One of the most significant facts about life in our world is ignored or denied by most of the unsuspecting inhabitants of earth. This fact, without which nothing else can be truly understood, is never mentioned in the halls of Congress, the gatherings of business leaders, the classrooms of modern education and in most of our religious gatherings. It is the most significant single fact in the corporate life of earth, and yet it is known to but a few and truly faced by even fewer. Every issue of life is influenced by it, but still it is given nearly no consideration. The over-arching fact of our world is the issue of which most otherwise intelligent people are willingly ignorant. That ignorance for many will soon prove fatal.

What is that fact? It is the fact that OURS IS A WORLD IN REBELLION AGAINST GOD.

That rebellion is described in many parts of the Bible. The Psalmist says, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Ps. 2:1-3).

Here we have a description of the raging, vain heart attitude of mankind, its leaders, its thinkers, its educators, its organizers, its people. The human race and each one of its individuals is now in a state of rebellion against God who made us all. The essential battle of our time is not between Communism and civilization, it is not between the Protestant atheists and the Catholic atheists in Ireland, it is not between the free world and the barbarians—it is between earth and heaven. It takes the form of a civil war. It is a battle between revolutionary, radical man and the government of God.

On man’s side, the revolutionary side, that war is advocated daily from political platforms, from television sets, from smoke-filled rooms in marble buildings and even from religious pulpits.

The current battle against God is joined by war-mongers, atheists, religionists, humanists, aquarians, utopians, the young, the old, reprobates and nice people everywhere. We live in A WORLD OF WICKEDNESS, which wickedness is embodied by the derelict in the gutter and even more so by the manicured, educated, endowed man of influence in a paneled Madison Avenue office.

The committee to plan the next slick magazine, the creative session to shape the next TV special, the council to direct the next political campaign, the brainstorming session on creative ideas in religion—all may be thought of as partially or wholly committed to the continuing war against God. “The rulers take counsel together, against the Lord” is God’s description of the schemers of this world.

This world’s rebellion against God—will it succeed? Will salivating, demonic men finally tear Jehovah from His throne? The plot-hatchers of earth, will they overturn the moral order of the universe?

Never! How absurd is even the thought. The Bible says, “He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” Indeed, one of the most pathetic spectacles presently charaded on earth is the attempt of men to denounce and dethrone the Lord of the universe. Upon their up-turned, crazed faces the Lord looks with—at this particular time—pity and tender love. God’s oft repeated statements that He loves us is the most astonishing assertion in the world but, there it is. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).

Yes, indeed, we should thank God daily that we live in a time in which He withholds His wrath and extends to us the arms of His love. This is the day of grace! Despite his awful sin, no person on earth is left out of the invitation which God extends to us. He invites each one of us rebels to lay down the arms of our rebellion and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. His precious blood was shed as the payment for our awful sin. We deserve but death by execution, but God, who is rich in mercy, invites us to slip out of our ill-fitting rebel uniforms and come over to His side. We are welcomed now to forsake this bankrupt world of condemnation and death. We are invited to come to life in Jesus Christ.

But soon… tremble when you think of it … that invitation, that welcome will be cancelled. “He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Yes, indeed, soon the season of rescue will pass, the day of grace will be over. The awful hour of Divine Judgment will break upon this world.

Man, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, will move beyond mercy and become the object of Divine Vengeance. The great day of His wrath will come. The world will discover, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

That wrath will take many forms and become progressively terrible. The world will be put upon by earthquakes, pestilence, wars, famine and a thousand other unhappinesses. It will be subject to an awful time called The Great Tribulation in which the kings of the earth will call upon the mountains and the rocks to hide them from “the wrath of the Lamb.”

Then comes the ultimate thing—INVASION FROM HEAVEN. That scene is described in the Bible “and I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True , and in righteousness he does judge and make war.” Here we see that Christ comes as the conqueror of earth, at the head of an army from heaven which consists of ten thousands of His saints. Christ will conquer the nations of earth and then will rule them with a rod of iron.

Yes, there is coming an invasion from heaven. Christ and His “Christian cavalry” will return to rule the world. Happily, you are invited to receive Christ today as your Savior! In accepting Him, you have everlasting life and will also move to the winning side in THE CONTEST OF THE UNIVERSE.

