Approximately 27 percent of the Bible is prophecy, which is more than one-quarter of its content. As a minimum, one-half of all biblical prophecies have been fulfilled exactly as God had affirmed. So, what about biblical prophecy and current events?
Fulfilled prophecy proves the authenticity of the Scriptures. Anyone who pays attention to the Scriptures and events in our society today can observe prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes.
When Nations Forget God
The Western culture is changing drastically and with haste. Shared faith in the God of the Bible is declining, as revealed in several studies.
For example, Don Federer, a freelance writer and media consultant, in a March 29, 2022, Washington Times opinion piece wrote, “the study by the Prestigious American Enterprise Institute Titled, Generation Z and the Future of Faith in America realized on March 24 shows a steady erosion of religious affiliation and the corresponding rise of atheism and agnosticism.”
Some may have reservations as to whether this trend is harmful to our modern nations, but what Mr. Federer warned is that this just-published survey of the decline of religion in America should cause warning bells to go off in our souls.
This survey should cause alarm because this is a progressive trend in the US and the West. To illustrate, Generation X, born between the 1960s and the late 1970s, 25% reported that they were not affiliated with a church, synagogue, or any religious domination. Of the millennials represented by those born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, 29% reported that they were not affiliated with a church, synagogue, or any religious affiliation. Generation Z represents those born between 1997 to 2012 and is the least religious in our history, with 34% reporting that they aren’t affiliated with a church, synagogue, or any religious affiliation. That is nine percent higher than Generation X and five percent higher than millennials.
There is no current reason to deem that this trend will not continue. The moral fiber based in our churches has become progressively more silenced. Unfortunately, not only are religious connections waning but atheism and agnosticism are increasing. Generation Z takes the lead again with the highest percentage of 18%, the highest in our history.
There is no doubt that the nation is forgetting God. This trend sadly is the current trend with reaches from the government to our schools to Hollywood; religion is taking a back seat. This situation is not limited to the United States but is a worldwide trend, including Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.
The Consequences
So does it really matter if a nation turns away from God? Indeed, it does matter. On the secular level, when a nation turns away from God, there is an all-encompassing awareness of aloneness and lack of community that sweeps through society. Social media puts this isolation on steroids. This isolation increases, and society becomes increasingly narcissistic. It is all about self, to the point that marriage, children, and family become words of disdain, and morality takes a back seat.
These same issues plagued the society of the ancient Roman Empire, and we know what happened to that superpower.
What Does the Bible Say?
This condition is addressed in the Scriptures. Eccl 3:11 reads: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” NIV
God has “set eternity in the hearts of men.” What this means is that we can in no way be wholly fulfilled with earthly pleasures and quests. Because we are created in the image of God, we have a spiritual thirst and eternal value, and nothing but the eternal God can truly satisfy us. God has built in us a restless yearning for the type of perfect world that can only be found in his perfect rule. Therefore, in our limited wisdom, we turn from God and attempt to fill this void on our own. We also turn to the government as the master deliverer of our concerns.
However, we ourselves can only fill the void with earthly, temporal things that yield only limited satisfaction and even more consequences. 2 Cor. 4:18 advises, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Oh, how we lust after the temporal things!
When we turn from God, we shut off the eternal flow and leave ourselves only with the temporal. Nothing in this life lasts forever.
God, in His Word, has clearly defined what happens when a nation forgets God. In the US, we are witnessing some of these consequences presently.
The situation intensifies when all we seek has been fulfilled, and we forget about God. Deut. 8:10-14, 17-20 says:
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, laws, and decrees that I am giving you this day.
12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”
18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
20 Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.
God warned His nation Israel that when He blessed them that they should not forget from where their blessings came, namely from Him. They should not be filled with pride as though they had done it on their own.
He also told them unambiguously what the consequences would be for such actions; they would be destroyed.
Lev 26:19-22 contains some of the details of this destruction.
19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.
20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21 “‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve. NIV
There are other consequences contained in the chapter. Natural disasters such as severe and exceptional droughts would be the result. God prophesied that these things would occur, and the prophecy was fulfilled.
