The Scourge Of Racism
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As Daniel represented his generation in his heartfelt prayer of confession and repentance before the Lord in Daniel 9:3-19,1 so, after similar prayers over the years I write now, to my fellow baby boomers with a heart yearning for those of our generation who have not, to turn to Christ before it is too late! The foregoing “too late” is not intended so much to be apocalyptic as much as it is keeping it real about the fact that we are moving fast into the categories of higher death rates among senior adults. Though this is so, many still eat what they foolishly believe is the free lunch of rebellion against God they have also passed on to their progeny. I remind you, this belief is completely false!
Baby boomers are the many post-World War II children born from 1946-1964. I was born in the middle of that range and lived the “wonder years” of the 1960s and early 70s in their full rebel splendor with some of the greatest particularly message music ever; some of which I was privileged to perform.2 Following hard after women’s suffrage begun in the mid-19th century during this Christian era, our generation openly rebelled against biblical social mores governing marriage, family and sexual conduct pursuing free love. We pressed beyond alcohol to experiment with and use drugs to free our minds and in free expression, flooded the streets with “anti-establishment” protests.
Too, many boomers turned their backs on the Christianity of their parents.3 A number did not even care to make a proper distinction between the Christianity of Scripture and that of organized human invention pursuing personal freedoms. Our generation abandoned the faith and churches we attended as youth in droves because it is what we wanted to do and could. Hostile attitudes toward Christianity were communicated in words and deeds by many boomers to their children and the generations that have followed. Indeed, the trend to reject Christianity and its practices among baby boomers has not abated to this hour according to Christian researcher, George Barna.4
As New Age religionists, secularists, agnostics and self-proclaimed free thinking atheists who have made science their god and final authority in large numbers, the hostility of baby boomers especially toward the moral standards of biblical Christianity has helped to bring our nation to its post-Christian posture where abortion is legal, truth relative; political correctness and tolerance facilitates sexual perversion and gender identity confusion in the generations that have followed. Needless to say, evil rebellion against God is not what a generation is supposed to pass on to those that follow it. Ours, consequently fulfills the wise observation of Agur (Psalms 2:1-3, 78:1-8; Proverbs 30:11-14)!
In the catch phrase of our generation credited to economist Milton Friedman, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”5 The costs of rebellion against God, His will, way and Word in the Christianity of the Bible are severe and many as warned, but have not always been immediate or foreseen. This is just as Israel’s prophets warned them and Daniel acknowledged in the day his generation endured God’s judgment for their and their fathers’ rebellion against Him (Daniel 9:5-12). Now, nearly 2,000 years after the first appearing of His Son, Jesus Christ, to bring salvation from sin to the world, He who holds the generations accountable assigns the guilt of rebellion in every generation since to baby boomers and its rising severe costs on the horizon to our progeny (Luke 11:46-51; Revelation 8-9).
For our generation knew the truth of the Gospel, but willfully spurned it (John 3:16-21, 36)! Many of our baby boomer generation pass from this life already seeing too late, the harvest of natural and divine imposed consequences our rebellion has brought upon the world and our progeny of generations X, Y and Z.6 Beyond the lyrical and melodic message music of our day warning as the Bible does of future calamity for rebellion and poor stewardship (Isaiah 24:1-6), it has been painful listening to the children of generation Z such as Climate Activist, Greta Thunberg of Sweden, call their parents and baby boomers out for our selfish lack of foresight and empathy for them as they fearfully and angrily communicate their concern about the degenerating state of the planet being left to them.7
However, climate change is not the worst of the many tragic consequences of baby boomer rebellion. Eating what was believed to be the free lunch of rebellion against God, a consequence not foreseen by unrepentant baby boomers is the warning from Bible prophecy our unsaved progeny making up generation Z that lives to be senior adults may well endure the foretold awesome outpour of God’s wrath upon all of earth’s sinners (Isaiah 2:10-22, 13:6-13, 24:17-20; Romans 1:18-32; Revelation 6:12-17, 15-16)!8 Therefore, I first urge every unsaved fellow baby boomer reading this to repent and believe the Gospel to be saved or return to Christ. Then, care enough about your progeny to proclaim the Gospel and witness to them while you have the opportunity (2 Corinthians 6:2).9
1 See the two-part post that starts January 16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
2 I am thankful to God for the privilege I was granted to start the original Sounds Of Persuasion band in Seaside on the Monterey Peninsula, CA and to make music as well as have friendships with all of its members from 1970-73.
