Nena Arias | June 18, 2018
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) “God is not man, that he should lie,or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19) “The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
Do these Bible verses above give you the idea that God says what he means and means what he says? Does it sound like he would ever compromise his words to please people or play favorites? Yet, America is living under the delusion that God can bless it again without drastic repentance and changes from evil ways. America seems to be under the assumption that because we were ‘under God’ once and he made us great, that on that merit alone it gives us the right to become great again without fulfilling God’s requirements for blessings.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” If Jesus, in human form, came to fulfill God’s law do you think anyone else can be exempt from respecting and obeying God’s commandments, which he established for all time? We know the ceremonial law was fulfilled in its entirety and animal sacrifices are no longer needed to atone for sin. But we just read in Matthew 5:17 that Jesus did not abolish God’s moral/ethical law, and just as he abided by it, we must also.
Let’s briefly consider the Ten Commandments to take personal inventory and national inventory to see if we deserve to be blessed and great in the eyes of God.
The first Commandment says we should have no other gods before him. As it stands right now, we will not be in error to say that America is idolatrous in its worship of celebrities and people of power, it also bows down to the god of materialism, and hedonism (self-pleasure) just to name a few. I won’t go into detail to spell this out, but we know this is the truth, America selfishly lives for ‘number one’—self is its first god.
How about taking the name of the Lord in vain, not only through profane language but even in claiming to believe in him while dishonoring him in many ways and not living to please him. Also, uttered prayers in his name that he can never answer because they go against his Word that we know he will never betray.
Do we respect a day of rest as he has commanded? Society used to close all commercial and work-related activities to allow for a total day of rest, worship to God and family time. That has long ceased to be. It is a thing of the past because of greed and exploitation. Also, the land was supposed to rest on the seventh year to allow it to replenish its strength. This is not observed. The rest of the Lord also includes forgiveness of debt to relieve the economy and not overburden people from debt they can never get out from under. The rest of the Lord is much more than a day of rest, which is why we are running toward a precipice of financial collapse.
What about honoring parents? The lack of honoring parents is a disgrace in America, not only among the young where large percentages no longer respect authority like they used to, but adults no longer honor their aging parents who prefer to confine them to an institution rather than to disrupt their personal lives by caring for aging parents that don’t necessarily require medical care.
Murder is no longer punished like the Bible commands. The laws and the judicial system prefer to burden law-abiding citizens with caring for capital crime offenders than to rid society of these criminals. What can we say about the murder of the unborn for the sake of convenience and licentiousness?
Adultery started to get a pass long ago in America and it is no longer called adultery but ‘extramarital affairs’ thus creating gray areas where people don’t feel the brunt of their sin. The stigma of divorce and remarriage for any reason is all but none existent in America.
Everyone steals. The biggest thief is the government who picks our pockets by openly plundering our wealth and calls it taxation.
By the same token, we have a culture of lies. Too many are allowed to get away with lying and not reaping the full consequences of their actions. The higher the public persona the harder it is to prosecute the lies. Trustworthiness is at an all-time low in America.
Coveting the neighbor’s house and all their possessions is now called chasing the ‘American dream.’
I think you get the picture, so I ask you: will America ever be great again? America does not deserve to be great again unless she repents and turns from her wicked ways as God has commanded.
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14