Family life – Page 4

Christianity & Nationalism

1 Timothy 5:3-4, 8: “But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is ^]good and acceptable before God.

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.”

Here St. Paul, insists that we have a unique responsibility first and foremost to our nuclear families and beyond that to our extended Trustee families. We are responsible to those nearest to us in the ordained concentric circles of responsibility and affection that God has spoken into existence and placed us.

St. Paul starts with the command that children and grandchildren have a unique responsibility to their parents above all others. What Paul has to say in vs. 3-4 could legitimately be condensed to say “Charity begins at home.” Just as parents have a unique responsibility for their children when raising them so children have a unique responsibility to their parents in their dotage.

One of the sins of the Social Security program (and there are many) is that it relieves the privilege of children from financially helping their parents in their dotage. In this, we see again another place where the State has stepped in to seize the unique responsibilities of family and Church and so diminish the authority and place of the family.

What the Holy Spirit has to say here of course is merely the working out of the 5th word to Honor our Fathers and Mothers. Further, this reminds us that the Honor for parents God requires is an honor that extends beyond childhood. We never get so old that our responsibility to honor our parents is eclipsed by how old we become. Indeed, honoring our parents extends beyond their deaths.

After Paul gives the responsibility of children and grandchildren to provide for their aged parents, he goes on to give the negative side of the matter by expanding the responsibility to beyond parents including extended family. In vs. 8 he says that those who do not provide for their relatives and especially their own household are worse than an infidel.

Obviously, this is a serious matter to use that kind of language. Again, the unique relationship that we have to family over those outside that circle is articulated here. We learn that to disobey the precepts of the gospel, is to deny or renounce the faith of the gospel; from whence we infer, that the faith of the gospel has the consequence of obedience to its precepts. When one disregards these precepts of the Christian faith one is worse than an infidel.

All this so far said to communicate the unique relationship we have to our family. We see here that it is true that grace does not destroy nature but rather grace perfects nature. St. Paul is calling the Christians to not do less than the pagans did.

Gelgacus, in Tacitus, says, “Nature dictates that to every one, his own children and relatives should be most dear.” Cicero says, “Every man should take care of his own family ” – suos quisque debet tueri; see Rosenmuller, in loc., and also numerous examples of the same kind quoted from Apuleius, Cicero, Plutarch, Homer, Terence, Virgil, and Servius, in Pricaeus, in loc.

We are not more Holy when we somehow say that since we are Christians these unique familial responsibilities no longer apply to us. Jesus aimed at this when He forbade the invoking of “Corban” in order to ignore financial responsibility to parents. (Mark 7:11)

Jesus took this responsibility so seriously that one of the last things he did while hanging on the Cross was to provide for his own Mother. (John 19:26-27)

We Christians above all should have a special regard for our family — both the family that is near to us and the family that is more distant from us. We can say that because St. Paul himself says that. The responsibility he says is inclusive of those more distant (relatives) but more so towards those most immediate; “especially his own parents.”

Elsewhere, St. Paul expands again his family concentric circle, showing that a special love while beginning with parents and then expanding to relatives also applies to his people spoken of as a whole.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (Romans 9:3)

Love for the nation is merely the next concentric circle of God-ordained love. The most inner circle is the immediate family, the next concentric circle is love for more distant relatives. The next concentric circle is for one’s own people… one’s nation.

Within these concentric circles, there is included the family of God — Do good to all men but especially to the household of faith (Gal. 6:10) — which does not supersede or replace responsibility to family but is super-added so that our responsibilities to be an aid can never be exhausted.

In Romans 9:3 we note that Paul is not merely talking about his immediate family. Paul is speaking about the household of Israel. This love of Paul for his people is something extraordinary when one considers the meat-grinder his own people put him through. Conspiracy to murder him. Beatings. The raising of unrest upon his arrival in a city. The opposition of Paul’s own people to Paul is the stuff that you and I would walk away from in a skinny minute and yet Paul still proclaims his love for his own kinsmen according to the flesh.

