I believe 100 years from now, if America survives as a nation, historians will look back on what happens tomorrow and recognize it as pivotal. That's why I urge you to cast your vote. Your voice is so valuable in protecting our republic. Before the polls close tomorrow, make sure you have exercised your sacred right to vote. I'll say it one more time. We're faced with two very different paths that lead in opposite directions, morality versus immorality, civility versus barbarism, religious liberty versus oppression, freedom versus tyranny, righteousness versus secularism.
All of these non-negotiables hinge on the outcome of tomorrow's election. To further articulate our current situation as a nation, I want you to hear now a recent speech, I think it was two or three weeks ago, given by my good friend, Joel Rosenberg. He's a New York Times bestselling author with over five million books in print. Joel is a brilliant novelist and highly sought-after speaker and commentator. He's also the founder of The Joshua Fund, which encourages believers to support the nation of Israel.
We have a lot of content to get to today, so let's get started. Here is Joel Rosenberg with a poignant question that began his impactful presentation.
Joel Rosenberg: Where is America headed? It's a very painful question right now because I think we all sense that we're headed in the wrong direction. Bob took me and David today for our first time ever to Mount Rushmore. I don't have to tell you, but I'm just going to tell you anyway that when you're there for the first time, because none of you remember being there for the first time, but when you're 53 years old and you're there for the first time thinking, "Why have I never come here before?"
I was just struck so deeply by the richness of American history, by its ingenuity, by its entrepreneurs, by its sculptors, by its can-do spirit. For all of our flaws and for all of our sins and for all the struggles we've had throughout history, when you're standing there and you're looking at this thing, sort of the American version of the pyramids, where I've been as well, you're thinking, "This is extraordinary." Just it's so evocative of the richness, of the sweetness of the power of the American story as a bastion of freedom in this country, a testimony to four great leaders. Flawed; still great.
That's America's past. The question is where are we going? Well, I want to look at it from three different angles tonight. First, I want to ask, what are the American people telling us where they think it's going? What are the headlines telling us? Then what does the Bible tell us? Let's start with what are the American people telling us? They're telling us through the polls. Okay, polls are flawed. They're imperfect. They're snapshots in time. But let me give you two that have chilled me, late last year.
Georgetown University in Washington put out a poll that said, "The average American voter believes that the United States is on the verge of civil war." That was before COVID. That was before George Floyd. That was before Portland and Seattle and New York and Washington, Los Angeles. That's before all that. That was a year ago. At the end of July, bringing the story up a little, an Associated Press poll found that eight in 10 Americans said the nation was going in the wrong direction. I don't know who the other two were. But we don't normally see 80% of Americans agreeing on anything, but that we were going in the wrong direction.
What are the headlines telling us? Okay. The press is not always telling us the accurate news. I'm not picking politicized headlines, but just a few of them. You know these instinctively. "Chicago sees 139% jumps in murders in July," headline. Headline out of Atlanta, "murders in the city of Atlanta up 140% since the time of the protests," 140% increase in murders in Atlanta. New York City, "shootings up 166% in August," not over the year, just in August. "Portland sees record number of murders as city grapples with protests." August recorded the largest record gun sales in the country. 1.8 million guns sold just in August.
Now, I'm not saying that as a criticism. Americans are terrified. These are good guys buying weapons. The numbers you don't know are the bad guys. Those aren't being recorded. People are scared. People who said we shouldn't have any guns said, "Don't worry. The police will take care of us." But now they support no police. My son's going to Bible college in Minnesota where the city council has voted to start the process of disbanding the entire police department. But the headline last week was "Minneapolis city council complains that crime is soaring." I am not making this up people. I do write fiction, but I'm not making this up.
The budget deficit in the United States alone, in the United States this year is going to hit $3.3 trillion. The US debt is surging past wartime records, World War II records. The deficit is quadrupling. Okay, I could go on, but you're getting the point. We're in trouble. We're on the wrong track. Now, I have to tell you that I wrote that book, Implosion, eight years ago. It was published eight years ago. I wrote it nine years ago. The full title is Implosion: Can America Recover From Her Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?
