“Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jer. 29:7)
“Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you – because you will prosper as it does.” This is a somewhat uncomfortable statement for those of us who were taught to put ‘Jesus first, yourself last and others in between’ if we want to receive Joy!
But the only ‘exiles’ and immigrants welcome in an increasing number of nationalistically-minded nations are those who are expected to add to their prosperity, and conform to its ideals.
But what is nationalism? At its heart, it is an ideology that weaves a sense of national identity with the personal identity of its citizens. It believes that nations should be able to make their own decisions without interference and that government and political power should operate at a national level. It expects, and often demands, that loyalty to the nation supersedes every other allegiance. Often, as in the case of Belgium and Switzerland, for example, it will elevate one language above others.
Nationalist nations draw on a fund of stories about their origin and values – a history which can sometimes be made to serve as a tool of the rulers. The more nationalist a government, the more likely certain events are to be omitted from history books, or even re-imagined altogether. When I was seventeen, for example, and attending a French school, national pride must have been at stake, for our history text book declared that there was no clear winner in the Battle of Waterloo!
Stories – and the language we use to tell them – lie at the heart of our cultural identity; they inform and influence our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. Think of the stories that have shaped you and your family, and then ask yourself which stories have contributed to our national culture. We may not even be aware of many of them, and yet they are collectively part of our birthright, even to the point of becoming part of our sense of self-identity. National stories can create and empower a sense of belonging and unity – but by the same token, they also leave some people feeling like outsiders.
For instance, schools (like churches) are meant to be places of welcome and inclusion, but even the warmest and most embracing of them can feel exclusive and foreign when the stories you grew up with, and the language in which you heard them, no longer have any place. Just think, for example, of all the Ukrainian children who have landed in English classrooms, and who are having to do all their learning and seeking of qualifications in a language they have little experience of. Think of Syrian and Asian refugee pupils being obliged to learn about medieval feudalism and WW2, even though those things played no part in their own cultural life or history.
Do pray for every one who is making a life for themselves away from the land and heritage of their birth.
An introduction to specifically Christian Nationalism
Some nationalist governments pride themselves on owing nothing whatsoever to any god; France is one such. [1] But many others combine their nationalism with a particular faith, layering into the national story a belief system that gives credence (and demands acceptance) of certain written or unwritten spiritual and moral understandings. In many countries, nationalism bestows political and social power on spiritual as well as civic and national leaders, so that faith and state act so far as possible with one voice.
By contrast with France, the present American administration has determined that America is to be regarded as a Christian nation. Donald Trump, aided and abetted by many in the evangelical wing of the Church, has made the most of this, albeit that it feels as though he is championing the vision for his own gain rather than for the cause of Christ. (Notwithstanding this being at odds with the First Amendment, which prohibits the government not only from creating an official religion but also from favouring one faith, or non-faith, over another).
But does that mean spiritual authorities should be included in determining matters that are traditionally decided by the State? We will be looking at this in more detail in Part Two; in this post, we are simply laying some foundations.
Roger Williams, a Puritan who left England for Massachusetts in 1631, was the first to advocate for the separation of Church and State in the new colony. Having witnessed what had happened to the Church of England, he feared the prospect of corruption. While he himself was banished for his insistence on this point, the principle of keeping Church and State as separate entities nevertheless triumphed, being eventually enshrined in the American Constitution some 160 years later.
But here we are and the issue has once again moved to front and centre, as America grapples with the Christian Nationalist agenda. In order to judge its the extent of its influence, the PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) has conducted surveys across all fifty American states during the last three years, wanting to know what percentage of Americans agree with the ideology that lies behind Christian Nationalism. Respondents were asked about their level of agreement with each of the following statements:
• That the U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.
• That U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.
• That if the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
• That being Christian is an important part of being truly American.
• And finally that God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.
Leaving aside for the time being the actual results of the survey (if impatience gets the better of you, head for the footnotes at the end of this article! [2]), the questions represent an important summary of what Americans believe about such things as:
• The interface of faith and community (While a government might declare a nation to be of a certain faith, for example, how can that be enforced in practice?)
• Whose moral values should influence national law
• The nature of American citizenship and national identity
• The question of where ultimate loyalty lies . . .
• and of how faith plays out in the political arena
• Who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out?’
