Happy Birthday USA, Part 2

The U.S.A. just celebrated its 235^th birthday. There were the usual parades, cook-outs and fireworks. With all of its flaws we still live in a great country. It was during the time of our country’s greatest internal struggle, the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln called for the hard work needed to preserve the union. Lincoln realized that our country was “the last best hope of earth.”

Lincoln wasn’t exaggerating. Tyranny and oppression had been and often is the lot of mankind. Nowhere else on the globe, but in the U.S., did (and do) men and women have such liberty, opportunity and equality based upon just law. One reason for this was the Great Awakening. This was a time of spiritual awakening to biblical truth which began in 1730 and lasted nearly twenty years. Powerful, biblical preaching moved the people of the American Colonies away from mere religious ceremony and tradition to a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.

This awakening also opened eyes to the biblical mandate of living righteously and opposing tyranny and injustice. Christian ideals and truth permeated society with such force that one nation under God was the political and spiritual legacy that permeated the goals of the American Revolution.  In 1776 while Ambassador to France for our fledgling nation Benjamin Franklin said “He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.”

Franklin was right and we did. Our country wasn’t perfect but America became a great nation whose light of freedom shone around the world. The secret of America’s genius was not simply in our form of government it flowed from our godly homes and churches. America was great because it was good, and when we are no longer good we will no longer be great.

So the question to ask is this: are we good? We can be and at times we are. Whenever needs arise or natural disasters strike, at home or abroad, Americans are there with big hearts and open hands. But the engine of our nation is running on an empty gas tank with the scant gas fumes of the Great Awakening. Still there is hope.

The Bible is still available to read, believe and obey. We still have the privilege and freedom to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. And as one poem declared “One man awake awakens another, the second awakens his next door neighbor…One man up with dawn in his eyes - multiplies.” So let’s share the truths of the Bible with love and boldness.

But even as great as our country has been and can be, there is a much more wonderful government, a world wide government coming. Samuel Adams knew this and longed for it saying,

“And as it is our duty to extend our wishes to the happiness of the great family of man, I conceive that we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world that the rod of tyrants may be broken to pieces, and the oppressed made free again; that wars may cease in all the earth, and that the confusions that are and have been among nations may be overruled by promoting and speedily bringing on that holy and happy period when the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and all people everywhere willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is Prince of Peace." (As Governor of Massachusetts, Proclamation of a Day of Fast, March 20, 1797.)

Samuel Adams and knowledgeable, awakened Christians know that the true last best hope of earth is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. At his return

“… justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. [God’s] people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places (Isaiah 32:16-18).”

The world’s best hope is coming. I’ll share more about this coming world wide kingdom next week. Stay tuned!