Is There Time to Recover the American Dream?

In Ronald Reagan’s address to the nation July 27, 1981 he said “This is not the time for political fun and games. This is the time for a new beginning.” He was at the time, speaking about the heavy burden of taxes laid upon American families, so we can only imagine what he might say today about both taxes and time.

After a lifetime of studying the scriptures, history and the influences of great men and women on our society, I am convinced that when we speak of “space and time,” it is time that bears upon us disproportionately from space.

With the last shuttle launch behind us and talk of dismantling the space station in the news, it would seem that we are back to being the prisoners of the earth, as declared by the ancient King Solomon. “For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.” (La 3: 33, 34)

Man’s curiosity is a God-given attribute responsible for discovering many good things and a lot of purely evil things as well. It is not a divine mandate to traverse the universe as we might imagine. In the end each man, it is said, will account for how he used the “time” that was given to them, whereas, no one will have to account for the miles they traveled.

Without a worm hole or some amazing new discovery in the science of quantum physics that can reduce the effect of time in space travel, it boils down to the original message. It is ‘time’ here on earth that man will be held accountable for, and not the unfathomable distances in outer space that can only be measured in light years.

The nascent science of homeostasis looks at the effects of time on mankind, but man, according to scriptures will be judged for his influence upon time, his time, right here on earth. Atheism, agnosticism and almost all false religions are a concerted effort to remove our accountability to God. They assert that our time is our own and can be used in any fashion we choose.

Even those with no faith at all are known to quote from King Solomon’s wisdom from Ecclesiastes 3: 1f. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” If we only admit to the influence of time, in a time we call, the wee small hours of the morning, we all know that everything does seem to fall into its place at the most propitious moment, and is always inexplicable, if not totally amazing. We call this, timing.

We all seem to agree that time is cast upon us in three major sections we call the past, present and the future. Then we carve time into dozens of other categories starting with, the good times and the bad times. After that we slice time into little portions like, hard times, golden times, sad times, thoughtful times, and many more. We reduce time to its smallest portions with remarks like, in a split second, the longest moment or, in no time at all.

We also seem to agree that those who try to alter, manipulate, ignore or deny the three major categories of time are headed for trouble. We say those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. Those who live only for the present, act as if there is no tomorrow, but will be caught off guard when it suddenly arrives. We say those who have their heads filled with only visions of the future are dreamers or in the case of preachers and prophets who warn of future events, they are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

Jesus rebuked those of his time for being able to discern the weather and read the conditions that would prevail just by reading the sky and other natural phenomena, but refusing to read the signs of the times.

He said, “And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Mt 16: 3)

The refusal to engage our discernment to read the times prevails to this day. This accounts for our ability to ignore the preponderance of the prophetic warnings and the fact that almost every single prophet of old or today has concurred that when Israel is a nation again, and in possession of Jerusalem, there is one generation left for man to get his house in order.

Israel has not been a free or independent nation for twenty five centuries but now against all odds and anyone’s expectations and with no previous historical record to compare it to, she has become a nation since 1948 and has recovered her grandest possession, the City of Jerusalem, since the six day war of 1967. What does this mean to those who do discern the times? In the simplest terms, it is a call to attention. It is a call to engage our best discernment. Forget milk; got discernment?

It is for this reason that I can say in no uncertain terms that of all the voices we hear in America today, it is not the economists, the politicians, the scientists, the educators or just those in our own peer group that we should hold as the most authoritative and final. It is also with great certainty that I can proclaim that, this is not what is happening in our nation today.

Before these times I often wondered why Christ used the term “Behold, I come as a thief” to describe his return to earth. It always seemed a bit out of character that Christ would equate himself with a thief since he was the holiest man to ever walk the earth. Today it is very clear that because of man’s unpreparedness and aloofness about the prophecies and promises of his return that, he was only speaking about the suddenness, the stealth and swiftness of his return to an unsuspecting and preoccupied generation. This is why the Apostle Peter penned the following warning to those living in this day.

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3: 3, 4)

Considering that references to the last days and the return of the Lord are made over eighty times in the scripture and nearly one quarter of the Bible has to do with those days, it cannot be said that we are without warning. It also cannot be said, that those who express these warnings are over extended, hyped up or out of touch with reality.

Preachers and prophets are called to speak of time but there is a day in which they will speak no more. In that day, time will speak for itself, with a fullness of events all carefully outlined and given to us all, so we might not be caught by the “thief in the night.”