Zealous nationalism, entitlement and the demonic (The Kingdom of heaven vs the kingdoms of the earth)

During what is called The Passion Week, I have listened to Abide, an app that helps Christian to slow down and meditate on Scripture, to pray Scripture, to relate to Scripture in a personal way. I found it helpful, because I too easily get caught up with studying. Now, studying is good, but God wants to meet us personally through the Scriptures and relate himself to us in a personal way. There are directions that are specifically for me. There are promises that are specially relevant to his calling for me. God is a personal God, He isn't just an objective set of moral rules that we measure ourselves against or some systematic theology. I love systems, I am very analytical. But there is a danger that we lose the most important part; our personal walk with God. We can't walk with systematic theology, but we can walk with the Lord, the everlasting I AM. 

Judas Iscariot - what can we learn from him?

One of the days the focus was on Judas Iscariot, the one that betrayed Jesus. And the question came what was the driving force behind the fact that Satan got the chance to enter into Judas and entice him to go to the chief priests and officers of the temple guard (Luke 22.3-4)? The question is important and I get a bit disturbed by my findings. Are we blind, as were the pharisees? Do we unintentionally support a driving force that the Bible warns against? 

Firstly, if we believe firmly in God's total providence and dominion, in the sense that it supersedes mens personal moral choice, then Judas really didn't have a personal choice in this. Then that force behind his choices and the fact that the devil got hold of him was then in fact the will of God. Then that question is kind of irrelevant. He could have been the best man on the face of the earth, but God himself would have corrupted Judas and made him do the crime for which he was firmly judged. Of course, God knew beforehand what would happen. He has said what would happen through the prophets. When Jesus elected the 12 apostles he spent a whole night in prayer. He had to elect a man who would in the end not believe to the extent that he would totally reject the Messianic mission of Jesus, and Jesus knew from the beginning who it was (John 6:60-71). The Scripture specifically says the Judas left his position of Messianic ministry (Acs 1:24-25). Knowing that somebody will to something in the future does not make you the driving force behind it. On the other hand, it was the providence of God, to let it happen. God does not force His ways on us, whether it be the way of salvation or the way of condemnation. Judas did take part in the ministry of Jesus. He saw all the miracles that the other ones saw. He had blind eyes opened through his hands and words. He saw Lazarus walk out of the tomb and he heard how people where whispering about Jesus. So why betray Jesus? If he really thought that this man was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, he surely wouldn't have done so. He, was not, though the only of the apostles that didn't get everything that Jesus said. That is very clear in the Scriptures. The disciples asked questions and got answers and their response showed that they were striving to get along with Jesus understanding of His Kingdom. They all had this anticipation that Jesus would free Israel from the Roman occupants, and even after His ressurection they hold on to it (Luk 24:21; Acts 1:6). But Jesus continually rejected the idea as anything that would happen in their lifetime, at least (John 6.15; 18.36; Acts 1.7-8). Opposite, he predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the Temple. Now, before we end up in a discussion on eschatology and Israels place in the plan of God in the end times, let us just leave that there. Jesus did not free Israel from the oppression of the Romans during the first century. All the disciples thougth he would, but He didn't. It's a historical fact. We can have different views on the millenium and what not, but we should be able to agree on these historical matters still.

The hang on an earthly kingdom of Israel, the freedom of an earthly Jerusalem and a physical temple vs Jesus' suffering King-servants in a spiritual kingdom with the freedom of hearts
Before Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the Temple guard, Jesus had prophecied about the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (Luke 21:5-38). Ha had driven out all who did business in the temple and he had called them robbers (Luke 19:45-48). He had even confirmed the right of the Romans to tax them! Ouch! That was a heavy one for any oppressed Jew of the time (Luke 20:20-26). There was just so much about Jesus that contradicted an Isrealite National Freedom Day Movement. Rather than redemption of physical Jerusalem and another level of glory the for a physical temple, he preached the opposite! Most of the disciples stayed, still, but one totally left Jesus. They all kind of left when Jesus was arrested, but that was a different thing. One even denied knowing Jesus, but that was still a different thing. There was something in Judas' heart that gave way for Satan to enter his heart. The last meal that they had before Jesus was judged and crucified, was according to the gospel of John the very moment when Satan entered Judas. John says that the devil had already given the Judas the idea that he should betray Judas. Now, we know how the devil operates. He don't just say: “Do this”, and when we ask: why, he just responds: “because I say so, and I am the Bad and Evil Devil”. No we can see from the Bible that the devil has a rationale behind his attempts to tempt us. In the garden he twisted what God had said, and made it look like God was stingy, right? Paul talks about how he fights with the weapons of God to abolish and tear down arguments (gr. logismos - a series of thought that is built on each other) that raises itself againt the knowledge of God (2. Cor 10:14). It's not just one little thought. It it a set of thought put into a system of an ungodly logic. That is why Paul calls it a stronghold. A stronghold is not just one little stone. It is a lot of stones that is built together into a castle in which human beings are held captives in darkened and blinded minds.

