Strong Man Of God Blog

            After coming to salvation Resurrection Sunday 1977, in the wisdom of God and without realizing it then, I officially began my service to Him in the predominantly black American Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Seaside, CA, Reverend C.L. McFadden, Pastor in the fall of 1979.  I taught third graders in the same classroom I had just fifteen years earlier been taught and sat baptized but unsaved.  The work of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. which I was led by the Lord to found in 1985 until today has included my burden for black folk and the churches among us.  Thus, no one can tell me, “Preacher, first go preach to your own.”  This Black History Month, I repost the first of an edited two part 2013 blog in keeping with my burden as a son of slaves to use the spiritual gifts God has given me to continue serving my own and any others helped to His glory!

Originally Posted February 3, 2013

            Without a doubt as I labored before the Lord writing The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, I had the men and women of my own race and culture in mind in terms of needs and benefits as much as anybody else.  As our elders say among professing Christian black Americans, “God has brought us a mighty long way.”  While this is certainly true in terms of the physical chains of bondage that used to shackle the arms and legs of our slave forefathers, I have spent nearly all of my journey as a Christian seeking to get us to move further down the path of spiritual maturity the Lord has laid out for all of His born again children with limited success.  Greater spiritual maturity would lead to stronger, more fruitful and satisfying personal lives enjoyed beyond church services as well as make a wider, desperately needed renewing impact in the black community.  As I have learned through over thirty years of painful experience, though, Christianity the religion of men is the giant stumbling block.

            Christianity the religion came to blacks early in the business of slavery through first the missionary efforts of colonial Anglicans followed by the desire of many slave owners to subdue in their slaves the natural and universal inclination of men to be free.  In fairness, some of the slave owners were genuinely concerned for the eternal souls of their property and shared the Gospel accordingly.  As much as any other non-Christian men on earth (including the Europeans that conquered Rome and were called “Barbarians”), most Africans came to the New World practicing the native religions of their ancestral tribes and a few, the religion of others such as Islam.

            None of us that are truly born again Christians today would begrudge the sincere slave owners that shared the Gospel with our slave forefathers and treated them in accord with biblical righteousness.  It is the evil owners that insincerely used Christianity as a religious tool of oppression not unlike the cold, dead, rigid and oppressive experience they had with Christianity the religion of men themselves that stir up righteous anger.  Few slaves warmed to the dry, colonial Christianity the religion spoon fed to them.

            Only after the Holy Spirit led and empowered “Great Awakenings” and revivals that swept through the forming then fledgling nation did slaves in large numbers begin to come to Christ and become part of denominational groups such as the Baptists and Methodists.  But maintaining the privilege of racial superiority, white churches segregated slaves and free blacks into special sections or they were directed to gather among themselves under the authority and watchful eye of whites.

            It was not long before free black preachers purposely started their own churches and having no other models, patterned them after what they had seen, heard and/or been taught by professing white Christians.  Hence, while blacks were racially separated from whites in their assemblies, the external forms of authority, organization, programming methods etc. of Christianity the religion whites practiced were mostly adopted without revision.  The distinction came culturally in the preaching emphasis and uninhibited, emotionally charged way blacks expressed themselves in services.

            Adopting the outer forms of Christianity the religion practiced by the people that introduced it to them without much question is understandable for men completely cut off from the familiarity of their homeland.  Unfortunately, this has not well served those black churches and denominational groups that did not recognize the spiritual deficiencies of just swapping their native religions for another.

            Rather than the Bible (which many could not and were purposely kept from learning how to read to prevent any illumination), in great numbers they allowed their masters’ practice of Christianity the religion of men to be the final authority for their own faith and practice.  This they did even after seeing and experiencing how the practice of Christianity the religion divorced as it is from the Bible and the Holy Spirit by professing white Christians, brought so much harm to them.  Of course, there were a few without being able to read that knew then and who can now read the Bible that know Christianity the religion practiced by anybody is not the real deal.  The only ones fooled are the practitioners!

            Christianity the religion of men among blacks has brought forth all of the predictable outcomes such as churches full of impostors and weak Christians willfully sinning with impunity.  Indeed, “black owned churches” are a badge of pride in our community meaning first, white men are no longer controlling every aspect of black life.  However, as a second meaning and most important unintended consequence, neither is Jesus truly honored as Lord!

