Transcript

America's Providential History Podcast looks at turning America around

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today we're going to begin to look at turning America around. This past year, we've looked at providence of God and the birth, growth and development of the United States. We have seen that, those people who came and gave birth to this nation were people of the book, not perfect. They certainly had their problems and challenges, but they were, a people, by and large, who said, lord, we recognize that if we build our life and our family and our nation upon the principles of your word, it will produce flourishing, good fruit will come forth. So we looked at that. But then we also began to look at how contrary seeds began to be sown, especially in the later 1800s and into the 20th century, and briefly touched on what's necessary to bring about a revival, a transformation, the three Rs in the last lesson. But I want to explore more on this in the next couple of podcasts of how do we go about turning America around? Or we might ask, how do we fulfill our duties, our biblical duties as ambassadors of Christ here in this world where we are living now, where Jesus wants to bring his kingdom, as he taught us in the Lord's Prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We, like Jonah, have been neglecting the mission God has given us

But, I want to begin by reading a scripture from the book of Jonah. Jonah 1, 1 3, which says, the word of the Lord, came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So here we see in the first three verses of the Book of Jonah that God gave Jonah a mission. And Jonah did not run to fulfill the mission. Rather, Jonah ran from the mission that God had given him. Now God has given us God's people a mission. Today we have a mission. Those who live in America and all of God's children throughout the world have been given a mission. We, like Jonah, unfortunately, have been neglecting the mission God has given us. I'm speaking in general terms of the general mission that God has given the church in the United States, certainly individuals and I know many of you are gladly seeking the Lord, Lord, what have you called me to do? And throwing your life into it. But I'm speaking in generalizations of how effective has the church been, especially in the last century, as we looked at in the past few podcasts, how effective have we been in fulfilling the mission God has given us? Now? Jonah was told to go and cry against the wickedness of Nineveh. God looked down and he saw great wickedness in this great city of Nineveh. And he gave Jonah this mission. Go and cry out why God wanted to extend his mercy to Nineveh. And we have this story for many reasons, one of which maybe perhaps it foretold how God in his mercy was going to extend, his promises to the Gentiles after the Messiah came into the world and that God in his mercy would bring all nations unto him. And so he was foretaste of this when he sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh. but he said they were to go and crowd against the wickedness of Nineveh. likewise today we living in America and we Christians really in any nation, we are to cry against the wickedness in our land. I, don't have to take much time to tell you, I'm sure the great wickedness that exists, you just turn on the news, any day and you can see evidence of the great wickedness that exists within the nation. Because with no moral constraints, which secularism has not provided, the moral constraints that God lays out in the Bible, that fallen man will, will do more and more evil deeds that if sinful m. Fallen man can get away with wickedness, sinful fallen man will commit wickedness. This is one purpose of civil government is to restrain that wickedness, lift up the standard of God's truth in order to keep peace and flourishing within a nation. And so we are called to crowd against the wickedness in America. But unfortunately we, God's people, the church, have not effectively done that, especially in the last number of generations. We looked a little bit of that at a little bit of that in the prior few podcasts. And so we could declare that we know America needs to repent. There's a lot of wickedness in America, from promoting trans ideology to same sex marriage to immorality, to looking to the state as God, of rejecting God's standards of the family and economic policies and everything else that America, the nation needs to repent. But repentance really begins with the church if my people are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek the Lord. He'll hear and hear from heaven. So, we as God's people need to begin the process of repentance ourselves. Now, repentance is not just being sorry or speaking something. Repentance in the scripture is a change of mind, a change of the way that we live and the act. It's a turning aside and acting a different way than we were before. So true repentance means that we need to return to our work as ambassadors of Christ, return to our duty to fulfill the mission to disciple the nation and bring God's kingdom to America, to the earth as it it is in, heaven. So if we truly repent, it's going to be reflected in a new way of thinking, new way of acting, a new way of being salt and light in the community. Now, we know in the book of Jonah from the story in that book that, that, Jonah did repent. Now, God had to get his attention in a very difficult way. But eventually he did repent. Recognized I'm, not. It's not going well for me. Fleeing from the purposes of God, the calling of God. And so he said, yes, Lord, I repent. And then he went to Nineveh. And when he went and began to proclaim truth and uphold God's standard of truth, guess what? Nineveh, repented. They cried out to God in sackcloth, it says in Jonah chapter 3, verse 5 through 8. So they cried out, said, lord, forgive us. But they also did the works of repentance that we can see in Jonah 3:10. And so when we, as American Christians or Christians from any nation really, that this idea applies, we need to cry out and repent. And that will embrace a recognition that we're not acting and fulfilling our duties and responsibilities. We cross, cry out and ask God's forgiveness. But then we turn and perform different works. We act differently. So just like Nineveh, when they repented, cried out to God and did the works of repentance. So we too today must cry out to God and then turn and do the works of repentance.

