The Dangers of Christian Nationalism
Erwin Lutzer, from his book When a Nation Forgets God – 7 Lessons we Must Learn from Nazi Germany, warns us that Nazism did not arise in a vacuum. He points out that “there were circumstances and widely accepted ideas that enabled the population to become a part of an evil that was greater than that of any individual.” (Lutzer, 2010, p. 10) Pastor Lutzer wrote that this book “forces people to grapple with the conflict between our allegiance to government and our greater allegiance to God.” (Lutzer, 2010, p. 11)
Lutzer further explains, “The church has always been poised between two gods and two crosses. On the one side is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on a Roman cross, executed for the sins of the world. On the other side are any number of lesser gods and other crosses that promise a false salvation. These other gods are almost always embodied in the state; they most often come to us dressed in the garb of Caesar. And in the end, they are committed to crushing religious freedom.” (Lutzer, 2010, p. 11)
In this nation we find in our Constitution the Establishment Clause. It guarantees that the government will not establish a national religion and that every American has the right to freely exercise their religion.
In the United States we see a rise in Christian nationalism. This may be taking us in a dangerous direction toward the establishment of a national religion.
If you are a Bible believing Christian, Jesus told us in John 18: 36, “‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be delivered over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not from here.’” God’s kingdom is not on earth today. Our King has not returned yet. God’s kingdom is found through His Spirit dwelling in the hearts of all spiritually born believers from every race, tribe, and tongue of people all over the world today.
Throughout history, when church and state or religion and government combine, the results are often deadly. If you study the history of the Catholic Church and its influence upon government, you will find the death of many Catholic heretics. You see the same under Islam. When there is an Islamic government established under Shariah or Islamic law, you will also find brutal and often barbaric enforcement of ‘religious laws.’
We find in the Old Testament that the Israelites were under a theocracy. However, America as a nation is not mentioned in the Bible at all. We are not and have never been a Christian nation. Some of our forefathers were believers, but others were not. Our founding fathers realized the importance of freedom of religion. Those early immigrants to America understood what it was like to have no freedom of religion. England had a national church. Our forefathers wanted to be able to worship God freely without the interference of government.
Just because our nation today is extremely racially and religiously diverse should not cause Christians to panic and assume we can change the nation to accept Christianity through legal or government force. Any idea of God’s kingdom being on earth now and mixing it with government is dangerous. Jesus told us “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3: 20) Our focus should be on our mandate to proclaim the gospel and love and serve others, rather than how to save America. It is the souls of those who are lost who need to be saved. We have no biblical mandate to ‘save America.’ We do however have a mandate to proclaim the only way to escape the coming judgment and an eternity without God is to repent and turn in faith to Jesus Christ.
REFERENCES:
https://forward.com/news/697054/christians-against-christian-nationalism-project-2025
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias
https://time.com/6309657/us-christian-nationalism-columbus-essay
Lutzer, E. W. (2010). When a nation forgets God: 7 lessons we must learn from Nazi Germany. Moody Publishers.
