A superb thesis with which I am in complete agreement. (Noted just before seeing and reading Today’s Ai Tower of Babel)

Posted 5th October on Dominic Leo Muir’s Facebook (emphases RB)

WHATS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM?

Christian nationalism is an unhelpful label because, in making anything an “ism”, overemphasis or idolatry is implied, and that often becomes the easy takeaway. It is therefore so prone to misunderstanding, misappropriation and weaponisation by globalists and neo-pagan multiculturalists who actively want to see Western nations pulled apart spiritually, culturally and politically, and ultimately de-Christianised.

This is why I don’t call myself a Christian nationalist, even though I effectively am one, at least in my understanding of the term. I will say instead that I am a Christian who loves his nation and lives to see God’s Kingdom, God’s will and heaven on earth established throughout the entire land.

By explaining what I believe in those terms, a Christian definition of this hotly contested subject begins to emerge. And because the ground is so contested, we do need an accurate biblical definition rather than allowing the terminology to be defined for us by either its critics or its more extreme proponents.

Christian nationalism, properly understood, is God’s heart and mission for the nations of the earth. The biblical narrative, from Genesis to Revelation, tells the story of God’s business in the nations, for God is in the business of nations (Gal 3:8). His desire and Calvary-purchased possession (Psalm 2:8) is not merely to see individual souls touched, saved and discipled, nor merely to see His Ekklesia made ready for her Bridegroom and the wedding day. His purpose is also to see entire nations discipled as nations (Matt 28:18-20), brought under the lordship of Christ and ultimately brought forth redeemed and glorified into the eternal Kingdom (Rev 21:24-26).

Christian nationalism, in this sense, is Christ’s Kingship, Gospel and Word neither truncated by a pietistic Church nor made to sit quietly in the corner of the Church institution by a secular overlord, but faithfully applied everywhere, unto the reconciliation of all things (Col 1:20).

This is why Christian nationalism cannot simply be reduced to racism, xenophobia, anti-immigration sentiment or the idolatrous elevation of one’s own nation above all others. Christian nationalists are perpetually gaslit and straw-manned in this way, but it is a caricature rather than an accurate description of the biblical position.

The Bible is clear that Israel was to welcome the stranger. The foreigner, the sojourner and the refugee were not simply to be despised or cast out. Israel was to provide hospitality, protection and, in certain circumstances, asylum. But biblical hospitality was not the same thing as multiculturalism. The stranger was welcomed into a particular covenantal culture and was expected to live according to its laws and ways. There was an expectation of integration, assimilation and conformity to the righteous order of the nation.

That distinction matters, although seems to be wholly missing in large sections of Church rhetoric and teaching.

A nation can welcome the stranger without surrendering its identity. It can show mercy without abandoning order. It can provide asylum without abolishing borders. It can love the foreigner without pretending that every culture, every religious system and every social practice are equally compatible with the moral and spiritual foundations of the nation receiving them.

Biblically ordered migration therefore matters. Scripture recognises lawful boundaries, obligations and distinctions between peoples, and the civil magistrate has a responsibility to govern these things justly. Illegal immigration is therefore not simply a question of compassion versus cruelty. It is also a question of law, order, justice and the legitimate responsibility of government to protect the people entrusted to its care.

Indeed, the primary duty of the civil magistrate is not to facilitate limitless movement or to erase national distinctions, but to protect the nation and exercise the sword against wickedness. Romans 13 presents government as a servant of God, bearing the sword to punish evil and uphold what is good. When government refuses to fulfil this basic responsibility, the Church has a duty to speak. Silence is abdication, idolatry and cowardice.

The Church is not called to remain silent while the civil order deteriorates. She is called to speak boldly to power, to rebuke, to correct and to call rulers back to their God-given responsibilities. This is not political idolatry. It is part of the prophetic witness of the people of God.

And here we need the biblical principle of the ordo amoris, the rightly ordered love. We are commanded to love our neighbour, but biblical love does not mean treating every relationship and every obligation as though they carry precisely the same responsibility. There is an order to love. We have particular obligations towards those entrusted to our care: our family, our household, our church, our local community and our fellow citizens. Loving those nearest to us well does not prevent us from loving those further away. Indeed, it enables us to do so faithfully.

A nation that cannot or will not protect its own people, maintain order and preserve the conditions necessary for its citizens to flourish will ultimately become less capable of blessing anyone else. The biblical pattern is not national selfishness but ordered responsibility: love your own neighbour well, establish justice and order, and then become a blessing to the stranger, the asylum seeker and the genuine refugee.

That is very different from the caricature.

The biblical vision is neither isolationism nor globalism, neither racial supremacy nor rootless multiculturalism, neither the worship of the nation nor the dissolution of nations. It is the recognition that nations themselves belong to God.

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage” (Psalm 2:8).

The nations are not an accident of history awaiting their eventual dissolution into a borderless global order. They are part of God’s purposes in creation and redemption. Christ is not merely the King of individual hearts. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. His Gospel does not stop at the front door of the church building, nor does His lordship end where politics begins. There is no sacred secular divide. There is no neutral ground.

The question, therefore, is not whether nations matter to God. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. The question is whether we will acknowledge His Lordship over them!

I therefore believe we need to recover a biblical vision in which Christ is confessed not merely as personal Saviour, but as King over families, churches, communities, institutions, economies, education, law, government and nations (Col 1:15-20, Rev 19:16) To quote theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” The goal is not the idolisation of Britain, nor the domination of others, but the discipling of nations under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

I may therefore resist the label “Christian nationalist”, precisely because I resist the “ism” and all that can be smuggled into it. But I will gladly say that I am a Christian who loves his nation, believes that Britain has a particular history and identity before God, desires her repentance and restoration, and longs to see the Kingdom of God established throughout the land.

I believe Jesus Christ is Lord over Britain.

And if He is Lord, then there is nowhere in Britain over which His Lordship does not ultimately extend.

King Jesus, have it all.

(For more search Battle for Britain book by Dominic Muir)

SELAH!

By the way, another example of my 22’s…