Individuals who are lost need to repent before God

Well, what are our works of repentance as American Christians now? Certainly individuals who are lost need to repent before God. We need to speak truth to the individuals who certainly have a need of acknowledging the King of the universe, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Messiah come to earth to reclaim his kingdom and restore all things, that, it begins. The kingdom of God is first within us. So they need to begin to do that, but, and we need to speak truth to them so that they can recognize and uphold the righteous standard of God, so they can begin to recognize how far astray they are, from the truth and repent. So lost individuals need to repent before God. We need to speak truth to them, but also we need to begin to perform the duties that God has given us at this very important juncture in the history of our nation. As we've examined in this past year of podcasts, we've seen that God gave birth to America, and we've talked about American exceptionalism. America has become the most free, prosperous nation in history, not perfect, but the most free nation because of those people who sought to build it upon the principles of Christianity. And it's been an example, and it's been a vital part of God bringing liberty to mankind. And it has certainly spread other nations from America. And in future podcasts, we're going to explore that in more detail of the, of the advance. And we have talked about that some already in podcasts and I think in December on Christ ever increasing, kingdom.

The church must teach that the gospel of the Kingdom includes transforming culture

But, we then need to find out what are our duties, how can we perform the act that, how God wants us to act in order to, to help assure that America fulfills her providential purpose and that God's kingdom purposes can continue to march. And so, I want to present, three things. Three things that we, as God's people must do in order to turn America around. These are three things that are involved. These are duties that we have, biblical duties that we have. And that if we truly recognize we haven't been fulfilling our mission, then we repent and turn. And then we begin to do our duties, fulfill our duties. So, three things. The first, the church must teach that the gospel of the Kingdomnomics includes transforming the culture as well as individuals. Let me say that again. The church must teach that the gospel of the Kingdomnomics includes transforming the culture as well as transforming individuals. Now, the survey was taken by Barna Group, some years ago of evangelical pastors. These are, you know, pastors who proclaim, we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, that Christ Jesus is God himself, come to redeem man, believe the basic fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. That's who this survey was taken of, of pastors in the United States. And they were asked, do you believe that the Bible speaks to all of life? Well, 90% of these pastors said, yes, we believe the Bible speaks to every sphere of life. Now, this is good because as we've touched on in podcasts in the past. And as I touch on many of the writings of books that we [email protected] it's clear that the Bible has something to say about everything. Thing about not only how we conduct our lives, but how we build our families, our businesses, our civil governments, our economic systems, our educational systems. It gives us principles for all of life. and that's part of the problem. That is that, you know, a lot of the church hasn't been, hasn't understood that it does do that very thing. And that's reflected in another question asked on this survey. Now, 90% of pastors believe the Bible speaks to all of Life, but only 10% of them ever teach on public affairs. So they say, yeah, the Bible does tell us about public affairs, civil affairs, government, economics and transgender issues, or same sex marriage issues or economic policies, whatever it may be. Yeah, the Bible gives us some insight and principles, but only 10% ever teach what the Bible says about public affairs. Now this is a problem because how can the church fulfill its duties to be salt and light in every area of life if we don't know how to do that? If the Bible speaks to all of life, but, we don't know what the Bible says, then certainly we're not going to be able to implement what we don't know. And we're certainly not taught these things in secular schools. They don't teach a biblical view of anything. Hardly at all in our secular schools. But, and if so, where are we going to learn it? Well, we might study it on our own or read some good books like the Providence foundation publishes and many other people have written on as well. So, but a place that every believer should be instructed in thinking biblically is the church. The local church needs to address all that the Bible teaches. After all, Jesus and the Great Commission said we're to go and make disciples of all the nations. And he tells us, how about by teaching them to observe all that I commanded you? And so we see in this survey part of the. A lot of the problem, an area where we need to repent is the church. God's and the leaders in the church have not been teaching all that the Bible says about many areas of life. And why is that? Well, one, because a lot of pastors don't know it. That's one reason. Because most seminaries don't touch on this at all. They might have an ethics class in seminary, but you're not really taught biblical worldview in Most seminaries today, all they teach is theological things. They have a pietistic view of life, that God's only concerned with the hereafter and getting men to heaven. And that's all, that's all that they know. So a lot of them don't know it. So they can't teach what you don't know. And a lot of them don't even think they need to learn what the Bible says regarding foreign affairs and immigration or war, or whatever it may be. And so they don't seek it out. They weren't taught it in seminary. So most of them don't know. Now there are some who may be afraid. They say well if I teach what the Bible says about politics and I'm going to get somebody mad my church. And they, they may leave. But that certainly should not inform how we act. That we should say we're not talking about partisan politics. We're talking about what does the Bible say about government, economics. And we have a lot of books on that. I have a book on biblical view of government, Biblical view of economics. We have a lot on education, a new film on education, Educated for Liberty. You can see [email protected] and I think that the lack of understanding that many Christians and many leaders in the church have can be reflected in the way that we've taught the gospel. See the gospel in the last few generations, especially for different reasons, some of which we touched on in previous podcasts and we write about in America's providential history history that the gospel has been truncated. That is we haven't taught all, we've only taught part of the scripture. We've taught what some have called the two chapter Gospel. What is the two chapter gospel? The two chapter gospel goes something like this. It says well man is fallen and sinful, separated from God. That's the fall chapter one. And is in need of a savior. God mercifully sent his son Jesus into the world to die on the cross to redeem man and restore his relationship to God. That's chapter two redemption. Now those two things are true, they're vital, they're important. The folk center point of part of the gospel message and that's generally what m majority of the church has taught in the last over 100, 100 plus years, beginning in the later 1800s when we began to be captivated by a pietistic view. It's man centered. It's all about me and my relationship to God. What we should Be teaching is what some have called the four chapter gospel which includes the Fall and Redemption. But the first chapter is creation before the Fall. The fourth chapter is Restoration. So let's look at each chapter of the gospel briefly. We explore this more in some of our writings. which point you to biblical view of economics actually that explores this more and other ones.

