John 17:20-23 (NIV)
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
"Oh, we're halfway there, O-oh, living on a prayer..." That is of the chorus of "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi, one of my favorite songs and one I invariably try to sing at Karaoke (that key change is brutal). I started this series of 62 posts about "Christian" Nationalism, each with a specific verse of Scripture that speak against that corrupt idea, on August 9th of 2022. I'll admit, after a steady stream of posts my focus wavered and for much of 2023 has been replaced with the need to combat the spread of Torah Clubs [The Dangers of the First Fruits of Zion and their Torah Clubs} in our area. But, once you've taken up a task, it is hard to let it go. This post, then, marks the halfway point, the rest will continue to be created as time and my need to focus on other things permits...
The passage from John's Gospel is Jesus' prayer for unity among his followers offered up to the Father on the eve of his Passion. One of the remarkable things about this particular prayer at this particular time is how laser focused it is upon the need for unity among the body of believers who would soon be called Christians, drawn together as part of the Church that Jesus founded to continue his work after his return to Heaven.
OK, so Jesus wanted his followers to "be one," what does that have to do with "Christian" Nationalism? A whole lot if you take a few minutes to think about it. One example will illustrate why Nationalism, especially "Christian" Nationalism is antithetical to Jesus' prayer: During WWI, tens of millions of British, French, German, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and American young men tried to kill each other. That the vast majority of these young men claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ, who were being order to try to kill other followers of Jesus Christ, didn't matter at all to those in power because the enemy belonged to a different nation. One's national allegiances superseded, nay even extinguished in this case since it condoned killing other followers of Jesus, one's faith. This wasn't the first time, similar wars had raged since the break-up of the Roman Empire, pitting Christians against each other in order to further the claims of their feudal lords, kings, and eventually nation-states.
There isn't an objective way to look at Church History without concluding that God would consider this bloodshed to be sinful. One may be able to defend those who fought in defense of their family and community, but that rationale evaporates in every other scenario, not to mention the wanton rape and pillaging that walked hand-in-hand with these wars. It is impossible to say that participation in this militant violent behavior made those who did so more Christ-like. Perhaps the horrors of violence brought some few to repentance afterwards, but God is not in the business of using evil on the chance that some will be repelled enough by it that they turn and seek the light.
If, then, one accepts the premise of "Christian" Nationalism, that our allegiance to Jesus Christ must be in some fashion melded with, even subsumed to, our allegiance to our country, there is NO hope of unity within the Global Church. What we will end up with is a host of church bodies split along political lines, and a never-ending sorry tale of rivalries and violence between them that mirror those of the nations to which they belong.
A current example: Why do you think that the Russian Orthodox Patriarch has dubbed Putin's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine as a Holy Crusade? [Moral Clarity: God help us if we can't see that Vladimir Putin and his war are Evil.] The sad truth is, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church has chosen the kingdom of this world, and in so doing, has made a mockery of its claims that it is a defender of Christianity.
The Church cannot fulfill its mission if it allows lines drawn on a map to divide those whose first allegiance must be to Jesus Christ, yet another reason why "Christian" Nationalism is biblically untenable.
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