Today (July 4th, 2026), the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was adopted in Congress. That is no small thing. Nations rise and fall under the sovereign hand of God, and yet in his providence, we find ourselves here, in this particular place, with this particular history, in this particular moment.

So it seems fitting to ask a question that keeps surfacing in our day: Is America a Christian nation?

That question is more complicated than many want it to be. Some want to answer with an uncomplicated yes, as though America was founded on the gospel itself. Others want to answer with an emphatic no, as though Christian influence on the founding is little more than myth or political nostalgia. Both answers are too simplistic.

The United States is not a Christian nation if by that we mean a theocracy. We do not have an established national church. The church does not rule the state. The state does not administer the sacraments, define orthodoxy, preach the gospel, or discipline members. Nor should it. As Baptists especially have long understood, state-managed religion rarely serves the purity of the church or the liberty of conscience.

Justice David Brewer carefully drew this distinction in his 1905 lectures, The United States: A Christian Nation. He argued that America could be called a Christian nation, but not because Christianity was legally established, not because citizens were compelled to support it, not because all citizens were Christians, and not because the profession of Christianity was required for public service. In fact, Brewer explicitly wrote that “the government as a legal organization is independent of all religions.”  (See https://dn720501.ca.archive.org/0/items/unitedstateschri00brew/unitedstateschri00brew.pdf)

That matters. A careless use of the phrase “Christian nation” can confuse civil religion with Christianity itself. Dr. Thomas Kidd makes a similar point in his interview with Wes Huff. America did not have an official national church at the federal level, and the Constitution emphasized free exercise and religious liberty rather than a national denomination “calling balls and strikes” theologically.  (See https://youtu.be/CSW-71bDdMc?si=LWdHSq0hcHjjlQL8)

So no, America is not Christian in the sense that Israel was a covenant nation under Moses. It is not Christian in the sense that the church is Christian. It is not Christian in the sense that its laws save, sanctify, or unite sinners to Christ.

But neither is America’s founding best understood as secular in the modern sense. That is where many modern critics become careless with history.

The Declaration of Independence appeals to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” It says that men are “created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” It appeals to “the Supreme Judge of the world” and closes with “a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”  (See https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration)

Those are not Muslim categories. They are not Hindu categories. They are not pagan categories. They are not the categories of modern secular progressivism. They arise from a world deeply formed by Christianity, natural law, and the scriptural imagination.

Now, we must be precise. The Declaration’s language is broadly theistic, not explicitly Trinitarian. It does not confess Christ crucified and risen. It does not articulate justification by faith alone. Kidd rightly notes that Jefferson and Franklin denied core Christian doctrines, such as the divinity of Christ and the Trinity, so Christians should not exaggerate the point until we confuse the gospel with the founding.  

That is an important warning. We do not need Thomas Jefferson to be a Christian in order to recognize that he lived in a world permeated with Christian thought. Kidd’s phrase is helpful here: the Bible was “the coin of the realm” in 1776. Even Jefferson, who denied basic Christian doctrines, knew the Bible with a depth that would shame many church-going evangelicals today.  

That is the nuance we need! America was not founded on the gospel. But America was founded in a time when Christian categories shaped the moral vocabulary of the people. Human dignity, rights, justice, law, liberty, conscience, virtue, and providence were not floating abstractions. They were understood in a sphere where nearly everyone, whether orthodox or not, breathed Christian air.

This is the sense in which America may rightly be called a Christian nation: not by establishment, not by coercion, not by the regeneration of its citizens, but through historical and moral inheritance. Brewer himself grounded the phrase in America’s early settlements and institutions. He pointed to the Supreme Court’s language in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, where the Court referred to the “mass of organic utterances” and “unofficial declarations” that supported the claim that America was a Christian nation.   The latter LegalClarity summary rightly notes that Brewer’s “Christian nation” language was not necessary to the case's holding and served more as historical commentary than binding legal doctrine.  

That distinction aids us. We are not looking for a legal lever to force Christianity on the country. We are looking honestly at the soil from which the country grew.

And that brings us to the phrase everyone is fighting about: Christian nationalism. Dr. Kidd says the term is not especially useful, and I think he is mostly right. However, that means we should define the term rather than reject it outright. On the left, “Christian nationalist” often means little more than “a Christian who believes his faith has political implications.” That is not a serious category. Christianity does have political implications. If Christ is Lord, he is Lord over all things. The Christian may not check his faith at the voting booth, the school board meeting, the courtroom, the legislature, or the dinner table.

But on the right, the term can also become dangerous if it starts to mean that the state should enforce Christian doctrine, establish a church, require religious tests for office, or confuse outward sympathy for Christian morality with actual saving faith. Kidd warns that if the state begins calling balls and strikes on religious identity, sooner or later, that power will be turned against orthodox Christians.  

