Reclaiming America

"He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:7-8

For better or worse, current events have always been the source for those people who are looking to gauge the climate of the country. Christians are no different. We often lament at the sad state of affairs of the morality in this country and it has galvanized many Christians to have a desire to "reclaim America for Christ." One organization puts it like this: "I believe God is shaking our country and this world. Man has become self-confident. In our prosperity, we have all developed a certain amount of arrogance. In the back of our minds, we all have a certain amount of independence trusting our own intelligence and wealth. God is still on His throne. Jesus still offers eternal life to “whosoever will.”  Our God is still very capable of healing our land and forgiving our sin IF WE who are called by His name will humble ourselves, pray, SEEK HIS FACE (meaning to obey Him and walk in His steps), and TURN FROM OUR EVIL WAYS!" I share the sentiment regarding the self-confidence of man, our growing arrogance in our prosperity, and our dependence on our intelligence and wealth. However, I don't agree with the latter half of the commentary where they seem to be pulling from 2 Chronicles 7:14. God is not in covenant with the United States of America. Due to the fact that our country was founded by many Bible-believing Christian men and women, there is this belief that this historical fact means that God is looking at our country the same way He looks at the nation of Israel. Therefore, He must be judging us on the basis of sin and death as well. This is why people who think this way are so reliant on using scriptures meant for the Jews of the Old Covenant and superimposing them onto our present country and world. So when you have things like legalized abortion and same-sex marriage it leads directly to people thinking "God is shaking our country" through natural disasters, health crises, economic strain, wars, and so on. Because, if you read through the history of Israel, that is all you see in their relationship with God. Their disobedience led God to cast them into slavery, out of the land He promised them, striking them with plagues, and much more. To believe all of this is not only taking the Bible out of context, but it is also missing the message of the Gospel and the New Covenant altogether.

In Acts 1:6, the disciples asked Jesus Christ, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus had just lived a perfect life, died for the sins of the world, rose from the grave, and is about to ascend back into heaven and His disciples are basically asking Him, "Are we going reclaim the Holy Land for God?" After all that they had experienced and all Jesus had accomplished they still missed what His purpose was while here on earth. In answer to their question, Jesus takes the high road by explaining that it wasn't the moment to get into the dates and times God has set. Then He transitions into the fact that He needs them to be witnesses for the Gospel throughout the world. Later, after giving the Holy Spirit to them, they would begin to see more clearly what God's plan was for them. His plan is no different for us today. While reclaiming America for Christ could be a side-effect, the reason we are here is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. One of the main things to understand about the Gospel is the forgiveness of sins. God is not counting the sins of the world against them any longer. Therefore, to pray for Him to forgive our sins in order to get Him to stop "shaking our country" is totally misguided. We are asking God to forgive sins He is no longer counting against us in order to bring healing to the land rather than to the hearts of men. Not to mention that we are subscribing blame to Him for things He may not be responsible for doing in the first place. God can use the "shaking" to get the attention of people, but this is so He can get people to come to faith in Jesus Christ, not so Christian morality can once again reign supreme. Never forget this one truth. "We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:20)." We are citizens of heaven when it comes to our identity in Christ. Therefore, we are here in this world to represent the Lord Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. We are not here to make sure the laws of the land and the behaviors of its people line up with the tenents of scripture. A change in behavior and a reverence for the Bible does not automatically mean a person has become born again of the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ. If we want people to turn from anything and seek God, let us make sure it is turning from their unbelief in Jesus Christ and seeking to accept His offer of life through faith in Him.

