Deus Misereatur

  Most people seem to assume that they know the answer to the question, “What are nations for?” and a similar query, “What are cultures for?” An American might well answer that it is to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or something along those lines. But as Christians who are drawn into the Kingdom of God by the grace of God, the answer goes deeper. Steven M. Bryan, professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield Illinois, has poured himself into a fuller answer to those two questions in his recently published, 288-page softback, “ Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God: A Biblical Theology of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Race ”. The aim of this volume “is to explore what Scripture has to say about God’s purposes not only for people but also for peoples.” This includes “individuals in families and families within peoples.” The reason for his focus is that “the relationship between peoples turns out to be a crucial, if often overlo...

  “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me” (Psalm 57:1-2). We look around our big world and see trouble on the righthand and turmoil on the left. We implore you, O God, for all the nations of the world, especially the USA, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, and Somalia. Bring peace in our time, preserve the downtrodden and demoralized, raise up leaders who will seek good, and not evil, that life may flourish, leaders who will hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; and who will let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (from Amos 5:14-15, 24). “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction p...