One of the great errors of the American Christian Nationalists is that they have given up on the American project before they have actually attempted the act of citizenship. They complain endlessly and about the so-called  “post-World War II consensus,” which they never seem to define, but their real beef is with the consensus of 1776 and 1789. They do not like the way this country was founded and they want a do-over. They are proposing nothing less than a theocratic revolution. As my friend (and HRA board member) Brad Isbell says, and as I have said, following him, Christian Nationalism is cosplay, i.e.,  playing dress up. That is not to say, however, that the Christian Nationalist movement can do no harm. There are young men who are troubled about the culture and their place in it and some of them have been led down the ethnonationalist path by Christian Nationalist leaders, that some of those same leaders have published a statement ostensibly to slow the boulder that they pushed down the mountain.

The purpose of this series has been to offer a real, practical alternative to Christian Nationalism. It is written with the hope that some readers might be encouraged to engage the political system, that they would pray, organize, persuade, and even legislate, which is where we find ourselves in this installment.

To legislate is to participate in the drafting, lobbying for, and finally passing of laws. Our English noun legislation is from the Latin noun Lex or law. The genitive (possessive) case of lex is legis and from that we get legislation. Those who pass laws are legislators. Before we get to the business of drafting, selling, and passing legislation, however, we need to talk about a much needed virtue: wisdom. Both the biblical writers and the pagans have written much about wisdom. Christians know that wisdom comes from God and that ultimately, Christ, God the Son incarnate, is our wisdom (1 Cor 1:24). In the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament broadly) the noun for wisdom (חָכְמָה) is intimately related to the idea of skill. The craftsmen who worked on the tabernacle were to be “skilled of heart” (translated literally) and were to be those who had received “the spirit of skill” (Ex 28:3). The noun translated skill is the noun for wisdom.

Evangelical American political engagement has not always been marked by wisdom. E.g., there were a number of professing Christians involved in the January 6, 2020 riots in Washington, D. C. The Capitol Police declared the assembly unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. At that point, everyone should have gone home. They did not. I understand that emotions were running high and that there were people present who were not acting in good faith. It also seems evident that people who committed relatively minor offenses have been punished much more severely than other demonstrators, both in Washington D. C. and elsewhere, many of whom have never been punished at all. Nevertheless, many of those present at what is now known as J6 were there to try to persuade authorities (e.g., the Vice President of the United States) not to certify the election. Again, the very idea that Christians should be involved in such an attempt demonstrates a lack of understanding of the American political process and a lack of wisdom.

We could look at other episodes and movements that also reflect a lack of wisdom, i.e., a lack of understanding of the nature of things and a lack of skill. The entire Christian Nationalist movement and especially as it has devolved into an ethnonationalist movement manifests a lack of wisdom. Many of our contemporary theocrats have an over realized eschatology. They have, as Heinrich Bullinger put it in 1566, in the Second Helvetic Confession (ch. 11), “Jewish dreams that there will be a golden age on earth before the Day of Judgment, and that the pious, having subdued all their godless enemies, will possess all the kingdoms of the earth.” Like the dreamers of the sixteenth century (e.g., Andreas Karlstadt) they expect to have too much of heaven on earth now, and they want it in our civil life rather than seeking it where God has promised it: in the due use of the ordinary means of grace, in the Christ-confessing covenant community.

Nowhere in the New Testament do we receive any encouragement to try to seek an earthly utopia before the return of Christ. Instead, Christians are repeatedly characterized in the New Testament as “sojourners and pilgrims” (1 Pet 2:11) (ASV). The pastor to Hebrews writes:

These believers all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they who say such things make it obvious that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been concerned about that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city (Heb 11:13–16).¹

The Apostle Paul puts it plainly, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20).² This is the consistent teaching of the New Testament. Where the Christian Nationalists and other theocrats talk of “taking back” America, the Apostle Paul tells us to “to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands” (1 Thess 4:11; ESV) and “work quietly” (2 Thess 3:11). We are to pray for those in authority “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim 2:2). Was the Apostle Paul as “quietist” or a “Pietist” as our theocrats like to say? To ask the question is to answer it.

I remind the reader about Paul’s language in order to re-set expectations about what can be accomplished in this world and to caution them to recalibrate their goals. J6 was not in accord with Paul’s teaching, i.e., God’s holy Word and neither is the Christian Nationalist project. I am not all seeking to discourage responsible, skillful Christian political engagement. Quite the opposite is true. The point of this series is to stir up those Christians who are able and called to this work to engage in patient, skillful political engagement. Jeremiah 29:7 is God’s Word to New Covenant pilgrims: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”³

Being wise in our political engagement means that we must learn how the process works, how laws are written, how they are brought to legislators, how they are revised, and ultimately how they are passed (or as more often happens, how they are defeated). Before a Christian dives headlong into politics, he should know that most legislative proposals never make it out of committee the first time and it may take years to get a law on the books. It is hard work and there is no guarantee of success.

We should not be discouraged. America is a wonderful place where citizens with no specialized training, if they are patient, if they gain the necessary skills, if they are willing and dedicated, can make real changes for the better. This is not true in many other places. In America, citizens who have never been to law school or who have never run for office before can get involved, they can help with campaigns, and they can even run for office and win. Consider that our 45th and 47th (to be) President of the United States had never before held public office. That is extraordinary. In my home state (Nebraska) citizen legislators serve in the Unicameral and then, when the session is done, they go home to plow, plant, and harvest. You can run for school board, county board, lobby, and even draft legislation and meet with legislators and policy makers to try to persuade them to see things your way, to take your proposed law to the appropriate committee and from there even to the floor of a legislative body.

In the next installment we will look at process of legislating and becoming a lawmaker.

Notes

1. Revised from the American Standard Version (1901).
2. My translation.
3. My translation. I am grateful to Brad Isbell for reminding me of this verse recently.

©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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