Articles for tag: In God We Trust

Trust in God

By Stuart Powell In John 13-16, Jesus prepared his disciples for their next big step in following him. They had left their family’s trade and their parents’ house. They spent years listening to their rabbi speak and were astonished by his authority over weather, diseases, and demons. But what came next shook their faith in God and in him. They witnessed the heart-breaking evil of this sinful world that Jesus came to face and conquer. To help prepare his disciples, Jesus spoke these words to them: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me”

‘In God We Trust?’

A couple of exciting events took place in 1956. First, I was born, which was pretty exciting for me. Second, our federal government adopted the official motto, “In God We Trust.” That phrase quickly was stamped onto our currency and coin, where it remains today. Why did America adopt a motto in 1956? We were fighting a Cold War with the Soviet Union, a superpower that championed atheism. While the U.S.S.R. contended God did not exist, the United States not only declared his existence, but that our nation trusted in him.   “In God We Trust” is more than a

Patriotism, Idolatry, and Evangelism

By Rubel Shelly In my opinion, the United States of America is a wonderful, though imperfect, country. One could even call it exceptional in many ways among all the nations of the world, but I refuse the designation “American exceptionalist.” An American woman can love her country and be deeply patriotic because she appreciates its uniqueness and marvelous history. She might point to such things as its abundant natural resources and favorable climate. More likely, she would talk even more about the freedoms of speech, press, and religion. There is the protection under law its citizens enjoy. She could reference its

Culture, Country, & Christ

Books to shed light on conventional notions of God and country By Jim Tune “Is the United States an exceptional nation? Of course it is. . . . Though not everyone may like the way the United States has used its exceptional status over the course of the last two centuries, it is hard to deny that it has been . . . extraordinary.” So says John Fea in his foreword to John D. Wilsey”s American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. Personally, I”m inclined to agree. In my research, the authors of the books I surveyed are, for the most part, in agreement

Is There a Christian Nation?

By Robert F. Hull Jr. God of our fathers, known of old”” Lord of our far-flung battle line”” Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine”” Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget””lest we forget! This is the first stanza of the poem “Recessional,” written by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria”s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Although British might was still so “far-flung” that it was said “the sun never sets on the British Empire,” in his poem Kipling worried that the nation might become “drunk with sight of power” and forget the God

God Bless America?

By Marshall Leggett America has a rich heritage of faith, from its very beginning. Columbus, whose name means Christ bearer, saw his exploration of the New World as being guided by the providential hand of God. “Our Lord unlocked within me the determination to execute the idea,”Â Columbus wrote. “Who doubts that His was the illumination of the Holy Spirit? Our Lord wished to perform the clearest work of providence in this matter.”1 Then came the Pilgrims. Their Mayflower Compact expressed the intention of these Christians “to live under the rule of law based on the consent of the people.”2 Their desire, as explained here, was to

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