Hello, welcome to today's program. We're live here. I'm Pastor Patrick Hines, the pastor of Brittle Heights Presbyterian Church here in beautiful, lovely Kingsport, Tennessee. And today I wanted to do a program on true Christian nationalism and what it might look like. I had a good discussion with a dear brother here at church about Christian nationalism and Um, I critiqued the ecumenical version of it, which is doomed to failure no matter what, because it just, you can't have Christian anything without Christianity. And, uh, I guess, um, I've always believed since the day I was converted, um, that you don't have Christianity without the true gospel. And so, uh, when Torban, Isker and those that endorse that book, um, on Christian nationalism, a biblical guide to taking dominion. I don't believe that we can have Christian nationalism without Christianity, without the biblical gospel. And so, as an individual who is a minister of the gospel and committed to the biblical gospel with all my heart and loves that gospel, that justification before God is by faith alone, and as one who preaches the gospel of God's free grace, I wanted to address, is there a position on Christian nationalism? I think that there is. Now, right out of the gate, I want to say I don't believe that the Bible is as specific as some might want it to be in addressing every political consideration, but I do think that the Christian faith historically has had a tremendous impact on the world around us, on all sorts of things, economics, on obviously the laws of our lands, the church in those countries, family, education, literacy, all that sort of thing. So I wanted to talk today briefly about Christian nationalism and what that would mean. And right out of the gate, what I mean when I say Christian nationalism is Christian influence on nations based on unity among professing Christians around the gospel. And the gospel, the true gospel, is that sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ alone, and we believe in the triune God of Holy Scripture, and we believe that God is a trinity of persons, that there is one true God, that there are three divine persons, and we believe that God is sovereign, that God has a decree that he accomplishes in his works of creation and providence. So we would affirm what we see in the ecumenical creeds, in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the formula of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, And we would affirm the biblical gospel, and that's what those great Reformation confessions do such a good job. That's why I've been going through the Belgic Confession when I've had time. And those confessions are such a great summary of the very best of ancient biblical Christian scholarship and the great triumph of the Reformation in reaffirming the biblical gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. So the foundation of unity among Christians if Christian nationalism is to take place. And what I mean, again, what I mean by Christian nationalism would be nations that are influenced primarily by the Christian world and life view. Um, and the beating heart of Christianity in that Christian world and life view is the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. And so Romans 1 17 says the righteous, the just person, the person who's declared righteous before God shall live by faith, not by works, but by faith in Christ. Galatians 2.16, a person is not justified by works of the law, that would be by their obedience to God's commandments in any way, shape, or form, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So when we talk about justification by faith alone, we're talking about justification by believing in Jesus, not by working for anything. So a society that would be shaped by Christianity would first and foremost need to have the gospel correct. And that's what's so disturbing about the trends that I see today in even some reform circles is all of this watering down and acting like the biblical gospel doesn't really matter. And all you gotta do is reverse about 450, 500 years of history to see that it was that precious truth of the biblical gospel of justification by faith alone. That is what transformed society. It was unity around that truth that did it. and our Reformed forefathers would never, ever have been okay with acting like Rome and the Greek church was a version of biblical Christianity. They knew that it wasn't. Okay. So a society that would be shaped by Christianity, first and foremost, the individuals that are part of the Christian church would trust in God's grace. not in human merit, and certainly not in human merit that they believed or were taught was made possible by grace, that they would trust in God's grace, meaning they would trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ and nothing else to save them. That society would uphold humility, repentance, and transformation based on that, on the grace of God alone, and that society would not confuse law-keeping with grace. They would not confuse law-keeping with faith in Christ. They would see good works as the fruit and evidence of faith, the fruit and evidence of salvation, in no way, shape, or form, the cause of salvation. So how else would the world be influenced? What would a nation look like that was influenced by Christianity? It would mean that they had the highest view of God's law possible, Proverbs 8.15. And Proverbs 8 15, uh, says by me, King's reign and rulers decree what is just meaning the wisdom of God. That's what, uh, Proverbs chapter eight is talking about. God's wisdom speaking there by me, King's reign, God's wisdom and rulers. So that would be presidents, uh, state and local officials, commissioners, so on and so