The Sad Day For America:

The Death of Terri Schiavo  

Pastor Daniel Thompson Sermon preached on April 3, 2005

“In the way of righteousness is life.”

Proverbs 12:28

“The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.”

Proverbs 12:6

I believe I am sharing today out of the Lord’s burden. I have a heavy heart, and I believe all of us have had a heavy heart over the last couple of weeks. I believe this is at least in part some of the Lord’s burden for this nation. I am going to be sharing on the subject of our nation and the death of Terri Schiavo.

The scriptures in Proverbs 8:1-4 say, “Does not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice? She stands in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She cries at the gates, the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.” It also says in Proverbs, “But Wisdom even cries in the broad places.” Do you know that even when our life is in a broad way, not in the narrow way, not where it should be, Wisdom still cries out? The cry is always at paths. It’s always at an intersection where decisions are made, where directions are being taken. That’s when Wisdom cries. In the last couple of weeks, we came to a crossroads. We chose as a nation, and there was a decision that was made that is going to dictate the future of this nation. And Wisdom was crying. Wisdom was crying, even to a people in a broad place.

Ecclesiastes 3:16-18 (Amplified Version) says, “Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice there was wickedness, and that in the place of righteousness wickedness was there also. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time appointed for every matter and purpose and for every work. I said in my heart regarding the subject of the sons of men, God is trying (separating and sifting) them, that they may see that by themselves [under the sun, without God] they are but like beasts.”

In Ecclesiastes, we know that Solomon is the one that is writing. He is the self-described preacher, and the preacher sees appalling injustice in the land. He sees in the place where there should be justice, wickedness. He sees the wicked in places of civil authority. Wickedness in the Word is “resha” in the Hebrew language, which means “moral wrong, godlessness, lawlessness.” He sees in the place where there should be righteousness, iniquity was there. That word “iniquity” is the exact same word as “wickedness” in the Hebrew, “resha,” which means “moral wrong, godlessness, lawlessness.”

He then says that God will judge every matter, every work of justice or injustice at the appropriate time. There will be either commendation or vindication of every matter relating to justice. The seat of all judicial authority is God’s, and He cannot leave unpunished its abuse. Then it says the preacher sees God’s wisdom, and he begins to understand these injustices are permitted in order that it might sift and purge and separate, that is, that it might manifest the arrogance and pride of men. He wants the arrogance and pride of men to be clearly seen, and to show what the sons of men or what a nation becomes without God. And it is said that they become like beasts. That literally means “beast-like, dumb, senseless, without reason, heartless, conscienceless.” Without God the sons of men become like animals.

I was reminded yesterday as I prepared this message of the theory of natural selection or what is commonly called survival of the fittest. That originated with Charles Darwin and his teachings on evolution. It describes social order as being governed by a struggle for existence. Like animals, there is a competition for survival. There is a sorting out of the better from the worst. And in this so-called natural process, man adapts and improves generation after generation according to this theory of evolution. We know the theory of natural selection to be true in part for animals. There is a competition for survival among the animal species but not among human beings unless they have become animal-like themselves. The scripture says that they might see that by themselves, without God, they are like beasts.

The rise in this nation of infanticide, senseless violence, human degradation, and now euthanasia and coming eugenics, which is the science that attempts to create people with certain desirable characteristics, all has to do with what a people and a nation become without God. They become like animals. The fact is that there is in our day a struggle for existence in this nation. My understanding is that only 3 out of every 4 children conceived will live. Caught in a trap, the fourth is deliberately aborted; the weak is helpless. The fact is that in our day, there is a sorting out of the better from the worst. There is a process of estimating what is of value and what is not. As in the case of Terri Schiavo, it should tell us something about what we have become without God. All this destruction of human life, infanticide, senseless violence, human degradation, euthanasia, they are all directly linked to the teachings of evolution, which teaches man is without God and makes him an animal. This teaching of 40-50 years, joined with secular and religious philosophy of humanism, has made our social order the survival of the fittest. We have become like beasts. We have taught that man has descended from an animal and he has become an animal. We have gone from the image of God to the image of a four-footed beast, and so we have become in this nation. The following is a commentary from editor Joseph Farah of WorldNet Daily, entitled A Sad Day for America (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43584):

"Terri is gone. But her memory and legacy live on. What lessons will America draw from this horrific experience?

