The church of the living God has abdicated her calling to be the moral conscience of our nation. As a result, truth has staggered in the public square and righteousness cannot enter (Isaiah 59:14). Christians in America live in a nation under the judgment of God, and our land is one that labors under the heavy weight of her national transgressions. As people turn away from the Lord of life, despising his counsel and rejecting his ways, they run into destruction and death.

God made the world a certain way; to live in violation of his creational norms brings about catastrophic results. The United States is no exception to this truth. In many ways, we are more accountable due to the tremendous light with which we have been graced. The Christian church must recover a prophetic witness to the culture and our civil authorities.

Covenant Lord

To understand the prophetic responsibility of the church during these dark times, believers must cultivate a covenantal reading of Scripture. The Bible teaches that God rules the nations, making his presence felt in the way that he deals with them. He draws near to bless or curse them for their obedience or disobedience to his covenant law. None are exempt from divine accountability. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). The God of the Bible is the covenant Lord of history. He not only executes eternal judgment on individual sinners, but he acts in time to bring the sanctions of his law on entire people groups who disobey his word.

In Scripture, we see that persistent and habitual transgressions of God’s law are avenged when he dispossesses entire nations for their apostasy. The evangelical church in the West today largely denies such an idea. They will say God entered into a covenant with Israel but that he no longer covenantally deals with nations today. Such a position makes foolishness out of what we see in the Old Testament, and also what we see when we look at the history of nations, particularly in the West.

Divine judgment for covenant violation was not unique to the nation of Israel. As they prepared to enter the promised land, God told his people that he was driving out the wicked nations in the land, warning that if they committed the same abominations as the pagans, he would expel them as well (Leviticus 18:24). National sins bring national judgment. “The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).

All nations are created and established by God. They are implicitly in covenant relationship with him and accountable to him for violating his statutes (Isaiah 24:5-6). Sin has individual and corporate implications. Every individual will stand before God on the last day and give an account, but it must be acknowledged that there are temporal manifestations of divine judgment on a people. Nations cannot be punished in the life to come. If injustice continues in a land, penalties do not just disappear; they are transferred from the guilty parties to the society.

The role of a prophet

The prophets were not primarily concerned with the prediction of the future, but with confronting the ethical conduct of those to whom they were sent. The historical pattern in Scripture is that when a people and its leaders habitually violate the commands of God, he sends them his prophets who act as prosecuting attorneys. They are messengers from God sent to the people and the leaders to file suit against them and warn them of divine judgment should they persist in their disobedience of his covenant law.

They were to be the conscience of the nation, which involved pricking the consciences of the people and of those in authority. The prophet proclaims the word of God as a reformer, calling the people back to right belief, proper worship, and heartfelt loyalty to the covenant.

Prophets represent God and speak boldly in the face of opposition. In Christ, all Christians have a prophetic calling to exercise. We are being conformed to the image of the Son, who is the Prophet, Priest, and King. It is our responsibility to hold cultures and kings accountable to the law of God, calling on them to obey the King of kings from whom their authority is derived. Every earthly ruler owes their allegiance to Jesus Christ. This is a part of the church’s calling to disciple the nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded. We are the “called out” citizens of a new Kingdom. As ambassadors of Jesus Christ, we have been saved to bring the crown rights of our King to bear on every man and institution under the sun.

Conclusion

National dispossession awaits America if we do not repent. The culture has run amuck in lawlessness. “Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint” (Proverbs 29:18). The nations rage and plot in vain against the Lord and his Anointed, desiring to be free from his rule. In their rebellion, they attempt to cast the cords of divine authority away from them. The Father meets this rebellion with laughter because of the enthronement of his Messiah (Psalm 2). He has called a people to himself and it is their honor to rebind the kings with the chains of his word. This is the honor given to all the saints (Psalm 149).

The church has largely abdicated her role to rein in a godless society, and the people suffer for her lack of faithfulness. The blessings of liberty belong to a righteous people who will open their mouths for what is right. Believers must not allow the voice of truth to be absent from public discourse. The voice of truth is found where the voice of God speaks in the living word that commands the obedience of all men.

The charges must be brought and laid at the feet of those who do what is right in their own eyes. Our nation must repent of her many transgressions. The Lord still reigns over the nations and will call them to account. If America is to be saved, the word must once again be like fire in the mouths of God’s appointed messengers, who care more for obedience to the Lord than they do their own lives and reputations.