• And who gets to determines the rules
The origins of the nation of Israel and of God’s covenant with His people
Before we look in more detail at the contemporary phenomenon of Christian nationalism, it would be good to start by reminding ourselves of the foundations that underlie the founding of God’s own nation. For if any nation has a shared understanding of its origin, history and purpose, such as nationalism promotes, then it is surely Israel!
Beginning even before time, the book of Genesis tells how God appointed a childless man to become the father of a nation, and gave him the staggering promise that his offspring would bring a blessing to all the nations. (Gen. 22:18) The narrative continues as Abraham fathers Isaac, Isaac begets Jacob, and Jacob becomes the father of twelve sons whose own offspring would multiply to become the twelve tribes of Israel.
Central to the whole of the Old Testament, therefore, is the story of a family chosen by the Lord to become a nation with the mission of declaring and demonstrating His love and faithfulness to the whole world. Every person in Israel’s story has a place and a purpose – and their sense of tribal and national identity was ancient before Britain had even emerged from the Bronze Age!
You did not have to be born an Israelite to belong to God’s people, however, because the Lord made specific provision for foreigners to become part of His covenantal community:
Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people” . . . The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD to minister to Him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be His servants . . . and who hold fast to My covenant – I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. (Is. 56:3, 6-7) [3]
But even native-born Israelites could lose the privilege of their place in God’s covenantal community. Those who broke covenant by, for example by refusing to humble themselves on the Day of Atonement, were to be cut off from His people. (Lev. 23:29) So while it was possible for anyone to ‘join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him,’ it was also possible to forfeit the privilege of being counted as one of the Lord’s own. And as Paul for one is at pains to remind us, these things were written for our benefit, including their warning. (Rom. 15:4 and 1 Cor. 10, see especially v. 11)
Law and Governance in ancient Israel
Over time, this chosen and appointed Hebrew family grew greatly. As they journey toward the land God had set apart for them, He gave them the Law that would help them to remain holy and distinct from the surrounding nations. Dealing with everything from dealing with mildew to going to war, it is immediately obvious that it is not one law for secular life, and another for sacred matters; the two are inextricably interwoven. Authority belonged to both the judiciary and the priesthood. [4] When people had an issue they could not resolve for themselves, they were instructed to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who was presiding at the time, and to comply with the verdict they delivered. (Deut. 17:9)
This is important because, unlike other nations, all of Israel’s leaders were subject to the authority of God’s covenant laws. No one, be they elders, priests, judges or king, was to consider himself superior to anyone else, nor as having any sort of ‘divine right’ by virtue of their position, as these verses from Deuteronomy make clear:
When [the king] is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes. Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel. (Deut. 17:18-20)
Knowing the human heart, though, God also appointed prophets to help His leaders stay accountable:
“I will raise up for them a prophet like [Moses] from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name. But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death. (Deut. 18:17-20)
God simply could not have been more clear or determined that both the people and their leaders should be subject to the Law and the Prophets. (Deut. 17:12-13) Why? Because this was the family that were to bring forth the Saviour of the whole world; these were His holy people who would demonstrate his ways and become the minster His presence to every tribe and nation.
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations – for the whole earth is Mine. And you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation unto Me. (Ex. 19:5-6)
That, of course is a concept that most Christians are familiar with. Both Peter and John quote this verse (Rev. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:9) – and how wonderful that it is as applicable to you and me as members of Christ’s Church as it was to the people of Israel gathered in the wilderness! Old and New Testaments alike sound out the message that the real heart of God’s ‘nation’ originates not with a set of national borders and boundaries, but with His family. [5]
Perhaps we find it hard to take in that we are a kingdom of priests, and heirs of the Kingdom, and a holy nation, despite being ‘only’ Gentiles. [6] But our mission is no different – we are all called to proclaim the excellencies of God, and to make known His goodness, His virtues and His gracious acts.
We could spend many fruitful hours exploring these wonderful themes, but our question here is, how does our understanding of the governance and mission of God’s chosen people relate to the relationship between Church and secular state? Is some form of Christian nationalism not only a legitimate outworking of our mission as God’s chosen people but indeed a requirement?
