Under God: Our Position

In 2nd Peter 3, the writer encourages us to continue in our steadfastness and devotion to Christ.  Verse 14 says:
14Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless...
Then, in the final 2 verses of the book, Peter gives this admonition:17You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;18but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. 
Jesus teaches us to abide in Him, and Psalm 91 underscores a concept of "abiding under..." the shadow of the Almighty.   The Bible says in Romans that if we confess with our mouths that "Jesus is Lord" and believe that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.   So, our salvation is tied to our submission to the hand of Almighty God - making sure that our lives are "under God"!   If we are in our rightful place, and Jesus is in His place as Lord of our lives, we can experience His grace and the joy of knowing Him.  He calls us to grow, and that growth will only come as our lives are in proper alignment with the Almighty.

In Psalm 91, we see the notion of abiding "under" God's hand of protection and providence.  We can get a sense of submitting our lives under His mighty hand:
1He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.2I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."

The phrase, "under God", has become somewhat controversial in American society today - of course, you have those who claim no knowledge of God who are trying to have it removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, and now there is a bit of a controversy over the inclusion of the phrase in the Gettysburg Address, the 150th anniversary of which was celebrated yesterday.

According to an analysis on TheBlaze website, there were actually 9 published versions of the address. As it points out, no one knows for sure exactly what Lincoln said on Nov. 19, 1863. After all, there were no audio or video recorders then, so all we can rely on are media reports from the time.

Last year, the National Constitution Center’s Scott Bomboy provided a transcription that the Associated Press prepared at the time. Published 150 years ago, it included a reference to God. Here’s the relevant section:

It is rather for us here to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain. [Applause] That the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the Government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Bomboy has noted that Lincoln's first two written versions did not mention God and that there are nine total versions of the speech floating around (not all are written in Lincoln's handwriting).

"The inclusion of God in the speech is perhaps the most significant difference among the versions," Bomboy wrote. "The fifth version of the speech, which was signed and dated by Lincoln, was considered the 'final' version and included 'under God' in its last sentence.

While Bomboy said it's impossible to say with certainty whether God really was included in the proclamation, numerous media outlets -- the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer -- reported on the Gettysburg Address at the time and indicated that "under God" was a part of the speech.

The Boston Advertiser reportedly also noted at the time that the line was used as the address concluded.

There's also a side issue here that involves the current resident of the Oval Office who, along with a variety of celebrities, was asked by filmmaker Ken Burns to read the Address.   Portions were used in a composite and complete videos were posted on Burns' website.  Apparently, Mr. Obama did not use the words, "under God".   Now, Burns' website reportedly includes the disclaimer that the President was asked to read the initial version of the speech.   Some analysts have used this omission to highlight some of the policies of the current Administration that have been offensive to people of faith.

But, I want to deal for a moment with the significance of the phrase in the life of Lincoln.   Author Stephen Mansfield traces the faith journey of Abraham Lincoln in a book he discussed on this program called, "Lincoln's Battle With God".  It's a fascinating read about Lincoln's transition from being rather secular in his early life to his embracing of Christian principles and how those factored into his life and his decisions.  By the end of his life, the evidence points to someone who was dedicated, it seems, to living his life under the hand of the Almighty - perhaps you could say that Lincoln was living out the words, "under God" in his own life.

In a blog post, Mansfield writes that:

The bookends of his First and Second Inaugural Addresses define the transition to yet another stage of faith during his presidential years. Though in his First Inaugural on March 4, 1861, he referred to a God who has “never yet forsaken this favored land,” he perceived the war as under human control. “In your hands,” he told the departing Confederate states, “is the momentous issue of civil war.”

By his Second Inaugural four years later, he had seen too much suffering, had witnessed too many inexplicable Union defeats. He concluded that God had visited the war upon the nation as punishment for the sin of slavery. In this Second Inaugural, he spoke as prophet of an offended God, calling the nation to acknowledge divine purposes and “bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Clearly, he had begun to believe in a God who ruled men and nations, but had he yet become a Christian? We cannot know with certainty, though Mary Lincoln’s account of her husband’s final words raises intriguing possibilities. Confiding to a Baptist minister a decade after her husband’s death, Mary recalled that during a carriage ride on April 14, 1865, and later that evening at Ford’s Theater, the president assured her that following the war, “We will go abroad among strangers where I can rest. We will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior.”

I think that reflection on the phrase, "under God", can cause us to think upon several relevant principles for Christians today.   Number 1, we underscore the significance of well-chosen words.   And, the Gettysburg Address was full of powerful phrases that are still considered meaningful today.   As a CNN piece on the two-minute address points out:

His words are some of the most memorable in American history, forever stamping our collective minds with "four score and seven years ago," and "all men are created equal," and of course a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." 

Lincoln made an indelible mark on our nation with a 2-minute speech full of weighty phrases.   Another speaker that day, Edward Everett, rambled on about the war in 2 hours - do we even remember anything he said?    Well-chosen words can be impactful, idle words can have the opposite effect - so we can be challenged to think before we speak.

I think another significant takeaway is the meaning of that phrase, "under God."   To me, there is no doubt that our nation was founded on Christian principles.    And, I believe that the hope for our nation is for His people to pray and seek Him diligently, so that we can truly experience His hand upon us.   But, we can also think about that phrase relative to our own lives.   Are we living "under the shadow of the Almighty"?   We can examine ourselves to see if our thoughts and actions in submission to the will of God.   You can say the words, and people do like to place what I call a "God-stamp" in their public proclamations, and there are people with whom we interact who will use religious language, but their hearts are not attuned toward God.   So, we have to make sure that our declaration of God matches up with our inward and outward dedication to God.   We can be challenged to examine not just what is said, but what is done.   May our hearts reflect the weight of the words, "under God".