Save America Ministries

Announcer: This is Viewpoint with attorney and author, Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now, with today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.

Chuck Crismier: Is Iran in a desperate position? Is Iran desperate? I asked that question of the famous, all-knowing Google and the answer was yes, Iran is in a highly desperate position, facing internal economic and military crises. However, this desperation has not led to capitulation. Instead, it's driven the regime into a high-stakes, protracted war of attrition.

The economy is in a deep slump, worsened by years of heavy sanctions and blockade of Iranian ports and oil. There is massive unemployment, critical shortages, soaring food prices, and domestic unrest. Facing severe military losses, the government has resorted to extreme recruitment drives, signaling an internal sense of emergency.

The country's conventional military capabilities and nuclear infrastructure have sustained grievous damage. The regime is at its weakest and most isolated point in two decades. Because traditional military engagement has failed, Iran is relying on asymmetric warfare, attacking embassies, hotels, and targeting shipping.

So, what does a person or a nation do when it's desperate? As desperate a survival tactic, well, Iranian leadership perceives the conflict as existential. In other words, they fight or die. They calculate that rather than giving up, they can endure a longer war of attrition and outlast the patience of the US and Gulf countries by keeping global oil prices high.

Well, the question that I have is not whether Iran is desperate, but what does it mean for Iran to be desperate? What do desperate nations do? What do desperate people do? As I thought about that headline and as I thought about that article, I thought, you know what? This is something we all need to talk about, not because of Iran, but because of ourselves.

We used to sing a song. In fact, maybe you've sung it recently: "I'm desperate for you," talking about the Lord. "I'm desperate for you, I'm desperate for you." Do we really mean that? What does it mean to be desperate for God? What does it mean to be desperate for the Lord? What causes desperation?

Desperation seems to have a good side, but also a bad side. I've just completed reading a book on vacation dealing with a whole series of articles, histories of mountain climbing expeditions. Every single one of them was fraught with despair and desperation. Every single one of them. That's why those stories were in the book—because of the desperation that those climbers experienced under the most unbelievable adverse circumstances you can possibly imagine. It's just hard to imagine.

They had desperation. Did the desperation cause them to quit or to, shall we say, shoulder up their better angel, so to speak, and persevere in the face of desperation, in the face of refusing to despair even though they faced potential desperation?

Well, today on Viewpoint, we want to take a look at this matter of desperation because the reality is, there's a sense in which America is becoming desperate herself. We just don't realize it yet. Oh, we talk about it in, shall we say, roundabout ways. We talk about crime. We talk about immorality. We talk about abortion. We talk about all kinds of things.

We have names for these things, and those things as they increase and become more and more prominent—40% of all American children lose their lives in abortion, 70% of all Black children lose their lives through abortion, and so on—and we despair, so to speak, at what is happening to our country. But the despair hasn't reached the level of true desperation because if it did, it would result in change we could believe in, wouldn't it? Or maybe not.

The whole issue of desperation is it can lead you either to perform at a level consistent with what you want to think of yourself as being—that is, maybe a true follower of Jesus Christ, maybe a true father, husband, mother, and so on, maybe a true businessman of integrity—but then circumstances arise that create situations that make you feel desperate.

What causes you to feel desperate? Is there anything in your life today that makes you feel desperate to some degree? It seems that desperation has degrees. Sometimes we might just call it fear, we might call it apprehension, but desperation seems to be the end of the line. That's the end of the line of fear and apprehension and anxiety and so on. It's total desperation.

Now what? No way to turn, nowhere to turn. Now what? Well, it seems that oftentimes we wait until the "now what" time to decide to talk to the Lord about it, right? We do everything else that we can and then we decide to talk to the Lord about it as the last resort. Maybe it should be the first resort. Maybe the reason we're in desperation is because we didn't talk to the Lord about it. Maybe He would have given us direction that would have spared us from getting into the condition of desperation.

All of that is here on the program today and I'm glad that you've joined us. It's Conversation with Ever-Increasing Conviction, talk that transforms. Today's program is going to cut right into the heart of where we live, where you live, where all of us live.

