The Scourge Of Racism
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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.
The Lord led me to specifically mention the prophet Ezekiel as a contemporary of and fellow captive with Daniel in Babylon during the seven weeks I spent working through Daniel chapter nine beginning January 9th this year.1 Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in 597 B.C. eight years after Daniel during the second of three waves in which the Babylonians came and took Jews along with their king, Jehoiachin, from the kingdom of Judah captive (2 Kings 24:8-16; 2 Chronicles 36:9-10). Ezekiel was a priest preparing to serve when his life plans were dramatically altered by the captivity. He, like Daniel, became a slave of God for His cause and glory as has been my own experience.
By Ezekiel’s own dating statements in the text, in 593 B.C. during the fifth year after the king’s captivity and most likely his thirtieth year of life, while “among the captives by the River Chebar” the spiritual realm was suddenly opened up to him and he saw “visions of God,” (Ezekiel 1:1-3, NKJV).2 Until that moment, Ezekiel had his non-distinct place among all the other captives of Babylon that were living at the pleasure of its king. As I wrote in last week’s post examining Daniel and his three friends with a cushier existence in the “big house” of the king, Ezekiel too, with all others not so well off would have experienced the trauma and demoralization of their plight (Psalm 137).3
Evidently, gathering near waterways was a permitted and popular thing to do since both Ezekiel in the opening of his book and Daniel in his are among those that gather at them. Both men also have awesome encounters with God and angels as visions in their river settings (Ezekiel 1:4-28; Daniel 10:4-12). Whatever despair Ezekiel had from being a captive in Babylon was quickly eclipsed by the sudden and overpowering opening up of the unseen spiritual realm to him. It presented an abundance of unfamiliar sights and sounds, creatures as well as images of Heaven and God so vivid, he describes them in detail as best as any mortal human language can convey.
This all happened to a man awestruck beyond words who had previously only hoped to be a priest of the Lord at His Temple! However, he did not need to speak because the “One” who had given Ezekiel this great vision garnering his rapt attention now, spoke to him of His calling to serve Him as His slave in Babylon. Ezekiel would be the Lord’s prophet to his fellow captives He describes as ‘“a rebellious house’” to speak His words to them which they would not give heed (Ezekiel 2-3:15, NKJV). Moreover, the Lord returned seven days later and added ‘“watchman’” to Ezekiel’s calling in which he was to hear ‘“a word from’” God’s ‘“mouth’” and warn the people (Ezekiel 3:16-21, NKJV).
After this, the Lord sent his watchman/prophet ‘“into the plain’” to speak with him further about his ministry that would prove to be as challenging for him in the physical as processing everything he had seen in the spiritual realm. For God through the Spirit in him would command Ezekiel to do many strange and dramatic things as well as make him ‘“mute’” at times. This was all to cause his fellow captives to question his conduct and when God directed him, give them His answers (Ezekiel 3:22-27, NKJV). Much of the content of his dramatic portrayals, prophesying and warnings consisted of God’s reasons for the captivity as judgment and calls to repentance (Ezekiel 4-24, 33-34:10).
Interspersed with reasons for His judgment and calls to repentance, God also foretells His plans to restore Israel in the future (Ezekiel 11:14-25, 20:33-44, 34:11-31, 36-48). As well, He announced judgment on the surrounding Gentile nations who gloated over them and the evil spiritual mastermind behind those nations that was once His chief cherub, but fell (Ezekiel 25-32, 35). This was the incredible prophetic ministry of Ezekiel he records in his book after any hope of serving at the Temple in Jerusalem was fully dashed when it with the city was destroyed by his captors as later confirmed by a surviving escapee and foretold by God (Ezekiel 7:20-27, 21:1-7, 24:1-2, 15-27, 33:21-29).
