From “American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays The Gospel and Threatens The Church” by Andrew L. Whitehead
In the Christian tradition, idols are whatever the people of God place their faith in more than God to provide security, provision, and comfort. Yet throughout the biblical narrative, God consistently calls people to trust in him alone rather than in kings, weapons, or other gods.
Power over others – being able to make them do what we want them to do despite resistance – has tempted much of Western Christendom. In its first three hundred years of existence, Christianity had little in the way of temptation concerning the quest for power. Various emperors of Rome either ignored this small religious sect or, more often, persecuted it. For the early church, the idea of aligning their faith with empire and the power of the sword was a nonstarter. Authors whose main experience of the faith was in a context of marginalization wrote the entire New Testament of the Christian Bible. The age of martyrs, from around AD 60 until 312, was marked by periodic outbreaks of violence against Christians, prompting Tertulian to write, “The more you mow us down, the more we grow. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
The marginalized status of Christians changed in the fourth century, when the Roman emperor Constantine began to favor Christianity and then converted to the faith. Before a battle in which his forces were greatly outnumbered, Constantine reported seeing a vision of light in the sky. It told him, “In this sign thou shalt conquer.” The sign – a combination of the Greek letters chi and rho – represented the first two letters of Christos.
Constantine and his forces were victorious in the battle. The prevailing explanation for the victory was that the Christian God favored the Roman army. This was likely the first adoption of Christian symbolism in service of military victory and might, of raw power over enemies. The relationship between the Christian faith and empire would never be the same.