"Christian Nationalism" (Testing The Spirits Podcast - Episode # 59)

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. The title of this episode is Christian Nationalism. Basically, this is part two of my original podcast titled God and Government.

In the first podcast, I didn't really get into the Christian nationalism subject. I didn't get into it too deep for several reasons. Number one, there is no one clear definition of what Christian nationalism is, like what are we even talking about?

And then number two, I'm weary of where the label came from. And finally, number three, much of what I hear about Christian nationalism, honestly, it's totally overblown. There's a new film that's going to come out next year.

I'm going to play the trailer in a moment. Some big names associated with this film. And basically, yeah, they're trying to paint this as a threat to democracy. And at this point, the narrative that Christian nationalism is this great threat, it's a boogeyman.

It's absurd. It's the complete opposite of the truth. We are facing threats. Christians are not one of them. So you have to recognize, and I try not to get too deep into politics on this channel. I'm not really interested in that.

I'm never going to say, okay, here's who you need to vote for and who's, I'm not going to do that. But at the same time, you have to recognize that this, at least to some degree, is a political maneuver to demonize Trump supporters, to shame people that don't vote for this person.

And those who do are a bunch of Nazis, I guess, but it's the same old thing, right? Just like they said, George Bush was a Nazi, John McCain was a Nazi, like anyone who wins the Republican nomination and runs for, they're a Nazi.

That's just the way the other side operates. But when it comes to the political side to this, I've said this before, I'm not looking to get into that except to say that this play to label people as Christian nationalists, like the whole woke movement, you know, how the woke movement tried to demonize all white people.

This is a political play meant to demonize conservatives and conservative Christians. So in a way, everyone who is against what the progressives are doing, if you say anything about it, you're going to get lumped into this Christian nationalist label, whether you like it or not.

So if you're a Bible believing Christian who wants America to return to its Christian roots, the rainbow flag crowd, they're going to view you as a Christian nationalist. Now any talk about Christian nationalism or CN, as some people put it, usually it will surround the events of January 6th when people protested the election results and some people marched on the Capitol and there were the riots and all the rest.

And I'm not defending the rioters, but I question this narrative that this was a violent attack perpetrated by Christians. Show me the people who are actually convicted of a crime that were members in good standing of a local New Testament church.

I haven't seen any evidence for that. So all of that to say this, the people squawking about Christian nationalism as this great threat to democracy, I mean, they're not a trustworthy source. They are not actually interested in justice because when the BLM people were rioting, they were fighting for truth and justice and they had this great cause.

And when someone does it who's maybe conservative, they do something similar, which again, I'm not defending that. But when they do it, it's horrible. When this group that the left approves of does it, it's fine.

So double standard. They're not actually interested in justice. This just seems to be a way to smear their political opponents and to smear Bible-believing Christians who they dislike, to put it mildly.

So here's what I know for a fact, Bible-believing Christians are not a threat to this country. See, I know that, you know that, I think they know that, but this is again, a political maneuver and this new movie that's coming out painting Christian nationalism as a threat.

It's just in time for election season. So that's what's happening. Christians are some of the most law-abiding people you will ever meet. But through history, let's face it, Christians have often been slandered, you know, like the true Bible-believing Christians who really want to apply the Bible to all areas of life.

True Christians have always been slandered, made to be the scapegoat, whether it was the apostles accused of turning the world upside down, you know, wherever the apostle Paul seemed to go, there was a riot.

People were trying to kill him. There was Nero who blamed Christians for the burning of Rome, or even today, whether it's Christians in communist countries blamed for subversive activity. I mean, it's happened before and now it's happening again.

The only difference is that in the U .S. right now, at this current moment, we still have rights, at least some of them. But we still have a great deal of freedom and we have our rights to a large degree.

So we're still safe. That's the good news for the moment. We're still safe. But anytime the political establishment starts talking like this, where they're trying to blame Christians or starting to place the blame in that direction, we have to be paying attention to that.

