Reflections Upon the 250th Birthday of our Nation

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It would be indecent of me on this Sunday, the day after the 250th anniversary of the independence of our nation, to say nothing of it.  To fail to reflect on this with you and to go on with our exposition of Romans, far from being Biblically faithful, would almost seem to be the very opposite.  For it would imply that our religion has nothing to do with the affairs of nations.  It would imply that the sovereignty of God is limited to the church or, worse, that it is no longer operative or relevant for our day.  And I certainly would not want to give that impression because it’s not true or Biblical at all.

At the same time, where do we go in the Scriptures to speak to this event?  God’s people in Old Testament lived in a theocracy that was very different from the government under which we live.  Their nation was identical with God’s kingdom on the earth, which has never been assumed of our own.  On the other hand, God’s people in the first century AD, during which the New Testament was written, lived under the rule of Roman dominance.  Few of them were Romans in the strictest sense.  They were, rather, people living under the rule of foreign domination.  I daresay that even Christian Jews would have liked to see their people free from the Roman yoke.  

In fact, we see the attitude of the early church towards Rome in the book of Revelation.  Though I believe, and taught when we went through that book, that the beast and Babylon refer ultimately to the Antichrist who will appear at the end of history, yet it seems to me that John was speaking in language that would have undoubtedly made his readers think of the current Roman government.  Babylon in Revelation was so much like Rome of the first century.  Rome represented in John’s day all the bad things in its perversions and persecutions.  So I doubt any Christian celebrated the birthdays of the Roman empire.  I doubt any of them set off firecrackers to observe such an event.  

So how does an American Christian who takes his cue from the NT think about July 4?

There are people in our own country who would say that because we’re Christians we should despise our country and its founding for all the bad things it has done and is doing.  No doubt our country has many faults and serious ones at that, and they didn’t just appear recently.  We’ve been a country with problems from the very beginning.  To deny this is to stick your head in the sand.  But to say that we should despise our country isn’t being honest with our history either.  It’s just not right to look at our country as if there were nothing to celebrate about it.  In fact, there are many things we should celebrate about our country and for which we should thank God. That is what I want to do with you today.  As we reflect on the birthday of our country, I want, first, to think about the remarkable reasons we have to thank God we are citizens of the United States of America.  And then in light of that I would like us to think about our responsibility to our country as citizens of it.  That is to say, I want us to consider the appreciation we should have for our nation, and then the obligation that we do have for our nation.

To help orient our thoughts this morning, I want us to turn to the book of Jeremiah.  The text is found in the 29th chapter and the seventh verse: “And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”   

Now this may seem like a strange passage at which to begin, because God was speaking here to people who didn’t dwell in their native land, but who were exiles from it.  These were Jews who had been taken into captivity in 597 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, before the final fall of Jerusalem and the final deportation in 586.  There were false prophets in Jerusalem at the time who were saying that the captivity would be short and all the Jews along with the treasures from the temple would be coming home soon.  Jeremiah mentions two of these prophets in verse 21 - Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah.  He tells them that the prophecy is wrong and that in fact the captivity would be long; in fact, it would be seventy years long (the prophecy that Daniel read that prompted his prayer in Daniel 9).  To compare, the captivity of the Jews would last about as long as the rise and fall of the Soviet Union (1917-1991).  Some people would live their entire lives, be born and die, during this captivity.  

So what were these Jews supposed to do during their exile?  And God tells them through Jeremiah the prophet: seek the peace of the city where you are at, seek its shalom, its welfare: in other words, everything that belongs to its peace and prosperity.  They were to pray for it.  They were to seek its good.

And this was in light of the fact that God would be bringing them home after the seventy years (which we see that he did).  This was not the permanent home for their descendants.  God promised this in no uncertain terms: “For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive” (Jer. 29:10-14).

Now I think this is really relevant for any Christian no matter where he or she lives because every Christian on this earth now is an exile.  This is exactly how the apostle Peter describes us.  He introduces his first epistle to those who are “strangers” or exiles in various parts of the Roman empire (1 Pet. 1:1).  He talks about “the time of your sojourning” (17).  He beseeches them “as strangers and pilgrims” (2:11).  We are exiles in the United States, even if we were born here.  And that is because, if we are Christians, our country and citizenship is really in heaven (Phil. 3:20-21).  This is why Peter immediately reminds his readers they have been born again “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:4-5).  Where is our inheritance?  It’s in heaven.  Why?  Because through Christ we are sons and daughters of God.

So that puts us in a position very similar to the Jews of Jeremiah’s day, doesn’t it?  We too are exiles who are waiting for our captivity in this world to end.  Our captivity will end, won’t it?  Our Lord will return and the New Jerusalem will be established in the world.  We look for a new heavens and new earth.  But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have responsilbities in the place were God in his providence has placed us.  And in light of that, the prophet Jeremiah – or rather God through the prophet – reminds us of what those are.

