A voice was heard on the desolate heights, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel. For they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the Lord their God. (Jeremiah 3:21)

When A Nation Forgets God

On March 4, 1797, George Washington left the office of President of the United States. His final address to the nation is printed in newspapers across the country. It has been a turbulent time as the infant nation begins its journey of uniting a people to become one country. Washington is keenly aware of the dangers that face the nation. He understands the importance of the nation’s solid moral compass that relies upon the Bible. His final address warned about the risks of building a country without God.

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports … And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality may be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

When a nation forgets God, it begins a downward spiral toward the implosion of self-destruction. A godless society is a world where God is less and man is more. History is the great educator that has repeatedly shown that when a nation becomes a humanistic society rejecting the principles of morality based upon the Bible, the depravation is severe. Morality cannot be governed by the whims of men who believe men can have babies and surgical sex changes are expected. When abortion is an accepted form in society, the morals of the consciousness miscarry. Marriage and family are the bedrock of civilization until the law of marriage is forgotten and families no longer resemble the plan of God.

Morality cannot be maintained if the Bible is rejected. Vance Havner observed, “It would take a moral and spiritual earthquake to undo the mistakes of the past fifty years in home discipline, education, and religion. One wonders whether we have reached the point of no return.” Political platforms are no longer about the economy, defense, and foreign policy. Listening to the talking points of the modern political machines underlines how the depravity of the nation has devolved into ungodliness. When the populous votes for morals based upon the dregs of societal immorality, the nation is destroying the principles on which it was built. George Washington would be horrified at the loss of the moral compass so prevalent today.

A strong belief in God and morality coming from the word of God is indispensable to protecting the nation. If there is no moral consciousness, there is no nation. It should not come as a surprise in the coming years of the fall of a once proud country that once had a semblance of trust in God and the Bible. The Lord declared the nation that forgets God is doomed. Read the history of the nation of Israel. They forgot God, and He forgot them. Will history repeat itself?