By Woodrow Kroll
Part 4 - Seven Ways to Know You're A Nation In Trouble
In this session, we're going to look: at the way we are; a good look at society in the time of Hosea; and society in the 21st century. Mark Twain, the American humorist, said, "If there was an all-powerful God, He would have made all good and not all bad." That's our Mark Twain who said that. Bertram Russell, the British/English philosopher said, "My own view on religion is that it is a disease born of fear, and is a source of untold misery to the human race."
Frank Zappa, the musician: "To go to somebody else's country, and attempt through food or medical treatment to capture souls for Jesus, presumes that the guy with the travel budget and the hypodermic needle has a spiritual edge over the native he's going to save."
Margaret Sanger, who is the founder of Planned Parenthood, said, "No Gods. No Masters." Ted Turner, who founded CNN and the whole Turner Empire, said of the Ten Commandments, "We're living without noted rules; nobody around likes to be commanded."
Now, I tell you what these folks have said because, my friends, that's the way we are. That's the kind of society in which we live today. And I want you to see how close the correspondence is between our society today and the society in the day in which Hosea lived. Here we are in Hosea, chapter 2 today, beginning at the very first verse. Hosea, chapter 2--this is where God's people rebel against God.
They say, 'No Gods. No Masters. We don't want to have any God rule over us. We'll do our own thing.' And we're hurting the One Who loves us more than anyone else in the world.
Listen to this, chapter 2, verse 1: "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.' Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst." (verses 1-3; NIV) Now, that's a pretty dire, dire prediction, isn't it? If the nation does not turn back to God, God will strip the nation of everything that clothes that nation--all the blessings, all the wonderful things that it enjoys from God.
Now, this is talking about Israel. I want you to understand the context. God is making this prediction about His people, Israel, but I think there are some very, very strong parallels, friend...(those of you who are Americans). I think there are some very strong parallels between what God did for His people, Israel, and what He's done for America; and we are doing exactly to God what Israel did in the days of Hosea.
I want to explore with you seven ways you know your nation is in trouble. Seven ways you can tell if your nation is in trouble. And I'm not going to take these from the latest CNN/USA Today poll, I'm going to take them right out of the Book of Hosea. So let's look at them quickly.
Let's go to chapter 4--Hosea chapter 4, verses 1 and 2: "Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: 'There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying, and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.'"
How do you know when your nation is in trouble? Number one: you know you're in a troubled nation when your nation breaks all the rules. They just simply break all God's laws and they don't even care about it. Did you notice here that He's talking about the Ten Commandments?
Five of the Ten Commandments are listed in verse 2, and in order they're: commandment number 3, number 9, number 6, number 8, and number 7. Your nation is in trouble, friends, when that nation breaks all the rules and they don't even care about it. Israel refused to recognize God's authority in (their) lives, and as the result of that God said, "I will have to punish you, because sin always brings judgment." That is one of the themes of the Book of Hosea.
Now when He talks about cursing there, He's not talking about swearing. He's talking about calling a curse down upon someone from God. Every time someone asks God to damn something, that's calling a curse down upon someone or something. And what He is saying here is that when a nation chooses to break all the rules, you know you're in a nation that's in big trouble.
Secondly, (of seven ways to know that you're in a nation that's in trouble) you live in a nation of Biblical illiterates. See, one of the problems of the people of Israel is that they did not know God. They didn't know His Word very well. Look at verse 6 of chapter 4: "My people,"--the end of that verse--"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." One of the key elements to know when your nation is in trouble is when your nation doesn't know anything about God's Word. And my friends, we are in big trouble today, because we know almost nothing about God's Word.
Have you watched Jay Leno? Now Jay Leno is not a great spiritual theologian. Jay Leno is a late-night talk show host, and much of what Leno does is tasteless, to be sure. But he does this one little bit where he takes his...he does his 'Jay walk.' He goes out on the street with his microphone, and he asks people questions. And some of the times, he asks them Bible questions. He goes out, and he puts a microphone under someone's nose and he says, "Name one of the Ten Commandments," and the answer comes back, "God helps those who help themselves." I've news for you friends, that is not in the Bible.
He puts the microphone under someone's nose, and he says, "Can you name any of the apostles?" And there's silence. They can't name one of the apostles. But when he says, "Can you name any of the Beetles," they say, "Yeah, sure; George, Paul, John and Ringo." I mean, just like that, they know the Beetles; they just don't know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or any of the other apostles.
When he asks them who was swallowed by a great fish, the confident answer comes back, "Pinocchio." You say, 'well, that's the people in the world, I understand that.'
