“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;
And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”[i]
Psalm 33:12
Our country and its founders recognized the God of the Bible as foundational to the success and prosperity of this great nation. All one needs to do is go to Washington, DC and read God’s name engraved in stone and portrayed in the art and plaques in our nation’s Capitol, or pull out a penny and see our nation’s motto “In God We Trust”, or say the pledge of allegiance where we say “one nation under God”, or sing the national anthem “…this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust’”.
In our short existence as a nation, we have seen unparalleled freedom, growth, wealth, and military power. But since the 1950s, we have seen an organized effort to remove God from the public arena: schools, parks, meetings, and court houses. Since this movement has taken place, we can also see other unprecedented growths in our country: shootings in our public schools, teen pregnancies, over 50 million abortions since 1972, 19 trillion dollars in debt (and growing), divorce rates of over 50%, the redefinition of marriage, the fracture of the family, and confusion surrounding human sexuality. In the name of freedom, our nation is becoming enslaved to debt, entertainment, pornography, drunkenness, drugs, and lawlessness. Violence is on the rise. 2,319 people were victims of gun violence as of July 30, 2016 according to the Chicago Tribune. 2,988 people were shot in Chicago in 2015. So statistically, the 2016 pace is set to well exceed this number and this is only one major city in the United States. To remove God from our republic is contrary to the foundation upon which our country was built.
“It is ironic that the Supreme Court has often issued opinions which have stripped religious displays from the public square when these opinions have been read in a building with many religious displays. And it is ironic that public expressions of faith have been limited when all sessions of the court begin with the Courts Marshal announcing: God save the United States and this honorable court.
In a number of cases, the Supreme Court has declared the posting of the Ten Commandments unconstitutional (in public school classrooms and in a local courthouse in Kentucky). But this same Supreme Court has a number of places in its building where there are images of Moses with the Ten Commandments. These can be found at the center of the sculpture over the east portico of the Supreme Court building, inside the actual courtroom, and finally, engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice, and on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court itself.”[2]
Our Judeo-Christian roots go back to Moses and the Ten Commandments. Can God bless America when, as a nation, we turn our backs on His moral law which exposes our depravity and invites His judgment?
Jeremiah 18:1-10
1 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
God can bless America only if she repents and turns back to Him. True freedom is not in our ability to do whatever we wish to do, but liberty resides in fulfilling our God-given purpose. If we forget God, then as a nation we remove ourselves from His protection and His blessing.
Psalm 9:17
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God.”
Nations are made up of individual people. The character of a nation is determined by what the people worship. What they worship will give them the fruits which come from the hands of the gods they worship. If we as a nation truly loved God, we would not love violence, worship sex, be trillions of dollars in debt, and be experiencing murder in our streets. The wages of our sin is death. The word ‘death’ simply defined means separation. Physical death through guns and other violence is murder – “thou shall commit no murder”. Material separation comes through theft whether by legislation or by an intruder coming and taking your goods – “thou shall not steal”. Sin causes the break up, separation/death of marriages – “thou shall not commit adultery”. The loss of respect for parents results in another familial death/separation – “honor thy father and mother”. Then there is the loss of a person’s reputation through the public trashing of their name – “thou shall not bear false witness”.
The wages of our national sin result in a multitude of deaths. Nations are made up of individuals. Therefore, it is the collective influence of every individual in how they choose to live that determines if we as a people are righteous or wicked. All of us, according to the Bible, are sinners. Left to ourselves, we are destined to die eternally separated from the God who made us. It is not God’s will for individuals to be separated from Him. But our sin is what separates us.
Isaiah 59:1-8
1 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in vanity, and speak lies; They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice’eggs, And weave the spider’s web: He that eateth of their eggs dieth, And that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, Neither shall they cover themselves with their works: Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood: Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; And there is no judgment in their goings: They have made them crooked paths: Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.”
God’s will concerning you is not destruction and separation, but life.
2 Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
To repent means to acknowledge and turn from our sin against God and our fellow man. Sin is the breaking of God’s law and our choice to live contrary to it. God’s remedy for our sin is not found in religion, but in a person. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross for your sin and for the sins of the whole world. He was buried in the tomb and on the third day He rose again providing for the forgiveness of sin, the gift of eternal life for all who believe, power over the grave, and the defeat of Satan.
National forgiveness begins with personal forgiveness. Will you repent and put your faith in Jesus?
John 3:16-21
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
| ______________________ |
1All biblical quotes taken from The Holy Bible: King James Version
2 Newt Gingrich, Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation’s History and Future p. 87 (Nashville, TN: Integrity House, 2006).
QUOTE QUIZ
- “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”
○ Ronald Reagan ○George Washington ○John Adams
- “I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning….”
○ Benjamin Franklin ○ George W. Bush ○ Barack Obama
- “It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness….”
○ Ulysses S. Grant ○Bill Clinton ○ Abraham Lincoln
- “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
○ Thomas Jefferson ○John F. Kennedy ○ Richard Nixon
Contact Information:
Calvary Baptist Church
218 East Creamery St.
Granada, MN 56039
Pastor John Schofield
507-525-1138
www.calvarygranada.org
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