I am hearing a lot these days about the importance of
uniting the people of the world. In the
immigration debate, some have expressed that it is a national duty to welcome
down trodden people into one’s country, most especially because there is no
real right to have an established border which is designed to keep people out.
The idea of a nationless world is indeed attractive. John Lennon’s “Imagine” puts it this way:
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace,
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace,
The notion of a borderless world has captivated human
imagination (pun intended) all the way back to Genesis 11. Human beings have always been tempted to
build for themselves a borderless world without God (no countries and no
religion too). Consider Genesis 11:1-4:
Now the whole earth
had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated
from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And
they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.”
And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then
they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the
heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the
face of the whole earth.”
There is the unity of language here. There is the use of makeshift materials for
the building of a unifying center. There
are the words, “come, let us” repeated as a plaintive desire for unity and
peace. Who of us cannot relate to that
desire? Why do we have nations? Don’t they just get in the way of peace?
However, if we look a bit more deeply, we discover that the
reason the people at Babel sought borderless unity was really for us humans to
build a kingdom without God. We want to
build a kingdom without God and for our own fame, glory, and
self-centeredness. Human beings are to
be the center of the universe. As
Humanist Manifesto II states, “No deity will save us; we must save
ourselves.” We long to be important; we
long to make a name for ourselves. We
think that the unity of the world, no matter how that unity is achieved, would
be a wonderful and great thing. We think
that anything that scatters the human race, especially where we would not
understand one another, would be a very wrong thing indeed.
God thinks otherwise.
He will not tolerate the building of anyone’s kingdom but His own. Consider Genesis 11:5-9:
And the Lord came down
to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And
the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language,
and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they
propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us
go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one
another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over
the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore
its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all
the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the
earth.
Notice that God “came down,” not as a rival but with a
Creator’s and father’s concern. God
knows that this plan of human kingdom building without Him would be only the
beginning of horrible apostasies. God
now says (v. 7), “Let us go down.” The
Trinity is a far, far more powerful gathering than the gathering of all the
human race! The arithmetic of heaven is
that 3-in-1 is more than billions of people.
Nationalism, according to verses 8-9, is God’s appropriate
discipline on an unruly race. Notice how
in verses 7-9, the words, “confused” and “dispersed” are each used twice,
emphasizing that God has done something on purpose to thwart human unity
without Him. The half-built Tower of
Babel is a monument to the glory of man without God. It is the end game for those who want to
“Imagine.”
That there are different
races, different nations, different peoples is an insuperable fact. No amount of “imagining” is going to
eliminate it. Nations are born and die,
of course, but the idea of a one world government is not only undesirable, it
is impossible. Even though there may be
times when people feel like they are close to achieving the humanist dream,
that cause will never triumph. God will
always stop it.
God will always stop it for two important reasons. First, it is not in our best interests for it
to triumph. A life lived without God is
a disaster. A culture or people without
God is a horror. An entire world without
God? Well, God simply refuses to allow
that to happen.[1] Such is the nature of His love for the
rebellious human race. Second, God wills
that He be glorified by His creation. He
will have the glory due to Him. Some who
have considered this think it arrogant of God, even selfish of Him, to will
that He be glorified. However, when one
considers the true nature of God in all of His manifold attributes, we are
brought low. We are undone. We bow before the rightful ruler of the
universe Who alone is good and worthy of praise.
In a very real sense, then, nationalism, the creation of
nations, cultures, races, languages is a punishment from God for our hubris,
our belief that we could create a kingdom without Him. This fact of the nations is what is behind
many of the troubles that we face.
Nations do not understand one another or want what another nation has
and so go to war. Innocents caught up in
the war are displaced and run to other nations.
Those other nations now must figure out whether to receive these from
war torn lands. Further complicating
matters, the people who are warring can disguise themselves as innocents and
try to spread their hate elsewhere while pretending to be refugees.
This is what is behind the immigration debate. How does a nation respond to hurting
people? Should a nation try to preserve
its distinct national identity? These
are questions that especially are facing many European countries, but they are
also facing us. They are not easy to
answer. However, the answer is not and
cannot be that nations do not matter, that nations are some sort of obstacle to
humanity. Rather, different nations and
cultures exist precisely because God so has ordained it.
How does this affect our own nation? Well, apart from God, the United States is
doomed to failure. “E Pluribus Unum”
without “In God We Trust” is a tower of Babel that God will confuse into
collapse. I frankly do not know how to
resolve the refugee and immigration challenges that our country faces, even
though I have very good friends on all sides who seem to know exactly what to do. However, I know that the idea of a borderless
world is not from God. I know that it is
national suicide to think that we can admit without limit those who are
committed to defying our laws. I know
that it is wrong to turn our backs on helpless people who will die without our
aid. I know that God always calls me to
love my neighbor as I love myself.
I am not so much interested in this article about how to
resolve the current immigration debate as I am in getting out there that the
NATIONS matter to God. God has decisive
control over the affairs of the human race.
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD (Proverbs 21:1); a man may
plot his way, but the LORD determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9); the plans of
man are many, but the purpose of the LORD will stand (Proverbs 19:21). God works out everything after the
counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11).
Jesus is the only one able to open the scroll of the destiny of the
world (Revelation 5:5). This means that
the nations that He Himself ordained are in His hands. The Apostle Paul spoke of the glory of God in
creating and controlling the nations this way, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven
and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he
served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to
all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from
one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that
they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet
he is actually not far from each one of us, (Acts 17:24-27). God has appointed the times and boundaries of
the nations so that they will seek Him and find Him.
God will one day reunite the peoples of the earth and
reverse the punishment of Babel, but the basis of that unity will not be the
glory of the human race. It will be the
glory of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
“For at that time I
will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.” Zephaniah 3:9
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.” Zephaniah 3:9
And they sang a new
song, saying,
“Worthy are you to
take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10
A day will come when the nations (as we understand them)
will be no more. That day is not yet.
Let us not wish that there were no nations. Rather, let us thank God that even the
confusion of nations draws us to the real King—to God Himself.
[1] At
least, He will refuse to allow a one world government without Him to happen
until the Day of the Lord. There will
come a time when the Lord will defeat the combined forces of the world unified
against Him. See especially Revelation 17-20.
