Let’s thank God that Thanksgiving has at last arrived! Even though the election year was tumultuous, fraught with attempted assassinations, threats of nuclear war, and growing economic uncertainty, we gained enormous victories.
We need to thank God for the many blessings He has provided.
Prominent should be our thanks for the fact that we live in the Land of Liberty. God was not surprised that we were born in the USA or immigrated here. He blessed us by placing us in a country that allows us the freedom to seek and worship Him.
Our Creator has used America for His purposes. Historically, our country has played a major role in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ by sending missionaries worldwide. We have led the world in defeating Nazism and godless communism. Our idea of “ordered liberty under God” is one of the pillars of Western civilization or, as I prefer to say, Judeo-Christian civilization. Everywhere our influence has spread, more opportunity, freedom, and economic success have followed.
Our country changed the course of human history when we declared in our founding documents that our liberty does not come from the government. Our freedom comes from the God of the Bible—the One true and living God. Our Founding Fathers fundamentally believed that we are all created “equal” because we are all made in the image of God. This truth is what gives each of us dignity, value, and worth.
As we give thanks to God this week, we should remember that, without His provision and protection, our nation is doomed. America’s increasing secularization represents a mortal threat. Ironically, we can even see our drifting from God in the annual Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations issued throughout our nation’s history.
In 1789, George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation called our citizens to offer the “Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be . . . our sincere and humble thanks.”
Abraham Lincoln first designated the last Thursday of November for our people to give thanks to God. He did so in 1863, the midpoint of our Civil War during which 620,000 (if not more) Americans would perish. Yet, even amid that carnage and human suffering, Lincoln repeatedly thanked God for our blessings in his Thanksgiving Proclamation. He urged our divided country at least seven times to thank God, whom he described as “Almighty God,” “the Most High God,” and “our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
Of course, the American people knew President Lincoln was speaking of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and our Savior Jesus. Virtually every US citizen had read the Bible and could quote it at length.
Ronald Reagan always put God at the center of his Thanksgiving messages. Donald Trump did the same.
However, President Biden’s 2023 Thanksgiving Proclamation, while mentioning many sources of our blessings, sadly failed to recognize God. One critic described Joe Biden as referring to a “minimally agnostic, arguably atheistic ‘Thanksgiving.’” The omission of God from the annual pronouncement has happened only twice. The first time was in Barack Obama’s proclamation in 2016. Before that year, every American president, from George Washington forward, recognized God as the source of our republic’s blessings.
JDFI has high hopes that 2025 will see God restored to the center of our public life. We hope political leaders in both parties will understand that if we do not return to one nation “under God,” we will end up being just another nation gone under.
We pray you will continue to stand with JDFI and support our work. A wonderful opportunity to do so is Giving Tuesday, December 3, when your gift will be matched by a generous donor.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!