This article really should be two articles but since the topics relate to the same problem of repentance in America I will try to integrate them. The question is, would Christian repentance in America heal the land or will national repentance be required to heal the land? Too often I hear teachers and preachers say that if Christians will humble themselves and pray God will heal our nation. Is that really true? We will look at this presumption later but first I want to deal with a related issue.

Often you will hear the slogan that “We must take America back” It sounds good but who do “we” take America back from and to whom do we give America to? The usual answer is that we give America back to “we the people”. Have we the people of America really lost America or did the American people actually create the America that we live in today? I think it is the latter. The American government today really reflects what most Americans wanted from our government over time.

It was the American people that elected the people that took much moral law and God out of the affairs of our nation. Now some people say they want morality back but they will not deal with the sins in their own lives. So how is morality even possible when the majority of people in this nation want evils absolutely identified in the Bible to be allowed in society? They even permit evils to be openly promoted to their own children and expect some moral outcome?

Most Americans could not even agree on what it is that God requires from a people and a nation. Only four percent of Americans have a Christian worldview. So any god brought back into America today would just be an empty suit anyway. He would be somewhat like many of our political leaders and even some of the clergy that claim to believe in God or claim to do His work but display by their actions and words that their god is not God.

It was most of the American people that wanted big government social welfare programs. People in this nation want cradle to grave security provide to them by a government as flawed as themselves. In fact, people in this nation demand so many things to be provided for them by government that the government is continually spending more than they have to give it to them.

Now some have been shocked by the economic downturn and realized that if the nation continually overspends there will be consequences so they are rebelling against the consequences instead of dealing with their own avariciousness and lack of responsibility that helped create a government made in their own image. Now Americans are pointing fingers at the politicians they elected claiming that they have been framed by the image made in their likeness.

Many Americans were living beyond their means and gambling on the come line believing their winning streak would never end. When the dice came up craps they could not believe it and like the spoiled boomer generation they are, they wanted and still want the government they created to bail them out and restore their fortunes.

Many do not even care that the bailouts mean that their children and grandchildren will have to pay the cost for them to continue to live beyond their means. The future generations of Americans will pay for this spoiled boomer generation either through inflation or a systemic collapse of the economic system and a great depression.

Now that many have been hit in the pocketbook they want to stop paying the bills period. That really is the main reason for the rise of the Tea Party Movement. There really is no common agreement among the people in The Tea Party Movement other than they want less spending and lower taxes. But in the spending area don’t dare touch any program like Social Security or Medicare because it impacts the old people that make up most of the movement and don’t cut defense because this movement is make up of American patriots so we need to continue to spend more than the whole rest of the world combined on the military.

The real theme coming from the majority of people in this nation is to tell government to stop spending more than they are going to take in, but don’t cut nothing that I want, and do not tax me to pay for it, and don’t borrow the money to pay for it either?

This entertaining article was written by someone who was at the Tea Party convention. The article should make it clear that the Tea Party Movement is no more united on the issues than are most Americans. It seems the main thing they have in common is that they are fed up with the politicians that most of them elected.

Does anyone really think that electing Sarah Palin or anyone else is going to fix America without a change in Americans? Can evangelical Christians (whatever that means today) actually take over a hedonistic America? Would non Word Faith evangelicals even support Palin when they find out that Rick Joiner would be her prophet Czar giving her direct messages from God? (think about it.) I bring that up because even the Christian evangelicals would not be united against the most popular right wing figures.

Heck, if you could even elect someone from the right wing in America (which is highly doubtful in today’s America with all its government dependents) it will just spawn a new movement from the left to oppose what you are trying to force down their throats. So I think the Tea Party movement is going nowhere because it is going to splinter into factions and even if it succeeds to be sucked into the Republican elephant it will not bring significant change until the majority of people in America actually want that kind of change.

As long as the spoiled Spock babies of the baby boomer generation (that showed their real stuff during the Hippie Movement) are now in the majority change for the better in America is not going to happen.

