America: On The Rise Or Not?

One claim that God makes in the Bible is that no nation rises to greater power or loses power without God's involvement.  It is He who raises nations and puts them down.  Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that the United States of America has been raised up from nonexistence to being the pre-eminent national power in this world.

As we are approaching the holiday on which we celebrate our beginnings, it would be incumbent to ask ourselves how God might be dealing with us both now and in the future.  Is He still "raising us up" or are we due for some discipline?  Of course if you do not believe that God has anything to do with this than you will scoff at the idea.  I challenge you to at least hear out what the Bible tells us about what will lead to the success of our nation.

Righteousness will help our nation

Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

Of all the things that we say this nation needs in order to be on the rise or great again, righteousness is probably not high on the list.  Definitely America has a lot of things going for it, but do we have righteousness?  Is it increasing or decreasing?  These kind of questions beg for a definition of what we really mean by righteousness.

A simple and quick definition would be that righteousness is that which is the right thing.  But not just right as defined by me or you.  Rather as right is defined by God.  If you are a Christian then you do not have the luxury to question God's definition of what is right.  By the very nature of putting your trust in Jesus you are saying, "I may not understand it all, but I believe that you are right and I have been wrong."  Anything short of this is most likely not a true conversion to Christianity.  However, Christians should think through God's definition of what is right in order to engage those who do not believe in God.  Why is God's way right and my way wrong?  To answer that by saying, "it doesn't matter, you just need to believe God," is not showing the reason for the faith that we have.  

Now God defines righteousness as that which conforms to his character.  So we could say that God himself is the definition of what is right.  It is the answer to the question, "What would God have me do?"  He has made his character very clear in Scripture and has even detailed many lists of things that are not right; thus sins.  In general Micah 6:8 says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."   In the New Testament Jesus says that all the Laws of Moses could be summed up in these two commands:  Love God with your whole being, and Love your neighbor as yourself.  However, the apostles do give some detailed lists describing actions that fail the command of love.  It is interesting that homosexuality is one of those sins listed.  Today you might hear the question, "But how can God say, on the one hand, love is good and then, on the other hand, say this certain kind of love is bad?"  Or the shorter version, "How can love be wrong?"  This is where we realize that the issue is troubled by the many definitions of what is right and what is love.  The Bible does answer these questions if you are willing to listen.

Everyone thinks they are right.  Even Hitler felt he was "right" to do what he did.  I know that is an extreme, but that is my point.  The Bible says that righteousness (as defined by God, not me or you) is what will exalt a nation.  Now I already made the point that we are a nation that has already been raised.  Was there a greater measure of righteousness (as defined by God) in our past?  Even nonchristians would have to agree that America has less people living as God says we should do now than in our past.  The general trend is away from the Bible and Christianity.

The Rabbi Daniel Lapin has an interesting point in his book "America's Real War."  He mentions that we typically look at nations overseas that are in great poverty, violence, and tyranny and ask the question why is there so much of it there.  However, historically speaking, that condition has been the normality of all nations.  What is not normal is the kind of freedom that has existed in America.  Where did it come from and are we losing it?  I believe any honest answer to that question will at least admit we are losing it.  If history teaches us anything it is that no nation stays on top forever.  

The powerful nations of the past were not necessarily so because they were good.  Thus, righteousness exalts a nation, but every nation that is exalted is not done so because it is righteous.  The pragmatic outlook of many Americans can lead us to assume that we must be better than the other nations because we are so successful, but that would be a mistake.  There is always a time of turbulence when a nation that has risen to great success is on the brink of collapse.  During that time plenty of signs will point to its downfall and many others will point to its continued success.  But that leads us to the next point of the proverb.

Sin will only drag us down

Whether we reject the "right" of God knowingly or unknowingly it will have the same effect upon the nation.  It adds to our collective guilt before God and eventual fall from power.  Whatever the condition for your rejection of God's way, it always comes down to using our own reason and logic to overturn what the Bible says.  Even Christians will sometimes reason themselves into rejecting parts of the Bible as not good and follow a different path of their own choosing.  Sometimes the reasoning will be something like this:  "we are no longer under the law.  We are under grace and so we don't have to obey the Bible other than to believe Jesus covers our sin."  This is a grotesque perversion of what Jesus and his apostles taught.  Yes, they did teach that God was making grace available to those who would believe on Jesus.  However, they also taught that we were freed from the guilt of the law and its punishments so that we could pursue righteousness in a greater way.  Just because previous generations promoted righteousness to the point of legalism does not mean pursuing righteousness is no longer our calling. Christian, are you living any old way you please?  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."  It is not a call to embrace a smug and arrogant self-righteousness.  Rather, it is a recognition that I have been freed from guilt so that I can pursue righteousness.

The reality is that sin, as defined by the Bible, is rampant within the Church of America.  We can point the finger at those who do not believe, but it is a weak argument when the lives of so many Christians are not following God's way.  The reality is that God will judge the church of America before he judges the nation as a whole.  Are we not there?  Churches and Pastors are no longer respected like they once were in our country.  Instead they are often the butt of jokes and derision-laden comments in every aspect of our society.  Hebrews 12:6, "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."  Most likely, the plummetting of the Church's reputation is part of God's attempt to get our attention.

The proverb says that sin is a "reproach" or "disgrace."  This word has the idea of being stained by something that is humiliating, whether it is private or public.  This may help us to understand why God uses the metaphor of "stripping a nation naked" in time of judgment.  It is a picture of hidden humiliating sin being publically exposed to the world as God brings judgment.  We see this happening within the church as pastors, priests and churches are publically exposed.  However, the secular groups within our society should not be quick to rejoice over the demise of Christians because the same process is happening to our country before the world.  It is easy for us to believe that the current economic woes and political turmoil are just cyclical and will pass as we go on to greater heights.  But that is just plain arrogance.  Did not the Romans believe they could only become greater?  Did not the British Empire believe that they were destined to be the world power?  Yet, each one in its time fell from great power and are shadows of what once was.

Are we rising or not?  I think the evidence is that we have hit the highest point of our parabolic trajectory and are now headed down.  We will see.