What Would God In America Look Like?
Recently Bill Federer published an article about James Garfield and his assassination on July 2, 1881. The man who was responsible for President Garfield’s death was Charles Guiteau. He was a member of a Socialist society called, the “Oneida Community.” They had common ownership of property and abandonment of moral norms. It affirmed free love, polygamy, pederasty (PED-uh-ras-tee), group control over procreation and children raised by "villages." The cult had legal issues over rape and other abuses and by 1879 its members wanted to return to traditional, biblical families. Eventually the Socialist experiment failed (as socialism always will) and the society was dissolved.
This sounds a lot like what we are facing today. There is some kind of ungodly fascination with Socialism. As a result abusive communities seem empowered to violate even the most basic of laws.
While he was a Congressman, President Garfield had said at the 100th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1876:
Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature ... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation ... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."
As much as churches, preachers and elders don’t want to step up to their responsibility of representing the culture and morality of the nation it falls to our feet. America is in a moral and cultural dilemma because God’s people have mistakenly caved to intimidation and stayed silent when evil has stepped into the leadership of our nation.
Please understand, this is not a political party issue. There is plenty of immoral, ungodly Socialistic behavior going on in both parties. We have political leaders who lack real credibility and integrity. It’s a battle we are facing and I believe will soon be winning as Americans wake up and start realizing that we have been deceived by the very people who have claimed to have had our best interests in mind. It is no longer “right vs. left;” it is “right vs. wrong,” “good vs. evil.”
According to Federer, while a SENATOR, James Garfield made this statement at the 1880 Republican National Convention, opposing the rule that all delegates from each state were required to vote for the candidate with the majority of delegates:
"There never can be a convention... that shall bind my vote against my will on any question whatever."
I wonder how many of our Senators and Representatives were aware of such a statement when a questionable Presidential election was being certified in January, 2021.
Forgetting God
In the midst of hard circumstances it is easy to think that God forgets us. We might think He is too busy to care about us; that He has done all He is going to do for us through the death burial, and resurrection of His Son. However, scripture teaches that God doesn’t forget us – Isaiah 49:14-16 (ESV):
14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
If God has not forgotten His “chosen people” who have often forgotten Him, would He forget His “choosing people,” even though we have occasionally forgotten as well?
We Forgot God
Just like the warning to the Hebrews in Deuteronomy 8:11-14 (ESV) we have forgotten God. Notice Moses’ words:
11 “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,
In the 1960’s we began shutting down public honoring of God. We could not have public prayers. The Bible could not be read in our schools. God and His affirmation were eliminated.
Why would we push God out? Many see religion as an outdated superstition, regardless of the fact that America was established on biblical principle and the providence of God. Religion and faith have been described as “crutches” that modern, enlightened people don’t need. After all, less than twenty years before we had dominated the world through the Second World War. We were prosperous. People were making money as never before less than forty years after the Great Depression. We had arrived!
No, we have done exactly what God knows people will do in the times of prosperity. Moses went on in Deuteronomy 8:17-19 (ESV):
17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
Does this sound familiar? How’s that prosperity working out? We have the highest rate of inflation that we have had in years. Gasoline prices are the highest we have had in at least four years. Lots of worthless money is coming in but we’re not able to buy much. It is a lot like Haggai 1:6 (ESV):
You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
The Jewish people of his day were neglectful of God for a time. He had brought them back to Israel from captivity to rebuild their cities, their temple, and their religion. Instead, the people were concentrating on themselves. The result was they never had “enough.”
So, we can see what happens when God is left out or pushed out of a nation. We see why that happens – we get too proud and think we can make it on our own. So, we forget God and evil enters the scene. When evil comes in we suffer.
Something mystical happens though when we put God in His proper place. When we exalt and serve Him first and foremost in our lives He blesses and cares for us. Jesus said it like this in Matthew 6:33 (ESV):
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
What Would God in America Look Like?
• An Esteem for God’s Son – Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
We can esteem Jesus as more than a good man. He is more than a prophet. He is God Himself in the flesh (John 1:1-14). By the way, did you notice than even God’s Son has concern for government? Isaiah said, “the government shall be upon his shoulder.” He didn’t separate church and state from His influence. Even government is under His domain.
