Wednesday, August 4, 2010

GOD BLESS AMERICA --- WILL HE - CAN HE?

Most mornings I walk Myisha, our Jack Russel-Poodle mix, around several blocks of our neighborhood.  We often pass a house that has a sign in front declaring "In God We Trust," a sentiment I certainly support.  This frequently repeated saying, together with "God Bless America," is much on the lips and minds of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans.

Those expressions are a reflection of the current struggle against the negative influences of recession, job loss, terrorism, rapidly increasing governmental intrusion, deteriorating foreign policy, overwhelming political correctness, unresponsive congressional representation, and many other issues.  They reflect our frustration over these circumstances which are pulling down and dividing our Nation.  To many, everything seems our of control, and our government is not providing the answers expected.  We have lost our trust and confidence in both those we have chosen to represent us and in those we have chosen to govern us.

Many recognize, I think rightly, that God aided in no small measure the establishment of this nation.  He has sustained us through a devastating "civil" war, two world wars, attacks by more powerful nations, and many other overt and covert attempts to bring this nation to its knees.  He has provided the provenance for us to prevail, prosper and expand.  He has enabled us to be a haven for the downtrodden, a beacon for the suppressed, and an example for others seeking to establish governments based on just law, fairly administered. As (what I believe to be) a reflection of His overarching purpose, we have contributed bountifully to the peace and prosperity of the world.

But, now it seems different.  Has He abandoned us?  Why does it seem that His blessing has stopped?  Is our current mix of tumultuous problems just another tough period through which He will carry us - another dark period from which He will provide escape that we may again light the world?  Or, is something much more elemental, even ominous, at hand?

With many others, I have focused much energy on political solutions and answers (please see my Blog posting of July 24: "Can the Foundation of Our Nation Be Preserved?")  As a result of this focus, I have now come to believe that the problem lies not in the physical, but rather in our spiritual perspective.  While we individually and jointly repeatedly cry out: "God Bless America," and, as frequently proclaim: "In God we Trust," I think it possible that the former cannot occur, because, from a national perspective, the latter may simply be not true!

In understanding God's blessing of our nation for these many years, we need to view it from a simple, unchanging, perspective: our Creator is a God of law.  He is rational, reasonable, and faithful to His promises.  His law is immutable.  It must be, for the benefit of the creation He loves.

When obeyed, His laws produce blessings, when violated penalties are exacted.  It is automatic, inherent in the law or principle.  Consider the law of Gravity.  It cannot be abrogated or ignored.  Jump off a high building and the penalty is severe injury, even death.  It matters not whether one jumps on purpose, falls by accident, or is pushed by another - the penalty is imposed, automatically.  God cannot suspend the law of gravity because we are nice folks, or because we are ignorant of the law, or because we are being affected by anther's malice, or any other reason.  For the earth to function as a home for humankind, the law of gravity must be constant and unchanging.

This applies to all of God's laws and precepts.  He put them in place for our blessing.  Violations produce penalties.  “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.” (De 28:1 NIVUS)  “However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you...” (De 28:15 NIVUS). 

God does not single us out and punish us when we violate one of those laws.  The blessing or penalty attached to His laws are automatic, common to all and apply equally to all.   “No temptation [trial] has seized you except what is common to man.” (1Co 10:13 NIVUS).

So, if our nation constructs and administers laws - or sanctions, encourages and condones social behavior and standards - in conflict with His immutable laws, there can be only one outcome.  The penalty of violating the laws He established will be exacted, automatically.  If that were not the case, His promises to us could never be trusted!

God does not, simply cannot, approve our current disregard for the sanctity of life, the rejection of the concept of marriage as a relationship of one man and one woman, unjust application and enforcement of law, business and government motivated primarily by greed, ingrained lying and deceit by governing officials and leaders, insatiable focus on sex and rampant lawless promoted in books, movies and television, and all the other things that we know are violations of the basic law He established: "to love one another - to treat one another as we would be treated."  But, until now it seems He has been willing to continue to protect and sustain our nation, all the while allowing us opportunity to overcome and change.  That does not imply that no penalty has been exacted for the violation of these  laws and principles by individuals.  Many thousands have paid the penalties for the violations of God's laws of love.  The principle of blessings and cursings cannot be suspended in some cases and applied in others.  But His blessing and support of our nation has been constant, until recently.


