While God’s mercy and forgiveness is unfathomable, it is not perpetually unending. Does Scripture warn that we can pass a point-of-no-return after which God’s judgment becomes inevitable? It certainly seems so. In the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels investigate and inform Lot that God sent them to destroy the cities of the plain because their iniquity had passed a point-of-no-return. While God withheld judgment on Nineveh because of their repentance during the time of Jonah, history records the city was destroyed 150 years later as the city finally reached the point-of-no-return. In Hezekiah 39, the prophet Isaiah pronounces a judgment that Babylon will one day carry off Judah’s riches and even Hezekiah’s descendants into exile because the the nation had passed a point-of-no-return. King Josiah, the last godly king of Judah, was warned of impending judgment through the prophetess Huldah that judgment was coming upon Judah due to their disobedience, but that Josiah would die in peace before it occurred (2 Kings 22:15-20). Judah had passed a point-of-no-return although Josiah’s reign served as a temporary reprieve from the coming judgment.

Herod passed a point-of-no-return in Acts 12:20-23 and God executed swift and final judgment. Jerusalem reached the point-of-no-return with the crucifixion of the Son of God . . . In Luke 23:28, Jesus tells the women of Jerusalem, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children” warning of the destruction that would occur in 70 AD. Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:29 and Luke 12:!0 warn that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a point-of-no-return and will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

We presume upon the mercy of God if we naively assume that our inequity-no matter how great or blasphemous—will always result in withdrawn judgment if we simply repent. Decades ago Billy Graham opined that God would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if he did not judge America; since then the nation has descended into depths of debauchery, depravity, sin and blasphemy that would have been unthinkable to Billy Graham.

Yes, repentance is always called for. While our sin can be forgiven if we repent, judgment may still be inevitable if we have passed the point-of-no-return. At this point in time and history, I argue that America has indeed passed the point-of-no-return for judgment. The best we can hope for is someone like Josiah to delay inevitable judgment.