"Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am He', and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains." Jesus, through Mark 13:6-8
We live in an age of moral relativism, thanks largely to misunderstood advances in science. In 1905 Albert Einstein discovered an amazing truth in astrophysics, that gravity warps both time and space; and in 1915, he proved that the speed of an object, and its mass, also do this. Both of these theorems - called special relativity and general relativity - led to many more discoveries that unlocked the mysteries of atomic energy and the sub-atomic, or quantum, world where ordinary physical laws disappear.
The general public came to believe that science had disproved our Creator; that our classical understandings of God, morality, life and death were passe; and hopelessly old fashioned. Atheism flourished in education, culture, and law.
"Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable." - G.K. Chesterton, 1874-1936.
Our inability to stand for right in the face of wrong has plagued us, and will always plague us until we awaken. We know it's cowardly to bow to tyrants. Abraham Lincoln spoke of this in 1865, at his inaugural, and his words resonate now more than ever: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled up by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.'"
Reckonings and consequences for our lawlessness are unavoidable. God is balancing His scales, sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat:
The Battle Hymn of the Republic; the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at West Point
President Lincoln lives even now in honor because he lived these words of our Savior:
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden." - Matthew 5:11-13
