God, America and the Church
A commentary by Jack Kelley at GraceThruFaith.com
God is merciful but He is also just.
He can’t go on overlooking sin forever.
There comes a time when He has to act.
He will not compromise His values.
God does not want people to obey His rules just out of fear.
He wants them to obey because it’s the right thing to do.
The motive has to be right in order to make the action right.
The Church is not a national kingdom with a homeland and
geographical borders, like Israel. Our citizenship is in
heaven, where we await our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 3:20)
He is not coming here to be with us where we are. He is coming
to take us to His Father’s house to be with Him where He is.
(John 14:1-3)
So when He returns, it won’t matter where we’re
from, because the Church is everywhere.
God has only established one eternal nation on Earth
and that’s Israel. The Church’s eternal home is in
Heaven where an inheritance from God awaits us.
(Galatians 4:4-7)
The Church never needs to fear a judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ
agreed to be judged in our place, in order to present us to Himself
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
(Ephesians 5:27)
Where in the Bible does God say to pray for America
or any other place on Earth other than Jerusalem?
God’s Will would be much better served if the Church would pray for
itself, that it would finally adopt the Biblical world view it was intended
to have, and become what it was intended to be, the Body of Christ!
It’s an indication of what a secular world view the American
Church has, when we are praying that God will restore our
country, rather than praying for the Lord’s speedy return to take
us away from here. Prayers for America are fine, as long as
they are motivated by a desire to see God’s Will done on Earth.
God doesn’t take sides. He IS a side!
Whatever blessings we have enjoyed as a
nation, has been because we were on His
Side, not because He was on ours.
Jeremiah 30:11 lets us know that America is one of the nations
destined to be completely destroyed during the Great Tribulation.
In His mind, the only nation on Earth that
matters always has been and always will be Israel!
America is just a place where we Christians are temporarily
living, and while America seems to be turning its back on
Israel, America is also turning its back on the Church.
America is not a Christian nation. The only connection
between God and America today is that a bunch
of us who believe in Him happen to live here.
Americans don’t live by God’s laws, we don’t teach our children about
Him in our schools, we don’t offer public prayers in His name, and the
holy days we observe are no longer tributes to Him. How often do we thank
Him for the blessings we receive and turn to Him when we’re in need?
America is a secular gentile nation that is becoming an
uncomfortable home for the Church. Americans don’t want
the Church’s values guiding the nation’s direction, and
Christians should not want America’s values guiding the Church.
We should be so passionately yearning to leave here
that our feet barely touch the ground when we walk!
We better be careful in becoming so immersed in the ways of
the world that we lose sight of where our real home is. The one
who falls into this trap becomes unfruitful, ignoring Kingdom
opportunities here and forfeiting Kingdom rewards there.
It’s our nature to place a higher value on what we know, than on what we
don’t know. We know how good our life here has been, but most of us
don’t know the first thing about how life in our eternal home will be.
It takes a lot of faith to choose the unknown over the known.
It's really sad that most American Christians don’t have the
faith to live their beliefs, or to believe God’s promises
for eternity, so we focus on the here and now.
So what's the answer?
Paul wrote that faith comes through
hearing the Word of the Lord.
(Romans 10:17)
By reading what the Bible says about what’s in store for
us, we can be made new in the attitude of our minds.
(Ephesians 4:23)
We can be transformed, no longer
conforming to the pattern of this world.
(Romans 12:3).
We can understand what it means to be in the world but not of it.
We can discover that the greatest adventure ever designed for
mankind lies right around the corner, and since we have accepted
the Lord’s death as payment in full for our sins, it’s all for us!
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