America is dying! The country's wound is incurable. It is now in the final throes of a terminal disease. The great empire is crumbling!
This country is headed the way of all fallen empires. The time that God warned us about in His Word has come — the "dread release," when even the prayers of godly saints no longer avail. God said, "When the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it...and will cut off man and beast from it: though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 14:13-14).
God never yet has destroyed a society or nation without ample warning. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). God warned Abraham of the sudden destruction about to fall on Sodom: "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do" (Genesis 18:17). He warned Noah, too, that He soon would destroy mankind with a flood: "Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear" (Hebrews 11:7).
God warned Samuel of the downfall of Eli's ministry and of the destruction of Shiloh. "And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle" (1 Samuel 3:11).
Jeremiah prophesied judgment upon Israel because "the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou showedst me their doings" (Jeremiah 11:18). God also revealed to Daniel what was to come: "Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision" (Daniel 2:19).
In every age God has communicated His warnings to the people in different ways. He spoke with Moses face-to-face, to Joshua through an angel and to the Old Testament prophets in visions and dreams. And today God is speaking again — loud and clear.
Yes, there are false prophets: crazy, immoral, half-mad, self-proclaimed seers who are also crying judgment. But these people are sent by Satan to discredit the true word of God-sent watchmen.
Many American shepherds — or, ministers — have become so blind, lazy and sinful that God has had to call upon secular writers and artists to warn this nation it is dying! Have you seen the prophetic cartoons in our newspapers lately? One depicts the Statue of Liberty standing with her head in her hands, weeping in shame! Another shows a bloody finger inscribing the prophetic writing on the wall: "Anarchy."
Unlike the blind shepherds, these secularists see the grim reality that is now upon us. In New York City and other urban areas, cartoons portray crowds walking over corpses! Bulldozers are avalanched by mountains of white cocaine — and are unable to make a dent in them!
In book after book, financial experts warn of the soon-coming economic crash. They have seen the handwriting on the wall, and they're frightened. One well-known financial advisor has cashed out in preparation for what is being anticipated as the world's worst depression.
The Old Testament prophecies of destruction were based on sound Biblical deductions. The prophets were students of the revealed Word of God. They studied history. They saw patterns in societies. They became well acquainted with God's mercy and His long-suffering endurance. And they were able to discern the trigger points of God's wrath — that is, when He had enough!
Daniel was a student of the Word. He came to understand the captivity of Israel in Babylon by reading the writings of the previous prophets. From their prophecies he calculated the end of the captivity, the time the Messiah would come, how long He would live and when He would die. "I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet" (Daniel 9:2).
Daniel listed all the terrible things that were happening to God's people in his day. He compared it all with Deuteronomy 28 and concluded, "The curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him...As it is written in the laws of Moses, all this evil is come upon us...for we obeyed not his voice" (Daniel 9:11,13-14).
Any God-fearing, praying Christian can do as Daniel did. Beloved, compare to the Scriptures what we see happening right before our eyes, and you will know beyond any doubt that America is even now under the fury of God's curse for disobedience.
Twelve Signs of the Curse.
Moses listed in Deuteronomy 28 all the signs of the curse. We need to be reminded of these dreadful signs which "shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments" (Deuteronomy 28:15).
I'll list just 12 of the fearful curses here:
1. A Curse Upon Our Cities: "Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field" (Deuteronomy 28:16). American cities are doomed. Our own magazines have declared them to be Western "Beiruts" or war zones. Crack is tearing them apart. New York City is becoming unlivable. A murder occurs every five hours, a crime every 20 seconds. Our cities are headed for anarchy, and there is no turning back. Now it's spreading even to our smallest towns.
2. A Curse Upon Our Economy: "Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store" (28:17). This refers to gross national product, banking and reserves. A curse will fall upon it all, bringing confusion, fear and uncertainty. "I [will break] the staff of your bread" (see Leviticus 26:26) — meaning widespread unemployment.
3. A Curse Upon Our Futures Market: "Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine [cattle], and the flocks of thy sheep" (28:18). This curse will fall on our crops and cattle.
4. A Curse Upon Our Foreign Negotiations: This curse will bring shame and embarrassment. "Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do...because of the wickedness of thy doings" (28:19-20). U.S. foreign policy today is in complete disarray! Our negotiators come home confused — upstaged by Russia, upstaged in China. We appear befuddled before the whole world.
