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“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14, 15).

As I look at the present and look back into 2007, I can’t help but ask, “What has happened to common sense in America?” No doubt we are having a problem with “common sense” in America because, for one thing, we play the blame game about our problems instead of taking responsibility and working on real solutions, using “common sense.” It is much easier to operate that way, I suppose. I can’t help but think that something has happen to America’s “common sense” when I look at our day-to-day functions. For example, there are security situations that people do not want to comply with, good “security measures” that are clearly for their own good. Or what about some who think it is alright to circumvent and usurp interference with those in security who are clearly doing a good job? Still yet, what about those who are in leadership positions who accommodate those who try to usurp and circumvent good security measures? One situation that I also think of, is when people throw “common sense” out the window at the time when they get stop for a traffic violation. They throw “common sense” out the window knowing the officer is merely doing his job. It appears to have disappear, this thing called “common sense.” I know that it has not disappeared altogether. I know there are those who still have “common sense.” However, I am convinced that where “common sense” is lacking, “coldness” is not with some people. I believe it is safe to say that “common sense” is lacking more now than in previous years; and “cold-heartedness” has taken its toll as well because they both are a result of the same problem.

Let us consider for a minute our President, our “Commander-in-Chief” of our military. There are many of our “Congressional Legislators” who preach “Support Our Troops.” With all due respect toward our Congress, they want it to be known they “Support the Troops.” But then they start playing the blame game and tearing down the “Chief Commanding Officer” of our military about the war in Iraq. They say they “Support the Troops,” but they do not support the President. One cannot help but asked, “Where is the common sense in all of this?” Common sense would say, “If you don’t support the “Commander-in-Chief” of our military, then you don’t support our military” because the President is the “Chief Officer-in-Charge!” And now it is no longer the war in Iraq that the President is getting blamed for, but the oil and gas problems. Where is our “common sense” about all of this? I believe it was President John Kennedy who said, “I believe it is imperative that we worry less about what the Democratic thing to do is, or what the Republican thing to do is, and worry more about what the right thing to do is.” But how many people actually know “what the right thing to do is” anymore? Where is our “common sense” in all this?

Peggy Noonan¹, in an article on “common sense” in America, used the Virginia Tech incident as an example of this “common sense” problem: “There seems to me a sort of broad national diminution (diminish) of common sense in our country that we don’t notice in the day to day but that become obvious after a story like this. Common sense says a person like Cho, who was obviously dangerous and unstable, should have been separated from the college population. Common sense says someone should have stepped in like an adult, like a person in authority, and taken him away.” Yes, and we know that hindsight is always 20/20 after incidents occur. But the Bible has always told us that “sin is a reproach to any people” (Provs. 14:34). Sin is a reproach to the ability of a man to judge rightly; it affects his thinking process to the point he cannot think clearly or reason clearly. Sin acts as alcohol, it dulls and blinds the senses, causing bondage. It blinds the mind and heart of man so that he rejects truth. It is at the root of compulsive-addicted behavior, such as irrational spending, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sexual immorality and such sin that abounds. Man will gradually loose his “common sense,” and his reasoning abilities will diminish as he continues to abound in iniquity, whereby, “the love of many shall wax cold.”

When a nation “forgets God,” sin abounds and the ability to know right from wrong diminishes. That is why, in the 1960’s, when Bible and prayer were taken out of social thinking (our schools), mental academic went down and promiscuity shot up.² Our “national moral conscience,” our truth and our reasoning “falls in the street” as God warned Israel in the Old Testament of this form of judgment when they forgot Him. The “Ten Laws of God” acts as a restraint to restrain sin and disobedience and lawless conduct. Since the Kentucky Supreme Court had them removed in the early 1970’s, evil and crime has increased. By them we learn “right from wrong,” that is, “common sense.” Unfortunately, to face this truth some think will in some way hurt us rather than help us as a nation. The Court itself ruled that if they are posted children might obey them and then be thought of as being crazy (Herit. Found). What can actually help us we flee from. After the sin of Adam and Eve in the “Garden of Eden,” Adam and Eve fled from God, they “hid themselves.” Therefore, we have people like “Cho” at Virginia Tech, the 19 yr. old “Hawkins” in the 2007 “Nebraska Mall” shooting spree and the “Amish school” incident in Pennsylvania. There are scores of people that I am unable to mention that lack the wisdom in the fear of God “to depart from evil,” or simply “common sense” when it comes to knowing the difference between right from wrong. This is where we are today as a nation, we do not like to retain God in our “knowledge,” that is, in our minds. This is why our homes, our institutions of learning (churches, too) and our government have voided Him. Psalm 119:9 states, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”

