Baptizing nations. . .

When Jesus spoke the words "Go and make disciples of all nations," He was speaking to a time in which that very word nations meant something different than it does today.  Nations at the time of Jesus were seen not primarily as borders, governments, constitutions, and such but peoples.  In the Old Testament, the term had a decidedly negative connotation.  Nations represented goyim and about half of those citations had a negative context.  This was a body of people and not quite what we think of today in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, or identity.  Most importantly, these were people who were not believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In the New Testament the word ethnos has a similar mixed impression with half negative contexts, half positive, and half neutral.  In the same way, this word does not immediately connect with borders or governments the way we think of nations today.

The call of Christ to make disciples was not a call to build an earthly kingdom nor did it mean that nations would be converted as later happened when monarchs converted and the population of a given nation or state wholesale converted as well.  It was by and large the call to preach, teach, and baptize those who were not historically part of the chosen and therefore an acknowledgement that God was in Christ reconciling all people unto Himself.  Now we have muddied the waters, making the Great Commission almost into a march to conquer territory.  I am not at all sure that this is helpful.  Nations as states or governments or even societies cannot be converted.  The Gospel is spoken into the ear and then to the heart and mind and not into the ballot box or legislative or political work of a nation.  People can be converted and societies and nations are the consequence of people being converted -- not the other way around.

All of that said, Christians are meant to be a leaven in their place -- home, neighborhood, community, and nation.  Our light is to be set up high so that it shines beyond the small domain of ourselves or even our families.  In this way churches are always political without being in politics.  We cannot escape the world around us identifying our position with certain political parties or candidates.  We should work to make these nuances careful and clear but it is a risk of being public and in the public square.  This is a risk we must take or else we will be invisible and this is certainly not Christ's will for His Church.  The nation is not meant by God to be a secular state if that means that Christians and Christianity is silent and invisible within that state.  We may not be a theocracy but there is little value beyond self for a faith that lives so deeply inside the Christian it does not show.  The Church, however, is not trying to win the soul of a nation by acts of government or the courts.  Neither do we compete in the marketplace of ideas as if Christianity were simply one set of truths or values against others of equal worth.  We are to be voices of the Gospel, speaking Christ through His Word and it is through this speaking and hearing that the Spirit works to bring forth faith. When we take this seriously, it is clear what happens. The nations of the West and indeed all places where Christianity flourished were transformed by the values of this Gospel as the people of God lived them out.  Where Christianity has died or been oppressed, it has had an equally profound although less salutary effect.  What changed was not the power of Christians as a voting class but as a people who lived true to their faith the words of the Lord that endure forever.  So, if we are not seeing that today is it simply because the government is less friendly to us or could it be that our lights are dim?