The Case for Christian Nationalism

Epilogue: Now What? | V. America is Not Lost

Previously:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

Reprising his subjective determination that “No unjust federal law is an ordinance of God, and so it is not backed by a power of God,” Wolfe calls on state governors to “recall their duties to God and fight against injustices of the federal government.”¹ As shown in chapter 9, Christians are to obey governmental authority as long as it does not instruct us to disobey the commandments of God. Wolfe does not elaborate on how state governors would fight the federal government, but, given that he dedicated a chapter to justifying revolution, and that he believes individual American states have the right to become theocracies, everything up to and including seceding from the Union would likely not be off the table. Contrast this with how many of our Chinese brothers and sisters, under the yoke of a far more repressive government, view their situation and their greater responsibility to God’s word. Wang Yi is pastor of an illegal Chinese “house church”, who is currently serving a nine year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations” - the set of charges thrown at him for refusing to join the official state “Christian” church, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. He writes of how the church and its people are to seek peaceful obedience to the law of the land, even when tyrannical governments do not follow their own law, as long as the law’s commands do not directly contradict the higher “constitutional power” of God’s Law. This would also apply to state governors, who are “deputies of God” and bound by the same moral commandments.

But here is the more important question: Is the Chinese government illegal? We should honestly and courageously respond: yes. For sixty years, this country has continuously trampled upon its own constitution and laws regarding religious freedom. Whether it is church worship, freedom of assembly, doctrine, religious property, the sacraments, missions, seminary training, pastor ordination, publishing, children’s Sunday school, charity work, and so on, the government uses illegal, autocratic, and barbarous methods to oppress the church and the children of Christ in China…

“Aren’t house churches illegal?” If the constitution is “the king” of the modern state, if the Chinese government claims that its power comes from the Chinese constitution and that it must comply with the constitution, I must honestly answer that for sixty years the house churches are the perfect model for submitting to the king and following the constitution. The church follows the constitution up to a point, even though all government officials have chosen to defy it, imprisoning those who do not violate the constitution with them. Still, the church continues to act “according to law” by upholding the constitutional right to worship God and preach the gospel just as before. And because we must abide by a higher “constitutional power,” we dare not comply with the unconstitutional actions of the religious administrative system.²

How many devoted Christian pastors and churches would find themselves in the same position under theocratic Caesarism, forced to make a decision of whether to obey their interpretation of God’s word or face civil punishment for refusing the direct influence of the state church? How weak of a people are American Christians, if many of us are ready to forgo the directives of Romans 13 (or eisegete our way around them), because the majority of our countrymen no longer share our religious convictions? I have far more respect for a man who is willing to peaceably suffer for the gospel than one who looks to pick up a rifle and “defend” his praxis. Wolfe writes of local Christian Nationalist movements taking root in the United States, though “the GAE has captured” it nationally.³ But there are few, if any, cities in America with a majority of orthodox Protestant citizens, let alone a majority of people who would be willing to put up with belligerent wannabe theocrats. I am greatly concerned that, as our nation continues to polarize and, save a movement of the Spirit, Christianity continues to lose social influence, those who sign on to Christian Nationalist visions, like Wolfe’s, will increasingly come to the conclusion that violence is the only pathway out.

Many claims in this book will worry many American conservative Christians. I’ve said that political governments can suppress false religion, establish a church, even require people to attend church. I also wrote about a “Christian prince,” which is not the sort of political title one would find in America. I will not walk back those arguments;⁴

Wolfe has made far more than these arguments. He has argued for a “totality of national action” that completely inverts the liberal democratic order of the state for the individual into the individual for the state, the textbook definition of fascism. He has argued for using organized violence to “assert Christian supremacy” over non-Christians and to deny their right of consent of the governed. He has argued for executing people for unrepentant public wrongthink. He has argued that seeking ethnic homogeneity is a prelapsarian good, and that Christians of different ethnic groups are incapable of jointly finding the “complete good” in this life.

To this I only have one response: anathema.

1. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 473.

2. Wang, Yi. “Chinese Christians’ Costly Allegiance.” Plough, March 14, 2023. https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/chinese-christians-costly-allegiance2.

3. Stephen Wolfe, 474.

4. Ibid., 475.