“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

~Acts 17:24-28~

When it comes to the nation of Israel, few conservative theologians doubt God’s purpose in dealing with them. Scripture is quite clear that Israel was to: 1) be a kingdom of priests – Ex. 19:6; 2) receive and give to the world the Word of God – Deut. 4;5-8; 6:6-9; Rom. 3:1-2; 3) teach the doctrine of monotheism – Isa. 43:10-12; and 4) provide a genealogy through which God the Son was to be incarnated – Rom. 9:5; Heb. 2:16-17; 7:13-14. Even though God called Israel for a special purpose and to special promises yet to be fulfilled, the Bible also teaches that God has a plan and purpose for every other nation on earth. Even the ones that do not appear by name in Scripture. After all, the God who loved the entire world enough to give His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sin can be neither purposeless nor negligent when it comes to daily lives of those same people. Neither does His sovereignty allow for them to run aimlessly about the ages. The Apostle Paul noted in the passage above three things that God has given to every nation that ever existed or ever will.

God Cares for the Nations

He gave them linguistic (and thereby, ethnic) distinction as a judgment for rebellion at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). This division of families into language groups formed the basis for every variety of human being on the planet. As families spread out certain traits would become dominant in each over the generations. The world uses the term race to describe this distinction, but the Bible is very clear that there is only one race – the human race. Scripture talks about “people,” “kindred,” “tribes,” and “nations,” but never multiple “races.” In fact, the King James Version uses the word only four times, and never with the definition of ethnicity. However different we may be, we are all human. It was not until the rise of Darwinism that the word race was widely used to distinguish people. God has, however, made “of one blood all nations.”

The second thing God gives to each nation is a space of time to develop its culture. He “determined the times before appointed.” One of the dangerous aspects of post-modernism is the deconstruction of history in which events are viewed primarily in terms of how they affect “marginalized” people groups. History, however, is not just a random stream of events in which the strongest rise to dominate the weak, as many are taught in our schools today. In fact, while warfare and injustice are facts of everyday life in a fallen world, the whole Bible attests to God’s direction in the affairs of nations. Paul has summarized here what would take hours to discuss in detail. Just as God gives every person a chance (a whole lifetime of chances), He also gives each nation a space of time in which to accomplish his will for them. More on that later.

Finally, God gives each nation the geographical boundaries it enjoys or “the bounds of their habitation.” Land is a valuable commodity. Even the most desolate places on the planet have some natural resource that somebody else needs. Even if it is just sand. God’s creation is packed with tremendous natural resources latent in every region! Whether by discovery, purchase, or war, it is God who ultimately does the doling out of resources to the nations (Gen. 12:2; 17:20; Job 12:23; Dan. 2:21; 4:36). Once again, we fully acknowledge that sin exists which brings about warfare, disease, and unrest, but (at the risk of sounding callous) all these things will only serve to advance God’s program of the ages. And there is something that each nation can do!

To summarize, let me say that two things ought to be apparent to the Bible-believing Christian. If God has determined a language, timeframe, and geography for every nation of the world, and if each of those nations was formed from the same bloodline (that of Adam via Noah), then it is a sin to harbor any kind of ethnic prejudice or hatred of any group of people. The second thing that Bible-believing Christians ought to understand is that it is a sin to hate one’s own country. Unfortunately, here in America we have a tax-funded education system that teaches both. “Racism” is subtly taught under the guise of teaching against it and patriotism has been slain at the altar of globalism. Race-baiting is the newest method of pitting Marx’s Proletariat against the Bourgeoisie and globalism amounts to little more than universal communism. Neither one is biblical and the Christian should learn to recognize both and reject them when seen.

But What Does God Expect from the Nations?

The short answer is, “that they should seek the Lord” (Acts 17:27). He wants what Paul talked about in the passage above. The whole reason He provides for the nations of the world is so that they have a space of time in which to learn about and subsequently glorify Him. It is the duty of the nations to seek the Lord, to praise Him, and to govern righteously (Psa. 9:17, 20; 67:2, 4; Prov. 14:34). Obviously, not every nation is like Israel. God only has one chosen nation, per se, but from this passage we learn something very important: regardless of whether a nation’s people or government realize it, they are accountable to God. Here in America we have liberty and blessings enjoyed to a greater extent than any other nation on earth. We have the right to speak and worship freely without the fear of any intervention or persecution by the state. But the idea of the separation of church and state was never intended to mean the separation of God from government. Unfortunately, we have used this phrase to justify removing Him from our public institutions. Every nation, including ours, is supposed to seek God!

