The Family of Nations: The Peoples in Conflicts We See and Serve for Peace

Today’s reading continues in Section VI: The Family of Nations – The Peoples in Conflict We See and Serve for Peace. Read here.

We echo the Cape Town Commitment in calling “for repentance for the many times Christians have been complicit in such evils by silence, apathy or presumed neutrality, or by providing defective theological justification for these.” Much of this defective theological justification arises from a failure to distinguish between the “nations” of Scripture and modern “nation-states” and from a failure to think biblically about nationality. In Scripture, nations were culturally distinct peoples whose identities were shaped by historical attachment to loosely defined territory, the worship of a god (or gods) whose rule over a people was exercised through a king. By contrast, “nation-states” (or “nations” in the modern sense) are governments that administer internationally recognized political sovereignty by means of constitutionally ordered institutions and laws, over territories with clearly demarcated borders and the individuals and peoples who live within them. Most modern nation-states govern multiple peoples, that is, groups within their borders who do not derive their collective identity from nationality alone but from ethnicity, race, country of origin, and the many other forms of collective identity that enrich the modern world. In terms of identity, these culturally distinct groups are often closer to the peoples that formed the “nations” of Scripture than to modern states. We affirm that every modern state is accountable to the divine demand for the just and merciful treatment of both the individuals and peoples over whom it exercises sovereignty as well as those of its neighbours.

It is critically important that Christians think clearly about biblical peoples when they (e.g. Israelites, Egyptians, Syrians) are associated by name, history, geography, or ancestry with modern nation-states (e.g. Israel, Egypt, Syria) and the peoples who live under the political sovereignty of these states (Jews, Palestinians, Arabs, Copts, Druze, Armenians, Kurds, and many more). God is fulfilling his promises to all these peoples—both Jews and Gentiles—through the good news of Jesus, the Messiah. In the Middle East, and elsewhere, Christian leaders must work to correct theological errors that provide ideological justification for unjust violence against innocent civilians or seek to legitimise violations of international humanitarian law.

We lament that some Christians have looked to the state rather than the gospel as the key means for bringing about God’s intentions for the world. This takes an especially regrettable form when wed to nationalism—here defined as the belief that every state should have a single, national culture and no other—or ethnonationalism—which is the belief that every ethnic group should have its own state. This is a great evil in our world. We lament that many Christians have been sadly complicit in it, as well as in the claims of ethnic and racial supremacy it fosters. Against this, we assert that no modern state is able to claim or will ever be able to claim to be the special agent of God’s saving rule.