Exemplary of Ezekiel as a slave of God was his obedience; only once objecting to a command from God on how to cook his food in the first of his dramatic portrayals. He objected honoring God’s already written Word he had obeyed from his youth (Ezekiel 4:9-17). He also remained obedient in the most difficult of human experiences, the death of a spouse which God told him of in advance; commanding that he not grieve for her and incorporate this into yet another dramatic portrayal to his fellow captives (Ezekiel 24:15-18). His obedience was like unto Christ as God’s slave (Philippians 2:5-8)!4 Like Him and Daniel too, Ezekiel was humble and content in his own service; showing no sign of jealousy when God exalted Daniel with other righteous men (Ezekiel 14:12-20).5
God repeated His calling of Ezekiel to be His watchman/prophet in Ezekiel 33:1-9. This passage has also served as the scriptural basis for my similar ministry from Him among rebellious professed Christians and their churches beginning formally in the spring of 1986.6 While the Lord has not had me act out any messages, through Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. He has used me to write, creatively produce and declare those He has given using many media tools such as printed materials, publications, radio, television, billboards, a play and the internet to blow His trumpet of warning. With His leadership, grace and strength I have endured in His causes to this hour seeking His glory; defining success by the example of Ezekiel’s faithful obedience as a slave of God!
1 See the two-part post that starts January16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
2 The expression, “the heavens were opened” with a key emphasis on “opened,” powerfully communicates the ability of mortal men granted by God to see into and experience things in the otherwise cloaked, closed like a curtain or door unseen spiritual realm that surrounds and fully suffuses our physical universe. So, throughout the Bible mortal men are made to “see” as did for examples, the servant of Elisha after he prayed for the Lord to “open his eyes,” John the Baptist who “saw the Spirit descending from hea- ven” upon the Lord Jesus and the apostle John who was summoned up through “a door standing open in heaven,” (2 Kings 6:15-17; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34; Revela- tion 4:1, NKJV). As with Ezekiel, their experiences were all amazingly real though, of the invisible spiritual realm!
3 Read the February 27, 2022 post, Daniel: Slave Of God, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History Month.
4 The obedience of Ezekiel (how fitting his name means “God strengthens”) perfectly seen in Jesus Christ is also to characterize the aspiring strong man of God in His image 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.
5 Unlike the biblically forbidden divisions, envy, petty jealousies and competition among many Christian leaders today (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3-4, 12-13), Ezekiel surely es- teemed Daniel who had already become well known throughout Babylon for his righteousness and wisdom God had given to him before his arrival. These two godly men in the same circumstances of captivity were used similarly and mightily in the prophetic ministry by God, but among different audiences (Galatians 2:1-10). Though Ezekiel cried out and saw judgment from God upon his people, he still cared for them (Ezekiel 9:3-8). And though Daniel served kings, he did not forget where he had come from; the stock and people from which he had been cut and identified with until the end (Daniel 9:16-19). As with Daniel’s book, Ezekiel’s will also remain relevant through the re- turn of Christ to the very end of His millennium reign and this present age (Ezekiel 38; Revelation 20:7-10)!
6 Read the October 2, 2016, Gifted With A Prophet’s Heart, under the category, Call To Repent. Also, beginning November 13, 2016, the three-part post, Without Honor In The Churches, under the category, Glory To God! Finally, under the same category, read the April 30, 2017 post, God, His Prophets And Word.
Generational patterns of sin are evident too among those relative few freedmen that have “made it” in the world with great jobs, fat incomes, fine homes, big cars, major achievements and acclaim who are also amid the world’s spiritually poor. The poor in spirit is anyone separated from the eternally rich life of God and as a result are spiritually dead in their sins. Though they live large, possess everything they want and have reached the pinnacle of success, at the end of the day their lives lived in and controlled by sin has left them guilt ridden, ashamed, empty, unfulfilled, despondent and painfully aware something money cannot buy from worldly sources is missing.
