Awaiting the City of God (Protestant/Evangelical Caucus and Devotional)

Ligonier Ministries ^ | 8/17/2017

[Gamecock]

Evangelical Christians love America. Some see in her the last hope of creating a Christian nation. But it is not a Christian nation. It is pagan to the core. It is in danger of becoming, if it is not already, the new “Evil Empire.” The Mayflower Compact is a museum piece, a relic of a forgotten era. “In God We Trust” is now a lie.

Yes, we must always work for social reform. Yes, we must be “profane” in Martin Luther’s sense of going out of the temple and into the world. We do not despise the country of our birth. But in what do we invest our hope? The state is not God. The nation is not the Promised Land. The president is not our King. The Congress is not our Savior. Our welfare can never be found in the city of man. The federal government is not sovereign. We live—in every age and in every generation—by the rivers of Babylon. We need to understand that clearly. We must learn how to sing the Lord’s song in a strange and foreign land.

America will fall. The United States will inevitably disintegrate. The Stars and Stripes will bleed. The White House will turn to rubble. That is certain. We stand like Augustine before the sea. We pray that God will spare our nation. If He chooses not to, we ask for the grace to accept its demise. In either case, we look to Him who is our King and to heaven, which is our home. We await the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, whose builder and maker is God.

Coram Deo

Are you looking to your King and to your eternal destiny, despite the circumstances around you? Keep your focus on the heavenly Jerusalem, whose builder and maker is God.

Passages for Further Study

1 Corinthians 15:50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

2 Peter 1:11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

[Gamecock]

Ping

[circlecity]

The City of God and the City of Man exist intermingled among each other in each nation. The line that separates them is spiritual not geographic.

[PeterPrinciple]

America will fall. The United States will inevitably disintegrate. The Stars and Stripes will bleed. The White House will turn to rubble. That is certain.

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True words but still don’t sound good to my itchy ears................

[Pecos]

I fully believe all of the prophesies. That doesn't make it easy when we realize the level of pain it will mean in the short term. The only solace are the words "This too shall pass". Christ suffered. Why should we think that we are above that? Hard to explain to a child, though, even when done in the most appropriate manner and at the most appropriate time.

The righteous who saved Jews from the Nazis didn't wake up one morning and decide to be righteous. They lived their lives that way day by day, and followed the logical compassionate consequences. I see this struggle in the same light. Just my two cents.