Eric Metaxas: America must fulfil its divine mission or risk 'committing suicide'

Chiqui Guyjoco Wednesday, June 22, 2016

America has a "God-given mission" to govern through liberty and moral law or perish otherwise, writer Eric Metaxas said.

The 53-year-old New York Times best-selling author released a new book, titled "If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty," where he discussed how God chose America to be the nation that introduced liberty for all just as God chose the Jews as His people from which the Messiah was born into.

Eric Metaxas and Ben Carson speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.16 March 2013 | Creative Commons/Gage Skidmore

"We were a country on a mission to the whole world, but first we must get our own house in order," Metaxas wrote in his new book. "If we could not survive the agony of so doing, we would surely fail in our God-given mission to the world beyond our shores."

He also said that "we commit suicide" should America choose to forget or depart from this divine calling of being a nation of liberty.

In an interview with The Christian Post, the writer explained that his new book's title is derived from a response given by one of America's Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, when asked whether America would take on a monarchy or a republic type of government.

"A republic, if you can keep it," was Franklin's response.

This means, Metaxas stressed, that Americans should participate in this self-governance and not expect the system to run on its own.

"We have to live our lives in this nation in such a way that we are an example to the whole world and they want to have what we have," he told The Christian Post.

Apart from upholding the values of liberty, Metaxas believes America should be governed according to "moral law" just as exemplified by former President Abraham Lincoln when he abolished slavery.

"And if we turn away from that moral law, we forfeit the blessings of God," said Metaxas in his book.

Prominent Christian leaders such as Anne Graham Lotz and the Benham Brothers, Jason and David, are also known for speaking out against America's present-day "immoralities" and connecting them to the nation's tribulations as indicative of God's disapproval of the America of today.