Outwardly, it does not look that way. Those that have “made it” even through unscrupulous means seem to have it all together (Psalm 73:1-12). Stars of entertainment and sports smile carefree for the many cameras while successful looking business tycoons and professionals disappear each evening into gated, upscale communities apparently unburdened. Also, in the face of many mother’s tears pleading for an end to gang violence, it continues among happy looking young freedmen because their media glamorized culture of idolatry and self-destruction is profitable. They famously display their wealth on gold rimmed teeth, their ears, necks and fingers.
Everything though, is not what it seems. Spiritually impoverished well off freedmen (yes, those too that wear the church going, outward façade of religiosity) have many sin driven troubles in this life including debilitating addictions, incurable sexually transmitted diseases, divorce (which contributes its share of children to our outrageously high number of female single parented households), incarceration (we have former congressmen and preachers on lockdown too), fear of and early death, increasing suicides etc. Moreover, at death, their greatest trouble now is remaining separated from God in their spiritual poverty and being tormented forever (Psalm 73:13-28; Luke 9:25)!
All that they were sold as a bill of goods contrary to Scripture about money, things, success and fame from the ultimate oppressor in part through his equally duped human agents from the former slave owning majority culture; all that was envied and desired from the shackles and forcefully imposed impediments of centuries of oppression turn out to be futility (Proverbs 3:31-35). Material prosperity does not equal abundant life or righteousness with God as the Lord Jesus warns (Luke 12:13-21). And, while there will have been those that were quite generous with their prosperity, their works can never redeem their souls to God (Psalm 49:5-9; Romans 3:9-20).
Because you are reading this, there is yet hope and an opportunity to be visited by God’s grace in the midst of your spiritual and/or physical poverty. For the living God could have destroyed our pagan forefathers in their native land as they deserved and the remedial judgment of slavery for sin from which we were freed would not have been. But then we would not have collectively known the depths of His mercy as no other people in recent history; the ancient invitation to come to Him for what is in fact life in abundance first issued to our slave forefathers in their chains still open (Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-7; Matthew 5:1-4, 11:28-30; John 10:7-10, 14:6; Romans 3:21-27, 10:6-13).
A number enough among our slave forefathers came to Jesus and a faithful remnant was raised up to have obtained God’s continuing mercy and grace on us to this hour or why are we still here? The proud among us whom God resists do not like to hear the truth that He “gives grace to the humble,” (1 Peter 5:5-7, NKJV). Thus, among the humble physically poor there have been those that are spiritually rich in all faith, abundant life, love, forgiveness and generosity through God’s provision; bringing glory to Him as He wills in the midst of the ones that oppressed them since slavery (Psalm 37:25-26; Matthew 5:14-16; Ephesians 2:1-10). Of these have come that fewer still of the relative few that emerged from physical poverty trusting in Christ.
This spiritually rich and materially blessed of the faithful remnant has given tangible witness and more glory to God in their well known abilities and accomplishments. Their names are too many for this space, though one such Christian was George Washington Carver. He was convinced until death that God had given him the multiple uses of the peanut we enjoy today. One hundred and fifty years later there can be so many more out of poverty and used of God to witness His life-changing power in the Gospel as well as bringing Him glory in all thanksgiving; aspiring strong men and great women of God in Christ’s image! Therefore, this Juneteenth we sound God’s trumpet in the Gospel anew throughout all the land. Let him hear who will hear and become the Lord’s truly free freedman (John 8:34-36).1
1 Visit https://fromslaverytovictory.org/Donate to learn how to obtain a Commemorative Cassette of the award winning, From Slavery To Victory: One Man's Journey Radio Special .
Just as Black History Month, so, Juneteenth is a commemoration started by black Americans for our people and fellow citizens to remember the end of American slavery. Juneteenth is the clever handle used for June 19, 1865 which marks the date the last slaves in Texas heard about the end of slavery with the defeat of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War a few months earlier and over two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. This year we have reached the one hundred and fiftieth year since that first Juneteenth. While this is a good thing and should be celebrated to the fullest, I am concerned about the condition of freedmen today.