So, from Scriptures as a whole, we must assume that the devil used strongholds in Judas' mind that all what he had been going through together with Jesus and the other disciples, had not been able to change. There were things that had a grip on him and that tipped him in the wrong direction. Things of this world that Jesus seemed not to appreciate the way Judas did. It is interesting that Jesus had just prophecied about the fall of Jerusalem and the temple. Not only had Jesus talked about his own death and ressurection several times. Now, he even talks about the death of what, in Judas' mind, was the whole point of the coming of the Messiah. Is all this about death and suffering? Arent we going to be kings together with the Messiah in his Kingdom? The answer to that question is yes, but at the same time: it looks quite different from what you could expect in earthly terms. Because as it seems, we are going to be suffering kings, just like our Lord. Yes, it will end one day, but the big test remains the same. How far are we willing to go for Him that suffered so much on our behalf? It's a sobering question, isn't it? It is easy to be around Jesus with miracles and a lot going on. But, when those miracles poses a threat against our belongings, freedom and comfort, are we ready to stay, or would we, as Judas did, leave? We might argue with a grace that appearantly wasn't available for Judas, because Jesus hadn't died and been ressurected yet. But, if we dare to be honest with ourselves and with Scriptures, we'll see the fact that somebody make it and some does not, is not new in Scriptures. An interesting example is Saul and David. Both were made kings. Both were anointed with the Spirit. Both were successful in war. Both sinned. And the “crazy” thing is that he that seemed to sinned much worse than the other received grace and made it, and the other, Saul, did not. So, we see that you can fall in sin, but there is something about the condition of the heart that will decide how you deal with it. David repented thoroughly; Saul did not. Saul was more busy with his own reputation among the people, while David didn't care for a moment about that. He had to have God in his life, and apart from that he didn't care what people might think about him (Psalm 51). I have seen Christians, whom I believed in, whom I regarded as devoted disciples, leave for less trouble than I have personally gone through. How do I know? Well, I have talked to them and tried to understand: Why on earth did you leave? How could you even consider it?

For Judas, it was his desire for things in this world that killed him in the end. No way in his mind could his hunger for freedom of the national state of Israel, be the things of this world. In Judas' world, that was the very Kingdom that God had promised. Judas never really took on the ideas of Jesus concerning the Kingdom. Miracles and healings were fine, but that would only lead up to something else. And he was right and he has wrong at the same time. It lead up to the death and ressurrection of the Messiah, as prophesied; it did not lead up to, as he expected, a military revolt that drove out the much hated Roman oppressors. It is sobering that it is possible to think about something as from God, but it turns out is was not, at least not God's timing for it (to keep any preminialists and dispentionalists with me). If we then insist on holding on to it, it might rob us of understanding what God is doing and we might become enemies of his purposes. Again, God is sovereign, and he even uses evil people for His purposes, as he did with Judas and the Jewish and Roman leadership of the time. That does not remove their personal responsibility, though. It does no remove their partaking in pure evil. The devil did not have to force his ways on Judas. He had been working on him for a long time. He was working on him long before Jesus called Judas to ministry. Jesus knew before he elected Judas that he would not believe in him, and that the level of unbelief and reaction against Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom would make Judas betray Him. Unbelief is not believing in nothing. It is believing very firmly in the wrong thing, so firmly that you would not let anything disturb it, not even if a man that has been lying in the grave for 4 days, makes his ways out of the tomb. It is the obviousness that Jesus was acting on behalf of God that made judgement Judas received so harsh. He had withstood Jesus' teaching with His demonstration of power for so long. He had hold on to his broken character and his vigorous beliefs and he had concluded what had become more and clear to him: Jesus was definitely not the Messiah that he, Judas, was waiting for. This was not something that he was willing to give his life for. And yet, he had left everything to follow Jesus. And know - it turns out to be a fraud in his own views. 

