Lost Horizon
Written by Elinor Montgomery – emontgomery@cogeco.ca
January 01, 2009
I held His hand as I stood at the gate of the year. He told me to look through the gate, and then asked me what it was that I could see. As I looked forward, I saw the bleakness and emptiness of what lay ahead; as I looked back I saw the America, I had once known under God’s rule, disappearing, only to become lost on the horizon.
It was as déjà-vu, the story of Israel all over again when she was marched as a people through the gates of Jerusalem and off to the land of Babylon. In the background, Jerusalem could be seen suffering devastation behind them.
I could imagine how Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, would have felt as he looked upon his people and the city of Jerusalem, knowing they had enjoyed it all – a kingdom of God’s people on earth – only to reject it for the kingdom of the gods of this world. There is no power or joy in such gods, only the wickedness of men who worship dead idols and live by the strength of the sword.
Paganism and lack of love for one’s fellow-man go together. No religion is more pagan, more uncivilized, or more reliant on the sword than the religion of Islam with its doctrine for killing the infidels. It is a religion of death, bearing no message of truth for life.
As I looked through that gate, I saw nothing but the darkness of a society rooted in the paganism of the Babylonian system, having progressed from the weakness of a head of gold to the fierce strength of its legs of iron. The power and grip of Satan were getting a stranglehold on the world, and I could see it creeping steadily into the land of America, producing a cold and harsh society where there had once been a loving and caring one.
Had it not been for the fact that I was holding His hand, I could not have borne the sight before me, as I looked ahead through the gate of the year. God never removes His hand of protection from His own, which allows them to walk through the storm in victory. Yet, I knew that victory would be tempered with pain and suffering.
My last commercial transaction of 2008 took place in a food store where I forgot to pay for a product, which I noticed lying in the cart when I placed my bagged groceries in it. I spoke to the cashier, asking her to return the product to the shelf. From out of nowhere, a young store employee came to challenge me in front of those waiting in line by asking if I were sure I had not paid for it. He asked me the question at least three times, as I insisted each time that I had not paid for it. In what appeared to be anger, he turned away muttering the words, “Happy Ramadan!”
Was it the fact that I clung to the truth that this young man was upset? I could not imagine where he was coming from, or what it was that was bothering him. Of course, he moved too swiftly away for me to express my offence at such a greeting in my country ruled by my God of truth, at a time designated to honor the birth of His Son. It was as though there were no room for truth in the mind of this young man of the younger generation, which has been bombarded from nursery school upward, with religious and immoral garbage labeled as teaching. The religion of Relativism rules the classroom and the lives of these confused young people.
As I look back on this incident, it was as though I were being given a glimpse into the future on the other side of the gate of the year. The older generation, which stands on truth, will be despised in the same way as Hitler’s children were taught to hate even their parents, if they should dare to criticize the ‘Fuhrer’. That red-eyed, blood-thirsty monster called Satan, who rules the lives of such men, appears to be just waiting on the other side of the gate to lure America into his web.
He is positioning his leaders to again take up the gauntlet of Rome, the last of the Babylonian empires, which will rule with a rod of iron. Yet the iron of its feet will be mixed with the clay of multiculturalism, to form pockets within the whole, surrounded by the larger boundaries of the nation, serving only to break up its unity.
There is no real patriotism within the cults, only self-serving religious dogma, which hates truth and righteousness. Satan’s aim is to destroy societies and, with them, all of mankind. He hates God’s people, Israel, who are the true followers of Jesus Christ, for Satan is the antichrist spirit, which comes against the truth of Jesus with his religion and liberalism.
I mournfully looked back as I caught a glimpse of the Shangri-La of America, fading away into the lost horizon of yesterday on the other side of that open gate. Had her borders not once been opened only to those who would accept the Bible upon which they were required to swear allegiance to God and country? They were the hungry ones who yearned for the blessing of liberty, which comes only with the Law of God. They longed for the good life, which such a God provides for His own people, as He lavishes His bounty upon them. Were we not blessed beyond measure as God’s people in His kingdom of America, to which He brought us and gave to us the land to subdue?
No country in the world had our bounty, our clean running water, our medical care, our educational accessibility, along with every good food possible. Instead of rejoicing in what God has done, by showing gratitude to Him, we have pushed Him aside and have moved toward the gate so we can walk out like fools into the cold of an unrelentingly harsh religious world, set apart from the truth of God.
“So be it!” He says. “You shall have your hearts’ desire.”
And my heart aches for America as I stand at the gate of the year with my hand in His. She is as Israel, being marched off to Babylon all over again, and she doesn’t even know it. She has ignored the Word of God, Who has departed from her, leaving her to exist in a blind stupor. Religion has clouded her vision, just as it clouded the eyes of that young man called Saul who was on the road to Damascus when he met the risen Lord. Oh that America might have a road-to-Damascus experience, by which the scales of religion would be removed from her eyes to be replaced by the light of truth!
So, what is my one request for the nation at the gate of the New Year, 2009? I pray to God that the truth be returned to our children with Bibles in every classroom, as was the case but a few short years ago. Our constitution under God demands it, and our children are starving for it. Nothing is more important to the life of this nation.
The questions needing to be asked are these: “What have their parents done with their own Bibles, if, indeed, they have one? Are they well-weathered by wear and tear, or are they sitting somewhere on a shelf collecting dust? How can one know the truth in the coming year if one has not been taught it?”
Wake up, America, for your destiny rests in your hands and in the hand they embrace. As we stand at the gate of the New Year, 2009, we can either go forward into bleakness, or go back to that beautiful kingdom to which the voice of the Spirit and the bride call – to the Shangri-La America once knew, from which she is choosing to depart.
