I Pledge Allegiance to God

Governments come and governments go. We have been lucky here in the United States that ours has been in existence for more than 200 years. We think that’s a very long time, but in reality it is just transitory. Before becoming a Republic, we were part of England and ruled over by a King George. Before that there were the indigenous people and each of the tribes had their own hierarchies. The monarchy in England goes back thousands of years. Even though the form of government was a monarchy, the monarchs themselves changed throughout the years. Just as our highest elected leaders change every four to eight years depending on the elections.

I think what is wrong with this world today, at least one of the things that is wrong, is that there are far too many people who will pledge allegiance to a country or form of government or political party, or an ideal, but not to God. They don’t seem to know that God will outlast all the governments, God will outlast all the trials and tribulations, God is bigger than anyone can imagine. People don’t understand an eternal being and creator, or as the new terminology says, “intelligent designer”. Wikipedia defines intelligent design as “the pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as ‘an evidence-based scientific theory about life’s origin.'” Pseudoscientific. Doesn’t that just tell you where Wikipedia stands on the issue of God? I was watching the old West Wing series recently. In one scene the democratic presidential nominee (played by Jimmy Smits) is asked if he believes in intelligent design. I loved his answer. He said, “I believe in God, and I believe that God is very intelligent.”

One reason people give for not believing in God is that they think the Bible doesn’t correlate with science. That is not necessarily true. I don’t want to get off on this tangent today, except to say that I believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and is never changing. Science changes all the time. Science thought the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. Of course modern science doesn’t believe that now. The point is that with science there is no immutable truth. Scientific truth is variable, situational and ever-changing.

Another reason people give for not believing in God is that if, in their opinion, there really was a loving God, he would not allow horrible things like this pandemic to happen. We try to explain away the terrible things by saying “We live in a fallen world, and Satan is prince of this world, at least until Jesus returns.” Even that doesn’t really explain to me why God allows these terrible things to happen. It doesn’t explain to me why He has allowed this pandemic to wipe out millions of people, including innocent children. Just because I don’t understand, doesn’t mean I don’t believe in God. I trust Him with my immortal soul.

A third reason people say they don’t believe in God, is because they can’t see him, even in their imaginations, so they believe He must not exist. “But a natural man (unbeliever) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 Additionally, our current culture will tell us, truth is relative to the individual, there is no absolute truth.

You see, the difference between my beliefs as a Christian and those who are unbelievers, is faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (emphasis mine). Isn’t that amazing? Faith allows us to believe, even when we can’t see. I have faith that God is the supreme being . I have faith that He created this world in seven days, just as the Bible says. I have faith that God is good all the time, in spite of what we might see in this world. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. (emphasis mine) Romans 8:28 I believe!

So, how can I have such faith? That would require me telling you my testimony and that’s not today’s discussion. Just trust me when I say, once you have a “personal experience” with God, you cannot help but believe. So yes, I pledge my allegiance to God first, then to my country, and then to my state (after all it is the great state of Texas). Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness…” I take that to mean that we should put God first. Communicate with him he will show you the way to go. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to “Rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, for that is the will of God for you.” Daunting little list of commands, but with practice it gets easier to do those things. And just why should we do those things? Because God loves us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that, whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

So pledge your allegiance to God. Because governments do come and go, but God is eternal. And eternity is a very long time. God is bigger than all the things on this earth. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Amen– Revelation 21:6