Hello, everybody. It's me, Justal23, back in the video.
In this video, I'll be talking about the concept of nationalism.
For those of you out there who don't know what nationalism is,
it's the ideology of promoting an extreme pride and love for one's own nation
and their nation's people and culture.
Those who are nationalists would view the interests of their own people,
their own ethnic and cultural background,
as above those of others.
Now, this does not necessarily mean supremacy.
For example, if somebody is a white supremacist,
or if somebody is a white nationalist,
this does not mean that they're a white supremacist.
The former refers to one who takes pride in their ethnic background
and focuses mainly on their own people.
The latter, a supremacist, is one who actively opposes all other races and nations
and assumes that they are superior to all others.
But are any of these ideologies biblical? Is nationalism biblical?
This question is referring to nationalism or personal background.
For example, I have a Swedish, Scottish, Polish, Irish, and Russian ancestry and heritage,
but does that mean that I should just put my physical brethren above all else?
Does that mean that I should honor the culture of my ancestors
and focus on the people who are Irish and Polish and Russian, etc.?
Well, let's establish and read through what the Bible has to say.
The Bible shows us that we, as New Testament Christians, are members of a holy nation.
It says in 1 Peter 2, verse 9 to 10,
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him,
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,
which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
So this scripture establishes that we, as Christians, are members of a holy nation.
Now, this is not talking about the physical nation of Israel, for any physical nation, for that matter.
And we know this for two reasons, because in 1 Peter 1, verse 1,
it addresses the letter to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
Second of all, it states clearly in verse 10 that these people were, in time past, not a people.
So even those who are not ethnically related, who live in different places throughout all of Anatolia, are called a holy nation.
Now, among the people that Peter is addressing this to, these are in fact different people.
For example, Galatia was founded by people from Gaul, which were Celtic tribes.
And then you have Cappadocias, the Cappadocians who were native to Anatolia,
the people in Asia Minor, which were mostly Greeks, Bithynians, which were mostly Phrygians of ancestry, etc.
So, they are called a holy nation, but they were not a people in time past, but they are now the people of God.
So this passage is clearly teaching that believers are gathered together as one nation.
Now, the Bible further says in Galatians chapter 3, verse 26 to 29,
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many as you have been baptized into Christ and put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
So this passage clearly teaches us that we are Abraham's seed if we are Christ's, if we are Christians, we are of Abraham's seed.
Now, the Bible also says in Romans chapter 2, verse 28 to 29,
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.
So, with this and what it says in Galatians 3, it becomes clear what a holy nation is, and that is the nation of Israel.
You are a Jew inwardly, not outwardly.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 9, verse 6 to 8,
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
So what it's saying here is that just because the Jews are of the nation of Israel after the flesh, doesn't mean that they're of Israel.
It doesn't mean that they're actually counted as children of the promise.
Many of the Jews rejected Christ when he came, and were thus not considered as the children of promise, were not considered to be the people of God.
However, we are children of the promise, those who have been circumcised in the heart, those who are in the spirit and not in the letter, we are Israel inwardly.
We as believers, despite being from all Gentile nations and from all nations of the earth, and thus not comprising one physical nation, are united together as one nation, a holy nation, God's people, Israel.
So the promise of making those who follow after God his people and his holy nation goes back to the Old Testament, because it says in Exodus chapter 19, verse 5 to 6,
Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
So this is a conditional promise to the children of Israel after the flesh.
If the Israelites kept the commandments, they were to be made priests and a holy nation.
However, as we see repeatedly throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites broke God's commandment, they broke his covenant.
Israel refused to obey God, and many of them didn't even trust in God, so as a result, they turned away from God, and they worshipped idols and false gods, etc.
And for that reason, God sent the tribes in exile by the Assyrians first for the ten northern tribes, and then the southern tribes by the Babylonians for the southern kingdom of Judah.
And then in the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 31, God promises to make a new covenant, unlike the first covenant made at Sinai, where God says in verse 33,
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
So when we enter into the new covenant, the New Testament which Jesus died for, we become God's people.
