“(2) The most prominent book making the case for Christian Nationalism, though not without some merits, has many serious problems, including a blurring of nation and ethnicity, a decentering of the importance of the church, a call for a “Christian prince” to “suppress the enemies of God” and to install a “measured theocratic Caesarism,” and a final section that rails against everything from living under a gynocracy to the presence of overweight PCA pastors who (presumably) have low testosterone and chug vegetable oil.”
Kevin De Young
6 Questions for Christian Nationalists
1.) In the Bible, the word “nation” derives from the Greek word ethnos which can be translated “the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture.” https://www.wordnik.com/words/ethnos
The Latin roots of nation convey a similar idea with respect to ancestry. One is naci, which means “to be born.” The other is nationem, which the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed. 1989) defines as “breed, stock., race, nation.”
Nationalism, as the Bible conceives it, involves blood and lineage, not just culture and abstract ideals.
2.) De Young would have to give examples of where Stephen Wolfe de-centers the Church in Wolfe’s book for me to deal with that claim. I read Wolfe and I don’t recall a de-centering of the Church. However, I will say this, given the abysmal condition of the Church and clergy in the West today (including De Young) one could understand why Wolfe might well de-center the Church. If I could de-center the modern conservative Reformed church in the US today I certainly would.
3.) If one reads the original Belgic Confession 36 or the original WCF on the subject of magistrate one would see that contained therein is, at least the beginnings, of the idea of a Christian Prince to suppress the enemies of God.
4.) I wonder if De Young has checked his testosterone levels lately?
