Does God Care About America?
By Rev. D. Earl Cripe, Ph.D.
In Genesis 31, Jacob had, through tricky means, found a way to lay hold of a large part of Laban’s flocks. Jacob then found himself at a point with Laban in which he reasoned, quite correctly, that it was time to go — in a hurry. How very like fallen mortals both Jacob and Laban were; even those of today (and perhaps we should say, particularly those of today).
Satan had accused Job before God that he only loved and reverenced God because he was blessed and prosperous. He was wrong about Job, the man of faith, but he was right on about most men. Laban was the exemplification of a carnal man whose reverence for God was self-serving. So long as all was well with him (his herds and flocks were increasing, as was his family, and the people of the region were beginning to take note of him) Laban was very careful to honor Jacob and God, at least outwardly. But as soon as things went against him, he abandoned both Jacob and God and became angry, surly and brooding.
In our part of the world the so-called Christian community likes to call America a “Christian nation” and give lip service to God because of the luxurious way in which we have lived. There is no denying that behind the scenes God has a plan for all of time-and-history, but insofar as this country is concerned, this has been one of the most patently non-Christian movements in the history of the Christian era. Religious men came to this country to escape their God-given duties to obey the King as supreme and to mind the leaders of the Church as those who had the rule over them and who must give an account for their souls. The Bible is quite clear on these matters.
In I Peter 2:13-20, we are instructed:
I Peter 2:13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king as supreme;
I Peter 2:14 Or unto governors as unto them that are sent by God for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of that do well.
I Peter 2:15 For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
I Peter 2:16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
I Peter 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King.
I Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the froward.
I Peter 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
I Peter 2:20 For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently: but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this acceptable with God.
Here the Apostle says that it is the Will of God for his people to honor the king as the supreme ruler whose leadership may not be contested. If he is a crooked and perverse ruler, honor him anyway for your own character’s sake. God, in His Sovereignty, has sent him, and has not given men (particularly the Church) any authority to try to bring him down. God, who is the ultimate supreme ruler and the avenger of the downtrodden, will take care of all of those issues in His own time and His own way. We are commanded to do this.
In the thirteenth chapter of Romans we are told that all authorities are raised up by God. They are God’s servants and messengers and they are sent specifically by Him to do the thing they are doing. If you resist that leader you are resisting God and His ordinances, and you will bring condemnation on yourself. For those of you who are familiar with the Bible, you know that I could go on at length with such scriptures. I will not do that, but here is what I will do. I will point out to you that there is not one Scriptures in the Bible anywhere that gives any Christian the authority to work in opposition to a leader, to become involved in any effort to bring him down, or to engage in anti-government activities. The same kinds of commandments are given, in I Timothy 5:17, and Hebrews 13:7, 17 and 24, concerning leaders in the Church.
The motivating factors that brought the Pilgrims, the Puritans and the Colonists to this country, and that went into the forming of our government, so far from being Christian, was as militantly non-Christian as anything can be. It was spurred by the blasphemy and heresy of the Enlightenment and was a modern reenactment of the Garden of Eden all over again. The worst sin in man — which was original sin — is rebellion against authority. The Puritans came to this country to escape the authority of the King and the Church of England. Neither of these motives can at all be called Christian in any legitimate sense of the word. The Revolution was founded in rebellion, not against tyranny, but a political rebellion against the taxation policies of the Crown. This is against the commandments of God who said that His children are to render to all their due, and among other things, taxes to those who have been sent by God as tax collectors. These words are found Romans, chapter 13.
This country has lead the fight, over the last 250 years, in an all-out rebellion against the authority of governments, leaders at the local level, husbands, fathers, church leaders, laws, morality and moral laws, and now at last normal sexuality.
Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft
The anarchy that has swept the world can and must be laid at the doorstep of the so-called — and falsely so-called — Christian movement in this country. We have exported our anarchy and perversion all over the modern world. I will say again what I have said many times before and will continue to say so long as God shall give me breath: Democracy is the poorest and most fatal form of government that was ever devised by man or devil. It is nothing in the world but a sophisticated word for organized rebellion. That rebellion does not stop with governments, fathers, husbands, the Church, and our own heterosexual nature. It is, in the final analysis, nothing less that all-out rebellion against God and His law. Like Laban, we have put our head in the sand, steeled our hearts and consciences, and continued to run our bluff. “God has blessed us with prosperity, health, might and glory,” we profess boldly. This kind of impudent and tacky patronization has been tolerated by the great and Almighty God. He will only tolerate it until the time when it will please Him to overthrow this modern Babylon in a fiery humiliation. In our arrogant condescension we have thought that we have made God take it and like it. But the truth, as Romans 2:5 reveals it, is that we have only treasured up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Our Darkening Countenance
Now, again like Laban, since the thing does not seem to be going our way anymore, we have turned sour, dark and bitter. Where is God anyway? Why is he allowing this? Have we been wrong about Him and His goodness? The answers are that God is where he has always been; and that it is man that has moved. God is allowing this because, as He has said from the Garden of Eden on, this is the inevitable result of rebellion against the authority of God; and yes indeed, we have been desperately and fatally wrong about God’s grace and goodness. We have not been wrong because God is not gracious and good; but we have been wrong in thinking that we could rephrase, re-characterize, redesign and rewrite the record of God’s grace and goodness. The goodness of God leads to repentance, says Romans 2:6. The grace of God teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live righteously, soberly and godly in this present evil world (Titus 2). Those who discard holiness and treat spitefully the spirit that undergirds the teaching and principle of grace shall come in for wrath and fiery indignation that is worse than anything the Old Testament derelicts every saw or dreamed of (Hebrews 10:26-31).
But because the Western Christian of today was only in it for what he could get out of it, and only insolently trying to flatter God to keep the blessings coming his way, he is now ready to abandon the ship. That is all right, let him get off; the sooner the better. He was never really onboard anyhow. Maybe you do not like what the Bible says about this? That is all right too. If you are one of the phony self-seekers who thinks that you have God in your pocket, then you are neither needed nor wanted in the battle that is shaping up for these few remaining days. You will be less danger to God and to me if you get on the other side of the line where your heart really is and own up to who you are and what you are. As God told Gideon, identify the glory seekers, the camp followers and the curiosity seekers who have no ability or heart to engage in the fight and get them out of here. They are holding up the program. We cannot do anything until they are gone.
I Raised Them up for My Glory and Purpose
That does not mean that God has not used this country, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution over the last three hundred years to accelerate His program, which is the Mission of the Church and the destruction of this world. But it does mean that (as with Laban and Jacob too for that matter) it is time that the lie is put finally and forever to the baseless claim that the Revolution and the American Movement were good things that have assisted God’s program in righteous ways. Just the opposite is true. Enlightenment Theology, which leads away from Orthodoxy and to Evangelical Conservative theology, has been in the vanguard of the movements and events that have lead us closer to the mayhem that existed in the days of Noah and to the very brink of the end of the world. Of course, that is good for Christ and the true Church. But it does not bode well for those false and nefarious forces that have brought it about. “It is impossible but that offenses must come,” Jesus said, “But woe unto that man by whose hand they come.” (Matt 18:7)
God’s Point of View ©2017