I remember seeing the footage of the helicopters lifting off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon in April 1975. America was leaving Vietnam after years of war, more than 50,000 dead American soldiers and a bitterly divided and demoralized America. It was a humiliating defeat that left deep scars from which the nation has not fully recovered.

Then, this August, 46 years later, came more images of American retreat. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, America was pulling out in defeat. The scenes of Afghanis hanging from an Air Force jet taking off from the Kabul airport were tragic. America left thousands of those who had helped U.S. military efforts to become sacrificial lambs at the hands of the conquering Taliban. To see two such scenes in my life is astonishing.

The scale of defeat is epochal. Bagram airbase, a multibillion-dollar, state-of-the-art military facility, was abandoned in the dark of night—along with billions of dollars’ worth of sophisticated aircraft, weapons and artillery. Instantly the Taliban, the enemy of Western democracy, possessed more weaponry than most modern nations. Such a turnover of advanced weaponry to an enemy is unprecedented in military history.

It’s important for readers of Beyond Today to understand this event in the context of a biblical worldview. America is a world empire of staggering proportions. Its being routed from Afghanistan by a medieval-minded terror group is a sign of internal spiritual sickness that, if not reversed, will lead to America’s collapse.

We do not say that collapse is imminent. But we do say we should look at what Scripture says about a nation as blessed as America has been, and there find the understanding to discern what God says about such an event. The debacle in Afghanistan is not inconsequential to America’s future. We are watching history break into our timeline. It is a hugely important moment.

What happened in Afghanistan?

America entered Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were murdered by members of the terror group al-Qaeda operating under its leader Osama bin Laden. The goal was to force the Islamist Taliban regime there, where Bin Laden was based, to hand him over. Within months al-Qaeda was routed and the Taliban regime was broken. Yet Bin Laden escaped—to Pakistan, it was later learned, where he was eventually killed by American special forces.

In early 2002, during his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush declared military victory in Afghanistan. “In four short months, our nation has comforted the victims, begun to rebuild New York and the Pentagon, rallied a great coalition, captured, arrested, and rid the world of thousands of terrorists, destroyed Afghanistan’s terrorist training camps, saved a people from starvation, and freed a country from brutal oppression,” he said.

With early success, instead of learning from the examples of other powers that had occupied Afghanistan only to later leave in ignominy, America’s political elite under President Bush decided to stay. America also invaded terror-supporting Iraq, overthrew Saddam Hussein and occupied a second Muslim nation. And soon after, America’s mission in both Afghanistan and Iraq was proclaimed to be establishing Western-style democracy in the region.

And so began a vast effort to spread democratic seeds in areas incapable by virtue of religion and culture of providing a stable environment for freedom to flourish. Two decades later, trillions of dollars spent and a generation of wounded and dead warriors, it has all proven to have been a fool’s errand. Democracy did not take root, much less flourish.

America’s ruling elite clearly did not understand Afghanistan nor its long history as “the graveyard of empires.” No other world power—not the Soviet Union, Great Britain or the forces of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.—succeeded in changing the tribal clans of this isolated mountainous world. The error of America’s ruling class was trying to transform another nation when its own spiritual state is bankrupt and in need of complete overhaul.

The case can be made that America’s elite have lost confidence in their own nation’s story and its reason to exist. Why is this?

Spiritual decay rapidly spreading

In past articles we have quoted the scathing denunciations of the prophet Isaiah. Speaking to a nation that’s lost its way, having forgotten its reason for existence, he said:

“Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds . . .” (Isaiah 1:4-6, English Standard Version).

This describes the moral and spiritual state of America. Like ancient Israel, America has received its portion of the wealth and material prosperity given to nations arising from promises made to the biblical patriarch Abraham (to learn more about this remarkable story, be sure to read our eye-opening study guide The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy). And like Israel, America is shedding its core principles derived from the Bible. God, the Bible and what’s been called the Judeo-Christian ethic are dwindling throughout the nation.

