Kingdom Come: How Belief in Jesus’ Earthly Reign Shapes Christian Power and Politics in America (Part II)
By Michael D. Peabody
In January 2021, a group of protesters marched around the U.S. Capitol, waving flags that read \”Jesus 2020,\” blowing shofars, and invoking the biblical story of Jericho—believing, in some sense, that American democracy itself had become a modern-day pagan fortress. The event, known as the Jericho March, captured something deeper than politics. This was spiritual warfare, wrapped in nationalism, rooted in the conviction that God had chosen America, and that Christians were meant to rule it.
In Part I of this series, we explored how belief in Jesus’ future reign on Earth—particularly among white evangelicals—drives a sense of urgency in political life. This installment goes a step further. We look at what happens when that urgency becomes action: when believers move from waiting for a kingdom to trying to build one. We’ll examine how Christian nationalism—particularly among evangelicals and Pentecostals—merges theology with power, casting the United States as a vessel for divine authority. We’ll also contrast this with traditions that explicitly reject such ambitions, and begin to trace the ideological fault lines shaping the future of American Christianity.
Dominion Mandates and Prophetic Politics
At the heart of modern Christian nationalism is a conviction: that God has a plan not just for individuals, but for nations. And not just any nation, but America. For many evangelicals, the United States holds a kind of spiritual exceptionalism—a new Israel, blessed for its faithfulness and punished for its sins. Political crises are read as prophetic signs; moral decline as a reason for judgment; victories as divine affirmations. The goal isn’t just to win elections. It’s to reclaim America for God.
A significant subset of this movement is shaped by the belief that Christians are meant to take dominion over every sphere of society. One of the most influential ideas circulating in charismatic and Pentecostal circles today is the Seven Mountains Mandate, developed in the early 2000s by leaders like Lance Wallnau and Bill Bright. The concept is simple: to bring about God’s kingdom on Earth, Christians must control the seven \”mountains\” or spheres of influence in culture—government, media, education, economy, religion, family, and arts/entertainment. Once believers occupy these peaks, the thinking goes, the kingdom will come.
This mandate is often connected to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a loosely organized but influential network of charismatic leaders who reject traditional denominational structures in favor of modern-day apostles and prophets. NAR figures, including Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs, and Che Ahn, frequently preach that America is under spiritual attack and that Christians must rise up in prayer, prophecy, and political activism to fulfill their destiny.
Their rhetoric is clear: political power is a means of spiritual warfare. God has appointed certain leaders. Prophets receive divine insight into elections. Spiritual victories lead to policy wins. The Capitol becomes a pulpit.
And this theology isn’t fringe. Wallnau, for instance, was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, calling him \”God’s chaos candidate\” and likening him to Cyrus, the Persian king who freed the Israelites. This idea—that flawed political leaders can be instruments of divine will—has become a staple in charismatic political theology. It also offers a theological permission slip for overlooking corruption, so long as the leader is perceived as advancing God’s kingdom.
Christian Nationalism in the Numbers
While not all Christian nationalists are Pentecostal or charismatic, belief in prophecy and dominion theology correlates closely with Christian nationalist sentiment. According to a 2023 study from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), roughly 66% of white evangelical Protestants qualified as either Christian nationalism \”Adherents\” or \”Sympathizers\” [1]. By contrast, only 32% of white mainline Protestants and 31% of white Catholics fell into those categories.
The same survey found that Christian nationalists were far more likely to believe in prophetic revelation: 72% of Adherents agreed that \”God reveals his plans for the future to humans through prophecy,\” compared to just 24% of Rejecters [2]. That belief in modern prophecy supports a worldview in which politics isn’t merely a matter of civic life—it’s a cosmic battle.
Even more striking, 54% of Christian nationalism Adherents agreed with the statement that \”a storm is coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders,\” an apocalyptic framing echoed in both QAnon rhetoric and charismatic prophecy networks [3]. It’s not just spiritual language. It’s political expectation.