So, there it is in a nutshell. God has ordained that family love be honored in a vision of concentric circles. Most immediately we have a responsibility to what we call today our Nuclear family. From there we have a responsibility to our extended family. The next concentric circle of responsibility is our nation since the nation is but family writ large. Included in those circles is the family of God with the same principle of being an aid first to those in our own immediate fellowship and then outward from there.

This simple Biblical truth is now anathema in many quarters in the modern Church. This opposition to the Biblical truth on the family set forth by Scripture had its origins long ago by the enemy of Christianity. Here we quote from a chap who was Karl Marx before Karl Marx was Karl Marx;

“With the origin of nations and peoples the world ceased to be a great family, a single Kingdom; the great tie of Nature was torn… Nationalism took the place of love of mankind… Now it became a virtue to magnify one’s Fatherland at the expense of whoever was not enclosed within its limits, now as a means to this narrow end, it was permitted to despise and outwit foreigners indeed even to insult them. This virtue was called “Patriotism,” …. So out of Patriotism arose Localism, the family spirit, and finally Egoism… Diminish Patriotism, then men will learn to know each other again as such, their dependence on each other will be lost the bond of union will be widened out.”

This was written by one of the evilest men who has ever walked the planet. Louis Blanc called him “the profoundest conspirator of all time.” He was one of the intellectual forerunners of Karl Marx. The name of the author of our quote is Adam Weishaupt.

Keep in mind that Weishaupt wrote what he wrote in the quote above as a man committed to the 18th-century version of a New World Order. As such Weishaupt is opposed to Nationalism, Patriotism, Family and Patriarchy. He viewed them as desultory vestiges of Christianity.

The reason I quote this though is that the quote above or some version of it could easily be heard from Reformed pulpits across this country on any given Lord’s Day. Many of our American clergy corps has adopted the Weishauptian paradigm of hatred for Nations, Family, Patriotism, and Patriarchy.

Note in the Weishaupt quote the idea that the problem with Nationalism is that it breaks up the brotherhood of all men. In doing so Weishaupt denies the Biblical antithesis that insists on the irremediable chasm between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. All men … all ministers who declaim against Nationalism and champion some form of “the brotherhood of all men” are denying this antithesis.

Of course, Weishaupt is just lying through his serpentine tongue when he talks about how Nationalism took the place of the love of all mankind. That is like saying, “because I love my wife, therefore, I hate all other women.” It is a non-sequitur. Similarly, the idea that love of a nation means I will abuse foreigners is like saying that love of my family means I will abuse my neighbors who are not part of my family. It is complete irrationality. Suffice it to say that if one loves all men equally then one will love no one uniquely. General love will never occur where particular loves are eliminated.

Notice that is not merely Nationalism and Patriotism that Weishaupt inveighs against but it is also the love of family, and love of the local. In each case, Weishaupt prefers the love of generic humanity over love for what God has placed nearest to us — family, locales, and ethne. Weishaupt offers us Satanism unpacked and in your face.

And yet in many quarters that is exactly what we are getting from pulpits across the country — this same kind of invective against love of family, kinsmen, and locale. This same kind of invective against patriotism, patriarchy, and Fatherland. It is as if Satan is manning our pulpits speaking in a Jesus costume. Here are some examples of what I am getting at,

“White nationalism is a manifestation of an ancient evil that we as Christians, of all people, ought to recognize immediately. White nationalism emerges from what the Bible calls “the way of the flesh.” This is a form of idolatry that exalts one’s own creaturely attributes, making a god out of, for instance, one’s ancestral origins or one’s tribal culture.”

Russell Moore

Do we as Christians believe in “nationalism”? No, we don’t. We believe in the international, catholic, universal community of the Church.”~~James Jordan

“We cannot be nationalists.”~~Peter Leithart

“When evangelicals embrace an America-first nationalism, the gospel is co-opted and betrayed.”~~Mark Labberton, president of Fuller

Nationalism, on the other hand, is easier to define. David Koyzis, for instance, offers a theological definition of nationalism as a political arrangement in which the people deify the nation, viewing their nation as the Savior that will protect them from the evil of being ruled by those who are different from them.”

Bruce Ashford
Southeastern Theological Seminary

“American nationalism flies right in the face of the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the command of Christ given in the great commission.”

