We live in a world in desperate need of leadership. Good, wise leadership.

I’m sure that people in other time periods thought the same. Sin and tyrants have stalked the earth for centuries. When evil rushes in like a flood,  a new generation of leaders is needed to rise up, speak and live the truth, and point people to freedom.

The biblical book of Judges is entirely devoted to this subject. Things got bad in Israel;God raised up a good leader; the people were delivered.

In this second decade of the 21st century, I am viewing an ominous leadership vacuum on the horizon. How should we focus our prayers? And who is most responsible for the dearth of righteous leadership?

Let’s look at few realms where good leadership seems to be waning.

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

The world scene today is not very encouraging from a political leadership standpoint.

In Latin America, pseudo-communist Hugo Chavez is dying in a Cuban hospital. Aging dictator Fidel Castro is probably comatose in the room next door, and both nations are mired in poverty. Ecuador and Nicaragua join with these two nations to form a Marxist-leaning beachhead in the area of the world once protected by the Monroe Doctrine.

Other Latin nation like Brazil and Argentina are rising, but godly leadership is desperately needed to save Latin America from a lurch to the left.

Europe is wealthy and stable compared to other parts of the world, but the weight of many out-of-control entitlement states–especially in the southern tier–could bring Europeans to their knees.

Where are the Winston Churchills and Charlemagnes that are needed to save Europe from both a cultural and economic demise? Angela Merkel and David Cameron are decent–but not exciting. President Hollande is leading France off a tax-the-wealthy cliff. And to the east, Vladimir Putin is no Mikhail Gorbachev.

Then there is Asia where India and China are rising–but can you name any of their leaders?  The Communist Chinese shuffle leadership every five years and India is still a nation with great poverty. There are pockets of hope in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea, but in North Korea, the latest “Kim” still rules this starving nation–and is testing nuclear missiles.

The Middle East and other Muslim nations are in full-blown leadership crisis. Egypt is now led by Islamic radicals that seem intent on drip feeding sharia law to the unsuspecting masses. Somalia is the new Afghanistan, North Africa is being radicalized, and Syria is engulfed in civil war.

Then there is the United States. I have believed for a number of years that our present political leaders are the worst of our entire history. That goes for both sides of the aisle. No wonder their poll numbers are smaller than my shoe size.

Can you compare Nancy Pelosi to Sam Rayburn? She gave us bills so scary that they needed to shove them through before anybody read them (Obamacare). Harry Reid to Henry Clay? Reid hasn’t passed a budget, which is required by law, for over three years.

And President Obama has clearly shown his quasi-socialist tendencies, and is okay with trampling religious faith (ask Hobby Lobby and numerous other businesses) in his quest to fundamentally transform America from a freedom-based Christian nation into a secular welfare state.

There are many great governors and other leaders waiting in the wings (Governors O’Donnell, Kasich, Daniels, Haley, Jindal, Perry, and Senators Ryan and Rubio are a few that come to mind) but none have commanding national stature. Barack Obama’s cleverness as a politician appears to be producing what Patrick J. Buchanan calls a “New Majority” in America.

That is a scary thought indeed.

Buchanan warns: “With demography moving against the GOP, with more and more Americans becoming dependent upon government, it will take leadership not yet visible to rescue the Republican Party from the fate Barack Hussein Obama has in store for it.”

ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP

I’m re-reading David and Robert Wiedemer and Cindy Spitzer’s best-selling book Aftershock. The sub-title is “Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown.”

The authors were nearly the only people on earth that predicted the economic calamities of 2007-08 and so their words have credibility. They said then and are re-stating now that we are in a very dangerous “Bubble Economy” because of disastrous leadership in high places that led to the popping of the stock bubble, the housing bubble, the private credit bubble, and the consumer spending bubble from which they say we will not recover.

What’s now looming on the horizon are the final two bubbles–the government debt and dollar bubbles. The Wiedemers and Spitzer believe these bubbles will also “pop” sometime between 2013-15–depending on how many drastic measures the Fed Reserve throws at the problem. And because America’s economy is one-third of global GDP, what happens here will affect everybody.