There will be Juneteenth parades, picnics, concerts, church services, memorials and many community events featuring political, social, educational, religious and financial heavy hitters celebrating a great moment in our nation’s history; a moment when an evil chapter was brought to its end. Indeed, it was in 1865 Texas and should be today a celebration like unto ancient Israel’s Jubilee year that God instituted for them (Leviticus 25:8-17). Every fiftieth year the sound of a trumpet on the Day of Atonement announced the Jubilee when liberty was proclaimed in all the land. Slaves were set free, oppression banned, fields not planted and debts cancelled.
Launched as it was on the Day of Atonement, the Jubilee reconciled men to God and to each other as families were restored and neighbors brought back together after forced servitude along with other types of oppression due to disputes and indebtedness had divided them. In my mind’s eye I see the ancient Jews and my slave forefathers in their respective historical years of jubilee shouting, leaping, dancing and singing as the long wait to be released from heavy and painful burdens ended in freedom and hope for a better future! However, for both peoples the time of jubilee was all too short-lived as the evil works of human sinfulness in a fallen world overtook them.
For America’s black freedmen in the aftermath of that first Juneteenth, the realities of unabated racial bigotry and hostilities from many of their fellow white citizens have dogged them to some degree or another to this very hour. In spite of this, a relative few especially of those energized by the faith and love of Jesus Christ have been able to move past all artificially imposed barriers of race to achieve much. Accomplished African Americans are found in nearly every field of endeavor including the highest political and legal offices in the land. This post-slavery progress is undeniable and yet, there is still so much holding back the remaining number of freedmen.
Keeping it real, we cannot in all honesty assert the deep seated problems of over the top black male incarceration rates, gang violence, low educational attainment, joblessness, female single parent headed households and poverty are all caused by persistent racism--though most assuredly it has its surmountable in Christ part (John 16:33; Philippians 4:13; 1 John 5:4-5). No, the poor state of many freedmen today is due in large part to self-sabotage in that the guilty have chosen the sluggard’s way of victimization, entitlement, lawlessness and hedonism in all rebellion against God and His Word (Proverbs 6:6-11, 20:1, 23:29-35, 24:30-34, 28:19; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15)!
Freedom from physical bondage did not also equal freedom from the always deadly trio of Satan (the ultimate oppressor), sin and self for many blacks. As permitted by God in perfect mercy and grace, the black experience beginning with slavery was not intended to embitter us in perpetual inner bondage, but bring the willing among us to the greatest possible freedom (Lamentations 3:19-42). This freedom is found by faith in Jesus Christ alone. He is the eternal Jubilee for all yearning for liberty, new beginnings and a superior future (Psalm 146:5-8; Isaiah 42:5-9, 61:1-2; Luke 4:16-21; Romans 8:1-2)! In the freedom of the Son clung to through all adversity, we were meant to be powerful latter day witnesses to all men under the sun and bring much glory to the God of our salvation!
So, did God fail in His good purposes toward us because the greater numbers of freedmen one hundred and fifty years later are in dire straits spiritually and materially? No way! Those who have refused to muster the will to move beyond the admittedly real obstacles of racism even through faith in Jesus Christ from that first Juneteenth until now have failed themselves and their children. Truly, generational patterns of alcohol and drug abuse, irresponsibility, sexual promiscuity and out of wed-lock births (all of which I also once had my time) have taken hold to produce entrenched poverty. To be sure, generational patterns of sin that only a personal life changing faith walk with Jesus Christ can permanently reverse are by no means limited to the physically poor.
The Liberating Gospel Of Jesus Christ!
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NKJV).
The Scriptures teach that if a man will repent from his sins and believe the Gospel he will be forgiven and declared righteous. Such a man will also be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and brought to spiritual life; beginning what is intended by God to be a lifelong journey of growing faith, love, obedience, transformation and empowered service (Romans 1:16-17, 3:21-31, 8:1-17, 12:1-21).