First chapter of the gospel explains why Christ came into the world is creation

But so the first chapter of the gospel that we must understand, even understand why Christ came into the world is creation. And of course we read about creation in Genesis chapter one and following chapters and we see that God created the world very good. After each day of creation. At the end of the day God said it is good, it is good, it is good. And at the end of all of it he said it is very good. God's creation, his material, this material time, space, world is very good. Matter, time, space, the way God created everything. It's very good, it's not bad, it's not evil, it's God's creation. And then we understand that at the very end and on the sixth day of the creation, the very last thing he created was his highest creation, man. And he created man in his image. Let us make man in our image. The scripture says. And he gave man a mission, said he made him vice regent over the earth. Said I'm creating this good world, I'm creating you in my image and I'm giving you a commission. The creation commission some have called this and that could also be called the cultural mandate. He gave this to Adam and Eve and all their descendants. He said I want you to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to rule over the earth, to take dominion over the earth, to cultivate the earth. And as I say, and if you get our book on my book on stewarding the Earth, A biblical View of Economics, I explore this more what this means. This was the original reason God created the world in the first place. And he created man to be stewards over this good world and to fulfill the mission he gave us. It requires man to work to take the resources that God created in the earth to rearrange them using their God given mind, mental strength and physical strength to create new things. you know, because Adam and Eve, mankind was created in the image of God. One way that we're like God is that we can create God. In the beginning God spoke and he created everything from nothing. He can do that because he's God created man his image. And he said I'm giving you a mission. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the Earth so we can are to be creative like our father God. Now we don't create from nothing, but we take God's original creation, the natural resources that he placed in the earth and in the universe, and we rearrange them, using our mind and energy to create new things to bring about greater flourishing, this greater fruitfulness, greater productivity. This was the mission God gave to Adam and Eve in the beginning because he wanted us to work with him to make this a better place. This is his world. And it's a vital part of what is going on right now today and the understanding of this. I'm just giving you an introduction. We could explore this and will in future podcasts and then so. But we know from scripture that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they sinned. And when man disobeyed God, sin entered into the world and everything was negatively affected. You can read about that in Genesis 3, 4, 5, 6 and following. And among other things, man lost the capacity to properly fulfill the cultural mandate. He could no longer fulfill what God wanted him to do. In the very beginning he became corrupt and began to not look to bring flourishing, but began to just be selfish. And the scripture says that his thoughts, intents were evil. Genesis 6:5. Therefore the world was filled with violence because what's in the heart of man will be expressed in how he acts. And so the world became filled with violence because his heart and his thoughts became corrupt. So this was the state of the world from the fall of man all the way up to coming of Christ. But as we explored in Christ's ever increasing kingdom, the Messiah came. And Christ came into the world to restore all that sin had affected everything because redemption is as broad as the sweep of of sin. So Genesis 12 through end of Revelation shows the outworking of God's plan of redemption. So we trace the step. All right, here's God's plan. And in God's plan, after man fell the the redeeming work of Christ more than overcame anything that sin negatively affected. Remember John 3:16, it says, for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. So. So God so loved the world. Now that word world in the Greek is cosmos. That means God's created order. God so loved his created or the way he made the world in the very beginning, that the space, the matter, the time, it's good, it's very good. He so loved his original creation, he said, I'm going to Restore it. And his Son Jesus came into the world to restore everything, his created order. Now of course it begins with, with restoring our relationship to God so that we can once again take up the mission to be good stewards, of the earth. This is where the kingdom