ACKNOWLEDGING THE TRUTH ABOUT NATIONS by J.
Parnell McCarter
Although it is regarded
as politically incorrect and unacceptable in our day, the following is a truth
evident from scripture and by natural observation:
“It is admitted that
nations as well as tribes and families, have their distinctive characteristics,
and that these characteristics are not only physical and mental, but also
social and moral. Some tribes are treacherous and cruel. Some are mild and
confiding. Some are addicted to gain, others to war. Some are sensual, some
intellectual. We instinctively judge of each according to its character; …
admitting that these dispositions are innate and hereditary,
and that they are not self-acquired by the individual whose character they
constitute, we nevertheless, and none the less, approve or condemn them
according to their nature. This is the instinctive and necessary, and therefore
the correct, judgment of the mind.” - Charles Hodge Systematic Theology, Vol.
2.5.6
This
truth is not contrary to the other truths which must be taken into account with
it when considering the topic:
·
The
general characteristic of a certain nation or people does not imply that there
are not individual exceptions, as indeed there invariably are.
·
Those
who are exceptions among their own nation or people have a more likely tendency
to seek to join and assimilate into another nation or people with general
characteristics more like their own individual characteristics. Often such exceptions who have assimilated
into another people are the most ardent advocates of whatever they have
embraced, because they were not born into it, but had to move into it (which
can come at a cost).
·
All
peoples and nations since the Fall are wicked and
depraved by nature, so any especially wicked characteristics are only relative
levels of wickedness, and that in peculiar areas.
·
Some
general characteristics of a nation or people are not of the nature of being
morally good or bad, such as special prowess in certain areas.
·
Since
each people have certain general characteristics, there will inevitably be a
tendency for the world to be organized according to and congregate by ethnic
people. Hence, empires tend over time to
break up into ethnic nations, where each people can express their peculiar
characteristics in their governance and social life. Indeed, such ethnic nations are our
eschatological destiny, according to scripture.
·
Certain
generally wicked characteristics of a nation or people may be reformed by the
working of the Holy Spirit with the word of God on that people, by divine
grace. Just as individuals can be
transformed by God’s grace, so can the generality of a people or nation.
·
There
will come a day when all of the nations of the earth will be covenanted to
Jesus Christ. In these “better days”,
even before Christ returns, the generality of people from each nation will be
more conformed to Biblical moral standards.
We therefore ought not to lose hope with any nation,
no matter how wicked such people might generally be now, just like we ought not
with individuals, because God is a merciful God mighty to save by His Spirit.