The Smoke on the Flax — E.A. Johnston

Israel’s Grievous Sin and Backsliding

In Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 4, we find the nation of Israel in grave danger as they have provoked Almighty God by their grievous sins and backslidings. We read, Ah, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

America’s Former Fear of God and the Second Great Awakening

There used to be a time in Christian America where there was still a fear of God in the land. This was the period preceding the Civil War where the country was in the midst of a mighty spiritual awakening known as the Second Great Awakening.

This revival was spreading across the land like a great prairie fire, especially among the young people as many colleges were experiencing revival. And for a time, it seemed as if the entire nation was in the grip of the consciousness of Almighty God.

The Civil War and America’s Spiritual Decline

Then the Civil War came and the nation was divided right down the middle. America has never recovered spiritually from that national chasm in regard to her religion. After the war, America began to drift away from God and she has been drifting further away ever since, friends.

Violence in a Nation That Has Turned from God

And that's where we are today. And it's a dangerous place to live. America has become a killing ground. You can get killed just going to work in the morning. Our cities are soaked in the blood of homicides and senseless killings.

Kids kill their parents, parents kill their kids, madmen mow people down with the spray of bullets. Our schools aren't safe. Our neighborhoods aren't safe. Our nation isn't safe. Why is there so much violence in the land?

America’s Apostasy and Divine Judgment

We're no longer living in Christian America, for America quit being Christian a long time ago. We are a country which has turned away from God, from the God of the Bible. This nation has turned her back on God and, in turn, God has turned his back on the nation of America.

He has left us to our own devices and we can see where that has gotten us. That's why we're in the sad shape we're in as a nation, friends. As a revival scholar, I've tried to put my finger on how we got here as a nation.

Revival in the Darkest Times

I've studied the subject of revival for decades and written many books on the subject of revival. One thing I know is that when times are the darkest in a nation's history, that's when God often sends a spiritual awakening in the land by his choice preachers.

This was the case in England in the mid -18th century when all of London was a gin shop, drunkenness was rampant in the land, and houses of vice and prostitution were flourishing. It was said of London in that time that every sixth house was a gin shop and even members of Parliament often came to work dead drunk.

What happened? Whitefield and Wesley burst on the scene in the midst of a revival of religion that impacted two continents for God. I want to read you, friends, a quote by Jonathan Edwards, who was mildly used to God in revival during the Great Awakening.

Listen to his words. We see that God is faithful and never will forget the promises that he has made to his church, and that he will not suffer the smoking flax to be quenched, even when the floods seem to be overwhelming it, but will revive the flame again, even in the darkest times.

Repentance, Revival, and the Fate of the Nation

I believe, friends, this is the only reason why God has not yet destroyed America. There's still some smoke on the flax of his church and the land. We are living in a time right before a national spiritual awakening that's going to shake this country from coast to coast, or we are living in a time right before the demise and destruction of a God-hating nation.

How it plays out is in the hands of a sovereign providence. But I do know this, friends. If God doesn't send us revival, then he'll have to destroy us. He can't keep this nation going as it is. Will the church repent and lead the nation back to an offended God, or will the church continue to lay fast asleep on pillows of conformity and compromise while a nation sends herself into the history books like ancient Rome and ancient Greece did and ended up in smoking runes?

The question is, is the smoke on the flax enough to sustain us?