What Would God In America Look Like?

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!