Comments on: I confess I do not pray God bless America.

By: David Warangel

David Warangel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:24:02 +0000

Justin’s link to the John MacArthur sermon is great. I am kind of getting it. It’s not reacting in emotional anger but thinking deeply on whether praying for blessing for a nation/people that deny Him, as you note, is in line with God’s will. I pray that God’s will is repentance but that often means letting the ungrateful, rich “brat” fall in their ways.

Some prety challenging thinking on this blog post and the MacArthur link.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:50:02 +0000

I guess it would be wise to pray that the people in the nation would repent but I do not see a biblical basis for praying for God to bless a nation that is denying Him in so many ways and is promoting much social evil. The best thing for America now is God’s correction so that the people will repent. As for what God told Jeremiah, we often use passages not directly addressing us as general instruction to God’s people in a larger sense, of course Christians need to use great caution and discernment when doing this.

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

America is not my enemy it is the nation I dwell in at the moment. If I pray for God to bless America should I also pray for God to bless the world in its fallen state? That would contradict His own curse.

By: David Warangel

David Warangel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:54:28 +0000

I understand your anger and the Jeremiah reference is a good reference, except that “God told” Jeremiah directly to do this exception. If God has told you to do so, then by all means don’t. If not, then the general exhortations to pray, including pray for your enemies, to me would stand and to not do so out of anger, even if justified, would seem to be acting out of one’s own will and spirit to make a statement, to act [or not act in this case] and not out of desiring and hearing God’s will.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:43:55 +0000

Great article, I recommend that everyone read it before they again sing God Bless America while rejecting God’s words

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:53:15 +0000

Here is a good article by John MacArthur on this issue http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-245

By: nasrani

nasrani — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:34:59 +0000

Don, I must say I can understand your reasoning pretty well. There are no truly Christian nations on the face of the earth anymore. Even the United Kingdom is now a mostly atheist nation, and it goes without saying that most other nations in Western Europe, like France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, have all largely rejected Christianity. I’m not talking about the separation of Church and State here, I’m talking of the fact that it has become politically incorrect and socially unacceptable to be a true Christian believer in virtually all of the aforementioned nations. Even where this might not be the case, the government is trying hard to suppress, pervert, redefine or Christian faith so that they might be viewed in a more positive light by the formerly Christian nations of the “enlightened” and morally dubious West. This is especially the case in the United States where, rather than outright rejecting Christianity, the people and the government redefine what it is to be Christian. And to be Christian today is to embrace Jesus as some kind of a Communist, accepting only the Red Letters and mocking St Paul and the “backward” Old Testament. Pravda is laughing at you because the Marxists and former Soviet Union have succeeded in their attempt at brainwashing the “Capitalist” masses and make the brainless herds accept Marxism. Although many nations today might be qualified as being Capitalist to varying degrees, they are Marxist at heart in their rejection of universal morals and their acceptance of dialectical materialism. People cannot discern because they can no longer discriminate between good and evil. In fact, we are not even allowed to discriminate anymore, even for the right reasons. Liberalism (in the U.S. sense of the word) is a cancer and an ideology which, unlike TRUE Conservatism and Christianity, promotes the sinful passions of man and claims people have a right to be morally perverted. Their notion of liberty amounts to lawlessness because liberty requires moral order, and without moral order there is only chaos and sin. They have succeeded in destroying the traditional family and discipline, and thereby managed to create a situation where people do whatever is right in their eyes, as long as it does not involve “discrimination” of course. Perhaps those liberals would like to think twice before singing “God bless America” because I remember the song written by Irving Berlin praying God to: “stand beside her, and GUIDE her”. For as long as Americans allow themselves to be guided by their own notions of what is right and wrong, for as long as they continue to support evil and ban the truth, they will continue to be guided by their own passions and fallible thinking, and God will not bless her, unless He makes a graceful exception for the non-conformist minority of Christians that act otherwise.

God bless those who act in accordance to His will.

By: Robert Distefano

Robert Distefano — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:59:32 +0000

Blessings can also include God’s correction on a nation which will lead many to repentance. Certainly, I did not mean just material blessings which in the long run will do them no good. God can certainly correct a nation as a loving father would his children to lead them to righteousness.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:51:14 +0000

I was really talking about Americans that heard the gospel and have rejected it. Obviously, those elected for salvation will hear, repent and turn from death unto life. That is why I did say to pray the Lord will send laborers for the harvest. I did change that statement because as you indicated the way it was written it was wrong.

You would pray blessings for this nation to enable it to continue in sins? Would you pray for a murderer to be blessed so he can keep killing people also?

Actually what the passage says:
Matt 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

The passage is not talking about nations it is talking about loving people. In any case, it is not love to help enable a country or a person to continue on the path of destruction. This passage is saying you should not hate your enemies you should want what is best for them. That means if you love them you would want them to come to the truth and stop what they are doing that makes them enemies of the elect and of God.

If you want to really fulfill what this passage says and apply it to America. Pray that the Lord will correct this nation rather than bless it with all kinds of riches as He has been so the nation will not continue on the path to national suicide. What kind of love prays a nation to be blessed when you know continued blessings will bring about its destruction?

By: Robert Distefano

Robert Distefano — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:44:09 +0000

I agree with much of what is said in this article except for the following quote: ” I cannot even pray that Americans will repent because people dead in their sins cannot repent.” Who else can repent except those who are dead in their sins? Also, I believe that we should pray for blessing for our country based on what the Lord said ” to pray for our enemies that they be blessed and not cursed.”

By: Don

Don — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:11:07 +0000

I served this nation in the military and as a civilian working for the department of defense and the navy so I am hardly unpatriotic. I love our country or I would not be trying to correct it by pointing out what is happening to America. There is no country on earth where I would rather live but the way things are going that might not be the case shortly. If our leadership was not a reflection of the people we could just replace them but I am afraid they are now the reflection of the majority of people that vote in this nation. So I see a division coming between those people and those states that still have biblical values. However, we are shrinking in numbers even in the heartland states due to the corruption in media, the brainwashing in government schools, and the apostasy of church leaders. When Pravda laughs at us for embracing the Communism they rejected you know the nation is in trouble. How do you pray for a nation that knew the truth but still willfully rejects God’s requirements? God told Jeremiah not to and said He will not hear those prayers. The nation will not repent unless the Church repents and works to convert more people to true Christianity in the nation. The prayer should be that those called by His name in America repent and do the will of God.