SYNOPSIS OF "THE NATIONS CALLED"

THE NATIONS CALLED, A Theology of the Nations and their Redemption.
by Pieter Bos

The core of this book is the study of God’s “Covenant with all Nations,” the beauty of nations, in general and of 16 specific nations, the nine anti-covenants with which the evil one tries to block nations from covenanting to God, and the responsibility of the Church towards her nation.

Scope
- First: to help us understand and appreciate corporateness and nationhood from God’s point of view, to grasp anew what it means to be a tribe or people or state. This is a challenge for the church and for theologians. For those who (have to) deal with nationalism or cross-cultural barriers and group dynamics that, even in the church, reach tribal-fight dimensions, I hope it will be immediately helpful.
- Second: to equip the church for the end-time task of the harvest of nations. Jesus in his end-time address warns us about Satan’s end-time strategy: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt 24:7). But he appeals to the “sheep”-nations to pass victoriously through the judgement of the nations (Matt 25:31-46), and finally commands the church to disciple nations. Is the church taking this challenge seriously?
- Therefore this book is written for God-seekers and thinkers, for intercessors and socially involved theologians, for missionaries who take the cross-cultural aspect of their task seriously and for discerning readers of the news, for visionaries who have faith for societal change through the power of God, and for those who are prepared to think corporately and historically and to function spiritually.

Content
This is volume 1 of a designed trilogy:
THE CITY REDEEMED; A Trilogy On God’s Destiny For Nations And Cities
Volume 1: THE NATIONS CALLED; Theology Of Nations And Their Redemption.
Volume 2: THE CITY CALLED; Theology Of The City And Her Pain.
Volume 3: THE CITY REDEEMED; Urban Missions Strategy In Eternity Perspective.

- Chapter 1 is exploratory. FROM INDIVIDUALITY TO THE GLORY OF CORPORATENESS
The reader will be amazed how often and how deliberately the Bible speaks about nations. Seven foundational passages of Scripture concerning nations are explored. Nations are a ‘grander scale of personhood’, between the human individual and God in his greatness. History revolves around nations: the promise to Abram to be a blessing to all nations is proclaimed and applied by the OT prophets, is ‘challenged’ by Satan, ‘reclaimed’ by Jesus, and is to be proclaimed and applied by the Church: ‘Disciple the nations’.
A special paragraph deals with the sensitive area of definitions. ‘Nation’ is proposed as a generic term, which is supposed to include tribe (for kinship networks), people (for cultural networks) and state (for governmental networks).

- Chapter 2 is theological. NATIONS ARE PERSONS, EVEN HELPMATES, WHOM GOD
PASSIONATELY LOVES
Nations are corporate persons, with the same spiritual responsibility and perspective as individual persons. This is developed both theologically and from biblical evidence. Both individual and corporate persons participate in the heavenlies. The core of this chapter and of the whole book is the discovery that God had and wants to have a covenant with all nations: addressing nations as ‘Virgin, Daughter’ implies a covenantal relation. Jesus’ command to ‘disciple nations’ is also a covenantal appeal.
This understanding leads to two ‘time-lines’, one historic and one mega-historic and cosmologic in nature, giving an awe-inspiring understanding of God’s purposes.

- Chapter 3 is revelatory. MAPPING GOD: APPRECIATING CORPORATE IDENTITIES OF NATIONS
Since nations are persons, we should not be surprised that they are created in God’s image, just like individuals. This concept is developed, and illustrated from the Bible. In sixteen monographs Corporate Identities of nations are presented, some of servant type nations, some of leader type nations, some of prophetic nations. The positive characteristics of these nations are described, their weak characteristics are understood from that perspective, and indications are given how the church can be instrumental in the corporate inner healing and transformation of nations. The material is submitted for testing.

- Chapter 4 is research based. THE NATIONS/HELPMATES AGGRESSIVELY DECEIVED AND
CORRUPTED
After presenting the biblical material in three “positive” chapters, chapter 4 describes the dynamics that oppose God’s intentions. God chooses to cooperate with human-corporate as covenant partners; Satan aggressively hates and attacks all covenant partners and covenantal dynamics. Nine ‘false covenants’ are discussed, all (inter-)national and very much 21st century in nature. If on a world map each nation were coloured to show her false covenants, few nations would remain white! Among them are, most aggressively, the system of the Queen of Heaven, and Freemasonry and Islam. The ‘false covenant partners’ are discussed: the gods of the nations, also called territorial spirits, each with their 21st century counterparts. Least considered but most influential is the use and abuse of ‘spiritual tools’, such as covenants, curses, thrones, strongholds, fear, and spiritual power, and their applications at nations level. This chapter vividly pictures the passionate international jealousy raging in the heavenlies.

- Chapter 5 is implementation. KEYS AND STEPS TOWARDS REDEMPTION OF NATIONS;
THE CHURCH IS IN CHARGE
This closing chapter is in earnest indeed; it provides in-depth homework for the church. There are four exciting examples of modern nations that actually ‘covenanted to God’. The church is to be a ‘model nation’, leading her nation into a covenant with God, ministering inner healing and transformation to a nation, laying the foundation for official identificational repentance of historic corporate sins, pulling down corporate strongholds, and waging spiritual warfare. Is the church ready for this? Does she have the vision? Is she prophetic? Is she radical like John the Baptist and Elijah? Is she persecution-proof? Will the church rise to the challenge of Discipling Nations? Or will she, complacently, theologise away the idea that (persecution and) God’s kingdom is at hand?