When the book came out, I was invited to have lunch with a Congressman that I admired from afar, but didn't know. His name was Mike Pence. He had been reading my novels, as had his wife, Karen, and through some mutual friends, he asked if I might be interested in having lunch with them. I thought, "Sure." Who knew where that would go? But it happened to be that particular day as we were chatting, and I mentioned I'm taking a little break from novel writing about worst case scenarios, because there's a worst case scenario brewing here at home.
"Congressman, I don't have to tell you. But the book is that I just came out with is called Implosion: Can America Recover From Our Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?" He said, "Well, what's the answer?" I said, "You're just trying to save 25 bucks. But okay, I'll tell you. The answer is we don't know yet because we're at a pivot. We're at a crossroads. It could go either way." We're going to talk about that in a moment. But we got chatting just to get to know each other. It was fun. We didn't know that he was going to become the vice president of the United States.
I was introducing myself to him as a failed political consultant. Every political leader I've ever worked for has lost, which is why I went through political detox. I'm out, I'm clean. Though at this time of year and this election, I need a patch, admittedly. So I was telling him, "I'm a failed political consultant." I'm one of the few Jews in America that didn't get the financial gene. I'm not your hedge fund manager, your stockbroker, your accountant. But nor did I get the other classic Jewish skillsets. I'm not your doctor or your lawyer or your chiropractor. I don't run a movie company. I mean I sort of got shafted by God. I'm not good at any of those things and so I basically have to make things up for a living.
I tell my friends in journalism, "Look, you can write fake news. There's nothing morally or ethically wrong with writing fake news, but there's a job for it. It's called being a novelist. You have to own it." That's me, right? I said to him, "Look, it was very painful to write this book, Implosion, because I was born and raised in America." I'm a New Yorker. I love New York. I love America. My father was born and raised in Brooklyn. His family escaped out of Russia as Orthodox Jews in the early part of the 20th century, fleeing persecution, fleeing the oppression of them for their religion, for their ethnicity.
During the pogroms, when the Tsar Nicholas II was fomenting this horrific anti-Semitism where Jews were beaten and raped and murdered and their possessions were stolen, and so many Jews fled. You really only had two options then. You could fiddle on the roof or you could get out. My family got out and they came where? To America, where they found freedom, where they found safety. They didn't find perfection, but they found freedom. This is the country where my father came to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. When he came to faith in 1973, he thought he was the first Jew since the Apostle Paul.
He didn't know anybody. He never even heard of a Jew who believed in Jesus. In 1973, there weren't that many Jews who believed in Jesus. My mother came to faith a few months earlier. When they met and married in 1965 ... She's from a Methodist background. Her relatives, a few generations back were gospel-preaching, Methodist, circuit-writing missionaries in upstate New York. But her little church didn't preach the gospel. She didn't know the gospel. She was an agnostic Methodist who married my agnostic Orthodox Jewish father, a little confused. It was the '60s. They met. They married. But eventually they got saved. My mom actually first and then my father.
My mother's from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her family came before the Revolution. This is an Annie Hall marriage if there ever was, a little Woody Allen reference there. But my father's side came late and they found Christ here. They found freedom here. They raised their kids to know Christ here. So it's painful. Yeah. It's true. I'm now a dual US-Israeli citizen. We moved to Israel. We live in Jerusalem. Two sons serve in the army there. So when you're a dual citizen, well, one of the practical benefits is you get to vote twice. It's like living in Chicago and you don't even need to be dead.
But I don't have 50% love for Israel and 50% love for the United States. I've got 150% for both. I'm watching both countries through the lenses of watching it from a distance. When I come here, I watching what's going on in Israel and trying to understand it. When I'm in Israel, I'm watching the United States and trying to understand what's going on. God, what are you doing in these two countries that have been joined at the hip from the beginning of the state of Israel in the modern era?
But the bottom line is Americans get it that we're in deep trouble here in the United States. Trouble in Israel too, but we're not dealing with that tonight. Where's America headed? So we know that Americans are worried. We know that the headlines are emphasizing, reinforcing our worry. I'm not talking about just the fake news that gins us up. I'm talking about actual facts that, like that's bad. That's why we're worried. We can see it. We can feel it. We can feel the ice cracking under our feet. We're worried that we're going to implode, that we're not just in a bad patch, that we're not just in a period of decline, that the country is going to implode. That's what we fear and we should fear this.
