Why Do Nations Become Wicked?

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 22, number 31, August 3, 2023

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” -Proverbs 14:34

Richard Baxter (1615 to 1691) was a Puritan pastor, who from 1647 to 1661 was pastor of a church in Kidderminster, England. The town consisted of about 800 homes and a population of between 2000 and 4000 people. When Baxter first came to Kidderminster he found them to be “an ignorant, rude and reveling people”. Through his ministry an amazing transformation took place. He wrote, “When I first entered on my labors I took special notice of every one that was humbled, reformed or converted; but when I had labored long, it pleased God that the converts were so many, that I could not afford time for such particular observations. Families and considerable numbers at once came in and grew up and I scarce knew how.” Baxter’s method was to visit house by house and to be very direct in the matter of knowing God with saving faith. Baxter devoted all day Monday and Tuesday of each week going from house to house, visiting about sixteen families per day, preaching Jesus to them, urging them to believe the gospel, and then when they were converted, gave instruction on how to live the Christian life in the family and workplace.[1]

When Baxter came to this poor town where weaving was the principal industry it was a spiritual wilderness. When he left it was a beautiful, well-tended garden. “On the Lord’s days, you might hear a hundred families singing psalms and repeating sermons as you passed through the streets. When I first came there, only about one family in a street worshipped God and called on His name, and when I left there were some streets where there was not one family which did not do so in that they professed serious godliness which gave us hope of their sincerity.” The church building held 1000. Five galleries were added to accommodate the congregations.[2] Baxter was driven from his pastorate in 1662 when the Act of Uniformity was made law, requiring pastors to submit to King Charles II and his revised Prayer Book, something he and another 2000 pastors refused to do. 

Consequently, without godly, Christ centered preaching, within just a few years the entire nation of England had fallen into unimaginable wickedness. By the early 1700’s adults and children of both sexes could be hanged for not less than 160 different violations of the law. One could be hanged for picking a pocket, stealing a horse or sheep, breaking a young tree, snatching fruit from a tree, or killing a rabbit from a gentleman’s estate. John Wesley said that he had preached in a jail where fifty-two felons were waiting to be hanged, one of whom was a ten year old child. Moral and spiritual standards had largely broken down to such an extent, resulting in an enormous increase in crime, that the ruling class legislated the death penalty to cover all these offenses in order to protect their property rights. 

Even worse was the spectacle of public hangings, what the people called “hanging shows.” For example, in a place called Tyburn, West London, executions occurred every six weeks and these drew vast crowds of people who purchased tickets for up close and personal access to the proceedings. Revelers packed the streets to see the “guests of honor.” By the time for the “hanging shows” had come, both the victims and the crowd were generally drunk on gin. The journey by cart took about forty-five minutes and the crowd roared with anticipation at how these people would die. Hats, sticks, and clubs were waved in the air to agitate those on their way to the gallows. So called “resurrection women” would always be close by to take the bodies and give them to surgeons for dissection. One man observed, “. . . what a scene of confusion all this makes, which yet grows worse near the gallows. . . the terrible blows that are struck, the heads that are broke, the pieces of swinging sticks and the blood that fly about, the men that are knocked down and trampled upon, are beyond imagination.”[3]

By the middle of the 18th century blood lust and barbarism flooded the nation of England with a collective hardness of heart and callousness toward the poor, wretched, and lawless. When efforts were made to educate the poor they were met with resistance by the higher class of people who said that these people were poor because God had it ordained it to be so, and they must learn to accept their lot in life so that they may support those who are blessed with a higher lot in life.  

Why do nations become wicked, especially those which had previously enjoyed such prosperity and peace? Because righteousness exalts a nation. By way of a word from Yahweh, Moses told Israel, just prior to their entrance into Canaan, that if they diligently obeyed the Law of God, if they were careful to do all He commands, then God would exalt them above every nation in the world (Deut.28:1-14). On the other hand, sin is a disgrace or reproach to a nation. A nation given to licentiousness will sink very rapidly into all manner of debauchery, crime, inhumane treatment of people and animals, and more. 

What is the solution? You know what it is. I say it all the time. We must have Biblical preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to double down on motivating more and more men to go to the streets and preach there to anyone who will listen. We need to challenge pastors to preach with convicting, converting, and sanctifying power. Sermons in the form of mere information dumps are not enough. Politics will never get this work done. The reason we have so many laws, so much government bureaucracy, and litigation is because the people in power, in various ways, are trying to keep the lid on crime and violence. When nations are righteous, then very little legislation is needed. 

Beginning in 1735 God, in His mercy, raised up John Wesley, George Whitefield, Howell Harris, Daniel Rowland, and others in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to preach in the streets and pulpits and He was pleased to visit these nations with an extraordinary manifestation of His power and glory, resulting in millions of conversions which, over the next sixty years or so, brought these nations back to a more righteous existence. This is our great need. This is my prayer. I have, for many years, as I prepare to stand and preach the word of God, recited to myself the following:

“Yea, this book is written in the desire, perhaps in a measure of inner certainty, that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more bring into being His special instruments of revival, that He will again raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in their glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labor and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.”[4]

When I first read this quote I was a young man. Now I am old, and while I still love to preach in the pulpit and streets I know the curtain will close in due time. My prayer is that God will raise up young men as Dallimore describes. God has always used Biblical preaching to transform men, families, communities, and nations. Nothing has changed. This is the great need of our day. Are you praying for God to raise up such men? Men, some of you are already preaching. Stay at it. Others of you need to get going. Will you?
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1  Richard Baxter’s book, The Reformed Pastor, is a classic on practical, pastoral theology. 
2  The most Zeal of Richard Baxter, <banneroftruth.org> January 18, 2005
3  England Before and After Wesley: The Evangelical Revival and Social Reform, J. Wesley Bready, pages 127, 128.
4  From George Whitfield: The Life and Times of the 18th Century Evangelist, volume one, page 18, by Arnold Dallimore.