When Did the Christian Right Stop Believing in the God of the Bible?
The Actions and Attitudes of Many Christians Shows a Small View of God Incompatible with the Bible
The Iowa Satanic Temple had a display in the Iowa State Capitol Building of a mannequin with a ram’s head covered with mirrors as its expression of its religious liberty on the same grounds that a nativity scene was also housed.
There was great controversy over the display online. This all culminated with thirty-five year-old Mississippi man Michael Cassidy coming to the Capitol to destroy the display, much to the applause of the online right and those on the site formerly known as Twitter.
The first thing that needs to be said is (for anyone who doesn’t know), most people in the church of Satan are not sincere devil-worshippers. Most discount the existence of God and supernatural entirely and embrace of some sort of symbol of rebellion. They’re efforts are wildly seeking public attention and outrage. So I guess congrats to Mr. Cassidy for giving them exactly what they want.
Responsible Responses
In stories like this, it’s really easy to just give voice to the most irresponsible and unhinged Christians responses all the credit. There were some perfectly reasonable responses to this. Take Iowas Governor Kim Reynolds (R-IA) who said:
Like many Iowans, I find the Satanic Temple’s display in the Capitol absolutely objectionable. In a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech, and I encourage all those of faith to join me today in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the nativity scene that will be on display – the true reason for the season.
State Rep. Jon Dunwell posted an appropriate response on X:
My observation as a follower of Christ, I certainly find a display from the Satanic Temple objectionable. It stands in direct opposition to my faith and would be classified as evil. Not a new experience for me or my family. The Word of God continually warns about the dangers in our world. In fairness, many other religions or nonreligious people have the same perspective about Christianity.
My observation as an Iowan and a State Representative, I don’t want the state evaluating and making determinations about religions. I am guided by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
My response as a follower of Christ…
oThe display is an inanimate object that has no real power in and of itself. We have nothing to fear.
o Oppose the message of the display. It is not just another way to worship the same god. There are DIFFERENCES that need to be pointed out. The display glorifies the evil influence we oppose.
o The primary response required is prayer.
o The display itself is an invitation of the work we have yet to do. Iowa needs Jesus.
Dunwell’s response is totally on point in terms of a historical understanding of both the Constitution and an actual understanding of the Bible and an understanding of the Christian faith. The problem is that this understanding is just not shared by so many in the Christian right.
Getting Religious
I rarely write about my faith in political columns. I understand that we live in a country of not only many faiths but many interpretations of various passages of scripture. If I can’t come up with a better argument for a public policy position than, “The Bible says,” I’m not really fit to argue on that issue in the public sphere.
However, I think that the nature of what we call Christian nationalism requires an examination of religious questions, so to properly address it, I have to do so from my faith perspective.
What’s at the core of this movement? First of all, I want to be clear. The media is often in a hurry to paint with as broad a brush a possible and I don’t want to do that.
When I talk about Christian Nationalists, I’m talking about people who are obsessed with holding and maintaining political power, people who view Christianity as being constantly under attack and needing force to defend it.
I think these people have a view of Christianity that’s inadequate or where pop ideas about faith trump the biblical view of God and Christ.
People will say things like, “Christianity is threatened and it must be defended. “
Yet, this isn’t a traditional view or a biblical view. In Scripture, Christ said in Matthew 16: 18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The best Christian theology doesn’t imagine that Christianity is a fragile, vulnerable thing that is going to be stamped out unless we “defend it” by smashing up statues. As the famous hymn said:
Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.
Yet, to the Christian Nationalists is this fragile egg which if not defended by strong men will be snuffed out. Is that the type of God Christianity teaches. We get very few glimpses of God glorified in scripture, but the pictures we do have of God’s power and splendor are stunning.
Take the vision of the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1-4 :
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Or consider this description of the Throne of God from the Apostle John in Revelation 4:
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.
And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.
From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,\
and by your will they existed and were created.”
Whether you are religious or not, I want you to read these verses and imagine that this is real. Would the God who sat on that throne really be threatened by what some yay-hoos in Iowa are doing with a goathead statue?
I don’t say that God doesn’t care, because he’s a personal God and is concerned with everything. But I can’t take the Bible seriously and imagine that the Iowa Satanic Temple is a serious rival for the God the Bible describes.
The statue is bad, it’s offensive, but it is not a threat to the Eternal and Omnipotent God of the Universe or the Church He established.
And I think when Christians act like God is a frail old man who needs defended by vigilante action, they disregard the directive in scripture about spiritual warfare, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” 1 Corinthians 10:4.
They also don’t understand who God is. This happened with Peter when he drew a sword to defend Jesus when the priests came to take him away before he was ultimately crucified.
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?-Matthew 26:52 and 53 (ESV)
Jesus needed a guy from Mississippi with a sledgehammer to defend his honor as much as he needed a Galilean fisherman with a sword to protect Him in the Garden.
Why No Faith
The Bible tells us that without faith (Hebrews 11:6), it’s impossible to please God. What becomes plaintively obvious is that so many in the Christian nationalist movement think they need to be so forceful and have the government do so much because they think so little of the God they claim to serve.
There are many factors in this. I think there’s a cultural Christianity that doesn’t involve any personal relationship with Christ or with the God of the Bible.
Others are disenchanted. Some came into faith traditions like the Charismatics that often promised a lot of things that the Bible doesn’t promise in terms of material wealth, and worldly and spiritual success. Still, others were expecting the rapture to coincide with Y2K or shortly thereafter and for them to be safely in Heaven while the great tribulation afflicted the Earth. There was even a school of thought that things getting worse in the world was a sign that Jesus’ concern was drawing near and that bad things for mankind meant great things on the way for American Christians.
That didn’t work out obviously as Christians haven’t been spirited away as Tim LeHaye and Jerry Jenkins told us they would in their best-selling Left Behind novels.
Others in political activism assumed if they did things the right way, God would work things out for them in the end. They demanded high standards of character for leaders and fought for the best principles. However, society has continued to move away from traditional Christian values and that leads to disillusionment. They interpreted scripture to lay out a “Christian” way to approach politics and it didn’t work, so now it’s time to try something else.
That’s not how it works. In fact, I think whether you were betting on God to catch you up in a secret rapture while the Macarena was a trend, or you thought if you did the right things in your politics, you could manipulate God into giving the right outcomes in public policy, you were relying on God to do something that was never promised in His Word.
And because he didn’t do it, people are deciding that they’re smart enough, clever enough, scream loud enough, have a big enough hammer, and big enough guns to bring them to God’s kingdom to Earth.
I’d ask them to love at society, look at themselves and ask themselves how that’s working.
Come to Jesus
This time of year, churches throughout the world are proclaiming the Birth of Jesus, the real Jesus who scripture calls, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) and “Of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:7). That Jesus is being proclaimed in so many faithful churches throughout our country even as many have started to eschew the Church Christ established for political affiliation.
I’d urge anyone who’s gotten lost and thinks that God needs them to protect him to find their way back to a Church that preaches the Biblical Jesus. The one who doesn’t need you to draw a sword or take out a sledgehammer to defend him.
And that’s not to say that Christians should be unconcerned about things like the Satanist display. There is room to address that, but we need to address it as people who actually believe that Jesus is who said He is and we have to remember this inconvenient and often uncomfortable fact.
Jesus loves Satanists.
He doesn’t love satanism. His heart is grieved by their disobedience and rebellion, but He longs for reconciliation with them and gave His life to make that possible.
And if we’re going to claim to be Christians, that’s the God we serve.
All scriptues from the English Standard Version of the Bible