We saw above that the PRRI survey implied that Christian nationalism can be assumed to mean:
• That the government declare America a Christian nation
• That national laws are based on Christian values
• That turning away from its (assumed) Christian foundations is to become effectively nationless
• That to properly belong to America requires owning the Christian faith – and
• That Christians have divine authority to rule over all areas of society
These are very strong statements, but if we hold that our particular faith is the rock on which all life stands or falls, why should a nation not be built on such foundations? Are they not the essential foundation that underlies seeking the prosperity of the place where we live, and all who live there?
In practice it is not quite so straightforward. Even Israel, with all its entwining of faith and government, and an incredibly strong sense of nationalism, could not usually manage it. Even when Joshua challenged the people to serve the Lord, and they were quite sure that they could and would, he warned them,
“You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God.” (Josh. 24:19a)
Joshua was right of course. The human heart truly is ‘deceitful above all things and beyond cure,’ (Jer. 17:9) and the nation of Israel consistently failed to serve God. No matter how hard they tried, (and despite the myriad volumes of rules that the legalistic Pharisees would later introduce to keep the nation from breaching God’s law) time and time again Israel broke the terms of their covenant with Him.
Praise God that as believers in Christ, we have been released from the bondage of the law, and that through His death on the cross, our hearts are no longer beyond cure! For the wonderful, glorious truth is that He has made us righteous by His own grace, and put His laws into our minds and inscribed them on our hearts. (Heb. 8: 10)
What happens when Christians come to power in a nation?
It is so important to pray that national laws are founded on the values and moral standards of God’s own Kingdom, because righteousness exalts a nation, as surely as the rebelliousness of sin brings it disgrace. (Prov. 14:34) [7] But any assumption that nations will always be free and happy Christians when believers are in the majority is sadly not borne out by history.
There have been many attempts by sincere believers to exercise godly political authority, and to make their country Christian by means of law, but more often than not they have tended to result not so much in the fostering of the grace and liberty that Jesus announced, but rather in the imposition of oppressive and repressive measures. (Lk. 4: 18-19) Good intentions can so easily descend into intolerance, self-interest, and hypocrisy, just as they did with the Pharisees.
After all, majority and dominant leadership brings with it both both prestige and power, and these can prove an incredibly heady mix. Pride and intolerance flings off the mantle of a humble serving spirit. We have only to read (inter alia) some of the accounts from the days of Charlemagne’s empire, or the Spanish Inquisition, or indeed from Calvin’s Geneva, to see how badly wrong things can go. [8]
When their power is uncontested, whether in the home or nation, it can be all too easy for to dominate people in unhealthy ways. It was not for nothing that the Lord commanded the Israelite kings to know and keep His commands, and to remain humble so that they would not exalt themselves above their countrymen. And when domineering leaders fall from power, it is often the case that the reverse swing of the pendulum reaps equally ungodly fruit.
It is not an enforced uniformity of thought that the Lord is seeking, because that will never bring about the transformation of hearts that He desires. As the Amplified Bible puts it, our mission is not simply political rule, but that
. . . through the Church, the multifaceted wisdom of God [in all its countless aspects] might now be made known [revealing the mystery] to the [angelic] rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Eph. 3:10)
The Kingdom of God is not a political Kingdom
The early church might have longed to turn Israel into a Christian nation state; after all, the converts were primarily Israelite, born into the family of God’s own people, living in the land He had promised them. What could be more natural than to aim at making all Israel Christian? Paul certainly longed for all Jews to be saved, but it wasn’t political power that he was concerned about; he was concerned to progress Christ’s unseen eternal Kingdom, just as Jesus told the Pharisees that
“The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed. Nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:20-21)
And when the disciples asked the risen Jesus whether He was going to restore the kingdom the kingdom to Israel – presumably in an earthly, governmental sense – He deliberately shifted their focus to fulfilling the spiritual purposes of God by preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:6)
Even when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, and the Church was anointed with great power, it did not make overturning Rome its central goal. We find no hint of the apostles holding prayer and strategy meetings to determine how best to combat the deadly threats posed by Roman supremacist emperors such as Nero, Caligula, and Domitian. Neither (and this may come as a surprise to many involved in spiritual warfare) did they direct believers to bind ruling spirits like Diana lording it over cities like Ephesus.