            To their credit historically, predominantly black churches have served their congregants well as a “safe house” from not only white control, but abuse.  Black men forced to give white men the respect they demanded but were otherwise humiliated by being called “boy” or the “N” word, came to church and became Reverend, Deacon, brother and Mr. so and so.  All black attendees found a place to give full vent to their emotions in church services that had been pent up outside in a white dominated world professing to be Christian that severely penalized any act of resistance or insistence on receiving the most basic of human dignity and treatment.¹

1 Click here  to  be taken to another Web Site of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and learn how to obtain the Commemorative Cassette of the Angel Award
   winning  docu-drama I wrote, produced and narrated featuring creatively presented music and sound effects that tells the story of Black History and interprets it from
   from a biblical worldview.

            There is the Church and there are the churches.  So very sadly, the two are not equivalent in all cases throughout the earth especially where the churches are the product of Christianity the religion of men!  That said, let us be clear that the declaration of Matthew 16:18 from the lips of the Lord Jesus does not apply to the churches as institutions of men, but His Church.  His Church are all who have come to Him by repentance and faith in the Gospel--His death on the cross for our sins, burial and eternal resurrection on the third day after (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).  As is commonly known, the Greek word the Lord uses for “Church” is Ekklesia which generally means a called out assembly.

            From the earliest eye witnesses of Him raised from the dead to every soul that will receive their proclamation of the Gospel and testimony to the end of this season of grace, all are assembled to Christ as His Church on earth and in Heaven after death (1 Corinthians 15:5-11).  When He returns in awesome glory and power we all shall be gathered to Him in the sky and remain with Him as His Church forever (Matthew 24:29-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)!  This is the assembly of whom Christ speaks when He, based on who He is declares, “…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” (Matthew 16:13-18, NKJV). 

            Not only does the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ to immortal glory validate His ability to fulfill His declaration, but the Father has given Him all authority both in Heaven and on earth as well as over Hades and Death (Matthew 28:19; Revelation 1:18).  It goes without saying (yet, I say so anyway because of the widespread rebellion against His rule and disobedience in the churches) that Christ is also the Head of His Church (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18)!  Therefore, the Church triumphant here and now and forever is an assured reality regardless of what goes on in this life or death because Christ our Head has already triumphed for us and reigns!

            Many sinning professing Christians in the churches are confused about and wrongly apply to themselves, the victories of the faithful saints assembled to Christ by persevering faith and obedience as the Church.  It is not just saying one is a Christian and getting baptized that saves, but it is living as one for life.  As dirt and improper handling leaves spots and wrinkles on white garments, so, sin on sinners!  Christ sacrificed Himself to purify for Himself a Church, a Bride without “spot or wrinkle” (Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:7-9, NKJV).  So, where do unrepentant professing Christians willfully practicing sin in unbelief driven disobedience get off thinking they are fine with Christ?

            Besides the fact many are impostors and religionists devoid of the Spirit practicing Christianity the religion of men in their churches who have invented for themselves doctrines of eternal security, there is also a great number of professing American Christians who have both culturally conditioned the faith and been conditioned through compromises with secular culture to believe in the concept of “American Exceptionalism.”  From its secular and religious use, the concept expresses the idea that our nation has been uniquely raised up by God and graciously given such values as embodied in the founding documents and the national character along with prosperity and might as a world leader, to assure all of this from Him in perpetuity.

            While I, with thanksgiving, have marveled with fellow citizens of like mind at the historic grace, prosperous blessing and might God has bestowed on our nation in spite of its many past sins to include legally sanctioning the oppression of my forefathers and present moral declension, His Word prophetic and otherwise precludes any of this continuing in perpetuity (Proverbs 14:34; Jeremiah 25:15-33).  This being so, it is foolish for any professing Christian to bank on American Exceptionalism as a means to comfort themselves about the nation’s future, their escape from divine judgment for sin or for that matter, persecution as our brothers in other nations are now enduring.

            Neither heretically constructed doctrines of eternal security or American Exceptionalism provide escape from divine wrath for unrepentant sinning professing Christians in the churches or our sinful nation.  Those who say the contrary are false prophets of peace like the ones of ancient Israel the Lord condemned (Jeremiah 23:16-22); those that believe them are deceived (Galatians 6:7-8).

            Too, the victory of Christ’s Church is not to have escaped persecution for His sake (Revelation 6:9-11), but in spite of it, to be gloriously displayed as immortal king/priests with Him at His appearing (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, Revelation 20:4-6)!  These are the saints who during their earthly sojourn as aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ faithfully served Him; loving Him more than their own lives (Matthew 10:34-39; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Revelation 12:9-11).  The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”