In 1908, Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer wrote “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” though neither had attended a game before writing the song. Today, it is considered one of the three most-recognized songs in the US, along with “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Happy Birthday.”

The first known time it was played at a ballpark was in 1934 at a high school game in Los Angeles. It was played later that year during the fourth game of the World Series. Over time, it became a beloved and universal baseball tradition for fans to sing the chorus during the seventh-inning stretch of baseball games.

Then came 9/11.

When Major League Baseball games resumed six days later, stadiums began playing “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch, replacing or supplementing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” They still do the same on Sundays and holidays, and during postseason games, though Yankee Stadium plays it at every game.

“God Bless America” was written by Irving Berlin when he served in the US Army during World War I. Its words are familiar to us all:

God bless America, land that I love.

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with the light from above.

From the mountains to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless America, my home sweet home,

God bless America, my home sweet home.

But not as many Americans can sing the first stanza, which is unfortunate since its words transform the rest from an anthem into a true prayer:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

Over the last 250 years, has God answered our prayer?

Has he blessed America?

If so, why?

And how can we experience his blessing in generations yet to come?

With regard to God’s providence, it has been said that history is his story. Our Maker reveals himself not only in his Word but also in his world.

Consequently, if we want to experience God’s best future for our nation, we should first understand the ways and reasons he has blessed us in our past so we can repeat that which has positioned us to receive his grace. And we should identify sins that have led to his judgment and must not be repeated if we are to flourish in the years to come. 

Let’s begin with a foundational question: Did God establish the nations of the world, including America?

How does the Bible define a “nation”?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “nation” as “a country, especially when thought of as the people who live there, often with its own culture, language, and customs.” All recognized nations have borders that define their geographical territory.

By contrast, the Lord famously promised Abraham:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12: 2–3)

The Hebrew word translated “nation” is goy, alternately rendered as “people” or “population.” The Jewish nation that came from Abraham became a race and a population, but has only at various times in its history also been defined by borders and geography.

The Jews were a nation in this sense when they were enslaved in Egypt, wandered in the wilderness, and conquered the promised land. They were a nation even when they divided into two kingdoms with territories that they gained and lost over the generations. They were a nation while exiled in Babylon and when reestablished in Palestine. 

Since 1948, many of them have constituted the geopolitical nation of Israel, though its borders have varied significantly over the years since, and more than half the global Jewish population does not live there.

But how does this definition of a nation apply to America?

God’s active and permissive will

By this measure, we are right to question whether God establishes nations in the geopolitical sense by which we understand the term. However, Paul stated that the Creator who “made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24) also “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (v. 26a, my emphasis).

Here “nation” translates the Greek ethnos, from which we get “ethnic.” The word, like the Hebrew goy, can refer to people groups such as Gentiles or foreigners. But Paul added that God also “determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place” (v. 26b). “Determined” could be translated as “designated” or “separated unto,” while “boundaries” can be translated as “established borders” or “fixed limits.”

Here we discover that God not only establishes distinct peoples but also designates their geographical borders. This fact shows that he not only established the nation of Israel in the sense of the biblical country of Israel and the larger Jewish global population—he also establishes other geopolitical nations in the world.

And we should add that God has both a perfect will and a permissive will. He must allow all that happens in the world, so that not even a sparrow can “fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29).

So, we can know that God established the nation we call America in either the strong sense of direct providential initiative or the weaker sense of providential permission. He either caused or allowed our nation to be born and to grow to its present size and significance.

Are you proud or patriotic?

While Scripture is clear that we are meant to find our identity in the fact that we are creatures made in the image of God and loved deeply by our creator, the Lord has also wired us to seek meaning in our place within his larger creation. As a result, it’s only natural that we would want to find that same kind of purpose and identity in being an American (or whatever nation you call home). 

For many, especially as we approach America’s 250^th anniversary, a key part of that search for purpose in our national identity is the desire to be proud of our country. But, practically speaking, what does that look like? And how can we know when we cross the line from patriotism into a more sinful pride?

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius once noted that “pride is a master of deception.” Far too often, equating pride with patriotism has made it difficult to fully recognize and understand our nation’s flaws, particularly when those flaws are on your preferred side of the political aisle. As Christians, though, we should be uniquely capable of avoiding that mistake.

