Hi Friend,

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele tweeted out on Monday, “Is there a deliberate plan to destroy the United States from within?  Why are the authorities and some of the media not even commenting on these things?  Why are they letting their beautiful cities rot?”

His comment was in response to a New York Post report on empty shelves at a Rite Aid store in New York City that will be closing soon due to shoplifters.  The police are instructed not to arrest criminals for thefts less than $1,000 and the store clerks won’t confront them, so thieves blatantly take whatever merchandise they want.

Bukele went on to say, “The most powerful country in the world is falling so fast, that it makes you rethink what are the real reasons.  Something so big and powerful can’t be destroyed so quickly, unless the enemy comes from within.”

That is eerily reminiscent of a speech by Abraham Lincoln in 1838  to the Young Men’s Lyceum.  In it he said that America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms, it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.

When God became man, He came to earth demonstrating power that no human had ever displayed.  He healed people with the power of His words.  He raised the dead.  Even more powerful than that, He changed the heart of some evil people—they repented through His words.  That is power.

But even the Son of God, with thousands of followers, was killed.  The Pharisees could not overcome Him.  The Roman Legions could not kill Him.  He walked through crowds that were intent on stoning Him.  The murder of the Savior of the World was caused by an insider.  One of the twelve trusted men who shared the Passover meal with Him.

Even the Third Heaven was not immune to it.  Lucifer was an insider—remember, he was a Covering Cherub.  What closer connection to God could any being have than standing watch over the Judge of Heaven and Earth as He administered justice.  He was an insider who decided to destroy a perfect world.  Eden was a flawless Garden, but he was there undermining the work of the Creator.

When a marriage unravels the ultimate source of destruction is inside.  External factors may affect it but the core cause for the disintegration is inside the two people who made a commitment to God and each other.

When we talk about self-destructive people, we acknowledge that no one can destroy a person without help from the victim.  Viktor Frankl spoke eloquently of the time he spent as a Jewish slave in a Nazi Concentration Camp.  He quickly realized that he could not allow the guards who were torturing his body to destroy his spirit.  He developed a psychological system known as logotherapy that teaches the locus of control for healthy individuals is internal.  As a prisoner the only thing Frankl could control was his mind, so he refused to allow his captors to make him bitter.

Our culture has decided to worship victimization.  It may have started inside churches but social counselors and therapists have made it into an art form.  Of all sins the church has committed the worst may be to shift blame from the “seeker” to the world.  The world is bad but it was bad during the days of John the Baptist.  John came  ”preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  (Mark 1:4 NIV).  To do otherwise would have weakened the Gospel.  The Good News is the news of a coming world filled with people who have repented—not people who blame the world so they can live as victims.

National leaders have succumbed to the lie that they can change the person by changing the external world around them.  So the criminal is never at fault, he is a victim.  He has no need to repent—he just needs a better world.  But the world God created in the beginning was perfect!  If perfect surroundings make perfect people, Adam and Eve would never have sinned.

Jesus reprimanded self-righteous leaders by telling them that there was more hope for the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah than for the Pharisees.  The reason is that the Pharisees will never repent because they don’t see the need to change.   When churches don’t call for individuals to repent, they attack Christianity at its core.  We are brought to Jesus Christ by a desire to change what is inside me.

Repentance is the most powerful personal tool a human has.  When the church teaches people that the world is at fault, we have stolen from people the best opportunity to take control of their lives.

The first enemy that must be defeated, whether national or personal, is the enemy within.

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien