As we look around the world, we find that only the West has any attraction as a destination of the poor from the 3rd world. Ideally, everyone would be happy and satisfied with their homeland, but many nations are badly governed and the bitter fruits drive many to desperately set off in search of peace, prosperity and happiness.
Interestingly, no-one heads for China, Russia or North Korea, where the people are more likely to want to leave, if they could!
The West though, is in decline, with all kinds of problems of its own, and only remains attractive because of its lingering historical heritage. Why do we find such a sad situation?
The world’s greatest Empires were all ruled by Emperors or Kings, who relied on a strong foundation of laws to provide stability. The greatest Empire of all, the world-straddling British Empire, was built on British Common Law, which came out of the Bible – The Ten Commandments. Though imperfect, for a while it did bring stability and some peace, prosperity and happiness to benighted nations, some of which were still in the Stone Age until the British arrived.
Only when those Laws were challenged and increasingly rejected did the Empire decline. Hosea 13:6, ‘But when you had eaten and were satisfied, you became proud and forgot me.’ ‘Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak about me falsely.’ Hosea 7:13 NIV.
God allows us Free Moral Agency – the right to choose to do right or wrong. Britain chose wrong time after time until their Empire was lost.
Real peace, prosperity and happiness can only be experienced when those laws are kept. Atheist Communist nations admit to no God but Communism, and deny the right to worship and the keeping of the Sabbath, as well as the principles which lie behind the rest of the Commandments . So Freedom and free moral agency – the right to obey God, are hard to find there, along with peace, prosperity and true happiness.
As a result, peace, prosperity and happiness are less and less to be found in both the West, and the East, though they are still automatically available personally in our own lives, if only we will struggle to obey, with the help of Jesus Christ!