PREVIEW: For the president, the leader of the free world and our national spokesman, to proclaim that America is not a Christian nation should ignite a holy conflagration among Christians. But not, perhaps, in the way you think. The fires of revival will never burn again in America because of political or social activism. Don’t forget that! That is not to say you should disengage as a political or social activist. By all means, if that’s your deal, go for it! What America needs most is another great awakening! And that will only happen as believers act like believers and churches act like churches are supposed to act. That will only happen as we, both individually and corporately, humble ourselves in repentance and prayer. As the great revivalist Charles Finney said, “There can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr. Wet-Eyes are not found in the audience.”
A JOURNEY OF WORSHIP // Psalm 79:6
A decade or so ago, Newsweek magazine headlined “The End of Christian America” while President Obama explained to the Turkish people that America is not a Christian nation.
Technically, you could make that argument. For sure, there are a lot of Christians and churches in America—which I believe to be the catalyst for America’s unprecedented greatness. Yet when you look at America culturally, politically, internationally, morally, judicially, and spiritually, does the evidence tell you that, indeed, we are a Christian nation?
Biblically, you can see the danger of mistaking our national politics for the true faith. Just because we hang the Ten Commandments in a courtroom, or insist that school kids “pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” or have “In God We Trust” on our coins, or claim the deep spiritual roots of our forebears does not guarantee the “Christian-ness” of America. Just go back to any number of places in the Old Testament and see how that mindset worked out for Israel.
But while it might be technically and biblically true that we’re not a Christian nation, to do so with the sense of pride that seems to be behind these current-day pronouncements should cause us, one and all, a great deal of concern. You see, spiritually, any nation, including the great nation of America, that does not acknowledge God or call upon his name, or root their national values in the unchanging moral laws that he has made known is a candidate for Divine wrath, according to not only this particular psalm, but a whole host of other Biblical teaching as well. Pride in our spiritual diversity now will one day cause our corporate knees to turn to putty as we stand before the judgment of Almighty God. Those who are so bold today will not be on that day!
For the president, the leader of the free world and our national spokesman, to proclaim that America is not a Christian nation should ignite a holy conflagration among Christians. But not, perhaps, in the way you think. The fires of revival will never burn again in America because of political or social activism. Don’t forget that! That is not to say you should disengage as a political or social activist. By all means, if that’s your deal, go for it!
What America needs most is another great awakening!
And that will only happen as believers act like believers and churches act like churches are supposed to act. That will only happen as we, both individually and corporately, humble ourselves in repentance and prayer:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14).
As the great revivalist Charles Finney said, “There can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr. Wet-Eyes are not found in the audience.” Renewal will only happen as we truly live out our faith in deed, not just in word. Renewal will only happen as believers begin to clean up their act. The next great spiritual awakening in America will only happen when Christians get serious about penetrating this society as salt and light exemplifying the real Jesus and the real kingdom, living proof of a loving God to a lost world.
So let me ask you this: If you were the only Christian left in America, and the spiritual renewal of America depended on your witness, what hope would there be for America?
Sounds like you need to get with it! Me, too!
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