That is no small concern. The church must never hand the keys of the kingdom to Caesar. The state cannot preach Christ. The state cannot regenerate sinners. The state cannot administer baptism or the Lord’s Supper. The state cannot bind consciences through the Word of God. That belongs to Christ’s church.

And yet, the opposite error is deadly as well. Christians must not pretend that law is morally neutral. All law legislates some vision of the good. Every society catechizes. Every nation teaches its people what to love, what to tolerate, what to punish, what to celebrate, and what to call evil.

Kidd himself makes this point well: there is a difference between establishing an official denomination and promoting morality in law. All law rests on some moral foundation, and if given the choice, Christians should desire laws formed by Christian morality.  

That is where our current moment turns so revealing. Secularism has not removed religion from the public square. It has simply replaced Christian assumptions with rival doctrines. The modern state still catechizes. It still has holy days, sins, saints, liturgies, confessions, and excommunications. It still tells us who we are, what freedom means, what justice requires, and what must never be questioned.

So when Christians say they want America to recover Christian moral sanity, that is not the same thing as demanding a theocracy. Wanting laws that protect unborn children is not theocracy. Wanting men and women to be recognized according to God’s created order is not theocracy. Wanting religious liberty, parental rights, ordered households, honest courts, and moral restraint is not theocracy. It is simply the recognition that God made the world, Christ reigns over it, and societies who defy his order do not become free. They become enslaved to lies.

Still, we must be careful how we fight. We do not take the kingdom by force. We do not confuse America with the church. We do not baptize political parties. We do not pretend Republicans are righteous merely because Democrats have embraced moral insanity in obvious ways (and they have). The Christian hope is not that America will be saved. Our hope is that Christ has been raised, Christ is reigning, and Christ will come again.

Psalm 2 tells the nations to “kiss the Son.” Revelation 11:15 declares that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” That is where history's course is going. Not to secular neutrality. Not to human autonomy. Not in the direction of the triumph of the therapeutic self. History is moving toward the public, universal, undeniable reign of Jesus Christ.

That does not make us passive. God’s sovereignty is not an excuse for civic laziness. Providence does not mean we shrug while our neighbors are discipled by lies. We are here because God placed us here. We live in this country, in this generation, among these people, under these rulers, with these freedoms and these responsibilities.

So yes, I love this country. I am thankful for her. I am thankful for ordered liberty, constitutional limits, freedom of worship, the right to speak, the right to raise our children, and the right to gather as churches without the state telling us what gospel we may preach. And because I love my neighbor, I want laws that accord with truth. Because I love my children, I want a nation that does not catechize them into confusion. Because I love the church, I want the state to stay out of the pulpit. Because I love the unborn, I want rulers who punish evil and protect the weak. Because I love religious liberty, I do not want the state to establish a church. And because I love Christ, I refuse to pretend that any nation, including this one, is ultimate.

So what should Christians do?

We should recover historical honesty. America was not founded as a church, but neither was she founded in a moral vacuum. Christian truth deeply formed her inheritance. We should preserve theological clarity. The gospel is not the Declaration of Independence. The church is not the nation. Baptism is not citizenship. The kingdom of Christ is not reducible to American conservatism.

We should practice faithful citizenship. Vote. Show up. Read laws. Attend meetings. Know your local officials. Speak clearly. Refuse cowardice. Refuse hysteria. Refuse the lie that public life belongs only to secularists.

We should discipline our households. The most important political act many of us will ever perform is teaching our children to fear God, love truth, honor father and mother, work hard, tell the truth, sing the Psalms, read Scripture, and obey Christ when it costs them.

We should strengthen our churches. A thin church will not produce thick Christians. If our people are fed only moralism, sentimentality, and therapeutic religion, they will not withstand the pressure of a rival age. We need doctrine. We need worship. We need covenant life. We need the ordinary means of grace. And we should hope in Christ.

The United States may recover many good things, or it may not. God has not promised that this nation will endure. But he has promised that Christ will reign until all his enemies are placed under his feet. That means we can love our country without worshiping it. We can critique our country without despising it. We can fight for righteousness without confusing the sword of the state with the keys of the kingdom. We can be patriots without being idolaters. We can be strangers and exiles without being useless citizens. America is not the kingdom of God. But America belongs to God.

So on this July 4th, let us give thanks for every mercy God has given through this nation. Let us repent for confusing civil religion with Christianity. Let us reject the lie that secularism is neutral. Let us labor for laws that honor what is good, true, and just. Let us teach our children the truth. Let us pray for our rulers. Let us preach Christ crucified. And we should recall that the nations rage in vain. The Father has installed his King on Zion. Christ is Lord. This is our hope.