The man-centered ideology of Dominionism has been recently rebranded as "Christian Nationalism" and has been heavily promoted this year, especially with the release of a best-selling new book on this topic. The book is called, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide For Taking Dominion And Discipling Nations by Andrew Torba (CEO of Gab.com) & Andrew Isker.
First of all, know that I fully support Andrew Torba and Gab. I respect his work and a lot of what he does. I hope that more people use Gab and its services such as GabPay and GabVoice. Mr. Torba brings attention to many important issues, and seems like a genuinely nice guy. With that said, much of the Christian Nationalism idea promotes things that are good, but blends them with other things that are absolutely unbiblical. You know, like Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventist, and similar cults.
One of the big problems here is the intentionally deceitful use of the phrase "discipling nations". As Christians we are to give the gospel to every individual within all the nations, but nowhere in Scripture is it ever even hinted at that Christians are to make disciples of political entities and bring them under Christian rule.
Is it wrong for a Christian to participate in politics? No. Is it any kind of a biblical mandate to do so? No. This is one of many areas where Christian Nationalism tries to blur the line between biblical truth and carnal ambition.
In fact, Andrew Isker, who often writes on dominionism and co-author of the book mentioned above wrote the following: “But if you are a Christian, there is no way of getting around Jesus’s Great Commission to the church. As He was about to ascend into heaven to rule this world, in light of that authority over heaven and earth, He commanded His apostles to baptize the nations and teach them to do as He commanded. If you are a Christian you believe this. And since America is a nation, America needs to be baptized and discipled into obeying Jesus.
The Great Commission means that if you are a Christian you are axiomatically a Christian Nationalist. If you say you are a Christian and you reject 'Christian Nationalism,' you are just a disobedient Christian. To be part of Christ’s Kingdom is to bring the kingdoms of this world into submission to Christ’s Kingship.”
This kind of twisted heresy is absolutely hysterical. It is so bad it is laughable. Did you notice the equivocation in the quote? He links the Great Commission, which is for all Christians, to the false idea that the Great Commission means bringing nations into submission. Scripture twisting doesn't get much more tangled than this.
First of all, political entities can't be baptized, so that's an absurd suggestion. Individual people get saved and then baptized, and that's what the Great Commission is all about. This is obvious from all the verses about it and from the consensus of 2,000 years of Christian theology. Let's look at what the Great Commission actually states and see how Andrew Isker warps it to suit his peculiar ideas.
Matthew 28:19-20 - Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
The clear meaning is that we should make disciples out of every ethnic group (nations). This is εθνος in the Greek which is typically translated as gentiles. So go and teach all ethnicities, or people-groups. Until about 60 years ago, all ethnicities dwelt within their own nation, so it's natural that nation would equal ethnicity. Nowhere do we see any command to "subdue" entities, or even individuals. The opposite is actually seen in Matthew 10:14 where Jesus said, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet."
If people won't listen to the gospel, we are told to "move on", not "subdue them" (cf. Titus 3:10-11).
Let's look at a couple parallel passages of the Great Commission for even further clarity.
Mark 16:15 - And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Isn't that as plain as day? We even see this carried out at the end of Mark 16 to make absolutely certain there is no confusion.
Mark 16:20 - And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
So they went and preached the gospel. Do we see anything at all about bringing "kingdoms of this world into submission"?! Not even a whisper of such a thing can be found in God's Word. Let's look at another verse in the Gospel of Luke.
Luke 24:47 - And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
The fact is that there is no possible way to misunderstand the Great Commission unless you are doing it intentionally.
It's also important to briefly mention that the heretical and gnostic "New Apostolic Reformation" (NAR) movement is closely linked with dominionism and they advocate for Christians to "reclaim the seven mountains of culture": government, religion, media, family, business, education, and arts and entertainment. This NAR is further from sincere Christianity than even Mormonism is.
Finally, let's quickly look in Genesis 1 at where the term dominionism comes from.
Genesis 1:26 - And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Nations and political entities didn't even exist at this time. This is talking about mankind's dominion over God's other creations. Animals, plants, the soil, are all under the authority of mankind and we should take care of all of God's creation. This has obviously nothing to do with some of mankind ruling over other sections of mankind.
Another post on this topic to check out: https://bereanpulpit.wordpress.com/2022/09/03/christiannationalism/
Titus Ministries podcast on this topic: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Sg8d8WWVJ4UdmYgsn7fNh?si=4i6GL3JjRKOtZAh46asQIg
