The Scourge Of Racism
E-Book Availability 4/12-26
Released January 5, 2024
Download Your Copy
Now In The Strong Man Store!
After seven weeks in the profound book of Bible prophecy named after its penman and main personality, Daniel, you would think his dream interpretations, dreams, visions and prophecies came to him in the isolated seclusion of a desert or mountain retreat.1 But as foretold (Micah 4:9-10), Daniel was a captive and slave taken over 1,500 miles away to Babylon with others of his people from the 605 B.C. Jewish kingdom of Judah in the first of three waves and accord with the judgment of God (2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Jeremiah 25:1-11; Daniel 1:1-2)! As this was of God, Daniel is also ultimately His slave which is instruction and application for black Americans this Black History Month.
From the outset, Daniel was busy with the king of Babylon’s priorities as he was selected with others of the best and brightest “young men” among fellow slaves from Judah to serve in his “palace” after teaching them “the language and literature of the Chaldeans” in “three years of training.” During this time by royal decree, they were to eat the “daily provision of the king’s delicacies” and drink “of the wine which he drank,” (Daniel 1:3-5, NKJV). The Jewish names of these representative young men were also replaced with those of Babylonian origin given to them by “the chief of the eunuchs,” (Daniel 1:6-7, NKJV). Assignment to him may mean the young men were made eunuchs too.2
It was not just doctrinal instruction from the Lord through His Word during the seven year period beginning in 1986 I waited on Him in prayer and intense Bible study for a biblical worldview of the black American experience that caused me to throw off the yoke of and renounce victimization as a descendant of West African slaves and minority still experiencing systemic racism.3 It was also encountering godly men like Daniel and his companions in the Bible who were forcibly taken from their native land to be slaves in Babylon. For this is just as it also happened to my forefathers forcibly taken from their native land and brought over 4,000 miles in ships to be slaves in America.
Like Daniel and his companions, too, my slave forefathers were required to learn the language and culture of their captors as well as receive new names and be happy about it. All of these painful circumstances were as initially traumatizing and demoralizing for them as they no doubt were for Daniel, his companions and all of the Jews in Babylon (Psalm 137). However, in spite of their captive circumstances, Daniel and his three companions were not crushed as victims, but thrived! How is this possible? Isn’t it because they came to Babylon in a devoted relationship with and as slaves of God; accepting that their captivity was of His permissive, foretold will (Daniel 1:8-21, 9:10-14)?4
This is not to say Daniel and his three companions escaped trouble from the raw power of their oppressors. Even so, God delivered them as they looked to Him in faith! The four of them would have been killed with all of Babylon’s wise men if God had not provided Daniel with the content of the king’s dream and its interpretation for which he praised Him and advanced them (Daniel 2). After this, Daniel’s three companions incurred the king’s “fury” because they refused out of faithfulness to God to worship his image. He threw them into a furnace that was heated “seven times” hotter than normal. But God delivered them! He was praised and they “promoted” by the king (Daniel 3, NKJV).
Early in the new royal administration of the Medo-Persian Empire, men no doubt filled with envy, jealousy and racism plotted against Daniel because the king who had already given him a high position in his government, considered elevating Daniel to the highest place under him. Their evil scheme was predicated on snaring Daniel in his well known faithfulness to the God of Heaven so he might be killed by being dropped into a den of hungry lions. But God delivered Daniel and He was praised by the king! Daniel prospered until his death (Daniel 6). This pattern of trouble, unfair and even harsh treatment attends to the Jewish experience in Babylon and Persia. However, men like Daniel and his three companions trusted in and remained faithful to God and He delivered them.5
There is one major difference in the captivity of Daniel, his companions and other faithful Jews and that of those brought from West Africa to be slaves in America: the majority of my forefathers did not come having a prior relationship with the living God. Presented the Gospel even from nefarious motives and Christianity the religion of men though, many over time came to faith in Jesus Christ.6 What trials they endured being treated with contempt as naked chattel or barely above animals by many of the guilty whites that owned them. They were denied the sanctity of marriage and intact families; violated by rape and castration in too many cases; beaten and murdered with impunity. Yet, like Daniel and his three companions the faithful cried out to and trusted in God for deliverance.
Over four hundred years of black American history is filled with innumerable personal and corporate testimonies of deliverances from God. Those like Daniel and his companions who understood themselves to be His slaves bore with their mortal bondage waiting in hope for freedom which did come! Others refused to compromise their God granted human dignity and persevered through Jim Crow segregation never believing they were less than anyone else. Still others faced just as real furnaces of affliction and lion’s dens making a stand for biblical righteousness opposing the evils of racial bigotry. Many God delivered while some He chose to bring home to glory and rest from their labors. All of His faithful have given and give this nation’s rulers their opportunity to praise God!7
1 See the posts that begin January 9 through February 20, 2022.
2 As students of the Bible note, neither Daniel nor his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are said to have wives or children anywhere in Daniel’s book. While this or the fact they are under the specific authority of the king’s head eunuch are not conclusive proof the young men were made eunuchs, it is truly odd no mention of wives or children is made given the importance of family and lineage to the Jews throughout most of the Bible.
