“Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil continually,” (Ecclesiastes 8:11, NKJV).

Because people do not immediately suffer the just consequences of their evil actions, most will continue in their wickedness! All claims that people are fundamentally good are proven false by this reality.

God is Love, but He is also perfectly holy and just. Many false prophets proclaim that “Love wins out” and that God is smiling at us regardless of how we live. This is a very lopsided and heretical perspective leaving adherents vulnerable to the judgment of God.

The Scriptures are clear that God bears with our sinfulness for a time but demands that we repent. Failure to do so is an error with eternal consequences.

The history of the Nation of Israel is filled with examples of their rebellion against God’s commands yet prospering, at times for many years. What often occurred was that they began to follow the gods of other countries, but God, in grace, did not visit judgment upon them immediately, though He did send prophets to reprimand them.

Rather, their prosperity continued for such a long time that they attributed their wealth and ease to the false gods! Then, when God finally began to chasten them, they became angry with Him and complained that while they had served the false gods things went well, so why should they worship God?

In order to fully understand the dire circumstances in which Israel often found themselves, and for that matter, the cultural collapse we are dealing with today in America, we must first accept that no people or nations are without troubles, regardless of how good they are. However, there are pathways which generally lead to less troubles and others which lead to more.

The consequences for a country’s moral conduct usually lag significantly behind its actions.

America’s serious moral decline began well over fifty years ago, but the “fruit” of that decline is only now becoming so obvious as to be undeniable. Because of that lapse in time, many refuse to make the connection. God is patient, but He promised that,

“Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  

America is reaping a tragic payday.

A similarity might be seen with regard to poisons. Some poisons kill instantly while others take time, on occasion a long time. This time lapse does not make them any less poisonous, just more difficult to trace or to connect to their consequences.

And so it is with sin. In some cases, a particular  sinful deed brings immediate punishment or death.

If you commit an armed robbery, you might die in the act. At other times, a bad deed may not bear fruit for months, years, or decades. While we may not recognize the connection because the results trail so far behind the deed, it is, nevertheless, real, and ought to be considered before committing  evil acts.

The number of people who have committed a crime and escaped immediate judgment is innumerable. It may be that most who break the law go to their graves having never been called to account for their actions; but no one will escape the judgment of God, who is precise in justice.

It is a monumental error to believe that if one can escape immediate punishment for a deed, there will be no consequences at all. Many sins appear to us to be so insignificant that we may believe they really don’t matter, even with or especially to God.

However, one cannot defy God’s moral absolutes and escape judgment. 

If it does not occur in this life, it will certainly follow in the next; and there, justice will be absolute and final. Sins which we wink at here will be found to have more bitter consequences in eternity than we anticipated; we just do not now have eyes to see how wicked they really are.

One such sin is that of lying. Lying has become so common that many, if not most, people lie without giving it a thought. But God hates lying for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is a direct rebellion against His command not to “bear false witness” and contradicts His nature.

He does not, cannot, and will not, ever lie. Lying undermines relationships and societies, thus leading to conflict and ultimately to the collapse of those relationships and cultures and often costs lives. Even liberal Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes understood the serious evil that lying is. He noted,

“The Devil has many tools in his workshop, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.”

An irony in all of this is that even while many are comfortable lying to others, they get angry when someone lies to them! Go figure.

At the same time, and for good reason, the American Constitution provides that a person is considered “innocent until proven guilty.” English jurist, William Blackstone wrote,

“better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” 

The United States adopted this principle and has long erred on the side of protecting the innocent. This and other provisions of America’s legal codes mean that smart criminals may be able to escape punishment for their crimes for a time. Yet, even in the face of that fact, “innocent until proven guilty” has significant benefits, such as deterring corrupt political leaders from being able to use their power to punish innocent opponents.

In the end it means that some guilty people may escape detection and justice for the moment. It is a “two-edged” sword!

However, it is one thing to tolerate the unavoidable reality of some guilty people escaping justice. It is another thing entirely to refuse to pursue justice at all for certain “favored” groups, or to encourage blatant immorality and wickedness.  The fact that every human justice system has flaws must not be used as an excuse to tolerate wickedness.

America’s crumbling and violent inner cities, our sieve-like borders, the rampant drug use leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and the excuses of leftist leaders that they are only correcting past injustices, can only lead us to greater and more serious consequences.

The absurd notion that past racism can only be fixed by present and future racism, will lead to a progressively violent and hateful society. Anyone with children knows that once siblings begin the back and forth of “he hit me first,” it only gets worse until an adult intervenes.

America is woefully short of adults at the moment! And wise Americans recall God’s promise that He will not be mocked, and, as Thomas Jefferson remarked,

“His justice will not sleep forever.”

Do not be fooled,

“whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

We cannot play with God’s patience and escape His justice. He is patient out of His love and for the purpose of allowing us time to repent; but we err greatly if we forget that, as the Bible says,

“it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”  (Hebrews 10:31).

We ought to repent while we still have time!