The cultural upheaval of recent years has exposed the fruits of decades of rejection of God. Truth based on the Bible has been exchanged for lies rooted in material creation, resulting in debased minds incapable of discerning the truth of God (Romans 1:25-28). Biblical perspective has disappeared from a generation of those who shape today’s culture.

So many among the leadership class of the past several decades are alienated from the principles that formed America. They no longer understand the nature of their own country. America has been defeated by rough Pashtun tribesmen because of a pride that has blinded its leaders from understanding their own hollow character.

America lost in Afghanistan because it is morally lost as a nation. This defeat is a symptom of deep spiritual decay. America still stands with vast physical strength but on a hollow spiritual foundation that could quickly crumble.

The Taliban know who they are as a people. They know why they fight for their homeland. They take their religion seriously, and it defines them to their core. We may ridicule them as anti-Western, anti-democratic and alien to nearly every Western value. But they look down on us. They do not want American culture because they see it as inferior and decadent. We fail to grasp this to our peril.

The Taliban have just done what nomadic peoples have done throughout history. They have successfully defeated more advanced cultures who have grown soft, indifferent and disdainful of their past and what built their success.

What the Germanic tribes did to Rome and the Asian hordes did to Damascus in 1400, the Taliban did to America in Afghanistan. History turns and accelerates when those who are driven by a purpose overturn those who have grown indolent through luxury and corruption.

What’s behind America’s decline?

American decline is much debated. Among analysts you will find mixed messaging. Some regularly discuss the country’s downfall as if it has already occurred. Others see a temporary slump right now and predict the 21st century will be another “American Century”—this despite troubling cultural, economic and political trends that jeopardize America’s current standing as the world’s sole superpower.

Readers of Beyond Today know we regularly point to the Bible to understand world affairs, viewing what’s happening in light of Bible prophecy and God’s purpose for the nations. We understand that America and the English-speaking peoples currently have their “day in the sun,” but prophecy reveals a period soon ahead when a different power, called “Babylon” and “the beast,” will dominate the world (Revelation 13, 17-18). God, who determines the preappointed times and boundaries of nations (Acts 17:26), controls history.

America has been in decline in different ways for several decades. I mentioned earlier the fall of Saigon at the end of the war in Vietnam. That conflict began the killing of the soul of a generation. Not just a military defeat, it was also a moral defeat.

It occurred in the midst of the social revolution of the 1960, the effects of which are still with us. The seeds of rebellion and sexual immorality, along with cultural and societal upheaval, spawned the LGBTQ, BLM and other “woke” elements that have seized our time. Despite this moral and spiritual quagmire, America still leads the free world. Migrants crash America’s borders seeking a better life. No one is migrating to Afghanistan, Iraq or Cuba.

The elite of America have been making themselves rich and richer at the expense of the middle and lower class for several decades. The entry of China into the World Trade Organization began the growth of China in the global markets, with manufacturing of basic commodities transferred there where cheap labor could produce everything from technology to goods and services to drugs. The heartland of American manufacturing was gutted as jobs went to China—and vital supply chains for American goods became reliant on China.

Meanwhile, the political, military, business and media elite have become engorged by lucrative arrangements with China. While all this is known, few dare call it what it really is—treason.

Yet America has remained the world’s safest economy because of the rule of law creating safe havens for wealth. No, the United States has not declined to the point of second-rate power—not yet. The Afghanistan debacle has dealt a blow to America’s prestige that can trigger a loss of trust among the nations. It is safe to assume world capitals are figuring this calculus into their short-term geopolitical assessments. Yet the United States remains alone in its ability to patrol the sea lanes of the world to keep trade flowing. It can still project power through its naval capabilities. It is a wounded but still dangerous power should it have the will to use its power.

Message for today from an ancient prophet

The Afghanistan War was a folly involving four presidential administrations. It is a tragic sequel to Vietnam. The precipitous pullout damaged American prestige. While it has led to decline that will take time to measure, America is not yet at the point of collapse. It’s part of a longer-term story for a great nation God has blessed with the heights of material prosperity according to the promises made to Abraham.

