American Intersection

This morning started rather strange. I awoke with a swirl of thoughts in my head and a strong impetus to write them down and share them. As this seldom happens to me, I decided to act on these thoughts and commit them to paper.

America is near an intersection. With 300 million people, it is sometimes hard to pinpoint America’s exact location. Additionally, its speed and direction as well as its rate of acceleration are just as important as its location in relation to that intersection. We, as a nation could be stopped and looking longingly down the wrong path. We could be on the wrong path, increasing in velocity as we accelerate in the wrong direction. Or we could be stopped on the wrong path as we consider changing directions in order to head back to the intersection. Regardless, it is my belief we are somehow involved with the wrong path at present.

Before I continue with my thoughts on America, I think it prudent to let the reader know my foundational beliefs which have prompted me to write. I trust that the reader will be tolerant, continuing to read after learning a little bit about the author.

I believe there is one Supreme Being who created everything and is involved in and acting upon the affairs of creation today. This Supreme Being has a personality and, since this Supreme Being created us, we can recognize personality traits which strike us as human. Sometimes we are right in this assessment and sometimes we are wrong. The Supreme Being has a name, YHWH. As near as I can determine that would be pronounced Yahweh.

Yahweh is the Supreme Being of the Jewish and Christian faiths. The ancient Hebrew scribes had such a reverence for Yahweh’s Holy Name that they would write it with a slight modification, so that if they made an error in their transcription, they would not offend Yahweh. This modification added a syllable which, after years of transcription and translation changed our pronunciation of the name to Jehovah.

I also have a great reverence of Yahweh and the Holy Name. However, I am living in Yahweh’s grace. It is my firm belief that if I unintentionally use the Holy Name in an offensive way, I will be forgiven. That being said, from this point on, I will use the name more familiar to most, God. Capitalized, I mean YHWH. Lower case god is for all the people and things we as humans attempt to make supreme beings in our lives.

Up to this point, I have avoided using a pronoun for God. It is my belief that God contains all the best of what we consider masculine and feminine traits. I base this belief on Genesis 1:27. Unfortunately, at least in American English, we are limited to “he”, “she”, and “it.” “It” would be most inappropriate. Given the remaining choice, I will reluctantly go with “He.” Please do not condemn me as whatever the 21st century term is for a male chauvinist pig.

I believe God is present in three distinct forms; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is a difficult idea to wrap one’s brain around. I have my own mental exercises which I use to comfort myself and to attempt explanations to friends. In the end, all things in life require a certain amount of faith, and this is one of them.

I believe that God is pure and holy, and, as such, can not be in the presence of the impure and unholy. I try to be “good” but, try as I might, I fall short on a regular basis. The politically incorrect name for it is sin. This sin separates us from God. For Israel, God set up an elaborate system of payments to cover the costs of sin. The payment system was set up to show how expensive and continuous sin is.

Then, God established a better system. God the Son came to live with us as Y’SHUA. Again with the transcriptions and translations we have changed our pronunciation of the name to Jesus. Jesus entered the womb of a virgin and was born as a baby. He was 100% God and 100% man; yet another concept which requires faith in order to accept. He taught those around him about the true nature of God. He performed miracles. Most importantly, he was executed. That execution once and for all paid for all of the sins of all of the people in God’s creation. In order to “seal the deal,” after three days of His human body being dead, He returned to life in that same but changed human body. He spent 40 days with his followers and then ascended into heaven. Those who believe in Him and follow Him are no longer separated from God. God the Holy Spirit lives in those believers.

My final belief relative to my thoughts on America involves Israel. Undoubtedly, Israel has made mistakes for which they have been punished. And, even though they do not believe Y’SHUA is the Messiah, I do not believe God has removed His blessing from Israel. Because of this, I believe that nations which bless Israel will be blessed and nations which curse Israel will be cursed.