An Excerpt from Shepherd on the Hill: A Patriot Pastor’s Guide to Capitol Ministry,

by David Armstrong

“And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.” ~Mark 12:17~

Jesus and the early church lived in a world of kings, proconsuls, and emperors. Caesar was supreme, even worshipped. Since that time, many dynasties of great rulers have born the title. In Pre-Communist Russia, they were the Czars. In Germany prior to the first World War, they were the Kaisers. What do we have in the United States? Who is Caesar in our country? The first inclination of many people is to say, “The president is like a Caesar,” but that is not the answer. The answer is very simple: you are Caesar! The United States of America is an experiment in self-government that is utterly unique in all of world history. Dr. David Ramsay wrote in his Fourth of July Oration in 1794,

We have hit a happy medium between despotism and anarchy. Every citizen is perfectly free of the will of every other citizen while all are equally subject to the laws. Among us no one can exercise any authority by virtue of birth. All start equal in the race of life. No man is born a legislator. We are not bound by any laws but those to which we have consented.^[1]

In our nation, the people govern themselves, via representation, according to a supreme law of our land: the United States Constitution. We are not a democracy, as many believe today. We are a republic. Our U. S. Constitution requires that we elect our governing officials at regular intervals to ensure that we are always governed according to that same supreme law. We the People are Caesar, and we choose who represents us in government. If elected officials are not governing in accordance with the Constitution, we have the opportunity every two, four, and six years to replace them. Every two years, we elect our representatives. Every four years, we elect a president. Senators serve a six-year term, with one third being elected every two years. One critical function necessary to such a representative republic is the involvement of godly people. If we as believers do not like the government, then we must begin by blaming ourselves.

In our nation, government was designed to have the input of the citizens, but the responsibility of self-government required thriving churches. John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”^[2] He understood that the kind of unprecedented liberty protected by the high ideals of self-government could only be preserved if the people being governed were morally and spiritually mature enough to handle it. In other words, freedom relies on the Christian. George Washington himself said, “There is a natural and necessary progression, from the extreme of anarchy to the extreme of tyranny; and arbitrary power is most easily established, on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.”^[3]

What must be done to ensure that liberty is not “abused to licentiousness”? To begin with, churches must be strong and free, preaching the Gospel and discipling new converts. They must render unto God the things that are God’s. This duty provides the necessary character of the nation. In the early days, public policy was very much defined in the pulpit. Pastors preached the Word of God while politicians in the pews heard that preaching and applied those principles and truths in office. Today, we must continue to communicate with those who represent us in government. They must be aware of how we would have them govern, and we must hold them accountable. Author Chuck Colson contrasts Christian influence with the worldly influence of partisan constituencies. He writes, “Our message is not, ‘We put you in office, now pay up.’ Rather it is, ‘This should be done because it is right; it is a principle that undergirds any well-ordered society.’ We must be clear that the moral positions we urge are not partisan; they apply to Democrats and Republicans alike.”^[4] These are the things that must be rendered unto Caesar. In this representative republic, Caesar requires the input of God’s people. For Christians to not be involved in the United States’ government is to shirk responsibility. In fact, since government is itself “of God,” one has not fully rendered unto God the things that are God’s until he has fully rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. 

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^[1] David Ramsay, “An Oration Delivered in St. Michael’s Church Before the Inhabitants of Charleston, South Carolina, on the Fourth of July, 1794 in Commemoration of American Independence,” in Celebrate Liberty, by David Barton (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilders, 2003), 20.

^[2] John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, vol. 9 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1854), 229.

^[3] John Frederick Schroeder, ed. Maxims of Washington (Shelbyville, TN: Bible and Literature Missionary Foundation, 2017), 20.

^[4] Charles Colson, The Sky is Not Falling: Living Fearlessly in these Turbulent Times (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing, 2011), 139.

“America the Beautiful” is a grand old poem by Katherine Lee Bates. Originally entitled, “Pikes Peak,” Bates penned this beautiful ode to America after a trip to Colorado Springs allowed her to see the land from high atop the famous Colorado “fourteener” in July of 1893. The poem first appeared in the July 4^th edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist, in 1895. It was later set to music in 1910, combining Bates’ words with a tune written by Samuel A. Ward in 1882. It has since found its way into many hymnals. Today it remains one of the most popular patriotic songs of all time. 

While many people know and love this majestic piece of Americana, I believe it also has great potential as a prayer to Almighty God for restoration. It expresses a number of ideas that we desperately need to see God carry out today. A careful reading of the lyrics reveals an acknowledgement of our need for God’s grace, refinement, and purification. In particular, the words of the second stanza connect easily with the thoughts of the Sweet Psalmist of Israel in Psalm 119:45. The stanza reads,

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

Psalm 119:45 says, “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” True liberty comes from seeking and obeying the law of God. It is God’s law that makes and keeps men free to live according to His will on earth. Salvation and eternal life in heaven are by grace through faith, but law governs behavior and life on earth. The Gospel changes the heart, but the law keeps at bay the outward manifestation of sin. God gave the Mosaic Law to Israel to set them apart as a society, and to provide orderly government for the nation. The United States is NOT Israel, but those same principles set forth in Scripture will undoubtedly benefit any society that adheres to them. Our Founding Fathers understood that some amount of supreme civil law was necessary to protect individual liberty from being trampled by the sin of both men and governments. The Holy Spirit empowers the Christian’s will, confirming and establishing our soul on the path we should walk, but individual liberty for everyone on earth is ensured by law. Godly laws based upon biblical principles are a blessing wherever they are enforced.

Walking at Liberty is a God and Country ministry for encouraging churches to be good stewards of government, confirming the liberty of the nation by the Law of God.