And the LORD will be king over all the earth.
Zechariah 14:9a ESV
At the time of this posting, “Christian Nationalism” is a hot topic and there’s no end to all you can go read about it. It’s a term I find hard to nail down to an agreed upon definition, but that doesn’t stop if from being a polarizing issue. It seems to mean everything from creating a Bible-based totalitarianism to America is the new Zion to “I’d just like to maintain some basic biblical morality in our nation’s laws”. I can’t tell if it’s meant for folks like me who desire to incorporate basic biblical principles in the laws of our nation (not OT civil/ceremonial law), but that’s the perspective I’m coming from as I write this. It’s a place to capture thoughts I’ve had.
I am a reformed premillennial dispensationalist. I bring this up because Eschatology Matters in this discussion and to understand where I’m coming from, go read that link as those thoughts are a prerequisite to these.
Overall, I find a nation, even one as large as the USA, is far too small a kingdom for the One who sustains the entire universe and everything in it and gives life and breath to every living being; the one in whom we live and breathe and have our being. One nation is NOTHING. In fact, in Christ’s view ALL the nations are as “a drop in a bucket” and counted as “dust on the scales” (Isaiah 40:15). Thus speaking of one Christian nation is far, far too petty for this King.
Because as we know there is a title for Jesus Christ used 3 times in the New Testament.
King of kings.
The first is in Paul’s solemn charge to Timothy at the end of 1 Timothy 6:15, where Paul refers to Christ as “The blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.”
He is the ONLY sovereign; all other rulers are delegated authority from Him. The next two are even more majestic, occurring in Revelation. First in the battle of Rev 17:14:
14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.
And finally in Rev 19:15-16 which states:
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
He is God, the Creator and sustainer of all, the ultimate ruler, the ultimate king, the ultimate authority. Not one day; now. And not simply over a single nation, but over ALL nations, in fact the entire universe. The nations are His. From that perspective, it’s a bit silly to debate whether he’s King over something as small as a nation. He is King over all creation. All authority on heaven and earth has been given to him. What does that mean? Did you just take a breath? Did your heart just beat? That was by his decree that you live another moment. THAT is ultimate authority. Us “Premil Dispy’s” don’t have a ‘loser theology’ just because we believe that in His word he decreed that after he’s worked through the church’s preaching of the gospel to the world and he saves that last lost sheep of the church age, he will ALLOW this world to run its sinful course all the way to the Great Tribulation before he returns and defeats the forces of the entire world arrayed against Him – with a word. “Battle” not included. It is to his glory to do so.
A first and foremost implication is since He is the King of all kings, then He is certainly the king of me. Whether we bow the knee before him or not, personally or as a nation, makes no difference to who he is and his authority. If we do so now in humble repentance, He saves us, eternally, from his wrath. If we don’t bow in this life, it does not change his authority one iota, but he will exact the eternal punishment due for our prideful and then eternal rebellion and righteously and justly so.
But that’s the basic gospel, the good news; this ultimate king will save us if we bow the knee to his kingship now in humility and faith, recognizing our sin and his goodness, mercy, and grace. Two supreme adjectives for this king are merciful and gracious – for those that will have it now by recognizing his kingship. Two other supreme adjectives for those who won’t – righteous and just. He is all of his perfect attributes simultaneously. This is true, this is real, apart from any nations or politics.
But I want to think about what this means to my worldview – what difference should it make in how I view everything going on around me as a 21st century American living, voting, and responding to current events. The first that comes to mind is he is the King of kings, and therefore he is above ALL governments and is not subject to our idea here in America of absolute individual human autonomy. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of our federal, state, and local governments are all subjects of this King, whether they realize or acknowledge it or not, along with every other authority around the world. Any authority they wield is delegated authority (John 19:11) for which they are responsible and accountable to this King for how they wield it in accordance with His will. This King of kings has given them an ordained role – to ‘bear the sword’ to punish evildoers, which means they must identify evil as God identifies evil, or they are outside of his ordained role for them (Rom 13:1-6).