Biblical Prophecy and Current Events
Many will say, well, that’s Old Testament, but we are living under grace in the New Testament, while others will ask, what does this have to do with us today? It is essential to know that prophecy has more than one fulfillment.
These prophecies contain a principle that applies perpetually; if a nation turns away from God, it will suffer dire consequences. Scripture is clear; Prov. 14:34 reads, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
The Canaanites were driven out of their land by Israel because of their terrible sins. Remember Deut. 18:20, “Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.”
As time passed, Israel committed the same sins and was driven out also (Leviticus 18:24-30). Each time a nation turns from God, the consequences are the same. This principle applies to the nations of today.
Have we turned away from God? The statistics prove that to be true. Are we suffering consequences? —unequivocally.
God said in Deuteronomy 8:19, “If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.”
Can it be any clearer?
Now, we may not bow down before statues these days, but we certainly have our idols. The West is immersed in secularism, which rejects God and manifests itself in the abovementioned areas. Anything that takes us out of the will of God, and away from God is an idol and yields consequences that we are witnessing today. Eph 5:5 states:
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. NIV
Now, this applies individually, but if widespread throughout a nation, it becomes a national issue.
The prophet Amos made it clear how God dealt with His people at an earlier time; rainfall would not be evenly balanced. Amos 4:7 reads, “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.” NIV
Today, some areas suffer massive flooding while others have no rain.
According to an article in the Washington Post, “The last three water years — which run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 — have been the driest in California’s history. Several other Western states — Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, and Utah — are entirely in drought.”
The map below illustrates the drought areas in the U.S.
We are suffering other natural disasters as Jesus prophesied in Matt 24:6-8
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
These are only the beginning of the sorrows that we are bringing upon ourselves.
Conclusion
Whenever a society collectively grows to be thoroughly corrupt, God uses these natural forces to wake us—to get our attention. Occasionally it is simply a painful loss, but on the other hand, the loss of life is to teach others the calamitous consequences of a world without God.
On a secular level, experiencing natural disasters are the result of living on the planet earth. However, on a spiritual level, we encounter them because the human race en masse has said to God, Don’t bother us. We can decide for ourselves how to live.” God says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” society says, “It’s all right as long as you don’t get caught. It can even be healthy for your marriage.” When God says, “Thou shall not murder,” society says, “War is just another means of diplomacy.” God says, “’Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord in Lev 18:21NIV. Yet, tens of millions of the most innocent among us, the unborn, are murdered-sacrificed because we believe “it is a woman’s right to choose.” The Bible says, “flee fornication” (1 Cor. 6:18). Yet, Sex prior to marriage (fornication) is so widespread in the Western nations that we, by design, presume two people dating each other regularly are sleeping together. In addition, when a child comes into the world, we are now so bewildered that we cannot tell if the child should be deemed male or female.
Gal 5:17 reads, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” NKJV The flesh represents the worldly desires to please the self—our base nature. The Spirit represents what God desires and leads us to please Him. These two forces battle for our souls, and this is known as Spiritual Warfare. For more on Spiritual Warfare, please see the article “All about Spiritual Warfare” on this website.
As a result of this spiritual battle, if we are led by the flesh, no matter what God says, we do to the contrary. He says the Sabbath, the seventh day, is a day of rest. We say it doesn’t make any difference. We like the first day of the week, Sunday, the day sun-worshiping Roman Emperor Constantine chose. The catalog of our differences with God is endless, and the catalog of “God’s acts” is also endless. Each year, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and famines ravage parts of the earth. [For more detail, see the article “Saturday vs. Sunday Worship” on this website]
A segment of Amos’ prophesy was referenced earlier, but we must reflect on all it has to say. God gave that warning through Amos to ancient Israel, and—as we have witnessed—much of Bible prophecy is dual; it has more than one fulfillment. This prophecy will be our future except and until we repent:
If we think it won’t happen? If we believe it can’t happen? It behooves us to think again and realize that God is not playing games. As our loving Father, He will get our attention!
Amen
Please feel free to leave any comment, question, or experience with prophecy below.
Blessings!
