AA

AA. These two letters, placed side by side, are a common sight today. They stand for a battery and bra size. It could be used to refer to the Australian Army or to an Anti-Aircraft battery. Its most familiar forms are probably: American Airborne and Alcoholics Anonymous.

Here, I would like to create a new acronym using these two letters – Arrogant America!

On the 11th of September, 2001, America and the world were reshaped by an act of terrorism. In the wake of that attack, the patriotic rhetoric followed. It was not the flow of a gentle stream. It was the torrent of a mountain gorge after heavy rain in the mountains above.

One may expect a degree of patriotism after such a devastating event. One would even say that some patriotic statements would be a natural psychological reaction to such a catastrophe. However, to this day, I am still puzzled by the degree of the rhetoric. What is more, I am absolutely bewildered by the lack of humility that was displayed.

That lack of humility caused me to pen the following:

What are these deep questions? Let us start with, ‘Why does not “God bless America?”’[1] ‘Why does America believe that she has something to offer the world when she is in turmoil?’ ‘Why does America state a belief in God and then ban His teaching from schools?’ ‘How does the President talk of “Justice” when the court system rarely delivers anything resembling justice?’ Last of all, Why does this nation exclaim, God Bless America! and then humiliate preachers of the Gospel whilst exalting Islam?

This leads us to the prayer mentioned earlier.

The prayer in question is used because it exemplified many of the themes found in other prayers. It was delivered by a female politician.[2] As she stood at the microphone delivering her invective, a picture formed in our mind. There stood this woman in front of a maddening crowd. The crowd was in a frenzy and they were being whipped up even further. How was this done? This woman had done the miraculous. She had captured the nation’s god. She held it out to the people. She demanded of this god that it act to do the will of the people. To excite the crowd further, she placed one hand on the back of the god’s neck and forced it to adopt a posture of submission. With her other hand she twisted the god’s arm behind its back. She forced it further and further. With each flinch made by this god, she made more demands. This god was to bless the nation. It was to mandate revenge against the evildoers, but it was to be blind to the transgressions of the nation. If this god would but do this, it would be allowed to remain as the nation’s deity. In the ensuing battle and victory, all the glory would belong to the nation. If they failed, they would once more capture this god and punish it for its second delinquency. After all, should not this god have protected the righteous from the outpouring of the infidel’s wrath?

When this woman spoke, nay, foamed at the mouth, she did not exhibit grace. There was not an ounce of contrition. One looked in vain for humility. She did not for one moment countenance the idea that this event may have been a judgement upon her nation, a wakeup call or a call to repentance. In short, this was not a person placing themselves before almighty God in a humble prayer. This was not the prayer of the faithful seeking wisdom of the Almighty. It was not the prayer of one who sought justice for the righteous at the hand of God. Rather, it was akin to a letter of final demand.

This prayer sounded very familiar. We remember reading something like it in an old book. We searched and found this ancient prayer. The similarities were striking. This ancient prayer was offered by a public official in a time of national crisis. However, there was an even greater similarity, namely, the attitude involved in offering the prayer. As we read this old book, we were also struck by the commentator’s appraisal of the prayer. It makes for interesting reading. The following is an excerpt from the book:

And He [Jesus] also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a taxgatherer. “The Pharisee [public official] stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this taxgatherer. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the taxgatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”[3]

… This woman, as with the Pharisee, prayed to herself. She may have used the jargon of her culture’s religion, but she was not praying to the God of the Bible. As she prayed she brought herself under Jesus’ denunciation. She thought more highly of herself than she ought. She was not willing to pray, ‘Father (intimate and relational) thy will be done (humble submission) and grant wisdom that justice may be done in the earth.’ No. We heard, God (impersonal and aloof) we are going to find the people responsible and exact revenge (subversive). She “trusted in herself.” She trusted in the State. She was one who needed not a physician. Which raises the question, ‘Why did this woman even bother to call the doctor?’[4]

So, “Why revisit the past?” you ask. Simple. America is “thicker” than the proverbial plank![5] They have not learned the lesson so terribly taught to them over a decade ago.

