6 of 12 Christian Basics: All Nations
The world is full of tribal loyalties and hostility. A recent example is the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, an east-central African country. In 100 days in 1994, the Hutu government and collaborators caused the murder of some 800,000 Tutsi, an example of ethnic hatred. This is an astonishing figure, even by twentieth-century standards of inhumanity. The Hutu and the Tutsi are rival ethnic groups.
In the Great Commission, Matthew quoted Jesus as using the phrase, ta ethne, or all ethnics, translated “all nations.” In outlining the objective of making disciples in “all the world,” Jesus’ strategy seems to highlight the importance of working through and within ethnic groups.
From the beginning, God’s vision for the world has included “all nations.” “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” (Genesis 18:18)
Faith in Jesus solves ethnic strife. According to the grand vision of Revelation 7:9 and other scriptures, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” Ethnic and national diversity is acknowledged and cited as enriching the great Kingdom of God. All nations, ta ethne, are welcomed and invited into the worship of Jesus. None are excluded or ostracized.
When my wife and I visited my son and his family in Guangzhou, China, their Guangzhou Christian International Fellowship church included hundreds of members, from different nations and ethnic groups, including Rwanda, South Africa, New Zealand, Ukraine, Thailand, Japan, and many others. This truly was a sneak preview of heaven!
The Way of Jesus honors and loves all people based on the fact that they are made in God’s image, and not based upon their ethnicity, race, language, or nation. This truth has been followed by believers in Jesus from the first century to the twenty-first. According to the Old Testament prophet, faith in Jesus will fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:1-49; 7:14). It’s already begun to happen!
Note: This article is the sixth in a series of basics of Christian theology, from Jesus himself. He taught 12 basics of theology in his Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). The twelve are: Jesus’s authority; Jesus’s divine compassion; heaven and earth; reason and faith; go; all nations (the basic in this article); make disciples; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; all that I have commanded; with you; surely; and the end of the age. The first article in the series is here. To follow all of the articles in the series, click on the word “Philosophical” at the beginning of any or the articles.
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