Christian Nationalism: Its Theological Roots

Transcript

JRS 60
Christian Nationalism: It’s Theological Roots. Part 1
01/12/2025
Selected Scripture
Jesse Randolph

The threat of reactionary theology in our day is very real and quite pervasive. Here’s what I mean by that. Consider for a moment these so-called Christians who, in our time will be abandoning any notion of a biblical sexual ethic. For instance, the truth that the only sexual union that God approves or condones is that between one man and one woman in the context of marriage. Why are those who are claiming the name of Christ taking this hard turn away these days from biblical morality? Well, because their friend has come out as LGBTQ+. Because Hollywood and Washington D.C. and social media influencer types have not only normalized various aberrant sexual practices but have glorified and glamorized them. Because pastors and church leaders in their area have softened their stance on what it means to be a man, or a woman as a woman. Or that homosexuality is a sin. Or that transgenderism is a made-up conception which is rooted ultimately in one’s rebellion against God. And what is the result? A reactionary theology. One which hyper-emphasizes the words “judge not.” One which hijacks the biblical conception of love and re-defines love as doing whatever my flesh desires. And one which bares its teeth and foams at the mouth, figuratively speaking, when the Bible is brought into the conversation.

Or consider for a moment those who in our days are saying they are deconstructing their faith. Not because they are able to disprove what the Bible teaches about God, or Christ, or sin, or salvation. And not because they’ve even read the Bible. But instead because of their experience. Maybe it’s their experience of watching a doubleminded parent who acted one way at church, but another way at home. Maybe it’s the experience of watching all of their church friends act just like the world and seemingly without consequences. Maybe it’s the experience of watching evil things happen in this world like genocide, or sex trafficking, or even the recent fires in LA, and wondering how God, if He’s there and if He’s good, could allow all of those things to take place.

And what is the result? A reactionary theology. One which measures what a person believes based on what they see and hear and sense and feel, rather than what God who is the ultimate authority for all that happens in the universe, has objectively revealed in His Word. Here’s another one. Another example of reactionary theology. And this leads us into our topic for tonight. Think about how much has happened, let’s limit it to right here in America, in the past five years. We’re coming up on the five-year anniversary of being told that a virus was on its way to American shores which would be on par if not worse than the new Spanish flu. The news, of course, led to a wave of mass hysteria and governmental intrusion like none of us had previously witnessed or experienced in our lifetime. Toilet paper began flying off shelves. Medical masks began being strapped to faces. Major events and venues and stores and restaurants started to shut down. In southern California, where I hail from, we knew things were weird when once-jammed freeways were suddenly empty.
Then came the official lockdowns. Schools shut down. Churches shut down. Then came new terminology like “social distancing.” and “flattening the curve.” Then came the virtue, signaling, “I wear a mask, and therefore I love people. Your church is staying open? That means you don’t love people.” Then came the mandates. First there were mask mandates, and then there were double mask mandates, and then there were vaccine mandates, and people were losing their livelihood for not taking the jab. People were losing their social capital for not receiving a second, third, or fourth booster.

And then, in tandem with all of that, a couple of other things were happening. First, a black man named George Floyd lost his life up in Minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer. And that coupled with a few other instances where black citizens died at the hands of white police officers, that lit the match for a wave of civil unrest all over the country. Minneapolis burned. There were encampments of angry, unruly rioters in places like Portland and Seattle. There were rallies and riots in cities all over the nation, including right here in Lincoln. But in the middle of it all, there were some obvious traces of governmental inconsistency. Because churches were still being told they had to cancel their services, or at minimum, severely restrict the number of people who attended, or do so to reduce the risk of infection and to save lives. All while mobs of rioters and looters were allowed to flood the streets, break windows, and smash and grab, with no one thinking to ask them if they were social distancing.

Well, what this obvious inconsistency led to with churchgoers being tied up in red tape and common street thugs being given the red carpet treatment, was light a fire underneath a disaffected and disgruntled group of conservative, American flag-waving God-and-country types, who saw right through the inconsistency and the irony of the government’s practices. They exposed the lies and demanded answers and who, in many good and noble ways, sought the truth. And when all of the soft, liberal, woke churches essentially took the year 2020 off, not gathering, not assembling, instead allowing Caesar to infiltrate the domain of Christ in His church and allow civil governors to tell churchgoers whether they could assemble and whether they could gather and whether they could sing. Guess what happened? That stirred-up that conservative base of truth seekers, not necessarily Christian truth seekers, but Fox News, Laura Ingraham, Donald Trump type truth seekers. Those type of folks started coming to church. They weren’t being told the truth by the media. They weren’t being told the truth by the government. So they began coming to the handful of churches that remained open. They started showing up at conservative churches where they at least knew they’d hear a message from a man who by virtue of the fact that his church was still open would be bold enough to say something truthful and say something that actually meant something.

