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In “What Is Christian Nationalism?”, Paul Miller said Christian Nationalism was the belief that the American nation was defined by Christianity, and that the American government should take steps to keep it that way. “Christian nationalists want to define America as a Christian nation and they want the government to promote a specific cultural template as the official culture of the country.” Some want to amend the Constitution to acknowledge America’s Christian heritage. Others want the government to promote specific a cultural template and take stronger action to circumscribe immoral behavior. Still others believe America has a unique relationship with God and has been chosen by him to carry out a special mission on earth.
Christian Nationalists believe the American nation is defined by Christianity and the government should take active steps to preserve this cultural sense in the future. They believe America must remain a so-called “Christian nation” and appropriate the name of Christ for its worldly political agenda. Miller said when this happens, the name of Christ is used as a fig leaf to cover its political program. The message of Jesus becomes a tool of political propaganda and the church a cheerleader of the state. The movement commonly called Christian Nationalism is better understood as Religious Nationalism, a false religion that substitutes the nation for the church.
As citizens of the kingdom of God, Jesus is our Immanuel, the embodiment of the kingdom of God (See “So-Called ‘Christian’ Nationalism and the Kingdom of God”). This kingdom is associated with the church and cannot not be said to apply to any particular nation, making it difficult to be a Christian Nationalist if you believe you belong to Jesus. Herman Ridderbos said there is a connection between the kingdom of God and the church, but they are not identical. “The kingdom is the whole of God’s redeeming activity in Christ in this world; the church is the assembly of those who belong to Jesus Christ.” He suggested to think of the relationship between the church and the kingdom as two concentric circles, with the church as the smaller one and the kingdom of God as the larger, with Christ as the center of both.
The church, as the organ of the kingdom, is called to confess Jesus as the Christ, to the missionary task of preaching the gospel in the world; she is also the community of those who wait for the coming of the kingdom in glory, the servants who have received their Lord’s talents in prospect of his return. The church receives her whole constitution from the kingdom, on all sides she is beset and directed by the revelation, the progress, the future coming of the kingdom of God, without at any time being the kingdom herself or even being identified with it.
Richard Gaffin said the church alone has been entrusted with the ‘the keys of the kingdom’ (Matthew 16:18, 19) and has been commissioned to preach ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ (Matthew 24:14). Citizens of the kingdom of God are only found in the church, and are “those who by repentance and faith submit to the redemptive lordship of Christ.” All things, the entirety of creation, are subject to him (Matthew 28:18; 1 Corinthians 15:27; Hebrews 2:8). The Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, has put all things under his feet and gave him as “head over all things” for the church (Ephesians 1:22).
In contrast to this sense of the kingdom of God, Christian Nationalism adopts the name of Christ for a worldly political agenda and claims that its political program is the program for every true believer. In other words, if you belong to the kingdom of God, you should support a Christian Nationalist agenda. Paul Miller said this is wrong, regardless of what the agenda is, “because only the church is authorized to proclaim the name of Jesus and carry his standard in the world.” In his book, The Religion of America’s Greatness, Miller said when nationalists say they have a divine commission to accomplish God’s purpose in the world, “they are reading their secular polities into the biblical narrative, substituting their nation for God’s people, a frank admission that nationalism is a religion.”
Regrettably, Americans have long thought of themselves as a chosen people. Miller said in the 18th and 19th centuries Americans regularly referred to themselves as a “new Israel.” Today, many Americans will cite 2 Chronicles 7:14 in support of this: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” President Dwight Eisenhower took the oath of office on a Bible opened to this passage in 1953. Ronald Reagan once said his favorite verse was 2 Chronicles 7:14. Like Eisenhower he took the oath of office on Bibles opened to the verse in 1981 and 1985.
At least as far back as the civil war, there was a similar trend, using Psalm 33:12 in addition to 2 Chronicles 7:14: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” In 1864 a group of clergymen advocated amending the US Constitution to explicitly acknowledge Jesus Christ “and declare the nation’s Christian identity.” The group invoked Psalm 33:12, calling on those who loved their country to sign their petition and support the constitutional amendment.
The use of these verses in reference to the United States is part of a broader tendency among some American Christians to view the United States as a divinely chosen nation in a unique relationship with God to carry out his mission on earth. In this most extreme form, Christian nationalism treats loyalty to America as the national implication of Christian piety. It conflates American identity with Christian identity and treats the good of one as the good of the other. Past generations very clearly argued that our Christian identity gave America a unique moral status, or that the United States was specially privileged by God for a unique mission or destiny.
These two Scripture verses, Second Chronicles 7:14 and Psalm 33:12 are not about the United States or any other secular polity. The “nation whose God is the Lord,” and the people “who are called by my name” refer to Israel and in the new covenant, the church. According to Paul Miller, “To apply them to the United States is hermeneutically indefensible, theologically irresponsible, intellectually sloppy, politically dangerous, and borderline heretical.” The divine mission of God’s chosen people is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, not political liberty, national sovereignty, and capitalism. “The church is the one and only true Christian nation.”
The discussion of the kingdom of God here draws from the thought of Herman Ridderbos on “Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven” in the New Bible Dictionary; and the thought of Richard Gaffin on “Kingdom of God” in the New Dictionary of Theology.
For further reflections on nationalism, see the link “Christian Nationalism” on the website.