Is the United States a Christian nation?
The question of whether any country can be called Christian is older than the United States, and commentators who worked through it from Scripture reached a consistent answer. The Bible does describe how God deals with nations, and how believers should live inside them — but it never puts the word "Christian" on a country.
No Nation Is Called Christian in Scripture
Writers who looked for biblical support for the idea found none. One survey of the confusion begins with the assumption many people make and then tests it against the Bible:
J. T. MawsonIt is supposed that because the nations of Europe, for instance, profess Christianity they are Christian nations, and, being so, that it ought to be possible for them to exist on Christian principles... Now the fact is that though Christianity is professed as the national religion of these countries, there is no such thing as a truly Christian nation, if we think of Christianity as it is presented to us in the Bible. That Book is our only instructor in these questions, and it nowhere recognizes nations as Christian.
The same conclusion is reached from the words the New Testament actually uses for a nation and for God's people:
A. J. PollockThere is no such thing as a Christian nation [Greek, ethnos], in God's ways, but out of the nations God selects a people [Greek, laos] for Himself. The thought of a Christian nation in this dispensation receives no support from Scripture.
Faith Is Personal, Never Inherited by Citizenship
Adopting a religion at the national level does not make the people inside it believers. One writer answers directly the claim that a country's official faith gives it a special claim on God:
F. B. HoleWe do not know of any scripture which lends support to the idea that by adopting "the Christian religion" a nation may become "Christian" and therefore specially entitled to pray for God's aid. True faith without which there is no true Christianity, is individual and not national.
So when a country is described as Christian, the honest meaning is statistical rather than spiritual — "what are called Christian nations are simply nations in which a great number of professing Christians are found," as one writer put it, since Scripture recognises no such thing (An Outline of Sound Words).
What a National Profession Does and Does Not Deliver
None of this means a country's Christian heritage is worthless. It produces real public good — and it also runs out at a predictable point:
J. T. MawsonWe do not wish to belittle the effects of a national profession of Christianity. Such a profession creates a conscience, and a certain standard of morals and equity; a restraining hand is laid by it, more or less, upon evil; and it gives ideals to rulers and law-makers that must be beneficial to all. Yet all this is very superficial, and it will be found, speaking generally, that political parties, governments, and rulers only go so far in the adoption of Christian precepts as appear to them to fit in with their self-interests.
The Claim Raises the Standard of Judgment
Commentators warn that calling a country Christian is not a safe boast. It changes the measure God will use:
C. H. MackintoshWe believe that nations, like individuals, will be held responsible for the profession they make; and, hence, those nations which profess and call themselves Christian shall be judged not merely by the light of creation, nor by the law of Moses, but by the full-orbed light of that Christianity which they profess.
God's Present Work Is Gathering, Not Nation-Building
What God is doing now runs in a different direction than national religion. He is not christening countries; He is drawing individuals out of them:
A. J. PollockWe do not look for a Christian nation... Thank God, though we do not look for a Christian nation, yet we know that God visited the nations "to take OUT OF THEM a people for His name" (Acts 15:14). Individuals are hearing. God is graciously working.
That substitution of a national identity for a gathered one is described as one of Christendom's characteristic errors: "Christendom has set up so-called Christian nations in contrast to a chosen race of believers" (Hamilton Smith).
Where the Believer's Loyalty Sits
If no nation carries the name, where does a Christian belong? The answer given is a heavenly registration held while living on earth:
Frederick W. GrantThe Christian's citizenship is in heaven. That forms his character, and delivers him from the unsatisfying pursuit of earthly things.
Commentators differ on how far that separates a believer from public life — some treat involvement in politics as inconsistent with representing another country — but they agree on what is owed to the government overhead:
J. T. MawsonIt is the Christian's duty and privilege to pray for them, not for the rulers of one land only, but for all that are in authority (1 Tim. 2), that the people of God in all lands may be unmolested in their Christian walk and able to live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.
Summary
- Never — Scripture nowhere recognises nations as Christian; the category does not exist in the Bible.
- Individual — true faith is personal, born of new birth and personal trust in Christ, and cannot be adopted at the national level.
- Real but shallow — a national profession creates conscience, morals and restraint, yet rulers keep it only while it suits their interests.
- Costly — a country that claims the name will be judged by the full light of the Christianity it professes, not by a lesser standard.
- Out of — God's present work is to take a people out of the nations for His name, so the believer's citizenship is in heaven while he prays for whoever rules here.