Israel may be God’s chosen people of the Bible, but to a large amount of modern day Bible believers The United States of America was born out of God’s sovereignty and is the apple of God’s eye. For years we served as a base of operations for the missionary outreach of the church. America was indeed a Christian nation. Was, is the key word here. Sadly I agree with Barak Obama when He says that America is no longer a Christian nation. Almost every facet of our nation is failing. What went so tragically wrong, that we have found ourselves in such a mess? What has caused heaven to dry up and the blessings to stop? If my understanding of history and of the Scripture is correct there are 4 primary problems that have brought us here and must be addressed if we are going to be a great nation once again.
- We have forsaken our heritage.
Many in our modern world would deny it, but it
remains a historical fact that this nation was founded on and for the
principles of religious freedom. Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of
Independence, nearly half (24) held seminary or Bible school degrees. President
George Washington said, “While we are zealously performing the duties of good
citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher
duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our
highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” In The writings of Thomas Jefferson (page
385) He said, “I am a real Christian--that is to say a disciple of the
doctrines of Christ.” Now, we do understand that not all who were involved in
our founding were by definition, Christian. Benjamin Franklin who never
embraced Christianity even had a healthy understanding of the need for religion
in our society, and was especially kind to Christianity. He called the code of
morals left us by Jesus Christ in His religion, “the finest in our society.” Today
we have re-written the history books so that our children do not understand
where we came from, or why we were the greatest nation on earth.
2.) We
have been too blessed for our own good.
I fully realize how silly that statement sounds on
the surface. God is the author of all good things. It is He who blesses us;
right? Follow the logic though and you’ll understand. Great blessings, requires
great responsibility. “To whom much is given, much will be required.” (Luke
12:48) Instead of a spirit of gratitude
and grave duty to God, we have developed a sense of entitlement. We have lived
in the land of plenty for too long. As far back as I can remember it was a
man’s natural bragging rights to point to his accomplishments. “Why, I am a
self-made man, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and earned everything I got”
was common in most discussions. If you’re a self-made man then you’re not
Christian, because Scripture is clear that He began a good work in you and He
will complete it. (Phil. 4:6) Scripture
declares that every good and perfect gift comes from above. (James 1:17) We’ve become fools in our own
self-sufficiency. We have become like the man who tore down His barns to build
bigger and better. (Luke 12:18) Instead of looking to God as the giver of
blessings with gratitude and responsibility, we have become prideful, and no
longer have need of Him.
3.)We
have become a nation of individuals instead of a society of people
“We the People…” has given way to a me, myself and I
mentality. This nation has always operated on the principle of the sacrifice of
some for the good of all. We are living in the most self-centered and
self-absorbed society in all of human history. We would expect this from a
pagan society but it has invaded the Christian community at an alarming rate.
We have placed our own desires above everyone and everything else, even the
health of our own nation. We will decry the entitlement society, and yet be
first in line when there is a new government benefit for us. We as
conservatives are disingenuous about real reforms and government cut backs. We
are not willing to suffer the pain of good change. We might as well say out
loud, cut the budget but don’t you touch mine. The Apostle Paul told us to not
concern ourselves with our own well-being only, but also the well-being of
others. (Phil. 2:4) Well, we don’t even have time to discuss what all the
Scripture has to say about sacrificing for Christ and for His people. And yet
sacrifice and self-denial have become dirty words in our selfie/society.
4.The
institutions of family and church have failed causing the collapse of the third, which is human government.
David asked the question “if the foundations be
destroyed what then will the righteous do?” (Psalms 11:3) God has in fact given
us three distinct institutions in which the human race operates. They are the
family, human government, and then finally but probably the most important is
the church. Make no mistake about it; Christians (at least Christians so
called) bear most of the blame for the state of our nation and our world.
Obama’s forced socialism is biting us, so now we are all in an uproar, but the
fact is that socialism has been creeping in since the great depression.
Socialism and even communal style living, (communism) when it is voluntary has
its roots in Biblical principle. The early church in the book of acts “had all
things in common.” (Acts 2:44-43) The Amish and Mennonite communities are
thriving because they still operate largely this way. The beginning of our
financial ruin was the “New Deal” Socialism to the Bible believing Christian is
a wonderful thought, but seriously naïve. Hey, who wouldn’t like to see every
American insured to receive medical care? Who wouldn’t like to know that everyone
in America had three square meals a day? There is only one problem with that
idea. The government doesn’t have that kind of money. Socialism when mandated
by the government becomes tyranny. The problem is not in the idea, but in
implementation. When the government began doing the church’s job and the church
began doing nothing, we started to spin out of control. Now we have come from
this wonderful thing called social security to a full blown entitlement
society. Christians decry the lack of morals in our day. Where were you during
rebellion of the sixties and seventies? I know where you were. You were the
free love pothead, acid freak, and now you’re the grown up adults running our
nation. We as Christian people really have no right to question what went
wrong. If you are a Christian over forty years old, (myself included) you are
the reason we are in a mess today. State governments, courts, and even the
church are curiously wondering how to handle the new gay marriage movements.
The sad truth is that neither the government nor the church has understood what
a Christian marriage and family is since we started accepting and propagating
no fault divorce in this country. I nearly busted out in laughter when I noticed
a young lady on Facebook liking a status of focus on the family about the
permanency of marriage. My unspoken question was. “Really, is that marriage
one, two, three, or four…?” Sadly this lady would claim to be a Christian, so
the unsaved people who know her are turned away from the Gospel. Another woman I
know in my own community is trying to run a “Christian Ministry” all the while
in a public affair with another woman’s husband. We all have sin in our lives,
but most of us have given up trying to do better. We cry, I’m only human, and
don’t judge me, and our own consciences have been dulled by our sinful behavior.
The end conclusion is that governments cannot
prosper long without a moral and ethical people to prop it up. When the Church
quit being the Church and the family traded the Ingalls and Walton’s models for
Friends and Will and grace, we set a course for destruction. “Do not be
deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.” (Gal
6:7) Christians have quit taking Scripture seriously and therefore the
non-Christian community has been able to neutralize its influence. We are
living out Romans 1:18-32. Read it carefully.
“ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness
and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since
what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to
them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal
power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has
been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they
neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became
futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be
wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual
impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the
truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than
the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over
to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for
unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with
women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts
with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore,
just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God
gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of
wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant
and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they
have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although
they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death,
they not only continue to do these very things but also
approve of those who practice them.” I
can almost hear the words if God were speaking this today. “Ok folks you don’t
want me around, let’s see what happens when I am not involved.” God is allowing
us to self-destruct. Every one of us is touched by this passage. Even those of
us would believe in God, and claim to love Him are guilty, by our silence. They
began teaching our children that we descended from monkeys, and we did nothing.
They took prayer out of schools and we did nothing. The Supreme Court said it
is ok to murder the unborn, and we did nothing. Silence is consent. We can say
that by our silence we “approve of those
who practice them.” What an
indictment! I’d be remiss if after all this I did not offer the simple
solution. No particular leader or any style of government can fix the problem.
Oh, and the solution needs no commentary. It’s real easy to understand.
“If
my people which are called by my name will humble themselves, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.” II Chron. 7:14