This post was originally made as an illustrative application of a two-part 2012 blog entitled, “The Faith That Saves” under the category, The Faith.1 The faith of my Christian slave forefathers that came forth out and in spite of the mesh of oppressive confusion bound up in Christianity the religion of men practiced American style,2 is a last days marvel of immense proportions. Clearly, the deliberate providence of God was at work to draw them to Himself (John 6:44-45; 12:32), but also in His foreknowledge, the fertile heart ground for the seed of His Word to bear fruit unto faith when preached in truth was in them (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23; Romans 10:6-17).
My West African forefathers as with all other Gentiles were not punished for having no faith at all, but faith that was misplaced for example, in ancestor worship, idols and other false deities (Acts 17:16-23; 1 Corinthians 12:2; Galatians 4:8). Having been failed by those departed or not gods that could not help and with no hope from any other source, slaves that did, responded to the Gospel and the true God with the same and even greater devotion of faith than they had previously accorded what was false in their native land (Acts 17:24-34). Truly, only God could have orchestrated this marvel since as I have written, the oppressed received the means of freedom from their oppressors!3
Now, in God’s equality, it is time for the Christian descendants of America’s slaves to return the spiritual favor (Matthew 5:43-48; Romans 12:17-21). For we will need to look to and draw encouragement from the legacy of faith our Christian slave forefathers that endured one of the most brutal forms of slavery in history left us, while also urging all other professed American Christians facing a hostile and soon to be oppressively violent nation in rebellion against God to do the same (Hebrews 10:36-39; 1 John 5:4-5).4 Reflectively reading this edited 2012 repost is a good place to get started if you have not already.
Originally Posted June 17, 2012
I extend a heartfelt “Happy Father’s Day” to all the men who have taken that role and responsibility from God seriously. My book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is an excellent resource for gaining a basic and biblical perspective on being a father. I invite readers who have not obtained a copy to do so for yourself or one of the males in your life that is or will soon be a father.5
On this Father’s Day--as I have done previously through other forums, I write briefly on the celebration of Juneteenth which falls on June 19th each year. Juneteenth is a black American commemoration of the end of slavery by way of celebrating the June 19th anniversary date in 1865 when Texas slaves learned a full two years after that President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation setting them free.6 Typical of most American summer holidays there are parades, speeches, concerts, picnics and very importantly in this post-Christian era, worship services. It is here that I briefly join in the celebration and honor the faith of my Christian slave forefathers.
Presented Christianity by colonial whites mostly as a religious means of calming and controlling hearts that were not comfortable with the idea of perpetual servitude, the rigid, high-brow form of religion was not embraced in large numbers by African slaves. However, with the coming of the Holy Spirit fired preaching and worship fervor in the Great Awakenings and Camp Meeting Revivals of the South, conversions by slaves to the Christian faith exploded as the new American nation moved toward Civil War over the trafficking in human souls.
The mostly Western uneducated slave believers in Jesus Christ left their descendants and the world a legacy of persevering faith displayed in songs of hope called “Spirituals.” Embodied in their “Spirituals” was hope in the promise of physical deliverance found in the Bible proclaimed clandestinely by slave and some sympathetic white preachers. Many died waiting for the promise of God in His Word as have many of the saints from ancient times (Hebrews 11:8-16). They waited for physical freedom through faith in the God who did the same for Israel when He brought them out of Egyptian bondage by Moses (Hebrews 11:23-35a).
In the process, my Christian slave forefathers endured being spoon fed a corrupt form of Christianity that attempted to justify the evil brand of bondage they experienced including the demoralization of their souls, brutal whippings, the tearing apart of their families, rape of their daughters and sharing of their wives with slave owners and other white men bent on oppressing them in perpetuity (Hebrews 11:35b-40). Such was their simple, child-like, persevering faith in the God who remembers the oppressed according to His Word (Psalm 103:6; Luke 4:16-19). This faith is also resident in the heart of every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ!7
And so, God did in His mercy remember my Christian slave forefathers who had been faithful in their long wait on Him for physical freedom.8 While there would be bitter opposition and battles to secure the reluctant sharing of the rights of citizenship still to come, the day the slaves heard they were free was a day of great celebration; for those who had specifically waited on the Lord--breathless joy! Therefore, it is fitting that black Americans and all the inhabitants of the earth commemorate the day our people were set free lest we ever forget. Moreover, may we always include in our celebration, worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who perpetually honors simple, child-like, persevering faith placed in Him.