begins, but it certainly doesn't end there. That's just getting us back to the point where we can begin to do what God wanted man to do in the beginning when he created us. So the Son came to restore all things. And Romans 8 tells us how the creation groans for its restoration. And with the coming of the Messiah, he showed the way. Here's first, you know, born again from the, from overcame death and raised in a, in a physical body. It's a new physical body, but, but showing the way of, of of restoring the world and restoring man to what God wanted him to be and even beyond that. And so we have creation chapter one, the Fall, chapter two, man's need of a savior. Then chapter three, Christ came into the world to bring redemption. But then chapter four deals with, okay, now that the Messiah is here, now God's people can go out and restore all things. So that's the fourth chapter, the restoration of God's creation of order. This teaches that matter, creation, the earth is good and God wants to restore his good creation, order and work. Our work is a primary means of doing this. In other words, the restoration of God's created order in time, space and matter doesn't involve just creating the Christ dying for man to restore his relationship to God so he can go to heaven and live in a spiritual world forever, but it's to bring heaven to earth. Because when he comes back the second time, that's when we'll have resurrected bodies. And we're going to carry on that new resurrected body work in the new resurrected world, which is not just living in a spiritual dimension like floating around nowhere, but it's going to be, involved this good creation he made in the first place in a new way than we see it right now. But like this, just like Christ came in his resurrected body that it was like he was, but different as we'll see. And so will our resurrected bodies be, and so will his, his restored creation, his cosmos. So Acts 3. 21 tells us that, you know, we're living in the period of the restoration of all things. Christ implemented the ability for the restoration of all things. And that's the work that we're in today. That's what's going on. And we've got to teach that. The church has to teach that in order for us to understand what are we doing here? What's our mission? Is it just to get a few people to heaven? And that's what a lot of the church has thought the last few generations, 100 plus years for, for many of them, therefore, that's the only work they've done. Let's see if we can save a few people. But God wants to redeem and restore all the whole earth, his good creation. That's what the restoration is all about. And then with the second coming of Christ, we will have the consummation of that restored original creation, where Christ the King of heaven and earth, will offer up to the Father, the restored cosmos, to implement the new consummation of all things. The end of redemptive history is seen with the coming down from heaven of the new Jerusalem, the city of God. When the new city comes, the tree of life, the same tree of life in the garden is now in the midst of a developed city. So with the consummation in the future, when Christ returns a second time, then the cultural mandate has been fulfilled, the restoration of the Messianic kingdom will have taken place. And so it's vital for the church to teach that the gospel of the kingdom includes transforming the culture as well as individuals.

The church must begin to teach the full gospel, the four chapter gospel

And in recent generations, the emphasis of much of the church has been only redeeming individuals. And so we've neglected God's good creation, we've neglected, the earth and the mission of the restoration of all things. The mission of the cultural mandate, the creation mandate to be fruitful, multiply fill the earth, cultivate rule over the earth, we've neglected that. Consequently, we have seen a decline in many areas. And so the church must begin to teach the full gospel, the four chapter gospel. And so that we can understand the mission and so that we can then crowd to the Holy Spirit to empower us, to give us understanding and that we can equip ourselves to fulfill our part in that mission. Well, that's the first point of repentance that needs to take place to turn America around and to fulfill our duties. There's two other points that I want to make in the next couple of podcasts, so I hope you can join us next week and we will take up this story of turning America around. If you want to learn more, you can Visit our website, providencefoundation.com we have lots of books and materials that explore this and many other subjects in more detail detail and various, videos and things that you can watch as well. So, take a look. So I hope you'll join us next week as we continue to take a look at how we can fulfill our biblical duties to turn America around. Well, God bless you.