All the Families of the Earth: Recovering Scripture's Vision Beyond Nationalism - Paperback

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 D. Kurtz was an instructor in biblical studies at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Croatia for over a decade before returning to the United States as a pastor, whose ministry included an emphasis on serious Bible study. In the former Yugoslavia, he saw firsthand the destructive effects of nationalism as well as the possibility of how it could be overcome in a Christian community that embraced a more biblical vision.