Discouragement

I am becoming more and more discouraged by the state of our nation. In theological/doctrinal, moral, and economic terms, our nation is descending into chaos and foolishness. One of the greatest problems currently at hand is the watering down of the Christian faith. The mediocrity and easy believism of American evangelicalism makes the way we self identify as Christians deplorable. When Christians allow their pattern of thinking to be formed by popular culture, their economic behavior to be directed by worldly economic theory and their definition of what it actually means to be a Christian to be defined by secular psychology, we have completely lost our bearings.

Our country is so far gone, that, by considering what has happened to other nations over the past centuries who have followed this same path, we can only conclude that God will allow our nation to reap the fruit of the crop we are sowing. In other words, as we continue to descend into madness, our blindness won't allow us to turn and repent. I'm afraid that the only possible end to the path we are on is severe hardship. We will probably have to suffer at the hands of our own economic and spiritual foolishness before we see any light. And those who actually are striving for holiness may have to suffer along with the rest of society, as we suffer as one people, not as a bunch of individuals.

I'm afraid serious hardship is our unavoidable future. But this says nothing about my belief in postmillenialism. Far too often people's eschatological beliefs are centered around the cultural and historical context in which they live. A good example of this is seen in our day. It goes something like this: America is falling away from the Christian faith, therefore Jesus' second Coming must be soon. This is akin to cultural bigotry. Why do we associate the entirety of the Christian Church to northern Europe and the US?  I truly believe that the fall of America may very well result in the appearance of another nation in its place and the rise of the Church there or elsewhere. The Holy Spirit is moving greatly in Russia, Africa and Asia. The US and Europe may pass through another period of intellectual, moral and spiritual dark ages. It could be that a large portion of the world will pass through a long period of Islamic dominance, wherein the Church suffers and is refined by martyrdom. The fall of America should not be thought of as a sure sign of the return of Jesus Christ.
May God have mercy on us.