I have written on the misapplication of 2 Ch 7:14 before, but when I see a whole local Baptist conference trying to apply this verse to the Church in America I think it is the duty of those who know better to correct that false presumption.
Sometimes Christians will use a few words of scripture or a verse or even a passage to support a position but then if you check out their position against what the scripture actually says you see that either they never read the context or they do not have understanding of the passage. Therefore they misapply it.
Pastors and teachers usually have formal training. They should have been taught proper exegesis so when 2 Ch 7:14 is submitted to a whole local conference as an application for the American Church to practice it leaves me scratching my head and writing articles like this one.
Also, if church leaders are going to make 2 Ch 7:14 an application for Christians in America, then really carry out what it says. Don’t make some pretense that your church is complying with 2 Ch 7:14 through a few minutes of prayer.
I do not doubt the good intentions of most of those that misapply this scripture. Nevertheless, ignorance is no excuse for our formally trained pastors. They were taught principles of exegesis in Bible college. They are suppose to be trained leaders and not followers. They should not be following popular presumptions and promoting them just because it was presented to them from a well meaning Christian. I know the misapplication of 2 Ch 7:14 is also all over the Christian airwaves, so I am sure it will be playing at a place near you, if it has not already.
Here is the misapplied scripture that I speak of.
2 Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Ch 7:14 is not talking about the lands where Christians dwell. If Christians would learn to read scripture in its proper context there would not be a plague of false presumption in the Church. I will now post the passage from where this verse comes from and you can then read the context for yourself.
2 Ch 7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the king’s house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the LORD, and in his own house, he prosperously effected.
12 And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
16 For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
17 And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;
18 Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.
19 But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
20 Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.
21 And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?
22 And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.
Christians are using one verse of this passage to make a presumption that is nowhere implied in this passage. The passage is not saying that God will heal the land of Christians in Gentile nations if they just do what it says in verse fourteen. The passage in context is clear. The passage is talking about blessings and curses on the nation of Israel and the house of sacrifice for sin that Solomon built.
When the nation of Israel is in sin, Solomon is told by God that it will be reflected by a curse on the land of Israel. God then tells Solomon that Israel can remove the curse and receive a healing of the land if they follow His decree to humble themselves and pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways. They would then present sacrifice offerings for their sin at the Temple that Solomon built and it would be accepted and the land would be healed. The last part of the passage is a prophecy saying that Israel will reject the God of Israel and serve other gods. For that reason God says Israel would be scattered among the nations. That all happened as God said.
From that context how do some people find some Christian application for America here? If Christians in America are going to apply scriptures any way they want, no wonder that so many are following the latest wind of doctrine that tickles their fancy. If Christians are going to selectively pick a verse and force fit it to support some presumption, truth becomes whatever the person doing it wants it to be. That is how some modern Christian teachers mislead millions of Christians. They look through countless Bible versions and paraphrases in order to find just one verse that might seem to support a prosperity, pop psychology, successful living, positive confession concept or some other crap that they are teaching.
Some will then say, The Bible says that all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Sure it is, but that fact does not do away with proper exegesis. Passages that are ripped out of context to make it fit some false application for living today is not properly discerning the scriptures.
Using 2 Ch 7:14 as many in America now do does not even make logical sense. Do Christians have a land that needs to be healed? Last I heard Christians died with Christ and our home is in Heaven. Our land does not need to be healed. It would be more appropriate but still wrong exegesis for Christians to apply 2 Ch 7:14 to the spiritual healing of the many backsliders in the Church. The problem in true Christianity is not the physical land our bodies occupy, and the problem in America is not the true Christians (My people).
I do not know how many times I have heard this passage used to imply that America was once a Christian nation and if the Church just did what 2 Ch 7:14 said, that God would restore America back to being a Christian nation. I have news. America was never a Christian nation. There were and are Christians in America but there are no Christian nations on earth.
Most of the people alive today who claim America was Christian must have lived in Christian rural areas because America was certainly not Christian in Buffalo New York where I grew up, or in any other big city. Have people making these claims even read American history? There have always been Christians influencing America but America was never a Christian nation. America was always a nation that had religious roots that came from the Bible but so did much of the modern world.
No doubt that moral laws allowed America to be blessed, no doubt that Christians had great influence in America, no doubt that most in America identified with some Christian domination and still do, no doubt that America was blessed so that Christians missionaries could get out the gospel to some of the world, no doubt that America was blessed because it blessed the Jews, but blood washed born from above Spirit baptized Christians were never a majority in America, at least not in the last 200 years.
If you want to go back to when America was based more on the rule of law influenced by the Bible, fine. But, you do not get back there by Christians humbling themselves and praying and turning from their own wicked ways while all the Christian pretenders and all the heathen in America are progressively getting more and more perverse.
