TTWW-18-E - Christian Nationalism: The Faith of a Few vs. the Fears of Many

In my podcasts and sermons, I will rarely call out an individual person by name, and on the rare occasion I do, it’s never to pick a fight or stoke the fires of controversy. I don’t aim to silence views I do not agree with. I believe everyone has the right to hold a position that’s different from mine and be wrong. 😊 But I also believe there are times when I should point out where another person is wrong, not based on my person feelings or individual preferences, but on my understanding of what the Bible clearly says. It’s up to you, the listener, to make your own decision.

    I am not here to judge Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho. I will not even attempt to comment on the various positions he has espoused in his books and on his podcasts. Perhaps you have never heard of him. I hadn’t until a few days ago. It turns out he’s written a lot of books, but where we live, it’s rare for me to enter a bookstore, and rarer still to enter a Christian bookstore. It wasn’t Doug Wilson’s books, but his long interview with CNN that projected him to a much wider audience. Well, to one more person, at least, me, and that was by way of a short article in Church Leaders.  Do I count as a much wider audience?

The CNN interview was triggered by Wilson’s connection with Washington, D.C., and a church there that holds views similar to his. The fact that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth joined that church further served to propel Wilson and his ideas into the national spotlight.

If you’re not familiar with this man and his books, just enter his name on Google, and you’ll find links to the many books he’s written, and to articles and videos by others who have come out in opposition to his views. The controversies center around his views on topics such as masculinity, the place of women in the home and society, slavery, and immigration. I’m going to skip those issues, which you can look at yourself. I’m going to concentrate on a Biblical position regarding his label as a “Christian Nationalist” and more specifically, on what he believes about the Second Coming of Christ. There is nothing in the Bible that addresses “Christian Nationalism” directly, but it appears to me that Doug Wilson’s Christian Nationalism is a product of his understanding of the end time, and I will cite passages that, to me, clearly contradict his position. Bear with me…I will try to keep it simple. (In my head, I just heard my wife say, “Well, that would be a first.”)

Basically, I see Postmillennialism as the foundational error of Doug Wilson’s teaching

(I think I just heard a female voice in my head saying, “I knew you couldn’t keep it simple. You jumped right into the deep end.”) It is simple, really. “Millennialism” is the belief based on Revelation 20.1-7 that says that when Jesus comes, He will reign for 1000 years, along with His resurrected faithful followers (v. 4, 6), and Satan will be bound for those 1000 years (v. 2) before he is released and sets up the final battle against Christ (v. 7, 8). Then comes the Final Judgement Day, and the eternal Kingdom will be set up.

`Pre-millennialists believe Jesus will come before that 1000-year period, “the millennium”.  He will raise His followers from the dead and they will reign with Him for 1000 years. This group is further divided into pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation rapture advocates, who disagree on just when the Lord will come in relation to the Great Tribulation prophesied before the millennium, but they are all pre-millennialists.

There are Postmillennialists, who believe Jesus will come at the end of the 1000 years after His church has prepared the earth for His return, when He will take possession of the final, eternal Kingdom. The church has 1000 years to facilitate the Lord’s return. That is Doug Wilson’s position.

Then there are Amillennialists, those who don’t believe there will be a literal, 1000-year millennial period at all. I think they have to spiritualize so much of the Bible, that I’m not even sure what they believe about Jesus’s return, or if they believe He will return at all. I confess I haven’t studied the details of their doctrine, but I have the impression they concentrate on serving God today, and don’t concern themselves with prophecies of the Lord’s return in the future. “That’s up to God, so we’ll just live today in a way that pleases Him.” There is an element of wisdom in that, I must say.

The first problem I see with Doug Wilson’s post-millennial position is that he believes in a literal millennium during which time the nations will be discipled, a time of kingdom expansion that will culminate in Jesus’ return. How do we know when that millennium begins. Has it begun? Apparently it didn’t begin with the Apostles. Maybe the Reformation? Or the founding of America? Wilson’s church in Moscow, Idaho? The rise to power of the current Republican administration? If we know when the Millennium starts, we can pinpoint Christ’s coming 1000 years later, give or take a decade or two.

He believes the gospel will be victorious in the world, and the nations will be discipled before Jesus comes. With a world population of 8 billion, he admits there’s a lot of work to do, but “the churches are doing that.” He believes the world will eventually be converted to Christianity, forming a Christian theocracy that will facilitate the Second Coming. The first step, of course, is to transform America into a Christian theocracy, which he, his church, and others like them, are working to achieve. At one point in the interview, he admitted it would probably take another “250 years” to turn America into a Christian nation.