forth. Uh, they decree what is just by the wisdom of God. Micah six verse eight. He has told you, Oh man, what is good? and what the Lord requires of you to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. And so a nation that is influenced by Christianity, meaning that the true church and the true biblical gospel would first and foremost be a just society based on the law of God. First Timothy 1.8, Paul told Timothy, the law is good if one uses it lawfully. It's kind of a play on words there, but that's very true. So we'd want a lawful use of the law of God. So we would have law rooted in God's moral law that's summarized in the Ten Commandments, where in society it would be illegal to abort children. It would be illegal for people of the same biological sex to get married. Of course, it's actually ontologically impossible for that to happen, but be that as it may, our culture likes to pretend that it's possible for that to happen. It's not. It's no Christian nation influenced by biblical Christianity and the biblical gospel and a biblical understanding of God's law that it doesn't save or justify us But rather, once we see our sin, we look to the law of God as that standard by which we now evidence to the world that we are the children of God by keeping those commandments, never perfectly and never contributing in any way to our salvation or anything like that. But we love God's law. It would be a government that upholds justice, protects the innocent, punishes evil. Okay. It would, it would not be a theocracy per se, but it would look to the Bible. We'll look to God's moral norms to shape policy with regard to murder, theft, bribery, sexual perversion, and all that kind of stuff. Man, stealing, kidnapping. That's one thing, you know, people know that I like to watch crime documentaries and I watched 48 hours and, um, there's other YouTube channels where there's very interesting crime documentaries and the. advances in forensic technology and everything. It's just incredible what investigators and federal agents and cops and police and detectives can figure out from crime scenes. It's really amazing. And the stuff they're doing now with cold cases and matching DNA with CODIS and putting people's DNA profiles into these huge databases, it's very, very interesting. And it's a great thing. It's a great blessing. But one thing I've noticed and watching, you know, a lot of crime documentaries is the number of repeat offenders. There are not not that, you know, repeat offenders of lesser crimes, but capital crimes. No people kidnap someone. and they're released, and lo and behold, they do it again. Kidnapping, man-stealing, is a crime that requires the death penalty in biblical law. People that killed someone are let out, and they do it again. And you think, they should have been put to death for murder and other rape. Rape is a capital crime. Someone who rapes someone, it's amazing. They do a little time in prison, are set free, and they do it again. And If we had a just society, people like that, that did those kinds of crimes would never have the opportunity to do it again. And if our society saw that those kinds of crimes would cause you to forfeit your life, they wouldn't be as bold and continuing to do those things. People, I think, don't fear the law the way they should. But if we follow those just penalties for those capital offenses, we would see a lot less of them being committed. Uh, economics would be dramatically affected, uh, by a Christian society that is, that is, um, united around sola fide justification. My faith alone has a biblical understanding of, of the church and its place in the world and the word and sacraments and the biblical gospel and how to be saved and all that you shall not steal. It's pretty amazing how much you can deduce just from that one. I mean, it's actually two Hebrew words. Uh, you shall not feel, uh, you shall not covet. Second Thessalonians 3.10, if anyone is not willing to work, then let him not eat. Okay? And a sound society is one thing that's interesting in the Old Testament. People always say, well, the Old Testament endorses slavery. It doesn't endorse slavery the way it was practiced in America. If you couldn't pay off a debt that you owed to someone, you would just work for them. And every seventh year, you had to set all your slaves free. And you also had to give, you also had to give generously to that slave so they can go out and start a life of their own. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, Proverbs 11.1. Let the thief steal no longer, but rather let him work, let him labor, so that he may have something to share. The economics of the society would be radically changed by Christianity if it gained a foothold, meaning through the true gospel and true conversions. People would not steal, people would work, people would Um, have stuff to share with others. They would put off the old stealing and put on the new working with your own hands and having things to share with people. And there would be, um, equal balances and measures and, uh, equal weights and measures. And, um, we would have, uh, money backed up by real, uh, real gold and precious metals and things like that. We wouldn't have this Fiat money and this crazy inflation and everything else. And, you know, every time the government prints money with nothing behind it, Um, they're actually devaluing the money that we do have. Uh, they're actually devaluing the money that we do have. So there would be a huge emphasis and a Christian nation on honesty, labor, personal responsibility. Okay. There would be a huge emphasis on self-government, which would, um, greatly diminish the size of the federal government because we wouldn't need the government that