What is the Bible telling us? A few passages, among them Galatians chapter 6 verse 7, "Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will reap." True of a man, true of a nation. Haggai chapter 2 verse 7, "God says I will shake all the nations." I don't believe we're in judgment yet. I believe God's shaking us so that we will let go of anyone or anything or any ideology or any political philosophy or any religion, anything other than safe in trust in Jesus Christ and His word for our hope, for our salvation. He is going to shake us in His mercy so we'll let go of anything else other than Him.
Now, we have the choice. We have the freedom to still reject Him no matter how hard He shakes. But we're in a time of shaking and judgment is coming. Look, let's be honest. God said in Psalm 110 verse 6 that He will execute judgment among the nations. Joel, admittedly, my favorite book of the Bible, God says, "I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat," which means 'God is the Judge.' That's in Jerusalem, that Valley. "And I will enter into judgment with them there, all the nations coming to Jerusalem to be judged by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords."
The Bible's clear. We're all going to be judged, every nation. So where is America headed? Well, ultimately we're headed towards judgment. Now, you're like, "Okay, Joel. That's a little strong. It's Saturday night. It's South Dakota. We're doing well with COVID. Why are you coming on so heavy?" Look, you're the ones that came. What did you think I was going to say? When I wrote Implosion, when I was sitting with Mike Pence, we were discussing it. One of the things I said to him is, "Mr. Congressman." I mean I called him Mike at the time. I don't now. I was with David at the White house while he was doing that interview.
I had the opportunity as an Israeli to watch our countries make peace with the Arabs for the first time in a quarter of a century. It was extraordinary. But back in 2012, while he was still a Congressman before he ran for governor, I mentioned, I said, "The key fact in the book, Implosion, that you need to know is one that you already know, Mike, but 53 million abortions have taken place since 1973, 53 million abortions." At that time in my lifetime, I was born in '67, so 53 million abortions. Today, we are over 60 million. Think about that, in your lifetime and mine, our nation has murdered 60 million unborn babies. That's 10 times the number of Jews that the Nazis murdered during the Holocaust.
Is there any way out of judgment? No, the train has left the station. Judgment is coming. The blood of 60 million babies is crying from the ground for justice and they will receive it. It's extraordinary that it hasn't happened already. God has His sovereign reasons. One of those reasons perhaps that He hasn't brought judgment on the country yet or let it implode is that there is still a remnant praying, pleading, preaching. God is using this nation to create the technologies, to broadcast the gospel not only through this country, but around the world, satellite television technology, radio technology. Thank God for Al Gore inventing the Internet.
Take the gospel to every nation. This is the ATM machine for the global missions movement, the United States of America. But there's a day of reckoning coming. The church, we have to understand, that's set. That's coming. There's no way out of that. Now, what is there a way out of? There's a timing thing. God may relent if we repent. That's the principle of 2 Chronicles 7:14. That's the principle that my friend goes around the country talking about in almost every speech. "If my people who are called by my name," this is God's speaking. "If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn (repent) from their wicked ways," what does God promise?
He promises that He will hear from heaven, that He will forgive our sins, and that He will heal our land. That's the promise we want. That's the promise we need. But can I tell you something? As a Jew, as an Israeli, as a student of the Bible, as a follower of Jesus, that promise actually isn't for America. The promise is actually explicitly for the state of Israel, the nation of Israel. Go read it. It's God's response to King Solomon's prayer when he's dedicating the temple. But it's a principle. It's a promise to Israel, but it's a principle for any nation, for any individual who turns from their wicked ways and humbly seeks God, that God will hear, that He will heal, that He will forgive.
