Our Judeo-Christian Nation

In my personal opinion, the United States never was really a Christian nation. Why? I offer two lines of reasoning.

1. The New Testament does not acknowledge the existence of Christian nations/Kingdoms. In the Bible, a Christian is a person who has repented of his/her sins and surrendered themselves to Christ's Lordship trusting Him alone (through His death, burial, and bodily resurrection) to be their eternal Savior. Nations, Kingdoms, and States cannot do that. The term "Christian" can only be applied to individuals. For this reason, the argument that we once considered ourselves a Christian nation is void of any meaning. Since the Bible does not teach the reality of a Christian nation, I don't see how we can argue that we were or are a Christian nation.

2. The United States is a wonderful nation but it has some very evil skeletons in its closet. Today we can think of things like abortion (the literal holocaust of millions of the most innocent lives in this country), dependence upon government, out of control debt, women on the battlefield, etc (I could keep going). In the past this country has been guilty of many other sins. I think of the European settlers who first came to this "old world" during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Some of them treated the natives with respect, but many did not. They pushed Indians off their land, they took advantage of Indian dependence upon European goods, they used alcohol to create a more cooperative attitude among the Indians, etc. The most vivid example of this sin was the Indian Removal Act of the 19th century. Then there was the sin of chattle slavery. A system of slavery in which human beings were bought, sold, and treated like common animals (sometimes worse). Accounts from the 18th/19th centuries are enough to make you cry. Yet this is what our nation did.

America is a great country, but like all other nations it is a nation of men and women. America's history reflects the fact that all men are sinners. America, like all other nations, is a sinful nation. Her people, like all other people, are in need of the salvation offered only through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, a great many of the men who founded this nation were Christian. However they were still human and some of their actions/policies shows this fact.

 

The term "Christian nation" did not mean that the nation was Christian as an entity unto itself. Those who argue this point to negative the real meaning of the term are missing the point and giving credibility to the enemy. We were a nation whose people generally respected God Almighty and His Word. We recognized God's hand in the formation of our nation and we honored Him for it. We engraved His name on our monuments and our money. We gave our word on His word. We acknowledged the birth, death, and resurrection of God the Son in both the public and private arena. We gave Him thanks often. We asked Him to protect us, lead us, and spare us from harm. We build our laws largely around the principles embodied in His Word. We publicly acknowledged Him and gave thanks to Him frequently in our Holidays, special events, and at epic moments in our history when we knew it was by His providence that we enjoy all that we have. We sought to do what was right in our nation and in the world. We took up arms to defend ourselves and others who needed our help and we did so with the understanding that our success depended upon His will. We did not seek to remove His name from every aspect of society. We did not elevate our government to be our Savior. We tolerated various beliefs and even no beliefs at all but we did not remove Him from our daily lives. Our greatest challenge in political correctness was not to offend Jews but even with them we did not shy away from Jesus as Lord in our tolerance from their disbelief in Him. We offered prayer in school, at public events, at business meetings, in the war zones, on our Holidays, in our speeches. Those who objected to the mainstream belief were not forced to bow down to our God but were expected not to interfere as the rest worshiped Him. We knew who what conduct was against His will and we did not permit a small minority to lobby for its acceptance among us. We did not use the force of law to protect evil acts - we used it to encourage wholesome conduct based on Biblical principles. We understood the importance of all God's institutions - the individual, the husband and wife, the parents and children, and the church - and the roles they play in His great design. We acted like a nation of believers and, at the very least, people at least respected Him even if they had not personally accepted Him and were not true Christians themselves. We were founded as a Christian nation, grew up as a Christina nation. and should remain a Christian nation. Yes, we are all sinners and, yes, we have done some things as a nation that we should have probably handled differently but those things do not take away from our foundation nor our guide. Rather than destroy what's left of God's name in our nation we should be seeking to uplift Him in all things even in the blessing of civil governance that He has provided for us.

 

Christian Nation

Amen and amen!

Forbes put it right..... that our founding fathers recognized that without the foundation of Christian principals it would be impossible to succeed in this new expression of freedom. There were subtle attacks before, but none so as organized or defining as in the 60's when the ACLU (the Anti-american Communist Legal Union) succeeded in taking prayers out of schools... since then they are ready to attack every expression of Christian faith which takes place in a public arena. Before that time, people (even immigrants) were free to express other religions..... but they also had a respect for the Christian values and generally accepted this foundation as what made our country so desirable to live.