Revelation 18, American Exceptionalism And Social Concerns; Part 2

Dangerous: Blessed, but not Right with God!American's arrogant, self-righteous Caucasian Christians (the ‘white people’) habitually delude themselves and they consistently mislead the world with the notion that America is blessed of God because of righteousness, usually having to do with a fabled righteousness of her founding fathers. Even though the founding of this nation is undeniably the work and brainchild of Almighty God, He Himself makes it plain that He is responsible for the formation and the coming of all powers that be (at whatever given point in time; the good and the bad), including ancient Egypt, Israel, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, the Romans, the Mayans, the British Empire, even Hitler's failed "Third Reich", etc., etc., etc (Daniel 4:17; Isaiah 45:1-7). It matters not whether they acknowledged Him or submitted to His will. Moreover, His dealings with them, i.e., His blessings upon them had nothing at all to do with righteousness—theirs, or anyone else’s. Blessed of God, then does not imply (and so, should never be construed as) either a right standing, or, even a ‘good’ standing with God—or, in the eyes of God. Jesus says of the Father, “He makes His rain to fall on the just, and, on the unjust.” The Apple of God’s Eye (wholehearted, committed idol worshippers by the time of Moses) was promised the blessing of a homeland ‘flowing with milk and honey’, but told in no uncertain terms, point blank, that they were anything but righteous (Exodus 32:9-10; Deut. 9:4-6; 32:5; righteousness, then, was not a factor in either His selection, or in His determination to administer favor to Israel. They were in God’s estimation a nation of stubborn rebels, whom He often wanted to destroy.). In the aftermath of one rebellion after the other (apostasy after apostasy; all of which He knew were coming), God repeatedly expressed a sore longing to bless that Apple, and, to lift it up like a beacon (‘spit-shined’ and polished!), as a nation marvelously well-favored, before the eyes of the entire watching world—all to His glory and for His name’s recognition. Even the powerful but wicked Ninevites of Assyria, blessed with relentless oversight and control over this blessed Apple (in its rebel years), were further blessed with advance warning of their impending God-ordained doom by a God-commissioned bigot named Jonah, thus illustrating His supreme concern for name recognition among the unrighteous thousands in Nineveh “…who do not know their right hand from their left…”—that is, being idol worshipers, they did not know the True and Living God, at all; made no advances toward Him, and yet, they were royally…magnificently, blessed by the God who lives. In addition, His dealings with Egypt’s Pharaoh (“I raised you up for this purpose…”), Babylon’s tyrant Nebuchadnezzar (“…that you may know, God rules in the affairs of men…”) and the Persians’ Cyrus ( “…My servant…”) shows that He randomly, richly blesses the most unlikely of people (unrighteous, though they are), so as to use them, subsequently, for some special purpose in His Divine Plans (often in a manner inverse to and irreversibly adverse to the aforementioned blessing and ultimately, dangerously injurious to any attendant prosperity), although He knows they will never reciprocate by giving Him the least bit of recognition (thus, strange as it may seem, it matters not whether they benefit from implementation of the plan God initially envisions—no matter how blessed they might have been otherwise!).