Albert Mohler
President — Southern Seminary

I think nationalism (like populism) is an inherently leftist movement that leads to progressivism; ” — Joe Carter

“Christian Nationalism puts stress on getting morality enshrined in the law of the land. Jesus calls for conversions and changed lives.”

Tim Keller

The ethos of Christian Nationalism is to not in any way try to persuade, win, or evangelize their opponents. Their attitude toward unbelievers is: “They are evil—what does their opinion matter? Sure they hate you—just hate them right back. Own the libs.”

Tim Keller

“Islam is not an external threat in the United State to Christianity but Christian Nationalism is a Christian heresy. It is, therefore, an internal threat both to the message and the witness of the Church.”

Mike Horton

Now we want to be careful here. We don’t want to make the same mistakes on this subject that many of the above haters of Christian Nationalism have made. We want to make some proper distinctions.

First, we need to admit that it is entirely possible and has happened repeatedly throughout history where people groups can make an idol of their nation. Like all idolatries, this idolatry is heinous to God. Those who love their people group or nation above love of God and His people across tribe, tongue and nations and who do not repent will spend forever in hell.

We agree with Rev. Hugh M’Neile from the 19th century,

The inspired prophets were patriots, were, therefore, national protesters against idolatry and every evil work. Therefore they were Reformers. They were Reformers and patriots. Our own Reformers were patriots as well as Christians;

Rev. Hugh M’Neile, M.A.
Sermon — Nationalism in Religion
Delivered — 08 May, 1839

Second, we need to admit that much of the Nationalism that exists in America is more than a little misdirected. This misdirected love of country is driven by a profound misunderstanding of American History. There are boatloads of sins that America should be repenting for and any denial of that in favor of the attitude, “My country right or wrong… still my country,” makes it difficult for those of us who want to champion a proper love of nation.

Third, in order to find a Biblical Nationalism, we need to be honest about our history. Biblical Nationalism that takes pride in wars of aggression or the participation in wars that contributed to the destruction of old Christendom needs to be repudiated. We need to love God and our people enough to tell them the unvarnished truth about where our Government in our name and under our flag brought wickedness upon other peoples and other lands. For example, there is no Biblical Nationalism found in defending our participation in the 2 World Wars of the 2oth century. No Biblical Nationalism in defending our murdering countless civilians in our Firebombing of Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo. No Biblical Nationalism in defending the murdering of millions in Eastern Europe as a result of Teheran and Yalta. If we are going to embrace Biblical Nationalism then we must embrace it as it is consistent with the tenets of Biblical Christianity and repudiate it where it is not consistent with Biblical Christianity.

Fourth, as a Biblical Nationalist I desire to see not only the Christianization of my own people but also I desire to see the Christianization of all peoples in their respective nations. Love of God, and love of people, require me to seek the Christianization of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, in their tribes, tongues, and nations. However as Charles Spurgeon spoke, our Missionary efforts begin first among our own kith and kin;

“Piety must begin at home as well as charity. Conversion should begin with those who are nearest to us in ties of relationship. I stir you up, not to be attempting missionary labors for India, not to be casting eyes of pity across to Africa, not to be occupied so much with tears for popish and heathen lands, as for your own children, your own flesh and blood, your own neighbors, your own acquaintance. Lift up your cry to heaven for them, and then afterward you shall preach among the nations.”

“Andrew goes to Cappadocia in his after-life, but he begins with his brother (Peter); and you shall labor where you please in years to come, but FIRST of all YOUR OWN HOUSEHOLD, first of all those who are under your own shadow must receive your guardian care. Be wise in this thing; use the ability you have, and use it amongst those who are NEAR AT HAND.”

Charles Spurgeon
WORDS OF COUNSEL FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS, pp. 5-6

Christians used to speak like this Christian theologian;

“Of human nature, there is a multiplex unfoldment; in the individual, human nature is unfolded into personality; in the human race, into individuality; furthermore, there is an unfoldment of human nature along the lines of sex and of blood-relationship. Now every one of these unfoldments brings into view a new phase of human nature.”

