Weapons for Rebuilding Christendom Series (Part 1: An Introduction)
This article is part of the series Weapons for Building Christendom, where we are exploring the God-given armaments that Christians must wield if we are to see households strengthened, churches fortified, and nations brought under the dominion of Jesus Christ.
Every man is building something. The only question is what he will build, and whose kingdom he will advance with his life. Some men spend their strength erecting empires of dust that collapse with the first strong wind. Others—Scripture open, Christ enthroned—build iron-clad homes, impenetrable churches, and cultures founded upon the Rock, fit to endure for generations. The Bible does not offer neutrality. From Adam in paradise to John’s vision of nations streaming into the New Jerusalem, God calls His people to cultivate the earth, to work it, to build it, and to extend His dominion to the ends of the cosmos. That call sits upon every man from his first breath; he will be held accountable to it in life and at the judgment; and it is not suspended for our generation.
If that is to be done, we must understand what Christendom is, why it matters, where it is forged, and with what tools it must be built. The work begins here.
WHY BUILD CHRISTENDOM?
We speak of Christendom because Christ is not only Savior of souls but He is King over all the nations. He Himself declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:18–19). It simply could not be clearer what Jesus was getting after. His people are to Christianize the nations, which means they are to bring Christ into every sphere of life.
In this way, Jesus’ reign is not a deferred hope that happens sometime in the future, but it is a present reality now— inaugurated at His resurrection and ascension—progressively unfolding in history until every enemy is placed beneath His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). This is why the Father promised Jesus the nations (not individuals) as the reward for His obedience (Psalm 2:8). This is why Daniel envisioned Jesus and His Church as a stone cut without hands that would strike the kingdoms of men and grow into a mountain that fills the whole earth with Yahweh’s rule (Daniel 2:35). This is how the prophets could see the rule of Jesus Christ so total that it literally overtakes everything (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14).
Christendom, then, is not an artifact of Medieval Catholicism or just a naive rallying cry for people who need a little hopium. Christendom is the necessary outworking of the gospel’s chief claim that Jesus Christ is Lord. And in His Lordship He will have all supremacy (Colossians 1:18), all rule (1 Corinthians 15:24–25), and all lands (Psalm 2:8).
And when the project of His reign is complete—when the second Adam has redeemed all that the first Adam lost, when the curse has been driven back to the last corner of creation—then men and nations will bow to Him. Laws will be framed according to His righteousness and justice. Blasphemers and God-haters will be but a footnote in the history books, their thrones and powers long given to Christ’s people. In that day, worship will be conformed to His royal regulations and will ascend from every hilltop. And in that day, every household will rest under the blessing of God—fruitful, multiplying with joy, and standing as citadels of orthodoxy. That is when Christendom will be fully built, and until that glorious day, we have much work that we must do.
WHY STAND AT THE GATES?
If the Christianization of the world is the goal—and it is—then the gates are the place where men must stand to build it. In the ancient world, the gates of the city were not merely architectural features. They were the place where culture was shaped, justice was dispensed, counsel was sought, commerce was transacted, defense was coordinated, and governance was enacted. To “sit in the gates” was to exercise authority and provide protection; to abandon the gates was to invite ruin.
That is why Proverbs declares, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts” (Proverbs 8:34). Wisdom plants itself at the gates because that is where the future of a people is decided. Whoever controls the gates controls the city; whoever abdicates the gates yields the city to others.
And this is where the church must recover her calling. If Christians refuse the gates, pagans will sit there instead. If the Word of Christ is silenced in the gates, then lies will legislate, corruption will govern, and idols will rule. But when men of God take their stand in the gates, bringing Christ’s wisdom to bear on law, education, economics, and culture, then the nations are discipled, households are secured, and Christendom is advanced.
This is why the theme of Christendom cannot be separated from the gates. Christendom is not built in the cloister or preserved in private devotion alone—it is established and defended where culture and power converge. The gates are where Christ’s reign must be declared, where His law must be applied, and where His victory must be enforced. If Christendom is the house, then the gates are its frame; if Christendom is the city, then the gates are its guard. Without Christians at the gates, Christendom cannot rise.
