Amos 8:11 – “Hear this!  The days are coming – this is the declaration of the Lord God – when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”

Like the Israelites in the Prophet Amos’s day America is facing a famine of hearing the words of God.  Although access to the Word of God is unequalled compared to any other time our country no longer wants to hear the Word of God if it conflicts with their view of how life should be lived.  In other words, most people today, including many in churches do not desire to live life on God’s terms but on their own.  They are content to pick and choose the parts of the Bible they will champion based on their own agendas but are not interested in the whole truth.

God therefore appears to be sending a famine of hearing of the Word throughout our nation and indeed the World.  In a January 3, 2015 article in the Wall Street Journal, it was noted that hundreds of churches have closed their doors in Western Europe over the last few years due to lack of attendance.  While the article noted that America has avoided a similar wave of Church closings for now, the declining church attendance suggests the same thing will happen here in the near future.

Christianity allows for a person to reject its tenants and not believe in its God as long as the person is willing to accept the consequences, ultimately eternal death in Hell.  There are no calls in the Bible to kill or even persecute or shun the unbelievers as there are in some other religions but rather only a duty to love them and attempt to witness to them.  The choice is up to each person but to have God and heaven one must accept God on the terms laid out in the Bible without exception.  Otherwise, they are on their own.