Te Haranui [Acts 10]

The gospel is for all nations, for God shows no partiality. You will not be saved because you are a Jew, or account yourself oppressed, colonised, or have many intersectionality brownie points. You will not be damned for being German, or from the Soviety block or a cisgendered white male.

Diversity is not salvation. Social justice is not salvation. Christ is.

And the gentile first converted by Peter was a Roman Centurion: a member of the military that was the overlord of Jerusalem, and considered by the nationalist zealots to be a target.

Our children are gifts to the world, given to us for a time. Their souls are of infinite value. They are not virtue signals.

Acts 10:34-48

34Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. 37That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

44While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

The gospel descended on the Gentiles with tongues of fire and by the Holy Spirit. It was not the work of Peter: a fair number of the allusions in his sermon, such as any who are hung on a tree are damned being applied to crucifixion, worked to those who knew the Law. Which Cornelius and pious gentiles did: the Septuagint Greek translation of scripture had been extant for about two hundred years.

But it is the gospel that has the power. Not out nations, nor our virtue.

We are placed in nations, and this is good. The idea that we can be one is a myth at best, a heresy at worst. it is the tower of babel. We develop a sense of progress, and worship our achievements, rather than God.

Or we deny our achievements because we hate to deal with this messy thing called the Gospel. It offends our sense of nature, for it implies that there is God, and he is active, intervening, raising up nations and casting them down.

The hatred of Christ is driving the hatred of the West. This is an error: there are more Christians in Asia and Africa. The West was raised as a vector to ensure the gospel got to all tribes and nations: the project that began with Bede converting the King of Kent led to Samuel Marsden preaching a sermon on Christmas day 1815 at Russel, New Zealand.

In Maori, which he learned so he could preach it. It was the Western missionaries who translated the Bible into Maori, and as part of that recorded the legends and myths of the tribes.

This predated the treaty, which some missionaries argued against.

But know that Christ does not hold one nation greater than another. He calls us from all people. Let the African be African, the Indian be Indian, and the European European, in their tribes and nations. And may they all come to Christ.