Getting a little personal here. We were still living in California during this time. I was serving as an Associate Pastor of a church, that never stopped gathering during COVID. As a team of elders we had this clear sense of biblically-derived conviction about what the government had the right to do and what it did not have the right to do. We also shared the clear conviction that, as a team, that of all people, we as Christians had nothing to fear from a virus with such a miniscule mortality rate. Paul did say after all in Philippians 1:21, “to die is,” what? “Gain.” And so we remained open and the Lord blessed that decision. The truth seekers who had been told by the government to stay home ended up coming out of the woodworks in droves and our church exploded in size. Before all the announcements and lockdowns we were roughly 200 in size. By the time we moved here to Lincoln it was over 1000 people in size.

But at the same time as we saw all these new folks flooding in, we realized we had a lot of work on our hands as pastors. And that was because we weren’t so sure that many of the people that were now flooding into our church, had any conception of what it means to be a Christian. Many of these new folks were conservative patriot types, to be sure. Some were military veterans, some were successful businessmen, some were immigrants who had come from other countries who had previously experienced the heavy hand of leftist politics. But truth be told, it wasn’t always all that clear who we were receiving through our church doors each Sunday. We weren’t sure everyone that was coming in were true worshipers of Jesus Christ, or instead if some of them were simply showing up to angrily shake their fist at Caesar, i.e., Gavin Newsom. Were these new people truly saved and simply looking for a place to worship with fellow believers because their church had sadly shut down? Or were these people being purely reactionary? Were they just upset over mandates about double-mask and quadruple vaxing? Were they just growing weary of the Black Lives Matter narrative and the rainbow flag narrative? Were they just overall fed up with the overall erosion of morality and virtue in our nation?

Going back to what I said at the outset. The threat of reactionary theology is very real, and in our day, is pervasive. And using that last example of what has been happening in our nation since 2020, the longest year of most of our lives, one strain of what I would call reactionary theology, has really taken off. It’s a movement known as Christian Nationalism. It has picked up significant steam in various quarters of Christendom over the past five years.

That’s what the topic for this evening’s message is. Christian Nationalism. Actually, this will be part 1 of 2. We will cover it this evening and we will cover it again next Sunday night. But in these two intervening weeks, I thought it would be good for us, as a church, in light of the growth and influence that this movement has been experiencing over the past five years or so to consider the topic of Christian Nationalism. Tonight, we will be looking at the theological roots of Christian Nationalism and then next Sunday night, we’ll look at the troublesome rise of Christian Nationalism. So the message for this evening’s title is “Christian Nationalism: Its Theological Roots.”

Now admittedly, one of the most difficult things to do in teaching on this topic of Christian Nationalism is to define it. There are dozens of definitions floating around out there of Christian Nationalism. And those different definitions reflect the reality that there really are these distinct subgroups of thought and philosophy within the Christian Nationalist movement. There are many different shades and stripes of Christian Nationalism.

And when you think about it, the same could be said of any other theological camp. Even ours. In our tribe, this Premillennial Dispensational Fundamentalist tribe, there are folks who are engaged in unbiblically date setting as they say that the rapture is going to happen in 1988. Or 2038. Or 2088. There are folks in our camp who have denied the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There are folks in our camp who have embraced a legalistic form of cultural fundamentalism. And though we do share certain biblical convictions in common with those folks, we wouldn’t want anyone else painting us in the same corner with them.

So it is with Christian Nationalism. There are many different shades of it and many different variants of it. So my goal here tonight is not to lump them all together so as to suggest that all Christian Nationalists are the same because they aren’t. For instance, over the next two Sunday nights I won’t be going after patriotic Christians who live in American. I won’t be going after those Christians who are honored to have served their country. I won’t be going after those Christians who experience that warm sense of gratitude as they sit on the curb, sparkler in hand, at their town’s Fourth of July parade. Nor will I be going after that vehement argument that people will make that we live in a distinctly Christian America. I might have an offline argument with somebody about how Christian our Founders were. People like George Washington, John Adams, or Thomas Jefferson. But for tonight’s purposes, I can’t and won’t argue with the fact that those same Founders did sign off with a Declaration of Independence which affirms that “all men are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Nor will I be taking the position that Christians and specifically, Christians who hold the convictions we do about future things, that we should not be culturally or governmentally engaged. No, not at all. There’s nothing wrong with an eternity-minded follower of Christ supporting laws in this life which align with biblical values or voting for candidates in this life who stand for biblical values, or as we did in California, standing up in this life to governmental authorities which have overstepped their authority by intruding on the affairs of the local church whose head is not Caesar, but Christ. In fact, I’d tend to agree with a man like Voddie Baucham, who recently said this, “To me the greatness of the United States is the fact that the gospel has prospered here and borne fruit here unlike anywhere else or any other time in the world. And so my desire is for all of those things that allowed that to happen to continue to flourish so that the work of the gospel can continue to flourish here and continue to be a blessing elsewhere.” I don’t agree with Voddie on everything. But I can agree with him on that.

