Nick Fuentes is not a Christian

OPINION:

No matter their claims, Nick Fuentes and those who sympathize with him are not Christians.

How do we know this? Because what matters to true Christians is Jesus. Christ is our “highest good.” He is the most important aspect of our lives. He is our summum bonum. He and nothing else — not politics, not popularity nor personal animus — is our “first thing.”

Christ, not clicks, drives every decision of a Christian’s life. He is what we attend to each morning and the last thing we think about every night. He serves as the pretext for every thought we have and every word we speak. Our belief in Jesus drives us to our knees in prayer. It raises us to our feet in praise. It breaks us in confession. It pushes us to excel. It renews our spirit, and it cleanses our hearts.

Put simply, the Christian’s faith in the second person of the triune God, who has died for our sins and rose from the grave, is the priority to which all else is secondary. For the follower of Christ, conflict over race and ethnicity is anathema. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of thee.’”

True Christians understand this, and they show it in their words and deeds. Because of Jesus, we “die daily” to ourselves. Because of Jesus, “we are a new creation, behold the old is gone and the new has come.” Because of Jesus, we are transformed. Because of Jesus, we are born again.

Christians are known by their fruit. Our identity is in our Lord, not our libido. Because of him, our dirty souls have been washed clean. “Though our sins be like scarlet, we are now whiter than snow.”

Christians also know that our faith is not just something we claim to believe but also the standard by which we behave.

Christians understand that we are to “work out our faith with fear and trembling,” not because we earn our salvation but because, through our efforts, we prove our love for our savior.

Christians understand that Christianity is not just the best way to die but also the best way to live.

Christians understand that those who strive for Christ-likeness are much easier to get along with than those who strive to get along without him.

Christians also know that this isn’t just something that happens magically. Yes, we know beyond dispute that “it is by grace that we are saved through faith, it is not of our own doing. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast,” but we likewise hear Jesus himself making it very clear that, “If you love me, you will obey me.”

Christians know that how we behave betrays who we truly are and that our priorities are a window to our souls. We know that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” and that it doesn’t matter how much we whitewash the outside of the tomb if the inside is still filled with dead men’s bones.

We know that constantly talking about grievances and grudges, of men against women, us against them, of gossip, of conspiracy theories and of “Jeets and Jews” is antithetical to the Gospel of Christ. We know that such discord is the mark of the devil and not that of Jesus. We know that when such divisive rhetoric, rather than personal repentance, becomes a “first thing,” it’s time for a soul check.

True Christians know that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.” It is not “hatred, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, and anything similar.”

The Apostle James was unequivocal in drawing the distinction between those who say they believe but still behave poorly: “You say you believe, well, good, but even the demons believe and tremble. Show me your faith by what you say, I will show you my faith by what I do.” Jesus makes the point unmistakably clear: “Many will come to me on that day and say Lord, Lord … and I will say, ‘Get away from me. I never knew you.’”

By these standards and many more, Nick Fuentes is not a Christian, and those who sympathize with him are on very thin ice. “You shall know them by their fruit.”

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.