Go Back America # 2

Go Back America # 2

We Christians have nothing to be ashamed of when we face the industrialists, the military leaders, the statesmen, the politicians, the educators, who so glibly arrogate to themselves the plaudits of the world for making America great. They came into the picture later, much later. They built on a foundation already laid in the dedicated, patriotic, self-denying sacrifices of the pioneers who brought CHRIST with them to that rocky Atlantic seaboard.

All honor to them! By the side of the statues, the busts, the portraits of the Hancocks, the Madisons, and the Adamses, we place those of the Jonathan Edwardses, the Roger Williamses, and the David Brainerds.

All praise to the Whigs, the Federalists, the Democrats, and the Republicans. But do not forget the Puritans, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists. They also served, and served well, and the record is written for all to see. Probably more than any others they kept the Ship of State on an even keel.

What is the picture today? Today America is in the greatest danger of its history, not only from the outside, but from the inside. Patriotism has cheapened. Moral standards have degenerated. The almighty dollar is worshiped. Christianity, the Bible, GOD, and His CHRIST have been legalized out of our schools. The fear of GOD is ridiculed, painted over, explained away by a pseudo-psycho-religious Pollyanna philosophy that out-Coues Coue. GOD is being claimed as the cosmic Errand Boy. The Bible is presented as a book of auto-suggestion texts, affirmation of which will surely bring health, wealth, happiness. Even in evangelical circles people are being told that "getting right with God" and "paying your tithe" will make anyone rich. Yet how many we know, tithe-givers for many years, who have never even come close to being wealthy!

America is in danger - serious danger. Standards in the business world, in politics, in education, in science, in arts and (GOD save the mark!) in religion are not GOD's standards. The test of success today would seem to be a good position, a fine home, money in the bank, the best restaurants, sirloin steaks, and expensive suits. The Cadillac is supplanting the Cross as the sign of rightness with GOD, the symbol of having GOD as your "silent Partner." Paul is not in tune with the times in his cry that he "may know...the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."

Weakly we profess our love for the Lord JESUS CHRIST, our concern for the souls of men. As someone has said with stinging aptness, "We are suffering in comfort." And yet, in spite of these things, do not sell America short. America is still possessed of an unbounded zest for living, an enthusiasm, a responsiveness to challenge, an eagerness for adventure, a heroic abandon. Put the old time appeal back into Christianity! Make it not afire insurance policy to guarantee safety from hell, but a battle to the death against Apollyon and the forces of the pit! Then see what happens!

The same boys who, glib talking and zoot-suited, seemed without a serious care or thought in the world, three times in less than two generations - in Flanders Field, at Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Bataan, the Battle of the Bulge, Heartbreak Ridge - offered their lives "to make the world safe for democracy," and to purchase the four freedoms. These boys loved not their lives to the death to guarantee a place in the sun for what? For tine Korea, situated half way around the world from Broadway!

Do not sell America short. Our seminaries, Bible schools, Christian universities and colleges see more students enrolling with every passing year, multitudes of them training for the work of the Lord. And there would be even more were there more room, more endowments, more opportunities for those who hearts burn within them with the desire to go all out for the Lord, but who are limited by economic needs or family responsibilities.

God will not abandon us. What we need is not fear, but fervor; not the counsel of cowardice, but the consecration of courage; not attitudes or actions of weakness, but advance and attack of war - all-out war - for CHRIST and His Kingdom.

My fellow Christians. America is worth praying for, paying for, preaching for, living for, dying for. What our men and boys have done in the carnage of Bloody battle to protect mundane, temporary things, it is ours to do in even nobler-sacrificial devotion for the Prince of Peace,for the souls of those for whose eternal welfare He paid so heavy a price.

II Chronicles 7:14 is still in the Bible: "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will head their land."

There is no room or reason for despair, but a calling rather for a new devotion, a higher dedication to bring America back to the pierced feet of the CHRIST.

~Hyman Appleman~

(The End)