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CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Sep 27, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 39.

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CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM.

By G.

PATRIOTISM, according to the common use of the word, is a species of selfishness. If I should hold myself or my possessions up to be lauded above any other person or any other person's possessions, no one would doubt that I had a selfish motive in view. So when I hold my country up as the one to be always sustained, right or wrong, there is in such action the element of selfishness.
According to the common idea of patriotism, it was just as much the duty of the Spaniard to uphold Spain in the war with the United States as it was the duty of the American to uphold the cause of this government. But there were Christians, professedly at least, on both sides, and this common idea of patriotism made them enemies, seeking to kill each other.
Therefore the theory of patriotism as taught in our public schools, and even in Sunday-schools, would teach Christians of different nationalities to take one another's lives, if their governments should go to war. This may be patriotism, but any one who has the most rudimentary knowledge of Christianity, knows that such patriotism is not Christian. Sowing discord among brethren is one of the things the Lord hates. Prov. 6: 16-19.
Christian patriotism acknowledges allegiance to the kingdom of Christ. Christians are debtors to men of all nations. They are subject to "the powers that be" in all nations, with the exception that they are "to obey God rather than men." They are not to set governments against governments, nor to take sides in the conflicts of the world.
The Spirit enjoins us: "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." This is Christian patriotism. "And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully"—according to the law of God: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The Christian is a warrior for God, against the common enemy of God and man; but, like his Master, he is to labor to save men. This is Christian patriotism. G.