FB conversation about citizenship, nations, nationality, and nationalism

 FRIEND: I am so glad my citizenship is in heaven!

ME: yes; but we need to be careful not to be gnostics. God has created us as material beings, and as such, we must incarnate Christ wherever we live. For better or worse, we are in the world, even if we are not of it.

FRIEND: Amen. I have never seen myself as only living for what is to come, but rather to practice/ learn what the treasures are that I can accumulate for the city I am a citizen from, by being Jesus‘ hands and feet.

ME: I agree with N.T Wright that when the Kingdom comes, it will be a complete healing of the world that God created and called good; not a completely different/discontinuous one to replace what He had first created. Too many American dispensationalists believe the latter, which allows them to hold that they can trash this world because God will totally replace it with a brand new model.


FRIEND: Since I have lived in 4 different countries I was always comforted by having my citizenship in heaven, cause that is where I want my loyalty to lie.

ME: I look on people like you and our grandson as having a jump on the rest of us. You have experienced a wider variety of humanity, and have had the opportunity to have your mind and heart grow as a result.


Scripture talks a lot about "the nations." For instance,

cf. Ps. 22:27-28, , Ps. 86:9, Is. 2:2, Matt. 8:11, Rev. 15:3-4, and in particular, Rev. 21:26 and 22:2.

In the NT the word "nations" is from ἔθνος, (ethnos) from where we get our word "ethnic." It means a group of people, joined by shared language, customs, history, and culture.

As I understand it, "heaven"/the Kingdom will be the peaceful community of all nations, somehow preserving their diversity but doing so within the unity of the Spirit.

I think there are two ways of understanding "citizenship." One is literal and particular, qualifying one to hold a specific passport. The other is metaphorical and general: to be a member of a group of people/ἔθνος.

So yes, absolutely: our loyalty as Christians is to Christ; but ISTM that He will not erase our "nationality"-- that is, our corporate character. That metaphorical sense of "citizenship" will remain.

However, I think "nationality" is different from "nationalism." "Nationalism" recognizes only the literal sense of citizenship, and insists that any other "nationality" besides one's own is inferior. The sin of "nationalism" is to idolize nationality over Christ. He alone is the King of Kings, and the Lord of all nations.