Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for America is that they might be saved. This was the Apostle Paul's prayer for Israel as found in Romans 10:1. I've obviously changed "Israel" to "America" here to reflect the burden of my own heart. (Please note that I'm in no way trying to change Scripture here, which is why I italicized the word. I'm simply trying to show that, as Paul was burdened for his nation, so am I burdened for mine.) I was deeply disappointed by last week's election results, but I cannot say that I was surprised. There's a part of me that watched in disbelief as the results unfolded. While my mind screamed "how can the majority of our country vote for a man whose policies have so obviously failed, who has driven such a wedge in our country, and who stands up for sin and against what is good?" my heart knew the answer. It's found in Romans 1:28: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." If you'll read the verses leading up to this one, you'll find that they have "America" written all over them. These verses speak of how, when the people knew God, they didn't glorify Him as God, but became lifted up with pride in themselves, professing themselves to be wise. Does this sound like many of our educated crowd today, who by and large deny God? They then changed the incorruptible image of God into images like unto man, birds, and beasts, and began to worship the creature more than the Creator. Does this remind anyone of the environmentalists groups of today? It was from there that they got into homosexuality. It seems needless for me to point out that this is a huge issue today. So to me, these verses paint a perfect picture of what's been going on in America.
So what, then, is a reprobate mind? Well, the Webster's 1913 dictionary defines "reprobate" as "abandoned to punishment; hence, morally abandoned and lost; given up to vice; depraved." That's an ugly thought when you think that it's referring to one's mind. But the verse says that it was God that gave them over to the reprobate mind. Why? Because they "did not like to retain God in their knowledge." Wow, does that sound like our country or what? For as long as I can remember, and I'm sure even before I was born, there have been those who have been fighting to remove God out of anything and everything possible, and greatly succeeding at that. They've tried to remove Him from our schools, our legal system, our government, our money, the pledge, even Christmas. And the list goes on and on. And so, I believe, God has given them over to a reprobate mind. One of the consequences of the reprobate mind is to be "without understanding." Do you ever wonder how some people can think in a certain way? There are times when I've just had to shake my head at the thinking of some people. Some things are secular issues, such as trying to spend your way out of debt. How is it that anyone can even think that that makes sense? I believe that such skewed thinking is attributable to the reprobate mind. Then there are those issues that the world calls social issues. I call them spiritual issues, because the Bible has clear teaching about them. How is it that a woman can go to a "doctor" and have him murder her unborn child? Because of a reprobate mind. How is it that there are those who will fight against the death penalty for murderers and rapists, but call the murder of the innocent unborn a "choice"? It's because of the reprobate mind. How is it that homosexuality is praised and called an alternate lifestyle, when the Bible clearly calls it "vile" and "unseemly"? The answer, again, is the reprobate mind. If you'll read to the end of Romans chapter 1, you'll see the end result of the reprobate mind, and it isn't pretty, and yet I believe that we're seeing it today. Fornication, covetousness, full of envy, murder, haters of God, disobedient to parents, and without natural affection are just a few of the repercussions. Can we not see all of these things going on around us? I know that it looks terribly bleak and dismal. What, then, can we do? I'll refer you back to my opening sentence. We can, and must, pray for the salvation of America.
Amen, but this raises the question, `How do you pray for these people?` I know a number of people that this has happened to and when I try to pray for them, I almost feel like I can't. Once this point has been reached, has God completely and totally abandoned them?
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with some of what you said, there are a couple of things that I disagree with and I find to be incorrect or, at best, misleading when you consider the context of our government.
ReplyDeleteThomas Jefferson wrote; "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." So while you're right that the notion of keeping religion out of government has been happening since before you born, this isn't anything that's new. Separation of Church and State has been around since far prior to the founding of the United States as well. I think it's misleading to assume that recent events have begun a turn away from religion and God, when our government was supposed to keep separate from religion from the very beginning.
As someone who truly loves and cares for the environment around us and all of God's creations within it, I also disagree with the suggestion that environmentalists as a whole are deviant in the aspect that they worship the environment and ignore God. The environmentalist movement itself has never been about shunning or denying God - it has been about protecting the environment and trying to keep our planet "healthy" to our standards so that the human race can continue to live and thrive on it without steamrolling over nature - which God Himself created.
As for homosexuality, I think this is an issue that a lot of Christians take too personal. Remember the separation of Church and State? As a Christian, I know what the Bible says about homosexuality and I will go so far as to say that I disagree with same-sex marriage in a Christian church setting. However, I find it deplorable that our country continues to deny same-sex couples the same legal rights that are given to heterosexual couples. I believe it is wrong to limit someone's rights because your religion doesn't approve of their lifestyle. The government is supposed to keep religion and legal affairs separate and, as such, same-sex couples should be allowed the same legal rights that heterosexual couples enjoy in our country. Anything else is just a mirror of the racial discrimination laws that still haunt our country's history.
I don't believe our country is falling in on itself simply because we have a President who has decided that everyone should have equal rights and everyone deserves a fair shot regardless of their sexuality, religion affiliation, or what they want to do with their body. (Abortion and what it means in the Biblical sense is a moot point, as the science - and even the vocabulary - did not exist.) I was always taught that Christians were supposed to love and accept everyone, to look past others' flaws and love them. There's also a verse in Romans that mentions how God loves everyone, even the sinners. "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." What seems to be "without understanding" is to choose to condemn and deny people simply because they are sinners.
After all; "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven."
I'm not condemning anyone. Condemnation belongs to God alone, for which I am thankful. And it's really quite simple: "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18) My faith is an integral part of who I am. Everything that I believe about life, be it political, secular, or spiritual, I look at it through the lens of my faith, and my faith is based upon the Bible. My post, while it did have a political aspect to it, was not meant to be political. I will not argue the point of separation of church and state. That was not my point. My point was about the moral decline of our society, and I believe that it is due to a large part of our populace who want nothing to do with God. And I did not mean to infer that everyone who cares about the environment worships it above God. I'm sorry if I came across that way. I also want to make it very clear that I do not hate anyone. Often those who stand against homosexuality are accused of hate, and that's simply not true. The Bible gives me the authority to call it sin, but that does not mean that I hate them. You're right when you say that God loves sinners, and I'm so glad of that because that means that God loves me. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
ReplyDelete