WHY GOD SHOULD BLESS AMERICA
BY
JERRY FALWELL
As I look at this sermon today, I can go two ways. First, I
can talk about why God should punish America; or second, I
can talk about why God should bless America.
If I were to preach this sermon on why God should judge
America, I would describe our sins and disobedience. I
would try to make Americans feel guilty and convicted over her sins.
But I don’t want to do that. I want to rehearse in your ears
what America did to become great. This sermon is to make
you thirsty so you want the nation to be great again. “Why
should God bless America?” Because we have been a good
nation. We have tried to do the right thing, “Righteousness
exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people”
(Proverbs 14:34). Because we did right things, God exalted
us.
1. God has blessed America because we are a giving
people.
The United States has never been a selfish nation. From the
very beginning, our Christian foundation has mandated that
we love and help others. Jesus told us to “love your neighbor
as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Paul told us,” If thine enemy
hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink” (Romans
12:20).
I ran across this editorial written a few years ago by Gordon
Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. The following
text was printed in our nation’s Congressional Record:
This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for
the Americans as the most generous and
possibly the least appreciated people on all the
earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain
and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by
the Americans who poured in billions of dollars
and forgave other billions in debts. None of
these countries is today paying even the interest
on its remaining debts to the United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing in
1956, it was the Americans who propped it up,
and their reward was to be insulted and
swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I
saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the
United States that hurries in to help. This
spring, 59 American communities were flattened
by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy
pumped billions of dollars into discouraged
countries. Now newspapers in those countries
are writing about the decadent, warmongering
Americans.
I’d like to see just one of those countries that is
gloating over the erosion of the United States
dollar build its own airplane. Does any other
country in the world have a plane to equal the
Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the
Douglas DC10? If so, why don’t they fly them?
Why do all the International lines except Russia
fly American Planes?
Why does no other land on earth even consider
putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk
about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios.
You talk about German technocracy, and you
get automobiles. You talk about
American technocracy, and you find men on the
moon not once, but several times and safely
home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put
theirs right in the store window for everybody to
look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not
pursued and hounded. They are here on our
streets, and most of them, unless they are
breaking Canadian laws, are getting American
dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and
India were breaking down through age, it was
the Americans who rebuilt them. When the
Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York
Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old
caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans
raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can
you name me even one time when someone else
raced to the Americans in trouble? I don’t think
there was outside help even during the San
Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I’m one
Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them
get kicked around. They will come out of this
thing with their flag high. And when they do,
they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands
that are gloating over their present troubles. I
hope Canada is not one of those."
Stand proud, America!
The first reason why God should bless America is
because we have given generously to everyone,
regardless of race, color or creed.
2. God should bless America because right makes might.
The terrorists live by the opposite principle. They think that
their might makes them right. They think that if they have
the biggest bomb, biggest biological weapon, and can beat
their enemy into submission; they think their might makes
them right.
But America has always believed the opposite. I would say
to the terrorists this morning: “Do not be mistaken to think
that our love of freedom is a lack of commitment. Do not
think that our love of peace is cowardice.” As Yamamoto,
the Japanese admiral said after he attacked Pearl Harbor in
World War II, “I feel that I have awakened a sleeping
bear.” Terrorists, you have awakened a sleeping bear. We
will not rest until justice is done. Why? Because our cause
is right. Will we awaken our might?
Think of this small struggling nation in the 1700s. We were
a nation of farmers, we didn’t have the industrial factories
of Britain; we depended on her supplies. We didn’t have the
vast navies (not a single ship). We depended on Britain’s
navy, the largest in the world, for protection. We depended
on Britain’s army, the largest in the world for protection.
When it came to the American Revolution, we had none of
the ingredients to win except we had “right” on our side.
Remember, right makes might.
In our little log cabin schools taught by our pastors, our
children received a basic education in reading, writing and
arithmetic; but most importantly, they learned what was
right from the Word of God. Compare our fledgling little
schools to the world-leading universities of that day.
Compare our struggling schools to Cambridge, Oxford, and
the red-bricked colleges of England. They had the edge in
academics, but not in spiritual commitment.
Because our founding fathers believed they were right, they
waged war. The United States had insufficient armaments
and limited resources. The United States faced
insurmountable odds: the largest army in the world, the
largest navy in the world, and the largest empire in history,
i.e., the British Empire. The United States fought a superior
enemy and defeated them. Out of that resolution, our
founding fathers forged out the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United States that gave the
greatest amount of freedom, to the greatest number of
people, and the United States grew to give the greatest good
to all mankind. Why? Because we believed: right makes
might.
And the British came back fifty years later in the War of
1812. They were still the largest nation in the world and we
beat them a second time. Because right makes might.
