A BIBLE VIEW OF "EXPLETIVE" COUNTRIES

It's always worthwhile to shine a Bible light on current events. Not every news story is in the Bible (let's not turn every leader we don't like into the Antichrist!), but every news story can be evaluated by the Bible. In the news at the moment is the opinion that some countries deserve to be described with expletive-laden language. Having different nations was originally God's idea. The initial reason for their existence was not honorable: God divided people into nations because, when all humanity was united, they were determined to seek greatness by leaving God out (Genesis 11:1-9). But now that nations exist, God is attentive to every one of them. He gives them their land and their responsibilities. As an example, even though Israel had "favored nation" status, God did not permit them to interfere with other nations willy-nilly (e.g., Deuteronomy 2:5,9,19). It's true that God is just, and He reserves the right to remove nations who persistently ignore Him and do evil (e.g., Deuteronomy 9:1-6). He also acknowledges righteous behavior by national governments (Matthew 25:31-36). But the future trend is that, ultimately, every nation will ignore Him and do evil, and so God will set up His own perfectly righteous King of kings. The words from Handel's "Messiah" quote the Scriptures triumphantly: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord!" However, in the meantime, we don't have any permission to talk about "expletive" countries. And even if the language used in recent news reports did not include the expletive, Christians do not have permission to insult countries in general. The evidence for this comes from the story of the prophet Jonah. In about 760 BC, Jonah was sent to preach to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria known for its obscene wickedness. He couldn't wait for God to destroy them, and he was so angry when God didn't that he literally wished for death (Jonah 4:9). If any people group might have qualified as an "expletive" city, it could have been Nineveh (and God did indeed judge their wickedness about 100 years later). But to Jonah, God said, "Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left?" (Jonah 4:11). God is just, but God is also merciful and filled with pity. Why? Because He cares about people. So should we. There are no "expletive" countries because every country is filled with people. The God of the Bible wants all of us, in every nation, to reach towards Him (Acts 17:26-27).