When a Nation Repents

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them” Jonah 3:4-5.

The immediate future does not look hopeful for all nations, especially for Canada, America, and Britain. It is quite apparent that these nations in particular, are at an all-time high in moral decline. An increase in violent crimes, divorce, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, abortions, inequality, the occult, and idolatry are just some of the results caused by our lack of godly virtues as a nation.

Disobedience to the true God seems to have dramatically eroded our moral sense of right and wrong. Individuals have become desensitized by the levels of sex and violence we see and hear on television, the internet, video games, explicit music, sports, and of course, glamourized Hollywood movies. These thousands of events and situations have contributed to this downward spiral of moral and spiritual decay (see the article, The New Morality).

While many Canadians and Americans profess to believe in a God or higher power, the majority are disobedient to His will. In a December 9, 2006 article, Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today writes,

“The United States calls itself one nation under God, but Americans don’t all have the same image of the Almighty in mind. A new survey of religion in the USA finds four very different images of God—from a wrathful deity, thundering at sinful humanity, to a distant power uninvolved in mankind’s affairs.”

The truth of the matter is that mankind does not want a God who interferes with their way of life.

The Washington Times in May 17, 2005 reported, “77 percent of Americans think the country’s moral values are on the decline—a figure that has risen 10 points in three years.”

In a Canadian Gallup poll, taken September 2004, 54% of respondents said they personally thought abortion was “morally acceptable.”

The nations of ancient Israel and Judah were not unlike our nations today. In fact, many would agree that despite our vast ethnic and cultural diversity in Canada and the U.S., we are actually the descendant cultures of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and recipients of the blessings awarded to Ephraim and Manasseh mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 48:8-22, Genesis 49:22-26). Much of what is prophesied in our Bibles for and against Israel in the “latter days” are in many ways directed at our nations (Genesis 48:19-20, Genesis 49:1; Jeremiah 30, 31).

Notice, the prophet Ezekiel writes, “Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?” (Ezekiel 16:20-21).

Also, in Isaiah 1:5-6, God describes symbolically the sins of the nation as a diseased body:

“Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

The scripture states “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Whose law? God’s law! It has been in existence long before it was presented to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, in written form.

Sin is unacceptable to God! It is like the most rotten, smelly pile of garbage you can ever imagine in the sight of the Almighty, and as our nation’s and individual sins continue to accumulate, God is displeased!

However, God has the power to purge out of His sight sinful individuals as He did to the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their grievous transgressions. The sins of those people reached such enormity, that while God is a patient God, finally, He could no longer endure their sins.

“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire [fire purifies] from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” (Genesis 19:24-25)

While many believe God is afar off—somewhere out of the way, uninvolved in human affairs; our nations are in for a rude awakening. Jesus states,

“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:20-22)

World War I, known as ‘The Great War’ and ‘The War to End All Wars,’ resulted in the death of an estimated eight million people. In World War II, over 60 million people died—by far the deadliest conflict in human history with 2.5% of mankind killed.

However, the coming prophesied calamity upon our nations will be far worse than World War I and World War II put together. Millions more will die, and if God does not intervene, we will all perish. We know this is very possible when we see so many rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea,seeking to attain nuclear arsenals.

What if God’s true church lifts up its voice like a trumpet, warning the nations and individuals of their sins and the calamity to come? What if our nation were to repent? Would God divert the destruction that is to come upon our nations because of our sins?

History has shown that when a nation or individual repents, God will turn away His wrath and prevent calamity from happening. This occurred (temporarily at least) in the ancient city of Nineveh, as outlined in the book of Jonah. Nineveh was originally founded by Nimrod a descendant of Ham, one of Noah’s sons (Genesis 10:9-12). It was located in the northeastern region of Mesopotamia in modern day Iraq. It became one of the greatest capitals of the ancient Assyrian people.

The Assyrians were a ruthless people. Their sins were enormous before God. Halley’s Bible Handbook states,

“[The] Assyrians seem to have been about the worst of them all. They built their state on the loot of other peoples. They practiced cruelty. They skinned their prisoners alive, or cut off their hands, feet, noses, ears, or put out their eyes, or pulled out their tongues, and made mounds of human skulls, all to inspire terror” (Halley’s, 24th Ed., p. 209).

It was also the Assyrian policy “to deport conquered peoples to other lands, to destroy their sense of nationalism and make them more easily subject” (Ibid.). Needless to say, God intended on destroying the Assyrians for their sins. However, God is a God of mercy and love. He will always give people an opportunity to change their evil ways and turn to Him for forgiveness.

“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil [calamity] in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:6-7)

God has revealed and commissioned His servants, His true church, of what’s just ahead in the future, so that they will warn sinners of what is coming, giving them a chance to repent.

In Nineveh, before the invasion of Israel, God sent the prophet Jonah to warn the sinning Assyrians of their impending destruction. Would they repent? Notice Jonah 3:4-5,

“And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, [outward sign of repentance] from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented [changed His mind] of the evil [calamity], that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” (Jonah 3:10)

If our nations were to call for a national day of genuine repentance, prayer, and fasting, and if individuals were to call on God, appealing through Jesus Christ with sincerity for the forgiveness of their sins, the true God of Heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would forgive our sins and not allow our enemies nor the soon coming Great Tribulation to overtake us. So, let’s pray that our nation will repent and be turned back to our spiritual fathers, and through Jesus Christ, God our Father will forgive our collective and individual sins (Malachi 4:5-6).

Repent I say! Repent!