The Bible, Religious Liberty, the Founders, A. T. Jones, and the Great Controversy
What does it mean to be a Christian patriot in the United States?
Is Christian patriotism about the flag?
Is it about political parties?
Is it about electing Christian politicians?
Is it about making America a Christian nation?
Or is Christian patriotism something much deeper?
Today I want to explore a remarkable idea:
Perhaps the most Christian way to love America is to defend the religious liberty of every American.
Not just Christians.
Not just people who agree with us.
Everyone.
Because freedom of conscience is not something government gives us.
It is something government is supposed to protect.
And the reason goes all the way back to Creation and the Word of God.
GOD AND THE FIRST DUTY
Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest.
His answer is recorded in Mark 12: 29,30:
“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”
Think about those words.
The first duty of every human being is to God.
Not to Caesar.
Not to Congress.
Not to the Supreme Court.
Not to a political party.
Not even to the nation.
To God.
And if that is true, then there is a realm of human existence that government cannot legitimately possess.
The conscience.
Government can govern many aspects of civil life.
But government cannot love God for me.
It cannot worship for me.
It cannot believe for me.
It cannot repent for me.
And it cannot stand before the judgment seat of God for me.
Paul says:
“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”
That is the biblical foundation for religious liberty.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PATRIOT?
- T. Jones addressed this very question in 1896.
His lecture was titled:
“What Is Patriotism in the United States?”
Jones argued that patriotism is much more than loving the landscape.
It is loyalty to the principles and institutions that make a country what it is.
And he made an important observation:
A patriot is fundamentally a defender of liberty—civil and religious.
That gives us a completely different way of looking at patriotism.
A patriot is not simply someone who says:
“America is great.”
A patriot asks:
What makes America worth defending?
What principles make America different?
And among those principles is the extraordinary concept of religious liberty.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Listen to the Philosophy of the Declaration.
It says that “Human beings are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
- Life: The basic right to live and defend your own personal safety.
- Liberty: The right to be free from unfair control, slavery, or imprisonment.
- The Pursuit of Happiness: The right to make your own life choices, seek personal goals, and live a peaceful life.
And governments are instituted to secure those rights.
Then comes the revolutionary statement:
Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
The National Archives identifies this as one of the central propositions of the Declaration.
Now A. T. Jones asks us to follow the logic.
If government receives its authority from the people, then the people can delegate only those powers that belong to them.
But can a human being delegate his relationship with God?
Can I give my conscience to Congress?
Can I authorize a legislature to decide how I worship?
Can I transfer my duty to my Creator to a government official?
No.
Because my relationship with God does not originate in government.
It originates with God.
Jones stated that religion, by its very nature, cannot be delegated.
And that means government has no legitimate authority to rule the conscience.
That is an extraordinary statement.
And it is simultaneously constitutional and deeply theological. And foundational to what the these United States are.
JUNE 12, 1776
Now let’s travel back to Virginia.
June 12, 1776.
The American Revolution is underway.
The Virginia Convention adopts the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
George Mason was its principal author.
James Madison helped refine its religious-liberty language.
And Section 16 makes an extraordinary statement.
Religion—the duty owed to the Creator—cannot properly be directed by force or violence.
It must be governed by reason and conviction.
And therefore, people are entitled to the free exercise of religion according to conscience.
This is crucial.
This happened before the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
The American Revolution was not simply a revolution over taxation.
There was a deeper revolution taking place.
Who has authority over the individual?
Does the king own the conscience?
Does the church own the conscience?
Does the legislature own the conscience?
Or does the individual answer directly to God?
The Virginia Declaration answered:
The conscience belongs to God.
JEFFERSON AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Thomas Jefferson took this principle further.
In 1779 he introduced his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.
Jefferson argued that God created the mind free.
He argued that civil government should not use coercion to control religious belief.
He argued that civil rights should not depend upon religious opinions.
And he made an important distinction:
Government can act when conduct breaks the peace and good order.
But the civil magistrate should not become the judge of religious truth.
Think about that.
Jefferson wasn’t saying religion was unimportant.
He was saying religion was too important to place under political control.
THE BATTLE OVER THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Now we have one of the most fascinating episodes in this story.
There is a historical detail that we should get right.
The specific “Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion” belongs primarily to the Virginia controversy of 1784–1785.
Patrick Henry supported a proposal for public financial support of Christian teachers.
It was not a proposal to eliminate Christianity.
Quite the opposite.
The intention was to support Christianity.
