There is one absolute condition upon which the survival of our race, peoples, and cultures hinge: repentance from national sin and reliance upon our King, Jesus Christ, for deliverance (II Chron. 7:14; Matt. 4:17). Scripture and history testify that nations are blessed when they bow the knee to the Triune God, while stiff-necked nations self-destruct as soon as they’ve served their providential purpose. Orthodox Christians throughout the world know and preach this, but sadly the practical outworkings of national repentance and national apostasy are often overlooked, leading to regrettable misunderstandings of this element of covenant theology.
The call of the nations to repentance (e.g. Jer. 18:8; Luke 24:47) must have Deuteronomy 28 as its backdrop and foundational text. In this chapter God promises blessings to the covenant nation when they obey and keep his law (vv. 1-14) while threatening them with destruction if not (vv. 15-68). Often missed is the very concrete practicality of this chapter for all of human existence. Since God’s sovereignty is concretely manifested in the way creation operates, human life is inescapably confronted with its various facets. Since God is sovereign as Creator of the universe, his law is necessarily also sovereign in ruling all life in the universe. We can see many of the curses explicitly mentioned in this chapter come to fulfillment in the national lives (or deaths) of Western nations today. These curses are due not simply to apostasy from our holy faith in our people’s minds and hearts, but to the consequent forsaking of divine laws in our people’s everyday actions. Take, for example, the demographic crisis facing all white nations today. This is literally a curse mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:30-44. The causes thereof, namely a low fertility rate and mass immigration, are directly related to disobedience to God’s Law-Word (Gen. 1:28; Prov. 22:28). Thus we see that law and national morality are at the very heart of the penitential life unto which the gospel calls all nations.
Discerning this is prerequisite to understanding the dynamics of Christ’s great commission (Matt. 28:19). While the command to evangelize is at the heart of the commission, of equal importance is the command to call the nations to a covenantal, national life of obedience under the sovereign Lordship of Christ Himself. This is the key to an abundant national, familial, and individual life, and this is why the infallible claim that sin leads to death (Rom. 6:23) cannot be understood only spiritually.
The created order’s practical role in administering covenantal blessings applies directly to nations, families, and individuals who fail to recognize Christ’s Lordship explicitly. Where, for example, the creational laws regarding the nature of the family and gender distinctions are respected, even in Christless societies, God, through common grace, has often granted blessings to even those nations who, though implicitly recognizing his sovereignty, refusing to explicitly bow the knee to Him. It is also for this reason that Kinists like myself see even the secular Alt-Right as allies in the fight against Marxism, and position ourselves within the Alt-Right precisely because we believe its principles constitute a recognition of reality as sovereignly ordained and revealed by God. That being said, however, because of human depravity, all nations – and all movements – where the Holy Spirit does not guide national life eventually decline away from even that implicit obedience to God’s Law, and self-destruct.
The centrality of law and order in national repentance explains the counter-democratic or aristocratic nature thereof in the national life of ancient Israel. In reading the historical accounts of Israel’s relationship with God as recorded in the Books of the Kings and Chronicles, it is striking that the monarch’s relationship with God always proved decisive for the covenantal status of the nation. If the king obeyed God, the nation followed and was blessed. If the king disobeyed God, the nation followed and was cursed. This paradigm repeated itself over and over in the history of Israel, and it is also found in the history of our own people. For example, the conversion of the Frankish king Clovis I (A.D. 466-511) to Christianity had an evangelizing and sanctifying effect upon the whole nation. Yet it was the king once again who took the lead, acting as mediator between God and people. Here we once again see the authoritarian nature of national repentance. Because God’s Law is the key to unlocking covenantal blessings, godly theonomic government, holding the sword to enforce God’s Law, is a necessary prerequisite and means for a covenanted life characterized by divine blessings.
One can assume that not all of the common folk in Israel were true believers even during the times when they enjoyed prosperity under godly rulers. In fact, I would go as far as to say that many perhaps even failed to understand or care for God’s Law. But, through devout governmental leadership, they were forced to obey the regulations of God’s Law, to their own benefit. It has only been through the general acceptance of the errors of egalitarianism and individualism that we have been conditioned to think of national repentance as something like a democratic revolution from the common people. Liberating ourselves from these erroneous notions to embrace a traditionalist anthropology helps us to not over-appreciate the idea of bottom-up or grassroots reformation. The leadership of a singular charismatic man is far more crucial, as the masses tend to be intellectually and volitionally weaker and hence willing to change courses to follow a strong man. (And this is not to their fault, but is simply how God has designed human societies to be.) R.J. Rushdoony once said: “Christianity is completely and radically anti-democratic; it is committed to spiritual aristocracy.”
This has radical implications for our own striving towards national repentance and consequent restoration of our own nations today. Praying for godly leadership should be at the heart of our strategy. Taking the lead, or supporting godly men who do, is vital to our survival as a people, more so than trying to convince an entire population indoctrinated through years of public education and indoctrination to embrace the biblical worldview. Not that it is unimportant to witness to all those who cross our paths, but it is crucial that we strategize correctly to avoid being counterproductive.
In this regard the strategies employed by the successful Trump campaign serve as an important contemporary example. Despite always having clear policies and practical plans for implementing them, Trump’s rhetoric at times during his campaign remained quite vague; rather than focusing on the (often boring) details of governing, he often ventured completely off-topic during speeches to large audiences for pure entertainment value. As a friend of mine rightly put it, it was as if Trump thereby showed contempt for the democratic process. I’m not saying Trump is the godly leader for whom we all should hope and pray, but his success has perhaps opened up an opportunity for the Christian Alt-Right to take serious action in achieving the goals necessary to lead our people back to our sovereign Lord Christ, under whose Lordship alone we will achieve sustainable prosperity.
| Tweet |
|
|
|