In a republic such as ours, we get a say in who our leaders are with our vote. In biblical times, indeed throughout human history until of late, this was simply outside the realm of imagination. Therefore, I now have the additional weight of responsibility to weigh the choices placed before me on a ballot and decide, the best I can, which person’s policies will align more closely with this King’s revealed will. Every name on every ballot represents a sinner and our rulers all fall desperately short along with all of us. Given that, I must focus on the policy they will likely enact; what will their policies mean for my family, my church, my neighbor, my fellow citizens – and the good of any policy is determined by how it aligns with this true, righteous King. We need to consider our definition of “good” as believers – is it the will of the majority? I remember that the “will of the majority” in history has often turned into a mob mentality leading to slavery, guillotines, and gas chambers. It only works if the majority share basic biblical moral principles. Apart from that, it can turn in murderous ways against classes of people. The true answer to defining good is God is the very definition of it, as Jesus said, “there is only one good, that is God.” So, one consideration is does a potential leader’s policies point to further rebellion by the government putting itself as savior and all-sufficient provider in God’s place? Will their policies support that God is the giver of life, the one who knits in the womb, or will they actively oppose it? Are they serving the people by restraining evil as defined by the King, or do they openly support and desire to codify evil as good and punish the truly godly good? If the will of the people, codified into law, is that people that think la biblical perspective are an enemy to be ruthlessly eliminated, is that “good”? Is that the right foundation for our laws?
It seems to me that some who speak of “Christian Nationalism” have this sort of sacred/secular divide in their thinking. God and his revealed moral will is one category for us believers in the church only; government and politics is another category for the general public – and the two don’t mix. Government is one sphere of authority over political and non-religious things; God is another sphere of authority over spiritual and salvific things and the two are separate – and though we wouldn’t voice it this way – equal in authority over their respective spheres. “Separation of church and state”. When we fall into that way of thinking, we deny the fact that Christ is the King of kings. The government only exists by his ordaining a role for it, and it remains under His Kingship, not beside it as peer.
Then there is the argument that “you can’t legislate morality” which I used to buy into long ago, until I saw that you always and only legislate morality; that is what legislating is and the only question is – whose morality? Every law legislates a morality – it tells people what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is subject to punishment. So the real question is what underlies that? The question is always “by what standard?” We have two options: The revealed moral will of our Creator King designed for our ultimate good, or the fallen human heart doing “what seems right in our own eyes” which feels good.
We need to wrestle as believers with this as we talk of “Christian Nationalism” in broad brush strokes. There are two additional points I think we need to wrestle with.
One is what we actually petition God for every time we pray as Jesus taught us in His model prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven…“
So when some legislators want to incorporate some biblical principle into legislation so that in one particular way God’s will may be done on earth, why do some draw back and think we’re “mixing politics and religion” and are in danger of being “Christian Nationalists”? Do we not recognize that “king” is a political term? If you sing the Hallelujah Chorus and call him King of kings and Lord of lords or ever pray the Lord’s Prayer that his kingdom come and his will be done on earth, then you are mixing politics and religion. “Jesus is Lord” is an unavoidably political statement.
We also need to wrestle with Matthew 28:18, the first part of the Great Commission. The primary argument I hear is that when Christ walked the earth he did not address Roman politics – that was “of Caesar” and his only mention of that was to render to Caesar what was Caesar’s.
While true on one level, I keep in mind he did tell Pilate, a Roman political leader, that “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” (John 19:11). So he didn’t set “politics” completely to the side; when Pilate asked Jesus if he was a king, he did not deny it. In fact, Jesus let him know that He is the “Above” where Pilate’s political authority came from – He’s the king of that kingdom above all others – He is the political leader of all political leaders. It is also interesting to me that the argument is always framed in terms of Roman politics and law only, seemingly missing the fact that he repeatedly addressed Jewish civil law and how they had corrupted it. I find this argument that Jesus wasn’t political unconvincing.
It is true that in Christ’s first advent he did not come to be some political messiah to rescue the Jews from the occupying Roman forces. That is what the Jewish people wanted him to be – and ONLY that. He eschewed that completely. His purpose in that advent was to die in a penal substitutionary atonement to save His people. But after that was fully accomplished, between his resurrection and ascension while still walking on this earth in his first advent, he said something we seem to forget:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”
Matthew 28:18-19a ESV
After he fulfilled His first advent purpose on the cross and cried out “It is finished”, he then stated he is the one authority over and on the entire earth and the heavens. He ‘has been given’ this authority as the God-man. It is not future, it is now. With that said, in this phase of history known as the church age, he uses that authority to tell the church its task. Go make disciples of all “ethnos” (the word translated nations) – we are to go make individual disciples from every tribe and tongue. We preach the word to all ethnicities around the world, Christ uses that to regenerate and save his lost sheep, we baptize them and then teach them the Scriptures so they know how to live as believers. Rinse and repeat until he returns. It does not include transforming nations UNLESS God chooses to do that by reviving the majority of individuals in another Reformation or Great Awakening type movement. That is his prerogative, not our mission. We preach, the results are his.
