America
is engaged in a civil war. The battle lines are drawn, the strategies are in
place, the casualties are mounting. And the winner takes all.
From
the shattering of families to a staggering rate of crime and lawlessness, the
secular assault on the moral fabric of this country is unraveling every
facet
of life as we have known it. Even our most basic liberties, including our
freedom to worship God without government interference and censorship,
are
now threatened.
It
almost seems redundant to consider once again the statistics that, by now, have
become familiar to most of us. On every side, in almost every place,
we
are beset with child abuse, rape, abortion that occurs at the rate of one per
minute, drug abuse, senseless violence, sexual perversion, pornography,
divorce,
gang warfare, and finally, teenagers who are committing suicide at the rate of
one every 90 minutes. No wonder.
It
is not so much a situation in which Americans are merely breaking the law; it
is more grave than that. It is a situation where people have actually
overturned
the
law. God issued a severe warning to Israel in Isaiah 5:20: "Woe unto them
that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light
for
darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
Boards
of education across America sanction the teaching of homosexuality as an
acceptable lifestyle, but the Supreme Court has banned them from using any
reference
to the word "God" in their official writings. We seem to have lost
the standard, and there is no longer any consensus of what is true and what
is
honorable.
Ten
years ago, we were shocked at revelations of declining moral values in America.
Today, the shocking thing is that nothing shocks us anymore. We have
seen
it and heard it so many times that we have almost become desensitized. But as
Christians accountable to God, we must wrestle with serious questions:
How
did this happen to our once great nation? What do we do and where do we go from
here?
For
those of us engaged in the study of end-time prophecies, there is a subtle
danger in all of this. We read 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and we know that, in the
latter
days, men are destined to become selfish, proud, disobedient to parents,
without natural affection, despisers of those that are good, and lovers
of
pleasure more than lovers of God.
We
debate the conspicuous absence of the United States in the final biblical
scenario, and we somehow conclude that maybe America's decay is just a
predestined
prelude
to the return of our Savior. And so we become passive.
But
if our Lord did return today, what would we have left to give Him from the
wreckage of our rich spiritual heritage and the incredible blessings that
He
has bestowed on this country? We know from the parable of the talents that God
expects a return on the truth that He has invested in us. How many talents
would
we have to offer?
When
Jesus pronounced sentence against Judas, He made an interesting point. Personal
responsibility for sin is never excused on the basis of the inevitability
of
events. "For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to
that one by whom he is betrayed!" (Luke 22:22;NRSV).
Whatever
God chooses to do with the United States, we as Christians are still
responsible for our stewardship of the liberties and the freedoms that He
has
given us. Jesus will not return in order to rescue us from a corrupt situation.
He will return when His work on earth, through His church, is completed.
The
hope of His imminent return should compel us all the more to strive toward
restoring the character of our country and the honor of His name.
That
is where the going gets tough. Christian leaders everywhere are sounding the
call to arms. We're challenged to fill the voting booths, call our congressmen,
boycott
the offenders, change the school systems, impeach our leaders. Frustrated
Americans are proposing everything from a military takeover in Washington
to
secession from the union.
We
are told to pray for revival and to stand up for God's Word. But it is on this
last point that we come face to face with a very tough reality. We are
trying
to hold a nation of people accountable to God's Word when, in fact, a
significant number of them no longer believe that God even exists.
It's
plausible that the cause of our moral and spiritual dilemma, and the solution
to it, may be something more simple and more profound than we have considered.
Throughout
Scripture, there seems to be a plan, ordered by God, that is designed to keep
us corporately in God's blessing. It isn't just the type of government
we
set up or the people we elect or even the laws we institute. It is the simple
commandment that we teach our children to keep the way of the Lord.
The
concept goes back as far as Genesis 18:19 when God said of Abraham, "For I
know him, that he will command his children and his household after him,
and
they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment. . . ." In
Deuteronomy 4: 10, He states again ". . . and I will make them hear my
words,
that
they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and
that they may teach their children."
