“A republic, if you can keep it.” 

This famous phrase was a response by Benjamin Franklin when he left the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He was reportedly asked, “What kind of government did the founders propose, a republic or a monarchy?”

After the 2024 election, I reckon this statement will be on the minds of many Americans who see history as a relevant voice in the present. 

In my latest book, Hostility Within, I expressed concern that what we witnessed in 2020 would be repeated in 2024 but on a greater scale. It was my intention to warn and equip believers for what I perceived as a momentous change coming to this country. And due to the broken and disjointed relationships we suffered four years ago, I did not think we were in a good place, as a country, and sadly, as a church, to handle more divisiveness. I believed we had crossed the Rubicon, a place of no return, due to our mismanaging and abusing the mercy and long suffering of God. We were treading toward a place and time we have never seen. We were moving from a preventable sickness to a terminal disease, and we needed to make serious spiritual adjustments to how we display our kingdom responsibilities. Looking back, I am fully convinced we have entered that lethal sickness phase in this nation, and I regret to say, the church, that I love deeply, has played a significant role in this death. 

As a pastor, I tend to look at the culture and the world through the lens of a biblical worldview. This perspective causes me to view and interpret life, crises, and the world from a framework that is Bible-centric. In other words,  “How would Jesus view this and what would He do if He were in my shoes?” But others who subscribe to a similar worldview oftentimes focus on moral absolutes and righteous lifestyles, which are indeed important, but many miss, at a painful cost, the importance of God’s history, and how He dealt with humanity in times past. 

The Bible declares to us that God said, “I make known the end from the beginning…” (Isa. 46:10). This means that God has the unique ability to declare the future centuries before it happens; but also, it reveals His future by the past. In other words, God’s future is locked up in His history. If you want to know what God is going to do, and what His view of things is, then you would have to know His history. The history of God has always interacted and collided with nations and the culture of that day. 

Because of this truth, we can safely go back and draw parallels, beliefs, and perspectives on what was happening in and among those nations, of that day, and what was God’s response to what was happening. How God will work out an issue can indeed be a complex thing to understand, but His character is different. His character is predictable because it is repetitive and immutable. 

God displays a repetitive pattern throughout the Scriptures of working His history into, at that moment, a crisis or dilemma. There are many I can list, but for the sake of a laborious read, there is one example in the book of Jeremiah when God sent the prophet Jeremiah to warn the people of his day to repent and avoid God’s judgment. The people were convinced Jeremiah was not speaking on God’s behalf, because after all, they believed God had established the land and the temple, so why would He destroy what He approved? But God reminded the people of what He did in His history (Shiloh) to get them to see His perspective (7:12-15). God has worked His history into blessing humanity, but He also worked His history in judging nations. If this is indeed the case, why is this critical viewpoint overlooked or silent?

A few years ago, I watched the anniversary coverage of the Jonestown Massacre, where over 900 people lost their lives under the direction of cult leader Jim Jones. One particular scene that caught my attention was horrific yet cryptic. A photo showed the many deceased bodies spread out around Jones and his concocted makeshift “throne.” A huge sign hung on top of the throne that read, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” What a compelling and prophetic warning. This was a quote from the Spanish philosopher George Santayana from his book, The Life of Reason (1905). Why are we so deficient in knowing God’s history? For one, we have developed an affection for things that Christ has not approved, while displaying a contemptuous disposition for things that are necessary. From personalities to rhetoric, we have digested disinformation that has caused a spiritual disruption within the body of Christ. Those who are ignorant of God’s past will never be crowned to speak for him in the present. 

Ignorance of biblical history—or in some cases, historical amnesia—has left the body of Christ vulnerable to the ever-changing current of a misleading culture. There are only a few things that Satan enjoys more than God’s people being historically illiterate. 

English novelist and cultural critic George Orwell wrote: “To enforce the lies of the present, it is necessary to erase the truths from the past. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” 

G.K. Chesterton, an English writer, poet, and theologian, expressed the same point: “The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living. Without some such contrast or comparison, without some shifting of the point of view, we should see nothing.” 