Here's a question that came from the *Russian Times* today: Could Iran cut off the world's internet access? Iran's push to attack the Strait of Hormuz undersea cables shows how they're becoming a new front in pressure tactics and tech risk. Is this because they're absolutely desperate? Well, absolutely they're absolutely desperate.

What would a desperate nation do? What would Iran do when it has committed itself as the vanguard of the Islamic Revolution to believe in its heart—that is, the leadership believes in its heart—that indeed, we are set as a country, as a nation, to lead the world into the final apocalypse in which our Mahdi, our Messiah will come, but there has to be intense chaos for that to happen? Are they willing to, shall we say, become a national kamikaze? To commit national suicide, so to speak, in order to bring about, and trust to bring about, the Islamic Messiah?

I don't think our politicians are aware of this kind of thinking in the mind and heart of the Iranian leaders. They think they think more like Western leaders, but they don't. They have a very different kind of thinking. We call them extremists. I will call them absolute fundamentalist believers. And when they believe that way, how desperate will they be in order to bring about, actually assist, in national suicide?

Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the fourth commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or anytime at saveus.org.

America herself has faced times of desperation. In fact, just before the, or during the Revolutionary War that gave birth to our country 250 years ago, came the darkest hour of the American Revolution. By mid-December 1777, only 11,000 men remained in the ranks of the Continental Army. They had just completed a daring attack on the British at Germantown and had suffered heavy losses. Desertion was a serious problem. Troops were weary. Their clothing was torn and tattered. Blankets were scarce, shoes were even scarcer.

Only a month earlier on Thanksgiving Day, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Dearborn had written of the American Army, "God knows we have little to keep it with, this being the third day we have been without flour or bread." Food could have been plentiful, but the civilians hoarded it and transporting it was difficult.

The Continental Congress, then governing the colonies, had just adopted the Articles of Confederation, a weak and toothless document that purported to join the colonies but gave little support for marshaling and supporting troops. They patted themselves on the back for their labors. Most members of the Continental Congress went home for Christmas, closing their eyes to the plight, dare we say, desperation of the army they claimed to support.

We'll talk a little bit more about that further in the program today, but if you want to get a deeper understanding of what that looked like, you might want to get a copy of my book, *Renewing the Soul of America*. It'll inspire you, it will challenge you, it will give you hope, but also help you to realize hope comes at a price. $15 will put the book in your hands. *Renewing the Soul of America*. It's on our website, saveus.org, saveus.org. Give us a call, 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255, writing a check, add $6 for postage and handling.

But for now, let's go back to Iran. What is the state of mind of the leadership of Iran? You see, in the law, we have exceptions to the hearsay rule that excludes evidence. One of the major exceptions to the hearsay rule is to reveal the state of mind of a person who actually made the declaration. The purpose is not to prove the substance of what the person said, but to establish their state of mind. That allows the statement to come in, not to prove the truth of the matter asserted in the statement, but to actually establish their state of mind.

So, what would you think would be the state of mind of the Iranian leadership today? You see, state of mind is actually the way we understand how a nation, a person, an individual, a family is in desperation. And what are people in a desperate circumstance willing or capable of doing, either on a positive side or on a profoundly dangerous and negative side?

That's why the article from the *Russian Times*, "Could Iran cut off the world's internet access?" came to my attention. Since May 18th, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority has controlled the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. The new body was established by the Supreme National Security Council of Iran and is responsible for monitoring compliance with the maritime rules set by Tehran. What does that involve? Well, the underwater infrastructure, the cables, internet cables, that go under the Strait of Hormuz, now viewed by Tehran as part of its jurisdiction and area of its strategic controls.

Would they be willing to cut those cables, to destroy the internet, to destroy the internet for major parts of the world? Even if global internet service isn't paralyzed in the event of major damage to the cables, countries in the Arabian Peninsula would face severe communication disruptions, reduced bandwidth, increased latency, and failures of digital services.

So, what would a nation in desperation be willing to do? Let me tell you what some religious leaders were willing to do in Israel 1,970 years ago. They gathered together in confederation, they suborned perjury, they got a guy who was one of Jesus' disciples to take a bribe in order to identify Jesus and betray Him. They were desperate.

