Christian Patriot?

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” - Psalm 33:12

Is it okay for a Christian to be a patriot?

Throughout Scripture, God’s plan has been to bring all nations to himself. The Bible ends with pictures of heaven and people from every nation surrounding Christ’s throne. How do we know that they are from every nation? Because they will bring with them customs, art, architecture, music, and dress that are unique to their culture, but all surrendered to Christ.

God designed a plurality of nations (ethnicities, language groups) to reflect his own glorious diversity in unity. It takes all kinds of different nations to reflect different aspects of God’s glory in heaven. So, he wants each nation to bring forth those unique cultures and submit them to Christ to be uniquely shaped for his glory.

In the Old Testament, God repeatedly called to and promised the nations to come to worship him. Jerusalem would be the gathering place of all God’s people from every nation. But, as the New Testament shows us, that doesn’t mean that every nation needs to become Jewish, but every nation needs to bring its culture to Christ.

In that sense, every Christian should be a patriot. We should all love our nations like we all love our individual families and church families. We want those closest to us to have flourishing freedom that comes only from Christ by his Spirit. We want to bring to Christ the greatest aspects of our culture and have him remove the sinful parts of it. We want Americans to be around the Lamb’s throne.

And how will people know we are Americans? Through our American culture sanctified by the blood of Jesus.

That’s the fulfillment of Psalm 33. Every nation submitting to the LORD. Every nation blessed under the LORD God. America’s greatest blessing will come only under the LORD. And we will never be more American than fully surrendered to him.

So, brothers and sisters, love America! Strive to bring her further under the Lordship of Christ. Celebrate your freedoms as a shining example of freedom in Christ. Build your homes and businesses as industrious dominion that reflects the Garden of Eden redeemed in Christ. Enjoy your fireworks, hot dogs, ice cream treats, and music as a taste of heaven that includes American flavor to the glory of God.

Free in Christ with you,

Adam and the elders