Beyond Today always turns to what God said to the people who received the earlier portion of these blessings, the ancient nation of Israel, descended from Abraham’s grandson Jacob. The prophet Amos offers insight through the message he took to Israel in the middle of the eighth century B.C.

Israel was prospering among the nations. Trade with others was making the merchants and craftsmen wealthy. People could invest in luxury goods. The ivory beds on which they slept were symbols of extravagance. They were well fed and well entertained.

But there was a large gap in the cycle of wealth. It came at the expense of the middle class and the poor. The social inequity drew God’s attention, and he directed Amos to point this out: “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals. They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way” (Amos 2:6-7, New Living Translation). Income inequity was a problem. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The elite did not seem to care.

The heart of the problem was corruption. As God said through the prophet: “For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts” (Amos 5:12, NLT). Corruption among leaders at all levels robbed the poor, making them even more destitute. Amos was not inciting class warfare. He was pointing out reality. We see the same today. Bad policies. Disappearing opportunities. Inflationary spending. These rob people of wealth. Pushing social programs whose foundations are counter to the law of God is nothing short of sin.

Amos called this out in his years as a prophet in Israel. But things evidently went on as normal, and his pronouncements do not seem to have changed many minds. After speaking to false religion and other societal ills, he ends with a promise of a better time and a hope for a better future. After suffering the devastating consequences of their actions, Israel would return to the land. They would make gardens and eat fruit from them. They would be planted in their land and no longer pulled up (Amos 9:14-15).

Amos seems to have done his job and then returned to his home as a breeder of sheep. Israel went on with business as usual. They soon forgot Amos and his message. It took many more years for the prophecies of calamity and ultimate decline to come on Israel. But it did come.

Our takeaway? Now is the time to listen. Now, while we still have security and prosperity, is a time for us to heed God’s call to repentance. We are watching history break into our timeline. Events foretold in Bible prophecy are speeding up. Now is the time to awaken and understand the momentous times we’re in. It is a time to grieve for the affliction of our people. Pray that God will grant you repentance leading to life. Heed the message of Amos and all the prophets. It is time to awake.

As this issue of Beyond Today was going to press, the last U.S. combat troops were being withdrawn from Afghanistan. Only a token force of several hundred will be left to guard the U.S. embassy compound in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Perhaps nothing encapsulated the moment more poignantly than the U.S. withdrawal from the sprawling 30-square-mile Bagram Air Base, epicenter of America’s war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda for the last 20 years. The base was in reality a sizable city, built from the ground up on a large plain about an hour’s drive from Kabul.

It boasted American pizza and fast-food chain restaurants, air-conditioned fitness centers, a library, post office, a 50-bed hospital and a two-mile-long runway capable of handling dozens of U.S. fighter jets, reconnaissance aircraft and huge transport planes ferrying troops, weapons and supplies. At one time it was home for some 100,000 U.S. personnel.

In ironic timing, just before the July 4 Independence Day holiday, the last American occupants of the base shut off the electricity and slipped away into the night. Nearby looters arrived before Afghan soldiers and helped themselves to anything that wasn’t nailed down. Among items left behind were thousands of civilian trucks and vans and hundreds of armored vehicles, plus weapons and ammunition the Afghan soldiers would need to fight off the Taliban in battles sure to come. 

Strategically, Bagram Air Base was a crucial military asset, located 500 miles from Iran and 400 miles from China, with runways that could handle any U.S. military aircraft of any size. But as is the case with so many critical American strategic assets in recent decades, it is no longer in U.S. hands—and will likely soon be in the hands of America’s enemies.

It’s the sad end of a 20-year saga that began with a highly coordinated terrorist assault on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. In righteous indignation America, with a coalition of allies, went to war against terror-supporting governments in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But after 20 years, more than 60,000 U.S. casualties, and a fortune of almost $6.5 trillion in borrowed money squandered, American forces quietly withdrew, the nation no longer having the will to fight.