After all, the Bible calls us to be citizens of heaven before we’re citizens of America. As such, our perspective on the culture and on our nation should be filtered through the lens of God’s word rather than partisan politics. 

Where America lines up with Scripture, we can and should be proud of this nation and encourage it to continue down that path. Where it has moved away from God’s truth, we should be ready and willing to hold it accountable, regardless of where doing so might position us politically. 

And, just as importantly, we must not make the mistake of doing so out of some misplaced desire to see America as a Christian nation, but, rather, from the knowledge that the best way for us to be a blessing to the individuals around us is to encourage them to live a life that God can bless.

So, as we consider God’s plans for our country and for us as individuals, let’s take some time today to remember that America will never fully become the nation the Lord intends for it to be unless its Christians are the people God intends for us to be. 

How well are you living out the Lord’s purpose for your life today?

Faith of the Founders

From deism to evangelical Christianity

To end each week’s article, we’ll be highlighting the faith of one of America’s founding fathers. While some names may be familiar to you, it’s likely that others you may encounter for the first time. Our hope is that their stories and the way that God worked through their lives will help us to gain a greater understanding of how he continues to work today. 

Before we start, though, it’s important to frame that discussion within the context of how Americans understood religion 250 years ago. To that end, let’s look at the three main camps that most of our forefathers fit into.

Why we can’t say “the Founding Fathers believed”

Merriam-Webster defines a “Founding Father” simply as “a leading figure in the founding of the U.S.” No definitive list of such individuals is possible, though we can note that fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence, while forty-eight signed the Articles of Confederation.

Given their broad diversity across the thirteen original colonies, it is inaccurate to say “the Founding Fathers believed,” whatever the subject. Nowhere is this more true than with religion.

As I have noted, Catholic missionaries established Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565 as a base for missionary settlements throughout the southeastern part of North America. By contrast, the English established Jamestown in 1607 as a secular economic venture. Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620 to build a Christian community modeled on their views of biblical morality. The Puritans similarly came to New England to establish a society based on religious freedom and moral civility.

The various Founding Fathers illustrate these disparate visions of America’s purpose along a spectrum that ranges from deism to theistic rationalism and on to evangelical faith.

A spectrum of belief

Deism was defined in Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary as “the opinion of those that only acknowledge one God, without the reception of any revealed religion.” In his two-volume Age of Reason, published in 1794 and 1795, Thomas Paine described deism’s central tenet: “The only idea man can affix to the name of God, is, that of a FIRST CAUSE, the cause of all things.” Benjamin Franklin called himself a “thorough Deist,” though others often identified as such were less public about their beliefs.

Theistic rationalists saw God as being more active in the world than functioning merely as a first cause or clockmaker. According to historian Dr. Gregg Frazer,

Theistic rationalists believed in a powerful, rational, and benevolent creator God who was present and active in human affairs. They believed that the main factor in serving God was living a good and moral life, that promoting morality was the central value and purpose of religion, and that religion was indispensable to society because it engendered morality. They believed that virtually all religions fulfilled that purpose—not just Christianity. That is why they allowed freedom of religion. Theistic rationalists rejected most of the fundamental doctrines of biblical Christianity, including: the deity of Christ, the Trinity, original sin, the atoning work of Christ, justification by faith, eternal punishment for sin, and the inspiration of Scripture.

Evangelical Christianity in colonial America was greatly advanced by the First Great Awakening under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, among others. Historian Catherine Brekus identifies the movement with “revivalists who emphasized a personal relationship with God, the joy of being born again, and the call to spread the gospel around the globe.” Such individuals typically held views we associate with orthodox Christian faith.

A source of unity for the Founding Fathers

It is impossible to safely place most of the Founding Fathers within these categories, if for no other reason than that most did not identify with or understand themselves in these terms. To take George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison as examples, each made statements that seem clearly aligned with theistic rationalism if not deism. But they also made statements that seem clearly evangelical in commitment.

Debates over specific Founding Fathers and their faiths have been animated and will continue to be so. But nine Founding Fathers were so clear in their evangelical convictions that we can objectively identify them as such. To their beliefs and the principles we can draw from them, we turn next.

For that, and for them, we can be most grateful.