Time after time, men’s attempts to form a “New Israel” or God’s kingdom on earth have failed, which raises the question, “Does God want us—in New Testament times--to attempt a utopia where the church and state are fused? For Calvinists who knew about Geneva, were fleeing persecution in their home countries, and had seen eight centuries of a Holy Roman Empire, creating a new Promised Land did not seem like such a far-fetched concept.
However, the Baptist, William Backus believed that the church and state were to be separate institutions of God, never to be mixed. He didn’t like state authority in the churches of Europe and didn’t want it in America. This latter view won out in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion, nor abridging the free exercise thereof.” There has never been a state church in the U.S., although for a time some individual states had an official church.
Whether or not the government has made good on the freedom clause: that it won’t interfere with the free exercise of religion is up for debate. In any case, is the best road to a Christian nation state coercion by the changing of laws? Or is it the revival of individual hearts through the gospel? I have to say that I think I wasted a lot of time in my life trying to get morality legislated instead of spending my time winning people to Christ. I never see Jesus trying to change the Roman government or protesting its laws. Neither do I see the apostles trying to set up an earthly kingdom without Jesus.
With these examples in mind, how should we proceed?
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