The love for money - a basis of all kinds of evil
Every one the disciples had a broken character in some way. But some still had a repentant attitude. Judas did not. He had a another love for this world that had a grip on him: money. Again, not very long before Judas had his last chance to repent, when Jesus gave him the piece of bread during the last meal, there was a lady that poured out very expensive perfume made of pure nard on Jesus' feet. Again, Judas was annoyed. The value of the perfume was almost a years wages. Judas knew, because he used to keep his head around such things. 300 denarii. That was the price for it. And now it was wasted. Of course, Judas made a mention of the needs of poor. It is mostly so that evil does not portray itself as evil. No, it finds a way to embellish the truth. John points out that Judas wasn't very busy with the needs of the poor. He was busy with his own needs, which came more and more prevalent in his life as he saw what suprising direction this Messiah was heading. In the midst of this people were coming to watch and see for themselves Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead (John 12.1-11). Matthew shows us that this was a driving force for Judas to go to the chief priests (Matt 26.6-15). What was he doing? He wanted his money back. He had given everything he owned to follow this Rabbi, and now, in his view, he was a scam, and he had wasted time and money. He even let somebody anoint him with oil worth a fortune and then “talked rubbish” about some funeral of his. Well, he would not be there to partake in it. And he was sadly right about that. He got 30 silver coins from the chief priests. That was the wages for approx. 3 months. The 300 denarii would be wages for 11 months, which, might have increased in Judas angry head to 12 months. At least he had 1/3 of what he felt was his to own. You see, there is this very dangerous thought that we deserve something, that we are entitled to get something, while others could easily be without. Commercials are playing on this weakness in our human character: “Because YOU deserve it”. That's why we just HAVE TO have it. It's our PRECIOUS. The problem with such a precious is that it soons own us, our heart, our attention, our everything. When Jesus said that you have to give up “everything” to be his disciple it is because there can be nothing that can own your heart but Him, because that something is going to kill you and keep you unfruitfull. God will test us from time to time because He loves us so much: Are we truly His, or do we belong to something else. Judas was tested and he failed. To be a disciple of the Anointed One could cost us our very lives. Who then shall have what he didn't want to give away? There is a place to serve God with our belongings, which means we share it generously with other people. That is a good test to pass besides tithing and regular offerings. But also, it might come to the point where God says: “Sell and leave it behind. I have something else for you.” Would we obey? Or would we bo like Lot who said: “No, Lord!”. What a contradiction of terms it is to say, “No Lord” when he is commanding us. Those two words do not play well together. The fruit that came out of Lot's life was Moab and Ammon, the two greatest enemies of God's people, and they came out of disobedience and unbelief. God got Lot out of Sodomah and Gomorrah, but he never got those two cities out of him, so that's where his lifeline ended (Zeph 2:9). Lot believed so much in his lack of abilities - “that's to difficult for me, Lord” - that there was no place to God's abilities. There's a big difference between poor in spirit and poor in God. Poor in spirit longs for God's Spirit, while poor in God just tries to survive through its own means. So where are we in this? We can know our Bible well and have ideas and views on most matters, and still be as spiritually dead as Judas. There is no longing for God. There might have been, but it is now many years since we really pushed forward to receive something from Him. There is always a way back to the Father, by choosing to humble ourselves and make our hearts soft towards him. Disappointments and love for this world killed Judas. It didn't look like what he expected and it only seemed to get worse, day by day. It's a very dangerous place to stay. There was a little window in which Judas felt sorry for what he had done. But there is a sorrow that kills and a sorrow that saves, still (2. Cor 7:9-10). Rather than giving himself a chance and to see the possibility of repentance, he choice the way that he had long time been running: his own way. He was now so much under influence of Satan, that the devil got him the way he wanted and killed him. He ended his life in tragedy and utter shame. God knew it before it happened, but Gud does not stop us neither from being born nor from our evil path should we choose to go that way. 

