The Role Of Historicism In
The American Civil Religion

American civil religion is the fusion of disparate belief systems under the “benevolent” power of the state on the assumption of a mutual obligation to natural law. In this view the state is not subject to God or Biblical law. Civil religion is an ancient concept that plagues us yet today.

Historicism In The Civil Religion
Of Ancient Israel

The precedent for American civil religion was established by king Jeroboam in ancient Israel. The idol of historicism was at work then, even as it is today. Imagine you have two Israelites 200 years after Jeroboam set the golden calf in Dan trudging down the road for the annual sacrifice to the golden calf (I King 12:32).

And one of them says, "this seems a little bit like idolatry, don't you think?" And the other one says "Oh, no, this feast was established by our founding father, Jeroboam 200 years ago. Jeroboam was invincible -- people shot at him from point blank range and couldn't kill him -- God was with him.

Jeroboam reminded us how this calf delivered our people from the land of Egypt in the glorious days of our war for independence against the oppressive King Rehoboam. We have always observed the tradition of the annual pilgrimage to pay homage to the golden calf, in deference to our great ancestor, General Jeroboam. We do it every year on the 4th of Tabernacles. He was a great general who delivered us from the oppressive taxation of King Rehoboam of the Israeli Empire."

And the other guy says, "Good grief, that was 200 years ago, you don't expect me to have all those details on the tip of my tongue do you? Don't rock the boat, everybody does this. Who do you know that says we shouldn't make the pilgrimage to the golden calf?

Do the Levites question the legend of the golden calf? Do the officials in the gate question the teaching of the golden calf? Just exactly who do you think you are questioning the legend of the golden calf anyway? You're constantly bringing up these conspiracy theories."

Historicism In the Civil Religion
Of Modern America

To return again to the present day, men like Gary DeMar, David Barton, Peter Marshall, and others have set themselves up as teachers of masses of historically uninformed Christians who inhabit the American church. Whether they are doing it intentionally I don't know, but they are presenting a patently false and idolatrous view of American history.

Thus, the American founding era is represented as a “golden age” of constitution builders, nonpareil. This civil religion is the received wisdom that history has deposited on our doorstep and to question it is heresy.

Ecclesiastics 7:10 speaks to this tendency toward historicism and civil religion: “Do not say ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.”

I don't want to give too much credence to the "history profession", but professional historians outside the church look at this and scoff because it is such an obviously biased twisting of the historical evidence. Because these "American Christian History Experts" present such a fairy-tale version of history, the educated unbeliever scoffs at the gospel.

For example, Gary DeMar is currently promoting a book on the "Christian Institutions of the United States of America". The cover of this book is decorated with a beautiful color print of Patrick Henry. Anybody who knows American history is going to look at that and scoff because they know that Patrick Henry was the arch-enemy of the institutions and the American civil religion that this book is promoting.

So the gospel loses credibility because of the historical naivete of these self-proclaimed American Christian history experts. In his day Zephaniah described them as "those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom" (Zeph. 1:5).

The unbeliever thinks, if they can't get something this simple correct how can we trust what they say about the Bible? It is true nonetheless: You repeat a lie long enough and historically ignorant people will come to accept it as the truth. Anything or anybody that challenges the received American civil religion risks being branded as a crackpot. That is the unfortunate reality of the historicism with which we are dealing.

Christians cannot plead ignorance. In Psalm 78 and elsewhere God holds His people – particularly fathers -- responsible for being students of history so they will be able to separate truth from falsehood. Ignorance is not an excuse because God holds us responsible to know and remember the past and understand what it means to us today. It is burdensome for serious students of American history to be repeatedly ridiculed by Christians who have not done their homework. Those who have studied the historical documents, read the speeches, and reviewed the charters know that the popular Christian version of American history and American civil religion is a fraud.

For example, when Christians claim that John Witherspoon, President of Princeton, taught James Madison and other founders a Biblical view of government they are inexcusably negligent. Those who have taken the time to read Witherspoon's class notes know that his approach to civil government was thoroughly rationalist, not Christian. When it came to civil government he was an advocate of American civil religion.

When David Barton puffs the Christianity of the founding fathers those who have done their homework know that he is blowing smoke. Very few Christians have taken the time or trouble to read the original source documents. Those who have know that the founders were more often than not unitarian in perspective, giving no place to Jesus Christ as the Lord of Nations. Rejection of Christ as Lord of nations lies at the heart of the American civil religion.

Another example: The experts constantly repeat the mantra that the founding fathers were "using the Bible as their great political textbook." Those who have taken the time to read the “Notes From the Federal Convention,” know that that is a total fabrication.

In four volumes you can count the number of times the founders refer to the Bible on one finger (OK two fingers). This writer found Franklin's prayer request and one other casual reference to the Biblical Pharaoh. That was it in over 1900 pages of 9-pt type.

Personal Response

It's all right there for people to read, but most Christians are too preoccupied, too lazy, or too negligent to do it. They'd rather take the word of a "Christian History Expert" who has an axe to grind. These kind of distortions are repeated constantly by the American Christian History experts and serve to perpetuate the idolatrous, American civil religion.

The crux of the matter for each of us is how do we respond to the American civil religion when the truth is presented to us? Do we cling to civil religion like a cherished idol or do we repudiate it? Do we mock the message and the messenger or do we receive the message with a repentant attitude? Or do we just shrug our shoulders?

When given the opportunity, do we make others aware of the seriousness of the offense to God and solicit them to seek God's mercy also? Do we avoid voluntarily taking any oath to the covenant-breaking document that would legitimize and perpetuate the rebellion? Such an oath is required of all new inductees into the United States Military. Or do we blaspheme God by referring to the very act of covenant-breaking rebellion as "our Christian heritage."

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