By Larry Rosenbaum
In recent years, we have seen so much violence in the news that we should have become immune to shock. But the pictures we saw in Los Angeles affected the most callous of us. Who can forget the sight of a truck driver being pulled from his truck, beaten almost to death? Or the pictures of families of looters emptying stores, sending their children inside to “go shopping”? Or the black man whose store had been burned and looted shouting out in anguish over national TV: “Don’t you people bring your children to church? Don’t you believe in Jesus?”
It was called the bloodiest unrest in this nation since the Civil War. The L.A. riots overshadowed the 6.9 earthquake near Eureka and the teacher and three students who were murdered in an Olivehurst, CA high school. The violence spread quickly to San Francisco and Berkeley. In both cities there was widespread vandalism and looting. For several days, there was a state of emergency and an overnight curfew. Hundreds of people were arrested but fortunately nobody was killed here.
In November of 1991, David Wilkerson wrote a message called “When God Departs! Is God Leaving America?” In it, he gave four signs of God’s judgment. The second sign was “There will be Tumults and Uprisings among the People.” `Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity….Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled’ (Hosea 10:13- 14). A tumult is an uprising in the land–a noisy, disorderly riot. God did not need our high-tech bombers or military might to bring down the Soviet Union. All He needed was a few tumults within their own borders. And now it is America’s turn! We are going to see tumults rising up all over the land. Can you already see the signs of emerging race and economic riots?
“When a nation walks in the fear of God and does right before Him, God brings a quiet within its borders….But when God departs and He lifts His hand, all hell breaks loose. Soon, America’s enemy will not be Russia, China or nuclear weapons–but violence within our gates! The next thing on America’s calendar will be uprisings among the people. It will be Jew against black, black against Korean, American against Japanese, white against black….
“You can forget the Watts riots of the sixties. They were nothing compared to what we soon will face. Beloved, God can remove His hand at any moment! The stage is now set in America for riots and tumults beyond anything this nation has ever experienced. We shake our heads in wonder at what is happening to Russia, with all its inner turmoil. But soon Russia and the world will shake their heads in disbelief as racial and economic tumults sweep across America!”
We are truly living in the last days. 2 Peter 2 talks about those who “walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities…And they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time….Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.” It is easy for us to throw up our hands in disgust, but we must not do that. Thousands of the rioters of the 1960’s were saved during the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s. I believe that the horror of the L.A. riots will shock many people to their senses, and many people will be saved as a result. Our task is not to judge and condemn, but to reach out to these people with God’s love and mercy.
