Dear American Christian,
Can you imagine your life without America? (If you’re a citizen of another country, kindly insert your own.)
Can you still feel life, liberty, and happiness if you imagine America as part of your past and no longer part of your future?
If you can’t, you’re probably more American than Christian. Your nationality has shaped your humanity more than your spirituality.
It’s time for us to go back to Christianity 101 and remember the very basics:
- Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down… Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to practice everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 24:2; 28:19-20)
- Paul wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
- Peter taught, “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from corrupt desires, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11)
- Hebrews stated, “People of faith are foreigners and strangers on earth… they are looking for a country of their own… Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for God has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
- Revelation looks ahead to our cosmic future and sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9)
- The earliest surviving letter outside the New Testament records, “The distinction between Christians and other people is neither in country nor language nor customs… they show forth the wonderful and confessedly strange character of the constitution of their own citizenship. They dwell in their own fatherlands but as if foreigners in them; they share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as strangers. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country.” (Epistle to Diognetus)
If all of this doesn’t sound like good news to you, you might be a subject of the American empire rather than a citizen of heaven.
The American empire is crumbling. One day it will be remembered like all the other empires of human history: a thing of the past.
Can you imagine your life without America? Can you be happy and at home without it?
Those of us who can’t are living for the past, not for the future.
I choose a life that’s enlarging beyond any country, nationality, and earthly identity. I invite you to join me in recommitting yourself to this ancient Christian vision for our shared human future.
Happy 4th,
Andrew