So, back to our topic for these next two Sunday evenings, Christian Nationalism. What is it? How does one define it? Well, if like Voddie Baucham we simply mean that as citizens of the United States of America we should do what we can to allow our biblical worldview and our Christian values to positively influence our nation, wel,l then sign me up. I guess I’m a Christian Nationalist. It is indeed possible to be a Christian whose focus is on eternal things and at the same time to be proud of your nation, iin a patriotic way. Should we strive to be salt and light in the darkening and decaying place where the Lord has appointed us to live? Of course. Should we want to see evil restrained and good promoted in the place we call home? Absolutely. Should we want to see the name of Christ promoted, rather than ignored or demeaned? Most definitely. But does that mandate that we now call ourselves Christian Nationalists? Or think of ourselves as Christian Nationalists the way that term is thrown around today? No. None of those traits that I just rattled off would make us Christian Nationalists. What those traits would indicate is that we are biblical Christians.

So what then is the concerning type of Christian Nationalism? The type that leads your pastor to carve out two hours, one tonight, one next Sunday night, to address it? Well, the type of Christian Nationalism that needs to be addressed is an outlook, a way of thinking, a theological approach, which aims to join together what they would call Biblical Christianity with American civil life. A way to merge biblical principles and civic life. A thinking that says our political processes need to be overhauled to align with Scripture. It is a system of thinking that lobbies for the upending of civic laws so that they are now explicitly Christian. These ideas come together in this definition of “Christian Nationalism” I found from Stephen Wolfe in his much-discussed work, published in 2022, titled “The Case for Christian Nationalism.” Wolfe defines “Christian Nationalism” as: “A totality of national action, consisting of civil laws and social customs, conducted by a Christian nation as a Christian nation, in order to procure for itself both earthly and heavenly good in Christ.” Note what Wolfe is not describing here. He is not describing Christians merely having a positive or a strong influence on government, or society, or culture. Rather, what he is arguing for is the blending all of it together. So that what the result is, is a nation that is not Christian in name only which is what our country would be called today, but a nation that is truly and functionally Christian in every respect.

So those are pretty direct words and a pretty clear definition from Wolfe. But even more direct, and even more forward, are the words of Andrew Torba and Andrew Isker, in their 2022 book, “Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide for Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations.” This is the kind of Christian Nationalism I’m focused on tonight. Listen to this lengthy quote from their book which really frames up the type of Christian Nationalism I want to address here this evening. Torba and Isker write, “American Christianity no longer looks like it once did at the founding of our Christian Nation, but it is still nevertheless a nation of Christian people. Therefore, a modern Christian Nationalist movement must be more generalized and ecumenical in nature. No longer do Christian Nationalists in America seek to establish official state churches or religions, but rather we seek to reestablish states that recognize Jesus Christ as King, the general Christian faith as the foundation of state government, and state laws that reflect (in every way reasonable and possible) Christian morality and charity.”

They continue by saying, “America has undoubtably rebelled and fallen into sin. By the grace of God Christian Nationalists seek to change that.” And then they start getting into their definition of “Christian Nationalism.” They say, “Christian Nationalism is a movement of rebuilding, reformation, and revival. We are not trying to overthrow the existing state or even necessarily earn positions in its highest levels of power. We don’t need to because we are playing the long game and are busy building things that matter.” Then they say, “Jesus did not command us to sit around getting crushed by Satan waiting to die. He commanded us to make disciples of all nations and we need to take dominion in His name.

“We must prepare ourselves for what is coming by exiting their entire system and raising up our children to be builders for the Kingdom of God. We need to build our economy, our own technology, our own educational systems, and our own political movements. This requires a multi-generational effort. The tolerance of the generations before us has led to the subversive takeover of every facet of society and even our churches by the global elite. That does not mean that they cannot be defeated.

“We believe that God has a plan to do so, but it will take the organized and long term commitment and effort of His people to accomplish this. We must never again tolerate evil and the spirit of the antichrist in our culture, governments, education systems, homes, churches, and most importantly our own hearts. So if you don’t have a sword, then sell your cloak and buy one because we have a lot of work to do.”

And then, in response to the question most of us have to be thinking by now -- how? How is this all supposed to take place? How is the subversion supposed to take place? How is the takeover supposed to take place? Well, they give an answer, saying, “Christians must once again become Dissenters in today’s world, but in order to do so they must stop being wimps and rise up to the battle God is calling them to fight.” “Christians need to play the long game and we need to start being strategic about our plan to recapture the control of our countries.” And then, and this has become a lot more popular in certain Christian Nationalist circles, Torba and Isker in this book I am quoting from, begin dumping all over people like us. Christians who, through a consistent reading of the Bible see a lot of unfulfilled prophecy in Scripture including prophecies concerning the next event on the eschatological timeline. the Rapture and prophecies related to God’s future plans for Israel. See, shot through much of the Christian Nationalist movement is the idea that the church has replaced Israel. That God has no future plans for Israel and that He has moved on from Israel.

And that mentality feeds into this next quote from Torba and Isker. They write, “Christianity was subverted 150 years ago with a doomsday cult eschatology where Christians now celebrate every horrible thing going on in the world as some fulfillment of prophecy that ends the world and ushers in the return of Christ. Dispensational Zionism and its eschatology are spells cast over the American mind.

