From Light into Darkness

Francis Scott Key once said, “The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness, ‘A lamp unto his feet, and a lamp unto his paths.’” And Woodrow Wilson said in 1911, “We are born unto a Christian nation.”

If you’re over 60, you may remember different times, lighter times, times when the most awful thing you could do in school was talk or chew gum in class. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that murder and other heinous crimes did not exist then, for they most certainly did.

What I am saying is that since the Bible and prayer have been removed from our government, our schools and the public square, the number and nature of such crimes have multiplied many fold. This is not a great leap when we look at recent headlines: “58 dead! Over 500 wounded in Las Vegas shooting;” “Grandfather kills 12-year-old grandson in dispute over donut;” or “Teacher accused of putting semen on students’ flutes.”

There are those that would see no “cause and effect” here. Yet, it is possible to trace increased drug use, increased delinquency and increased teen pregnancy directly to the removal of God and prayer from our public schools (all increased dramatically from June 1962 to the present). Add to that, the distortion of “freedom OF religion” to mean freedom FROM religion and you produce a formula for offending a Holy God. Some will dismiss these events as simply “coincidence.”

Yet Scripture had long ago predicted the darkness that seems to be falling, almost daily upon our nation. Scripture talks of light and darkness, good and evil. We are told things like, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe in Him is already condemned, because...men loved darkness rather than light.” And thousands of years ago the prophet Isaiah predicted, “The sun will no longer be your light...for thy Lord will be your everlasting light.”

It would be impossible to read the Bible without noting that Scripture commands only good actions, such as, “A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Or, who could miss the comparison Paul lays out in his letter to the Galatians between our nature and the nature of God: “I say then, ‘Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh...now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.”

Yet while the Bible teaches only good things, we have removed it, and the influence it has had on generations of Americans, from government, our schools and the public square...and then expect what? That somehow telling people to not steal, to not murder, to not commit adultery will somehow improve our national values, that it will somehow improve our national morality?

The very Bible, that many today reject, advises in Romans, “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” And says also in Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness...,” and warns that in the last days men “will do just that by mistaking darkness for light.” Yet we need not despair, for He is truly “...a light unto our path.”