The Aftershock authors believe we passed the point of no return in 1981 when our deficit reached what is now a paltry sum of $200 billion. From that point on it was politically unfeasible to reverse the devastating consequences that are coming.

Worldwide, we have very poor leaders running the Treasuries of the nations. There is a huge vacuum of wise, godly, principled people. Only Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond–the lone dissenter on all the Fed’s quantitative easing moves–seems to understand that we must change course or face grave consequences. See his warning in The New York Times. 

I’m spending much of this year getting both my personal and corporate financial houses in order to prepare for what’s ahead. There’s time to build an ark when God speaks, but not after he closes the door and the rains descend.

Make Aftershock one of your books of the year in 2013.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

But I believe the gravest leadership crisis or vacuum we face comes from the realm that is meant to be the “light of the world”–the Church. Where are the pastors and spiritual leaders who are championing the spiritual harvest, making disciples of all nations, and reforming nations through the power of the Gospel?

In the 20th century we had Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Loren Cunningham and others who pointed the way. In past centuries, the pastors in America led the fight for salvation in individuals and freedom in nations.

Can you name their counterparts today? Probably not.

One survey tells you all you need to know about why we’re in a spiritual leadership vacuum.

The National Association of Evangelicals--the largest evangelical umbrella in America (and upon whose board I serve) asked their members how many of their pastors endorsed political candidates in the 2012 election–a critical election with a clear choice between a man with a Judeo-Christian worldview (Mitt Romney) and one with a secular outlook (Barack Obama).

According to the IRS, non-profit churches can’t endorse partisan candidates, but pastors can do so as individuals and certainly disciple their people to make informed choices.

But in the 2012 election, 94% of pastors didn’t endorse candidates or disciple their people in voting.

Only 6% of Christian leaders got involved. Less than a tithe. During the Revolutionary War days, the numbers would have been reversed.

Now you know why 25 million evangelicals voted for secularism and the growth of the entitlement state in the 2012 election. The pastors didn’t lead, and the people didn’t follow.

The leadership vacuum begins with the Church.

One hundred and sixty years ago, during the drama of the Civil War, America’s greatest revivalist, Charles Finney, blamed the ministers of the day for the growing darkness in the nation. The following quotes are from his book Power From On High:
 
“I believe it is a fact generally admitted that there is much less conscience manifested by men and women in nearly all walks of life than there was forty years ago. There is justly much complaint of this, and there seems to be but little prospect of reformation. The rings and frauds and villainies in high and low places, among all ranks of men, are most alarming, and one is almost compelled to ask: Can anybody be safely trusted?”

“Now what is the cause of this degeneracy? Doubtless there are many causes that contribute more or less directly to it, but I am persuaded that the fault is more with the pastors and public press than in any and all things else.”

“Pastors have ceased in a great measure to probe the consciences of men with the spiritual laws of God. So far as my knowledge extends, there has been a great letting down and ignoring the searching claims of God’s law as revealed in His Word. This law is the only standard of true morality.”By the law is the knowledge of sin.”

“The law is the quickener of the human conscience. Just in proportion as the spirituality of God’s law is kept out of view will there be a manifest decay of conscience. This must be the inevitable result.”

Notice Mr. Finney says the failure of pastors to share the truth–coupled with the influence of the media–inevitably leads to societal decay. Here is his ringing verdict:

“If there is a decay of conscience, the pastors are responsible for it. If the press lacks moral discrimination, the pastors are responsible for it. If the Church is degenerate and worldly, the pastors are responsible for it.

“If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pastors are responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pastors are responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pastors are responsible for it.”

“Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.”

Charles Finney was right. If the spiritual leaders don’t point the way, then all other spheres of leadership will, of necessity, become corrupt.

My pastoral friends: It is time to repent and step into the void with the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. To all others, we must  “pray for those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1).

Let’s begin with those who shepherd our souls.

