Standing and placing our right hand over our heart we face the American flag to respectfully pledge our allegiance to “…one nation under God.” But I’m wondering—are we?
ARE WE “ONE NATION?”
Are we one in purpose? Do we love one another as Christ’s teaching commands, or do we detest each other?
Discord and distrust are on the rise. We call ourselves the “United States,” but increasingly we are the “Divided States of America.”
Immigrants from every part of the globe once streamed into our nation thrilled with the possibility of embracing the American way of life. United by a common faith, a shared culture, a profound respect for liberty, and a deep respect for our great civilization, we became Americans. Out of many, we became one.
But today the gate-keepers of our nation—our national leaders, our educators, and our media both news and entertainment—are trashing Western Civilization as a grotesque blunder. For them liberty is illusory, culture is considered provincial, morality is a matter of personal preference, and faith is devalued as myth (embracing Karl Marx, the father of Communism, they see religion as the opiate of the masses).
The divide couldn’t be more pronounced. One writer laments:
“Half of America views abortion as the killing of the unborn, meriting the wrath of God. The other half regards right-to-life as a reactionary movement and repressive ideology… Advocates of gay marriage see adversaries as homophobic bigots; opponents see advocates as seeking to elevate unnatural acts to the moral and legal status of sacred matrimony…Christmas and Easter, the holy days of Christendom, once united us in joy. Now we fight over whether they may be mentioned in public schools.” The Suicide of a Superpower, p.3
Cynicism has produced skepticism. Skepticism has morphed into disbelief. And disbelief will ultimately destroy us. G. K. Chesterton is right, “When we cease to worship God, we do not then worship nothing, we worship anything.”
ARE WE “UNDER GOD?”
Certainly the courtroom antics of atheists and the classroom efforts of secularists have convinced large numbers of Americans that the wall of separation between the church and the state should insulate the state from the influence of the moral precepts of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
We have been told that the surest way to guarantee liberty is to remove God from our national psyche. Without the constraints of Divine law and the knowledge that God will bring every work into judgment, we will finally be truly free.
But liberty is not the absence of law. Liberty is a blessing secured by adherence to the Law of God as revealed in the Holy Bible.
For example:
Our freedom to live is secured when people observe God’s commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”
Our freedom to know what is true is secured when people obey the commandment, “Thou shalt not lie.”
Our freedom to own personal property is guaranteed when those around us honor the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.”
We need God. We need to be a nation “under God.” President Reagan once quipped, “We will either be one nation under God, or we will be one nation gone under.”
Some have tried to redefine God as any higher power we can imagine. But just as the Bible is of no private interpretation—it means what it says not just what we think it says, so the living God is not what we suppose Him to be—He is who He is!
The comedian and atheist Bill Maher taunted Christian believers at the Oscars ceremony in 2009 saying, “our silly gods cost the world too greatly.”
Maher is “absolutely right,” shot back Rod Dreher, “our silly gods have cost the world too greatly.
"The god of hedonism [pleasure] and sexual indulgence…has given us a world of broken marriages, shattered families, the destruction of the traditional family, miserable deaths from AIDS, epidemic teen pregnancy, fatherless children, and the social (even criminal) dysfunction that accompanies such, and a younger generation unmoored from sexual sanity.
The god of money, which rules Wall Street and Washington, has delivered the world to a present and future calamity that will cause suffering not seen in at least a century.
…The truth is not that God has failed us, but that we have failed Him!”
These days it is not hard to see that our nation is heading the wrong direction. Morally, politically, financially, socially, physically, and certainly spiritually we are a nation at risk.
Yet I am convinced that if we were again “…One nation under God,” we would not only find solutions to the perplexing problems of our day, but we could once again be “the city set upon a hill, that cannot be hid!”
When a nation is in decline the citizens lament, “what can I do? I am only one.” When the nation falls they confess, “I could have done my part!”
HERE IS WHAT WE CAN DO!
1. Faithfully Pray! Pray without ceasing. Pray specifically—for ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities, our leaders. Pray that the lost will be saved, that backsliders will be reclaimed, and that Christians will be Pray that the wrong will fail and that the right will prevail! Actually, we need men and women who will fast and pray. These are critical days.
2. Embrace the Truth! Jesus said that “the truth shall set you free.” We need to know God’s Truth as revealed in His Word. That will only happen as we set aside time every day to read and meditate and study the infallible, inerrant Bible.
We need to know the truth about our times. We need to know the truth about our Churches. We need to know the truth about ourselves.
3. Live Righteous Lives. We need men and women who will commit themselves to Christ so that they will think right, do right, and be right. Unless God’s people will purposefully separate themselves from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and determine to be “salt and light” in this wicked and perverse generation, we will continue slouching towards Gomorrah! Virtue is the need of this late hour. Run from sin, avoid the appearance of evil, and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
4. Pursue Holiness. The Bible says “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Only “the pure in heart” will see God. Only “the pure in heart” will bring forth “fruit unto holiness.” It is time for God’s people to stop rationalizing their disobedience and rebellion to God and begin actualizing their love for God by surrendering wholly to Him.
5. Work & Witness. Faith and works are inseparable. When we believe God we honor His Word and His Will. Like our Lord Jesus we will be “moved with compassion” when we see those in need. We will share our testimonies, share our blessings, and share life together.
If God’s people across our nation would make these five commitments our nation may escape God’s final judgment. When the very existence of Israel hung in the balance, the Prophet Daniel prayed a prayer we would do well to repeat: (See Daniel 9)
4 O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. …9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him…
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice…
17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake… 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
ARE WE “ONE NATION?”