1 I made an edited repost of part one of this blog on April 6 and part two on April 13, 2014. I stand by every word the Lord led me to write not consciously operating
out of any preexisting theological position or presupposition (there being a resemblance to any unintentional). I am a Biblicist; not caring in the first instance what
sinful, mortal men including myself think, feel or believe, but what God’s Word in totality actually says to inform my doctrine!
2 Read the two-part, August 2016 post, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction and Christianity The Religion American Style posted Sep-
tember 4, 2016 under the category, Call To Repent.
3 Read the three-part Commentary, The White Man’s Religion in the Journal Archives of the FSTVEP.
4 At whatever point you may choose beyond Scripture to believe the evacuation of living saints by translation occurs, you still must stand and endure by persevering
faith until it happens (Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
5 The book is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
6 This Juneteenth 2019, be among those that hear the summary retelling of the black American experience from slavery to the present in the roll out of the From Sla-
very To Victory: One Man’s Journey Webcast!
7 Such was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s vilified fictional character, Uncle Tom, in her American Classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin Revisited on
the FSTVEP Web Site, an article the Lord led me to write restoring Uncle Tom as the actual aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ the book intends.
8 They waited for physical freedom to follow the spiritual freedom they already had in their souls by salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (John 8:31-36)! Learn more
on the Freedom Page at the FSTVEP Web Site.
The demand for slavery reparations resurfaced with a vengeance this past Juneteenth as yet again members of the black community led by well spoken award winning author and journalist, Ta-Nehisi Coates, attempted to make the case for them during a United States Congressional House Subcommittee hearing. Equally well spoken against reparations was young black American, Coleman Hughes, a college student and columnist with an online magazine who among other reasons objected to reparations being given on the grounds that the person receiving them is instantly made a victim.1
While I appreciate the “why” of Coates’ argument for reparations, Hughes’ victimization concern against them strikes close to the heart of my objection rooted in a biblical worldview and expressed in this edited 2003 Commentary. Let me be very clear: to oppose reparations for slavery is not in any way to indicate that in any cases of economic exploitation of or land theft from black Americans afterwards there should not be a swift and just remedy. However, as I have written in other posts2 and now again in this Commentary, slavery was of God and to demand reparations of anyone from it is to demand them from Him (Lamentations 3:27-28)!
Are we really that far gone from a proper fear of the Lord? Consequently, any reparation recipients as victims have their reward from men now, but eternally miss out on God’s as blasphemers (Jeremiah 17:9-10; Matthew 7:21-23, 16:24-27; Romans 1:18-2:11; Hebrews 10:26-31)!
Originally Published July 2003
There are a growing number of African Americans across the nation calling for the American government and corporations to pay reparations to blacks for the experience of slavery. The word reparation is defined as “An act or the process of repairing or making amends” according to Webster’s Dictionary. It also is “Something done or paid as amends; compensation.” Interestingly, Webster’s defines reparations as “Compensation required from a defeated nation for damage inflicted during a war.”
As I understand the rationale behind the demand for reparations, blacks are owed compensation from the government and selected corporations because they benefited from the free labor of our slave forefathers. The compensation would be calculated based on the wages slaves would have earned in one scheme I recall hearing about. Whatever the scheme, the aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ knows demanding reparations for the black experience of slavery in America is a wicked and sinful affront to the God of our salvation.3 Indeed, for it was He who allowed our enslavement and also set us free!
