Lutzer: Is God on America's Side? Ch. 3

Principle 3 - God sometimes uses exceedingly evil nations to judge those that are less evil.

Looking at Israel, the nation became more and more sinful as time progressed. The poor were oppressed. They followed other gods. The leaders supported unjust laws. They were violent. Some followed the Lord, but their influence decreased over time. Then God revealed his plan to Isaiah.

Isaiah 10:5-6 - Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

Assyria is described as God's rod and staff - and they are commissioned against His people. There is no doubt that Assyria was more wicked than Israel, but God saw fit to use them in this way.

Habakkuk also received a surprise revelation from the Lord. He thought God was silent while the majority of Israel was sinful. However, God was raising up the Chaldeans to plunder Israel. The Chaldeans are described in Habakkuk 1:5-11 as fierce, impetuous, violently aggressive, and bold. Even though Habakkuk shook with fear at the revelation, eventually he gave glory to God (Hab. 3:16-19).

Now what about America? We have done more good in our existence than any other country. We are free to worship God. We send missionaries to other countries to help them. We bombed Japan and Germany and helped them rebuild.

But at the same time, we put out plenty of pornography, pedophilia, and same sex propaganda. We think that we made our way apart from God's blessings. The sins of the world have crept their way into the church. The church often take its cues from worldly wisdom instead of the Bible.

So can God send a wicked nation to judge us? Yes. If He did it to His own people, He will certainly not spare us. We have seen what happened eight years ago in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. These people come from a very primitive culture (from our perspective). They oppress women. They kill ruthlessly. They send out kids with bombs strapped to them. They have come nowhere close to doing the good that America has done. However, God can use them to judge this country.

Can you still give glory to God as Habakkuk did? Can you acknowledge God's role if America is attacked again? And if Islam takes over as the dominating influence? As America removes the influence of Christianity from its public face, a vacuum is being created - and Islam will be more than willing to fill the vacuum.

We cannot claim that God is on our side. He may let us lose against them.