I pray that no other American – conscious or unconscious – is permitted to be starved to death. It makes no difference whether or not there is a living will. It makes no difference whether or not the subject made some casual remark in previous years about his or her wishes. It is one thing to deny extraordinary means of life support to a terminally ill patient. It is another for the state to sanction the killing by the denial of basic sustenance.

It's time for a re-examination and full public debate on these life-and-death issues. The state should never be placed in the position of executing death sentences on innocent people who are not dying.

A full review of the arrogant, unaccountable judicial decisions that mandated this state-sanctioned homicide is in order. Only the Congress of the United States can do this.

Criminal investigations should be opened at the county, state and, if appropriate, federal levels.

A conflict-of-interest ethics probe of Judge George Greer, who accepted campaign contributions from the lawyers for Michael Schiavo, should be opened at the state level.

We must not forget to hold accountable those public officials such as Gov. Jeb Bush, who had authority to intervene on behalf of Terri Schiavo, but chose not to do so.

We need to determine whether we really believe as a people that an estranged spouse is fit to be the best guardian in life-and-death decisions.

America is forever changed today as a result of this death. We permitted this to happen to an American citizen, and we must decide now whether this will be an aberration, an experience from which we learn, or another slide down the slippery slope toward broad use of euthanasia.

We heard consistently through this national ordeal from the proponents of death that the issue was really "choice." Does anyone truly believe that Terri would have chosen this route?

Would Terri have consciously chosen to place her fate in the hands of a man who was living with another woman for 10 years and raising a family with her?

Would Terri have consciously chosen to place her fate in the hands of a judge who showed, through at least one previous decision, an inclination to withhold basic life-sustaining care even when a spouse wanted to maintain it?

Would Terri have wanted her parents, her siblings to be denied access to her?

Would Terri have chosen not to have any chance at rehabilitation?

Would Terri have chosen that money awarded to her for that rehabilitation go to fight a protracted legal battle with her parents over her welfare?

Personally, I don't believe Terri would have made any of those choices. Nor do I believe she chose to die. The evidence is circumstantial hearsay at best.

There was a day in America where judges were required to use common-sense wisdom in making decisions. But we have entered a time in American history where common-sense wisdom is in short supply – particularly among unaccountable jurists. Maybe Terri's death won't be in vain if we, as a people, learn from this experience and return some degree of sanity and accountability to our system of jurisprudence. God bless Terri. God bless the Schindler family for their loss. And may God bless America and bring us to our senses."

This is what David Stevens, M.D., executive director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association, has to say, "Today we grieve along with Terri's parents and siblings for a life unnaturally cut short. Terri's death reflects the failure of a medical system that failed to insist on definitive diagnosis consensus, a legal system that failed to deliver due process, and a culture that failed to distinguish between artificially prolonging life and deliberately ending life."

One more quote from Pastor Flip Benham: "Today the door has swung open wide for the murder of not only those in the dawn of life – preborn children, but also those in the twilight of life – the elderly, and those in the shadows of life – the handicapped. The weak among us now find themselves in the gravest danger that has ever existed in the history of America."

In the Bible, referring to God's wisdom, Proverbs 8:36 states, "He that sins against me," that is, God's Wisdom, "wrongs his own soul: all they that hate me love death." All that hate and oppose God's Wisdom, that means God Himself and His Word, will in turn love death. It is interesting that the word "love" in the Hebrew is "ahab." That word "ahab" means "to desire, to like, to have a vehement inclination of the mind," and that means to have a "forceful, passionate, intense mind" about it. How alarming! This mind and passion describes at least half of the nation's adult population concerning abortion itself. How many are intensely passionate about death! Vehement, intensely passionate, and inclined towards death. I believe it's safe to say that many of those are in a church this morning. The Bible says, "All they that hate me love death." I want us to be clear on this. The truth behind the "pro-choice" position, no matter where they come from, what they say, what philosophical background, what culture, I can tell you one thing: in reality, there is an inward despising of God and His Word. Those that vehemently want abortion to be legal actually despise God and His Word, and it's something that we should never forget, ever! Let God be found true and every man a liar!