When are we going to stop acting out of this satanically inspired attitude of victimization over our experience in America? This attitude is exactly where the demand for reparations comes from. However, according to the Judge of all creation, neither our ancestors nor we now are innocent victims in His sight! He says, “‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’” And again, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:10, 23, NKJV). Therefore, where is the innocence of any human being, tribe, race or nation on the planet?
We who love to so eloquently explain the equality of the races; in our present cry for reparations are we saying that we are more worthy than all other people in the history of the world because our experience was so unjust and undeserved in our eyes? History reveals many other peoples have suffered the humiliation of slavery. No doubt all would have loved to receive reparations for their bitter service. However, most were grateful just to have their freedom when it came. What makes us, the sons of Cush, so special then? In the sight of God, nothing!
Truly, He planned our remedial judgment long ago and revealed it through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 18). As it was in ancient times, so it is today; we are a people of great pride or is it not pride to demand reparations from the Most High God, the One ultimately responsible for our enslavement (Psalm 107:10-12; Lamentations 3:37-39)? Besides punishing the many wicked deeds of our ancestors, the Lord sought through slavery (and continues seeking in our trials) to humble our great pride as Isaiah’s prophecy shows. It also powerfully pictures that the Lord’s mercy in our sufferings will accomplish His primary end: the salvation of willing souls!
The present cry for reparations blatantly ignores the fact that the Lord impressed on this nation the need to help our slave forefathers set free amidst the Civil War. During the period immediately after the war called Reconstruction, educational institutions (of which many of our historically black universities such as Howard in Washington D.C.) were founded, money and assistance given to help the newly freed slaves begin their ascent to citizenship.4
Did everyone get 40 acres and a mule as promised? No. Were there setbacks due to racism and the violent intimidation of whites? Yes. But while we suffered these things and the grand insult of Jim Crow segregation, did not our people, a little here and a little there, by and by begin to prosper as the Lord in His infinite mercy and grace gave us favor? Yes! And at the turn of the 20th century we were doing so well as we moved from the agricultural South to the industrial North, we started to turn away from the heartfelt faith in the Lord many of our Christian slave forefathers had; rejecting their “Pie in the sky.”
Jeremiah the prophet spells out in clear terms the curse of desolation that follows the man (or people) who trusts in flesh and departs from the Lord; the blessing and enduring prosperity of the man (or people) who trust in Him (Jeremiah 17:5-8)! In light of the many and continuing problems of our community, we don’t need reparations or much more help than we already have. We need to turn back to the Lord in complete repentance which includes forsaking the remake of biblical Christianity into “our own” religion by so many churches!5
The Lord says, ‘“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins shall die,’” (Ezekiel 18:4, NKJV). Therefore, unless the guilty repent, they shall all die (Luke 13:1-9). We who are enduring the current judgment of God upon our people in rebellion and apostasy through faith in Christ, should consider ourselves blessed to have our lives just as Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian in his day (Jeremiah 39:15-18). Let’s not join in the prideful insult to His mercy by demanding reparations from God or anybody else as victims for what was of His permitted will. Instead, let the faithful--every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ be victors over the world through faith in Him to the glory of God (1 John 5:4-5)!
1 Read the CBS News article.
2 The two-part, Message From A Redeemed Black Man posted beginning on June 2, 2019 under the categories, Biblical Worldview and Black History, launched a series
of posts through this month of June that serve as the most recent addressing divine involvement in Black History. Otherwise, our entire From Slavery To Victory Educa-
tion Project is devoted to this cause as seen throughout its Web Site.
3 To learn what a strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ are, get a print copy or digital download of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To
Basics, at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy of the book in the
Strong Man Store.
4 While the poor in the community still need help from everybody to “rise,” what is needed most of all from the descendants of our former masters that are guilty is the re-
moving of all of the artificially imposed barriers and obstacles of racism as I wrote in the February 19, 2017 post, Who Is Weeping For My People, under the category,
The Cause.
5 Read the two-part post beginning February 8, 2015, Strong Through God, Not Religion, under the category, Black History.
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.
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