“By the Grace of God and through the Truth of His Word revealed to us in Scripture Christian Nationalists will awaken the American Christian mind and lift the veil on over a century of lies. For over 2000 years Christians have been builders, pioneers, inventors, and masters of art, culture, and society. When our eschatology changed that all went away, because who wants to build a future for the glory of God when the end of the world could happen any second now!

“If we change our eschatology, we will change the world and take dominion of it for the glory of God. This is the single most important task in all of Christendom second only to spreading the Gospel. We can’t and won’t disciple a nation of dispensational doomers.

“The idea that the world is going to keep getting worse until Jesus comes back to airlift all the Christians out and then come back yet again to establish a 1000-year reign is a concept that does not have a single historical antecedent before 1830.” “Before 1830, when John Nelson Darby invented the concept in a small sect in Great Britain, no Christian had ever heard of the ‘rapture’.”

Now, when I first read that statement I also was stunned. It’s so saturated with inaccuracy that it’s not even funny. Their ignorance of the reality that the earliest figures in church history, going back to the first and second century of the church, read the Bible futuristically as we do, just about wipes out the credentials of these men. And then they double down with their ignorance by asserting the regularly-refuted claim that John Nelson Darby invented the concept of the Rapture. These men aren’t engaging in good-faith research and scholarship. Instead, they are propping up tired and long-refuted claims about dispensational theology and they are doing so because dispensationalism teaches that Israel and the church are distinct and that God has a future plan for Israel, really gets in the way of their plans of building a Christian nation, because after all, where would Israel fit in with those plans?

But again I think it’s important to note here. And I might qualify myself a few times this evening. There’s a distinction between that flavor of Christian Nationalism, promoted by men like Wolfe and Torba and Isker, and patriotic Christians who happen to love their country and who are serious about voting Christian values and might even wear that OLD NAVY “Happy Birthday America” shirt around the 4th of July. Or who have that American flag hanging outside their house.

Now, what I want to do with the rest of our time tonight is drill down into some theological soil in these debates that are raging today over Christian Nationalism. There are various theological positions and presuppositions which feed like distinct little tributaries into the broader Christian Nationalism movement. I’m not saying that every single Christian Nationalist today holds to every single one of the positions I’m going to mention. But at the same time there’s no doubt that there is a connection between the theological positions I’m about to challenge in the Christian Nationalist position.

So, with that qualifier out of the way, I’m going to spend most of our time remaining to offer some theological critiques of Christian Nationalism. There are 10 of them. First, the Christian Nationalist position tends to be supported by a postmillennial perspective. Note I said “tends to be.” Because there are some that are A-millennial Christian Nationalists and there are even some who are Pre-millennial Christian Nationalists. But by and large those who call themselves Christian Nationalists tend to be Post-millennial and as we’ll see, for good reason. Let’s take a step back. What’s Post-millennialism? There are basically three views on that upcoming period of history known as the Millennium, the future 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth recorded in Revelation 20 and alluded to in various other places in Scripture. But there are three basic views on the Millennium. Pre-millennialism, A-millennialism, and Post-millennialism. And note that each word begins with a prefix, “pre,” “a,” and “post,” which offers a clue as to what each view holds.

Let’s start with Pre-millennialism. Pre-millennialism is the belief that Jesus Christ will return to earth prior to, before, “pre,” the Millennium. The Pre-millennial perspective comes from a natural and chronological reading of the biblical text. Namely, that the second coming of Christ revealed in Revelation 19, precedes His millennial reign mentioned in Revelation 20. There are two major branches of Pre-millennialism. The first is Historic Pre-millennialism. The second is Dispensational Pre-millennialism. Historic Pre-millennialism does not see a sharp distinction between Israel and the church in God’s program. Dispensational Pre-millennialism does. Historic Pre-millennialism holds to a Post-Tribulation Rapture while Dispensational Pre-millennialism generally sees a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.

As a church, we hold to Dispensational Pre-millennialism. We see Christ’s Kingdom as coming in the future and not being a present-day reality. We see Christ’s reign on earth as lasting for a literal 1,000 years not as being symbolic. We see Christ’s earthly reign as being headquartered in the city of Jerusalem in Israel on the earth, not in the hearts of believers. And we see in the Scriptures, Jesus Christ reigning in that kingdom era on the throne of David. Satan will be bound during Christ’s reign and Jesus will righteously rule over the entire earth bringing peace and prosperity. After the 1,000 years, Satan will be released to deceive the nations and lead them one last time in a failed rebellion against Christ. After that will be the Great White Throne Judgment for resurrected unbelievers from every age, and since their names will not be found in the Book of Life, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire. While believers will be allowed to enter the Eternal State, the New Heaven and a New Earth. That’s Pre-millennialism in a nutshell.