much. If people are converted and they take responsibility for themselves, they tend not to need, uh, the government to do everything for them or to take care of them constantly. There would also be generosity to the poor, but no entitlement culture. Charity would not be done by the state in a Christian society. Charity historically has been done by individuals based on relationships. And this is one of the reasons the welfare system has just destroyed the inner cities because you have money being taken at gunpoint from everybody in the country and then just thrown at people with no relationships. And so there's no accountability. And you can't solve problems by simply throwing money at stuff. It's got to be based on relationships with people. And that means that, you know, you don't just give to charities and things like that. Charity ought to be done by individuals to other individuals, someone that you know, personally, someone that you have a relationship with and things like that. So economic Justice is not redistribution of wealth, but equity in weights, contracts, and access. Systems reward diligence and penalize theft and sloth. I think the welfare state, it incentivizes laziness because you can get free stuff without working for it. No relationship, no accountability. That's terrible. That lends itself to abuse. Okay, you've got to make sure the people that you're trying to help are doing their part to work and to put themselves to work and to work for their bread and for their food. You know, Paul said there, it is actually reported that some people are just busybodies, they're not doing any work. And Paul says, if someone's not willing to work, then they don't get to eat. You know, it says that in the Proverbs too, his hungry mouth will drive him on. Okay. Psalm 33 verse 12, blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh. Proverbs 14, 34, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Leviticus 19, 2, you shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy. I think that what we see in those passages is if our nation was converted en masse, if we did see a lot of true Christianity, a revival of the biblical gospel and see it embraced on a wide scale and see the raising up of churches that preach and proclaim the true gospel, we would see the disappearance of a lot of wickedness. It would just go away because people don't want to be wicked. If God were sanctifying people through the proclamation of the word and the proclamation of justification by faith alone, the biblical gospel of Christ, we would see the curtailment of sin. People would be holier because that's what they would want to do. They would want to be holy because that's what happens when God changes people's hearts. It creates a culture of repentance. And so we wouldn't have, uh, abortion clinics would cease to exist because they wouldn't have customers. Okay. There would be respect for life. People would put clothes on and dress modestly and, uh, they would respect, uh, uh, human sexuality as being something that's solely for monogamous, um, heterosexual marriage, which is the only kind of marriage there. There is monogamous heterosexual marriage. And people would tell the truth. People's word would mean something. Civil law would restrain outward sin, and as the gospel transforms hearts, you would see wickedness and evil would begin to diminish. And historically, that's what happens. When the gospel begins to gain a foothold, you see the transformation of society. But it's only the Christian gospel, it's only the biblical gospel that does this. I remember going to a church in Hudson, Ohio, it was pastored by Zachary Eswine. who's a really good author, wrote that book, Spurgeon Sorrows. That was, it was a church, one of the first reformed churches I ever attended regularly. And he was such a good preacher and teacher. And he was talking about the first great awakening. And, uh, he mentioned a story and I really remembered this because it just struck me that this is the thing missing from America that nobody, nobody seems to get that that's pushing this Christian nationalism, the ecumenical version of Christian nationalism. When the revival broke out there in New England, police departments disbanded because they had nothing to do. There was a funny story. He shared the story of a police department. There were four policemen, and because they had no work, they had nothing to do. They formed a quartet. And I thought, isn't that amazing? And people were walking around town and they hear people in their homes singing worship songs and praising God as families and things like that. But you see, that can only happen when the biblical gospel is heard again, when the biblical gospel is preached justification by faith alone. So it transforms society. It transforms family life. You have fathers who step up to the plate, you know, and they want to lead and they want to do devotions. And when a nation. embraces the truth and is converted, you will see that they'll look at, let's, let's do a little search on our concordance. Oh, there's the word father. So Ephesians six, four fathers bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. You know, I remember listening to talks from a conference, um, years ago, I still have those CDs. It was a long 20 years ago. And I got a bunch of these CDs and they were talking about when the homeschool movement kind of got, got underway in the 1980s. Um, A lot of mothers were kind of like, you know what, we're going to do this ourselves. And they came home and they told their husbands, Hey, we're all excited. We're going to do this homeschool thing. And all the guys, all the, the husbands were like, okay, whatever. And thankfully since then, a lot of, a lot