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/…/4-ways-christian-fundamental…/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 ASV)

However, the Progressive will respond:

* Jesus was teaching about a spiritual kingdom not a physical nation with physical borders.

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

Let's return to the particularity of nations and nationalism. We are not saying "God and Nation," as Progressive Christians allege. God and nation are clearly not equals. Instead, everything is under God - family, friends, and patriotism.

However, 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.

This does not mean that we shouldn't have a love and concern for other families and nations. However, if love does not start at home, it is not love. It is something inhumane and unnatural, and therefore, had to be sustained by threat and even genocide, as we have seen in every communistic, universalistic experiment.

Besides, if we fail to show a particularistic love for our own wives and children, jealousy and bitterness will arise. Consequently, the best way to love our communities is to start by loving our own families. By doing this, we will create an army of love-emissaries.

Likewise, the Church has, in so many ways, proved to be a vehicle of mercy to its community. How? By loving first on the inside and then those on the outside.

Jesus had opposed an ungodly form of nationalism, one which self-righteously looked down on the other peoples. However, He never spoke against nationalism per se.