Judgment of America – Romans One

Is God going to judge America, or has the judgment of America already begun?

I heard a pastor say the other day that the US is currently experiencing the judgment of God; it’s not coming, it is now. We are experiencing the judgment of America. He backed this up with Romans One. The first sign of God’s judgment of a nation is when He turns that nation over to their desires. This is precisely Romans One.

Moreover, since they considered themselves too high and mighty to acknowledge God, He allowed them to become the slaves of their degenerate minds, and to perform unmentionable deeds.
Romans 1:28 Phillips

Judgment of America – Fire and Smoke

I have always equated God’s judgment with His wrath. Smoke, fire, and His anger spoke to me of His judgment. Oh, I have been so limited in my view. I have looked at His final punitive actions as judgment. What I failed to remember is that far before we experience His punitive actions, there is the breaking of His heart to relinquish us to our desires. God sorrowfully allows us to exercise our free-will choice to leave Him.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. 
Romans 1:24a NLT

It’s like the phrase “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” God knows the wages of our sin is death. And the beginning of God’s judgment is to let us have our way. To some this may seem strange. “I get my way, how can that be bad? Endless sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll – woohoo!” Or how about when it’s the desire for something less base. “I get to have that perfect father figure, finally!” “I can finally tell my parents to shut up and do what I want!” OR “I don’t have to be bothered with God’s silly demands on my life!” You fill in the blank with your self-willed desire. As Frank Sinatra so famously sang, “I did it MY WAY!”

Judgment – MY WAY

God knows that it’s judgment to let us have it our way. Getting my way is not a celebratory happening, it’s a travesty. It’s like this. Say I created an engine cleaner and marketed it as such, but people used it as toothpaste. They wondered why their gums bled and teeth started to dissolve, but they claimed it was the best. The design of the product is to clean a car’s engine. It was fashioned to cut grime from metal, not polish and clean teeth; the use of the product apart from its design is destructive. As for our lives, to the chagrin of some, we were made for God. We were created to function in Him. When we defy our God-given design, we do so at our peril.

Our ultimate happiness is found in the Will of God, and only in the Will of God. I was designed to do well in His Will, and anything else is an inevitable torment. I might temporarily delude myself with a fleshly pacifier, but fulfillment? NO! With this said, God knows that when we choose to leave Him and His Way, we enter judgment. When God ceases to actively engage with my will and instead accepts my choice of my will over His, judgment begins. This means that if I’m witnessing God’s fiery anger, I’m at the end of the road, not the beginning of judgment. Judgment doesn’t start with His anger but with His broken heart to let me go my way.

Romans One is Judgment

Romans One is the disastrous descent that follows doing it MY WAY. But the first part of God’s wrath and judgment is to abandon me to my willfulness. God have mercy on us, Your America!

But God shows His anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1:18-23 NLT