GETTING AMERICA BACK TO GOD, AN INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE
--PROVERBS 14:34
Israel is a Jewish nation; Saudi Arabia is a Muslim one; India is a Hindu country; but what kind of Country is America? It may not be the politically correct position to take; but, nevertheless, it is true: “America is a Christian nation,” and it’s time for us to “Get America Back to God.” It may appear as if these statements contradict each other. Maybe I should rephrase just a bit. We are a nation with a Christian foundation, but our country has backslidden in our relationship with the God of our Fathers. The Holy Spirit is calling us to “Get America Back to God.”
“In a mid-Atlantic summit with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the darkest hours of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt—who had described the United States as ‘the lasting concord between men and nations, founded on the principles of Christianity’—asked the crew of an American warship to join him in a rousing chorus of the hymn, ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’” [--Gary DeMar, America’s Christian Heritage, (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2003)]. Today
We have drifted far astray in 58 years. Remember what happened on November 13, 2003, to Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court! He was removed from office by the State’s “nine member Court of the Judiciary for defiance of a federal judge’s order to move his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state courthouse.” Bold declaring his faith, Judge Moore testified, “It’s about whether or not we can acknowledge God as the source of our law and our liberty. That’s all I’ve done. I’ve been found guilty. I was not surprised by the verdict” [--“Alabama Ousts Justice Moore,” www.worldnetdaily,com, November 13, 2003]. “We’ve Got to Get America Back to God!”
There is no doubt our nation was founded on Christian principles.
Remember the Pilgrims and Plymouth Plantation. William Bradford,
longtime governor of the Colony authored Of Plymouth Plantation. Listen
to his testimony: “[The colonists] cherished a great hope and inward zeal
of laying good foundations, or at least of making some way towards it, for
the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the
remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work” [--William Bradford,
Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Settlement, 1608-1650, rendered into
Modern English by Harold Paget (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1988), 21.].
This is our Christian heritage in America, but we have greatly backslidden from our roots:
“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
The politically correct thing to say and do today is to accept America as a
multicultural society, one in which all religions lead to God. Since Roe
versus Wade in 1973, we have slaughtered more than forty million innocent
babies through the holocaust of abortion. Homosexuality is accepted as a suitable, alternative life style.Co-habitation and sexual intimacy before and outside of marriage are the Norm. Pornography is rampant, and child pornography is exploited on the internet in the name of the First Amendment and “free speech.” At the end of June 2004 in a split decision, the United States Supreme Court “barred the government from enforcing the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which was designed to protect young children from Internet pornography. . . .Pat Trueman, senior legal advisor for Family Research Council, stated, ‘Today’s decision is yet another victory at the High Court for pornographers, at the expense of America’s children” [“Supreme Court Prevents Enforcement of Internet Porn Law,” Tuesday, June 29, 2004, www.reclaimamerica.org/Pages/News/newspage.asp?story=1863].
Perhaps most deplorable is the fact that Canada has passed a “Hate Crimes” Law which marking parts of the Bible as “hate literature,” and a similar measure recently passed the US Senate as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act [“Senate Passes Homosexual ‘Hate Crimes’ Bill,” Tuesday, June 15, 2004, www.reclaimamerica.org/Pages/News/newspage. asp?story=1761]. The dangers of such legislation are stifling: “The Bible, at least certain portion of it, may be declared ‘hate literature’; Churches may not be able to mention certain Scriptures; Clergy may be subjected to criminal charges if they refuse to marry homosexuals; and expressing disagreement with homosexual behavior or the homosexual agenda, either verbally or in writing, would be considered hate propaganda” [“The Bible as ‘Hate Literature’?: Canadians Advance Bill that Chills Speech about Homosexuality, Monday, October 21, 2002, www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29328].
“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
Proverbs 14:34 applies not only to Ancient Israel but to the United
States or any other nation as well. The words “nation” and “people” apply
Not only to Israel but any nation. They apply equally as well to the United
States in 2004 as they did to Israel during the reign of King Solomon some
3,000 years ago. When Israel was obedient and holy in following God, the
Lord blessed her. When the nation “drifted astray,” God sent judgment.
