Sure, we’re safe. We can feel secure for any number of reasons.
We have the technology. Whatever threat that may come our way, we can deal with it with our planes and bombs and troops on the ground brandishing superior equipment. And we have not even begun to unleash our nuclear capabilities.
We have shorelines that have served as barriers of protection for many years. Even though we must be able to ward off attacks from the air and sea, we have a distinct natural advantage possessed by no other nation that has served us quite well.
We have history. Sure, we have lost a few skirmishes such as Vietnam, ones we have gone into with mixed feelings, but we have always won the big ones, even the cold war, with all of its military, political, and economic dimensions.
We have the assurance of experience. It has been a couple of centuries since an enemy has established a beachhead on our shores. The tragedy of 9/11 may have given a temporary sense of vulnerability, but the Eagle has soared, stomping the life out of Al-Qaeda, and it has not been able to mount a successful attack against us since. No living American has ever seen an enemy posing a real threat marching across our borders.
But perhaps the greatest assurance of safety is spiritual. There is good reason to believe that America was, and still is, a city set on a hill by God. We may have our faults, but we are still more spiritual than any other place on earth. Just look at the statistics for church attendance, missions, etc.
In fact, all of the other assurances of safety above may be viewed as manifestations of this spiritual one. God has provided us with protection because of the unique role to which He has called us. Therefore, we can count on His continued defense of our shores.
The factors listed above tend to make Americans feel invincible. There is little worry about Al-Qaeda making a second successful strike. Iran’s nuclear threat may be a problem for Israel, but it can’t reach us. Likewise, with North Korea. China’s recent saber-rattling has aroused virtually no worry for Americans.
Of course, this is a false sense of security. Our experience of invincibility, our pride, and our sense of spiritual superiority have lulled us into a stupor, setting us up for a very rude awakening.
We close our eyes to our economic house of cards, our cultural demise, and our military limitations, especially in the face of a world that seems to hate us almost universally.
Our spiritual security is especially unfounded. Israel, millennia before us, possessed the same delusions. The temple of God is here. Certainly God will not allow the enemy to destroy His temple. After all, He has protected it for hundreds of years. Beside, we are the repository of the Word of God. What would happen to it if we were defeated. And even though we might have our faults, we are not as bad as those pagans threatening to destroy us. Therefore, a just God will protect us.
But Jerusalem was taken and the temple destroyed. In fact, it happened twice.
We can’t conceive of nuclear weapons falling on our cities, of people of other nations occupying our cities, or of the inhumanities such conquerors would exact on us. After all, rape and pillage are a violation of the Geneva Convention. Certainly the UN or someone would step in. The ACLU might even take them to court.
It is this false sense of security that stupefies our nation and the evangelical church into much of the nonsense that we accept. Congress continues to spend, President Bush does nothing of substance to protect our borders, we continue to propagate to our children the lie that homosexuality is a fine alternative, and evangelicals continue to chase fads rather than grabbing hold of the bedrock teachings of Scripture such as God’s demand for righteous living.
Samuel Johnson observed: “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully,” or, as he is more popularly credited with saying, “The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully.” Either way, the point is well-taken. The awareness of impending danger tends to clear our minds.
The reality of the dangers that confront us could inspire an evangelical reformation. The question is whether we come to that reality too late.
When we look at the parallels to Israel, and their willing blindness to sin for many years, there are both similarities and contrasts.
In terms of contrasts, I think that it is important to recognize that America has no claim as “God’s chosen nation” as Israel clearly does. We were not singled out as the decendents of a man chosen by God long ago, nor was our land specificly ceded to us by covenant and promise given by God. To the one who believes in the validity of the Scriptures, there is no nation on Earth like Israel. There are no other nations that are singled out for God’s special focus like Israel. Biblically, any other nation can receive God’s favor because of righteousness manifested and His rejection and judgement because of sin manifested. (Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people- this is the general principle).
So…a nation blessed by God is so by virtue of two main aspects in God’s economy. First and foremost is the Providential Grace of God that works in the hearts of individuals, leading them to form communities that reflect their desire to please God and to live in harmony with His Word. This “Providence” so moves to carry out the purposes of God in His great compassion toward humanity. The greater the number of the individuals so moved, the more God uses it to reach mankind with His life-giving Word. This action takes place in the back-drop of general darkness (the wickedness of man in both low and high places). Never has America been a totally righteous and clean nation, nor has it yet arrived at a point of complete darkness and reigning of sin. America happens to be a nation whose very history is a case-study in this phenomenon of people wanting to form communities founded in righteousness.
The second aspect in God’s economy that is at work among the nations is His demonstration of His power and right to rule the Earth. Currently, Scripture teaches us that Satan is “the god of this world,” and that He ultimately has great sway among the nations. Any nation formed by men will tend toward corruption and sinful decay because Satan reigns in many hearts and ultimately dictates where the majority will head. On the other hand, God reigns in the hearts of His people and He manifests His power in all that He accomplishes in World history in spite of Satan’s reign. Scripture clearly teaches that the day is coming when His Chosen will rule over the whole Earth, and His reign will bring great glory to God in the very contrast to the history of human failure.
In summary of the above contrasts made between God’s relationship with Israel and that with the rest of nations, we could say that all is tentative and relative for a nation, or people-group. God’s special favor on any nation will run out and be over at some point. This need not come as any surprise prior to the actual reign of Christ. Only Israel, ironically the one nation “least likely to succeed” in history, will be the exception to the rule.
In terms of similarities, there are many, but I would like to point out an important one. Israel, in spite of their more prominent and special position before God, gradually became ripe for His judgement because of blatant sin. Many centuries of history are represented in the Old Testament from the time of entry into the Promised Land and their final, very long-term expulsion in 70 a.d. America has only been a nation for a little over two centuries.
The proliferation of evil has become so rapid and pervasive over the past century that it may seem that God is not so powerful, or able to deal with it. But that feeling and impression is as transitory and false as the short-sighted minds that sense it. We are at a point in our history where the scales of relative righteousness embodied in the collective “American Church” are so far out-weighed by the wholesale rejection of God and His righteousness in the general culture, that the scale could almost tip no further.
The amount of time that has passed since we have arrived at this point is miniscule on God’s clock. We don’t need to wonder any more: Judgement is about to fall. We as individuals who can see this should just keep the faith come what may. We should concern ourselves with the Kingdom and be found by Him “sober and watching and standing in the battle…”