If you pay close attention to the news, you may have heard that America is said to now be facing more threatening and dangerous enemies. On June 9 U.S. President Joe Biden declared that global warming is “the greatest threat facing America.” Ironically, he said this as he arrived in Europe seeking support from allies against Russian hacking attacks that have devastated U.S. businesses and to combat Chinese secrecy over the origins of Covid-19, which has plagued the entire world.

Meanwhile, America’s true geopolitical opponents such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea grow ever more dangerous. They’re not focused on teaching their military a rewritten “woke” version of their nations’ histories; they’re training their soldiers, sailors and pilots how to destroy and kill their enemies—with the United States at the top of the list. 

The uncomfortable truth is, America has lost another war, and appears to not be any wiser. The last significant war America truly won was World War II, more than 75 years ago. In Korea the United States fought to a draw and agreed to a truce, leaving tens of thousands of troops there for two-thirds of a century now. Vietnam was an ugly defeat at the cost of nearly 60,000 American lives, and after the U.S. withdrawal communists in Vietnam and Cambodia murdered some 1.5 million of their own people. America and its allies did defeat Iraq in the first Gulf War after Iraq invaded Kuwait, but Saddam Hussein was left in power, leading to the second Iraq war and another slow, painful retreat for U.S. forces, to be completed by the end of this year. Folly reigns in the halls of power.

These wars collectively cost trillions of dollars and more than 100,000 American lives, and what do we have to show for it?

Our world is changing before our eyes, and in ways that are highly dangerous for the current world order and the United States in particular. You need to understand why. Be sure to read the articles in this issue, and continue to read Beyond Today magazine for understanding!

It’s one of those days burned indelibly into our memories. For years afterward people would ask one another: Where were you on 9/11?

One American songwriter encapsulated the horror and hopelessness of the day in the title of a song that asked, “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?” A generation later, that’s the way many remember that day—an unforgettable moment when it seemed the world stopped turning and forever changed.

Although it’s been 20 years, for many the memory remains raw, especially to the families of the nearly 3,000 Americans killed that day when Muslim terrorists flew airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and another jet crashed into a field in Pennsylvania while apparently en route to obliterate the White House or U.S. Capitol Building.

Only later, through interrogations of the operation’s captured mastermind, did U.S. intelligence learn that their goal was to bring down the entire nation in a single day by demolishing America’s centers of government, military leadership and economic prosperity through targeted suicide attacks by 20 or more fuel- and hostage-laden aircraft simultaneously crashing into key targets in major cities across the country.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who crafted the plan with Osama bin Laden, revealed that the terrorists had to settle for a scaled-back plot because growing pressure from international security agencies forced them to move up their timetable, preventing them from bringing in enough accomplices to commandeer and pilot the 20 or more passenger jets they originally planned for.

Had this not happened, the United States of America might not exist today as we know it. Let that sink in. Enemies hatched a plan to bring the world’s most powerful nation to its knees—armed only with box cutters.

Lessons from the “War on Terror”

The “War on Terror” that quickly brought U.S.-led invasions of the terror-supporting states of Afghanistan and then Iraq brought swift results and was originally almost universally supported. The Taliban regime fell, as did Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship in Iraq. Neither stood much of a chance against allied Western nations’ military might and advanced technology.

But the enthusiasm and excitement didn’t last long. While America could win the war, it couldn’t win the peace.

Efforts to instill Western-style democracy and cooperative government found no foothold or fertile ground among peoples who had never experienced anything of the kind and whose leaders were often local warlords in a tribal culture, Islamic extremists, and thieving opportunists. Rampant corruption swallowed up countless millions of dollars of Western funds that could have helped modernize the nations and improve people’s living standards.

Bloody insurgencies by fighters who easily blended into the local populations proved almost impossible to defeat. Western troops could never be quite sure who the enemy was. And all too often, Afghan soldiers and police who were being trained by American and other Western coalition forces turned their guns on those same Western trainers in “insider attacks”—a term that became all too depressingly familiar as the casualties mounted.

