When America forgot God and the Civil War

What Abraham Lincoln did to restore the blessings of heaven

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD...” — Psalm 32:12

Why are some calling for a “National Divorce” today? What happened?

First, we should ask why our country has been more blessed than any nation in history. Answer: Because of our Godly heritage. But when we turned from God, we turned away from His blessing. And now we are divided.

The Pilgrims came to this land to freely worship God. Our Founders were raised in schools that taught the Bible. Our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, clearly states that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights…”

But in 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court case, Abington v. Schempp, removed the Bible from public schools despite the fact that the Bible established the principles of the public school in 1647. And the Bible was part of the curriculum for hundreds of years.

When America removed God from our children, we removed God from America’s future. Schools replaced Biblical teaching of Creationism with the theory of Darwinism. Teaching children that they evolved from animals has produced some adults who act like animals.

Have you noticed that people today are more violent, corrupt, unjust, unloving and unforgiving today than just a few years ago? And why are the streets of major cities filled with drug-addicted, mentally-ill, homeless people. They are sheep without a shepherd.

These are all symptoms of a culture that has removed itself from God’s blessing.

In the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer on March 30, 1863. In it, he explained the reason for the proclamation:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.”

Lincoln recognized that the Civil War may have been the result of the sins of the nation.

“We know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?”

Can you imagine a President doing this today? The ACLU and the progressive left would have a conniption fit. Lincoln continued:

“Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

Just as God restored His blessing on Israel when the nation repented and returned to Him, God restored His blessing on America after the Civil War ended in 1865. A spiritual revival known as the Third Great Awakening began in 1875 and continued for ten years.

Recently, news of a revival began in Asbury University. With the popularity of The Chosen episodic series and the movie, Jesus Revolution prove that there is a remnant of Americans who are interested in Jesus once again. Only time will tell if this will continue to spread leading unbelievers to a relationship with their Creator.

I believe there is hope for the future if Americans would do what Lincoln proclaimed: remember our Godly heritage, repent of our national and personal sins and return to God. Then He would restore us once again. It is America’s only hope.

The Federalist - Yoram Ettinger: How the Bible inspired the American Founding from the beginning.