• Esteem for Public Prayer and Scripture Reading
A godly society wants the words of God in their lives on all levels. This includes the community and national levels. Our Founders opened Congress with scripture and prayer as Jacob Duche led them on September 7, 1774. God made a great impact on the delegates through that public reading and prayer.
Paul told the young minster, Timothy of the importance of the public reading of scripture in 1 Timothy 4:13 (ESV):
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Founding Father, Benjamin Rush understood the importance of the Bible in public, especially in school. He declared:
"By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime."
• A Personal Esteem for God’s Word
Not only do we appreciate the public reading of scripture, there is a personal time for reading, studying, and meditating on the word of God. John Adams said that our Constitution was only for a “moral and religious people.” How do we become that? It certainly is not on our own or based on godless philosophies. It comes from God and through His word. Hear some scriptures that point out the place of God’s word in our lives.
Psalm 119:16 (ESV)
16 I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
Psalm 119:61 (ESV)
61 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,
I do not forget your law.
Early on in our republic, our leaders appreciated the Bible and understood its import to the people of the United States. Let me read some quotes from the early and more modern years.
Andrew Jackson, June 8, 1845, in reference to the Bible:
That book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests.
In his last will and testament Jackson stated:
The Bible is true. Upon that sacred Volume I rest my hope of eternal salvation through the merits of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
In September 26, 1810, in a diary entry, John Quincy Adams (one of my favorite Presidents) wrote:
I have made it a practice for several years to read the Bible through in the course of every year. I usually devote to this reading the first hour after I rise every morning.
In a letter to his son, JQA stated:
No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible.
On June 17, 1843, Daniel Webster spoke of the founding fathers’ regard for the Bible in an address celebrating the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument, Charleston, Massachusetts:
The Bible came with them. And it is not to be doubted, that to free and universal reading of the Bible, in that age, men were much indebted for right views of civil liberty.
The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of special revelation from God; but it is also a book which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow-man. (1782DW015)
On another occasion Daniel Webster stated:
The Bible is our only safe guide. So long as we take it as our instructor for conduct and character, we will go on prospering in the future as in the past. But the moment we relegate it from our lives a catastrophe will come to us such as we have never known. (1782DW022)
In more modern times, Presidents have made similar statements.
President Woodrow Wilson (one of my least favorite Presidents)
When you have read the Bible, you will know that it is the Word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty. (1856WW060)
President Calvin Coolidge, 1923:
The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country. (1872CC006)
Herbert Hoover:
And now as to this whole gamut of Socialist infections, I say to you...God has blessed us with another wonderful word-heritage. The great documents of that heritage are not from Karl Marx. They are from the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Within them alone can the safeguards of freedom survive.... (1874HH012)
• Esteem A Biblical Worldview
If we esteem the Bible, first personally and then nationally, we will intend to put it into practice. We develop a “biblical worldview.” That means, the Bible becomes the guiding factor in our whole life. My friend, Paul Blair, repeatedly makes the point with this question, “What part of your life is Jesus NOT Lord over?”
The apostle Paul said in Romans 2:13 (ESV):
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
This was the intention of our Founders. On February 22, 1756, John Adams made the entry in his diary:
Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God...What a Eutopia, (sic) what a Paradise would this region be. (1735JA001)
• Esteem People
People in America have the wrong Socialism. Many, especially young Americans, think that Socialism is one big happy family where everybody just takes of each other. It sounds good, but it never works. Venezuela went from the most prosperous country in South America to one of the least prosperous. The people are in essence slaves to the government. It didn’t work because people are fodder to the government.
If God is in America there will be esteem for people. Godly people know that they and others have been created in the image of God. Each of us bears a resemblance to Him and deserve respect for it. James 2:1 (ESV) reminds us:
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
In Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV), God created man in His image. He relates:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
The Rabbis have asked the question, “What was God’s original language?” Some would say, “Hebrew.” Others might guess a language predating Hebrew. To rabbis, the answer is, “God’s original language was man.” Man communicated to man the character of God.
The ungodly practice the opposite. Might makes right in their eyes. Government, not God, determines the rights of people and doles them out as they see fit. When we esteem people, we have life, liberty and justice for all – including the unborn and the young.
