Was the United States founded as a Christian nation? Were the Founding Fathers all born-again Christians? Should we, as followers of Jesus Christ, support “Christian nationalism”? Doesn’t the Bible say “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD?” Don’t we want God as our Lord so we can be blessed?
There are many men and women in churches throughout America, along with many professing Christians in positions in government, who would answer “yes” to most (if not all) of the above questions.
I am not one of them.
Now, don’t click off the article just yet. Let me make some things very clear first…
- I am a Bible-believing Christian.
- I believe everyone should follow Christ.
- I believe God indeed blesses those who follow Him.
- I love the United States of America.
- And I, therefore, wish the people of the United States followed the Lord.
So, if by “Christian nationalist,” you mean someone who is a Christian who lives in the United States and who loves the United States, then okay, yes… in that case, I’m a Christian nationalist.
Okay? Oh, let me also add…
- Christianity dominated America’s culture from colonization through the founding and into the latter part of the twentieth century.
- Most of the men we know today as “the Founding Fathers” went to church and identified, in some way, with Christianity.
But… at the same time…
- The United States was not founded as a Christian nation per se.
- Not all of the Founding Fathers were actual “born-again,” Bible-believing followers of Christ.
- And I am not a Christian nationalist. At least not how that is commonly defined today.
Does that confuse you?
If so, it may be because you (like most of our culture today) are losing interest in critical thinking and the capacity for grasping nuance, gradation, or subtlety.
The opening lines to the Book of Proverbs read as follows:
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
Thanks to our modern (and postmodern) society being stressed out, worn out, and bombarded with too much information, we’ve become easily offended, cynical, perpetually on edge, anxious, and depressed. And our attention spans and patience have plummeted!
For these reasons, we are losing the willingness and the ability to analyze concepts, think critically about topics, and explore new insights or ideas. We just react. And quickly make assumptions and judgments.
But the reality is…
Things take time.
And that includes digging for the truth.
When it comes to the United States and whether it was founded as a Christian nation, consider these facts…
- It’s true that virtually all of our Founding Fathers believed in God, but it’s not true they all believed in the Deity of Jesus or the inerrancy of the Bible. And some of the Founders were frustratingly opaque in their theology.
- According to the Bible, nation-states don’t “call upon the name of the Lord” (see Romans 10:13). People do. Therefore, how can the United States of America, as a nation-state, be “a Christian nation”?
- Christianity indeed dominated American culture for most of our history, but that’s Christian-ity. Broadly defined. There are a lot of voices, points of view, denominations, and perspectives within Christianity.
- According to the Bible, the church and the civil government have different roles. It’s not the job of the government to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ or require people to conform to a certain approved lifestyle or theological orthodoxy.
Please read the above points again. They are crucial to understanding this issue.
I’m a Bible-believing Christian. I wish that all human beings on planet earth accepted Jesus and followed Him. And I will continue to spread the love of God to everyone I can — with that hope in mind. But…
I recognize God has delegated to each human being a degree of free will. It is therefore not my place to force people to follow Jesus. I can urge them to do so. But the choice is theirs.
(Yes, I know there’s a big debate over the sovereignty of God vs. the “free will” of people. But even if you believe in complete 100% election without any regard to a person’s free will, then you must recognize it’s God’s choice, not the government’s choice).
Therefore, with my civil hat on, I believe in freedom. As a citizen of the United States, I believe in the freedom of thought, conscience, speech, and religion. I support the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
I don’t want Congress trying to impose the Bible on the country and then the Supreme Court taking it upon itself to interpret the Bible. No thank you!
But, wait! What about “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord?”
Indeed. But let’s look at the full verse.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12, KJV)
When you read the full verse, you realize it’s talking about “the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” That’s not the United States. I love America, but that’s not America. The psalmist is talking about Israel — specifically ancient Israel.
So…no, Christian, we can’t use Psalm 33:12 to justify making the United States a Christian nation that coerces its people to follow God. The United States of America, as a nation-state, is not God’s chosen nation and the citizens of the United States are not His “covenant people.”
Does this mean that the civil government must set aside all moral impulses or completely disregard Judeo-Christian principles? Not at all. And this is where secularists can get extreme and lose any sense of rationality and nuance on their side of the debate.
The Founders did orient the government of the United States on a general moral premise that God is real, we are accountable to Him, and that our country should generally respect and adhere to Judeo-Christian principles. But this was with the understanding that freedom would be extended to all religious sects as well as to those who don’t practice religion.
It’s not the role of the government to evangelize or disciple the people. That’s the church’s job.
Don’t confuse the two.
