Is God Punishing the United States for Its Many Sins?

Within the Church, there is a widespread belief that God is in the process of punishing the United States for its many sins? The narrative goes something like this: God has removed his protections and blessings from the United States (and/or is actively punishing that nation) because of the national sins of legalized abortion, tolerance for homosexuality and transgender rights, removing prayer from public schools, supporting globalism and socialism, teaching evolution, and many more. For the purposes of this post, we will not be arguing over whether all or some of these things constitute sins. Instead, we will focus on answering our original question: Is God punishing this nation for its sins?

It has been widely reported that the famous evangelist Billy Graham's wife (Ruth) once said: "If God doesn’t punish America, he’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!" In other words, just as God once upon a time punished those cities for their collective sins, justice and fairness demands that he do the same thing to the United States. The clear implication being that collective sins bring on collective punishment. Is that, however, what really happened at Sodom and Gomorrah? Let's take a closer look.

In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, we are informed that God revealed to Abraham that he was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:16-21). In reaction to that news, Abraham implored the Lord to spare those cities if fifty righteous souls could be found therein (Genesis 18:22-25). "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" Abraham asked (Genesis 18:23, ESV). You remember the story - God said that he wouldn't, and Abrahm proceed to get the number down to ten righteous people (Genesis 18:26-33). Moreover, in the following chapter, we learn that God made sure that the one righteous individual who lived in Sodom (Lot) left the city before God destroyed it (Genesis 19:1-25). In other words, none of the righteous (innocent) individuals were included in the destruction - universal sin resulted in universal destruction!

This is consistent with what God revealed to the prophet Ezekiel about culpability for sin. God said: "The soul who sins will die." (Ezekiel 18:4, ESV) He went on to say: "If a man is righteous and does what is just and right...withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord God." (Ezekiel 18:8-9, ESV) Stated another way, God doesn't punish righteous people! Continuing in the account, we learn that God elaborated on the principle: "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezekiel 18:20-23, ESV)

This, of course, is consistent with what is revealed about the penalty for sinning in the New Testament. Paul told the Christians at Rome that "the wages of sin is death."  (Romans 6:23, ESV)

What must we conclude from all of this? There are a large number of folks within the United States who believe that abortion is wrong and would NEVER engage in or support the practice. Indeed, a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned the landmark Roe V. Wade case which originally legalized the procedure. Moreover, there are countless folks currently working across the nation to ensure that the procedure is outlawed. Likewise, there are a large number of folks who believe that homosexuality and transgenderism is wrong, and who do NOT support the "gay agenda." There are also a large number of Christians who believe that socialism is wrong, and who would love to see prayer and the Bible returned to the classrooms of our public schools. In other words, there are currently well over a hundred million souls who have not condoned or participated in these "national sins." Hence, the argument that God is somehow punishing the nation for these sins is found to be illogical and inconsistent with what is revealed in Scripture!

There is also another point that argues against God punishing the nation for its sins: Why didn't God punish the United States for its many past sins? Why didn't God punish the United States for stealing land from Native Americans? Why didn't God punish the United States for the sin of slavery, and the mistreatment of African Americans which followed the American Civil War? Why hasn't God punished the United States for its exploitation of our natural resources and labor? And, just in case you think that modern problems related to these things amounts to Divine punishment, we must also note that all sins have negative consequences which are NOT related in any way to punishment. God often forgives sins, but he rarely removes the consequences of such behavior (e.g. David's sin with Bathsheba).

Moreover, during his earthly ministry, Jesus Christ himself refuted the notion that disasters or infirmities are always the consequence of sins. In the Gospel of Luke, we read: "There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.'" (Luke 13:1-5, ESV) On yet another occasion, we read in the Gospel of John: "As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.'" (John 9:1-3, ESV) What's more, even if we didn't have this testimony from Jesus, we have the example of Job in the Hebrew Bible! In short, once again, disasters and infirmities are NOT always the consequence of sin!

"What about what God did to Israel?" some of my friends will persist. Yes, God punished Israel, because they failed to live up to the terms of his covenant with them. In fact, he even warned them when he made that covenant with them that he would punish them if they failed to uphold its terms (see Deuteronomy 27).

Thus, we have seen that the claim that God is currently punishing the United States for its sins is found to be specious. In fact, to do so would be a clear violation of God's principle that only the guilty will suffer punishment. And, even in that event, if we accept the sacrifice of his Son for our sins, the penalty has been paid - there is no "punishment" in our future.