What about God's judgment of America?

"If God doesn't judge America, He'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

You likely have heard that saying, or something close to it, from an evangelical preacher at some point during the last two or three decades. It is normally attributed to the late Ruth Graham. (Her husband, evangelist Billy Graham, has quoted his wife this way: "If God doesn't punish America, He'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.")

The issue of God's judgment of the United States and other countries calls for careful thinking biblically and theologically. John Piper -- author and retired pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis -- provided a thoughtful look at God's judgment in a Feb. 25 blog post under "Will America Be Judged?" at Desiring God. You can read the entire thing here.

In his post, Piper cites five ways the Bible speaks of God's judgment, then addresses the issue of God's judgment of countries today. Especially interesting is his analysis of the progression of sin recorded in Lev. 18 that resulted in God's judgment of the Canaanite nations. The series of sins described in that text "sounds very much like the progress of iniquity in the modern Western world," Piper writes.

"It would not be unwarranted, therefore, to suppose that God would bring to ruin the nations that follow this course of corruption the way the Canaanites did," he says.

Piper concludes with these hopeful points:

Of course, history is not a straight line of inevitabilities. God himself may step in and bring to his church a great revival of radical obedience, and a great awakening to the countries of the West. He is able. He has done it before. We should pray that he does. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, not to us (Romans 12:19).

Even if the present rush to increasingly public and approved iniquity continues, the gospel of Christ remains the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Romans 1:16). No individual in Christ needs to fear God’s judgment. We may be killed proclaiming biblical holiness, as Paul said in Romans 8:36, but in all these things we will be more than conquerors through him who loved us.