One Blood, Many Nations

God’s Providence in Acts 26:17

Haven’t I Read This Before?

An aside, before we get into the article, some may recognize the title from my previous article One Blood, Many Nations: The True Meaning of Acts 17:26. This article began as a revision and turned into a complete rewrite. It is, in my opinion, superior in every way to the original. You do not need to read the original to appreciate this article, and if you read the original, this will be almost an entirely new article, not a rehash of what you’ve already read.

The Text Misused

A favorite text among ethno-nationalists and Kinists is Acts 17:26, which reads:

He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation

—Acts 17:26

Kinism

Kinism is a pseudo-Christian ideology that claims God commands people to segregate and identify primarily along ethnic, tribal, or racial lines. Kinists argue that Scripture upholds “kin loyalty” as a moral duty, and often use passages like Acts 17:26 to justify partiality, racial division, and opposition to ethnic integration within church or society. In practice, Kinism is a theological mask for ethno-nationalism and racial separatism, and stands in direct contradiction to the gospel’s teaching on unity in Christ.

Description, Not Prescription

The ethnic cults, like others before them, treat a descriptive text as if it were prescriptive. That which describes an act of God, they twist into a command binding on men.

Even a cursory examination of Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill makes clear that the apostle is not making an ethnic argument. He is declaring the sovereignty of God in the affairs of all men—Jew and Gentile alike.

Paul, a Jew, points to the “ALTAR OF THE UNKNOWN GOD” and reveals that even the pagan Athenians, in their ignorance, knew there was a God above their idols. Though Paul was a foreigner, he declared their common blood: “God made from one man every nation of mankind.”

God’s Sovereign Boundaries

The doublespeak—the bastardization of the text—occurs when Kinists seize on the next phrase:

having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation

Who determines these appointed times and boundaries? Paul is unambiguous—God does. There is no prescriptive command that men are to maintain these boundaries. It is God, by His sovereign will, who establishes and removes them.

The racialist takes what God does in His providence and exalts it into a human command. Because God has set boundaries in time, they presume it is man’s duty to perpetuate them—usurping the prerogatives of God, and dividing where providence has united.

We can be certain that God-made boundaries no longer exist where He has removed them. There is nothing in Acts 17:26 that grants us any authority to maintain these borders, or any control over our place in God’s order.

The Kinist’s Contradiction

This is especially damning for Kinists who take a Hyper-Calvinist stance: they confess man’s impotence in salvation, but suddenly become synergists in maintaining fleshly distinctions and borders—precisely where Scripture says Christ has destroyed them.

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition

—Ephesians 2:14, LSB

To restate it plainly: the Kinist and ethno-nationalist believe “the races” must be divided because God “determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” Yet, when God removes those boundaries—when He sends His Son to destroy them—they stubbornly insist on rebuilding what Christ has abolished.

Heresy, Not Error

Kinism is not mere error; it is heresy. It rejects the direct work of Christ in Scripture, usurps God’s sovereign authority, and denies the reconciliation purchased by His blood.

More could be said, and the Kinist may quote other passages in vain, but the fatal blow is found in the ministry of reconciliation:

The Ministry of Reconciliation

16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their transgressions against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

—2 Corinthians 5:16–19, LSB

It is clear that we are charged with the destruction of dividing walls, not the maintenance of them.