CHRIST-APP by philtierneyblog

The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory:

I’ve mentioned that American Christian political movements hard at work to make America a Christian nation are following a strategy of disassembling American institutions, organizations and government by installing “right-thinking” Christians in positions of power. Another term that’s often used is “Kingdom-minded” Christians for the people who should be anointed to take charge and oversee what they consider to be the seats of power in America. That refers to Christians, who are ready, willing and able to administer government and other institutions with biblical law as led by the Spirit to do so.

False Assumptions:

There are several false faith assumptions embedded in this strategic plan.

God Wants Christian Nations

The first is that God wants nations to be Christian. As I’ve already explained, whenever Jesus taught about the kingdom of God, He emphasized that God’s rule is meant to be within people, not kingdoms and nations ruled by Christians.

So-called Christian nations have been as liable to abuse as any other. Inevitably, the Christians in charge used the powers they had gained to serve their own interests and purposes, rather than serving the needs of the people they oversaw. They used power to keep power because power corrupts people.

Christian Nations are Better than Others

This leads to another false faith assumption shared by those who want to make America a Christian nation. That’s the belief that Christian led nations are better than others. There have been few kingdoms or empires, perhaps with the exception of the Mongolian Empire, that have been more abusive and destructive of indigenous tribes, kingdoms and civilizations than the colonial Christian kingdoms of Europe.

Christians in positions of government power have often abused their powers. Not long after Constantine granted Christianity a favored status in the Roman Empire the Christian Church gradually adopted the doctrine of the “Divine Right of Kings.” That doctrine stated that kings had the right to rule because God chose and anointed them to rule. “Christian” kings of “Christian” nations regularly abused their powers.

I’ll mention just a few examples, one from each of the major Christian traditions.

France had been the seat of the Holy Roman Empire since 800 Ad when Pope Gregory crowned King Charles I as Emperor, Charlemagne. Nearly 1,000 years later, the Catholic Church was utterly jarred by the French Revolution. Not only were the royals and nobility forcibly removed, but the new republic of France completely separated the Church from the State. France became a secular nation. The most galvanizing reason for the revolution was the widespread poverty of the French people. The Catholic Church and the French monarchy had not served the poor and needy, as Jesus taught. The people became desperate, and revolted.  

Russia had come to be the most influential hub of Eastern Orthodoxy.    It had more members, power and wealth than any of the other Churches of the Eastern Rite. It was the center of Christianity not only for Russians, but also for many of the Slavic people. Like France, the Church and the monarchy were closely connected. The Russian Church State failed to serve the Russian people. Destitution was rampant. The people were desperate, and so began the Russian Revolution. Like Catholic France, Orthodox Russia completely separated Church and State. It became an ardently secular Communist nation.

Geneva was a city-state in Switzerland. When the Reformation began in earnest throughout Western Europe one of its most influential reformers was a French cleric, named Jean Calvin. He was invited by some of the leaders of Geneva to become the leading minister of the city.

During his twenty-years in Geneva Calvin’s influenced increased to such an extent that he came to govern the churches there and public morality. While he believed in the separation of Church and State, he became the final influencer in theology, morality and politics in the Republic of Geneva. Many consider that he used his power so rigidly that a “moral reign of terror” for dancing many other behaviors existed in the republic during the 1550’s and after. Punishments were severe. Some were imprisoned, others beaten, still others banned from the republic and a few were beheaded or burned at the stake. After his death, the Canton of Geneva reacted against the many restrictions and, today, Geneva is a center of humanistic institutions.

Christians are Less Prone to Sin

The fact that power corrupts the people who acquire it, including Christians, underscores another faith assumption of the movement to make America a Christian nation. It betrays the belief that Christians are less prone to sin than anyone else. Christians are sinners, too. Christians are as susceptible to fall into intemperance as others.

When Jesus criticized the religious leaders of the time, he didn’t speak about their immorality or their beliefs. He spoke about their attitudes toward others, their misuse of religious influence, their judgmentalism, their lack of compassion, their hypocrisy and their hunger for respect. Jesus said, “Be careful. Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matthew 16: 6) When he told the apostles to be careful and on their guard, it means that Jesus’s followers are as liable to be self-inflated as those religious leaders.

