Why Nationalism is Unbiblical

I can’t do a good job of assessing how national policies that isolate our country from the rest of the world will affect our economy, safety, or general prosperity. I have opinions on them, but it’s not my area of expertise.

I can make an argument for what that kind of a mentality looks like from a Biblical perspective. And my perspective, it doesn’t look too good.

Here’s why I think nationalism is unbiblical.

(I should note, by “nationalism” I mean political policies that are overly focused on one nation, to the detriment of the world, and by “unbiblical” I mean going against what the Bible teaches.)

Old Testament

Not long after the world plunges itself into sin, God quickly initiates a rescue plan. That plan is to use a particular group of people, the children of Abraham (we later call them the nation of Israel). God makes a promise to Abraham, and it reads as follows:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3, emphasis mine)

From the very first promise, one of the key attributes of God’s people was that they were meant to be a blessing to the rest of the world. In the law that is meant to be the foundation for Israelite society, the ‘soujourner’ who travels to the land God gave to His people is to be treated with special care and concern. I won’t list all the passages here, but Relevant Magazine did a fine job collecting them on their page. As the nation fell into apostasy and decline, one of the reasons they are condemned is that they fail to take care of the southerner in their lands.

At the peak of Israel’s national narrative, the construction of the temple, Solomon himself prays the following:

Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

Solomon assumed that the greatness of the God of Israel would be known around the world, and that people would want to come and worship Him. And he asks that those people would be heard by God just like the Israelites were hard by God.

America is not God’s nation. (That’ll be fleshed out a bit when I write about the New Testament). But even when God did have a nation, their existence was meant to bless other nations. Israel was supposed to have a strong national identity, but it was to be open to anyone who was interested in traveling to it’s land. And whatever good it received was meant to flow out into the world.

New Testament

After Jesus’ life, death, and ascension, the New Testament redefines God’s people in an apolitical manner. According to the New Testament, there is a nation chosen by God: It is called the church. In Peter’s first letter, he calls the church a “holy nation”, and then just a couple verses later identifies the Christians as “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:9, 11). Paul talks about having citizenship in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and he is implicitly identifying that citizenship as more important than the status of being a Roman citizen; a status that Paul himself had to invoke in order to get out of trouble with the authorities.

After confronting Peter for refusing to eat with Gentiles when his Jewish brethren were around, Paul reminds the church in Galatia that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek. That everyone who is in Christ inherits the promise made to Abraham (Galatians 3:28-29). The promise he refers to is the same one above – to both be blessed and to be a blessing to the world.

Pentecost – the giving of the Holy Spirit – is the great undoing of the separation of nations, the undoing of the tower of Babel, as everyone from all over the world is able to hear the good news of Jesus in their own language (Acts 2).

In John’s apocalyptic vision of the life of the world to come, he sees a new Jerusalem with a river of life, and growing next to that river is a tree whose leaves are for the “healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

Jesus himself, although recognizing his mission is to be the messiah for the people of Israel, ministers to those outside of Israel – showing his people the purpose of their special calling from God. He heals a demoniac on the other side of the sea of Galilee and sends him out to tell others, effectively making him one of the first Christian missionaries (Mark 5:19). He heals the servant of the centurion, a member of the army that was occupying Israel and keeping Israel from properly owning it’s promised land (Luke 7). He reveals himself to the Samaritan woman at the well, although Samaritans were considered heretics by the people of Israel (John 4). His great commission is to send his disciples out to all the nations to teach everyone about him (Matthew 28:16-20).

Nationalism may be an effective political policy (I don’t think it is, but what do I know?). But treating your prosperity as yours alone doesn’t sound at all like what the Bible proscribes for the people of God.

And as a last warning, Jesus does tell a story about someone who makes a great deal of wealth and keeps it to himself:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

I recognize that the way that God wants to bless the world can’t be reduced to wealth. The thing that God was looking to undo through Abraham and his family, and ultimately through Jesus, is the curse of sin, which separates us from God and poisons our lives.

But I also believe that the God who made us people with bodies, and who chose to take on a human body Himself, does not just care about souls, but souls and bodies. The God who tells us that to have material possessions and see others in need without pity is to not have love (1 John 3:17) cares about material needs.

If God’s goal is to bless the world, and if blessing in any way includes improving others’ quality of life, then God’s people ought to work to create a society that brings prosperity to as many people as possible, American or otherwise.