3 As dead manmade religion in many cases, this was actually understandable. Woe to guilty religionists! Read the two-part post beginning August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction. Also, read the two-part, American Culture’s Religion starting September 11, 2016, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 Examine his report at Barna Research.
5 Milton Friedman Quotes. Brainy Media Inc, 2022. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/milton_friedman_141778.
6 See the article by Veronica Thompson, Generation Names Explained.
7 View the YouTube excerpt of then, 16 year old Greta’s address to the UN to see this child’s angry intensity. Let every neglectful pastor still rebelling against God after two years of His Coronavirus judgment to build your local church empire while not preparing those you serve for the coming persecution take a close look at Greta's face as you hear her anger. Baby boomers turned their backs on the churches; generation Z in their time will destroy them and persecute faithful Christians to the death (Daniel 7:23- 25, 8:23-25; Revelation 17:12-18)!
8 Read the February 6, 2022 post, The Divine Delay, under the category, Bible Prophecy, giving special consideration to footnote three.
9 To receive a fresh, clear biblically grounded presentation of the Gospel for yourself or someone you care about in whatever generation, please view one or both of our 30 minute videos on this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally YouTube Channel.
As the Lord led in last week’s post, we saw how representing God, Jesus Christ by His own testimony came into the world as part of His mission “to bear witness to the truth,” (John18:37, NKJV). As God in eternal unity with the Father and Holy Spirit, He is “truth” and ‘“the truth’” as it concerns the message of salvation He was also sent into the world by the Father to proclaim (Deuteronomy 32:3-4; John 8:13-30, 14:6, NKJV). It is in the context of salvation that He asserts by remaining in His ‘“word’” believers in Him would truly be His ‘“disciples,’” ‘“know’” Him ‘“the truth’” and they become ‘“free,’” (John 8:31-32, NKJV). Only Christ in the Gospel can set men free from sin!1
‘“…the truth shall make you free’” is one of a number of words and phrases lifted from the Bible and corrupted by misapplication while being used in many ways by professed Christians and rank unbelievers (John 8:32b, NKJV). Though it is true having knowledge of the truth in a matter can be very liberating, this is not what the Lord Jesus is speaking of when He makes His statement to the Jewish listeners who had believed on Him. Indeed, they got their hackles up in offense right away at the statement because they did not receive it from Christ as something beneficial. But they correctly heard in the Lord’s statement that they were in some kind of bondage.
In smugly refuting the Lord’s statement they cited their connection to Abraham and did not tell the truth in saying they “have never been in bondage to anyone” since God reveals to him his descendants would be slaves for over four hundred years as they were in Egypt (Genesis 15:12-16; Exodus 12:40-42; John 8:33, NKJV).2 This was followed by localized oppressions in the land as well as the major Assyrian and Babylonian captivities in which they were removed from it (Nehemiah 9:36-37). Following those days, though they were not enslaved, the Medo-Persians, Greeks and currently Rome oppressed them. Even so, the Lord spoke of a deeper form of bondage that is spiritual.
He said, ‘“Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin,’” (John 8:34, NKJV).3 Human slavery to sin began when the first man, Adam, yielded to it in Eden and brought upon him and his progeny the promised divine penalty (Genesis 3:1-11, 17-19, 22-24, 4:1-7; Romans 5:12-14). Rooted in the body, sin exerts such power, influence and control in the desires, thinking, attitudes, words and deeds of its hosts that they can be described accurately as nothing but slaves. Sin in presence and its works originating in the heart also spiritually pollute or “defile” a man before the holy God who has no fellowship with it whatsoever (Isaiah 59:1-8; Mark 7:14-23, NKJV).
