As someone who is right on the cusp between the Millennial and the Zoomer (Generation Z) generations, I remember hearing stories from my parents about how early on in my schooling, they were fortunate enough to put me in a public school setting where they were able to pray with my teachers before parent-teacher conferences in my small town in deep red Indiana. Nowadays, hearing such a comment would result in a teacher getting disciplined, possibly even fired, and it does not matter if that teacher was in a red, blue, or purple state. Nowadays, an American society catechized under the false doctrines of “Principled Pluralism,” “Separation of Church and State [the reimagined definition of neutering Christians in the public sphere is what I mean here instead of preventing the State from establishing a church],” “Personal Liberty,” and a lot more of these dog whistles that commonly circulate throughout our culture today. The United States was founded on the principles of the Protestant Christian faith, with the fathers of our Founding Fathers coming over to escape persecution from the Church of England. Now, Christians are expected to disobey Jesus Christ’s command to “‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations [this includes our own, but I will get to that later], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20 ESV),’” and they are to do that by leaving the Christian living on Sunday and not any of the other six days of the week. This article will be the first in a series on making the United States of America a Christian nation again, beginning the week of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding.
The overarching goal of this series is to posit and promote Christian living in every facet of our American society, including the political sphere. In a pluralistic society, it is expected that everyone will “live and let live,” or respect other people’s traditions, customs, and ways of life. Ultimately, what that actually meant was for society to tell Christians to butt out and take our degeneracy as it is, or you will be punished severely for it, as Jack Phillips found out in the early 2010s. As I pointed out above, “Principled Pluralism,” to its logical conclusion, forces the Christian who identifies as such to disobey Christ’s Great Commission. The Apostles point out that we, as Christians, are to “‘obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29 ESV).’” We do have the free exercise of religion in this country per the First Amendment to our Constitution, so we must use that opportunity to minister to our neighbors, calling them to repent and turn to Christ Jesus. As of right now, we in the American Church as a whole are letting fear of man dictate our mission parameters instead of God’s Word. Now, I also must acknowledge that there are faithful brothers and sisters who are boldly proclaiming Christ to the American public sphere, some of who have become friends. Although I briefly lamented over the near black pill of the United States approaching a post-Christian society, I must express hope for the future for these friends of mine to reverse the pluralistic course our nation is currently on.
Another egregious error is believing that when Christ told His Disciples to go into all nations, it means we are to literally go to other nations to minister, rather than do the same in our own backyard. The Great Commission is not limited to those called to overseas missions, for we are also to minister to the lost in our own backyard. I remember hearing one of my old Sunday School teachers say that he once passed a church sign, as congregants exited the church parking lot, that read, “You are now entering the mission field.” In most of our daily contexts, “go” for us looks like going into our place of employment, going to the store, going to the public square, and especially, going into the political sphere. We are told in our society, and dare I say, even in many of our churches, that going into the political sphere is a no-no. In fact, many American churches will preach that entering the political sphere as a Christian is not Kingdom-minded because, muh, “jEsUs SaId HiS kInGdOm iS nOt oF tHiS wOrlD!” This excuse is not only a major misapplication of John 18:36 (I would argue it is pure eisegesis, or reading a particular view into a text of Scripture), but it also calls into question Christ’s kingship, since Christ declared “‘All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me (Matt. 28:18). Christ has dominion over everything both in Heaven and on Earth, and Romans 13:1-4 articulate human government (political by nature) is ordained by God to rule over humans, but furthermore, mandated to bear the sword to those who do wrong (v. 4). Therefore, turning governmental authority over to our enemies is an act of disobedience to God Himself, and rightfully would lead to judgment over such a nation for such an act of defiance.
With all the bad things being discussed in the news or on social media in the United States of America, how do we then return this once-great nation to God? In the next few weeks, I will discuss some areas that need attention, which focus on a ground-up approach to achieve this goal. While many of our politicians profess Christ as Lord of their lives, there does not appear to be much fruit among these leaders. We have had some great politicians at the state level who used their office to serve the Lord’s Will to the best of their abilities in the last few years (Dusty Deevers from Oklahoma and Curt Nisly from Indiana come to mind), but Principled Pluralism is one Hell of a sacred cow to kill, and both of these great men ended up losing their positions because of party influence. We need to build a major coalition consisting of a few million men like Dusty Deevers and Curt Nisly to occupy our elected and appointed offices across every facet of government in this country. I am optimistic that this can happen, but first, we have to start small, with our personal walk with Christ. In the next few weeks, I will walk through a step-by-step process on how to take back the United States for Christ.
The first step to recovering a Christian nation is very simple to state but the hardest to apply (I am preaching to myself especially in these areas, admittedly): Spend time in God’s Word daily, spend more time praying, personally and with your family, and kill your vices. On the subject of reading the Scriptures, this is necessary for two reasons: first, because it is a direct commandment from Scripture (see Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV); and second, because Scripture itself is what we call in Systematic Theology “Special Revelation.” This is the concept that Scripture is God’s way of articulating to us who He is, what His will is for the world and for His people, and how we are to know Him directly, and that was compiled through divine intervention into the eyes, ears, and hearts of men (2 Tim. 3:16-17 ESV). Reading the Scriptures is a command for both men and women, but men are expected to lead their wives and children in the instruction of God’s Word in their households (Gen. 18:19, Josh. 24:15, Ps. 78:5-7, Eph. 6:4 ESV, etc.). Men, if you are not in God’s Word every day, then how can you know what God’s will is for you and your family, or how can you know who God truly is? The answer is, you cannot do so without reading God’s Word, so crack open those Bibles and get to reading, and bring a duster with you if you need to.
Along with reading God’s Word, daily prayer must be a must. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, the Chronicler wrote of prayer in the context of the Lord speaking to Solomon, “‘If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (ESV).’” Furthermore, Paul implores Christians to put on the full armor of God in Ephesians 6, specifically in verse 18, where he wrote, “…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints (ESV)…” Marrying these two verses together, we are instructed to pray daily, and the Lord will address our prayers through His sovereign will, and not our own. As sinners, we are to repent daily for our sins, for we sin every day as totally, but not utterly, depraved beings. Being in daily communication with God through prayer and reading of God’s Word are essentials in our personal lives.
Finally, and this is a painful one to address, but we all have some sort of sinful vice in our lives that we must battle daily. Whether it’s battling pornography addiction, alcohol and drug abuse, sinning in our anger, laziness, etc., we MUST address this in our personal lives, and unfortunately, many of these vices are going to be a lifelong battle to fight off. Satan is hard at work trying to have God’s people give in to their sinful desires (even if you believe Satan is bound so as to not prevent the spread of the Gospel to the nations, as I do, Satan still has ways to lead others astray). 1 Peter 5:8 states, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (ESV).” Kill your sin, but do not fight it alone. James 5:16 implores us to, “…confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (ESV).” Furthermore, Paul wrote, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:1-2 ESV).” You and the Lord truly know what your sins are, and the Lord wants us to live for Him and be free from sin. If and when you do share your burdens with your brothers and sisters in Christ, then true healing can begin starting with genuine repentance.
As stated previously, this is the start of a series on how to recover the United States as a Christian nation. As we close out the 250th anniversary of our great nation, my hope and prayer for this blog is to bring Christians along in the fight to restore our national identity in Christ Jesus. The next article will be addressed to men. I briefly touched on men leading their homes, but I want to expand on what it looks like to lead your homes in the Lord, men. Be looking out for that article coming in the next week.
The Christian Magistrate 
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