In a recent article in World magazine, Dr. Albert Mohler asks if you are a Christian Nationalist. He suggests that if you take certain conservative positions on the political spectrum, you may as well accept the label because it will be applied to you by the secular world.
Christian Nationalism carries with it a set of much deeper commitments if one it’s leading proponents, Dr. Stephen Wolfe, is to be taken at his word, as shown in part one.
Reviewing Wolfe’s own words make Christian Nationalism much more flawed and make it something to be rejected.
Let me give you three reasons why.
First, government cannot “procure” heavenly good. The function of government is to act as a restraint on the negative traits of people. It does protect the liberties of the people but must be restrained by our organic law, embodied in the Constitution. Wolfe holds a presupposition to Reformed theology, which begins with the Total Depravity of man. We have to remember that government is staffed by those same people with those same depraved basic instincts and nature. Wolfe seems to be asking for the government and its officials to suddenly and uncharacteristically lead people to Christian virtue. How can government replace or supplement the Holy Spirit?
Second, Christian Nationalism, if implemented, would produce false converts, not disciples. How can a Christian state “procure” heavenly good? In the view of Chrsitian Nationalists, the state can compel church membership and attendance. It can serve as a final arbiter of doctrinal teaching and ministerial training. The state can, as Wolfe indicated, punish false teaching and heresy. There is one thing that Wolfe’s Christian state under a “Christian prince” cannot do: change the heart of a person. A Christian state can compel attendance and adherence, but it cannot compel belief. In such a system, membership in the state church becomes a substitute for membership in the Kingdom of God. At this moment, there are people in this free country who believe they will be allowed into heaven because of their American identity and the fact that their names are on the church rolls. This sad situation would be made only worse under the auspices of Wolfe’s Christian Nationalist state.
Finally, attempts at Christian Nationalism have failed where they have been tried. Post-Reformation European history has been littered with the corpses of state-sponsored churches. The Church of England, for example, has capitulated to liberal theology and is nothing more than a social organization. In the 1920’s, the German Evangelical Church was co-opted by ideas of Nazi ideology. Pastors and theologians who dissented were suppressed by the Nazi authorities. Wolfe asserts that religious liberty and freedom of conscience is antithetical to his ideas of Christian Nationalism. In his state, would his “Christian prince” suppress those who refuse to conform under the label of “blasphemer” or “heretic” through the power of the state? Would conformity even on secondary matters such as the mode of baptism and the nature of the Lord’s Supper be maintained by state sanction? The state-sponsored church led many to flee to America for religious liberty but even Baptists, for example, were sanctioned by denominations supported by the individual British colonies. Even as the First Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, several states continued to support Christian denominations, an arrangement that lasted until the first decades of the nineteenth century. A free church in a free state has replaced the state-sponsored church as the American paradigm.
Based on Stephen Wolfe’s own words and these critiques, Christian Nationalism must be rejected as a threat to religious liberty, freedom of conscience, and authentic discipleship.
Albert Mohler embraces religious liberty. Historically, Baptists have advocated for freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state. However, his commitment to religious liberty undercuts the very Christian Nationalism that Stephen Wolfe advocates. Unfortunately, his article in World magazine does not equip his readers with enough information to evaluate Christian Nationalism.
Is Christian Nationalism for you?
If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, reject the label of Christian Nationalism. We should not make our commitments based on what the “guardians of secular activism and theological liberalism” will say about us. Believers can take reasonable positions on issues such as abortion, gender ideology, and other questions without accepting a label. And we should do so. We should advocate for those positions in the public square.
Christian Nationalism is a diversion from the church’s mission of winning souls and making disciples, not for an earthly kingdom with an earthly magistrate, but for a Heavenly King and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Mark Riser - Apologist 