Those of you who are still with me are probably wondering what on earth any of this has to do with America at an intersection. It is my hope that you are in agreement with me on my beliefs. Regardless, my thoughts on America are based on these beliefs and what follows would make little sense unless you at least knew my belief system.

When the founding fathers of America penned the Declaration of Independence, they set in motion a series of ideas which make it extremely difficult to find a sufficiently superlative adjective to describe the concept.

First, these men recognized that any government which has the power to give things to its subjects is powerful enough to take everything away from these same subjects. Additionally, it is not good for power to rest in a person or persons, persons who are human beings and, as such, can be corrupt or corrupted. Based on that recognition, they established that the rights enjoyed by the soon-to-be Americans were granted not by a government or a human person, but by their Creator. Please note it was their capital “C.” And, in reading their letters and other writings, it is clear that the Creator they were referring to was God. They also stipulated that mere humans could not remove these rights without due process. This recognition that God was the grantor of these inalienable rights to America was the first and probably most important ingredient which went into God blessing America.

The founding fathers recognized that some of the rights were destinations in and of themselves. The right to life. The right to liberty. Other rights were not the destination but the journey. The right to pursue happiness. I find it very comforting that the founding fathers did not say the right of happiness. I remember trying to drive this point home to my daughter as we watched a commercial on television. The adman said that the company would “guarantee my happiness.” I joked around with my daughter telling her I was going to drive over to the company and demand my happiness. How often we are upset that we do not have happiness and miss the opportunity to have joy which can be obtained in the pursuit of happiness.

The founding fathers came from a culture where the king was the law of the land. When kings left office through death or overthrow, the new king became the new law. Every time there was a new king, or even every time the king changed his mind, you had a whole new system of laws. This is often referred to as Rex Lex, the king is the law. The founding fathers established that the laws of the land would be more or less permanent. The laws could be changed, but only after careful thought and only by agreement of a large body of representatives of all the people. No one person or small group of people would be able to change the entire system of laws depending on their attitude at any given time. This is referred to as Lex Rex, the law is the king. Assuming that the representatives were God fearing individuals and the laws were within the bounds of God’s laws, I believe God blessed America for that.

Finally, while we have never been perfect at it, America has been a supporter of Israel. I truly believe that Harry Truman’s recognition of Israel in May of 1948 is one of the reasons America prospered so in the last half of the 20th century. God’s love for Israel can be seen in how Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, Luke 19:41-43. Only a great love can cause such pain when the object of one’s love turns away.

So now, I ask you to look at that intersection. Are we turning our national back on Israel? With 41% of the citizenry enjoying the rights and privileges of being an American without paying for it, are we attempting to replace the pursuit of happiness with government supplied happiness? Are we attempting the same thing with a push to allow non-citizens to enjoy all the rights and privileges without any of the costs? Are we allowing an ever diminishing number of people to change the laws of the land, moving from Lex Rex to Rex Lex in the process? Are we turning our back on God? Are we attempting to replace Him with other gods?

I have had the opportunity to travel abroad. What I have seen troubles me. I see a large planet jealous of America. Some want to bring us down to their level by destroying us. Others want to rise to our level by emulating what made us so great. Of the two, the latter group has captured my attention. I can envision a nation much larger than America adopting the things that made America great. I can see God blessing them for doing that. I can see a large portion of the 59% of Americans who are presently carrying the financial burden of this country moving to that new super power. If this were to come to pass, the 50 United States of America would be reduced to a third world country in a very short span of time.

And please don’t interpret this to mean that I think America should prosper and other nations shouldn’t. I believe that we should encourage all nations to follow the path which made America great. I believe that God has more than enough blessings for every person on earth. It would be silly and wrong for any nation to try and hoard the blessings. My fear is that America will lose its blessing from God.

I love this country. It has provided me with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe we are on the wrong path. It is my prayer that we are stopped and considering going back to the intersection. It is my hope that you will join me in this prayer. And more than that, we all need to work hard at making sure America gets on the right path.