Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 28:77 (Autumn 2024)
Article: Christian Nationalism: Part III, Christendom
Author: Gary E. Gilley

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Christian Nationalism:
Part III, Christendom

Gary E. Gilley

* Gary E. Gilley, M.B.S., Th.D., Pastor, Southern View Chapel, Springfield, Illinois

The first article in this series addressed Christian Nationalism and “the Great Hibernation” resulting; it demonstrated that Christian Nationalism is an often-misunderstood term because it is defined in several ways. Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, in their book, Taking America Back for God, offered several definitions including, “An ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a particular type of Christian identity and culture.”1 The authors identified four orientations toward Christian Nationalism among Americans: (1) Rejecters who refuse any connection between Christianity and politics; and, (2) Resisters who oppose a connection between the two. Rejecters and Resisters comprise approximately half of Americans. The rest of the country is divided between (3) Accommodators who believe in traditional Christian values but do not favor Christianity alone and (4) Ambassadors, the approximately 20% of Americans who wholly support Christian Nationalism.2

The final articles on this subject will deal with a particular group of resolute Ambassadors who are bold advocates for Christian Nationalism. These conservative evangelicals are primarily Reformed Calvinists who take excellent stands on the gospel, complementarianism, morality, the church, and most of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. This author and like-minded others deeply appreciate the majority of the theological positions and convictions of the Ambassadors, but part company in the areas of eschatology and some points of ecclesiology, especially the mission and purpose of the church.

The eschatology of the Christian Nationalists now to be explored was examined in the second article on this subject. Christian Nationalism emanating from this variety of thinkers can only be understood through

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the prism of postmillennialism (many Christian Nationalists are preterists as well). This optimistic brand of eschatology teaches that evangelism and, to a degree, social action, both prior to and in preparation for the return of Christ, can reform the world. Their view is that the primary hindrance to Christian dominance in the world is the pessimistic eschatology of premillennialism. Evangelism and postmillennial eschatology will usher in Christian Nationalism, through which not only America but also the world is Christianized, taking the form of Christendom. At that point, Christ will return and e...