Herman Bavinck

The Doctrine of God; p. 304

Here Bavinck is recognizing the reality and propriety of family. God has created us with natural attachments that are good and proper. Love of nation is merely the next logical extension of love of family. Love of place is derivative of love of family. Families exist in particular places and locales and the love that exists for family exist then also for the place and locale where the family has prospered.

It is this kind of love for one’s own people that found one of the greatest theologians in the 2oth century writing,

“Nationalism, within proper limits, has the divine sanction; an imperialism that would, in the interest of one people, obliterate all lines of distinction is everywhere condemned as contrary to the divine will. Later prophecy raises its voice against the attempt at world-power, and that not only, as is sometimes assumed, because it threatens Israel, but for the far more principal reason, that the whole idea is pagan and immoral.

Now it is through maintaining the national diversities, as these express themselves in the difference of language, and are in turn upheld by this difference, that God prevents realization of the attempted scheme… [In this] was a positive intent that concerned the natural life of humanity. Under the providence of God, each race or nation has a positive purpose to serve, fulfillment of which depends on relative seclusion from others.”

-Geerhardus Vos,

Biblical Theology

We have to ask, will we pursue a Biblical Nationalism with the love of concentric circles or will we follow too many of the current clergy who damn every form of Nationalism as being from the Devil?

D. H. Hill On Love of One’s Own Place & People

“The Latin Poet has beautifully said that they who change their sky do not change their minds. The emigrant from his natal soil carries with him his old opinions, his old sentiments, and his old habits. In selecting a place for his residence in the land of his adoption, he seeks out some hill or vale which resembles the spot on which stands the dear old homestead far away. The new edifice is made as near alike as may be to the paternal building. His garden, his vineyard, his orchard, his grounds are fashioned after the models so fondly cherished in his memory. His style of living, his mode of thought, his habits, his manners, his passions, and his prejudices will all be unchanged. The accents that first struck his childish ear will still be heard with delight, and most joyfully will he meet some countryman from that loved land, with whom he may converse in his sacred native tongue. And still more grateful will it be to him to find a colony of his own people, where familiar tones will ever greet him, and where the worship and customs of his fathers will ever be preserved. And in fact, it is just because men do not change their minds with their sky that these colonies so frequently dot the surface of this mighty Republic.

To us there is something beautiful in this love for home and home associations, this clinging to the language, the religion, and the customs transmitted from generation to generation; and we never pass such a settlement from the Old World without the feeling that they who venerate the traditions of the past will respect the laws of the present, and that they whose hearts go out toward those of their own blood and tongue are the better prepared thereby to exercise benevolence toward all mankind. He who does not love his own family better than the whole rest of the world, who does not love the land better than all the countries on earth, is so far from being a Christian and patriot, that he is a monster utterly unworthy of trust and confidence. The Apostle Paul pronounces him to be worse than an infidel. So strong was sectional love in the great Apostle himself that he could wish himself accursed from Christ for the sake of his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. Moses, the heaven appointed leader of Israel, who talked with God face to face, as a man talketh with his friend, went even beyond Paul in his devotion to his people, and did actually offer the request which Paul expressed his willingness to offer:

‘Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sins; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book, which thou hast written.’

Among the sweet Psalms of David, the man after God’s own heart, and constituting a part of the sacred canon of Scriptures, is the touching lament of the captive at Babylon as the representative of the true-hearted Israelite, invoking a fearful curse upon himself if ever found wanting in love to his native land, ‘If I forget thee Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. ‘ Jeremiah, the holy prophet who was sanctified ere he was born, represents himself as weeping day and night for the miseries of his people. Nehemiah, while a member of the household of the King of Babylon, and occupying toward him the confidential relation of cup-bearer, had no relish for the enjoyment for the enjoyments of that most luxurious city when he heard the sad news from his native land. So profound was his grief that the imperious monarch noticed it, and was offended. ‘Wherefore, the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing that thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.’ Then I was very sore afraid and said unto the king, ‘Let the king live forever. Let the king live forever; why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed by fire.’

