America's Hope
A commentary by Charles P. Schmitt
Solomon writes: “Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14: 24, KJV). The downhill slide of the United States of America into its present moral abyss should be alarming to every sensitive soul. The question before us is how can we, as born-again, Spirit-filled believers, see that grievous trend reversed.
REVIVAL: A FOREMOST HOPE FOR AMERICA
We are conscious of the fact that even good laws and godly leadership – as essential as these are to any nation – cannot ultimately change the condition of the human heart. Only God Himself can. America has known seasons of revival over its nearly 225-year history. America was birthed in revival (the “Great Awakening of the mid 1700's), and has experienced nationwide visitations of the Holy Spirit every fifty years since that time – in the early 1800's, in the mid 1800's, in the early 1900's and in the mid 1900's! We, at the dawn of a new century, presently stand in desperate need of a fresh national revival that will do for us in our generation what revival has done for America in its past generations – reversed the tide of evil as millions of hearts were won to Jesus Christ our Lord! Our cries to God must consequently be: “O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2, KJV). And our confidence before God must ever be that “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple….” (Mal. 3:1, KJV). Amen!
GODLY LEADERSHIP: A FURTHER HOPE FOR AMERICA
Paul admonished Timothy that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men… and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2: 1-4). Good government is an important ingredient in the reversal of the downward moral slide that we are seeing in our nation. For example, for us to watch the White House and so many in the halls of Congress and the majority in the Supreme Court wage their relentless war against innocent pre-born boys and girls, turning what should be the safest place in the world – a mother's womb – into a killing field (all under the guise of a “woman's right to choose”) is a heinous national crime – enough to bring our democracy down in total ruin! For the past eight years we have suffered one of the severest vacuums of moral leadership in the history of our American government! And this must be reversed!
We, as the Body of Jesus Christ, must give ourselves to militant faith in intercession for good government, just as Paul admonished Timothy! And then, because “faith without works is dead,” we must put action to our faith in November at the election polls. The time has come for us to stop voting along the lines that our particular family tradition has dictated – whether Republican or Democrat – but rather to begin to vote THE KINGDOM OF GOD! We need to know well in advance of Election Day the stand of each candidate on those moral issues that are dear to the heart of our God – and then vote accordingly! If we do nothing we will be held severely accountable on that Great Day; and if we vote moral reprobates into office, we will be also held even more severely accountable on that Great Day! We must vote in accord with THE KINGDOM OF GOD – voting for those candidates who clearly stand for the righteousness of God in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation!
May we as Christians take up the mandate of godly responsibility to be “salt and light” – for we are called to be a city set upon a hill that cannot be hidden! Amen!
