Christ or Christendom?

‘Christendom’ is an idolatrous term used often to invoke Divine support of national and political institutions, agendas, and ideologies.

In popular usage, the English term ‘Christendom’ refers to “that part of the world in which Christianity prevails,” either because the majority of a nation’s citizens claim to be Christian, or because a specific sect or denomination is recognized by the State as the country’s official religion.

In this way, the nation becomes identified as “Christian,” it is one of the “Christian nations” as opposed to the less enlightened non-Christian peoples and cultures of the world.

This term has become synonymous with “Western Civilization” and “democracy.” Consequently, Christianity is associated and even identified in many minds with certain political ideologies and parties, forms of government, economic theories, and nation-states.

[Crucifixion - Photo by G-R Mottez on Unsplash]

There is minimal resistance to this idea in the contemporary Church. Unfortunately, too many followers of Jesus have yet to embrace the idea of separation from the world - “In the world, not of the world.” They do not see themselves as a distinct people founded by Jesus of Nazareth.

The practice of associating the State with Christianity has prevailed since the merger of Church and State under Constantine the Great. The English term ‘Christendom’ combines ‘Christian’ or ‘Christianity’ with the noun for ‘kingdom,’ but neither the resulting word nor the principle behind it occurs anywhere in the Scriptures. Nowhere does the Bible equate or identify the Church of Jesus Christ with the State.

Political operatives in the Church today masquerade as apostles and prophets. They speak of ‘American Christendom.’ This is madness. All the kingdoms, empires, and regimes of the present age will disappear when Jesus arrives at the end of the age. Only God’s Kingdom will be left standing.

• “Then comes the end, when he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he will abolish all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. <…> And when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son also himself will be subjected to Him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all” – (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

In contrast to ‘Christendom,’ Jesus proclaimed the “Kingdom of God,” a realm in which all social, national, economic, and ethnic divisions have no place among God’s People. His Kingdom welcomes “immigrants” from even the remotest corners of the planet, and especially those who have been marginalized, dehumanized, and otherwise rejected by human society and governments.

In the four gospel accounts of the New Testament, the term “Kingdom of God” is heard most frequently on the lips of Jesus as the summary statement of his message and the designation for the new political reality inaugurated by him. The term “Kingdom of God” as used by Christ relies heavily on key passages from the Book of Daniel:

• “I saw in the night visions; and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man. And he came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom that which will not be destroyed” – (Daniel 7:13-14).

Public pronouncements about ‘Christendom’ by church leaders are roadblocks to the proclamation of the Gospel because they associate the name of Jesus and his teachings with specific nations, cultures, and ideologies. ‘Christendom’ serves to harden hearts to the Gospel of Jesus, especially those hearts and minds not well-disposed to the nation and culture that claim to represent Christ.

‘Christendom’ is a pale imitation of God’s Kingdom, a counterfeit, and politicians use it and related terms to advance their political and personal agendas, and to gain popular support. Their words imply to the gullible that God is behind their efforts to gain political power.

In contrast, Jesus summons all men to repent and submit to God’s sovereignty. His Kingdom is a political reality that transcends all national, ethnic, economic, political, and cultural boundaries.

REDEMPTION FOR ALL MEN

Through his Death and Resurrection, Jesus began to redeem men and women from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, forming them into a “Kingdom of Priests,” a “holy nation,” and one New Covenant community. All divisions based on national identity, economic status, race, or gender are disallowed in his realm- (Revelation 5:5-12).

• “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor free, there can be no male and female, for you all are one man in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise” - (Galatians 3:26-29).

God dissolved the “middle wall of separation” between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, between Jews and Gentiles. No man or woman is advantaged or disadvantaged before the Creator of All Things because of gender, race, or nationality. Every attempt to identify the Apostolic Faith with specific nations, societies, and “civilizations” contradicts Scriptural teaching – (Ephesians 2:11-22).

God is one. He created all men. Christ was Jewish while on Earth, but now he is the Lord who reigns as Sovereign over all nations. He is, present tense, “the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth.” What matters for each of us is no longer national identity or political ideology but whether we are “in Christ” – (Revelation 1:4-6).

The methods Jesus gave us for establishing his Kingdom differ radically from the strategies and tactics employed since time immemorial by the political institutions of this world. Jesus tasked us with engaging humanity through Gospel proclamation and by living cruciform lives, not through political might.

The “weapons” given to his Church are weak and contemptible in the eyes of this world, yet they are the very means by which Jesus is redeeming humanity. His method is epitomized by his submission to arrest, trial, and execution at the hands of the all-powerful World Empire.

• “For the Word of the Cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. <…> For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe” – (1 Corinthians 1:18-21).

The more politicized the Church becomes, the more it identifies the name of Jesus with the culture and political ideology of the nation. When the leaders of the Church adopt the ways of the world, they embrace the heresy named ‘Christendom,’ and thereby they dilute, twist, and discredit the Gospel, “the Word of the Cross.” Thus, many of the voices in our pulpits are little more than propagandists for the State.

“Christians” who immerse themselves in the political system will not reform it. All attempts to do so, past and present, have failed. Ironically, the proponents of ‘Christendom’ will be corrupted by the same political entities they hope to reform.

Those who are most responsible for this idolatrous conceit are the church leaders who have chosen to employ the ways of this world rather than deny themselves and embrace the Cross of Christ. Apparently, Caesar and Imperial might are more appealing than Christ and Calvary.

The crucifixion of Jesus stands in opposition to the political methods and values of this age. The Son of God exhorted us to love our enemies and do good to them, especially to our persecutors, ideas that none of the governments, ideologies, and politicians of this world endorse, practice, or can even comprehend.

The teachings and self-sacrificial death of Jesus are radical departures from “the way the world works,” and we are called to give this same Jesus our complete allegiance. Thus, the institutions and ideologies of “this evil age” can only view the preaching of “Christ Crucified” as subversive.

The deception of ‘Christendom’ is an attempt to domesticate the Christ of Scripture, the same Messiah who sacrificed his life for all men, and exploit him to validate programs, values, and ideologies that are far more Antichrist than Christian.

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SEE ALSO:

• Empires Rise and Fall - (Imperial arrogance is the legacy of the Tower of Babel, humanity’s first but certainly not last attempt to establish the World Empire)

• Paul on the State - (Paul instructed believers living in the Roman Empire not to resist the government since its existence and authority were arranged by God – Romans 13:1-8)

• Servant or Caesar? - (Satan offered Jesus unlimited political power to achieve his messianic mission if only he acknowledged the Devil as his overlord)

• Transitory Power - (Only God’s kingdom will prevail and endure. All other political powers and regimes are fleeting. Already they are passing away)