God, king, and country. God, king, and people. God first, national leaders next, people after that. These were the priorities of who to submit to, for the people of the not-so-long-ago West. I have heard different Christian leaders mock these terms, or even talk about them as though they are dangerous. But think about this: is it a coincidence that after rejecting God, then dismantling the kings, that the western nations are now losing their countries?
Many western
leaders today are more concerned with being welcomed into elite globalist
circles, rather than prioritizing their own people. Indeed, this is evidenced
more than anything by the attitude of western leaders to their people; they see
them as interchangeable, and replaceable, by anyone, from anywhere, who wants
to come here, and manages to secure a visa, and residency. When a national
leader says an immigrant from Spain, Morocco, Sudan, Iran, or Vietnam or
wherever is as much an Australian as a descendant of the first fleet, or a
descendant of those men who federalized and created our sovereign nation, they
are saying, whether they know it or not, that you are replaceable.
If anyone
can be Australian, just by changing location and taking a test, then “Australian”
in their eyes is literally a social construct, and not an ethnic reality.
Indeed, this is why many western leaders refer to foreigners as “ethnic”
people, it’s a subtle indication that they are denying, implicitly or explicitly,
that we Aussies have an actual ethnic identity, when we do; Australian originally
meant a British person living in the south land. The denial of this reality, is
a denial of definitional nationhood, it is a globalist approach to statehood,
that says the state is supreme, and its people fully replaceable and
interchangeable. Whereas the correct position is the nation is supreme, and the
state exists to serve it.
Indeed, the
phrase God king and country while highlighting the priorities of submission of
the people to God and their king, also contains within it this idea: a king who
is submitted to God, knows he has a responsibility to serve his people. This is
precisely why God forbid his ideal nation from being ruled by foreigners (Deut.
17:14-17), or leaders with foreign allegiance, which in the ancient world was
often recognizable by the nationality of one’s wife, and the gods one worshipped. In God’s view a
king, or a leader, must be of his people and loyal to his people. And here in
is the reminder of the mandate of the Church:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always,
to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
The mandate
of the Church has been, and always will be to teach nations to
obey the commands of Jesus, and structure society accordingly. This could be
argued to be the foundational principle of Christian nationalism. Not the idea
that a nation is equal to the Church in being the body of Christ on earth, but
the concept that a nation can submit to Christ, should be taught to submit to
Christ, and nations which were founded by, or converted to, this principle have
a responsibility to recognize that their whole nationhood is a people
incorporated around the idea that Christ is supreme and all other authorities
submit to him. This is the foundational view of the West. This is not a radical
idea, it is an old, and well established idea, and crosses denominational
boundaries throughout history.
Here is a great
expression of this idea (now my fellow Protestant readers might not favour this source, but focus on what is said, Church history requires engaging with sources we aren't always predisposed to):
Chap. VIII. How Pope Boniface sent the Pall and a letter to
Justus, successor to Mellitus. [624 a.d.]
Justus, bishop of the church of Rochester, immediately
succeeded Mellitus in the archbishopric. He consecrated Romanus bishop of that
see in his own stead, having obtained authority to ordain bishops from Pope
Boniface, whom we mentioned above as successor to Deusdedit: of which licence
this is the form:
“Boniface, to his most beloved brother Justus. We
have learnt not only from the contents of your letter addressed to us, but from
the fulfilment granted to your work, how faithfully and vigilantly you have
laboured, my brother, for the Gospel of Christ; for Almighty God has not
forsaken either the mystery of His Name, or the fruit of your labours, having
Himself faithfully promised to the preachers of the Gospel, ‘Lo! I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world’; which promise His mercy has
particularly manifested in this ministry imposed upon you, opening the
hearts of the nations to receive the wondrous mystery of your
preaching. For He has blessed with a rich reward your Eminence's acceptable
course, by the support of His loving kindness; granting a plentiful increase to
your labours in the faithful management of the talents committed to you, and
bestowing it on that which you might confirm to many generations. This is
conferred on you by that recompense whereby, constantly persevering in the
ministry imposed upon you, you have awaited with praiseworthy patience the
redemption of that nation, and that they might profit by your merits,
salvation has been bestowed on them. For our Lord
Himself says, ‘He that endureth to the end shall be saved.’ You are,
therefore, saved by the hope of patience, and the virtue of endurance, to the
end that the hearts of unbelievers, being cleansed from their natural disease
of superstition, might obtain the mercy of their Saviour: for having received
letters from our son Adulwald, we perceive with how much knowledge of the
Sacred Word you, my brother, have brought his mind to the belief in true
conversion and the certainty of the faith. Therefore, firmly confiding
in the long-suffering of the Divine clemency, we believe that, through the ministry
of your preaching, there will ensue most full salvation not only of the
nations subject to him, but also of their neighbours; to the end, that
as it is written, the recompense of a perfect work may be conferred on you by
the Lord, the Rewarder of all the just; and that the universal confession
of all nations, having received the mystery of the Christian faith, may
declare, that in truth ‘Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and
their words unto the end of the world.’205
“We have also, my brother, moved by the warmth of our
goodwill, sent you by the bearer of these presents, the pall, giving you
authority to use it only in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries; granting
to you likewise to ordain bishops when there shall be occasion, through the
Lord's mercy; that so the Gospel of Christ, by the preaching of many, may
be spread abroad in all the nations that are not yet converted. You
must, therefore, endeavour, my brother, to preserve with unblemished sincerity
of mind that which you have received through the kindness of the Apostolic see,
bearing in mind what it is that is represented by the honourable vestment which
you have obtained to be borne on your shoulders. And imploring the Divine
mercy, study to show yourself such that you may present before the tribunal of
the Supreme Judge that is to come, the rewards of the favour granted to you,
not with guiltiness, but with the benefit of souls.
“God preserve you in safety, most dear brother!”[1]
(bold emphasis mine).
Is this not
a faithful representation of the mandate of the Great Commission? To bring the
nations in to a saving knowledge of God. “…That so the Gospel of Christ, by the
preaching of many, may be spread abroad in all the nations that
are not yet converted” (emphasis mine). The Church once believed this was not
only possible, but that it was its mandate to participate in the work of Christ
to bring it about.
It is
fascinating to read the boldness of these ancient Churchmen, and to see their
faith and expectation that the nations would bow to Christ. Indeed, they lived
in a time where the Church was advancing in an incredible way throughout the
West and beyond. They were seeing pagan kings bow before Jesus regularly.
Indeed, Bede will go on shortly after this to show that “…the occasion of this nation's
reception of the faith was the alliance by marriage of their aforesaid
king with the kings of Kent, for he had taken to wife Ethelberg, otherwise
called Tata, daughter to King Ethelbert”[2]
(bold emphasis mine).
I think the
Church in the West has forgotten this mandate. Christian leaders today often
condemn nationalism and Christian nationalism. They are settled in the idea
that the West is now post-Christendom, some seem to relish this as well. I
think we need to start looking north again, to the sky, and then beyond the
sky, to the King who reigns in the heavens who commanded us to teach the
nations who the True King is. That is our mandate is it not?
[1] Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History, Book 2, Chap. VIII. How Pope Boniface sent the Pall and
a letter to Justus, successor to Mellitus. [624 a.d.]. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html#toc97, accessed 29.08.2020
[2] Bede’s
Ecclesiastical History, Book 2, Chap. IX. Chap. IX. Of the reign of King Edwin,
and how Paulinus, coming to preach the Gospel, first converted his daughter and
others to the mysteries of the faith of Christ. [625-626 a.d.]. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html#toc97. accessed 29.08.2020
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