5. Plagues of Incurable Illnesses: "The Lord shall make the pestilence [sickness] cleave unto thee...with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation" (28:21,22). "The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt...and with the scab...where of thou canst not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment [panic] of heart (28:27,28). "The Lord shall smite thee...with a sore botch [boil] that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head" (28:35). The mark of AIDS is the purple blotch — the incurable boil!
6. Dust Bowls and Areas of Drought: "The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee" (28:24). This is God's doing. All of it is sent from heaven!
7. Insignificant Enemies Will Put Our Armies to Chase: "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them...And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air" (28:25,26). Think of the stalemate in Korea. Or our troops fleeing from Vietnam and being chased out of Lebanon. Or tiny Panama holding a gun to our head.
8. An Epidemic of Divorce: An epidemic of broken homes has erupted. "Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof" (28:30).
9. A Wave of Bankruptcies: "Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes...thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them" (28:31). This describes the ancient oriental custom of the creditor taking everything from the debtor for restitution. It warns of the wave of bankruptcies that will come upon this cursed nation.
10. The Loss of an Entire Generation of Youth: "Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them" (28:32). Today a nation of adults, supplied with all money and might, can merely stand by and watch in horror as drugs and violence swallow up an entire population of youth. This Scripture is a prophetic warning about the despair that falls upon parents in a nation under the curse. "Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity" (28:41).
11. The Prosperity of Other Nations at Our Expense: "The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low" (28:43). Hosea describes the blindness of people under this curse: "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not" (Hosea 7:9). Whatever the crop, whatever the fruit, "the strangers shall swallow it up" (Hosea 8:7).
12. You Will Become a Debtor Nation Rather Than a Lender: "He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail" (Deuteronomy 28:44). In the last five years we have become the world's biggest debtor nation. At this moment we are now the tail — and Japan is the head. We can't even bail out our own bankrupt savings and loan institutions. Consider the $150 billion that's needed to save our banking system — and then tell me America is not under the curse! We are now experiencing the full fury of it!
Nineveh Was the New York City of Its Day.
Nineveh was the capital of a mighty empire. At the very height of its power and prosperity God raised up prophets to warn of impending judgments. God Himself described Nineveh as "that great city...[whose] wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:2). Nahum called it: "the bloody city...full of lies and robbery" (Nahum 3:1).
Nineveh, like New York City, was comprised of four smaller cities or precincts. It spread some 30 miles in circumference and was protected by a 100 foot-high wall. The wall was wide enough for three chariots to run abreast on its roadway, and had 1,500 towers on it — each of them 250 feet tall.
In Jonah's day, Nineveh had 120,000 children under seven years old, so its total population had to be more than 600,000. In Nahum's time, it had a large standing army, powerful and undefeated. War horses paraded in its streets. Chariots thundered along its boulevards. Nineveh was a great merchant city, a world trade center. Three-fourths of the known world was under the sway of its power and commerce.
Under Jonah's preaching Nineveh had exhibited a form of repentance — but this repentance was shallow and short-lived. Nineveh soon returned to its wicked ways, and God was quickly forgotten. The city's wickedness and immorality were exported all over the world, and Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire began to flaunt their bloodshed. Thus God became enraged.
The Spirit of God came upon the prophet Nahum, and he declared this: "God is jealous...and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance" (Nahum 1:2). Nahum saw that wicked society — drunk with pleasure, success and prosperity, full of pride, greed and violence, a people at ease while robbing and shedding blood — and he cried out, "Woe to Nineveh! God is going to bring judgment again!"
Nahum's prophecy came forth years after Jonah had been sent to proclaim judgment on the city. God had been "slow to anger" and patient in spite of their wickedness, bloodshed and godlessness. He remembered the short-lived repentance of their fathers under Jonah's preaching.
Nahum Anchored His Prophecy of Coming Destruction On the Revealed Word Of God.
Nahum's prophecy was more than a dream or vision. Like Daniel and the other prophets, Nahum was a student of the Word. He had studied the history of God's dealings with societies in the past, especially the great city of No-Amon (Thebes of Egypt).
No-Amon was the capital of the Egyptian empire during the imperial 18th to 20th Dynasties. Treasures poured into No-Amon's coffers from all over the world. It was the city of the Pharaohs. Temples to false gods lined its boulevards. Jeremiah prophesied against the city's idolatry: "Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods" (Jeremiah 46:25). Ezekiel, too, prophesied that God would "execute judgments in No...and...cut off the multitude of No" (Ezekiel 30:14,15).
