National Consciousness

The 2010 edition of the World Cup is being played in South Africa this month. 32 countries from around the globe have been fortunate and skilled enough to qualify for the main event. Koreans are represented by both South Korea and North Korea at the World Cup. As an ethnic Korean, I cannot help rooting for the team from South Korea, while harboring some sympathy and hope even for the team from North Korea. This morning when I woke up, the first news I checked was what happened to the game between South Korea and Greece. I was overjoyed upon learning that Korea beat Greece by a score of 2 to 0. (My second-generation son in California told me he got up at 3 AM to watch the game.) I kept reading any and all articles about this game, even though I already knew all that there was to know about it, because I wanted to bask in the victory. Is such nationalist consciousness (some might even call it nationalism) consistent with the Bible?

There is no question that all nations and peoples descended from one man, Adam -- more specifically from one of Adam's descendants -- Noah after the great flood (Genesis 10). Greeks or Koreans, we are all related to one another. Human genomic studies also prove that despite differences in outward appearance, all men and women are more than 99.9 % the same in their genetic makeup. And, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, also see Colossians 3:11). As a Christian then, should I insist on maintaining my ethnic and national identity and root for my own nation above others?

I think the answer is a resounding yes. Paul spoke to the citizens of Athens, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:24-27). God is the author of the multiplicity and diversity of nations. He allowed this to happen. When people rebelled against His command to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1 as well as Genesis 1:28) and tried to build a tower so as not to be scattered over the face of the earth (Genesis 11:4), God confused their language and scattered them (Genesis 11:7-8). God made them into different nations and is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations (Daniel 4). God gives authority and power to whomever He is pleased with and He sets the times and boundaries of nations (Acts 17:26), so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out and find Him (Acts 17:27). His sovereignty over nations and His works in man's history are one way His divine nature is manifested to mankind (Romans 1:19-20). And the diversity of nations is not just for this world, but will be maintained even in the New World, New Jerusalem (Revelations 21:22-26).

Paul, who preached that we are all one in Christ, maintained a strong love of his people, the nation of Israel. He wrote, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." (Romans 9:2-4). This is, of course, reminiscent of Moses' intercessory prayer after the Israelites made a golden calf and worshiped it: "please forgive their sin — but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written." (Exodus 32:32).

God's creation is all the more beautiful because of the diversity, including the diversity of cultures and nations. His glory and majesty is more appropriately revealed in the diversity, rather than in monotone and uniformity. I need not be ashamed or guilty of my national consciousness. While my Christian love would extend to all nations, peoples and ethnic groups, I should and will maintain and sing of my cultural heritage and distinctiveness.