The Fall of America and the Failure of Men

The roots of every cultural crisis can be found in individual and personal crisis. When looking at history every cultural crisis, every crumbling, or deterioration of our society can easily be traced back to the evil in men's hearts and men's inability or unwillingness to submit to God and stand strong against sin and their own personal issues in their own lives. We see man's first failure in the garden of Eden in Gen.3:6, " So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took off it's fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he

ate. Do you see the problem with this picture? Besides the rebellion against God, Adam is standing right there, but not protecting his wife, not leading his wife, the passive man, who is perfectly willing to allow his wife to take the role of leadership and to shoulder the burden of their sin. In Gen. 3:12 , it says, "then the man said, the woman you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree of life, and I ate." So not only does he abdicate his leadership role, but then he becomes a finger pointing blamer, and lays the burden of fault on his wife. And can you believe the audacity when he points a finger at God when he says "the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate."

And so it began. Throughout history you will find men who turned away from God and his law and purpose, for various reasons. Whether it's greed, power, selfishness, or just to openly oppose, God, history has been plagued with apostates and pint size dictators who have opposed God, and in a lot of cases, having nothing but hatred for God.

The Ceasars, especially Nero, Descartes, Marx, Hitler, Stalin, Mark Twain, Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, just to name a few and the list could go on and on. Powerful men who thumbed their nose at God with intent to destroy our society. The Bible has many men who opposed God. In Exodus Pharoh refused to submit to God, even as his whole country was being destroyed. In 1st Samuel Saul was so arrogant as to rebel against God, he being Gods chosen king for Israel. In the book of Esther, Hamen hated God and Israel. Herod tried to kill Jesus as a baby and thought of himself as a god. But let's bring this back in to the focus of what all this means to us. The failure of a culture is the failure of the men in that culture. A society cannot be vital, vibrant, and have ongoing vigor if the men of that society are plagued by faithlessness and retreat from their responsibilities, and an unwillingness to cope with personal problems. We live in a society of virtual reality where men have far to many ways to to escape reality and responsibilities. They are allowed and encouraged to shrink from their responsibility and retreat from the problems of the real world. A culture loses its will to live and conquer if the men get a spirit of retreat and surrender. The book of Joshua is a great demonstration of what God can do with courageous men. Joshua 1:9 says "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." The pilgrims and founders of this country were all willing to sacrifice everything including their lives to advance the gospel and kingdom of Christ here on earth. Men have chosen irresponsibility and a double standard has become a way of life. Men insist on all the authority given to man but deny it's responsibilities. Men have forgotten that all human authority is conditional based on obedience to God. No absolute authority is given to man, all authority is given by God for His service not self-promotion or self-aggrandizement. In its beginning the women's liberation movement was very simply the attempt by women to claim the responsibility which constitutes male rights for themselves. The remarkable fact of modern history is not that we have had at times aggressive women's liberation movements but that the vast majority of women have patiently endured the willful immaturity of men. Logically, men who cannot govern themselves will not be able to govern their families, jobs, or nations. The most famous president of the 20th century could not handle his money or his own affairs. Worldwide cultural crisis is rooted in the failure of men. Women, even our own wives, if we as men won't lead, protect, teach, and support our families, they will surely tell us to lead or get out of the way. The pleasures of maturity and the reality are to be found in family and work, in worship and growing in our faith. If maturity and reality are not desired and seen as fulfillment, then role playing which stresses public image and perpetual youth or immaturity will be basic to men's lives. Manhood is now a front, not a reality in our culture. Manhood is defined by what is popular not in terms of God's standards but in terms of money, worldly status, and in terms of ability to present a a right public image.

The church is guilty of furthering this trend. Instead of insistence on unity of faith and works, profession and action, it has stressed pious gush and appearance, instead of the reality of faith. As a result pulpit and pew are given to role playing. Now role playing by churchmen is an attempt to con God, which is the supreme act of arrogance. Con men are easiest to be victimized by a con man. This is no less true in the church.