Then there’s A-millennialism. That’s the belief that there will not be a future, material, literal, 1,000-year reign of Christ on the earth. Rather, to the A-millennialist, Christ’s Kingdom is present. It’s here, it’s now, it’s immaterial. Christ reigns spiritually in the hearts of believers. To the A-millennialist the 1,000 years of Revelation 20 are not literal. Rather they are symbolic of the whole period between Christ’s resurrection and His one day return. According to A-millennialism, Satan is currently bound, both good and evil will increase until the end of the age. And at that time Satan will be released and lead a worldwide apostasy. Christ will then return. the dead will be raised, and Christ will adjudicate one final judgment of all people with His followers subsequently entering the Eternal State. That’s A-millennialism in a nutshell.

Then there’s Post-millennialism. Post-millennialism is similar to A-millennialism in that it believes that Christ’s Kingdom has already begun, and is present now. According to Post-millennialism the 1,000 years of Revelation 20 are to be understood symbolically and Satan is currently bound. It’s more optimistic than A-millennialism. Post-millennialism asserts that through the preaching of the Gospel and the influence of the Church, peace, faith, and righteousness will eventually prevail over most of the world. And then Jesus will return to the earth meaning, His return will come after or “post” the Millennium, or “post” the golden age. Like A-millennialism, Post-millennialism holds to a general resurrection, a general judgment, and believers going into the Eternal State following Christ’s return. So, Post-millennialism (here is what I want you to grab onto) has what we’d call an optimistic eschatology. Those who hold to Post-millennialism see things as getting progressively better and better here on earth which will then usher in Christ’s return and the establishment of His reign.

Now, within the Post-millennial orbit a few additional theological views that have popped up over the past few decades, that are worthy of mention especially as we consider this topic of Christian Nationalism. One of those is the idea of Theonomy. That teaches that the entirety of the Mosaic Law, from Genesis to Deuteronomy is still applicable and operative today, not only in the standards it sets, but in the penalties it imposes. Theonomy also teaches that through the enforcement of the Mosaic Law today that the world will gradually become Christianized in preparation for the return of Jesus Christ. In other words, Theonomists believe that the Old Testament laws which God gave to Israel should still serve as the pattern for the civil laws in our nations today, which will then bring them eventually to repentance. Some Theonomists will go so far as to say it would be appropriate to carry out the death penalty for certain violations of the Law of Moses, such as blasphemy or adultery or homosexual conduct, etc.

So that’s Theonomy. Then there’s the idea of Reconstructionism. This advocates for the Church and society at large being changed for the better by means of that same Law. So it’s the idea that Theonomy builds into Reconstructionism. And you can see how ideas, Reconstructionist’s ideas would merge nicely with the Post-millennial idea of society becoming improved and transformed and bettered leading up to the return of Christ. Then there’s this idea of Dominion Theology. This teaches that it is the responsibility of the Church to move beyond matters of individual salvation and sanctification and instead, as a part of its mission, to actively enter into the spheres of public and social responsibility.

Now again, there are some exceptions to this. But by and large the Christian Nationalists of today ascribe to some blend of one or more of the theologies I’ve mentioned. With Post-millennialism in particular and its presentation of being a more optimistic eschatology, being seen by many Christian Nationalists as being essential to moving toward Christian world dominance.

But here’s the critique. Christian Nationalism is flawed to the extent that it rests on the theological foundation of Post-millennialism. Or for that matter, Theonomy or Reconstructionism or Dominion Theology. That’s because the witness of Scripture is not that things will get better before Christ returns. Rather, the witness of Scripture is that the world that we live in is flawed, dark, and broken, and that things will continue to proceed from “bad to worse” in this Church Age, as we are told in 2 Timothy 3:13, before Christ comes to take us out of the world. And as that happens, we have a mission and it’s a singular mission which is to make disciples. Our mission is not to make this world a better place or to build stronger Christian institutions or to enact Christian laws or to wait for a Christian Prince as some Christian Nationalists argue. No, our mission is to make disciples. More on that later.

Here’s our second critique of Christian Nationalism. #2. Christian Nationalism rests on a mistaken view of the Law (which providentially we happen to be studying in Luke’s gospel)l. But one of the things that separates us from the Christian Nationalists is how we answer the question, do we believe the Law applies to us today as Christians? Or did it apply for a different people in a different era of history? The Christian Nationalist influenced by principles of theonomy and replacement theology will be willing to embrace the idea that the Church has replaced Israel and in doing so, they will be more naturally inclined to import the Law of Moses into the current Church Age with some taking the view that the Law, whether it be about the Sabbath, blessings and curses, or even the penal provisions of the Law, apply not only to ancient Israel, but to all nations, for all time, including today. But this is error. Because God’s Word tells us that the Law of Moses was given to the people of Israel and was applicable to them at a particular time and place in history. John 1:17, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:3, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” So we have a different view of the Law. We don’t believe that the Law that bound Israel back in the days of Israel as God was working with them in that era, we don’t believe that that Law carries over to the Church Age. As we saw this morning there are principles we can bring over, concerning the nature of God and His demand for holiness of His subjects. But the Law as a body doesn’t apply to us.