'Me
powerful impact of teaching children should not surprise us. Our enemies have
understood it well. Communist countries made it policy to remove children
from
their homes at an early age in order to educate and indoctrinate them. Adolph
Hitler pronounced that "who controls the youth, controls the future."
Liberal
engineers of social change have made the claim that, given just one generation,
they can radically alter a society. And they have proven their point.
Psalm
78:5-7 states:
For
he established a testimony in Jacob, and pointed a law in Israel, which he
commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
That
the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born
who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might
set
their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
Perhaps
we need to consider that God doesn't hold us as accountable for governments and
policies and social orders as much as He does for the spiritual
inheritance
that we give to our own children. Perhaps, in His providential plan, it would
be enough if only we would master the task of safeguarding God's
truth
from father to child, one generation at a time.
For
many Christians, teaching our children God's truth may seem routine. But
therein lies the danger. It doesn't mean that we passively sit back and tell
our
children what we believe. It doesn't mean that if they see us going to church
and to Bible studies that they will somehow get the message.
Teaching
is not just exhibiting faith but laboring to implant everything that we know
and understand about our God into the hearts and minds of the next
generation.
It is teaching God's Word and using every possible opportunity to demonstrate
its validity. It is a labor of love.
Of
His Word, God says: "And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when
thou
liest down, and when thou risest up.... That your days may be multiplied, and
the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your
fathers
to give them. . ." (Deut. 11:19-21).
However
close our relationship with God, no matter how strong our own convictions, we
need to understand this principle of teaching the next generation.
Otherwise
our faith dies with us, and our children are left to fashion a world of their
own choosing.
The
fallout from the takeover of secular humanism in America has been staggering,
and nowhere is it more evident than in the lives of our youth. When we
examine
the course of the last couple of decades in this country, we see a chronicle of
what happens to a nation that turns its back on God.
The
first chapter of Romans details a progression of sin and rebellion against God
that is stunningly like the progression of life in America. It begins:
"Because
that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful;
but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was
darkened" (Rom. 1:21).
There
is no lack of historical evidence that this country was founded on Christian
principles. Document after document confirms an original commitment to
God
and to His laws.
Patrick
Henry stated, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this
great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on
religions
but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."
If
we assume that 200 years ago the majority of people in America were followers
of God, then what happened in the intervening years to bring us to where
we
are today? The answer may be that we lost something crucial. We lost the
foundation, the reference point, of our Christian faith. And without the
foundation
of
God's authoritative Word, we no longer had anything substantial to pass on to
the next generation. So we substituted relativity for truth, and "values
clarification"
for God's moral absolutes.
After
the Great Depression and the powerful impact of World War 111, a generation of
Americans suddenly found itself in a time of peace and prosperity.
Life
was easier, families were stable, and there was a general sense of order and
rule. People trusted each other. Furthermore, they trusted the government
and
those in authority, and that proved to be a fatal mistake.
Instead
of obeying God's command to teach our children diligently, we delegated that
responsibility to Sunday school teachers and public schools - to authorities
outside
the home. At that time, there was no reason to assume that anything would be
lost in the process. But we didn't see that the foundation was beginning
to
crumble.
Ken
Ham, a scientist with the Institute for Creation Research, wrote that "the
meaning of anything is related to its origin." Many who agree with that
premise
believe
that the domination of evolutionary thought in America probably delivered the
first and most extensive blow to the foundation of Christianity.
Of
Genesis, Ham states that "all biblical doctrines are, in one way or
another, founded in this first book of the Bible."' Thus, the evolutionary
thought
that
undermined the creation of man, effectively undermined the whole authority of
biblical teaching.
Many
Christians still do not realize the enormous impact of the teachings of one
man, Charles Darwin, and how he has forever altered the world view of life.
Public
educators took the theory of evolution, which from the beginning was riddled
with unanswered questions and inconsistencies, and presented it to an
entire
generation as the factual account of man's origin. With one broad stroke, they
took out the Creator, which eliminated man's personal accountability,
stripped
away the value of a human life as having been created in the image of God, and
erased the natural division between man and animal.