Likewise, C. S. Lewis, a British writer, theologian, and apologist, wrote frequently about what he called “the great cataract of nonsense,” which is our tendency to concern ourselves only with the present that it blinds us to knowledge of earlier times and keeps us content with history in pieces. He spoke about the common tendency to treat the voices of history with a certain level of incredulity and inferiority. Elsewhere, he called it chronological snobbery, a tendency to concern oneself primarily with present sources while dissecting history as we please. Lewis warned that to do so is to walk unaware of the cataracts through which we see the world today. Far better is the mind that truly considers the past, allowing its lessons to interact with the army of voices that battle for our allegiance. For a person who has lived thoroughly in many eras is far less likely to be deceived by the errors of his or her own age. Lewis’ prophetic statement still rings true in our era, for to truly understand our current times we need a historical perspective. 

Divorcing ourselves from the past makes us blind in the present. Furthermore, believers without knowledge of the past are spiritual infants in the hands of the Ancient Seducer and Fallen Angel. In the Scriptures, we see that every time God’s people forgot their history, apathy, anarchy, apostasy, and abandonment soon followed. And whenever the church turns her back on history, she will embrace autocracy and appealing spokespersons who teach a future devoid of any type of reality.

What does this all mean for America? Let us look at history from three different perspectives: biblical, world, and voices from Americas’ past. From a biblical perspective, this nation’s current state resembles Israel’s desire for a king (1 Sam. 8:1-22), and the final days of ancient Judah before their historical system of government was overthrown. 

In 1 Samuel chapter 8, the nation was fed up with the type of government God had been providing, so they demanded a “strong arm” leader so that they could be like the rest of the world’s government. And despite God revealing to them the selfish and brutish nature of the king, they still obliged. So, God gave them their request. Sounds familiar? I see the same parallels in this country. The character of the incoming president has been on display for years and despite his authoritarian cravings, bratty behavior, and dislike for the constitution and other restraints, the majority chose him just as King Saul was chosen. 

God uniquely crafted and handpicked an individual, who was tall and looked impressive, and would reflect the character and idolatry of the nation. God chose him because he would be a physical manifestation of their inner heart’s desires. Every time they looked at Saul and witnessed the unwise decisions he made, they would see themselves. But it is hard to see what is wrong in us, when that wrong is what we secretly admire. We indeed serve a God who does not mind giving us the desires of our heart, if we delight in Him, but it is different when God gives you your desire as an act of divine judgment. The danger of that is you are so elated by the desire, that you are willing to place God’s name on it yet clueless that the desire came by trickery, lies, manipulation, impatience, and sin. When we want what we want, we are willing to overlook things that before would have made us question it. We are willing, in our hypocrisy, to call out others for the things we now have personally made accommodations for in our lives. They wanted a king so badly that they did not realize God gave them a king from the wrong tribe. Legitimate kings were supposed to be from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10); Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. They were so spellbound and did not realize that the king they chose was illegal, unapproved and destined to ruin from the very beginning. There is nothing more deceptive than labeling something God’s choice when it is only God’s choice for judgment, not blessing, and for rebellion, not obedience (Ps. 106:15). 

In the final hours of Judah, the people were deceived by a distorted nationalism due to historical amnesia. While divine judgment was on the horizon, God’s own people were delusional and demented in their views concerning Him and where they stood with Him (Jer. 5:1-31). They were so compromised in their relationship with God that they were convinced that anyone who challenged and spoke against their liberty and freedom was viewed as an enemy. The challenge the prophet Jeremiah faced is the same challenge that many prophetic voices face today. How do you teach surrender to a generation who feels entitled to freedom? Freedom is not a right, it is God given, God supervised, and God removed. Many misinterpret the voice, choice, and the will of God due to their idolatry of freedom. 

We have idolized freedom, and it has caused a serious deterioration in our social climate. Freedom without restraints is lawlessness without any convictions. In reference to the people of Judah, they were parroting a false assurance that was blinding them to a reality of a present calamity. Jeremiah reminded them that God does not override His divine principles to justify habitual sin, regardless if He placed His name on something from the past. He was informing them that being the people of God will not prevent them from being punished by God. In the words of Jewish theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Prophets had to remind the people that chosenness must not be mistaken as divine favoritism or immunity from chastisement, but, on the contrary, that it meant being more seriously exposed to divine judgment and chastisement.” 

