Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Amos 8:11
In 1957, a Gallup Poll found that 14 percent of Americans believed that religion was losing its impact on American life. Just ten years later, in 1967, that number had risen to 57 percent, in what George Gallup declared to be the one of the most dramatic shifts in surveys on American life that he had ever seen. Just three years later, a senior editor for United Press International, Louis Cassels, remarked that public interest in religion has declined because people ‘are sick and tired of being told what they can’t believe. They want to know what, if anything, they can believe, he said, ‘and many churches haven’t been doing a very good job of answering that question. Cassels then added, ‘If you persist in handing out stones when people ask for bread, they’ll finally quit coming to the bakery.’ In the 40-odd years since Cassels made his observation, most churches and religious organizations have continued to water down their messages, purge truth from their sermons, and pump fluff into their activities. It looks like our text today is describing the day in which you and I are living.
When famines come, people starve because there is no food. And when people are starving, one of two things will happen. Either the people will die, or they will turn to eating things that they would otherwise never consider as food. And that is what is happening all around us. Because most churches are offering their parishoners nothing but social fluff and warm fuzzies, people are leaving those places in droves. Because people are not getting anything for their souls, attendance is shrinking rapidly, and many places are closed down, torn down, and forgotten. That is why most of the people we meet know next to nothing about the Bible and are virtually ignorant about most spiritual things. It is the famine that Amos wrote about.
Even worse than the spiritual starvation that Amos noted is the turning to unnatural and vile sources for food. Just like starving people will eat garbage and carrion, so spiritually starving people will grasp at whatever is presented to them. That is why the cults such as the JWs and the Mormons are thriving today, and why growing numbers are dabbling in such evils as the occult, witchcraft, and Islam. People will grasp at whatever seems to satisfy without realizing that it is damning their souls forever. The day that Amos spoke of is surely here.
Let us hear the words of the Lord. Let the Word of God and its precious truths be proclaimed and treasured, because if we ever let them slip, we will either starve or be led astray into the devil’s lies. -Jim MacIntosh