From Babel to heaven: A brief history of the nations
From the rise of Christian nationalism comes, obviously, a focus on nations.
While they may have diverse views about how, Christian nationalists generally believe that a nation can become corporately Christian, and hence, they focus their efforts and rhetoric on establishing Christianity on a national level, through government and/or culture.
Probably the Scripture they most commonly cite is the great commission in Matthew 28:
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Some of them also use the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 as proof that God wants humanity separated into nations:
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Here, we will briefly examine those Scriptures and go further in the timeline of the Bible, all the way to the most glorious depiction of the nations before God’s heavenly throne, showing that today’s nationalism is not the Lord’s trajectory.
The curse of Babel
The Tower of Babel was built by people who had “one language and one speech” (Genesis 11:1), and they took pride in their unity. Their motive was to “make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” They exalted their identity as a people.
Self-glorification is treason against God, and He judged them accordingly. When humanity was the most united it has ever been, God broke it up and “scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth,” creating the nations. From there, He “determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26; more on that passage below).
Related: How Christ breaks the unity of humanity
The separation of humans into nations, therefore, was not God’s ideal intention; it was His wrath. God wants His creation to be united, but not if they make that unity their strength and glory. That’s idolatry.
So to claim that we should emphasize our nationality because God created the nations is to revel in His curse, and it’s doing the same thing those people did — take pride in their sociological heritage.
Our separation from each other is a consequence of our separation from God, caused by our sin and rebellion. Therefore, God’s solution to our sin — redemption through Christ — will have the opposite effect.
Right after Paul said God appointed the times and boundaries of the nations, he said why: “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). In scattering the people from the center of their self-unity, His call is for them to return to a unity that’s not in themselves, but in Him.
The great commission
God’s promises of redemption have always included all nations. In Genesis 12:3, God told Abram, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In Psalm 67:2, the psalmist prays “That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” Zechariah 2:11 prophesies that “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people.”
Christ came for Israel first, but He also spoke of “other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). All of His sheep will be one in Him, He said, from all nations.
His final instruction on earth to His church, therefore, was to call His sheep in all nations. The global aspect of this is expressed in every version of the great commission:
Matthew: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations …”
Mark: “Go into all the world …”
Luke: “Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations …”
Acts: “… in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Making disciples of the nations doesn’t mean Christianizing geopolitical entities. Such an idea is found nowhere in the teachings or practices of Jesus or the apostles. The word “nations” in those verses is the Greek word ethne; it refers to people groups, or ethnicities. It means individuals in all nations. See here for more about whether a nation can be saved.
This began to be fulfilled on Pentecost, which was literally a reversal of Babel. Whereas God separated the nations by giving them different languages, on Pentecost He tore down the language barrier and gave the gospel to Jewish pilgrims who lived in other nations. The rest of the book of Acts, of course, is the good news spreading through those nations.
A holy nation
The calling of Christ’s sheep in all nations results in a new nation, one that can’t be found on a map. That’s what Peter calls it in 1 Peter 2:
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
In Christ, God makes a people who were not a people. While America has been called a “melting pot,” that term best fits the church. We’re a global body made up of every ethnicity in every nation, with no borders.
The Lord’s breaking down of barriers between His people is described in Ephesians 2:
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God …
All Christians, all over the world, are one man, one body, one citizenship, in which there are no strangers or foreigners.
Someday, all worldly separation will end, and we’ll all be together before the throne of God. We see this in Revelation 7:
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Our earthly nationalities don’t completely vanish — even in the eternal New Jerusalem, there are ethne (Revelation 21:24, 22:2) — and we don’t need to forsake them. But they are a distant second to our identity as the people of God.
That identity has already begun here on earth. Right now, all Christians are citizens of the kingdom of God more than citizens of their respective nations. We may be separated by distance and live according to our respective cultures, but an American Christian is more united with a fellow believer in Africa than he is with his unbelieving neighbor next door or even unregenerate family.
In Christ, Babel is undone. We once again have a common identity and unity, but this time, it’s not in our earthly nation, but in Him. We don’t make a name for ourselves; Jesus is the name made for us.
Sadly, there are those who want to put off the unification of the church until heaven. They emphasize their nation over the kingdom. It’s one thing to acknowledge that the various cultures and locations of different nations are significant, practical distinctions, but it’s quite another to celebrate that and fight to preserve national, cultural, or, worse, ethnic divisions, even in the body of Christ.
When we do that — when we strive for national and/or ethnic identity above all else — we’re building our own little Tower of Babel.
More about Christian nationalism:
