WAS JESUS ANTI-NATIONALISTIC?

 

 

Progressive Christians regard Jesus as one of their own, a citizen of a borderless world:

Progressive Christians have long held the conviction that the whole Christian-America-thing is actually anti-Christian. Christianity has an implicit anti-nationalist bent. Jesus actively resisted the nationalist aspirations of his followers, which made him a disappointment to them — and ultimately cost him his life (initially!). https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2014/08/07/4-ways-christian-fundamentalists-get-progressive-christianity-shockingly-wrong/33537 

Was Jesus an anti-nationalist? Admittedly, He was inclusive of all who would come to Him (John 6:37), However, He did not initiate them into a borderless existence but into the Kingdom of God. 

This Kingdom is a Kingdom set apart from the rest of the world. It is exclusive but inclusive of any who will come. It is also a Kingdom with stringent requirements and boundaries: 

 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) 

Nor is this Kingdom universal but particular, for a particular people who would enter it: 

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24) 

Consistent with the particularism of His Kingdom, Jesus only prayed for a particular group of people:

“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:” (John 17:9) 

Jesus consistently affirmed the particularism of the Old Testament against progressive universalism. Likewise, He did not teach that we have equal responsibility for all parents but affirmed our overriding responsibility for our own parents (Matthew 15), children, and family (Matthew 24:43). 

This was a particularism reaffirmed by Jesus' authoritative commentators, the Apostles: 

But if any provided not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8) 

Even though Jesus had fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant by bringing in the New, He never spoke against the former. Instead, He insisted that we should live according to it: 

But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”(Matthew 4:4; 5:17-19) 

Under Mosaic Law, Israel had been both a civil and religious state. While the Law provided for a separation of powers—prophet, priest, and king—a separation of religion and state had been unthinkable. God and state were to operate together. The state and its laws were partnered with religion, all under God, as a witness to Israel’s God to the surrounding nations. 

Israel did allow non-Jews to settle in Israel. However, they could not worship as they had before, nor could they proselytize. One law- the Mosaic Law - would apply to all: Leviticus 24:16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. 

There is a Biblical place for patriotism, at least for Christ-honoring expressions of patriotic concern. If we are to have an overriding love and concern for our wives, children, and even our block association or neighborhood, it is certainly not illegitimate to have an overriding and particular concern for our nation. 

The Church has, in so many ways, proved to be a vehicle of mercy to its community. What had been the fruits of America’s Christianity? Alexis de Tocqueville, French statesman, historian, and social philosopher wrote “Democracy in America” (1835). It has been described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written." According to Tocqueville, freedom and morality both found their American incarnation in Christianity: 

“In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people.... Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.”

“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

DISCERNMENT & DECEPTION

 

 

We flourish or flounder relative to the things we believe. Every spiritual blessing is imparted through what we believe and know about our Lord (2 Peter 1:2-3). Consequently, our welfare depends upon discerning fact from fiction, what the Bible teaches from what it doesn’t teach. Here is an example of how one renowned influencer distorted Scripture for his own malign purposes:

 "My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited." (Adolf Hitler, in his speech in Munich on 12 April 1922)

Actually, he hated Christianity and persecuted Christians. He was even able to deceive many churches to support his national and racial policies and to close their eyes to the worst oppression? He posed as a champion of righteousness, twisting Scripture to bolster his claims. Why did segments of the Church believe him? They either didn’t know Scripture or didn’t care about it. In either case, Christ wasn’t first in their lives. Instead, their tastes and fears held the reigns at a great expense to all.

In Contrast to hatred, the Apostle Paul had written: Romans 9:3–5 “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. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.”

Contentment

1 Tim. 6:6-9 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

God had given Moses a song to teach to Israel about His love and care for her:

Deuteronomy 32:10–13 “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness [destitute]; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.

 

It was all about His love and care for His chosen children, Israel, like a mother caring for her newborn, an experience He would never forget, even as Israel would turn against Him.

 

Yet His love would never depart: Isaiah 49:15–16 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…”

 

Our God has now adopted additional children, the Church (Galatians 3:28-29), and has promised:  Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (This should be reason enough for contentment!)

 

He has a blessed plan for our lives. He has taken us by the hand and whispers into our fearful ears, “You are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).  There is no greater Foundation for our contentment but the knowledge that we belong to belong to Him as a babe to his mother.

 

Contentment testifies that we are being nourished from above every step of the way, even through the “valley of the shadow of death.” When we forget that He is working everything for our good (Romans 8:28), we become vulnerable to discontent and its evil partners—jealousy and bitterness:

 

James 4:1-3 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

 

Should we be discontent with the limited endowment of love, Bible study, prayer, or our diminished ministry? John the Baptist’s disciple became discontent when they observed his disciples were leaving him for Jesus:

John 3:27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.”

 

Jealousy is a thief. It robs us of our peace and contentment with our God-given portion. The answer is always the same: Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (He will also enable us to be content with our portion.)

 

Jesus had counseled us against anxiety and discontent: Matthew 6:30–33 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

 

Will He take care of us? Yes, but perhaps not in the way we expect. For Him greatness is servanthood. James and John clandestinely came to Jesus to request that they reign with Him, Instead He and corrected them:

Matthew 20:27–28…”whoever would be first [great] among you must be your servant even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 

Jesus had become “A man of sorrows acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Contentment understands that God’s will and ways are preferable to our goals and desires. It trusts that God can take better care of us than we can. Contentment therefore has learned to not insist in our own way, but instead to trust in our Savior to lead us into His glorious plan for us.

 

Contentment is willing to embrace God’s plan for our lives, even though it is often painful and non-glorious. Instead glory awaits the next  life.

 

Romans 8:23    [We] groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 

 

Consequently, our understandable hope for joy, love, and peace is not found in this life. Instead, the object of our hope is unseen. It is the certainty of this hope that enables us to tolerate this life’s disappointments.

 

If our expectations are invested in this life, we will suffer disappointment, as one who expect a $10,000 dollar bonus at the end of the year and only receives $1000, we will be disappointed. However, if we understand and trust that our Lord has a purpose for depriving us, we must abide in contentment. During his lengthy prison incarceration, Puritan preacher
John Bunyan confessed as much:

 

He who is down needs fear no fall,

          He that is low no pride.

How that is humble ever shall

          Have God to be his guide.

I am content with what I have,

          Little be it or much:

And Lord, contentment still I crave,

          Because Thou savest such. (Pilgrim’s Progress)

 

Bunyan had learned of the need to be content with the little he had in prison. However, on an emotional level, he craved this rare jewel.

For Those Christians who Oppose the Existence of the State of Israel

 

 

While I agree  that most Jews are enemies of the Gospel and are even in rebellion against their God, there are other things that you must consider for the sake of your own relationship with Christ. Christ has only temporarily turned His back on Israel. 

Please do not forget your responsibility to the Jews to whom you owe a God-given debt:

Romans 11:17–18 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 

To oppose Israel and her right to exist, you are also opposing God who promised to remain faithful to Israel:

Romans 11:25–29 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 

There are also grave consequences for those who oppose God’s faithfulness to Israel While there are many such warnings throughout the OT, I will just mention several found in Isaiah 60: 

Isaiah 60:10 Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. 

Isaiah 60:12, 14 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste…The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 60:19, 21 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. 

Isaiah 61:9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed. 

Please repent and accept God’s plan for Israel. Eventually, in eternity, all the children of God will be one.