Why were they desperate? Because these religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, the high priest, and so on, were so fearful of losing the support of the people, the respect of the people, the power that came with it, and their favor with the Roman government that they said we have to get rid of Yeshua. We have to get rid of Jesus. That's how desperate they were.

The crucifixion of Jesus came because of the desperation that came motivated by envy. Even the secular government governor, Pontius Pilate, admitted that. He knew that for envy, they brought Him. Do you know that it was the same kind of desperation that caused every single one of the apostles to be murdered—that is, to lose their lives at the hands of those who had exactly the same desperate motivation that the religious leaders did in crucifying Jesus? Every single one of them except for John, who was exiled to the Isle of Patmos.

You see, desperation comes in many forms and can lead people to do things that otherwise they would not contemplate doing. Is there anything in your life that desperation has led to that caused you to do something or fail to do something that was so egregious that given normal times you would have never, ever yielded to?

You see, our conversation concerning desperation has a context. It's not just a global context or a historical context. It's a personal context. It's a context of the times in which we live. Are we living in the end times? Absolutely. The Apostle Peter said so on the day of Pentecost. That was 1,970 years ago. Today, we're living in the latter days of the end times. Where in the latter days are we living? Who knows exactly? But we see the season, we see everything taking place around us, and we have reason to believe that we're in the latter days of the last days, and the latter part of the latter days of the last days.

We haven't yet got to the day of the Lord when God pours out His judgment on the children of disobedience of the world. But we're somewhere there in this latter part. And it's during this time that the intensification of desperation will take place in our world. It just will. It will bring about a counterfeit Christ figure. It will bring about a one-world government that will demand, require that every man, woman, and child receive a mark on the forehead or on their hand to pledge their allegiance to this world government and its leader, the counterfeit Christ figure, in order to receive food, in order to receive water, in order to receive fuel to run your vehicle, to heat your house, to cool your house, to run your computer, to run your business.

In other words, Revelation 13 says that no man will be able to buy or sell, in other words, you can't conduct business unless you've obtained the mark. So here's my question: will that not create a sense of desperation for people on this planet, professing Christians? You say, "Oh, my pastor said we're going to be out of here." Oh, really? Then why are all the warnings of Jesus and the apostles talking to believers? Why those warnings to believers? The unbelievers aren't even reading the book. Most Christians aren't either, but still, the message is to the Christians.

Why? Because of the desperation that is going to be created in those circumstances where people will capitulate and be willing to do things that they otherwise would say, "I would never do that." Isn't that what the Apostle Peter did? He said, "I would never," he said it right to Jesus' face. "I would never deny You. I'd die for You." And then shortly thereafter, he denied Jesus three times right in Jesus' presence. Why would he do that? Desperation.

So what causes desperation? Well, desperation can be caused by a lot of things. It's caused by pressure, different kinds of pressure. The more intense the pressure, the greater the desperation. But in general, desperation is caused by fear, fear of something. So I was thinking about this. What kind of fears bring about desperation? Well, here are a few: fear of loss, loss of something. Loss of what? Well, maybe loss of power. What will politicians do to protect their power? What will pastors do to protect their power? We know what the high priest was willing to do to protect his power in the days of Jesus, in the days of the Apostle John, the Apostle Paul and Peter. We know what they were willing to do. We know what the Romans were willing to do to keep the Christians from gaining power and persuasion in the Roman Empire. Massive persecution.

But before we talk about persecution, let's talk about how about acceptance? How about acceptance? Would fear of losing acceptance create a sense of desperation? Well, you might think it wouldn't, but then what do you do with this story? A Scout troop, a boy with a Scout troop in Scotland refused to bow to Allah. The report just came out. A Scout troop in Scotland took a group of boys ages six to eight to a mosque. And one boy became an instant meme for refusing to bow to Allah when an Imam was chanting the call to worship.

I'm looking at the picture right now, friends. The Scout leader took them for an educational visit to the Central Scotland Islamic Centre in Stirling, Scotland, a Muslim mosque. Muslims are compelled to pray five times a day toward Mecca, bowing to show submission. By the way, that's the meaning of the word Islam and Muslim: submission to their god, Allah. So here these Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts, whatever they were—I think they were Cub Scouts because they hadn't reached the age of Boy Scouts yet—so they were taken intentionally to visit a variety of places, including this mosque. And the Imam there set up a situation during the call to worship and prayer for these boys to participate in the call to prayer. So what did they have to do? Bow down. Bow down to what? Allah.

