When we Christians tie ourselves to any other than Jesus, the church suffers. When we tie ourselves, like so much of the world, to power and wealth and domination, Christianity suffers. Some force— the barbarian invasions of late antiquity, Muslims, Turks, the Enlightenment, and now, the “new atheism”—arises to contend with us and turn us into a remnant.

Jesus didn’t play power politics. He accepted death rather than raise an army and become another Caesar. When he made that final decision to die rather than do so, he told his disciples, “Abide in me.”
Christianity over the centuries has waxed and waned according to how seriously his followers have done that.