Whose Fault Is It?

Considering our upcoming election, the topics of America, its government, and its current presidential candidates are ones that are often discussed. Many people, especially Christians, when discussing this subject, bemoan the state of our nation; they bemoan the terrible state of the Public School “education” and the laws that, not only allow, but promote wicked behavior, nationally and individually. Many things such as these are mournfully conversed about among Christians and others; even those who are not saved can many times see the wickedness and decline of our nation.

However, Christians also rejoice that God has withheld His hand of judgment; to use the words of Scripture, God has “winked” at our sins, meaning that He is giving us a time for repentance by looking away and ignoring our sins for a time. As a nation, we more than deserve God’s wrath and judgment because we have turned our back on God, and consequently, on His blessings. Under President Obama, our nation became internationally recognized as a non-Christian nation. Although America was nominally a Christian nation until Obama’s official announcement, the disease of sin already had a very predominant hold in our nation. America was the greatest nation in the world because, generally speaking, the closer to America’s founding, the godlier it was; therefore, God’s hand of blessing was more obvious. However, our nation, as it stands now, is ripe for God’s hand of judgment; and the sad effects of sin in our nation have in many, many ways manifested themselves.

Our heritage, as Americans today, is even more cause for mourning because the founders of our country were, with very few exceptions, godly, upright men who tried to honor God in all the doings of our nation’s founding. America today is so far degenerated from what the founding fathers had set in motion that, if they knew America’s current state, they would probably turn over in their graves. A student of history can observe two things about nations and their lives. Firstly, one can see that the godlier a nation is, the better the state of that nation is in every way. Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Secondly, one can see a general pattern in the rise and fall of nations, such as Rome, which is this: the nation begins as a monarchy; the monarchy becomes a democracy; then it becomes a republic; then, as sins increase, the republic degenerates into a democracy; then an oligarchy; and finally into a monarchy, until the nation falls. Knowing these two things, Benjamin Franklin wisely answered a lady that asked what kind of government he and the others had set up, by saying, “A republic... if you can keep it.” As is painfully obvious, we did not keep it because of our sins.

II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” According to this verse, it is the Christians’ fault that our nation is in the state that it is in. Because we have not been profitable servants and been faithfully in prayer, our nation has fallen; it is the Christians’ place in God’s service to be the light and the salt of the earth, to be leaders and examples. Luke 14:34-35 says, “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit to for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears let him hear.” This is a strong reminder that our Lord gives us, telling us that if we have failed, we are good for nothing but to be cast out. To be a Christian that is worthy of Christ’s name, one must take on the great responsibility of faithfulness and prayer; and, one must humble himself in order for Christ to lift him up (James 4:10). The fall of a nation originates in its sin; but sin that will cause a nation’s fall, begins with the individual Christian and the Church.