But one young man refused, completely, definitively, and courageously refused to bow down. Why would this young man refuse to bow down when about seven others of his friends in the Cub Scouts bowed down? I'll tell you why. It's not a mystery. Fear of not being accepted. Maybe fear of being reprimanded by the Scout leader, but certainly fear of not being accepted. In other words, "We're going to cooperate, this is what we all do, this is what we're going to do." But one stood and said no.

What would you do? What have you done in the past? Desperation. What does it cause us to do? There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry, marriage, and morals. Saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage—what does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org, and many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcasts, live and archived, Save America Ministries' website at saveus.org.

Today we're talking about this matter of desperation. What causes desperation? What happens when a nation is desperate? You see, Iran is desperate. Even AI knows that Iran is desperate. Why? Because all the evidence is there. All the evidence that can be seen is that Iran is desperate.

What would they be willing to do? Would they be willing to cut the cables of internet that would affect international communications as the cables run under the Straits of Hormuz? Would they be willing to attack, directly attack American warships in the Strait of Hormuz or outside? Would they be willing to enter into a nuclear attack even though they claim they don't have that capability? It's believed that they do.

But what would keep them from doing that? And if they really believed that they are the vanguard of the Islamic Revolution, like the head of the arrow or the head of the rocket to achieve Sharia law taking over the world so as to introduce the Islamic Messiah, which is what they believe, if they really believe that, how far would they be willing to go? You say, "Maybe they wouldn't even call it desperation, maybe they would just call it intense belief." Okay, intense belief. What would they be willing to do with their intense belief and their desperation that all other means of preserving their power had failed or were failing?

All right, so let's go beyond that. Let's go beyond Iran. How about Russia? What would Russia be willing to do? When push comes to shove, what would Russia be willing to do? An announcement just came from Russia that they were going to do something that was totally unexpected to Ukraine. What would that be? I don't know, but it was certainly threatening and a sense of desperation because Ukraine has been leveling some very substantial damage upon Russia. And Russia's about to lose face, and Putin isn't willing to lose face, which would mean losing power and losing respect. What would he be willing to do?

What would Xi Jinping be willing to do in order to achieve his objectives, for instance, with regard to Taiwan? Talk is now out there that he is preparing for within five years to carry on an expedition from China to Taiwan, an amphibious expedition to take over Taiwan. What would that cause in the world? He's desperate because that is his big kahuna, that's what he intends to do as a leading activity, action to display his power to rule the entire world, which he intends to do by 2050 by declaration. What would he be willing to do?

An interesting story came through from Corey Wilks, who happens to be a doctor of psychology, and he wrote a book called *The Psychology of Desperation*. And he gives a little story there. He talks about a woman who was overweight and wanted to lose about 20 to 30 pounds. So fad dieting had failed her. She knew she didn't have the discipline to stick to a fitness program. So one day she realized she'd never seen a fat person who did meth. So she decided she was going to do just a little meth to lose weight, then she'd stop. Her strategy was wildly effective. She got down to about 80 pounds total body weight, lost all her teeth, lost her job, lost custody of her kids, and lost pretty much everything else in her life. Did she achieve her goal in record time? Yes, she did, much too well. And it's an actual story, said the doctor, of a patient who felt desperate.

So what does desperation do to us? Well, it blinds us. I ask this question: what does desperation lead to? Well, it leads to clouded judgment, causing people to abandon long-term goals in favor of short-sighted choices driven by a lack of hope or a perceived survival threat. It frequently results in reckless decision-making, compromised ethics, sabotage of relationships, vulnerability to exploitation. Critical thinking gets very narrow, causing a singular focus on immediate survival at the expense of long-term consequences.

