The man plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for him. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
The pagan’s favorite hobby is worshiping created stuff. Pieces of wood will do in a pinch, but what he really loves to worship is power and authority. This is why Christ described pagan governments as satanic. Most political nations are created things, made by men through secrecy and hypocrisy. God’s political nation, the church, was created honestly through open displays of God’s might.
God has eternal love for his nation, and he leads it beside still waters. The other political nations are his playthings, which he sets up and brings down for his own purposes. He even assigns them leaders from the realm of gods. For instance, the nation of Moab had Chemosh. Assyria had Ashur. Philistia had Dagon. These ruling spirits mean that political nations seem especially anthropomorphic in a manner in which sticks and stones are not. The personal, demonic power of political nations is intoxicating to the man, who is possessed by that nation’s god, taken captive by him to do his will. God gives power to certain nations for a while so that they may dominate other nations. The man becomes puffed up, thinking that his god is the biggest god on the block. God uses this delusion as a means of serving his people throughout history.
Even a pornographer’s fetish makes more anthropological sense than worshiping a nation, because the proximate object of his worship is at least a human being made in the image of God. It’s a perversion, but a rational one. That’s why in our marriage vows we say “with my body I thee worship”. But once a man diverts his gaze from begotten Ikons of God to unbegotten, made objects, there’s less hope for him than a pornographer. A porn addict can repent and marry a real woman, but a nationalist has nowhere to turn if his god fails.
Since the nation has a ruling god, the nation itself takes on anthropomorphic attributes. The man imbues his nation with every sort of god-like characteristic. With its spoken word (e.g. the Constitution), it “gives” things (e.g. rights). It requires sacrifice in exchange for certain goods (e.g. the soldier’s blood paid for freedom). It makes covenants like a man. It judges like a man. It is sacred like a man. It has rights like a man (e.g. the right to defend its borders.)
The first nation, in the plain of Shinar, was the prototype of the nation as idol. The god of Babel had a right to defend his borders and build a tower to heaven. He had a right to declare Shinarian as the Official Language. He built such an impressive tower that God had to come down in order to see it. After taking a stroll to survey, God scattered that nation all over the earth, trashing its borders. And thus… the notion of a multinational world, with sovereign nations each having the right to defend their borders, was born… via the judgment of a God who laughed at the right to defend borders. A perfect circle of comedy.
With his ascension into heaven, the Ruler of the Nations defeated all of these gods. However, wicked men continue to vainly strive against Him, creating new gods every day. God’s people recognize many of these false gods and have names for them; e.g. feminism, rationalism, materialism, consumerism. But the Christian’s favorite god in certain parts of the world is nationalism.
“But”, one may protest, “certainly despite all of this idolatry, national defense is a legitimate human aspiration?” Well, it depends upon what “national defense” means. God says authorities must punish evil with the sword, so there’s an application which he will honor. But the man’s problem is he is clueless about what evil is. So, instead, the authority punishes good and praises evil, the exact opposite of what God has commanded him to do.
In such a regime, the nation finds itself in a pickle. It was supposed to be defending itself against wicked men; now it finds itself trying to defend against a holy God.
Joshua's famous list of 31 dead kings was also a list of nations who thought they had a right to defend themselves. Yahweh obviously overruled this “right”. But why did he overrule it? Because they were perverts who killed babies. But wait, there's more.
God had Joshua wipe the Canaanites out, but surrounding Israel were other nations, which weren't included in God’s genocidal command; nations such as Moab. So, did Yahweh let Moab’s God, Chemosh, have a “right” to defend Moab’s borders? Do they get a pass, because they weren’t under the herem ban? Welp, nope.
It turns out that history is littered with gods nations which thought they had a right to defend their borders. In just about every instance, they fiercely attempted to hold onto their “sovereignty” by ramping up horse breeding and chariot production, to no avail. Here's a tiny sampling of the more obscure failed nations.
Well, for the modern pagan, this certainly sounds like bad news. If the gods of the nations are so weak, doesn't any country have a right to defend its borders? Welp, yep. There is one nation with a God strong enough to not only defend its borders, but enlarge them. The kingdom of God. And that kingdom breeds conquerors. And the entire earth belongs to them.
If you find your country is failing to defend itself against totalitarian globalists, you might be worshiping the wrong God. Why not switch? Then you’ll never have to lose a night’s sleep over THE IMMIGRANT INVASION again.
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.
In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.