God and the Nations

All biblical Christians know – or should know – that God is sovereign over the affairs of men and he rules over the nations. From our very limited perspective it sure may not seem that way, but it is true nonetheless. God is still on the throne, and he is able to lift nations up or bring them down.

Consider just a few passages which speak to these truths:
-Psalm 75:6-7 No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.
-Psalm 94:10 Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
-Proverbs 21:1 In the LORD’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.
-Daniel 2:19-21 Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.”
-Isaiah 40:23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
-Jeremiah 18:7-10 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

God is right where he has always been, and he is orchestrating his purposes on planet earth. While it may look like men rule and evil triumphs, God is still involved and still weaving his purposes in what takes place here. God is working towards his own ends, and men and nations are part of his handiwork.

I see this happening right now with two once great nations. And it is greatly lifting my spirits to be honest. For a long time these two nations were locked in a life and death struggle. The Cold War lasted for decades but eventually America and the West won while the USSR and the communist bloc lost.

It was a glorious time to be alive back in 1989 when the wall started being knocked down. Freedom lovers everywhere were beside themselves with glee. The evil empire was coming to an end, and freedom and democracy were given a new lease on life.

But things have changed greatly since then. Instead of Reagan in the White House and people like Thatcher ruling England, we have Barack Hussein Obama in charge and sham conservatives like Cameron in Downing Street. Things have changed rather significantly – and for the worse.

Obama is arguably the most evil POTUS ever, and is doing incredible damage on almost every front. His war on marriage and the family is particularly severe. While he is doing everything he can to turn the US and the rest of the world into a sodomite playground, Putin of Russia is actually resisting all this – and quite forcefully.

And while Obama is the most pro-Islam president ever, Putin is again standing strong, resisting the Islamists. So in these two areas alone we find a real role reversal going on. Just when so many of us were despairing that the last great hope of the free world was going down the gurgler fast, it may be possible that light is erupting from another part of the globe.

Many of us wonder if America can ever recover from an eight-year reign of terror under Obama. The damage he causes may be irreparable. Of course no one is suggesting that Russia has suddenly become a paragon of virtue, truth, and freedom. But on a number of fronts, for once in my life I am often cheering on Russia while booing America.

Putin is becoming the man of the hour, while Obama is doing all he can to be the anti-hero of the 21st century. Perhaps we have God at work behind the scenes here. I am no prophet and I am not claiming anything here. But I am suggesting as a believer that God is not finished with us yet. If one nation goes down the tubes, he is able to raise up other nations from rather unexpected places.

Christians must realise that this is still God’s universe, and he still rules in the affairs of men and nations. Because Obama is intent on destroying America and the West, God is even able to raise up a former communist nation to achieve his purposes. God is still in control, and he still rules the nations. America may continue to sink while Russia may rise. I would not doubt that God is able to work in that way to achieve his purposes.

So I am looking on things with real interest here. My despair over the destruction of America – once a great nation and one which led the way in many Christian fronts – is growing. Especially after Obama got in for a second time I really thought this is it – America is finished.

But with another leader doing what America once did coming on the scene, my hopes are rising. And of course I should not be surprised here. God is quite able to do amazing things, and bring hope from quite unexpected quarters. I am not saying Russia is now God’s chosen nation – or that America necessarily once was either.

But I am saying that God can still work out his purposes for good. And if he can do it at least in part through a guy like Putin then so be it. I never liked the guy much in earlier times. But I am getting to like him more and more of late. So let us all keep praying that God will accomplish his purposes.

And be willing to let God surprise you. We might be praying for God to revive America again. That is fine. But perhaps we should be praying, ‘Lord, raise up a godly Russia (or some other nation) to lead the way and be the light on a hill.’ With God anything is possible.

[1054 words]

21 Replies to “God and the Nations”

  1. Hi Bill, your choice of topic is always timely. I was wondering when you were going to write about Russia. Yes, it’s looking very inviting from a civil rights perspective at the moment. You quote Daniel 2:19-21; I think the entire Book of Daniel is warning enough – all nations will come and go.

    Matthew Patchon

  2. Hi Bill perhaps we could remember Cyrus King of Persia and what happened.

    Anne Lastman

  3. Bill
    I share the disappointment that you feel with the country of your birth; and pray that God will bring it to its senses in his own good time. But I also share your enthusiasm for the progress that is occurring in Russia.
    Especially now that the World Congress of Families will be held in Moscow next year: with Putin’s blessings.

    Dunstan Hartley

  4. I am with you Bill, and I don’t know any details, but Putin and his wife did just separate. Clapping the Congress of Families is good, but there may be something amiss somewhere.

