In the previous post, I looked at a Substack by Eugene Terekhin that argued that nations are based on a founding vision, and that when that vision is lost, the nation crumbles. His argument is correct, and I fear we are seeing it played out right now in Europe. But there is another part of Terekhin’s argument that merits a closer look: the idea that the vision comes from divine revelation.

Terekhin’s Thesis

Terekhin makes this argument explicitly about Göbekli Tepe, the great temple complex discovered in Turkey that predates agriculture. He argues that the hunter-gatherers who built it did so because they were driven by a religious impulse to build a temple. And so, in Terekhin’s words, “Having received a Divine revelation, they settled down and started building an economy around the construction site.” (Emphasis added.)

Similarly, he argued that nations are formed around a common, transcendent vision. And so, “Nations are supernatural because they form around a Divine vision.”

The Nature of Nations

To be sure, nations are God’s idea. The table of nations in Genesis 10 comes before the account of the Tower of Babel, and nations continue into the Eschaton (e.g. Revelation 4:9-12), so they are arguably supernatural. But they are traditionally understood as being rooted in a common ethnicity, language, culture, and religion. In fact, the Greek word for “nation,” ethne, means either nation or ethnic group.

Today, I would argue that nations like America are formed primarily around a common culture since we have given up on a common religion and ethnicity; language is up for grabs at the moment. And culture is built around a common vision of national identity—what the nation is or should be. So the vision is at the heart of the nation.

Religion in Ancient Nations

So far so good. But what about the Divine part? Can we really make the argument that this vision comes from God, that it is Divine revelation as it was for Göbekli Tepe according to Terekhin? And what do we do with all the pagan nations throughout history who did not know God? Were their nations formed from Divine revelation or inspiration as well?

Let’s start with the ancient world. Terekhin is right about Göbekli Tepe and the apparently older sites near it yet to be excavated: The desire to build a temple is what drove the earliest efforts at bringing stone age hunter-gatherer clans together for a common purpose. It is not a coincidence that these sites are located near Eden.

Further, every culture I know of up until the French Revolution also viewed its founding and its on-going legitimacy in religious terms. If you have doubts about America, consider the Declaration of Independence’s references to the Creator, the Supreme Judge of the World, and divine Providence.

But Is It Divine Revelation?

At least up to the secular states founded in the last 200 or so years, religion has thus played an important role in establishing, legitimizing, and maintaining nations. But does that necessarily mean that divine revelation was at work? Couldn’t it be fairy tales or philosophy or even demonic deception?

Here, J.R.R. Tolkien can help us. He commented that “We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God….” (Tolkien here is referencing John 1:9, which refers to the logos as “the true light that enlightens everyone.”)

C.S. Lewis agreed, and argued that myths and fairy tales were glimpses of truth from God that were partially understood and transmitted in garbled form by the poets. Their true import can only be understood in light of that to which they were pointing, the Incarnation and the Gospel. (This is also true of the Old Testament, which Jesus said spoke of him [John 5:39]).

Tolkien and Lewis’s argument suggests that while the vision that led to the founding of nations was incomplete and misunderstood, and even possibly demonically distorted, Terekhin is correct that it had a divine origin.

And this doesn’t even address the role of divine sovereignty, God setting the boundaries and time periods for the nations (Acts 17:26), angelic beings appointed over nations (Daniel 10:13, 20), and the role of general revelation.

The Modern Secular State

But what about modern secular nations? Does their vision also originate in divine revelation?

The answer to that is yes, though they do not realize it. Modern secular states owe their understanding of human rights, limited government, equality before the law, and other foundational principles ultimately to Christianity. If you want to know why, see my book Slaying Leviathan.

So yes, there is divine revelation at the root of their vision as well. But these ideas have no firm grounding, which is why over time they have gradually eroded. I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who said a century ago that we were living on borrowed capital—the legacy of the Christian world. That capital has been running out, which is why we are losing the vision today. When you lose Christianity, you lose everything that depends on it.