Why Nations Die

Mythical hope and naked reality

If nations are only as strong as their leaders, then it's easy to understand why so many western nations are in rapid decline. Thus, political leaders are a mirror reflection of the people who elect them.

Unlike much of the eastern world, Africa and the Middle East where political strongmen and dictators seize power and use their militaries to hold on to it, western leaders are chosen by their people. If the people are morally strong, they will choose morally strong leaders. But if the people are corrupt and morally depraved, they will choose wicked leaders after their own hearts.

However, that's not an indictment of bad leaders. Rather, that's an indictment of the people who choose them. When Bill Clinton was America's president during the 1990s, he was plagued by endless scandals involving philandering and rape. Someone remarked at the time that what Bill Clinton did in his private life was irrelevant to what he did as America's CEO.

But that's dead wrong and it underscores the world's moral myopia concerning sin. Political leaders are responsible for setting a strong moral example for their people. Thus, a political leader who is openly debauched and promiscuous will give young people the impression that it's cool to fornicate, use drugs, get drunk and commit adultery. 

Those who choose that sort of lifestyle will put themselves on a path to spiritual ruin, poverty, self destruction and ultimately eternal destruction. Sadly, many young people go to college today not to pursue a higher education, but rather to party and use drugs and have sex. 

It's no wonder why the western world has fallen behind Asia in academic achievement, technology and productivity. While westerners are partying their way to hell, the eastern world--and particularly Asia--is rapidly rising as an industrial, economic and technological powerhouse. Why? Because the eastern world and Asia have embraced the morals that the west has discarded.

Some folks are beginning to take notice. Sam Gerrans, an author, translator and activist who resides in the United Kingdom has certainly taken notice of America's rapid descent into the moral abyss. For example, he noted that a record number of Americans now depend on psychotropics to cope with life's daily pressures: According to the Scientific American, use of antidepressants among the US population was up 400 percent in the late 2000s over the 1990s. Many of these drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. These are the type of FDA-approved narcotics lone gunmen are frequently associated with, and their psychoses often attributed to a forced or sudden withdrawal from such drugs.

Gerrans has also noticed that America is becoming a violent, depraved nation: During the objective hardship of the 1930s, there was surprisingly little crime. People were brought up with a conception of morals and right and wrong. Frugality and prudence were prized virtues. Communities were generally fairly cohesive. Relative to then, society today is undisciplined, unrealistic and selfish. 

Certainly, there's a cause and effect for this. We already know what the effect is. But what's caused this? It's been caused by the Christian church's abrogation of the faith for universalism and temporal riches. Beginning in the mid to late 19th century, the Christian church fell into laziness and apathy and stopped contending for the faith. Though it didn't happen right away, the church lost the culture to secular humanists who imposed their godless worldview through politics, the education, entertainment and media industries. As they say, the devil never takes a day off.

The fall of the west and America is also prophetic. In his epistle to the early Roman church, the apostle Paul revealed what happens to people who reject God and His transcendent moral laws: "Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:28-32)

That's an ugly reality. Can that be reversed? It can but that seems unlikely, considering that biblical prophecy reveals that the epicenter of world power will reside in the eastern world (Daniel 11, Ezekiel 38-39) rather than in the west preceding the return of Jesus Christ.

Thus, the west's glory days appear to be over. And when the western world finally collapses under the weight of its own sin, many will look to the east and see what they once had. But by then, it'll be too late.