As a Christian American, I am happy to be a citizen of this great land. And as a Christian American first and foremost, I am committed to having a Biblical outlook toward my own country. For example:
The Bible teaches that God still loves the Jews, and never revoked His covenant with them (Romans 11::28-29). One day Jesus Christ will come back, and rule from Jerusalem.
America did not replace Israel in the plan of God. So, my theology about Israel influences my attitude about my country America in that way. Unlike Mormonism, which makes America the center of God's plan, Christians should uphold God's unique place for Israel in His plan for the nations.
Second, the Bible played a unique role in influencing our founding Fathers. The founders were not all evangelical Christians. Some were Deists, others were more sacramental in their beliefs than I. We shouldn't throw an evangelical gloss backward into our history. But, for the greater part, they respected the Bible and drew upon it for wise principles of governance. James Madison, who drafted our Constitution, was an example of this.
America was pioneered by the Pilgrims, and then later the Puritans, but we have often fallen far short of Christian ideals. America's history has been a constant battle between internal forces of cultural darkness and light -- slavery vs. abolition, covenant-breaking toward the Native Indians vs covenant-keeping. Americans laid down their lives in Europe to stop Nazism, but there was, and still is, great racial evil at home -- some of it individualized, some of it embedded into laws and policies.
But the Bible has always played a powerful, positive force (whenever followed) in America, in spite of her severe failings. We should give thanks for this. Think how much worse we would have been as a nation without the ethical teachings of the Ten commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount!
America needs Jesus Christ! We are hardly the "best" nation on earth. I personally think we've been under the wrath of God for some time, for a lot of different things -- and perhaps the worst of them is our adoration of Self. There are nations that have lower murder-rates than ours. Better health-care systems. More humane programs for the poor. The mass shootings we see in the U.S. almost never happen in other industrialized nations. But despising America is not the answer, either. I thank God for mercy He has shed on us, and as Christians we should pray and work to bring Christ's story to our own nation. Politics can only rearrange the deck-chairs on the Titanic. We need God to patch the giant hole in the ship.
The Bible teaches that God still loves the Jews, and never revoked His covenant with them (Romans 11::28-29). One day Jesus Christ will come back, and rule from Jerusalem.
America did not replace Israel in the plan of God. So, my theology about Israel influences my attitude about my country America in that way. Unlike Mormonism, which makes America the center of God's plan, Christians should uphold God's unique place for Israel in His plan for the nations.
Second, the Bible played a unique role in influencing our founding Fathers. The founders were not all evangelical Christians. Some were Deists, others were more sacramental in their beliefs than I. We shouldn't throw an evangelical gloss backward into our history. But, for the greater part, they respected the Bible and drew upon it for wise principles of governance. James Madison, who drafted our Constitution, was an example of this.
America was pioneered by the Pilgrims, and then later the Puritans, but we have often fallen far short of Christian ideals. America's history has been a constant battle between internal forces of cultural darkness and light -- slavery vs. abolition, covenant-breaking toward the Native Indians vs covenant-keeping. Americans laid down their lives in Europe to stop Nazism, but there was, and still is, great racial evil at home -- some of it individualized, some of it embedded into laws and policies.
But the Bible has always played a powerful, positive force (whenever followed) in America, in spite of her severe failings. We should give thanks for this. Think how much worse we would have been as a nation without the ethical teachings of the Ten commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount!
America needs Jesus Christ! We are hardly the "best" nation on earth. I personally think we've been under the wrath of God for some time, for a lot of different things -- and perhaps the worst of them is our adoration of Self. There are nations that have lower murder-rates than ours. Better health-care systems. More humane programs for the poor. The mass shootings we see in the U.S. almost never happen in other industrialized nations. But despising America is not the answer, either. I thank God for mercy He has shed on us, and as Christians we should pray and work to bring Christ's story to our own nation. Politics can only rearrange the deck-chairs on the Titanic. We need God to patch the giant hole in the ship.