Also, do these people really think that a couple of minutes of prayer in church is “humbling yourself and praying, seeking His face and turning from their wicked ways”? If this passage really applies to the Church then the call should be for the whole Church to fast in sackcloth and ashes. Try promoting that in your church instead of a couple of minutes of prayer and see what response you get?
It is rather strange that some think that God will heal a land that was abundantly taught about the God of the Bible but chose to largely reject Him. God generally does not even heal the lands where Christians are actually under persecution and thus are in the will of God, so why would He do it in America? God does not materially bless Gentile nations based on the repentance of the repented. Some nations like Japan, Norway, Finland, etc., where most people do not even believe in God are doing quite well materially. There simply is no trite 2 Ch 7:14 formula that makes Gentile nation prosper. God has His own purposes for the rise and fall of Gentile nations.
This whole passage was written to the natural nation of Israel and it cannot be applied to the Church. That is the plain truth of the context.
I also find it ironic that Christians would think that God would bless our nation just because Christians go forward to pray at the “altar” (as if the front part of the building is the sanctuary instead of the people in the building being the sanctuary of God) or pray in their pews but take little or no action to correct the continual ever progressing corruption of our nation. The real reason for America’s decline is that evil is allowed to prevail.
Why are Christians sacrificing their children on the altars of Moloch in public schools? Why do they allow their kids to watch the trash on various kinds of medias? In fact, why do they often lead them to spiritual destruction through their own bad examples? You should get the picture. Most Christians need to take action if they want a better America. It is just a easy cop-out for Christians to believe that a few minutes of prayer will change the hearts of Americans and somehow heal this land. If we can no longer convert Americans to Christ there is no hope for America. Many of those unconverted Americans even attend our churches but in most they never hear the gospel. They also are accommodated in their sin in many of our churches so why should they repent?
Let’s face it, America is becoming increasingly cursed because the people that make up America are becoming increasingly hedonistic, selfish, covetous, lazy deadbeats. Most could care less about God or their neighbor. I think it is a delusion for Christians to pray for America to return to God when most Americans freely choose to have nothing to do with Him. It is also very misguided, if not sinful, to pray that God will heal our land when He is the very one that is cursing it because of the ongoing rebellion against Him. In the judgment of any nation perhaps some will repent and turn toward God. If that is the case with America, we do not want to be praying in opposition to God’s will.
don, i totally agree with the last paragraph, this country is becoming a pile of garbage with parasites working on wall street. I read this article today of how the wallstreet workers are complaining that they are not getting any bonuses this year on top of the 400,000 to 500,000 that they make. I mean how low can a person get seriously, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Don,
Thank you for addressing the issue of taking verses out of context. It is widespread and done routinely on TV to justify bizzaro claims. Seldom are they challenged.
This comment fits well with your analysis of “Touch not my anointed” which is also widely used out of context.
I grew up thoroughly disillusioned under the shadow of Catholicism.
I had to find Jesus on my own, no thanks to Catholicism nor my parents nor the community or just about most various churches.
There was an occasional church here and there that was pretty solid, and that did help. But, essentially, it came down to simply picking up the one book.
Thanks to Jenkins for the prophetic work that I picked up and studied back in the 90’s and thanks to various Creationists for setting the lie of evolution (and the lie of global warming thereof) straight, and thanks to Don for the prophetic years and waking some of us up to his great narrative on Revelation as well as the danger signs staring at us. I’m more comfortable with the basic premise of what’s to come over the next decade or so, let alone dispelling various myths that the rapture has to occur yesterday using various bogus dates like 1948. Of course, I am most certainly not comfortable with the potential peril facing us, only that God’s end times prophetic will is more clear. I’d still prefer a “get out of jail free card”, but at least I have a better if not more accurate picture of what’s to come.
And I really appreciate the “setting straight” of scripture that applies to the Jewish nation being misapplied to the Christain/Gentile nations. Not that humbling myself is incorrect, only that being misled in to thinking that will heal this land is incorrect.
as don has stated that the 2nd coming might occur around 2033 we can still count on the 1948 date weather we like it or not because it still comes to 2028,1948+80. Any way that you look at it 2030 seems a reasonable date.
Thanks Craig, I grew up Catholic as well. I gave it up. Then I found Jesus through a Christian radio station in Las Vegas, a Gideon Bible that was given to me when I joined the military and Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great Plant Earth”. It was five years after that I started attending some church. Partly because I went overseas and partly because I was not living like I thought a Christian should.
Bob, 1948 plus 80 does adds up to 2028 but not the 2030’s that I suggest. There is little reason to use 80 years other than the 70 year generation conjecture will soon be proven wrong. I might go more with within a normal lifespan from 1967 but I would not be dogmatic about it.
I think there is a parallel here to Israel coming out of Egypt. The first generation did not enter in due to unbelief but those under twenty did. Perhaps that is the generation that will not pass away until all is fulfilled and that lines up with the 1967 date. So if that is true all will be fulfilled some time before 2037. That fits the political realities as well.
