God Bless America

 

Many people now use the phrase “God Bless America” as they have done over the past few decades.  Many use it at the end of their speeches or programs.  Since the attacks of 911, it has been proficiently used by everyone.  Many major league teams play and have the crowd sing the song God Bless America at the seventh inning stretch.  I do not oppose any use of this phrase on any occasion.  Neither would I support in any way those who ask God to condemn America.  Yet, now every time I hear “God Bless America”, a question is raised in my mind.  Why should God bless America?

Maybe, this phrase has become like the question “Hi, how are you?”  A question people have turned into a greeting and not a real question.  Yet, because its more frequent and wider use, “God Bless America” must be what it is, a prayer that asks God to show His favor upon our country.  It asks God to prosper us, to protect us, and to justify our cause.  Again I say, it is a prayer that also asks the question how can God bless America?

God has and continues to show His goodness and benevolence to all people.  It is the general mercy and grace He extends to all people.  He created and placed the Earth in the right orbit around the Sun to support life here.  He sends the rain, sunshine, and good weather on all – the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45).  “He gives to all life, breath, and all things…in Him we live and move and have our being…”(Acts 17: 25, 27). Paul in this passage tells the Athenians that God gives life to all, appoints nations their boundaries and times, and supplies their resources.  God’s kindness to all is so that men will see and recognize Him as the one and only true God (Rom 2:4).  God has bestowed a general benefit to America by His gracious plans.

However, for God to give His blessing, certain conditions must be met.  The blessing of forgiveness is given to the person who acknowledges to God that they are a sinner and that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, died in their place on the cross for their sin (Psalms 32: 1, 2).  The person’s blessing of forgiveness is met on the condition that Christ died for our sin (1 Pet. 3: 18) and the person has received Christ as their Savior (John 1: 12).  Although, God is loving, kind, merciful, and gracious; He is holy, righteous, pure, and sinless.  Sin and sinners cannot be in His presence, nor can they expect His blessings.  The sin must be removed from the sinner by the blood of Christ.  This is the first and primary condition that must be met in order to obtain any of God’s blessings.  When a person has received Christ, then God’s blessings are based on our following His commandments and principles.  “How blessed is the man that doesn’t walk in the council of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf will not wither: and whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalms 1: 1-3). 

Conditions apply to whether a nation can be blest by God.  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance.” (Psalms 33: 12).  As God told the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 28, a number of His blessing would be contingent upon their obedience to His commandments.  Some of these blessings included their health, economy, prosperity, safety, and status among the nations.  God’s message and instruction to Israel sets the standards that God will use to judge all nations including the United States of America. 

Does America meet any of the conditions that God said He would look for before He would give His blessings?  Let us examine America.

America has expelled the God of creation from all scientific fields.  They have denied His creative ability and the witness of creation itself, and replaced it with the hypothesis (not theory) of evolution.  Evolution is the only explanation offered to our beginnings in the scientific community and in our educational system.  (See Ben Stein’s movie Expelled.)   Biblical moral views are no longer a consideration in research.  The end will justify the methods.

America has expelled God from its educational systems.  Prayer is out.  Bible reading is out.  The Ten Commandments are out.  Christian moral standards are out.  Teaching abstinence is out.  Teaching lifestyles contrary to the Bible is in.  Teaching situation ethics is in.  Purposing to deny schools funds if the students have a Christian clubs is in.

America has asked God to leave our public places.  No displays of the Ten Commandments.  I am surprised they have not chiseled them off the Supreme Court Building.  No nativity scenes or other Christian religious displays.  The revival of the so called Fairness Doctrine will severely suppress or stop the true preaching and teaching of the Bible and God’s way of salvation through Jesus Christ.

