I received a forwarded email recently with the following message…

AFTER A DAY OF CONTEMPLATION AND SOUL-SEARCHING, I HAVE DECIDED TO REACH OUT TO MY FRIENDS AND RELATIVES AND ASK YOU TO DO SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN TROUBLING ME FOR A LONG TIME.

OUR NATION IS/HAS BEEN ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO HELL FOR A LONG TIME. IF YOU LOOK AROUND, YOU WILL FIND CORRUPTION, GREED, MORAL DECAY AND A STEADY MOVE AWAY FROM THE THINGS THAT MADE US GREAT. THE PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH THIS NATION WAS FOUNDED ARE NO LONGER OUR BACKBONE.  HOWEVER, WE CAN REVERSE THIS TREND.

IN GOD’S WORD HE STATES, “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 WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN AND HEAL THEIR LAND.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

I AM CONVINCED THAT WE MUST PRAY FOR OUR NATION AND ITS LEADERS AND ASK FOR FORGIVENESS.

That message was from a man who is obviously a very sincere person who believes quite deeply in his convictions about God, prayer, and our country. What he has written here honestly could have come from my own heart a number of years ago. In fact, the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 was a key scripture that we highlighted in the prayer magazine that we published in the 1980’s. Our ministry was dedicated to the healing of the nations and used this verse extensively in an effort to inspire people around the world to prayer with us.

I have said all that to say this… I have come to what I sincerely believe is a more complete understanding of this important matter. I am convinced that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not a commission given to us to use or fulfill. In fact this is one of our problems. With great hearts of desire to make an impact for God, we unwittingly take scripture out of context and unwisely use it to fulfill our imagined mission to change the world. Our Lord Jesus told us that the scriptures themselves were about Him, not about us. They were a type and shadow of good things to come, not commandments and instructions for us good intentioned believers to fulfill.

In fact, read the verse again… it says, “…I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” Well, Israel failed in their attempt to fulfill this word back then. However… God did hear in spite of our inability to humble ourselves, or to properly seek God, and our complete lack of turning away from our wicked ways! And what He did about it is THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD!!! He sent Jesus and through his death, burial, and resurrection GOD FORGAVE SIN!!!!  “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19

We are forgiven! It is done! We do not have to call out to God to do for us what he has already accomplished ONCE AND FOR ALL! Unless, of course, we want to nullify the grace of God and make the cross of none effect.

The writer of the email message is not alone in his idea that America “HAS BEEN ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO HELL FOR A LONG TIME.” However, he, like most of our precious brethren in the evangelical church are just plain wrong. If we as individuals or as a nation are indeed headed to hell, then Jesus Christ failed in his mission to redeem mankind from the curse of the law. Am I saying there is no hell? No. I don’t really know much about hell at all. And, by the way, neither does the rest of the church. The Good News though is that the cross of Christ made hell irrelevant!

So what is it we see when we look at America? Sin crazed immoral and godless people bent on destroying themselves and our nation? I have read similar views touted in the name of the Lord in many Christian publications. The basic idea is that the “corruption, greed, and moral decay” we see in those who are not obeying God, are the forces leading us away from the principles that made America great. And the answer to the problem is to call upon God to forgive us and heal our land.

I think we’ve missed the point. You can shout and scream about moral decay all you want. Put it on a billboard or TV ad. Pound the pulpit if you like. Line up all your verses about what happens to people who do bad things. Tell everyone how God hates sin.

Or you can do like I did when I played the great archangel in the theater production of “The Glory and The Fire.” I stood at the top of the golden stairway leading to heaven with giant wings on my back and a golden cap on my head. When the people in the play would die in their various circumstances they would find themselves standing before me. Then, with dramatic intensity, I would search the great book of God, the Lamb’s Book of Life, to see if their names were written therein. If I found their names, beautiful music would play and golden lights would guide the redeemed souls up the stairway to heaven.

However… if their names could not be found, I summoned my most saddened but sternly judgmental voice and pointed the way to the hellish flames. Demons would leap out from the shadows and drag the screaming sinners to their eternal torment.

Pretty cool, huh? O yeah… we scared the stinkin’ bejibbers out of so many people. They could not wait to come up front to be prayed for at the end of the production. Back then I called it revival! Today I call it manipulation and coercion. Or to put it a little more poetically… I call it a load of crap!

What people need, in my opinion, is the gospel… the real “good news” and not a threat of eternal punishment at the hand of an unhappy, angry God, who cannot seem to get us humans to do anything right. The real God of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is completely satisfied that his Son’s soul was made an offering for sin. (Read Isaiah 53, especially verse 11.) That sacrifice settled the sin, death, and hell matters in one cataclysmically strategic stroke of divine brilliance.

Lifestyles are not the real issue. Humanity’s struggle with behavior has more to do with religious condemnation and guilt than anything else. The gospel is the key.

•    The redemption of the world is complete!

•    The blood of Jesus has forever broken sin’s power!

•    The judgment of the world is not looming in the future. It took place two thousand years ago on the cross of Christ!

•    The human race has been brought into complete oneness with God!

•    And we are completely FREE!