American political division is worse now than at any point in the past 140 years. The United States Senate confirmed Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court by a vote of 50 to 48 on Saturday. That is the narrowest vote margin in over a century. One Democrat and 49 Republicans voted to confirm Kavanaugh, while 48 Democrats voted against him. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted “present” and Republican Sen. Steve Daines missed the vote to attend his daughter’s wedding. The last justice to be confirmed by such a narrow margin was Stanley Matthews, who was confirmed in 1881 by a single vote.

The judicial confirmation process has become more ugly and more partisan as the political divide between Democrats and Republicans has worsened over the past few decades. According to research conducted by Michigan State University associate professor Zachary Neal, the political divide between Democrats and Republicans is at an extreme. Neal examined bills presented to Congress between 1973 and 2016, looking for evidence of bipartisan cooperation. He also examined the social networks of every U.S. senator and representative during this time period. He found that political polarization between Democrats and Republicans has steadily worsened since 1973.

“What I’ve found is that polarization has been steadily getting worse since the early 1970s,” Neal explained in a university release. “Today, we’ve hit the ceiling on polarization. At these levels, it will be difficult to make any progress on social or economic policies.”

Another study, conducted by University of Southern California assistant professor James Lo, examines political division back to the 1870s. After examining congressional voting records between 1879 and 2015, Lo found that the ideological divide between Republican and Democratic lawmakers is wider now than at any point since the end of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. While the rift between Republican and Democratic lawmakers narrowed from the 1870s to the 1960s, it began widening again in the 1970s. Today, there is almost zero overlap between Republican and Democrat political positions in Congress.

President Abraham Lincoln famously quoted Jesus Christ when he said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” History shows that when a nation falls into division and infighting, it quickly becomes consumed by internal crises that leave it vulnerable to attack by foreign enemies. This is exactly what God prophesies will happen to America in the near future. Why? Because Americans have rebelled against His law.

In Ezekiel 5, God reveals that there will be a time of violent rioting in the cities of America just before they suffer a foreign invasion. The dangerous level of ideological division in modern-day America is leading to the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy.

To learn more about how political division is leading the nation to ruin, and about how God will go about restoring America to greatness, read Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free booklet Great Again.