Anyone would agree that medicine, routine check-ups, necessary precautions and intentional personal monitoring of one’s health are not just needed, but required, when a diagnosis is clear. Failing to follow any of the doctor’s orders or recommendations will not bring about a natural cure. Sure, it may provide a sense of control or perhaps may reduce some momentary pain or affliction, but it won’t completely heal or produce a lasting cure. Only the Maker of life can do that.
Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the United States of America has been on life-support for a while now and is nearing its last breath. What Americans are experiencing in culture today should come as no surprise to anyone. After all, when you repeatedly ignore the doctor’s orders the inevitable becomes your fate.
The United States was built upon biblical values that include liberty and freedom for all. Yet, in our independence, Americans have become very complacent and comfortable. This includes American Christians, especially when comparing them to global followers of Christ. American Christians have seldom to no experience with real persecution for one’s faith. This is a very sad, but true fact. Instead, the beliefs and values Americans, including American Christians, cherish have been taken for granted to the point where they are often tossed aside rather than embraced.
When a genuine article of invaluable worth is not honored for its cost, importance or appeal, it allows opportunity for knock-offs or imitations to sneak in or become a substitute. Over time, that seemingly innocent counterfeit becomes elevated to a place of significance. The problem? It becomes nearly impossible to recognize the difference between what’s real and what’s fake when the substitute has passed for the original for a prolonged period of time.
Friends, America is at the crosswords of life and death right now. I don’t say that callously, but to communicate the urgency of our country’s condition.
We’ve been surviving with cancer for far too long and we can’t maintain this course much longer. The culture’s current pace of chaos and crazy is going to cancel our country for good, if we’re not vigilant and proactive. Gone will be the America of our ancestor patriots. America as we once knew it, an imperfect nation founded under a perfect God, will be but a blur on the timeline of history. Unless it is wiped away all together in true Orwellian fashion.
While I do not condone Christian Nationalism,* I do strongly believe in the mission of Christians to go, do and tell. That is, to preach the Gospel and disciple not just to the limits or confines of one’s city or country but rather, to all the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20). Our country’s forefathers believed God’s Word is the supreme authority. Likewise, they believed in the power of God’s Truth lived out.
The foundation of our country’s faith, as well as its emphasis on the family unit, made our great nation stand apart from others in the world. Its principles applied made for a nation unlike any other – FREE. Still, Americans chose to follow their own methods instead of following the Bible’s prescription for a full life through the blood of Jesus Christ (John 10:10).
What we’re experiencing today are the many repercussions of a self-guided world that has spent decades indulging in fleshly desires.
I believe our present situation is a spiritual house call from God. He’s knocking at the door of our hearts with the hope of revival and promise of His faithfulness. Will we answer? Will we block the call? Or will we choose to hit ignore once again?
These are important questions to address. Deep down, I believe a Jesus revolution in the form of revival is possible, but it can only occur when multiple individuals (ahem, the Church) acknowledge the prognosis and then actively follow the call to pursue treatment. Church history is proof that the Church thrives amidst persecution and push back if the body of believers unites under God and His message.
What God wills the world cannot wane. If He is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
The remedy our dying country needs is the Living Hope of Jesus Christ. I pray for those who claim to follow Jesus to actually follow Jesus – loving without cause or condition, making disciples, and growing His Kingdom. The Gospel doesn’t just save lives, it restores them and then empowers them to spread the Hope that lives within them. It’s both a cure and a contagion. It hurts before it heals and then it goes on to do more of the same until the revolution becomes the resolution.
Just like cancer grows and multiplies before it ultimately consumes the entire body so does the Truth of the Gospel – it begins as a tiny spark that can ignite an uncontainable wildfire. God is calling us to revive our nation (and all the ends of the earth as well) and bring it back to life.
Humanity was made in the image of God but sadly, many may never experience God if we keep the Living Hope to ourselves. So don’t close the door of your heart but choose to open it up and invite in a stranger or a nomad. Share the goodness within you and that goodness will contribute to God’s good work outside of you.
“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:15-17 (NIV)
*Christian Nationalism is an in-depth conversation for another time, but simply described it is the idea that the United States of America is God’s promised land and that Americans are exclusively God’s chosen and righteous people. I do not believe this is God-ordained or biblical. Therefore, I condemn this concept in its entirety.
**Like all Culture Matters articles, this piece was written as an editorial from the lens of a biblical worldview.
