nation that was formed after the pattern of Israel now follows after the pattern of its moral descent, its spiritual departure from God. As it was with Israel’s descent, so too with America’s. It began with a complacency toward God, then spiritual confusion, then the merging of God with idols, and then, ultimately, the rejection of His ways. Just as with ancient Israel, America began ruling God out of its life, turning, step by step, against His ways, at first subtly, and then, more and more, brazenly.”