Will America Fear God — E.A. Johnston

Natural Disasters as Remedial Judgments

Every time I turn around these days and look at the news, I see fires, floods, earthquakes, and pestilence to the point CNN looks like a page taken from the Old Testament. The increased remedial judgments of God and the land should be a wake-up call to the church and society, but I fear the church is too soundly asleep on the pillows of conformity and compromise to pay any attention.

Historical Responses to Calamity and Divine Providence

But wiser men in former days took notice of God's providence behind natural calamities as the sign of an offended sovereign executing his justice pleasure over the sins of a nation. After the great fire of London in 1666, Thomas Brooks, the Puritan pastor, published a lengthy sermon addressed to the mayor of London on the remedial judgments of God entitled London's Lamentation, a Serious Discourse concerning the late fiery dispensation that turned our once-renowned city into a ruinous heap by the consuming flames.

And then he goes on to list the multiplied sins of the city that brought this judgment upon them. And in the colonies of America in 1755, when an earthquake shook New England, leading pastors preached fasting sermons.

One pastor in Boston preached the following sermon, Earthquakes, the Works of God and Tokens of His Justice Pleasure, being a discourse on that subject wherein is given a particular description of this awful event of providence made public at this time on the occasion of the late dreadful earthquake, which happened on the 18th of November, 1755.

Psalm 18 and God's Wrath Against Sin

The text of his sermon was Psalm 18 .7. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth. But unfortunately, the modern church today knows very little of an almighty God who gets wroth in judgment on sin.

We only view God as a big, jolly Santa Claus who exists to hand us presents, give us favors. But when I actually read my Bible, friends, I see the true character of God in His dealings with mankind, in regard to His remedial judgments upon them.

Amos and the Escalation of Remedial Judgment

I see this particularly in Amos, Amos chapter four, beginning in verse six, which states, and I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

Famine and Drought as Calls to Repentance

Judgment number one was that God sent a famine in the land, but how did the people respond? Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. God, in His mercy, sends them another judgment to call the people back to Him.

It's more severe. In verse seven, we read, and also I have withholding the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city.

Oh, one piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. God sent them a drought. Why, you can go a week without food, friends, but you can't live long without water. But what did the people do?

God declares, yet have ye not returned unto me. Listen, the ignored remedial judgments of God become the increased judgments of God, increased in their severity. We see this happen in verse nine. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased.

The palmer worm devoured them. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. God sent them a financial collapse. Listen, friends, the stock market today is near an all-time high and our economy is growing more fragile every day with big cracks in its foundation and a terrible crash and depression could hit us any day.

Economic Collapse and the Sleeping Church

It could be 1929 all over again, but a lot worse. It's as if we don't even have any eyes to see or ears to hear and we're just a bunch of lemmings going over a cliff. Nobody cares. And where is the church in all of this?

She has an ostrich attitude and refuses to pull her head out of the sand to comment on the dire situation. But notice the severity of the next judgment. God sends his wayward people. Look at verse 10, friends, verse 10 in Amos chapter four.

Pestilence, Death, and the Church's Tolerance of Sin

I have sinned among you, the pestilence, after the manner of Egypt. You young men I have slain with the sword. COVID -19 has killed multitudes and it seems to morph into new variants all the time. But we don't see any of these things as God's just displeasure upon a sinning people or a little God wouldn't act that way or a little God wouldn't do us any harm.

God's not like that anymore because we believe he's more tolerant towards sin today. At least that's what we've convinced ourselves while the world falls under judgment and the very fabric of society comes apart at the seams while the church sleeps with a sign hung on their doors that reads, do not disturb.