If you type into a search engine, \u201cGod is a . . .\u201d near the top is \u201cEnglishman” (just after \u201castronaut\u201d\u2014go figure!). We quote this phrase all the time in England. It’s from a well-known book by R.F. Delderfield. Suffice it to say that my country\u2019s relationship with God has a long and complicated history. Nowhere is this more evident than in the words of the hymn \u201cJerusalem.\u201d Considered one of our most patriotic songs, the hymn also has the dubious honor of being the only one where every line can be answered in the negative:<\/p>\n
And did those [Jesus\u2019] feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green? [No!]<\/em> William Blake penned the poem as a riff on an apocryphal story about adolescent Jesus visiting England\u2019s shores and finding it to be heaven on earth. The hymn was written when religious fervor was rife in England; many believed God \u201cfavored\u201d our land. Such words convey that nationality<\/em>, not spirituality,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We should never confuse God\u2019s kindness to our home nation with the idea that nationality is his primary interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":776,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/776"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62436,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62434\/revisions\/62436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? [Nope!]<\/em>
And was the holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pastures seen? [Again, nope!]<\/em>
And was Jerusalem builded here among those dark satanic mills? [All together now: No!]<\/em><\/p>\n