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Has God abandoned America???

I know this question may cause different people to respond and react in many different way's. For me the difficultly is not in knowing what to say, but in knowing what not to say. As I shared in my last blog "Diplomacy matters," it takes skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility. We are living in a time when sensitivities are at the surface, often vented with cutting words. That's because of this all inclusive time we are living in. Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practice anything, so long as you do not claim that it is a better way. Religiously, in America now you can basically by law make anything a worshipful deity!!!

Over the years I have sat at the feet of many learned and distinguished Preachers of the Bible, both black and white. Some reformed, some Calvinistic, and others Armenian etc. in their teaching. I learned a lot from all of them, but the words that resonated the most came from Rev. Dr. J.C. Bonner IV., he said to me, "James many people can make the bible say many things, but in the end you'll be held accountable by God for what and how you teach His word." The church, has on a large scale, missed our calling here in America!!!

In the bible there are five different manifestations of God's wrath. There is the eternal wrath of the unbelieving doomed in hell. There is the eschatological wrath, the unfolding of divine wrath at the end of the age described in detail in Revelation 6-19 the pouring out of God's wrath in the breaking of the 7 seals. There is the calamitous wrath of God which produces calamity in the world, the most notable is the flood which drowned the entire world, only 8 people saved. There is the consequential wrath, commonly called the wrath of sowing and reaping, which flows from the natural end from patterns and choices from sin. And there is the wrath of abandonment, a form of God's wrath in which He lets go of a society and lets it catapult full speed without restraint in the direction of it's own sinful desires, devices, and choices!!!

Has God abandoned America??? Romans 1:18-20 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Let's stop right here for a moment, and thing about what has been revealed for mankind since the creation of the world, let alone the democratic experiment we call the United States of America. For far too long sections of American Christianity has wrapped the Christian faith in the American flag, often creating a civil religion that is foreign to the way God intended His church to function. Our nation's founding fathers are frequently elevated to the level of church fathers in the arguments for the U.S. being founded as a Christian nation. While we should celebrate and affirm the Christian worldview that influenced the framework for the founding of our nation, the church must also be careful to judge our nations founders by their application of that same worldview. Our founding fathers' failure to apply the principles of freedom that they were espousing to the area of race is a prominent reason why many minority individuals today are less than enthusiastic to join in with those in our nation who want to exalt or restore America's history and heritage, especially when that history and heritage has only been one of blood, sweat, T.E.A.R.S. and death. Has God abandoned America???

Romans 1:21-25a."For even though they know God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of binds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impunity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie." Hundreds of years since the first arrival of slaves to these shores, the myth (lie) of black inferiority is still very much with us. It is visibly seen in the rejection and continued disenfranchisement of blacks by many whites and the inability to get beyond the issue of color. Unfortunately, the problem is often as full in the church as it is in the secular community. Why is this??? Has God abandoned America???

I would like to posit that it is primarily because of the failure of Christians to approach the issue of race from a theological rather than anthropological (the study of humans, physical and cultural characteristics, customs, social relationships, etc.) perspective. This failure has kept us from appealing to the source of race from whom every family under heaven receives it's name (Ephesians 3:14-15). God has too often been left out of the debate either by omission when all the data has not been gathered or by commission when the data that is gathered is presented to provide justification and maintenance to existing non-biblical cultural standards such as the curse of Ham. Has God abandoned America???

I've come to understand that sacralization is the divergence from a comprehensive theology and a biblical worldview into the development of religious beliefs intended to serve the interest of a particular ethnic or racial group. Supported by tradition or generalized prejudices, it is often formulated to carry out a specific end result or to justify a specific behavior. Sacralization often leads to the creation or furtherance of damaging and devastating lies. One myth (lie) that was perpetuated throughout American history, is the supposed inferiority of black people to white people. Has God abandoned America???

Myths (lies) like these are nothing more than traditions passed down over time in story form as a means of explaining or justifying events that are lacking in either scientific evidence or historical basis. The study of myths (lies), mythology, gives great insights into how societies answer questions about the nature of the world and the role of people in it. One very important element of myths is their ability to explain social systems, customs, and ways of life. Myths explain, to some degree, why people act the way they do. Distortions have mislead many innocent people because they are weaved around concrete facts and events which those who still have a conscience would never deny.

We live in an incredibly racialized society and most of our white brothers and sisters are totally oblivious to issues of race. Even as our country's population trends toward a majority-minority population, power structures, boardrooms, leadership positions, and wealth are deeply tilted toward whites and always have been in our country. The founding fathers first structured laws to make sure of that. Pastor John Bryson rightly said, "America was stolen from one people and built on the backs of another people. Ugly parts of American history need to be owned, acknowledged, and ought to lead us to ask for forgiveness and repent."

One of the great contradictions of the Revolutionary War was that men fought long and hard to be free. They risked their lives that they might be removed from the tyranny of England and enjoy the wonders of freedom in what would be the United States of America. The irony, however, is that the very men who fought for freedom endorsed slavery and owned slaves. Freemen owning slaves -- there's a contradiction there somewhere. So cataclysmic was the reality for slavery that it became one of the primary reasons for a civil war. You see, when you find freedom you ought to offer it to other folks too. When you've discovered that you've been made free, then slavery ought no to be part of your vocabulary. What was true of the Revolutionary War is also true for us. Freedom is always worth fighting for; freedom is worth risking your life for. There's nothing comparable to the freedom God bestows upon mankind. Has God abandoned America???

As John Piper noted, "the community where God is central, and Christ is exalted, and the Bible is believed, and the gospel is cherished -- this is where God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated, gospel-cherishing racial diversity and harmony can be advanced." White Christianity, with all of its strengths, often focuses on personal righteousness at the exclusion of biblical justice. However, there exists within that scope a limited definition of personal righteousness, since the practice of biblical justice is an essential part of living a life of personal righteousness. This limited definition is why a pastor can be fired for immorality, but not for allowing segregation or other forms of injustice either through acts of omission or commission. On the other hand, while there is much within black culture that is to be celebrated, African-American Christianity sometimes emphasizes social justice at the expense of personal responsibility!!! So on with the question of, has God abandoned America???

God Speed, J.P.