Proverbs 12:10 says, “…the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” On the Thursday after Ms. Schiavo’s death, I happened to hear the attorney who represented Michael Schiavo giving a statement after her death. Personally, I found his comments not only absurd but eerie. When he spoke of her 14-day starvation, he was using words such as love, mercy and compassion. He described the starvation as “dignified,” as if the starvation of another human being is somehow now noble, honoring and dignified. Do you understand that terrorists use the same types of words when they’re trying to persuade young men to blow themselves up as suicide bombers? They say it’s noble and dignified! He said the “death process,” as he called it, was peaceful, tranquil, spiritual. If you weren’t careful, he was inviting everybody to get involved as if you would not want to pass this up…this is good! He said that the nation had matured. And oh, haven’t we matured! We are more sophisticated in how we kill people. We are…we have matured! It was eerie to hear this man speak. He said the last cultural taboo of death has been lifted. In essence, he’s saying, “We’re free and out of bondage now! There’s no more prohibition!” Did you ear his voice? “We can honestly deal with death now. We don’t need to be afraid.” As he spoke, I could hear the laughter of the devil himself. I could hear the voice; it was diabolical and eerie. I could hear behind it all this mocking, this laughter, this ridicule, this rejoicing behind this man talking about death by starvation. The way he described the killing of a human being by depriving them of food and water day after day after day, it was as this lovely way. “It’s a lovely way,” he described, “to starve a helpless disabled human being – lovely! It’s an act of compassion. We should commend ourselves for our courage.”

Let’s consider for a moment a few facts about the loving, merciful, peaceful death process of starving another human being to death. It goes something like this: When the person does not have enough nutritious food, the body weight begins to decline rapidly. After the energy stored in fat tissues is exhausted, the body begins to break down protein in its muscles and the organs to create needed energy. What’s actually going on is the body begins to feed upon itself. The vital organs become smaller and smaller and smaller as that body is feeding upon itself. That includes the liver, the intestines, the heart. The blood pressure begins to drop. It’s interesting to note the information that I looked at made a point that the mind can remain sharp during starvation while the entire body is deteriorating. Then the flesh begins to hang and loose folds, parts of the body, begin to swell because the tissues become filled with fluid retained during the early stages of starvation. The skin thins, becomes cold, pale, dry and stiff. And as the person being starved grows weaker, anemia develops, which means blood is no longer able to distribute even oxygen to any of the body’s cells, so the extremities begin to die. Then the immune system fails because the malnutrition causes the body’s defenses against disease to deteriorate. Therefore, infections caused by viruses and bacteria begin to overtake the entire body. The immune system is compromised so the body is riddled now with infections. This includes respiratory infections, stomach and intestinal infections. This is what takes place when someone is starving to death. And then hypothermia sets in, and that is, abnormally low body temperature develops. Then the heart and the lungs finally begin to fail, breathing becomes extremely difficult, and there would be the fight for breath. There is a gasping for breath when someone is starving to death. There’s forced breathing trying to get one’s breath. It would feel like suffocation. And when they simply cannot get a breath, when they can’t go on any longer, they die. Oh, yes, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel indeed!

Those who advocate the killing of living human beings under the banner of mercy are deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles or messengers of Christ or agents of love and mercy. And this is no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers are transformed as ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works. You should have heard this man; minister of righteousness, angel of light! And if you didn’t have discernment, you’d flock to his church. My God, what’s become of us? And it says in the polls that 75% of the people of this country don’t get it. It’s appalling; they don’t get it!

It’s amazing the compassionate words the attorney used to describe the process of starving a helpless disabled individual to death. Jesus told some people of his day that they were of the devil, meaning the spirit that controlled and animated them was evil. You’ll find it in John 8:44, where He said, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.” Why? Because you’re determined. What evil lust was Jesus talking about? “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it.” Notice that the murder of another human being is not mercy, it’s lust motivated by evil surrounded by nice sounding lies. That’s what God’s Word says. That’s what God’s Word would say to the husband. It’s not mercy, it’s lust. And it’s a lust for death. Those that hate Me love death! And didn’t we surround this whole thing with a bunch of nice sounding lies? Proverbs 12:6 contrasts the words of the wicked with the words of the righteous. It says: “The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.” Basically it says, the words of the wicked destroy their neighbors, while the words of the upright seek to save their neighbors. Listen to the words next time you hear CNN and Fox. Listen to the words and tell me which one is wicked and which one is upright? That’s how you can distinguish it, according to the Word of God.