Are we one in purpose? Do we love one another as Christ’s teaching commands, or do we detest each other?
Discord and distrust are on the rise. We call ourselves the “United States,” but increasingly we are the “Divided States of America.”
Immigrants from every part of the globe once streamed into our nation thrilled with the possibility of embracing the American way of life. United by a common faith, a shared culture, a profound respect for liberty, and a deep respect for our great civilization, we became Americans. Out of many, we became one.
But today the gate-keepers of our nation—our national leaders, our educators, and our media both news and entertainment—are trashing Western Civilization as a grotesque blunder. For them liberty is illusory, culture is considered provincial, morality is a matter of personal preference, and faith is devalued as myth (embracing Karl Marx, the father of Communism, they see religion as the opiate of the masses).
The divide couldn’t be more pronounced. One writer laments:
“Half of America views abortion as the killing of the unborn, meriting the wrath of God. The other half regards right-to-life as a reactionary movement and repressive ideology… Advocates of gay marriage see adversaries as homophobic bigots; opponents see advocates as seeking to elevate unnatural acts to the moral and legal status of sacred matrimony…Christmas and Easter, the holy days of Christendom, once united us in joy. Now we fight over whether they may be mentioned in public schools.” The Suicide of a Superpower, p.3
Cynicism has produced skepticism. Skepticism has morphed into disbelief. And disbelief will ultimately destroy us. G. K. Chesterton is right, “When we cease to worship God, we do not then worship nothing, we worship anything.”
ARE WE “UNDER GOD?”
Certainly the courtroom antics of atheists and the classroom efforts of secularists have convinced large numbers of Americans that the wall of separation between the church and the state should insulate the state from the influence of the moral precepts of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
We have been told that the surest way to guarantee liberty is to remove God from our national psyche. Without the constraints of Divine law and the knowledge that God will bring every work into judgment, we will finally be truly free.
But liberty is not the absence of law. Liberty is a blessing secured by adherence to the Law of God as revealed in the Holy Bible.
For example:
Our freedom to live is secured when people observe God’s commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”
Our freedom to know what is true is secured when people obey the commandment, “Thou shalt not lie.”
Our freedom to own personal property is guaranteed when those around us honor the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.”
We need God. We need to be a nation “under God.” President Reagan once quipped, “We will either be one nation under God, or we will be one nation gone under.”
Some have tried to redefine God as any higher power we can imagine. But just as the Bible is of no private interpretation—it means what it says not just what we think it says, so the living God is not what we suppose Him to be—He is who He is!
The comedian and atheist Bill Maher taunted Christian believers at the Oscars ceremony in 2009 saying, “our silly gods cost the world too greatly.”
Maher is “absolutely right,” shot back Rod Dreher, “our silly gods have cost the world too greatly.
"The god of hedonism [pleasure] and sexual indulgence…has given us a world of broken marriages, shattered families, the destruction of the traditional family, miserable deaths from AIDS, epidemic teen pregnancy, fatherless children, and the social (even criminal) dysfunction that accompanies such, and a younger generation unmoored from sexual sanity.
The god of money, which rules Wall Street and Washington, has delivered the world to a present and future calamity that will cause suffering not seen in at least a century.
…The truth is not that God has failed us, but that we have failed Him!”
These days it is not hard to see that our nation is heading the wrong direction. Morally, politically, financially, socially, physically, and certainly spiritually we are a nation at risk.
Yet I am convinced that if we were again “…One nation under God,” we would not only find solutions to the perplexing problems of our day, but we could once again be “the city set upon a hill, that cannot be hid!”
When a nation is in decline the citizens lament, “what can I do? I am only one.” When the nation falls they confess, “I could have done my part!”
HERE IS WHAT WE CAN DO!
1. Faithfully Pray! Pray without ceasing. Pray specifically—for ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities, our leaders. Pray that the lost will be saved, that backsliders will be reclaimed, and that Christians will be Pray that the wrong will fail and that the right will prevail! Actually, we need men and women who will fast and pray. These are critical days.
2. Embrace the Truth! Jesus said that “the truth shall set you free.” We need to know God’s Truth as revealed in His Word. That will only happen as we set aside time every day to read and meditate and study the infallible, inerrant Bible.
We need to know the truth about our times. We need to know the truth about our Churches. We need to know the truth about ourselves.
3. Live Righteous Lives. We need men and women who will commit themselves to Christ so that they will think right, do right, and be right. Unless God’s people will purposefully separate themselves from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and determine to be “salt and light” in this wicked and perverse generation, we will continue slouching towards Gomorrah! Virtue is the need of this late hour. Run from sin, avoid the appearance of evil, and follow in the footsteps of Christ.
4. Pursue Holiness. The Bible says “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Only “the pure in heart” will see God. Only “the pure in heart” will bring forth “fruit unto holiness.” It is time for God’s people to stop rationalizing their disobedience and rebellion to God and begin actualizing their love for God by surrendering wholly to Him.
5. Work & Witness. Faith and works are inseparable. When we believe God we honor His Word and His Will. Like our Lord Jesus we will be “moved with compassion” when we see those in need. We will share our testimonies, share our blessings, and share life together.
If God’s people across our nation would make these five commitments our nation may escape God’s final judgment. When the very existence of Israel hung in the balance, the Prophet Daniel prayed a prayer we would do well to repeat: (See Daniel 9)
4 O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. …9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him…
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice…
17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake… 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
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