Nationalism Promises Identity and Purpose… But History Tells Us It Can Yield Something Very Different

When Patriotism Turns Into A Religion… And Starts Demanding Sacrifices

At first, nationalism doesn’t show up wearing a crown and demanding worship. It arrives dressed like a friend. It talks about shared history, common purpose, and the comfort of belonging to something bigger than yourself.

And in a world that feels scattered and rootless, that message lands like a warm fire on a cold night. People lean in. Churches lean in. Before long, love of country starts to feel less like gratitude and more like duty.

But then something subtle happens. The language begins to shift. A little history tells us loyalty to God slowly gets braided together with loyalty to nation. Criticizing political power starts to sound like betraying your people. And somewhere along the line, the flag moves closer to the altar than anyone ever intended. What began as healthy affection for homeland starts asking for deeper devotion… obedience without question, unity without limits, and trust that borders on faith.

That’s the moment Christians need to pay attention. Because when any earthly nation starts offering identity, purpose, and a kind of salvation story of its own, it’s no longer just asking for your citizenship. It’s asking for something far more dangerous: An allegiance that tiptoes towards worship.

It’s also important to know that the noun “nationalism” doesn’t appear in English until the early–mid 19th century, in the main political or ideological sense. Earlier related terms like “nationalist” (for a person) are attested by 1715, and “nationality” for a kind of patriotic attachment by 1772. But you won’t find the word nationalism in Webster’s 1828 dictionary.

When the Flag Starts Acting Like a God

If you step back and scan the last two centuries of history, a strange pattern begins to emerge. Little by little, nationalism moved into the space Christianity once occupied and set up shop as the new civil religion. It offered people identity, unity, purpose… even a kind of salvation story. But in return, it asked for something heavy: loyalty, obedience, and sometimes blood.

Over time, more and more people stopped looking to Christ for rescue and started looking to the state, the party, or the nation. And with that shift came a new set of questions. Instead of asking, What does God require of us? People began asking, What will keep the nation together? Or what helps our side win?

That change might sound subtle. But in practice, it reshaped everything. Once love of country starts sounding like worship, something deeper has gone wrong… and it’s wise to grow a little suspicious when that happens.

From Many Peoples to One Solid Block

Not long ago, Europe didn’t look like the tidy set of nation-states we see on modern maps. Instead, it resembled a patchwork quilt… small kingdoms, city-states, duchies, and regions, each with its own customs and loyalties. People thought of themselves as Bavarian or Burgundian, Highlander or Castilian, long before they thought of themselves as “German” or “French.”

Their identity grew out of land, clan, parish, and shared faith. It wasn’t built around an abstract political unit called the nation-state.

Then the revolutions came, especially the upheavals of 1848. Suddenly a new idea swept across the continent: unity at all costs. Reformers and revolutionaries pushed for large, centralized states… one Italy, one Germany, one Spain, one France. One language. One law code. One flag. One approved version of history.

In the rush toward unity, local customs and regional freedoms were branded backward or dangerous. Dialects were suppressed. Old loyalties were treated like obstacles. The rich patchwork of local life was flattened into a single block color, all in the name of progress and national strength.

How Unity Became a Golden Calf

At first glance, nationalism simply looked like love of place and people. But over time, that healthy affection hardened into an ideology. Unity became the highest good. Division became the greatest sin. And anything that threatened national cohesion was treated as a kind of heresy.

Soon enough, keeping your own customs or laws could be labeled disloyal. Holding onto local identity could look like treason. Even churches were expected to fall in line with the national project.

Meanwhile, the state slowly took on roles that once belonged to family, church, and community. It promised to educate children, define morality, shape identity, and provide security. And like all false gods, it demanded sacrifices… sometimes freedoms, sometimes traditions, sometimes entire peoples.

The blood-soaked battlefields of the 19th and 20th centuries didn’t appear out of thin air. They grew from an ideology that treated unity and power as sacred, even when truth and justice were pushed aside.

The American Version: Salvation by Politics

This shift didn’t stay in Europe. In the United States, the language changed in a similar way. Conversations that once revolved around faith and calling began to revolve around saving the union, preserving democracy, and advancing one political vision or another.

Take the war between the states. It was wrapped in moral language, but beneath the surface it also involved fierce debates over union, trade, money, and centralized authority. National survival became the ultimate goal.

Today, that mindset shows up in everyday life. When addiction spreads, we look first to federal programs. When families fracture, we call for new laws and agencies. When culture unravels, we hope elections will fix what only spiritual renewal can truly heal.

In practice, many people now seek salvation through politics. A “good citizen” is often defined as someone who trusts the system, follows the headlines, and believes the next election will set things right. Meanwhile, faith gets tucked away into a private corner… important, perhaps, but not central.

Churches have multiplied in number, yet often shrunk in cultural influence. Many profess belief in Christ, but daily life is shaped more by news cycles than by Scripture. Christianity becomes one compartment among many, while politics takes center stage as the real engine of history.

