Today is Election Day in America. When one considers what that has come to mean
insofar as honesty in government is concerned, they might be inclined to
forsake all hope and fail to register his vote based on the wisdom and common
sense with which he has been imbued by his Creator. In my opinion, that would
be un-American. To simply accept utter defeat when the possibility of moral and
spiritual reformation remains a possibility flies in the face of the courageous
Founding Fathers who faced impossible odds in establishing a haven of Liberty
in a land that had known religious oppression and political bondage.
When we pray for America – her prosperity, her defense, and success as a nation
– the Christian does not pray for her success that has come to be a common
blotch on the escutcheon of the nation – things such as the official
legitimization of the abominable sin of homosexuality (especially homosexual
marriage) and abortion on demand which exceeds the brutality in magnitude of
the German Nazis. We pray ‘God’s blessing’ on the nation. What does that mean?
It means that we pray for whatever measures, in the will of God, He decides to
take to bring us back to a reverence for His Holy Name and Word. This is true
whether it be severe judgment, persecution, or even bondage. The Children of
Israel endured bondage for four hundred years in Egypt by the approbation of
God. He intended it to make them understand liberty in Christ for without an
experience of utter darkness, one cannot appreciate the morning sunrise.
There is no question at all that America is in trouble with God. The evidence
is to be seen in the attitudes of our youth, the complacency of our adults, and
the resignation of our elders. Drugs are everywhere rampant. The constituted
authorities turn the head to this in response to the mammon of money and power
the trade offers. Free and unrestrained sex is everywhere on TV, the movies,
and the internet – and our children are introduced, at an early age, to the
vilest pornography in our present-day schools. So, when I pray for God’s
blessing on America, I do not pray for more corrupt and unprincipled leadership
as we have today. I pray that God will either convert those leaders to Christ,
or dispense with them. I pray that God will bless America with a change of
heart among her citizenry to get away from trifling interests in sports, soap
operas, and video games; and back on the firmer ground of faith and principle .
. . and serious education instead of the pabulum being offered today in
Universities and public schools. I pray that God will bring upon the land a
severe persecution if that will turn our heads and hearts back to the God that
gave this nation the breath of Liberty in the first place. ANYTHING that turns
our hearts back to God will be worth the sacrifice.
Today’s hymn was a joint venture by two separate individuals during the early
days of our founding. The first and second stanzas were written by Siegfried
Mahlmann in 1815. The third stanza was composed by William E. Hickson in 1835.
It was adapted to be sung to the tune, AMERICA.
God bless our native land
God bless our native land;
firm may she ever stand
through storm and night:
when the wild tempests rave,
ruler of wind and wave,
do thou our country save
by thy great might.
For her our prayers shall rise
to God, above the skies;
on him we wait;
thou who art ever nigh,
guarding with watchful eye,
to thee aloud we cry,
God save the state!
And not to us alone,
but be thy mercies known
from shore to shore.
Lord, make the nations see
that men should brothers be
and form one family
the wide world o'er.
“God bless our native land; firm
may she ever stand through storm and night: when the wild tempests rave, ruler
of wind and wave, do thou our country save by thy great might.” The opening line suggests that
God bless our land so that she stands firm through every storm – moral and
militant. Has America done this? So when, by our lack of zeal to defend those
principles for which better men than we shed their blood on battlefields from
Concord to Baghdad, the winds of doubt; of cowardice; and of complacency toward
the things of God began to rise in stormy blasts and the seas are troubled and
discomfited. Does this not reflect our day? But the trailing line of this
stanza appeals to God to save us by His might – not in our immoral and ungodly
manners, but in a rebirth of faith and strong conviction.
“For her our prayers shall rise to God, above the skies;
on him we wait; thou who art ever nigh, guarding with watchful eye, to thee
aloud we cry, God save the state!” If the terms of this prayer were adopted, certainly God
would save us. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
(2 Chron 7:14)
Have you truly thought about this verse? More than 70% of the American public
consider themselves to be Christians, and they go by that family name; yet they
are Christian in name only. Their faith is not an enduring faith that marks
them in public places and lifestyle as Christian. If those people, who are
called by the Name of Christ, were to heed this warning in 2nd
Chronicles, our land would not only be saved, but turned from it sure course of
fatality. The unbelievers of a nation are not called to pray because the
prayers of an unbeliever achieve nothing. Have those who are called by the Name
of Christ humbled themselves, prayed earnestly, sought the face of the Lord,
and turned from their wicked ways? I do not think so. God will not save a state
upon which He has finally declared a judgment. Do we wish to sink to that state
of immoral decay and decadence?
“And
not to us alone, but be thy mercies known from shore to shore. Lord, make the
nations see that men should brothers be and form one family the wide world o'er.”
The false religion of the general brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God
is an error that began a little over one hundred years ago. This stanza does
not plainly say that; however, the only way that we, as a nation, could become
a solid brotherhood of God would be for all to repent and accept the
Sovereignty of Christ. There are only two families on earth and every person
belongs to one or the other. Those two families are either the family of God,
or of Satan. My reading of Scripture does not convince me that men will
one-and-all be Christian brothers the world over before Gabriel stands and
sounds the trumpet call. It is a great hope earnestly to be desired, but not
one that conforms to the prophecies of the Scriptures. Those mercies “known
from shore to shore” may not be what we expect. It was merciful that God
allowed Israel to go into the Babylonian captivity because it reminded them of
what they had lost, and could regain by faith. Perhaps that may be the plight
of America. Whatever result comes today in the election results, America will
receive that which she
