The Republican Iowa Governor known for growing government and raising taxes, makes an interesting proclamation. Watch for yourself.
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Iowa Governor Terry Branstad Calls Iowans to Repent
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We need to pray for this governor and his proclamation because the left will, with all there friends, will go after him.
Sorry, with all “their” friends
Ummm . . . Branstad is a Republican governor. And what’s with his 2 Chronicles 7:14 nonsense, with which he appears to equate the America people with “my [God’s] people” who are called by “my [God’s] name”?
You are right, Butch. No matter what his politics are, this type of proclamation is needed in our day.
NDK, you are correct about his party affiliation. I meant it only as mockery of his very liberal economic policies. Also, the II Chronicles reference is applied to any nation. He is not equating, he is simply stating that the US has the same responsibilities as the ancient Israelites: to repent and turn to God for refuge.
Unfortunately for your defense of the proclamation’s use of 2 Chronicles 7:14, this verse *in its context* does not simply state that the US (or every other nation) has the same responsibilities as the ancient Israelites. The kidnapped verse clearly belongs to a context of redemptive promise (2 Chronicles 7:11-18). As a generalization, of course, all nations must repent and turn to God for refuge, but that is not what this orphaned verse is saying. I’ve simply noted its mistaken usage in the proclamation, and am encouraging us to abandon such usage.
Your hermeneutic determines your understanding of that text. I assert that the promises to Israel are the promises to the new Israel.
Yes, indeed. And who, then, is the New Israel? I suggest that it is the church of Jesus Christ, spread among all the nations. The New Israel is not the US, and not even the modern state of Israel. Hence, the governor’s use of *this isolated verse* (2 Chron. 7:14) as an appeal to US citizens to repent and turn to God as their refuge–which appeal for repentance and turning is surely biblical–is mistaken. Given this widespread error among Christians in the US, this matter if far from benign.
I don’t understand your persistence. Did he say that the US is the equivalent of Israel of old? Or do you deny the promises of the Hebrews Scriptures to the New Creation Church? help me understand your thinking. Thanks for reading KC.
When a government official in the US bases his appeal for *citizens’* repentance and return to God on a Scripture verse taken out of its context, specifically 2 Chron. 7:14, the obvious parallel in his appeal is that the US = “my people.” These 2 Chronicles 7 promises apply now to the church, the New Israel, not to the US citizenry. I would not expect Governor Branstad to understand this, but surely Christ-followers in his state and nation do?
Why my persistence?
Two reasons. (1) Because the time has come for the real “my people” in the US to cultivate a genuinely biblical identity detoxified of the de facto and de jure loyalties and perilous commitments of most of the US citizenry, including a baptized form of Libertarianism. (2) Though he himself may have had a Pollyannish view of American democracy in the early twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper would have opposed this particular expression of “civil religion” (meaning: this Branstadian appeal to this Scripture). And despite being a champion of sphere sovereignty (including limited government . . . and a limited church . . . and a limited market), Kuyper would not have joined up with today’s Tea Party “Christian” Libertarians.
I don’t understand your distinction between the Church and the US citizenry. If your point is that the US citizenry is not the Church, fine; but that’s too vague of a point. The point, I take, more charitably, is that the call to repentance and turning to God is a call to enter into his courts with praise–a de facto strengthening of the ecclesia. Further, your assertions about Kuyper stem from silence. Any rate, thanks for the interaction and the fine observations. You are always welcome here.