No, the Church was more concerned to pray for those in authority, and to continue single-minded in sharing the gospel and building up the faith of believers. Praise God for all the faithful evangelists, pastors and prophets who have ever lived, and for those spearheading His work today around the globe! To paraphrase missionary, Tom Hawksley:
When the focus of the Church veers towards seeking to become ‘great’ in terms of worldly power and authority, it is more or less bound to become caught up in worldly ways. Jesus came to make disciples of an altogether different Kingdom; men and women whom He can call friends, those who being built as ‘living stones’ in His spiritual temple. (1 Pet. 2:5) He had no interest in seeking a seat amongst either the spiritual or the political leaders. His mission – and ours – was to reconcile people to the Father, and while He did that, He was ‘content to let Caesar collect his taxes!’
May the Lord establish His priorities in our lives, and embed His Kingdom perspectives into the world view of more and more members of His Church.
Footnotes
[1] Following the passing in 1905 of the much-debated law of Laïcité (Secularism), France has long prided itself on the separation between State and Church. Whilst guaranteeing people the freedom to choose their own form of belief and worship, this law, which remains a key principle in French daily life, insists that the State remains neutral in all matters of religion.
[3] These verses also refer to eunuchs: that is those who have been sexually altered. Tim Keller points out how the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch demonstrates God’s desire for salvation to transcend cultures and to overcome all racial barriers. At the same time it emphasises both the inclusive and the exclusive nature of the gospel message, as Philip shares about Jesus being the way to God, as opposed to just one path among many.
[4] There were leaders of policy, and leaders of worship, and there was confluence between them, and even overlapping roles. So we see Moses serving as prophet, judge, and leader, who was also commissioned by the Lord to anoint the first High Priest. Samuel led Israel as judge but also functioned as a priest, just as David was a prophet as well as a king.
[5] Most of us will be more familiar with the idea of being a chosen ‘people’ rather than a chosen ‘family.’ Bible Translations are split roughly equally between ‘people,’ ‘race,’ ‘generation,’ and ‘family’. The Greek word genos comes from ginomai, meaning ‘kin,’ and it can mean ‘offspring, family, race, nation, kin.’ (See Strong’s 1085)
[6] Paul spells out what must to his original hearers have been as astonishingly radical concept, that believers in Christ are to counted amongst the offspring of Abraham, and therefore amongst those through whom every nation will be blessed. (Gal. 3:29; Gen. 22:18) Isaiah had foreseen the vision of there being a house of prayer for all nations, and of the Lord’s servant being a light for all nations, (Is. 56:7, 49:6) but Jesus makes everything plain when He told His brothers (for thus does He term His disciples after His resurrection) to ‘Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ (Matt. 28:10, 19)
[7] Drawing on the experience of Caleb and Joshua in occupying the Promised Land, my first full length book, Living for the Lord, expressed a longing for Christian influence to extend over every key area of national life. The theme is a precious one, but also one that is in great danger of being distorted in the lives of countless Christians in America as a result of an undue emphasis on American exceptionalism, and variants of ‘Dominion’ theology that would benefit from being balanced against more traditional expressions of faith.
[8] Having slain over four thousand Saxons at the Massacre of Verden in 782, Charlemagne forced the surviving Saxons to convert to Christianity, declaring that anyone who didn’t would be put to death.
Concerning the Spanish Inquisition, see this BBC article – and the disturbing final comment on the torture that US soldiers inflicted on so many prisoners in Iraq. One can only wonder what effect these egregious excesses may be having now on the soul of both Iraq and America.
This article considers execution in Calvin’s Geneva.
For further reading
For a first responder response to the question, “What is a “Christian nation?” see this brief post in Focus on the Family.
See also this article from Bible Study Tools.
‘What you learn from Scripture is that God made a covenant with only one nation on the face of the earth. That nation is Israel. Part of the purpose of that covenant was to bring the Messiah through Abraham’s lineage. When he did this, he fulfilled the promise he made that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham (Gen. 12:3). There is no other covenant like this with any other nation in the world.’
The following articles delve much more deeply into the subject. They are written by an apologist who explores why Christian nationalism may not be a scripturally sound position:
Deconstructing Christian Nationalism 1
Deconstructing Christian Nationalism 2
Deconstructing Christian Nationalism 3
Photo by Brad Dodson on Unsplash
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