Understanding Christian Nationalism

By Michael Miller | November 1, 2023 |

Christian Nationalism was not even on my radar until this past year. Its resurgence during the Covid era caught many of us by surprise. In this brief survey of Christian Nationalism, I hope to answer six questions:

  1. What is Christian Nationalism?
  2. Why is Christian Nationalism surging?
  3. Is Christian Nationalism biblical?
  4. Can Baptists embrace Christian Nationalism?
  5. Does Christian Nationalism work?
  6. Is there a better alternative than Christian Nationalism?

1) What is Christian Nationalism?

Christian Nationalism (hereafter abbreviated CN) is challenging to define because several streams exist. Doug Wilson defines it as “a network of nations bound together by a formal, public, civic acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the fundamental truth of the Apostles’ Creed.”1

Torba and Isker define it as follows: “Christian Nationalism is a spiritual, political, and cultural movement comprised of Christians who are working to build a parallel Christian society grounded in a Biblical worldview. [We wrote our book as a] guide for Christians to take dominion and disciple their families, churches, and all nations for the glory of Jesus Christ our King.”2

The church’s mission then, according to CN, is not simply to convert individuals, but to convert nations. Christian Nationalists (hereafter abbreviated CN’s) want a fusion of national civil life with Christianity.

Stephen Wolfe asserts that “a Christian nation is a nation whose particular earthly way of life has been ordered to heavenly life in Christ.”3 CN’s want a cultural Christianity that “implicitly orders people to the Christian faith, though it cannot bring anyone to faith. Though not a spiritual force, it does remove hindrances to faith by making Christianity plausible, and it socializes people into religious practices in which one hears the gospel.”4

CN’s anticipate a civic leader (sometimes referred to as “the prince”) who will bring his nation under God’s rule. Wolfe writes this about the government leader, “The prince, unlike the church minister, is a mediator-‘a vicar of God’ — in outward, civil affairs. As Calvin said, civil rulers ‘represent the person of God, as whose substitutes they in a manner act.’”

CN’s believe civil authorities are obligated to enforce the Ten Commandments — not simply the last six commands, but also the first four: “We affirm that God’s moral law is enduring and binding on all people throughout all time, including civil authorities and nations, and that it is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.”5

CN projects, “We’re not scared. We’re not backing down. We’re strong. We have the truth and we’re not going to pretend we don’t.”

3) Is Christian Nationalism biblical?

I find several significant flaws with CN when compared to the biblical data:

  • The majority of the world will not acknowledge Christ’s Lordship during this age (Matt. 7:13-14).
  • Nations cannot be born again, but individuals can (Matt. 28:19).
  • We will always be strangers and pilgrims during this age (1 Pet. 1:1; 2:11). Aliens are temporary residents — foreigners in another land. Pilgrims are sojourners. They are outsiders. All who live godly will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). There are no exceptions.
  • We cannot put too much trust in mortal leaders (Ps. 146:3).
  • We do not usher in the kingdom of God during this era (Rev. 20:1-6).

4) Can Baptists embrace Christian Nationalism?

CN is incompatible with at least two Baptist distinctives — separation of church and state and the baptism of believers.

  • Separation of church and state

— Baptists, in contrast to the major Protestant Reformers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox) have been a voice for separation of church and state throughout the past four centuries. We believe each person should be allowed “to follow his conscience in religious matters without any human coercion.”6 This belief is also called soul liberty.

— Wolfe does not adhere to soul liberty within a nation. He writes: “The question is whether a Christian magistrate, having civil rule over a civil society of Christians, may punish (with civil power) false teachers, heretics, blasphemers, and idolaters for their external expressions of such things in order to prevent (1) any injury to the souls of the people of God, (2) the subversion of Christian government, Christian culture, or spiritual discipline, or (3) civil disruption or unrest. Modern religious liberty advocates deny this, and I affirm it.”7

— Baptist don’t want Jews, Muslims, atheists, or anyone punished by the government for not obeying the first four commands of the Decalogue. Forced worship of God is not worship at all. However, when a person’s religious beliefs (or lack of religious beliefs) infringe on the physical safety and well-being of other members of a society (e.g., violations of the last six of the Ten Commandments), the government must protect its citizens’ welfare.

— John Leland, a Baptist pastor in Virginia in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, was a tireless proponent of religious liberty. He wrote, “Whenever men fly to the law or sword to protect their system of religion, and force it upon others, it is evident that they have something in their system that will not bear the light, and stand upon the basis of truth.” He also wrote, “The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever.”8

— Kevin Bauder summarizes it well: “The state has no right to establish a religion or prohibit its free exercise.”9

— Many CN’s affirm they hold to separation of church and state, yet I believe that CN blurs those lines between church and nation. For example, should the government be responsible to punish heretics? The original Westminster Confession of Faith10 says yes, as do many CN’s. Yet Baptists say no.

  • Baptism of believers

— Many CN’s sprinkle babies.

— Doug Wilson believes that after being baptized, “as children grow up in a faithful covenant home, they will come to a genuine profession of faith as a matter of course.”11

— Yet baby sprinkling will inevitably lead to a nominal Christianity. People who have been sprinkled as babies and live in a “Christian nation” generally consider themselves Christian, even though they have never been born again. Is this helpful?

— “It strikes me that, in essence, Christian nationalists want to apply a Presbyterian theology of baptism to whole nations.”12

— Scott Aniol wisely notes that “Baptists don’t expect people to acknowledge Christ’s lordship formally and publicly until after they actually believe it.”13

In short, though some Baptists claim to be CN’s, you can’t be a consistent Baptist and a consistent CN’s. Baptist distinctives and CN theology don’t mix.

