Posted on 03/17/2021 8:15:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Nationalism and globalism are on a collision course and the future of civilization is at stake.
“Progressive nationalism ... seeks to impose a highly specific and controversial vision of social order,” warned George Washington University Professor Samuel Goldman, as reported March 16 in The Christian Post by Ryan Foley.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis proposes a new world order of globalism to counteract all the rising nationalisms.[1]
“The world will never be the same again (because of the COVID pandemic),” said the Pontiff. However, “it is precisely within this calamity that we must grasp those signs which may prove to be the cornerstones of reconstruction.”
Pope Francis lent his stature to the view sweeping many nations that history is in a “reset” phase. It would seem that the COVID pandemic had the same effect as Noah’s Flood — the destruction of an old order necessitating the construction of a new world system.
The Pope gave chilling detail in a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in May 2019: “When a supranational common good is clearly identified, there is need for a special legally constituted authority capable of facilitating its implementation.”
In the speech, the Pope suggested that what is needed is a globally authoritative body that could counteract the “growing nationalism which neglects the common good.”
There are many others who identity with Christianity, including Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics who are disturbed by the Pope’s apparent favoring of globalism to resist extremes of nationalism.
It is naive to be blind to the extremes of globalism.
Whose “side” is God on in the midst of this cacophonous din between intensifying nationalism and looming globalism?
This is an important question in a nuclear world where trembling hands are on buttons that, pushed, could wipe out whole civilizations and the nations within them. There is no reassurance that in Trump’s waning hours Nancy Pelosi was anxious that Trump not have access to nuclear codes that were about to be turned over to Joe Biden.
“God is on our side,” said Donald Trump in the heady early days of his presidency. The belief of some in the Biden White House suggested that the Democrats were favored by the pandemic creating conditions favorable to his election.
“God is on our side,” said Maxine Waters, as she exhorted her allies to “push back” if they encountered a Trump cabinet officer.
"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator,” said Adolf Hitler as he contemplated the genocide of the Jewish race — marked in the Bible as the Lord’s chosen people.
“God is on your side?” Joseph Stalin mockingly asked Winston Churchill in 1943 at the Tehran conference. “The devil’s on my side; he’s a good Communist,” said the Soviet dictator.
Many nations and their leaders across history have claimed God’s special support. Recent times have raised the question to new levels of intensity. This, in the view of some critics, has devolved into a nationalism that asserts one worldview and the institutions arising from it as superior to all others, and therefore the right — indeed, the mandate, divine or otherwise— to bring the rest into conformity.
This is why distorted nationalism is a matter of concern.
However, the Bible is clear that, while God may not be a “nationalist” in the current use of the term, He does love nations. In fact, nations are crucial in His great plan for history.
The Creator’s desire for all peoples is that they enjoy the attributes of His Kingdom —righteousness-justice, peace, and Spirit-given transcendent joy. (Romans 14:17)
Thus, God sees nations ethnologically rather than politically. That is, He sees people rather than national institutions.
“This Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed in all the inhabited earth for a testimony to the nations,” says Jesus in the Greek rendering of Matthew 24:14. And the word used for “nations” there is ethnesin, from which English gets “ethnic.” Clearly God’s view of a nation is not focused on geo-politics but humanity. Nations are clusterings of His image-bearers in a shared environment to facilitate proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
In Athens, the Apostle Paul tells the philosophers that God Himself has “made of one blood every nation — again, ethnos (another form of ethnesin) to dwell on earth.” (Acts 17:26)
Nations are important in God’s Kingdom plan because they are crucibles into which the Kingdom message can be poured. The people do not have to be the same racially, but a diverse humanity sharing a common worldview, and a life experience that facilitates community whose members can receive, learn, bear witness, and serve one another in relationship.
The New Testament church ideally is at the heart of this dynamic lifestyle because it is the core body that flourishes through the “fellowship of the saints” and can radiate such loving care into the crucible of the nation.
Globalism is not the answer to nationalism, but God’s Kingdom is. And nations play a crucial role in its advance in the world until Christ returns with the fulness of His manifest reign over all the nations.
Paul himself said it in his Athenian discourse: “(God’s) purpose was for the nations to seek after God...” (Acts 17:27 NLT)
Let our “nationalism” be that of the kingdom of God.
