Posted on by Reformed Reader

Boice on Church and America

Here’s a great excerpt from J. M. Boice in Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2001), 27.

“Evangelicals speak of ‘taking back America,’ ‘fighting for the country’s soul,’ ‘reclaiming the United States for Christ.’  How?  By electing Christian presidents, congressmen, and senators, lobbying for conservative judges, taking over power structures, and imposing our Christian standard of morality on the rest of the nation by law.  But we ought to ask: Was America ever really a Christian nation?  Was any nation ever really Christian?  Does law produce morality?  What about Augustine’s doctrine of the two cities – the city of man and the city of God – which meant so much to the Reformers?  Will any country ever be anything other than man’s city?  And what about America’s soul?  Is there really an American soul to be redeemed or fought over?”

One thing I appreciate about Boice is his churchly focus.  Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace is a great book, by the way!

shane lems

sunnyside wa

7 Replies to “Boice on Church and America”

  1. Perhaps at one time Great Britain was a Christian Nation perhaps? with Anglicanism…Britanna! The King and Queen, etc. But, her best days are no more with the passing of Queen Victoria, 1819-1901. And others like Benjamen Disraeli (1804-1881), one time Prime minister, who said: “The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and heaven.” The list of the Christian greats from the whole Great Britain, is very profound, and too many to list!
    Fr. Robert

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  2. Perhaps at one time Great Britain was a Christian Nation perhaps?

    Impossible, since there is no such thing as a “Christian nation.” The descriptor can only be affixed to that aspect of creation for which Jesus lived and died, namely the imago Dei, which excludes everything from fish to states. There is no redemptive version of any creational thing. Thus, it cannot be said that there is any such thing as Christian baking or state-crafting.

    There is such a thing as the church, that is, the corporate expression and embodiment of the redeemed Imago Dei.

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    1. Blast, Zrim! So I have to give up my Christian radio-controlled car racing association? Blast! I’ll have to take that fish off the battery pack.

      shane

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  3. But Christ DID die for the creation also…Col.1:12 thru 20. (see also Eph. 1:10 here) And Rom.8:18-23. Indeed, the Church is in some sense the continuation of the Incarnation of Christ, (Col.1:24, etc. in Col.) Christ is the “parakletos” (Advocate) above..the Throne of God, “in session”. As the Holy Spirit is the “parakletos” within both the Church corporate and individual.

    Fr. R.

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