In
his book, The Long War Against God, Dr. Henry Morris states that:
"Evolutionism and its corollary teachings in the schools have so
undermined the Bible
by
discrediting its record of creation and divine purpose that the whole
'Christian experience' has likewise been completely discredited in the minds of
young
people. . . ."
It
would be impossible to fully assess the amount of damage that the teaching of
evolution has left in its wake. Since man is just a random accident in
the
universe, then life itself is of no real value beyond the existential seeking
of momentary pleasure. No life is any more significant than any other,
so
there is really nothing and no one worth sacrificing for, and man has no more
right to the earth's resources than the lowest animals.
In
the words of Dr. David Jeremiah, "Abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia
are logical behaviors for those who have so easily disposed of the image of God
in
the eternal soul of man."' Evolution effectively takes God out of the
picture and allows man to justify anything and everything that he deems is a
means
to
his own.
We
could hardly have sent a more devastating message to our children. Instead of
teaching them that they were uniquely designed by a loving and compassionate
Creator,
in His image, with value and purpose, we set them adrift into a world of futility
and meaninglessness.
One
of the intriguing things about the theory of evolution is that we embraced it
so fully in the academic world when it was still suspect in the scientific
world.
In the book, Origin of Species Revisited, the author quotes a noted biochemist,
that 100 years ago, ".. . even Darwin himself had increasing doubts
as
to the validity of his views.... His general theory, that all life on earth had
originated and evolved by a gradual successive accumulation of fortuitous
mutations,
is still, as it was in Darwin's time, a highly speculative hypothesis entirely
without direct factual support. . . ."
Yet
the theory of evolution was brought full-scale into the classrooms of America,
even to the exclusion of the theory of creation. Evolution was introduced
not
so much as a scientific doctrine, but as a social doctrine that would
completely redesign our view of life.
Dr.
Morris goes so far as to state that "evolutionary thought is basically
responsible for the lethally ominous political developments and the chaotic
moral
and
social disintegration that has been accelerating everywhere in recent
decades."
Again,
we find in Romans a reference to these engineers of social change: "Who
changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature
more
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen" (Rom. 1:25).
The
progression of rebellion against God as outlined in Romans I denotes three
areas where God "gave them up," or gave men over, to suffer the
logical consequences
of
their own sin. First, He gave over their hearts to uncleanness (verse 24), then
He gave over their bodies to "vile affections" (verse 26), and
finally
He
gave them over to a reprobate mind (verse 28). We see around us today the same
consequences in the lives of those who reject God, and in the life of
our
nation as a whole.
When
we began to reject God, we first felt the damage in the "places of the
heart." After the foundation was sufficiently weakened, the first major
casualty
of
the war against God was the family. Every weapon that could be used to break
down family structure was employed.
Once
Americans achieved a high standard of living and the money supply was
tightened, the pressure was on to reconcile the two. Many researchers report
that
financial pressure within a marriage is the number one cause of divorce. Many
women were forced to enter the workplace in order to provide a second
income,
and at the same time, the new left began to denigrate the role of full-time
mothers and homemakers.
Neil
Postman, a professor at New York University and a secular author, discusses
this shift in his book, The Disappearance of Childhood. Although he basically
commends
the women's liberation movement as one that "deserves the full support of
enlightened people," he nevertheless sees it as "devastating to the
power
of the family."
Postman
concludes: ". . . it cannot be denied that as women find their place in
business, in the arts, in industry, and in the professions, there must be
a
serious decline in the strength and meaning of traditional patterns of child
care.... Thus, as parents of both sexes make their way in the world, children
become
something of a burden, and, increasingly, it is deemed best that their
childhood end as early as possible .
Marie
Winn, who writes for the New York Times magazine, continues this same line of
thought, also from a secular perspective, in her book, Children Without
Childhood.