And that’s what makes the debate so interesting and rich. Seems harmless doesn’t it?
Because the question became:
Can government help Christianity without controlling Christianity?
The bill came close to passage.
James Madison opposed it.
And Madison’s opposition became one of the great statements of religious liberty in American history.
MADISON’S MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE
Madison wrote:
“Religion … is the duty which we owe to our Creator.”
And therefore, he argued, religion must remain a matter of conscience.
He called this right unalienable.
Why?
Because our duty to God comes before our relationship to civil society.
Madison warned that if government can establish Christianity, it can establish a particular denomination.
If it can establish a denomination, it can eventually impose religious conformity.
And he made another profound argument:
Christianity doesn’t need governmental coercion.
Christianity existed before government supported it.
Christianity survived persecution.
Christianity spread through persuasion.
Madison argued that government establishment could corrupt religion by making it dependent upon political power.
That’s worth repeating.
The government may be able to protect Christianity’s freedom, but it cannot manufacture Christianity through legislation.
SHOULD CHRISTIAN TEACHERS BE PAID BY THE GOVERNMENT
In 1779 Jefferson’s religious-freedom bill was introduced.
The major controversy over the proposal to provide public financial support for Christian teachers came in 1784 and 1785.
The bill was postponed and ultimately defeated through the political and public opposition that Madison helped organize.
Then in 1785 Virginia adopted Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom.
This distinction makes the story stronger.
Because it shows a continuing debate among Americans who believed Christianity was important:
Should Christianity be supported by government—or protected from government?
Madison’s answer was:
Protected from government.
THE CONSTITUTION
Then comes the Constitution.
Article VI says:
“No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
That is remarkable.
The federal government cannot require a religious test for public office.
And then the First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
Two protections.
No establishment.
No prohibition of free exercise.
The government cannot establish your religion.
And it cannot prohibit you from practicing it.
That is not anti-Christian.
It is what allows Christianity to exist without government coercion.
Then There is GEORGE WASHINGTON
What did George Washington think about this?
In 1789 he wrote to the Baptists of Virginia.
Washington said that if he had believed the Constitution might endanger religious rights, he would never have signed it.
He warned against spiritual tyranny and religious persecution.
And he affirmed that a good citizen is accountable to God alone for his religious opinions.
In another 1789 letter, Washington told the Society of Quakers that government is instituted partly to protect people and their consciences from oppression.
He called the freedom to worship Almighty God according to conscience one of the nation’s choicest blessings and rights.
This is the key.
The founders weren’t saying:
“Religion doesn’t matter.”
They were saying:
Religion or religious exercise matters so much that government must not own, control it or interfere in the rights of the individual’s practice.
THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
Now we move from American history to the Adventist understanding.
Ellen White’s The Great Controversy presents America as emerging with a unique combination of civil and religious liberty.
She describes the American experiment as founded upon principles of civil and religious liberty and connects those principles with the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Then comes the warning.
The founders had sought to prevent secular government from becoming an instrument of religious power.
Why?
Because when civil power is employed to enforce religion, intolerance and persecution inevitably become possible.
Ellen White therefore points to religious liberty as one of the great safeguards of American freedom.
And this is where the Adventist prophetic perspective becomes particularly important.
The issue in the final conflict is not simply politics.
It is worship.
It is conscience.
It is the question of whether human beings will obey God because they love Him—or because government commands them.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND CIVIL LIBERTY
Now we arrive at the central principle.
Only in the maintenance of religious liberty can there be firm assurance of civil liberty.
Why?
Because religious liberty establishes a boundary around government.
It says:
“There are things government does not own.”
The government doesn’t own your conscience.
It doesn’t own your faith.
It doesn’t own your relationship with God.
And once we establish that government has boundaries, we have established a principle that protects other freedoms.
If government can control conscience, what prevents it from controlling speech?
If government can dictate worship, what prevents it from dictating thought?
If government can determine which religious beliefs are acceptable, what prevents it from determining which political beliefs are acceptable?
The history of Europe demonstrates the danger.
When church and state unite, religious dissent can become civil disobedience.
And civil disobedience can become a crime.
WHY CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM IS NOT CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM
This distinction is extremely important today.
Christian patriotism says:
I love my country; therefore, I want to preserve its liberty.
Christian nationalism can become:
I love my religion; therefore, I want the government to enforce my religion.
Those are not the same thing.
Christian patriotism defends the Constitution.
Christian nationalism can seek to use government to impose religious identity.
