America, A Christian Nation?
On the dawn of Thanksgiving week, and in the spirit of gratitude, I would like to briefly thank the Lord God Almighty for the founding of this great nation, the United States of America. His providential hand has been so ever present in the history of this country, and particularly at its founding1. Unfortunately, due to secularism’s vast reach in infiltrating the minds of Americans through political means, public education, higher education, and media, there are many Americans today who have bought into a boat-load of misinformation. The secularist claims that America since its founding has been a religious agnostic nation, a pluralistic society, a nation that was birthed out of enlightenment rationalism, and that the founders were all deists.
I do not intend to give a full treatise demonstrating why that view is incorrect2, but I do want to lay out some quick facts about the Christian founding of the nation and also provide some citations of the Founders which clearly demonstrate Christian underpinnings to the constitutional documents and general ethos of the nation at its founding.
A few months ago Charlie Kirk sat on a panel of speakers alongside Cliff and Stuart Knetchle. During the Q&A session, a man came up and asked a question on the founding of America. This question presupposes the common secular re-telling of the nation’s founding, the questioner asserted, “the country was not founded on Christian Principles. Our country was founded on Common Law, because the Declaration only refers to God 4 times and the Constitution doesn’t refer to God at all. And it only articulates the Structure of Government.” To which Charlie rebutted with a masterclass in American History and also a lesson in how the Christian worldview clashes at every level with secularism, including how history should be approached. Is history a blind, guideless, purposeless crash of atoms bumping into each other? Just a story of meaninglessness and chaos? Or is history truly His-story, God’s unfolding plan to bless all of the families of the earth through Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of lords?
Kirk begins by reminding the questioner that the US was founded as a collection of States and Colonies, each State having its own constitution. All of the original State constitutions were thoroughly Christian3. In almost every single State Constitution they had “I profess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior”. Addressing the point that the Founders were mostly deists, Kirk stated accurately that 55 out of 56 of the original signers of the declaration were Bible-believing, Church-attending Christians.
The questioner mentioned that America was planted through common-law, in which he is assuming the secular postulation that morality is neutral and can be disconnected from God or any worldview. Charlie points out the inconsistency there and reminds the questioner that even the law-tradition known as Common Law has a Christian background, as it was inherited by Blackstone who was a Christian4. English Common Law (dating all the way back to the 8th century with King Alfred converting Mosaic penal code into British law), was a direct outgrowth of the Christian Worldview, this can be seen in three clear examples: presumption of innocence, due process, and jury of your peers.
In support of the morality and thought of the Enlightenment, the questioner mentions that God is only mentioned four times in the Declaration of Independence. But if the US had truly drank from the Kantian gobbledy-gook nonsense about reason being the highest faculty for enlightenment, then why mention God at all? (Instead they mention Him four times.) Why in the last paragraph of the Declaration pray to the “Supreme Judge of the World” and covenant the entire country to some spaghetti god out in Neverland that goes by the name of Jesus Christ? The reason why is because they believed that Jesus Christ was the Supreme Lord over the earth and His Law-Word was the only unshakeable foundation for morality and ethics, and thus, the Founders cited the Bible more than any other book. The book within the Scriptures that was most quoted by the Founders was the book of Deuteronomy, a book full of… you guessed it: laws!5 It’s quite comical when the deistic secular charge is brought towards the Founders. If that were the case, they picked the wrong quote to go on the Liberty Bell, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof” which is a direct quotation from Leviticus 25:10.
The question of whether America was founded as a Christian nation has a clear answer: yes. But she is currently a wayward daughter, an apostate nation, and thus, it is the duty of every American Christian citizen to call her back to repentance. Kirk’s conclusion to his answer hits the nail on the head:
“The body politic of America was so Christian and was so Protestant, that our form and structure of government was built for the people that believed in Christ our Lord. One of the reasons we’re living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation, but we have a Christian form of government, and they’re incompatible. You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population”6.
This is exactly the problem John Adams warned about back in 1798 when he said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”.
America is the greatest and richest nation on earth, its heritage and story is unmatched, God has been exceedingly kind with his gifts towards this land. And yet in the 21st century America has grown to become an ungrateful daughter, as the great Puritan Cotton Mather once said, “Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother”. It’s easy for sons and grandsons to forget where they came from, what made their family so great and prosperous. From Adams, to Mather, to Kirk, they pinpoint the same issue. The foundations of this country were and are Christian, but what good is it to have Christian documents, structures, and systems when the heart of the people have abandoned the God behind it all?
On this Thanksgiving day, 2025, year of our Lord, give thanks to the Almighty for this nation. Give thanks that you were born here. But also, beseech the Almighty with a contrite spirit, that He would grant us nation-wide repentance for our idolatry, our ungratefulness, our greed for unjust power and gain. Pray that the same God who brought this nation to greatness almost 250 years ago, would bring us back to our knees in prayer and fasting, and that His Hand would sustain us for the next 250 years. The scripture God spoke to Solomon at the dedication of the temple still stands true for us today, “ if My people who are called by My name will 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.” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Heal our land, O Lord of Heaven!
I will leave you with George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789:
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington7
A great documentary demonstrating God’s hand in America’s history is called Monumental directed and produced by Kirk Cameron, also there’s a wonderful book called The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel that does a great job at narrating the birth of this country through the eyes of Providence.
Here are some good books demonstrating the clear Christian foundation that was present at the founding, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States by Benjamin F Morris, Did America Have A Christian Founding? By Mark David Hall, America’s Christian History: The Untold Story by Gary DeMar, and An Experiment in Liberty: America’s Path to Independence by George Grant.
Here you can find the Religious Tests and Oaths in State Constitutions, 1776-1784
Sir William Blackstone was a Christian by his own admission, here is a little biographical sketch of his life and how the Lord used him.
The book of Deuteronomy was cited twice as much as any other book, https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/the-bible-and-the-american-founders/
Here is the link to the full clip between Kirk and the questioner.
The 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation by George Washington at Mount Vernon, https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789
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