Patriotism a Sin?

Next month I will begin an overview study of 1 and 2 Kings, during my devotional time with God. When I do, I will inevitably come to the same conclusion I do every fall, as I read through this section of redemptive history. I will ask, “Why do these people get away from God? Why would a nation give up God’s blessing? Why would people so versed in God’s blessings: His Word, His Spirit, His Love, etc; why would they abandon God?”

Why indeed? That is the very question we must ask of ourselves in our nation today. D.A. Carson in comment of 1 Corinthians 10 writes about the moral implications of the Old Testament stories and remarks on what they teach us today.

Implicitly, it is all the more shocking if we who have received so much instruction and warning from ages past ignore the wealth of privilege that is ours. In our blindness we sometimes marvel at how some Old Testament figures or groups could so quickly abandon the godly heritage and covenant they received. How much worse if we do so!

A friend of mine asked me why we do a Patriotic Service every year and I explained that I believe it is good and right to give God praise at least once a year for the privilege of being a citizen of a nation where we are free to worship and evangelize. He asked if we sing, “God Bless America.” I told him that we did and he said, “That is syncretism (the combination of different forms of belief or practice ). You shouldn’t sing that song. You should sing a song asking God to bless a people that He raises up for Himself that are under His covenant of grace for the praise of His glory.”

I do not disagree that we should sing and praise God as His people for His glory. We are commanded in Scripture to praise God for this and to seek to gather those God has called to be His own. But we must give praise to God for all the good things He gives and one good thing we have as US citizens is religious freedom and a heritage of Christian Biblical Faith. We are in the process of abandoning that great foundation as a nation. In fact, we are at a crisis point now in our moral direction and spiritual health. We are like the children of Israel during the times of the Kings during an off-again season. We, like them, have gone through many on-again off-again seasons.

I will be praying for our nation, as I study these texts next month. I will be seeking to expand God’s Kingdom in our land and throughout the nations for the rest of my life. I will spend most of my time living as an exile in the US, but I will seek the good of my earthly nation and ask God to bless it.

Jeremiah 29:7 “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.”