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by Steven D. Kurtz (Author), Brian Kaylor (Foreword by)
God's promise to bless Abraham also includes a promise that all the earth's families will be blessed through him. In the Bible's epic story of the chosen people, foreigners repeatedly appear and play crucial roles. Moses would have been killed if not rescued by the daughter of Pharaoh. The Israelite spies would never have survived without the help of Rahab the prostitute in Jericho. David's family line would have died out had it not been for Ruth the Moabite. Jesus heals foreigners, enters Gentile territory, and finally commissions his disciples to go into the world with the gospel's good news. The tension between God's special relationship with the descendants of Abraham and God's love for all the world's people runs through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
This inclusive vision runs counter to the Christian nationalist agenda of ethnic division. Christian nationalism claims to have biblical support, but this book lays bare that claim by a close reading of the Bible. Paul says that in Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek. Revelation imagines people from every tribe and nation worshiping around the throne of the Lamb. The final biblical vision is a new, unified humanity.
Author Biography
Steven was an instructor in Biblical Studies at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia, where he taught courses in bible, theology, and ethics. There, he saw firsthand the destructive effects of nationalism on the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Serbia, both nominally Christian countries, and in Bosnia, which was majority Christian. He lived within thirty minutes of mass graves in more than one direction. He was an eyewitness to destroyed churches and villages and led services in congregations whose pastors were refugees from the fighting.
These experiences gave him a passion for dislodging the roots of nationalism and its faulty biblical and theological justifications. Steven graduated from the Moody Bible Institute and the Evangelical Theological Divinity School. He has served congregations in Alabama and Arkansas, where his ministry included teaching in-depth Bible courses.
