A case for (a kind of) Christian Nationalism

At the moment discussions and debates over Christian Nationalism are largely confused.  People seem to be talking past each other and little is being accomplished.  Few even agree on what Christian Nationalism is, which means that so far there has been a great deal of heat and very little light.

Here I would like to make a case for a kind of Christian Nationalism.  Rather than interact with what others are saying, I would like to lay out (in brief) what I believe is a Biblical vision for the nations.  To do this I will be borrowing heavily from William Symington’s Messiah the Prince.  Symington was a pastor of a Reformed Presbyterian congregation in Scotland during the 19th century.  Raymond P Joseph writes, “Dr. Symington’s outstanding work has proved to be an enduring theological classic, one of the clearest expositions of the Scriptures in support of the proposition that Jesus Christ was appointed by the Father as King over all men and nations (Psalm 2).”  Words by Symington will be in blue.  

A definition

Before I get to Symington I would like to state in simple terms what I believe Christian Nationalism ought to be: 

In the same way that I want my home to be a Christian home, so I want my nation to be a Christian nation.   What do I mean by a Christian home?  Certainly, I want all my children to be saved; but whether saved or not my children know that in our home God’s law is upheld and Christ is honoured as King.  So, I can’t make converts out of my children, but I can pray for their conversion even as I acknowledge the authority of Christ over my home.  Ours, then, is a Christian home.  How does this apply to the nation?  What do I mean by Christian nation?   Certainly I would like to see widespread conversions.  What Christian wouldn’t want to see their nation so gripped by the power of God that many millions are swept into the kingdom?  Many of us look with hope to the promise of a day when “all Israel shall be saved.”  What if all Canada were saved?  Surely, Christians everywhere would rejoice.  But what does all this mean for the nation in the meantime?   I want the citizens of my country to be saved, but whether saved or not they ought to be governed by God’s law.  Of course, civil leaders cannot make converts out of their citizens, but they can and should pray for the conversion of their people even as they acknowledge and recognize the crown rights of King Jesus.  Just as my home is governed by God’s law, so my nation should be governed by God’s law.  Just as my home acknowledges the authority and rights of King Jesus over the home, so the nation should recognize the authority and rights of King Jesus over the nation.  

What might this look like practically?  Consider the Lord’s Day (the Sabbath).  In our home we aim to sanctify the Lord’s Day in keeping with the fourth commandment.  Some of the things that are done the other six days are not done on Sunday.  Work - unless it is a work of necessity or mercy - is avoided.  Similarly, buying and selling are not ordinarily allowed.  Other things, however, are required.  Take corporate worship as an example.  My children don’t decide whether to go to church.  It is required.  We can’t make our children delight in the Sabbath (Isaiah 58) nor should we punish them for failing to delight in it; but we can and should require external observance to the command.  How does this apply to the nation?  There are differences between the home and the state, but the civil authorities are also under Christ, which means that they too should ensure that the Lord’s Day is sanctified in the land.  At very least this means that some of the things that are done the other six days should (on Sunday) be forbidden by law.   The magistrate cannot require internal obedience, but he can and should forbid most forms of buying and selling. 

Consider one more example.  Idols are not allowed in my home.  Thankfully this has not been an issue in our family, but any idol found in my home would be promptly destroyed.  In the same way, it is the duty of civil magistrates to banish idols.  They cannot command faith and repentance, but they can (and should) follow Josiah’s example in tearing down high places and burning idols.  

It is highly unlikely that we will see such things apart from nationwide revival.  Sadly, I am not even sure it is realistic to expect that abortion will be criminalized in Canada apart from revival.  Still, I lobby for an end to abortion.  And should I not lobby for more?  Were I appointed to civil office it would be my duty to employ my powers to put an end to abortion.  But is that all?  Am I just a one commandment man?  Actually, as a believer I have a much higher end in view.  I want to put an end to abortion not first for the sake of the unborn babies, but for the honour and glory of Jesus Christ.  My concern as a Christian is first for the crown rights and the honour and glory of my King.  If it is the duty of the believer to use what power he has to see an end to abortion, how much more is it his duty (in the sphere which God has placed him) to do what he can to see that the crown rights of King Jesus are recognized by the nation?   

