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“Now who can hear Christ declare, that his kingdom is, not of this world, and yet believe that this blending of church and state together can be pleasing to him?” – Baptist pastor Isaac Backus (1724–1806)
As an evangelical Christian, I am conservative—theologically conservative and, to the extent that I am informed, politically conservative as well. As a moral conservative, I am convinced that Christians ought to season society by advocating biblical principles and values in public debates concerning ethics and morality. At the same time, I reject the movement commonly known as Christian nationalism. Although the movement is broad and far from unified on every point, I believe that its fundamental ideas are both unbiblical and counterproductive to the mission the Lord Jesus has entrusted to His church.
Modern Christian nationalism originated and is chiefly centered in the United States, but its ideas have also spread to other countries—including the Nordic nations. The movement has arisen largely because an increasing number of Christians have grown weary of liberal society, the sexual revolution, and the widespread acceptance of ridiculing and undermining the Christian faith. In response, many professing Christians—particularly within Reformed circles—argue that the church must adopt a far more assertive posture and work toward a radically different kind of society. Most Bible-believing Christians can sympathize with this frustration.
Jesus Christ is Lord and King
Christian nationalism offers a theologically motivated solution. Since Jesus Christ is Lord and King over all creation, everyone—including every nation-state—is obligated to submit to him. One of the movement’s leading advocates, Stephen Wolfe, summarizes the argument as follows: (1) Civil government has a duty to promote the true religion. (2) Christianity is the true religion. (3) Therefore, civil government has a duty to promote Christianity. Consequently, many of the movement’s most influential voices advocate that the state should grant Christianity official preference over other religions, that it should prohibit heresy and punish blasphemy, that church and state should be much more closely intertwined, and that religious toleration—and at times even the civil rights of non-Christians—should be restricted. In short, they seek to restore a confessional Christian nation-state. Think of Europe before the Enlightenment.
Yet the desire for an earthly and political kingdom of God is nothing new among the disciples of Jesus. Already in Acts 1:6–8 the apostles asked the risen Christ, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And throughout church history many Christians have likewise sought to establish a visible earthly kingdom for God’s Israel, the Christian church.
The fundamental problem with this desire is that it reflects an over-realized eschatology. In other words, it expects realities that belong to Christ’s second coming to be fully realized here and now.
The New Testament’s testimony
The New Testament’s testimony concerning the nature of the kingdom of God points in a very different direction than the ideal envisioned by Christian nationalists. In John 18:36–37, Jesus says to Pilate:
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
The kingdom of God—the kingdom of Christ—is radically different from the kingdoms of this world. Today His kingship is manifested not through political power but through individuals who hear his voice and believe his truth.
The kingdom of God—the kingdom of Christ—is radically different from the kingdoms of this world. Today His kingship is manifested not through political power but through individuals who hear his voice and believe his truth. The prerequisite for this is the spiritual sight and hearing that come through the new birth:
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” … “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:3, 5–7)
In the present age, the kingdom of God and of Christ is an invisible and spiritual kingdom. Its citizens constitute an invisible and spiritual people—a people who have been born again. This stands in contrast to the geopolitical nation of Israel under the old covenant, where the overwhelming majority of its citizens did not possess circumcised hearts.
The testimony of Scripture is, of course, decisive. Yet history also repeatedly demonstrates the disastrous failure of uniting church and state—the catastrophe that follows when Christian doctrine enters into an unholy alliance with political power. At least two devastating consequences inevitably follow.
1. It Produces Nominal Christianity
It creates a nominal Christianity consisting of culturally Christian people who profess Christ and belong to his church while remaining just as spiritually dead in their sins and just as bound for hell as their Muslim neighbors or any other obvious pagan. Christ is the enemy of every nominal Christian—he does not know them.
“And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:23)
It is easy to become nostalgic for a time when society largely agreed on what constituted sexual immorality, when most people attended church, and when children prayed the Lord’s Prayer in school. It is easy to forget that none of these things is synonymous with the living Christianity that plunders hell and populates heaven.
We must recognize that cultural Christianity is not the same thing as the coming of God’s kingdom.
This does not mean, of course, that Christians should prefer an openly godless society that celebrates the most shameful forms of wickedness. But we must recognize that cultural Christianity is not the same thing as the coming of God’s kingdom. Moreover, it is far more difficult to evangelize someone who falsely believes himself to be a Christian than someone who has no such illusion.
2. It Leads to the Persecution of Christians
The union of church and state has almost always resulted in certain Christian traditions making life extremely difficult—and often very short—for Christians of other traditions, all in the name of Jesus.
Baptists were consistently persecuted by established state churches until religious liberty was introduced into society by God’s grace and through their own efforts. The Swedish Baptist pioneer F. O. Nilsson, for example, wrote in a letter to a German Baptist leader on November 10, 1849:
“Pray for me and the little church in Sweden! Under the present circumstances I can expect nothing other than banishment from my country, for the priests rule in Sweden, and as long as this remains the case, the truth may not be spoken.”
On March 8, 1850, he stood trial before the Göta Court of Appeal in Jönköping, and on April 26 the verdict was delivered: banishment from the country. Why? Because he and the small Baptist congregation near Gothenburg wanted to study the Bible together and practice church life according to what they found in the New Testament. It was not atheists, Muslims, or even Roman Catholics who persecuted the congregation—it was fellow Protestants who believed they held a monopoly on the correct interpretation of Christianity and were prepared to punish dissenters. It was an unholy alliance between church and state. This is only one of countless examples of Baptist suffering under state-church rule.
A Different Kind of Kingdom
Most tragic of all, when the church becomes more concerned with saving social structures and institutions than with saving sinners, its focus is diverted from its God-given mission: proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness, transformation, and satisfaction He offers to every sinner who, by faith, surrenders to Him.
When the church becomes more concerned with saving social structures and institutions than with saving sinners, its focus is diverted from its God-given mission: proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness, transformation, and satisfaction He offers to every sinner who, by faith, surrenders to Him.
When Jesus speaks of His kingship in relation to our mission, the emphasis is not on politics but on proclamation:
“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, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18–20)
It is only at the end of the age that the world’s societal structures will finally be made Christian and a visible kingdom of God will be established. Therefore, Jesus says to disciples who are tempted toward an over-realized eschatology:
“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” (Acts 1:7–8)
The Christian nation—the Christian nations—lie on the other side of the King’s return.
