Faith Debate: Does God's Covenant Include America?

The topic of America's Christian roots has been making headlines lately.

Was America founded as a Christian nation? 

Dr. Russell Moore with the Southern Baptist Convention says the answer depends on how someone defines a "Christian nation." 

In a video posted on his website, Moore says if a person believes the definition is "that God was in covenant with the United States of America in order to bless the United States of America as a special people, as a new Israel, as a group of people covenanted under Christianity... the answer to that is clearly, 'no.'"

However, Dr. Corne Bekker, the dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University, disagrees with Moore.

"The Bible is very clear about this fact that God invites people to enter into covenant with him," Bekker told CBN News. "One great example of this is found in Psalms 85, and this is an extraordinary Psalm. So Israel's been in captivity for 70 years; they come back to their country -- devastation everywhere -- and here's the question, 'What makes us a Godly nation again?'"

"And in the Psalm, God answers, and God says, 'If you fear me, my glory will dwell in your land.' And it's very clear to me that the founders of this great nation feared God. They came here specifically so that they could be free in the worship of the Lord," Bekker continued.

To hear more of Dr. Corne Bekker's perspective on God's relationship with America, click play above.

"There are specific covenants in the Old Testament, and there are also general covenants in the sense that God invites us to come in and indeed to be in relationship with him. Remember when the people of Israel entered into the Promised Land, God invited them. God said, 'Today I set before you life and death. You choose; it's up to you,'" Bekker went on to say.

Moore says Christian ideas deeply influenced America's founders, but "they did not found the country as a Christian nation, which is why there is, for instance, no religious test for office holders and why there is a separation between the responsibilities of the State from the responsibilities of the Church or of worshipping communities in the United States."

"I think that the confusion often comes in when people assign to the United States of America a Providential place in history that the Bible never assigns it," Moore said.

A professor from Baylor University has also weighed in on the subject recently.

Dr. Thomas S. Kidd, a history professor and the associate director of Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, supports Moore's position.

"We need to ask, what do people mean by a 'Christian nation?' If you could have done a public survey in 1776, the vast majority of white Americans would have professed to be Christians," Kidd told The Christian Post. "Christian (or at least theistic) assumptions about creation, equality, and human nature undergirded the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution."

"But the idea that God made a special covenant relationship with America, like he did with Israel in the Hebrew Bible, has no scriptural or historical basis," Kidd continued.

Bekker believes the biblical principles upon which America was founded are a great foundation, and in light of that, Americans today need to look inwardly.

"I think the question that Americans need to ask today is whether they would like to continue on in this covenant. Will they fear God? Will they indeed obey his commandments?" asked Bekker. 

"There's been an extraordinary decline in social values, Christian values and certainly biblical values I would say over the last seven to eight years. And in my mind America's right now at a crossroad where they need to make really important decisions."

"And one of the most important decisions is whether they're going to put their trust in God, whether they're going to commit this country indeed to the leadership and the sovereignty of one God," Bekker continued.

In addition to looking inwardly, Bekker believes Americans need to look back on the origin of the U.S. and look toward God as the country moves ahead. 

"I think one of the most important things that we need to remember is the good Christian history," he said. "There are some extraordinary, wonderful elements within the Constitution that I think Christians need to be educated about."

"And then I think most importantly, we need to humble ourselves and ask for God's forgiveness as well as for God's blessing and guidance as America moves forward. It's never too late."