Politics Archives • Jesus Pattern Son

Second in our little series on what the Bible says about government, I answer the question, “What does ‘Christian Nationalism’ mean?” It is an important question for sure. At the end of our first face to face teaching session, on of the gentleman asked, and very insistently. The answer is “it depends.” But! yes, it depends upon who is speaking.

Basically, it is an accusation, based on projection, that Christians want to control the government from the far right. Of course, that is silly, comical, preposterous — and demonstrably false from the founding of this nation until today. Christians, by contrast, tend to stay out of the political arena. When they are adept and at the center of it, such as in the founding days, they work very clearly and competently to keep the discussion and the general political area open to diversity of opinions. That is why America was founded the way it was: with freedom of religion and freedom of speech first. With no establishment of religion. Because the people in the majority were Biblical Christians, and having known persecution from the Anglican and Roman churches, were not willing to engage in it themselves.

However, given this charge by authoritarian communists and world controllists, common Americans with either first or second naivete, have taken up the claim and called themselves Christian Nationalists. Just like Christians and Methodists used the moniker that was meant to cast aspersions upon them. Some people will say, “Yes. I am a Christian. And yes, I am a patriot.”

But what about dominionism? What about the NAR? Listen, I have all the answers for you.

And please share with you friends.

And, btw, apologies for late posting. We have had , indeed still have a very difficult situation of connection to the internet, molasses slow loading, and an impossibility of uploading. Please pray for this ministry to overcome these challenges.

Finishing up our series on what the Bible has to say about government, let’s talk about this new idea, 7-mountains. The basic concept is also called, in different circles, “the cultural mandate.” Given the perspective of those I know, this is an important topic to discuss when we consider how we should interface with society and with government. So often, conservative Christians, pentecostals especially, and women, just thought they should stay out of politics. By contrast, some fundamentalist Baptists or conservative Reformed folks seem to hold political views co-terminus with theology. Both groups have, in my hearing, questioned this 7 Mountain Mandate talk. On the other hand, my Spirit-filled educated friends are thrilled with the opening of the door to application of Christian life, of Spirit, and of Bible, to all of life. They often felt stifled and hemmed in in the lower middle class perspective of separation defined as not getting involved, and simply staying quiet in a corner.

I can hear people get offended as I state this clearly and precisely. Read it again. Admit it. The upper middle class, mainline folks were in charge of civics and politics in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, increasingly the secularist and socialists have been in ascendancy. But in the ’50s and ’60s, conservative Christians eschewed both education and civic involvement. With the advent of the charismatic movement more educated people joined these churches and adopted this theology. That portion of the church expanded its market share steadily. At the same time, these churches, along with their SES segments, experienced great economic growth.

In this century, however, growth slowed, and communists (meaning authoritarian socialists) arose to prominence in the marketplace of ideas as in politics. Socialism took a stronger hold in the mainline churches. The most conservative churches split off, but struggled for direction, carrying with them more leftest ideas than they realized. At the same time, pentecostal churches fell back into their ways. Word of Faith continued to grow and are a home for middle class pentecostal/charismatics. The upper middle class tended to search for a home mostly in the Apostolic and Prophetic movements, precisely the sector most likely to accept the 7 Mountain Mandate. Why? because they needed faith direction for vocation and civic engagement.

Then, the question arose: is this Biblical? Because neither of the two promoters of the 7 Mountain Message are either theologians or professional sociologists (tho both have in-depth Bible knowledge, and tremendous practical insight (one in management and the other I judge as a pastoral sociologist) — and both have a great following among business and government leaders — no apologia has been made. Detractors have popped up. So, here is the answer: yes: The 7 Mountain Message is Biblical and theologically orthodox.

Listen, and I will tell you why.

While the last post was about 10 days late because of technical issues with uploading to the podcast platform, this episode is about a month early. Normally, this would be our June installment of our study on what the Bible says about government and politics. However, coincidentally, Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow have been able to publish their long-awaited documentary. So, since I had this made, and was successful at getting it uploaded, I decided to go ahead and publish it.

Jesus Pattern Son

Category Archives: Politics

What Does Christian Nationalism Mean?

7 Mountains Apologia