As someone who immigrated to America many decades ago, I love this country deeply. I am deeply appreciative of its Biblical foundations, how it was conceived by the Founding Fathers, and its attendant love for true justice and individual freedom. There is truly no other nation like the United States of America!
I know I am not alone in my love for our nation’s history and its Biblical foundations. There are millions like me who love America as it was envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Together, we love the America that was led by George Washington’s wisdom: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." We still believe Abraham Lincoln’s words: "The only assurance of our nation’s safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion." And we continue to pledge our allegiance to the America of the Founding Fathers, who said, "When the importance of religion is diminished . . . so is the effectiveness of government."
I know I am not alone in my love for our nation’s history and its Biblical foundations.
Much of my love for America is rooted in my own personal history. I grew up under a socialist regime, and I have seen how dangerous such regimes can be. In contrast, the reason this nation became the greatest nation on earth was because its founders pledged their lives to the cause of freedom. Many of them paid a great price to give us the freedoms we enjoy, and millions of others have given their lives on the battlefield so that their children and grandchildren might be free.
Today, we, as a nation, find ourselves at a crossroads. As a fellow believer in Jesus Christ and naturalized citizen of this great nation, I want to challenge all believers in America: We can no longer take our precious freedoms for granted. Many of our courts are chipping away at the very foundation of our freedom. As a result, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression are being taken away—but only from Christians.
As we see Romans 1:25 fulfilled before our eyes—as our culture "exchange[s] the truth about God for a lie" and bows down before idols—it is my conviction that we need to challenge ourselves and the next generation to love, believe, trust, and obey the Word of God as never before. Until the faithful stop sleeping in the pews, accepting the status quo, and fearing rejection, we are going to go from bad to worse. Only when we fall out of love with compromise will we see a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit upon our nation.
The recent COVID-19 crisis has exposed the cheap gospel we so often fall for—that we can be a rich nation without righteousness; that we can be happy without holiness; that we can have crowns without crosses; that we can have ceremony without surrender; that we can have testimony without a test; that we can have religion without repentance. Let us not waste this opportunity to respond to God’s loving wake-up call. Let us no longer take our freedoms—both spiritual and political—for granted. If we truly want to see revival in our nation, we must begin on our knees, rend our hearts before God, and boldly proclaim the hope of the Gospel while we still have time.
It’s not too late. There remains time to turn back to the Lord. He alone is able to pull our great nation back from the abyss. I believe this with all my heart. With all our nation has endured in the last few months, perhaps God, in His mercy, is working to bring about the next great awakening.
Our nation is ripe for revival. As we turn from our sins, God will hear us from heaven, forgive us, and heal our land (see 2 Chronicles 7:14). Therefore, may repentance start with me; may it start with you, that we might declare together, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance" (Psalm 33:12).
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