No hard work, no sincere effort on our part can save us. All of our works without Christ are zeal without knowledge. The patriotic American soldier does not earn salvation by dying for his country - no matter that the war is just and his country in the right. Nor does the German or Chinese soldier lose his salvation because his country starts an unjust war, though he may need to consider his Christian duty to continue service in those circumstances. Nations are punished or rewarded in this world according as they are good or evil, but Founder George Mason tells us that is because they can't be punished in the next world.
Men can be.
What makes a nation good or evil is the spiritual condition of its citizens. If a majority of them have trusted Christ and are obeying His commands to love others and witness for Him, then God will protect the nation. If not, God will curse that nation. Clearly, it must be a sin that earns God's curse for a nation to block young people from hearing the Gospel. We have done just that in the United States by allowing the ungodly to enforce a separation of church and state that cannot be supported by the Constitution, our founding principles, or our nation's history.