Saying I do not pray God Bless America might sound like a unpatriotic unchristian heresy to some. However, there was a time when God told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because the peoples hearts were far from Him and they loved to believe lies. America is not even a called out nation like ancient Israel and Judah but America certainly is just as evil as they were just before their destruction.
Can anyone even come up with a passage that tells the Church to pray for Gentile nations on the earth anyway? The Bible tells us to pray for those appointed over us for the sake of the Church, so that the Church can live peacefully on the earth. I do not see where we are to pray for Gentile nations to be great prosperous nations on the earth. I do not see where the Bible tells us to pray for the prosperity of the nations of the world. On the contrary, nations that become wealthy and powerful and full of worldly things always turn against God. We are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem but that really is the same as praying for Jesus to come again because Jerusalem can only have true peace after the Prince of Peace returns to earth.
I will not pray for America because blessing America in her sins has to be contrary to God’s will. If I become the intercessor for people practicing evil I have to ask myself why? God brings judgment for correction and America certainly needs correction so why would I pray against God’s will for America? I can pray that Americans will repent but I also know people who reject the teachings of the Bible will not repent. I should pray for the Church in America to repent of their sins because that is the only way a nation will be healed. It is healed for the sake of God’s people living within her. I should pray that God will send laborers for the harvest and reach those dead in their sins but to pray that God Blesses America and enables her to continue on the sinful path she is now choosing is not a Christian concept.
The only thing of lasting value in this fallen world is those who will come into the Church through God’s grace, Christ Jesus. Only after the Church age when Jesus is ruling on the throne in Jerusalem does Jesus make the Gentile world conform to God’s will. But even after the dispensation of the Lord ruling with a rod of iron for a thousand years the nations will rebel, throw off God’s ways, and bring swift destruction on themselves.
Let the Church therefore dwell on the eternal because this world is temporal and all of it will soon pass away. There are no Christian nations on earth so it is rather pointless to pray for their prosperity. The city and kingdom that those of faith look for is the city made by God. It is not of this world. The Church really needs to separate its heart from the nations she occupies.
Christians need to keep America in proper perspective or they make the nation an American idol. Find out why Americans love government and where that insane thinking will lead this nation. America was a blessed nation perhaps unlike all other great Gentile nations of the world but all the great nations in history fell because of sin. America will be no exception. As Christians we were fortunate to live in America when she allowed free Christian expression and we sent missionaries all over the world but those days are rapidly come to a close. So don’t confuse the fourth of July and American pie and all the glory of the American past with the role of the Church in America. Also, what happens to America in the near future should not be nearly as important to Christians as what Christians allow the Spirit to do through them in these last days.
Here is a good article by Jack Kelly that puts all this in proper perspective.
Don’t Pray For America | GraceThruFaith
We need to remember that while in many ways America is like Israel, the Church is not. First, The Church is not a national kingdom with a homeland and geographical borders. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil 3:20) He’s not coming here to be with us where we are. He’s coming to take us to His Father’s house to be with Him where He is. (John 14:1-3) So when He does it won’t matter whether we’re from the United States, the United Kingdom or the United Arab Emirates because the Church is everywhere. God has only established one eternal nation on Earth and that’s Israel. The Church’s eternal home is in Heaven where an inheritance from God Himself awaits us. (Gal. 4:4-7)
Second, the Church never needs to fear a judgment such as the ones I described above. The Lord Jesus agreed to be judged in place of the Church in order to present us to Himself without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephes 5:27)
The Religious Right and other well intended American Christians frequently send out eMails urging everyone to pray for America. But where in the Bible did God to say to pray for any place on Earth other than Jerusalem? God’s will would be much better served if the Church would pray for itself, that it would finally adopt the Biblical world view it was intended to have, and become what it was intended to be, the body of Christ. It’s an indication of what a secular world view the American Church has when more of us are praying that God will restore the good old days in our country than are praying for the Lord’s speedy return to take us away from here.
Prayers for America are fine as far as they go, but they’re motivated more by a love for what our country has been than by a desire to see God’s will done on Earth. And when you get right down to it, praying that God will restore America could be seen as an admission that we’re really not ready to see God’s will done on Earth yet.
It’s time for American Christians to realize that America is just a place where we’re temporarily living. And while we mourn the fact that America seems to be turning its back on Israel, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that America is also turning its back on the Church.
According to no less an authority than our President, America is not a Christian nation. He’s right. The only connection between God and America today is that a bunch of us who believe in Him happen to live here. Americans don’t live by God’s laws, we don’t teach our children about Him in our schools, we don’t offer public prayers in His name, and the holy days we observe are no longer tributes to Him. We don’t thank Him for the blessings we receive and we don’t turn to Him when we’re in need.
America is a secular gentile nation that will soon be no more comfortable a home for the Church than pre-war Germany was for the Jews. It’s high time we excised our patriotism from our religion. Think of it as a reverse separation of Church and State. In the last election Americans said they don’t want the Church’s values guiding the nation’s direction. Well neither should Christians want America’s values guiding the Church. We should be so passionately yearning to leave here that our feet barely touch the ground when we walk.
Here is another good article – John MacArthur on America is unsurpassed.
I read this article yesterday, Don. It is certainly a thought-provoker. As one who served in the military and swore to defend the Constitution, I do have a love of America and what it once represented. America was great because America was good. Unfortunately, those days seem to be gone. With the election of this pretender in chief, I cannot give my support to this president or government. My alegiance is to Christ first.
I know we are to pray for our leaders to make wise decisions and manage affairs honestly so we can live in peace. But how does one reconcile a governent that promotes the slaughter of 50 million unborn children, endorses abominable same sex marriage, and tries to force Our Lord out of society at every turn? I certainly can’t.
Maybe I’ll pray for revival in America or that some states secede from the union and establish a place where godly and moral people can go. I don’t know. How does one pray for a country where the elected leader comes out and says that we are not a christian nation and seems to have more reverence for the false moon god, Allah and no respect for the true creator of Heaven and Earth?
The more I think on it, I think Mr. Kelly is probably right. I believe we have traveled down a path that is almost impossible to get off of. We need to prepare ourselves that things could get really rough for those of us who place our faith in Jesus Christ. Mr. Kelly’s article alone could be used to say, “See how these Christians think and how unpatriotic they are?” (and with your post, you just put yourself in that boat too, Don! 😉
Anyway, an excellent article that puts the important things in the proper perspective.
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.
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.”
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?
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.
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.
Here is a good article by John MacArthur on this issue http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-245
Great article, I recommend that everyone read it before they again sing God Bless America while rejecting God’s words
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.
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.
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.
i’m not praying for this wicked, evil, tarnished country. it’s finished and the Lord’s judgement will soon be on it. Follow the Lord. Flee Babylon (this country). And do not look back.
I am a veteran, too.
Great article Don…and also for Jack Kelly.
Great comments by the readers also.