When the character and actions of God’s people were right in the eyes of the
Lord, He raised His people up in station, honor, and position above all the
Other nations of the world. When the nation sinned, God sent judgment; his
People were disgraced.
Every civilization that has collapsed in history has collapsed because
Moral and spiritual decay from within its own society. It happened to Israel and Judah and to Greece and Rome. “We’ve Got to Get America Back to God.”:
“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
But how can the Holy Spirit use us to do that?
Perhaps the best way the Lord can use us in “Getting America Back
to God” and changing our society is simply being an example of Christ
by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not the first generation of
believers to Live be God’s minority in a secular, godless society. Daniel and
the exiles in Babylon were once in the same position we are today and so
were Paul and all the other Apostles.
Jeremiah was one of Daniel’s contemporaries. In Jeremiah 29:4-7 this is the advise God sent to the exiles in Babylon: “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
We must seek the “peace and prosperity” of our nation and intercede to God for it. Paul even goes further in I Timothy 2:1-3 calling on us to “pray for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” Peter likewise commands us to “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of going wrong, they may see you good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”
I am preaching to myself now too. We evangelicals in 21st Century America are not respected for our “noble lifestyles.” A George Barna poll
Determined that “evangelicals” place near the bottom of society when it comes to “favorable or positive impressions.” We come right between lesbians and prostitutes. Many times we are so indignant and judgmental with the actions and attitudes of unbelievers that we fail in our ministry and witness before them.
After all, it is Christ Who will change our nation, our society, and our world. Marvin Olasky in his book Standing for Christ in a Modern Babylon sums it up well when he says: “. . . we cannot eliminate the negative; so our realistic option is to emphasize the positive. A nation that has elevated tolerance and choice to its greatest virtues is much more likely to respond to positive moral alternatives than to chastisement” [--Don Closson, “Living in Babylon,” www.probe.org/does/babylon.html.]. Perhaps the best we can be used in “Getting America Back to God” is not the way of censorship, boycotts, picket lines, marches, or other kinds of protest as it is to simply “offer them Christ.” In doing so we “accentuate the positive.”
My inspiration for today’s message comes from a song by Jerry Thompson, made famous by the Nelons, entitled “We’ve Got to Get America Back to God.” I leave these words with you as our final challenge on this Independence Day, the 228th Birthday of The United States of America:
“WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD”—by Jerry Thompson
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO “IN GOD WE TRUST”
PRAYER HAS BEEN BANNED AND TAKEN FROM US
WHEN WILL WE SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
AND GET OUR COUNTRY BACK TO GOD?
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD
WE’VE GOT TO RULE THE WORLD WITH THE STAFF AND ROD
WE’VE GOT TO FIGHT THE DEVIL EVEYWHERE HE TRODS
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD.
MILLIONS OF BABIES WE’VE LOST EACH YEAR
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO STOP THEIR TEARS
CHRISTIANS RISE UP, LET AMERICA HEAR
WE WILL TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK TO GOD.
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD
WE’VE GOT TO RULE THE WORLD WITH THE STAFF AND ROD
WE’VE GOT TO FIGHT THE DEVIL EVEYWHERE HE TRODS
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD.
THE SILENCE IS BROKEN
IT’S TIME NOW TO STAND
WE’LL TAKE THIS FIGHT FOR JESUS
IF WE WILL GO HAND IN HAND
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD
WE’VE GOT TO RULE THE WORLD WITH THE STAFF AND ROD
WE’VE GOT TO FIGHT THE DEVIL EVEYWHERE HE TRODS
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD.
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD
WE’VE GOT TO RULE THE WORLD WITH THE STAFF AND ROD
WE’VE GOT TO FIGHT THE DEVIL EVEYWHERE HE TRODS
WE’VE GOT TO GET AMERICA BACK TO GOD.
AMEN!
