One of the interesting features of the recent ‘unite the kingdom’ marches is the regular refrain ‘Christ is King’. This evidently Christian phrase is being employed by ethno-nationalists intent on defending cultural Christianity and its attending values as they judge them. These values, they aver, are under threat.

They appear to be using ‘Christ is King’ to mean British cultural values rule in the face of (as they seem to judge it) the threat of Islamic values. As David Campanale reported:

[S]ome people I interviewed in the crowd carrying Jesus flags said they were not Christians and would not be in church on Sunday. This included one young man who was parading a banner with Bible verses.

Another explained why he was carrying a pole with a flag with a Knights Templar cross on it. Though not a church goer, he told me, “It’s a Crusade cross. It represents the Crusaders who drove the Muslims and Islamists from Europe”. Asked whether he wanted to see the same happen in Britain, this modern-day Crusader replied, “Yes, 100%.” And added, “We need our country back, and we need to keep getting back to what it was, say, in the 1950s when men were men, and they all went to work.”

He spoke in terms clearer than the actual Christians did. He wanted deportations of illegals (Donald Trump style) and millions removed.

Even among the professing Christians, these sentiments were not far away. One man insisted the country was ‘being taken over’ but didn’t specify by whom. Similarly, a pentecostal pastor, addressing the crowds from the stage, stated:

This is a religious war. It’s Jesus Christ versus Satan. Christianity versus the rest. Islam, Hinduism, Bahai, Buddhism, and whatever else you’re into, are all false religions. We’ve got to clean our countries up. We got to get everything out that does not know or receive Jesus Christ. Ban any type of public expression in our Christian nations from other religions. Ban halal, ban burkas, ban mosques, ban temples, ban shrines. We don’t want those in our countries.

Campanale was apt to note, ‘What we’ve seen in recent days from the political Left is there on the Right too, except covered over at this moment by a religious veneer of prayers, St George’s flags and Bible verses.’ His whole report is worth reading in full because he outlines what he experienced and the behaviour of those marching under the banner ‘Christ is King’. A term that has been appropriated to create an unholy alliance, with some shared commanalities, between ethno-nationalists and christian nationalists.

But the truth is, if Christ is really king, then we cannot ignore the means of Christ. As I have argued many times before, but specifically here, the way of Jesus is the way of the cross. What ethno-nationalists and christian nationalists both seem to have in common is their penchant for a fight for their particular values.

What they both seem to ignore is that Jesus never fought to instil his values, he never spread his teaching by the sword, he never coerced belief and he actively stopped his disciples from fighting. Even as he was arrested in Gethsemene, and Peter pulled his sword to fight to the death, Jesus tells him to put his weapon away and reminds his disciples that he has all the resources at his disposal to defend himself (cf. Matthew 26). Ironically, it was Jesus insistence on non-violence, non-resistance, submission to the tyrannical authorities that specifically led to his disciples running away. It wasn’t fear of the Romans, or the Jewish authorities, but disappointment that the one they called the Messiah so meekly submitted and gave in to this (see here for more on this). Jesus calls all of this at the start of the chapter. They will all leave specifically because of him. Not out of fear, but that he just isn’t the leader – the fighter – they wanted in their Messiah.

Sadly, many of those usurping the banner ‘Christ is King’ seem similarly unhappy at the appointed means of the very Messiah they claim as their own. Their so-called defence of Christian cultural values seems to be less interested in the non-fighting, non-violent, non-aggressive submission to government authority – even particularly heinous government authority like Roman rule under Nero – and instead rides roughshod over the means of the Christ they name. They are, ironically, acting more like the very Muslims they claim to abhor and whose values they are so intent on driving out.

What is more, actual Christians who understand their theology and history know that neither ethno- nor christian nationalism are credible. The apparent Christian values that most claim they want to defend were forged in the fires of nonconformity seeking to carve out necessary freedom for themselves in the face of an Anglican theocracy. The freedom for Muslims to come to this country and be permitted to practice Islam is a direct descendant of the Independents and Congregationalists (typically Baptists) arguing for the right to freely practice their Christian religion without the imposition of prison and fines by the Anglican ascendancy.

It wasn’t until the late 19th Century that nonconformists managed to eventually get the final test acts repealed and win the right for non-Anglicans to enter universities and historic professions. The freedom to practice Christianity in a manner consistent with your biblical convictions became the ‘Christian value’ of freedom of religion, which grounded other similar freedoms such as freedom of speech which developed from the freedom to be able to preach without a license. Once such freedoms were won, they were rightly extended to all, including non-Christian religions. This is a biblical value in line with Jesus’ non-violent, non-coersive kingdom values.

What is more, for those intent on arguing for christian nationalism, ethno-nationalism ought to make a very uncomfortable bedfellow. It is virtually impossible to see the dividing wall of hostility broken down between Jew and Gentile in Christ and yet insist on erecting one again based on race. It is impossible to hear Jesus calling every tribe, tongue and nation (without coersion) and yet insist certain races and cultures are verboten. The early church dealt repeatedly with the issue of ethnic, cultural difference in the church and the answer was never division based on racial or cultural difference!

Those who would exclude the freedom of others to believe or practice their own religion – even in the name of defending ‘Christian values’ – seem not to recognise the very Christian values that permit them to practice their own Christianity. It bears pointing out again that we have tried a christian nationalism across Europe before and it did not lead to excellent results. National churches enforcing their vision of Christianity throughout the nation did not lead to lots of Christians practising their biblical understanding of Christianity, but led to lots of persecution and not a little nominalism that comforted many people to Hell and kept them outside of Christ. These battles were fought and won long ago and the assumed Christian values some claim to want to defend were rooted in historic Christian churches arguing for freedom to practice their religion and, once they won it, recognised the right of all to worship whatever god they will and practice their religion as they see fit.

Jesus’ own teaching on the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13 causes further difficulties (as do a few other places). The parable speaks of the Kingdom ultimately reaching across the entire world, the nations i.e. Non-Jews will all be included. God’s kingdom is not, then, centred exclusively on an ethno-national people in Israel, but through the preaching of the word, will grow to include people from every tribe, tongue and nation. The gospel creates a global, multi-ethnic, multicultural community under the rule of King Jesus. This should mean that – though we belong to particular nations here and now and may find much in our culture and country to like – our primary Christian identification is as a citizen of God’s kingdom, linked to all those across the globe who are fellow citizens with us.

The way of Christ is the way of the cross, not the way of the fight. The way to glory is the way of submissive, patient suffering not aggressive power-grabbing. The Kingdom of God is a multi-ethnic, multi-national, global kingdom, not an ethno-national, narrow kingdom. Our primary citizenship as believers is as citizens of Heaven – part of Jesus’ kingdom which is not of this world – and our kinship with other such citizens across the globe ought to transcend our national allegiances.

It is historically, biblically and theologically incoherent to argue that we must drive out those who neither look, act nor view matters as we do. Jesus said in Matthew 7 to beware of false prophets and that you will know them by their fruit. So what are we to make of those who proclaim ‘Christ is King’ and yet seem to deny the very means of that same Christ? We ought to be very wary indeed of hitching our wagon to those who claim to know Jesus and yet deny him by their works by rejecting his expressed means.