We become a single nation, and this nation is called from all different backgrounds.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 10, verse 34 to 35,
Then Peter opened his mouth and said,
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
And then the Bible says in Revelation chapter 7, verse 9,
After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with right robes and palms in their hands.
So people from all nations, from all kindreds, from all tongues, are brought together and they become one people.
It doesn't matter what your background is. If you are Christ, you are Abraham's seed. You are part of spiritual Israel.
It doesn't matter what your background is. You are the people of God.
It doesn't matter what language you speak. It doesn't matter what cultural background you have. It doesn't matter what race you are.
God is not a respecter of persons. He will accept you if you fear him and if you're saved.
Even Abraham himself was called out of his forefathers nations to become his own nation.
So if we're to be nationalists and if we're to walk after the way of our own people and our ancestors, then why does the Bible say this in Genesis 12, verse 1 to 2,
Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
So he left his homeland, which was in Samaria, a culture vastly different than what became the Western Semitic Hebrews and Edomites and Arabs, etc., and other groups which came from Abraham.
So the point is that Abraham left his people to follow God, and that's what we should do. We should leave behind the things after the flesh.
The fact of the matter is that every culture, every people is comprised of sinners. There's no one righteous ethnic group. There's no one group which follows Biblical Christianity.
But the Gospel is spread across the world. Jesus said, Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
So everybody is a sinner, as it says in Ecclesiastes 7.20 and Romans 3.23. Everybody has come short of the glory of God.
And some nationalists may not like this idea, because I know there are some Christians who call themselves nationalists out there, but your people and your nation is not perfect.
It doesn't matter what your ethnic background is. There are sinners in your nation.
For the American nationalists and the so-called patriots out there who are watching this video, who love their nation as if it's the greatest place in the world, well guess what?
America is a land of sinners. America is a filthy place. Our government supports sodomy, it supports the murder of children, it supports constant war, and there are adulterers and murderers and thieves and liars all over the place in the United States.
Our nation is not and has never been perfect, and neither is any physical nation. But the Bible says in Psalm chapter 33 verse 12,
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
So the holy nation, which should be spiritual Israel, those under the new covenant are the ones who were blessed. Our God is the Lord, and that's what we should delight in.
Don't disrespect a fellow believer because they have a different background, because they have a different culture, because they come from a different place.
They're born again, and so are you. We become the children of God, we become Abraham's seed. Worldly things like where they were born and where they come from and where their ancestors were born doesn't matter.
The scriptures promise that we are all going to be conformed to the image of his son, and the Bible also says in 1 John chapter 3 verse 14 to 17,
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath his world's good, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
So those who claim to be Christians and yet do not love their brethren in Christ are liars.
They're not true Christians, because the natural work of this union of believers is that we love our brethren.
It says in John chapter 1 verse 12,
As many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God.
So we're all the heirs of Christ, we're all the sons of God, we're all brethren.
Everybody in the holy nation of Israel, everybody who has accepted Christ, even if we may be different after the flesh, in the spirit, we are brethren, we are of the same nation.
So anybody out there such as the Hebrew Israelites who claim black supremacy, or the KKK which claims white supremacy, who claims to follow the Bible and to get their teachings in the Bible,
well it's obvious that they don't. They are liars, and they are against what the Bible clearly teaches.
But we should love our brethren in Christ. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew, a Greek, or an Armenian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Mexican, British, French, Nigerian, Ethiopian, Hawaiian, Russian, doesn't matter what your background is.
Whatever it is, if you have accepted Christ as your personal savior, you are together with me and with other true believers out there, children of the promise.
We are a holy nation.
So nationalism in the term of like ethnic nationalism is not really biblical.
But as regards to just loving the brethren, loving the people who are of Christ, that if you're going to refer to that as nationalism, I guess you call it spiritual nationalism or something like that, I don't know.
That would be definitely what we should focus on and not focus on our actual cultural, physical background or anything like that.
So thank you everybody for watching and goodbye.