I believe our collective failure (me, you and all the other citizens of the United States) to resist these wrong practices is a simple, fundamental, statement that we no longer desire or trust Him to aid in establishing the laws and precepts which govern our land.  And, in our apathy or unconcern, we reject His guiding hand!

In the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence we declare that our right to establish our nation is derived from: "...the Laws of Nature and Nature's God..."   In the second paragraph we assert that: "...we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights."  Our Constitution was constructed around the belief that we are a nation dependent upon, and willing to follow God.  We must hold to and reestablish those principles and rid each of the three branches of our government of those who will not adhere to them, else God sees that we no longer seek to follow Him!  In his Farewell Address, George Washington said: "...of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indespensible..."  Our foundng fathers understood, and we must once again embrace, that God promises blessings to those who follow His precepts - we must trust Him enough to believe that promise and subsequently structure the law of our land accordingly. 

It seems to me that too few are willing to actively and forcefully speak out and address this issue head on.  The "Tea Party Movement" (which I heartily applaud and endorse) is talking about this, but is more focused on other, less spiritual, concerns.  And, several individuals of national influence (Sara Palin and Glen Beck quickly come to mind) are trying diligently to move us toward a more "Godly" perspective (yes, I know that using these words may be politically incorrect).  But the majority of U.S. citizens seem unaware, or are simply not sufficiently concerned enough to speak out forcefully and with conviction in support of restoring God's values to our nation.

So, while we, individually, grouse and complain about the loss of "foundational" principles, the disregard for the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the growth of government and its intervention into our lives, the crushing national debt, the increased threat of terrorism, and a myriad of other issues - all reasonable and justifiable concerns - we have failed to act.  We have not acted; we have not petitioned, voted, demonstrated, insisted, that our nation be set back on God's path.  And, from my perspective, until we do God cannot "Bless America."

We have abandoned the spiritually based governing principles He imparted to us more than 230 years ago - principles based on the belief in a supreme creator God who granted us those inalienable rights we cherish, and our preference for His guidance in our deliberations and governing.  And we are paying the price as certainly as we would had we jumped from the highest building in the land!

While there may be other explanations for the decline of our nation over the last twenty-five years, history provides some instruction relating to this premise.  God established a nation to honor Him and represent His ways to the rest of the world some 3,500 years ago - the original nation of Israel.  He promised blessings if they collectively obeyed His laws and precepts, and cursings if they did not.  He gave them many opportunities, granted forgiveness many times.  But, when they hardened their hearts to His counsel, the penalties of lawlessness were exacted.  The nation collapsed and its citizens were hauled off into captivity and scattered throughout the world.  This example was recorded for our instruction, that we might learn and choose different paths.


I believe that God established, for the second time, a nation to represent His values, love and bounty at the founding of the United State of America.  For many decades, in spite of struggling to overcome vices common to man, our nation represented His values to the rest of the world.  We were blessed, in spite of our failings.  We were the light of the world, in the sense of a government established to preserve and protect those inalienable rights granted to us by Him.  We were the demonstration, the validity, the proof, that a nation willing to submit to His guidance would be blessed and prosper.  Now we have strayed too far from Him and the blessings have ceased.

Finally, consider another biblical history lesson which may apply to us now.  Most of us learned as children the story of Jonah being swallowed by the "big fish."   But there was another point to that story beyond Jonah's problems.  It was the lawlessness of the nation of Nineveh.  Jonah was told by God to warn them, to tell them that they had strayed too far from His paths, and that they faced destruction if they did not turn back to following God.  They listened.  They changed.  They were not then destroyed.

These stories from history are true.

So, then the questions: can God bless America?  I do not believe He can now.  Not until we choose to change the direction our nation is going.  I am firmly and absolutely convinced that God's blessing of our nation has ceased because we have turned away from Him!  His laws are immutable, the attached blessings and penalties are automatic.

Will His blessings be restored?  They certainly can be.  Whether they will be is up to us.


These are my thoughts - what do you think?  If you agree, are you willing to work, pray, and perhaps to fight, to change our nation's path?  If you disagree, are you willing to gamble the prosperity, and perhaps the lives, of millions of people - are you willing to risk that America's light to the world may be forever dimmed - to support and sustain those actions and lifestyles which of themselves are only harmful, and which produce no long term positive results for anyone?  Which way makes sense?

Please think about this.  As it was in ancient Israel and Ninevah: so may it very well be for us today. 

From the Aspen Grove: may this day be a good one for you, and may the Great God who loves you bless you and yours.

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