5) Does Christian Nationalism work?

As we wind our survey of CN down, I want to practically consider historical precedent. Quite simply, CN has never worked. Do we have any examples from the last 2,000 years of a nation becoming majority Christian? Not nominally Christian, but made up of born-again believers? Consider these attempts: The Holy Roman Empire, England, and Zambia. Did they succeed in truly converting most of the nation or empire? While we appreciate the reforms of Edward VI in England or William of Orange in the Netherlands, would we say that most of the folks in England or the Netherlands were born again during their reigns?

There is no such thing as a Christian nation. This is true for other institutions as well. It is true that many people call a home “Christian” when not everyone in the home is a believer. Yet a biblical church requires every member to make a credible profession of conversion. In such a church, we discipline those out who refuse to live like a Christian. We don’t want to call a group “Christian” when we can’t discipline someone out for unchristian behavior. You can’t kick someone out of a nation for failing to believe the gospel or for unchristian behavior! Thus, we should not call a nation “Christian.”

Though CN has failed on a national level, might it work on a smaller scale? How about in cities? I have a dear friend who pastors near me in Calgary who has adopted CN. He believes that if 30% of Calgarians were born again, we would be “a Christian city.” I respectfully disagree.

  • Calvin’s Geneva was a failed experiment.
  • Three Hills, Alberta, a town of only 3,000 and home of the Prairie Bible Institute, is not a Christian city, even after decades of Christian influence.
  • Greenville, South Carolina, where I grew up, is over 50% Protestant and about 25% Baptist. While I appreciate much of the cultural conservatism in the Upstate, it has produced nominal Christians in droves.

6) Is there a better alternative than Christian Nationalism?

I agree with many CN’s on the following:

  • We are for closed borders and capitalism.
  • We understand that secularism has failed.
  • We concur that Christianity is essential for public morality. We know that the public square will never be neutral. We would love to have a country guided by Christian values. We want Christianity to influence civil life as well as social life in our workplaces and neighborhoods.
  • We must be bolder in evangelism.
  • We long for revival.

But I diverge from CN’s on what we believe the government is authorized to do.

  • We don’t use civil government to establish Christianity as “an official religion” of the nation. We want our fellow citizens to acknowledge Christ’s Lordship, but civil leaders are not tasked with the responsibility to work for the conversion of citizens or the spread of Christianity.
  • We believe the government should protect religious freedom and freedom of speech.
  • We believe it should prohibit violations of the last six of the Ten Commandments but not the first four.

What then, is a better alternative to CN? Christians who are patriotic. Please understand, CN is not identical to Christian patriotism.

We find an interesting instruction to the Jewish exiles in Jeremiah 29:7 — “Seek the welfare of the city [Babylon] where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.” If the Jews in exile could promote the shalom of Babylon, we can surely seek the shalom of our nation. How?

  • By grieving for our nation.
  • By praying for revival.
  • By voting for moral candidates.
  • By writing letters of appeal to our elected officials.
  • By opposing sin. By standing for righteousness. By seeking to restrain evil.

Patriotic Christians do not retreat into isolation. We seek to be salt and light. Yet we acknowledge that the kingdom will not come until the King does. So we pray, “Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”

Michael Miller is the pastor of Foundation Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta.

We also would like to commend a podcast where pastor Miller appeared as a guest, discussing Christian Nationalism with the host, Steve Anderson of Baptist Mid Missions: Christian Nationalism & the Great Commission – Proclaim & Defend (proclaimanddefend.org)

  1. Doug Wilson, Mere Christendom, 69. [↩]
  2. Andrew Torba and Andrew Isker, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide for Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations. [↩]
  3. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism, 174. [↩]
  4. Wolfe, 28. [↩]
  5. https://www.statementonchristiannationalism.com/)) They elaborate: “We also affirm that as sovereign King of kings, Christ has commanded all civil authorities, Christian and non-Christian alike, to execute His will on the earth to orient humankind toward Himself through the moral law.” This is where the call for laws against blasphemy, for instance, originates.

    Though there is variation among the theology of CN’s, you can expect them to have most of the following doctrinal persuasions:

    • Reformed & Covenantal
    • Calvinist
    • Paedobaptist
    • Theonomist
    • Postmillennial

    2) Why is Christian Nationalism surging?

    It is understandable why many Christians find CN attractive:

    • We didn’t appreciate government overreach during Covid.
    • We don’t enjoy a society hostile to Christianity.
    • Secularism is not restraining radical Islam.
    • We are weary of our governments putting the UN ahead of own countries.
    • Traditional family values are becoming illegal and punishable.
    • Many Christians are scared. They feel subjugated and powerless. ((Virgil Walker, https://g3min.org/the-dangerous-intersection-of-christian-nationalism-and-ethnocentrism/. [↩]
    • Anthony Chute, Nathan Finn, and Michael Haykin: The Baptist Story: from English Sect to Global Movement, 339. [↩]
    • Wolfe, 359. [↩]
    • “A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia,” in The Writing of the Later Elder John Leland, published in 1845. [↩]
    • Kevin Bauder, Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Church Order, 131. [↩]
    • The original version of the Westminster Confession of Faith asserted that it is the civil magistrate’s duty to ensure that “all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed.” Ch. 23 “Of the Civil Magistrate.” [↩]
    • Doug Wilson, Standing on the Promises, 85. [↩]
    • Josh Buice, https://g3min.org/the-mixed-blessings-of-a-christian-nation/. [↩]
    • Scott Aniol, https://g3min.org/a-review-of-mere-christendom-by-doug-wilson/. [↩]
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1 Comments

  1. Bob Cook on November 7, 2023 at 11:39 am

    Excellent article Michael!