• Esteem the Family
The Marxist organization, BLM has on its website their intent to destroy traditional families. Why? Because in the Satanic Marxist organizations, family is a creation of God according to Genesis 1:27-28, ESV:
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
If you don’t destroy family, there is less chance to take over a society. So, all kinds of immorality is espoused by them. They not only want it to be an option to people, a choice they make; they want it to be celebrated and accepted by even God-fearing people.
Guess what? They are accomplishing that goal. How many Christians do you know of who once held the biblical position on homosexual behavior but when a child or another loved one chooses that lifestyle they change their view and embrace it?
I’ve said before that the family is key to preserving faith and practice of a society. The reason Jewish people have stood the test of time is not because they once had a temple. It is not because of synagogues, though they can be helpful. It is because of the family. Jewish fathers and mothers pass on their faith to their children from one generation to the next.
What applications can we make for Christians? What would happen if we devoted ourselves to family to pass on the most important things to our children? What if we exhibited at least the same kind of enthusiasm for God that we have for pee wee league sports? What effect would it have on children if they saw their parents treating God and His word with enthusiasm and excitement rather than on the level of being simply part of a country club with all of the arrogance and apathy that go along with it?
• Esteem Sincere Gratitude to God – If we lose our Gratitude, we will forget our God.
The Bible reminds us to be grateful.
Pastor R. G. Lee wrote:
"In the Sept. 1923 issue of Literary Digest, it said, 'History knows no disasters which parallels the earthquake and fire that visited Japan this month and laid waste the capital city and the chief seaport'. The New York Tribune called this earthquake “undoubtedly the greatest disaster in recorded time.” The disaster affected about 7 Million people. A joint survey made by Herbert Hoover and the Red Cross estimated the dead at almost 300,000 with 2,500,000 people homeless. Disease and despair rode throughout the island empire. Then, help came from America! Food, clothing, medical supplies and volunteer workers came in droves. Those who lived through the awful tremors, gigantic waves and fires were likely to perish from starvation or disease. But they didn’t. Why? Because America remembered—remembered their need, their suffering, and their hunger. The Japanese were grateful. They even put their appreciation in writing: “Japan will never forget!” But Japan did forget! American ships of mercy were forgotten, and the Rising Sun sent planes of destruction in return. On December 7, 1941, Japanese airplanes brought death and destruction to Pearl Harbor—and the Rising Sun proclaimed that America, brought to her knees, would beg for mercy."
This is Why there is Emphasis on “Remember” as in the Last Supper – Luke 22:19 (ESV) And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
• Esteem the Challenging of Evil
Jesus confronted evil repeatedly. He went on offensive to man with legion; He attacked the “gates of Hell” in Caesarea Philippi; He confronted the money changers in temple – what about us? Too many American Christians want to take the easy way out. They believe that by hiding one’s head in the proverbial sand that everything will blow w over and get back to the freedoms we have known. Too many American Christians don’t want to stand against evil because that would mean putting forth effort and becoming targets. The mantra is, “Let someone else do it.”
Martin Niemoller was called, the “Resolute Foe of Hitler.” He was a Lutheran Pastor in the World War 2 era and tried to stand against Hitler and the Nazis. He wrote this little poem to describe the dilemma of the time.
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
We could go on and on but I want to close with one more thought.
• Esteem Our Heritage
At one point in American history, we taught about our Founders – and their wives. I have books in my library with biographical sketches of both. Our ancestors knew the lives of the men and women who gave their all for our nation. But we have forgotten. We have allowed undocumented stories about Washington and others to surface and be accepted as true. We owe honor and respect to our Founders.
Romans 13:7 (ESV) reads in part:
Pay to all what is owed to them: . . . honor to whom honor is owed.
No other country in history has been as successful as America. No other country has so proven the power of God and His word in the lives of the nation and impact on the world. When we remember Him by living out our faith we prove Him to others.
There is a fallacy that “any government” is acceptable for Christians. According to this line of thought, we can be faithful to God under any set of circumstances and any form of government. This is true as far as it goes, but why would we give up a godly heritage for an ungodly one? Esteem the heritage of our ancestors and imitate their faith!
Psalm 33:12 (ESV):
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
Keep the Light of the Remembrance of God Burning!