Her indictment states: "Instead of being willing as a society to sacrifice
for children, to consider their care a primary duty, adults have
transformed
the very image of childhood from one that deserves protection and nurture to
one that justifies their own sometimes monstrous abandonment of
children
.
The
sexual revolution also left its scars on the family in terms of infidelity.
Therapists, however, reassured us that, no matter what we did, it was most
likely
someone else's fault. The concepts of sin and personal accountability became
more or less obsolete. Increased self esteem became the new goal, and
it
didn't matter what it took to achieve it.
The
ideas of sacrifice and commitment, to anyone or anything, were quickly set
aside if they interfered with the ultimate fulfillment of individual potential.
As
we mastered the art of putting "self' first, the divorce rate skyrocketed.
And millions of pregnancies ended in abortion because we were unwilling to
make
a place in our world for the children we conceived. And all the time, our
children were watching us.
Since
1960, the teenage suicide rate has tripled. A recent interview on CNN
"Headline News" featured a counselor who works with children affected
by divorce.
He
described the impact on the child as being something similar to a drive-by
shooting. "He is sitting there, minding his own business, when suddenly,
out
of nowhere, he takes a direct hit."
Josiah
Gilbert Holland once wrote, "No nation can be destroyed while it possesses
a good home life." With the disintegration of the family, we do not yet
know
where America's youth will end up in the final analysis. But we know a lot.
While
the hearts of the children were at risk on the home front, their minds were
being attacked on a different front. "And even as they did not like to
retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. . ." (Rom.
1:28).
Behavioral
psychologists and secular forces began to infiltrate the public education
system. Their influence gradually extended beyond academics and into
the
moral and philosophical realm.
Along
with evolution, secularists brought with them the philosophy of humanism as set
forth in two humanist manifestos, signed in 1933 and 1973. They introduced
naturalism
and supported it through the teaching of evolution. They replaced moral
absolutes with relative values and situational ethics. And in 1962 they
succeeded
in persuading the Supreme Court to outlaw prayer and later, Bible reading, in
the classroom. Quite an agenda for change.
Since
that pivotal Supreme Court decision, teenage pregnancies have risen 556
percent, venereal disease is up 226 percent, divorce, which had declined for
15
years, has tripled every year since, and S.A.T. scores, which had previously
been stable, began their remarkable decline, which continues today.
It
stands to reason, however, that the real problem came not because of what
children were being taught in school. The real problem may have been what they
weren't
being taught at home.
As
a result of entrusting our children to outsiders, Postman notes that:
"Psychologists, social workers, guidance counselors, teachers, and others
representing
an
institutional point of view invade large areas of parental authority, mostly by
invitation. What this means is that there is a loss in the intimacy,
dependence,
and loyalty that traditionally characterize the parent- child
relationship."'
Secular
teaching succeeded, in large part, because it went unchecked at home. Over and
over, God charges the parents, specifically the father, to teach
children
His truth. ". . . the father to the children shall make known thy
truth" (Isa. 38:19). "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to
wrath: but
bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4).
God
makes no provision for the delegation of that responsibility, even to Sunday school
teachers. It may be part of God's plan that, for children, truth
is
intrinsically validated when it comes through the life of the parents.
A
poll conducted by U. S. News and World Report in the summer of 1994 found that
60 percent of respondents "say they hold their current religious beliefs
because
of their parents' example." Children who are taught foundational biblical
truth will have a benchmark against which to measure every other doctrine
and
philosophy, and their minds will not be such easy prey for the enemies of God.
"Train
up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from
it" (Prov. 22:6).
God
gives men authority over in a third area - the physical realm. Nothing so
graphically illustrates rebellion against God as the so-called sexual
revolution.
The
vast majority of teenagers today are presumed to be sexually active and are
encouraged through school-sponsored programs to practice "safe sex."
This
assumption
is so predominate that a curriculum teaching abstinence was ruled to be
unconstitutional because the concept of abstinence was deemed to be
"religious"
in nature.
As
a result of secular sex education, however, teenage pregnancies have
skyrocketed, and 35,000 new cases of venereal disease are reported every day.