Recently, two brothers set bombs at the Boston Marathon. These bombs killed three. What was America’s response? Once more the torrent of patriotism flowed. Once more pride, ego, bombast, and arrogance were the order of the day.

Only a day or two ago, I saw both the President and Vice-President giving speeches. There was nothing of humility and certainly nothing to do with Almighty God.[6]

Once more there was simply a hollow, patriotic rhetoric echoing a belief that America was, of itself, invincible. Note these words from Vice-President Joe Biden:

“Why this terrorist phenomenon the beginning of the 21st century, why? People say to me for they surely know they can never defeat us. They can never overthrow us. They can never occupy us. So why? Why? Whether it’s al Qaeda Central, or two twisted, perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadists here in Boston. Why do they do what they do?”

…“I’ve thought about it a lot, because I deal with it a lot, and I’ve come to the conclusion, it is not unique to me, but they do it to instill fear, to have us, in the name of our safety and security, jettison what we value the most, and what the world most values about us, our open society, our system of justice that guarantees freedom, the access of all Americans to opportunity, the free flow of information and people across this country, our transparency.”

“It infuriates them that we refuse to bend, refuse to change, refuse to yield to fear,” Biden said. “The doctrine of hate and oppression, they’ve found out, cannot compete with the values of openness and inclusiveness. And that’s why they’re losing around the world. The irony is we read about these events, we experience them. But the truth is, on every frontier, terrorism as a weapon is losing. It is not gaining adherents. And what galls them the most is that America does remain that shining city on the hill. We’re a symbol of the hopes and dreams of the very aspirations of people all around the world, people who live where they thrive. Our very existence makes a lie of their perverted ideology.”[7]

There is a lot in those statements. Let us, then, start our critique with the last highlighted comment – a shining city on a hill. This comment is really the salient point. America’s founders, being Christians, spoke of the new nation as a city on a hill. Thus, the term came to have particular relevance to Boston.

This reference from Matthew has to do with Christ’s disciples being the salt and light of the world.[8] Consequently, when the term “a city on a hill” is used, the shining has to do with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not the indomitable spirit of Humanism. The shining is the “Light of life” that came into “the darkness”[9] and not darkness masquerading as light.[10]

Therefore, implicit in this terminology is the fact that the shining is the righteousness of Jesus Christ based on the fact that He is the exact representation of God in whom the fullness of the deity dwells. In short, the shining is capitulation and submission to the Law-Word of God. We shine only when we are obedient to all that the Father has commanded.

Therefore, Mr. Biden is naught but a deluded fool when he speaks of the magnificence of America in the terms that he does. For speaking thusly, he is not speaking of Christ and obedience to God, but of Humanism and the pride of man. This leads us to ask, What justice? What freedom? What openness? What transparency?

We are speaking of a country that practices open genocide. America has murdered millions of unborn children in the womb since 1973 and called it choice. I tell you that Saddam Hussein at his worst did not come close. We are speaking of a country where law enforcement can add the word ‘terrorism’ to a charge and you simply disappear; no judge, no lawyer, and no jury.

We are speaking of a country whose current President’s right to hold office has been constantly challenged because his birth certificate has been sealed. Sums of money have been offered to induce him to come forward and produce his birth certificate. Thus far, nothing. Transparency! This is not transparency. This is somewhere between opaque and “particulate soil in a colloidal suspension” – mud!

Then, when he speaks of “our open society”, this deluded man speaks not a freedom and truth, but of the acceptance of perversion. He speaks of letting homosexuals from the closet. He lauds the rights of those who kill children in the womb. He stands in awe of the euthanasic doctor who destroys the old and infirmed. He loves “openness” in so far as family and society are laid open to government infiltration and control for the exacting of unjust taxes and false government. What he will not tolerate, however, is the preacher of righteousness who speaks truth in God’s name. Then the “open society” closes ranks in order to silence, denigrate, and obliterate God’s name.[11]

America may still speak of God with a capital “G”, but the truth is that they, organisationally as a nation, have abandoned this God and his standards. You can add the words” God Bless America!” to the end of as many speeches as you like, but it will not bring God’s blessing.

