A Christian nation?

Contrary to popular opinion, Jon Meacham at the New York Times has remineded America that a nation of "Christians" is not a Christian nation. He points out:

According to Scripture, however, believers are to be wary of all mortal powers. Their home is the kingdom of God, which transcends all earthly things, not any particular nation-state. The Psalmist advises believers to “put not your trust in princes.” The author of Job says that the Lord “shows no partiality to princes nor regards the rich above the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.” Before Pilate, Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And if, as Paul writes in Galatians, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in
Christ Jesus,” then it is difficult to see how there could be a distinction in God’s eyes between, say, an American and an Australian. In fact, there is no distinction if you believe Peter’s words in the Acts of the Apostles: “I most certainly believe now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is welcome to him.” The kingdom Jesus preached was radical. Not only are nations irrelevant, but families are, too: he instructs those who would be his disciples to give up all they have and all those they know to follow him.

The article is a great read and I recommend it to all. Check it out here.

Sunday

Christianity Today magazine has an interesting article about Craig Harline's new book called "Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Superbowl". The article contains an excerpt from the book, which shows how so-called Christians adopted the pagan 'Sun Day' into their worship. Here is a sample:

And when Christianity moved into northern Europe, "Sunday" was so common among Christians that the new northern converts simply used that name exclusively. Just as pagan forms had been conquered and appropriated, now the greatest pagan day was absorbed as well. Emerging vernacular languages around the mediterranean, where the early church was born and raised, certainly retained "Lord's Day" in common usage, but a good Christian in either north or south could now find as much Christian imagery in "Sunday" as they pleased, and thus uttered the word without a second thought. Only the later vernacular languages of eastern Christianity, and Portuguese in the west, would reject all planetary names for the days of the week as offensively pagan.

Remaining without spot from the world

Tom over at Sheep & Goats has a post on a book entitled "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience- Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?" by Ronald Sider, a professor of theology and contributor to Christianity Today magazine.

Tom mentions that Jehovah's Witnesses do not suffer from many of the same problems as Evangelicals have picked up over the last century, as they have stuck closely to the Biblical commandment to be "without spot from the world." The article is a good read.