And I also think Christians need to give a response and say, hey, that's not true. That's not true. So pastors should stand up and say, come on, this is false. We need to have discernment and counteract that.

But there's always going to be those pastors. Maybe some of them are well-meaning. They sort of buy into, there's people who realize it's bogus, but they go along with it anyways. But then maybe there's some people who are well-meaning and they get caught up in it.

All.

There's a local pastor who compared Christian nationalism to Hitler and the Nazis. And it's like, is this, is he a bad guy or is he naive or like, where is he coming from? I can't read his heart, but there's people nationally known leaders all the way down to people locally.

I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I really do. But I have to say, and I think everyone with discernment who sees this for what it is, we have to say this, this is a false narrative. Like come on, Christians are not the threat.

All the things we have to worry about in the year 2023, 2024, Christians are not it.

Okay.

Now there may be a small, tiny minority of people, like 0 .002%, you know, there could be some violent people out there. This is a big world. It's a big country, 300 and what, 300 million people, 350 million people in this country.

Is there this tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people that are violent? And yet at the same time, they claim the name of Christ. Well, I'm not saying those people don't exist at all. I'm just saying there's so few of them.

It's not actually a threat. I mean, it's such a fringe minority to make them out as this threat to democracy. Like they're the Nazis. Oh no. The Republic might collapse because of these people. That's simply false.

More than that, it's the exact opposite of the truth. The authoritarians that you have to watch out for, who started flexing their muscles big time in 2020, you know, the people you have to worry about are more of the Marxist variety.

So if anything, that's the real threat to the Republic. But here is a clip from a new film put out by Rob Reiner, a professing atheist, by the.

Way.

Rob Reiner was able to get some, or somebody, you know, got these liberal Christians on board with this film. Rob Reiner, I think is the producer. So you have men like Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, Russell Moore of Christianity Today and the Gospel Coalition, and now they're on board with this film.

And here's what they say. I'll just show you what the film, the trailer says. You can hear them in their own words, what they have to say. This new movie coming out against Christian nationalism.

Watch.

America and Christianity are like baseball and apple pie and we celebrate them together.

I was 16, 17 years old when I became a Christian.

I'm an evangelical minister.

I've been a Christian my whole life. I'm a Christian nationalist. I have nothing to be ashamed of. Because that's what most Americans are.

Is Christian nationalism Christian?

Um, no, it isn't.

We should be blazing forth as a countercultural example. And instead, we're leading the charge of malice and division.

Christian nationalism uses Christianity as a means to an end. That end being some form of authoritarianism.

Being a Christian is about the values of inclusion.

Okay, so Christianity is really all just about inclusion.

Right? Yeah.

Uh, now when we hear liberals and progressives talking about being inclusive, I think we know what that means. Right? So this, I mean, it's again, this is gaslighting. It's the opposite of the truth. It's ridiculous.

This film. Again, Rob Reiner is an atheist and a progressive himself. And there are these supposedly evangelical Christians, David French, Russell Moore, they're involved with the film. He brings on these, basically at this point, well, I don't see how you avoid calling them apostates, but he brings in these, uh, Christians supposedly to talk about how, you know, really Christianity is really just all about inclusion.

And, uh, you know, Christians, these Christian nationalists who voted for Trump, I mean, they're just, I guess they're horrible, deplorable bigots, unredeemable. And just like you saw the video, they're making them out to be Nazis.

That was the imagery. It was very clear. So this is just more of the progressive left trying to demonize Christians because they recognize that conservative Bible believe in Christians, traditional Christians who believe in traditional marriage and all the rest.

They understand that we're the ones standing in their way for their Marxist socialist utopia and they got to demonize us. And they got it. So they've created this label Christian nationalism because nationalism, they can associate that with Hitler.

Therefore, our opponents are the Nazis. And of course the Nazis need to be destroyed, right? Again, it's a false narrative, but that's, that's the scam.

You want to see the fruit of Christian nationalism, just read about Hitler and his rise to power.

Now it's very difficult to talk to people about Christian nationalism because everyone seems to have a different definition of what it is. Here's one definition I pulled offline. Christian nationalism is an ideology that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian religion with a nation's character.

