Implosion Read Free Page A

threats facing America, Israel, and the church in light of Bible prophecy. My sense is that more people are asking these questions more often—and more openly—than ever before. A growing number of Americans fear that this period of our history is different and the crises we face today—and those coming up over the horizon—may be far worse than anything we have experienced in the past.
    Why Are People Asking?
    Indeed, Americans are asking such questions, in my experience, with growing frequency and urgency because of a gnawing and steadily intensifying anxiety they and their families and their neighbors have that, as challenging as things are in our country today, they very well could get catastrophically worse. Many Americans genuinely fear that God is preparing to remove his hand of protection and blessing from our country—or perhaps already has. They fear that unlike previous dark times in our national history, God may not intend to help us turn things around and get us back on the right track.
    Understandably, such thoughts can be both unnerving and perplexing. The more optimistic among us ask questions like “Surely, God must have a plan and purpose for America going forward, and it must be a good and wonderful plan, right?” Yet even these are signaling their doubts by asking the question.
    When people in other countries ask what the future of America holds and whether America will continue to lead the world in the twenty-first century—and they do ask, with ever more frequency—they tend to do so, I believe, for one of two reasons: Either they honestly fear what the world will look like without an economically, militarily, and socially vibrant United States of America playing a central and starring role in shaping the future of the globe. Or they secretly long for a day when the U.S. is humbled, weakened, and even neutralized so that other nations can take the lead and reshape the future of the globe.
    Such are the times in which we live.
    Some Context
    Before we go any further, let me just say it has been difficult for me to write this book. To be perfectly honest, there were many times when I simply didn’t want to finish it. I didn’t want to study the data or examine the trends, much less draw any conclusions about the future of our country. The process was, at times, depressing, and if I’m not careful, I can still find myself becoming anxious or gloomy.
    I dearly love my country. I was born here and grew up here, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to America. I don’t want to imagine worst-case scenarios, much less write about them. I don’t want to suffer through such times if they come. Nor do I want Lynn or our four sons—Caleb, Jacob, Jonah, and Noah—to suffer through such times. I don’t want our extended family and friends, spread out all over this beautiful land, to go through such times, either. Maybe none of us will. Maybe the worst-case scenarios will be avoided. I certainly hope so.
    Yet I live and work in the nation’s capital. I regularly and extensively travel this country. I see what’s happening all around me, and it is deeply disturbing. Marriages and families are imploding. Our federal debt is exploding. The tide of cultural pollution is rising. Our educational system is collapsing. Friends and neighbors are abandoning God and the church. The list of horrifying trends seems to grow longer each and every year. At this point, even a blind man can see the handwriting on the wall. The question is, what does the handwriting say, and what does it portend for the future of America?
    The apostle Paul once said that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:26). In other words, God decides precisely where on the planet and precisely in which period of history each man and woman is going to be born.
    Centuries before Paul, David—the Jewish