The Inscrutable Question: Client Nations, Pivots, & Historical Trends: Definitions of Terms; Impromptu Explanation of Establishment Good vs. Divine Good
D.	Client Nations, Pivots, and Historical Trends
	1-	The term “client nation” needs to be defined.  We begin with the word “client” which is defined by:
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “client”:
One who is under the protection of another; a person who engages the professional services of another.
	Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “Client”:
Roman antiquity.  A plebeian under the patronage of a patrician, who was bound, in return for certain services, to protect his client’s life and interests. 
	2-	A client nation is therefore a country under the patronage of God.  Thus the word “patron” needs to be defined.  We again consult:
	Oxford, s.v. “Patron”:
I. Senses connected with ancient Latin patronus.
1.	One who stands to another in relations analogous to those of a father; a lord or master; a protector.
2.	Roman Antiquity.  One who had manumitted his slave and who retained legal claims, of a paternal nature, upon him as freedman.  b. A person of distinction who gave his protection and aid to a client in return for certain services.  c. A defender before a court of justice; an advocate.  In reference to ancient Greece, used to render prost£thj, prostates, as applied to citizens under whose protection a resident alien (mštoikoj, metoikos) placed himself and who was responsible to the state for his conduct.
	3-	From these two definitions we get the picture of a client nation being one that is under the divine protection of God but which is required to provide the environment in which certain of its citizens might perform specific services for God.  These services are:
		1)	Protect and guard the Word of God from destruction or censorship.
		2)	Evangelize unbelievers within the population.
		3)	Communicate doctrine to believers within the population.
		4)	Provide missionaries to communicate the gospel and establish churches with indigenous pastors in foreign lands where positive volition at God consciousness is identified.
		5)	Provide a haven of refuge for the Jewish Diaspora.
	4-	God as protector of a client nation may be illustrated from Roman antiquity.  His protection is directed toward believers who are illustrated by those who Oxford refers to as “manumitted slaves.”
	5-	Believers in a client nation are indeed slaves who have been manumitted out from the slave market of sin and have been made free to serve God.  To those believers who provide these services great protection and provision are bestowed by God as Patron.
	6-	In addition, God as Patron defends all believers before the Supreme Court of Heaven (Job 1) and Jesus Christ serves as our Advocate before the Court (1 John 2:1).
	7-	The Greek word for “patron” is prost£thj, prostates, and its definition is helpful as well.
Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott.  A Greek-English Lexicon.  9th ed.  (Oxford University Press, 1968), 1526, 1121:
prost£thj. One who stands before and protects.  At Athens, patron who took charge of the interests of the mštoikoj metoikos, who lived under the protection of the patron.
mštoikoj. A settler from abroad.  An alien resident in a foreign city.