No-Amon had been an impenetrable city, protected on all sides, "waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from sea" (Nahum 3:8). The city was very prosperous and had added power from satellite nations. "Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength...Put and Labium were thy helpers" (Nahum 3:9). No-Amon had almost the size and population of Nineveh before that city was wiped out in divine judgment. With its palaces, expensive art, exotic furniture, pottery and fine clothes, No-Amon was the envy of nations. It boasted a huge army and a great stockpile of weapons.
The world thought No was an invincible city in its time. They believed it would live forever. "Yet was she [No] carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains" (3:10). Nahum prophesied this based on God's historical dealings with wicked societies in the past. "Art thou better than popular No?" (3:8). In other words, "What makes you believe God will judge all others for the things you are now doing but let you escape?"
God has every right to ask America the same question today. What is different about America from wicked Sodom? Are we better than Noah's generation? Or Lot's generation? Are we better than the wicked people of No-Amon? Are we more deserving than Nineveh, which God wiped out? Considering all past evidences of God's fury, why should He spare us, since we are committing acts seven times worse than any of these wicked people?
Nahum's warning to Nineveh is a warning to us also: "Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shall be hid" (Nahum 3:11). America is drunken with lust, drugs, violence, evil sex — and intoxicated with success and prosperity. "Thou shalt be hid" means this country will become powerless, reduced to nothing, unable to take action or to solve problems. Our mortal enemies will plunder us. Society will crumble under the weight of unsolvable problems.
Up to now America has stumbled along, enduring but never solving its problems. Yet we have survived. But now, all our problems are going to accelerate. The hospital system in our cities has become unmanageable: Addicts are slipping out of their rooms, running out to get crack, and then climbing back into bed. Many are freebasing cocaine in hospital rooms — even in emergency rooms. Doctors and nurses are being beaten and murdered. There is no cure, no solution possible!
Our jails are overflowing, resulting in the release of many criminals. We're now building prison barges in the attempt to cope with the overcrowding. Our penal institutions are horror houses of rape, violence and hopelessness. Here, too, there are no solutions, no cures in sight.
Our courts can't handle the caseloads anymore. Judge after judge has issued warnings: "We're on the brink of anarchy. We can't even process the multitudes of criminals."
Our schools are the shame of the whole world. Inner-city school buildings are decaying; teachers live in fear. The schools have become a miniature hell where kids are confronted with guns, knives, drugs, violence and promiscuous sex. The schools are devoid of all morality.
Our welfare systems are in total chaos. New York State has called this city a "welfare basket case." Costs already have spun out of control.
Nobody in the U.S. Government, in Congress, on Wall Street or at the Federal Reserve can tell us what is happening to our economy. It is beyond us all. No one knows what is holding the system together.
There Is a Trigger That Has Set Off This Awesome Judgment.
"There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor" (Nahum 1:11). God must pour out His fury when the nation turns from simply ignoring God to deliberately plotting against Him.
This evil one who plots against God — making laws, giving wicked counsel, designed to anger God — is the consensus, the national mind, expressed by its judges, courts, and government. This one who has arisen in our midst is embodied in our Supreme Court, our federal courts, our judges on every level. These people have become wicked counselors, waging war against God. And they have blood on their hands!
They are evil God-haters who protect baby-killers and atheistic rights. They have shaken their fist at God, daring Him to react to their flaunted rebellion. This small handful of wicked counselors has set their hearts against God. They have declared war, and God no longer can hold back His fury.
I do not care a bit what the Supreme Court does, however. You see, God is going to turn it into a kangaroo court of fools. "For now will I break His yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder" (Nahum 1:13). These wicked counselors will go down in judgment. God has promised to confound them and to make their faces black with fear.
Nahum asks, "Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide [endure] in the fierceness of his anger?" (1:6). When God's fury is on the land, when the fierceness of God's anger strikes, what judge can then stand in rebellion? What court will endure? God will smite them all with fear, striking their hearts with confusion. They will be helpless against the flood, crying, "What has happened? It's all going down!"
Four Specific Judgments God Inflicts on a Nation Going Down.
Like Nineveh, America has an incurable wound. Other than a miracle of mercy, there is no more healing for us, only judgment (see Nahum 3:19). These judgments appear and quickly accelerate until each becomes an avalanche, an overwhelming flood (1:18).
I. THERE SHALL BE NO END OF CORPSES.
The first judgment is that there will be "no end of corpses." Nahum 3:3 says, "There is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcasses; and there is no end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses."
Nahum saw something that at the time seemed unbelievable. Nineveh was lounging comfortably in its prosperity. Its streets bustled with shoppers and merchants — business as usual. But the prophet saw a sword coming to those busy streets. He saw corpses lying everywhere, a multitude of the slain and murdered with people stumbling over the bodies. When judgment comes, expect to see caskets and corpses in growing numbers.
