The Puritans and Rev. Wright?

During this time of Thanksgiving, I want to reflect on one aspect of God's nature. Psalm 103:8 states that, "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love". This is something we can all be grateful for. God is patient towards us. He is not easily angered or "ticked off" when we mess up. This truth applies, of course, to us as individuals. God knows that we are but dust and that we are going to fail him time and again. But during the process of cleaning us up (sanctification), He is gracious and forgiving. And this also applies to us as nation. God is slow to anger and slow to wrath.

So, what does that have to do with the Puritans or Rev. Wright? The answer is this: the Puritans and the early Christian forefathers of our nation believed that God had ordained this nation into existence. They believed that they were put on this continent by divine providence; that God had a destiny for this continent, and that they were to be the instruments that God would use to make this continent a "city on a hill", a light to the nations, and the glory of the earth.

Those early settlers, and the ones who followed them for the first 150 years did not, however, believe that America's destiny or greatness was automatic, or that it could be assumed that God would always "shed His grace on thee". They believed in the principle of COVENANT. God had chosen them to spread His glory on this land, and IF they were faithful to that mission, then God would bless, prosper and exalt this nation above the nations of the earth. BUT, if the time came when the people of this nation turned their backs on God and began to worship the idols of the nations around them, then God would remove His hand of blessing and the destruction of this nation would soon follow. They believed that they were the "new" Israel and that this land was their promised land. And just as God instructed Old Testament Israel to walk according to the covenant, so they were to do likewise. Deuteronomy 8:18-19: "Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors. But I assure you of this, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshipping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed".

So, here we are today, as a nation that has, in many ways, broken the covenant. In the church and out, we are a nation of idol-worshipers and a people who have strayed FAR from the vision of the early settlers. One only has to look at the issue of abortion to find ample cause for the wrath of God to be poured out on us. Hitler killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, but America has killed about 50 million innocent unborn children since 1973. And the blood of each of those babies cries out against us as a nation. And many in the church are too busy playing and climbing the ladder of upward mobility to even care anymore.

So, when Rev. Wright preaches after 9-11 that America's chickens have come home to roost, the conservatives push back against that statement by touting America's credentials as the most generous and friendly nation on earth - which we are. And to be sure, the Liberation Theology espoused by Rev. Wright is in fact Christianized Marxism. But we still can't ignore the truth of what our founding fathers believed. If we, as a nation, forget God, turn our backs on Him, serve idols, worship the gods of self, prosperity, greed, etc., there will indeed come a day of reckoning for this nation. We have broken the covenant, we have sinned against His commands, and in spite of all the great things this country has done and been, we stand before a holy God with blood-stained hands.

After hurricane Katrina, Pat Robertson made statements that he later retracted. He inferred that Katrina may have been part of God's judgement on America for abortion. Of course, that statement is really politically incorrect these days. But it doesn't change the truth of the matter. I do not know if Katrina was a direct punishment from God for the abortions in America, but I know that if we do not turn from our evil ways, Katrina will look like a slap on the wrist compared to what we may have to face. America has not been favored by God for 200 years because we are innately a better species or because we are smarter than all the other nations. We have been blessed because of the Christian foundation, the Christian laws, the Christian freedoms, the Christian morals, the churches, and the Christian societies that have upheld the covenant.

The fact that Barack Obama had even the slightest chance of being elected as the President of this nation, when he made it clear how far away from Christian principles and American historical values he was, shows how far we have strayed. In 1788, Governor Samuel Johnston of North Carolina wrote: "...those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to office of President or other high office, unless first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves..."

Today, if God were to call us into His court and put forth the evidence against us as a nation, I am afraid that we would have no defense.

For each day that God demonstrates His patience, His kindness, and His slowness to anger, we should be very grateful.

Psalm 103:8 "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love".

I would hope that America would soon take the advice of Abraham Lincoln who delivered a politically incorrect address in August of 1861: "...and whereas, when our own beloved Country, once, by the blessing of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His mercy, -- to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved;...that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under his guidance and blessing, by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence..." (Abraham Lincoln -- "Proclamation of a Day of Fasting") http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/proc-3.htm