Why a Truly Christian People CANNOT be Subjugated by a Lawless State

This is a recurring theme in Christianity, and it has to do with the “problem” of mainline liberal “Christians.” For about a thousand years, nominally Christian morals were the norm and there was a general cultural acceptance of Christianity in society. This lead to a large number of folk who were nominal Christians, but who were not believers in a deep sense.
These nominal Christians have been a problem for a long time, and a large number of theologians have written about them. For instance, the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce wrote about it in “Real Christianity” in 1797, in which he compares “real” with “nominal” Christians. The word “fundamentalist” comes from a group of Christian academics at the turn of the 20th century who wrote in response to “mainline” liberal Protestants who re-imagined the Gospels as Jungian and Freudian allegories (e.g. God as superego, Jesus as ego, Satan as id). Thus, the Gospels were not to be taken literally, but as metaphors for more modern psychoanalytic theory. In response, these academics wrote a series of books called “The Fundamentals” that ;listed a few basic “fundamental” beliefs that “real” Christians should hold. This resulted in a return of many congregations to more concrete beliefs — the “fundamentalist” Christian churches. In the mid-20th century, CS Lewis addressed it in his book “Mere Christianity” where he indicated that the basics of Christianity were simple — a belief in the divinity of Jesus, in his death and resurrection, in the substitutionary atonement for sin, in eternal judgement, and in eternal life for believers.
In contrast, Rev Gary Hall, the Dean of the National Cathedral in Washington DC in 2013 told the famous atheist Richard Dawkins ” “I don’t believe in the God you don’t believe in either.” He continued “.. I describe myself as a non-theistic Christian.”
There has been much made of the decrease in church affiliation and attendance in Christianity over the past couple of decades. However, it has almost all come from these nominal Christians who were more or less affiliated by convenience anyway. Congregations with more concrete beliefs have been doing much better, and many are growing. The relatively conservative Southern Baptist Convention has also lost members, but much of that loss is due to people moving to more conservative nondenominational congregations as the SBC becomes more woke\ — and more “mainline.”
This process, by the way, is not limited to Christians. One of the problems that first century Christian apologists had in defending their faith was that the pagan world had largely made the same transition. They viewed their pantheon in terms of archetypes — the father archetype, the mother archetype, etc. Religion was primarily political and involved societal consensus regarding values. This is why the Romans were so happy to accept random gods — they were all sort of the same anyway. Every body had a Jove/Tinia/Jupiter/Zeus equivalent, a Mars equivalent, etc.. The arguments against early Christians was that they were atavistic — a throwback to the time when people really though of Jupiter as a guy with a lightning bolt. This is why the early Christians worked so hard to reformulate their position in terms of neoplatonism — in order to make it seem intellectually on par with the post-pagan pagans.
“Real” Christians in this Wilberforce/Lewis sense have a fundamentally different world view than nominal Christians, and it radically changes how we view ourselves and our relationship to the world around us. In contrast to many other religions, “Real” Christianity is a profoundly personal and intimate thing that pervades every experience we have — because we believe that God is working within us individually and that everything that happens to us has a purpose. And if that purpose demands, for instance, that we suffer for our faith, then that’s fine with us, and that individual relationship with God trumps everything else.
It is also in distinction to so-called “liberation” theologies. In liberation theologies, the idea is that if you transform societies, then people will also be transformed. In “Real” Christianity, it is the opposite -- if you transform individuals, then society will naturally follow. That is the lesson, for instance, in Paul’s letter to Philemon, where he returned a slave to his master. Paul did not say that slavery should be abolished. He said that, because both the master and the slave were Christian, slavery, per se, had become irrelevant in their personal relationship when compared to their relationship as Christians.

Matthew 7:15-23
15“But  beware  of  the  false  prophets,c who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are savage wolves. 16“By their fruits you shall know them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17“So every good tree yields good fruit, but a rotten tree yields wicked fruit. 18“A good tree is unable to yield wicked fruit, and a rotten tree to yield good fruit. 19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“So then, by their fruits you shall know them –  21“Not   everyone   who   says   to   Me, ‘Master, Master,’ shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens. 22“Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ 23“And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’d

Luke 6 45-49
45“The good man brings forth what is good out of the good treasure of his heart, and the wicked man brings forth what is wicked out of the wicked treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks. 46“But  why  do  you  call  Me  ‘Master, Master,’ and do not do what I say?k 47“Everyone who is coming to Me, and is hearing My words and is doing them, I shall show you whom he is like: 48“He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood came, the stream burst against that house, but was unable to shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49“But the one hearing and not doing, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream burst, and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

Galatians 5:22-26
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trust- worthiness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no Torah. 24And those who are of Messiah have impaled the flesh with its passions and the desires. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.