I love my country, but I sometimes hate what weve done to the Gospel. I know it isnt an exclusively American problem, but our branding of America as Gods nation, or worse yet, as some sort of new Israel, has led to more crack pot doctrines than you can wave a flag at. For millennia, the best day for a citizen of planet earth looked bleaker and darker than the worst day in the suburban United States, but weve forgotten this, and have come to see every little disruption of American comfort as a sign of the end times. I almost find it humorous how American movies intending to portray a dystopian future often look better than some third world countries Ive visited. Empty buildings, burned out vehicles, people starving, and out of control, megalomaniacal politicians might seem like a novelty to us, but theyre standard fare for the majority of earths populace. Interestingly, however, though conditions have been this way for millennia in countries other than our own, we never take them as signs of the end times. Its only when they come knocking at our red, white and blue front door that we take notice. Even more tragically than placing ourselves in the end times, weve come to take tragedies, be they natural or unnatural, occurring on American soil as signs of Gods displeasure with us, and as the beginning of a massive, heavenly wrath campaign. I know I wont make any friends by saying this, but I believe its truth that needs saying. We do this mostly because we are under the delusion that we were, at some point, a nation with whom God had a covenant and an obligation to protect. We make asinine statements about events like 9-11, claiming they occurred as a result of us taking prayer out of schools our removing the obsolete Ten Commandments from court house walls, as though such things were the worst crimes weve ever committed. We forget, however, that America was not founded as a super saintly, Christ reflecting utopia. No, we had to steal and commit genocide in order to occupy this land. And, as with all takeovers, we engaged in rape, pillaging, plundering and all sorts of other evils in the process. Not to mention the fact that we built our empire on the backs of enslaved Africans, whom we ripped from their tribes and families. Couple that with the fact that our much revered founding fathers engaged in secret rites that many a modern charismatic would claim cause demon possession, as well as with the fact that a great percentage of them were deists, and not Christians in the evangelical sense of the word, and there goes our supposed Christian foundation. Im not ripping on America. Far from it. I *LOVE* my country, love the constitution, and am grateful to have been born here. Lets not be dishonest in the name of patriotism, though. America is a nation like any other. We have no special connection with God that elevates us above others. God only ever had a covenant with one physical nation, and that was Israel. The New Covenant is between the Father and the Son on behalf of humanity, not between individual nations and God! 9-11, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and tragic events like the Sandy Hook massacre were not Harbingers (yes, I went there) of coming judgment. Such claims are rank absurdities that are based on sketchy and subjective interpretations of Old Testament passages dealing exclusively with Israel, and are the offspring of poor exegesis and bad eschatology. When you hear prophets and authors claiming that America has broke covenant with God, remember, America never had a covenant with God. Sure, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Ps 33:12), and yes, when the righteous rule, the people rejoice (Prov 29:2), but lets not forget that these are Old Covenant passages that are not taking into account the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of God which, like it or not, is the only Kingdom we pledge allegiance to as believers. Let us also not forget that America was never truly a Godly nation to begin with. Calling for national days of prayer and fasting, and saying Jesus every other word does not make one Godly. Last time I checked, genocide, murder, theft, and the enslavement of others outweighed ones ability to speak Christian-ese. Friends, America is not Gods favorite because she stands with Israel, or because of something the pilgrims did centuries ago. No, were a nation like any other. We havent broken covenant because we never had one to start with. The crimes of today are no worse than the crimes of yesterday, and, in fact, are sometimes lesser, and so to believe were on the precipice of judgment for teaching evolution in our High Schools is to reveal a pretty bankrupt sense morality on our part. Dont be freaked out by Harbingers and the claims of fear mongering eschatologists. Tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes took place before we ever got here...in fact, they take place on other planets. Whose sins were being judge then, I wonder? Maybe no one. Maybe sometimes the world is just chaotic and we dont need to pin the blame on God or on Washington D.C.. Maybe sometimes people commit horrendous acts of violence, and it has nothing to do with judgment or broken covenants. Maybe some peoples brains just dont work the way they should, and we need to leave God out of the picture. My friends, relax. The Kingdom we belong to is not of this world.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:38:52 +0000
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