I have long
written about why nations and nationalism are God’s gift to humanity. Indeed, I
have even preached on this because the topic is an important part of biblical
theology, and scriptures plays a key role in how God wants us to understand the role
of nations in the world. You can read one of my old sermons here.
Essentially in this sermon I show that God created nations as a restraint on
man’s inclination for empire and dominance of all peoples. If this impulse for empire was not
restrained then evil would flourish and crush all humanity.
It is
fascinating for me to see that Nicholas Berdyaev touches on this protective nature
of nationhood in his book The Philosophy of Inequality,
“The
formation of an historical nationality is the struggle against the primitive
chaotic darkness, it is the visage becoming distinct, of a countenance from out
of impersonal and formless nature…Historical nationality is an attainment of
cosmic being. And its destruction is a destruction of the cosmos, a return to
chaos.”[1]
National
identity is God's gift to humanity, allowing every people to live within
familiar bounds, from which come a common order, common appreciations, and
common ways, ruled by their own who respect those commonalities. In these
boundaries human beings flourish. When these boundaries are taken down then
chaos increases. Which is what we are seeing in our own western nations today.
This is why
there is so much effort to enslave, and destroy the distinctiveness of the
western nations, because it allows the rising of chaos. In chaos evil
flourishes. It will flourish in either the spread of chaos, or in the rise of
tyranny to restrain that chaos. Such is the nature of evil, it can be
chaotically terrifying, or overly orderly and still terrifying. But in either case, it
needs chaos to gain a foothold.
As diversity
increases, so too do divisions. As divisions increase so does disorder. From this chaos emerges.
Hence,
multicultural societies feel less safe, are less safe, and need more oppressive
laws to have a semblance of function. Empires are states that rule over diverse
peoples or nations. They require centurions, or militarized police, not police
officers in office clothes, as we once had.
These issues
are as old as we have recorded history. You cannot destroy a nation's identity
without creating increasing chaos. In that chaos anarchy or tyranny will find a
foothold. What are we seeing in our nations today?
List of
References
[1] Nicholas
Berdyaev, The Philosophy of Inequality
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