A terrible scene is emblazoned on my mind: that of former President Reagan and his wife weeping over the 250 caskets of soldiers who were blown up in Lebanon. And again I see them standing before empty caskets — those of five astronauts blown out of the sky. I see President Bush, too, standing gravely before some 35 caskets — those of sailors killed by a shipboard explosion. It's coffin time in America! In the days ahead there will be so many corpses that Americans will become immune to it all — and will just step over bodies. One day we will see bodies dead from starvation on America's streets. Already AIDS victims are languishing on the streets with no place to die!
This story appeared in the news recently: A 14-year-old mother threw her newborn baby out of a fourth-floor window. The little child's corpse was found three days later in the alley. People thought it was a discarded baby doll.
Another equally gruesome story is that of a three-day-old baby found in a dumpster on Ninth Avenue, wrapped in a plastic bag — just one of hundreds of little abandoned corpses found in the city.
But perhaps the most disturbing story to appear recently was that of the tiny corpse of a little girl who had been placed in a suitcase and burned to death. The story read, "She was abused and abandoned in life, but adopted and loved in death. She was a toddler, about three years old, found burned to death in a suitcase dumped amid piles of trash in the vestibule of an apartment house.
"The body was going to be buried in Potter's Field, but the firefighters who found her were so broken by what they saw that they arranged to have her buried — 'to give this baby some type of dignity in death — she probably didn't have much dignity in life'.... Trucks from the engine and ladder companies stood outside the church as (they) carefully cradled the tiny white casket in their arms and carried it into the church."
You can almost hear the frightful cry: "Come, all ye gravediggers! Come, all ye coffin makers, labor around the clock. Come, ye pallbearers, the caskets keep coming! Come, ye funeral directors and embalmers, your work has just begun!" There is no end to the corpses!
What kind of spiritual blindness has fallen on us when we see this judgment all about and still have preachers crying, "Peace! Prosperity!" Do they not care? Does it mean nothing to them?
II. LOSS OF NATIONAL PURPOSE
"I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame" (Nahum 3:5). The second judgment we'll see is the nations which once feared us, envied us and stood in awe of us will discover us to have become weak. "Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women" (3:13). In other words, "You have grown soft and effeminate through your luxury. You have no will, no resolve."
All dying empires become soft and effeminate, unwilling in the end to take a stand for anything. From Sodom to Babylon, dying empires have gone out drunk, lazy, stoned and immune to all warnings. Like Belshazzar, the king of Babylon who saw the writing on the wall, they end up giving the prophets their day in court — telling them, yes, they are on target, that what they're saying is all true. But then they go right back to the party. (See Daniel 5).
"The gates of thy land shall be set wide unto thine enemies" (Nahum 3:13). Drug lords from Cambodia, Columbia, Mexico and Pakistan are laughing at our flimsy border patrols. God has torn down our walls. Castro has dumped hundreds of prisoners and spies on our land.
Thank God for the many good — even godly — aliens I've met. But for every good one, ten evil ones, including murderers and rapists, pour in. In many countries drug pushers are the only ones able to raise the money to come to America. The prophet said they came with a sword to kill and destroy.
III. A BAPTISM OF FILTH
"I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock" (Nahum 3:6). Our third judgment, like Nineveh, is that we have become the shame and disgrace of the world. The rest of the world blushes at our wickedness. I once took visitors from Poland and other Soviet-bloc countries on a tour through New York's streets. As we walked down 42nd Street, I saw tears in their eyes. Finally, one Polish businessman turned to me and said, "I'm walking through hell itself! Please take me out of here!"
"This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand" (Zephaniah 2:15). Israel once became so wicked that even the heathen "daughters of the Philistines...are ashamed of thy lewd way" (Ezekiel 16:27). Israel's coruption was worse than Sodom's. "Thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways" (Ezekiel 16:47).
Moses warned Israel that sin would bring any nation "into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it" (Leviticus 26:32).
America is now experiencing this supernatural baptism of filth. The prophet paints the picture of a God so furious, so full of vengeance, that He is throwing mud or dirt on this wicked nation. We are literally drowning in pornography: It is now a multimillion-dollar business. Ten years ago much of it was imported. But today the U.S. is the biggest exporter of filth in all the world.
With its television shows and VCR movies, our nation has developed an appetite for perversion and sadomasochism. Even daytime soap operas are full of smut, fornication and homosexuality. TV has become the open floodgate of this barrage of filth.