First, let’s appreciate the good things God has done for our country.

One of the things is to seek the welfare, the peace, or shalom of the city in which they dwell.  An observation I would make here is that we can’t seek something if we can’t recognize it when it comes about.  We can’t seek the good for our country if we aren’t willing to see the good things that are already here.  This is why I want to begin to remind you the real things, the good things, that we can thank God for here in our country.  

The heritage of Christian ancestry

I know that a lot of people nowadays will roll their eyes and scoff at any suggestion that many of our founding fathers who settled this country saw their purpose as part of a definitively Christian mission.  But it’s just the case.  The overwhelming majority of people who immigrated to America in the 17th century were Protestant who carried with them the convictions of their religion, regardless of whether they immigrated for commercial reasons or from direct religious persecution.  An Exhibition in the Library of Congress on “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic,” gives this summary:

“Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established ‘as plantations of religion.’ Some settlers who arrived in these areas came for secular motives—'to catch fish’ as one New Englander put it--but the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of their leaders to create ‘a city on a hill’ or a ‘holy experiment,’ whose success would prove that God's plan for his churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness. Even colonies like Virginia, which were planned as commercial ventures, were led by entrepreneurs who considered themselves ‘militant Protestants’ and who worked diligently to promote the prosperity of the church.” 

We see this confirmed in the statements of leading documents and leading men of the time.  The Mayflower Compact, for example, puts it explicitly: “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together”.   

John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Puritan, said this in 1630: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”  Winthrop saw the mission of the colonists very much in Biblical and Christian terms.

Fast forward to the end of the 18th century.  President George Washington, in a circular letter to the states which he wrote at the end of his terms in office, spoke of “the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example . . . we can never hope to be a happy nation….”   Note what he says here: “The Divine Author” – he means Jesus Christ, which makes me wonder why people deny his belief in the divinity of Christ!  Then: “of our religion” – that is, the Christian religion, which he terms the religion of the people of the United States!  One can debate all day long the spiritual status of this or that founding father, their virtues or their vices, but one thing is clear: their understanding of what our nation was, and its identity at its founding was inseparable in their minds from the Christian faith.  Hence, when Daniel Webster, upon the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of Plymouth Colony, wanted to sum up the blessings that were bequeathed by the Pilgrims to their descendants, ended this way: “We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting Truth!” 

What’s surprising to me about this, is that this is true even though, unlike Europe, the government of our country at least since the adoption of the Constitution has never been tied to a specific church or denomination.  And until recently, this was so far from hindering the spread and influence of Christianity, that our country has remained far more religious than any country of Europe which has an official religion.  I personally think this is partly to be explained by the fact that in our nation the Christian religion was not something one has to embrace, but something a person wants to embrace.  So that it is a real thing, and not just a measure of conformity in order to get ahead in life.

And what kept it real were the movements of God in the hearts of people.  God has blessed this nation with great spiritual awakenings through its history.  Part of our history and ancestry is not only tied to the Revolution of 1776, but also to the Great Awakening in the years prior to that, in the 1730’s and 40’s. It absolutely reshaped the spiritual landscape of our nation. Benjamin Franklin made this observation about his hometown of Philadelphia after George Whitefield had been there to preach: “It was wonderful to see the Change soon made in the Manners [behavior] of our Inhabitants; from being thoughtless or indifferent about Religion, it seem’d as if all the World were growing Religious; so that one could not walk thro’ the Town in an Evening without Hearing Psalms sung in different Families of every Street.”   Church growth rapidly expanded everywhere in the wake of the religious revivals.  

The United States became a country whose people not only evangelized themselves but wanted to bring the gospel to the nations as well.  It dominated that role throughout the twentieth century.  To my knowledge, even today the United States is still the largest provider of missionaries into the rest of the world.  The US is not only a gospel-sending nation, but it is a nation that has more religious resources in terms of books and schools and teachers and opportunities to learn the Bible than the Christians of any other time or place could possibly fathom.  We are blessed with a genuinely rich Christian heritage.  

In all the debates about Christian nationalism, what it is or not, and whether it is good or bad, let’s not forget and despise the real good that Christianity has been for our country.  We have not always lived up to its standards.  We have very often fallen woefully short of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  But that doesn’t mean we are not the recipients of a real and good Christian ancestry.  Yes, our past is not composed entirely of good and faithful Christians.  There were a lot of stinkers in our past. But there were real and true Christians like Bradford and Winthrop and Jonathan Edwards and many others who had an outsized influence on our country for which we should thank God.

