Should We Pray "God Bless America"?

If you live in the USA, you are likely familiar with the phrase "God bless America!" It's a line used in many songs and on many bumper stickers. From a Christian perspective the phrase "God bless America" sounds like a prayer; the vocalization of one's desires being made known to God. This raises a question: Should Christians pray that God bless the USA?

To simplify answering this question from a Biblical perspective, I am not going to address whether people who do not live in America should pray that God bless it. In Scripture there are few moments where God asks someone to bless a nation in which they do not live, will not live or where they have no relatives living. One event concerning this takes place in the book of Numbers, where the king of Moab calls for the divinator Balaam to go and curse Israel (22:11). Balaam is stopped in his tracks by his donkey when it starts talking to him (22:27-28). God then speaks to Balaam and tells him to go and bless the nation of Israel  (23:11-12). This story does not illustrate that God wants people to bless certain nations rather than others. What this story shows is that God set Israel apart as His blessed and protected nation, and He watched over them and kept them from danger according to His will (Psalm 46:5). God would not allow anyone to curse Israel, if it was against His will.

According to Scripture, the nation of Israel is the only nation with whom God has directly aligned Himself. He was nearly always among them throughout all of the Old Testament (Leviticus 26:11). God dwelt in the Temple in Israel during the Old Testament, however in the time after Christ's coming (modern-times) God dwells in His people (2 Corinthians 6:16). It is written that we, as Christ's children, are His Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). Therefore the church, the body of Christ, is God's present holy nation on earth (1 Peter 2:9). This nation, this new Israel, is spread far and wide across the world, and it has no geographical boundaries or earthly government. It is not a nation found on a map with its own flag. It is a nation made up of people pursuing God's heart.

The USA is a nation that can be found on a map and it does have its own flag. It is an earthly nation, and it is important to remember that in God's eyes "the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales," (Isaiah 40:15). This does not mean that God does not care for the nations of the world. If that were true, then God would not oversee the raising and dethroning of rulers (Daniel 2:21). He does and He gets the final say on who rules a nation, and where that nation goes throughout its history. God also decides who will live in which nations. You currently live where you live, because God put you there (Psalm 139:16).

So, if you live in the USA, it's because God has brought you there. If God has brought you to the USA, does that mean that you should pray for God to bless America?

Take a look at what God told the people of Israel, when He exiled them from their home and sent them away to Babylon, a nation that despised and rejected the LORD. In the book of Jeremiah in chapter 29 from verses 5 to 7 God told His people of Israel to do the following, when they would arrive in the ungodly nation of Babylon:

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

You might currently be blessing the nation in which you live,
by simply paying your taxes, taking care of your home,
raising a family or providing a God honoring service.

In a city that did not love God or know Him; God wanted His people to bless that nation and help it prosper. God wanted His people to bless that nation in which they lived, because if the land prospered, then they would prosper (Jeremiah 29:7). Blessing the land in which we live so that we, God's children, may be blessed is one of the ways that we can live an abundant and God pleasing life on earth. Considering that Babylon was one of the worst nations to ever exist, and God still wanted His people to bless it while they were there, Christians should feel assured that they should ask God to bless any nation in which they live, and that they can take part in blessing that nation.

We can bless the nation in which we live by doing as the Isrealites were told to do in their exile: plant gardens, marry and have children, and seek the peace and prosperity of the nation. There are also plenty of other God honoring things we can do, but a big one is to pray for our nation. The people of Israel in Babylon prayed for the nation and God heard their prayers and blessed Babylon. One of the ways God blessed Babylon was by taking the nation's prideful ungodly king and humbling him so profoundly that he turned to God and followed the LORD the rest of his life (Daniel 4:29-37). 

In the USA Christians have the opportunity to seek the peace and prosperity
of the nation by voting on policies and candidates, according to what
is Godly based on Scripture, their pastor's teachings, etc. 

