A Christian country: is it a delusion or should it be a reality?
Many will question the very idea of a Christian country or State and consider it delusory. At the other end of the argument are those who firmly believe that our present godless nations can be turned into Christian ones. Is either one of these positions supported by Scripture? In order to resolve this question, we must ask ourselves, if a nation does not order its affairs according to the Word of God by what measure ought it to be ruled? There can be no other answer than that every State, every nation ought to be Christian and challenged to be so.
Corporate repentance is possible, just as it is on a personal level. Let us ever be mindful that we live in the midst of a perverse and godless generation. No reformation or reconstruction of national life can take place save through the preaching of the everlasting Gospel of repentance towards God and faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a truly Christian nation would mean putting to death the present order of things to be replaced by something different entirely. This would have to happen to the collective life of any nation. Nothing less will suffice.
It can be nothing less than God’s will that all nations should repent and believe in Christ and that our countries should be run according to the Word of God.
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Timothy 2:1-6)
Should nations continue along their present pathway, there is little doubt that they face the wrath and judgement of God prophesied in Scripture that will bring them down and the rightful King, the Lord Jesus, will rule in their place. This must be so, for it is not possible for God’s purposes to be thwarted by man’s sin.
“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25)
Rulers who reject God, who rebel against Him, will bring inevitable disaster and misery to their people. They will be brought to account by God, but then by what standard if not the Scriptures? The question now remains, will such a circumstance arrive? Certain is that one day we shall see: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)
Is it right ever to speak of a ‘Christian country’ or a ‘Christian State’? The very idea will seem an unlikely even impossible presumption to some. The question as to whether there ever can be such a State, or whether there ever will be such a State, ought to be considered quite separately from each other. Certainly, it is perfectly conceivable for a nation to be governed by godly men who seek to follow the Scriptures and carry their people with them. Surely, this is what any Christian believer would want for the land in which they live? By what other standard can anyone live other than by the Word of God? Indeed, it is the only way acceptable to God. From the Scriptures we know that one day all men will bow the knee to Christ, willingly or unwillingly (Philippians 2:10-11) and that He will reign on earth. The Kingdom of God will prevail and the will of God shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Praying this, we are praying for a sure accomplishment not simply an obscure possibility.
The understanding of godless men is governed not by reality but a myth. All that they think, say, and do takes place within this framework. To suggest that the Scriptures could have anything to say about the State runs counter to all that those without God believe. The Church is looked upon largely as a religious institution, there for those who want to worship God, whilst the State is responsible for political order and never the twain shall meet. Humanists decry the idea of a Christian State, but largely because they fear its appearance. Humanists have killed all idea of there being a Christian State and are trying desperately to cover up the corpse.
Nevertheless, the Kingdom of God is not so easily disposed of. Just as in pre-Reformation Europe the Church prevailed in authority over the State, so religion will be tolerated only for as long as the State remains sovereign over all. These were the sentiments of Rousseau. He would tolerate all religions, but none that taught absolute truths and principles. Those who teach a transcendent view of God and the importance of salvation are heretics and a threat to the modern State and must be silenced. Such pluralism can only be, and will only be maintained only by force.
Neo-orthodoxy rejects any suggestion that a State can be Christian. In The Divine Imperative, Emil Brunner writes most clearly, “A Christian State never existed and never will”. According to Brunner the State was instituted as a direct result of the Fall and consequently cannot belong to the Kingdom of Christ, but rather to natural secular ordinances. A Christian concept of culture, learning and education, economics, art or music is by definition impossible. None of these things can have anything whatever to do with the Christian faith, but are part of the temporal world that is permeated by sin; they belong to nature where purely worldly ordinances are valid. Nature is the realm of the temporal world outside that of faith, completely distinct from it and subject to totally inflexible ordinances. It is a realm of law, rule without love. The Christian is liberated from this world by an inner life of grace and is thus enabled to act in accordance with Christ’s command of love of the moment. Grace is the realm of faith, the supra-temporal Kingdom of God subject to the commandment of love.
Similarly, most evangelicals and certainly fundamentalists will also hold that the very idea of a Christian State is both erroneous and impossible. No State was ever, nor ever can be Christian as it is part of a fallen world. They have come to this conclusion ostensibly for biblical reasons, but in reality, this is not so. It is because like many before them, they have drunk deeply at the wells of humanism without always realising it. We need always to sift our thoughts thoroughly and remove all such tendencies. This we can do by continually immersing ourselves in the Scriptures, believing and applying them to our day.
David W. Norris
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