Meme Theology

The meme has a picture of John Calvin and a "quote": "When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers." Okay, clever, even timely. Hits in all the right places, you know? Whether you're looking at Trump or Biden, et al. Look, no sane Christian would be able to deny that America is due. It has been said, "If God doesn't judge America, He'll owe an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah."

But, as it turns out, Calvin didn't say it. What he did say was, "[T]hey who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by Him to punish the wickedness of the people." He did say, "[A] wicked king is the Lord’s wrath upon the earth." (Calvin's Institutes, Book 4, chapter 20, section 25) So, Calvin didn't say it (word for word), but he sure intended it.

Years ago we had a young Chinese university student living with us for a few months. It was a real joy. He was brought over along with 5 others to work for the company I was with and we got the privilege of putting one of them up. At work one day, a friend of mine asked my "roommate," "So, are you a Communist?" My Chinese friend was aghast. "No! Why would you think that?" "Oh," my friend backed down, "I just assumed that since your country is Communist, you would be, too." "No," he replied, "in China we don't choose our government."

It really struck home. They don't; we do. Their government does not reflect the Chinese people; ours reflects Americans. Well, we knew that, right? It's a "representative government." They represent us. As such, we could say that, generally, we get the government we deserve.

Which only goes to drive home the point. If we -- Christians -- look around, we'd have to agree that we as a nation have earned at least a good spanking from God. God judges people in the last judgment, but He judges nations temporally. To put it another way, God's promise to God's people in Israel --

[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chr 7:14)

-- is a promise to God's people in Israel and not to us. Nonetheless, the principle remains. This land is not "ours," but if we believers have any sense of patriotism and compassion for our nation, it would probably behoove us to humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. Note: That's us, not them. That's the people of God, not the world. The fact that we're having so little effect on our nation does not speak well of us Christians in America. We don't currently appear to be very good ambassadors, do we?