When Piety Decays Times Are Bad

I wrote the following in a blog post last September titled “There Souls Are Tethered To Their Bodies”:

    The United States, a nation that began as a virtuous nation, has lost its national virtue. We have replaced the rule of law with the rule of mob; we have substituted absolute truth for no truth is absolute. And as I said earlier, we have given up our personal piety for political pragmatism.

    How did that happen?

I go on to write that the church has become a harlot bowing down to other gods. How many godly men and women in elected office can you name? Ninety-five percent of the Founding Fathers were Bible-believing Christians. Is there even five-percent of Bible-believing Christians in elected office today?

King David begged God…

    “Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.” (Psalm 12:1-2)

David looked around him and saw no men among him whom he could trust. Are you starting to feel that way? I look at Congress’ refusal to do the people’s will and I no longer trust them. The Tea Party movement tells me I am not alone.

But it is not enough to protest and send emails and make phone calls. These are indeed important but if we the church do not rise up and demand personal piety first in our lives and then in the lives of those who represent us then we end up with the America we have today.

Times are bad, but why are they bad? Matthew Henry poses the same question:

    “Let us see what makes the times bad, and when they may be said to be so. Ask the children of this world, “What makes the times bad?” and they will tell you, “Scarcity of money, decay of trade, and the desolations of war” make the times bad: but Scripture lays the badness of the times on causes of another nature, 2 Timothy 3:1: perilous times shall come, for sin shall abound; and of this David complains. When piety decays times are bad. He who made man’s mouth will call him to account for his proud, profane, dissembling, or even useless words. When the poor and needy are oppressed, then times are very bad. God himself takes notice of the oppression of the poor, and the sighings of the needy. When wickedness abounds and is countenanced by those in authority, then times are very bad.”

Oh for preachers who will abide by Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

    “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

The time has come. Sound doctrine is no longer endured. Preachers perform sodomy marriages and we in America cannot understand what has happened to our nation. The most famous preacher in America will preach on your best life now but not on sin, because the Bible already speaks on it. He is the most famous preacher in America.

Do you need to feel good about yourself?

Go buy his books but buyers beware…

…your personal piety will surely decay.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2010 David Jeffers

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