Biblical Evidence

Symington begins his section on Christ’s Mediatorial Dominion over the Nations by offering “evidence in support of Christ’s right of dominion, as Mediator, over the nations of the earth.”  

Consider the following evidence:

1. Psalm 2:10-12 - Note the instruction to kings and magistrates: “Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”

2. Psalm 22:28 - “For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is governor among the nations.”  Here Jesus is called the governor among the nations.

3. Psalm 47:2-9 - In this messianic psalm God says, “For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.  He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet… God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet… For God is the King of all the earth.. God reigneth over the heathen… The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.” 

4. Psalm 72:10-11, 17 - “The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.   Yea all kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him…  All nations shall call him blessed.”  Here the promise is that all kings shall fall before Him and all nations shall serve Him.

5. Psalm 89:27 - “I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.”

6. Isaiah 49:22-23 - In this prophetic passage referring to the New Testament age God says, “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles,and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.  And kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their queens thy nursing-mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of thy feet.”  Here, the promise is that magistrates shall be nursing-fathers and nursing-mothers to the Church.

7. Isaiah 60:11-12, 16 - “Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted… Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breasts of kings.”  Here the Church is told that the nation and kingdom which shall not serve her (the Church) shall perish.  

8. Jeremiah 10:6-7 - “Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations.”  Here the Lord is called King of nations.

9. Ezekiel 45:17 - Referring to the New Testament age God says “And it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt-offerings, and meat-offerings, and drink-offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel.”  Symington writes, “Without pretending minutely to explain the import of all the figurative allusions, the words we have quoted would seem plainly enough to carry in them the idea, that the civil ruler is to give public support to the institutions of the church of Christ, which… necessarily implies that magistrates, as such, are under the authority of the Mediator.”

10. Daniel 7:13-14 - “And I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.  And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him.”  Note that all nations are to serve Him.  

11. Revelation 11:15 - “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.”

12. Revelation 1:5 - “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood”

13. Revelation 17:14 - “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.”

14. Revelation 19:16 - “His name is called the Word of God… and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

15. Revelation 21:24, 26 - “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it… And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.”

An argument from Romans 13

1. Magistrates are “the ministers of God.”  

Romans 13:1-4 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.  Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”  

In this well known passage magistrates are described as ministers of God.  They are ordained of God, and they are ministers of God.  In other words (and as Symington points out) they “are not the mere servants of men, the creatures of popular choice, but the ministers of God, the moral deputies of heaven, the servants, the representatives, the viceregents of the Prince of the kings of the earth.”  It is important to remember that Romans 13 is prescriptive rather than descriptive.  God is describing not necessarily what is but what ought to be.  The implications are clear.  Civil rulers have a mandate from heaven.  They are not merely the servants of men.  They are viceregents of the King.  They are under Him, and they answer to Him.    

William Symington comments, “So far from the apostle’s language referring to existing governors, then, it is more natural to regard it as framed on purpose to reprove them, by presenting a stark contrast.  Indeed, it would be difficult to conceive a more cutting sarcasm on Nero and his associates in power, than is here furnished.  None but the most blind devotee to the exploded doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, would ever think of interpreting this passage of the then existing government.  Nor is it easy to conceive a greater insult that could be offered to the Holy One of Israel, by whom kings reign, than to represent such a matter as Nero as ‘the minister of God for good,’ or his government as ‘the ordinance of God’ which could not be resisted on pain of damnation.”

2. Magistrates are ministers of God “for good"

Paul says that magistrates are not a terror to good but to evil.  He adds that if you do good you shall “have praise of the same.”   He explains by adding that the magistrate is a “minister of God to thee for good.”  How are we to understand the word good?  Biblically speaking, what has good ever meant?  It means the Ten Commandments.  The Bible has no other definition of good than that which is in keeping with God’s moral law.

What, then, is Romans saying?  Again, in its prescriptive way, it is telling us that if the magistrate is functioning as he should then those who do good have nothing to fear.  Why?  Because the magistrate is not a terror to the good but to the evil.  He is a minister - remember - not of the people but of God, and as such he is a minister for good.  He rewards the good and punishes the evil.  And how is the reader of the Bible to understand those terms?  Is the reader expected to think that he will be safe from the terror of the sword so long as he - the reader - does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25)?  Or is the reader to suppose that this magistrate (this minister of God for good) is going to rule according to what is right in his own eyes and so reward what he - the magistrate - thinks is right and punish what he thinks is evil?  Not at all!  The biblically minded reader understands exactly what God means by good and evil.  The standard here - as it is everywhere else in Scripture - is the moral law of God.  It is the Ten Commandments.   The implications should be obvious.  The magistrate, as a minister of God for good, is to take up God’s law as his law and so reward those who obey God’s law - the good - and punish those who disobey it - the evil.  

None of this should come as a surprise.  Aren’t all men bound by God’s law?   Not all delight in it, but all will answer to God for what they have done with it.  The Bible knows of no special category, whether male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, magistrate or citizen.   There are certainly those who (through faith in Christ) have escaped the curse that comes on all who disobey, but their freedom from that curse comes by virtue of the obedience of Jesus Christ who subjected Himself to God’s law!   Even the liberty that they have now in Christ is a liberty from sin (or transgression of the law).  They are creatures who no longer find the law of God a burden.  Their love for Jesus is shown by their obedience to His commands.  Nowhere in the Bible do we find a special category of person granted a dispensation to live by another standard or code.   Why would we think that the civil magistrate alone is free to operate outside of God’s law?  Consider for a moment the Christian man elected to office?  Why would we expect the man who happily upholds God’s law in the home and at work to want to do anything differently in the civil sphere?  “Never,” says Symington “can the circumstance occur which will warrant him [the Christian] to say, ‘Now I may drop the Christian and act the civilian or the man.’  It is not in matters of an ecclesiastical nature merely that he is to act as a Christian.  He must conduct himself as a Christian at all times; when acting as a member of the state, not less than as a member of the church; in the workshop, as well as in the sanctuary; at the hustings, as well as as the table of the Lord.”

 

William Symington on the Duties which the nations owe to Christ

Symington discusses six such duties.  Here I will name five.

1. “It is the duty of nations and their rulers, to have respect to the glory of Christ in all their institutions and transactions."

Symington writes, “No principle can less admit of dispute than that it is the duty of subjects to honor their king: and if Christ is King of nations and magistrates subjects of the Messiah, they must be held bound, in virtue of their relative characters, to pay all possible respect to his honor and glory.”  The Biblical evidence above demonstrates both that Christ is King of nations and that magistrates are His subjects.  They therefore ought to pay “respect to his honor and glory.”

He says, “kingdoms and civil rulers, from the relation in which they stand to the Redeemer, are bound to subordinate all that belongs to them to his honor.  It is not enough that they have respect to the public good, to the promotion of social order and happiness among men; such is, doubtless, the grand immediate end they are to contemplate; but, as moral and responsible subjects, they are in, in seeking this end, to look higher, and to have an ultimate regard to the honor of him to whom they owe their being, preservation, and powers.  Like all other moral creatures, they are to have respect to the highest possible end in all that they do; and certainly no end can they ever propose to themselves, at all so dignified and illustrious as the display of the glorious excellency of the Prince of the kings of the earth, who possesses undisputed sovereignty over all… Not at an establishment are they at liberty to set up; not a law are they entitled to pass; not a step are they free to take; not an alliance are they permitted to form, without having supreme regard to this high and glorious end.  Hostility, or even indifference, to this, partakes of the very essence of rebellion against their sovereign Lord.”

2. “It is the duty of nations [and their rulers], as the subjects of Christ, to take his law as their rule.”

