Over the past decade I’ve struggled to reconcile my opinion on the rise of Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism has many definitions, interpretations and flavors, and thus it has been a difficult topic to grapple with. The definition I’ll use to identify Christian Nationalism is from Andrew Whitehead and his book American Idolatry:
A cultural framework that idealizes and advocates for a fusion of a particular expression of Christianity with American civic life
Baptist News: American Idolatry: How Christian nationalism betrays the gospel and threatens the church
On the surface, as a conservative Christian in America today, it’s hard not to look around at the corruption and godlessness in government and society and not want to see things changed for good. I hate the leftist agenda that peddles transgenderism, homosexuality, Christian persecution, pedophilia and all other forms of degeneracy and unrighteousness. I’ve found myself constantly drawn towards the rapidly coalescing online groups of like-minded Christians who are opposed to the collapse of traditional Christian ideals within Western society. We’re not wrong for looking at what our country (America in particular, but this also applies to other Christian, or formerly-Christian majority nations) has become and desiring to see a return to Christian principles.
Since 2016 I’ve followed and supported the work that Andrew Torba has done with Gab Social, providing a technological safe haven for people of all walks of life to engage in legal free speech, even if controversial or unpopular. Torba himself is a professing Christian and naturally Gab has become something of a digital enclave for radical Christians who fall outside Mainstream/accepted Christianity. Over the years since founding Gab, Torba has started to align more and more with Christian Nationalists such as Doug Wilson. In 2022 Torba even published a book called Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations in which he defends the ideas of Christian Nationalism.
Having followed and listened to Torba, Wilson and other Christian Nationalists for many years I am familiar with their teachings and sympathetic to their cause. I too want to see not just America, but all nations, united under righteous Christian love and no longer wallowing in sinful debauchery. However, after deep reflection and intense prayer I have come to realize the folly in Christian Nationalism. The goal isn’t the problem necessarily, it’s the means employed to achieve that goal that is of great concern.
The Pendulum Swing
What would successful Christian Nationalism look like? I think most would agree that it would be defined by a majority of citizens within a given nation believing in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and thus striving to live peaceful, loving lives in accordance with the Gospel. But how would this success be achieved using Christian Nationalism? Well given the outright hostility towards true Christians in modern-day society it would require Christian Nationalists seizing political and social power through government. There is no other way around this for Christian Nationalists, and they admit that they need the power of the State in order to impose Christian values on society:
…we are obliged to peacefully order our state governments in such a way as to help Christianity grow and flourish in our states without restrictions… The purpose of government, from a Christian perspective, is to preserve and protect the Christian understanding of civilization, otherwise known as Christendom.
The Christian Nationalist Declaration by Shane Schaetzel (Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations)
Now interestingly, this same book also denounces the idea of forced conversion to Christianity:
Christians do not believe in forced or coercive conversion to Christianity. This is inconsistent with our religion’s teaching on “free will” (2 Pet. 3:9) and all conversions to Christianity must be voluntary. Therefore, Christians can never support any government law or edict that forcefully coerces people to participate in Christian prayer, ceremonies or acts of worship.
The Christian Nationalist Declaration by Shane Schaetzel (Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations)
However, what Christian Nationalists fail to understand is that in the process of elevating the status of Christians in government, and excluding non-Christians from the seats of power of the State, they are unwittingly creating a coercive scenario nonetheless. The governmental privileges afforded to Christians in state governments will naturally lead to false conversions in order to obtain power. Eventually the fruit of these “false Christians” will become evident, and true Christians will then demand more stringent controls on the litmus test for holding government power. The more restrictive the requirements, the harder non-Christians will have to work to “fake” their way into the seats of government, and the cycle will continue to escalate to the point of persecutions against non-Christians.
Politics, especially in democratically-controlled nations, tends to work in cycles, swinging from one political side to the other. Each time a political opponent gains power they often enact policies and laws that anger their political rivals. The out-of-power rival will then bide their time amassing “grassroots” support, convincing the people that the current regime needs to be ousted and that they should be elected to replace them and “fix” everything that’s currently going wrong.
Eventually the political underdog will succeed and will take back the reigns of state power. Now the former underdog will work even harder to suppress their predecessor and not only reverse the perceived damage they did while in power, but to simultaneously consolidate their own power to prevent them from losing their newfound political ground. And the cycle continues again, except each time a political opponent succeeds in supplanting their rival they use the force of government to make it increasingly more difficult to be overthrown again. Thus, each time a political rival takes the reigns of power back, the effort required to unseat them next time is elevated.
This is the pendulum effect – with each swing back-and-forth of the pendulum – from one side of the political aisle to the other, each rival is essentially pushing the pendulum even harder, exerting greater force with each swing, making the pendulum swing further and faster with each cycle. In other words, political rivals have to become increasingly radical in order to successfully unseat their opponent.
Power Corrupts
The Lord of the Rings, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, is a timeless fantasy epic that has captivated readers with its rich narrative and complex characters. While Tolkien himself vehemently denied any direct allegory in his work, scholars and readers alike have often interpreted the story as containing allegorical elements, drawing parallels to various themes, including the dangers of unchecked power and the corrupting influence it can have on individuals and societies.
One compelling interpretation of The Lord of the Rings is that it serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of Christian Nationalism. At the heart of the story is the One Ring, a powerful and malevolent artifact created by the dark lord Sauron to dominate and control the free peoples of Middle-earth. The One Ring represents the corrupting nature of power.
In the context of Christian Nationalism, the One Ring can be seen as a symbol of absolute authority and the temptation to use religious or cultural identity to justify the pursuit of dominance. The characters who seek to wield the Ring for what they believe to be a noble cause—such as Boromir, who desires to use its power to defend his homeland—fall victim to its corrupting influence.
The overarching narrative of The Lord of the Rings reinforces the idea that power, even when intended for good, has the potential to corrupt and destroy. The story emphasizes the importance of humility, self-sacrifice, and the rejection of absolute power in the face of the allure of dominance. In this way, The Lord of the Rings serves as a poignant reminder of the dangers inherent in ideologies that seek to consolidate power under the banner of religious or national identity, cautioning against the corruption that may ensue when such power is left unchecked.
Doing Our Enemy’s Work
I write this as a warning against the dangers we will face when Christian Nationalism rises to power – and I strongly suspect it WILL rise soon. When it does it will be very tempting to cheer it along as we witness the ungodly being humbled and driven from their seats of power. The pendulum has been swinging back-and-forth, faster and faster, further and further for many decades now. The right-wing neo-conservatism of the Reagan and first George Bush administrations gave way to the leftist Clinton presidency, which gave way to the second George Bush regime, which fell to Obama, then Trump, and now Biden. Right-left-right-left-right-left-right… we’re marching our society towards a new Dark Age.
When the conservative Right topples the current Leftist regime it will be Christian Nationalists who claim victory. They’ll rise to power and seize the reigns of government in a way that isolates their power base and attempts to exclude all non-Christians from civil society. Moreover, the Christian Nationalists who gain political power will only be interested in promulgating their own specific flavor of Christianity, rejecting Christians they deem to be heretics and apostates. They’ll rule with an iron fist, convincing themselves that they are bringing the Kingdom of God to the Nations. But they’re not really building God’s Kingdom, they’re building their own kingdom in the name of God.
As we’ve recently seen with the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Christian Nationalists have become very outspoken against Judaism. This trend will be amplified by their newfound political power and they will impose a cultural taboo against “Judaizing”. This won’t just affect Jews (Talmudic Edomites who are really the Synagogue of Satan), but even Christians and Messianic Judeans who observe ancient Israelite traditions such as Feast Days and the seventh-day Sabbath. To the Sunday-observing Christian Nationalist in power, any Christians who keep the “jewish Sabbath” or “jewish Feast Days” will be labeled apostates and will also be excluded from civil society.
Society will go through what will be seen by non-Christians and minority Christian groups as a new Dark Age. On the other hand, Christian Nationalists in power during this time will view their reign as benevolent and righteous. Eventually however, as always happens in politics, the Christian Nationalists will be overthrown by their political opponents. The persecution against non-Christians and “apostates” will give rise to an even more evil and depraved culture of progressivism. Christianity as a whole will then experience true persecution in the style of Maoist China and Nero’s Rome.
The new Leftist overlords will associate ALL Christians will the deeds of the Christian Nationalists who were in political power during the previous administration. Churches will be forced underground again and Christians will once again be forced into the fringes of civilization.
It is during this time, the transition from extremist Christian Nationalist rule to crazed anti-Christian Progressivism that I wouldn’t be surprised to see the fallen angels “Arrive” under the guise of benevolent extraterrestrials. Christians who were starting to be persecuted by the new Leftist regime will be grateful to their extraterrestrial saviors and radical Leftists will be pacified by the self-love message brought by the fallen angels. And thus will the new One World Ecumenical Religion be born.
This is just one of the ways I foresee the Great Delusion coming into the world. Let this be a warning and may you pray for discernment to know whether or not what I’ve described here will come to pass. Only time will tell.
For more arguments against Christian Nationalism please watch this video:
All government is slavery. Politics is trying to define “truth”, and then force it on everybody. If you believe Jesus Christ is the truth, then politics is a subtle form of pushing Christ and religion on the masses. Freedom is really about individual sovereignty and personal responsibility. Once you have a government of any type, that freedom is gone. I don’t need government to be decent and most decent people don’t, but the world has become very undecent because of millennia of government abuse. All slavery should end immediately. The blacks may have eventually won their so-called freedom, but then they became a slave of a different sort, as we are slaves to the violence of government. I say it is all nonsense, and any aliens showing up and forcing their opinions is just more of the same. Flawed created beings pushing their brand of truth, whether human, angel, alien, etc… is all nonsense. Until the real God makes itself plainly known and gets personally involved, I test all thoughts and claims and they all fall short. How to test if fake aliens are really on God’s side or representatives of God? Deuteronomy 18:22, “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Predicting the future with 100% accuracy is impossible for any created beings. So, whatever the excuses are that the “aliens” might give, if they can’t predict the exact day and minute I will fart next, then they ain’t from God. The real God’s fart predictions always come true, even if I try real hard at that moment not to fart!