The Establishment of a Christian Nation

 

Christmas arrived and great grandchildren looked forward to an evening or two of riding around neighborhoods to view the exciting light displays. One evening the great grandparents went along. For about ninety minutes, we went in and out of cul-de-sacs and down streets. Toward the end of the journey, I asked my wife if I was crazy or were there only about 10% of the yards with a decidedly Christian focus. She agreed what we saw were mostly Santa likenesses or varying degrees and colors of lights.

Another observation pointed to neighborhoods in subdivisions of higher-than-average incomes: multi-story, brick homes with attic floor space larger than our entire living space, and vehicles with values a quarter of what we paid for our home. In other words, people of means.

So, why do you suppose this vast array of American wealth and blessing kowtowed to secular expectations? I’m not specifically calling out all the Santa lovers. What I am pointing to is the lack of acknowledgement of most Americans in our neck of the woods (well within the Bible Belt) to the most obvious blessings of the grace of God.

There have been discussions concerning the state of the union relative to whether America was ever a Christian nation. First, one must understand the definition of nation. It is not a country. It is not a government. A common social trait defines it. Something like culture, language, religion, to name a few things it can be. Secondly, America’s Atlantic coastal colonies were specifically British during the Protestant Reformation movement. This means we had a common language (still in effect), a common religion (Protestant Reformation Christianity), and many common cultural aspects carried over from the British Isles.

How can we be so certain of the claim to Protestant Reformation Christianity?

The start includes key events. One was Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press, mid 1400s. Previous printing required written manuscripts like the Catholic Church’s versions. Gutenberg ensured Bibles in English could be printed 200 times faster than Catholic manuscripts. An important one for all Protestants was the posting of 93 theses from Martin Luther, a Catholic priest who was also an associate professor at a college, 1513. Another was Tyndale’s translation of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew languages used in the Holy Scriptures directly from the writings of Biblical scholars and prophets. He translated into Modern English rather than the Middle English often used in prior work by other people.

King Henry VIII determined he would not bend to the Catholic pope’s demand to respect the pope’s instruction concerning a divorce from his deceased brother’s wife. Henry then determined he would be the religious leader of the newly established Anglican Church of England, 1517 era. Henry charged the reformation protestants with heresy, causing the movement of the Puritans and finally the pilgrims’ decision to move to America. During these times in England many bibles were produced. In Henry’s time, the Great Bible was used. In the same era, the Geneva Bible drew a huge following mostly because the creators added many academic notes to the wide margins to assist in understanding the scriptures’ intent. Things like the four or five major instances in the Bible which showed clearly the King was not the highest Authority; God was.

By the time King James took notice in 1604, he demanded a new Bible be printed without all of those notes, hence the King James Bible appeared in 1611. It took a while before it met with acceptance in the colonies.

It appears quite plain there exists any number of reasons why one should consider the British American colonies as a Christian nation. For sure, there were Catholics (Maryland the first to allow it recognized), Jews, and even some Muslims within the colonies, but they were not the vast percentage of religions the Protestant Reformation Christian represented.

There are numerous trails to follow when investigating side roads of this journey in American history. The single worst example is Jefferson’s letter while President to the Ana-Baptists in New England indicating “a wall of separation” existed within our Constitutional Republic keeping the government from taxing any church group to supply funds to a government church as the British were prone to do in England. Perhaps it would have been a more easily understood phrase had he used “a wall of filtration” to show Christianity held the keys to our founding. In that instance, the tenets of Christianity would be the important governmental controls of the men serving in Congress, the Courts, or the Presidency, but the Christian nation (We the People) would forever be held accountable for how those elected servants would govern.