But What About Christian Nationalism?

The believers in Thessalonica got dragged into court over six words: ‘there is another king, Jesus.’ To a Roman world that insisted Caesar was lord, that sounded like treason — and it was the truest thing they could say. Kent put it plainly: we can love our country, but we have only one King. Not a party. Not a president. Not a flag. On the weekend America turned 250, it’s worth saying out loud — there is only one King, and his name is Jesus. Every earthly power will one day answer to him. Where you set your deepest allegiance today quietly shapes everything else about how you live.

‘I love my God. I love my country,’ Kent said. ‘I worship my God. I do not worship my country.’ That one distinction keeps patriotism from curdling into idolatry. God even told his exiles in pagan Babylon to seek the good of the city and pray for it — so loving your nation, working for its good, praying for its leaders is a genuinely Christian thing to do. Just don’t put it on the throne. A country can be a gift without becoming a god. You can wave the flag with a full heart and still keep your knees bent to Christ alone.

‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.’ Kent argued that much of the American story really was shaped by that truth — the image of God behind ‘all men are created equal,’ rights that come from a Creator and not the state. But a nation isn’t blessed because it prints God’s name on its money or its founding documents. It’s blessed when its people actually know and follow him. The founders wisely refused to make faith a law, because you can force people to submit but you cannot force them to believe. Blessing never comes by coercion. It comes when hearts are freely turned to the Lord — starting with yours.

For two thousand years the church has said it: we have no king but Jesus. It’s why the early Christians unsettled emperors, and why our citizenship, Paul says, is finally ‘in heaven.’ Kent asked a hard question of himself as a pastor — would he want America to be an official Christian nation by law? His answer was no, because forced faith isn’t faith at all, and the gospel spreads by persuasion, not coercion. That’s actually good news for you. Your deepest identity isn’t stamped on a passport. You belong to a kingdom no election can grant and no empire can revoke. Live today as a citizen of that kingdom first.

America celebrated freedom this week, and rightly so — freedom is a precious gift, and it was never free. But Kent pointed past the fireworks to a deeper liberty. ‘For freedom Christ has set us free,’ Paul writes. Political freedom can secure your rights; it can’t cleanse your conscience or break the grip of sin. Only Jesus does that. The greatest declaration of freedom wasn’t signed in Philadelphia — it was won at the cross. So enjoy the cookout and the fireworks. Thank God for those who sacrificed. And then hold on to the freedom that outlasts every nation: if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.