“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:20, ESV

 

In 2022, the Pew Research Center, a well-respected opinion polling organization in the United States, reported that most Americans believe that the founders of the nation intended for the USA to be a Christian nation.  However, they also reported that opinions varied widely as to what that means.  For many, it merely means Christian-based laws and governance.  But others believe that it means beliefs and values in individual lives.

 

That matter aside, the same study also found that 45% of Americans believe the country should be a Christian nation.  And since this article is about Christian nationalism, this becomes important.  What is Christian nationalism?  We might say, that at its foundational level, it is the belief that America, or perhaps some other nation, should be a Christian nation.

 

But again, what is it that America should be?  Opinions vary, but at its essence is the idea that the nation should pass laws and enact policies based on Christian values and ideals.  It also holds that the nation should ensure that the Christian faith should retain its position of prominence in the country.  It also believes that the marriage between the Christian faith and the American identity needs to be preserved.  Having said that, I can find no single Christian nationalistic agenda.  Rather than looking at specific policies, what one finds is a general mood that America must preserve her unique Christian heritage.

 

A little reflection will tell us that this idea is hardly unique.  What, after all, was the “Holy Roman Empire”?  It was the belief that the Roman Empire had become a “Christian Empire.”  Furthermore, the concept of “Christendom” that was held by western powers throughout the Middle Ages testifies to the pervasiveness of this belief.  Some of my readers might recall that the justification that White South African settlers had for subjugating the native population was premised on Joshua’s conquering of the Promised Land.  All of this fits under the broad umbrella of Christian nationalism.

 

Christian nationalism is the belief, in whatever form one finds it, that a nation must either be made to become Christian or to maintain its Christian heritage, without reference to exactly what that looks like.  For this reason, voting patterns sometimes align with candidates who promise to uphold or preserve this.

 

However, there are four key reasons why Christian nationalism is not a biblical vision:

 

1. The Story of Israel is unique and is not to be recreated

 

Israel is uniquely chosen by God, and the experience of Israel is not to be recreated by any other nation.  The unique place of Israel is beyond the scope of this short article.  But we might say that God chose Abraham and his descendants to be the conduit through which the Messiah and the plan of salvation were to be brought into this world.  No other nation will ever play such a role again.  To position any nation in such a way as to add it to the “chosen nation” status is to break the unity of the Bible, and introduce a great many errors and heresies into our faith.

 

2. Jesus made it very clear that His kingdom is not of this world

 

At the second coming of Jesus, when the kingdom is consummated, the kingdom will indeed be of this world, for in that time, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.  But in the present dispensation, Jesus was very clear on this matter.  Standing before Pilate, He declared that His kingdom was not of this world, otherwise His servants would have fought to prevent His arrest and the current miscarriage of justice.  To make the kingdom of this world is to confuse the city made without hands with a “this world” city on a shining hill. Such a view is a profound distortion of the gospel.

 

3. The New Testament vision is of a counter-culture

 

Christians will never become the mainstream culture.  Jesus said so.  He said that narrow is the path that leads to salvation, and only a few find it.   The example of the Middle Ages tells us that the church did not prevail, rather, the church became perverse.  Indeed, all forms of Christian nationalism in history reverse the New Testament vision.  Rather than being the mistreated and persecuted people of God, we become the mistreating and persecuting people of God.  Christian nationalism always destroys the true faith.  To fight against this movement is to fight for the purity of our faith.

 

4. We are living in Babylon and not in Jerusalem

 

Another way of stating this is that our ideal is not David, rather, it is Daniel.  David is the forerunner of the Messiah and of his great end time rule over all things.  He is not the forerunner of the modern-day politician.  But Daniel is.  Daniel became a prime minister in Babylon, accountable to the ultimate ruler of the land.  As such, Daniel did his work with excellence and blessed Babylon.  But he was under no allusions.  Each day, he opened his window toward Jerusalem and prayed with his body and heart directed there. Babylon never became Jerusalem.  It would forever remain Babylon.  Hence Christians should view themselves as salt and light, not rulers and governors.  We bless, but we don’t enact laws to give us the advantage over others.

 

And so…

 

The best that Christians can do in terms of the nation is to influence the nation in terms of justice, the value of human life and the need to protect all.  But we know that this is not our fundamental role.  We are called to summon people from darkness into light.  The nations of this world will always present us with values that seek to subvert us.  While we bless our nation, our primary loyalty is to Christ and His gospel. Our second loyalty will always be to the church, the wider people of God wherever they are found in this world.  Christians in America, Canada, Jamaica, India, Malawi and Korea must commit to be loyal to each other, far beyond the nation in which they live.  And so, when it comes to the countries in which we live, we seek to be a blessing.  But our loyalty is found in another place.