People will say, "Well, I had to. Well, I had to do it." Really? Well, that's the result of a feeling of desperation that you had no way other way out. "I had to do it." So how about one who's willing to, shall we say, receive the mark of the beast in order to be able to provide food for the kids? The answer is always, "Well, I had to. What else could I do?" In other words, the feeling of desperation causes a mom or a dad to compromise their faith and declare allegiance to a false god.

No different than those little boys who bowed to Allah because everybody was doing it, right? People may resort to unethical or illegal behavior just to escape an agonizing or seemingly unlivable situation. And opportunists prey on desperate people. Desperate people go out to try to get loans that they could never pay, that are impossible to pay back under interest rates that are so outrageous. They're desperate. Otherwise, they would never do anything like that. But then again, they lose all sense of judgment. Lashing out, manipulating people, pushing away loved ones—a common thing under desperation.

So it has to do with survival. Survival is inbred in us. We want to survive. We have the will to live, the will to live. But the Bible teaches us that life is tentative, life is short, and Jesus said, "Whoever is willing to save their life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel will find it and keep it." In other words, Jesus was speaking to the situation in which His followers would be pressured to deny the faith, to deny their Lord. And Jesus said this: "If you're not willing, if you're not willing to own up to Me, then I will not own up to you before the Father." So this has real consequences. This is a very, very big deal, a very big deal.

What are some of the other things that we fear of losing that lead to desperation? Well, we talked about life itself. How about love? How many people shoot someone or stab someone where they felt they lost their love? They said they loved them, they found out that the person loves somebody else, and so in desperation, complete whatever you want to call it, they decided to take the life of a husband or of a wife or of a friend. How about the loss of freedom?

How about the loss of family? What is somebody willing to do when they start feeling desperate for loss of family? Let me give you an illustration. Years ago, there was a beautiful young woman who was part of a house church that we—we've had a house church for 32 years now—and was part of a house church, there must have been 30 some people in this house church, maybe more. And she had come from India and she was a professing believer and everybody involved in another local fellowship. And so one day, we discovered that she was leaving. She was going back to India. Why was she going back to India? Because she missed her family.

Now, in going back to India, she understood now that she was going to have to embrace Hinduism again. That was the consequence. In going back, she was going to have to embrace Hinduism because that's what her family did. So her fear, her desperation, so to speak, from her viewpoint of losing family was going to lead her to repudiate her faith in Christ and embrace Hinduism. Jesus warned about this situation. He did. He said whoever is going to put more value on father or mother or children and so on than on Me is not worthy of Me. In other words, we have to understand the balance of life and where our true values are, our true commitments are. How about business? Anybody willing to engage in desperate practices in business? Your home life? We're going to talk more about this when we get back. Stay tuned, friends. We've just begun to fight, so to speak. We'll be right back.

Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a hard longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century?

Jesus said, "I'll build My church." Is Christ by His Spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family, and it was said by all who observed, "Behold, how they love one another." Incredible, but the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click "Cell Church". We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click "Cell Church".

Today we're talking about this matter of desperation. What causes desperation? What happens when a nation is desperate? You see, Iran is desperate. Even AI knows that Iran is desperate. Why? Because all the evidence is there. All the evidence that can be seen is that Iran is desperate. What would they be willing to do? Would they be willing to cut the cables of internet that would affect international communications as the cables run under the Strait of Hormuz? Would they be willing to attack, directly attack American warships in the Strait of Hormuz or outside? Would they be willing to enter into a nuclear attack even though they claim they don't have that capability? It's believed that they do.

But what would keep them from doing that? And if they really believed that they are the vanguard of the Islamic Revolution, like the head of the arrow or the head of the rocket to achieve Sharia law taking over the world so as to introduce the Islamic Messiah, which is what they believe, if they really believe that, how far would they be willing to go? You say, "Maybe they wouldn't even call it desperation, maybe they would just call it intense belief." Okay, intense belief. What would they be willing to do with their intense belief and their desperation that all other means of preserving their power had failed or were failing?

All right, so let's go beyond that. Let's go beyond Iran. How about Russia? What would Russia be willing to do? When push comes to shove, what would Russia be willing to do? An announcement just came from Russia that they were going to do something that was totally unexpected to Ukraine. What would that be? I don't know, but it was certainly threatening and a sense of desperation because Ukraine has been leveling some very substantial damage upon Russia. And Russia's about to lose face, and Putin isn't willing to lose face, which would mean losing power and losing respect. What would he be willing to do?