However, back in Eden God showed how He could cope with sin in man on a temporary basis by shedding the blood of an animal; taking its life instead of man’s (Genesis 3:21). He developed this in the Law given to Israel which when done right gave the people an annual temporary atonement for and release from their sins (Leviticus 16). All along though, God’s plan called for eventually setting willing men free eternally from sin’s penalty, power, presence and pollution as He intimated at another of the great feast days of Israel, Passover (Exodus 12:1-14). What the Jews who believed on Christ yet disputed with Him that day did not realize is He was God’s Passover Lamb (John 1:29-34)!
Christ goes on to instruct His would be Jewish followers the slaves of men do not have a permanent place in the house of their masters, but a son does (John 8:35). They stood in the presence of the only begotten Son of God with an eternal standing in His Father’s house. If He as the Son of God therefore, set them free from bondage to sin through the truth of His finished work in the Gospel, they would “be free indeed,” (John 8:36; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Hebrews 9:22-10:18, NKJV). For it was Christ alone who enabled the Father to remove sin’s penalty through forgiveness; who broke its power, made a way for eternal freedom from its presence and pollution through His cross (Romans 3:21-26, 5:1-8, 6, 7:7-8:17)!
Thus, by remaining in His word, we as those Jewish believers should have been, are to be earnestly seeking to know the truth better and deeper rather than arguing with Him.4 Then we would understand more fully and “rejoice” in all that Christ accomplished for us (Romans 5:9-11; Colossians 1:3-14; 2 Peter 1:1-11, NKJV). This includes having access to God’s forgiveness of our sins through confession and repentance as often as needed (1 John 1:5-2:2). Then too, we will have eternal freedom not only from sin as sons made gloriously immortal, but every evil and hurtful thing that would enslave us; living and reigning with Christ “forever and ever,” (1 Corinthians 15:47-57; Revelation 21-22:5, NKJV)!
1 Read the April 7, 2024 post, Suffering For The Truth, under the category, Glory To God!
2 Many professed American Christians also falsely believe themselves to be grandfathered into salvation because of heritage or parents that were Christians. If you are one of them please take heed and realize you can only be saved by making a personal decision to repent of your sins which like everyone else you have and believe the Gos- pel of Christ. Watch this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Reconciled To God, on our YouTube channel.
3 Committing sin is the evidence we are slaves to it! Among the sins many white conservative evangelical Christians commit daily is the practice of racism. Learn more by getting my book, The Scourge Of Racism. It is available at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store. The E-Book version is also available at major E-Book sellers. Also, please watch another Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on our YouTube channel to hear Christ’s call for you, O professed Chris- tian, to turn back to Him in obedience and faithfulness to His Word.
4 This is the heart of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in Christ’s image I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It too, is avail- able at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store. The E-Book is also available at major E-Book sellers.
‘“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city…’” (Revelation 14:8, NKJV). The apostle John wrote what he saw looking into the future as He had been commanded by the risen, glorified Christ concerning what to him and the saints of his day was the mystery of “Babylon the great,” (Revelation 1:17-19, 16:17-19, 17:1-18:24). Alive now, in days nearly 2,000 years removed from those of which John wrote, I declare by the Holy Spirit, my own eyes and statistics Babylon the great is falling just as the apostle saw in advance!1 There is only one city that at once has ruled in history over kings, been the seat of Christianity the religion of men on earth and calls itself the “eternal city:” Rome, Italy.