Now look at all the battles that the United States has fought
and compare them to the battles of other nations. The
United States has never fought a battle to conquer, occupy
and take over another nation. Over 300 years ago, Spain
went out to conquer the world to expand its empire; so did
Portugal, The Netherlands, England and Italy, but not the
United States.
We’ve never fought a war because of the pride or ego of a
leader, such as Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler, Mussolini,
Napoleon, or other dictators.
We’ve never fought a war to gain wealth or riches. Think of
the empires that have gone to battle to get money: Spain,
France, and the other European nations. But the United
States refuses to get rich off the wars she wins. Our nation
turns around to give to those we defeat and build back up
the nation of those who attack us.
The American experience of freedom and liberty has been
tested in every century and every generation: from George
Washington in Valley Forge to General Jackson in New
Orleans, to Abraham Lincoln, to Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba,
to Woodrow Wilson in World War I, to Franklin D.
Roosevelt in World War II, to Ronald Reagan who
challenged Russia, “Tear down this wall!” It seems that
there has always been a challenge to American freedom, and
today we are challenged again. Again, in this 21st century,
our freedom and liberties are being tested. Benjamin
Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister of Israel, who lost a
brother to the terrorists in Israel’s bold raid on Entebbe in
1976, stated on television after September 11, “The attack on
the Twin Towers is not the worse that can be done.” We as
a nation are being tested and we must prepare for more
terroristic activity. The only way we can win this battle is to
remember that right makes might. It’s not getting God on
our side, we must be on God’s side to win this battle.
3. God should bless America because we have carried
out the Great Commission.
There have been many outstanding foreign missionary
movements over the centuries where a vast number of
people have gone to carry out the Great Commission. When
Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature” (Mark 16:15), the church of Jesus Christ
has taken that command literally.
I am told that Patrick and his band of missionaries went out
from Ireland to evangelize all of Europe. I am told of the
Moravians who went out from Austria to spread the Gospel
into India, America, and other places. I am told of the great
advances of the Methodist church under the flaming fires of
evangelism kindled by John Wesley, Whitefield, and Asbury.
I am impressed with the Student Volunteer Movement that
sent hundreds of missionaries all over the world of a
hundred years ago under the leadership of John Mott and
many others.
But, there was a movement after World War II that saw
missionaries from America go to around the world. Last
week my secretary contacted the United States Center for
World Missions in Pasadena, California, and she was told
that since 1945, there have been 590,000 career foreign
missionaries. Career foreign missionaries are those who
have obtained a passport and have served for more than 1
year on the field.
And what did these missionaries do? Obviously, they went
to evangelize and win people to Christ. In the process we
have established hospitals, orphanages, clinics, agricultural
advances, grade schools, colleges and seminaries all over the
world.
Bible translators have reduced the spoken language of the
heathen tribes into written language, and then taught the
people to read their own language. Then our missionaries
have translated the Bible into the language of the people,
and taught them the Word of God. My secretary also called
Wycliffe Bible Translators to get the following information
of what they have done since World War II: they have
worked with 1571 languages, in 46 countries, translated the
New Testament into more than 500 languages and today, this
one mission organization has 5,178 active missionaries.
Many governments may not like our preaching and
evangelization, but they have welcomed Bible translators
because they have brought civilization to heathen tribes.
But let’s not just look at the endeavors of preaching and
evangelization. Think of the Peace Corps, begun by
President John F. Kennedy and the thousands of Americans
who went out to teach people how to read and write. The
Peace Corps gave them good clean water, improved living
conditions, sanitation, and lifted the death rate so the people
could have a longer and better life.
Why should God bless America? Because of our evangelism
and our education.
4. God should bless America because of our biblical
foundation.
You heard me preach on the Declaration of Independence
before. What I’ve done is to examine the Declaration of
Independence, word by word; using the same principles that
we examine the Scriptures, word by word. When we
examine these words, we try to find out what the original
writers meant. Let’s examine the statement in the
Declaration of Independence that bases our nation on
Almighty God:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.
First, our founding fathers believed in a Creator. They
placed God at the foundation of this nation, recognizing that
He created the world. Again notice, they capitalized
Creator, recognizing Him as deity.
Second, they believed that God created them (all men) in His
own image. In this statement, they are telling us that man
was created in the image of God. We are not the product of
evolution, we didn’t evolve from a lower species; rather, we
have great inalienable rights because we got them from God.
So when we teach evolution in the public schools, we are
denying what our founding fathers believed.
Third, the Declaration of Independence teaches that God’s
original supernatural act of Creation is the basis upon which
the people of the United States enjoy life, liberty and pursuit
of happiness.
In the fourth place, the founding fathers believed in absolute
truth which they called the “alienable rights” or
“self-evident truths.” By that, our founders separated
themselves from the view that truth is relative, or “what
may be true to me, may not be true to you.”
When you do away with truth, you no longer believe in
absolute morality or absolute truth. You believe in
situational ethics.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God.
