If you will return, O Israel, says the Lord, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not be moved.

If God had a message for this country today, I think this is what he might say. There are a lot of good people in this country who are trying to live a godly life, but they are losing the battle. We just don’t recognize the determination of the anti-God forces in our society. There is a war going on for the minds and spirit of our children, and we are losing battle after battle. The kids may recognize that better than the rest of us do. They are taking steps on their own to maintain prayer and an awareness of God in their lives, and they are sometimes doing so right on the grounds of the very schools that don’t allow prayer.

The social structure of Israel was starting to break down. The nation, so dedicated to God in the beginning, was drifting away. There was a direction for their return. It was to the God who is there, to borrow Francis Shaeffer’s phrase. It was a return to a personal God who cares what we do and don’t do. And the situation was not hopeless. If they would return and get rid of all the idolatrous symbols they had gathered, all would be well. This is what King Josiah was all about—rooting out idolatrous worship, even from the Temple of God—finding the way back to God. And the way back to God is never long, but it is quite specific.

There is an odd thing about the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry. Not only was he very young (he describes himself as only a child) when he was called by God, but the King he served was very young, as well. King Josiah came to the throne at age 8, and Jeremiah began to prophesy when Josiah was 21.

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

It’s talking, at this point, about his overall reign—and overall it was it good one. Josiah had a long reign even though he died young, at age 39. But when he was 26 years old, he embarked on a major restoration of the Temple. Jeremiah’s ministry had started 5 years earlier, and may conceivably have had some influence on Josiah.

He told his men to do an accounting of the money brought to the temple and turn it over the contractors who were doing the refurbishing of the building. While they were doing the work, they made an astonishing discovery. And this discovery caused Josiah see the depths to which the state of religious affairs in Judah had sunk. We’ll find this in 2 Kings, chapter 22.

In all the many years of human civilization, basic human nature hasn’t changed at all. Technology has changed the way we live, but the basics remain the same—and they are remarkably the same across all cultures and all people. Also, down through all the ages of time, God has not changed. So, we human beings go through the same stuff over and over again, never seeming to learn the lessons. This is why history repeats itself. It is why prophecies are fulfilled more than once. It isn’t that God hasn’t told us. He has sent prophet after prophet, but people don’t listen to prophets.

We would like to think that we would listen. But would we? I think one of the reasons people miss the point on prophecy is because they are trying to determine what will happen and when. The prophets are mostly concerned with what is happening and why. There is a genre of literature called apocalyptic which concerns itself with what the future holds. The difference between apocalyptic literature and prophecy is that prophecy is loaded with moral teaching, which is almost entirely absent from apocalyptic literature. In my experience, most people are really interested in apocalyptic and give short shrift to prophecy. Perhaps because the powerful morality of the prophets makes them uncomfortable. It may be that the necessary moral tone of the prophets is why God picks them very young and brings them up the way he wants them. To Jeremiah, God said this:

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

If God were going to send us a prophet today, what sort of man would he be? Would he be, perhaps, a rough-hewn, mountain-man type like Elijah—dressed in leather and rising into town on a Harley? Or would he be a smooth, educated orator like Isaiah? Or maybe he would be a man like Jeremiah who gives his name to the Jeremiad, which is defined as a prolonged lamentation or complaint.

Well, if God has sent a prophet today, he is awfully well disguised. And, of course, it is also possible that if we ask God, Where is the prophet? that God might say, I have already sent you prophets. Listen to them. After all, the Old Testament prophets spoke to their own generation about what was going on right then, but then they wrote the prophecies down. Why’d they do that? Well, they wrote them down because history repeats itself and, consequently, so does prophecy, History repeats itself because man doesn’t change and because God doesn’t change. One of the prophets—Isaiah—told us how it works.

Present your case, says the Lord. Set forth your arguments, says Jacob’s King. Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods.

I honestly don’t know what the founders of this nation believed about God. But I do have their words to go by. They signed their names—and pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor—to a document that began this way:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We have been given and guaranteed certain things by a creator. As King David wrote, we are fearfully and wonderfully made[.]

The human body is a great starting point for coming to understand this creator (it is closest to us, after all). What can we learn about God just by taking a closer inspection of things like our sense of sight? Beyond this, what does God reveal to us through a common tree or a starry, night sky?

Is God really there? Or are we just an accident in the universe, a product of blind chance? Is there no design other than that which natural law provides?

Stalactites and stalagmites grow in caves by the natural process of water seeping through rock and depositing calcium carbonate. They can create some fascinating, even eerie, forms. In one cave, a collection of these in a corner looks enough like a pipe organ that someone gave the formation that name. Although those things may look roughly like a pipe organ in church, it is still only calcium carbonate, formed over time by dripping water (and it makes no music).

