By T.C. Lo (盧天賜); Aug 22, 2016
During this election season, one of the most frequently discussed topics over the dinner tables or at house parties or in the Bible study gatherings is the question of whether the United States of America is a Christian Nation? The answers are manifold depending on what does it mean by “a Christian Nation” and more fundamentally, what does the term “Christians” mean.
If a Christian Nation is defined as having more than 50% of her population claim to be Christians, then the United States is indeed a Christian Nation because, according to many polls, over 80% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. But evangelicals disagree. They do not consider, for instance, Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons are Christians because they deny the deity of Christ. Some Protestants do not even recognize Roman Catholics as Christians–and vice versa. This makes the identification very complicated. To muddle the matter further, orthodox theologians defined Christian as those who are born-again by the Holy Spirit. Since born-again is a personal experience between an individual and God and no one can read people’s hearts, it makes the number of born-again Christians not countable. Theologians even protest the use of the term “born-again Christian” because they insist that there is no such thing as born-again non-Christian and a true Christian must be born again. Saint Augustine made distinction between the “invisible church” and the “visible church”. Invisible church consists of all born-again individuals which are the subset of the visible church. Jesus told of the visible church as a field with both wheat and tares and the invisible church consists of only the wheat. Before they grow up, no one can tell them apart until the judgement day (Matthew 13:14-30). Although no one knows for sure how many born-again people in the United States, I believe the true believers of Jesus Christ are of minority. In such narrow sense, America is not a Christian Nation but a secular nation. Ironically, Sam Harris, one of the new brand militant atheists had written a book entitled “Letter to a Christian Nation” in which the author presupposes that the United States is a Christian Nation.
Having said this, let me re-phrase the original question in different way. Instead of asking whether the United States of America is a Christian Nation, let me ask whether the United States of America was built upon the foundation of Christianity. To this alternate question, the answer is a clear “YES”. Let me sustain this viewpoint in the following arguments.
The basic framework of the U.S. government is the division of power: The three branches of the Federal structure are the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive branch. This three pronged division of power finds its origin in Isaiah 33:22 which reads:
“For the LORD is our judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
it is he who will save us.”
In the government of God, God is the law giver (legislator), He is the judge (interpreter of the laws), and the King (executive office). God is holy, and powerful, and just and free from all corruptions. He is qualified to be the holder of the three offices at the same time. The ancient Israel was a theocratic nation so the three functions of the government were administered directly by the Lord himself. The United State of America was never meant to be a theocratic nation, so the three functions are performed by elected officials respectively to avoid corruptions due to the concentration of powers. The doctrine of Christianity recognizes the sinful nature of men. As Lord Acton (1834–1902), a British historian and moralist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” For this reason, the founding fathers of this nation realized that it was not good to have power in the hands of one person, so they constituted the government structure according to the biblical principle of division of power but decentralized the power to three branches each of which serves as a check-and-balance against the other two branches in light of the Christian teaching of the human sins. (Ref. 1)
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, the text of the Declaration was initially ignored after the American Revolution. Readers may google it for details. Since then, it has come to be considered a major statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Could a statement like this one come from non-Christian worldview? The Judeo-Christian worldview provides the essential definitions for the founding of America, beginning with the conviction expressed by our founders that at its core life is sacred and that our legitimate rights as human beings have been endowed to us by our Creator. Which could other worldviews provide that categorical statement? (Ref. 2)
- No Islamic nation in the world operates with a belief in the inalienable right of liberty.
- Naturalism does not acknowledge a Creator who could endow us with inalienable rights.
- Buddhism: The caste system suggests men are not created equal.
- Pantheism, with its karmic bequest, does not see us as being created equal; instead, Pantheism assumes that we are born to a life of karmic repayment until the debt is paid.
In our Nation’s Capital, we can find evidences of God’s role in America’s history on nearly every monument, memorial, and building (Ref. 4):
- Latin words “Laus Deo” which means “Praise be to God” is inscribed in the aluminum cap of the capstone atop Washington Monument. It is 555 feet high, facing skyward to the Father of our nation. This giant obelisk began on July 4th 1848 when James Polk was President of the United States, it was not until 1888 that the monument was inaugurated and opened to the public. This inscription demonstrated the concept of “One nation under God” in the founders’ mind. Sadly, the NPS (National Park Service, a branch of the Federal Government) has lately censored “God” from a key display of America’s Christian heritage in Washington. They replaced “Laus Deo” with “CAP OF THE MONUMENT”. (Ref. 3)
- “In God We Trust” is written over the southern entrance of the U.S. Capital.
- An image of the Ten Commandments is engraved in bronze on the floor of the National Archives, where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are displayed.
- “The heavens declared the glory of God” (Psalms 19:1) is engraved on a wall of Library of Congress.
- A sculpture of Moses with Ten Commandments appears over the east portico of Supreme Court.
- “Holiness to the Lord” is engraved into a tribute block of Washington Monument.
Our Founding Fathers intended the United States to be a Christian Nation:
- George Washington hoped that all nations would “acknowledge the providence of Almighty God and obey His will.”
- Thomas Jefferson himself warned the new United States to never forget their “liberties are the gift of God.”
- President John Adams recommended in 1799 a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer.
- John Jay was the first Supreme Court chief justice appointed by George Washington, one of the great founders of the new nation. John Jay, along with James Madison (the 4th president of the United States) and Alexander Hamilton (the first Secretary of Treasury), together made such a remark as “It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” We see that the early leaders not only viewed this nation as a “Christian nation”, they also had the conviction that the leaders should be believers of Jesus Christ also.
- Benjamin Franklin proposed that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 begin each day with a prayer.
Billy Graham in one of his sermons made a juxtaposition between the Constitution of the United States with the Bible:
- The Bible does not allow private interpretation, so does the Constitution.
- The Bible is absolute, so does the Constitution.
- The Bible is the supreme moral laws of God; the Constitution is the highest law of the land.
Was the United States of America founded upon the foundation of Judeo-Christian worldview? The answer is resoundingly YES.
References:
- “What If Jesus Had Never Been Born” by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe; page 72.
- “Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality” by Ravi Zacharias; page 39.
- http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/lausdeo.asp
- One of Newt Gingrich’s letters.
