Crosstalk: August 22, 2018

Dr. Neal Jackson is the pastor of the Beulah Baptist Church in Bennett, North Carolina.  He's a third generation pastor.  His ministry is characterized as verse-by-verse exposition.  He's the speaker on the 'Truth for Today' television broadcast and is author of, 'The Coming Destruction of America:  A Biblical Examination of the Judgments of God Upon a Land'.

Dr. Jackson admitted he's not a prophet, and he's received a lot of 'push-back' regarding the title of his book, but he admits he doesn't know if America is going to be destroyed. He hopes it won't be, but at the same time he repeated the verse Jim mentioned, 'Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.' (Proverbs 14:34) So just like the Israelites, many Americans like to think that God would never judge us for our sin. However, the verse is clear that sin is a reproach to any people. In light of that, he chose the title to wake people up so that they would consider whether God could judge America for our gross immorality. After all, God has to judge sin otherwise he's being unjust.

Interestingly, Dr. Jackson's book is not about eschatology although he does believe we're living in the last days.

What about those who say government is the answer to America's problems? Dr. Jackson believes Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the answer for the world. Nations that line themselves up with the principles of the Bible will be blessed by God, so the answer to our problems can't be found in the White House. The answer is in the church house.

God uses a remnant of people. He cited Sodom and Gomorrah. God was willing to spare an entire city because of a few righteous people. So he believes that if American Christians would get serious about their faith, our future would be bright.

He then brought up the issue of the founding of America. Why were we so blessed? He believes it has to do with the fact that we sought the Lord and based our nation upon Christian values. So if seeking the Lord brings blessing, for a nation to turn its back upon the Lord brings His hand of removal. While he realizes not every one of America's founders was a Christian, many were, and they set the foundation for our nation. We see this in our founding documents that mention a Creator. That had God opening the windows of heaven to bless America. Yet today some say there is no Creator and that we just began by a 'big bang' and chance over billions of years.

Dr. Jackson challenged listeners to go through the Bible and study the instances where the hand of God is on or even against an individual, city or nation. What breaks his heart is that because we wholeheartedly sought the Lord and had his blessing, now we are mocking Him and kicking him out of every segment of society. So as great as America's rise has been, he's concerned about our future because there's a lot of sin taking place in America.

This program also looks at the sermon for the nation of Israel given by Moses and the warning he gave the people, the relevance of Psalm 33:12, the patience of God despite the behavior of the Israelites, the example of Isaiah, the distraction of our richness, lessons from Amos and Jonah, as well as questions from Crosstalk listeners.