With all these holy men of old, love to their own nation was a part of their religion, nor did they understand that modern philanthropy which consists in getting to the uttermost parts of the earth to seek objects of its beneficence, while squalor, ignorance, sin, and misery are all around it at home. One of this school, whose name is a household word throughout the civilized world, visited every abode of wretchedness in Europe but left his own son to become a maniac through neglect and cruelty. On the contrary, our Saviour spent his energies and his activities in Judea and Galilee. He left his life of labor, privation, and suffering passed away among his own people. His last instructions to his disciples were to begin their ministry at Jerusalem, the capital of his native country. His example hallows the sweet charities which begin at home, and sheds a fragrance around that hold feeling which burns in the bosom of the partiot for the land we love.”

D. H. Hill
The Land We Love — Vol. 1

Family Member Funeral Closing Prayer

God of the ages … God of the living and of those who are alive in Christ we thank you for your sovereignty in the giving of life and your sovereignty in the taking of life. We thank you that because of the finished work of Jesus Christ that those whose lives you take are taken to the end of resting from their work you set them apart for awhile in this life.

We thank you, Father, that the sting of death does not have the final word but that because of Christ’s resurrection we have the certainty that we will be gathered again with the saints who have gone before and who now live in your presence.

We thank you for the Gospel — the promises of God — wherein the penalty of our sin was borne by Christ thereby ensuring the promise of your acceptance of us for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Surety.

We thank you for the life and times of Karen. We thank you for how she fulfilled your purposes. We thank you for the gift she was to her parents upon her birth. We thank you for the blessing she was to Tommy and all of her family through the decades. We thank you that in your infinite wisdom you have gathered her to yourself and all the saints. We thank you for the promise that a time is coming when the circle shall be unbroken.

We ask now for your comfort for Tommy and for the whole family. Grant us grace to grieve, but not to grieve as those without hope. Be pleased to remind us all Father that our times are in your hands and that when those times have come to an end you call blessed those who die in the Faith once delivered to the Saints.

We ask that you would sustain those who are most wounded by Karen’s passing and that you would open before them the doors wherein they should walk in the future. Give them hope Father. Grant them your peace that passes all understanding. Given them wisdom for the days ahead.

We thank you for our undoubted catholic Christian faith which doubles our time of joy and braces us to continue on in times of sorrow.

In our majestic Lord Christ’s name, we pray,

Amen.

In Defense Of Nationalism … In Defense of Basic Christianity

“When evangelicals embrace an America-first nationalism, the gospel is co-opted and betrayed.”

“… Nationalism gives pride of place to ourselves, to regional or national assertions of primacy and the quest for power and success, control and dominance, legitimizing violence and pressing for victory. Nationalism reveals that we have mis-ordered worship. Religiously motivated nationalism simply turns God into our “godling,” a deity subject to our bidding.”

Mark Labberton
President of Fuller Seminary

Naturally enough, there can be no “Nationalism” without the idea of “Nation.” So, just to make sure we are all working with the same definitions I offer some textbook definitions of “Nation” to begin.

Strong’s Concordance

ethnos: a race, a nation, pl. the nations (as distinct from Isr.)

Original Word: ἔθνος, ους, τό
Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter
Transliteration: ethnos
Phonetic Spelling: (eth’-nos)
Short Definition: a race, people, the Gentiles
Definition: a race, people, nation; the nations, heathen world, Gentiles.

KJV Dictionary Definition: nation

NATION, n. to be born

1. A body of people inhabiting the same country, or united under the same sovereign or government; as the English nation; the French nation. It often happens that many nations are subject to one government; in which case, the word nation usually denotes a body of people speaking the same language or a body that has formerly been under a distinct government but has been conquered, or incorporated with a larger nation. Thus the empire of Russia comprehends many nations, as did formerly the Roman and Persian empires. Nation, as its etymology imports, originally denoted a family or race of men descended from a common progenitor, like tribe…

Having established what “nation” means, I offer here a definition of “Nationalism.” Nationalism is a proper love for one’s own people and for one’s own place.

In this article, I intend to take issue with President Labberton’s conclusions regarding Nationalism. I am convinced this needs to be done so because the love of people and place (i.e. — Nationalism) has taken it on the chin lately as seen in the recent MLK-50 conference as well as sermons and postings by various putative leading light evangelicals. “Nationalism,” like “racism” is become a pejorative to sling at people in order to shame them, fill them with guilt, and ultimately shut them up.

To my knowledge, no Evangelical has ever used the word “Nationalism” to describe their beliefs as President Labbereton has used the word “Nationalism” here to describe the beliefs of Evangelicals who self-identify as “Nationalists,” and who thus embrace “Nationalism.” As such, Labberton’s description above of “Nationalism” to define Evangelical Nationalists has no objective meaning apart from its intended work as a polemical sobriquet. If no Evangelical Nationalists embraces for himself the definition of Nationalism given by President Labberton and if further President Labberton’s definition is only attached to a construct (Nationalism) that is inherently wicked per Labberton, then the word and definition is only intended to be a kind of verbal biological weapon that is intended to poison the well before a conversation on Nationalism can begin.

Having noted the above it can be conceded that there have been many rancid and un-Christian examples of Nationalism, particularly in the 20th century. One only needs to consider the Nationalisms which combined with Marxist social theory to give us Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany, and Allende’s Chile. However, all, because Nationalism has been abused in practice, doesn’t mean that a proper Nationalism is inherently wicked everywhere and at all times. There are numerous examples of bad marriages but that does not prove that we need to denounce marriage as an institution. Similarly, all because Nationalism has been perverted that doesn’t mean we need to rid ourselves of a proper Nationalism where there is a proper love of our people and a love of our place.

Vis-a-vis President Labberton and his assault on Nationalism we agree with an older Christianity as expressed by Rev. Hugh M’Neile, in his 1839 sermon “Nationalism in Religion,’

“We cannot agree in that cosmopolitan view of Christianity which undermines the particularities of our National Establishment, any more than we could agree in such a cosmopolitan view of philanthropy as would extinguish domestic affections, in all their vivid and constraining peculiarity of influence.”

Christianity without Nationalism cannot be Christianity if only because the only other option left is Christianity as Internationalism or Cosmopolitanism. Such a creature is nowhere envisioned in the Scriptures, though to listen to many prominent clerical voices of “Christian” modernity the only option possible for Christianity in terms of social ordering is an Internationalism that finds all nations, and all colors, in the words of that famous theologian, Bono, “bleeding into one.”

Christian Nationalism is everywhere seen in the NT. Indeed, there is no evidence anywhere of any such thing as Christian Cosmopolitanism or Christian Internationalism. Christ teaches Nationalism when He teaches, “other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.” Christ teaches Nationalism when He said that he originally was going only to the lost tribes of Israel. Christ teaches Nationalism when He calls a foreigner a “dog” and says that “it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” Jesus teaches Nationalism when He says “before Him shall be gathered all nations.” In a less than flattering fashion, the New Testament teaches Nationalism when the inspired Apostle says, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons,” and then more positively when he laments, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.” Paul supports Nationalism in the Galatians controversy when he resists Peter’s Christian Internationalism which required the Gentiles to become cultural Jews before they could be considered Christian. Nationalism is given Christ’s imprimatur when, in the great commission, He commands His men to go forth and disciple the nations. And the success of that work of the Church is testified to in the book of Revelation when we read that the nations in the new Jerusalem will walk by the light of the glory of God and when John the Revelator writes, “and the leaves of the trees will be for the healing of the nations.” So central are Nations to the Biblical mindset that the inspired St. Paul could write, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” The importance of Nationalism is testified to by the genealogical lines in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Jesus had to be a blood son of David from the tribe of Judah.

At Pentecost, those who were in Jerusalem heard the Apostles speaking in their own National tongue, not in a Gnostic Esperanto. The Church always took shape in particular cities (Colosse, Ephesus, Phillip) particular nations and among particular peoples. So nation minded is the New Testament that Paul in Acts 16 receives a call not from an Internationalist man but from a Macedonian man. From this plea of the Macedonian man, the most momentous event in the history of the nations of Europe and the West came to pass, to wit, the coming of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the sons of Japheth and the eventual creation of Christendom. Nationalism is God’s gift to mankind and apart from a Biblical Nationalism, there can be no Christianity.

