Christian Nationalism:whatever it is…

When Heaven is about to confer a great office on a man it always first exercises his mind and soul with suffering, and his body to hunger, and exposes him to extreme poverty, and baffles all his undertakings. ~ Mencius, Chinese Sage and Christian at the time of Christ (ie 2000+ years ago)

George Neumayr, The American Spectator: The chattering class is very preoccupied these days with “Christian nationalism.” The pundits who speak darkly about it don’t bother to define the phrase, but it is meant to conjure up a terrifying picture of extremism. That liberals consider it a devastating slur speaks to their own anti-Christian and anti-nationalist views. The existence of patriotic Christians across the land certainly wouldn’t have alarmed the Founding Fathers. They would have found the use of “Christian nationalism” as an epithet puzzling. Indeed, they assumed that the American form of government would work best in the hands of a Christian people. It is liberalism’s jaundiced view of the American founding that should worry Americans. Neither Christian nor nationalist, liberalism proposes a new political order alien to the country’s religious origins.

W. Graham Scroggie, The Land and Life of Rest: Perhaps it is not an exaggeration to say that this is the besetting sin of Christians. Compromise is the endeavor to make the best of the incompatibles, and this is fatal alike in the regenerate person, and in the Christian Church. The devil’s attack upon Jesus in the wilderness was an attempt to get him to compromise his faith, in the matter of the bread; his reason, in the matter of falling from the pinnacle of the Temple; and his conscience, in the matter of whom he should worship; and Jesus hurled back the temptation at every point.

Christian Nationalism:whatever it is…

George Neumayr: The more liberals lock arms with actual extremists {they have wedded themselves to Black Lives Matter, which is explicitly anti-American and anti-Western} the more they feel the need to invent imaginary ones, both from America’s past and present…In assessing religious extremism, liberals habitually strain at the gnat and swallow the camel. They inveigh against “Christian nationalists” while shrugging at Muslim jihadists. The same liberal publications that scoff at the threat of “Sharia law” churn out endless pieces on the supposed dangers of persistent Christianity. For them, the Little Sisters of the Poor pose a greater threat to the country than the Muslim Brotherhood…Liberals would never direct at Muslims the insults they hurl at Christian bakers and florists, who merely wish to be left alone.

W. Graham Scroggie: These are still the cardinal points of compromise. Every Christian who is compromising is doing so, either by withdrawing from simple faith in God, or by abandoning his commonsense for popularity … The church that sets out to spiritualize the world, will soon find that the world will secularize the church. When wheat and tares compromise, it is the wheat that suffers. Light and darkness, right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error are incompatibles, and when they compromise it is the light, the right, the good, and the truth that are damaged. Have nothing to do with compromise where principle is concerned.

George Neumayr: Under Trump, Christians enjoyed a reprieve from that hectoring. But that is over. It is open season on Christians again. Like Barack Obama, Biden can only muster enthusiasm for religious freedom in the case of Muslims. Even as Biden ended the “Muslim ban” — his tendentious description of Trump’s immigration policy toward countries that are hotbeds of terrorism — he began hatching plans to harass Christians. The most cherished items on his agenda — from public funding of abortion to transgenderism — require restricting the freedom of Christians … It doesn’t take much to fall into that category. Mere opposition to open borders and transgenderism can make you a wild-eyed “Christian nationalist.” The very progressives who used to denounce McCarthyism now practice their own version of it, scouring the social media accounts of conservative Christian soldiers.

W. Graham Scroggie: It is not the will of God that any sin should be resident in a believer’s life, that any evil should remain unsubdued; yet are there not such sins and evils in us? And when we are told what to do with them, do we say, “I cannot?” If that be the case of anyone here, let him or her consider what is implied by that conclusion. The real question is not, can we? but “can God?” Of course we cannot, and it is folly ever to have thought that we could be a match for our enemies … Rather should our language be, “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me” (Phil 4:13).

Christian Nationalism:whatever it is…

George Neumayr: Never mind that these arbiters of what is and what is not acceptably American are themselves extremists, keeping company with athletes who boycott the flag and activists who torch police stations. Biden’s “extremism” task force within the military is stocked with proponents of critical race theory and apologists for Islam. What we are witnessing is simply political combat disguised as “national security” concerns. Biden is doing exactly what he promised not to do at his inauguration — punishing those who didn’t vote for him. His search for “extremism” is nothing more than an attempt to delegitimize conservatives … In their choice of smears, liberals reveal more about themselves than their opponents. Normally they call pious Christians “bigots,” but apparently that is not sinister enough. “Christian nationalism” sounds scarier, … But this straining invective only sheds light on liberalism’s own lack of patriotism and hostility to America’s historic religion.

W. Graham Scroggie: But it may be asked, what has this to do with us? A great deal, I suspect; for among Christians perhaps there is nothing more grievous and damaging than misunderstandings, another word which should fill us with fear, for in ends that are true and worthy it is a terrible thing to fail … They so easily arise; they so swiftly spread; and the further they go the worse they get. I venture to say that if all misunderstandings existing at present among Christians were cleared up, the Christian Church would be in a state of revival.

By these means it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and enables him to do acts otherwise not possible to him. ~ Mencius, Chinese Sage and Christian at the time of Christ (ie 2000+ years ago)

********************

George Neumayr, The American Spectator: Liberals’ Obsession with Christian Nationalism

W. Graham Scroggie, Kingsley Press: The Land and Life of Rest, Studies in the Book of Joshua

********************

Face of Jesus by Richard Hook

Soli Deo Gloria!