[TheRealThing]

I differ in this way: it has never been more than a remnant who did not run after the idols of a perishing world. For instance, Jefferson's public pronouncements were favorable to Judaeo-Christianity, but his private writings and personal life show him to be much more a "spirit of his times" person than a person who lived an "at present I have no enduring city, for my king is from somewhere else" life. In this, he is little different than most. However, he did, along with others, conceive of a plan of government better than most, and enabling more freedoms.

Idolatry is not my worry, but since you brought the subject up. God affords His people understanding, and part of that understanding is that though men always put the emphasis on the workings of this earth, the real prize or reality as viewed in eternity's setting, is that our life here lasts no longer than one breath seen as a vapor on a cold morning.

I mentioned the book of Daniel earlier. The image or great statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his vision with the head of gold, shoulders of silver etc., was also the subject of Daniel's interpretation which was given by God first to Daniel, and then by Daniel to the King and to us actually, as it was a representation in idol form, (something King Nebuchadnezzar would understand) for the entire history of man's time here on the earth. Four great empires starting with Babylonia, Media-Persian, the Greeks and finally the Roman Empire, which was the legs feet and the toes, and which though all were made of iron, the toes were noteworthy because they were 'mixed' with miry clay.

I believe that great mixing is what is happening right now with the Eurozone on the secular or gentile level. And I believe that the house of Ishmael, represented by the nations of the Arab World, are the catalyst at the spiritual level which threatens both Israel and the gentile nations. Obviously, that is really hitting the high spots and the juicy details presently fill more and more volumes on the subject. At any rate, if you will recall there was a great stone, not hewn of hands, that smote the giant image on the feet and broke up the toes and the great image fell. That stone is the "Chief Corner Stone" the Lord Jesus. That being the case, God does still control the on goings of this planet much more so than so many would like to think.

God does not mitigate His Judgments taking government into account. Government is a necessary evil that we struggle to get right, and was the great weight born by Jefferson and the other founders. But, I would add this little tidbit. When the Archangel spoke to Daniel about the future of mankind as it was revealed in the great image there on the plains of Shiloh, he gave Daniel two signs which would prevail in the end. First was the fact that knowledge would be increased and the second was that humanity would be travelling to and fro across the face of the globe.

What strikes me like a hammer blow of the two, is increased knowledge. I believe that God actually slowed down man's progress when He confounded man's language at the Tower of Babel, again an event that happened on the plains of Shiloh. From that day unto this, language has been a deterrent to man's progress, though not much at all today. Genesis 11:5-8 (KJV)
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Men can do anything they can imagine to do. The science fiction of today is the reality of tomorrow, and I believe that God slowed man's march to great knowledge down on that day because it suited His timetable. And, I believe He wanted us to know that.

Now that God's timetable has largely been fulfilled, language is no longer much of a deterrent. In the 19th Century for example, knowledge doubled every 50 years, Nowadays, super computers see to it that knowledge doubles every 12 months, and according to David Russell Schilling we will in the very near future, see knowledge double every 12 hours. So now, instead of slowing things down, they are being accelerated by the virtue of the supernatural. Knowledge to me is the quintessential key to understanding God's timetable. And BTW, when the Archangel spoke with Daniel, he referred to him as "O Daniel, greatly beloved of God." Daniel was special and the two signs I believe are special.

At some point in the not too distant future therefore, I believe everything will come to it's forecasted end. It will end where it began, at the Valley of Megiddo there on the plains of Shiloh.