February 11, 2007
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“I will NOT give My Glory to another” — that includes America
Paul said in Galatians we are to glory ONLY in the cross of Christ. Indeed, Paul didn’t want to be known by his nationality — he couldn’t care less that he was a Jew. He associated his former patriotism with false religion, dead works, and self-righteousness (Phil 3:6-9).
Do you stand for the offense of the cross, or for pathetic patriotic displays? Notice that Paul never said “God Bless Israel”. He knew that the conditional covenant has now passed away. The system of God blessing/cursing a nation based on national obedience was a temporary set-up with Israel. In fact, the whole point of the conditional covenant (between God and man) perpetually failing was to show that MAN CANNOT CONTRIBUTE TO THE COVENANT. See John 6 — the covenant of Grace is between the Father and the Son. The elect sinner does NOT contribute to the “sure and steadfast” covenant, he merely reaps the benefits of it.
The Father’s covenant with Christ is that “all that the father gives to him shall come to him”. On the topic — you wonder how can we say, “God Bless America”, when the vast majority of Americans are reprobates (non-elect, never in the covenant) anyways? Does God love those Christ never died for? Of course not. God has determined from all eternity to make most Americans a display of his wrath. “FEW are chosen” from America — or any country — and the “rest are hardened”. (By the way, I say this as someone who is a US citizen by birth and desire to see all the Sheep saved who happen to live in the US)
So what’s my point? Songs like “God Bless America”, “The Star-spangled Banner”, and “America The Beautiful” glorify a nation. But Paul says the nations seek after unrighteousness (Rom 9:30). So how can we glorify America — an unrighteous nation?
Let’s be like Paul and glory only in Christ, not in where we live, or where we were born.“Let the WORD OF CHRIST” — not the words of men — “dwell in you richly, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Col 3:16)
Here are paraphrases of some Psalms.
The Morning Star Banner (to the tune of the US National Anthem)
God Bless Almighty Christ (to the tune of “God Bless America”)
Christ Not Beautiful In Men’s Eyes (to the tune of “America the Beautiful”)
Comments (1)
You never answered my question from earlier but that’s ok. And I agree with what you’re saying here. Another thing you might note is what is written in Acts 4:32-37 (with special emphasis on verse 36-37). To give up land in that time was no small ordeal. Land was closely kept in the families as a means of identification. Not only that, but for the people of that time it was a measure of status and through harvesting was a means for obtaining wealth. To have Barnabas sell his land for the cause of Christ was huge! He was willing not only to give up his status for the sake of Christ, but something that had probably been in his family for years! Christ is all he needed, and Christ is all we need. GBU!
Shane