II Chonicles 7:14

I know I have been displaying my best bad attitude toward the current political discourse in this election cycle. My thought is that the American political experiment in self governance is so over. Voting is an exercise in futility. It is meaningless in the extreme. No matter who we vote for, we get more of the same. More war, higher taxes, more debt, bigger government and the list could go on. Our government even encourages immorality, and incorporates and protects it as it seeks out new employees, new soldiers, new congresspersons and new White House occupants.

For the Christian, this is all a source of confusion and a redefinition everything they have learned about the America we love. Well, not all Christians. I find the whole thing amusing in a sad sort of way. If I don't laugh, I will cry.

Us Churchian Christians were raised up from youth with the notion that the United States of America was a Christian nation. Some of us even came to believe our nation was God's new chosen people; a force for Christian good in an evil world. It's odd how it all worked and how we came to that conclusion, given the circumstances of our nation's birth and subsequent history.

Our 'founders' rebelled against their rightful king (George III) who, if you believe Romans 13, was appointed by God and was therefore deserving of the colonist's obedience. After the rebellion, the same Christian occupants of North America proceeded to take the North American continent by storm, first with exploration and then with organized immigration and total genocidal war against the native inhabitants.

Later, but also at the same time, our ancestors made war against our neighbors (Mexico) and finally each other in the war of northern aggression (errantly called civil). It was brother against brother, Christian against Christian and it was not about slavery. The industrial revolution was making slavery unnecessary. It was about economics and the right of local rule in opposition to a central authority in Washington DC. It was about restricting the freedom that was won at high price by the founders rebellion against their king. It was hypocritical and unnecessary.

Then there is the deliberate debasement of our currency. There is the corporate and government encouragement of the fascist and communist revolutions in Europe and Asia that led to two world wars. All of this supported by the allegedly Christian populace in our free nation.

American Christians are an odd bunch. They think nothing of carpet bombing nations that might restrict the flow of oil and the good life and then they wonder why they react with terrorism against our activities to 'free' them. We wonder why Feminists and LGBT people stand in opposition to us when we actively try to silence them and use public policy to limit their freedom - freedom God gave them to choose whom they would serve. We seek to convert the unsaved, unwashed masses to the one true faith with law and with bombs and other threats while avoiding the all important presentation of the gospel. Never mind that. The important issue is if our church restrooms are safe from transgendered men. We have to protect ourselves, our brethren, our way of life.

Really? Is that what Christ died for? Our way of life in the here and now? I don't think so. People need saving and all you worry about is a transgendered boy in the girl's locker room or maybe the Mexicans that moved in next door (in a land that once belonged to their ancestors).

And that diatribe brings me to II Chronicles 7:14. There is misapplication, misinterpretation and massive deliberate ignorance in the church regarding this passage of scripture. Here it is.

      ¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

This passage is used time and time again totally out of the context intended. It applied to God's people Israel - a nation God had called and covenanted with. God no longer makes covenants with nations. He covenants with individual people that have faith in Jesus.

IT DOES NOT APPLY TO AMERICA!!!!

We are not Gods chosen people. We are Gentile Americans. Only some of us are Christians. We are not a Christian nation and we never have been. We have been a nation with Christians in it. If we had been doing our job, it might be a Christian nation, but we chose the path of law and militarism to make those unbelieving Americans meet our moral standards rather than presenting them with Jesus and lets face it, some of us did not want them in our churches anyway.

So now we are here. There are more of them than us and we wonder what they are so mad about. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Our exclusivism, racism and hate drove them from the sheep pen. Never mind that Jesus wanted to save them. We had to preserve our way of life.

The real dead ringer in all this is that there are still true believers. Many, many Christians actually believe that if America humbles itself and prays, that God will heal our land. If you vote a certain way just one more time, we will get what we need to reverse the western cultural decay. If we seize the reins of government, we can bring back the glory days of the Christian standard in America.

It's all Male Bovine Excrement.

If II Chronicles 7:14 applies to any group today, it is the Church. It is not for a nation it is for God's people and that is not America; it is the church.

The Church needs to repent, to turn away from the use of politics (right or left) and government power and use of the force of law and return to it's first love, Jesus Christ. We need to offer this sinful world an alternative that comes with an eternal security plan that does not require government power or politicians or lobbyists. Try this instead.   

 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Christian, do you want temporal power or spiritual power? If it's the first, then you are misguided. Take hold of what's yours in Christ. Obey Him alone in the face of all things as commanded. None of those things is to influence or seek power and control in earthly government. You are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Your King is Jesus Christ. You just happen to have been born in America. It's where you live and work, but your heart and soul should always be in the Kingdom, otherwise you are living in treason. As a visitor in this place, Romans 13 says you must obey the God appointed rulers of the land you live in. The only exception to this is when those rulers stand directly in the way of the spread of the  gospel. That's the gospel....AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE.


The American empire is dying. Let's let it die and set up for the next thing. World government. It's coming and we will not survive in it using 19th or even 20th century tactics. We have to be ready. The only one that can help with that, the only one that can make us eternally safe and secure is Jesus Christ. Point your brains toward Him and let Washington DC self destruct. Point your souls toward Him and help His Church to expand His spiritual influence. It can still be a Christian world. They just need to come to know Him.

Remember, it's insane to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Politics has done nothing for you. Voting has done nothing for you. But Jesus Christ saved you. Pass along the favor.