Happy New Year. I hope you had a meaningful holiday season with family and friends. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen in Washington, D.C. as our leaders were engaged with the so-called fiscal cliff–an array of tax increases and budget cuts that needed to be dealt with by December 31.

I am making a resolution for my columns in 2013–to mince no words as to the dangers we face in the coming months and years. This era is akin to the 1930s which foreshadowed world upheaval and war.

I commit to be a Dietrich Bonhoeffer who dares to speak up.

Here is my take on the “fiscal cliff” and the forces we are facing in 2013.

First of all, let’s summarize what came out of the legislation that was passed by a sizeable Senate margin of 89-8 and a 257 to 167 count in the House which included support from 172 of the chamber’s Democrats and just 85 of the 242 Republicans.

The positives:

• The Bush tax cuts on lower and middle class taxpayers were permanently left in place, thus not raising income taxes on 86% of the American people. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax reform said that “When Democrats wake up they will realize they just made most of the Bush tax cuts permanent and lost their leverage for the next four years.”
• The deal also nixed a scheduled pay raise for members of Congress signed by Executive Order by President Obama. (I don’t think they deserve it.)

The negatives:

• The measure increases “taxes on the rich” by letting the top income tax rate rise immediately from 35 percent to 39.6 percent on income over $450,000 for married couples and $400,000 for single people. This first-in-twenty-year tax increase will hurt small businesses and the job producers of the nation.
• This is not a “balanced” approach to the nation’s fiscal problems. In the bill, there is only $1 in cuts for $41 in various tax increases.
• The deal also means higher taxes on 77% of households via increased payroll deductions. This will add up to about $1635 per family.
• According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the measure adds 3.9 trillion dollars in debt to the exploding US deficit (over ten years).
• The bill increases government spending by 330 billion dollars.
• Many “earmarks” were thrown in for favored groups including tax breaks for Hollywood films, millions for rum producers, subsidies for green energy including $59 million for algae producers, milk subsidies, ad nauseam.
• Our fearless leaders “kicked the can down the road” on dealing with the 16.3 trillion dollar debt ceiling as well as the sequestration budget cuts. Sixty days from now we’ll be back in full-blown crisis mode.
• The $650 billion fiscal cliff distracted us from the true $48 trillion looming fiscal time bomb—the long-term funding obligations of Social Security and Medicare (not counting Obamacare).

That last bullet is the most significant. If yesterday’s crisis was a “fiscal cliff”, then the real cataclysmic disaster we are facing is a fiscal black hole in outer space: scores of trillions in fiat-money debt with no courage to tackle or repay it.

The Fiscal Cliff Crisis truly reveals the forces at work in America.

DESTROYERS

This is not too strong a word to describe our current Administration and its secular-progressive allies in the House and Senate. Many of our current leaders are doing nothing less than destroying the American Dream and our freedom-influence around the world.

I am not judging their motives–only God knows the heart. In fact, I will give them the benefit of the doubt that most of them actually believe they are doing “good” for the American people. A spirit of deception brings moral dyslexia. (Representative Nancy Pelosi called the fiscal cliff bill “a happy start to a new year.”) But regardless of motivation, what our president and his Congressional allies are doing is destroying the godly foundations of the American nation.

Consciously or unconsciously, they are systematically removing America’s long-held biblical values in three areas:

1. They are destroying faith in the land. Hence the “war on Christmas,” the suppression of religious values in the public square, and forcing people of faith to go against their convictions via Obamacare contraception and abortion mandates. The secular-progressives want a secular America (Europe-style). That necessities a crusade against biblical faith.

2. They are destroying the family via changing the definition of marriage, rewarding babies born out of wedlock (currently 40% of births and 76% in the black community) and creating a government-dependency mentality. The family used to be the biblical bedrock of American society. Secularism’s encouragement of free sex and no moral judgments is destroying the family structure in this nation.

