1855 – America is divided: half slave and half free.  We are still considered a weak nation in comparison to the major powers of the earth.  The Church seems just as divided as the country, churches are rent in half, signaling the dawn of an unparalleled era of bloodshed.  The old political parties are falling apart, and the country has seen a seemingly endless string of poor or mediocre Presidents and other leaders who only make things worse. 

1875 – The country is reunited as one free nation.  A major revival has broken out in the Church and an energized Christianity is on the march, honored by capable Presidents.  America is undergoing an economic expansion that will astonish the world and see it become the most powerful engine of prosperity in human history, lifting millions out of poverty. 

1935 – The great capitalist experiment seems to have destroyed itself.  The economy of every major nation in the world has collapsed and actual starvation haunts the streets of the West.  Christian democracy is discredited and many flock to different forms of atheistic totalitarianism.  American youth and intellectuals are going Communist.  In a few years, the rival antichrist ideologies of Fascism and Communism control half the population of the world. 

1955 – Fascism is dead, International Communism is contained, the Congress votes to put “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.  A Christian revival breaks out that sweeps the nation.  Capitalism rebounds and produces fifteen years of world-transforming growth.  Belief in American democracy flourishes, finding some of its greatest advocates among the formerly Communist youth. 

1975 – “The Soviet Union is here to stay,” we are told, “we just have to get along with them.”  International Communism is expanding, we lose a protracted and bloody war against it, and even our American youth seem to be enamored with it.  The economy is falling apart.  The will of the West seems to be crumbling, losing confidence in Christian civilization, free enterprise, liberty, and the moral order of the universe. 

1995 – The Soviet Union has ceased to exist, Communism is discredited, and resurgent free enterprise has seen one of the longest sustained periods of economic growth in America’s history.  Atheism is on the run, and Christianity has seen a resurgence in the country of monumental proportions, particularly among the formerly Communist youth. 

2024 – America is divided and seems about to rip itself apart.  The Church seems weak and ineffectual, and in many places in the West is under active attack.  The youth are enamored with new forms of Marxism and Communism.  Civil order is breaking down.  The entire world economy seems in dire peril, and new dictators stalk the earth. 

Are our times so uniquely bad that God cannot save us?