By Tim Isbell (2018-19)
Politics is about the power of the few over the many. In some nations, it is about justice for all, including tolerance, which prioritizes individual rights. Tolerance envisions a collection of individuals who don’t have much to do with one another so long as they respect one another’s space and rights.
God’s Kingdom is different; it's comprised of disciples of Jesus distributed across all the nations of the world - like an overlay. It's organized in little communities called churches that are connected through the Spirit of Jesus. It has a different goal than ordinary nations: Citizens of God's Kingdom work to reconcile all people and nations to God through their relationships with Jesus Christ. It does not try to take over the political power of the nations but works toward peace and reconciliation among all nations. This cannot happen fully until sometime after Jesus returns. John's book of Revelation teaches that all people and nations will eventually live in reconciliation.
So, how shall we live in the meantime?
Saint Paul says Christians are to live as reconciling agents of a reconciling Lord. This begins with being personally reconciled to God and allowing his Spirit to help us reconcile with other Christ-followers. It continues as we encourage others to reconcile with God and each other. God intends for Christians to live daily as citizens of God’s Kingdom while residing as God's reconciling agents in this fallen world. All the while, we are to trust God for the eventual restoration of all creation.
So, we gather with other believers, empty ourselves, lovingly deliberate, humbly discern, and live reconciled lives. Then, we engage the world according to the ways of Christ Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, taking our vision from the ancient stories of our faith.
I see Christian Nationalism as a heresy of those trying to impose the world's understanding of power. The Old Testament prophets did envision a God who would come and forcefully subdue the world. Then came Jesus, who, instead of wielding such power, voluntarily went to the cross to atone for the human sin of self-indulgence. In the process, Jesus called his followers to follow his ways instead of the ways of the world. Indeed, Jesus came to turn the world's understanding of power upside down.
Further, Jesus commissioned his Kingdom as a collection of communities that are open to the full participation of women and men of all races. So, I see White Christian Nationalism as an even more egregious heresy than Christian nationalism.
The above begs the question of whether Jesus proved the Old Testament prophet as wrong. I don't think so. John's Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, sums it up well. A day will come when God will come in power and right all the wrongs of our world. But not yet. In the present age, our job is to follow Jesus and trust God to exert His power at the right time. That time is not for us to know.
1 - The Pattern of Two Kingdoms (2 Kings 1 & 2)
2 - God's Upside-Down Kingdom (2 Kings 3 - 4.7)
3 - Claiming Invisible Political Options (2 Kings 3.8-37)
4 - Political Engagement and Faithful Living (2 Kings 4.38-41)
5 - Purchasing Power & the Power to Purchase (2 Kings 5.1-19)
6 - The Economics of Plenty (2 Kings 6.8-7.2)
7 - The Sanctified Vision of the Kingdom (2 Kings 7.3-20)
Here's a chart contrasting secular world politics with God's Kingdom politics. It will help Christian readers know how to interpret the political issues in their context. The numbers in the left column indicate which MeetUp sessions cover those rows.
Supplemental resources:
Kings and Presidents: Politics and the Kingdom of God. A book by Timothy and Shawna Gaines focusing on political theology as understood through a study of 2 Kings 1-7.
The Alternate Life Collection. This is material that I developed over the past several years to encourage people living like citizens of God's Kingdom while residing at a postal address in a kingdom of this world.
Political Order and Political Decay - From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy, by Francis Fukuyama. This is the second volume of this author's secular history of the development of political order among humans. The first few chapters of this volume summarize his earlier book enough that you can just start reading this one. This is a challenging read but very insightful.