The Case for Christian Nationalism

2. Redeemed Nations | II. State of Grace (Part 2)

Previously:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

Since grace restores nature and natural law contains all the moral principles concerning social relations, the Gospel does not alter the priority and inequality of loves amongst those relations. (emphasis mine)¹

Thus begins another section of flawed epistemology and Christology. It is true that the natural law, the work of the law written on our hearts (Romans 2:15), contains all the moral principles concerning social revelations. But even the redeemed, in this life, are so attached to the lusts of the flesh that they require special revelation to stop suppressing the knowledge of that natural law. Wolfe quotes the Anglican Divine, Richard Hooker:

The general perpetual voice of mankind is as the judgment of God Himself, since what all men at all times have come to believe must have been taught to them by Nature…²

If all the moral principles concerning social relations have been taught to all men at all times by nature, and they are not altered by the Gospel, then why bother, as Wolfe argues several paragraphs later, with the “Christianization of civil institutions and laws”?³ Should we Americans not accept the neo-pagan/secular government currently instated as one properly ordained by God, one that must inherently understand the natural law, and obey it just as Paul and Peter instructed the early church to peacefully obey the Roman authorities (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17)? This is the inherent contradiction of an argument for a revolutionary, Christian civil government founded on natural law that does not first, and repeatedly, affirm Christ’s full dominion over both kingdoms (1 Peter 3:22) and the supremacy of God’s inerrant, revealed word over man’s errant reason. We must start with Scripture.

It is through this faulty elevation of nature that Wolfe, once again, tells us what the “Gospel does not alter”, in this instance the “priority and inequality of loves amongst [social] relations. A Christian should love his children over other children, his parents over other parents, his kin over other kin, his nation over other nations.”⁴ Again we are treated to an explanation of supposedly “Christian” love which, at no point, gives even passing mention to the love of God displayed through Christ Jesus. It is highly suspect that ἀγάπη (agapé) love is only first alluded to here - and in a negative light, as a sentiment that liberals make an idol of - for this imparted love is the very first fruit of the Spirit listed (Galatians 5:22-23), and the most important (1 Corinthians 13:13). Though this love is best exhibited within the spiritual kingdom, there is no filter that removes it from the temporal, it should pour out from the disciple’s every interaction. Where also does Christ’s commandment to love Him above all others (Matthew 10:37) factor into the equation? It has yet to be mentioned.

It is certainly true that the Christian has a stronger bond of love with their relations, one that is equally enmeshed with duty (1 Timothy 5:7-9), but this is not an exclusive love. A disciple of Christ does not only exist within two kingdoms, but also two families, one temporal and the other spiritual:

And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:49-50)

We should also question how much of this preference is due to the flesh; certainly this preferential love is corrupted by sin, even in the redeemed, preventing them from fulfilling the commandment to completely love Christ more than their immediate family. To treat this preference uncritically, as Wolfe does - to champion its naturalness as not altered by the Gospel - is a mistreatment that rises to the status of Third Commandment violation. Every natural love we have is radically corrupted by sin, and it is only the good news of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection that gives any of us hope to combat that corrupted nature in this lifetime. The Christian is called to approach every natural preference in the same way David cried out to God:

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24)

As for the elevation of love of nation to the status of being unaltered by the Gospel, Wolfe’s lack of distinction between most nations, bound by shared ethnicity, and the few that are bound by shared ideals leaves us to assume that he means the former, especially since he places it in relation to the subsumed units of kith and kin. The love of a nation for its ideals would also not qualify as pre-rational. Returning to the earlier quote from Charles Hodge, regarding Romans 9:3 and the goodness of “peculiar love for the people of own race and country”⁵, let us examine the greater context of how Paul's love for the people of Israel manifested itself:

I am speaking the truth in Christ - I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit - that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5)

Paul does not wish that he would be cut off from the temporal kingdom of Israel, so that his kin may release themselves from the bonds of Rome and re-institute an independent, temporal, Messianic kingdom that would orient the people towards heavenly good. He wishes himself cut off from Christ’s spiritual kingdom so that, by the truth of the Gospel, the chosen people of Israel would be admitted to that eternal nation - a kingdom of ideals that does not distinguish between race or gender. Though temporal nations naturally form around geography, and there is often a primary ethnic group within geographical regions, Scripture does not explicitly support the creation of a temporal Christian kingdom built on a foundation of natural love of one’s ethnicity, unaltered by the Gospel. It is important to make this distinction now, because the rest of this chapter is dedicated to priming the reader for the proceeding chapter, Love of Nation.

Next:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

1. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 101.

2. Ibid., 104.

3. Ibid., 105.

4. Ibid., 101.

5. Ibid., 87.