3 Read the two-part post beginning June 2, 2019, Message From A Redeemed Black Man, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History. O that all the guilty would repent from seeing our experience through the confused prism of victimization! At https://fromslaverytovictory.org walk through the presentation, Does God Care About African Americans?
4 The result of Daniel’s humble acceptance of God’s will for his life as a slave in Babylon is His loving favor so bestowed on him, that his book remains prophetically relevant over 2,500 years later and will be to the very end and Christ’s return!
5 These men were exemplary of the aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
6 Tragically, a great number of blacks going forward also adopted Christianity as their own religion after the manner of those who had enslaved them. God has not been pleased with this among our people or any others. He leads me to cry out with His displeasure against the corruptions and compromises of the biblical faith in manmade Christianity the religion among all professed Christians in a four-part post that begins February 26, 2017, God Of Restoration And Judgment, under the categories Bible Prophecy, Biblical Worldview, Black History and The Cause. More recently, also read the two-part post starting February 21, 2021, Willful Ignorance Destroys, under the category, Black History.
7 Truly, it is only the black American victors of faith and faithfulness that are being honored to the glory of God in this post as I do them in our national Radio Special, From Slavery To Victory: One Man’s Journey and which I still want to more fully do in a film. The Radio Special sits waiting to be heard as a Webcast on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site (https://fromslaverytovictory.org) needing only the funds to obtain renewed music clearances. You can make a designated gift for this cause on the Web Site or even anonymously through the PayPal Giving Fund. If you have the human and financial resources to help realize the film vision, please reach out to me.
Nevertheless, as the Gates documentary unabashedly shows, taking cues from their former masters and dominant white culture, black Americans too, created their own forms of Christianity, churches and various denominational entities.4 Common to many including the Church Of Christ without instruments is the uninhibited expression of emotion that God winked at in the most painful of historically oppressive times. But if all you have and come away with from church is an emotionally cathartic temporary experience, you have missed God and His help in the eternally satisfying qualities of life and transforming power of the Holy Spirit through biblical Christianity (John 10:10)!5
As portrayed in the film, the driving force behind the Christianity of black Americans is their native West African religious traditions to include a nod to Islam. Out of the severe adversity of capture, transatlantic transport and enslavement, blacks “made a way out of no way” for themselves! Furthermore, absent a biblical worldview of the black experience, the Gates documentary fully incriminates black religionists and the utter failure of their manmade religious construction to measure up to authentic biblical Christianity by admitting and reveling in such heretical acts as reinterpreting the Bible in their own image and making purposeful cultural adaptations.
Not the least of these reinterpretations and cultural adaptations as a deliberate theme throughout the four hour film is freeing women and gays from oppression by whites and stuffy blacks operating out of a Christian conservatism ostensibly beyond biblical Christianity in its restrictions. Ever for the oppressed no matter what, God is presented as working in all of the circumstances and black self-efforts through the engagement of their churches and many well known leaders to free not just our people, but women and gays too, from the tyranny of conservative oppressors. Gates himself tearfully returns to the presently white woman led Methodist church he grew up in to end his film.
Educated experts and cultural icons notwithstanding, Christianity and churches as a religious invention of black Americans may be a pride-filled marvel of sinful mortal flesh, but not the God of the Bible (Matthew 7:21-23, 15:1-20, 23:1-33; Luke 16:15)! As with all other forms of Christianity corrupted and dominated by culture as manmade religion, that of black Americans is counterfeit too; a knock off of the real deal prophetically foretold would be extant in the “perilous times” of these “last days,” (2 Timothy 3:1-9, NKJV). Clearly from this prophecy, no counterfeit form of Christianity by anyone is acceptable to God who judges and calls His faithful out of the harlotry (Revelation 18:1-8).6
Also, since most of our people can now, read the Bible to know what it says for themselves, ignorance of its content is no longer an excuse. Because of this, God has not for a long time been winking at what can only be described as willful ignorance waiting for the guilty to see the light and repent (Acts 17:30-31; 1 Timothy 1:12-14; James 4:17). The disproportionate ruin and God’s remedial judgments widely seen in our community are evidence of willful ignorance in rejection of biblical Christianity starting with the Gospel as salvation from sin defined in His unchanging Word as well as many choosing to be victims in rebellion and refusing to fulfill His good ends for our people’s capture, transatlantic transport, enslavement and freedom (Hosea 4:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)!7
That God, the living God of the Bible would allow people to suffer being slaves on purpose is unapologetically presented therein (Psalm 107:10-16). Seeing so much of our experience in the Egyptian bondage of the Jews, we should also see that God did not just show up afterward to deliver them in surprise it had happened, but ordained it beforehand (Genesis 15:12-16; Exodus 2:23-3:8)! Moreover, the Lord later punished Israel with slavery by many nations, most prominently Assyria and Babylon. Of the Jews that came out of Egypt, many perished in the wilderness and never reached the Promised Land because of unbelief fed rebellion. For while God is for the oppressed, it is only the “humble” faithful who trust in and obey Him that are blessed (Psalms 9:10-12, 10:12-18, NKJV).