A real organ is designed. It is a work of art and craft absolutely unique among Man's inventions. It has a purpose. It follows the laws of nature, but was not created by the laws of nature. But more than that, the organ is a creation designed for creating. It allows for creation to flow from the mind of a Man through his fingers. No one would ever argue that such a beautifully-designed instrument was created by the laws of nature. Nor would anyone ever try to create an organ that did not obey the laws of nature. It would be pointless, because it would allow nothing to be created that was worthwhile.

But Man thinks nothing of arguing that he himself was created by the laws of nature. Nor of arguing that he need not obey the laws of nature. So Man argues that everything, from the universe to the amoeba to Man, evolved over time following the laws of nature. The argument is that the laws of nature are merely properties of matter. And whence cometh the matter…? Well, the matter just is. It originated out of nothing with a big bang.

Now if you can believe all that, don't let me disturb you; because the alternative to that line of thought contains an idea that will boggle the mind. The alternative is that the whole thing—from the universe to the amoeba to Man—was designed by an intelligence that had the power to make it happen. The idea that Man is an accident of the universe, somehow brought into being by blind chance or natural law through evolution, is hateful because it would mean that life has no meaning at all. And I am reasonably sure that the persistent teaching of evolution down through the years has so eroded the morality of our people that they are completely lost. A kind of advanced utilitarianism now guides the thinking of so very many people. Utilitarianism is a seven syllable word that simply asks the question, Is it useful. You know the word: Utility. The SUV—sports utility vehicle—is a byword in our society today; and the word utility simply means, fitness for some purpose, or worth to some end. Philosophy has elevated utility to a religion, by adding an -ism and calling it Utilitarianism.

Professor Lawrence Hinman, in a series of lectures, lists what he calls the three basic insights of Utilitarianism: The purpose of morality is to make the world a better place. Morality is about producing good consequences, not having good intentions. We should do whatever will bring the most benefit to all of humanity. He then lays out the purpose of morality: The utilitarian has a very simple answer to the question of why morality exists at all. The purpose of morality is to guide people's actions in such a way as to produce a better world. Consequently, the emphasis in utilitarianism is on consequences, not intentions.

Now you don't have to have a PhD to realize that philosophy is offering you an alternative to religion, an alternative to God. Do you see any problems with this idea as presented? It is the absence of an answer to the question, Why? Why should I concern myself with what brings the most benefit to humanity if it costs me more than I want to pay? Why can't I just do what benefits me the most, what works for me? Sure, I need to be concerned about consequences to me, but why should I care about the consequences to Africa except as they might later affect me? And further, what may be the biggest what if question of all...

Many years ago, in the middle of a theological argument about what is required for the saving of a man's soul, I formulated another of what I call Dart's Laws. This one is, simply stated: Disillusionment Is Necessary for Redemption.

I have little doubt that many of you have experienced disillusionment at one time or another in your life. The mentor relationship is a classic example, as the protégée thinks his mentor has the answer to everything. A careless mentor may allow this sort of error to grow if he doesn't make it clear that he is not infallible. Sometimes, when the protégée comes to realize that his mentor has feet of clay, he enters what some call The BOOM years: in other words, becoming one's own man.

Two other classic examples of religious gurus come to mind. They occurred right around the same time. Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, both got caught in compromising situations and were branded as hypocrites. A lot of people got disillusioned about that time. One wonders about the followers of Jim Jones in Guyana who woke up suddenly to realize that the man was a suicidal maniac. For some of them, there was no time for the redemption that can follow disillusionment. There are more examples in politics than I have time to enumerate.

There is one more thing you should know about illusions. I learned this the hard way, and I am giving it to you free. You have no one but yourself to blame. We accept illusions because they give us something we want, need, or think we need. Usually without paying for it. And this may explain why disillusionment comes so hard. People will fight for their illusions. They will defend them to the bitter end. Let's take a look at what God told Jeremiah to tell ancient Israel when they were desperately clinging to their own illusions.

If God in his wisdom were to send a prophet to us today—to stand on the courthouse steps and preach to us like Jeremiah did to the ancient Israelites—what do you suppose that prophet would have to say? What would his message be?

In the first place, the mere presence of a prophet is reason to become apprehensive. God does not usually send a prophet to tell us how well we are doing. He figures that when we do things right, we aren’t really earning any points. We are just doing the best thing for ourselves. There is no reason to send someone to pat us on the head. So, when the prophet shows up and begins to speak, it is time for us to take notice.

I think God might tell that prophet to begin by telling us something like this…