Nationalism, religion and the demonic

Nationalism, entitlements and exclusionism vs true biblical identity
So what has all this to do with nationalism as a phenomenon? Well, that is one of the things that got me disturbed. Nationalism boils down to two things: a sense of belonging and identity, which is good, and some sort of entitlement, which is bad. Like; I have the right to have social security, because I have been born in and brought up in Norway. No one else can just arrive at our doors and request the same services, because they do not belong here, and I am willing to fight to protect my rights that I was just born to receive, but that other people outside our country will not enjoy. The other way aorund, you might be under an oppressive government, but you might at the same time think that this is deeply unrighteous and unfair. You deserve better. As things go forward you development a deep sense of hatred and resentment, and you have the right to have your revenge. That is where I think we find Judas, and partly the other disciples as well, but still not to the same level. For Judas, this really ate him on his inside. So when Jesus arrives, Judas finally get some hope, as the rest of the Israelites that got stirred by Jesus. It did not last long, though. Jesus didn't want to be the Messiah that Judas longed for. While Jesus is not indifferent to the need of the Jewish people for safety and peaceful living, he has an agenda that goes deeper, to the very core of human heart. If we are Jewish, American, European, Chineese first and then a disciple of Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, we do not have our priorities right.

Christianity and politics vs revivalism
I know Americans who seem to be Republican first and then a disciple of Jesus. But the Jesus movement wasn't basically a political movement. It was a movement of changed hearts. It wasn't top-bottom; it was bottom-up. What we do know from revival history, is that when you get a body of the population that has changed hearts, that will of course impact every part of society, be it politics, art, music or media. And that's where it becomes dangerous. Because we can start of as a bottom-up movement where the very life of Jesus is in the centre of everything, that is: His life in us through the Spirit of God that will put into reality the core meaning of the Word of God. And then we make godly rules and art, music and media is cleansed from ungodliness. That is good, and society as a whole enjoys progress and wealth. But if that core of that revival that made all of this happens, dies, what is left is a building structure with no life in it. That is what Paul calls “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power”. Without revelation, the people will go astray, and that is what starts happening. Now, because the very life of Jesus in us is not the driving force behind the good that we now enjoy, we start fighting at a different arena. It's about protecting laws that came through, fighting for the agenda of the media and our rights as Christians. The whole thing started off as a persecuted church, though. Now, we can end up being those who persecute those who have a different meaning than us. But there is a huge difference between the life of Jesus changing people and eventually the society, and us trying to manipulate people outside the church to do what is right and good because we punish them if they don't. When we read church history about what popes have been doing in the name of Jesus, you can get quite sick and feel like puking. It's a sad story about what can happen when Christians get in power and lose sight of what true Christianity is like. Actually, the popes persecuted people who where true followers of Jesus, because they had to “protect the truth”. So should Christians stay silent on every aspect of politics and administration? No, the prophet Daniel and his friends are examples of people that God called to minister in that realm. What I had liked to see, is Christians called to such ministry that would also take on the attitudes and the supernatural demonstration of the prophet Daniel, because he actually won over a demonized witch-King Nebuchadnezzar to God. While the demons harassed the King, Daniel was there, praying that the prophecied revocery would also happen. That is a demonstration of grace and generousity that is the hallmark of God. Easy said, and not so easy done.