Christians should know that God cares about His nation, the body of Christ, and He desires to bless His people in whatever earthly nation they are. The children of God should bless and never curse (Romans 12:14). By blessing the nations in which we live, we demonstrate the love of Christ and we obey God's command to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34). It is by our love of Christ for one another that the world and all the nations will know that we are followers of Christ (John 13:35). Through this, the world will see that God's children are a holy nation, and that we are indeed blessed, as Jesus proclaimed in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 from verses 3 to 10:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

    for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

    for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

    for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

    for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

    for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

    for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Jump 5: God Bless the USA
• Got Questions: Is the USA a Christian Nation

1 Corinthians 4:6 (Do Not Go Beyond what is Written)

 

1 Corinthians 4:6

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

In my most recent post I wrote about Jesus' view on adultery and how Jesus would treat a homosexual. One piece of feedback I received was that I should have also mentioned Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. The reason being because she too was in an adulterous relationship, or at least that is how it appears. The Biblical text does not necessarily clearly state that the woman was an adulteress. What the text says is that the woman at the well was not currently married (John 4:17), and that Jesus said she had "five husbands, and the man [she] now [has] is not [her] husband," (John 4:18). Is it possible that the Samaritan woman was a young woman who was having a promiscuous relationship with six different men? To insinuate that would seem to go beyond what is written in the text. The text clearly has Jesus referring to this woman's past five relationships as being "husbands," meaning that God, Himself, was saying that she was married to those past five people. Might Jesus be acting coy here, by referring to this woman's sinful relationships as being her husbands? Probably not, as this is something Jesus does not appear to do in other passages in the four gospels. He typically calls sin as it is, and does not ascribe false appealing labels to sin; erego referring to adultery by the terms used in marriage (husband and wife).

The point of this is to illustrate the meaning behind Paul's words to the Corinthians where he says, "Do not go beyond what is written," (1 Corinthians 4:6). Paul was writing to the Corinthians that he would be coming to them as a spiritual leader, however the Corinthians were wondering if Paul would be wiser than one of their other spiritual leaders, Apollos. In response to this Paul wrote that the Corinthians should not regard either him or Apollos as being anything higher than "servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed," (1 Corinthians 4:2). Paul wrote, "Judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart," (1 Corinthians 4:5). Paul is saying that when it comes to judging someone's heart and their motivations a Christian should be slow in making this judgement; so slow that they make no definitive judgements on any unclear personal matters until even Jesus Christ returns. So, when it comes to interpreting Scripture, a Christian should take note of what is made explicitly clear about a person in the text. When it comes to what is unclear, a Christian should be very careful about what they claim about a person in the text.

It might seem like a harmless way of making the Bible more tantalizing,
but reading the Bible this way has lead to Christians believing some very
unbiblical things about Biblical people (see Sources below).

I'll add a personal example: I am very curious about the eternal fate of Judas Iscariot, yet Scripture does not provide a definitive answer. There is not a verse in the Bible that says "Judas is in hell" or "Judas is in heaven." On top of this, there are a few verses that seem to lean his final destination to one way over the other. In both Luke and John it is written that the devil entered into Judas (22:3 and 13:27 respectively). This in combination with how Judas killed himself seems to strongly imply that his eternity is in hell. There is, however, nothing in Scripture that clearly states that those whom the devil enters go to hell 100% of the time and that those who commit suicide cannot be forgiven (and concerning the ladder, there is Biblical evidence opposed). Moreso there is a prophecy that Jesus gives to His twelve disciples where He says to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," (Matthew 19:28). This passage's context makes it clear Jesus is referring to all of His disciples, and there is nothing in this section of Scripture that directly states that any of the disciples could lose their place on one of these twelve thrones. The most exclusive part of this prophecy is that Jesus says it applies to the twelve disciples who "followed Him," but the twelve disciples including Judas are described many times as following Jesus. So, what is it? Is Judas in heaven or hell? I wonder about this from time to time, but the truth is it doesn't matter.

If something matters to us in Scripture, then it will be written clearly for us to understand or interpret based on all of the books of the Bible. There were indeed events transpired and words spoken during the time of Scripture that were not written down for us. This is because we do not need them. John once heard a voice from thunders, and he was told by heaven, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down," (Revelation 10:4). Does that make us wonder what the thunders said? It most likely does, but we should not concern ourselves with this, or try to imply in the text what the thunders said. We don't know, and we shouldn't care. Why? Because "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," (2 Timothy 3:16-17). What is written in Scripture is there to equip us for every good work; every good thing God requires us to do is in our Bibles. If we spend our time focusing on what is not in Scripture but might be implied by it, we are devoting our time to useless rumors. The Scriptures say, "Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down," (Proverbs 26:20). Let us be diligent to focus on what is written in the Bible and to not go beyond what is written.

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• WWUTT: Did David Rape Bathsheba?
• Christianity Today: Some People think Jesus was Racist