To me, the United States of
America is the greatest country on earth.
This is my home, my native land, and I know nowhere else in the world
I would rather live—and I’ve visited other countries (Austria, Germany,
France, Spain, Italy, China). Yet, yesterday—the
4th of July—Independence Day—I had two recurring thoughts:
First, I thought of the
hypocrisy inherent in these words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”—words written
and endorsed by men who held black people like me as slaves, as mere chattel. Historically, the United States has so often
practiced and endorsed various forms of injustice towards blacks, Native
Americans and a host of other people groups, as to make a mockery of these
noble words found in the Declaration of Independence.
Secondly, I thought of how
sinfully proud we are as a nation.
Americans, generally, are full of a sense of our own self-importance as
a nation. And we don’t think we need
God. This is evident by how much and how
often we Americans simply ignore God’s word and do what we want to do, and legalize
what we want to legalize, with absolutely no regard for what God has said. Just a casual glance at Scripture tells me
our nation is headed for big trouble—trouble from God Himself. Consider:
“Let anyone
who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).
“Pride goes
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
“Righteousness
exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
“Woe to those
who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for
darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
“Do not be
deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap”
(Galatians 6:7).
But, we don’t have any fear of
repercussions from our individual and national unrighteousness because we don’t
really believe God’s word. We’re clearly
told, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God” (Hebrews 10:31), but somehow we imagine our nation is special
in the eyes of God and is, therefore, exempt from God’s wrath. But God shows no partiality (e.g., Acts 10:34;
Romans 2:11; Galatians 2:6; Ephesians 6:9).
Therefore, the United States of America is no more special to God than
other nation, nor are we exempt from His laws.
The unrighteousness that America practices and endorses will ultimately
be her downfall. The wrath of God is
coming, and we don’t see it, and we don’t care.
That’s why I, generally, just
can’t get excited about the 4th of July. All is not well in “the land of the free and
the home of the brave.”
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