The Iraqi and Afghan fighters, and other jihadists who flooded in from all over the Muslim world, learned a valuable lesson from Vietnam—that they didn’t need to defeat America on the battlefield; they only needed to drag out the war until American popular opinion turned against it. They knew it would then be only a matter of time before U.S. leadership would lose the will to fight and pack up and leave.

One by one, America’s coalition partners learned the lesson too—and quietly withdrew from what they increasingly saw as an unwinnable situation.

The disturbing bottom line

Although few are willing to admit it, the uncomfortable truth is that in withdrawing from Afghanistan, the United States has lost another war.

One could even say America has lost two more wars, since in July U.S. President Joe Biden announced that U.S. troops, except for a small advisory force, would withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year.

So ends a long, painful chapter in U.S. military history. The two conflicts killed or maimed more than 60,000 American servicemen and women. The financial toll is close to an estimated $6.4 trillion—more than total U.S. government spending in any fiscal year until very recently.

Afghanistan lived up to its reputation as “the graveyard of empires”—having thwarted the forces of Alexander the Great, the British Empire and the Soviet Union. Now history will add the United States to that list.

So who are the winners? In Iraq, the big winner will be Iran, which has worked largely behind the scenes to provide weapons such as drones and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that took many American lives. Iran has steadily gained power in Iraq and will play a major role in Iraq’s future. And in light of the recent Iran-China agreement by which China will buy vast amounts of Iranian oil, which will in turn fuel Iran’s economy, look for China to also make major inroads in the vacuum left by America’s withdrawal. 

In Afghanistan, the Taliban are already capturing large swaths of territory as Afghan soldiers flee or join what is now viewed as the winning side. Afghanistan will likely soon revert to what it was just before 9/11—a fundamentalist Islamic state indistinguishable from Islam in its early years, only now armed with much more modern weapons and capable of exporting terror far beyond its borders.

The all-important biblical perspective

The sad reality is that the United States has not truly won a significant war since World War II, more than 75 years ago. Korea ended with an uneasy truce and a regime that now threatens its neighbors with nuclear-armed missiles. Vietnam was a humiliating defeat. The first Gulf War was an initial victory, but it left the Saddam Hussein dictatorship in power, leading to a second war a decade later and, after 20 years, Iraqi demands that America, being unwelcome, must leave.

And then there was Afghanistan, where the world’s most powerful military force couldn’t decisively defeat fighters living in caves whose most powerful weapons were AK-47s and roadside bombs (read more in “America’s Uncertain Future” on page 3).

Now, 20 years after 9/11, the pain remains a raw wound for America. Reflecting, we try to make sense of what makes no sense at all. How could these things happen?

Most of today’s experts offer no real answers, but your Bible does.

To begin to understand, we must first recognize who America is in Bible prophecy. Americans don’t know who they are. The stunning fact is that history and Bible prophecy reveal than the United States and the other major English-speaking nations of the world are descended from ancient biblical Israel. The Bible is filled with many end-time prophecies of Israel that were never and cannot be fulfilled by the small Jewish state of that name in the Middle East (the Jews there are descended primarily from one of the 12 tribes of Israel—Judah).

With this perspective, we can see that Bible prophecy tells us that America is a very sick nation. Foreseeing our time, the prophet Isaiah wrote: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores” (Isaiah 1:5-6).

In Leviticus 26:19 God spells out the consequences of the nation rejecting Him and disobeying His laws, which were designed to bring blessings on a nation. “I will break the pride of your power,” He warns. Consider that for the last 76 years since the end of World War II, the United States has been the world’s greatest military power. But that power has not brought a single lasting military victory! Let that sink in!

There is a reason for that and the many other problems that plague the United States today! Reading from that same chapter, God tells us: “If you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments . . . I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever . . . I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you . . .” (verses 14, 16-17). The chapter goes on to list many other curses, as does its companion chapter, Deuteronomy 28. It’s sobering reading—as it’s meant to be.  

To get the whole picture, be sure to read the eye-opening study guide, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. Our mission with Beyond Today is to help you understand where this world is heading and why—and what you can and should do about it. We pray that you will have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to act on what your Creator says!