of them have gotten bit by the bug and they're saying, yeah, this is. tag, I'm it, this is my responsibility, you would see in a Christian nation that is made Christian by the true gospel, which is the only way you can get a Christian nation or a nation where Christianity is the dominant world and life view, it would transform society, it would transform family life, because fathers would recognize that they are responsible for the education of their children. The education is a family task. It is not the property of the state. And so if a society went full-on, we want to be Christian, based on the biblical gospel, the biblical truth, you would see the comprehensive privatization of all education. There would not be a single tax dollar ever spent on it. It would be completely and comprehensively privatized. Privatized. Children obey your parents and the Lord. Children would respect their authorities. They would respect their parents. Hebrews 13, 4, marriage should be honored by all. It would be upheld and seen as sacred. And there would be none of this no fault divorce and things like that. And it would be seen as something that we should seek out and pray for. A marriage would be upheld as a covenant, something that God does, something that God does in a mysterious way. It makes the two one flesh. That would just be a huge blessing. Fathers would lead spiritually, mothers would nurture, children will be actually prayed for. You know, one of the most moving moments of my entire life, my dear son, who had just gotten married, was sitting there at a prayer meeting here at church, and he prayed in my hearing that God would give them children. And that's only the second time I've ever heard a Christian man ask God in prayer for children, ever. It's only the second time that I've heard someone say, Lord, please give us children. That was really, really encouraging. Um, okay. What are some other ways that the gospel would influence society? Um, it would be, uh, not a politicized religion per se, but a discipled people, uh, the kingdom of God would never be identified with that nation because Jesus was very clear. My kingdom is not of this world. It's not to say it's not manifested in this world because it is, it is manifested in the world. in all those ways that I just mentioned. It influences all those spheres in society, but the kingdom of God is never locatable on a map. It's not like, well, within the borders of this country, there's the kingdom of God. That was the case in Israel. It's not the case anymore. The kingdom of God transcends all political ideologies. It transcends all of the nations, all the borders, all the languages of the world. God's kingdom is not of this world. However, If the majority in a nation are converted and they become salt and they are light in the world, like Matthew 5, 13 and 14 says, that will dramatically affect society. It will affect economics. It will affect family life. It will affect policies that will affect laws, crime. You know how many police we need and all that sort of thing. You see, if people are radically converted and are made Christ's disciples, we would still need the death penalty. We would still need. um the criminal justice system but it just wouldn't need to be used anywhere near as much okay and so just to kind of summarize for you here if we saw the christianization of a country and as i've said as i've labored to say Again and again, that would only happen through the preaching of the one true biblical gospel justification by faith alone, completely apart from works, people being called to get out of the savior business, to permanently retire from it, to stop working in any way, shape or form to try to earn anything from God, receiving and resting on Christ alone. Um, and people do that on mass and lots of people getting saved that way. We would see the transformation of all these areas of society, policy, economics, morality, family. education, all of it would be radically changed. You see, it's only the biblical gospel that can give true assurance to anyone. It's only if someone really does believe in Jesus and in Jesus alone as the, the one in whom they have their salvation, his righteousness, his active obedience to the 10 commandments imputed legally to their account once for all by faith alone. And his crosswork satisfaction of divine justice also received by faith alone, not by working or doing or fruit or anything like that. It's only then that people can have an assured hope and can recognize that their salvation is settled. And then they can get to work and taking dominion over and subjugating the world and, um, taking dominion over it for King Jesus and making it a wonderful place. J.C. Ryle wrote this, I quoted this on the podcast yesterday. A believer who lacks an assured hope will spend much of his time in inward searchings of heart about his own state. like a nervous hypochondriacal person. You know what a hypochondriac is? A hypochondriac is someone who's constantly convinced that they're sick, even when they're healthy. But except here, it'd be spiritual hypochondriac, okay? Like a nervous hypochondriacal person, he will be full of his own ailments, his own doubtings and questionings, his own conflicts and corruptions. In short, you will often find he is so taken up with his internal warfare that he has little leisure for other things and little time to work. for God. You see, it's only the believer, let me read the rest of it, but a believer who has, like Paul, an assured hope is free from these harassing distractions. He does not vex his soul with doubts about his own pardon and acceptance. He looks at the everlasting covenant sealed with blood at the finished work and never broken word of his Lord and