Do Christians need to be patriotic in order to be godly?

[apothanein kerdos]

When Paul says that we are not citizens of this world, he is not calling for us to seperate from the political world or even from the literal world. He is, instead, refering to our obligation to redeem culture. We are not to fall into the political traps or patriotic ferver if it contradicts what the Bible would have us to do. An example of this would be a German in the late 1930's. Patriotism over such a government would contradict Biblical values. Thus, our obligation to Christ is always to come before our obligation to our country. If you live in a nation where the government, culture, and political make up consistently goes against Christ, then being a patriot would probably not be the best thing.

Being a patriot in America, however, is not always bad. It means you love your nation enough to be willing to change it. I think it is okay to love your nation, because out of love comes a desire for positive change. If I am indifferent towards America, then what do I care when it begins to crumble? If I take this attitude, then how am I in anyway effective for the Kingdom of God?

[BlindSeeker]

I find this whole hate your country because you are not of this world baffling..

I cannot comprehend it.. . . .

Who is talking about hating?

[tah]

Do you love her?

[Ovedya]

Did Jesus love Jerusalem, or not?

Did Jesus love Jerusalem because it was His country (wave the Israeli flag) . . . or because it was the place chosen by God from which the atonement would be made and His name go out unto the entire world?

• Ne 1:9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set My name there.
  
  Ps 98:3 He hath remembered His mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
  
  Isa 60:3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
  
  Ac 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
  48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
  49 And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
  

Jerusalem was chosen by God because it was the place chosen by Him first to give as an inheritance to His chosen people, and because it was where He chose to set His name. For that reason I would say that Jesus was patriotic in the sense that He was absolutely devoted to both the place and the people:

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I desired to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Matt. 23:37, cf. Psa. 147:2)

[Ovedya]

So why not be Amish?

Because that doesn't qualify you as a Christian . . .

Yes, but the question was more or less pointed to the issue of Christians not being involved in political affairs. As far as I know the Amish don't vote.

[Gerioke]

So why not be Amish?

Because that doesn't qualify you as a Christian . . .

Yes, but the question was more or less pointed to the issue of Christians not being involved in political affairs. As far as I know the Amish don't vote.

niether do homeless people

[Ovedya]

So why not be Amish?

Because that doesn't qualify you as a Christian . . .

Yes, but the question was more or less pointed to the issue of Christians not being involved in political affairs. As far as I know the Amish don't vote.

niether do homeless people

And...?

[BlindSeeker]

. . . Jerusalem was chosen by God because it was the place chosen by Him first to give as an inheritance to His chosen people, and because it was where He chose to set His name. For that reason I would say that Jesus was patriotic in the sense that He was absolutely devoted to both the place and the people . . .

I do not know why people fail to remember that God's land was 1st occupied by the Canaanites under Melchezidec, the King of [Jeru-]Salem and Priest of The Most High God some 400+ years prior to the Israelites taking it from them.

Why did God have the Israelites drive the Canaanites off His land? Because the Canaanites turned from the living God and started worshipping idols.

• Deut 9:3Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.
  4Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.
  5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
  7Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
  .
  

We somehow forget that God is not a respector of persons when we think of the Isralites as

[Gerioke]

So why not be Amish?

Because that doesn't qualify you as a Christian . . .

Yes, but the question was more or less pointed to the issue of Christians not being involved in political affairs. As far as I know the Amish don't vote.

niether do homeless people

And...?

So why not be homeless?

[BlindSeeker]

So why not be homeless?

And this relates how?

I fail to see how this progresses the conversation . . .