Symington says, “We build at present upon the broad and undeniable fact that nations as such, and civil magistrates in their official capacity, when the matter of revelation was less extensive than it is now, were bound to make it their rule of duty; and from this we deduce the natural and reasonable inference, that civil communities blessed by God with the perfect revelation of his will, are under obligation, at all times, to shape and model their political conduct by the dictates of this infallible standard.  The principle on which they were at any time bound to do so being a moral principle, they must be held bound to do the same at at all times: what is moral is neither of local nor of temporary obligation.  If nations are not bound by the Word of God, they are not responsible or punishable for acting contrary to it, but may, at pleasure, revel with impunity in the violation of every branch of revealed truth; a degree of licentious indulgence which, however agreeable to the taste of the infidel, cannot fail to shock the mind of every Christian.”

3. “It is a duty which nations owe to Messiah the Prince, to have respect to moral and religious qualifications in those whom they appoint over them.”

Symington says that “three distinct classes of qualifications are necessary for civil rulers: natural, moral and religious.”  See Exodus 18:21; Deuteronomy 1:13, 17:14-15; 2 Samuel 23:3; Proverbs 20:28, 29:12, 31: 4-5; Ecclesiastes 10:16.  He continues, “Weak and ignorant men; drunkards, libertines, sabbathbreakers, profane swearers; papists, socinians, infidels, are, accordingly, disqualified for exercising government in a country which is blessed with the volume of revelation.”  Later he adds, “if rulers are required, as we have shown, to respect the glory of Christ, and to take his law as their rule, it is impossible that their moral and religious qualifications can be a matter of indifference, for without such qualifications, they cannot perform any one of these duties.”  

For my part I would not vote for a man who did not openly acknowledge the crown rights of Jesus over the Church and nation.  Much has been said (often pejoratively) about one-issue voters.  Abortion used to be that issue for me.  With time I realized that my priorities were man-centered. I was contending for babies as my greatest priority when I should have been contending for the glory and honour of my Redeemer.  What a political candidate says about the sixth commandment is important, but it is just as important to know what he says about the other nine commandments.  I can no more vote for a man who is avowedly pro-choice than I can vote for a man who is for religious pluralism.  More importantly, I realized that what was really needed was a man to stand openly and publicly not merely for issues (or morality) but for Christ.  All this simply means that until God raises up a qualified man - a man with natural, moral and religious qualifications - I am forced, on principle, to spoil my ballot.  

4. “The nations ought to have respect to Christ, in their subjection to those who rule over them by his authority.”

Symington says, “Under immoral systems of government it is, happily, possible for Christians to do many things in compliance with the principles of social order, and for the good of the commonwealth, as well as of individuals, without giving the sanction of their approbation to such systems as the ordinance of God.  These things may be done, from regard to their intrinsic obligation, as things moral in themselves and required by God.  There is an obvious distinction between doing what is enjoined, and doing the same thing because it is enjoined.  Lawful authority is for the most part, though not always, to be obeyed; unlawful authority, never.”  In the case of unlawful authority he says, “The thing enjoined is to be done; not, however, because enjoined, but from respect to its own intrinsic obligation springing from the law and will of God.”   

5. “It is the duty of nations, as such, to have respect to religion.”

I hope to discuss this last duty further in a later post.  Here I will simply observe with Symington that while the government of a nation has no power in or over the Church “so as to interfere in any way with her internal jurisdiction and management,” the government is duty bound to “frame regulations about the Church, or respecting the external interests of religion.”  

Note (October 2024): The nationalism I refer to firmly disavows the antisemitic, white supremacist, and anti-Muslim sentiments present in some parts of the Church. In recent months, I’ve encountered several disturbing elements that have made me want to distance myself from Christian Nationalism. I’ve observed, for example, a troubling hostility toward Muslims.  Some appear eager for another crusade, while one individual explicitly spoke of cleansing Muslims from the land—a sentiment that, disturbingly, received support from others. I find this exceedingly difficult to understand.  In a Christian nation, while the building of mosques would not be sanctioned, the presence of Muslims would be seen as a welcome opportunity for gospel witness - not hostility.