Oliver L North - Tragic Consequences: The Price America is Paying for Rejecting God and How to Reclaim Our Culture for Christ

FIDELIS PUBLISHING

ISBN: 9781956454000

ISBN (eBook): 9781956454017

TITLE: Tragic Consequences

SUBTITLE: The Price America Is Paying for Rejecting God and How to Reclaim the Culture for Christ

2022 Oliver L. North and David L. Goetsch

Cover Design by Diana Lawrence

Interior Design by Xcel Graphic

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From Oliver L. North:

For Betsy, with gratitude for her dedication to turning Tragic Consequences in our lives into Blessings.

From David L. Goetsch:

Dedicated with love to my dear familyDeby, Savannah, Ethan, Matthew, and Henry.

I pray Gods blessings on each of you.

Tragic Consequences was written for Americans who are concerned about the cultural decline they see all around them, people who watch the nightly news and ask themselves, What is happening to our country? It seems we have become a nation of people who are offended by everything but sin. What is happening to our country is simple to explain but sad to observe: we are seeing what a culture of sin can do to a country. It is a culture of darkness and depravity, a culture lacking in moral restraint, and a culture where life has little value. When a nation rejects God and accepts sin, the lurid stories carried on nightly news programs are the inevitable result.

Because of sin, Americas culture has darkened to the point where human life has little or no value, politics resides in the gutter, children are sold into sexual slavery, corruption is rife, mob violence is condoned, pornography is widespread, drug abuse is epidemic, the traditional family is dissolving, and some Americans actually celebrate evil. In spite of this, many churches in America have made sin a taboo subject.

Their pastors tell congregants over and over how God loves them but stringently avoid telling them they are sinners and God hates sin. God hates sin precisely because He loves His children and knows sin will destroy them. We see the tragic consequences of sin every day in this country. If this state of affairs concerns youas it does many Americansthis book was written for you.

Do you feel helpless in the face of the cultural coarsening infecting American society? Many people dobelievers and unbelievers alike. But the good news is you are not helplessfar from it. There is much you can do to encourage repentance on the part of those who reject God and much you can do to help reclaim the culture for Christ. This book offers specific strategies individual Christians and individual churches can employ to turn America from the path of destruction to the path of salvation and freedom.

Tragic Consequences was written with four specific goals in mind. First, to demonstrate conclusively the tragic consequences America is suffering as a nation because leftist politicians, the courts, colleges and universities, the entertainment industry, anti-God organizations, and the mainstream media are collaborating to embrace sin while driving God out of our daily lives. Second, to equip Christians concerned about the cultural darkness surrounding them to shine the light of Christ into that darkness. Third, to challenge churches throughout America to accept the role they must play in reversing the ongoing cultural decline in our country.

The fourth and final goala goal encompassing the other threeis to call all Americans, believers and unbelievers alike, to repentance. Achieving this goal is essential. Only by repenting of their rejection of God can unbelievers play a role in overcoming the tragic consequences of sin. Only by repenting of their silence and tepid response to the anti-God crowd can believers play a role in reclaiming the culture for Christ.

Pastor Robert Jeffress described perfectly the role churches must play in reversing the growing cultural decline in America. He said churches have to realize they are not cruise ships whose purpose is to make everyone on them comfortable and happy. They are to be more than just safe havens where congregants come to escape the problems of the world. Churches in America must be battleships sailing into the midst of a sinful culture, equipping and training their members to do the hard work of reclaiming the culture for Christ.

Tragic Consequences does more than document the high cost of sin in America. It also calls on all Americans to repent and take specific steps to reclaim the culture for Christ. This book is a call to repentance for all Americans and a call to action for Christians and churches of all denominations to do their part in replacing sin with righteousness and, in turn, reclaiming the culture for Christ.

As Christians, we are Christs representatives on earth. Therefore, we can no longer view our churches solely as sanctuaries from the outside world, places of comfort offering us relief from the turmoil we see all around us. Our churches are safe havens, and this is good. They allow us to congregate with like-minded believers who reinforce our beliefs and share our concerns. However, they must also be places of preparation, arming us to go into the world and carry out the Great Commission.

Every day, anti-God ideologues and organizations are scheming to remove any and all vestiges of Christianity from a nation founded on biblical principles and Christian values. Worse yet, they are making steady progress. The more progress they make, the more Americas culturea culture once centered on Christis permeated by sin. It is time for Christians to heed the admonishment in Matthew 28:19 to Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the most important thing we can do to encourage a nationwide tidal wave of repentance, the first step in reclaiming the culture for Christ.

We have reached a point in our nations history when Christians must stand and be counted before it is too late. The collapse of our culture is happening because Americans who reject God and accept sin are using the courts and other avenues of attack to drive God out of our lives. Christians cannot justify sitting back and letting this happen. Believers who remain silent about sin and the resultant cultural decline are part of the problem. They are complicit in the decline. Silence in the face of evil is not just ill-advised, its a sin. This is the message in James 4:17 where we read: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. If those of us who have given our hearts to Christ wont stand for Him, who will? If those of us who claim to be Christians wont show our neighbors a better way, who will?