Changing the Destiny of a Nation: Why Thanksgiving Matters

Is Thanksgiving the most important factor in the future of America?

For a cultural historian Romans 1:21 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. In Romans 1:18-20 Paul says that people know God exists but they suppress that knowledge in their unrighteousness. Then what do they do? In v 21 he says they do not honor God nor do they thank Him. And this leads to their downfall. Paul says next their foolish hearts are darkened and then they begin the downward spiral into total debauchery and that’s what the rest of chapter 1 chronicles.

Man’s downfall begins when he fails to thank God. Today in the U.S. we are officially celebrating our thanksgiving holiday. But millions are not thanking God. Millions don’t even believe in God. And our cultural establishments are hostile toward Him. One time at the University of Colorado, just before Thanksgiving break, I jokingly said that lots of people think Thanksgiving commemorated the Puritans thanking the Indians. My students stared at me and then one of them said, “Isn’t that what’s it about?” That is what they had been taught in high school by the education establishment. The Puritans established a holiday thanking the Indians for their assistance. Now certainly the Indians were helpful to the Puritans when they first came to America but that is decidedly not who the Puritans were thanking. They were praising Almighty God for His providence and goodness in allowing them to survive and then thrive in America.

When you read the second half of Romans 1 remember that all that debauchery and the collapse of a moral culture begins with a lack of gratitude. When thanks to God is lacking the culture crumbles into destructive chaos.

On this Thanksgiving let’s remember to give thanks to our God for all He’s done. Let’s begin by praising Him for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to save us.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More: For an excellent meditation on Thanksgiving see this: https://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2024/11/20/give_thanks_to_jesus_holy_name_1073457.html