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Have you noticed how the press continues its oft repeated assertion that biological life, including man, has been in this world for hundreds of millions of years? Yes, the notions of evolution have moved from theory to assumption, which assumptions are being taught to our American public school students as a standard way to understand reality. “You are the result of an evolutionary process” says nearly every science teacher to his or her hapless pupils. “You are the naked ape, a member of the animal kingdom, and evolution is how you and the animals came to be.”

A parallel piece of news which is now published is that the number of Americans in prison, on probation, or on parole now tops 6.6 million or one in every 32 adults. “Is there any connection between evolution and crime?” Or, to put it another way, “When young students are taught in the schools that they are animals, what shall we do to prevent them from acting like animals when they achieve their teenage years?” They are not in violation of some law; they are simply doing what comes naturally. An animal that kills and eats another animal is not therefore to be guilty of a crime. He is simply doing what comes naturally. So the difference between men and animals disappears.

When will we face the fact that the beastialization of our nation is the inevitable, predictable result of the foolish, subhuman evolutionary assertions which are made in our classrooms? An animalistic society is the logical, predictable result of the value-free education inflicted upon our young people. Indeed, how can we quote “values” when everything is determined by biological evolution? Chemistry and morality are two different things.

We still have a fair percentage of utopians among us who continue to believe and preach that the world can be made into a kind of heaven on earth. Influenced by evolution and myopia, they promise that autonomous man, by his unaided efforts, can produce a perfect society in the future. Believing this, they must be troubled by articles about corruption, bribery, payoffs and crooked officials blocking economic growth. Graft, bribery and corruption are universal across the world. This becomes a very costly set of drains down which the whole world economy could go. There’s no doubt that the Bible properly states the condition of things in saying, “The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.” This is not only a statement about human iniquity but it is also an analysis of world economics. We need to remember that, until Christ comes and sets up His kingdom, there is simply no possibility that the world will be able to pull itself up into perfection.

So, it is provably true again that the only path to human improvement which is possible to men lies in the preaching and acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Along this line, a perceptive soul was asked, “Will the Middle East peace talks succeed? Will the nations in that area of the world be able to get together?” His answer, “Not without Jesus Christ!” That answer, by the way, applies to every question of life without exception. Will a given activity succeed? Answer—not without Jesus Christ. We Christians, therefore, must be reminded that we possess the only key to improvement, the only solution to any one of the world’s problems.

Making Your Nation Great
I am sure that you are concerned about your nation. Many times you have probably asked, “How can our country be properous and strong?” That’s a worthwhile question.

Along with you, I am a patriot. I am concerned about the strength and prosperity of my country, and I know you are about yours. I, too, have asked many times what it is that makes a nation great.

In trying to answer this question, I have read a little history along the way. It seems to me that various eras have brought times of greatness to various nations. There was a time when the Holy Roman Empire was everything. There was a time when Britain ruled the waves and the world. France was once the envy of nations. And Spain, before the days of the Armada’s defeat, was irresistible. Israel—yes, Israel—was once the greatest nation on earth.

Today, of course, the question is debatable as to which nation of the world has the most power, and soundest money and the strongest people. The debatability of this causes us once again to ask the question about national greatness. What is it that makes a nation great?

A great king once wrote on this subject, and what he said was most interesting. This king was, in his day, the richest and wisest ruler in the world. The rulers of other nations came to seek his advice because in their opinion he was the greatest.

Writing about what it is that produces national greatness, this king said, “Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). This king was Solomon, and the nation was Israel in its most sublime era. Solomon said that righteousness makes a great nation but that sin destroys it. Israel itself in the Old Testament was a classic illustration of this truth. In fact, every nation that has ever existed also illustrates that righteousness produces national greatness and that sin ruins it all.

The lesson, of course, should be clear to us today. No nation can survive that is run by reprobates, disturbed by criminals, torn apart by lechery and infected by graft and dishonesty at every level. Conversely, national righteousness produces that inner strength that finally saves the day.

Would you like yours to be a great nation? Of course you would! Therefore, may I make a suggestion? Pray that the quality of righteousness will come to pass anew in your nation.

But do something else. Remember that a nation is made up of its individual people. Have you yourself turned from sin and moved up to that quality called righteousness? God has made provision for this to happen to you personally. If you simply receive Christ by trusting Him as your Savior from sin, you will not only receive personal salvation, you could also be the beginning of salvation for a whole nation. And the nation you save may be your own!

Note from the editor:
The above come from the writings of Dr. Dave Breese.