“There Are Some Things America Needs to Learn!”

Twenty years ago, in September 2001, the world recoiled in horror as militant al-Qaeda Islamists executed a carefully coordinated attack on New York City’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. As millions looked on in live TV coverage, the 1,360-foot-high towers collapsed, with almost 3,000 innocent lives lost. One could only ask, “What kind of wicked people could do such a thing?!”

Thousands of organizations and people immediately offered to help. Through an international humanitarian organization I had founded a few years earlier, I was able to quickly build a network and assemble firefighting equipment, food and bottled water to supply relief workers in New York City. Our network included a local major university in Indianapolis. One of the staff there who worked with foreign exchange students—several of them of the Muslim religion—offered to drive our humanitarian donation to the Javits Center in downtown Manhattan, the staging area for donated relief supplies. 

I found back then that the sentiment of the university students was almost wholly sympathetic to the victims of this evil deed and condemning of the perpetrators.  However, one of the whispers among the foreign students included this disturbing statement: “We decry what happened, but there are some things America needs to learn!”

“What?” one may object. What are Americans supposed to learn? This statement seemed like an insult added to grievous injury at a most difficult time. I knew firsthand from my experience in providing humanitarian aid that the people of the United States are often the first to step up with money, equipment and personnel. Americans—whether through private or public efforts (including government resources)—have financed and built countless hospitals, schools, canals, railroads, transportation systems and much more.

No doubt the student was missing some vital perspective. But here are some hard facts: While Americans do many wonderful things, they are also resented, even despised, in many places on the earth. There are several reasons why—outright jealousy of the wealth and freedoms Americans enjoy, but also Americans are seen as insensitive or wrongly motivated, though often through a distorted lens. Despite skewed assessments, particularly from Islamic extremists, it's sadly true that America exports corrupt values in culture, morality, entertainment and such to the world.

Americans have been regarded as generous and noble, but there is a troubling side that the world also sees. The United States is second only to China in the number of annual abortions, while Russia is third (most Latin American, Middle Eastern and African countries either restrict or prohibit abortion). Americans regularly flout traditional biblical definitions for marriage and sex. The values of faithfulness in marriage and wholesomeness in conduct—former bedrocks of society—are all but abandoned and constantly trending downward.

During the same year as the Twin Towers catastrophe, the Netherlands became the first nation to legalize same-sex marriages. Massachusetts followed suit three years later in 2004, leading the change throughout the United States in the next decade.

Gender itself is being redefined, as there are now dozens of definitions for what is male and female in the United States. Society-destroying pornography—a big driver of early Internet technology (including streaming video and digital photography transmission)—remains big business in America and tragically makes up much of the world’s Internet traffic.

When traveling around the world one quickly sees negative elements of American culture exported through movies, television and music.

American educational institutions have kicked God out of the classrooms. Under the guise of church and state legal principles, God’s presence and influence is increasingly stricken from our consciousness. A society-building belief in God has been replaced with godless undefined “science” and secular humanism where morality is considered relative.  

The students helping to deliver aid to New York City 20 years ago perhaps didn’t think of these specific things, and they likely had some misperceptions, but they did recognize that the impact of what Americans say and do often stirs up resentment, then hatred. So much hatred exists that some radicals feel it’s justified to kill Americans. 

Here’s the irony: As many scholars attest, the American legal system reflects the ancient laws God delivered to Israel. Moses declared: “Obey them completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’ For what great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him? And what great nation has decrees and regulations as righteous and fair as this body of instructions that I am giving you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8, New Living Translation).

Ancient Israel failed in this responsibility. Today Americans, who have a great opportunity to be influencers, are failing as well. And just as there were consequences for Israel long ago, so there are consequences for Americans now and in the future.

The prophets of old warned the people of Israel of impending doom for persisting in disobedience. Israel could not hide behind hypocritical piety and practice of perversion. Could the same happen again in these modern times? Clearly, there are indeed things Americans need to learn. The crucial question is, Will we learn them in time?

—Victor Kubik