Let’s say the majority of the country moved conservative and elected conservative leaders would that change the lack of morals of the American people? Would the American people then just negligent the poor dependents that they created in prior administrations? They would do so at the risk of massive riots followed by a police state. So no, you cannot just change all the rules in the middle of the ball game or take the ball and go home and act as if the home team had no part in the nation’s past fiscal irresponsibility when the government has always been the government that the people elected.

Any nation anywhere on the political spectrum is doomed to judgment if evil people prevail. It is more a moral and immoral issue than a Left or Right issue. We should throw both parties out and have a moral and immoral party. One would be based on the truths of the Bible and the other would oppose them. That would make the lines clear to all Americans. Yet, I think when people found out how it will impact their own lives the majority in America would willfully elect the immoral party into power, for we Gentiles living in the flesh are just as rebellious as the people of ancient Israel.

America is a secular country. America in general is using natural means to deal with a world actually controlled by the supernatural. America does not in general try to use spiritual means to war against spiritual forces that have control over the natural world. America does not even acknowledge that these forces exist. So America is powerless when spiritual forces in high places come against her. This nation is only going to bankrupt itself by trying to police evils everywhere else in the world when by our own natural strength we cannot even police the evils going on in our own cities at home. The American empire will soon go into the dustbin of world history like all the empires before it unless there is national repentance and spiritual intercession.

If all  Americas would repent like the people of Nineveh there could be a delay in judgment but that can only come if God sends America a prophet and the people listen.  How about the ongoing message from the Spirit filled Church in America, does it qualify as a prophetic message to this Gentile nation? Are the people of America listening to God’s people and repenting? I think not.

Christians ought to know that our weapons are not carnal. We should not believe that Americans that are still living in the natural could live morally as if they had the Spirit. We Christians need to fight the spiritual war against wickedness in high places through the method outlined by Paul:

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

True Christians in America are only a small majority of the population. We are not going to make America Christian or make Americans less worldly through natural means. The only way we can actually change America at all is by spiritual warfare. There is no reason for God to cure natural problems of a nation that are the result of the sinfulness of the people of that nation unless they repent of their sins.

This brings me to the other issue I first spoke of when I started this article. I know there are many true Christians that think that if true Christians in a nation repent and pray that God will heal the nation. That is false presumption based on a verse ripped out of proper context.

2Ch 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.

God was not saying what many well meaning Christians imply. He was talking about the nation of Israel. “My people” at that time was Israel and the statement implies that if the nation of Israel repents God would heal their land. It was not saying that He was going to heal the land of Gentile nations if some Christians in their nations repented. If you read the text in full context God also pronounces judgment on His people and claims that His people will worship other gods and be exiled. If you are going to apply this verse to Christians then apply the rest of the passage to Christians as well.

This really is a prophetic covenant promise to the Nation of Israel at the establishment of the Temple of God in Israel. Most of what is described in the passage occurred to Israel in the history of Israel but the need for repentance before Israel can be restored still applies to Israel today.

God judges nations based on the actions of the people in the nations. Christians can be salt and light in a nation and be spiritual intercessors so the leaders of this nation will make the right decisions for the sake of God’s purposes on earth. But, even in intercession our prayers need to be within God’s will for the nation. Also remember that are real home is in Heaven not here. God certainly is not bound to answer prayers that really amount to being selfish prosperity presumptions for the nation.

If Christians really wanted repentance in America they now would have to be praying for the opposite of prosperity blessings for America. There is no history of repentance coming through more prosperity. That is about as valid a thought as the thought that prosperity comes from spending more and going further in debt.

Actually, if the Church of God repents it will produce works of the Spirit and that indirectly might help a nation to be blessed materially but let’s not get the cart before the horse. The only effective way that Christians can heal and change America is to be used by God to convert unbelievers. It is not the Christians that need to repent to save America. It is the whole nation that needs to repent and believe God. Christians in America need to tell them that.