When the heart chases darkness; when the heart wilfully rebels; when the heart is openly deceitful; taking the words “God Bless America” to your lips is treasonous and leaves one ripe for judgement. It is to acknowledge the God of the Bible. It is to acknowledge that He has revealed His standard. Yet, it is to belittle God by believing that you can deceive Him.[12] It is to ask God to be an absolute hypocrite. Yes, that is right. Americans are asking God to be a hypocrite. They expect God to protect them from evil doers, when they in fact commit more evil than their enemies!

This is the crux of the problem. America wants to be the “light on the hill”. However, they fail to appreciate two absolute truths regarding the light.

First, the light is righteousness. It is not freedom. It is not democracy. It is not the constitution. It is not the creating of a legal environment in which “every man can do right in his own eyes.” It is righteousness and righteousness alone. Righteousness is rightness before God. Rightness before God is obedience to God. Obedience to God is Jesus Christ and those who are in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the radiance of the light emanating from that hill must be Jesus Christ and all that His glorious name entails.

Second, America has a perverted view of how that light is to work. If I put a powerful light on the roof of my house, must it not of necessity illumine my house and my yard before it reaches to those of my neighbour? Americans walk around draped in cloaks with large hoods. These they use to hide themselves from the light, comforted by the fact that they do not need any such light. They shield themselves, yet hope that, as the light leaves their shores, it would gather intensity and help those to who it comes.[13]

Two fallacies. One, a light that is not Christ is no light. Two, the light must fall upon and illumine those closest before it can fall upon and change those far away.

America may have started out as a light on a hill. It may have shone brightly as it sought to obey God in Christ. However, as the Christian heritage has been jettisoned bit by bit, so has the true light. The Humanists could see the light diming and people began to ask questions. The humanists, being clever and deceptive, lulled you to sleep. Then, while you were sleeping, some humanists trotted to the top of the hill and switched globes.

The consequence is that you still see a great light. You think it is the same one your forefathers erected, but it is not. It is dressed up the same. It is described using the same language. Yet, you know it is not because the new light is cold and harsh, not warm and gentle. Those old enough to have witnessed the true light will testify that it was warm and gentle. It gave guidance in dark places. It was alive. It would take the lost by the hand and lead them to safety. Not so this new light. Its harsh light blinds. It beguiles. It does not warm and lead. It blinds and makes all to think that they are upon a safe path, when in fact they skirt a precipice.

America’s national anthem shows the old light. Its last verse says:

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand; Between their loved home and the war’s desolation. Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land.
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave![14]

These words, rightly understood made America the land of the free and the home of the brave. It did make America a light precisely because their trust was in Almighty God. Today, this is no longer the case. They use “God” words that are hollow. They are left over from a bygone era. They have form, but they have no substance. All these words are, is a provocation in the ears of God.

How many wakeup calls must America receive? How long will she pretend?

America may be the land of the free (laughable) and the home of the brave (undoubtedly). However, she is also the home of the stupid and the arrogant. She is this because she has wholeheartedly turned her back on the living God and has turned aside to idols of her own making. This sin is bad enough in itself, but she multiplies her guilt by pretending to still serve God Almighty.

Such a provocation can only result in a manifestation of God’s judgement. This is seen every day. Shootings, murders, governmental disintegration, racial tension, violence, familial disintegration, governmental policies of nihilism, ineffective government, high taxation for no result, debt, not to mention 9/11 and Boston.

America the Arrogant; how she needs the humility of Christ! She has become like the ancient city of Babylon – strong, great – yet the heavenly voice cries out, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.”[15]

This is the end of every nation that comes to believe that it is invincible apart from God. They abandon God. They delve into sin. They become abhorrent in the sight of God and God casts them down.

Is this not the pattern shown to us in Scripture? The Amorite. Israel. Judah. Assyria. Babylon. Egypt. America will not escape unless she repents.

America the Arrogant! Repent of your falsehood and your evil deeds. Repent and return to Jesus Christ, the fair and beautiful light you once new. Put away your arrogance and clothe yourself in the humility of Jesus Christ and, once more, be a light on a hill.

Australia, repent and do likewise, for we too are a stench in the nostrils of God.