During my sermon prep for this Sunday I had occasion to reference I Peter 2:9 on a tangential matter.
But you are a chosen people, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may
declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful
light.
This gives me a chance to resurrect one of my favorite soapboxes and beat one of my favorite dead horses. That dead horse in a soapbox is the issue of what constitutes a Christian nation.
I Peter 2:9 says that the church is a holy nation and this comes from Exodus 19:3-6:
3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
To understand what it means that the chuch is a holy nation we need to understand what it meant for Israel to be a holy nation. Israel was a holy nation by virtue of it's descent from Abraham, the man of faith and the man who was called by God to have descendants as numerous as the stars, to be a great nation, to inherit a land, and to be a blessing to the nations. And, most importantly, to be holy nation is to be in covenant with God, a covenant ratified by the shedding of blood. All of this is found in Genesis 12, 15, and 17.
In the New Testament we see that the church meets all of these criteria, we are a people of faith, called by God. The members of the church are the descenants of Abraham and considering the millions of these Abrahamic descendants who have walked the earth in all times and all places, we are as numerous as the stars. The church is a nation, and we have a land we are inheriting called the New Heavens and New Earth. Although we fail miserably in being a blessing to the nations, we are the carriers of the great blessing which blesses all the nations of the earth - the gospel. We are in covenant with God, this covenant being ratified with the shedding of the blood of Jesus.
As a nation we have a government. Of course there is division within the church as to exactly what shape that government should take, be it a hierarchical, representative, or congregational form, but nonetheless we all acknowledge that there is a governing structure for the church. We refer to members of our nation as citizens. We have governmental officials called elders and public servants called deacons. We have our own welfare system called mercy ministry. We have a communications media, called preaching and teaching. We have laws that govern our society and penalties for those who violate those laws through the church discipline process. There is even a sense in which our nation has a death penalty - excommunication.
Our nation is like other nations in all of those areas, yet our nation is so unlike other nations. Our leaders govern through service not power. We have these leaders, but we call no man king, for there is one king and head of the church. The church's authority is spiritual, not civil. We have laws like other nations do, but we have one thing no other nation has, grace. Our society welcomes lawbreakers, because it is governed by lawbreakers who found grace in the gospel. Even when a censure is imposed through church discipline, our nation stands ready, willing and eager to commute every sentence upon repentance. In fact, we are the one nation who has a means of reversing the death penalty. Even those who have been excommunicated can be welcomed back into the fold upon repentance.
But what sets our nation apart from all other nations the most is that our citizenship comes through our covenantal relationship with God. He has promised to be our God and we have promised to be His people. We can claim our citizenship as long as we adhere to the terms of the covenant, which are to enter into the covenant by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the citizenship test, will we have faith in Jesus. And we live by the terms of the covenant as we teach, learn and obey all the things Jesus has commanded us to do.
Knowing all of this, I believe it is improper for any other geo-political entity to refer to itself as a "holy" nation or as a "Christian" nation. A nation which does not base citizenship on faith in Jesus Christ cannot properly be called a "Christian" nation. The true Christian nation of the church has a redemptive calling which is different from the civil callings of the other nations.
In the Old Testament there was a distinction between THE Nation (of Israel) and the nations and I think it is important that we maintain the distinction between the "Christian" nation of today and the other nations. And for this reason I think we err today when we refer to America as a "Christian" nation or try to recover some golden era of the past when we were supposedly a "Christian" nation. If you care to slog through some long-fingered posts detailing my political views in depth you can find them at this post which has links to all the posts in my series on politics.
Having said that, the other nations of the world are still spoken of and to in the Abrahamic covenant. Genesis 12:3 says:
3 I
will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.”
To say that there is one particular holy or Christian nation and
that this terminology must be reserved exclusively for Israel and the
church is not to say that God is unconcerned with the affairs of other
nations. In fact, the other nations of the world have a place in the
Abrahamic covenant. Though they cannot bear the title "holy nation"
they can be blessed by God, as nations, when they bless the church.
An example of this is Nineveh. When Ninevah repented at the
preaching of Jonah God blessed them by withholding judgment. God
blessed this nation, but Nineveh did not become Israel, Nineveh
remained Nineveh - blessed by God but not the covenant nation of God.
I have gone on record time and again here as disputing the notion that our founding fathers were all Christians (here's one example). I think our founding fathers were far more of a mixed bag than some of our modern gatekeepers of the Christian right think. And by the way, I don't believe that statements of certain founding fathers who said we are a Christian nation prove that we were a Christian nation. The Word of God defines what constitutes a "Christian nation," not men, no matter how sincere or devoted they were. I don't think the American nation meets the biblical criteria outlined above for a holy or Christian nation.
But I will admit that, aside from Thomas Jefferson and maybe a few
others, our founding fathers were largely friendly to the church and
could be considered to have blessed the church to a large degree.
In that respect I think it is fair to speak of God's blessings on
our nation. These blessings are not because we are or were a Christian
nation, but because our nation has been a blessing to the Christian
nation of the church. Further, the laws of our nation have largely
been modeled on the laws of the covenantal Christian nation and that
brings a blessing in and of itself.
Where this leaves us now is that, rather than trying to reclaim America for Christ, we need to first reclaim the chuch for Christ. The church needs to learn to think biblically about itself and its citizens need to learn to think biblically about their responsibilities as citizens. I am often amazed at the lengths to which Christians will go to perrsuade non-Christians to submit to biblical law, all the while disregarding biblical law that applies directly to them.
I also think we need to reconsider what it means to be a blessing to the nations. I am quite sure I don't know all of what it means but I am also quite sure that, at least here in America, we've been more concerned about gaining power than being a blessing.
In any case, we need to distinguish the Holy Christian Nation, which is the church, from the nations. Then we need to wrestle harder with what it means for this holy nation to be a blessingto the nations.
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