Indeed, historically, the enemies of Christ have understood this very point even if modern putative Evangelicals do not. The enemies of Christ have written that their intent is to destroy the whole concept of nations. I offer just a few, mindful that the careless attacks by President Labberton and many other putative Evangelicals are really doing the devil’s work,

1.) ”What will be the attitude of communism to existing nationalities?

The nationalities of the peoples associating themselves in accordance with the principle of community will be compelled to mingle with each other as a result of this association and hereby to dissolve themselves, just as the various estate and class distinctions must disappear through the abolition of their basis, private property.”

~ Frederick Engels in “The Principles of Communism”, 1847

2.) “The equality of races and nations is one of the most important elements of the moral strength and might of the Soviet state. Soviet anthropology develops the one correct concept, that all the races of mankind are biologically equal. The genuinely materialist conception of the origin of man and of races serves the struggle against racism, against all idealist, mystic conceptions of man, his past, present and future.”

—Mikhail Nesturkh, Soviet anthropologist, 1959
“The Origin of Man” (Moscow)Mikhail Nesturkh, Soviet anthropologist, 1959:

3.) “The aim of socialism is not only to abolish the present division of mankind into small states and end all national isolation; not only to bring the nations closer together but to merge them….”

Vladimir Lenin
The Rights of Nations to Self Determination — pg. 76

4.) “… Just as mankind can achieve the abolition of classes only by passing through the dictatorship of the proletariat, so mankind can achieve the inevitable merging of nations only by passing through the transition period of complete liberation of all oppressed nations, i.e., their right to secede. “

Vladimir Lenin
The Rights of Nations to Self Determination

5.) “Even the natural differences within species, like racial differences…, can and must be done away with historically.”

K. Marx’s Collected Works V:103,

As cited in S.F. Bloom’s The World of Nations: A

Study of the National Implications in the Work of Karl Marx, Columbia University Press, New York, 1941, pp. 11 & 15-19:

6.) “Full-scale Communist construction constitutes a new stage in the development of national relations in the U.S.S.R., in which the nations will draw still closer together until complete unity is achieved…. However, the obliteration of national distinctions and especially of language distinctions is a considerably longer process than the obliteration of class distinctions.”

Nikita Khrushchev

It has gotten to the point in the Evangelical and Reformed world that when one listens to lectures and sermons on social ordering one finds themselves wondering if they are listening to the mouthpieces of God or the mouthpieces of Gramsci.

Usually, at this point, the great Galatians 3:26 objection arises in order to authoritatively end any talk of the glories of a Christ-centered Nationalism,

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Briefly, let it be said that there is no fluid nationality suggested in this text any more than there is fluid gender; no more is a trans-nationality or uni-nationality implied by “neither Jew nor Greek” than feminism or sodomy, or transgenderism is implied by “neither male nor female”, nor is a universal declaration of human rights implied by “neither slave nor free.”

Nationalism is the biblical a-priori — the great presupposition of all the New Testament. This is so true that any and every attack on Christian Nationalism is an attack on the very foundations of Biblical Christianity. On this point, we agree with the 2oth century Reformed Christian Theologian, Dr. Francis Nigel Lee,

“One of the very reasons that Paul desired that the Gentiles become Christians was not only so that the Gentiles themselves may be blessed but also so that the Gentiles, then as Christians, may proceed to provoke his own Israelitic nation to jealousy and thereafter to faith in Christ. Accordingly, I think we must judge that every Christian who does not love his own nation is either an ungrateful cosmopolitan rascal and a rebuilder of the tower of Babel or otherwise is woefully ignorant of Scripture. And, I am sorry to say that the world is full of these kinds of people today.”

Eliminate the nations and you will eliminate Christianity because

1.) Nationalism is but the next concentric circle of familialism. One can not destroy nations without also destroying the family. Does anyone really want to argue that God intends families to integrate into oblivion?

2.) Christianity cannot take root in a petri-dish of Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism due to its covenantal nature. Even the promise of the Gospel is predicated upon nationalism as Peter says on the Day of Pentecost, “The promise is for you and for your children, and for as many who are afar off as the Lord our God may call.” But even those afar off who were called were called in their families as seen by the household Baptisms.