From Covenant People to Bureaucratic Machines

When the apostle Paul speaks about Israel as “my kinsmen according to the flesh,” he isn’t describing a modern nation-state. He’s talking about a covenant people… bound by shared history, worship, and family ties. Israel, in his mind, is a household gone astray, not a political machine that needs more centralized power.

Ancient nations grew organically out of families and shared worship. Their identities were rooted in lineage and faith. Modern nationalism often works the other way around: it builds a centralized system first and then tells the people inside that system what their true family is.

Even public rituals change. Instead of holy days rooted in worship, societies gather around political anniversaries… independence days, national memorials, civic holidays. The liturgy becomes speeches and parades rather than psalms and sacraments.

Slowly but surely, devotion shifts.

When Churches Retreat and the State Expands

As nationalism rose, many churches quietly retreated from public life. Influenced by overly spiritualized thinking, they began to treat faith as something purely private. Religion belonged to the heart and the afterlife, they said, while law, education, economics, and culture belonged to the “secular” realm.

That split left a vacuum. And the state stepped in to fill it.

If Christ’s authority applies only to personal devotion, then schools, courts, and public life are left open to whatever nationalistic ideology happens to dominate. In some places, that vacuum fed a very aggressive nationalism. In others, it fueled sprawling bureaucracies and messianic politics.

Meanwhile, many churches narrowed their message to individual salvation alone. Personal conversion is vital, of course. But when the broader call to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness gets lost, the church risks becoming a chaplain to whatever regime holds power… blessing its wars, echoing its slogans, and discipling people into national myths instead of biblical truth. Think Paula White.

The Softer Face of Control

Nationalism rarely presents itself as harsh or oppressive initially. More often, it speaks in warm, reassuring language: unity, security, progress, the common good. Yet behind those words can lurk a quieter pressure toward conformity.

Historically, centralized states have often smoothed away regional cultures, discouraged local traditions, and rewritten histories to fit national narratives. Dissent gets labeled divisive. Local authority gets absorbed into distant bureaucracies. And those who resist are portrayed as obstacles to progress.

Even today, you can see softer versions of that pattern. Public opinion is shaped by national narratives. Certain viewpoints are celebrated, others pushed to the margins. Loyalty to the national project is assumed; questioning it can have social or professional consequences.

The slogans sound noble. But the underlying demand is familiar: stay in line.

Why People Keep Reaching for Smaller Roots

Ironically, the louder the modern world talks about global unity and international cooperation, the more people often cling to smaller loyalties… region, culture, language, and local tradition. Across the world, groups continue to push for local identity and self-government.

That impulse isn’t just stubborn nostalgia. It reflects something deeply human. People are rooted creatures. They belong to places, families, and communities. When large political systems grow too abstract or distant, people instinctively return to what feels close and concrete.

Sometimes that return becomes healthy local stewardship. Other times it hardens into its own form of tribalism. Either way, it reveals how fragile both nationalism and globalism can be when they try to replace deeper sources of identity.

A Different Kind of Unity

Scripture does speak about a united world… but not one flattened into a single political structure. Instead, it points to a world gathered under one King. In that vision, different peoples and cultures remain, yet all stand under the authority of Christ.

The problem isn’t loving your homeland. It’s confusing earthly boundaries with ultimate hope. Whether expressed through nationalism or globalism, the temptation is the same: to look to human systems for what only God can provide.

At bottom, every society serves something. Either it acknowledges a higher authority or it treats its own power as final. Nationalism and internationalism often end up as rival versions of the same humanistic-centered faith, arguing over the shape of the idol rather than questioning the impulse to build one at all.

Judgment Begins Close to Home

If nationalism becomes a kind of false religion, then the first place to examine isn’t the political arena but the church. Whenever believers wrap the cross too tightly in the flag or place their ultimate trust in political outcomes, priorities drift.

History shows that times of upheaval often begin with a kind of internal reckoning. Institutions shake. Assumptions crumble. And people are forced to reconsider what they ultimately trust.

Those who place their deepest hope in Christ rather than in political systems tend to weather those storms with greater clarity. They’re freer to love their neighbors without idolizing the structures around them.

Recovering Real Allegiance

Being cautious about nationalism doesn’t mean despising our homeland or ignoring injustice. It simply means keeping earthly loyalties in their proper place. You can love your country, care for your community, and work for the good of your neighbors without treating the state as a savior.

In the end, as Bob Dylan said… “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” Every person serves something. The real question is what sits at the center of loyalty and hope. When that center belongs to God alone, love of place and people can flourish without turning into something heavier and more demanding than it was ever meant to be.

And in a world crowded with flags, trumpeting books, slogans, and competing visions of salvation, the quiet act of keeping ultimate allegiance where it belongs may be more radical than it first appears.

Source: https://www.offthegridnews.com/religion/nationalism-promises-identity-and-purpose-but-history-tells-us-it-can-yield-something-very-different/