Advocates of Christian nationalism consider their view of Christianity to be the integral part of their country's identity.

Okay.

Now some would say that's the way America used to be. And we should go back to it to say that Christianity is part of America's identity. I mean, isn't that just a historical fact? To what degree?

Maybe.

But it's also the identity, at least has been in other nations. I mean, in Europe, they still have state churches to this very day. Consider the Church of England. King Charles was just ordained or whatever they call it.

You know, he's, he's officially the defender of the faith. King Charles went through his, his ceremony and it was all tied together with the Church.

Of England.

And he's actually considered the head of the Church of England. So is that a form of Christian nationalism? Well, no, because King Charles is progressive. So see, that's okay. And then you could read European history and it seems like Christian nationalism, at least by that definition.

I mean, that was just standard operating procedure throughout Europe. America is only different in the sense that the federal government, according to the constitution, is not able to establish an official church of the federal government, which we don't want it.

I know Christian wants the federal government to do that because they'd probably, if they did it, they'd choose the Catholic church or something. So we don't even want that. But going back in our nation's history, many states had state churches.

Again, you just couldn't have an official church of the federal government, but they were all Christians. So even now we have, in God we trust on our currency, it's carved on our monuments. It's even front and center above the wall in the U .S. House of Representatives right.

At this very moment.

So it's hard to see why that definition would even be controversial, except that it says that some people want, with Christian nationalism, they want the government to enforce the religious position of that Christian doctrine or whatever.

And really what they're talking about is morality. They want Christian nationalists typically want the laws of the U .S. to be in line with God's law, the 10 commandments. But I mean, that's just kind of standard for, doesn't every Christian want that?

Why wouldn't you? Like, I don't know. It's a strange thing that people professing Christians would complain about it and yet they do. So just to wrap this up, to keep it simple. This stuff about the threat of Christian nationalism, it's really a false narrative invented by liberal progressives to slander conservative Christians who want to see the United States return to its Christian heritage.

I think a big part of it, people like Russell Moore, Phil Vischer and others, they claim to be evangelical, but they seem to be very sympathetic to the progressive cause. So it just seems like they have an ax to grind.

So they join Rob Reiner, an atheist, and just sort of painting with a broad brush, making all conservative Christians look like this threat. Again, the imagery in that trailer was clearly meant to communicate, hey, these people are a bunch of Nazis.

It's just sad. So in conclusion, what can you do? All you can really do is pray for these people. Most of them have been deceived by the zeitgeist, the spirit of this age. The people saying the stuff who call themselves Christians, I mean, they've been trying to harmonize worldly ideas with the faith for so long.

I don't even think they recognize it anymore, what they're doing. So we just have to bring the word of God to bear. Remind them of what God's law says. Remind them that Christ has all authority. This is the great commission.

Christ has given all authority. Christ has been given all authority in heaven and earth. Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Then read for them the Psalm, Psalm chapter two, which says, Therefore be wise, O kings, and be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry. So remind them of these biblical truths, and pray that God will open their eyes. We can only do so much, and then leave the rest to the Lord.

But be encouraged. We still have it very good in this country. And while we have the freedom to preach, and to assemble, and even to put out a podcast like this on YouTube and Spotify, as long as we have the freedom to do that, we should take advantage of it.

Jesus talked about this in John nine, verse four, working while it's daytime, because the night is coming when no one can work. So let's be busy doing the Lord's work, and you can help by praying, giving, serving, and just being a blessing to your local church.

Raise up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If your kids aren't doing it with their kids, grandparents can step in and raise their children, their grandchildren in the nurture. We all have to do our part.

If every professing Christian in the nation simply did what they can do, we might actually be able to turn this thing around. But either way, in the end, God's kingdom will come. Christ will be done on this earth.

Christ will rule and reign. And the scripture says, if we are faithful, we will rule and reign with him. Thanks for listening. Until next time, may the Lord be with you, and have a great day.