Judas - the disciple of Jesus the Anointed One that became the demonized backslider
Judas Iscariot loved the structures of this world not knowing that those are still of this world, and not of God, and therefore not God's Kingdom. Paul talks about religion and religious rules as the elementary spirits or principles, gr. stoicheion, of this world (Col 2:8;20, see New English Translation, NET Bible). The Messiah, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, is something completely different. All religions of this world has been introduced by onesome who is now dead. But there is a Man who Scripture says is alive. What is more: He is in fact alive and by his Father he has received the Spirit of God, which he has poured out to make His own life and ministry available to those who are willing to receive. Religions are not spiritually neutral. Behind them lures the demonic forces that has inspired people to mix all kinds of religious ideas. And again, not everything with religion appears to be obviously and inherently bad. The devil is not that stupid. That is why there is a mix of truths and what is good and right with lies and boundaries that is not an expression of divine will and revelation. Even what wants to appears to be true Christianity, can become such a mixture of ideas. Basically everything else than Jesus The Anointed One in His own person, is an expression of such religion, and with such a view, we would be kept humble and praying to God. What is in fact a part of His anointed body, is Jesus in His own person, because he lives and dwells within us. As His Anointed body, we are to represent Jesus here on earth so people can see and experience Him the way people did when he physically walked the earth for more than 2000 years ago. John says that what keeps us full of joy and expectancy with regards to the judgement day is the fact that: “As He, the Anointed One, is, so are we in this world” (1. John 4:17).
As we can strive today to get our heads around Jesus' consept of us being suffering servant-Kings in a “already being near and here, but not yet fully and complete” Kingdom, all the disciples of the time strived to get their head around Jesus' understanding of His Kingdom in the Spirit. Jesus deliberately talked about the Kingdom of Heaven as opposed to the kingdoms of this earth. But even though they all strived with “getting used to different”, most still had some belief that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. But Judas rejected Jesus altogether and betrayed him for money. His zeal for the religion of the chief priests, the temple, the position of physical Jerusalem, drove him to them and away from Jesus. He opened up to and became a part of the demonic force that tried to take Jesus out of the way. Satan first tried to tempt Jesus to take the position that Judas dreamed of that he would take. When he realised that this would never happen, the devil changed his strategy. There was no other way than to kill the Son of God and to use all of his demonic forces to destroy Him utterly. Of course, we know that this strategy just had the devil swallow the bait, right?. The Living Word of God even in a form of corruptable human flesh was still the Living Word of God that can never be taken out. What a fool the devil was. But Gud sent a threat against the devil, that he found so disturbing that he couldn't just sit and watch himself lose. He had to do something, and that something brought about the biggest change in human history so far.

The persuading and stirring of the masses to choose a nationalist leader and insurgant rather than the Messah - and the demonic

“And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.” (Luke 19:47-48)

We must, honestly, wonder how on earth the chief priests and the elders got the all the people to change their minds. Not only the chief priests and scribes were present when Pilate felt forced to let the Jewish people have their way with Jesus. If so, Pilate could have easily ignored them. But there was more to the story: 

“But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed.” (Matt 27:20)

So how did they do this persuasion? Was this Jesus Barabbas just an ugly criminal? Or did he have something that the people regarded as valuable? Does the devil put his most ugly face before us and say: “I am the devil. Choose me!” No! He disguises himself as a angel of light, right? (2. Cor 11:14).

“He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.” (Luke 23:19)

Luke gives us some hints. We know for a fact that the Roman occupants where deeply hated by the Jews, and understandably so. This Jesus Barabbas was in prison for an insurrection. He was not alone in that respect. Gamaliel refers to different leaders that had tried to make movements to free the Jewish people from their oppressors (Acts 5:36-37), and Marks says that Barabbas was in prison with some of his men (Mark 5:10). This Jesus Barabbas was obviously facing crucifixion, for this was a very brutal and barbarious method of execution that the Romans used only for slaves and insurgents. What the chief priests and the elders did was to have the people choose Barabbas over the Anointed One. It was more a choice for Barabbas, a false Messiah, than against the true Messiah. But only one could be released, and they had to choose. They chose a Messiah according to Jewish tradisionalist views: a nationalist Messiah that would drive out the Romans once for all, not the humble, loving, and yet powerful and life-changing Messiah, that Jesus from Nasareth was to them. Why choose a Messiah that had no intention saving them from the Romans but who rather talked in mysteries about a kingdom that was within them and seemed to think it fun to upset their leaders? Let's play safe: Barabbas, it is. The moment the choice was done in their minds and hearts, the demonic forces added to their rejection of the true Messiah, with shouting and violence:

“But the governor said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Anointed One?’ They all said, ‘Crucify Him!’ And he said, ‘Why, what evil has He done?’ But they kept shouting all the more, saying, ‘Crucify Him!’ When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves. And all the people said, ‘His blood shall be on us and on our children!’ ” (Matt 27:21-25)

They deliberately called down the curse of this innocents man's blood. Where did the anger and hatred behind it come from?