Here’s another critique of Christian Nationalism. #3. Christian Nationalism rests on the flawed exegetical premise that in Matthew 28:19, the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us and commissioned us not to “make disciples of the nations,” but instead to “disciple the nations.” In other words, this interpretation of the great commission undergirds the Christian Nationalist position, is that the church’s mission does not end with individuals, but instead with nations as they come to obey the Son. The idea again is the advance of Christendom where nations become Christianized even if not every citizen of those nations is regenerated and born again.

Now, I say that this argument has a flawed exegetical premise for a few reasons. For starters. In Matthew 28:19, when Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” the word “nations” has what is known as a neuter ending but then the word “them,” right after that, has a masculine ending. The significance of this is that the word “them” is a personal reference meaning, the ones to be “baptized,” and this makes practical, logical sense, are not nations themselves, (How do you baptize South Africa?) but the individual members or citizens of those nations. Jesus, in other words, isn’t instructing kings or kingdoms like the English crown of old to have everyone in that nation baptized as was historically the case with the Church of England. Rather, individual citizens of individual nations are to be individually baptized as they come to Christ.

We see a parallel to this idea in Matthew 3:5. That is the scene where people were coming out to be baptized by John the Baptist. It says, “Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan.” Now is Matthew there saying that everyone in that city and in that region was going out to see Jesus and everyone was being baptized? No. He is speaking collectively and representatively. There were people from this city and from these regions who came out to be baptized. Or think of the book of Acts. As the gospel spread through Paul’s preaching on his various missionary journeys, were entire regions and cities converted? Is that the testimony of the book of Acts? Did everyone within the geographic boundaries of Lystra and Derbe and Ephesus and Philippi come to faith in Christ? No. Individual men and women were saved as they responded individually to the gospel message.

And again practically speaking, what would that look like if the Christian Nationalist position was true? What would it look like to baptize nations? How would one dunk Denmark, or baptize Bolivia? What would that look like? Christ came to save sinners. Christ didn’t come to save states. Now surely, when Christ saves sinners, those saved sinners ought to have an impact on everyone around them. That is our charge. We are called to be those witnesses. In fact, that’s what we see in the book of Acts as households, trades, centers of learning, and tribunals were told in Acts 17:6, “turned upside down.” But that’s not because Peter or Paul or Barnabas or Mark sought to go out and transform households, trades, centers of learning, or tribunals. No. They set out to preach the gospel of grace. Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” That was the mission. And then there was fruit that came from that. Conversion, in other words, salvation, is always individualistic. I don’t think there is any Christian Nationalist who would disagree with that what I just said. But at the same time, for many Christian Nationalists as they express their longing to see nations brought to Christ, their rhetoric departs from the Bible’s focus on personal, individual salvation. Scripture testifies to individual conversion of individual souls even if the nation-states that those individuals hail from don’t uniformly become Christian.

#4. Christian Nationalism rests on a mistaken mandate of attempting to exercise dominion over unbelieving members of the Christian nation states they are attempting to create. The Bible teaches that we are to be witnesses for Christ, “ambassadors for Christ,” 2 Corinthians 5:20. Not belligerent bullies who seek to shove people into the family of God. Obviously, we all want to see souls converted. That’s true whether you’re a Premillennial Dispensationalist like me or a Postmillennial Christian Nationalist. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that conversion is a work of the Spirit not of the sword. Salvation is a matter of God drawing people, not us directing people.

Indeed, the whole idea of exercising dominion for the sake of Christ and building up a Christian nation in doing so, conflicts with many of the teachings of Christ Himself. When Jesus was arrested, and His disciples asked Him, “Shall we strike with the sword?” Luke 22:49, what does he say? “Yes, let’s strike back at them and show them who’s boss? Let’s take dominion over these soldiers.” No. After one of His disciples struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear, Jesus said, in Luke 22:51, “Stop! No more of this.” The same incident is recorded over in Matthew 26:52, where Jesus said, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.” Or how about in John 18:36? There, Jesus, standing before Pilate, said this, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be delivered over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not from here.”

Where do you get the “conquering nations for the sake of Christ” out of passages like that? The reality is, you can’t. The Bible doesn’t teach that we’re going to be conquering anything or anyone, on earth in this Church Age in the name of Christ. Rather, what the Bible promises the follower of Christ is that we will be persecuted and shunned by our loved ones and that we will potentially even be martyred like many before us. If you want to call that, as some Christian Nationalists have called that, “loser theology,” have at it. I’d call it biblical theology.

#5. Christian Nationalism rests on confused definition of what a “nation” is. Here in the States, we are on the assumption that America is a Christian nation. Now, we are grateful for and celebrate the fact that Christian people have played a major role in the shaping of our nation’s history. But definitionally, it would be a category error. It would be a confusion of categories to say that our country is a Christian nation. Nations have borders. That’s what makes a nation a nation. But the Christian faith has no borders. Rather, it extends from (Acts 1:8) Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Nations defend their borders as a matter of economic and military policy. But the Christian faith does the opposite. Rather it “[breaks] down the dividing wall of the partition” between diverse people groups as the gospel did with the Gentiles and Jews in Ephesians 2:14. And definitionally, to have a truly “Christian nation,” to be able to call one’s nation a “Christian nation,” every citizen of that nation would have to be saved. Every citizen would have to be a follower of Christ. There could not be any dissenters.

