Europe: should we stay or should we go?
Only a fool would attempt to answer that question, especially in such a short space as this. Yet it is a question that each of us intending to vote in the referendum on June 23rd will need to make up our minds about – unless we plan to abstain.
What concerns me is that many Christians seem to be deciding how to vote on the same basis as unbelievers. An article I read in a Christian paper recently seemed to offer little that was distinctively Christian. We will all have received the Government’s booklet through our doors, aiming to persuade us that remaining in the European Union will mean “protecting jobs, a stronger economy, providing security.” The thing is, those urging that we leave the EU seem to be promising pretty much the same things if we leave.
Shouldn’t Christians have concerns beyond the welfare of their own nation? What about the kingdom of God? What will serve that best? No single earthly nation has a privileged status here; rather there will be people “from every nation, tribe, people and language” in the kingdom (Revelation 7:9). And what is the Bible’s idea of a ‘nation’? The word for ‘nation’ is ethnos, meaning something like ‘people group’. I’m not sure of the answer, but let’s at least ask the right questions: What will be best not only for ourselves, but for others? What will be best not just materially, but spiritually? Ultimately, what will be best for the spread of the gospel and the glory of God?