There was a time when Americans associated America with freedom. Today, we have lost touch with the concept of real freedom and have begun to think of it as the right to do as you please rather than the power and insight to do what is right. In fact, our culture has embraced the idea that truth is not absolute, but relative; subjective, not objective; and self-centered, rather than God-centered.

A nation that was founded on godly principles has become increasingly more godless with the passage of time. As Election Day approaches, we face daunting challenges and problems that would have been unimaginable to our founding fathers. As one national reporter put it, “This country is going to hell in a hand basket!” We need the kind of change that politicians and political parties cannot provide.

LifeWay Research recently released the results of a survey of 1,000 Americans. Two questions were especially telling:

1. Is it morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different than the sex they were born? Amazingly, 45 percent disagreed, 14 percent said it was not a moral issue, and only 35 percent agreed.
2. Is it morally wrong to change the gender you were born with through either surgery or taking hormones? Again, it was almost unbelievable that 43 percent of the people surveyed disagreed, 11 percent said it was not a moral issue, and 42 percent agreed.

What happened, and how did we get in this shape? We left our foundation and drifted away from the one true God. Our churches too often tried to be like the culture instead of offering God’s light to this dark culture. We allowed the rhetoric of radical untruth to usurp the voice of truth. Our Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage — something God’s Word clearly condemns. The current tumult over a person using whatever public restroom they want based on who they think they are, sexually, rather than who they are by birth is minor in comparison to what is coming. As our culture has become more and more godless, it has become more brazen in its immorality.

Radical Islam continues to murder and destroy anyone who does not agree with its agenda. Terrorists not only seek to build a country on land they do not own, but also seek to create mayhem in countries they cannot defeat on the battlefield. We live in an age of terrorism, and Christians are prime targets. Franklin Graham has repeatedly said, “The fundamentalist Muslims hate us because they perceive us as people who believe in Jesus — Christians.”

Our Bible-believing pastors who preach the Word of God faithfully will unfortunately face increased pressure, and even persecution, in the future. George Orwell wrote: “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” What Americans need to desperately know in the light of worldwide radical Islam’s assault is the very truth this culture refuses to hear: the Word of God.

Apologist Ravi Zacharias has observed that we have a deep crisis of the American soul and that “we have no recourse, because the only cure has been disparaged and mocked by the elite and the powerful.” In a recent post, he bemoaned the death of “morality, truth and reason” in our culture. He said, “We are sliding into the future with evil stalking us, but we have no morality, truth or reason to guide us.”

In a time when the bondage of evil grows, we need the freedom and power of the one true God more than ever. In John 8:32, Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He is the truth. His Word is truth. We have a challenge before us that is so large, we can only meet it in the power of the God who is greater than the challenge we face. God’s people can make a difference in Him, through Him, and for Him.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said over a hundred years ago, “Come what may, God’s people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save His people under heaven, He will save them in heaven.”

God’s power is not diminished. His Word has not been weakened. He was the hope of the faithful in ages past, and He is our hope for such a time as this.