Pulse
16 Jun 2025
In 2020, I published an article on this website on Dominionism entitled ‘The Dangerous Distortions of Dominion Theology’. In that article, I defined Dominionism, and explained carefully its main theological and political convictions and goals.[1]
I argued emphatically that while many of its proponents associate Dominion Theology with mainstream Evangelicalism, it is in fact a distortion of the latter. I concur with the critic Sarah Powell Miller that Dominion Theology represents the ‘bastardisation of mainstream Evangelicalism’ and that it is an ‘anti-Democratic, anti-American movement of subversion.’
In America today, Christian Dominionism shows no signs of waning. In fact, it was revitalised when Donald Trump officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign on November 15, 2022, declaring his intention to seek the Republican nomination.
On October 12, 2024, a ‘Million Women’ worship rally was conducted by the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) to encourage one million women to pray and support Trump’s campaign. The significance of the event was couched in the language of spiritual warfare. It was presented as ‘the last stand’ to save the nation (by helping Trump to win the election) from dark, spiritual forces.
Dominion theology uses Christian apocalyptic rhetoric to serve its own political ends. It presents reality in stark black-and-white terms: Trump, the force for good and the warrior for God, and Harris, an instrument of the demonic forces.
Based on its fundamental doctrine dubbed as the Seven Mountains Mandate,[2] Dominionists position Trump as the one who will come against the demonically controlled and corrupted ‘deep-state.’
Trump’s survival of two assassination attempts was interpreted as divine protection by Dominionists and Christian nationalists alike. For them, this ‘miracle’ is indicative that God has indeed called him to lead the nation.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders reportedly said that God had intervened because ‘he is certainly not finished with President Trump.’ Steve Bannon, former White House strategist, suggests that the incident was a sign of divine protection, and that Trump was wearing ‘the armour of God’, referring to Ephesians 6:11.
When Trump won the presidential election on November 5, 2024, defeating Democratic nominee and then Vice-President Kamala Harris, Christian nationalists of all stripes, including adherents of Dominion Theology, were predictably elated.
This is because many Christian nationalists regarded Trump’s victory as a sign of divine intervention. In fact, Dominionists such as Lance Wallnau, who is also associated with the NAR, described the outcome of the election as the fulfilment of prophecy.
Lance Wallnau was, of course, not alone in holding this view.
A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that two-thirds of the adherents of Christian nationalism (67%) and nearly half of sympathisers (48%) agreed that Trump’s victory had been ordained by God.
Christian Dominionists are playing the dangerous game of politicising religion on the one hand and sacralising politics on the other.
They are politicising religion because in their scheme of things theological commitments are often subjugated to political ideologies. And they are sacralising politics because they ‘anoint’ civil authorities with divine sanction, in the process investing human institutions and leaders with sacred significance.
Proponents of Dominionism such as R.J. Rushdoony, often described as the father of Christian Reconstructionism (Dominionism’s other name), argue that the Bible – especially the Old Testament – provides the blueprint for political life. Some Christian doctrines are then commandeered and reinterpreted so that they align with Dominionism’s political vision and objectives.
However, as theologian Michael Horton rightly points out, this approach leads to a confusion of the two kingdoms, resulting in the Church’s mission of redemption being subordinated to political ideology. Consequently, instead of being a witness to God’s kingdom through loving service and sacrificial living, the Church takes on the role of a militarised institution advancing God’s rule.
In a similar vein, Christian Dominionists sacralise politics. This has spawned a theocratic vision where the state is regarded as the agent of God’s justice. It is just such a vision that nurtured the myth of the ‘Christian nation’ and serves as the motivation behind the agenda for Christians to take over the running of the government.
As Dominionist Gary North has so blatantly put it in his book Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism (1989), the state must be explicitly a Christian institution if it is to claim any legitimacy.
The Dominionist vision of a politicised religion and a sacralised politics will give birth to a new authoritarianism and totalitarianism. In this vision, political office-holders are transformed into quasi-priests, and state power becomes an instrument of divine judgement and punishment.
Dominionism will also spell the end of democracy.
This is because its theonomic political theory denies the legitimacy of any political structure or system that is not explicitly grounded in the Bible. Competing perspectives which are secular, interfaith or even Christian views that do not fit the dominionist framework are delegitimised.
Opponents of dominionist policies are not only regarded as political opponents, but are perceived as enemies of God whose purpose is to disrupt the divine order. This would not only result in the erosion of public discourse which must be conducted on the basis of equality, it will also foster polarisation and conflict.
Dominion Theology distorts the essence of the witness of the Church because it perverts the Gospel of grace by turning it into a political gospel. By confusing the kingdom of God with human rule and this-worldly politics, it undermines the Church’s call to proclaim the message of divine grace and embody that message in humble and loving service.
At the hands of the Dominionists, the Gospel is no longer about the finished work of Christ on Calvary’s cross, but a blueprint for political and cultural domination.
The Church of Jesus Christ has a dual role in the world.
It is called to be a prophetic voice that speaks truth to power and proclaims the triumph of God’s saving grace. But the Church is also called to be a pastoral community which offers healing and hope to a world broken by sin.
Not only is Dominion Theology unable to fulfil these roles, it undermines them.
By politicising the faith, it weds itself with certain political agendas and ideologies, rendering it incapable of speaking prophetically against injustices and corruption. The history of the Church in the Middle Ages provides ample examples of such impotence and compromise.
Furthermore, as a powerful and power-hungry institution, dominionists can no longer recognise much less minister to the needs of the marginalised, broken and vulnerable. In its lust for power and desire for dominance, the Church will lose its credibility among the oppressed and alienated – the very people whom it is called to serve.
Is Dominion Theology simply a theological error that is without consequence?
The answer to this question should be obvious: emphatically ‘No’!
Dominionism is a dangerous ideology which threatens the witness of the Church, the cohesion of society and the health of democracy. Most significantly, Dominion Theology is spiritual deception disguised as faithfulness. It trades the cross for a sword, the Gospel for power, and the Church’s mission for a political crusade.
Dominionism is not Christianity. It is idolatry cloaked in religious and patriotic language.
[1] Roland Chia, ‘The Dangerous Distortions of Dominion Theology’ September 21, 2020, https://ethosinstitute.sg/distortions-of-dominion-theology/
[2] Roland Chia, ‘Seven Mountains Mandate’, September 2, 2019, https://ethosinstitute.sg/seven-mountains-mandate/
Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.