One of the misconceptions about the Christian Patriot movement is that people assume we feel heaven and spiritual issues are unimportant. Some will assume that we are only concerned with an earthly nation. Others may assume that we are trying to establish a “theocracy” in which a church or an oligarchy of churches will rule the country.
I want to say at the outset that the eternal is exceedingly more important than the temporal. Eternal life begins now, according to 1 John 5:13, and will extend into the world to come. Nothing in this life compares to what we gain in the next.
Our Founders fought for liberty from Great Britain, not just to establish a free country but to embrace the inalienable rights God has given us. “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (or Property)” belong to everyone. Sometimes tyrants attempt to limit these rights. When that happens, we must push back and defend what God has given.
Our Founding Fathers valued their earthly liberties in light of eternity. They knew nothing mattered more than eternal life. In Mark 8:36-37 (NKJV), Jesus asked:
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Would you give up your soul for America? We know that God sets up and removes nations. America will one day end its existence. If we pour our efforts only into America, we will lose our souls. Yet, the republic our ancestors established will only work if the citizens follow biblical principles. John Adams knew it and wrote:
“We have no government armed with power capable of continuing with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Greed, ambition, revenge or seduction would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Adams’ statement seems appropriate for our day. He knew that Liberty was a by-product of Christianity. Where Christ goes, He brings freedom. He gives us freedom from sin. He frees us from oppression as well. Listen to the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NKJV):
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
John Adams’ February 22, 1756 diary entry describes a Christian Republic. Hear his words:
Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God…What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.
Christ compels us to liberty. If we are not careful, we can become enslaved to anything. 2 Peter 2:19 (NLT) reminds us of this truth. Peter writes:
They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.
If we are not the servants of God, we will become the servants of sin. Sin can and will control us. Controlling sin may come in the form of addictions or tyrants. In either case, we must work for freedom from that sinful control. Both require extraordinary effort.
The First Great Awakening in America of the 1730s and ’40s set the stage for the American Revolution. The preachers during that era had dug out truths of our inalienable rights. As a result, when it came time to oppose tyranny, many Americans stood against the King and Parliament. They learned dependence on God and acted on the teachings of His word in faith.
John Quincy Adams went on a diplomatic mission to France with his father, John, when he was ten. John Quincy’s mother, Abigail, wrote him of her concerns for his spiritual well-being.
It is almost four months since you left your native land and embarked upon the mighty waters in quest of a foreign country . . . You have constantly been upon my heart and mind. It is a very difficult task, my dear son, for a tender parent to bring her mind to part with a child, of your years going to a distant land… You have arrived at years capable of improving under the advantages you will be likely to have if you do but properly attend to them. They are talents put into your hands, of which an account will be required of you hereafter; and being possessed of one, two, or four, see to it that ‘you double your numbers [Matthew 25:14-17] . . . Adhere to those religious sentiments and principles which were early instilled into your mind, and remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions. . . for dear as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death crop you in your infant years than see you an immoral, profligate [ungodly] or graceless child.[1]
Abigail expressed her concern for her son’s eternal salvation more than the success of the American diplomatic mission. In adhering to the biblical principles she had taught him, he would grow to be one of the great Americans of that era. He was a spiritual man who followed Jesus and a Patriot who loved his country.
Christian Patriotism is not an either-or proposition. Instead, it is both-and. One can be a Patriot and a Christian. When one follows the scriptures, there can be no other outcome.
Christian Patriots recognize that God places them in their lands. These Christian Patriots know that they are to bring God to their land. According to the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrims knew it and intended to “advance Christian faith” in the New World.
When the Hebrews went into the seventy-year Babylonian Captivity, Jeremiah told them to seek the peace of their new nation. The best way they could do that was to initiate their biblical worldview to their new surroundings. As a result, Daniel and the three Hebrew boys practiced true biblical faith as an example to the nation. Listen to Jeremiah 29:5-7 (NKJV):
5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
When we follow God, we can have liberty in this world and the world to come. We gain both through Jesus. These are practical and eternal principles of God’s word.
Let’s Keep The Light of Eternal Principles Burning!
[1] Cummings, Brad, and Lance Wubbels, editors. The Founders’ Bible. Newbury Park, CA, Shiloh Road Publishers, 2012, p. 1522.