, great." So, I came down to dinner, I said, "Guess where I'm going to go next month when I go to Iraq?" "Where?" "I'm going to Nineveh."
And little Jonah was 11, and he said, "Can I go?" I said, "Well, no, sweetheart, it's very dangerous over there." My wife said, "Really, you're going to not take Jonah to Nineveh. Have you read the story? Do you have any idea?" I said, "Well, okay, yes, I've read the story. Sweetheart, you can't take an 11 year old into a war zone. I mean, it's going to be dangerous enough for me. You really want..." "We'll have you prayed about it?" She asked. "Well, obviously I haven't prayed about it, it's self-evident." "I think you should pray about it." "Fine, I'll pray about it."
So, Jonah went, and let me draw out a few principles from the Book of Jonah, okay? God of course told Jonah, who was in Israel, to go to Nineveh, which was in Iraq. But obviously Jonah didn't do it, you all saw the Veggie Tales movie. He gets on a ship and he goes the exact opposite direction. Chapter one, verse six is a fascinating and very sobering and very painful verse. Verse four, is God hurled a great wind, a great storm against the ship. Everybody's so scared they're going to die, these are professional sailors and they're terrified. Verse 6: So, the captain approached Jonah and said, "Hello." Jonah is sleeping in the hull of the ship. The storm is so bad that the professional soldiers are chucking every bit of their commercial product overboard, and the captain says to the one guy on the ship that knows God personally, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call upon your God."
How much of the church is asleep in the hull of the ship, not teaching, not preaching, not comforting, not encouraging, not showing people that there is a way to know God and the peace that passes all understanding, and the ship of state is about to go down. And many of us are inactive, we're asleep, we're watching Netflix, we're playing games, we're not engaging. The pagans had to wake up the believer.
Now, ultimately you know what happens? Jonah is sort of turned around and he's forced to go... He does repent, chapter two, but God is being very heavy handed with him, "You will go and I will take you and you will preach." So finally he gets to Nineveh and, for chapter three, verse two, God says a second time, verse one, but verse two, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city..." I mean, it's the capital of the world's largest empire, the Assyrian empire, and it's wicked, and it's lost and it's facing judgment. "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation, which I am going to tell you." And so, Jonah finally rises and he goes to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. "Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city. It took three days to walk through it," that was big in those days. "And then Jonah began to go through the city and he cried out, 'Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.'" Judgment is coming, there's a date certain. It's coming. He's not preaching repentance, he's just preaching judgment.
But what happens? "Then the people of Nineveh believed in God and they called a fast and they put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least. The word reached the king," whose word? The word of God through Jonah, he reached the King of Nineveh. "And the king arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and ashes," the ancient near East way of showing repentance and humility before God, "and he issued a proclamation and he said, 'In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd or flock taste a thing. Don't eat, don't let them drink water.' The proclamation said, 'But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth and let men call on God earnestly that each may be torn from his wicked way, from the violence which is in his hands, who knows?'" The proclamation says, "'Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish.'"
Verse 10, "When God saw their deeds," not just their words, but their deeds, "that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented." When they repented, God relented, "concerning the calamity which he had declared that he would bring upon them, and he did not do it." Now, I don't want to get into all of Jonah's anger that he didn't want these people to repent, that's chapter four, you can read it on your own. But I want to raise a question, right? The bigger picture question tonight is where is America headed? And I'm making the application, I'm drawing your attention to a case where the people of Nineveh, including their king, did not know 2 Chronicles 7:14.
And even if they had, it didn't apply to them. That's not a promise for Nineveh. It's not a promise for the empire of Assyria. It's the promise for Israel. But the principle was something that they just instinctively hoped was true. That if we repented, maybe God would relent. Here's my question, and it's the question I laid out for Mike Pence that day, because in our conversation he said, "That's funny that you mentioned that because I'm studying the Book of Nahum this morning in my quiet time." "Really, Nahum?" Nahum, who was a prophet 150 years later, to where? To Nineveh. Yes, he was from Nineveh, he was an Elkoshite, but he was a Hebrew prophet, but he's the one that came after Jonah.
When Jonah preached judgment the nation repented and God relented, and God didn't bring the very judgment that he had just said he was going to bring. But 150 years later, the book of Nahum shows that the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of Nineveh, of Assyria had gotten into the same wickedness, the same sin. And God sent Nahum, and the people did not repent, and therefore God did not relent. And in 612 BC Nineveh was utterly destroyed, according to the prophecies that God had laid out first through Jonah and then for Nahum.