When Jesus and His disciples were on the road, James and John asked Him if He’d let them sit beside Him when Jesus ascended His throne. They wanted power and prestige. This is what happened: “When the other ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

What I hear from those who want to make America a Christian nation is that they want control. That is the opposite from Jesus’s way. Position and authority are for service and not for control. That is the way of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus’s followers should not trust those who want power and position to rule others. They want you to trust them, sinners though they are, when they don’t trust God enough to accomplish His purposes for America. I’ll say it again, those who seek power to rule over others, instead of serving them, are not to be trusted because they have an appetite for power instead of compassion.

God Prospers Faithful and Righteous Nations

Another false faith assumption such people make is that God materially blesses nations on the basis of their faithfulness and morality. That’s one of their reasons for wanting to take control of America – to make America even more prosperous. Jesus contradicted that notion in the “Beatitudes.”  More than that, the story in the Book of Job also contradicted that belief. It was Job’s friends, his self-appointed counselors, who advocated the belief that God prospers the faithful and righteous and removes blessings from those who are not. The voice of God in the whirlwind chastised them for that false doctrine. It echoes the uniquely American “prosperity gospel” instead of the gospel of Jesus.

More Americans will be Christians if America Becomes Christian

That’s closely connected to another false faith assumption. It is the apparently deeply held conviction that if “kingdom minded Christians” take over America, then more Americans will become Christians and the problem of declining church membership will be solved. That is a fallacy. Throughout history the more “Christian” a nation has claimed itself to be the more nominal and hypocritical Christians tend to be and the more cynical and hardened against the faith others tend to become.

Let me share some statistics with you.

Just about 50 million Americans have left Christian churches during the past 40 years. During that time, the number of Americans who identify themselves as Christians has decreased from about 80% to about 60%. Membership in Christian churches has declined from about 70% to about 45%.

Americans have had different reasons for their rejection of Christianity. Some have been disaffected by perceived hypocrisy. Others have been driven off by perceived intolerance and judgmentalism. Others blame too much emphasis on money. Some have said that they haven’t experienced genuine love or fellowship. And some have been alienated by the explosion of politics in the churches.

As I mentioned, the strategic response by some of the most influential Christian leaders has been to blame humanism or demonic activity. As stated earlier, a growing number want to use force, political force, to make people conform by reshaping their thoughts and values. That wasn’t Jesus’s approach at all. He met people where they were, spoke of God’s love and forgiveness and invited them to follow him. Force, political power in service of Christianity, does not advance faith in Jesus.  It is a fallacy to think that God needs government support to spread faith in Jesus.

Christians have almost always been at their best when we have been counter-cultural, even when we’ve been persona non grata or persecuted.

Simultaneously, during the past forty years, it so happens that the number of Christians in China has grown from under 10 million people to over 67 million and some claim more than 100 million followers of Jesus. It’s hard to say, accurately, because most Chinese Christians participate in underground and house churches. The Peoples’ Republic of China has not encouraged that revival. On the contrary, it has indulged in varying degrees of suppression, which is the reason that Chinese Christians tend to meet in secret.

Many reports indicate that Chinese citizens committed themselves to following Jesus for two reasons. They were captivated by Jesus’s teaching. And they were engaged by the quality of love, fellowship and charity that small groups of Christians demonstrate.

Incidentally, those were the very same reasons that the number of Christians grew exponentially in the Roman Empire from the second through the fourth centuries. It wasn’t miracles or government force. It was the draw of Jesus’s teachings, and it was the extraordinary impact of Christians’ hospitality, love and charity on their neighbors and communities. They talked the talk and they walked the walk.

The power of government didn’t coerce the Chinese people to become followers of Jesus, and neither did its suppression dissuade them. Christians and churches have always been at their best when they had no temporal power and were, in fact, rejected of by government and society.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. It’s exactly what Jesus told the Apostles when He was at dinner with them that last night. You remember. He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13: 34f) Jesus’s followers multiply by the power of Christlike love. God doesn’t need the power of government to accomplish Jesus’s mission on earth. That actually creates cultural Christians and turns off onlookers.  

Dear Brothers and Sisters, wake up from your trance. Stop seeking power to make people act like Christians! Instead, use the power of God’s love to serve other people. That’s Jesus’s way. That’s what changes hearts. That’s your real calling and your mission, certainly not dominance through a lawless man of lies.