One of my themes on these blogs has been God's judgment and whether it's possible to stop it once it's begun. America has been under judgment for decades now, according to many Christian leaders. Although many denied its clear import, some recognized that 9/11 was God's judgment, at least a warning shot of judmgnet to come.
The biggest reason for judmgnet usually given is abortion, the ongoibng murder of unborn babies into the millions; but America has been proliferating many kinds of sins besides abortion. Christians want revival, we know we need revival but prayers for revivial have not brought revival, sometimes even very intense focused prayers. Something is blocking revival, probably some unrecognized sins. What might they be? I've spent some time trying to figure that out too.
It has to start with the churches. "Judgment begins at the house of God." We've seen many kinds of apostasies rise up over the last 150 years or so. These are in churches that call themselves Christian so much as we might like to disown them because we know they aren't really theologically Christian in many cases, their bearing that name implicates us with them. The prophet Daniel gave us the example of repenting on behalf of the covenant body to which we belong, in his case the nation of Israel. Although he personally had not committed many of the sins the nation had committed he nevertheless prayed as if he had, and repented for those sins as if they were his own.
The very denial that 9/11 was God's judgmnet is a sign of such apoastasy, the idea being that God wouldn't do such a thing. If it isn't understood that God is a God who judges sin there is really no point to the gospel itself. If God doesn't come in judgment there's no point in asking Him for mercy. If we fail so drastically to understand God's heart, that must open us to judgment.
I also believe the abandonment of the head covering for women is a cause of judgment. I came to this conclusion from my study of Paul's teaching on the subject in 2 Corinthians 11: 2-16. The covering was given up fairly recently partly on the basis of a very badly reasoned essay that imputed the practice Paul was advocating to culture rather than to apostolic authority which is how it had previously been understood. If we don't honor God's ordinance on the headship of men over women we have no ground for objecting to the violation of God's ordinance of marriage by legalizing gay marriage. I think this is a very serious point though it is usually dismissed as trivial. I've even considered that by abandoning the head covering in the churches we are responsible for opening the door to all the violations related to sex and marriage that have been proliferating in the culture for decades now.
Oh, a big one is our use of the National Cathedral for ecumenical prayer. There is one God and He said clearly in Isaiah that He will not give His glory to another. Praying to all the gods of all the cultures is NOT acceptable. We also have national prayer meetings that include other religions. This is a serious affront to God.
Why should God give us revival if we are not repenting of sins against Him?
Then recently I was listening to Larry Elder on the subject of reparations for black slavery
Why Reparations Will Actually Hurt Black America - YouTube
and he does a good job of showing that the idea is untenable for many reasons, some of them practical such as who qualifies to receive it and who should pay it, considering that most of us don't even have ancestors who were slave owners and much of today's population is descended from people who arrived after the era of slavery. And so on.
But then I'd been watching those "First-Time Reaction" videos of young black people responding to hearing Pavarotti singing for the firwst time. That led me to watch other videos of other singers doing some famous operatic arias, and especially to look for black opera singers. I discovered for instance "Three Mo' Tenors" who sing both opera and popular songs. I also listened to Marian Anderson, probably the first black to be a big star as an opera singer, got curious to know more about her so I looked her up on Wikipedia.
And there I found the story of how she applied for admission to a school and was told by the receptionist "We don't take colored here." or words to that effect. It reminded me that slavery was over, God judged us for it with the Civil War, but that Jim Crow was something else. Slavery and racism aren't the same thing.
I hurt for the insult to Marian Anderson and all thoe who had to endure it for some hundred years after the Civil War. I began to wonder if that era is part of why we are under God's judgment. Reparations may not be the answer to it, I don't know, all I know is the question was raised in my mind.
The churches need to repent of many things, the nation needs to repent, we need to be praying for God's wisdom even about what we need to repent of. We also have personal sins that need cleansing. I've personally been under God's chastisement for decades. I've fallen into the same sin more than once since then but repented (believe me,, repentance is agony, fear, remorse for undermined Christian witness, remorse for the wounded heart of God) and still the judgment is not lifted. Most recently He reminded me "My grace is sufficient for you" so that I understand it isn't going to end and I need not only to accept it but to rejoince in it as Paul did with his own "thorn in the flesh." He wasn't guilty of anything that deserved it, but although I have been guilty God also has other reasons for giving us afflictions. The point being we've all got a lot to repent of on a lot of levels, and we aren't going to see the situation in America improve until we do it according to God's wisdom.
It may be that America can't be saved unless we roll back Roe v Wade, roll back that execrable law that bestowed the right of free speech on pornography, roll back gay marriage, perhaps make some kind of restitution for Jim Crow even; but since it all has to start at the house of God it may be that none of that will happen until we reinstate the head covering in the churches. I do keep coming back to that. It may be the linch pin. If we fix that it may be easier to fix all the rest as God opens doors. Sin is not just the cause of judgment but is judgment itself. The more we sin the more we sin. Maybe the second step would be cleansing the National Cathedral of the worshippers of Dagon and Baal and their ilk. And remember, a right understanding of Romans 1 is that homosexuality is itself judgment on idolatry.
