God does not love America
God does not love America.
If that offends you, you have a problem.
God does not love Israel.
Israel as a nation is a construct of the Truman Administration and some legal wrangling within the United Nations.
I know we have been taught — truly indoctrinated — to think otherwise. I get it. It’s a hard truth to realize that as a nation God is no more devoted to us than he is to Afghanistan or Iraq, Iran or North Korea. It’s like learning that your mama loves your brother as much as she loves you. It’s disappointing to not be the favorite.
But when it comes to nation-building, God does not play favorites.
I understand how we got to this place — the place where we believe that we are God’s BFF.
We packed up our wooden trunks, left Granny and the chickens behind, because it was obvious to us, if not to our neighbors, that Europe was morally and religiously corrupt. We were going to be a better people than they were. We were going to go all out for God. We were going to worship him in a way that was denied us in Europe. We were going to create the pure society. We’d teach the world what being sold out to God really looked like. Oh. Yeah, we’d teach the world to sing, too.
So across the seas we came, puking and dying along the way. That’s how we roll. Us Americans. We’ll die for anything. It’s the living for something we struggle with.
We came with the intent of establishing the first true faith-based community of like-minded believers. No matter that in our pursuit of being God’s BFF, we had to slaughter folks and steal territory. For you, God, anything.
But, shocking as it may seem now, establishing a pure society is hard to do when you’re working with people. Especially people who aren’t all that like-minded. It was an awful choice to make but in our blinded pursuit of being God’s BFF, we were willing to hang our own, unless they conformed.
That’s the toll exacted of a nation-building people. We have to be willing to turn on our own if we ever want to prove our worthiness as God’s BFF.
But the thing we keep missing, over and over and over again, is that God never asked us to prove our worthiness to him.
He sent Jesus for that purpose.
God is not into nation-building.
God does not love America.
In fact, scriptures are replete with story after story of man being asked repeatedly to pledge allegiance to someone other than God and those who were considered God’s BFF were the ones who resolutely refused to.
God is a jealous God. We know that.
If our allegiance to a personality or to the message of another flawed human being is such that we take offense at any criticism of that personality or that message , then, Houston, we got a problem.
God said: You shall not have any gods before me. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
God does not love America.
He loves the people of America. The people of Iraq, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, China, all of Europe and South America. Every unknown tribe of every unknown nation. God loves them all. “For God so loved the WORLD, that he gave his only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.”
It’s not about us.
We are not God’s BFF, folks.
God does not love America.
25 Comments
Darian Burns
about 10 years agoLove it. Truth. I was raised being told that God loved the Atlanta Braves. Is that true?
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 10 years agoThat is the Gospel Truth. God is a Braves fan. :)
Virginia Dixon
about 10 years agoTHANKS FOR SHARING.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 10 years agoYou are welcome friend.
Rachel
about 10 years agoJust as the Mennonites or the Baptists are not the only ones going to heaven :) Good reminder! Thanks!
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 10 years agoYou mean those loosey-goosey Methodists are going to be in heaven, too?
Steve Taylor
about 7 years agoWe are not loosey-goosey, we just think grace, like a really good mulch, can cover alot of pooh.
Larry Wilson
about 10 years agoI like how He showed his love for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 10 years agoAre there implications in that statement for us, Larry?
Suzanne Deal-Fitzgerald
about 10 years agoThat is beautiful. I think I recall another fine person, Charles Barkley saying that God doesn't have a favorite Basketball team, and it was silly to sit around in the locker room and pray to beat an opposing team. I don't know about Baseball though.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 10 years agoPerhaps God does have favorite teams. Most of us do. But the point is that he doesn't intervene in the outcomes of those games. He doesn't gift one team with supernatural powers while robbing the other team. God is a God of Justice, first and foremost. We can put our trust in that.
Connor P
about 5 years agoThe way some scripts play out you would think that God does. In reality its just the casino mobs of Gomorrah that run the Baal games. Lots of those "miracles" are just staged plays that run contrary to the miracles of Jesus.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 5 years agoYes, so true. It took me over a lifetime to figure some of this out. For far too long I was part of the problem. It feels good to be free from all that now. Thanks for sharing.