Now perhaps God may sovereignly ordain that to happen in some nation in the future. Perhaps there will come a day where all of Peru or Ghana or Mongolia will one day come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Literally every citizen of any one of those countries will be saved. But it won’t be because some ambitious group of Christian Nationalists made it so. It will be because God willed it to be so.

#6. The Christian Nationalist position rests on a mistaken view of church and state. And specifically, the separate realms of church and state which Jesus himself recognized when He said in Matthew 22:21, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” What the Christian Nationalist position does by conflating these two realms in its aspiration to establish Christian nation-states, is to offer this potentially damning idea to unregenerate sinners that they are Christian simply because they are citizens of a so-called Christian Nation. I shudder to think of the number of souls who are in hell today, who thought that because they were part of a Christian nation and baptized into a state church that their sins are forgiven. When in reality, all they ever had was empty, soul destroying formality to point to.

#7. Many Christian Nationalism advocates rely upon a skewed reading of history. As we go back through the historical record in which we see many attempts to conquer nations for the name of Christ and to establish Christian nations in what I suppose could be called a form of proto-Christian Nationalism. We have to ask the question, how did that go? How did the Crusades end up going? How did the Spanish Inquisition go? How did it end up going in the Zurich of Ulrich Zwingli’s day? How did those Salem witch trials play out? In today’s terms, how “Christian” is the land that the Crusaders sought to conquer? How “Christian” is Spain or North Africa? How “Christian” is Switzerland? How “Christian” is New England? Last I heard missionaries are being sent from South America and Africa to New England today. The point is, there are definite blind spots in how the Christian Nationalist crowd reads church history.

#8. Many, not all, Christian Nationalists, judging by the content of what they preach, write, and speak on, are as interested in fighting against wokeness, critical race theory, leftist policies, and drag queen story hour as they are proclaiming the gospel and building up fellow believers in sound doctrine. Many Christian Nationalists have rightly been dubbed the “Woke Right” because they have shown that they quote more Ron DeSantis than Scripture. They speak more about fighting globalism and defeating this so called “trash world,” than looking forward to the next world. In fact, and this is quite ironic, while the Christian Nationalist will say that people in our camp are escapists, we just want the Rapture to happen so that we can get out of this world, the reality is the Christian Nationalists in some ways is no less escapist than the average Dispensational Premillennialist. They just ascribe to a different form of escapism.

Consider these words, from Torba and Isker, who I quoted earlier, “We can and must reclaim and maintain our townships, school boards, and counties. Then our state legislatures. Then the entire nation. In order to do so we must exit the beast system completely and build our own parallel Christian society, lying in wait for their system to collapse, which is when the godly infrastructure we have built will fill the vacuum. Finally, we must be prepared to wage a multi-generational spiritual war against the demonic anti-Christian worldviews that are dominating our culture and Western society. Our sons will have been through the classics, all of Greek philosophy, the entire Bible, and know how to build things with their hands, shoot guns, grow food, hunt, fish, lift weights, and start a business by the time they are 18. They will conquer, lead, and take dominion of all nations for the glory of God.” That sounds like escapism to me!

Within the Christian Nationalism camp, it is worth noting that there has been an ugly appendage that has formed. #9. And that’s that there are some in this camp who ascribe to “Kinism.” The idea that racial segregation is not only wise, but may be biblically ordained. And that has led to the development of a subset within Christian Nationalists, who are advocating for “white Christian nationalism.”

For instance, Stephen Wolfe, in his book “The Case for Christian Nationalism”, says this. He says, “People of different ethnic groups can exercise respect for difference, conduct some routine business with each other, join in inter-ethnic alliances for mutual good, and exercise common humanity (e.g., the good Samaritan), but they cannot have a life together that goes beyond mutual alliance. What I am saying is that in-group solidarity and right of difference along ethnic lines are necessary for the complete good for each and all.” He goes a step further on Twitter, or X, saying, “while intermarriage is not itself wrong (as an individual matter), groups have a collective duty to be separate and marry among themselves. There is a difference between something being sinful absolutely and something being sinful relatively. Interethnic marriage can be sinful relatively and absolutely.” Wolfe certainly doesn’t speak for all Christian Nationalists in expressing his views but it’s worth noting that there is this element of ugliness within its ranks.

