The Return to Sound Judgment

Many people lost hope after 2020 election when Donald Trump lost the election. Did God not hear our prayers, or worse, did God let us down? Yes, He heard our prayers, no, He didn’t let us down.

Whether there was or was not a steal of the 2020 election, Jesus came to abundantly give us life. It is the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. God did not lose a round with the devil. And God is still in ultimate control of the world that Satan claims as his own.

Personally, I thought there would be a loss or a steal. But I wasn’t hopeless or blindsided. I was waiting and wondering what God would do with the Supreme Court. Even though the Court hid away after the election I believed God had a plan. God hasn't abandoned the faithful. And God is doing His work in the Courts in the last two years. The Court has been a thorn in the side of the thief and those who follow the works of darkness.

"Then I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning; After that you will be called the city of righteousness, A faithful city." - Isaiah 1:26 NASU

Let’s recount a few judgments over the last two years. The Supreme Court overturned the moneychangers of the abortionists to the States: stopping or reduced the killing of preborn babies. The Supreme Court stopped the intention of robbing the American people through governmental robin hood forgiveness of school loans. The Supreme Court stopped the destroying of businesses that don't support obscene lifestyles. The Supreme Court rules we can shut the door on the LGBTQ+ people who aim to defile our whole household of faith.

However, our hope should not be in the judges of the Supreme Court. Our hope can not be in government and law at all. We are a government of 'We the people’ and not a government of the few elites and powerful. And we will not remain a people of freedom because a few judges made the right decisions. We, the people, must also come to our senses and make the right judgments. As Christians, we know the law doesn't bring freedom to a people. True freedom comes from the inside out. Lawful people don't need the law because God's love is shed abroad in our hearts to love our neighbors too much to be unjust.

"But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! - Luke 15:17 NASU

The United States of America is a nation of prodigals. We began as a Christian nation but have since gone a long way off course. We were incredibly blessed with a wealthy inheritance that we have blown on wild living, outside the freedoms God so richly granted us. Many of us are now caught in pig pens wondering how we got there. But all we must do is come to our senses like the prodigal son and return.

I am not saying our hunger can be satisfied with more stuff through capitalism or redistribution of stuff through socialism. Our hunger must be different than the hunger of the world. Our hunger must drive us to our senses; a return to our Christian roots as a nation—a hunger for God as our Father and not a government as a surrogate parent. 

We can choose this day to return to an omnipotent God or an all-powerful government who tells us everything we must do to be good citizens. We can return to an omniscient God who knows the number of hairs on our heads or an all-knowing government who knows all the pennies in our bank accounts. We can return to an omnipresent God who gives us liberty or an all-seeing government where we can't move without paying tribute.

Before Isaiah said anything about God restoring judges with sound judgment, he penned the following words.

"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. "If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; "But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword." Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. - Isaiah 1:18-20 NASU

The judges can restore the right laws, but they won't last if we, the people are without reason. We are the counselors that must preach reason to the people! Moses came with the law, but Jesus came with truth and grace. We, as Christians, can't stand behind a law like a judge. We must speak to our neighbors with grace and truth to secure our freedom from all intrusive government. How will we do that when our neighbors don't even see the Christian foundation of this nation?

This nation is not seen as Christian because we are not all that Christian anymore. Maybe our foundation has been cracked for so long that the Church is as corrupt as the government. Let's read the words of Isaiah after he spoke about reasoning with truth and the restoration of a nation through sound judgments.

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." - Isaiah 6:4-5 NASU

Isaiah's thought he was a righteous man standing next to the people of his society. However, all that changed when Isaiah's foundation was shaken, and he found himself standing next to the glory of God. The flag has its glory and God has His. The glory of man has no comparison with the glory of God.

Before a nation can be saved, the American church needs to enter the throne room of God and see our uncleanness. Instead, we enter the temple thanking God we are not like these other people who don't know Him. We thank God for all the right things we do while people in this nation are beating their chests in hopes that someone will save them from their demons and destruction. But who will go and tell them the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Lord Jesus? Who will tell them their sins are forgiven and their trespasses are remembered no more? How can anyone reason from a sound mind when their conscience is seared with guilt, shame, and condemnation?

We should lead with the grace that the Savior of the world has come. The Lamb of God has paid the penalty of sin on our behalf. When Jesus sets us free, we are free indeed! Then we are to finish with the truth of where sin will lead us if we do not repent and receive Jesus. God has granted the propitiation of our sins, even the world. 1 John 2:2

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed." Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered "Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate, "The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. "Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump." Isaiah 6:8-13 NASU

We will not save our freedoms as a nation via a political party, conservative groups, social justice protests or as Church-going Christians. We must experience the purification of the Lord and answer the call as Isaiah did. I don't think America will be great again as we define it today, a return to an earlier time. But we could be great again if we the American Church will return to the days of sending out more missionaries than military. It is written that all nations will turn against God, and the only nation that will be saved is the only nation with a Covenant initiated by God: Israel.

When Israel bows their knee to God, saying blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Jesus will return to rule the nations of this world. But until then God has given the United States a Hezekiah moment. Isaiah told Hezekiah to get his household in order because he was about to die. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and cried out for God. God heard his prayer and was given fifteen additional years.

God answered our prayers via the Supreme Court rulings. Maybe, we, too, will have an extension of our freedom of speech to get the gospel of Jesus out with limited persecution. But like Hezekiah, in arrogance, we have shown the Babylonians all that we have, and our borders are open.

I do not think God is done with His favorite gentile nation. It does seem God has granted our nation an extension of life through the judgments of the Supreme Court; but for how long? Now the American Church needs her moment, like Isaiah, in the purification of the Lord so that we can be sent one last time as ambassadors of Christ for a Kingdom yet to come.