Russell Moore is one of the world’s favorite Evangelicals because of his willingness to sell out. Not only is he willing to attack Christians for maintaining orthodoxy and orthopraxis, he will also stay silent in the face of overtly evil actions by a liberal regime. This was highlighted by his attack on the motto “Christ is King” while staying silent when “devout Catholic” Joe Biden chooses to celebrate transgenderism on Resurrection Sunday.
The Dreaded White Nationalists
Russell Moore wrote an article at Christianity Today titled, “‘Christ Is King’ Is Not the Slogan Some White Nationalists Want It to Be which ironically begins by crediting the use of the phrase to Candace Owens who is famously Black. Perhaps Candace Owens is the real Black face of White supremacy.
This week commentator Candace Owens, recently fired by The Daily Wire for anti-Jewish comments, made news as she used the slogan online, allegedly as a response to Daily Wire cofounder, Ben Shapiro, who is Jewish. The phrase was then amplified by so-called “Groypers,” the social media mob assembled around the white nationalist Nick Fuentes, whose singular mission seems to be to put the Mein back in Mein Kampf.
Russell Moore thought he had a sick burn on Fuentes with his Mein Kampf reference which would be the first of multiple intended applause lines in this article. This fails as it’s translated “Mine Struggle” making Moore’s joke nonsensical. The inverse of the joke might have worked.
I’m less interested in the nationalist-on-nationalist social media controversy than I am in the much less recognized question behind it: Can “Christ is king” be antisemitic trolling? One could argue yes, and that the first time we find the words referenced as written down, they were just that.
The cross, after all, came with a label affixed to it. Above Jesus’ head were the words Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, written not just in Aramaic but in Greek and Latin too (John 19:19–22). Many have speculated as to why the prosecuting governor, Pontius Pilate, who personally wrote this inscription, did so—and why he wouldn’t change it, when asked, to “This man said, ‘I am the king of the Jews.’” What we do know is that the Roman system, of which Pilate was an official, used humiliation and intimidation as governing tools. After all, that’s what crucifixion is—a ghastly and shameful act of torture meant to provoke fear in anyone who might challenge the Caesarean order and to dehumanize anyone killed that way.
Of all the things the Romans did, Pilate trolling the Jews with the “King of the Jews” inscription is the least bad.
Jesus, though, is not a true and better Caesar. His kingship is something altogether different. “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:20, ESV throughout). Jesus was teaching, If you want to see the kingdom of God, stop looking around for what you expect it to be; here I am.
That’s because the kingdom of God is not a capstone of the aspirations and power games of this present order; it’s a repudiation of them. If the kingdom of God were about external conformity, tribal membership, or “winning” in the sense that we define it, Jesus could have embraced all of that from the crowds around him (John 6:15) or by teaching Peter to be a better swordsman (Matt. 26:52–54). The kingdom of God cannot be understood or articulated without seeing that the Crucifixion is not a plot obstacle on a hero’s journey. The way of the Cross is, in fact, the Way—while the way of Caesar leads to death.
The word for king in several languages is derived from Caesar such as Kaiser and Tsar. If Caesar is taken as another word for king which it ought to be, Jesus is a truer and better Caesar. And his kingship is something altogether different, in that he was a servant leader while a conqueror as depicted in Revelation.
Be careful what you wish for. Christ as king, the way he defined it, is not good news for those who want to use Christ in order to become kings themselves.
Something dark is haunting the world right now. The old gods of blood and soil are rustling. We have endured the same before. But we must not let them claim the cross. The cry “Christ is king” is true. That’s why it must never be emptied with a satanic kind of kingship. Abominations are in the world around us until the end, but Jesus warned us of a specific kind—the abomination that is “standing in the holy place (let the reader understand).” Jesus says, along with the prophet Daniel, that that kind of abomination—the kind that uses the holy things of God—leads to “desolation” (Matt. 24:15). What we must fear the most is not that which can push us down but that which can hollow us out.
Rusell Moore talks a big game about subversion to the church is a greater threat and he has followed through with it at the highest level one can in Evangelicalism. Thus his efforts were rewarded in this life by prominent positions such as head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and editor-in-chief at Christianity Today.
This is a perfect transition into his silence in the face of real evil whereby Joe Biden and the Democrats chose Resurrection Sunday to make celebrating transgenderism a national priority. Christianity Today did not cover this story, nor has Russell Moore publicly denounced the allowing out of Christian heritage to celebrate degeneracy.
If Jesus were an antisemite, he could not save us. He would be a sinner just like us. In addition, if Jesus were an antisemite, he could never read his own Bible or even look in the mirror. You cannot follow Jesus while sneering, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” You cannot claim the Messiah as Lord while hating his kinsmen according to the flesh. You cannot say “King Jesus” while mocking who he is and what he told us with purple robes and thorny crowns.
You cannot have both Jesus as Lord and Jesus as Caesar without twisting the cross.
A twisted cross is just another swastika, and that’s no cross at all.
Russell Moore thought the swatiska line was a banger, but ultimately he concluded his woke article lecturing White Christians to not troll Jews by proclaiming the truth that Christ is King. Moreover, he ignores the fact that the most antisemitic lines in the Bible (as antisemitism is a woke buzzword and always has been) come from Jesus.
Russell Moore will have his rewards on earth, but he is ultimately in rebellion against Christ, the King.
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