Athens, Jerusalem, and America: Faith, Politics, and the Stage for the Antichrist

St. Augustine's City of God remains one of the most profound frameworks for understanding the Christian life. Augustine carefully delineates the City of God, eternal, spiritual, and oriented toward divine truth, from the earthly city, temporal, human, and often self-serving. Christians are citizens of both in this life but are called to orient their ultimate allegiance to the eternal city, never allowing earthly powers to eclipse divine authority.

Later reformers like Luther and Calvin built upon Augustine's vision. Luther emphasized the distinction between spiritual and temporal realms, particularly in the "two kingdoms" theology, while Calvin stressed God's sovereignty over all areas of life, encouraging believers to live faithfully within society. In the modern evangelical world, however, Calvin's emphasis has often been reinterpreted into robust activism: politics becomes a battlefield for spiritual influence, a way to implement godly order on earth.

Yesterday's memorial of Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium presents a striking case study in how these tensions play out. Vice President JD Vance described Kirk as a man of both Athens and Jerusalem: a lover of reason and a man of God. He said Kirk loved both cities, but ultimately, none was his home. His home was America, and he was prepared to die for it.

Pause for a moment. Augustine would ask: what happens when a temporal city becomes the ultimate home of someone whose life is supposedly devoted to God? Tertullian once asked, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" - a question about the proper relationship between human wisdom and divine revelation. Yesterday, the question is amplified, even on steroids: Athens, Jerusalem, and America.

Vance's words effectively baptize Kirk's patriotism with a spiritual halo. Kirk becomes a figure who harmonizes reason, faith, and nationalism. From a Christian perspective, however, the fusion is profoundly disorienting. When ultimate devotion - the willingness to die - is pledged to a nation rather than to God, the City of God is subordinated to the earthly city. This is exactly the kind of misplaced allegiance Scripture warns can open the stage for the Antichrist: religious authority fused with political power, ultimate loyalty displaced from God, and devotion to human kingdoms appearing divinely sanctioned.

Then comes Erica Kirk. Her speech was exquisite, a perfect embodiment of the gospel: forgiveness for her husband's accused killer, calls to discipleship, the sanctity of marriage, and the pursuit of godly living. It was one of those moments, the City of God shone unmistakably through her words. It was the gospel in action: pure, transformative, and eternal.

Next came President Trump. He hailed Kirk as a "martyr for American freedom," weaving Kirk's death into political action and campaign-style rhetoric. In his framing, gospel hope was eclipsed by the language of nationalism. The effect was to elevate political activism into the realm of the spiritual, as though dying for America were parallel to dying for Christ. Augustine would already sound the alarm here: when the earthly city is given the language of ultimate devotion, the line between Christ and Caesar is blurred.

Trump pressed the point further, declaring: "Without borders, law and order, and religion, you don't really have a country anymore. We want religion brought back to America. We want to bring God back." As a strategist, he knows what history shows: nationalist regimes-from Rome to modern totalitarian states-have always understood that religion is essential if you want to mandate loyalty and sustain control. To hear such words at a Christian memorial is chilling. Religion here is not lifted up as the worship of the true God for His own sake, but as a necessary ingredient for national survival. It is Christianity instrumentalized for the sake of the state.

And then, after Trump's speech, came the moment of profound cognitive dissonance. Erica leaned in to hug him twice, her head resting toward his chest. On one level, this was wholly human: a grieving widow seeking solace, instinctively leaning on someone she perceived as steady and protective. No one can fault her for this impulse of raw lament. Yet in the spiritual optics of the event, the symbolism was inescapable. Erica, who only moments earlier had embodied the City of God through words of forgiveness, holiness, and discipleship, now leaned physically toward the earthly city-embodied by a man whose life and conduct are the very antithesis of the gospel values she had just proclaimed. Trump stood upright, firm, unyielding, the embodiment of temporal power. Millions witnessed a visual allegory: the City of God inclining toward the earthly city, not in reciprocal humility but in human grief framed within a political spectacle.

Here the dissonance becomes unbearable. The gospel of the eternal city and the spectacle of national power collided on stage, and in the collision many Christians watching could not discern the difference. For Augustine, this is precisely the danger: when sacred devotion and political loyalty are mingled, the church risks confusion, compromise, and captivity.

What does this mean for millions of Christians watching, empathising, and celebrating along in worship with the Christian pastors and worship leaders at the memorial? We are witnessing institutionalized evangelical nationalism - the fusion of church and state, sacred and temporal power - echoing the age of Emperor Constantine, when political authority and Christian faith were inaugurated together. Scripture and Augustine warn that such fusion opens the door for idolatrous allegiance, deception, and moral compromise - conditions that Scripture identifies as the environment in which the Antichrist emerges.

Athens, Jerusalem, and America are now entangled in ways that blur theological clarity. Political activism is sanctified; patriotic allegiance is spiritualized; moral exemplars are confused; and the line between faithfulness to Christ and devotion to temporal power becomes perilously thin.

For Christians, this is a moment to pause, discern, and ask: where is our ultimate home? Are we citizens first of the eternal City of God, or are we pledging ultimate loyalty to temporal powers? What does it mean when admiration, ritual, and spectacle conflate Christ and Caesar, gospel and nationalism, holiness and political ambition?

