Interrogating Dr. Stephen Wolfe & His Book, “The Case For Christian Nationalism” I

“The Christian nation is not the spiritual kingdom of Christ or the immanentized eschaton; it is not founded in principles of grace or the Gospel.”

Stephen Wolfe
The Case for Christian Nationalism — p. 186

1.) Why is it that a Muslim nation is Allah’s immanentized eschaton but a Christian nation isn’t? Why is it that a Jewish nation is the immanentized eschaton of the Jewish demon god but a Christian nation isn’t a immanentization of the eschaton of the one true God?

When we pray that “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” aren’t we praying for a immanentizing of the eschaton on earth?

2.) Contrary to Wolfe, the Christian nation is the spiritual (and material) kingdom of Christ. What is it that makes the Church spiritual while leaving a family or nation not spiritual? This kind of hard division is the whole platonic move of dividing nature from grace and is a typical Natural Law move. If it is true that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ then this hard subdividing of spiritual and material is unprofitable. It is true that the Church has a different jurisdiction (Word & Sacrament) from the other jurisdictions and that the Church certainly is not sovereign over the nation but all jurisdictions are “spiritual.” If they were not could we talk about Christ having all authority in Heaven and Earth? Could we talk about there not being not one square inch that is not part of Christ’s kingdom?

3.) Look, I get the danger in being over zealous about trying to immanentize the eschaton but can we just admit that all religions have something of the immanentizing of the eschaton in their belief system? Right now the eschaton that is currently being immanentized is the eschaton of the globo-homo crowd. Are we, as Christians supposed to be satisfied with that?

4.) I know for a fact that the signees of the Solemn League and Covenant would have never agreed with Wolfe’s take.

I am more comfortable with the wisdom of Herman Bavinck on this score than Dr. Stephen Wolfe’s offering;

“The kingdom of God requires of the state not to surrender its earthly calling or its unique national particularity, but rather to allow the kingdom of God to penetrate and saturate its people and its nation. In this way alone the kingdom of God is concretized.” 

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

4 thoughts on “Interrogating Dr. Stephen Wolfe & His Book, “The Case For Christian Nationalism” I”

  1. I enjoyed your last three articles on Wolfe and his rejection of actual/explicit Kinism. Christian Nationalism might be a step forward for a CivNat, but would be a step back for a Kinist.
    I am amazed that Calvin could lay out a systematic theology in about 1K pages that was so well put together it is still in print almost five centuries later, but Wolfe spends almost 500 pages trying to explain and advocate for his polity without even clearly stating if his nation/ethnos is to be an actual nation in the Biblical and historical sense of the term.

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