“But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas instead.” (Mark 15:11)

You cannot stir something up that is not present anywhere. There has to be trigger points. We see here that the trigger point was to have Barabbas released - the one who had paid a price to have their nation restored to its former glory. What has happened to this Jesus of Nasareth, anyway. He rode into the great city on a little, stinky, tiny donkey. Is that the way to overthrow the Roman oppressors? No! This Barabbas is a fierce man. Let's give him a new chance instead. Nationalism and the demonic played together this day. And as we shall see, there is this disturbing link between the two: all from German “Lebensraum” to the restoration the greatness of the Russian empire, as we see it today in our own time. The greatest atrocities on the face of this planet has been done in the name of nationalism, ethnicitism and religion, combined. We know that the Israelites where commanded to free the country from evil in the Old Covenant, but the prophets where clear in their message. God's purpose is to end human wars, not to start them. The Israelite cleansing of Kanaan was an image of God cleansing his earth from evil. The irony? The Israelites did not obey the commandment and ended up just as evil themselves, so God had somebody else to clean His chosen land, which was to be an image and a sign of what He would do in the rest of the world. Eventually, He will clean it up. Period. 

The continual rejection of the Messiah on basis of nationalism and entitlement among the Jewish diaspora

“As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people were urging them to speak about these things on the next Sabbath. When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city assembled together to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they began to contradict what Paul was saying by reviling him. Both Paul and Barnabas replied courageously, “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles....When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice” (Acts 13:42-46;48)

In city after city, there was a pattern. Some Jews believed the message, but then the crowds came, and the Jews became jealous for their -- what? Their uniqueness as Jews, their special priviledges, their entitlements. How can Gentiles - non-Jews - at any time be included in this? The irony is that the whole calling of God on Israel was to bring God's covenant to all the earth (Ex 19), as this was the assignment God gave to Adam and Eve. And surprise! It's still the calling that we as followers of the Anointed One, God's Liberating King, has today. The Jews were stirred with zeal and anger, and they called Paul a blasphemer, gr. blasphēmeō. They spoke evil of him. So we see that this happened again in Iconimum (Acts 14:1-5) and in Lystra, where Paul was maybe or just almost stoned to death (14:19-20).

“Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah, The Anointed One.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people.” (Acts 17:1-5) 

The Jews in Berea were of a more noble mind. It lasted until Jews in Thessalonica came and stirred up the crowds, which made the apostolic team around Paul decide that he, Paul, had to leave. Silas and Timothy stayed for some time to do the follow-up. Paul, on the contrary had this anointing for miracles that worked so strong in him that he always got himself into trouble. When Pauls writes to the church in Thessalonica, he is quite straight forward about his fellow tribesmen:

“For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Judaists, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.” (1 Thess 2:14-16).

We don't know for sure whether Paul is refering to some actions of judgement brought on them by the Romans or whether he refers to the future judgment of God (jfr. the Voice, see also the Expanded Bible). For Paul, these people worked fierce against the whole meaning what the the prophets had prophecied and preached. And what we see is this “stiring up” of nationalist and tribal zeal inside of them having them “stirring up” mobs to attack the brethen. When Jesus died the Romans where the tool to provide for the attack, people that they would normally loathe. But facing Kingdom realities, sign and wonders, but in a different form and without the boundaries that they thought had to be in place - within the entitlements of the Jewish people - they found themselves make a coalision with enemies. Now, who wanted to hinder the apostles to preach the good news to the Gentiles, which also is a thing that needs to be done to see “all Israel” saved (Rom 11)? The devil, of course. So we see that there are these demonic forces behind the “stiring up”.

Summing up - a true Christian wordview in a world of uproar

All of this started with a question. What was the driving forces behind Judas Iscariot's fall? A very strong nationalist, earhtly bound view of the Kingdom and the Messiah; a want for entitlements in combination with love for money - an all a materialist view of God. If this proves good for me, then it is God. If it does not prove good for me, then it is not God. What scares me is to see how easily we get caught in this if we are used to a comparably or an apparently easy life. I deliberately add apparantly, because even when you live in a wealthy country, life can get hard on us. 