We explore the vital role of nations in the next article in this series. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] He surfaced this proposal in a series of interviews with Domenico Agasso that became a recently published book, God and the World to Come.
As he told Joshua, God is on God’s side. The real question is, “whose side are the nations on?”
I keep seeing people broadly decry the evils of ‘extreme nationalism’ but no one ever says what these are. When Pres. Trump said ‘America first’ the leftists said this is inherently evil. It’s all a lie.
Leftism is anti-nationalist for Americans and other Westerners but indifferent or supportive of nationalism for others. Anything that is good for America is opposed by leftists. That’s the bottom line.
Deuteronomy 32:8
“When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
When He separated the sons of man,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the sons of Israel.”
Anything extreme about Nationalism would be 100 times worse if instituted on a global-scale. That’s what globalists fail to understand. Nations are checks and balances on the accumulation of world-encompassing power.
I consider myself a US Patriot, but I’ll be damned if I support the expansion of US power around the globe. It’s sheer hypocrisy to raise up cries of an imperialistic China, Russia, or Iran when we are the most ubiquitous presence on the planet.
God is not on any nations side. All are evil in His sight. He is on the side of those individuals redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ wherever they are
Nationalism was dangerous before the Abomb. Now it’s more like aggressive adventurism that is the culprit.
I believe God is not indifferent among nations. The United States was founded by Godly men and according to Godly principles. Our remarkable early success as a nation was by God’s grace and I believe it reflected His favor.
Now America has turned from God and we are losing His favor as a result. The Democrat Party is of Satan. They seek to make America less Godly in every way. If the American people freely choose that path of evil then our nation will fall. God will not continue to bless us if we deny and defy Him.
Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. [Act 9:31 KJV]
And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. [Act 15:41 KJV]
And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily. [Act 16:5 KJV]
For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. [Act 19:37 KJV]
Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. [Rom 16:4 KJV]
Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you. [Rom 16:16 KJV]
But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches. [1Co 7:17 KJV]
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. [1Co 11:16 KJV]
For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. [1Co 14:33 KJV]
Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience, as also saith the law. [1Co 14:34 KJV]
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. [1Co 16:1 KJV]
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. [1Co 16:19 KJV]
Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; [2Co 8:1 KJV]
And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise [is] in the gospel throughout all the churches; [2Co 8:18 KJV]
And not [that] only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and [declaration of] your ready mind: [2Co 8:19 KJV]
Whether [any do enquire] of Titus, [he is] my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren [be enquired of, they are] the messengers of the churches, [and] the glory of Christ. [2Co 8:23 KJV]
Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf. [2Co 8:24 KJV]
I robbed other churches, taking wages [of them], to do you service. [2Co 11:8 KJV]
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. [2Co 11:28 KJV]
For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except [it be] that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. [2Co 12:13 KJV]
And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: [Gal 1:2 KJV]
And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: [Gal 1:22 KJV]
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they [have] of the Jews: [1Th 2:14 KJV]
So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: [2Th 1:4 KJV]
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; [Rev 1:4 KJV]
Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. [Rev 1:11 KJV]
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. [Rev 1:20 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. [Rev 2:7 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. [Rev 2:11 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it]. [Rev 2:17 KJV]
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. [Rev 2:23 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. [Rev 2:29 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. [Rev 3:6 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. [Rev 3:13 KJV]
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. [Rev 3:22 KJV]
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star. [Rev 22:16 KJV]
I vote for Individualism.
Actually, the third commandment would apply here.
Individualism is undefined, it’s never existed, and it’s not an option.
Nationalism and globalism are what’s on the menu.
DO NOT assume God is on our side. There are 60 million aborted baby voices pleading for vengeance. Their voices are heard before ours are.
As he told Joshua, God is on God’s side. The real question is, “whose side are the nations on?”
"The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and his anointed...."
Globalist or nationalist, they're on their own side.
How about this? "Belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence." I kind of like that definition. How about you?
I’m disinterested in vain virtue-signalling.
I observe that communists and Satanists are destroying America and I want to work to reverse this trend.
What is of primary importance is God.
the people tried globalism and usurping The Almighty by refusing to ‘go forth,’ instead, building a tower to go confront Him.
We know the response - the people were disbursed to the corners of the earth, to cleave to their own and to create their own lands, based on the unique languages given their tongues in the blink of an eye.
So if anyone asks, ‘What would God do’ - the Tower of Babel is your answer.
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