America Is Not Sodom And Gomorrah

For years this has bothered me. Well meaning Christians have made the comparison of Sodom and Gomorrah to America, and that an impending doom is coming. This notion has never set right with me. The reason it has never set right with me, is that it is biblically inaccurate.

First let’s overview the story. In Genesis 13, Lot and Abraham’s servants began getting into arguments because the land wasn’t big enough to sustain all their livestock. Abraham humbly offered Lot to chose any land he wanted to move to first. Lot looked around and chose what looked the best. Lot ended up settling in Sodom.

In Genesis 18, three visitors visit Abraham’s home and the Lord reveals to him that He plans on destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham intercedes and pleads with the Lord. He asks if there are just 50 righteous if God would spare Sodom. God agrees. He eventually works down to asking if there were only 10 righteous if God would still spare the city. God says yes.

Genesis 19 reveals that there were not 10 righteous in the city. The same three visitors appear to Lot with the purpose to destroy the city. Lot invites them into his home to stay the night. Before Lot goes to bed, ALL the men of the city show up. Verse 5 says “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” All the men of an entire city appeared with the intention to rape these visitors. They were unified in their depravity. They did not know these men. They did not know if they were homosexuals too. They didn’t even know if they would want to engage in that act. They had already determined they would have sex with these men before Lot even opened his door. Lot’s response is just as disturbing. He begs them not to commit this act, but instead offers up his own engaged daughters, as a replacement to the men. There are so many issues with this too. In that culture a woman had to be a virgin before marriage and if she was not she was considered unfit to wed. Lot was making a choice for his daughters to live the rest of their lives in disgrace or possibly death. Remember the whole city of men showed up with sinful intentions. The three visitors who were really angels came out and blinded the crowd of men. The next morning the cities are destroyed through fire. Lot and his family are allowed to escape.

After looking at the whole story, a comparison of America and Sodom and Gomorrah does not fit. The first glaring reason is that there are more than 10 righteous in this nation. In researching the estimated population of Sodom it was most likely 600 to 1200 people. 10 is only 1.6% being believers out of the 600 or 0.83% out of 1200! That’s all that was needed for God to spare them. In America there is way more than 0.83 to 1.6% of the population that are Christian. I also believe there is more than just one, interceding for this nation. James 5:16 says “… The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” If we continue to intercede and stand in the gap for this nation, we will see the change we’re praying for.

Next, the sin of these cities was so deprave it’s hard to fathom and I can’t compare it to America. We have laws and rules in this country. Granted they don’t always work the way we think or even with the original intent they were placed, but they are there. This was an entire city where all the men joined together to commit a crime. In verse 9, they actually went to break down Lot’s door when Lot tried to refuse their request. I don’t believe this is the state America is in. Even with the pockets of people committing crimes, there are still those who cry out for justice and protect those from injustice. No one from within the city tried to stop what was happening in Sodom. No one even in Lot’s household attempted to stop it either. Lot didn’t truly try to stop them, he just offered up different victims. Also we find in verse 14 that Lot’s future son in laws were actually in the house. They didn’t come to the aide of the visitors or even their future wives. It was the angels that broke up the gang by striking them with blindness. God had to step in because man wouldn’t.

It is easy to see all the sinful things happening in the world and in our very own country and get angry. It’s easy to think about how much we know God hates sin and make the connection that God’s judgement is coming here. However it’s also easy to speak of God’s supreme judgement and forget that His mercy is just as strong. They coexist together. God is no more merciful than He is just. It’s our humanity that wants to make Him one or the other.

That concept is also similar to the story of Jonah. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh because He is ready to destroy them because of their sin. We know Jonah runs in the opposite direction, but God intervenes sending an ocean Uber to pick him up and gets him to Nineveh. Jonah finally preaches and tells them of their impending doom. The people repent, but Jonah goes up to a high vantage point to overlook the city. Why? He was waiting for God’s wrath to come down still! God corrects Jonah because he was wrong. He was wrong because he exposed his false perception of God. He believed that even after we repent God still aims to destroy us. If that were the case, what benefit would it be to repent? In actuality, we repent and God wipes the slate clean. There may be natural consequences to our sin, but in God’s eyes repentance is a fresh start.

I feel our focus should be more on steering people in this country to repentance rather than damnation. God never gives up on us, so we should not give up on our neighbors. If we say this country is doomed and throw in the towel, God may have to step in. When He steps in it may not be with anger towards the sinner, but anger towards the believer. We have to stop waiting for God to hit that red button of doom because the heart of God wants no one to perish. (2 Peter 3:9)