Let’s ask a very straight forward question: Have you ever heard of the deliberate starvation of a human being to be anything other than terrible, horrible, tragic and cruel? Have you ever in your life heard the starvation of people described as loving, merciful, compassionate and honorable? Do we use those terms when we witness hundreds of thousands of men, women and children dying of starvation in the Sudan? Ethiopia? Other parts of Africa? Are they involved in mercy? Are they involved in a noble act? Is this compassion—watching a child starve to death? Have you ever heard language like that? Has anybody ever used terms like that before? I would suggest to you, “No!” It’s absurd! And do we call those in power in those countries who are actually withholding provisions of food and water for political reasons, allowing men, women and children to starve to death, do we call them God-sent? That is what this man said. All the people that were assisting in this death process, they were God-sent or angels sent from God, according to him. He threw God’s name in there quite a few times. Can you imagine, “wonderful angels and God-sent?” Would anyone dare say such absurd things when it comes to people around the world that are dying of starvation? Why should we change it now? But these were the terms that were used for the death of a disabled living woman that they wanted to get rid of, and according to the polls, 75% of the people of this country are actually saying the same thing. My God, what has happened to us?

Satan has been doing the same thing; there’s nothing new under the sun. There is an attempt now to redefine the process of starvation of a human being. Do you see that? Now the process is described and defined as love, mercy and compassion. Watch euthanasia—it’s always compassion and mercy. There’s the idea that we really should be commending ourselves for doing it for it takes courage. It takes moral resolve to be able to put another to death and do it out of compassion. Do you see the lie? Do you hear the voice? But that same lie would not work anywhere else. Would you say that in the middle of the country of Ethiopia? Would you say that same thing in other regions of Africa? Of course not! It’s a lie! But you see, to get the agenda done, we’ve got to redefine. We must play with semantics, slight changes of meaning.

Some might say concerning the example of people starving in southern Africa, “But they’re healthy and Terri Schiavo wasn’t healthy.” So starvation is only horrible, terrible and cruel for people that are healthy. But it’s loving, merciful and kind for the disabled. That is what we said, wasn’t it? She was disabled, right? She wasn’t dead; she was disabled. She needed help with food and water. Scary, isn’t it? It should scare us. What gross hypocrisy! Sounds like survival of the fittest to me. But it’s survival of the fittest with an eased conscience. Sorting out the best from the worst in a loving and caring fashion. The angel of light—ministers of Satan who will come and do it and ease your conscience and this nation’s conscience over what we were all involved in two weeks ago and Thursday. What does this describe? The same thing that the Bible describes out of Ecclesiastes, that by themselves, without God, they become like animals. Do you know where all this is heading? It’s all going to end in the deaths of more and more of the weak and unwanted in our society. Don’t be naïve! Don’t think this is some isolated case! This is the spirit of our country. This reveals the soul of who we are.

It’s interesting that the murder of over 40 million children in the United States began with semantics. The murder of 40 million children simply began by slightly changing the meaning of a child. We just redefined some terms. In 1973, we redefined a child as a fetus. What does that mean? We’re going to kill 45 million children. Do you see the devil? Do you see the lie? And now that we’ve redefined it, we can do it without impunity and with a clear conscience. We can kill innocent human beings and feel fine about it because it’s the law. It’s defined, and it’s not a baby anymore—it’s a fetus. “I feel okay about it because it’s only tissue. If they’re still in the womb, you can kill them and do whatever you want, but if they come out, ‘Thou shalt not kill. There’s a moral standard here!’” It’s gross hypocrisy!

In the midst of all of it, this 30 years of killing children, day in and day out of slaughtering children, most people don’t even care. Do you understand the horror of all of this? They don’t care! They’re okay with it, and they’re used to it. What about a coming day when the disabled are being taken away? When the expendable, those who are costing us too much in our hospitals are taken away? I can promise you one thing, after a few years of it, no one will care! No one will care about some guy in a wheelchair going off to be exterminated. It will be the law. It won’t be killing but mercy and compassion. How dare anyone say anything about it? It will be the loving thing to do! I can tell you the redefining of terms has seared the conscience of this nation. We can’t even grieve. Do you understand this nation can’t grieve? Do you understand that is part of the judgment of God, that we cannot grieve? Do you understand that we don’t mourn over anything? Tell us what makes us mourn. You may say, “Well, 9-11 made us morn.” No it didn’t; it made us scared. Because if we were mourning over 3,000 innocent people, why aren’t we mourning over 45 million? We were just frightened!

If the Lord tarry, I believe the day will come in our lifetime or at least in our children’s lifetime, where there will be clinics set up all over this nation, and they’ll be called by nice and frilly names such as “Adult Disabled Healthcare.” You will be able to drive in with the aged, the disabled and the least and have them murdered in the name of mercy. Maybe they’ll be starved to death; “that’s a peaceful way to go—tranquil, noble and dignified.” Maybe lethal injection will be used. I’m sure that will be merciful too. But the day will come when these clinics will do the same exact things they’re doing now with children. There will be a furnace there, and they’ll throw them into the incinerator. There will be a clergy there that will be inside blessing the whole process. If we do it to children, why would we not do it to adults? If you will kill an innocent child, you’ll kill anybody.

