What Do I Mean By "Under Judgment"?

Thanks to the candid observations of two dear Christian friends, I've come to believe that I need to clarify further what I mean by both God's judgment and my contention that we, as a nation, are under it.

There is a sense, of course, that God's omniscience IS his judgment -- that is, what God declares is what God knows, and He knows perfectly. In this case, then, "judgment" is used in the way we use the word when we imperfectly conclude or discern between one thing or another, such as judging that now is a good time to buy a house and not such a good time to sell one. But we are not omniscient, nor are we sovereign. That makes Him and only Him able to pronounce, prescribe, or diagnose lightning bolts of judgment when and if His occur. I condemn hateful declarations that this catastrophe or that tragedy was God's "judgment" on such and such, particularly when some oppressed group is blamed either for precipitating it or for having suffered from it. It may well appear that I've done in the last couple of posts what I loathe. That is not what I intended, and I regret that some have taken it that way. Please bear with me here -- not, perhaps, with my final conclusions, but with the process by which I've arrived at where I've arrived, particularly in what I mean by "judgment."

My definition of judgment, as I said above, is God's wisdom, God's sovereignty, and God's declaration of displeasure at the course of our actions, corporately or individually. Nonetheless,I've stated previously that I believe it is almost always the case that His displeasure with sin is evidenced in normal, natural, logical consequences, the kind of things we refer back to when tempted to the same bad thing again, or the outcomes that confirm to others that we've blown it. Without equivocation, I believe we as a nation have "blown it" in this and in many other instances, and even if there were no God to be displeased -- to chasten us and provoke our repentance -- we would still be reaping, as we are now, the horrible consequences of the course we've chosen to pursue.

However, there is evidence in Scripture that God's judgment is not so much in the form of actual harm befalling a disobedient, hateful nation or person, but in His sovereign removal of protection and in a warning not to presume on His blessing. It isn't necessary here, nor accurate, to depict God as hurling lightning bolts and calamity at us; we've proved more than adept at hurling them ourselves. In this case we have. I do think, though, that this nation's thirst for war, contempt for the poor, and apathy in the face of injustice -- with the encouragement and approval of a culture-conformed, impotent Church -- is behavior for which God might well remove His protection from us as a people, if He hasn't already. My contention is that we are reaping what we've sown NOT ONLY as a consequence of our national sin, but ALSO because God has, in effect, "given us over" to the bloodlust and yearning for unjust power that marks not only too much of America's foreign policy, but in recent years much of our domestic policy. It's hard for me not to conclude that that "giving over" has in it an element of judgment -- and I recognize, belatedly and regrettably, that I was not clear in how I used the word in my initial point.

If you hear only two things, please hear these: One, God doesn't hate Iraqis, soldiers, or Americans. Two, what I'm saying doesn't mean that if another terrorist attack strikes American soil, it's our fault -- aggression is always the fault of aggressors, an assertion that applies not only to our enemies but to those we have unjustly treated as enemies. I grieved over 9/11 and I would grieve over any other attack against us. But here's the point: I grieve also over the devastation of Iraq and its people, the nourishing of a newer, angrier Taliban in Afghanistan, the incalculable loss of life and well-being to our soldiers and theirs, the rubble of Iraqi cities and the decay of our own, and to the very real consequences that this war has wrought on our poor, our infrastructure, and our values as a quasi-Christian nation. We don't need another attack -- and may there never be one -- to conclude that perhaps God has removed His blessing from us. Millions of people in our own country are living every day in devastation and chaos -- and their suffering isn't alleviated one bit because it wasn't brought about by terrorism, and perhaps exacerbated by having been brought about by a nation presuming to call itself "Christian."

The Judge of all the Earth will, indeed, judge fairly; we who call on Him must recognize that He may well, in time, judge against what we've wrought in His name. And while our vindication is secured by Christ's atoning death and resurrection, we are cautioned in 1 Corinthians 3 to build our Christian lives with precious stones and jewels -- not wood, hay, stubble, and certainly not with armaments and firepower. May we be a people of peace and worshipers of the Prince of Peace, and not a people whose works are burned as ugly and useless, with bitter souls near-singed in the fire.

My thanks and love to my sisters in Christ, A.E. and C.S.C, for their candor.