    Peter Barnes

  5. Thanks Peter. I certainly did not claim he was the messiah or perfect. I just noted that on some issues he is doing much better than BHO. We should pray for him.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  6. Russia lost population from 148 million in 1991 to 143 million at present. Putin outlined measures in his 2006 state of the nation address to reverse that decline, and it appears to have just begun to be successful. I wonder if this demographic crisis has had anything to do with his emphasis on families.
    Tas Walker

  7. Thanks Tas. It must. Russia has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world and one of the highest abortion rates. The nation will simply disappear if that keeps going. So he is seeking to turn things around. Whatever the motives, he is doing more pro-life and pro-family things of late than Obama.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  8. What is really amazing in recent history is the reformation of the nation of Israel, however imperfectly. After so many centuries the Jews still retained their identity and many returned to their homeland.

    Other nations rise and fall, but there is still an Israel. It is incredible, when you think of all the opposition they have faced and how close they have come to being wiped out on multiple occasions.

    Britain once had a great empire, has pretty much lost it all and is heading downhill fast.

    The US may not much longer be a great superpower, but one would think countries like China and India with their huge populations could become more significant on the world stage, as well as Russia growing in power.

    One also mustn’t forget also that in many countries where persecution is or has been great in recent times, there is strong church growth. Reading Acts at the moment, I am reminded that as the persecution increased the church spread and grew.

    Matt Vinay

  9. “We should be praying, ‘Lord, raise up a godly Russia (or some other nation’.”

    Could it even be Iran? There are many reports of amazing numbers of Iranians coming to Christ over recent years. Recently one such report tells us that “in a country neighbouring Iran” no less than 246 Iranian believers were baptised, including 17 Afghans. Also the outreach of the Christian mission ‘Elam’ has printed more than a million New Testaments and is working towards a second million. Many are very hungry for the Word of God in that country, and, whilst we don’t depend on numbers, such a volume of Scriptures cannot be without a very powerful potential.

    How wonderful, and ironic, if one land at the very heart of Islam was “turned” whilst the nominally “Christian” West sank deeper into infidelity and unbelief.

    Graham Wood

  10. First all we need to understand that Russia had already experienced what it was like to be dominated by homosexuality, straight after the Russian Revolution in 1917. It ended in sexual anarchy with Stalin putting an end to the mad homosexual experiment between 1924 and 1929. Having been there they do not wish to go there again.
    http://herrickreport.com/newsovietunion.html
    Secondly Dr Scott Lively, arguably the World’s authority on the gay agenda and its history, has been speaking to the Russian people. It is a pity that Western nations do not listen to him.
    http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/newsarchives.php?id=2225500
    See in this news report how the reporter in Moscow describes marriage and the family as an ideology, whereas the liberal ideology supposedly a universally recognised as a given, a self- evident truth.

    I would heartily recommend Scott’s “Redeeming the Rainbow” and the “Pink Swastika.” Better still get your local library to order copies
    http://massresistance.org/docs/gen/09b/Redeeming_rainbow/
    http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/books/pinkswastika/

    David Skinner, UK

  11. Any change made on pragmatic grounds alone may be a good start, but unless it transforms into a change made for the sake of it being right according to God, the author of right will fall short of its mark and with the renewal of prosperity, the obvious primary goal of that pragmatic change, the need for it will be forgotten again. But we pray it will lead to better things.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  12. Who was it who said, in effect, that if God didn’t soon act on the U.S., He needed to apologise to Sodom & Gomorrah? Perhaps that should extend also to the U.K.

    Arthur Hartwig

  13. Have just been browsing through data on 14th-century mediaeval Protestant Reformer John Wycliffe’s thinking on the sovereignty and grace of God and their bearing on the right understanding of the relationship between the Church and the civil powers that be… For an interesting introduction, go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s article: Lahey, Stephen, “John Wyclif’s Political Philosophy”, online at: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/wyclif-political/ .

    Some today cry “Foul!” at the very word “theocracy”. However, the entire universe is a theocracy if I understand the witness of Holy Scripture aright – Men and demons may rage against God and His Messiah, but ultimately the sovereignty of God trumps every other known polity or powerbroker on earth or in other extra-terrestrial realms.

    John Wigg

  14. French mayors who refuse to acknowledge the mirage of same sex marriage could face years in prison and crippling fines.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/french-mayor-refuses-marry-gay-couple_n_3422204.html

    Likewise in Britain the LGBTs, like others around the world who suffer from hydrophobia, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRxFoBSPng, want seven years in prison for anyone who is not in standing ovation mode for kinky sexual relationships

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486452/New-law-means-anti-gay-comments-lead-seven-years-jail.html

    David Skinner, UK

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