#10. Christian Nationalism really can in certain instances take one’s focus off the Gospel. What I don’t mean to say is that Christian Nationalists don’t believe in the Gospel or that they think the Gospel is unimportant. They do believe in the Gospel and believe it is important. But as we track some of the movement’s more prominent voices today we see an alarming willingness from some of these voices, to share platforms and stages at conferences for the sake of advancing the cause of Christian Nationalism. Even in doing so, they pair with people from faith groups that totally misunderstand the Gospel. For instance there are Christian Nationalism conferences even happening this year which will involve advocates for Christian Nationalism who are Protestant and Roman Catholics. We know that the Roman Catholic church teaches a whole different gospel. So how can you say you are about the Gospel when you are sharing the platform with somebody who is anti-gospel. In other words, there is a concerning trend in the Christian Nationalism camp to be so focused on advancing Christendom and building Christian nations, that there can be a loss of focus on what makes one a Christian in the first place, by repenting and believing in the Gospel of grace.

So those are ten concerns related to Christian Nationalism. More could be listed but our time is limited. Now, to be fair, I do want to point out that there are some things to be commended about Christian Nationalism. For starter, Christian Nationalism isn’t all about carrying out some utopian dream, despite what I just quoted about going off the grid. Rather, it is grounded in convictions held by men who seek to honestly handle the Scriptures. The convictions they derive about Christian Nationalists stem from biblical sentiments to which they hold. I think those convictions are wrong, but it’s not as though those ideas are coming out of thin air. They can point to Scriptures that support their position although we would disagree with their interpretation.

Also, there is a segment of those who would identify as Christian Nationalists who are not so much promoting Dominion theology or Theonomy or setting up a Christian nation by force, but instead are much more focused on matters of political theology. These are men who are focusing their attentions and energies while embracing the banner of Christian Nationalism on answering important questions about the nature of the relationship which ought to exist between church and state, biblically speaking. These types of Christian Nationalists aren’t zealots or revolutionaries, they are careful students of Scripture and church history, who earnestly desire to get the matter of church-state relations right biblically.

Further, as it relates to the craziness of the past five years, and this ties back to how I began this message, it was largely the postmillennial Christian Nationalist crowd who were most outspoken against government overreach in the year 2020 and beyond. When the government was overstepping its authority vis-à-vis the church, it was largely this very group who I am now critiquing who was pushing back. It doesn’t mean that their theology is right, but the depths of their convictions are nevertheless admirable.

Last, the full-orbed philosophy of principle Christian living which Christian Nationalists seek to embrace is admirable. They do want to make an impact on the world with Christian truth. They take seriously the call to let Scripture inform every aspect of life from our home to the halls of Congress. They want to influence government, and the public square, and their families, with the proclamation of biblical truth. And there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that. Frankly, we Pre-millennial Dispensationalists could do a better job of that. There’s nothing about believing in the imminent Pre-tribulational Rapture of Christ which would necessitate that we show no interest in what’s happening in the world around us. There’s nothing about believing in Pre-millennial eschatology which mandates that we stay on the sidelines rather than speaking up against the evils of abortion or the sin of homosexuality or the dangers of drug culture or what God’s Word says about divorce. In other words, Christian Nationalism shouldn’t have a corner on the market of bringing biblical truth to bear on today’s cultural issues in the world.

Well, that’s about as far we can go tonight. This evening we’ve been considering the theological roots of Christian Nationalism. Next Sunday night we’ll get into its troubling rise as we get more into some of the more extremist, and frankly dangerous, factions which have developed within this movement. Now as we close, some parting thoughts. Let’s not forget that we are sojourners, exiles and pilgrims in this world. Let’s not forget Philippians 3:20, that “our citizenship is in heaven.” And let’s not lose sight of the fact that as we see in Hebrews 11:16, that we “aspire to a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” In the meantime, and as we look forward to what God is preparing for us in the heavenlies, let’s remember that Christ is building His church as His Gospel goes out. As His Word is preached. As disciples are made in His name. Let’s commit to follow His plan, as written out in His Word, as we live day-by-day lives of trust, submission, and obedience to His perfect plan. Amen? Let’s pray.

Father, thank You for this evening. Thank You for the chance to work through some of these issues pertaining to Christian Nationalism. God, I pray that we would be, as in all things, diligent students of Your Word. That we would take every one of our thoughts, whether it relates to Christian Nationalism or any other matter that comes before us, that we take every one of those thoughts captive in obedience to Christ. God, may we go to Your Word for answers pertaining to how we ought to live. May we go to Your Word for answers as it pertains to how our marriages out to function. How our parenting ought to look. How our church service ought to go. That we may be people of the Word. People of the Book in all times and all seasons. No matter if certain movements or trends or fads develop theologically. Help us to be anchored in what Your Word reveals. God we can do it without labels. I frankly don’t care about Dispensational Pre-millennialism as a label. Just as my Christian Nationalism brothers don’t care so much about Christian Nationalism as a label. Our goal is to be biblical. There are biblical convictions that form our thoughts and form our theology and yes, we must use labels to distinguish who we are versus who other people are. But may we be people of the Book. People of Your Word. Committed to it. Committed to it to be transformed by it. Thank You for this day. Thank You for the privilege we have had to be in Your Word and to be together. May You be glorified in our lives and the week ahead. In Chris’st name, Amen.