Having said that, I do not think dry bones can see what Jesus was talking about and know that all will be fulfilled in their generation. It seems to me that the Church thinks the prophecy and parable given to Israel is for the Church to known but not Israel, but yet, Jesus was talking to Israel.
Don
What you say is also true here in Australia. There is no seeking after God in the nation and very little in the church. There is a great deal of false humility in the one and hubris in both: God is not in their thoughts.
I find I can no longer pray for my country, but I do pray for the individuals within it, those who just might be conscious of right and wrong, those whose soul just might long for righteousness. Yes it is a general prayer but the only one I am happy in offering.
, but as I know very few of these personally I leave them in the hands of God who knows every soul.
I agree Don. I get very tired of the laziness in Christendom. there are very few Christians that really study their Bibles; study, meditate, and study again! Everyone I know wants reading the bible to be quick and easy and lets go to the mall! They watch their TV preachers and think that is church. God is just a decorative fish emblem on the back of their cars. We need to understand that God is HUGE and very PERSONALLY involved in each of our lives and we owe HIM big time!!! We need to understand that the Bible is a Living Word and it is powerful and it is more important than our menial, materialistic, existances. America is an incredible mess and it is getting so much worse! But, it is God’s will that America NOT be on the playing field in the endtimes. We are not there. We are somehow excused from the endtime scenario. (or should I say..removed). That is God’s Will. The spiritual pride that permiates this country is unbelievable! Where do these people get this kind of unwarranted spiritual pride? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and preach the gospel so that someone can be saved!(forgive me if I have taken that out of context to make a point.)
Have you read the Book of Jonah ?
Many times, and it was the whole nation that repented.
sometimes i wonder why does god wait so long to save us, sometimes i think he has no mercy and is cruel. why so long oh lord
Look at this way Bob
If the lord had not delayed his coming for thousand of years. You and hundreds of millions of others would not exist and would not have a opportunity to believe and be part of the Body of Christ and live in the Holy City for eternity.
Thank God for His delay and if you are praying for others to get saved thank God if He answers that prayer by delaying His coming until they come in.
Ahhh… that’s what makes this experience in these times sooooo hard… Longsuffering.
Thank you for being one of the few I’ve heard say anything about taking 2 Chronicles 7:14 in context. And by “few”, I mean, basically, “endangered species”! I’ve been saying most of the the same things for several years, but few listen to anyone without a degree armed only with a Bible. I grew up just accepting the American application because it was just accepted as fact. But as the years rolled on, I came to see that verse 14 logically means that there are verses 1-13, and that if there is a chapter 7, there must be a chapter 6. How anyone can read those two chapters and come up with America being healed “if….” is beyond me. As for being a Christian nation….hogwash! God never mentioned anything about world powers or Gentile nations being Christian. There are no rules laid out in the Bible for what constitutes a “Christian nation”. If more American Christians would read 1 Peter 2:9, perhaps they’d see that the Church IS the Christian nation! We are scattered here in enemy territory, ambassadors for the King, representing a Kingdom “not of this world” (which we’d know if we’d listen to our King’s words to Pilate).
Thanks again for your bold stand!
Mark,Re: Post of 9/26:
You have nicely verbalized my heartburn over the continued misuse of this text. I heard a good Southern Baptist sermon this morning about “restoring our nation” based on this verse.
The “slapdown” response I often receive, when I mention that the context does not fit the our nation “losing” its Christian foundation, is that I must be one of those “Bible church legalistic fundamentalists” than does not understand how to apply this text to current circumstances
I often let the subject drop at that point. Any suggestions on how to reply to that sort of “slapdown?”
Bob,
Most Baptists even through they might say they believe in the historical grammatical method of Bible interpretation in reality act as if everything in the Bible is an application for living for the Church.
My suggestion is to give them my article. That is why I wrote it. I gave it to my own Sunday school teacher and others that spouted this nonsense in my church. If after they are given the arguments they still will not see that God was talking about Israel and not Christian Gentiles it is because they WANT to believe that lie. It allows them to think that if Christians just become more religious in America that God would then bless the unbelievers that continue to destroying the land and that would make everything just wonderful for themselves again.
I wish I could say this was the only passage where they do this, but they do this with all sorts of passages. It really is a form of replacement theology that is rooted in the religion of Americanism.
Don,
I had a similar thought as yours – many of my SBC friends belief system on this passage is a form of replacement theology. They seem to think we will become increasingly Godly and take over government and business. It seems close to Dominion thinking. I think many would lock arms with the NAR and sing CUM-BY-YA.
I might mention one response I received was “Brother X (well known Houston SBC pastor) says 2 Chronicles 7:14 is STILL in the Bible, so it must have application for today.” That, along with embracing the idea that Romney and Beck are fellow Christians – gets discouraging to deal sometimes.
