As we get ready for the 4th of July holiday, we’re reminded we are blessed to live in a land that by every single standard has been more blessed than any other country in the history of the world (except perhaps for Israel in its theocratic glory days 3 millennia ago). We’ve experienced such tremendous liberty, security, & prosperity that we became the envy of the world, compelling countless people to want to immigrate here.
But have you ever asked yourself “Why are we so blessed?” What has made America great has been a combination of the Constitution, capitalism, & Christianity. Those who first sailed here from Europe sought religious freedom to glorify God & extend Christianity. Our nation’s very first documents & charters not only acknowledge God, they show that Jesus Christ is God’s Son & our Savior. They believed in self-evident truths that God is our Creator, & we are equal & endowed with certain inalienable rights that government can neither grant nor withhold. They honored God, & He, in turn, blessed this country. In other words, what they sowed, we have reaped.
America has never truly been a “Christian” nation in the strict sense because its citizens would all have to be believers genuinely abiding by Christian values. But still, our Founders recognized God’s authority & human sinfulness, & so government ought to be decentralized with checks & balances to prevent intrusion on our rights America wasn’t founded as a democracy where populations are able to function as fascists by vote of the majority. It is a Constitutional Republic that protects the God-given rights of all, regardless of the majority. The Christian heritage of this nation is evidenced not only in the words of national documents but in the buildings, memorials, speeches, rulings, mottos, songs, coinage, & Pledge.
Yet there’s been a concerted effort to destroy America’s spiritual heritage. They try to tell us this nation wasn’t really founded upon God. Even as Deists, Masons, & Universalists, many of those Founding Fathers who were not “evangelical” Christians, still supported the ideals of biblical faith & morality. The question is, considering how far we’ve denied, defied, & drifted from God, can He still bless America? Are we now at risk of being cursed?
Do we really believe what’s in the Pledge of Allegiance? I don’t. Do I believe it’s really a “republic?” Not fully. Too much corruption has been revealed to keep believing our system is fair & that our actual elected officials are running things. Our government ignores its own laws, interferes in free speech, restricts rights for “our own good,” endorses perversion, re-defines & penalizes marriage, exposes children to lewdness & teaches them evolution, devalues & thus steals money & piles up debt for future generations, sends our money all over the world to support corrupt regimes & promote globalist agendas, extorts exorbitant taxes to fund wasteful & nefarious programs, exploits the poor through the lottery, incentivizes laziness, & rewards illegal immigration.
Do I believe it’s “one nation indivisible?” No. We’re nowhere near united, & shouldn’t be, considering the radicalism of internal enemies that seek to silence us, undermine families & corrupt children. I can’t be united with evil. My allegiance is to the principles promoted in the Founding Documents, not to a corrupt governing class. The preconditions for a united nation are gone. Those who are radically far left view us as the ones who are evil, harmful & bigoted. They can’t bear to let us have influence or hold power. In this civil war of values, division is growing worse with many seeking & expecting secession (though it would be difficult to do).
Do I believe it’s really “under God?” No way. Our culture is being fundamentally transformed all around us. We’re in an America many of us no longer recognize. As our 2nd President, John Adams remarked: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Those disappearing preconditions lead to a disintegrating nation. So many efforts have been made to banish God from the public square. Hostility to biblical Christianity is rampant in academia, pop culture, & corporate America. Our culture is filled with moral filth, drugs & crime. We have lost our spiritual heritage & reversed our values.
With church attendance steadily falling for decades, & younger Americans abandoning Christianity altogether, a trending collapse of faith may be on the horizon (short of awakening & revival). Many who identify as “Christian” want nothing to do with biblical values, including many so-called “clergy.” Much of what’s left of the true Church in America has grown soft, spoiled, & silent.
Do I believe in “liberty & justice for all?” Yes, as an ideal. But is it really being practiced? We don’t see equal application to all. Justice is not blind when favoritism & hypocritical double standards are applied. A year after Roe v. Wade was overturned nationally, those in the womb are still denied the most basic right to life.
How far do we go in pledging allegiance to a nation like that? It’s one thing to promise to obey its laws (as long as they don’t conflict with God’s laws), but would the early Christians have pledged allegiance to the Roman Empire? How much has America succumbed to the same “spirit of Babylon” (1 Pet. 5:13, Rev. 16:9, 18:2)? During the reign of Catholic royalty in England, should Protestants have pledged allegiance considering its policy of persecution? Would we pledge allegiance to China or Iran if we lived under those regimes? If the Founding Fathers were alive today, would they still pledge allegiance to America (they didn’t come up with the Pledge–it came about over 100 years later)?
All is not right in America, but all is not wrong either. Some parts of it are far better than others. I still feel supremely blessed to live here. Even though America is plagued with many problems, there’s hope that we can help keep America blessed. Over & over, Israel would turn its back on God. But they would repent, & God would forgive & restore them. He destroyed godless Sodom & Gomorrah, but He would have spared them if He could have found just 10 godly people. I believe He will spare America if enough Bible-believing, faith-walking Christians stand in the way of its destruction.
It’s going to take more than 10 of us, but the Church can be the conscience of the community (nation), doing what we can to preserve godliness (as the “salt” of society) & shine the truth (as a “light” for the Lord). If we sit back & say nothing & do nothing, then we surrender this generation & the ones that follow to the forces of evil. Christianity is the only way to preserve our freedoms & prevent the State from taking God’s place. The best way to affect public opinion is to get the Word of God into the hearts of people. We do so as peacemakers who reject the vitriol & continue to love our neighbors (& even our enemies).
Whether America stands or falls, the Church marches on & is on the move around the world! As citizens of a heavenly kingdom, our first allegiance is to our King.