Andy willingham
about 10 years agoI didn't think I would like this at first but I was wrong. Good article Karen. Sorry I doubted you. As to God loving the Braves..... I love the Braves but in the 70s and 80s I don't think God cared too much for them.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 10 years agoIt is perfectly okay to doubt me, Andy. What is not okay is to give up on me. :)
Peyton Brown
about 9 years agoGod does love the United States of America, just like every country in the world. Yes, God does not pick favorites but that doesn't mean he has a lack of love to any country, the Anti-Christ is said to have seven heads and ten horns, the seven heads I belive are seven countries and the horns are the leaders, but God said to love your enemy so he loves the countries that will go agianst him ( his enemies )and if you say the love is equal then therefore he loves every country equally including America. Hope this helped.
None of your business
about 8 years agoHonestly I was a Christian for the longest not anymore due to the fact that people act like they are just as pure as god. Sorry to burst your bubble but, why do we think god loves us a country that is full of sin I mean we kill people everyday and even if you say well I dont kill people but im sure you judge people sometimes for being gay, or being a different race, and even others who do not have the same religious belief. If god knows my every move even if I contemplate my choice over 1000 times why did he create Lucifer if he knew what was going to happen why would he allow Lucifer to be the ruler of hell so that he can punish the people of earth god's children if he loves us so much why would he want us to burn for eternity? Also have you ever taken a phrase and past it down through 20 people (try it) guarantee you the phrase you had before will be completely different than what you started with stop ruling out the possibility that there won't be an eternity in a place called heaven l I could hope, How do we know if there is a god most of you probably just answered because I know he is real, what if he isn't you spent your whole life worshiping someone that maybe false im not saying this to make you upset just stop ruling out possibilities. Ps For the soliders that are Christians I do appreciate your service for the united states, but if you believe everything of the bible it says thou shall not kill it doesn't say thou shall not kill unless your a warrior/solider of United States also what if Muhammad and Jesus are the same translation in Islamic religion.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 8 years agoThese are all valid questions I would venture that any of us might have/had at any given time. But of course the asking of them does not invalidate the reality of God any more than asking the questions of - Who created us? Why do we exist? Why do abused people often turn out to be the best among us? Why do people in desperate situations still hope? Why do the dying profess to see the face of Christ? Why are people kind when it serves them not to be? - proves the existence of God. We simply cannot prove the existence of God any more than we can disprove the existence of God. Either way it's a choice. You choose not to believe. I choose to believe. That's why it's called faith or disbelief.
Steve Taylor
about 7 years agoOn this 4th of July, as a retired vet, I give thanks that God does not love America. Instead God loves the world. As Christians who happen to be U.S. citizens, maybe we can do the same. So, on this Independence Day as I repent of those things I have done in the name of the United States of America that are in opposition to the God who loves and creates the cosmos, I also give thanks for the wonder of those Declaration principles that we name as self-evident. And I call on our best selves to live them fully, not simply for our sakes, but for the sake of the earth and all our neighbors in it. We don't need to make America great. It would be far better to make America good. And would be immensely pleasing to the God who loves the world. Karen, thanks for tweeting this out again. I was a great article when you wrote it. Even more relevant now.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 7 years agoThanks for sharing your thoughts as a vet and as a Christian, Steve. Yes, it's odd, isn't it , how one's writing can mean more years after they wrote it than at the time they wrote it? I've been thinking a lot about that.
Steve Taylor
about 7 years agoIndeed. The prophetic word rises anew in the face of rampant injustice.
Theologien
about 7 years agoI find it interesting that the people who shout this mantra the loudest are the least likely to obey or pay heed to him in any other area of life.
Karen Spears Zacharias
about 7 years agoThat is so true.
aquilla
about 4 years agoGOD CERTAINLY DOES NOT LOVE ANY CORRUPT GOVERNMENT. GOD LOVES EVERYONE BUT LIKE THE FALLEN AGEL, WE WERE GIVEN A CHOICE TO LOVE HIM BACK.**FOR HIS SPIRITUAL GIFTS**. SATAN HAS A SIMILAR GIG. THANK GOD THAT IN AMERICA WE CAN SPEAK FREELY WITHOUT PUNISHMENT. EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION. AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT ENDANGER THE LIVES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.