 America has asked God to leave government in all three branches.  The founding fathers in writing the Constitution wrote it in such a way that God and His principles were to be part of the laws of the country and government.  The government was to separate itself from God only in the area of having a national church or national denomination.  This came from the lesson of England during “Bloody” Mary’s reign and the example of Roger Williams in Rhode Island.  Now, in the new Capitol visitor’s center all references to God in our documents have been deleted.  The references to God and the faith our founding fathers and subsequent leaders have been left out.  Many leaders today, even the ones that profess Christianity, still support the government sanction of murder by abortion.  Many are working to suppress and silence the Bible, good moral living, and the way of salvation through Jesus Christ.

This country has not met the conditions of Deuteronomy 28 for God to bless us, but as the latter part of the chapter states we have met the conditions for the cursing of God to take place.  As Billy Graham’s daughter, Ann Graham said in an interview with Jane Clayson on the Early Show when asked how God could allow Katrina to happen.  She said “I believe God is a deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government, and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

Ann Graham is right, but there is more to it than God just being a gentleman.  As was declared on Mount Carmel in Elijah’s day, “the LORD He is God!” (1Kings 18: 39).  This is God’s world and we are His creation.  He created us; we did not invent Him.  Therefore, as Paul declared on Mars hill in Athens “in Him we live and move and have our being.”(Acts 17:28)  This means that God is in charge and that He is sovereign.  In fact the battle cry of our Revolution was “no king but King Jesus!”  God, also, has the supreme right to judge this world and our nation and His judgments are final and complete.

As a subject of the King and Judge of all the Earth, if one wishes to have the King’s favor or blessing, then one should honor and obey the King.  One should live in obedience to the King’s laws and commands.  If one denies or rebels against the King, then the King has the right and power to judge and punish the offender.  Therefore, God the sovereign King of the Universe, which does include the U.S.A., has a right to bless and to judge.  America’s rejection (rebellion) against God has not placed us in the position of blessing.  On the contrary, America has placed herself in the position where God’s corrective and directive judgments have already started.

Ever since Mt. St. Helens erupted and possibly earlier, God has been trying to get our attention.  Over the last few decades, the United States has seen devastating floods, tornados, hurricanes, cold waves, heat waves, ice storms, snow storms, and wind storms.  There have been droughts or too much rain.  On September 11, 2001, evil men succeeded in attacking the country on our own soil.  Now, this country is in a financial, an economic, and health care disasters.  There have been out breaks of diseases like swine flu and diseases that cannot be treated or cured.  Is all this just coincidence, isolated weather events, and a lapse in our intelligence?  Have we over used antibiotics?  OR, is it possible that God is trying to get our attention and tell us something? 

The reason evil men succeeded in attacking us is not so much a lack in our intelligence or ignoring the information gather by our intelligence.  With all of the finger pointing taking place, the main reason for the success of the attacks is the people of this country’s rejection of God.  Psalms 127: 1 says “unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”  Because our leaders reject God’s presence in the government and pass laws that are contrary to His law, the Lord let down His guard on 911.  Because groups promoting sinful lifestyles and advocating murder of innocents, the Lord let down His guard on 911.  Because of people seeking self, pleasure, and material possessions without moral codes, the Lord let down His guard on 911.  Because of this country’s rejection of Jesus Christ, the Lord let His guard down on 911.

All of our so called natural disasters should be looked at with this passage of Isaiah 45: 5-7 in mind.  “I am the Lord, and there is no other; beside Me there is no God.  I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.” (emphasis mine)  Do you think that Katrina was focus on New Orleans, the murder capitol, just by coincidence?

Previously, God’s goodness to this country was designed to lead us to repentance (Roman 2: 4).  Now, God has brought about these calamities to turn us back to Him.  They are designed so that we will invite Him back into this country.  The Lord wishes all men to repent and not perish (2 Peter 3: 9 and John 3: 16).  God has no pleasure in the death of any person (Ezekiel 18: 32).

In fact, God has told us how to receive His blessings again; how we can be revived.  For some it will be to get right with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  For the ones already saved, it means humbling themselves before God, praying (confess sin and confess faith), and turning from their wicked sinful ways (2 Chronicles 7: 14).

If America returns to the Lord Jesus Christ, then He can bless us.  So I say, “God Revive America!” 

 

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