Christians in the 1800's believed they could convert the world

But Doug Wilson’s view of conquering the world for Christ in modern times goes back to the 1700s at least. When William Carey left England as a missionary to India in 1793, his example set off a wave of missionary work in the 1800s and earned him the title, the Father of Modern Missions. Missionary societies were formed as China, Africa and South America attracted an influx of missionaries. This period is reflected in hymns still found in church hymnals. In a brief perusal of the Baptist Hymnal’s section entitled “Evangelism and Missions”, one finds the hymn entitled “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations” with its refrain “For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light.” Many other songs like it were written in the 1800s, “O Zion Haste” appeals to the church to “make haste and fulfil her mission to tell all the world…the many thousands still lying bound in the darksome prison house of sin…and proclaim [the gospel] to every people, tongue and nation…”. For this work Christians are told to “give of your sons to bear the message glorious, give of thy wealth to speed them on their way.” There are too many other hymns to list here, but “Send the Light” and “Set my soul afire” are examples.  Even before Carey’s pioneer mission endeavor to India in 1793, Isaac Watts (d. 1748) wrote the words to “Jesus Shall Reign” over all peoples in a glorious Kingdom, thoughts that are echoed in his more well-known and beloved “Joy to the World, the Lord is come”. Although it is practically sung only at Christmas, it’s not about Jesus birth at all. It’s about the glory of His second coming to rule over all nature and mankind, “when thorns will no longer infest the ground”.

We were missionaries overseas ourselves for nearly 45 years, but is the overall missionary endeavor today the same as it was in 1800s, when European colonial powers ruled most of Africa or south Asia?  Back then, conquering the world for Jesus dovetailed with the political realities in the colonies of darkest Africa. Getting into the independent nations of today as a missionary can be very complicated, if not impossible. The increasing difficulty of access to the unreached areas of the world is compounded by the explosive growth of the world population. The missionary vision of the 1800s by which the church would bring in the kingdom of love and peace was dealt a death blow by the “War to end all Wars” in 1914. Far from ending all wars, the Great War gave way to an even Greater War in 1938, and while WWII may have finally ended, wars have not. If Doug Wilson thinks it may take 250 years to turn America into a Christian nation, how long does he think it will take to turn the world’s nations into Christian theocracies to “facilitate” the coming of Christ’s eternal kingdom? Methinks, not even a millennium would suffice.

What the Bible says is more important than what I think

In Matthew 24, Jesus spoke at length about His coming and the signs of the end of this age In answer to His disciple’s questions, in verse 11 He did say there would be plenty of spirituality. There will be many prophets in the last days, but they will be false prophets. Here is how He describes world conditions at the end: “… they will hand you (his followers) over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10Then many will take offense, betray one another and hate one another. 11Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.” From these short verses, I would say that the projected discipleship of the nations failed to produce love and peace. In fact, in v. 12, Jesus says lawlessness will multiply, and cause many to grow even colder in their love. Is this the worldwide Christian theocracy the church is charged with implementing so Christ can come?

Perhaps this view results from a misunderstanding of Jesus’s words in verse 14:

“This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.” This is the only verse I can think of that would encourage someone to think there will be a worldwide turning to Jesus. But let’s look at this statement in more detail: in all the world – the word means “the inhabited portion of the earth”; nations (Grk ethni) refers to peoples, races, ethnicities. Generally, today we think of nations as countries (e.g. UN), geopolitical entities with borders that may often shift. So Jesus says the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the inhabited portions of the earth, and the modern technology of radio, TV and the Internet by satellite makes it possible to reach places that would be inaccessible by historic missionary methods. With migration today facilitated by modern means of travel, the gospel is being proclaimed to nearly every nation (ethnicity). The nations come to where we are, without our having to go to other countries. On Madeira Island we held Sunday services in English, Portuguese, and Russian and ministered to citizens of nearly 20 countries during our 40 years there.

In the Great Commission in Matthew 28.18ff, Jesus told His disciples to “make disciples of all nations”, and baptize and teach them to obey all He has taught them. I like the International Standard Version that reads, “Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing them (people)…”  Nations means ethnicities, not countries; disciples are individual persons. We baptize individuals, not cities and countries. I thought of the French phrase “tout le monde”, which literally means “all the world”, but simply mean “everyone”, the individuals. I suggest a better translation of Jesus’s words would be, “make disciples from all the peoples wherever you go”.

Jesus said “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all peoples” before the end comes. He didn’t say, “All the nations will be discipled, and all the peoples would accept the gospel of the kingdom.”  We are called to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to all nations; we are not told to convert all the nations from all their false religions.

Doug Wilson’s post-millennial view doesn’t fit my understanding of these verses.

I read Matthew 24.22 that says, “Unless those days (of the tribulation) were limited, no one would survive.  But those days will be limited because of the elect.” And v. 29ff. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory…” vv. 37-39 “As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 38For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. 39They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. So this is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be:” 

If you look into Doug Wilson’s books and YouTube postings, you’ll find a lot of other issues you may or may not agree with, ones that generate a lot of controversy. I have my own positions on them, too, but I limit myself here to his advocacy of American Christian Nationalism, which is based on a flawed doctrinal position. I am flexible on many points of prophecy. The text of the Bible is the only infallible word about prophecy, which is the same for all of us, but none of us has the infallible interpretation of details regarding the Second Coming. While I firmly hold to my views, I am lenient toward the differing views of others on many prophetic passages. I am flexible, but I can only bend so far doctrinally. Postmillennialism is a bridge too far. The verses in my Bible won’t stretch that far.