The State of Our Union (A Christian Perspective)

Another Fourth of July has come and gone, and life seems to continue as it always has. We go to work, buy our groceries, take our children to various events, and mow our yards. What deeper part of life in America has significantly changed in the last 50 years... 100 years... 200 years? Aren’t we still the United States of America? Aren’t we still the benchmark for freedom and prosperity... the land of opportunity? Well, in many ways, yes... so far.

But what has changed? What part of our history is being forgotten at great peril to our future? What part of the fabric of our nation is being intentionally ripped out? What decisions are leading us away from those foundational truths that made us great in the first place?

So far we don’t have soldiers banging down our church doors, or laws being written that significantly squelch our freedom of worship or speech. Oh, there are rumblings of such things, and different powers nibble at the edges of our freedoms, but so far, it is still a free country. What is there to be concerned about?

Ask yourself these questions: Who decided to make God an unpopular topic? Who decided that most all stores would be open on Sundays, something unheard of when I was a child? Who decided it was okay to hold children’s sports events on Sunday mornings? Who decided Christian music should have its own radio station and be banned from all others?

Who decided we should not be called a Christian nation, something that would have created a deafening outcry thirty years ago? Who decided we would not teach children the whole truth about our American History? Who decided to edit God out of the Mayflower Compact and other early documents, as they are quoted in our children’s textbooks?

Who decided that even student-led prayer would be discouraged in schools and that the Gideons would no longer be allowed to pass out free Bibles? Who decided that the philosophy of evolutionism would be taught as fact, using every possible persuasive tool including outright falsifications, while the philosophy of Creationism would be censored with extreme prejudice? Who decided that a public school teacher could not share a Scripture verse in the classroom without fear of punishment or job loss? Who decided?

We, the people decided. One way or another, by our votes or by our passivity, we have decided. I’m afraid we have been indoctrinated right along with our children. We have become convinced that we must hide our Christianity and keep it private, as if it were a disease, rather than the normal expectation of an American citizen. We have been duped into believing that it is perfectly right for government to squelch it wherever it might have publically been expressed. This, in a nation where our own public school textbooks were once filled with Scripture and often mentioned the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. This, in a nation where our third president allowed churches to meet in the capitol building and convinced congress to support a foreign Christian missionary with public funds. Unthinkable.

Worse than these policy changes, we have forgotten the principles that made this nation great. We have forgotten that a fundamental commitment to God was at the very heart of our constitution and democratic ideals. Countless quotes from our founding fathers prove their full understanding that this democracy could not succeed without a people committed, at the very least, to faith in God. Most of them were also committed to Christ. Patrick Henry, the founding father who said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” also said this:

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

But we do not even have to go back to founding fathers in order to see how far we have fallen. Consider this quote from our thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge:

“The foundation of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”

Read that again. Let it sink in. Can you imagine a president making this statement today? Can you imagine living during a time when almost everyone in the country is familiar with the basic tenets of Scripture?

I could fill pages with quotes like these from earlier statesmen. But I don’t even have to go back as far as that. My own relatively young memory tells me enough. When I was a child, we prayed in our classrooms. We sang songs like “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee.” Even as recent as my high school years, a pastor preached from the Bible at our graduation ceremonies. In my valedictory address, I quoted Scripture and spoke openly of my faith in Jesus Christ. It did not even cross my mind that this might not be allowed.

My point is that even we Christians, for the most part, have failed to recognize how far our nation has fallen. I’ll refrain from the typical list of statistics often given to demonstrate the moral decay that has accompanied our country’s decision to gradually relegate and forget God. We all have seen it happen.

Where will it end? It will end in one of two places: either revival or judgment... or perhaps both. I for one would rather avoid the judgment part, if at all possible. I am reminded of what my Dad would say, “You can either do what you’re told with a spanking or without a spanking.” The choice was mine.

Does God still judge nations? Well, He certainly did so in Scripture... very consistently.... And even though there were invariably a faithful few left within the nation about to be judged, God still judged that nation. The remnant was forced to endure hardship along with the rebellious.

Some would say God isn’t in the nation- judging business anymore. But, I don’t see anything in the New Testament to suggest that God has somehow changed His character. Ask yourself where you got the idea that God no longer uses things like natural disasters, war and famine to judge nations. He certainly did so in the past, and His Word warns us that He would not fail to do so in the future. What makes us so sure we are “above” what the Bible clearly says God will do, to the nation which strays from Him?

Perhaps it is easier to think of it this way: Why has America experienced such greatness at historically-unprecedented levels? Does anybody really believe God had nothing to do with it? Our founders were passionately committed to God. Was our subsequent rise to greatness merely coincidence? I think not. But the God who blesses faithfulness must also judge idolatry. Based on His Word alone, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that we are plummeting ever nearer to God’s judgment as a nation. If that doesn’t cause you to tremble, read the book of Micah.

Granted, followers of Christ are not ultimately destined for God’s wrath, but the hard truth is that if our nation is judged, we will all suffer through it. The even- harder truth is that we are also at fault for the current state of our union. That’s right. We Christians are partially responsible for the descent of our nation. We have failed to be salty enough, and we have kept our light hidden far too much.

And yet, my friends, the task before us is honestly impossible. We cannot, by force of will, change our public education system, that was long ago hijacked at the federal level, by secularists. We cannot quickly change the legislation or rhetoric coming out of Washington. We cannot curb the intent of Hollywood or the other sources of propaganda that violently seek to wreck the very Christian foundations that have made us a great nation. We cannot turn around the trends that would leave us just another post-Christian socialist nation. No matter how much we stand up and speak out (as we should), we cannot realistically make those changes. We cannot do it, my friends. But God can. God CAN do the impossible. God can bring revival like none of us now alive has ever seen. He has done it before. He can do it again. Historically, revival ALWAYS starts with the prayers of the righteous. Consistent, fervent, corporate prayer at a massive level is the only hope for the United States of America.

Maybe you have been like me. I had basically given up on our country. Not that I didn’t still love it, but in terms of any corporate return to God, I had given up. I figured Christians would become more and more the minority, not in the world, but in America. I just didn’t believe that current trends could be turned around. I felt that our descent into immorality and anti-Christian ideals was far too advanced to be reversed. That’s why I didn’t pray about it. But now, for no logical reason I can think of, I have been given just enough hope to pray in earnest for our nation. I’m not sure where this hope or desire to pray has come from. It must be from God. And so, I will pray every day that our nation returns to Him. I will pray that the United States of America returns to Christ. Because this is my country, too. And at least to some degree, I will suffer the fate of this nation.

Our only chance is in repentance and prayer. Hopefully, we are not too late. We who are His people, must humble ourselves, turn from our own wicked ways and pray with all of our hearts, while we humbly seek the face of God (2 Chronicles 7:14). My fellow American Christians, if you care about our nation.... if you consider yourself a patriot... if you would even fight and die for your country... for your homeland... for your friends and family and fellow countrymen... then it is time to put that patriotism to the test. It is time to get on your knees and pray every day that these United States might return to, and even eclipse, our former standing as one nation UNDER God. This is my prayer, amen.