God is doing to America what He did to Israel after she lusted for flesh in the desert. "Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days...until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you" (Numbers 11:19-20).
The United States of America is now known as "the nation where anything goes!" There are virtually no more restraints. Young 11 and 12 year-old boys are becoming rapists. Girls are getting pregnant at age 12 — and then having abortions! Our nation plays the harlot while looking down the barrel of the deadly gun of AIDS, and laughs, "Who's afraid of AIDS?" Last week a movie star confessed that 12 of his best friends have died of AIDS. But he doesn't intend to change his ways!
IV. A MASSIVE DEPRESSION FROM WHICH THERE IS NO ESCAPE
Many don't like to hear about the coming economic collapse. The word "depression" scares Americans. But believe it or not, we are not just facing another recession that will last a short while before the economy bounces back. Rather, we are facing the last great depression!
It happened to every past society and empire in the throes of judgment. Don't believe it won't happen to us. Because of Israel's unfaithfulness, the Lord said to that nation: "Thou has multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away" (Nahum 3:16).
In this prophecy, the prophet Nahum was warning the city of an insidious enemy that would come to destroy its economy. Nineveh exported glassworks, textiles, carpets, ivory carvings, artwork of all kinds, gems, silver, gold and spices. Its merchants traveled throughout the world. But before long an invading cancer came, and enemies swooped down, spread themselves over the rich spoil and fled with the loot.
Rest assured the day is not far off when Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Germany will take their money from the United States and flee! "All they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" (Nahum 3:7). "All that hear the bruit [news] of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" (3:19).
One day soon, Japan will quit buying our government bonds — as will all other nations. We will not be able to finance our massive debt. It will all tumble and fall. "He [God] hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee" (Lamentations 2:17).
The real estate market will crash as well. Zephaniah warned Nineveh: "Desolation shall be in the thresholds" (Zephaniah 2:14). The thresholds represent dwellings. He prophesied of empty buildings with birds flying in and out of the shattered windows. "The bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it" (verse 14). The New American Standard Bible reads, "Birds will sing in the window."
Even now in Dallas, Houston and Denver we see the appalling sight of empty skyscrapers: "A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers" (Zephaniah 1:16). High buildings, such as the Trump and Zeckendorf Towers in New York City, represent the pride, competition and greed of American society. The day is coming when many of these towers will stand empty like giant, decaying tombstones, full of homeless people.
When Will All This Fall Upon Us?
Nahum said of Nineveh, "The Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee...will I cut off...for thou art vile" (Nahum 1:14). I believe God already has given the commandment to bring forth all these prophesied judgments. It all has been set in motion. The word I keep hearing in my spirit is "acceleration." The fire has been ignited — and soon it will grow hotter, more intense and eventually will encompass all our society.
What about the people of God? What are we facing? Again, we are driven to the Word to find our what the Lord declared and performed in the past.
Has not God always delivered His people in past desolations? Let's search the Scriptures: Noah and his family escaped the flood. Were they preserved? Yes! Did Daniel and the Hebrew children survive the furnace and lion's den? Yes! Did Lot and those who heeded God's warnings perish in Sodom? No!
Didn't Jesus warn the Jews to flee Jerusalem when invading armies approached? He said, "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies...flee to the mountains...depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter" (Luke 21:20-21). And Jerusalem was destroyed while the obedient ones escaped — remembering the Lord's warning.
Even to the wicked Nineveh, for the sake of even one righteous man, God gave this glorious message: "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him" (Nahum 1:7). Those who listen and obey have always been saved!
His stronghold is a fortified house of rock: "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust...Be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress" (Psalm 31:1-3).
And here is how we will be kept safe: "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.... Thou hast known my soul in adversities; and hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room" (Psalm 31:5,7,8).
Prepare now for God's imminent judgments — by setting your heart on the Rock Who provides refuge for His own. Commit the keeping of your body soul to our gracious and merciful Lord.
How God intends to save His people in these troubled times, I do not know — but with Him nothing is impossible. He is our ark of safety, so we need not fear, or run, or hide. Even if we leave this world by way of a hydrogen meltdown, it will be instant deliverance from a world gone mad.
Call me a doomsayer — call me unpatriotic — call me any name you please. But I am already a citizen of another country — the New Jerusalem, which is above. We are supposed to be looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
Finally, Jesus forewarned us of a day coming — so frightful, men's hearts would fail them for fear, beholding the horrors coming on the earth. Then He said, "Look up and rejoice, for your redemption draws near."