“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” -Matthew 6:33 

Recently I finished ready Bonhoeffer; Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during WWII and Hitler’s Third Reich reign of terror between 1933 and 1945. Reading about the history of Nazi Germany and the relationship of the Church and State during this time was very insightful into many of our current struggles and issues. 

This is the first (v.1) part in a multi-blog series where I will be exploring history, Church and State issues in light of many of our current issues. I invite you to join me in some healthy discussion. 

Let me begin this blog series with a recent quote from Tim Keller, 

“In many churches across the US many members are falling into one of two camps, Keller said, ‘On one hand many young evangelicals particularly those living in cities almost have a tendency to be over-woke and take their cues from the secular world, talking about Christian nationalists in nasty ways…It is dangerous. But it’s also one of the ways that you fuel the extremists as sort of subhuman…But a bigger number of evangelicals many of them in the South and Midwest are unhappy because their minister isn’t denouncing the Left enough and isn’t telling people they need to vote for Trump…In an op-ed for CP conservative author and radio host Michael Brown clarified that those who simply love and appreciate America are not Christian nationalists but warned that equating America with God’s kingdom or merging the cross with the flag is a terrible and dangerous mistake…and that is the error of Christian Nationalism. The irony of all this is that if we would be kingdom minded people first and foremost we would bring the most blessing to America. If we would look at America as our mission field rather than our spiritual refuge we would help our nation fulfill whatever plans the Lord has for us. And if we would exalt Jesus infinitely more than any political leader we would better serve our country and our leaders.” (Christian Post article, Friday March 12, 2021, Tim Keller: Church’s affiliation with Republicanism has given Christian nationalism a place to incubate)

I think this is a very good assessment of two very dangerous ideologies and movements gaining ground in our culture and country today. The first dangerous ideology and movement is the “over-woke” movement which has embraced for the most part a very progressive secular viewpoint. This ideology reigns supreme in most major media outlets, entertainment and social media platforms and all public education. This ideology has crept into the Church today and is replacing the authority of the Scriptures in many people’s minds with secular progressive ideology. 

The second dangerous ideology and movement is “Christian Nationalism.” This is the ideology that merges the cross of Christ with the American flag. This ideology has been around for awhile and usually is tied to the Republican Party, but has grown more recently in response to the secular progressive movement. This ideology is dangerously knit into many church cultures today. We will look more deeply at these two destructive ideologies in this blog series as we look to learn from history and scripture. 

Christians should beware and be aware of “labelling.” We all label – it is our culture.  In some ways it is helpful to position thoughts and ideas but it is destructive and not helpful toward healthy dialogue if we label someone to discount them or minimize their viewpoint without hearing them out. It is not helpful to say that anyone who voted for Trump is a Christian Nationalist just like it is not helpful to say that anyone who voted for Biden is a secular progressive. 

Any country that moves away from God only becomes more evil with less liberty. This has been the record of history. And the move toward evil can happen quickly as we will see in this series as we look at Nazi Germany. And today with technological advancements things can happen even quicker. Both secular progressivism and Christian Nationalism can lead to a socialism or a fascism led by an evil dictator. We will explore this more deeply in the weeks ahead. But for the Church and those who follow Jesus the more important issues are going to be how we are going to respond and be a faithful and strong Church in the future with our priority on the Kingdom of God not on the Kingdom of this world. We must encourage each other and grow in our understanding of what it means to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” and know that Jesus also said, 

“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36