It's Day By Day

FOLLOWUP TO PREVIOUS POST ENTITLED, “WHY CHRISTIANS WILL LOSE IN 2008″

Paul’s shipwreck of Acts 27 is devastatingly and metaphorically applicable to another later ship, called The American Ship of State.

Paul’s ship of Alexandria (v.6) hosted a total complement of 276 souls. Many of them were prisoners bound for Roman justice, including the Apostle Paul. By his side, though not a prisoner, was his faithful friend, Luke the beloved Physician, to whom we owe this detailed log of the journey.

These 274 other souls were unwittingly, but Divinely fortunate to have aboard two of God’s choice servants, both of whom had a reputation for telling the plain truth, like it or not. They had hardly begun when Paul, the most outspoken of the two, being in touch with God, had the boldness to tell them plainly, even though everything seemed to be going just fine, “Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives (v.10).

From there, the entire story of horrible loss hangs on Luke’s “nevertheless” of verse 11. The Centurian, charged with Roman authority, decided to ignore the John Hagee-like ravings of God’s prophet and listen more to the ship’s master and owner instead. It was to be a foolish error of judgment with dire consequences, too often the case when governmental authority ignores God’s prophetic warnings.

You see, in Chapter 26 we find that Paul had made a strong case for God and his own innocence (26:32) in the presence of King Agrippa and Governer Festus, to the extent that Agrippa admitted that Paul almost persuaded him to become a Christian (26:28). These two dignitaries showed respect to this man of God and no doubt passed their sentiments on to Julius, the Centurian in charge of the prisoners being shipped to Rome. But Julius paid more heed to temporal assessment than the spiritual foresight of God’s prophet.

At first it appeared all was well as the south wind blew softly (v.13), but suddenly they took a broadside by a tempest called “Euroclydon”! It went down hill from there. Try though they did to regain control (vv.15-20), they were now in the storm by a foolish misjudgment, until “all hope that we should be saved was taken away.”

So God in his mercy in the person of His man Paul, who had been ignored into silence until now, stepped forward, possibly with a boney finger pointing at their noses, said, “Sirs, ye should have harkened unto me…” (v.21). This time, in the midst of violent waters, they were finally willing to listen.

Paul had good news: God would save their lives, but that’s all. Every temporal thing they had trusted in would be completely destroyed from under them! Now they would have to swim for their lives! But even that had a catch to it: They must do what they failed to do from the start—they must listen to and obey God’s prophet! Otherwise, they would all surely perish. Simple as that.

Well, that is the metaphor. Here’s the fulfillment:

A new American ship of state has set sail. We can expect the “south wind” to blow “softly” for a while. However, before that wind ever blew, God’s mighty voice swept out to all quarters of the nation saying, “Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage…” Why the voice? The facts were certainly no secret. As Paul said to Governor Festus regarding King Agrippa’s awareness, “For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner” (26:26).

The platform of the Democrat party and it’s candidates, both for Congress and the Presidency, had over the decades deteriorated into what Scripture explicitely calls “evil.” Some planks in it God points at with special Divine disdain (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:24-32. God destroyed two whole cities for this great sin: Genesis 19:1-29). One plank is abortion, which kills the fetus, although many Scriptural references can be cited showing the sacredness of the unborn. Some have gone so far as allowing the newborn fetus to die unattended. Grave errors against God, such as racial bigotry and sexual deviations have already been shown favoritism. We could continue with a sordid list of nose-thumbing at God Himself. Quoting Luke’s “nevertheless,” we must sadly point out that multiple millions of God’s people cast their ballots freely and with vigor for this God-less platform! Our congressional body and the Oval Office are now going to occupy the governing forces that will determine the set of the sail and the angle of the rudder of our American ship of state. It should also concern us greatly that such values will be the Commander in Chief of the mightiest military forces the world has ever known.

Therefore, “Euroclydon” is inevitable. It cannot be otherwise, especially if we dare touch the Apple of God’s Eye, Israel. God has solemnly promised that the dreaded law of sowing and reaping is as certain as the law of gravity—which never fails to simply be itself. Frankly, if God were to allow this nation to get away with throwing it’s free vote in support of such evil, He will have to be fair about it and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

But God never reaches that stage suddenly. He is merciful and longsuffering, sending warning after warning as a government stoops lower and lower. Meanwhile, our beloved nation, like Paul’s ship, loses control and begins breaking up on the rocks of godlessness, until at last it is too late to save the vessel. No, we should look, not for sudden, but slow destruction, but disaster nonetheless. Meanwhile, we as Christians should pray for the powers that be, not for their success in their evil designs, but for their salvation, even as we pray for their removal from power in a peaceful manner.

Who will be saved in the destruction of our ship of state? I am reminded of fearful Elijah to whom God reminded that He yet had 7000 souls in Israel who had not kissed nor bowed their knee to the wickedness of Baal (I Kings 19:18). But look more carefully: Suppose the population of Israel at the time was, say, three million. This means that less than one percent of Israel had not sunk to the evil engulfing their beloved nation. That should also inspire a sobering reminder of Jesus’ solemn words, “…Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).

America, let us beware and brace ourselves, for we have enthusiastically placed our national lives into unscrupulous hands when we should have sought for a safe haven for the bitter winter facing us. You see, once in a “Euroclydon,” there is no steerage, regardless of the skills of the helmsman. Meanwhile, we should:

* Beware an evil government, for without a single exception, all of them promised anything in order to come to power, but then they took it all away and reigned in terror.

* Beware of wicked intent, for deception, coverup, manipulation, scandel, and surprise leading to far worse, have always been its cardinal marks.

* Beware of evil itself, for the adage is always true, “Evil knows no bounds.”