by Leon Hartwell and Emily Raley
Cleveland, Ga. (TMNews) – “America’s collapse is inevitable and there is not one thing we’re going to do to stop it,” said Dr. Robert Jeffress, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas Texas.
“Students, I believe that over the last fifty years there have been three explosive decisions by our United States Supreme Court that have so weakened and destroyed the moral and spiritual infrastructure of this country that our collapse is inevitable.”
Jeffress addressed these decisions during Truett-McConnell’s chapel service, Thursday September 9.
The collapse of America
Jeffress supplemented his message with specific historical events including the Supreme Court rulings which “have changed the direction of our nation more than any presidential order, more than any mandate from congress.”
He continued to promote the potentiality of America’s failure, destruction and disintegration by arguing that “the explosions have already happened, the implosion is coming, and we’re simply, as Christians, living in that in-between time; the pause before the sudden collapse.”
“The first explosion came in 1962,” Jeffress said. “It was the case of Engel v. Vitale: The Supreme Court case that resulted in the removal of prayer from the public schools. Of course this was just the first of a long series of subsequent decisions by the court that demonstrated our countries not neutrality, but hostility toward the Christian faith.” Jeffress explained how Bible reading was removed from schools in 1963 and then in 1980 the Supreme Court suddenly decided it was “unconstitutional to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky school.”
Speaking to the increased persecution of Christians in the United States, Jeffress referenced a shooting in a different Kentucky school which occurred in 1997, the victims a group of students who met to pray before school. “It all happened in a Kentucky school, where seventeen years earlier, the Supreme Court said you may not post the words, ‘thou shalt not kill.”‘
“How did we get into that shape as a country, why have we allowed this to happen?” Jeffress asked. “We as a nation have allowed the secularists, the humanists, the atheists to pervert the first amendment to our Constitution into something our forefathers never intended it.”
Referencing the second explosive decision as Roe v. Wade, the case which resulted in the legalization of abortion, Jeffress shared the significance this decision has had on our nation. “Did you know that one study has demonstrated that if those 50 million children who have been murdered in the womb since 1973 have been allowed to grow up and turn into productive citizens, they would have added anywhere from 35 to 70 trillion dollars to the gross national product in the last 50 years? If those children would have been allowed to grow up and pay into our tax system, there would be no social security crisis.”
“You can’t slaughter 20 percent of a nation’s population without economic ramifications,” he said.
Noting God’s judgement of the Israelites for sacrificing their children to a false God, Jeffress asked: “If God is going to judge His own people like that, do we really have to wonder what He’s going to do to a country like America, who not only allows but celebrates as the greatest freedom of all, a woman’s right to choose to murder her own child?”
The third explosive decision took place several months ago in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that legalized same sex marriage in America. Many people wonder, ‘what’s the big deal with gay marriage,’ Jeffress shared. “Here’s the problem students… we know how this story ends.”
Speaking to a number of studies that show countries that legalize same sex marriage experience a decline in the rate of heterosexual marriage, Jeffress explained how this leads to more children being born into single parent homes which lead to lower SAT scores, an increase in drug use, depression, and delinquency, among other factors.
“No nation that outlaws the mention of God in the public square, that sanctions the murder of children, that destroys the most basic institution in society, the family, no nation is going to survive that,” Jeffress said.
The call to be salt and light
While indeed, Christians may be living in the in-between time of America’s inevitable collapse, Jeffress posed a question: “What are we supposed to be doing before the collapse comes? What is our mission?”
Referencing Matthew 5:13-14, Jeffress declared that our God has already given us our mission to be salt and light.
Noting the historical use of salt as a preservative, Jeffress cited our first responsibility to be salt. “Salt did not prevent the decay, it delayed the decay,” Jeffress said. “Jesus left [His] people to be a preservative, to be salt, to allow this world to exist a little longer before the rot of ungodliness and immorality completely destroys it.”
While noting God’s sovereignty, Jeffress referenced God’s decision to destroy the wicked city of Nineveh. “In Jonah 3:10 it says ‘But God relented of His decision.’ He changed His mind. I’ll be the first to say that I don’t understand that,” Jeffress said, “but here is what I do understand. God said He was going to destroy Nineveh but because of the righteous actions of one man, He delayed that decision to give the Ninevites longer to repent.”
“In the same way, God has called us to be a preservative in our culture, to push back so we have longer to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Christians and politics
Jeffress mentioned the importance of engaging the culture with the truth of God’s word and cited politics as one avenue to do so. “When you say Christians should not be involved in politics what you’re saying is Christians should not try and influence the culture in which they live.”
“God has called us to be salt and one way we do that is through the leaders we elect,” Jeffress said.
Jesus also called Christians to be the light of the world, Jeffress shared. “Our calling is to save Americans and others from the coming judgement of God by introducing them to Jesus Christ.”
“What is your life purpose?” he asked. “Is your life purpose to build your career, to have a successful life? Or is your purpose to do the one thing Christ left us to do here?”
“If your goal in life is peace, prosperity, pleasure, the avoidance of pain, there could never be a worse time to be a Christian or alive. But If your goal is to share Christ with as many people as possible, there’s never been a better time to be alive and be a Christian than right now,” he added, “because as the world grows darker and darker and darker, the hope of the Gospel shines that much more brightly.”
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Leon is a senior English major and freelance writer for Truett-McConnell.
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