3. They are destroying economic freedom and prosperity in this nation. This is the indirect consequence of damaging faith and family, but it is also directly promoted through the growth of government power and control. Yesterday’s legislation really did nothing except raise taxes. And “the power to tax is the power to destroy” (John Marshall). Think on that again. When you raise taxes you lose liberty. If God only requires 10% (the tithe), and Joseph considered 20% taxation in Egypt to be high (Genesis 47:24), then what is 39% (or 70% in France)?

It is the power to destroy.

When I watched Vice President Joe Biden, and Senators Patty Murray and Dick Durbin strut through the Capitol Building on New Year’s Eve on their way to a meeting with President Obama, I knew that, whether it was conscious or not, we were looking at destroyers.

Secularism will change America. It will destroy the country and eventually persecute people of faith.

WIMPS

I believe this label applies to many in the Republican ranks. I personally like John Boehner (he  pronounces his name like mine), and others, but Winston Churchills they are not. In fact, for the past seventy years since the time of Franklin Roosevelt, the Republicans have primarily gone along with the growth of government. Even Ronald Reagan didn’t reverse it, just retarded its growth for a generation.

In fairness, during most of those decades R’s were in the minority and did their best to encourage fiscal restraint. But over time, the Republican establishment also gave in to the pressures of lobbyists, constituents who wanted goodies, and the power trap of Washington, D.C. and did not fight effectively for limited government and human freedom.

Courageous they were not. Wimpy in the face of pressure is a better metaphor. I believe there are a few bright spots among them. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Eric Cantor–along with 157 other Republican representatives–voted against increasing taxes during this weak receovery. Others made the case that making the Bush tax cuts permanent was a victory of sorts.

But steely-spined, courageous leaders are desperately needed on both sides of the aisle. Will they emerge in the coming years of financial reckoning?

CHEERLEADERS

The other ominous problem in American politics today is the clear secular bias of most of the old guard American media. They are clearly “cheerleading” the ascendancy of secularism in the world as a whole. They are pom-pom holders for the Destroyers and antagonists of the Wimps.

Some call this group the “Mainstream” or “Lamestream” Media. Let’s be clear who they are:

• the influential New York Times who many media outlets look to for the daily news feed.
• Other newspapers including the Washington Post and LA Times and others. The Associated Press is strongly committed to the secular-progressive vision.
• Then there are the major networks–CBS, NBC, and ABC–and cable-based CNN and MSNBC.
• Finally, add to them the new media of Moveon.org, the Huffington Post, Media Matters, etc.

All of these groups actively campaigned for Barack Obama and his cohorts in the past two elections. The news media used to be the “Fourth Estate” that kept all politicians honest.

No more. They are clearly the “cheerleaders” of the secular progressive revolution and take utter delight when it triumphs (think Chris Matthews). They bury stories that hurt the cause (Benghazi), promote stories that help it (“The War on Women”), and try to take down faith-oriented candidates (Allen West comes to mind).

They also try to keep the Wimps in line through flattery or intimidation.

The Destroyers/Cheerleaders are a powerful coalition in 21st century America. We will either pooh-pooh their reality or downplay their power at our own peril.

THE ILL INFORMED

This group now makes up a significant portion of the America electorate–probably over fifty percent. They were educated in secular schools, got their degrees at secular universities, or have simply joined the secular pastimes of entertainment and consumerism.

I am always amazed when hearing interviews of average Americans “on the street”–especially those who are under thirty. They often can’t name the vice president, any Supreme Court justices, or have the foggiest idea of the great issues of the day. They’re too busy playing video-games, partying, or watching television. They know who Lady Gaga is but not Mitch McConnell. They can name the past three winners of “American Idol” but not one of their two US Senators.

They couldn’t define “freedom” if you gave them Blackstone’s Communtaries. In fact, they couldn’t read it because the language is too high.

Here’s how sad it is. I spoke with a Christian senior citizen this week who watches ABC News and was delighted that taxes are going up on millionaire athletes and entertainers. She thought they were the “rich”–not job producers and small business owners. If this wonderful person is ill-informed because of her choice of news source, then what about the rest who are only watching Saturday Night Live?