My friends, I was so concerned about Biblical illiteracy in the United States, that this year I wrote a book on it entitled: Back to the Bible. This is not the history of the ministry of Back to the Bible, this is a book citing how very little we know about God's Word. In fact, a year ago, we at Back to the Bible began to do something called the "Bible Challenge." You can go online and take the Bible Challenge from Back to the Bible.
All you have to do is go to biblechallenge.com, and you could take the challenge. The challenge is at three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Come in at any level you want, and it's in any category of five different categories: Bible geography, Bible verses, Bible characters, Bible doctrines. So you can come in at any level and any category you want and take the challenge for yourself.
Now, there are 20 questions in each challenge. When you take the challenge, don't tell anybody what your score is, unless it's really good, because one of the things we've discovered . . . (And you would anticipate that people coming by the Back to the Bible Web site to take the Bible Challenge might have a little more Bible knowledge than the average public.) What we've found is, the average score is 71% from those who take the Bible Challenge.
Now, if you're a teacher today, you know that's a very lenient C-, probably more like a D+. That's below C level, friends. That means we Christians don't know a great deal about God's Word, either. You know you're in a nation that's in trouble when the nation is a nation of Biblical illiterates.
The Gallup poll has a knowledge test, a Bible knowledge test as well, in which they ask questions like, "What is the first book of the Bible?" And you'll be happy to know that 49% of Americans knew that Genesis is the first book of the Bible...49%. Which, of course, meant 51% did not know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
Can you name one of the Old Testament prophets? Only 21% of Americans could name a single prophet in the Old Testament, according to the Gallup Bible knowledge quiz. When they asked, "Who delivered the Sermon on the Mount?" Only 34% knew that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. See, we've a problem today, and we live in a nation in which Bible illiteracy is a significant problem.
Some of you are familiar with the name George Barna. George Barna has also done a lot of research on the issue of Bible literacy. George Barna says that 10% of Americans believe that the Bible is an ancient book of myths and legends and fairy tales...10% of the population in this country! George Barna says that only 2 adults in 3, or about 64%, know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Can you imagine? A third of Americans don't know where Jesus was born! If you need any more information about this, you can contact the educators in Christian institutions today.
About a year or so ago, there was an article in Christianity Today by Gary Berga. Gary Berga is the Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Illinois. Now, the kids who come to Wheaton are sharp kids, they're intellectual kids, their heart is right; they come out of the church. Generally, they are good kids--they know a lot about the Bible.
And yet, when Gary Berga devised a test for incoming freshman to Wheaton College, he found out that half the freshmen entering Wheaton College could not sequence Moses in Egypt, Isaac's birth, Saul's death, and Judah's exile. They could not put it in sequence. They did not know enough about Old Testament history to do that.
Twenty years ago, I was the chairman of the Division of Religion at Liberty University in Lynchberg, Virginia. It was my responsibility to give a Bible quiz to incoming freshmen--a Bible knowledge test--so we could place them in Bible 101, in various sections. The last year I gave that test, I gave it to 1100 freshman. Now, like Wheaton, the kids who'd come to Liberty had come right out of our churches, right out of Sunday school . . . they'd come up through. They'd been at Bible study groups; they'd done it all. They ought to know better than anybody coming to college, who knows God's Word.
Yet, the last year I gave this test, there were 150 questions on the test. In order to pass the test, you had to get half right: 75 questions out of 150. That's pretty lenient, I think you'd agree. Half right passes--50%--and yet, when I gave it to 1100 freshman (the last year that it was my responsibility to do so) only 45 freshman passed that test...45!
How do you know when you're in trouble as a nation? You know you're in trouble because you live among Biblical illiterates, and in the 21st century, we are in trouble as a nation.
Thirdly, you know you're in trouble...(we're looking at seven ways you can tell from the Book of Hosea you're in trouble.) we know we're in trouble as a nation because in chapter 4, verses 7, 8, and 9; it tells us that a nation (in trouble) is filled with sinning clergy--the clergy of a nation are involved in great sin.
Listen to verse 7: "The more the priests increased," Hosea says, "the more they sinned against me." (The voice of God) "They exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish in their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds." You know you're in trouble when you're in a nation that is absolutely filled with sinning clergy.
Now, that verse there (in verse 7) where it says, "I will change their Glory into shame." The rendering there may not be exactly what the Bible translators were attempting to get to. The whole business about sinning against God, 'exchanging their Glory for something disgraceful . . .' I think it's talking there about the people, and the priests themselves, getting the promise of God's punishment because they have exchanged the Glory of God for something shameful. They've exchanged their responsibility to uphold the holiness of God, and in place of that, they fall into a lot of wicked things.
