In a recent episode of Presbycast, the host and three guests considered a letter written by J. Gresham Machen in 1925 to a missionary in the Southern Presbyterian Church.
It did not take long for the conversation on the podcast to turn to “muscular Christianity” and Christian nationalism. And why not? The subject is very much on everyone’s mind.
At first glance, listeners may miss the connection between the liberal missions Machen addressed in the letter, on the one hand, and Christian nationalism, on the other. But the guests made the connection quite clearly, and I would simply like to underscore it here.
The comparison may initially seem ridiculous. After all, most of those promoting Christian nationalism in the Anglophone Protestant world could hardly be described as typical theological liberals. Many advocate it from an avowedly traditional Christian perspective. Indeed, many are admirers of Machen and of the doctrine of Scripture he defended. These are not card-carrying despisers of the Bible or historic Christianity.
Still, the connection needs to be emphasized. The point may appear subtle, but it is highly significant for the present because it exposes a serious weakness in Christian nationalist theology. What is that weakness?
Before answering, let me make a few observations about Christian nationalism. Its problems seem to be manifold.
There is, for instance, a pastoral problem. How can God’s people be brought to peace amid tumultuous times if they are continually stoked in their anger toward the world?
There is also a missionary problem. If Christ has commissioned his church to make disciples of all nations, how can the church faithfully pursue that mission while importing the world’s border walls into her fellowship? Paul had something to say about that in Ephesians 2, among other places.
Then there is an ecclesiological problem. What is the ministry of the church? Is she called to administer the means of grace, or is she an agency for cultural transformation? Certainly, as the gospel is preached and the elect are gathered and perfected, Christians will carry a Christian understanding of the world into every sphere of life. But much of the current rhetoric makes cultural transformation sound like the goal and the church merely a means to that goal.
Yet none of these is the central problem. The central weakness of Christian nationalism is the same weakness found in theological liberalism: Both make the gospel a means to some other end rather than receiving its saving end as the church’s great commission. The gospel does, of course, serve the still greater end of glorifying and enjoying God forever. But it must not be reduced to an instrument for achieving temporal social goals.
The social gospel turns Christianity into a program for changing and improving society. The national gospel turns Christianity into a program for changing and improving the nation. Both fix their eyes upon this-worldly improvement and, in doing so, turn the gospel’s end into a mere means.
To be sure, we ought to desire improvement in this world. Everyone desires it. Even pagans want a better society, and sometimes pagan proposals for social improvement are better than those offered by Christians. Nevertheless, neither social nor national improvement is the gospel. Neither is improvement the ultimate or even the penultimate goal of the church’s gospel ministry. The church proclaims the gospel for the gathering and perfecting of the saints. The gospel concerns redemption, not a political project.
Some will object: What about sanctification? Is sanctification not God’s plan for improving believers?
Not in the sense envisioned here. We do not believe, as the evangelical prosperity message would have us believe, that grace is a spiritual boost—a power-up that makes sinners into more successful people for the sake of social improvement. As an aside, along with liberalism and Christian nationalism, one could include the prosperity gospel into the same mix.
The gospel is God’s message of salvation for sinners. That salvation includes both justification and sanctification. Sanctification is a work of God’s free grace by which believers are enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness. It begins at the very outset of the Christian life. The believer becomes increasingly aware of the odiousness of his sin and seeks to mortify it.
But sanctification is complex. It is not a steady process of uninterrupted and publicly measurable gains. Some Christians become prodigal sons for a season. Some struggle against old sins and seem to lose the battle more often than not. Others gain the upper hand over particular sins and make real and enduring contributions to the church and society. Praise the Lord! Some Christians become leaders in society; others become martyrs at society’s hands. Some enter the history books, while most are never known beyond the walls of their local church.
God makes no promise in Scripture that Christians will triumph in the public square or collectively tip the scales of the culture wars. Such influence may come, and we may thank God when it does. But he has not promised it, and he never defines the gospel as a message of social or national preeminence.
As the men on Presbycast rightly noted, pragmatism is the common denominator between muscular Christian nationalism and the liberal social gospel. Both ask, What good is a gospel—or a church—that cannot produce a tangible difference in this world? If the gospel saves sinners but does not transform society or restore the nation, what good is it?
What good is it? Paul calls the gospel “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16). There is the good. And it is always good, irrespective of whatever results may—or may not—follow within a particular nation.
©Jim Cassidy. All Rights Reserved.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- Browse the Heidelshop!
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Lexham Press, 2025)
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Jim Cassidy
Jim is the pastor of South Austin Presbyterian Church (OPC). He previously served in OPC pastorates in Pennsylvania (Johnstown) and New Jersey (Ringoes). In his ministry he has been and continues to be committed to proclaiming Christ and Him crucified from all the Scriptures. Jim earned an MDiv at Westminster Theological Seminary as well as a PhD in Historical and Theological Studies, concentrating in systematic theology and writing on the theology of Karl Barth.
More by Jim Cassidy ›