The Bible warns that “my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Thomas Jefferson said that “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

An ill-informed electorate will be slaves. They already are to entertainment

THE REMNANT

I believe there is still a remnant in this nation who love God and liberty and “understand the times with a knowledge of what we should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). But this group is shrinking and is in desperate need of revival and enlargement.

Are you a part, and what would God have you do?

After watching the 2012 election results and, more recently, the fiscal cliff debate, I believe the most relevant verse for America in 2013 may be found in the words of Jesus in Luke 22:53:

“This is your moment, when the power of darkness reigns.“

(My second choice is Psalm 11:3 – “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?)

Let’s be painfully honest. Right now, evil sits in the American driver’s seat in a variety of forms. We are being destroyed spiritually, socially and economically by an invisible Destroyer who has deceived many people in this nation.

But we must take courage.

After Jesus said the ominous words above came the power of the Resurrection and the defeat of the Enemy!

Let us put our hope in His ultimate triumph and be faithful to advance His Kingdom regardless of the powers we face.

 For more than two hundred years, the United States of America was a light of freedom and blessing to the world. Four hundred years ago Plymouth governor William Bradford described American civilization as “stepping stones to others” for God’s great work on earth.

Of course, it was Jesus Himself who said his people would be a “city on a hill” and Ronald Reagan applied that phrase to America’s great experiment with liberty whose statue stands in New York harbor as a “light to the world.”

But America’s light is going out–and it pains me to state the necessary corollary:

Nations of the world: do not follow the American example.

Our light is under a bushel.

I believe the uniquely formed, biblically based, and freedom loving United States of America reached a tipping point in 2012. Our faith-based nation, born in spiritual revival and established on numerous principles that bring freedom and blessing to people, has chosen to go down a pathway of darkness that makes us unworthy of emulation.

What is our newly chosen worldview road?

Secularism–which brings darkness and death to liberty.

On the simplest level, to be secular is to be “worldly”–to follow man-made morality and customs rather than God. The dictionary defines secularism as “1. Religious skepticism or indifference. 2. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public.”

Sound familiar? No doubt secularism has been rising in America for some time, but the 21st century has brought its triumph in government, education, economics, morality and family life.

America used to believe in God-given rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (property).”

Today we believe in killing pre-born babies by the millions, placing punishing regulations on business, anything goes morality, re-defining marriage, and taxing people out of their properties. We have chosen “the way of the world”–which is really to say we are following Europe in the shedding of Christian freedom and blessing for the darkness of humanism.

How blind can we be.

Look at Europe. It was never the purest form of Christian expression, but none-the-less was essential and providential in the birth of God-given rights, republican democracies, science and the arts out of a biblical worldview, and free enterprise capitalism which created the middle class.

But today:

• Europe has turned away from faith in God. Secularism rules, especially in the West.
  
• It is dying demographically and could possibly become Islamic within two generations.
• Its bloated social democracies are teetering on the edge of collapse and insolvency.
• Morals are dead, family life is in decline, and despair and anarchy are rising.

Yet, America has chosen this model. We want to be like Europe.

For that very reason, the developing nations of the world–in Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, Asia, and the Middle East should no longer look to the United States as a “shining light on a hill” to follow and emulate.

Better to look to other nations who are “growing their faith” and applying Christ’s truths to their national life. These include:

UGANDA

President Yoweri Museveni recently repented of his sins and the sins of Uganda as a nation in a move aimed at establishing it as a God-fearing nation. The President made this historic move at Mandela National stadium in Namboole on October 9 during national prayers for dedicating Uganda to God.

He said to the nation: “I denounce witchcraft and satanic practices. I repent on behalf of Uganda. We confess our sins. We repent of the sins of shedding innocent blood, corruption, bribery, sexual immorality, drunkenness, rebellion, insubordination, tribalism and sectarianism.”