Christian patriotism says:
“You have the right to worship according to conscience.”
Christian nationalism can say:
“You have the right to worship—as long as you worship correctly.”
But who decides what “correctly” means?
The legislature?
The Supreme Court?
The majority?
A denomination?
A political party?
Once government receives that authority, the fundamental principle of religious liberty has already been surrendered.
CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM PROTECTS THE OTHER PERSON
Here is perhaps the greatest test.
Suppose you are a Christian.
You believe Christianity is true.
You believe another religion is false.
Do you defend that person’s right to practice his religion?
If you do, you are defending religious liberty.
And you are also defending your own liberty.
Because the same principle that protects your conscience protects his.
A Christian patriot should therefore defend religious freedom even for people with whom he profoundly disagrees.
Why?
Because truth does not need the government to force people to believe it.
Jesus didn’t command the disciples to establish a government that would force people to follow Him.
He said:
“Follow Me.”
The gospel is an invitation.
Not a legislative mandate.
THE GREAT DANGER OF POLITICAL CHRISTIANITY
There is a temptation Christians have faced for centuries.
We see evil.
We see moral decline.
We see injustice.
We become frustrated.
And we begin thinking:
“If only we could get the government to make people behave like Christians.”
But Christianity cannot be legislated into the human heart.
You can legislate behavior.
You cannot legislate conversion.
You can compel outward conformity.
You cannot compel love.
You can require attendance.
You cannot manufacture faith.
You can force someone to say words or parrot an ideology.
You cannot force genuine worship.
God Himself is not coercive and does not force love.
Why should Christians ask government to do what God does not do?
THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT
What does Christian patriotism look like?
It looks like loving America enough to defend constitutional government.
It means voting.
It means serving.
It means participating.
It means speaking.
It means defending justice.
It means protecting the vulnerable.
It means holding government accountable.
But it also means recognizing the limits of government.
A Christian patriot says:
Government has legitimate authority—but it is not God.
The Constitution deserves loyalty—but it is not Scripture.
America deserves love—but America is not the kingdom of God.
Political leaders deserve respect—but they are not our Savior.
Our ultimate allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Now put these ideas together.
Jesus gives us the first commandment:
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
The state of Virginia said:
Religion is a duty owed to the Creator and must be governed by reason and conviction rather than force.
The Declaration says:
Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.
Madison says:
Religion is a duty to the Creator and therefore belongs to conscience.
The Constitution says:
No religious test.
The First Amendment says:
No establishment and no prohibition of free exercise.
Washington says:
The government must protect the conscience.
- T. Jones says:
Religion cannot be delegated because our relationship with God cannot be transferred.
Ellen White says:
The American experiment was built upon civil and religious liberty, and the union of religious authority with civil power threatens that liberty.
And suddenly we see something remarkable.
These aren’t isolated ideas.
They form a coherent philosophy.
WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIANS DEFEND?
So perhaps the question for Christians today is not:
“How can I get America to become more Christian?”
Perhaps the better question is:
“How can I help preserve the freedom that allows Christianity to flourish without coercion?”
Defend the First Amendment.
Defend freedom of conscience.
Defend free exercise.
Defend constitutional government.
Defend the right of people to speak.
Defend the right of people to worship.
Defend the right of people to disagree.
Defend the rights of minorities.
And defend those rights even when they protect people with whom you strongly disagree.
Because when you defend the freedom of another person’s conscience, you are defending the principle that protects your own.
CONCLUSION
What is Christian patriotism in the United States?
It is not worshiping America.
It is not confusing America with the kingdom of God.
It is not making political power the instrument of the gospel.
It is not demanding that government enforce Christianity.
Christian patriotism is something more principled.
It is love of country expressed through loyalty to the principles of liberty, justice, constitutional government, and freedom of conscience.
And here is what I would like you to remember:
Only in the maintenance of religious liberty can there be any firm assurance of civil liberty.
Because once government claims authority over conscience, mandating religious exercise, there is no longer a reliable boundary around government power.
But when government protects conscience, it recognizes something greater than itself.
It recognizes that human beings possess rights that government did not create.
Rights endowed by their Creator.
And that takes us back to the words of Jesus:
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
That command belongs to every person.
And therefore, the Christian patriot says:
I will love God first.
I will love my neighbor.
I will serve my country.
I will defend liberty.
And I will defend the individual’s freedom to answer to God according to the dictates of their conscience—
because I want the same freedom to answer to God myself.
This is Christian patriotism.