For this cause the writer of Hebrews warns all professed Christians about unbelief fed rebellion and being “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” (Hebrews 3:7-19, NKJV). Certainly, Satan, sin and self has deceived and they are thoroughly deluded who believe God has set aside His Word in these latter days to uphold rebellion against Himself (Psalms 2, 119:89; Isaiah 40:8; Mark 13:31; 1 Timothy 4:1-2)!8 Such willful ignorance is destroying our people as it once did Israel in the land. As it is written, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” And because they rejected knowledge, God rejected ancient Israel from His purpose and does so today among our people; the lively worship in invented religious forms and churches drawn from them dead before Him (Hosea 4:6, NKJV)!9
Therefore, if the Gates documentary is the final answer to God by black Americans practicing their own form of counterfeit Christianity and sin to include stealing His glory while resisting His call to repentance, then, know He is about to turn your “glory into shame,” (Proverbs 14:34; Hosea 4:7, NKJV). As it is written, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8, NKJV) and ‘“he who glories, let him glory in the Lord,’” (2 Corinthians 10:17-18, NKJV). With hearts set on sin and "iniquity," God will “punish” you for your “ways” and “reward” your rebellious “deeds” of “harlotry.” Not repenting, your obstinate persistence in willful ignorance is proof of apostasy from which there is no return and only His wrath (Job 36:5-21; Hosea 4:8-10; Romans 1:18-2:11; Hebrews 6:4-8, 10:26-31, NKJV).
4 Read the September 4, 2016 post, Christianity The Religion American Style, under the category, Call To Repent.
5 See Strong Through God, Not Religion. Also, read especially part three of the post that begins February 28, 2016, When The Messengers Are Bound, under the categories,
Black History and The Cause. It was God that was the true “refuge” for our “oppressed” people who were looking to Him, not the place of assembly (Psalm 9:9, NKJV)!
This truth should be abundantly clear by now, to all that are willing to see it after over a year in some cases of not being able to assemble in church buildings due to God’s
Coronavirus judgment.
6 Read the January 26, 2020 post, The Spirit Of Harlotry, under the category, Call To Repent and the two-part post that begins June 7, 2020, Days Of Separation, under the
category, Bible Prophecy.
7 Read the two-part post beginning June 7, 2015, 150 Years After Slavery and beginning February 26, 2017, the four-part God Of Restoration And Judgment both under the
category, Black History. The biblical worldview of the black experience in the From Slavery To Victory Education Project the Lord led me to present is firmly built on the foun-
dation of His foreknowledge and sovereign will! The enslavement of our West African forefathers could not have happened without God knowing about and permitting it.
Visit the project Web Site, https://fromslaverytovictory.org to consider something other than the false narratives of victimization through content such as The Journey and in
the Journal Archives, The Renewing Of Our Minds.
8 The delusion God has set aside His Word encompasses what is written in it condemning all instances of sexual immorality and establishing His order of mankind with men
as His elect leaders from creation in the home and churches loyal to Christ’s Headship (1 Corinthians 6:9-20, 11:1-12, 14:34-40; 1 Timothy 2:11-15). Rather than belligerent
defiance, professed Christian feminist rebels and their male supporters ought to be in fear of the ongoing judgment upon them the Lord had me proclaim in the October 25,
2020 post, Women Pastors: Rank Rebellion, under the category, Call To Repent!
9 See the February 9, 2020 post, Reputation And Reality, under the category, Call To Repent. If “lively worship” is so important to God He is willing to overlook sin in the midst
as many contend, then, plainly this thinking during the Coronavirus church shutdowns has been exposed as false as it also is in the post (Isaiah 1:13)!
Join The Strong Man Of God Resources Conversation!
Get Your Copy Of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics Today!
Your purchase supports restoring men, families and communities through Strong Man Ministries!
Purchase It Now