Jesus takes up this same imagery when He promises, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18). Gates are defensive structures. Hell itself has no power to withstand the advance of Christ’s kingdom. The church is not huddled in retreat, clutching its weapons for a last stand. It is advancing, battering down gates, plundering the strong man, and carrying the spoils of redemption into every corner of the earth.
For this reason, men of God must be on the gates—guarding their households, governing their churches, discipling their communities, and engaging the public square. Only then will Christendom be rebuilt, not as a relic of the past, but as the living, breathing dominion of Christ filling the earth as the waters cover the sea.
WHY TAKE UP WEAPONS AND FIGHT?
We need to fight like hell — because hell fights harder than we do. The hosts of darkness marshal their fury with frenetic force precisely because they know the verdict is already rendered. Their desperation is loud and ugly because they know they are losing. With that, if we possess a surer hope than they do, then our courage should be immeasurably greater than theirs. The promise of victory is not a license to slacken; it is the very reason we must go harder and rest less. If Christ has already conquered, then we ought to press forward with the fury of a marathon runner in his final mile, instead of the couch potato at the beginning of a new Netflix series. As C. S. Lewis once said, we need men with chests again.
This is because cowardice is not merely ineffective; it will send you to hell. Scripture names the cowardly as among those whose portion is the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). To be pusillanimous, to cower behind comforts while the world is being remade in the enemy’s likeness, to watch idly as the glorious nation our forefathers built falls — this is a betrayal of our God-given stewardship and of our baptismal vows. Christian men must not be weak-kneed, timid, or timorous — a faith that shrinks is a faith that fails. Courage, not cruelty; steadiness, not savagery; dogged fidelity, not fashionable softness — this is the moral fiber God calls out of His people and it is the need of the hour if we want to see a rebuilt Christendom.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood… who spends himself in a worthy cause… who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…” — Theodore Roosevelt
Do not mistake me: to fight is not to endorse lawlessness or chaos. We do not answer evil with the methods of the wicked — with campus shootings, mobs that burn and loot, a culture that embraces the slaughter of the unborn, courts prostituted to ideology, or a wanton hatred that desecrates the memory and sacrifice of our forebears. Such acts are not valor; they are vice, and the gospel condemns them (Romans 12:17–21).
Those same fathers who labored and bled to secure law, ordered liberty, and a Christian public life would weep to see how readily the gates have been surrendered. If they looked down and saw us presiding over the ruin of what they built, they would see forfeiture, not honor. We will not vindicate them with elegies or hashtags; we will vindicate them with courage and fidelity — by reclaiming the courts, the schools, the marketplaces, the pulpits, and the family altars they helped erect. Make them proud not for nostalgia’s sake, but by faithful action.
How then do we fight? With the weapons God supplies. We fight with the Word that pierces and judges the heart (Hebrews 4:12). We fight with prayer that rends heaven (James 5:16). We fight with repentance that purifies, preaching that convicts and converts, disciplined speech that orders public life, wise governance that administers justice, patient formation that raises godly households, and bold witness that carries the gospel into darkness. Like Nehemiah’s builders — trowel in one hand, spear in the other, prayer on their lips — we labor and we guard (Nehemiah 4). These are not the tools of the world’s victory but the instruments of God’s conquest; they are how 2 Corinthians tells us we demolish strongholds — not with fleshly force, but with divine power (2 Corinthians 10:4).
This series, Weapons for Building Christendom, will teach you how to wield those armaments well: the open Bible as sword, repentance as purifier, fellowship as shield, disciplined speech as order, generational formation as the long game, and the gospel as the trumpet that calls nations to bow. Cowardice costs souls and nations. Lawless violence betrays Christ. God’s weapons alone build an enduring Christendom.
Will you meet us at the gates — ready to work, to pray, and to stand? In the next article we take up the first weapon: an open Bible.