You're familiar with the case of Henry Lyons who was the President of the National Baptist Convention here in the United States. He took about $244,000 that was donated by the Anti-Defamation League, (designed specifically to rebuild churches that had been burned down tragically) and he absconded with that money. He's doing prison time for that now. But that's an example, my friends, of what happens to clergy when they live in a nation and they do not stand out as a light against sin in a dark place, in that nation. You know you're in trouble, when you live in a nation that's filled with sinning clergy.
Number four: you know you're in trouble as a nation because you're a nation that cannot control its lust. Now, I'm not making this up because I saw a movie last night. I'm telling you exactly what it says in the Book of Hosea. Look at Hosea, chapter 4, at verse 12. (Hosea 4:12) "They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery." (v. 13)
"I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, (because) the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes--a people without understanding will come to ruin!" (v. 14) The shrine prostitutes by the way, were not women, they were men. You know you're in trouble when a nation cannot control its lust, and specifically in this passage, it's talking about the lust of a man for a man. That's how you know your nation is in trouble.
Number five: (Hosea) chapter 7, the first three verses; you know your nation is in trouble when it's filled with sinning leaders. The leaders cannot control themselves in their sin. They cannot see the way of God, they see only their own way. Verse 1, of chapter 7: "whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me. (v. 2) They delight the king with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies." (v. 3)
They delight the king with their wickedness. You know you live in a nation that's in trouble, friends, when you are filled with rulers who delight in the wickedness of the people. Hosea understood that, because he had just lived under a king in the northern kingdom in which that was very true.
Number six: you know you're a nation that's in trouble, when you're a nation of deceitful prosperity. Look at chapter 10. Chapter 10, the first two verses, talks about deceitfulness; the deceitfulness of prosperity. "Israel was a spreading vine," that talks about prosperity. Now, think of the usage here of this botanical metaphor that He's using: "Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones. (v. 1) Their heart is deceitful, and they must now bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones." (v. 2)
Now, let me interpret that for you, all right? As Israel spread like a vine--using the botanical metaphor--as Israel prospered, as their tentacles went out further, as their roots went down deeper, as they saw more and more prosperity in their nation; they turned that prosperity into more and more ways to use their deceitful lust. And what He was saying was this, 'They were deceived by their own riches.' Things were going very well for Israel. This was a time of economic boom. And while they were living in economic boom, they were living in social decline, and moral raggedness. You know your nation is in trouble when it is deceived by its own riches.
Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 21 says: "I had planted you like a choice vine. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine? 'America, America, God shed Thy grace on thee.' How did you turn into a wild vine? See, this is the question that Jeremiah asks of Israel. It's the same question Hosea is asking.
You know your nation is in trouble when you live in a nation that's filled with sinning clergy, when you live in a nation filled with Biblical illiteracy. You know your nation's in trouble when you cannot control your own lust. You know your nation is in trouble when you have sinning leaders who relish and take delight in the sin of their people. You know your nation is in trouble when you're living in prosperity but you're being deceived by it. You don't even see that God will remember the sins of that nation.
Now, if you have the ability, and I'm sure you all do, to make the connection between the description of a nation in trouble in Israel's day, Hosea's day, and our day--I'm sure you can make a very strong connection. But I said there were seven; I've only given you six. If there's any question in your mind about whether or not these verses describe us today, as people, then number seven ought to convince you.
Look at (Hosea) chapter 10, verse 4: "They make many promises, they take false oaths and make agreements; therefore, lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field." You know you're in a nation that's in trouble when that is a nation of excessively litigious people; people suing one another for ridiculous reasons. So that today, McDonald's has to print on its hot coffee, "CAUTION: Hot Coffee." Now, how ridiculous is that? If it wasn't hot coffee we'd send it back! Right?
How do you know when the nation's in trouble? You pick up on all the things God told Hosea, and you recognize that what God told Hosea about Israel is true in the 21st century, too. See the message of Hosea: that sin brings judgment and repentance brings salvation, and underneath it all are the arms of God, holding us and loving us. That message is as contemporary today as it was in the 8th century B.C. All you have to do is change the names to protect the guilty, and it fits us to a "T." You know your nation is in trouble, when your nation does not wish to recognize God, and in the place of God, wishes to recognize its own lust.
Hosea knew his nation was in trouble. I don't think you and I have any difficulty seeing that the same thing is true with ours today. But underneath it all, underneath it all, God holds out His arms to us, and He says 'all you need to do is repent of your sins. All you need to do is seek my salvation and my arms are open to Canada, my arms are open to China. My arms are open to Australia. My arms are open to America. My arms are open to welcome back in love, any who has strayed from me.' A nation in trouble doesn't have to remain in trouble unless it remains opposed to God. And that, my friends, spells the biggest trouble anybody has ever seen.
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