![]() 2:13) we set our minds on things above (Col. The church as the heavenly nation looks to the future coming of Christ (Tit. 8:23)-limits the type of things immediately procured from it. But its futural finality-that for which Christians eagerly await (Ro. ![]() ![]() In other words, one really belongs to this heavenly nation-all Christians are members of the spiritual kingdom of Christ-and even with respect to the whole man. But it also manifests in acts of spiritual service performed by laymen. ![]() Nevertheless, it manifests outwardly, primarily in the profession of true religion and in the preaching and hearing of the Word, the administration and reception of the Sacraments, and in exercising the keys of the kingdom. 2:7) and it is gracious, having been generated supernaturally, not naturally (Eph. In essence, the church is invisible (being seated in the inner man) it is eschatological (Eph. But its true dwelling place is not earthly it is heavenly (Eph. This heavenly nation (considered apart from the institution) is catholic, or universal it is global, to put it in a modern way (WCF 25:1,2). The people of God, considered as a holy priesthood, love one another by communicating the things of this communion-things that have eternal life as their immediate end (1Thess. Reformed theologian Bartholomew Keckermann stated that “the ecclesiastical order is that by which the church society is directed to the worship of God and the salvation of souls.” Similarly, Johan Alsted wrote that the instituted church is “a divine order of the faithful for the holy communion of holy things.” 2 In the church, man receives the highest good, namely, the spiritual good of eternal life. 3:20), the church provides what is good for the soul, mainly by means of the ecclesiastical administration, instituted by God. As a heaven-oriented people under Christ (Phil. The “heavenly nation” is the church, which refers not merely to its institutional order, which is itself temporal, but fundamentally to a people ( viz., the elect) under Christ as Mediator. One is above nature and the other is natural. We can identify the two types of Christian nations as “heavenly” and “earthly.” They differ in species by the immediate objects and ends for which each is formed-one for things gracious, eternal, and heavenly the other for things natural, temporal, and earthly. There are two questions between us: 1) whether Christians can, in principle, belong simultaneously and harmoniously to two nations of distinct types, and 2) whether an earthly nation can properly be called “Christian”. To state the proposition I am defending directly, I affirm that a Christian may belong simultaneously and harmoniously to two species of Christian nation: the universal, catholic church, which is fundamentally an eschatological nation or kingdom, though manifesting visibly on earth and a particular, earthly Christian nation, which arises from natural principles and the application of grace. The church is indeed a nation-or kingdom-in the proper and non-analogous sense.īut, in affirming this, may one also affirm that earthly nations can be Christian? Yes, if we consider the church to be a specific type of nation to which one can belong while simultaneously and harmoniously belonging to another of a different type. These laws are sufficient to direct man to righteousness unto eternal life (2 Cor. 28:19, Acts 2:42), and her institutional governance (Eph. 21:1-2) and has laws that govern both her principal activity, namely, worship by Word and Sacraments (Mt. ![]() 1:18) has an eschatological dwelling place (Mt. 1 The church has Christ as King as its sole ruler (Col. “Nation” refers to a people “collected under one head, agreeing in the same manners and customs, and governed by the same laws,” as Matthew Henry wrote in his comments on 1 Peter 2:9. The question between us is not whether the people of God on earth are a type of nation, for I affirm that the people of God, or the catholic church, constitute a true nation, properly speaking. The critics conclude that non-ecclesial nations cannot properly be called Christian. Citing Peter’s first epistle-that the “people of God” are a “holy nation, a peculiar people” (2:9)-they assert that there is only one Christian nation-the church. Critics, however, have argued against the very possibility of a Christian nation, at least as ordinarily understood. Christian nationalists claim that nations on earth can be Christian nations, and even more-that a fully Christianized world would contain multiple distinct Christian nations. ![]()
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