Can Prayer Change A Nation?

Over the last year, I worked on a national project to gather pastors together to come to Washington, DC to pray for our nation.  Normally, I do not like working on prayer projects during the presidential election season.  I find too many people get suspicious of a prayer gathering in DC during an election year.  This year was no exception.  I also found that this particular gathering was one of the hardest goals I've ever worked for in these types of events. However, I always enjoy the challenge and I worked harder on this project than I've worked in the past.  In all my years of working on National Prayers gatherings, getting 30,000 pastors to commit to coming to this event was like herding cats. Pastor's are so committed to their local church work and so hard pressed by their work - it's extremely difficult to get them to join in another function unless it assists them in their regular routines.  The other major challenges I faced had to do with two other major events which were scheduled this year which basically polarized this major gathering of the Body Of Christ in DC.  One event was being held on the same day in LA and the other was a youth event that was to be held only 90 days later at the Washington Monument.  I have never experienced such competing movements in the Body Of Christ and the response and loyalties to their brands of these events. But, one question remains to be answered despite any organized prayer event, "Can Prayer Change A Nation?"

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC  American Christians have entered into the struggle of defining our national identity.  Among some Christians there is a belief that America has it's historic roots in the Christian faith.  For others, the Euro-centric version of the Christian faith was imposed on the natives of the land and slaves brought ashore by the mid-Atlantic slave trading industry which imposed colonialism which had nothing to do with God.  Yet, there are others who see no hope for any nation's future and believe that the end of our nation and even the world is near. Many of these folk believe that God has abandon America and placed our nation under judgement. I have also found some who believe that we can't pray for our nation on the basis of II Chronicles 7:14 because they have concluded that this prayer was relegated to the Nation of Israel. They believe this land was stolen from the native populations, there was never a national covenant made between our founding fathers, and no promise was made by God for America to be given to the European settlers as a promised land. Therefore, we can't pray II Chronicles 7:14 as a basis for the healing of the nation since we are not Israel. In this view we probably cannot claim any of the promises of God outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures because it was meant for Israel alone. 

 Wow! All of this only demonstrates that our churches have truly been impacted by our post-modern deconstructionism. One question I have really begun think about is "Can America be healed of It's national wounds?" For that matter, "Can any nation be healed ff it's national wounds?" If so, then what is the basis of a nation being "saved?"   I love Isaiah 66:8 "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a nation be saved in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?"  It seems apparent to me that God does rule over history and brings salvation for a nation.  However, salvation doesn't come without true repentance. When you or I came to Christ - we recognized our sin and our need for our savior.  We are called to "repent for our personal sins (past and present - all of them) in order to receive the promises given through the work of the cross. There are conditions laid down for us in scripture laying the basis on how to be "saved."  We can't just say to Jesus - yeah, I want the blessings of your work but I refuse to accept the terms of your covenant.  Even those who have struggled through their addictions and worked through a 12-step program know that you cannot move forward without acknowledging, repenting, and making amends for their past. It's a very well known fact that until your acknowledge your "sins" you cannot be free from them.  So, what's important for the church in America to do is to stop living in denial of it's history and repent for its participation and role in our national sins so that it can become an instrument in bringing our nation to Christ.  Our past history matters. It shapes our present world and affects our future.

A few years ago, I was attending a meeting with some evangelicals in Dover, Delaware and a man walked up to me and asked why do you think it's important to address the past?  He went on to explain the past is the past.  We can do nothing to change it. Let bygones be bygones.  May first reaction to this kind of thinking was to ask, "Why then do most people think its important to acknowledge and remember the holocaust? Why does the German educational system teach it's children about its history? Why should they have to rehearse the sins of the past? Its very simple, the past shapes the present.  If the past is not important then why does our public education, colleges, and seminaries teach history?  The strange thing about this guy's questions was that we were both attending a seminar led by pseudo American Christian historian, David Barton.  Why was he even attending this history seminar if he didn't think the past wasn't important to remember?Millions of people around the world study history, philosophy, the arts, wars, genealogy and even how a family's DNA impacts the present.  So why shouldn't we explore the past? After all that's why over 600 people should up for the David Barton seminar. Edmund Burke put it this way, "Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it."  The real question should be: "Why are so many Christians committed to avoiding their past?  Rose Kennedy said, " Some have said, time heals all wounds.  I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens.  But it is never gone."

What this man, who attended that seminar that day was really saying was, "I don't want to be responsible for what my ancestors may of may not have done."  For me, I can't imagine why he doesn't understand that the Jewish people will never let the world forget what was done to them by the German people and the world.  The same can be said about what America did.  The American people are guilty of stealing land from the native people, the genocide of whole tribal groups, slavery, lynching, raping their women, separating whole families, destroying their identities, language and cultures all the while proclaiming that they were church going Christians - and Christians don't want to talk about it?  Maybe we need a few American tribal and slavery holocaust museums built to remind American's of their sin. Maybe the Body Of Christ needs to look at the churches role in this process and be called to account for its participation in promoting slavery, segregation, and racism. What ran in our fathers still runs in us today.  This is what the Bible calls iniquity.  Yes, Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities (Isa. 53:11) but you don't receive the right for that forgiveness until you recognize, acknowledge and repent of your sins.  You just can't say - can we let bygones be bygones.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated on August 23, 1963 that "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges."  - from Dr. King's "I have a Dream speech

America can be saved.  But before it can be saved "The Body Of Christ" needs to lead the way and show America how to address the past. God is not going to bring a revival, awakening, or restoration to his people until they acknowledge their "participation" and "part" in our national sins. Only after we get ourselves and our relationships right with the Native American people and the African American community then, maybe God will forgive us and heal us of our transgressions.  Isaiah 66:8 explains how a nation can be saved, "Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children."  We need as the Body Of Christ to begin travailing in prayer and intercession for our churches and the state of our nation.

Leviticus 26:40-41 "If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their treachery which they committed against Me, and also that they have walked contrary unto Me.  I also will walk contrary unto them, and bring them into the land of their enemies; if then perchance their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then be paid the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land."

Question: now for us "Have we've been humbled or have we embolden ourselves as American Christians? Our American troops have spent over 10 years walking in the lands of our enemies? Are we "The Body Of Christ" arrogant enough to demand rights and claim dominionism over God's prescriptions for revival? I don't see or hear much brokenness and travail that Isaiah 66:8 calls us to?  So it may be a while before America is saved in a day. In my humble opinion, we are too proud, stubborn and self-reliant as a people. How can call on a nation to do something we won't do ourselves?

Nehemiah 9:2  "And the ALL of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers."