Let’s talk about Christian nationalism. What are the biblical truths that should provide common ground for conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Christians to agree on?
1.The church’s mission is to make disciples who make disciples from all ethnicities. This mandate from Christ includes preaching the gospel, baptizing believers, and teaching converts the Word of God.
2.All Christians should see themselves as stewards and caretakers of God’s creation.
3.God created and ordained three institutions, each with divinely established responsibilities and distinct purposes: 1) the family, 2) the civil magistrate, and 3) the church.
4.Christians are called to be salt and light in the world, meaning they should influence others and the culture.
5.God’s natural law and the creation order (Gen 1–2) apply to all people everywhere.
6.After the flood, God gave humanity the mandate to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and that mandate remains in effect.
7.Outward conformity without inward transformation is not the ultimate objective—the heart is the priority.
8.Individual Christians, as led by the Lord, should serve as civil magistrates, seeking to make a difference at the local, intermediate, and national levels.
9.Patriotism and nationalism are not synonymous. A Christian can be a patriot without supporting Christian nationalism.
10.The universal body of Christ consists of souls from all ethnicities who live within nations that are radically different from one another.
Having listed ten truths that believers should readily agree on, let’s turn to the challenge of applying them from a Christian nationalist perspective. Let me ask a series of questions to illustrate how difficult it would be to create a “Christian nation.”
1. Would the government take a stand on baptism? Who is baptized? When? How? Why?
2.What happens when a Christian civil magistrate and a Christian church disagree with each other?
3.What forms of punishment should be applied in cases involving gender-related issues? More broadly, will the New Covenant church support the death penalty prescribed in the Law of Moses? For example, will rebellious children be stoned to death?
4.Will the civil magistrate mandate marriage to achieve procreation goals? Will the civil magistrate mandate how many children a family must have?
5.Will Christian conversion be the litmus test for serving in civil government?
How many more questions would need to be asked and answered? Let’s assume the civil magistrate sides with the Presbyterians on infant baptism. Now what? Are the Baptists nonconformists? Are they outlaws? What about the Lord’s Day as the Sabbath? Who will decide which issues the civil magistrate will settle and which church councils will handle? Will the Baptists take the Christian nation to the highest court of the land to settle matters of deep conviction?
I, Sean, am concerned that a Christian nation would divide the church more deeply than ever. That, I am afraid, would hinder the work of making disciples, which all believers should desire more than a Christian nation. The citizenship that should be of the highest priority for all is the eternal citizenship in the kingdom of our Lord and Savior. We are reminded of Christ’s words when He asked: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Mat 16:26).