What would Xi Jinping be willing to do in order to achieve his objectives, for instance, with regard to Taiwan? Talk is now out there that he is preparing for within five years to carry on an expedition from China to Taiwan, an amphibious expedition to take over Taiwan. What would that cause in the world? He's desperate because that is his big kahuna, that's what he intends to do as a leading activity, action to display his power to rule the entire world, which he intends to do by 2050 by declaration. What would he be willing to do?

Now, an interesting story came through from Corey Wilks, who happens to be a doctor of psychology, and he wrote a book called *The Psychology of Desperation*. And he gives a little story there. He talks about a woman who was overweight and wanted to lose about 20 to 30 pounds. So fad dieting had failed her. She knew she didn't have the discipline to stick to a fitness program. So one day she realized she'd never seen a fat person who did meth. So she decided she was going to do just a little meth to lose weight, then she'd stop. Her strategy was wildly effective. She got down to about 80 pounds total body weight, lost all her teeth, lost her job, lost custody of her kids, and lost pretty much everything else in her life. Did she achieve her goal in record time? Yes, she did, much too well. And it's an actual story, said the doctor, of a patient who felt desperate.

So what does desperation do to us? Well, it blinds us. I ask this question: what does desperation lead to? Well, it leads to clouded judgment, causing people to abandon long-term goals in favor of short-sighted choices driven by a lack of hope or a perceived survival threat. It frequently results in reckless decision-making, compromised ethics, sabotage of relationships, vulnerability to exploitation. Critical thinking gets very narrow, causing a singular focus on immediate survival at the expense of long-term consequences.

People will say, "Well, I had to. Well, I had to do it." Really? Well, that's the result of a feeling of desperation that you had no way other way out. "I had to do it." So how about one who's willing to, shall we say, receive the mark of the beast in order to be able to provide food for the kids? The answer is always, "Well, I had to. What else could I do?" In other words, the feeling of desperation causes a mom or a dad to compromise their faith and declare allegiance to a false god.

No different than those little boys who bowed to Allah because everybody was doing it, right? People may resort to unethical or illegal behavior just to escape an agonizing or seemingly unlivable situation. And opportunists prey on desperate people. Desperate people go out to try to get loans that they could never pay, that are impossible to pay back under interest rates that are so outrageous. They're desperate. Otherwise, they would never do anything like that. But then again, they lose all sense of judgment. Lashing out, manipulating people, pushing away loved ones—a common thing under desperation.

So it has to do with survival. Survival is inbred in us. We want to survive. We have the will to live, the will to live. But the Bible teaches us that life is tentative, life is short, and Jesus said, "Whoever is willing to save their life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel will find it and keep it." In other words, Jesus was speaking to the situation in which His followers would be pressured to deny the faith, to deny their Lord. And Jesus said this: "If you're not willing, if you're not willing to own up to Me, then I will not own up to you before the Father." So this has real consequences. This is a very, very big deal, a very big deal.

What are some of the other things that we fear of losing that lead to desperation? Well, we talked about life itself. How about love? How many people shoot someone or stab someone where they felt they lost their love? They said they loved them, they found out that the person loves somebody else, and so in desperation, complete whatever you want to call it, they decided to take the life of a husband or of a wife or of a friend. How about the loss of freedom? How about the loss of family? What is somebody willing to do when they start feeling desperate for loss of family? Let me give you an illustration. Years ago, there was a beautiful young woman who was part of a house church that we—we've had a house church for 32 years now—and was part of a house church, there must have been 30 some people in this house church, maybe more.

And she had come from India and she was a professing believer and everybody involved in another local fellowship. And so one day, we discovered that she was leaving. She was going back to India. Why was she going back to India? Because she missed her family. Now, in going back to India, she understood now that she was going to have to embrace Hinduism again. That was the consequence. In going back, she was going to have to embrace Hinduism because that's what her family did. So her fear, her desperation, so to speak, from her viewpoint of losing family was going to lead her to repudiate her faith in Christ and embrace Hinduism.

