MK Gantt Ministries

Samson was a judge in Israel. God’s appointed protector of the nation against her enemies. He was blessed with great strength, impenetrable power before any attacker and was able –– even with the jawbone of an ass –– to destroy his foes. 

He should have been on guard at the gates. He should have installed himself on the wall, watching for any attacker. He should have been awake, alert, and ready to repel any who would bring harm upon the nation. Instead, he was comfortably nestled against the bosom of a whore while those who would destroy him and the people of Israel, were hiding in the closet, eagerly looking for an opportunity to strike. As he lay his head in the lap of the seductress, razor stroke by razor stroke, Delilah stripped the mighty Samson of his strength.

In 1979, Jerry Falwell Sr., former president of Liberty University established the Moral Majority. He did so with the bold promise that America would feel the full weight of the Christian vote. Falwell mistakenly believed that he could marshal the resources and influence of the Christian church in America to turn back the tide of immorality and corruption that was rising in the land through the sheer weight of the Christian vote. He convinced many believers that he was right. 

The efforts of Christian leaders and groups to shape the moral landscape of America through political force has doubled and redoubled over the forty plus years since Falwell boldly declared the power of the Christian vote. And to what end? 

The flood tide of wickedness in the nation has not turned. What was perversion in 1979 is now normal. Gay and lesbian marriage is a legal fact. Transgenderism has been legitimized by law, and toilets and showers are mandated as gender neutral, allowing men into women’s bathrooms and boys into our daughter’s dressing rooms. 

As it is with all high-income businesses, the abortion industry has diversified from simply murdering babies to marketing their organs for profit under the full protection of and with the financial support of our federal government. The influence of the church in American life is virtually non-existent. America has felt the power of the Christian vote and found that it was no power at all. 

Believers were profoundly distressed when supporters of Barack Obama called him a “savior,” some even hailing him as a modern messiah. Time has passed but there are millions who believe that our current president is the answer to all of America’s problems. Everything is going to change now. Hang on to that thought –– we’ve heard it before. 

Because the body of Christ has chosen to battle the forces of darkness with the arm of flesh, the perverted are emboldened in their subversive agendas, and the wicked feel there is nothing to limit or oppose their fundamental transformation of America. The church has been deceived. Delilah has cut off our hair. Our strength is gone, and the Philistines are upon us. Our eyes have been gouged out, and we are blind before our enemies. 

The fall of America is at hand, and the futility of a blinded and hairless church is exposed as millions of Christians continue to put their hope in a political person or party. Because we have chosen to wage our warfare in Washington, D.C. instead of in the heavenlies, we are a broken nation –– broken not because we have a dysfunctional political system but broken because we are a nation that has rejected the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. We have rejected His Word and His guiding principles. Fixing our political ailments will do nothing to heal our brokenness as a nation. 

The news is filled with one salacious revelation after another as depraved individuals continue to expose the wickedness in one another, succeeding only in revealing the deep, deep corruption of the love of power that has taken hold within our Congress. It has trickled down even to local community levels. As each party works to bring the other down, they foolishly, and perhaps justly, are bringing down the whole house.

We think our problem is Iran, or Russia, or Hamas

We think our problem is the economy, the trade deficit, or a multi-trillion dollar budget deficit.

We think our problem is a national drift toward socialism, or the looming threat of Islam.

We think our problem is the growing tide of sexual perversion or gender dysphoria, red states, blue states, progressive liberals, narrow minded conservatives, supreme court justices . . . 

The list goes on. 

“Draining the swamp” has succeeded only in revealing how incredibly deep the swamp is. 

But the truth is . . . the real truth is . . . our problem is God. The Book of Romans declares, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31 KJV)

But what if God is against us? Who then can be for us? What army can defend us? What navy? What missile? Who can defend a nation against the wrath of God? 

In his monumental work Institutes of the Christian Religion. John Calvin wrote, “They who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by Him [God] to punish the wickedness of the people.”

God is judging America because we have rejected Him, and He has given us over “to a reprobate mind.” (Romans 1:28 KJV)  Because for so long we have been willing to vote for the lesser of two evils, we have a capital city full of wicked leaders. God has given us exactly what we voted for. 

We seem to have forgotten the words of Paul, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 ESV)

We cannot vote cosmic powers out of office, and we cannot impeach spiritual wickedness in high places. These forces must be defeated, torn down, and destroyed but on a spiritual, not a fleshly plane. There will be another election; there always is. But another election will not turn away the wrath of God against a nation that has so grossly sinned against Him. Gathering Congress on the Capital steps to sing all the verses of “God Bless America” will not drive out the demons that vex America. 

While we must acknowledge and even rejoice that the Word of God is more comfortable in the Oval Office than it has been for a long time, and that there are certainly more believers in key positions, including the Supreme Court, this is not what will turn away the wrath of God from our nation. We must become as Daniel who stood in the face of Nebuchadnezzar and declared to him the oracles of God. If any elected official is going to save America, fixing the economy is not the answer. Our leaders must lead us to our knees, crying out to God for a broken national heart and for His mercy and forgiveness. There must be a national turning away from sin. 

If there was even an hour upon the American landscape when the urgent cry for confession of sin and repentance has broken upon us, it is now. This is not a day to become weak and confused in our message. It is not a day to marry ourselves to psychology and self-help. It is not a time to try to be cool, relevant, and inoffensive. It is a day to climb to the rooftops and proclaim that a day of wrath is upon us. The only recourse we have as a people is to turn from our wickedness, fall upon our faces and cry, “Mercy! God have mercy upon us!”

Yes my friend, there is great power in the Christian church, but our power is not in our vote, and our weight is not in the influence we wield in Washington. The power of the church is the influence we have before the Throne of God. Our power is not in our protests; our power is in our prayers. Our help is not to be found in the Supreme Court; our only hope is in the strong arm of the Lord. Our defense is not found in the Constitution of the United States; we find our defense in the shadow of the Almighty. 

“The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”  (Psalm 33:16-22 ESV)

This is an excerpt from my book CRY MERCY, which seems more critical now than when I originally penned these words.