History Does Not Repeat… But It Rhymes: Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

History Does Not Repeat… But It Rhymes

Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

For those who have read my posts over the years, you will be aware that there is a question that haunts me more than I’d like to admit, and it’s this: Is there a meaningful comparison to be made between the German Church of the 1930s and the strand of American evangelicalism that has allied itself with the MAGA movement? It’s not a question I raise lightly. And it’s not a matter of throwing around accusations of fascism or invoking Hitler as some kind of rhetorical trump card. What I’m asking is more specific, more sobering, especially after the events off this last week: are there measurable patterns—historical, theological, political—that echo between these two moments in church history?

The answer, as unsettling as it may be, is yes. There are patterns, and they are worth naming. Not to sensationalize, but to warn. Not to condemn indiscriminately, but to help us discern what faithfulness actually looks like when the Church is tempted to confuse its witness with the power and prestige of the nation.

Let me explain what I mean.

Back in the 1930s, in the shadow of the Nazi rise to power, a movement within the Protestant churches in Germany gained traction. It called itself the Deutsche Christen, or German Christians. Their basic idea was this: that Christianity needed to be reimagined as fully German—that the faith and the Fatherland were one and the same. They promoted a version of Jesus who was stripped of his Jewishness, presented instead as a heroic Aryan, a man in the mold of the Nazi ideal. They baptized nationalism, and in doing so, surrendered the gospel.

Fast forward to our own time. In large swaths of white evangelical America, particularly those aligned with the MAGA movement, we’re seeing something eerily familiar. The gospel is being reshaped to fit a political mold. The language of national destiny, divine blessing, and strongman leadership is taking center stage. We are witnessing the rise of an Americanized Christianity that often looks less like Jesus and more like a civil religion built around flags, firearms, and a leader who is treated as chosen—anointed, even—regardless of his character.

The parallels are not exact. The German Christians operated under an authoritarian regime. American evangelicals, at present, live in a democracy. But patterns repeat.

First, there’s the fusion of nationalism with the faith. The German Christians merged cross and swastika. MAGA evangelicals talk about America as a uniquely Christian nation, ordained by God, its political fortunes tied to divine favor. It’s not uncommon to hear Scripture twisted into campaign slogans, or to see altars with the stars and stripes nearby.

Second, both movements exalted authoritarian leadership. The German Church embraced Hitler as God’s man for the hour. Many American evangelicals have done the same with Trump—declaring him “God’s Cyrus” or “God’s anointed,” even while turning a blind eye to his cruelty, lies, and manipulation. What mattered most was loyalty—not to Scripture, not to Christ, but to the movement and the man.

Third, there’s the suppression of dissenting voices. In Nazi Germany, it was the Confessing Church—Bonhoeffer, Barth, Niemöller—that stood against the tide and paid dearly for it. In the U.S., we see prominent evangelical figures who dissent from Christian nationalism—people like Russell Moore or Beth Moore—being pushed to the margins, smeared, or forced out altogether.

Fourth, both movements exhibited a selective use of Scripture. The German Christians removed the Old Testament from their Bibles and reframed Jesus in racial terms. Today, MAGA-aligned evangelicals cherry-pick verses that support their narrative (often 2 Chronicles 7:14), while glossing over the Sermon on the Mount or other texts about justice, humility, the treatment of the poor and the stranger. The Bible becomes less a witness to Christ and more a tool of political affirmation.

And then there’s the apocalyptic tone—militant eschatology, if you will. In Nazi Germany, the rise of Hitler was cast as a kind of end-times deliverance for the German people. In MAGA evangelical circles, there’s talk of war, of spiritual war, of cosmic stakes, of America’s last chance to be saved. Everything becomes framed in terms of crisis, and crisis demands loyalty. Moreover, such a crisis, or several, can easily be manufactured.

To be clear: the American Church is not the German Church of the 1930s. While we have been dismayed by the method and manner of deportations, we haven’t seen anything on the scale of the Holocaust, nor are we at present under an outright dictatorship. But history doesn’t just repeat—it rhymes. And when the Church forgets its Lord and binds itself to Caesar, the results are always the same: a compromised witness, a corrupted gospel, and a generation that loses sight of Jesus because he’s been buried under layers of patriotic myth.

The warning signs are real. And if we care about the future of the Church—especially its credibility with the next generation—we have to be willing to name what’s happening. We have to recover a theology that doesn’t bend to power, that doesn’t mistake nationalism for holiness, and that remembers that our King rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, not in a motorcade.

If we won’t do that—if we won’t disentangle the cross from the flag—then we’ll find ourselves, once again, in the company of those who thought they were serving God while they were really serving something, or someone, else entirely.

History will be the judge…and history will not be kind.

If you wish to read more, I would suggest:

Du Mez, Kristin Kobes. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. New York: Liveright, 2020.

Ericksen, Robert P. Theologians Under Hitler: Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus, and Emanuel Hirsch. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Gorski, Philip S., and Samuel L. Perry. The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Perry, Samuel L., and Andrew L. Whitehead. Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Tillich, Paul. The Protestant Era. Translated by James Luther Adams. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.