America Belongs to Christ, not to Christians

By Rut Etheridge III - Posted at Gentle Reformation:

Published August 14, 2025

One of the great pitfalls for Christianity in America, and one of the great dangers of particular expressions of Christianity for America, is the failure to distinguish between what it means for a nation to belong to Christ and what it means for a nation to belong to Christians. The first concept is very basic biblical truth. Despite lots of historical and theological complexity in navigating the relationship between church and state, every Christian confesses that Jesus is Lord, that he is Lord of all, and that he is King of Kings – no person, and no nation, exists outside of his sovereignty. But personal possession of our nation seems to be true desire of the loudest proponents of “Christian Nationalism” – a movement now gaining mainstream media attention and showing the world an unbiblical understanding and application of the essential Christian confession of Christ’s lordship over all nations. Before we can dive into the aforementioned complexities (which this article won’t do), we need to come back to biblical basics on evaluating any movement claiming Christ’s approval – and in particular, on evaluating the primary movers. These are basics that, in the panic and press of the culture wars, we seem all too willing to forget as we seek the political empowerment of our faith.

First and foremost, the Bible makes it abundantly, jubilantly clear that the resurrected Jesus claims personal power and authority over all nations – and indeed, over the whole created order (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 2; Daniel 7; Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 11:33-35; Philippians 2). And that’s precisely why we should be so concerned about the loudest church leaders calling for Christian dominion of America: Their doctrine and ethics mark them out as precisely the kind of preachers and teachers that the Lord, through his written Word, tells us to mark and avoid. When we examine the Bible’s basic standards for belief and practice, to which church leaders are held with special strictness, we can recognize counterfeit representations of Christ’s claims of kingship (Romans 16:7; 1 Timothy 3:1-5; James 3).

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