Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. Malachi 4:5-6, ESV

Who is the man who fears the LORD? Him will He instruct in the way that he should choose... Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. Psalms 25: 12 & 22, ESV

 

These two passages were written over 500 years apart, but they addressed the same basic theme. The second was written by King David, who pointed out the need for mankind to learn God's ways, as well as the need to have God rescue their nation. The first verse we read from above was written through inspiration of the Lord by the prophet Malachi. We find from Christ's own words that the Elijah that was to come would be John the Baptist, who would fulfill this prophetic message by preparing Israel, God's chosen people, for the Messiah. It was indeed a warning that if the fathers could not turn the hearts of their children back to God, that God would utterly destroy the land.

 

And even though Christ did come and die for the sins of all mankind, Israel's fathers were unable to turn the hearts of their children back to God, and the nation of Israel was essentially destroyed when the Romans wiped out Jerusalem, including razing the temple to the ground. It is important to note that while Israel was a nation comprised of the physical descendants of Abraham, the Israel of today is described by God as a spiritual nation, made up of those who have become obedient to His Son, and faithful to His ways... but that's another lesson for another day.

 

What I wanted to talk about today is what happened to physical Israel. Why did God almost completely destroy this nation of Abraham's descendants? Many of them loved Israel (as did God) but their mistake was that most of them had begun to place their allegiance to their nation, rather than to the Lord. As a result, even though these people were true patriots in many ways, they had placed their devotion to God second to their devotion to their country. And because of this fatal mistake, they not only lost their nation, but many lost their eternal souls as well.

 

One of the reasons we study history is to prevent us from repeating the same mistakes that the men who came before us made.

 

Fast=forward to America in 2025. We have a lot of people who are true patriots. They love God and country, but not in that order. As a result, we have a lot of patriots who identify as Christians, but we have far too few Christian patriots. While this distinction may seem subtle, it is not really subtle at all. When people put their allegiance to their country before their devotion to God, bad things happen. People get into fights over whose brand of patriotism is superior. As a result, sides are drawn, and so-called patriots begin to divide the very nation that they claim to love. Or worse, people begin to follow a nationalistic set of leaders who define patriotism by their obedience to man's commands, rather than God's What you end up with then is a divided nation on its way to destruction. 

 

This is precisely what happened to Israel, and I am very much afraid it is what is happening to America now. While I don't believe that America is somehow God's modern-day, "chosen people", I do know that there was at one time a large percentage of Americans who were Christians and who were, therefore, part of God's spiritual Israel as are all people of all nations who are followers of Christ. Because so many Americans were genuine followers of Christ, America has been richly blessed. However, just as the physical nation of Israel fell away from their devotion to God and were destroyed, it appears that America has chosen to take that same reckless path.

 

And unless we parents begin to turn our hearts towards our children and begin once again to raise them up in the instruction of the Lord, we will suffer the same fate as the nation of Israel did some 2,000 years ago when God removed His protection from them. It should be noted that God did not leave Israel - Israel left God!

 

This is what has happened to America, in my opinion. America as a nation was started by men and women who were as a majority devoted to Christ. They knew that no nation would succeed that did not love God and follow his ways, and they did love God, and they also appeared to have been devoted to His ways. As a result, America has received many blessings from being in God's favor. These blessings always follow those who are devoted to God, and Americans for many years were indeed devoted. They loved God and country - in that order - and built a nation (with the assistance of God) that was the envy of all nations. 

 

And as long as the hearts of the parents were such as to be determined to raise their children in God's ways, as Christians, America continued to be blessed. But then, something happened!

 

Americans began to feel that their success stemmed from the fact that they were Americans, and for the first time began to consider themselves patriots before they considered themselves to be Christians. In their arrogance, they began to expel God and Christ from the public realm. No longer could Christianity be held up as the highest standard in our schools, and soon it was hard to find Christ's influence in any other important area, be it in our government or in our powerful corporations.

 

And as we continued this process of ridding God from the public square, we replaced Him with a secular humanism that worshipped the created rather than the Creator. And somewhere along the line the hearts of the fathers ceased to be towards their children, because a people who have abandoned God always end up forsaking their own children. The interesting thing is that many of these fathers are indeed patriots - they love their country, without question. But since they made the mistake of placing country before God, they eventually became a godless society that is, as Robert Bork so accurately stated, "slogging towards Gomorrah". 

 

I think we all recall from our knowledge of history how things turned out for Gomorrah!

 

So, what is the solution? It's the same as it was some 3,000 years ago when King David saw that God's protection was inextricably linked to Israel's devotion. It is the same as it was 2,400 years ago when Malachi prophesied that destruction of Israel could only be prevented by the hearts of the fathers turning towards their children, and this always came about as a result of the devotion to God.

 

In short, if America ever wants to become great again, we are going to have to return to God and to Christ. Until we return to being servants of the Lord, we can never enjoy the protection that He has always provided for His servants. To be very clear, we are going to have to be Christians before we are Americans (or any other nationality you might prefer). The effective patriot has always been one who loves God and country in that order. Any other type of patriot is certain to have their beloved nation suffer the same fate that the nation of Israel did some 2,000 years ago.

 

If America is ever to enjoy a return of God's blessings and avoid a certain doom, the hearts of the fathers must be refocused on the hearts of their children. Before that ever happens, we are going to have to have those hearts fully devoted to God! Nothing else can save our nation. More important, nothing else can save our souls.