From the average citizen to the U.S. president and the entire Congress, indignation was spontaneous over a poorly thought-out ruling by a San Francisco federal appeals court that declared the words "under God" in the American Pledge of Allegiance to be unconstitutional. A Newsweek poll taken immediately after the ruling was publicized showed Americans in favor of retaining the phrase by a margin of 87 percent to 9 percent (July 8, 2002, issue).

The country and the world are still reeling from the devastating impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland. Few are in a mood for a technical debate over the acceptability of acknowledging God. Harkening back to the days immediately following the terrorist attacks, there were many open and unabashed references to God. A national prayer service in Washington D.C. on Sept. 14, 2001, was attended by a number of former U.S. presidents and many members of Congress, along with countless other dignitaries, all of whom heard repeated appeals to God for comfort and help.

At that service, President Bush said, "We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them...On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask Almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come. As we've been assured, neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from God's love. May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country. God bless America" (text published by The Washington Post).

People speak of God in tragic times

"Neither death," etc. is a direct quote from the Christian Bible in Romans 8:38-39. By his open and direct appeal to God, the president matched the mood of the nation, which, in numbed shock, was looking for divine comfort and help. In times of tragedy, people almost universally turn to God. So, in the days and weeks following Sept. 11, 2001, it seemed appropriate and acceptable to openly acknowledge and call upon God.

A few days later, over 60,000 people gathered in New York City's Yankee stadium for a prayer service, featuring Mayor Rudy Giuliani, television talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey and actor James Earl Jones. Of course, both of these highly publicized meetings included clergy among the speakers, but it's not unusual that religious individuals would call upon or refer to God. However, it is rather unusual in the American culture that other public figures would speak of Him openly.

References to prayer and wishes for God's blessing, normally heard only on the religious broadcast stations on Sundays, were openly expressed by reporters and news anchors.

I witnessed the same recently in the state of Arizona, which suffered from a catastrophic forest fire. Seasoned firefighters spoke of the power of the Rodeo-Chedeski fire in hushed tones, repeatedly testifying that they'd never seen its like in force and intensity. Anthony Yellow Owl, a professional "fire-eater" brought into Arizona to fight the fires, described ground zero as looking like it had been struck by "an atomic bomb."

The amount of energy released by the fire staggers the imagination. One report said that, at its peak, the massive fire released energy equivalent to a Hiroshima-strength atomic bomb every 15 minutes. Local news reporters, typically as non-religious as their national counterparts, openly spoke in terms of praying for rain.

One television station developed a feature story about a handwritten message, "pray for rain," which was scribed in the dust and ash that covered one of the dozens of fire-fighting vehicles. Arizona's governor, Jane D. Hull, spoke of the need for God's help. President Bush visited one of the many evacuation shelters in the fire zone. "I'm here to say on behalf of the American people, 'God bless you,'" he said.

Pray for rain

The Associated Press reported an Apache medicine man's singing prayer for rain. The official Web site of the Pinetop Fire Department in Pinetop, Arizona, posted the following message at the peak of the raging fires: "I actually felt some drops of rain at Blue Ridge this morning, so keep up the prayers... We will be OK with all of the prayers and support coming from our friends. Thank you! Make sure you continue to pray for our friends and neighbors and the other areas affected by the fire" (emphasis added throughout).

If you followed the coverage of the fire, you're familiar with the name "Show Low," the largest community threatened by the massive blaze that burned a territory larger than the area of Los Angeles. The president of the local chamber of commerce also spoke openly of God's help: "As I sit here in my home, praying for us all, I cannot help but think about all my friends and associates in the White Mountains... God bless them all and please keep them safe... PS—As our President said today—'Hang in there.' God Bless Show Low, Arizona, and all the White Mountain communities."

The message, posted on the official Arizona White Mountains tourism Web site, is signed by Linda Ells, president of the Show Low Chamber of Commerce (www.pinetoplakesidechamber.com /ells.html).

As of this writing, that particular fire is 100 percent controlled. The horrifying evidence of its devastation remains, but the public comments about prayer and God's blessing died down about the same time that the flames did. But it certainly illustrates that in a time of major tragedy, everyone wants God's help.

Perhaps the atheist who filed the suit against his daughter's school for saying the Pledge of Allegiance thought the country's mood had returned to its pre-9/11 norm. Maybe the judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who wrote the ruling thought so too. But he got the message and stayed his own ruling: the country was in no mood for the technical debate.

America isn't ready to forgo saying, "one nation under God." CNN reported President's Bush's terse comment on the ruling, "We receive our rights from God." President Bush went on to say that he would appoint people to the bench who clearly understood that fact.