The heritage of ordered liberty 

What I mean by “ordered liberty” is that we don’t just have various freedoms in our country, but liberty which is defined by law.  And in light of the previous point, our founding fathers understood that both liberty and law come ultimately from God.  The Declaration of Independence speaks of “the laws of nature and of nature’s God.”  They didn’t believe that law or liberty is at the whim of the government, even less so of the mob, but that it is a gift and a responsibility given to us by God.

A good part of this liberty is liberty of conscience and freedom of religion.  We take it for granted, but think about Christians all over the world today who have to meet in private and in fear because of the government.  Chinese Christians are in jail right now simply because they follow Jesus.  We should thank God that we have had this liberty for so long.

It was not always this way even in our country.  Many people don’t realize that Baptists were persecuted in this country right up to the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Baptists were arrested, imprisoned, fined, and even beaten in places like Massachusetts and Virginia.  In 1651, the Baptist minister Obadiah Holmes spent weeks in prison and then was taken out and received thirty lashes with a three-corded whip.  Though at the time he said he felt no pain because of the grace of God upon him, yet such were the effects of his beating that he was not able to lay on his back for weeks afterward.  Why did this happen?  Because he was a Baptist who preached without a license.  Again, we should thank God that we have been blessed with such a measure of freedom that this has long been a thing of the past.

Ordered liberty is also political liberty that limits the power of government.  Our founders understood the problem of human depravity – in other words, they had a Biblical understanding of human nature – that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  And so they put in place safeguards against it – most notably in the separation of powers in the government.  Though I think we can all see the cracks in the foundation today (though not from its own fault but ours), it has so far stood the test of time.  The US Constitution is the longest lasting such document in the history of the world.  This is in large part because of the wisdom of our founders as they saw the true value of ordered liberty and limited government.

Now I know that the Bible doesn’t explicitly advocate for one system of government over another.  But that doesn’t mean that all governments are created equal either.  We should and ought to ask the question, what kind of government is most compatible with a Biblical view of man?  I think we can agree that a government which respects the rights of man as given to him by God, this is a government which would have the imprimatur of God upon it.  By and large, this was the type of government that our founders adopted, and this is what ordered liberty gives us.  And even though chattel slavery was a blight upon it, it was in violation to the very principles upon which our country was founded.  Slavery was not the original genius of our nation, but the outstanding example of hypocrisy in terms of a failure to live up to the principles enshrined in its founding documents.

The heritage of material prosperity

Now I do not believe that material prosperity is always a sign of God’s blessing. It can even become a curse when it takes the place of God in our hearts.  You cannot serve God and mammon.  Prosperity can lure us into a forgetfulness of God.  God warned the children of Israel against this very thing.  But at the same time, part of the blessing of the Promised Land was that it was a land flowing with milk and honey.  It was a land of great potential for great prosperity.  It was in fact a sign of God’s blessing for the nation of Israel.  Just because they took advantage of this and turned away from God didn’t mean that the riches they enjoyed were in themselves bad.

We often hear that money is the root of all evil, but that’s not what the Bible says.  It says that the love of money – covetousness – is the root of all evil.  Yes, Paul said that we should be content with food and clothing.  But he also said this: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:17-19).  In other words, what God gives us he gives us to enjoy (assuming they have been gotten justly and not through ill-gotten gains).  Though we should not hoard them to ourselves, and should live with both eyes on eternity, yet that does not mean that we are to live like hermits in a cave.  We can really enjoy what God gives us.

In this country we have more opportunities to do that than almost anywhere else.  The United States of America has been richly blessed by God with many, many physical and material and natural resources and he has blessed this nation with many men and women who have been resourceful, energetic, smart, thrifty, and who operated with a good work ethic.  They have made this nation rich.  Patrick Gourley, an economist, wrote last year, after comparing the US with various countries around the world using various metrics: “The fact remains, however, that the typical American is wealthier than just about anywhere else, and the gap is significant. Any way to slice and dice the data, the United States comes out near the top of the list, usually only exceeded by small countries that have fewer than 10 million citizens. Take a moment to enjoy the bounty we have.” 

Indeed we should.  But let’s not only enjoy it, but enjoy it correctly for what it is: a gift from God, not worshipping it or serving it, but serving God with it.  God is the one who gives us power to get wealth (Deut. 8:18).  Paul writes, again to Timothy, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4-5).  Have we sanctified the good gifts that God has given us by the word of God and prayer?  

These are all things that we should thank God for.  These are the good things that we enjoy in our nation.  Now let’s consider the responsibility we have to our country.

Let’s fulfill our obligation to the country God has put us in.

What does God tell us to do?  He tells us to seek the peace of and pray for the city in which we dwell.  Again, the word “peace” here is the Hebrew word shalom, which means more than just peace, but general wellbeing, everything that factors into peace and prosperity.   What does this look like?

