It was a theological blunder for early American Christian colonists to believe they were the new Hebrews, and America was the new promised land to which God was leading them. They believed they were divinely authorized to make room for themselves by pushing out indigenous people by any means, just as the ancient Hebrews pushed the Canaanites out of the promised land. The new world had an added advantage of being big enough for competing branches of Christianity, long at war with one another in Europe, to carve out their own pieces of America, energetically forcing out anyone in their way.
It was predictable. Too many events coincided. European voyages of discovery and better ship design made the cross ocean trip more than feasible. They thought they had a greater probability of surviving it than staying where they were. Europe’s laws of primogeniture made it difficult for younger sons and all daughters to hope for a decent life in adulthood. Plagues added to the ordinary ebb and flow of disease and crop failure that were ill omens for everyone’s future. Religious dissenters, debtors, petty criminals, and the lowest classes had no future staying, but some hope if they left for America. So they went. The elite of Europe were glad to see them go, and figured to make a profit in the bargain if the colonists made it. A two sided win.
The European invasion and settlement of America happened, but the theology of a new, divinely ordained promised land was wrong from the start. It created a legacy some still adhere to that calls for the United States to be a (white) Christian theocracy – a claim based on flimsy evidence. Many of the earliest colonial settlements were founded by Christians intent on building a community limited to their particular expression of faith. Colonies slowly became institutionalized states, each establishing its preferred denomination as the tax supported legal religion. As the 18th century waned, a superficial, generic Protestant Christianity became the default religion of the nation – a religiosity that few questioned. Its theological foundation was always unbiblical, and strayed far from the path on which Jesus set his followers. It was, in short, a house built on sand, not solid rock.
Why were the early colonists not a new Hebrew people led by God to a new promised land? It’s true that the biblical record declares God set apart the Hebrew people to receive the story of God’s self revelation, and to live into it as an example to the rest of the world. God instructed them to invade the land of the Canaanites, and occupy it as a land holy to God. Their performance of obedience to God’s ways was dismal, but the record they left behind became a torch of holy truth for all peoples. In that sense, they fulfilled all that God required of them. It happened once. God never again called a particular people to leave their homeland and go to another place to start a new nation.
Through Jesus, God set the people of God on an entirely different path. He was not another Moses ordained to lead a people from bondage into a promised land. He was the Word of God made flesh who sent his followers into the world to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God was at hand. Early in Jesus’ ministry, he proclaimed the good news to the people in a despised, enemy village of Samaritans. He didn’t invade it, or force its people to make room for their betters. He simply proclaimed the good news and left them in peace, blessed by God’s presence. He did the same in the region of Galilee, filled with Jews and gentiles of every description, excluding no one. His anger was reserved for the self righteous religious who were eager to condemn all others. He proclaimed God’s way of love for one another, and showed them what love looks like. He fed thousands, the good, bad, worthy and unworthy, whoever showed up. For this, he was condemned and executed, but death could not contain him. After his resurrection, he sent his closest followers into the world, not to invade it or create new nations, but to proclaim the good news wherever they went.
What does the good news contain? Matthew’s gospel records the core of it in the “Sermon on the Mount,” (chapters 5-7). It calls for a new way of life, one grounded in peace and good will toward others that Jesus said leads to a life in God’s kingdom, no matter what trials may be faced along the way. He commissioned his earliest disciples to go into nearby towns proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of God was close by. No one was forced from their homes. No one was forced to convert on pain of death. Parables were used to teach a new way of living, not a new way of conquering and subjugating. Jesus often wandered into foreign territory where he healed strangers for no reason other than their need for healing, then left them behind to go their own way proclaiming their version of the good news. In the end he instructed his followers to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” What had he commanded them? To live as agents of God’s love wherever they went and among whomever they lived.
In the thirty years following Jesus time on earth, the good news of God in Christ Jesus reached every corner of the Roman Empire, and well beyond. Romans remained Romans, Greeks remained Greeks, Egyptians remained Egyptians, the peoples of many lands remained as they were, but the word of God penetrated wherever Christians went.
That’s the biblical theme established by the Word of God made flesh in Jesus. The Word of God stands contrary to kings and princes, claiming to act in the name of Christ, who made war on each other, forced conversions, enslaved the conquered, while building and destroying empires. The Word of God stands because there is no higher authority. The Word of God stands because it is the Word of God.
The Doctrine of Discovery notwithstanding, the Word of God never ordained any person or company of Christians to proclaim themselves a people set aside from all others with the right to conquer a new promised land for their own use. Nor did God authorize adventurers, conquistadores, or land speculators to claim for themselves, their kings, or anyone else, the divine right to invade and conquer the Americas. They did it, but not by divine right. Waving the flag of Christ was an abomination, no matter how genuine the intent.
Asserting that the United States was once a (white) Christian nation and should be again is equally abominable. Christians are called to proclaim the good news by bearing the light of Christ, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.
Amidst it all, it is good to give thanks for the many who faithfully bore the light of Christ then, and bear it now. May you be among them.