Jeremiahs’ words were ignored and trampled underfoot by the masses, and years later, the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed by fire, and the people were taken captive and exiled to a pagan environment for seven decades. When the called-out ones start to embrace things that are diametrically opposed to our King, consequences are inevitable. When God’s people neglect what they know to be right, fail to embrace and humbly submit to the truthfulness of His word, and give themselves to faddish and duplicitous rhetoric, the culture around them will start to decay.

When our pulpits no longer echo God’s authentic, prophetic word but become springboards for political pandering and clichés, Satan will choose diabolical polarization as his tool. When the voice of God is silenced during times of panic, upheaval, confusion, and skepticism, Satan looks to fill the void with voices that parade conspiracies, unjust hatred, and religious lies. Be not deceived, just because America may have had some Judeo-Christian values does not mean we are exempt from the wrath of God.

As we look at the past through the lens of world history, there are some things that are happening now that are similar to a particular time before. Many are disturbed by the phrase “history repeats itself,” but they cannot refute that history does not rhyme. I believe it is no coincidence that the name of late author and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is being highlighted in many circles today. 

Unfortunately, some are using his name in such a way that is undermining the accuracy of what he stood for and stood against. His name has been used to push a religious nationalism that’s antithetical to why he was killed. He was executed by hanging in 1945 because he did not ascribe to Adolf Hitler’s agenda. He vehemently opposed nationalism and rebuked the church for its gross silence while Hitler used propaganda to mentally confuse and disarm the masses. You see, silence is not a badge of honor and humility, in times of gross deceit, for the sake of political advancement. 

The church in Germany was deceived by Hitler’s speech of promising to bring national revival back to the country. While he was convincing the church of that, he was deceptively working behind the scenes to find loopholes in constitutional laws. Many people underestimated Hitler’s political persuasion and afterward, laws were passed to effectively grant him broad power to act outside of governmental control. He no longer had any government oversight that could restrain his psychotic depraved mind and behavior. 

Hitler quickly used these powers to block constitutional oversight and suspend civil liberties, which brought about the sudden collapse of democracy at the federal and state level and the creation of a dictatorship under his leadership. Germany moved from a constitutional democracy to totalitarianism by the diabolical influence of one person. It does not take a crowd of people to lead you astray; it only takes one. You do not need a large group to change an entire nation for the worst. By the hands of King Hezekiah, the nation of Israel was restored. But by the hands of his son, Manasseh, the nation was destroyed. One person with the right amount of power, influence, and political posturing can upset and tear apart the moral fabric. King Manasseh, in one generation, reversed everything that was built by his father, and Germany likewise witnessed the power of one individual. Sounds familiar? 

Bonhoeffer understood the role that evil played in the destruction of Germany, but he did not overlook the role that the church played in not challenging the evil. The church’s silence was complicit and ungodly. After Hitler had ascended into power, he scornfully dismissed the church and its leaders as an irrelevant voice posing no threat to his agenda. Sadly, Hitler was right. Many of the German churches remained quiet and looked the other way. Hitler said, “We should destroy the preachers by their notorious greed and self-indulgence. We shall thus be able to settle everything with them in perfect peace and harmony. I shall give them a few years reprieve, why should we quarrel? . . . They will betray their God for us, they will betray anything for the sake of their miserable jobs and income.” 

Few voices were raised against the monstrous Nazi evil during that time because it required real courage to speak the truth. Bonhoeffer was deeply troubled by the church’s silence and wrote: “We the church must confess that we have not proclaimed often or clearly enough the message of the One God who has revealed Himself for all time in Christ Jesus, and who will tolerate no other gods beside Himself. She must confess her timidity, her cowardice, her evasiveness and her dangerous concessions. She was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven…The church is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ. The church must confess that she has desired security and peace, quiet, possession, and honor to which she has no right. She has not born witness to the truth of God and by her silence, she has rendered herself guilty, because of her unwillingness to suffer for what she knows to be right.”