Savior, and therefore counts his salvation a settled thing. And thus he is able to give an undivided attention to the work of the Lord, and so in the long run, to do more. You see, that's why the Reformation transformed the world. Because people had assurance. They knew that they were right with God. They went back to those promises of scripture. I am convinced that neither death nor life, angels, principalities, anything in all of creation is able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of God has been answered and satisfied. Okay. I'm right with God. Now I can focus on loving my wife. Now I can focus on loving my children. Now I can focus on being there for as many people as I can and spending myself on the good of others, because my salvation is a settled thing. It's a done deal. God has given me a legal title to eternal life based solely and only on the work of Jesus Christ, and I receive and rest on Him alone for it. And that's the Christian gospel. And dear listeners, whoever's listening, you know, We don't get like millions of views on these videos, but I'm very thankful for the good feedback, the encouraging feedback from those that do listen to these. Please do share these videos, subscribe to this channel, share the videos that are on it. Rich does an incredible amount of work to find great sermons and audio books. And I use this channel frequently to listen to stuff. I've said this many times. Every time I hear about, I wonder, I can't find it on Audible, I bet Rich has got it on his channel, and more often than not he does, and you can find it, and it's wonderful, and stuff I've never heard of from great theologians is out there, so please do listen to that. But please remember, there will be no Christian nationalism without Christianity, because you can't have Christianity without the gospel, and unity unity that is not based on a common understanding of the biblical gospel, which in Paul's mind, and in Jesus' mind, and Isaiah's mind, and Moses' mind, and David's mind, is that we are justified before God by faith alone. Works and sanctification are the fruit and evidence that we are justified before God, that we're going to heaven. They're not the cause of that in any way, shape, or form. There will never be Christian nationalism without the Christian gospel. And if you want to call things Christian that aren't Christian, myself, and I hope there are others out there, are going to call this what it is. Call that what it is. It is a false system. It's a chasing after the wind. It will accomplish ultimately nothing. There will be no Christian nationalism without sola fide, without justification by faith alone. All right, let me see who's over here. There's Chris Machin. There's Susan Castleman from LA. Goodness. You actually live in Los Angeles or in the out outlying areas of Los Angeles. I've been watching the news lately. Hopefully you're staying clear of all of the violence out there. Um, we need to pray for California for sure. Um, let's see, uh, the Texas movement. No one is perfect. You're most welcome. Chris Mark is a beloved brother. Yeah. Uh, thanks for the pastor Mark Fitzpatrick interview. Uh, that's a video that's out there on Rich's channel. I've not had a chance to watch it yet. I'm really going to try to, um, for the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. That's true. Um, that's not what like Rich is saying there. It's not what we're talking about. That's okay. I read when Whitfield preached during the first awakening, as people were truly converted, crime went away, went way down and morals backed, uh, uh, by true faith in Christ. That's true. And as I recall, that's what that fellow was talking about. Um, Zachary S1, when he was lecturing on that years ago. Um, that when Whitfield preached, uh, and, uh, there were many, many people converted the cops and the local police and law enforcement had nothing to do. They were bored out of their minds. So they formed singing groups, which is wonderful. Wouldn't that be great? If our, if cops didn't have constant domestic violence to go investigate and crimes and murders and robberies and car theft and vandalism, wouldn't it be great if that just wasn't part of our world or. Wasn't nearly as much part of our world, but you see, dear listeners and everyone that's, that's watching or listening to this, that's never going to happen without solo fee day. That's not going to happen without the gospel, the gospel of God's free grace in Christ that we receive by faith alone. That has to be preached with passion and clarity, or we're not going to see people being converted. We're just not okay. Statism, idolatry would be avoided. That's very true. The state is not God. And, uh, greetings from Iowa. Yes, Iowa, where there's corn. I did a report on Iowa when I was in fifth grade. And I remember, so in fifth grade, I would have, that would have been 1985 or six. And I remember reading and in some encyclopedias, like one fifth of earth's corn is grown in Iowa. And I, for some strange reason, I remember that it's pretty weird. Okay. And there's someone out there who's getting blocked constantly. Rich. I appreciate your, your work there, my dear brother. Well, we're about at the half-hour mark. That's about all I wanted to say. I just wanted to address that because a dear brother had asked about, well, what would true Christian nationalism look like? And so I thought, that's actually a really good question. I'm going to do a video on it. So hopefully he gets a chance to see this. He's a dear friend and brother. And we're going to leave it at that. Love you all. Thank you for watching or listening. And I got to get back to working on my evening sermon. Thank you all. Love you. Have a good one.