This is wrong.

I understand the sentiment. Things feel hopeless right now. Sick pedophiles and Marxist revolutionaries run our country, from our kids' classrooms to the Oval Office and everywhere in-between.

It's enough to make you ask what it was all for.

I feel this in my bones as much as the next man: Why did so many of our brothers die on the battlefield to protect liberty, honor, and truth only to pave the way for despots and clowns to run our civilization into the ground?

Because I share this same despair, it would be easy for me to give up and let the inevitable course of decay and rot take its course. Yet I would not do so because there is indeed hope, my friends. And more importantly: It was worth it. All of it.

The men who died to free Europe from Hitler's grasp did not die in vain, nor did any who toiled to make America the greatest nation on the earth. Our blood, sweat, and tears – traced back through the generations to Thomas Jefferson's pen that signed that great Declaration – has made a profound difference on the world for the better.

We focus so much on the negative parts of America's past – the societal ills that every civilization has had since the Fall – that we do not celebrate how we have overcome so many of said ills (how many empires have declared every person equal, broken the chains of slavery, and sent sons to die on the beaches to free foreign lands?).

More importantly, we do not celebrate the accomplishments made possible by that sacrifice.

Well over 95% of the global population lived in poverty just a hundred years ago. Over 40% of all children would die before their 5th birthday. Average life expectancy rarely exceeded 50, even in industrialized nations.

Now, child mortality has fallen off a cliff. Global poverty has HALVED in just the last TWO DECADES, not to speak of the decades before.

And life expectancy is beyond anyone's wildest dreams from just three or four generations ago.

It was the accomplishments of Western civilization – refrigeration, antibiotics, sanitation, disease-resistant crops, machinery, automation, and a belief in equality and liberty to undergird it all – that made this shift possible.

This is not to devalue other societies, but it is to say that there was something exceedingly good in the dough that made the Western world. And because of that flourishing, the rest of the world has benefitted in tremendous ways.

But for the Christian, this flourishing should not be celebrated as a design of our own making. It was a gift, meant to bring light, hope, and love to a hurting world.

Charles Spurgeon, the famous British preacher, put it this way in a sermon on the book of Esther in April 1887:

I assuredly believe that England has been raised up as a nation and brought to her present unique position that she may be the means of spreading the gospel throughout all the nations of the earth. I judge that God has blessed the two great nations of the Anglo-Saxon race — England and the United States — and given them pre-eminence in commerce and in liberty on purpose that in such a time as this they may spread abroad the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

My friends, this has happened. From William Tyndale to the Pilgrims to Hudson Taylor to Jim Eliot and the mission programs of today, there has been an explosion of God's work in every nation and every tongue because of the blessings given to Western Europe and the United States.

Generations of faithful missionaries have been able to share the name of Christ because men like Hitler were defeated. I do not argue that every aim of the British and American navies in securing trade across the seas has been noble for the last 300 years, but it has brought unique access and opportunities to change the world for the better. Even in what was intended for evil, like slavery, God has used it for good.

There are hospitals, schools, banks, and jobs in nations where death and war were once commonplace. I think of Nigeria, even now still embroiled by war, but on pace to overcome China's population by the end of the century. In America, Nigerian immigrants are climbing the economic ladder faster than nearly every other ethnic group in the nation.

This would not be possible without a flourishing society filled with men and women who would be willing to give of their resources and their very lives for others – whether on the beaches of Normandy fighting for liberty or in the interior of Sudan proclaiming the Gospel.

I used to work for a Christian family foundation that gave away tens of millions of dollars yearly. I saw so many things happening around the world by working with over 200 ministries a year. You may not see that larger picture in your daily life, but it is happening. Churches are exploding in growth in countries you'd never think of. The maps are about to be redrawn. The plans of tyrants are about to be destroyed.

Billions of people are alive around this planet because of the faithful sacrifice of those who came before us, and more of those billions are hearing the name of Jesus every day because there has been a "free world" structure not beholden to kings or fascists or communist dictators for the last 80 years.

But things are changing. Be thankful for the time we had. Nations like America and England were given their blessings for a purpose, and they have forgotten that purpose. Spurgeon knew what that would mean, even in 1887.

Woe to these nations if they fail to fulfil their solemn obligations! If, being raised up for a purpose, they refuse to perform it, they shall melt away. If, being armed and carrying bows, they turn back in the day of battle, both empires will perish as surely as did the power of Macedon and the dominion of Rome.

Weep for America – I do not think she will last much longer – but do not say that the sacrifice of her sons and daughters was in vain.

Take heart, for our place in history is much more noble than most. Hold your head high, honor those who sacrificed everything, and do not go quietly into the night.

There are still things worth fighting for, and things worth dying for. Do both, and do them well.

We know Who wins in the end.