The president dedicated Uganda to God to be His nation anchored on His principles and values. He indicated that the next fifty years belong to the young generation, advised the young people to be God-fearing referring to the Biblical verse in Proverbs 9:10 which says, “The fear of God is beginning of wisdom.”

Family Research Council commented: “The Museveni prayer is a model for all Christian leaders in the world. Unfortunately, the media is so threatened by religion that it refuses to leave another country alone to pursue its own views on sexuality and faith. Since Museveni’s speech, the press has ridiculed Uganda for bending its knee to a higher power–the same higher power that Americans have to thank for our great nation. In times like these, President Museveni’s humility should be emulated, not criticized. It is faithfulness like his that will raise Uganda’s status as a new power in Africa.”

My friend, J. Lee Grady, points out other nations to watch:

CHINA

Nothing in the history of missions rivals the success story that is China. Mao Zedong tried to wipe out Christian faith in the 1970s when there were only 2.7 million believers. Today, the most conservative estimate is that China had 75 million believers in 2010–and it could be as great as 120 million in 2012–more evangelicals than in the U.S.

As China’s “faith” rises, its influence increases in the world.

INDIA

Despite language barriers, tribal divisions and violent attacks by Hindus, indigenous church-planting movements have flourished all over India in the last 40 years. Fifteen years ago in Andhra Pradesh, a woman who heard a gospel radio broadcast, asked if someone could plant a church in her remote village. Within the first year after a pastor came, the church had 75 converts. After a church building was constructed in 1994, this church planted 125 churches with a combined membership of more than 5,000. This type of growth is occurring throughout India today.

BRAZIL

This nation of 203 million is experiencing an economic boom during a global recession. It is also in the midst of a Christian awakening. Pentecostal churches have been growing exponentially since the 1970s, as have Baptist, Presbyterian and Nazarene groups that have adopted Pentecostal practices. If Brazil can avoid the traps of greed and moral scandal that crippled American Christians, it could become a spiritual superpower. It is already the world’s second largest missionary-sending nation.

ETHIOPIA

Since the deposing of Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie in 1974, evangelicals have grown from 5 percent to 20 percent of the population. Mainline Christians from Lutheran and Orthodox backgrounds have been swept up in Pentecostal revival movements in recent years—and this has fueled huge church-planting initiatives.

GUATEMALA

At least 24 percent of the country’s population is evangelical, and churches are pushing farther into unreached areas where indigenous people are trading their superstitions for faith in Christ.

ROMANIA

What this Eastern European nation lacks in economic strength is offset by its spiritual passion, especially in the western cities of Oradea, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara. Many of the believers in this country are leaving old traditions and embracing a more relevant, dynamic faith and planting vibrant churches—and their sights are set on sending missionaries to the nearby Middle East. Romania’s flat tax (a more biblical idea) is the fourth lowest in Europe.

SINGAPORE

As America continues to fall on the “Index of Freedom” (number ten and dropping rapidly), the nation of Singapore is number two and rising. This tiny, prosperous nation is emerging as an Antioch of the East—a strategic base for both missionary sending and funding. Members of Trinity Church, one of many megachurches in the nation, give more than $6 million a year to missions.

INDONESIA

In the world’s largest Muslim country, Christianity is growing so fast the government tries to hide statistics. Operation World says evangelicals have grown from 1.3 million to 13 million since 1960. Time magazine recently called what is happening in Indonesia “a religious revolution.” And Christians in the Banda Arc province say Muslims are much more receptive to the gospel since the 2004 tsunami that devastated the region.

As America falters, many others are rising. God is never without his “light” in the world. You just need to choose your heroes wisely.

Here are my encouragements:

Nations of the World: The American Statue of Liberty no longer speaks the truth. Look to Christ and his power and principles as well as choosing wise national examples to follow.

American believers: Let’s be honest that “our city is no longer on a hill” but is covered by a basket. Only God knows when the darkness will be irreversible. Until then, it is our duty to humble ourselves, repent, pray, and work even harder to revive God’s American Dream.