Many
of
the pregnancies end in abortion, and there is continuing debate over the right
of a minor to obtain an abortion without parental knowledge or consent.
In
addition to sexual promiscuity, the market for pornography, including child
pornography, is widespread.
Before
his execution, confessed murderer Ted Bundy stated, in an interview with Dr.
James Dobson, that one of the most powerful influences in his life of
perversion
was that of pornography. There is an end result of this progression in Romans -
unclean hearts, vile affections, and reprobate minds - and it
is
a portrait of a people who have rebelled against God.
Being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without
natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful (Rom. 1:29-31).
Verses
26 and 27 deal with homosexuality, and the consequence of men ". . .
receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet."
The
homosexual lobby is one of the strongest forces in American politics today and
is openly advanced by the current President and his administration, despite
the
fact that homosexuals reportedly represent only one percent of the entire
population. At the same time, AIDS continues to defy any vaccines or cures,
all
the while claiming thousands and thousands of lives every year. In the last
year alone, the number of estimated AIDS cases has risen 60 percent, to
almost
4 million people worldwide.
On
August 6, 1994, Dr. George Lundberg, editor of the Journal of the American
Medical Association, addressed the 10th International Conference on AIDS with
a
particularly somber prediction: that by the end of the next century "no
successful method of treatment or prevention will have been fully implemented
...
and AIDS will still be a serious endemic disease throughout the world."
What
happens when a group of people rejects the God of the universe and finds itself
in this category? And what happens to the children of the generation
that
turns away?
Frank
Peretti, a well-known Christian author, once made a presentation in which he
related the transition of life in America to a somewhat obscure verse
in
the Bible: "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . . ." (I Sam.
15:23). His premise is that there is a progression of sin beginning with
rebellion
against
God that, when it runs its course, ends up in the realm of the occult.
There
may be some interesting parallels to what we see around us today. One of the
intriguing recurrent themes in Scripture is the contrast between light
and
darkness. Writing of Jesus, the Gospel of John proclaims, "In him was
life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness;
and
the darkness comprehended it not" (John 1:4-5).
Jesus
marks His own identity with references to the light:
I
am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). "Then Jesus said unto
them,
Yet
a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness
come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither
he
goeth" (John 12:35).
According
to Scripture, light represents the kingdom of God and His revealed truth, and
darkness represents the realm of Satan. It is logical, then, that
when
we traverse outside the boundaries of God's truth, we run the risk of crossing
over a type of spiritual boundary into the domain of darkness, or the
occult.
Jesus
said He came: "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness
of
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in
me" (Acts 26:18).
Man
was created with an inherently spiritual nature. When twentieth-century
scientists and behavioral psychologists tried to strip away the basic
foundation
of
Judeo-Christian thought, what they left in its place was a spiritual vacuum.
And into that vacuum, we are seeing the rush of New Age religions, the
occult,
eastern philosophies, and a wide range of teaching that seeks to replace the
light with the dark.
When
we took away from future generations the underpinnings of Judeo- Christian
faith, they turned to find a faith of their own, and there was no shortage
of
leadership to help guide them in their search for spiritual fulfillment.
While
it is true that Christianity is no longer allowed in the public school system,
we would be very wrong to assume that religion has been removed from
our
schools. Secular humanism, once defined by the courts as a religion, is now
giving way to more aggressive New Age precepts and doctrines. In almost
every
school subject, children are taught holistic education, values clarification,
and transpersonal psychology. No longer is the major emphasis on academics
as
much as it is on behavioral and social strategies that will prepare the coming
generation to be good global citizens.
But
the New Age isn't really new at all. A blending of religions and doctrines that
are rooted in Hinduism, including hedonism, pantheism, and humanism,
it
is as ancient as time itself.
In
the garden, Satan tempted Eve with two enticements. First, he said that it was
possible to be like God. Then he reassured her that "ye shall not surely
die."