So here's the question, is America at a Jonah moment or are we at a Nahum moment? Are we at a moment where if the church wakes up from our slumber? And I'm not saying there isn't a remnant that's preaching and teaching, I'm grateful for the three dozen churches and ministries that put this event together. I'm very honored, I'm very grateful, and there are people like you all over the country. But overall, the church in America is going in the wrong direction. It's asleep at the switch. the morality inside the church isn't that much different, honestly, painfully, than the rest of the culture.
We're not just seeing a nation preparing to implode, we're seeing ministries implode. We're seeing individuals implode. We're seeing pastors and their marriages implode. Some of them horrifically makes the headlines. Many of them are just the tragedy in their own homes and churches. Many are asleep while the church of state or the ship of state is about to go under, it's about to implode, it's about to sink. But if the church woke up, right, you can't be revived unless you've been "vived," can we agree on that? You have to have been "vived" first, you have to have a life, you have to have Christ in you, the hope of glory. You may be asleep, you may be backslidden, you may be drifting, you may not be paying attention but the only way to be revived is if you've been once "vived." That's funny, you're supposed to laugh.
I know it's a sobering topic, so you're like, "Really? A laugh?" Okay, whatever. So we need the church to wake up. This is a wakeup call. This is a wake up moment. But if the church wakes up and now starts living for Christ, and honestly, lovingly and in the power of the Holy Spirit preaching and teaching that we're in big trouble and there's no way out of judgment, but there is hope that Christ wants to save us, that he who has the son of God has life. He who does not have the son of God, does not have life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him, who repents of their sins and believes that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, that no man can or woman can get to the Father, except through him. Whoever believes that Christ's death on the cross pays the penalty for my sins.
So I don't have to pay that penalty, and I can have hope, and I can have forgiveness and I can have new life. I can have wisdom that comes from above. I can have peace with God and I can have peace that passes all understanding, "Not the world's peace..." Jesus said, "... but my peace I give to you," in the midst of the storms of life. Whoever believes in him, in Christ and his promises shall not perish, die and go to hell forever and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever in the lake of fire with no way of escape, but you'll have eternal life.
If the church will teach it, if the church will preach it, and if the church will live it, will America listen? I don't know the answer to that question. Will they respond in a Jonah moment the way the people of Nineveh did in the great empire of the greatest in the world at that point? So will it be like the Jonah moment where they repent and turn, or will it be a Nahum moment? Where no matter what we do we will be found right before the Lord obedient and faithful, but the nation will still implode, the nation will still face judgment.
The judgment will come, the church has to understand this, but God may still give us another season. Remember the '60s, how bad those were, how things seemed to be spinning out of control? Then came the '70s, the outpouring of the Holy spirit that became known as the Jesus Movement, that's how my parents got saved, that's when they got saved. That's how I got saved, that's when I got saved, during the Jesus Movement. Could God give another outpouring of the spirit that way? I hope so, but that's the question I want to leave you with tonight, is America at a Jonah moment or a Nahum moment? And are we asleep in the hull of the ship that's about to sink, or are we preaching, teaching and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day in the power of the Holy Spirit?
Roger Marsh: An eye-opening presentation about the threats to the future of America. This is Roger Marsh, and I hope these two broadcasts have reminded you to always be in prayer for our nation. Go to today's broadcast page at drjamesdobson.org for more information about Joel Rosenberg and his many best-selling books. That's D-R Jamesdobson.O-R-G and then click onto the broadcast button. Did you know there are numerous ways to stay up to date with our latest programs. First, listen online through drjamesdobson.org or access our broadcast through your Amazon Alexa. Family Talk is also available through the podcast app on your smartphone, simply search for Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, then please leave us a review. Or if you're looking for a simpler way to enjoy our shows, you can request a CD, call 877-732-6825 and a member of our staff will be happy to fulfill your request for a polished physical CD copy. Just make your request known when you call 877-732-6825.
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Dr. Dobson: Someone once said, if you remove the rocks from a brook, it would lose its song. Well, that holds true for you and me as well. Author Scott Walker tells of the time he was asked to help some friends dig through the ashes of their house after a fire. When they arrived, all that was standing was a portion of the outer brick wall. Where the piano once stood lay only a pile of ashes and twisted wire. Nothing had survived the blaze, but while sifting through the debris, Walker came across a tiny china bluebird. He wiped away the soot to find that the colors were still bright. A few hairline cracks had formed in the glaze, but beyond that, it remained intact.
Walker writes, "As I gazed down at the bird's small beak and two black eyes, I wanted to weep. If only this little bluebird could talk, what a story it would tell. A story of the heat of the night, of terror, of survival against great odds. And then the crucial question hit me, why did this china bluebird survive? It had survived the fire because it had been tested by fire. And so it is with human beings who have been refined in life's raging furnace, they are tougher, harder and more resilient than those who have never faced difficulty and loss. That understanding may help us cope the next time the heat is turned up on our tranquil little world.
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