Which America Do We Want to Live In?

    There are only two types of nations, ones that value righteousness and those that don't, those that collectively fear the Living God and the principles in His Word and those that don't (Proverbs 14:34. Psalm 9:17). Oswald Chambers once said, "The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else." (The Highest Good; Pilgrim's Song Book, 537). This is echoed by Proverbs 28:1, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion." In other words, if the citizens of a nation aren't led by a fear of God, then they can be controlled by the fear of other things, whether real or imagined. If government leaders can cause their citizens to flee in fear, they can also lead them to flee in the direction that they want them to go. The same ones that cause the panic offer the cure. This means that ultimately nations will either value freedoms that are granted to us by the Creator, or they will value "safety" given by their respective governments.  

    2020 has revealed a great transition in American thinking through the reaction to Covid-19. Let me preface by saying that Covid-19 is real and it has killed people. I sympathize with those people who have lost loved ones. There are people that I knew on a first name basis that died with the virus. This is not ignoring their death or mocking the grief of their loved ones. However, there are also 1.35 million annual auto related deaths worldwide every year. That comes to 3,700 deaths per day. While I also sympathize with those deaths, I'm going to continue to drive a car, and I'm not going to feel guilty for doing so. The Flu kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. every year. The CDC estimates that the most recent Flu season killed between 24,000 and 62,000 people. There were no businesses shut down, no mask mandates and no hysteria. Why is that? For one simple reason, we weren't told to do so. 

    For those who have fully bought into the media fear mongering and government mandates, I would simply ask, why? What have any of them ever done to earn our unyielding trust? Who honestly thinks that our health and well being is their number one priority? This is the same CDC that is tainted with a history of scandal and incompetency (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/11/cdc_centers_for_damaged_credibility_142622.html#!). These are the same politicians that just approved a bill that sends millions of U.S. tax payer dollars to Pakistan for gender studies. This is the same media that just praised actress Ellen Page for coming out as a man, when she is obviously still a woman. It's also the same fact checkers that miraculously didn't fact check that particular story.  Again, what have they ever done to earn the level of trust to be able to scrap the Constitution and shut down our businesses and churches, and force us to treat one another like lepers? Who are they to decide who is essential and non-essential? 

    Perhaps the most amazing thing about all of this is how Corona mandates have been turned into a cause. We are being conditioned to believe that our freedoms are selfish. Forget the fact that 130,000 restaurants have permanently closed this year, putting millions out of work (that's just one industry). Ignore the astronomically high rate of suicide, drug overdose, isolation, unemployment, etc., we're not loving our neighbor if we're not wearing a napkin on our face. However, when we read Marxist theology, it all begins to make more sense. Saul Alinsky in his Marxist masterpiece, Rules For Radicals, spoke of what he called the "Tenth rule of Ethics" to which he wrote, "do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments." In order for communism to take over a country, the middle class must be destroyed. But in order to destroy the middle class, the people must be convinced that what they are doing a noble thing. But I digress, that is another blog for another day. 

    Someone will immediately point to the risks associated with Covid, which actually proves my whole point. Freedom has always come with risks. When our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they were signing their own death certificate, as it was an act of treason against Britain. Fighting wars = risks, starting a business comes with risks, so does marriage, children, confiding in a friend, driving down the road, purchasing a house, falling in love, flying in a plane, eating solid foods, etc. Here is the difference between a God fearing people and a wicked nation; God-fearing people leave the risks up to God, the godless trust their government with the risks. And if a government can control the risks, they can also control the rewards. The righteous value individual freedom, the wicked pursue the false idol of "safety". They "flee when no one pursues." It's quite poetic that the nation that murders over 3,000 babies a day is afraid of death. 

    We must individually decide which America that we want to live in. Do we want to enjoy God given freedom, or do we want a false sense of security. Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." This decision can't simply be made at the ballot box. It must be made in the prayer closet, at the church house, in the home, and in our daily lives. It is possible to enjoy freedom and care nothing about personal holiness. Such will not work, for God is not mocked. Which America do you want to live in? I choose freedom. My life, death and everything between and beyond is in God's hands. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" But I would close by asking, if God be against us, who can be for us? We need to repent and seek God's face in prayer.