An appeal to Heaven: Christ is the only hope for our nation
If we are to truly believe God’s Word, then we must realize that God created us “for such a time as this.”
The foundation for true equality
We say this often, but do we live it out? These are definitely strange times in our culture, and the opportunity to serve God has never been greater. Being a Baby Boomer, I remember well the last big period of upheaval we saw in this nation. There was so much confusion during the 1960s that both a president and a godly man who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ were assassinated in plain sight.
During that time, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his immortal declaration “I Have a Dream.” In it he discussed the power of Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The answer to inequality, as Dr. King understood it and as we understand it today, is the cross of Christ. Only through Christ can we find oneness and true equality.
The root of the problem then, is that not everyone is at the cross of Christ. This is where we come in. Our role, as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to live lives that would draw people to the Cross to meet Christ. Only then can life truly be what it was meant to be.
Appealing to Heaven
But too often we turn to others for solutions. We look to our governments, and we get political rhetoric. Our education system does not have the answers. The media is difficult to understand with all the misleading, agenda-driven narratives that permeates the airwaves. Where are we supposed to turn and point others to get truth about our culture?
Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to James Madison in 1787, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” This is where we were in the 1960s, and this is where we are today. We are in the midst of another political storm that Jefferson described in the same letter as “a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.”
Our founding fathers were no strangers to rebellion against the government. Frustrated because the needs of the colonies were being ignored by the English rulers, they banded together to have their voices heard. In October 1775, General Washington commissioned a fleet of six small cruisers to help engage the mighty British Navy. Colonel Joseph Reed designed a flag for these cruisers to fly under. It was made up of a white field with a green pine tree in the center and the words “an appeal to heaven” written above the tree.
This phrase “an appeal to heaven” is from a treatise on government by British philosopher John Locke who, in 1690 in his second treatise on civil government refuting the divine rights of kings, wrote: “And where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven, whenever they judge the cause of sufficient moment. And therefore, though the people cannot be judge, so as to have, by the constitution of that society, any superior power, to determine and give effective sentence in the case; yet they have, by a law antecedent and paramount to all positive laws of men, reserved that ultimate determination to themselves which belongs to all mankind, where there lies no appeal on earth, viz. to judge, whether they have just cause to make their appeal to heaven.”
God-given opportunities in unrest
Friends, I believe that just as the fathers of this nation knew their strength came from God alone, we too must appeal to heaven during this season. God is not surprised by the upheaval that COVID-19 has caused. I truly believe that God not only sovereignly knew it would come but is using it to shake His Church from a state of drowsiness, complacency and laziness. We have seen churches and ministries begin thinking outside the box these past few months –the creativity God has gifted His children with is finally being used to honor and glorify our Father in Heaven.
What an amazing time to be alive! What an opportunity the Body of Christ has to rise up and take her place in the healing of a nation and a culture. In Revelation 22:2 we read that “on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Jesus Christ is the only hope of true healing for our nation and this world.
For those who were around during the 1960s, we saw a nation questioning the status quo and the winds of change guiding this nation into a new era. While there was a lot of political upheaval and turbulence, it was also the beginning of the Jesus Movement when a new generation found peace through a relationship with Jesus Christ. In 1969 Larry Norman (a gifted musician) put out the first Christian rock music album. Musicians like Keith Green soon followed up with God-glorifying music that birthed the contemporary Christian music that we know today. Who knows? God might be preparing another Great Awakening or revival during this period of unrest.
Note: After writing this piece, I purchased an “Appeal To Heaven” flag and began flying it on the front porch of our house. Every day I walk out and am reminded that as I go through this day I need to look to God and not man for my guidance, provision and purpose. Will you join me and appeal to heaven for the healing of our nation?
Russ Rathier serves as the Vermont regional coordinator for the Baptist Convention of New England.