If you don’t care about the death of innocent children, don’t worry about trying to stop homosexuality. You won’t care about homosexuality if you don’t care about a child. Don’t worry about marriage or not liking what you’re seeing on TV. Will you really care about what you see on TV? When a nation turns their back on innocent children, they’ll turn their back on everybody. Why? Because they’re without God and they become like beasts. The whole time we’re exterminating people just like Terri Schiavo in the name of mercy, we’ll be sending money to Africa to people that are starving, and we’ll be feeling good about ourselves. We’ll be going to work, making money, getting a bigger house, making sure the yard looks good, getting bigger TVs, more couches, more remotes, and sending money for starving people in Africa.

We need to remember Terri Schiavo was not a dead person being kept alive artificially by extraordinary means. That wasn’t the case. She was a disabled woman who needed assistance being fed. And a judge in Florida court ordered her to die at the request of an estranged husband who wanted her to die. Does this not change the whole outlook on divorce? And not one court in that state had the decency and the common sense to simply give custody to some people who loved her, her parents! Instead of giving her over to the people who were committed to love and care for her, they sentenced her to die! The courts sentenced her to die instead of keeping her alive! They love death! What does God think about all this? Proverbs 12:28 clearly says: “In the way of righteousness is life.” What’s the right thing to do, Judge Greer? In the way of righteousness is life! I’m not a judge but I can read the Book. I don’t need to deliberate. I don’t need to wonder what’s the right thing to do here. It’s not a complicated decision. You have parents who love her and want to feed her and care for her—give her to them! It’s an easy decision. It should have never even gotten into the courts or received national attention! What are we doing? We love death! And every court in Florida loves death. They claimed to be upholding the constitution; what about her constitutional rights? If that is the constitution, I’m afraid! I thought it was to protect me and not put me to death!

If Terri did want to die, then the court ordered assisted suicide. If she didn’t want to die, they ordered her to be murdered. Either way, they put her to death. They put a helpless disabled person to death.

I end by looking at Isaiah 28. I know this is a heavy message, but I want us to hear it and let the burden of the Lord fall upon us. It’s okay to weep. It’s okay to mourn. It’s okay to grieve and be sad. Why shouldn’t we be? We’re living in a very sad time. Let us weep for ourselves. Blessed are those who mourn! Isaiah 28:14-19 says, “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.”

In this portion of scripture, we have a nation that is in deep, deep trouble with God. They had rejected God. They had become corrupt. They had sinned against light and privilege, and they were completely unresponsive to the Word of God. The Word of God was nullified in that society. They had become a nation of mockers, meaning that the people, the religious leaders and the civil leaders were treating God with contempt. They didn’t take Him or His Word seriously, and Isaiah prophesying begins to direct their attention towards the judgment which God was going to bring upon them. And in the earlier portions of the prophecy, he’s already addressed the people, he’s even addressed the religious leaders, but now he’s addressing the civil rulers of the nation. He calls them “scornful men that rule this people.” Because of their own despising of the law of the Lord, they were on a course of destroying that nation. In our day, they would be viewed as governmental leaders, judges and civil authorities. He is addressing those in civil authority that despise Him. Here is what He said, “You have made a covenant with death. You have made league with death.” The Hebrew word for “covenant” actually means a “determination.” He was saying, “You’ve made a determination. You’ve made a decision, and that decision is death.” It means that the judges and the civil authorities of Isaiah’s time were firm in their purpose, resolved in what they had decided. And God says, it is death. There is a very revealing explanation of the word “covenant” in the Hebrew Old Testament Word Study. It is said of the word “covenant” that it is “ratified by passing between divided parts of victims.” When I read that, I instantly thought of the practice of abortion—the ratification of a covenant by passing through the divided parts of victims. Have you seen an abortion procedure? Because of the despising of God and His Word, in open mockery of God in 1973, our civil authorities made a covenant with death when they passed the law legalizing child murder. At that moment, I believe that they put us on a course of national destruction—moral, spiritual, political, and soon will be economic destruction. The word for “covenant” in our language which comes from the Latin is interesting, it means “an agreement to pay by regular installments.” An agreement to pay by regular installments to death. We’ve had 35 years of it, and now we’re moving into a brand new phase of those installments. Now we’re going to euthanize people because we’ve made a covenant with death.

God says that because of this, there will be an overflowing scourge that will come into that nation. A scourge is a whip. He is symbolizing something. He’s talking about something that inflicts punishment blow by blow by blow. It causes great suffering to those who it is being inflicted upon. He then uses the word “overflowing,” which suggests a flood. In verse 17 it says, “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.” Again, hail is always divine judgment in the Bible. He is saying this judgment will sweep away the lies that the nation thought they were safe. Like hail in a driving storm, the nation would be beaten down. Verse 19 reveals the progressive nature of God’s judgment. If you’ll look at verse 19, you’ll see God’s judgment always comes progressively. It talks about from that time forth, it shall take you morning by morning; it shall pass over day by night. It’s progressive. And Isaiah tells them when it’s all done, the entire nation is going to be taken away—exiled. They become captives in the land of Babylon.

For us today, I believe it simply means that we will be taken completely away from the presence of God. The consequences of a nation without God is: “And they became like beasts.” You and I don’t have to wait for judgment. If you’re waiting for judgment, you’ve missed something. Please understand we’re in the middle of it, and it’s becoming increasingly worse. Morning by morning it passes over—death, violence, injustice, moral and spiritual confusion, human degradation—the course of destruction. There is currently a TV show where people degrade themselves, and the more they degrade themselves, they increase their chances of winning a prize. That’s entertainment now, to see how low a person will go. The more a person degrades themselves, we will reward that person. Do you see? We’re in the middle of it, church. Judgment always begins first morally, then it goes into spiritually, and then finally physically. Collapse is coming. Outside of a miracle from God, collapse is coming. The moral judgment has already taken place, and we’re in the middle of the spiritual.

We need to understand the judgment of God. The judgment of God is spiritual blindness, when people no longer can see. They can’t spiritually apprehend. They don’t understand anymore. They just go on with their lives like nothing is wrong. They can’t discern. There is moral and spiritual confusion all around and they don’t get it. That’s judgment, when He pours out upon a nation the spirit of deep sleep. Do you know what that is? It says in Isaiah 29 that He closes a nation’s eyes. He says, “I will put that nation to sleep and I will close all their eyes. You will be unconscious, totally unaware of your moral and spiritual condition. I will close your eyes and you will not see.” That’s judgment.

Judgment is when a nation can no longer distinguish good from evil. They call evil good and good evil. Judgment is when a nation has to go to the polls and vote if marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s judgment. Judgment is when a nation that was birthed in God, after 260 years, now has to go and vote if we want marriage to be between a man and a woman. That’s judgment. We’re in the middle of it. Judgment is when everything is turned upside down and when you see an entire nation selling its inheritance for a pot of stew because it’s so hungry and filled with lust. Judgment is when God sends strong delusions that they might believe a lie. II Thessalonians 2:11 says, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be condemned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Why the delusion? Because they didn’t want the truth. If you look at that, it’s all in reference to salvation because “they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (v.10). They didn’t want the truth of the gospel. They didn’t want the truth of the cross. They didn’t want the truth of the call. They didn’t want the truth! They didn’t want it so they believe a lying gospel, and who sent the religious delusion, the gospel delusion? Finally, judgment is when multitudes of people sit under ministries week after week after week and proclaim, “Peace, Peace!” when there is no peace. That is judgment.

So what is the hope for the church? What in the world are we supposed to do? Where do we find ourselves in the midst of all of this chaos and confusion? In the midst of moral and spiritual judgments of God all around us? Here is what He says in Isaiah: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.” Right in the middle of judgment, God says, “I’m going to lay a stone, a tried stone for anybody who believes. They shall not make haste.” He says, “I’m going to put a stone in the midst of this whole mess. Anybody that trusts in Me, relies in Me, adheres to Me shall not be ashamed. They shall not give away. They shall not panic. Nothing will come upon them during this time. I lay right in the middle of it a stone!” For many people that Stone is going to be an offense and a stumbling block. But the very One that the people are rejecting will become our cornerstone. During the darkest days of America is the time that you and I are called to shine as lights.

“I never thought I’d see the day when a U.S. judge stopped feeding a living American so that they took 14 days to die.” House Majority Leader,

Tom DeLay

“Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:

he that believes shall not make haste.”

Isaiah 28:16