Last time I pointed out a couple of reasons why I believe that the phrase Taking America back for God to be erroneous statement. This time I will expand my thoughts on this topic and talk about allegiances.
Does God recognize governments and give some more blessings than others? — Except for Israel of course there is little evidence of that in Jesus’ words. And even for Israel, in my mind, refers to the people who have a relationship with God and not the political nation either then or now. God infinitely loves all his children no matter what their nationality or politics is. He loves that child who died of starvation within the last 30 seconds in an African country just as much as he loves you or your children. I don’t think Jesus is much on national identities. After all he even associated with Samaritans! That was a definite political no-no in his days.
Christian Theocracies – We have had Christian Theocracies at various times in world history but we never see them end up acting Christ like. In fact they usually ended up looking pretty much like all the other pagan nations around them. We waste a lot of our energy as Christians today in the United States trying to establish a political kingdom that is Christ like. Jesus rejected that idea when he was walking this earth so I don’t think he would condone it now. Not even for the United States of America.
Where should our allegiances be?
- Let us always remember that we are in this world but not of it. Our citizenship is in heaven so lets focus our attention there while trying to live our lives here and now as Jesus taught us to do. Our time on earth is a probationary period to see if we are sheep or goats.
- Is it wrong to think that God had a hand in some of our successes such as our freedom of religion and our somewhat thriving democracy? Of course we should thank God for that help but we must also acknowledge our dark periods as well. These were times when we gave our nation over to Satan.
- Is it wrong to ask that “God Bless America”? Of course not, but along with this prayer should be that God bless Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Union……….
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God bless all humanity, even our political enemies and help us to recognize that every human being on the earth are our potential brothers and sisters in the heavenly realm.
Next time I will talk more about Jesus and politics and summarize this discussion. As usual I welcome any comments you wish to post as long as they remain civil.
I heartily support this series, RJ, as you well know I agree. But it’s probably pointless to ask God to bless the Soviet Union, which has been dissolved for more than a decade. Russia, now. . . ;{)
Peace!