Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
You wouldn’t necessarily guess that, looking around at our country today. You’d almost get the impression listening to our media that Christians are little better than social mosquitoes – of no use, irritating, and we’d all be happier if they’d just go away. Our Founding Fathers thought differently. When the United States was born, our leading thinkers and leaders wanted Christianity to be fully unleashed, and allowed to do what they do best – change lives.
John Adams famously wrote, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.”
Can you follow Adams’ logic? Our Founders agreed with Christianity that there is something selfish and evil in the human heart that leads us to act in destructive ways that need to be bridled, i.e. reeled in. Here we’re going to create a government that will allow these same selfish, sinful people to have an unprecedented amount of freedom. If that government is going to survive, then the selfishness in us must be reined in, or the next thing you know, we’ll be creating a “Foundation” in the name of charity, when actually we want our “Foundation” to be a vehicle for personal enrichment, and we’ll find any and every way we can to wheedle our way into power so that the flow of “donations” will never run dry, and…oh, but I digress.
So what will help reel in our selfishness and corruption? Religion says Adams (and by this Adams means especially biblical Christianity). Religion more often than not puts a check on our selfishness and brings the best out of people, because they know that they are accountable to a God who is keeping a close eye on things. Therefore if our government is to flourish, then biblical Christianity had better flourish. We want more true followers of Christ running around.
Because people like that – who know they will answer to a power higher than the Justice Department or the FBI – will leave a note on your windshield if they ding your car, or won’t steal something from you if they see you looking the other way, or won’t boast about where they can grab a woman because they’re so rich, or won’t hide their secrets on a back-room server, then “dump” like crazy if the server is discovered.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” When a person, or a family, or a nation builds itself on the teachings of Christ, and commits itself to the very person of Christ, they will discover blessing. All things being equal, they will end up healthier, stronger, and better equipped to live life on this earth well. In other words, now is not the time for Christians to go to their room without supper just because the rest of the world wants us to. I think that’s what John Adams was saying.