Jesus warned about this situation. He did. He said whoever is going to put more value on father or mother or children and so on than on Me is not worthy of Me. In other words, we have to understand the balance of life and where our true values are, our true commitments are. How about business? Anybody willing to engage in desperate practices in business? Your home life? We're going to talk more about this when we get back. Stay tuned, friends. We've just begun to fight, so to speak. We'll be right back.

Will desperation cause many to deny their faith because of intense persecution? Would you like to know the answer? Intense persecution and desperation can cause many to deny their faith as fear and survival instincts can overwhelm conviction. However, theology and history also show that suffering often strengthens the faith of others, leading to remarkable perseverance rather than surrender. There is the other side of the coin. Desperation has two sides. One side leads to denying the faith, the other side leads to perseverance and standing strong in the midst of the trial or desperation. Isn't that interesting?

So when we look at the stories of history, the things that we remember that are recorded in history for us are not the times when people capitulated to desperation, but the times when they stood faithfully in spite of desperation, in spite of persecution. Those are the things that we remember. For instance, if you go back to the Scriptures in the Book of Daniel, we have two very prominent accounts there. One involving Daniel himself who at about 80 years of age was high and mighty, so to speak, extremely honored there in the Persian Empire. Yet he was not following Zoroastrianism that was the Persian religion. He followed the Word of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he continued to practice that faith notwithstanding what everyone else did.

Well, so there was a conspiracy of other leaders who were very envious of Daniel because of his prominence. So they decided they were going to take him out. How are they going to do that? By means of his faith. They were going to set up a situation that will so profoundly test his faith that they well knew that he would not capitulate and therefore they could obtain Daniel's destruction.

So they went to the king and they said, "King, oh King, live forever. We think you should establish a law for the next 30 days that anyone who bows down to anyone or prays to any god other than you should be thrown in the den of lions." And the king thought, "Oh, that sounds pretty cool." His kingly pride caused him to embrace that. And so he signed the decree called the Law of the Medes and Persians which could not be broken. Then immediately these guys, these other leaders, spied on Daniel, found out that he was continuing to pray three times a day as he always had, and they brought the report to the king and the king was deeply sorrowful. He did everything he could to try to protect Daniel because as far as he was concerned, Daniel was the most important person in his kingdom. He loved Daniel for that, he was so faithful. But the Law of the Medes and Persians, the king could not turn back on what he had written.

So Daniel was thrown in the den of lions. What could Daniel expect? Well, he knew what the decree was. Was he in desperation? Well, one would say he was in desperation from the standpoint he had to make a choice. Was he going to continue to be faithful to the Lord, his God, or was he going to capitulate to save his skin? Because he knew that the lions' den was there. He didn't even question. He continued to be faithful. Knowing full well the pressure of losing his own skin, you see, was great. But no, it wasn't that great for him because he already committed his faith and trust in God. He didn't know for sure that the God would deliver him from the lion. He didn't know that. God did deliver him from the lions, and then all those that conspired against him were thrown in the lions' den and were devoured.

We have the other situation regarding the three Hebrew young men who refused to bow down when King Nebuchadnezzar had built a 90-foot statue, golden statue to himself. And the order went out that at the sound of the trumpet and all the musical instruments, that everyone in the kingdom was to bow down to this great statue. Well, the three Hebrew young men who were respected in the realm decided they weren't going to do that because there was only one God and they were going to worship the one God. They weren't going to bow down as those seven or eight Cub Scouts did in Scotland. They're not going to bow down to Allah, they're not going to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar. And so they were thrown into a fiery furnace that in the intensity of the anger of the king was heated seven times hotter than ever before.

Yes, they were saved, but they didn't know that they were going to be saved. In fact, they said so to the king: "Even if our God doesn't deliver us, we will not bow down." So they resolved the issue of desperation ahead of time. And that's what you and I have to do. Friends, that's what you and I have to do with regard to our kids. We have to prepare them to resolve the issue of desperation ahead of time. And that's what happened with that one young boy somewhere between six and eight years of age there in Scotland. He would not bow down even though the rest did. He did not feel the desperation to do that even though he would be the odd man out.

What are you preparing your kids to do? What are you prepared to do? The reality of falling away is a very real reality. When trouble or persecution arises, Jesus talked about it, Peter talked about it, Paul talked about it, John talked about it, James talked about it, Peter talked about it—I mean, why is it we don't understand this? That's why I wrote the book, *When Persecution Comes*. Not if persecution comes, when persecution comes, so that we do not have to be in a position of desperation. Our minds and our hearts are fixed, trusting in the Lord. Our hearts are established. We will not be afraid, we will not capitulate. What though wars rise against me? Our hearts are established, we will not be moved.

Have you been preparing your young people that way? Has your youth leader in your church been preparing your kids that way? Is your pastor preparing the people that way? Get a copy of the book, *When Persecution Comes: Preparing Hearts for Perilous Times*. You see, this matter of desperation is a big deal, a really big deal. From Jesus' point of view, it was a very big deal because He said only those who endure to the end shall be saved. That's what Jesus said. Do you disagree? You can say, "Well, my pastor disagrees." Okay, are you going to bring your pastor before the Lord on the day of judgment when you or your kids denied the faith, say, "But my pastor said"? No, it's not going to work that way.

Now, it didn't work that way for George Washington there at Valley Forge either. Right there in the American Revolution, it was America's darkest hour. It was a horrible time, horrible, horrible time. By the way, get a copy of the book *When Persecution Comes: Preparing Hearts for Perilous Times*. $20 will put the $24 book in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org, call us 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255, writing a check, add $6 for postage and handling.

Okay, now going back, finishing up, going back to the darkest hour of the American Revolution, leading up to the 250th anniversary of our country. So, here George Washington's troops were at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. They set up camp 20 miles from Philadelphia. It was a place embedded with pain and the memory of every American, a place called Valley Forge. The troops dragged themselves to Valley Forge—you might have tracked the army from White Marsh to Valley Forge—by the blood of their feet, said Washington. Their shelter was meager. Amid the snow and biting cold, the soldiers bound their feet in rags as they built huts, lugged water on a two-mile trip for survival. Many of them didn't survive. Starvation, exposure, disease, and death claimed the lives of 2,600 of the 11,000 troops.

But amid that desperation in America's darkest hour, George Washington, the general, drew upon his faith in God. It wasn't a foxhole faith. He knew the source of his strength and his ability to lead. He knew that true leadership stems from humility before one's maker. He knew that he was a servant and that the ruler of nations was the supreme commander, and he bowed his knee and his heart in humble service to the King of kings. And you will know that prayerful image is further memorialized in a stained glass in the chapel just off the rotunda of the United States Capitol: Washington praying at Valley Forge. He didn't give up. Despair didn't take over. Despair didn't take over. Desperation did not rule his life.

And in the fury of life's battlefields, friends, which are many, godly faith is going to always have formed the foundation of freedom. The hope of true freedom without godly faith is futility. Futility. So we're in our Valley Forge right now. America's in desperate need of the intervention of the invisible hand of the ruler of nations at this darkest hour of our country. Freedom is at stake. Destiny is at risk. And we need a resurgence of true faith, real faith in this critical hour. We don't need faith in faith. That's just bootstrapping. We need a mighty awakening in our hearts and souls, an awakening of faith in the God who rules and governs in the affairs of men. A personal faith, a faith that can stand against the tide and tyranny of political correctness, stripping of moral absolutes from our personal and national wardrobe. We are in our own Valley Forge.

And when I delivered this message 30 years ago, they awarded me the Valley Forge Freedom Award for standing amid America's desperation. Are you willing to stand? There's no faith with—there's no national faith without personal faith. We're sliding off the spiritual cliff, friends. We're really in a wasteland of that kind of faith. A desperation of faith wasteland. It's time for us to stand, and having done all to stand, to stand.

You might want to get a copy of the book *Renewing the Soul of America*. $15 will put it in your hands to encourage you for such a time as this as we look toward our 250th anniversary. $15 on the website, saveus.org. *Renewing the Soul of America*. God bless, be a blessing, and having done all to stand, stand, having your loins girt about with truth.

Announcer: You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.