Origin of "under God"

You may not know that the words "under God" weren't in the original Pledge of Allegiance. They were added by an act of Congress, jointly sought by the legislature and President Eisenhower, in the 1950s. At the time, the national mind-set was anticommunist. The Western world saw itself locked in a Cold War between the United States and the U.S.S.R. that could go nuclear at any moment. Public schools routinely had nuclear bomb drills for their students, in which children were trained to get away from windows, not to look in the direction of the blast and get down under their desks. Private citizens built bomb shelters in their backyards or basements; cities and towns designated public buildings that could be used as shelters.

It was in this context that the United States wanted to make a highly public statement to the communist and atheistic world: this country is "under God." With patriotic fervor, Congress added these words to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and Americans have recited it that way ever since.

Opponents of the use of these words argue that public schools that require their students to recite the present Pledge of Allegiance are contravening the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Their argument is that requiring the recitation of "under God" is the government imposing a religion, specifically the belief in a God, on children who don't believe in God.

Let's step aside from the constitutional argument for a moment and analyze those words—"under God." According to a standard dictionary, "under" means: "Subject to the authority, control, guidance, or instruction of" (2002, Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary). Do you suppose that the citizens of the United States understand the phrase this way? I do not doubt that some citizens sincerely do, but I doubt that the majority of Americans have even thought about the subject beyond sentimental and emergency situations.

The sentiment of being anticommunist in the 1950s was strong and sincere. Similarly, the sentiment of wanting God's help in a tragedy—a natural disaster, an act of terror or any time our life or the life of a loved one is threatened—is sincere. But even in times of tragedy, people aren't thinking in terms of "authority, control, guidance or instruction" from God. They're thinking in terms of God granting miraculous healing, divine protection or defeat of their enemies.

In case of emergency, call on God

It's almost as if people prefer to place God under a glass cover to which is attached a hammer and under which is a sign that reads: "Break in case of emergency." When the emergency has passed, the glass is replaced. American citizens want to be able to pursue their lives without any "authority, control, guidance or instruction" from God.

Those who would edit "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance argue that the U.S. Constitution makes no reference to God. That's true. However, the Declaration of Independence, conceived by the same minds and penned by the same hands that drafted the Constitution, makes several open and obvious references to the Creator God. The opening paragraph speaks of "Nature's God."

Perhaps the most-remembered words of the entire document follow in the very next statement: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." And the Declaration's closing paragraph includes an appeal to "the Supreme Judge of the World" and asserts that the new nation has "a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence."

One would be a fool to try to portray the U.S. Founding Fathers as men intent on excluding God from the nation that they had a hand in building. Plainly, when they referred to "the Creator" and "the Supreme Judge of the World," they were thinking of the God of the Christian Bible.

Is there any place in that Christian Bible that speaks of nation building?

Yes, there is. The obvious section of Scripture to look at is the part that describes God's will for His model nation. There's no mistaking the role that He envisioned He would play in a nation that was truly "under God."

One book of the Bible that summarizes God's thinking succinctly is Deuteronomy. We do not find a "God under glass" who is content to be called upon in emergencies to relieve suffering and to guarantee victory in war, but who would remain silent the rest of the time. To the contrary, we find a God whose thinking is frankly quite well summarized by the words "under God."

That is, He expected to lovingly exercise authority and control over the nation, by giving it guidance and instruction on an ongoing basis—the classic dictionary definition of "under."

Benefits and obligations of being a nation "under God"

Can a nation under God count on Him to always love it? Yes, of course it can. Can a nation that wants to be thought of as under God count on God to give it healing, protection and blessings regardless of the actions of its citizens? The painful truth is, no, it can't.

Let's allow God to speak about this for Himself. When rescuing the people of Israel to create a nation under God, He said: "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6). The people could count on His unconditional love.

Could they also count on those benefits that any nation wants—security and protection, including success against sworn enemies? Yes. "You may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken" (Deuteronomy 6:18-19).

Were the citizens free to live as they chose, subject to no authority but their own, controlled by no one but themselves, guided by whatever philosophy they wished? No, they weren't; "under God" meant "under God." The words of the verses which preface the above promises of benefits are plain: "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you" (Deuteronomy 6:17-18).

The consistent testimony of the nation-building scriptures is unbreakable. If a nation was truly under God, it was under His authority and control; He guided and instructed it. In conjunction with these obligations, He promised the benefits that all nations desire—divine intervention in emergencies, protection from tragedy and victory over enemies.

The benefits are inseparable from the obligations. Would anyone say that a child should expect a father to extend unlimited emergency benefits, regardless of that child's behavior? Of course not. We recognize that he would be a selfish child who expected such and he would be an overly-indulgent father who provided such.

Americans still pray in the face of tragedies, and leaders still ask God to bless America. To date, He has been extremely merciful, giving its citizens time to realize their responsibility and to live up to it. That will change, because the United States should be a nation "under God," and frankly, it isn't. Being "under God" isn't a way of speaking, but a way of living.

The consequences of whether America chooses to truly be "under God" are clearly expounded in our booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. WNP