Now, I have four sons, Caleb, Jacob, Jonah, and Noah, 26, 24, 22, 16. You say, "Why did you have a Noah?" Well, because Jesus said in Matthew 24 that He's not coming back again until the days of Noah. So we thought we'd better have one. So if you remember nothing else from tonight, remember we're living in the days of Noah. But I have a son named Jonah. When I was invited to teach at a pastor's conference in Iraq, I learned that the Iraqi pastor who was inviting me and our ministry, The Joshua Fund, to come and lead this pastor's conference and to encourage and strengthen and edify the pastors in Iraq, but they wanted to take me as a treat to Nineveh.
Nineveh? Didn't know that Nineveh was still around. They said, "Yes, it's a province. There's a province of Nineveh. There's also the city of Nineveh. We call that Mosul. We can't take you there. Your head would be a bowling ball." I said, "Okay. Well, that's good to know." This is pre-ISIS, but still it was bad then. They said, "There's a town called Alqosh and that's where Nahum the prophet was from, Nahum the Alqoshite. We'd like to take you there. His tomb is there. There's Hebrew writing on the walls from 2600 years ago. We'd like to take you." I said, "Wow, great."
So I came around to dinner. I said, "Guess where I'm going to go next month when I go to Iraq?" "Where?" "I'm going to Nineveh." Little Jonah was 11 and he said, "Can I go?" I said, "Well, no, sweetheart. No." He goes, "Why not?" I said, "Have you seen the news? Do you have any idea what's going on in Iraq? No, I'm sorry, sweetheart. You can't. It's very dangerous over there." My wife said, "Really? You're going to not take Jonah to Nineveh? Have you read the story? Do you have any idea?" I said, "Well, okay. Yes, I've read the story. Sweetheart, you can't take an 11-year-old into a war zone. I mean it's going to be dangerous enough for me."
"Well, have you prayed about it?" she asked. "Obviously, I haven't prayed about it. It's self-evident." "I think you should pray about it." "Fine. I'll pray about it." So Jonah went. Let me draw out a few principles from the Book of Jonah because I think they're relevant for our time. God, of course, told Jonah who was in Israel to go to Nineveh, which was in Iraq. But obviously Jonah didn't do it. You all saw the VeggieTales movie. So what happens? Jonah books himself on the Disney cruise going in the exact opposite direction. Well, all right, I'm paraphrasing slightly. But he gets on a ship and he goes the exact opposite direction.
Chapter 1 verse 6 is a fascinating and very sobering and very painful verse. God hurled a great wind, a great storm against the ship. Everybody's so scared they're going to die. These are professional sailors and they're terrified. Verse 6, "So the captain approached Jonah and said," "Hello." Jonah is sleeping in the hull of the ship. The storm is so bad that the professional soldiers are chucking every bit of their commercial product overboard because they're trying to lighten the thing and they're terrified.
The captain says to the one guy on the ship that knows God personally, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up. Call upon your God. Perhaps your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish." How much of the church is asleep in the hull of the ship, not teaching, not preaching, not comforting, not encouraging, not showing people that there is a way to know God and the peace that passes all understanding and the ship of state is about to go down. Many of us are inactive. We're asleep. We're watching Netflix. We're playing games. We're not engaging.
Roger Marsh: That brings us to the end of today's Family Talk broadcast. I'm Roger Marsh and you've been listening to a fascinating presentation delivered recently by Joel Rosenberg. Be sure to tune in again tomorrow for the conclusion of this message. In the meantime, visit our broadcast page at drjamesdobson.org to learn more about Joel Rosenberg and his many bestselling books. That's drjamesdobson.org and then tap on the broadcast button at the top of the page.
Now, before we leave the air for today, as Dr. Dobson said at the beginning of today's broadcast, tomorrow, of course, is Election Day. There are many issues at stake for believers on this year's ballot. Are you prepared to vote to protect morality and biblical values? Well, before you head to the polls, be sure to request a copy of Dr. Dobson's helpful publication called Faith Votes. This free tool highlights several critical concerns Christians need to be aware of for tomorrow's election.
Get the resource, Faith Votes, by calling us at (877) 732-6825. That's (877) 732-6825. Or go to drjamesdobson.org/faithvotes. That's drjamesdobson.org/faithvotes. Thanks for joining us today and be sure to listen again tomorrow for the remainder of Joel Rosenberg's riveting presentation. That's all coming up on the next edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.
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