That heading is a little misleading because America is indeed unique among the nations of the world, but it is less a nation than an idea!
It is essential for Christians to understand America’s identity because America was first bequeathed to Christians, and that bequest lies at the heart of what made these United States a uniquely powerful and prosperous beacon of hope to the rest of the world.
Its founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, clearly express an idea that resonates with people everywhere who carry in their hearts a yearning for liberty. It is a yearning that empowers them to thrive and prosper once they are free from the burden of allegiance to heavy-handed potentates, or a suffocating culture, or onerous traditions and customs.
The seed of that idea was planted a long time ago when Christian “Pilgrims” who sought their Promised Land, sailed to the New World in 1620 and signed an historic document before they went ashore in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The Mayflower Compact (or Covenant) was written and signed by 41 men aboard the little sailing ship Mayflower. They were Separatist Puritans who left England because they were dissatisfied with the Church of England.
The document records the first time in human history that free men voluntarily agreed to submit to a new form of government, under God. The only precedent was Israel, who accepted the authority of YHWH when they marked their homes with the blood of sacrificial lambs and left Egypt. But they were slaves then, not freemen.
The wording of the Mayflower Compact in 1620 established the identity of a tiny colony (120 people in all) that would one day grow into the United States of America. Their covenant, written in the Name of God, declared that they had undertaken their journey to the New World for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith.
That identity was underlined 156 years later in a Declaration of Independence that referred to the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God who created all men equal, endowed by their Creator with rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Since that auspicious beginning, the millions who came to America from all corners of the world carried that idea in their hearts. Someone has rightly observed that we don’t live in America—America lives in us!