Our Modern Reality is Not All That Great

Our Form of Government Is Not The Best

In Daniel 2, we read the vision that God sent to King Nebuchadnezzar.  In that dream, we find that God called all governments after this King as inferior– and we see that He had a point.  Whatever Nebuchadnezzar said was law of the land.  When Darius the Persian conquered Babylon, the laws of the Meades and the Persians prohibited the king from changing what was signed into law (remember Daniel and the Lion’s Den).

The prophecy said that each form of government, even democratic republics, was inferior to King Nebuchadnezzar’s form of government– which is also the type of government that Jesus will have during the Millennial reign.

Many in America believe in the American ideals that the American form of government should be propagated throughout the world.  However, as we’ve seen in some of the places where we’ve tried this, the people and the land could not handle this.  Why?

I believe that it has to deal with the character of the people– not just how they behave but what unites them– that allows our form of government to flourish.  Washington and Adams rightly noted that it takes a moral people to have the type of government we have, and our form of government seems to be headed toward some kind of authoritarian structure even today as evidence of this diagnosis.

Sodom’s Biggest Sin Sounds Familiar

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

– Ezekiel 16:49-50

When we think of Sodom and Gomorrah, our typical thought is of its demise in fire and brimstone and the events immediately surrounding this demise.  God states that there were problems with Sodom long before the two angels came in and the men of the town wanted to “know” them.

Sodom had pride and was rich, but this did not translate into taking care of the poor.  They had a life of ease, which may be part of the reason that Lot ended up there in the first place.  While America may help the poor as far as spending other people’s money on them, there is no doubt that we are filled with pride and consume much on our own wants and desires.

God says that an abomination caused Him to end Sodom, and this could certainly be what Paul is drawing out in Romans 1.  Much to be concerned about here.

God says that the World Views the Gospel as Foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:20-25 talks about how the world views the Gospel of Christ as foolish– God is a fairy tale.  If this is true, why should a believer base what he thinks about God or the Bible on what the world thinks of it?

God works in ways that bring Him glory– the exact opposite of what modern man believes and antithetical to the American “Puritan Work Ethic.”  God isn’t interested in us gaining glory or amassing riches, he’s interested in glorifying Himself.

Just look at how he worked throughout the Bible:

• He used people walking around a city to bring down the walls of Jerico
• He used one small child to take down a giant.
• He used a thorn in the flesh with Paul to keep him humble so that God would be glorified (2 Cor 12:10).

The point is that our Modern Reality fails at its mission, and the things that we’re told are great just don’t measure up.

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