“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 I will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” 2 Chronicles 7:14-15
Did God have the right to lead our founders here to live in this land? Did God have the right to lead Israel out of Egypt from being slaves of the Egyptians four hundred years, and onto a land where other groups/races/tribes lived (Canaan) and to instruct the Israelites to take control of it by physical force? God gave promises with His instructions.
Where in the Bible do we find our American founders being led by God’s call of pilgrimage to this land we call America? It is not found in the Bible. Does the fact that America is not listed in the Bible make our founding illegitimate and criminal, and not binding with God?
American Pilgrim: one of the people who traveled by boat from England and created the first permanent settlement in New England at Plymouth in 1620. The core of the group that came to be known as the Pilgrims were brought together between 1586 and 1605 by a common belief in the ideas promoted by Richard Clyfton, a Brownist parson at All Saints’ Parish Church in Babworth, near East Retford, Nottinghamshire. The congregation held “Separatists” beliefs that differed with the Church in England (Rome’s Catholicism), organized independently of the trappings, traditions, and organization of a ‘central’ church governing over the land. But, the Puritan group maintained their ‘membership’ in and ‘allegiance’ to the Church in England; unlike the Separatists. The Separatists opposed the law of the land (1559 Act of Uniformity) that it was illegal NOT to attend the official Church of England services, unless the church was a signatory to the allegiance to the Church of England, as the Puritan church was. To break this law meant a fine for each missed Sunday and holy day of theirs. The penalties for conducting unofficial services (such as the Separatists did) included imprisonment and larger fines. Under this policy at this time, two men (Barrowe and Greenwood) were executed for sedition in 1593.
One of our founders, William Bradford, kept a journal of the congregation’s events that later was published as “Of Plymouth Plantation.” Of this time he wrote:
“But after these things they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted & persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them. For some were taken & clapt up in prison, others had their houses besett & watcht night and day, & hardly escaped their hands; and ye most were faine to flie & leave their howses & habitations, and the means of their livelehood.”
The Separatists valuing peace & their spiritual comfort above any other riches whatsoever – first found (after fleeing the land controlled by the Church of false worship) that living in the Netherlands was a land whose culture and language were strange and difficult for this English congregation to understand or learn. They found the Dutch morals much too liberal, and their children were becoming more and more Dutch as the years passed. The congregation came to believe that they faced eventual extinction if they remained there.
William Bradford also notes the discouragements of the hard life which they had in the Netherlands, and the hope of attracting others in finding a better and easier place of living; for the children of the group were being drawn away by evil examples into extravagance and dangerous courses. Their great hope in departure was for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in remote parts of the world. It was important to them to retain their identity, culture and language. At the same time, there were many uncertainties (bad reports and fears) about moving to such “a place” as America.
(This was all taken from American history links.)
So, did God lead His people (the Separatists) to the land we call America?
Now, about 250 years later, what do we have? We ‘had’ a president that said “America is no longer a Christian nation.” What happened? Where was God and His people all this time? How did it happen that the Bible and corporate prayer was ‘outlawed’ in America’s schools, universities, and public places?
Why and how did “abortion” (murder in the womb) get protected by law?
Why and how did “marriage” become re-defined to what God calls evil and is now protected by the law of this land, giving homosexuals the right to marry and adopt children?
Why have terrorists found it easy to enter America and root their Islam religion of Shariah Law with jihad here?
Why has there been a growing hatred for our Constitution and the Christian faith, and great violence towards anyone supporting our new president and vice-president – who are committed to uphold our Constitution and do those things that USED TO BE DONE by our government?
Our founders did not form a government like England’s Church had over the land. Our founders set up a government of liberty and justice for all legal law-abiding citizens of all races and religions.
So what happened? What did God’s people allow to happen to their government and to their children?
Have God’s people seen and felt their shame before God, as they’ve become aware of evil pushing in on them and their children? Or, have God’s people been ‘compromising’ for so long now that they do not know how to overcome evil in their own lives, therefore, not having the least clue in how to overcome evil in our government. Many Christians ran for the presidency! Why didn’t God put one of them in?
Have God’s people in America tolerated evil instead of fighting evil? When you have no other land on the earth to “flee to,” what is left?
The Pilgrims left the England Church with its government telling them how to think, what to do and how to worship God. Sound familiar?
America was founded by those fleeing to live where they could freely worship God with their families, and to teach their own children about the God of the Bible of whom they love and serve, and to freely prosper by the work of their own hands, and to enjoy the fruits of their own labors – living in peace with each other and extending (not forcing) the gospel of Jesus Christ – wherever God had in mind. They formed a guard over this called “government.”
Did God recently hear the prayers rising up from America of a “pilgrimage” back to Him and His ways? If so, how is God “healing our land” just as He promised? Will we recognize it? Will it feel right to everyone? Will it cause an uprise from those who are dependent on the government and enjoy the way America is evolving?
Did God start “healing” by turning this election and bringing in a Trump/Pence combination, and with all their choices of “heads of gates” in America?
Whenever God tells His people to get right with Him and then take authority over the land they in, there is going to be bloodshed because this is the devil’s way of fighting to keep what he’s been in control of. And haven’t we been seeing this with his protestors (rioters), with them threatening innocent people and attacking and killing law officers?
God’s people are told to fight evil in a far more productive and lasting way:
Repentance/obedience to God
Prayer intercession/knowing how God fights for His people and requires His people to stand firm
Speaking Truth/that GOD IS IN CONTROL, and HE rewards those who earnestly seek Him/extending the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Taking up positions of authority and establishing righteousness, so that the disobedient SEE the results and turn to the wisdom of the righteous
Teaching our own children what true knowledge and wisdom is according to God/to rise up in their God-given purpose and potential of the talents and gifts He has put in them/training them up to be “heads/leaders” and no longer “tails/slaves”
When God’s people are walking with Him as they should – God goes to battle with our powerful enemies by shaming them, demeaning their leadership positions, exposing their secret agendas, and even putting them to an early death by all kinds of means.
If God did not put Trump/Pence in to “heal our land,” then why is there so much hostile opposition? Why are “progressives” viciously against the President? Why are the “progressives/elites” against governing by America’s Constitution? Why are they so against this nation being “under God,” calling on the God of the Bible (Jesus Christ)?
Does God want America to be like all the other nations, or to remain sovereign under Him and for Him still?
God chose Israel, not because they were perfect people, but because God wanted to show the world what He will do for the people that worship Him in truth and spirit, and commit themselves to His love and to His way of living under Him and before Him day and night.
Israel blew it many times and they suffered for it too, still are. The land of Israel will always belong to the Jews because God has never changed His mind; when God makes a promise – God keeps it. He is faithful and true – forever. The Jews are still God’s chosen people, and their time to shine like never before – is coming.
The Bible teaches in the New Testament that Christ’s disciples should not make the same mistake that Israel did; for they had God’s Word too but failed to apply the obedience of faith – to their own shame before Him, resulting in their loss of liberty, loss of lives, and loss of honor among the nations.
So then, how should we live and pray?