The Fake & Fraudulent Prophets Around the President
September 4, 2026 |
Daniel Henderson
Christian Nationalism promises to “take America back for God.”
But when you place it next to the Gospels, an uncomfortable possibility appears: the movement looks less like the followers of Jesus and more like the voice that spoke to him in the wilderness.
In Gospel of Matthew 4 and Gospel of Luke 4, Jesus is offered a shortcut to fixing the world.
Not pleasure.
Not unbelief.
Authority.
“All the kingdoms of the world.”
Immediate influence. Cultural dominance. The ability to shape society from the top down. No slow work of persuasion, no rejection, no suffering. Just control, now, for the right reasons.
Jesus refuses.
Christian Nationalism accepts the same logic and calls it faithfulness.
The kingdom Jesus rejected is now preached in his name.
We’ve shrunk the wilderness story into a morality tale about resisting bad behavior. The text is about power.
The temptations form a pattern:
The last offer is the real test. Jesus is handed a way to make people obey goodness without becoming good. He could produce a moral society quickly by controlling it.
That is the lure: righteousness enforced instead of righteousness chosen.
Jesus rejects it because coercion can create compliance, but it cannot create faith.
Jesus does not delay the offer. He does not improve the strategy. He refuses the method.
“Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
If allegiance to God requires bowing to domination, the allegiance is already broken.
So he walks away from the effective path:
He chooses the slower one: teaching, healing, forgiveness, and eventually a cross. He will change people, not manage them.
The difference matters. One produces followers. The other produces subjects.
Now look at what Christian nationalism consistently seeks.
Laws to enforce belief.
Schools required to display religious messages.
Political leaders treated as divinely appointed defenders of faith.
Pastors framing elections as spiritual warfare.
You don’t have to speculate. We watched crosses carried into the U.S. Capitol on January 6 while prayers were offered for victory. We’ve seen pulpits turn into campaign stages and political strongmen called God’s chosen instruments.
That is not faith shaping politics.
That is power recruiting religion.
The argument underneath it is simple: the way of Jesus is too weak to protect what matters.
But the moment protection requires domination, the wilderness offer has been accepted.
Christian nationalism often warns about the antichrist: a deceiver who manipulates believers and uses religion to control nations.
Scripture’s concern was never mainly about atheism. It was about counterfeit Christ.
Someone who speaks in Jesus’ name while embodying the opposite of his way.
If you proclaim Jesus but depend on coercion, fear, and domination to accomplish righteousness, you are not defending Christianity from corruption. You are repeating the temptation he refused.
The wilderness voice said: bow, and you can rule the world for good reasons.
Jesus said no.
Christian nationalism says yes.
Jesus never attempted to capture Rome. He never sought control of imperial courts. He never organized a voting bloc to impose holiness.
Instead he formed a community marked by mercy, shared life, forgiveness, and love of enemies. The change he sought began inside people and moved outward.
Christian nationalism reverses it. Change the laws first. Control behavior first. Shape belief afterward.
One trusts transformation.
The other trusts force.
They are not two approaches to the same mission.
They are different kingdoms.
The wilderness temptation did not end two thousand years ago. It simply changed setting.
It now appears in campaign speeches, party platforms, school boards, and sanctuaries.
Some still refuse it.
Christian nationalism does not.
The kingdom Jesus rejected is now preached in his name. Christian nationalism didn’t misread Jesus. It corrected him.
If this felt a little too accurate, there’s more where that came from.
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