Is this the judgment of God?

Dr. John Piper has an excellent and highly relevant message on the subject of homosexual marriage that is must reading. Posted on the Desiring God website, you can read it here.

Speaking of homosexual marriage, I wonder (and I’m just speculating here—I trust that it’s a sanctified speculation but, nonetheless, it is speculation): is our nation experiencing a degree of God’s judgment?

Think about it: Twenty years ago, I don’t think anyone would have seriously considered endorsing homosexual “marriage”. I know when I was in high school (25-29 years ago), we would have thought such a thing just plain weird and disgusting (in fact, people got “beat up” for less!).

Alarmingly, with the dawn of the 21st century, we’ve arrived at the point where otherwise intelligent people, with straight faces, proclaim that homosexuals and lesbians have the “right” to marry a person of the same gender. Somehow, restricting marriage to heterosexual couples is thought discriminatory.

Is it me, or does anyone else feel like Rip Van Winkle? I feel like someone switched the rules on me while I was asleep for 20 years.

Look at some of what’s going on:

Repeatedly, we see courts handing down decisions affirming the “rights” of homosexuals to marry, adopt children, and other such rights previously reserved for married, heterosexual couples.

Mainline denominations, whose founding fathers stood squarely on biblical, Christian doctrine, find themselves embroiled in debate over homosexuality and the Bible (having left a mainline denomination, one of the things I'm so glad to escape is arguing in church about whether or not something in the Bible is true). So far, only one denomination, the Episcopal Church in America, has gone so far as to (in essence) officially endorse homosexuality in their spiritual leaders. Are more such developments ahead for Christian denominations?

Politicians, for the sake of votes, unashamedly campaign (and win elections) on platforms supporting full homosexual “rights”, including the right to marry.

I could go on, for at many places of work, in public schools and in the media, a drastic (at least for those my age or older) change of attitude in favor of homosexuality has taken place. It would be very easy to criticize and say that people have just lost their minds but, seriously and honestly, I feel something more ominous and dreadful is taking place in our nation (and the Western world, in general): It seems to me that God is withdrawing His hand, in some measure. It seems that we are experiencing what happens when God gives people up to pursue their sinful desires:

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools...

"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their heart to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions...

"And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done... Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them (Romans 1:18, 21-22, 24-26, 28, 32 ESV).

Isn't this the point at which we’ve arrived?

To “worldlings”—those who have fully immersed themselves in this culture and its ethos—these changes are wonderful: a sign of progress. But, according to he Bible, their approval of these things is a sign of spiritual blindness and consciences that have been seared (1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Timothy 4:1-2). It is also a sign of judgment (Romans 1:32).

Are we in this country experiencing just a taste of God’s judgment? I don't know, but I can't help but wonder.