“God Bless America”
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 33:12)
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalm 9:17)
We sing “God bless America,” but why should he? One of my favorite songs since childhood is America: “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesties above the fruited plains, America, America, God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” (Written by Katherine Lee Bates, inspired by the scene atop Pike’s Peak.)
a. There is no question that God has wonderfully blessed America, but will he continue?
b. How can he bless a country whose moral and ethical values have gone down the drain?
(Think of the alcoholism, child abuse, rape, molestation, divorce, wife beating, husband beating, gambling, taking of the Lord’s name in vain, etc.)
c. Arnold Toynbee, the British historian wrote, “out of 21 civilizations, preceding this one, 19 have been destroyed by a mixture or a combination of atheism, materialism, and alcoholism.” Toward the end of his life, he wrote, “it looks now as if the number one enemy of the American way of life is drunkenness. If your people continue the present increase of drunkenness, nothing can save you from destruction.” He never knew about the graduation into the use of other drugs that permeate our society.
d. Edward Gibbon’s classic, and Cliff Ganus, former president of Harding, said the same, and adding the breakup of the family, forgetting God, and brutality in sports.
– Max Patterson, 4438 South 89th Road, Bolivar, MO 65613-8012