We are at a crossroads. Athens, Jerusalem, and America are now entangled in ways Augustine would have feared, in ways Luther and Calvin would have cautioned against. [ REALLY! Hard to believe he invokes Luther and Calvin in this discussion...I will address this mistake below.] The memorial invites profound reflection: Are we willing to hold firm to the eternal city, even when the spectacle of the earthly city tempts us otherwise? And if not, what are we becoming? And if this fusion of devotion, spectacle, and power persists unchecked, could it be setting the stage for the Antichrist - a figure or movement that fuses temporal authority with religious allegiance, commanding hearts and nations under a veneer of spiritual legitimacy?

Something this writer fails to acknowledge (and this is common for Trump-haters) is that the U.S. government was coercing and persecuting Christians under Obama and Biden. This current President (as bad as some want to make him) is reversing the facist positions that were pushed on the Church for almost 20 years! Christians welcome President Trump because he is taking us back to the place where the government leaves the Church alone so it can focus on playing it's proper role. This writer refers to Trump as leading to the Antichrist - the positions the U.S. government pushed on us under our previous two Democratic presidents were (and still are) demonic.

After everything this writer says above regarding the church getting "entangled" with politics, he invokes Luther and Calvin!
Yes, both of these men are considered to be great Reformation leaders, but they were both "Magisterial Reformers." Check out this definition:

"...the term 'magisterial Reformation'...[points to] religious change...steered to a considerable extent by state intervention...the state was essential for the punishment of sinners. [Mullett, Michael, Historical Dictionary of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation (Germany: Scarecrow Press, 2010), p.310]

First, Martin Luther:
"The flaws that blighted Luther's reputation...his relation to peasants in 1524-25 or to Jews late in his life, are gross, obvious, and in the latter case, even revolting." [Martin, Marty E, Martin Luther: A Life (UK Penguin Publishing 2008, p.xi]
Also,
"In turn and in rage Luther felt licensed to use degrading imagery [against the Jews, I cannot include the graphic descriptions offered by Martin in this account]...he called on the civil authorities to banish Jews...burn synagogues along with the books of rabbis and even their homes..." Ibid, p.178.

This writer also invokes John Calvin. Here is a simple description of Christianity "entangled with politics"...Calvin's Geneva under his leadership:
"The council came to have tremendous impact on the lives of citizens. Severe punishments were given even for strictly religious offenses...Force was used on those who opposed the council and numerous people were tortured and killed...
[Michael] Servetus' slow death by burning at the stake [with green wood so it would be slow] became a symbol of the repressive effects of religious zeal..." [Peterson, R. Dean, A Concise History of Christianity 3rd ed. (Wadsworth 2007), p.213]

Luther AND Calvin pushed for the government to punish what they considered to be sinful behavior, yet this writer thinks Trump is the worst actor of all times, hands down.

I just pointed out some unfortunate historical oversights by this writer, but the main reason I am taking this writer to task is FAR more serious. He is presenting himself as a prophet in judgment against fellow believers. His ultimate message is that anyone who supports President Trump is guilty of the sin of nationalism and is close to following the Antichrist. In doing this he has made himself to be "the accuser of the brethren."

There is NO WAY that Charlie Kirk was giving his "ultimate devotion" to America over the kingdom of God. Kirk did not "subordinate" God under his country. This writer never mentions that Kirk started almost every campus tent-show meeting with a fairly direct (and gracious) presentation of the gospel.
In fact, I have not heard a single critic of Kirk mention this fact.

This writer is offended by nationalism. The definition of "nationalism" is that a person gives allegiance to their nation before anything else. I do not know a single serious Christian who fits this definition. I know Charlie Kirk did not put the USA above Jesus. I would bet that MANY of those who were worshipping the Lord at the Kirk Memorial would NEVER put the USA above Jesus. Were there some non-Christians at that Memorial? Probably...but man, did they hear the gospel!

Discussion about Nationalism
I would call myself a "nationalist," but NOT under the classic definition. My interaction with Liberal Americans, Canadians and Europeans says to me that they do not like anyone to be "patriotic." I am keenly aware that many people from other nations do not like the USA and do not like our patriotism. While living in Scotland I watched a Super Bowl with two faculty members of St Andrews (the game started at 2:00am). It was me, the two English faculty brothers and one other American PhD student. As the national athem was playing our faculty friends laughed when the camera focused on a few athletes with tears in their eyes, "Why do Americans cry during their anthem?" one of them asked. They laughed.

I unashamedly love my country. I think everyone should love their country and be patriotic. I have "friends" who sound like this writer - they do not like Pres. Trump and they are critical of me and other Christians for supporting him. THAT is ok to me. If they voted for Obama or Biden I felt the same way about them. I put friends in quotation marks because some of these Christians go judgemental on me and LIKE THIS WRITER, they question my faith.
I did not do this to them when they voted for Obama. Read Romans 14, traditionally referred to as the chapter on "matters of conscience." It's the chapter where Paul is urging the believers to abstain from judging one another when they disagree with whether one should eat meat offered to idols and/or drink wine, or argue about what day to worship. This chapter speaks to the many points of theology, church polity, interpretation of biblical text, personal habits, and points of view that are NOT CLEARLY represented in the scriptures (and there are many things that are NOT clear).

Four times in Romans 14 Paul tells us not to judge one another:
- you "must not treat [your brother] with contempt...he who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does" v3
- "Who are you to judge someone else's servant?" v4
- "You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you treat them with contempt?" v10
- "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another." v13

The writer of this article, whoever it is, needs to repent for judging all of his brothers and sisters who attended, watched or supported the Charlie Kirk Memorial; hold Kirk as a brother in Christ; AND for judging those who support President Trump.

Al Baker, Ph.D.
Church History 101

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