We are told in 1 Kings 11, "King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women."
That became his downfall, and the downfall of his nation.
These foreign women brought with them their foreign gods.
Solomon catered to his wives, established places of worship for their gods, and himself became an idolater.
As a result the Golden Era of Israel would end with Solomon and his kingdom would be torn in two following his death.
Let's take a lesson from King Solomon. That lesson is: the Lord asks one thing of us -- faithfulness.
Revelation 2:10 plainly states, "Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life."
We are not told that we have to earn the favor of our Lord. That favor is offered freely as a gift of divine grace, with no strings attached. All that is asked of us is that we receive the gift and remain faithful.
Just as a husband desires his wife's faithful love, so the Lord Jesus asks the same of His bride, the Church.
So can we be surprised at the decline of the Church at large in our culture when 1) our culture is drifting away from God in general and 2) the Church is drifting away from her Bridegroom, Jesus.
One can suspect that there is a "cause and effect" relationship between 1 and 2. And I would argue that the Church is the cause.
I offer for consideration a simple truth: As goes the Church, so goes the nation.
When the Church's faithful presence and proclamation decline, when the salt loses its saltiness and the lamp gets hidden, the culture cannot help but become darker and tasteless.
We in the Church bemoan the decline of the culture or the country. The sad truth is that it's not solely the culture's fault.
More often than not, it's because the Church has quit being the Church. We have lost our first love. We, like Solomon, have loved what is foreign.