What would happen if the people started to “take heed” to God’s Word? There would be national “repentance toward God” and “faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ” for the salvation of our souls. Romans chapter one identifies the problem with man’s heart, not merely the most depraved among us that surface through violence, criminal behavior, or mental illness that results in criminal behavior. “Knowledge” without God is prideful, boastful and void of the “true wisdom” of knowing right from wrong and the lack of “common sense.” Our loss of “mental clarity” and a “sound mind” is seen in statements made by the following people: Rep. Jim Moran’s words to what “Cho” did as the first charge as President Bush’s fault? Then Senator Barack Obama came in second equating the literal killing of humans with verbal coarseness (bullying). Senator Barbara Boxer equating (blaming) the violence of the shootings with “global warming” and the “U. S. Supreme Court decisions” upholding a ban on partial-birth abortion. One hears of all of this and cannot help but ask, “Where is the “common sense” among our leaders? Where are the grown ups? And what does one make of the “coldness” of our culture toward the victims, toward the protection of our society, the lop-sided compassion expressed toward people like “Cho,” the lop-sided emotions and feelings that sometimes come out of stories like this? Quoting Ms. Peggy Noonan again of The Wall Street Journal, she said, “The school officials…seemed to me like white, bearded people who were educated in softness. They sympathize, Cho was “troubled;” he clearly had “issues;” it would have been good if someone had “reached out;” it is too bad America does not have better “support services.” One news conference decried inadequate “funding for mental health services in the United States.” With all the therapy in our great-therapies nation, with all our devotion to emotions and feelings, we purport to be compassionate-we must respect Mr. Cho’s privacy rights and personal autonomy-but of course, it is “cold” not to have protected others from him. It is “cold” not to have protected him from himself.”

Unfortunately, we have forgotten and don’t want to admit the truth, that when God is forgotten nations descend into a “pagan people” and our “common sense” diminishes. As more people engage in sinful indulgences and the reprobate mind, the deeper they go into “paganism.” As America descends deeper into “paganism,” the matter of suffering for being a Christian will probably increase as the message of the Bible that they bear will be rejected and as iniquity abounds, “the love of many shall wax cold.” Unfortunately, the state of man and nations can be such as it was in the book of Acts. Stephen, as a result of being martyrdom for his faith, is what led to “Paul’s conversion” in the book of Acts. As “paganism” increases, so will “pagan laws.” And as they become more anti-God and anti-Christ, Christian’s will for “conscience sake” be force to “obey God rather than man.” It was Abraham Lincoln who quoted from Psalm 19:9 these words, “…the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Therefore, why shouldn’t America be visited and reap what she has sown over the past 30 or 40 years and incur the judgment of God? Why should we be surprise at all the crime against our babies, our children and our young people who are in trouble with all the problems throughout America? We have for the past 40 years or more allowed the terrorizing (our own terrorism) and tearing apart of pre-born infants through abortions-millions if not billions slaughter? Why should we expect our military not to suffer loss and to expect God to bless us when we abound in iniquity? Who are we to think that we will not incur God’s judgment upon our nation when we reject our only hope of survival? Where is our “common sense” in all of this? Where is our “common sense” in thinking we can continue to enjoy the blessings of God on an “unrepentant nation?” Who are we to think we can mock God (Gals. 6:7) and He will look the other way?

Thomas Jefferson knew something of the character of God and expressed his concern for the nation in 1781. In a speech he gave he said, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever,” he said. Since people love their sin and will not repent of them, there will be more misguided lives believing lies as solutions to their problems, thinking their sinful living is the answer. Someone once said, “we have guided missiles and misguided men.” We no longer take the time to reflect on the things our “founding fathers” have warned us about from the Bible. We are too busy to reflect on what the Bible said, engaging instead in “bitterness and railing” against one another, playing the blame game or blaming the “separation of church and state (freedom from God)” issue, blaming the “Second Amendment” (state gun laws) and blaming the “President.” We do not want to deal with what Proverbs 14:34 states, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people,” that sin is at the root of our problems. We do not want “to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins,” as President Lincoln stated. George Washington said, “The propitious smile of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” While a certain portion of America may reject the God who so gave us our country through His mercy, and the “offended Power” may destroy us rightly so, we are thankful for His longsuffering, for His mercy enduring with us. Though iniquity abounds and “the love of many shall wax cold,” we are assured in Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” We have this assurance from God’s Word, that Christ Jesus “came into the world to save sinners” who believe on Him for their Salvation. Though we may see a lot of destruction in our lifetime as man continues down the road of rejecting God and the “finger of the hand” may be “writing on the wall,” we have His assurance that He will “never leave nor forsake” His own. This is the only certainty there is in life. Thanks be to God, though sin works destruction, we know that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ “where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.” Therefore, “see that ye abound in this grace also” (2 Cors. 8:7).