The so-called "death rattle" refers to a gurgling sound that individuals often make during the dying process. When people are no longer able to swallow or cough, saliva builds up in the back of the throat and the airways causing a "rattling" sound when air passes through.
The sound many sensitive,discerning and thoughtful politically astute people are hearing from America today is very similar to a 'death rattle'.
The historian Gibbon concluded that there were five reasons for the decline and fall of Rome.
(1) The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
(2) Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
(3) The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
(4) The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within; the decay of individual responsibility.
(5) The decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.
The first step in a nation's decline is religious apostasy, a turning from the living and true God. The second step downward for a nation is moral awfulness. The third step downward is political anarchy.
A great many people in the United States today think that our problem is in Washington, D.C. — I don't think so. Another group of people feel that if people could be reformed, if we could get people to act nicely, not be violent and not steal, if we could just lift our moral standards, then that would solve our problems. Again, I don't think that is the problem. Very frankly, I believe that the problem in this country is religious apostasy. The problem is out yonder with you and right here with me. The problem is that the church has failed to give God's message. I am not talking about every church or your church necessarily. There are many Bible-teaching churches across this country which have wonderful pastors who are standing for God — and I thank God for them. But the great denominations, by and large, have now departed from the faith. They have come to the place where they no longer give an effective message to the nation. As a result, from this religious apostasy have flowed moral awfulness and political anarchy.
If you think that this is just the wild raving of a fundamentalist, you are wrong. Let me quote an excerpt from an editorial in a major metropolitan newspaper a number of years ago. Speaking of the failure of the churches to present any spiritual message whatsoever, the editorial concluded:
This betrayal of Christ in the name of Christianity is one reason for the moral and spiritual malaise with which this country is afflicted. The melancholy fact is that the churches no longer influence the development of national character. People go to church mainly because of an impulse to participate in a service of worship, not because of any spiritual guidance they expect from the clergyman.
What a note of condemnation this is! This is true not just of our nation but of every nation.
The American people are now on a toboggan hurtling down a ice covered slope on the way to eternal judgement that will assign them to the dustbin of history.
Idolatry is where every great nation has gone off the track. When a nation departs from the living and true God or when it gives up great moral principles which were based on religion, when it goes into idolatry, these factors eventually lead it into gross immorality and into political anarchy.
With apologies to Dr. J. Vernon McGee
Bravo!
I couldn't agree more. This country has seen greatness; has seen the respect of the world. We have freed nations and destroyed dictators. We have fed the world and provided some of the best medical knowledge the world has ever seen. We gave the world innovations in industry and have sent more countries down the road to prosperity than the rest of the world COMBINED.
As a man my age, I can tell you EXACTLY when the decline started and it is the fault of MY parents' generation. Folks back then worked their fingers to the bone. They lived through the Great Depression (that's right Barry - this crap now doesn't come close to the 30s). Most parents were steadfastly "boring". They concentrated on making a living - to keep from starving. They didn't have time for nonsense.
Then came World War II. WE were attacked. And we made our enemies pay for that transgression. FINALLY, after the war ended, our parents could actually take a "breath". The country began to prosper, folks could actually OWN a home of their own. Everything got bigger and better and those, who had sacrificed their entire lives, wanted to make DAMN sure, that THEIR kids had a better life. They sent us to schools, to Colleges, to Universities. We became Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, and so on. WE the folks of MY generation - have never known "tough times" and we lived that way. However, even still, we had a sense of "country" and "patriotism" and "duty" and "honor" and "Belief". The draft was still in full force (as it should be today) and when called, the vast majority of us served.
Fast forward to today. Our kids have became unaware of even the most trivial of matters concerning "country" or "patriotism" or "duty" or "Honor" or "Belief". A nation of slothful, radical, worthless, spoiled baby boomers have taught this new generation nothing. They believe in nothing. They offer nothing and yet, they want it all. Our Churches have turned into ghost towns. To be a Christian in America is to be mocked, ridiculed and demonized by those same individuals who grew up in Sunday School. The ideals that made this country the envy of the world have been replaced by "entitlement". As God is my witness, I recently heard a young man tell his parents at a restaurant - "**** this country - I don't owe it shit". It actually broke my heart.
We now celebrate perversion, drug abuse and laziness. We fill our collective heads with "Housewives of Jersey, Rednecks of Harlan County, Sister Wives" and so on. We watch as "superstars" (that few have ever heard of) do some of the most vile things on stage and our kids want nothing more than to emulate them. Walk down ANY city street in America WITHOUT hearing the word "****" at least twenty times - I dare you. Rap music continues to denigrate women with vile and despicable lyrics and it is celebrated.
Our military is being celebrated as being "inclusive" (code for ANYTHING outside the norm), our Spy agencies spend their time keeping an eye on we, the people (in direct violation of federal law) and we tell ourselves that it is a "necessary evil". Our children are being taught by a unionized workforce that seeks retirement, rather than perfection. Those same schools teach that "America is an evil place" and have dropped to 46th in the world in their ability to mold young minds.
And yet, through all this, the left will attempt to tell you that "America's best times are yet to come". What else can they tell you? They have destroyed the country that generations of their ancestors worked themselves to death building and has been leveled in a matter of 50 years. This country is, indeed, in it's death rattle. I simply can't see any way back from the opening of Pandora's box. God has blessed this country richly. We HAD the greatest standard of living in this country that the world has ever seen. No more. We have become the laughing stock of the world and, if we continue to turn our back our God and Country - eventually, He will turn his back on us.
This country is headed for a long hard death. I pray to God that I am wrong, but only a fool would fail to see "Rome falling around our ankles" - Marcus Auriellus
