DISCUSS: Christian Zionism And Christian Nationalism

Last week we blogged about the two kinds of millennialism that are influential among evangelicals today: dispensationalism and post-millennialism.

Dispensationalism is largely responsible for giving us today’s Christian Zionism. Post-millennialism is largely responsible for giving us today’s Christian Nationalism.

Lutheranism rejects millennialism of all kinds. Specifically, the Augsburg Confession says this:

Our churches also condemn those who are spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed. (Augsburg Confession, XVII, 5)

Given that Lutheranism rejects millennialism of all kinds–both the pre- and the post- variety–can a Lutheran be either a Christian Zionist or a Christian Nationalist?

To be sure, it is possible to be a Christian Zionist without being a dispensationalist or a Christian Nationalist without being post-millennial, depending on the definitions.

If you think that a Lutheran could adopt one or both of these positions, given the doctrines of the Two Kingdoms, the Three Estates, and Vocation, how would a Lutheran Zionist or a Lutheran Nationalist be different from other Christians who are today taking up those labels?