This book presents a vision for the future of the United States of America as a Christian civilization. When I speak of the history of America, I include the United States as the federal union that came into being with the Constitution in 1787, but also the earlier settlements instituted by compacts, charters, orders and state constitutions. Christian nationalists bolster America’s unique political system by using the quotations of various Christian founders. Make no mistake about it – America is a Christian nation.8 This is undeniable, but it is neither because our political founders were professing Christians, nor because our Declaration of Independence repeatedly refers to the God of the Bible, nor because there is a treasure trove of quotations from our Founding Fathers who extolled Christianity. Although all this is true, this is not what made America a Christian nation.
America was founded as a Christian nation because the bedrock of our civilization was made up of Christian families, churches and cultural institutions. These Christian colonists had the explicit purpose to establish the Gospel of Christ’s kingdom, power and glory. In the words of the Mayflower Compact, the foundation of our civilization was “for the Glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith.” This was signed on November 11, 1620 – almost 156 years prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
This book presents the thesis that America was founded first as a Christian civilization, then much later, America became a Liberal nation-state. The idea of the Modern nation-state was in part based on the Westphalian system, named for the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which resolved the conflict between Protestant and Roman Catholic territories of Europe at the conclusion of the Thirty Years War. The resulting balance of power brought about “clearly defined, centrally controlled, independent entities, whether empires or nation-states, which recognize each other’s sovereignty and territory.”9 After the rise of the nation-state, it became more common to see national boundaries drawn to reflect artificial surface area rather than organic deep culture. Wherever religion was an organizing dilemma, the state dictated which religion that the people should be – Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist – depending on the religion of the sovereign. National politics came to the forefront in Western Europe, while in the remaining world civilizations, power was more diverse and organically structured around culture, history, tradition, moral values, and shared beliefs. America was founded at a time when the civilizational model was still assumed by Christians to be God’s natural order.
The nation-state model did not sweep Europe immediately. Over the next few centuries, the system was cemented into the Western consciousness through both secular and well-meaning Christian political philosophers. At the same time, notable French, English and Scottish Enlightenment thinkers further contributed to the idea of civil liberty. We often hear that the model of American Independence was Christian; while the French Revolution was viciously secular. Two superficially similar yet fundamentally opposed ideas grew up side by side. The Christian contribution to representational government is often overlooked. This experiment with civil liberty began as Reformed Protestants sought a better model of government for both church and state, which would not be subject to the arbitrary and cruel tyranny of kings and bishops. The slogan of semper reformanda, “always reforming,” was appropriated from a devotional book written by Jodocus van Lodenstein in 1674.
The part of religion that always needs reforming is the human heart. It is vital religion and true faith that must be constantly cultivated (emphasis added).
The Reformers sought to reform the faith, doctrine and practice of the Church. The Reformers understood that these models applied to societal institutions and civil government as well. We hear much about Liberalism’s political subject of individual rights. However, the primary concern of Christianity is the conversion of the heart to Christ as the way to true Liberty. The Christian idea of Liberty comes from the Bible. “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 2:17). Without the freedom that comes from the Holy Spirit, there can be no liberty of conscience, no corresponding reformation of behavior, no reformation of church doctrine, no reformation of civil government, and therefore, no civil liberty. A model of life that rests on the foundation of Christian civilization is based on the authority of Scripture.
John Wycliffe, the first man to translate the entire Bible into English,10 reputedly wrote, “This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.” This statement does not mean that the Bible is a way to govern the people from the top down, as in Islamic sharia law, but rather it should be read by the people for the purpose of self-government. We are first freed from the condemnation of the Law by being born again by the Spirit of God. We are justified by the gift of faith. But faith also comes with the gift of repentance, not because of our own good works, but by the renewing of our whole mind by the Word of God. The English Bible translated into the common dialect of the people was to be used as a standard for all aspects of good behavior in society. The people within the Christian community would be equipped as self-governing and thereby free under God’s law through the Liberty of the Spirit. Then good government could be had “by the people and for the people.” Wycliffe originally meant “government” to apply to church government and life within the Christian community.
Our founder’s idea of liberty was a government of the people under God. The signers of the Mayflower Compact pledged, “We … for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith … Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politic.” America was founded in the 1600s by Christian men, such as Massachusetts governor John Winthrop, who demonstrated in his sermon, A Model of Christian Charity, that this would be a Christian community founded on the gift of spiritual love.11 America was founded not by secularists, but by Puritans, Reformed Protestants, Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Quakers, Anabaptists, Roman Catholics and others – all jostling together and vying for influence. Colonial America was spiritually united by several Christian revival movements beginning with the Puritans in the early 1600s and extending into the time of the Great Awakening in the 1700s. This political experiment with Christian Liberty blossomed by the time of America’s War for Independence in 1775. The biblical influence on America’s founding was widely accepted by nearly all civil rulers and Christian ministers in early America.12
If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do? …
For the Lord is righteous,
He loves righteousness;
His countenance beholds the upright (Psalms 11:3,7).
