1976 was one of my favorite childhood years.
I was nine years old, and late that year the Lord began opening my spiritual eyes to my heart’s true condition — sin and self sat atop its throne, and I needed King Jesus to bring to it His rule of righteousness. Within a few months — in early 1977 — it pleased God to bring me savingly to Himself. From that day to this day, I have never been the same person.
As Paul so beautifully phrased it, I became a new man in Christ. Old things had passed away and all things in me were being made new — a work that continues to my typing these words. Next year, I will mark 50 years as a follower of Jesus Christ. His work in my sin-warped heart began in 1976, a fruit of my parents’ teaching and the faithful gospel preaching of my childhood church. But the glory belongs to Him alone.
There were less consequential — but still personally important — things that made 1976 one of the most memorable years of my childhood: The Cincinnati Reds were the best team in baseball and one of their stars, Pete Rose, helped me fall in love with the game I cherish to this day. Man, were those ’75-’76 Reds ever fun to watch.
We elected a Georgian, Jimmy Carter, as POTUS. Carter was our former governor who unashamedly claimed to be an evangelical Christian. Turns out, he was more of a progressive Baptist with progressivist political notions, but a nine-year-old didn’t have eyes to see that. Having a peanut farmer from my home state in the White House made us all happy. Four years later, Ronald Reagan made us much happier, but I digress.
All year, we celebrated the bicentennial (200th) birthday of our country. Pro sports teams wore special patches commemorating this fact with red, white, and blue stitching, adorned with the Liberty Bell. I can still picture the red, white, and blue stripes down the middle of the Dallas Cowboys helmet worn by my all-time favorite NFL player, Roger Staubach.
Our church held a special service at the lake giving thanks to the Lord for 200 years of religious freedom and spiritual prosperity for the United States.
That year instilled in me a deep love for my country. Our family proudly flies our flag on the front porch. And, as much as I hesitate to admit it, Lee Greenwood’s famous song about America brings a little mist to my eyes when I hear it in the right setting. My family and my wife’s family both have a long history of military service, and our son will soon leave to fulfill his contract with the United States Marine Corps. Serving his country has been Jake’s dream since childhood, and while there’s a part of us that worries for his safety, we are grateful he so strongly desires to serve a cause much larger than his own well-being.
As a historian with a keen interest in war history, I know all too well that our freedom has come at a profound price. My father was a paratrooper in WWII. My father-in-law did two tours in Vietnam. They came home, but many of their colleagues did not. “Freedom comes at a cost” is more than a tired cliché to my family.
In a matter of days, we will celebrate our country’s 250th birthday. In recent years, there’s been an encouraging push to make America great again. As followers of Jesus Christ, do we believe America has been or will be great again?
Good to Great: de Tocqueville’s Analysis
In 1831, French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States for a nine-month examination of the country’s penal system. His travels took him through many states and eventually to a meeting with President Andrew Jackson, whom he called “a man of violent character and middling capacity.” His observations of American life, its people, and the state of its democracy became the subject of his work, Democracy in America, published in two parts in 1835 and 1840. It remains one of the most insightful works ever written about America.
In that work, he famously said of our country: “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
There it is: “If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” I believe our country and its constitutional republic still represent one of the greatest nations in human history, but have we ceased to be good? Consider:
- Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, Americans have murdered nearly 70 million babies (the population of Canada is 35 million) in the name of convenience and the equally absurd “women’s health care.”
- In 2015, our country legalized so-called “same-sex marriage” and has caved at every level to the demonic agenda of the LGBTQ+ movement.
- The divorce rate among evangelicals virtually mirrors that of the culture, reaching nearly 60 percent.
- Chattel slavery was fully engaged in its diabolical work during de Tocqueville’s visit and needed a civil war to finally make it illegal.
What does goodness have to do with greatness? Within a Christian worldview, goodness is what every unregenerate person lacks but is the one thing needful to be seen as great in the eyes of God. As Jeremiah soberingly put it: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Can a conservative government make America good again? No. Can the right elected officials do that? No. Government is ordained by God and is tasked with leading righteously and restraining evil (Rom. 13:1–7), and electing officials with righteous policies that tend toward human flourishing is critical. Christians must not sit on the sidelines during elections or even in a willingness to serve in elected offices.
The good news that will make our country truly great again is found in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. Only when a heart is regenerated by the Spirit of God to embrace Christ’s substitutionary, atoning death is it enabled to be good.
Make America Good Again
So, if America is to be great, she must first be good, and that requires a mighty work of God’s grace. Evangelical Christians in general — and Southern Baptists in particular — wield the one weapon that can make our country great: the gospel. How do we unleash it? Consider:
- Theologically and spiritually healthy local churches. This is a major emphasis of The Courier’s mission.
- Sound gospel ministers. Ditto. Preachers who exposit God’s Word book by book, verse by verse.
- Biblical literacy. Everyday Christians need to know their Bibles. We should never take God’s Word for granted — yet, I fear we do. The battle for the Bible will burn hot until Jesus returns for His bride, and as a people of The Book, we must know it, live it, and cherish it.
- Courageous pastors and churches who refuse to compromise with the culture on issues of sexuality and gender. A good place to start in the SBC is approval of the Mohler amendment a second time at next year’s annual meeting. I fear that weak complementarians in the SBC threaten to give ground on this issue. The slouch toward compromise begins subtly, but let’s pray it never gets to that in our denomination.
The United States of America and its freedom project offer great hope for our dark world for human flourishing. And America can be good again when God gives His church grace to be the church as described in Scripture.
— Jeff Robinson editor and president of The Baptist Courier. He also serves as an adjunct professor of church history at both North Greenville University and Anderson University.