3.) You make void one of the earliest Gospel promises,

Genesis 22:^{18 “}And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed My voice.”

How can it be the case that all the nations of the earth will be blessed if one insists that we “imagine there are no countries?”

All of this is why Dr. Pierre Courthial can say in his book, “A New Day of Small Beginnings,”

“In giving the Church a mission to the nations, Jesus does not diminish the importance of the individual… At stake is the salvation, well-being, and peace of the nations, that is, societies as God would have them. The Son of God must ‘rule all nations’ (Rev. 12:5). The nations must bow down before the Lord and come to walk in His light (Rev. 15:4; 21:24). These nations, with their cultures, traditions, and religions turned away from the God of Holy Scripture, are called to be converted to a sure salvation. This conversion of a nation does not happen apart from the individual lives of faithful Christians, but precisely through the influence of such lives. Moreover, each nation’s conversion is to reflect the uniqueness of that nation.”

Nations, and by extension, Nationalisms are foundational to Christianity. God’s well-known intent to save the whole cosmos (world) happens via the saving of the Nations, which per Courthial, are converted consistent with their uniqueness as nations.

This warfare against nationalism in favor of cosmopolitanism/ Internationalism that we are currently living as witnesses through, such as is being waged by those bearing the ironic names of “The Gospel Coalition” and “American Vision” is giving us nothing but pure Cultural Marxist paganism claptrap wrapped up in Jesus talk. All of it goes quite against what the Dutch-American Reformed Theologian Dr. Geerhardus Vos wrote,

God still deals with people as being members of nations, peoples, and races. This is a very unsavory truth for the modern Evangelical with their love affair for the erasure of all the creation distinctions God created us with. God has not given up on Nations anymore than He has given up on Families from where nations arise. When St. Paul wrote, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel,” the Spirit of the living God was teaching Nationalism. When Jesus, from the Cross, cared for His own Mother entrusting her to His kinsmen, John, Christ was teaching Nationalism. In Romans 9 where we hear St. Paul weep over his special love for his kinsmen the Holy Spirit is teaching Nationalism.

Nationalism is really a very simple idea. We have been redeemed by Christ with the intent that we should take on the image of Christ just as Adam was made in the image and likeness of God. And, like Adam in the garden, we are now restored to being Priests, and as Adam was a Priest of God tasked with the responsibility to guard and cultivate his family and land, so we now, as restored Priests under sovereign God take up the task of guarding and cultivating our God-given people and our God-given land. This is Nationalism.

If we will not have Nationalism, neither will we have Christianity.

Deuteronomy 21:18 … The Rebellious Child

Deut. 21:18 “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, 19 then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place. 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, ‘This, our son, is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones so that he die. So shalt thou put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

The graciousness of God’s law

1.) Note that this law ends the idea that children are absolutely owned by the parents to do with what they will. Instead, the Parent must go to a larger deliberative body in order to convict the child. The law thus gives the child a higher court outside the home where he would essentially be able to appeal a wicked parents desire to kill him. Remember, the way the pagans treated their children. This law is a safeguard against that.

2.) Clearly, this law applies to an older adolescent or young adult child still living in the home. Toddlers aren’t prone to be drunkards. We are likely looking at an adult child who has established a pattern of rebellion and criminality.

3.) Allowing such a delinquent child to live would be to allow the leaven of wickedness to infect the whole social order. One unrepentant adult child allowed to exercise their sovereign will over God’s will would breed more of the same and eventually, the whole Godly social order would be overthrown. Stoning such a guilty offspring is thus grace to the whole covenant community.

4.) I find it beyond astonishing that a culture that is so glib about torturing and killing the unborn as followed by selling the unborn body parts on the free market finds the ability to be outraged over a God who would legislate the death penalty for an adult child who has set a pattern of rebellion and criminality. Modern man complaining about the God of the Bible being cruel is like Miley Cyrus complaining about Madonna’s lack of virtue. Clearly, we see here that this commandment is graciousness to God’s covenant community.

5.) Finally, there is no record in Scripture of this ever happening.