The Christian Vote (3)

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
The Christian Vote (3)
Tuesday 18th July 2023

The Christian Vote are a series of blogs and articles leading up to the General Election in New Zealand in October 2023 that reflects on how Christians might approach the world of politics and Government. I have thought long and hard about this subject and had some hands on experience at the ‘lower end’ in the world of politics. Back in the day I was involved in student politics at Wellington Teachers College (2 years) and was an elected member of Raglan Community Board for three terms (9 years).

What Is Christian Nationalism

Christian nationalism is a political and cultural ideology that seeks to merge Christianity with national identity, often promoting the idea that a particular country or nation is fundamentally Christian or should be governed according to Christian principles. It is a belief system that asserts the importance of Christianity in shaping and defining a nation's values, laws, and policies. Other words and descriptors that are often used that promote this idea are: dominionism, the seven mountain mandate, the new apostolic reformation (as popularised by Peter Wagner) and kingdom now theology.

Christians who hold this view refer to ‘The Dominion Mandate’, as a directive from God found in Genesis 1:26:-

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”(Emphasis added)

They argue that Adam lost this mandate in the fall but these days, God is raising up Christians who will walk in restored authority which Jesus Christ has recovered through the work of the cross. The restored dominion given to Christians will allow them to subdue the earth and rule over it. In the process of taking the restored dominion, the Kingdom of Heaven can now be expanded over all the earth. The church is now expanding the kingdom, converting the nations into Christian nations, and will fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

It is worth bearing in mind that when Dominionists speak about influencing society and politics, they are not referring merely to ensuring that the Christian voice is heard in the public square. Their project is much more ambitious – it’s nothing short of taking control of the government and institutions. Dominionists seek to dismantle the long-established belief in the importance of separation of Church and state and to bring about a new order: a government that will be entirely governed by Christian values and principles as they understand them.

POV. There is no argument that from a Christian and biblical perspective we live in a very secular and ungodly nation as does most of the world, certainly the western world. It is therefore understandable that as Christians we yearn for the ‘good old days’ when society at large was much more closely aligned and indeed upheld Christian values. However, the tenants of Dominion Theology and the idea of christianising a nation is a mis-interpretation of scripture. The Bible does not teach this idea. Genesis 1:26 is an instruction from God to have dominion over animals etc. not human institutions that at the time this instruction was given, interestingly, weren’t even in existence.

That said, let’s be clear, we do have a very important role to play……..very important. We are called to pray for all governing authorities, we are called to submit to those governing authorities and we are called to be ‘salt and light’. That means we are free to influence culture. Jesus taught us to pray that “His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. In other words as Christians and as the church we are called to demonstrate the values of the Kingdom offering the watching world a taste of things to come.