To celebrate Independence Day on my blog, I thought I would continue in my current series with a relevant verse. The verse I’ll be writing about is Psalm 33:12, which says:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.
A common (and I would venture to say incorrect) way of looking at this is to say that if we as a country (USA) were to return to our “Christian” roots, then we would receive blessings from God. I think this is incorrect for a couple of different reasons. First, we need to consider the context of this verse. It was written during the Old Covenant when God’s chosen people were the nation of Israel, a physical nation. So, this verse would make perfect sense to them: they would be blessed above other nations because God specifically chose them to be His people. But, this isn’t how God works in the New Covenant era. His chosen people now are the Church, not any one physical nation. So, I think it’s incorrect to say that we can apply this verse written in a specific context to say that a nation with supposed Christian roots can expect blessings from God.
The other problem with this viewpoint is that it can result in a works mentality. Suppose that all of a sudden, the government were totally led by godly people and all of our laws reflected Biblical teaching (far-fetched, I know). Now, let’s say that God allowed another horrible 9-11 type tragedy to happen even after that. What would people say? I suspect a lot would be waving their finger at God and calling Him unfair. Why? Because they would argue that since they did their part, they felt like God should do His, or- they feel like their own (or their country’s) acts of obedience obligate God to then bless them. Something we all tend to think from time to time, but something not in line with the God of the Bible. God may be more glorified by something in the life of me (or the USA) that hurts and stings than something that is comfortable and feels good.
Thinking of this stuff makes me wonder how much more progress we’d be making in spreading the gospel if we focused on winning hearts, not court battles.
-JRO
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2 comments:
Jamie, my friend, I don't always agree with you, but I always respect your points. This time, however, I pretty much agree 100%. Going even further than what you said, the notion that this was ever a "Christian nation" is a falsehood in itself. Sure, some of our founding fathers were Christians, but many were not and the country was built and the ideas of rationality and equality, not on the Bible. It's funny because, while I haven't had a chance to discuss it with you, your post deals with similar issues as my latest blog posts and actually relates to Zabowski's sermon yesterday as well. As Christians, it's not our job to force anyone to behave a certain way or create laws that line up with our moral code. Like you said, it's our job to go out and try to win souls for Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one that teaches people how to live, not us.
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