Curious Christian

In the face of rising Christian nationalism, one question seems strangely neglected: what are the nations, theologically? Scripture has a lot to say about nations, but not always what nationalists want to hear. Here are four themes that stand out from my own reading of the biblical story.

The Nations Have a Common Grace Function

At their best, nations are provisional tools God uses to keep a broken world from further falling apart. Paul calls the governing authorities over the church in Rome “God’s servant for your good” (Romans 13:4), and Acts says God “marked out their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands” (Acts 17:26). But that is the language of providence, not election. God appoints nations and governments, yet he never presents them as permanent expressions of his kingdom. They belong to the present age, not the age to come. Christian nationalism pretends this common-grace role is covenant status, but Scripture never gives them that upgrade.

The Nations Are Prone to Idolatry

The Bible is remarkably realistic about the dangers of national power. From Babylon to Rome, Scripture repeatedly portrays human political projects as drifting toward self-glorification. Psalm 2 shows the nations raging against God’s rule, Revelation 18 portrays Babylon as the embodiment of national arrogance and injustice, and Daniel’s empires become beasts when they seek ultimate loyalty. Nations have a habit of mythologizing themselves, imagining they are uniquely righteous, uniquely chosen, or uniquely indispensable. Christian nationalism baptizes this impulse and calls it faithfulness. The Bible calls it rebellion.

The Nations Cannot Redeem Themselves

Scripture promises that the nations will one day be healed, but that healing comes through the Lamb, not through political force. Revelation says the nations “walk by [the Lamb’s] light” (Revelation 21:24) and receive healing from the tree of life (Revelation 22:2). The mistake is not caring about public life. Christians should care deeply about justice, law, and the common good. The mistake is expecting political power to achieve what only the gospel can accomplish. No nation can legislate its way into righteousness or fight its way into redemption. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” we are told (Zechariah 4:6). Christian nationalism keeps trying to do with the sword what only Christ can do by his cross.

The Church Is God’s Covenant People

Most importantly, no modern nation is God’s covenant people. That identity belongs to the church, the multi-ethnic family Jesus has gathered from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Peter calls the church “a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), and that title is never transferred to any geopolitical entity. The New Testament consistently relocates the people of God from an ethnic or territorial identity to a Christ-centred one. Christian nationalism ultimately asks the church to find its identity in a nation Christ died for rather than in the body Christ died to create. When Christians confuse their country with God’s people, they trade the kingdom of God for civil religion.

These four points barely scratch the surface, but hopefully they provide a roadmap for navigating the confusion that fuels Christian nationalism. Scripture neither demonizes nations nor divinizes them. Nations are gifts of common grace, but they are fallen, temporary, and incapable of saving themselves. The church alone is God’s covenant people, gathered from every nation and bearing witness to a kingdom that transcends them all. Christian nationalism collapses that distinction. The result is not a stronger Christianity or a healthier patriotism, but a confusion of nation and church that Scripture consistently refuses to make.