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.
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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 ›
It seems to me that the problem with Christian Nationalism is it wants to use pragmatic, human expedients to accomplish what it perceives to be God’s purpose. The OT has so many examples from the eating the fruit to discern good and evil even though God had forbidden it, to the worship of the golden calf, the demand for an earthly king, worship in high places, the use of a slave woman to produce an heir to the promise, the strange fire incident and many others, and the consequences demonstrate God’s disapproval of such innovations.
Our Saviour, standing before Pilate emphatically denied that he was promoting any sort of political means. John 18:36 So the Jews were disappointed in Him and demanded his execution for disappointing their ideas of a saviour that would make Israel great again by military and political means. Of course these ambitions were finally crushed by the destruction of the temple and the dispersion of the Jewish people in 70 AD, just as Christ prophesied. Matthew 24. The vain ambitions of Christian Nationalism to make America a Christian nation, by using political means, might just be shown to be another debacle that God does not approve, and He will powerfully demonstrate His displeasure in its rotten fruits.
Angela,
John 18:36 is the verse for our time. “My kingdom is not of this world.” He didn’t use carnal, earthly methods to advance his kingdom but the CNs and the rest who aspire to cultural “influence” regularly dismiss this verse because it contradicts their entire agenda.
Amen!
Amen!
Great points, Stan. I enjoy Jim Cassidy on the Reformed Forum podcast. He’s very smart.
This article leaves “Christian nationalism” undefined, and then provides a series of concerns about it couched as “observations”, without giving any examples or citations at all of anyone actually teaching or promoting the things you’re worried about.
Notably, for Barth and empty spiritualism, however orthodox in terminology, salvation occurs in the story world, not the real world.
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards.” (1 Cor 1:26).
Some of the absolute dumbest political ideas I’ve ever heard have come from other Christians. Bless their hearts. I know they mean well, but I wouldn’t trust any of them in power.
I remember my wife and I having a conversation several decades ago about the topic of what is now called Christian Nationalism. We were quite young, both in the faith and in years, but we had the discernment to realize that those Christians who spoke the loudest and most often about wanting to “take the country back” were some of the dumbest people around AND that neither of us would want to live in a country with such buffoons running it. Nothing has changed in our assessment of them since, except the more we study the Bible and history, the dumber and more obnoxious the Christian Nationalists seem to get.
Yikes, you’re the smartest dude ever, a genius!
Not the smartest, but plenty smart enough to recognize utter nonsense when we see it (although I don’t think it’s good form to bring up my IQ). We were both born with that ability and it has only improved over the decades with much experience. Sadly, it is lacking in many.