Just My Imagination

“"There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths,  And the path of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”" Romans 3:10-18

John Lennon released his song, Imagine, in 1971. Some of the lyrics contained in the song are as follows:

• Imagine there's no heaven
• No hell below us
• Imagine there's no countries
• And no religion, too

These lyrics sound a lot like someone wanting to create a Utopian society. Utopia, by definition, is an "imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect." The people advocating the pursuit of such a place believe in "perfect worlds, worlds free of conflict, hunger, and unhappiness." In general, they "imagine" the way to get there is through implementing the things mentioned in Lennon's song. The idea of there being no heaven, no hell, and no religion go hand in hand with each other. On June 25, 1962, according to CNSNews, "the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment because it represented establishment of religion. In 1963, in Abington School District v. Schempp, the court decided against Bible readings in public schools along the same lines." Since 1963, according to education expert William Jeynes, "there have been five negative developments in the nation’s public schools: academic achievement has plummeted, including SAT scores, increased rate of out-of-wedlock births, increase in illegal drug use, increase in juvenile crime, and deterioration of school behavior." This is all due to the removal of just two tenants of religion; prayer in school and Bible reading. Obviously, when you remove prayer and Bible reading you, effectively, remove the God you are praying to and the words He has written to us. Therefore, you remove the foundation behind what is good and evil. The consequences of that are you now have no God to be accountable to and no Heaven and Hell to aspire to or avoid. And when there is no God, man becomes his own god. It is a perfect example of Judges 17:6 which says, "In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." And when you have people acting as their own gods and doing what is right in their own eyes, you get further conclusions like this from Jeynes: "Other facts included a comparison between the top five complaints of teachers from 1940-1962 -- talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls and getting out of turn in line – to rape, robbery, assault, burglary and arson from 1963 to present." Unfortunately, one thing you can add to this list is mass shootings. And before I forget, we have to address the idea of there being no countries. There are those today that advocate open borders. With no borders you have no countries. With no religion, no God, no Heaven, no Hell, and no countries, you have no order. The result of this isn't Utopia, it is chaos!

However, in all fairness, there is a segment in Christianity that seems to have a similar desire to create Utopia on earth, only from a Christian perspective. Because of all the problems created by removing Bible reading and prayer from public schools (and society at large), Christians end up trying to reclaim these things. When you see things like the legalized murder of unborn children through abortion, sexual immorality of various types, the silencing of truth through political correctness, redefining marriage, the advocating of ungodly worldviews like Communism and Socialism, and the removal of anything pertaining to God, in general, or Christianity, specifically, you rightfully get upset and are moved to action. In that sense, I can understand why Christians are motivated to engage these areas in hopes of aligning them more with biblical truth. However, we have to ask ourselves one question, "If we reclaim America for Christ and reverse all these trends, will it directly lead to people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ?" If abortions ended, marriage was once again defined as the union of a man and a woman, sexual immorality came to a halt, political correctness was stopped, and all the godless, secular worldviews and economic systems were banished to history, would the Kingdom of God increase by even one person? Possibly, but I say it wouldn't change all that much. Prior to 1962 and 1963, when school prayer and Bible reading were removed, did that automatically mean everyone in the nation was saved? No. If that were the case we would not have had the incidents that led to the removal of school prayer and Bible reading. This is because getting someone to behave properly doesn't mean they have had an encounter with the living God of the Bible, Jesus Christ. Throughout the Bible, we see what the problem is with mankind and it is not lack of the proper religious and societal structure as to what is right and what is wrong or how to behave. The problem is that our hearts are wicked. Our hearts are so wicked that it was the reason that God destroyed all life on the planet (Genesis 6:5). The prophet Jeremiah said just as much and even wondered if anybody could truly understand why our hearts are so wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). And the Apostle Paul clearly illustrated that "there is no fear of God before their eyes." He said this about both Jews and Gentiles; those under God's law and those who were not under it. Yet, all of them were sinners who had fallen short of the glory of God. It is because they were all spiritually dead to God; absent of the Holy Spirit indwelling them. They needed a change of heart by coming alive to God through faith in Jesus Christ. When He changes your heart, whether you are operating under a system of godlessness or godliness, you will be led from within by God. The goal is not to create Utopia by removing God from society. Neither is the goal to reclaim America for Christ by getting people to behave properly. The goal is to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15)." This can be done in any and all circumstances. Imagine that!