Our land, world, does need healing, look around at what is going on today. So how do we get back on track if not through prayer and fasting.
Renee,
Fasting and praying would help a true Christian that has gotten off track but fasting and praying by Christians does not make unbelievers to become believers.
The world cannot get back on track because it was never on track to start with. Unbelievers in the United States are the cause of America’s woes. Even though many Americans like to call themselves Christians, what they support and do says they are just cultural Christians and do not really believe.
The only remedy for unbelief is belief, and that mean true conversion to Christ must take place. Therefore, to get this nation blessed, go out into the fields, give the gospel and win many converts to Christ or the direction the vast majority of unbelievers in America take this nation will also continue it on its fall.
If America wasn’t founded as an Christian nation then why I GOD WE TRUST on the money and the Christian founding laws?????
Tex,
Do a basic Goggle search and you would find out that is was not on our money and founding laws.
In God we trust was added to the great seal and dollar in 1956. Before that it was E Pluibus unum (Out of many, one)
Nineveh. They were not Jewish, yet they repented and were saved.
Marc,
They were not God’s people so you cannot use Nineveh as an example of God’s people humbling themselves and praying.
The whole nation repented in sack cloth and ashes because they believed a Jewish prophet. They were not saved, the judgment was just delayed because God is merciful. Our whole nation could repent (fat chance) and God would bless America but all of God’s people in America could humble themselves and pray and the land still would not be healed if the vast majority that are not his people do not also repent. By the way, America is not the land of God’s people. Christians are citizens of Heaven, we are not to regard any worldly nation as our land.
Don, point well made. I defer to you. I’ve been reading your blog for a long time, just never posted till now. Thanks for teaching us and posting insightful posts!
Amen, Don, about our heavenly citizenship. I get so tired of the patriotic fervor among Christians who will sing “God bless America, my home, sweet home” one minute and “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through” the next. I feel like giving them a logic test: If this world is not your home, and if America is in the world, then America is not your home. But alas, I doubt that test would fly……
Don using 2chron. 7-14 and applying it today is not taking it out of context. praying and seeking God by Christians can change communities that’s how revival starts and spreads. I disagree with you on your comment that America was never a Christian nation ,I feel it most definitely was. Examine some of the writings of our founding fathers. BY you claiming we take this verse out of context is exactly what your doing. Ken
Ken,
Learn to use proper hermeneutics. You cannot make a passage that in context was directed at the natural nation of Israel and then make it apply to a spiritual people in a Gentile nation that have nothing to do with the land of Israel. The people in America generally are not His people anyway. There are Christian people in most nations but there are no Christian nations.
Show me one place in scripture where only the Christians in the land repent and God heals the gentile nation? Show me one such teaching in the New Testament given for New Covenant believers? Tell Christians in lands where Christians are persecuted daily that all they need to do is repent and things will become hunky dory. You insult them with your presumptions.
You really are believing popular presumptions that are leading Christians to believe lies and fallacies because “Christians” today generally will not study to properly discern the scriptures. They just spout clichés they hear from talking heads on TV that sounds good to their flesh. They will not study the scriptures and that is the real problem.
I could write a book on how Christian leaders are twisting the scriptures today but Brannon House already wrote that book. You might read it. You think prooftexting passages and apply them out of context is sound exegesis?
Just tell me one reason why God should heal America because Christians in it repent? Tell me how that is even possible when most people in America do not wish to change their worldly lifestyle and hate Christian morality?
I thought Christians already repented and we are to regard ourselves as citizens of heaven not try to heal Gentile nations. If Christians have not repented how can you even call them Christians? Revival does not start by Christian seeking God, it starts by God sending His spirit to draw people to Christ. Salvation has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with us being tools of God to deliver the good news so that those He draws will hear about Jesus Christ and believe. Your repentance does not save anyone but yourself.
All of this error comes from Pentecostal Word of Faith nonsense. These are those that want to teach formulas for living in the world rather than telling Christians that suffering persecution to give the true Gospel to the lost in this world can be expected.
We are to occupy and be salt and light wherever we are located on earth as a witness. We are not told to heal lands by repenting. China has more true Christians than the United States, so should they repent and ask for that statist dictatorship to be healed when that godless system is not even ailing and is persecuting them?
I think nations like the Dominican Republic are much more Christian than America, but people there struggle to make a living just like most in the world. You have embraced some very wrong facilities.
I do not know how I am taking 2 Ch 7:14 out of context, as you said, when I gave you the real context of the passage. Did you even grasp what I said in the article?
What really bugs me is people that identify as Christians but their words show that they are pre-programmed robots that are unteachable. I can’t make you use correct hermeneutics, but for you to say that I am taking the verse out of context without giving any biblical explanation is certainly not motivated by God.