One Nation Under God? - What's Wrong With Our Nation
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
These are not my words. In fact, these words were first proclaimed over 140 years ago by President Abraham Lincoln.1 If he were alive today, Abraham Lincoln would be shocked about how worse the situation has become in the United States of America.
Mere mention of God by a public official can bring an onslaught of complaint and derision by the liberal press. For example, Lt. General William G. Boykin, a decorated U.S. Army officer, was castigated for remarks he made about Islam and Christianity.2 Boykin, an evangelical Christian, was quoted discussing a 1993 battle with a Muslim militia leader saying, "I knew my God was bigger than his." Two liberal senators, John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., then urged a probe be conducted into whether Boykin displayed what they called "inappropriate behavior." Previously, Boykin, got in trouble for his statements on why the Sept. 11 attacks weren't worse than they could have been. He said the hand of God stopped two more airplanes from crashing into landmarks in this country. That statement set editorial writers at major newspapers into a frenzy.
In a nation where the freedom to murder unborn persons is a cherished "right," the freedom to express one's religious views is politically incorrect. Christians must not bow to political pressure to be silenced, since acquiescence to this censure will eventually lead to our loss of freedom to express religious convictions altogether.
Lest we think that we are the first generation to abandon God, a previous generation had the same problem:
I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? (Deuteronomy 32:3-6)
Regardless of these transgressions, God is willing to forgive us. If we return to Him, He will return to us and be our God.
"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 3:7)
References 
- Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day
- Keith Peters. 2003. Flap Over General's Comments Tied to Christianity, Focus on the Family.
Reflections
We are what we think.
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One Christian author in history owns the distinction of having been read by popes, rock stars, and leading atheists. He lived almost 1,600 years ago and was from North Africa. He is the single most prolific author of the ancient world and has influenced countless Protestants and Catholics. Named after two Roman emperors, he is known to us as St. Augustine of…
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People were created to be worshippers. That’s one way of defining the image of God in human beings. Humans are also fallen worshippers. Thus, our religious-based tendency to worship has expressed itself in distorted ways in human history. Recently I was asked a question about how to understand the pagan gods of the Old and New Testaments and human idolatry. Here’s the question: I’ve always dismissed other “gods” in the Bible as nothing…
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Christianity’s Central Focus: Incarnation or Atonement?
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