A Nation Under God

We're going to break point a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens

of Unchanging Truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

In 2026, millions of Americans will visit the nation's capital.

Many of them to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

In its memorials and museums, Washington, D.C. speaks to the grand and noble purpose of

America and of the founding generation.

And there's also much to be found in its architecture.

Several years ago, the Museum of the Bible opened a first of its kind virtual flying

tour that was called Washington Revelations.

The experience took visitors through D.C. highlighting the biblical and Christian references

to be found on various monuments and buildings.

The sheer amount of those references, which was just a small percentage of all that

exist, was to say the least impressive.

For example, the Declaration of Independence, a signed copy of which can be viewed at

the National Archives, contains four references to God.

Each one corresponds to one of the powers of government.

God is recognized as lawmaker, the laws of nature and nature's God.

He's also like a founder.

Humans are endowed by their creator.

God is judge, the supreme judge of the world, and also the executive, the divine providence.

The implication here is clear that if the powers of government remain aligned with God's

will, the people will be safe.

And of course, that's impossible in a fallen world where human hearts are also bent

towards sin.

Man is not God, or as the Federalist Papers put it, men are not angels.

The awareness of human frailty reverberates about the American founding.

For example, at the Jefferson Memorial, visitors encounter these words, quote,

God who gave us life gave us liberty.

Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these

liberties are a gift of God?

Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that is justice

cannot sleep forever.

Commerce between master and slave is despotism.

Nothing's more certainly written in the book of fate than these people are to be free,

end quote.

Inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial is the Gettysburg address where Lincoln stated,

we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under

God shall have a new birth of freedom.

And it was at that site, nearly a hundred years later, that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered

his eye-have-a-dream speech, which called for the nation to fulfill the promise of the

founding and to ensure freedom and equality for all.

U.S. capitals filled with religious symbolism and language, most notably in the House chamber,

where the face of Moses, the greatest of all human law givers, looks down over the proceedings.

Moses also appears elsewhere throughout the city, including on the East pediment of the

U.S. Supreme Court building.

In a sculpture that's titled Justice the Guardian of Liberty, Moses stands at the center holding

the Tinkamammates flanked by Solan and Confucius.

The Library of Congress holds over 181 million items, but there's only two that are on permanent

display in the Great Hall, the giant Bible of minds, a handwritten and illustrated Bible,

and the Gutenberg Bible.

The first mass printed Bible holds this place of honor.

Those are just a few among thousands and thousands of examples.

Of the biblical and Christian references that can be found throughout our nation's capital,

they pointed the tremendous influence that Christianity and the Bible had on the founding

of the country.

A scholar, Mark David Hall, a leading authority on the role of religion in American public

life, has argued the American founders were deeply influenced by Christian ideas, including

in the language used in the Declaration and even the structure of the U.S. Constitution.

As Hall described and I quote, America's founders drew from their Christian convictions

to create a constitutional order that benefits all Americans, not just Christians.

Their convictions led them, for example, to carefully limit the national government's

power.

Value checks and balances, support the rule of law, and protect a robust conception

of religious liberty.

There were few non-Christians in late 18th century America, but there were some, and most

of America's founders were convinced that the right of these non-Christians to believe

and act, according to the dictates of their consciences, must be protected, unquote.

This year, as America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and all

the freedoms that Americans enjoy, it's essential that we also reflect on the role that the

Bible and Christianity played in shaping and informing the development of those freedoms.

The vivid evidence of such can be found on the walls, the monuments, the documents,

and the statues throughout our nation's capital.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.

Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Caricou, your fan of Breakpoint.

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In a moment of cultural confusion, many Christians know their faith matters, but aren't sure

how to live it out with clarity and courage.

That's why formation matters.

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and sent back to their families, churches, workplaces, and communities, prepared to live

what they believe.

Your generosity makes the Colson Fellows Program affordable, so more can say yes to life-shaping

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If you care about spiritual formation that lasts, learn how you can help at colsoncetter.org-

That's colsoncetter.org-march.