First of all, let’s have the proper perspective.  Don’t mistake it with the kingdom of God!  Don’t expect too much from it!  Don’t hold it to unreasonable expectations. Don’t put your hopes fully in it.  Recognize that you are exiles and that your ultimate allegiance is not the United States or this or that political party but to the kingdom of God and Christ.

I love my country.  I am thankful for it, for all the reasons I have just given.  But I do not look to this or that government to be my salvation.  I do not look to the American Dream for the fulfillment of my hopes.  Let us look to Christ.  Let us look to our home in heaven.  Let our people be the church.  If we are American citizens, let us thankful to be that.  But let our ultimate citizenship and allegiance be in heaven.

God’s kingdom and the fortunes thereof do not rise or fall with the rising and falling of empires and nations and states.  Earthly nations come and go, and should our Lord delay his coming we can expect our own current government to fall someday.  There is an expiration date to every earthly kingdom.  But not so with the rule and reign of Christ.  “His kingdom is forever!”

Second, let’s pray for our nation.  This is what God told the exiled Israelites: “pray unto the Lord for it.”  I wonder if this verse is what Paul had in mind when he wrote Timothy, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour” (1 Tim. 2:1-3).  Let us pray for our leaders on every level: city, county, state, and federal.  Let us pray for the President (whether we like him or not!).  Let us ask for God’s blessing upon our homeland.  In its peace we will find peace.  Let us pray that we may as God’s people lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.  

Let us pray that God will turn the hearts of the people of our land back to him.  Our land is filled with flagrant sins.  Abortion is perhaps the preeminent example of one of these great sins in our times.  It is the sin of murder.  It is the killing of innocent human life.  God takes this seriously: 2 Kings 24 tells of all the innocent blood that King Manasseh shed, “which the Lord would not pardon” (4).  It should concern us that laws are in place in our state and in other states that make it legal to do away with the life of an unborn baby.  We should at least pray that God would help people to see the evil of this act.

Let us pray that God would turn the hearts of Americans back to him so that they stop promoting ungodly lifestyles, and to stop tearing down the God-ordained family which is the backbone of any healthy society. 

Let us pray that God would turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the fathers to the children.  Let us pray that our fellow citizens would embrace decency and respect for one another over tribalism.

Most of all, let us pray that God would grant an open door for the gospel in our land. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16).  This is the ultimate hope for our country.  It is only as people are reconciled to God that they will be truly reconciled to each other, which is the apostle Paul’s point in Ephesians 2.  There are so many divisions in our country right now, but underneath it all is an even deeper and more serious division between men and God, and it is only through the name of Jesus Christ that this separation and division can be finally healed.   Let us therefore pray for the success of the gospel in our land.

Third, let us seek the peace of our land.  Be salt and light.  Be in the world and yet not of the world.  Show a difference.  Be a difference where you are at.  God in his providence has placed each of us with our talents and our abilities in the places and times we find ourselves.  Plant your feet there and do good.  Jesus went about doing good (Acts 10:38) and so should we.  Let us seek the welfare of our nation.  There are a thousand ways this can be done.  Don’t just look to your own interests, but to the interests of your community.  Seek for its peace, and seek for true justice to be done.  

One way we can do this is to vote in a Biblically informed way.  And if you can, get involved in local, state, and federal government.  In the NT, we read of people who were connected to people of influence and power.  There was Erastus, the city treasurer of Corinth (Rom. 16:23).  There were the Asiarchs, leading officials on the city council of the city of Ephesus, who were Paul’s friends (Acts 19:31).  These were men who were committed to the church of Christ and who used their political connections to be salt and light in their own communities.  

Most of all, love the people around you.  Show the love of Christ to them when all the world around them is committed to selfishness and worldliness and ungodliness.  Make the gospel attractive with your lives.  As Paul put it to Titus: “In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:7-14).

Why do all this?  Why labor for a city that is one day going to go the way of all the earth?  Why invest our lives in temporary things?  We do so because the investment we make in our community and city and state and nation is an investment in the lives of the people around us, and that investment is an eternal one, not a temporary one.  We do so as members of a church and a kingdom which will never perish.  We do so because Christ is Lord over all; he is Lord of the United States, over Ohio, and over Cincinnati. We do so because he has commanded to live this way.  Let us gladly obey our Lord.

And we want to invite you, if you are not a Christian, to come and join with us!  We want you to appreciate the good things of our country, but don’t make them ultimate.  Don’t make idols out of them.  The American Dream cannot satiate your soul.  Only Jesus can do that.  Only he can forgive your sins and give you a citizenship in a kingdom that will never fail, in a good kingdom which is characterized by righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14).  Embrace Jesus Christ for who he is: your Lord and the only Savior of sinners.  And the promise of the gospel is that all who do so will receive the full forgiveness of sins and will never be cast out or turned away.