4 Reasons America Stands Under God's Judgment

America is in serious trouble. The land that was founded to be a shining city on a hill currently feels something closer to a muddy village in a valley, run into the ground by a mix of idiocy and corruption.  As I have written previously, the land of liberty and justice has far too little of either for most of us.

Which leads to the question, is America’s downward spiral a sign of God’s judgment?

On one hand, the answer is a definitive yes, in that sin has negative consequences built into it. People who rebel against reality always face the judgment that is inherent in those actions. That is why sexual immorality always leads to heartache and pain, for example.  The rise in our culture’s misery quotient can be at least partially attributed to continually partaking in activities that inevitably make us miserable.

But what about God’s extrinsic judgment? In the past God has judged nations not only by allowing them to face the intrinsic consequences of their actions, but he has also brought extrinsic punishment through a variety of means. For example, he has allowed nations to be overrun by foreign powers, or caused them to face deprivation through drought and other natural disasters. Is God judging the United States in this way?

I don’t claim to know.

What I do know, however, is that he might be, and even if he isn’t right now, he would be fully justified in doing so in the future.

I base my assessment on the fact that in scripture, there are four sins that explicitly cry out for vengeance. These are sins that provoke God’s anger because they lead to the harm and destruction of the human race. They deny the image of God in us, and the natural order that God’s creation reflects. As we walk through them in a very cursory fashion here, we will see that America is guilty of all four.  

1. Murder

In Genesis 4, Cain kills his brother Abel and God punishes Cain, explaining to him that Abel’s blood cries out to him from the ground. “Thou shalt not kill,” of course, is right there in the 10 commandments, and God obviously does not take lightly the unjustified shedding of human blood.

America murders people in a variety of ways.

The abortion industrial complex is the most obvious culprit. We kill over a million babies per year in the U.S. inside their mother’s womb. The “silent scream” of those babies surely reach the ears of God, not to mention the agony carried by the mothers (many of whom felt forced into their decision), often for the rest of their lives. And this evil extends beyond our borders as the government, NGOs, and big businesses such as General Electric work hand in hand to force “family planning” on developing countries all around the world. This has the effect of multiplying the innocent deaths by untold millions.

Many of those same companies and government agencies are complicit in another American driven injustice: the still underreported killing of untold millions through the lab-developed Covid virus and the “vaccine” that continues to injure and kill people around the globe.

Add to that the complex killing machine that is the military industrial complex, profiting from arms sales and wars around the world, and America has a lot of blood on its hands.

2. The Sins of Sodom

In Genesis 18, God tells Abraham that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great and their sin so grievous that he was preparing to destroy it. These sins are explained throughout the story, as well as in Ezekiel 16 and Jude 1 as sexual immorality, being arrogant and overfed, and not helping the poor and needy. We’ll focus on the sexual immorality part in this section, and touch on the others below.

I’ve written often here about the sexual revolution, and the bottom line is that attacking the image of God as it is displayed in the body and family is Satan’s most powerful and effective strategy in leading us to hell. We were made for love, and all forms of sexual immorality, from masturbation to contraception to promiscuity to homosexuality, destroy love. They all are forms of abuse; in practicing them we use people for our own purposes rather than give of ourselves for their good. It always causes pain and suffering.

As such, sexual immorality is always condemned in scripture. Indeed, Paul puts it at the top of his list of vices in Romans 1, the premier example of what happens when a people “neither glorify God nor give thanks to him:” their thinking becomes futile and, claiming to be wise, they become fools.

America is guilty here on so many levels. For one, it is the place where the sexual revolution was able to flourish and expand. America’s inherent individualism made it the perfect place for the revolt against reality to descend to new depths, and the cozy relationship between big business and government has again made things worse, as well as kept any reform movements from gaining too much ground. For example, why is America one of the last nations on the planet to recognize the harm done by “transitioning” minors? Because money is being made, and it appears to go against the “liberty” to be who you want to be.

Also, advances in technology and the rise of a global economy have enabled America to export depravity and drive insidious pop culture all over the world. For the past several decades that has largely consisted of pushing pornography and all manner of evil on every person on earth.

America is responsible for a lot of broken families and miserable lives. God will hold her accountable.

3. Oppression of the poor, orphans, foreigners, and widows

According to Exodus 2:23, “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.” Later in Exodus, God commands the Israelites, “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.  If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.

America’s sordid history with slavery, Jim Crow laws, real estate redlining, school segregation, unjust drug policy, and a variety of other oppressive policies is no secret. Thankfully, we have made some major strides in these areas. However, that should not blind us to the fact that oppression still exists, it’s just not in our direct line of sight. For example, is America responsible for the Congolese children who are killed and crippled while mining cobalt to put in our smartphones, laptops, and electric cars? I believe so.  Same with the 100,000 Uighur Muslims forced into slave labor factories in Xinjiang, China, spending every day producing everyday items for us, from textiles to tomato paste. Add to that the sex trade industry around the world, which is largely driven by the pornographic desires of Americans.

And then there is the more indirect oppression of the poor. When pharmaceutical companies pay off officials at the FDA to lie about their drugs addictive qualities, then target poor communities with those drugs, that is unjust.

God cares deeply about the plight of the poor and gets particularly angry when they are oppressed by the wealthy. “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?” (Isa. 10 1-3) Micah proclaimed God’s judgment on those in Judah who “covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance” (Mic. 2:2). Through the prophet Malachi, God thundered, “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:5).

4. Defrauding workers of just wages

This one is found in both Testaments, and is in some ways related to the previous sin. In Deuteronomy 24:14-15, God commands, “Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.” James 5:4 echoes this sentiment: “Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”

Some examples of this are obvious. The Apple Computer distributor in Chennai, India faced protests not long ago for failing to pay the workers there the contracted rate, even after the workers put up with sweatshop conditions. Women forced to undergo hysterectomies so they can keep working in sugar cane fields. In a globalized economy, these stories are endless.

But there are also many less obvious ways in which workers are defrauded by the rich and powerful in this country. For example, when government policy drives up inflation and makes groceries unaffordable for the average worker, that is unjust. When that same policy devalues people’s savings accounts or forces businesses to hire less workers, that is unjust. When giant hedge funds pay cash to buy up every house in a community and turn them into rentals, thus putting home ownership out of reach for the average worker, that is unjust. When the rich and powerful cut backroom deals, practice insider trading, and implement business practices that do not allow small companies to survive, that is unjust.

America was built on the idea everyone had an equal chance to rise above the economic station to which they were born. That was never entirely true, of course, but America has certainly been closer to that ideal than any other nation in history. That is now moving in the wrong direction, as each generation rightly feels less confident that things will be better for them. God understands this frustration, and he will not remain silent forever.

God’s judgment is coming and is already here. It’s time to repent and get right with him.

[I will have more on this topic in subsequent posts. I am also producing a television series that deals with these subjects in a more creative way. It is a contemporary take on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah called Libertyville and could really use your help to get it made. Indeed, we are facing a budget deadline at the end of July, and any help you can offer before then would be greatly appreciated. You can learn more about the project, as well as how to invest here and here.]