“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15
The United States of America has been on an increasingly secular path for over 50 years. I wrote about the decline in morals and biblical values in my book, About Face: A Call to Turn America Back to God, which was published in 2015. During this past year we have seen tremendous division in our nation covering many different issues including the economy, the pandemic, healthcare, immigration, race, justice, climate change and abortion, just to name the most obvious. Having grown up in America, I have witnessed this growing division and the abandonment of biblical principles and values in our nation. I have also experienced its impact on our society. And it is not good.
The United States of America has been a “shining city on a hill” that people from other nations long to visit and live in because of our freedoms, especially speech, religion and economic opportunity. I know this from my own experience visiting many other nations. The United States is a nation like no other in the world. It was founded on Judeo-Christian values and principles and our Constitution guarantees these freedoms for all of its citizens. It was also established as a nation that would govern itself. But as John Quincy Adams clearly pointed out in 1789, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” In other words, without a biblical foundation, self-government will ultimately fail.
As I survey the landscape of America today, I can’t help but notice this departure from biblical and moral values that President Adams spoke of at the founding of our nation. The division we are experiencing in our nation today is caused by the different attitudes and worldviews of our own people. It is the age old conflict of God’s way versus Man’s way. Today, fewer Americans believe in God’s Word and the principles and values for life that it contains. Instead, many Americans are putting their trust in science and man’s intelligence.
Those Americans who favor Man’s way have a secular worldview that focuses on man’s intellect and ability to reason out all things. To them God is irrelevant. They view people as basically good and that everyone can have their own morals. There is no standard of behavior and little belief in personal responsibility. They say people aren’t the problem, society is! The Bible clearly contradicts this view and says in 1 John 1:9 that “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Believing that we are basically good is a false premise. Proverbs 3:5 also tells us that we should “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.” According to God’s Word, trusting in our own knowledge and wisdom will only lead us to disaster.
On the other hand, those Americans who favor God’s Word and have a biblical worldview know that God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9) and that we are sinful by nature (Romans 3:23). They recognize that the problem is not society, it is us! If society is failing, it is because we as individual citizens are failing. Believers in God know that He is good and His moral standards are best for society because man will sin and eventually mess things up if they do things their own way. If nothing else, history proves this to be true. Man without God is inherently evil and will do very evil things to their own people under the guise of making a better society. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot are just a few examples.
So, America is at a fork in the road. There are two paths it can follow. It can continue to choose to follow its own intellect and Man’s way with its historically tragic consequences, such as communism, genocide and slavery. Or it can turn back to God and follow biblical standards and His way, which produces prosperity, generosity and compassion.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrews were given a similar choice when they came to a fork in their road. Deuteronomy 11:26-28 records the choice that God gave them. He said, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse – the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.” Sadly, the Hebrews only followed God for a short time before reverting back to their worship of other gods and their own desires, which eventually brought destruction upon themselves (the curse).
America has the same choice today. Before it lies a blessing or a curse. However, the path America chooses will also have an impact on the rest of the world. If America chooses a path of relying on man’s intellect it will surely decline morally, economically and militarily. It will no longer be able to provide for the needs of its own people or other nations, defend itself or its allies, or remain a stabilizing force for good in the world (the curse). If America chooses to follow God’s way, it will prosper economically, socially, and spiritually. And that will enable it to continue to fight evil in the world, produce food for the world, and provide security for the world (the blessing). As the leading nation in the world, what it chooses will impact other nations either positively or negatively.
Although the impact from this choice may takes many years to materialize, it is critical for the United States to make the right choice today so it can stop its slide down the path towards its own destruction. This will ensure a prosperous future for the United States and the world!
It is also a choice that we as individuals must also make every day to avoid our own spiritual death. Proverbs 14:12 says that “There is a way that seems right to man, but it only leads to death.” If we follow our own ways it will surely lead to our destruction. So, we must put our trust in God to receive the blessing in our own lives. Proverbs 28:25 says that “He who trusts in the Lord will prosper.”
There is no other way to create a better future for ourselves, or our own nation, than to follow God’s way!