Israel, America, and the Clock of Prophecy
Support for the modern state of Israel has long been a feature of evangelical politics, but in the context of Christian nationalism, it takes on deeper significance. Many prophecy-minded Christians see Israel not just as an ally, but as a prophetic clock—the focal point of end-times events. This belief drives support for policies such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, opposing Palestinian statehood, and backing aggressive Middle East military strategies.
Pastor John Hagee’s organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), is perhaps the most visible example. With millions of members and influence on Capitol Hill, CUFI operates under the belief that blessing Israel brings blessing to America—a theology rooted in Genesis 12:3 and popularized in dispensational prophecy teaching [4].
These political actions are framed as obedience to God, not mere strategy. To support Israel is to align with God’s end-times purposes. And to oppose those purposes is to risk judgment. Once again, theology translates directly into policy.
The Role of Race and Power
Christian nationalism is not colorblind. Scholars have noted that its vision of America as a \”Christian nation\” often overlaps with a desire to maintain white cultural dominance. Historian Anthea Butler writes that white evangelicals have often used religion to mask a deeper fear of losing power in an increasingly diverse nation [5]. The \”return\” to a Christian America often implies a return to a time when white Protestant norms shaped public life.
Black Protestants, despite sharing many theological views on Jesus’ return, overwhelmingly reject Christian nationalism. Only 19% qualify as Adherents or Sympathizers in PRRI’s data [1]. Their theology, shaped by generations of oppression and injustice, tends to emphasize prophetic critique of empire, not partnership with it.
Indeed, the language of spiritual warfare in Black churches often targets systemic racism and injustice, not secular liberalism. The Kingdom of God is not a platform for partisan dominance, but a vision of justice and liberation. This divergence underscores how the same scriptures can yield profoundly different political applications, depending on historical context and cultural experience.
Catholic and Mainline Protestant Resistance
In contrast to the dominion impulse, Catholic and mainline Protestant traditions have largely rejected efforts to equate God’s kingdom with political rule. The Catholic Church explicitly condemns millenarianism in its Catechism (paragraph 676), warning against any attempt to establish a utopian kingdom prior to Christ’s return [6].
Mainline Protestants—including Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians—tend to interpret biblical prophecy symbolically, and emphasize pluralism, social justice, and democratic values. Their political theology leans toward stewardship, not dominion.
That difference shows in their politics. While many mainliners remain politically active, they are less likely to endorse the idea that the U.S. should be officially Christian, or that the Bible should be the foundation of American law.
When the Kingdom is Mistaken for the Nation
At its best, belief in Jesus’ future reign inspires hope, moral conviction, and courage in the face of injustice. But when that belief is tethered to national identity, political control, and cultural dominance, it can mutate into something else entirely: a theological justification for authoritarianism.
The danger of Christian nationalism is not just in what it seeks to achieve, but in what it is willing to destroy to get there. Civil liberties, democratic norms, and religious pluralism become expendable when the mission is framed as divine.
When Christian identity becomes inseparable from national identity, dissent becomes heresy, and politics becomes a battlefield between God’s people and everyone else. That logic is seductive, but deeply corrosive to both faith and democracy.
And yet, millions of American Christians do not share this view. In our final installment, we’ll turn to those voices—traditions that believe in Jesus’ return but reject political dominionism. From Seventh-day Adventists to Orthodox Christians, we’ll explore how eschatology can foster humility, restraint, and even democratic engagement.
But first, a question:
What if we’ve misunderstood the mission entirely?
[Continue to Part III →]
Endnotes:
PRRI – \”A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture\” (Feb. 2023) – https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/
Ibid., prophetic belief data – https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PRRI_Christian-Nationalism-Report_2023.pdf
Ibid., apocalyptic storm narrative – https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PRRI_Christian-Nationalism-Report_2023.pdf
CUFI Mission and Theology – https://cufi.org/about/
Butler, Anthea. White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) – https://uncpress.org/book/9781469661171/white-evangelical-racism/
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 676 – http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM