Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. -Psalm 33:12
In celebrating the two hundred, thirty-third anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we do well to give thanks for the blessing of our nation.The God of our nation is the Lord of glory in spite of the fact that the title Christian was not given to this nation.
How can we say this? As Psalm 33:11 states, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.” The founding of the rests on the Biblical counsel of the Trinitarian God.
The three persons of the Trinity; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, enjoy fellowship, communion and purpose together. A unitarian God has no one to talk to, to share with or to act together with. Each person of the Trinity is a distinct person but is wholly part of the Godhead. There is unity and individuality. One God existing in three persons that are all equal in power and glory.
One nation is made up of fifty individual states. Yet these fifty states exist in unity as one nation. If any one state breaks away from the union, then the whole nation ceases to exist just as if one person of the Trinity ceased to exist the unity of God would cease to be. The model for our union as the at the beginning of our nation was the Trinity. That model still is the philosophical basis for our nation. The alternative view of a confederacy of states voluntarily creating a union was rejected both in the writing of our constitution and again during the Civil War. The Union view defeated the Confederate understanding of who we were as a nation. These questions are coming up once again because the Trinitarian understanding of reality is so ignored and even despised. Yet it still provides the foundation of our nation to this day.
The Trinity also allows for process between persons. The Father and Son can have a conversation such as in John 12:27-28. They can covenant together for our salvation. They enjoy each other - the Son rested on the breast of His Father (John 1:18). The Father and Son plan together and act together. The Son demonstrates His equality with the Father by always obeying His Father’s will and fulfilling His plans (John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 8:38; 12:49). Our nation is built on the equality of all its citizens, yet submission to God-given authority is god-like, a reflection of our God.
Because the Son has freedom to speak to His Father and they process decisions together, our nation has valued freedom of speech as a core principle. What nation with a Unitarian view of God has successfully provided freedom of speech? These are a few of the “counsels” of the Lord that are foundational principles of the United States that persist to the present day. With a majority of the citizens of the not believing in the God of the Bible or His Son there is the great possibility of losing our freedom of speech and our unity as a nation.
This is why the ministry of Christ’s Church is critical both for our personal growth but also as a blessing to our community and nation. May the Lord sustain His work at New Life in ChristChurch. “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us…” (Psalm 90:17).
