[image: Bear Lake, ID & Valley, 2013, JA Van Devender]
Joel 3:14 (NKJV)
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
Matthew 16:3 (NKJV)
3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
These are tense times.
Whatever a person might say about the abuses and corruption that so often attend the presence of "super-powers" on the world scene, yet it is, in my mind, an undeniable fact of history that times of stability and relative peace have only been experienced when such powers provided the foundation for them.
Just a quick review: the so called Pax Romana, the "Victorian Age" of late Colonial Europe, even, dare I say it, the Cold War period of post-WWII.
Superficially one might be tempted to sneer at such an assertion because during those ages war was certainly not lacking. There were numerous bloody encounters in each with the Romans continuously holding the barbarians at bay on the borders, the Crimean and Boer wars of the 1800's and of course Viet Nam and other such "adventures" during the Cold War. But when one looks at the general political situation, during those periods there were distinct "major players" whose accord or discord defined the current landscape. There was not a mob of rogue nations each with their own political, military and economic agendas which, statistically, combined to present a random and chaotic world picture. With fewer "major players" who essentially exercise decisive hegemony over "vassal" states that identified with each of them, then some predictability and some boundaries could be assigned to any immediate concern. Therefore what we see during those times is, in the larger period, a general advance in economic, social and cultural progress. Even Viet Nam, comparatively, was a "small war" as far as over all casualties are measured. The Korean Conflict was a "limited war" because the major players knew just which boundaries not to push. Yes, when this system breaks down, as in WWI and WWII, then the resulting conflict can be devastating. But what is interesting about both of those major wars was that they resulted from certain super-powers not acting decisively in the preliminaries such that further aggression was not discouraged.
"Super-powers", strangely enough, are not prone to risk their entire status on a single situation. They want to remain "super" and their actions are less subject to dangerous adventurism. Such is not the case with smaller, aggressive, independent nation states. And when a "super-power" vacuum is present or developing, what has always happened historically, is a period of dangerous and unpredictable movements by the ambitious parties on the world stage that seek to exploit the freedom that super-power retrenchment offers.
I think that this is what is happening now.
Multitudes are gathering in the valley of decision. There are so many independent "players" on the world scene now that no one is sure what is going to happen next. Countries are going bankrupt and thereby creating ethnically distinguished pockets of discontent. Multi-national corporations are wielding enormous political clout virtually without accountability to anyone. Chaos breeds corruption and complexity provides cover. Individual citizens sense the uncertainty and lack of boundaries and are therefore increasingly anxious and prone to impetuous "now" lifestyles. Planning for the future requires hope and that is only present when you know where you stand and you expect continuity between what's is happening today and what will happen tomorrow.
Some will call such times "exciting." Some will see the chaos and turbulence as just... it is time for the 3rd world (however one defines that) to have their opportunity. Some will see the super-powers as getting their deserved come-uppance after years of arrogant pride. There are some grounds for such thinking but the larger picture does not warrant that as a final analysis. The bloodiest wars, proportionally, though limited in scope, are those vicious wars of extermination that we see springing up in ethnic and religious enclaves who do not have to fear foreign intervention. We have seen them in Cambodia... in Uganda.... in Iraq... in the Balkans... etc. On a per capita basis I think each may have been far more deadly than WWII (though I have not verified this observation).
These are the "signs of the times" in which we live. The valley is before us and on a thousand ridge lines are gathered various barbaric hordes. There is no sure way to predict how each will join the coming struggle nor what alliances and boundaries will be observed.
Those who are celebrating the decline of the United States as a super-power are hastening the day of that struggle... indeed they may have already lit the fuse.
These are tense times.
Your observation is in many ways right on, as seen w/the human eye, but God's word declares that God raises up nations and brings them down and that there is a spiritual battle raging all around us that we cannot physically see. As children of the Most High God, we know His truth, and can see many reasons for Judgement to be dolled out on this perverse generation. My thought, only God's mercy being extended, as in the case of Jonah's warning to Nineveh, and resulting in repentance, can be a ray of hope. But finally, all this worldly turmoil may just be the prelude to the final Great Battle and the ushering in of our King of Kings. God's purposes will be accomplished in the future just as in the past.
Posted by: Charlie Benfer | August 03, 2013 at 12:15 PM