Exhortations for the Nationalist Youth Wing

https://theaquilareport.com/a-word-to-the-young-men-who-are-called-christian-nationalists/

I was very pleased to read this piece by Tom Hervey. He rightly takes some contemporary Dominionists to task, assailing their postmillennial errors, and their delusions regarding Christendom-so called.

He's among few writers willing to make the connection between this triumphalist attitude and the havoc it wreaks on ethics as he calls out their support for 'End Justifies the Means' approaches to 'victory' - specifically their support of the deception campaign at work in the GOP, and its attempts to (through subterfuge and illegality) to manipulate American politics.

Sounding like a Kingdom Christian, Hervey denounces their worldliness and rotten ethics that set aside New Testament teachings even as they clamour for power and earthly glory. With both zeal and acumen he calls them out and warns them about the potentially false and self-deceptive nature of their faith - a faith that thinks glory is gain. So it is with these whose god is their bellies and who think they can serve both God and mammon.

After sharing an excellent quote from ML Jones (who often (if inconsistently) decried the notion of Christendom and the supposed Christian nature of the British Empire), Hervey continues by rightly arguing that these efforts all lead to apostasy in the end - just as they have in the UK. I would say we're about there in the US as well.

It is refreshing to find once again that Hervey doesn't pull any punches regarding historical Christendom and its ties to Roman Catholicism - the same Rome that tortured faithful Christians and those who dared to copy, distribute, and study the Scriptures. Of course the legacy of Christendom under Anglicanism wasn't always better. Lollards were killed both before and after Henry the VIII's defection from Rome, and unfortunately the other Protestants of Britain got in on the act and slaughtered both Stewart-aligned Anglicans as well as each other.

Let us go further than Hervey and denounce nationalism in all its forms. I see some foolish and misguided teachers appealing even to God's division of man at Babel to suppose that nations (and thus nationalism) are valid and to be pursued. A more careful reading of the New Testament might reveal to them that for us, for Christians, Babel was undone at Pentecost and we are further exhorted by the apostle that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.

The world may engage in Babel-dreams of national greatness and Bestial empire but Christians do not. We reject and repudiate all such expressions and sentiments. We do not ally with tribes against others. The Church is (among other things) an internationalist apolitical movement and as such we do not pursue the interests of nations and their wars. We pray for the kings and rulers not to enact God's law (which would be futile, undermining and confusing gospel testimony) but to simply restrain evil and to let us quietly and with determination pursue our own business and affairs - Kingdom matters and Kingdom life which the lost (and Dominionists) cannot understand.

Hervey does err in his thinking about petitioning the state regarding rights and other such examples of involvement. We ask for no rights and we appeal to no rights. The state may grant them - so be it. The state may also take them away. God gives no rights in the New Testament. Why is it a stretch to say the Deist Jefferson was utterly wrong? We have an obligation to be faithful, and if need be we're called to take up the cross bearing witness. Our only 'right' is to die for Christ. Otherwise we are to let our goods be spoiled. If we're living faithfully as pilgrims, we will not have much to begin with and so this will be no great loss.

If such restrictions imposed by the state on the Church gathering are invalid, then we meet anyway. Since buildings are largely a hindrance and distraction, if they're taken, it's no great loss. We can meet elsewhere - in a basement, barn, or the woods if need be - as did much of the faithful Church throughout history. I feel bad for some of these CREC guys - they might get their clerical collars smudged or dirty and frankly it's hard to imagine some of the OPC congregations I've attended meeting in a dingy basement or barn. It's not exactly the posh settings they are used to.

If we're arrested for doing so, then instead of asserting rights, filing suit, and taking up arms, we should follow the example of the apostles and rejoice that we were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. No one said this is easy. The cowards way is to give in to the flesh and its desires for pride and revenge. It's the Lamech path that is so zealously advocated by many Dominionists. Such are false teachers, teaching the doctrines of Balaam in the name of Christ. It takes courage to stand and be spit on in obedience to Christ. Taking up the sword and with rage striking down your enemies (the current Christian-Right/GOP ethos) is to surrender to the flesh. It's natural (we might say) in the context of a fallen world. And as such, it's satanic and decidedly anti-Christian.

I was pleased to see that Hervey ended with a reminder that God's strength is perfected in weakness. The saying is well known and (it would seem) deliberately ignored as these same folks ally themselves to power and the strengthen the hands of the evildoers.

This was a rare blessing to read. I was surprised to see it published at The Aquila Report as it flies in the face of so much that they promote.