The Bible
Over the past few weeks, we've explored one enduring question:
How do nations flourish?
Rather than looking first to politics or economics, we turned to literature.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn reminded us that flourishing nations give their people hope—a belief that tomorrow can be better than today.
A Gentleman in Moscow taught us that while institutions matter, character ultimately sustains a civilization. A government can confiscate property, but it cannot manufacture virtue.
The Grapes of Wrath challenged us to remember that behind every policy is a person, behind every statistic is a family, and that compassion is one of the marks of a healthy people.
Finally, C. S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man warned that civilizations cannot long endure if they lose the ability to distinguish truth from preference and virtue from mere opinion. We cannot expect courage, honesty, justice, and self-sacrifice if we no longer believe those things are objectively good.
Those four books ask remarkable questions.
But none of them answers the deepest one.
Where do hope, character, compassion, and truth come from?
For that, I return to The Bible and suspect that makes some readers cringe a bit.
Sadly, cultural allusions today tend to be negative or dismissive when we speak of the Bible. It is a Book referenced a lot but read very little. But the Bible (66 books) has shaped Western civilization more than any other book ever written, but because it begins where every discussion of human flourishing must begin—with humanity itself.
Genesis opens with a breathtaking declaration:
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
Before there are nations, governments, markets, cultures... there is just one BIG miracle I believe in-
There is God. If He is who He says He is in His Word- everything else is easy.
Humanity is not an accident of chemistry or a fortunate product of evolution's blind forces. Men and women are created in the image of God, entrusted with stewardship, creativity, meaningful work, relationships, and the care of creation itself.
That is a remarkably hopeful beginning.
It tells us that human dignity is not something governments grant. It is something God bestows.
Genesis also tells us why every civilization struggles.
The Fall in Genesis 3 is not simply the story of two people eating forbidden fruit - It is the story of humanity believing it can flourish apart from its Creator.
The temptation in Eden was, in essence, this: "You shall too be gods."
Ever since then, every generation has been tempted to believe that if we can simply build the right political system, accumulate enough wealth, educate enough people, or invent enough technology, we can overcome the deepest problems of the human condition.
If we only read history or watched last night's news - we would know how bogus this is- Our greatest problem has always been spiritual.
We have had a lot of media attention on socialism and I do worry that we have an unstable (and an uneducated one as well) electorate who will listen to that same old Gen. 3 lie....
Who knows? And some of this series was sparked by the growing debate-
As I've worked through this series, one conviction has grown stronger.
Markets generate prosperity. Governments preserve order. Communities provide support.
But only a people shaped by transcendent truth can sustain a civilization over generations.
An individual may flourish even in a broken nation. In other words, I hope America keeps flourishing and becoming a more perfect union- but I'm going to be taken care of- even if no one goes with me.
History gives us countless examples of faithful men and women whose character shone in the darkest circumstances. But imagine a society where millions of ordinary people sought to love God and love their neighbor.
Where honesty was valued above deception, service mattered more than status, marriage was honored, children cherished, the weak protected, work was embraced as stewardship, forgiveness practiced, justice was pursued with mercy......
No law could compel such a society into existence but such virtues have the power to transform one.
The Bible is not merely a collection of religious writings.
It is a vision of what human flourishing looks like under the loving rule of the One who made us.
And that brings us to one final beginning- the opening words of John's Gospel deliberately echo Genesis:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The story that began in a garden finds its fulfillment in Christ.
If Genesis tells us who we were created to be, John tells us how God restores what has been lost.
As our nation celebrates 250 years of history, I remain grateful for its freedoms, its opportunities, and its remarkable experiment in self-government.
But every nation, including our own, must ultimately answer one final question:
Will we acknowledge our dependence upon the Divine Creator who holds our destiny in His hands?
I believe those hands are not only sovereign- they are loving.
And perhaps that is the greatest secret of all.
Nations flourish not because they have discovered the perfect system. They flourish because enough of their people discover the One for whom they were created.
I wish all people could have the blessing of knowing the humbling mercy of God in that while I am a miserable sinner- I have hope in Christ. He is my father and I am His Son.
And writing that- still brings tears to my eyes - even after all these years.
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