In its thunderous silence, the church became a traitor to the lordship of Christ. She failed to heed Bonhoeffer’s prophetic words, and within a few years, Hitler’s agenda was carried out—with over eleven million people (including six million Jews) being murdered, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer himself. 

Finally, through the lens of America’s past, there have been voices that warned us what would happen to our republic if we veered off course.

President Abraham Lincoln, in his 1838 Springfield, Illinois speech said: “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” 

Lincoln stated that if we as a country (the U.S.) would ever be destroyed, destruction would come from within. While many are focused on the impact climate change could have on the world, many are overlooking a more perilous version of change. Social climate change creates a hostility within, the path of which is hard to redirect. Every great kingdom has become vulnerable to external calamities when its people, structure, and values start to deteriorate from within. When a nation is filled with people who stir up conflict for the sake of personal gain, understand that the moral decay has moved into an impossible reversal. General Douglas McArthur wrote: “History fails to record a single precedent in which a nation subject to moral decay has not passed into political and economic decline. There has either been a spiritual awakening to overcome the morale lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”  

Professor Alexander Taylor wrote the following in 1787: “The world’s great civilizations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith. From faith to great courage. From courage to liberty. From liberty to abundance. From abundance to selfishness. From selfishness to complacency. From complacency to apathy. From apathy to dependence. From dependence back into bondage… Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidate promising them the most benefit from the public treasury, with the result that a Democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policies followed by a dictatorship.” Could all the signs we see in this country be signs of a fallen democracy? 

In 1920, American journalist H. L. Mencken penned these words: “As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.” Sadly, these prophetic words are happening quickly before our eyes, and many are clueless that these words were ever spoken. 

As believers, we understand that the word of God warns us about the dangers of judging those in the world, for they are God’s responsibility; but for those who say they are believers in Christ, we have a duty to judge their behavior. And I have reached the conclusion that the U.S. is divided because the church in this nation is under a strong delusion. This nation has forgotten about God because the church has disregarded the authority of Christ and His character. This nation’s immorality has stemmed from the church’s lack of spiritual morals. The U.S. has gradually become anti-God because the church has become anti-Christ. This land bleeds self-centeredness because the church promotes self-aggrandizement. The people are drowning in humanism because the church’s focus and objective is power and money. Society despises the Bible because the church doesn’t teach or demonstrate the Bible. The culture in America has evolved to shun God because the church in America doesn’t fear God. 

What did Franklin mean by, “if we can keep it?” It means that a healthy democratic government requires that its citizens be actively engaged and morally sober to defend itself against humankind’s destructive inner vices. How can you measure a nation’s health? By its leadership and the majority’s choice. The real adults have exited the stage and now the immature, morally bankrupt, political savages, and spiritual grifters have embraced the spotlight. “What America wants, America gets” is not a term of power and blessings. It is a sign of dark days ahead, for God has allowed “cause and effect” to be His instrument of Bible prophecy being fulfilled. 

We need to be very careful of how we interpret the term, “God’s choice.” Because God allows something does not mean it was His sincere desire. Once again, God allowed King Saul to rule only because he was what the majority desired. The cause and effect of Saul’s kingship was based solely on the people’s choice. 

Donald Trump will do some good deeds, but it will only be to cover up disruptive plans. He will spearhead America losing its social prestige around the world. But remember, there must be a realignment of the nations to fulfill end-time prophecies. And in case you didn’t know, the U.S. is not mentioned in Bible prophecies, which likely means that eventually, this country will lose its influence among other nations. Countries usually lose their influence when they can no longer fix or solve their own problems or are under the leadership of someone the world finds untrustworthy. 

During Christ’s first coming, the power of the nations shifted from the East to the West, and Rome was in power. But at His second coming, the opposite will take place, and the power of the nations will shift from the West back to the East (Ezek. 38:1–6). In years to come, we will see strong countries in the West start to look weak due to a lack of stability and deterioration from within. Brace yourself: a different America is upon us.