Lately, I've been reading a lot on social media about God's impending judgment on America because of the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage.
However, I couldn't disagree more with this perspective. God will not judge America over the issue of gay marriage. No fire and brimstone is getting ready to fall from the sky. We aren't about to be destroyed in an economic or nuclear holocaust.
Rather, looking to the apostle Paul and and what he said in Romans 1, we get a glimpse into the mind of the apostle as to what the "wrath of God revealed from heaven" normally looks like in God's dealings with mankind. Paul wrote:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." ~ (Romans 1:18-32, NASB)In this passage we see that God's wrath seldom manifests itself in apocalyptic gestures involving angry angels smiting nations while calling down fire and brimstone. Make no mistake, such has happened and will happen according to Scriptures. But, such grand gestures are exceptionally rare, and as a result, I believe we should be extremely reluctant to call down such judgments upon America, or any other nations.
Rather, God's normal means of bringing judgment on an individual or nation often comes in a much more subtle way. Rather than summoning plagues and famines, God has a way of simply giving people over to the full magnitude of their own devices. When you choose sin, God will often let you drink the fullness of your wants and desires, as He allows you to progress from one bad choice to another.
There is an old saying that says "sin will take you further than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and make you pay a higher price than you ever wanted to pay." God has a way of letting people simply destroy themselves in their own sin. People and nations have a way of rotting from within, and leaving nothing for God to strike down. Fire and brimstone is seldom ever needed. Rather, there is a tendency for people to simply waste away on their own.
We see this in many different ways in life. For example, if you cover an indiscretion with a little white lie, it is often just a matter of time before you you have to tell another lie to cover your original lie, and before you know it, things snowball out of control, and you've told a thousand lies all because of one. Then finally the truth of a matter comes out, the lie is exposed, and the fallout ensues. We see things like this all the time with crooked politicians and business executives, or husbands who are cheating on their wives.
In light of such things, I can't help but dismiss the idea that God will judge America over things like gay marriage. And I believe that preachers who call for such things are often doing so out of extreme theological naivety. They are venting their own frustrations instead of expressing the heart and mind of God.
Rather, a perspective that is more in keeping with Scripture, is that we have things like gay marriage in our land because God long ago judged America. Gay marriage exists because God is simply letting us drink the fullness of our own ways. We want our sin instead of God, and as a result, God is letting us have all the sin that we could ever hope for. He is allowing us to spiral out of control, as we sink further into the mire. And, long before a foreign army destroys us, or fire falls from heaven, God will allow our situations to go from bad to worse, as we destroy ourselves from within.
At the end of the day, things like gay marriage are but a sign that God long ago judged America, and that we are currently experiencing the wrath that is revealed from heaven. The ruling of the Supreme Court is merely God turning us over to further depravity, and allowing us to become intoxicated from the cup of our own sin.
If we wish to repent of anything, we have much deeper issues to look at than simply that of gay marriage. Gay marriage is but the fruit of a tree with much deeper roots.
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