These two concepts are the basic tenets of New Age thought, and the reason why
it is so attractive to a nation without God. The idea that man can
achieve
"godhood" is to be found everywhere in New Age thought.
Stephanie
Herzog wrote a book titled, Joy in the Classroom, claiming that every student
can achieve personal inner fulfillment and strength through
consciousness-raising
exercise
that put him in touch with "his true God- Self.""
In
a December 1987 article in Time magazine, Robert J. L. Burrows stated:
"You can see the rise of the New Age as a barometer of the disintegration
of American
culture.
Dostoyevsky said that anything is permissible if there is no God. But anything
is also permissible if everything (or everyone) is God."
Synonymous
with the idea of godhood is the availability of power. The media is saturated
with this idea of supernatural power, from "the Force" of Star
Wars
to Field of Dreams to Dungeons and Dragons, and beyond.
The
latest example of this quest is the card game, "Magic: The
Gathering," that has sold more than 10 million cards and continues to sell
out before the
game
even hits the shelves. The game, created by Wizards of the Coast, deals with
building up property, which is your manna," and accumulating cards in
order
to acquire "the power" that each card carries.
The
other facet of New Age comes from Satan's promise that "ye shall not
surely die." The biblical understanding of death is that it is an integral
part
of
man's redemption. God prevented Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life so
that they should not "eat, and live forever," which would have left
them
in their sinful, separated state of existence.
Jesus
Christ triumphed over death when He rose from the grave, and in so doing, He
robbed Satan of his most powerful weapon. It is no wonder then that Satan
should
try to negate the power of Christ's victory by convincing man that there is no
death. Reincarnation allows New Age followers to live forever, and
it
takes out the uncomfortable specter of "accountability to a righteous
God."
Why
is New Age teaching so easily pervading the American mainstream? And what does
it have to do with the fall of the American culture? Isaiah 2:6 states,
"Thou
hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from
the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines..." (NASB).
We
know from I Samuel 6:2 that the Philistines practiced the art of divination.
That practice, which is forbidden by God's Word, seeks to achieve power,
control,
and a knowledge of the future through the intercession of spirit beings or
demons. What God denounced in Israel more than 2,500 years ago is no
different
from the trends that are sweeping through American culture today.
The
eastern mystical religions have always been antithetical to God and to His
revealed plan for mankind. Their influence has been called the beautiful
face
of evil. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light" (2 Cor. 11: 14).
Many
scholars believe that, as we draw near to the return of Jesus Christ, it is
only natural that those within the dominion of Satan will become more and
more
aggressive as they approach the final battlefield. New Age thinking is in
perfect harmony with the end-time prophecies of a one-world global society
under
the leadership of one man, and the concurrent one-world religion that
accompanies his rise to power.
That
is why, when we decided we would no longer impose our system of spiritual
values on our children, Satan was more than happy to impose his.
It
appears that as a nation we have traveled the full spectrum from the loss of
our Christian foundation to open rebellion against God's moral truth, which
had
led many into the realm of occultist beliefs and practices.
How
do we begin to turn an entire nation around and to reclaim the godly heritage
that once was ours? We begin one person at a time.
One
of the enigmas of Christianity is that ever since Jesus chose a handful of men
to change the course of history, God has carried on His master plan for
the
ages through the transformation of one life at a time. We are not asked to
perform supernatural feats or to overthrow principalities. We change America
the
same way we change our families. Lives are turned around, when one on one, we
are willing to be used by God to make known the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The
real challenge to us as Christians is to run the hard race. We need to measure
our lives against the standard of God's Word and be willing to make changes
where
there are discrepancies. We need to alter our priorities, take a stand, teach
our children, make the tough choices, and seek God's face.
We
need to give our children a sure foundation, a certain knowledge of absolute
truth that will transcend governments and philosophies and powers of darkness.
The
greatest thing that we can do for America is to fight the good fight, finish
the course, and keep the faith. Then possibly God will be able to use us
in the way that He used John the Baptist 2,000 years ago: ". . . to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of
the
just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1: 17).