And A Million Tears

Normally I don’t think of myself as a nostalgic person, but somehow this year, as I reflect on July 1 st (Canada’s Birthday) and July 4 th (America’s Declaration for Independence), I find myself humming a few bars from an old western tune, “it seems like years and a million tears since I left my old home town.” As I hum, I’m thinking about my country, and I’m thinking about America, not as they are today, but how we used to be a half-century ago. It may sound corny but I miss Canada and America of those days. We were truly something special, lands overflowing with “milk and honey,” so to speak, and the pride of our citizens was just not seen in flag-waving ceremonies, it was a part of our daily lives. Even our corporations and governments were, for the most part anyway, caught up in a more responsible attitude toward patriotism and the interests of the nations’ peoples. Amidst all of this was our anchor, the Almighty God Jesus Christ, standing prominently in the centre of all that made us truly great. It really was a wonderful era.

It would be silly, of course, to say that times were not already changing for the worse fifty years ago. Yet, the transition to what we have become today was not discernible to most of us, it took many more years, but the regrettable change came clearly into focus by the time Canada celebrated its 100 th birthday in 1967 and even more so by the time the United States marked the occasion of its 200 th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence in 1976. It’s hard to believe that 37 and 28 years respectively have elapsed since those celebrations but there is no mistaking the way our lands have been reshaped. Much of the change, particularly technological, has been of enormous benefit, yet on the other hand it was these very same advances that helped in the modification of our society.

Well, here we are at the mid-point in this very precarious year of 2004. The societies we knew fifty years ago are totally changed, they are dead, buried and forgotten. We didn’t even hold a memorial. Imagine if we were to place a commemorative plaque in each of our countries today. Would it include our lament over just some of our losses?

• Like chasing our God from schools, government offices, public places, etc. Or the denigration of Jesus Christ. Or the new picture of “Christ” that has evolved in our churches. Would we dismay over our being led like sheep into a new reality of religion? And would we feel “sheepish” about our lack of courage to stand up for Christ. Will it show any regret for abandonment of our Sabbath, a source of former greatness.
• Would we bemoan the economic bondage we are in as a nation and as individuals, despite the perceived prosperity? Would we care to admit we are in debt three to four times historical levels and that the inevitable upward move in interest rates is going to devastate the individual and the nation, as taxes and prices accelerate. How will we describe the fact that our dollar’s purchasing power is a fraction of what it was? Or describe where once in our major cities it would take 1.5 to 2 times a person’s salary to get into housing, it now takes many times salary? Why both spouses must work to make ends meet, which has led to smaller families and reasons for abortion. And how in heaven’s name could we ever describe our weakness in permitting the corporate world to export millions of our jobs to non-Israelite countries where people will work for slave wages? Will the plaque speak of the total corporate power over the nations and how this power led to our decline.
• What of abortion? Will we record with some shame that more children by far have been aborted in our two countries than the total population of Canada? And that this is not counting the offspring a huge proportion of these aborted children would have had. Will there be any sign of embarrassment for sacrificing our children to Molech?
• How would any plaque reflect the change in family values over the decades? Or shocking divorce statistics, addiction of family members on pleasure, sex, sports, drugs, and so on? Would our embarrassment show when we record the different dress code, the tattoo craze, the filth in our music, movies, television and print?
• Will the plaque touch on immigration of peoples to take the place of the aborted? Or why our nations broke God’s Law by allowing the stranger in our lands who does not follow our customs and our God? Why we have paid homage to these strangers, most of whom are likely good people, by watering down Christianity and abandoning its foundation of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Will the plaque record our regret for the politics of power and money adopted by our governments in both domestic and foreign affairs? Will there be any sign of lament over the cost of war, in human, image and financial terms? And would we have the courage to analyze and record the true reasons for our belligerence, particularly over the past decade.

Imagine if we had the values of fifty years ago, the discoveries and advances of the past decades and the aborted children, both of yesteryear and today, in our midst? What a powerful society we would be on the world scene. America and Canada would be two of the inspirational lights of the world and truly a blessing to all nations as God promised Abraham. Strangers would not be in control of our destinies, we would not be in financial bondage and we would not be hated throughout the world. In short, we would still be nations under God.

Alas, it’s not so! And the Bible tells us so. One passage is particularly relevant to the times. The prophet Daniel, in the prophetic end time Chapter 12, made a critical statement in Verse 7, a state of affairs from which there is no escape for True Israel. The Ferrar Fenton translation interprets it thusly, “and when they have completely broken to pieces the Power of the Holy People, all these would be accomplished.” You know, for most Israelites in America and Canada, it is difficult to comprehend this “breaking the power of the Holy people” primarily because Mystery Babylon still provides us with basic comforts. Still, it has happened and all the above have been the result. So, perhaps our plaque should also record, “Who did this to us?”

Nevertheless, there is good news on the horizon. To borrow words from a J.H.W. Guselle 50’s article, “the material breaking or scattering of the power has picked up tempo in the past few decades” and particularly since 911, as freedom upon freedom is compromised in the name of security. One wonders how close we are to the end. Still, the underpinning of Mystery Babylon is economic and there is little doubt this evil system is drunkenly weaving back and forth. When it goes, there will be no false comfort, no more pretending that all is well. Yet, there will be a silver lining. As Guselle wrote, “Material eclipse [or economic collapse] , is but a prelude to spiritual awakening when the veil is finally lifted from the hearts and minds of Celto-Anglo-Saxondom.” We are rapidly reaching that point where our nations will be brought back to God, as the final moments of this age are played out exactly according to His script.

In the meantime, Happy Birthday Canada! Happy Birthday America! We really love you and look forward to your getting better.