“On the question of what happens next for me, I have little to say but this: If and when the time comes, I will take my lumps for my part in this. I will do so without resentment or regret, knowing that while what I have done may be unlawful, I cannot say that it was wrong.” Those words were written by a whistleblower in an anonymous op-ed in the Globe and Mail on April 19. He or she is risking his or her career, livelihood and future to expose the deadly inaction of the Canadian government.

This whistleblower works for the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (csis), which has warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the Communist Party of China (ccp) interfered in the 2019 and 2021 elections by funding specific candidates or influencing voters through propaganda and intimidation. Despite indisputable evidence, the government did nothing to stop the ccp interference or notify the public that Canadian elections were compromised.

Now Trudeau has launched an all-out investigation to find the whistleblower and charge him or her for violating national security information laws.

After eight years of scandal, corruption and cover-ups, one whistleblower had the courage to take a stand. “I say this because I was raised to believe that integrity is the act of weighing your actions against your principles, not against what is convenient or expedient,” the whistleblower wrote. “And here my principles remain firmly tied to those words in my oath: I will serve my country, I will serve the democratic institutions on which it is founded, and I will most certainly serve my fellow Canadians.” How refreshing to see someone willing to place his country and principles above himself!

The anonymous column concludes with: “I worry, however, that we may be running short on individuals willing and able to risk the consequences of standing by their principles.” How true that is. Courage has virtually evaporated from our societies. Even when individuals do take a stand, like during the Freedom Convoy in Canada, no one in leadership has the courage to support them in a meaningful way.

Cowardice has become a plague in the moral fabric of our peoples. This dangerous trend has been sweeping over the United States, Britain and the Commonwealth for generations. The problem exponentially increases because courage is the virtue that enables other aspects of character. All of the problems facing our nations, our families and our individual lives can be traced to a breakdown of godly, Bible-based character; it is a matter of cause and effect.

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities,” wrote Sir Winston Churchill, “because it is the quality which guarantees all the others.” Courage is what enables us to choose the right regardless of the fear or opposition to doing so.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has drawn special attention to this trend for decades. Look at how courage changed the course of history, and how a lack of courage has plunged our world into crisis.

The greatest inferno of suffering mankind has experienced thus far was World War ii. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see how courage could have stopped Adolf Hitler’s Satan-inspired designs from reaching fruition. If Western leaders had confronted Hitler and stopped the takeover of Austria and Czechoslovakia, the course of events might have changed.

Churchill was the only man who had the courage to warn Britain of the truth of the Nazi regime. The cowardly regime of Neville Chamberlain nearly negotiated the world into oblivion! “The government, with all of its secret sources, committed a nation-threatening error,” writes Mr. Flurry in Winston S Churchill: The Watchman. “The big question is, why? The politicians put themselves and their party ahead of the nation’s welfare. They lacked the courage to face the hard truths. These ‘intelligent’ men were leading the nation, and the whole Western world, to its death!” (emphasis added throughout).

Tragically, this pattern has repeated in our nations time and again. In 1998, Mr. Flurry drew special attention to a 1978 Harvard commencement address given by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed this sickness in the West. Notice what Solzhenitsyn said:

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, in each government, in each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. There are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life. …

Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?

Mr. Flurry wrote: “That last line truly disturbed many people. He stated a great truth of history that has been demonstrated repeatedly, but that few men have learned. It has been proved again and again since ‘ancient times.’ A radical decline in courage is a frightening symptom of the end of America and Britain!” No nation has ever survived without courageous leadership.

The loss of courage in the intellectual and ruling elite paved the way for the single most effective attack on our Western nations. Our leaders have either been complicit or stood idly by as our nations have been fundamentally transformed by Communist leaders from within. The late Herbert W. Armstrong warned in 1956 that communism works to “weaken us from within, sapping our strength, perverting our morals, sabotaging our educational system, wrecking our social structure, destroying our spiritual and religious life, weakening our industrial and economic power, demoralizing our armed forces, and finally, after such infiltration, overthrowing our government by force and violence!”

This infiltration is being spearheaded by Barack Obama and the radical left. This attack is threatening to blot out the United States of America (2 Kings 14:26-27). People fear confronting Obama and exposing the treason he has authored. Mr. Flurry writes in America Under Attack:

Why weren’t the media, even “conservative” media, exposing Obama’s lawless, destructive actions? Some simply lacked the courage to stand up for our constitutional republic. Many others are themselves corrupt and have come to accept and support the president’s toxic anti-Americanism.

The Communist infiltration’s greatest ally is our own leaders’ lack of courage. Yet one man has gone against the flow of cowardice and has demonstrated some courage to confront the radical left! “Donald Trump has proved himself willing to take a stand where others have not,” wrote Mr. Flurry in the May-June 2018 Trumpet magazine. “It is quite something to behold him resisting these anti-American forces! He has inspired a few other leaders to challenge the radical left and help expose it for what it is.”

Consider how Trump’s courage changed the course of history! Consider how God saved America temporarily by using a man, although certainly with character flaws, who has courage.

Cowardice is the spirit of our age. Numerous Bible prophecies precisely foretold our current hapless state.

The nations of the United States and the British Commonwealth are descendants of ancient Israel, which you can prove for yourself in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong. Leviticus 26 is called the blessing and curses chapter. One of the curses that God warned would come on our people for disobedience to His laws is cowardice. Verse 17 says, “[Y]e shall flee when none pursueth you.” In verse 19, God says, “… I will break the pride of your power ….”

Sin weakens the will and causes courage to flee. A similar prophecy in Isaiah 3:1-12 says we will not have any strong leaders in this end time. Our statesmen, military leaders and wise counselors will all be removed. It will get to the point that no one will want to lead the country anymore (verse 7). There will be no leader to confront the nation-crushing problems overwhelming us.

While it is refreshing to see some step out with courage to help their country, one individual’s courage is not enough to save us this time. The solution will not come from man, but from God.

Jesus Christ will return and completely change the foundations of the Earth to start a new civilization where courage will become the spirit of this new age of hope. To make this future a reality, God is training leaders today to have real courage. You can be a part of this future and develop physical, moral and spiritual courage that will help enable a new start for all mankind.

To adapt Elbert Hubbard’s conclusion to his famous essay “A Message to Garcia”: Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a person asks will be granted; their kind is so rare that no one can afford to let them go. They are wanted in every city, town and village—in every marriage, family, congregation and nation. The world cries out for such; they are needed and needed badly; men and women of courage.

To learn more about the solution to our crisis in courage, read The United States and Britain in Prophecy, and watch the Key of David program “God’s Courageous Leaders” to see how God is working out His master plan right now.