But lest we forget, Caesar always has one thing in mind and it hasn’t changed – confess “Caesar is Lord” with your little pinch of incense and it will go well with you. Caesar will tolerate no rivals. Its taken us a while here in this nation, but we’re heading in that direction.
When I go to Washington, DC I see literally carved in stone this nation’s roots in Christianity and its principles. When we repeat the Pledge of Allegiance, we state unequivocally that we are “one nation under God”. Every piece of currency we earn/spend/save has printed or stamped on it the phrase “In God We Trust”. I pulled up to a traffic light the other day and looked at all the license plates around me – all stating “In God We Trust”. I think we all realize that a nation is not “Christian” because salvation is on an individual human basis, but a nation must have some underlying basis for its morality and laws. It appears that over a relatively short period of time, it is now viewed that if that basis is the King of king’s will revealed in his sufficient scripture, then that is bad “Christian Nationalism”. Today it seems our basis is individual human absolute autonomy; whatever anyone feels is good is the new basis of truth and morality. This necessarily is a recipe for utter chaos.
Of course there is a ditch on the other side of the road, as always, where some go to the OTHER extreme – America is the church, the new Zion, the apple of God’s eye. I’ve been in July 4th worship services where you wonder if we were worshiping America or God. When patriotism (a good thing) crosses the line into worship, well, once again we show just how sinful we are and how our hearts are continual idol factories.
I think today we all need to consider, when thinking that God and politics do not mix, if we are actually functioning Deists. God exists, but he is taking a laissez-faire approach to his world, its nations, and their laws (yet not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from Him (Matt 10:29)). Regardless of what we profess with our mouths, are we functioning deists? Christ is king over all kingdoms, including the current kingdoms of this age, a future physical Millennial kingdom, and an eternal state kingdom that is not of this world (John 18:36) where he is now saving his people to be its eternal citizens. I think some like to put Jesus as ‘really king’ over those last kingdoms only, but I think Ephesians 1:20-23 explicitly teaches all three:
20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1:20-23 ESV
We tend to concentrate only on vs 22 (Christ as governing the church) and ignore the full meaning of vs 21.
I read Psalm 2 fairly often just to remind myself that God is King – of every nation and every area of life – right now. It would do us good to read Psalm 2 about once a week just to help us keep perspective. Psalm 2 warns all nations and all rulers to be wise and fear the Lord. Verses 10-12 are a very clear call to current kings and nations to follow the Son or perish.
If we think that somehow our nation, our laws, and our policies are independent from the will of Christ, then we’ve got a serious problem. Of course we are not a theocracy like the ancient Jewish nation under their direct Mosaic covenant with God where God directly gave them their Constitution and Federal Register of civil law. That was a particular covenant for that particular people in their particular role in history. This isn’t about all the superfluous arguments about bacon or thread type in clothing as OT law. I do not think at all that we should institute the OT civil and ceremonial law today – that was for a specific people under a specific covenant God made directly with them. However, He absolutely rules right now, and his moral principles should be the basis of ALL nations. The American idea of freedom has turned into freedom FROM Him and freedom to incorporate sin into our laws. We never use the power of law to coerce belief in the gospel, we don’t convert by the sword; we understand that does not produce conversion of the individual’s heart as only God can do. We value freedom of religion or no religion as it can’t be coerced, but that does not mean God’s moral principles should not be the basis of our and every nation’s laws.
In a very, very real sense it is Christ or chaos. Just in the past two years we’ve seen the chaos increase dramatically as we ever more push the King to the curb as a nation and look to a President instead. We are in a Psalm 2 world. Of course, human sin has been a daily part of our existence every year in every nation under every ruler since Genesis 3, however, now it is ever more obvious that sin is endorsed as our official government policy and THAT is what is different. FAR from “Christian Nationalism”, we are in the throes of “Pagan Globalism”. Here’s the kicker: It is even more religious in nature and it is based on less freedom; it does have coerced conversions; it uses the power of the law to convert – you MAY NOT think/act against its principles (cancel culture anyone?).
So I don’t consider “Christian Nationalism” to be the big threat to our nation. There is a general rule for all nations that exist in God’s creation:
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
Proverbs 14:34
We ignore this to our own demise, and we seem determined to prove it.