Last night in our fascinating interview with Os Guinness about his new book, The Magna Carta of Humanity, he mentioned how President Biden talks about reclaiming the soul of America, and the former President spoke about Making America Great Again, but neither one of them went back far enough to talk about and embrace what made America great in the first place. And what made America great in the first place was not the fact that we are a Christian nation and we need to get back to God, but that we are a nation founded on principles rooted in the scriptures, going all the way back to the Sinai Revolution led by Moses freeing the people of Israel from Egypt and the injustice of Pharaoh. Principles like justice, freedom, equality (in that all human beings are made in the image of God), and the fall of humanity into sin which necessitates checks and balances to curb our evil nature, and these values all need to be supported by the rule of law. These values all come from a Judeo/Christian framework which was part of the way the founding fathers thought in 1776, whether they were Christians or not.
Os mentioned that one of the meanings included in the Hebrew word for repentance is the idea of coming home. And as such, he is calling for a “homecoming” of the nation, to come back to its roots, not necessarily as a Christian nation, but back to its Judeo/Christian beginnings where both God and truth are present, and where men and women seek to submit to an authority higher than all of us.
A homecoming certainly suits our vision here at the Catch where we are committed to introducing the gospel of welcome — grace turned outward — to everyone everywhere. We have a loving, forgiving Father who always has His eye fixed down the road searching for any of his children who might be on their way back home to Him. He is full of grace and truth, eager to bestow upon us that which we do not deserve, but which comes freely from His heart of love.
Whether we are able to return to that foundation which created the greatest experiment of democracy in the history of the world is one thing, but we will always be able to celebrate the homecoming of a lost, repentant soul seeking a place in the heart of the Father-God. Welcome home.
