I'm Still a Patriot
I thought I might include a concluding blog on my trip to Paris and I didn’t want to bore you with the events of my fifth and final day there. To sum it up: I went to the Hotel des Invalides where you can find a military museum and Napoleon’s crypt. Instead, I felt that I may give an uninformed, meager argument on why I think America is better than France.
There is an undisputable link between the historic foundations of the American government and Christianity. This by no means is to be understood with claims that America is the new Israel, God’s chosen and set apart people. However, it does have ramifications for how our government is set up and what truths we hold to be true and self-evident as the Declaration of Independence so eloquently puts it. If one doubts it, they can easily pick up a book co-authored by a professor of mine entitled A Nation Dedicated to Religious Liberty which gives empirical evidence to the said claim and which has been cited by the US Supreme Court on numerous occasions. If one is still in doubt, you can take a visit to our nation’s capital and observe for yourself our nation’s most precious monuments. The majority of them have, inscribed in stone, Scriptural passages, or references to a Creator God, or themes which are found in Christian theism. We are a nation “under God.”
I do wish to say that whatever America does is right, or that America has not itself become a haven for all types of evil, but if we really practiced what we preached, then I think our nation would be one whose fundamental basis was God’s Word. Now I am sure that many here (I’m looking in your direction Bill), would accuse me of adhering to some kind of theonomy. Well, you can rest assured, I don’t think theonomy is a good idea. But I will say that the laws and truths found in our nation’s documents have to get their basis from something, and I think that something is the Word of God.
How different this is from France. Their slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the cry of the French Revolution and still is etched in many of their nation’s buildings. The fundamental tenets of Enlightenment rationalism led them away from a Creator God and established man as the being that was to be worshipped. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. God is not spoken of in France. Perhaps this is an over-generalization, but Christianity was certainly not evident in Paris. They have secularized the cathedrals that were built to glorify Him, they do not inscribe references to Him in stone, and they are a country who has wholly forsaken Him.
The French Revolution wanted to achieve equality for the lower classes, impartiality in the law, and a nation of brothers not divided by social status. In short, they wanted a form of justice. Of course, there may be arguments for or against this claim. Perhaps, they were driven by purely economic reasons. But I believe at the heart of it, they knew something was wrong and wanted it fixed.
The prophet in Micah writes “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” To act justly and to love mercy, rightly, one must be walking with God. God’s common grace allows that we do see some pale reflection of good in our unbelieving neighbors, but to understand justice rightly, we must be in a right relationship with our Creator God. I believe the America is founded upon some of these truths. As of now, we seem at time to be running on the fumes of such a great religious history, but at least we have a history to be proud of, a history for which we can thank God.
Once again, being away from home made me realize why I love home so much. I am blessed to live in a land where the very words of God are still graven in stone, where Christianity has not yet been swept under the rug. May God grant continual growth and reformation of His Church in America, and may He bring us back to the truths found in our nation’s great history.
There is an undisputable link between the historic foundations of the American government and Christianity. This by no means is to be understood with claims that America is the new Israel, God’s chosen and set apart people. However, it does have ramifications for how our government is set up and what truths we hold to be true and self-evident as the Declaration of Independence so eloquently puts it. If one doubts it, they can easily pick up a book co-authored by a professor of mine entitled A Nation Dedicated to Religious Liberty which gives empirical evidence to the said claim and which has been cited by the US Supreme Court on numerous occasions. If one is still in doubt, you can take a visit to our nation’s capital and observe for yourself our nation’s most precious monuments. The majority of them have, inscribed in stone, Scriptural passages, or references to a Creator God, or themes which are found in Christian theism. We are a nation “under God.”
I do wish to say that whatever America does is right, or that America has not itself become a haven for all types of evil, but if we really practiced what we preached, then I think our nation would be one whose fundamental basis was God’s Word. Now I am sure that many here (I’m looking in your direction Bill), would accuse me of adhering to some kind of theonomy. Well, you can rest assured, I don’t think theonomy is a good idea. But I will say that the laws and truths found in our nation’s documents have to get their basis from something, and I think that something is the Word of God.
How different this is from France. Their slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the cry of the French Revolution and still is etched in many of their nation’s buildings. The fundamental tenets of Enlightenment rationalism led them away from a Creator God and established man as the being that was to be worshipped. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. God is not spoken of in France. Perhaps this is an over-generalization, but Christianity was certainly not evident in Paris. They have secularized the cathedrals that were built to glorify Him, they do not inscribe references to Him in stone, and they are a country who has wholly forsaken Him.
The French Revolution wanted to achieve equality for the lower classes, impartiality in the law, and a nation of brothers not divided by social status. In short, they wanted a form of justice. Of course, there may be arguments for or against this claim. Perhaps, they were driven by purely economic reasons. But I believe at the heart of it, they knew something was wrong and wanted it fixed.
The prophet in Micah writes “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” To act justly and to love mercy, rightly, one must be walking with God. God’s common grace allows that we do see some pale reflection of good in our unbelieving neighbors, but to understand justice rightly, we must be in a right relationship with our Creator God. I believe the America is founded upon some of these truths. As of now, we seem at time to be running on the fumes of such a great religious history, but at least we have a history to be proud of, a history for which we can thank God.
Once again, being away from home made me realize why I love home so much. I am blessed to live in a land where the very words of God are still graven in stone, where Christianity has not yet been swept under the rug. May God grant continual growth and reformation of His Church in America, and may He bring us back to the truths found in our nation’s great history.
1 Comments:
Amen and Amen!
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