God’s Eye View of Nations

by Karla Perry

Theology undergirds all of life. It is not something just for theologians, pastors, and Bible school students. We seldom think about the theology behind what we believe or practice, but it exists nonetheless. Someone at some point has thought about it, and that is why we believe it and practice it.

There is a cost to not thinking about it. The cost is that we go on believing and practicing what we have always known without examining it too closely. Martin Luther launched the Reformation five hundred years ago because he read the Bible and diverted from the theology of his day to line up with God’s truth. He brought the Bible to the masses. As a result, a biblically literate people transformed their world. As Americans, we enjoy living in the fruit of this transformation. Reformation theology birthed America because the Bible transforms and creates great nations.

American Christianity, by and large, has lost the theology that shaped our nation. We have adopted an escapist theology of hunkering down until Jesus comes back to take us home to heaven. We long for heaven, but not enough to bring it to earth. Our theology keeps it out of reach until we die and go to heaven, or if we are very fortunate, until we are raptured.

We are not concerned about nations or the institutions of this world because our home is in heaven. The earth, we surmise, must be destroyed as a consequence of God’s judgement. Nations are what the world cares about. Christians know we only have a short time left before that great and terrible Day of the Lord. Thus, we leave nations and institutions to the world to disciple. We then angrily renounce the world for making a mess of things. We don’t want their mess to affect our freedom. They are supposed to know better than to push our way of life out of culture. Regrettably, this is the outworking of our theology; a theology that cannot and will not disciple nations.

Without a biblical theology for discipling nations, we will not disciple nations. Herein lies the problem. We are gridlocked into inactivity because we haven’t a theology that says this world (land, nations, institutions) is part of God’s redemptive plan. We do not have a theology for the resurrected life, or the new earth. Our end time theology dictates our present theology. It makes us immobile and ineffective.

Lance Wallnau’s 7 Mountains is shaking us out of our complacency. As a worldview revitalizer, I’ve watched carefully how people take in a new way of thinking. I’ve had dozens of conversations with people who love listening to Lance Wallnau, but have not realized the conflict with their own theology. It’s like trying to walk while stepping on your own shoe lace. You aren’t going to go anywhere.

We cannot reform that for which we have no vision. If we cannot see that nations reflect the glory of God, we cannot work effectively towards building great nations. God’s vision is not for the destruction of nations, but for the reformation of nations. It is the enemy that seeks to destroy. We must be careful about whose vision we adopt.

We need a worldview for discipling nations that is undergirded by healthy biblical end time theology. At the very least, we need to release our grip on the idea that this world is getting destroyed and its destruction is near. Otherwise we are standing on that shoe lace going nowhere. Let’s tie our shoes properly and run the race that is before us. 

Karla Perry, is a worldview revitalizer and the author of Back to the Future: Rebuilding America’s Stability. She is an avid writer with a penetrating and thought-provoking style. Karla helps people develop healthy worldviews through kingdom-based thinking. Her articles are published regularly in The MorningStar Journal and through The Oak Initiative. Karla lives with her husband, Joseph, in Virginia Beach, VA, where they lead Remnant Ministries, a member of the MorningStar Fellowship of Churches. You can find more of Karla’s work at www.karlaperry.com.

1 Comment

  1. Anonymous on February 24, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    4.5

Leave a Comment