Curious how the forums feel about Christian Nationalism. Discuss…
Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
At Rev 16 it shows EVERY kingdom( govt, armies supporters) will be mislead to stand in opposition to Gods king, here at Rev 19:11-21– they are now as well. Thus if one casts a vote for the corrupt politicians, they stand in opposition to Gods king.
Thank you @JennyLynne for the interesting article. I am fairly new to the forum and still getting a sense how best to interact. Please forgive if anything I post here might be less than ironed out. I’m not exactly clear on our form member makeup, but I am hoping most of this will be found in our forums good graces ![]()
I’d like to do this in two parts because it won’t fit in one.
PART 1
A video (as there are many) came out a couple of years ago from a group called Parable. It was on the history of the United States. It held the position that America was founded by Freemasonry. And is not a Christian nation. The video was 2 hours long. I never made it past the 1st hour.
Not because it was not interesting. It was. Its just that there was so much in the 1st hour of a very well made video that was intriguing. So at that point I went back and researched every detail. It took me about 40 hours. And I was kind of surprised by what I found.
Although it is true that Freemasonry existed at the time of the founding of America, the majority of signers were not masons. It was fairly new. And if we research deep enough, we can understand that the emblem for the dollar bill at the onset design was not as associated with masonry as is floating around out there. There are a lot of different samples why America is not founded on the masons, but for the sake of brevity i provide 1.
The All Seeing Eye – A symbol used by freemasons. And is associate in New Age as the 3rd eye. But the historic masonry eye is floating within a cloud. Not a triangle. The triangle was associated in art pieces prior to the founding of the masons and represented in art typically the trinity. With the Eye of Providence (not Horus) symbolized the sovereignty of God of the bible. It would appear modern filtering of this history has become somewhat on the level of South Park logic unfortunately. A very similar historic value apples to warrior shields and Christian symbols.
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Do I believe America is a Christian nation? No. Was it founded as one? No. But on purpose. It was founded on keeping government out of religion. It would be hard to break away from the philosophical grips of England if America just did some kind of inverse of why they wanted religious freedom to begin with. So i don’t believe that America would want to be created as a religious government. Since the two comingling was understood by early settlers as somewhat an abomination.
But that is not to say that there was not a lot of Christian influence in the development of the country. There was. And in the 1800s the Supreme Court even recognized America as a Christian nation. For the reasons it was founded, it makes sense to see it that way. But for practical purposes, America did not want government and religion as coregents. At least in a marriage-like sense philosphically. America wanted freedom for religion aside from the state. So it is actually for good reason America was not founded as a Christian nation. Because that was the country’s problem they revolted from by war…
PART 2
IS CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM BIBLICAL?
In all honesty that is not the question best to ask, in my humbly meant estimation. It is the right question because of how things have been framed. But it is somewhat of an oxymoron because the concept of nations is biblical that God founded as such. The concept of nations is from God. Our modern day concept of being a global citizen is not biblical. At least yet. Depending on your eschatology, I believe when Christ literarily reigns for a thousand years, then being a global citizen is biblical. I believe the answer is in the context in which God has framed it for us. The is a time of diversity from the tower of babel incident. And there is a time for one ruler on earth over all. That time is not today. But future, i believe.
The concern I have seen in relation to the Christian Nationalism issue is that we do see groups like NAR (New Apostolic Reformation–having a key rep as National Faith Advisory Board, Paula White) believing this is the time the church begins to bring the world literally to Christ. At its roots, I believe this is just a differing eschatology. A belief that perhaps we are already in the millennial rule of Christ, and the next major calendar event is Christ’s return to earth. It is an eschatology (centuries old) that believe Christ will return when the church has readied the world for His return. This view sees the church increasingly escalating in power over several years or decades (maybe centuries) to capture all pillars of power in the world. Then Christ will come. When we ready the world inviting such an event. This is an ancient Reformed perspective, and in great part kind of the reason America was founded. A place thought of in certain religious circles to be the new land to hasten the readiness of Christ Return. America seen as the beginnings of Christ’s return. This was conceptually the initial successes of Puritan model of order (the building of Boston) semi aim.
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I understand there is a lot of need to define things. And it is a great discussion to have. Does the CN view attract some who are fleshy? Yes. Are the concerns of those who hold CN valid to have a nation like that? Yes. The key concept being “concerns.” Not rights, nor facts to establish one. Concerns though? Yep. We see how wicked the world is getting. We know it is getting worse not better. In a way, to not want CN might be viewed by some to just lie down and let evil reign. So I don’t think there is a case for CN. But I do think there is a great case for their concern for one.
And that is where I would see a more helpful discussion take place. My eschatology would suggest CN will fail. So I am not particularly concerned with it becoming a thing. I understand if others don’t share that optimism. And although our eschatology will likely be different, my futurist view would highlight this biblical principle, which i practically see as prophetic (at least hopefully): John 15:12-15. The more we love one another, the easier it likely will be to know what the Father is doing in our very unique days. Amen. So this would be encouraging the stress upon how to best understand one another (not to agree but to just understand, really) possibly even as some poetic real-time dimensional living hermeneutic of sorts, if there even might be such a thing.
There are features to the way i process eschatology that might add quite some interesting overtures to the CN debate in our day. I would be happy to share that if it might be helpful or interesting to consider or factor in potentially one way or another. But at this point would stray from the thread theme a bit. But would be happy to if proper. Blessings.
As I’ve thought about it, I think Christian Nationalism is like a house: my house is yellow, but it would be the same house if I changed the siding to blue, gray, red, or another color. Grammatically, “yellow” is the adjective and “house” is the noun, which is primary in the description.
Likewise “Christian” Nationalism is at its essence Nationalism with a Christian facade. It might have some Christian traits but it’s primarily nationalism with a Christian color.
I am first and foremost a Christian who happens to be an American (so I’m an American Evangelical Christian - although in recent years “Evangelical” has been overloaded with some unbiblical connotations too) whose primary allegiance is to the Kingdom of God. I’m not a Christian [something else].