The Christian Cosmos: Why a Christian Nation Doesn’t Go Far Enough
The idea of a Christian nation is problematic for many Christians, particularly in our Baptist circles. The pearl-clutching becomes so fierce that some are uneasy about calling anything besides a regenerated person Christian. This anxiety extends to a suspicion of calling Christian schools, well, Christian. What should we make of this uneasiness?
On the one hand, it’s understandable why so many Baptists are hesitant to think of anything besides individuals as Christian. One of the defining marks of Baptist belief is the necessity of regeneration for entrance into the church. Moreover, throughout history, other denominations have unhelpfully blurred the lines between being physically born into a nation and being spiritually born into the church. This unhealthy movement led to the persecution of the early Baptists. Because of these historical issues, this present hesitancy is understandable.
While acknowledging these issues, is there any sense in which Christians in general, and Baptists in particular, can call something Christian? Absolutely. Confusion over how we use this word muddies our thinking and often causes us to talk past one another. There are at least four ways to speak of things being Christian: conversion, correspondence, content, and consummation.
Christian by Conversion
The first way something, or someone, can be Christian is through conversion (or regeneration). In order for a person to become a Christian, they must be converted through the new birth (John 3:1–15). To a large extent, this is only possible for individuals, but it must be noted that converted Christians are called to join the corporate regenerated reality that is the church. This church, though universal, is displayed through local congregations. As Baptists, we rightly believe that every local church should consist only of those who display evidence of new life. Yet, we still call local churches “Christian” despite the reality that our membership rolls will sometimes include some unregenerate people.
For this reason, God has given the church the tool of church discipline, because even churches that stress the necessity of regeneration will err from time to time. The presence of false confessions of faith does not prevent us from rightly identifying that church as Christian. In the sense of conversion, the distinctions between the God-ordained spheres of the church and state may cause us to be slow to speak of a nation being Christian. Yet, this is not the only way to speak of something being Christian.
Christian by Correspondence
The second way to speak of something being Christian is by its correspondence to reality. Francis Schaeffer once quipped, “Regardless of a man’s system, he has to live in God’s world.”[1] The God of this world is not some bland theistic god, but the Christian one. The cosmos is Christian because it is created, sustained, and exists by the power of God—not just any God, but the Triune God. Moreover, all things exist by, through, and for Christ (Col. 1:15–17). The cosmos is thoroughly Christian.
This is not a deistic, naturalist, or generically theistic world. It belongs to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The truth of all reality centers on the Christian God. Reality is irreducibly Christian. In this sense, arguing for a Christian nation does not go far enough, because we live in a thoroughly Christian world as Christianity corresponds to reality. To miss the Christianness of the world is to have a deformed view of reality. Schaeffer emphatically makes this point: “No matter what a man may believe, he cannot change the reality of what is. As Christianity is the truth of what is there, to deny this, on the basis of another system, is to stray from the real world.”[2] One reason our age is manifestly losing its mind is because it is losing touch with the real world of Christianity.
Christian by Content
We can also speak of things being Christian in regard to their content. This can take many forms. For example, we have Christian creeds and confessions whose content reflects the truths of Christian belief and practice. Similarly, a school can be Christian in its content as it offers a distinctly Christian—and true—education. Christian schools, via their statement of faith, founding documents, and curriculum, can and must be thoroughly Christian in their content. Such a use of the word Christian does not mean that every member of the student body and staff is unquestionably born again, though we pray to that end. Rather, to be Christian in content means that the confession and curriculum of the school align with the truth of the Christian faith. Similarly, many of the early governing documents of our nation were explicitly Christian in their content.[3]
Something comparable can be said of content when speaking of demographics. A Christian church will, by its demographics, be made up of professing Christians. Likewise, if a town with a population of 500 has 490 professing Christians in it, the content of that town can rightly be called Christian. While we may scoff at that as a possibility, this has often been the case in Western history. During the time of America’s founding, 98% of the people were Protestant and the other 2% identified as Catholic.[4] America’s founding, though not made up of 100% regenerated believers, was decisively Christian—and even Protestant.
Also, a sanctified government, in seeking to faithfully serve God as its master (Rom. 13:4), should be Christian in its content. It does this by recognizing the Christian God in the content of its founding documents. This can be done in such a way that the state does not violate the sovereignty God grants to the church.[5]
Christian by Consummation
Finally, something can be Christian in light of the redemption brought by the consummation of Christ’s kingdom. The kingdom is both already and not yet in this age, as the gospel goes forward in power. Paul’s words about the preeminence of Christ over all things crescendo with these words in Colossians 1:20:
Through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
It is magnificently and irreducibly true that Christ shed his blood for individual sinners, but that is not all that his blood does. Christ is redeeming all things, in heaven and on earth, through his bloody cross. This is a blood-bought world. Christ’s redeeming work is directed at all things. This is not some liberal view of universalism. This redemption does not include all things without exception, but rather, Christ is redeeming all types/categories of things. He is making all things new.
For this reason, the nations and their kings are invited into the kingdom through heeding the gospel’s call (Matt. 28:19; Acts 9:15). No matter how queasy it may make us, God’s plan of redemption includes all of life, including our forms of governmental power. The nations and their rulers will bring their tribute to Christ’s throne in the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24–26; Isa. 60:3). Scripture tells us that all things are being Christianized, as the world is commanded to kiss the Son while there is still time (Ps. 2:10–12).
Redeeming Our Language
If the proper use of Christian were truly limited only to regenerated individuals, then it would be wrong to speak of nations, schools, or even families as Christian. But such a narrow use of the word ignores the biblical worldview revealed in Scripture. We can rightly speak of things being Christian in at least these four ways: conversion, correspondence, content, and consummation. This world is being redeemed and transformed by Christ. This is a Christian cosmos, and it will only become more and more Christian by the blood of Christ’s cross. Let our language reflect that glorious reality.
Pastor Levi Secord
Christ Bible Church
[1] Francis Schaeffer, “The God Who Is There,” in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, vol. 1, A Christian View of the West (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 138.
[2] Ibid., 132.
[3] Levi Secord, Servant Not Savior: An Introduction to the Bible’s Teaching about Civil Government (Coulterville, CA: Center for Cultural Leadership, 2025), 91–93.
[4] Mark David Hall, Did America Have a Christian Founding? (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2019), xxi. Hall cites Barry A. Kosmin and Seymour P. Lachman, One Nation under God: Religion in Contemporary American Society (New York: Harmony, 1993), 28–29.
[5] For more on how the state can be Christian without becoming the church, see Secord, Servant Not Savior, 148–70.