Our founders echoed Wycliffe’s idea when they began the Constitution with the words, “We the People.” Lincoln also understood this allusion13 when he quoted Wycliffe in the Gettysburg Address.14
We are to be ruled by God and His Law as our supreme Sovereign. This is a biblical mandate. However, if the law we choose is man’s law and not God’s law, then we fall back into a tyranny based on the whims of our rulers. Man’s law is arbitrary and fickle, subject to greed and ambition, while God’s law is just, specific, applicable, and unchanging. If we are to move forward as a great nation – one out of many in a multipolar world – then we must return to the ideals of our founding as a Christian civilization. We must discard the mistakes, ignorance and prejudices of our founding era, while retaining the essential good as we move forward into a postmodern era. We Americans occupy our own Great Space in a world made up of civilization states. Our nation is “great” in terms of land mass, population, wealth, history, tradition, culture, ideology, and spirituality. To make America great again, we must seek to become a positive civilizational force that offers a model of Christian charity for all the world to see.
8 Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892), was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States The case is famous for Justice David Josiah Brewer’s statements that America is a “Christian nation.” “These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation” 143 U.S. 457 (1892). In a 1905 book titled: The United States: A Christian Nation, Brewer explained further: “But in what sense can it be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or that people are in any matter compelled to support it. On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Neither is it Christian in the sense that all of its citizens are either in fact or name Christian. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in public service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially. In fact, the government as a legal organization is independent of all religions. Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this republic as a Christian Nation – in fact, as the leading Christian Nation of the world. This popular use of the term certainly has significance. It is not a mere creation of the imagination. It is not a term of derision but has substantial basis – one which justifies its use.”
9 Howard Richards, Understanding the Global Economy, Peace Education Books, 2004. p. 348.
10 The first Wycliffe Bible appeared in 1382. Because Wycliffe lived nearly a century before Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, all of his Bibles were hand-written manuscripts, produced one at a time in the local dialects of Middle English. His work created a thirst for the Bible in the language of the common man. Prior to Wycliffe, portions of Scripture, including all of the Gospels, had been translated into dialects of Old English (Anglo-Saxon). William Tyndale is credited as the first to translate all of the New Testament and portions of the Old Testament into early modern English. Much of Tyndale’s Bible became the basis for the Coverdale Bible, the first complete Bible in English produced on the printing press.
11 Winthrop’s sermon is a reference to 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” “Charity” is from the Latin derived word, caritas. The Greek word for “spiritual love” in the New Testament is agapé. In 1630, Massachusetts founding governor John Winthrop preached his famous “city on a hill” sermon using his own personal copy of the King James Version – the first known KJV Bible on American soil. But this was something of an aberration; a solid majority of the earliest colonists preferred their Puritan-friendly Geneva Bible. However, the translation of agapé as “charity” is identical in both versions.
12 See: Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730-1805, 2 vols. United States: Liberty Fund, 1998 for a collection of sermons from the founding era that show how Christian pastors viewed the Bible’s influence on the American Revolution.
13 This attribution has been disputed by some skeptics because it appears only in secondary sources and not in any extant “Prologue of Wycliffe’s New Testament.” However, the original quotation evolved over the years. All of Wycliffe’s Bibles were copied in handwritten manuscript form in the 1380s in the West Midlands dialect of Middle English. Other dialects are represented in later versions. By 1409, it was declared illegal to own a copy of the Wycliffe Bible without the permission of a bishop. Therefore, only a few copies of original manuscripts survive today. The first still existing printing press copy of a Wycliffe Bible was by John Lewis in 1731. However, the earliest source for a similar “government by the people” quotation is recorded in John Gilpin’s Life of Wyckliffe in the mid-1500s. (Note the archaic spelling of the name, “Wickliffe.”)
It was now a distinguishing article of Wickliffe’s creed as appears from his publications whilst professor at Oxford that “the New Testament or Gospel is a perfect rule of life and manners and ought to be read by the people.” And this was doubtless the confirmed opinion of Huss, his disciple (John Gilpin’s Life of Wyckliffe quoted in: Samuel Newton, Leading Sentiments of the People Called Quakers Examined. London, 1771. p. 50).
The shorter phrase – “rule of life … to be read by the people” is an echo of a genuine Wycliffe quotation. It fits the idea of the longer phrase: “This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.” By the 19th century, Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister and anti-slavery advocate, used a similar phrase in a sermon in Boston’s Music Hall on July 4, 1858. Lincoln’s law partner William H. Herndon visited Boston and returned to Springfield, Illinois with some of Parker’s sermons and addresses. Herndon wrote that Lincoln marked with pencil the portion of the Music Hall address “Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, by all the people, for all the people.” At Gettysburg, Lincoln enshrined the people’s rule in the fervent pledge that, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” (“Who coined ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’?” Washington Post, March 31, 2017).
14 Interestingly, there were five versions of the Gettysburg Address that appeared shortly after the speech was given. Three, including the one officially approved by Lincoln, had the phrase “under God,” but two omitted it. This edit exemplifies the degeneration of our civilization into a secular state beginning in the late 1800s. Godless influences through men like Theodore Parker, Americans began to emphasize “We the People” – instead of “We the people under God,” “Christ,” and “the one true Savior” as stated in earlier colonial charters and state constitutions. This secular view altered America’s foundation with the counterfeit political theory of Liberalism in the late 19th century. Finally, a decadent Modernist American empire arose in the 20th century.
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