The Principality System Exposed

by W. Chaz Glass

Certain prominent voices are products of a much larger socio-political and religious system, an arm of a high-level principality currently manifesting as Christian Nationalism. This system twists the Word with nationalistic and political goals and agendas, deriving its power and legitimacy by co-opting religious language and structures.

Pastors are the pillars, providing the spiritual justification and biblical (often out-of-context) framing for the religious component of the system and its ideology. Tribal churches become the distribution networks where the ideology is taught and normalized from the pulpit. Pundits serve as amplifiers, translating the religiously packaged ideology into political and cultural talking points for a mass audience to consume and be infected by, others enraged by. Speaking to their tribe, this is how the principality works to prevent unity. It creates powerful feedback loops: the media figures point to the pastors for spiritual authority and covering, and the pastors point to the media figures for cultural and political influence.

This isn’t a new problem. As I said before, this is the same spirit that used Scripture to justify slavery. This is the same spirit that preached segregation from the pulpit. This is the same spirit that led the Israelites to demand a king “like all the other nations,” rejecting God as their direct king in favor of a visible, political power structure. This is the spirit of Jeroboam, who created golden calves for the people to worship, not to reject God, but to worship God in a more convenient, politically expedient way that consolidated his own power. This is the ultimate fusion of political power and corrupted religion, one that seeks to merge tribal identity with faith, creating a manageable, earthly-powered religion that serves the goals of the tribe rather than the transformative, cross-centered mission of Christ.

Living in DC, the Lord revealed how monuments function as “high places.” They serve as the architectural and symbolic expression of this same system, the principality. They are the stone and mortar incarnation of the civic religion that the principality promotes. They represent a theology of human achievement and power, rather than a theology of the cross. They serve to point people’s ultimate allegiance and awe toward the nation and its history. In this system, the gospel becomes a tool for sanctifying American greatness rather than a message that critiques all empires and calls all nations to bow before Christ.

We must recognize the system, use our authority to demand its name, and cast it into the pigs.

Does anyone see?

Those who have an ear, let them hear.