But how do we react if this easy life gets threatened? What if we end up with a life that is more like Christians in China or in Iran? What if our social wellfare is threatened, because other upcoming economies that used to be so called 3rd world countries are now doing what we used to be doing for less pay. If we feel entitled to a good and easy life with material wealth, just because we are just to it; just because we think it is the way it should we because we are born in a rich country, how is that going to impact our reactions? Riots, uproar and wars might be just around the corner. Now, we don't have any promises as long as we are in this world that such things would never happen, even though we are commanded to pray for peace as the children of the Prince of Peace. But should we contribute to such movements as “America First”? Some of the problem we face in the Western World is that it in our side of the coin, a few has become extremely rich, leaving what is called the middle class with less than they use to have just a few generations before. In what used to be 3rd world countries, on the other hand, a lot of people has been taken out of poverty. As Christians we should rejoice for the latter and address the first one, because the New Testament actually argues for equality (2 Cor 8:13-14) and against employers that are paying so little to their workers that it leaves them in poverty (Jam 5:4-5). The word socialism is not in the Bible and the Bible does not speak specifically against it, but to some socialism or social democracy, which is more a middle ground, seem to be worse than any sin. It is easy to talk about how hard we worked for the money, when the money we earn can buy us what we need and much more than that. To others, on the contrary, it does not give any sense, because they work hard, but get almost nothing. Work isn't a bad thing from a biblical point of view. Working without any gain, on the contrary, is a curse. The possibility to buy services from whereever in the world has opened up opportunities for people that would otherwise live in poverty. That is a good thing. The bad thing is that there is a move towards profit in the Western World that is totally out of balance. Too much consoldation of finances into few hands will give such people too much power.

I find it disturbing that fellow believers argues so fiercly in line with a notion of entitlement. In Norway, people are furious because price on electricity has raised to the level of the European continent. Why should be help the rest of Europe in a big energy crises and war going on in our own neighborhood? Lets suit ourselves and let Europe suffer for giving us cheaper products and service for years by importing cheap gas from Russia. Curse on them! But why should a Europan Union be a problem when The United States seems not be a problem? Free trade was not a problem as long as it suited us well. We could be stuff cheaper and cheaper. At a certain point, things changed, because work places in our countries were replaced by work places in 3rd world countries. That is why everyone seem to afford a modern touch based mobile. This is obviously out of balance, but the result of taking back work places would be more expensive products, because we want to be paid better, right? So, there isn't any easy solution, as money does not grow on trees. Rather than more taxes on the richest among us, why not make them pay more reaonably? To live in cities are more expensive than to live in the countryside and yet cities contribute to wealth, that's why they keep popping up and keep growing. How to do society in a fair and square way is a real headache, and I don't believe in a perfect world before Jesus comes back. But, we have to address how we as Christians are to relate to these questions. I fear that the rising of nationalism in the Western World is the announcement of a new war coming. Nationalism and entitlement combined with religion is a demonic force, has always been, and will always be. Peace, generousity and righteousness is God's way. Uproar, riots and wars is the way of the devil. On which side do we put ourselves in this? It is easy to be generous when you have too much. The test will come when we have shortage or almost shortage. Is society leaves us with few options to make a living, would we use our voice and our votes to take from the poor to make us great again, just because we deserve it, but the other ones apparantly do not? I ask myself the questions, because I represent a wealthy middle class, myself. I am not pointing fingers, but I am honestly concerned with how we as Christians seem to think and navigate. Before the throne of God, there is people of every tribe, every nation, every language, every skin color, both rich and poor. God has given access to His very throne for everyone. Should we argue that there is a closed door for making a living for any of us - based on where we are born? I know this is more complicated, because bad government with a lot of corruption would leave people in poverty whatever else is done. But still, we could end up shout to end possibilities for people in other countries to make it, just because we used to have that opportunity ourselves. We could end up voting people in position that think that we as a country is exceptional by any means, because..... well, that's simply the way it is; decided by God or whatever. In God's eyes all people have the same value. He does not show favoritism in dealing with people. So, should we, His people do so? What kind of government would we regard as godly? For some believers, it boils down to one question, and one question, only. Yet, the problem of violence and death in the hands of a government is greater than that one issue. What if the raising of nationalism would cause a new, world wide war? Well, that wouldn't happen because we have A-bombs, you might say, but recent history shows us that it is not that easy. To many countries to have them, so you'll restrain from using them. They are only good as a threat, and if that threat won't work, it renders mass destruction weapons useless, unless you want to blow up the whole planet. 

I hope that God's people is going to end up on the side of peace and not war. That we will pray for wisdom, whoever is in office in our countries. To run run a world that is still corruptable is not an easy task. God's blessing will certainly weigh up for some of the damage the introduction of sin has brought into the world, but not all of it. We still die, don't we? So maybe there is an end to the spending of resources and level of wealth? I don't know. But I know, that the Bible says that it is better with poverty and peace than wealth and conflict and war. So help us God.