Commenting on the moral state of America and God’s judgment on sinful nations, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of pastor Billy Graham, said America is imploding "morally and spiritually," that God is removing His "blessing and protection" from us, leaving us to our sins, and that this encroaching judgment is evident in the chaos of the political scene, the economy, and even the weather. 

"Romans 1 describes the type of judgment where we sin, and we refuse to repent of our sin, then He backs away from us," said Anne Graham Lotz in a recent interview on CBN News with host Mark Martin.  "He removes Himself from us and He turns us over to ourselves. That’s what I think I see in America. I believe we’re entering into that phase of judgment, where God is backing away."

At the start of the interview Anne Graham Lotz said that she herself and all Christians need to take prayer very seriously and pray for the United States because, she added, the solution to so many problems is not political but spiritual.

“Our nation, Mark, is in a mess, and you and I know it," she said. "You probably know better than I do because you follow the news very closely. But it’s unraveling. We’re imploding, and morally and spiritually, first and foremost. And I believe this is the time for God’s people to humble themselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our sin, that He would hear our prayer, forgive our sin and bless America."

"I don’t think the solution is primarily political or social or racial or economical or military, or some of these other things," said Lotz. "I believe the solution will be found on our knees before God.”

“Romans 1 talks about the kind of judgment I describe in [my] blog, because we think of the judgment of God sometimes as like Sodom and Gomorrah, when you rain down fire and brimstone, or like in Exodus when He opened up the ground and swallowed all those people, or an earthquake or lightning strike," said Lotz. 

"But, actually, Romans 1 describes God’s judgment – and those are God’s judgments – but Romans 1 describes the type of judgment where we sin, and we refuse to repent of our sin, then He backs away from us," she said. "If we continue to sin and refuse to repent, He backs further away.  Go into Romans 1 until, actually, He removes Himself from us and He turns us over to ourselves."

In Romans 1, St. Paul writes, "Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness" because they had "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator."  He continues, "For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. ... God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting."

“That’s what I think I see in America," said Anne Graham Lotz.  "I believe we’re entering into that phase of judgment, where God is backing away. He’s removing His hand of blessing and protection and His favor on our country as a whole, and He’s turning us over to ourselves because we have enormous knowledge, enormous technology, but some of the things we’re doing have never seemed so foolish."

"It’s as though we have no wisdom to handle the knowledge we have," she said.  "Wisdom, as we know, comes from God.  Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. When you lose your fear of God, when you lose your reverence for God, you lose your awareness of God. Then, increasingly, you lose your wisdom and you have no ability to handle the great knowledge that we have now at our fingertips."

She continued,  “So, it’s a judgment that to me is very frightening. I think we see it in our weather patterns, we see it in our political scene, we see it in the terrorist attacks. We see so many things that are happening in our economy that indicate what we’re losing is the blessing, and the favor, and the protection of God."

"But, said Lotz,  in Joel 2 it says if you rend your heart and not your garments and return to the Lord and repent of your sin, and cry out to Him that, who knows, He might return to us and leave behind a blessing.” 

Anne Graham Lotz, 67, is the author of 11 books and the president of AnGeL Ministries. She is married and has three children (her husband, Dr. Daniel Lotz, died in August 2015).  The New York Times has described Anne Graham Lotz as one of the five most influential evangelists in the United States.