God has made Jerusalem His chosen, eternal city; “the city of the great King,” (Psalm 48; Isaiah 65:17-19; Jeremiah 3:17; Zechariah 1:12-17, 2:1-5, 8:1-8, 14:1-4, 8-11, 16-21; Revelation 3:12, 21:1-2, 9-27, NKJV)! There is no place for a rival. Therefore, the city 1st century Christians code named, “Babylon” is coming down to the ground with those of every nation save Israel in the Day God pours out the fullness of His wrath upon the earth (Isaiah 13:9-13, 24:19-20, 40:4-5; Revelation 16:19)! As the Lord Almighty gloriously displayed His superior power over the gods of Egypt, Pharaoh and his armies, so, He will destroy all vestiges of the evil legacy of Rome, its Empire and Caesars (Exodus 15:1-12; Ezekiel 38:16-39:8; Revelation 6:12-17, 15:1-4, 19:11-21).
Before that Day, however, God will bring about the destruction of the part of Rome that is fully the focus of what John saw prophetically, even that sovereign city-state, Vatican City, where for seventeen centuries with few interruptions, the dominant, corrupt form of Christianity as a manmade invention has wielded power over men’s souls, kings and nations; a wealthy, arrogant queen who has defied all prophecies of her downfall. Nevertheless, she has only been preserved by God for this coming moment of fatal judgment like her ancient namesake and by the consummate representative of her cherished adulterous connection to Rome (Isaiah 47; Revelation 17:15-18:8).
As the Lord has led, I have sprinkled much about great Babylon throughout my blogs in writing about the historical origins and activities of Christianity the religion of men and certain events. Read for example, The Falling Away, February 2, 2014 under Bible Prophecy, Re-defining Sin, November 9, 2014 under Call To Repent and Worshipping God Without God, Pt. 3, the January 18, 2015 repost, under the same category. The fall of great Babylon is among the shining triumphs of the Antichrist. For God, however, it is the grand finale of the foretold judgment on His house which will have included every outward form and structure of Christianity on earth--as was the case with Israel’s Temple and for similar reasons--that is already underway (Matthew 23:37-24:2; 1 Peter 4:17-18).
Though His judgment has been painful to watch and experience all around me, I rejoice with the Lord, Heaven and all the saints to see in view the final end of great Babylon that persecuted the faithful to the death and destroyed so many souls through her many spiritual harlotries (Revelation 18:20-19:4). By the time her day comes, her many Protestant and other harlot daughters will have also drank deeply from the cup of God’s displeasure for the evil of their ways and refusal like ancient Israel to repent (Jeremiah 2-3:10)! Indeed, while I believe myself very blessed to have been alive to see the height of God’s use of faithful Christians in the Kingdom cause of the Gospel, I have also seen and endured much evil from among those professing to be Protestant Christians.
If there was a century left for scholars to debate the highest height of Christianity on earth from the 1st century coming of our Lord Jesus and His apostles that took the Gospel to the nations at His command until His glorious Second Coming, most would agree the global preaching and evangelistic crusades of Billy Graham in the 20th century was it! In the power of Christ, Dr. Graham also managed the miraculous feat of uniting cooperating churches to support, serve in and receive the millions of souls brought to the Lord in those evangelistic crusades. Though there are yet some faithful evangelists and churches laboring in the Lord, none will in the end reach the height of the Graham era. I thank God not only to have seen, but also to have once participated in that pinnacle work.
Awakened by the smell of frying bacon and what I knew were the accompanying pancakes for the weekly Sunday breakfast cooked by my late grandfather, Richard Campbell, my siblings and I would later go off to Sunday School and church with our also now, departed grandmother, Eunice. Though this memory is sweet, attached to it is the reality that even in progressive California, the Protestant church we attended in the mid-sixties had only black members due to the evils of racism. I also remember being terrified by a deacon there who put the fear of him in us if we put anything down on the communion table as my introduction to manmade Christianity the religion, its rules, traditions and hypocrisies conducted by men out of their sinful flesh.
To this day both issues I have just raised still exist in Protestant churches along with all manner of carnality of the flesh to include divisions with political intrigue, factions and rivalries, greed and covetousness in idolatry (1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:5), biblical compromises such as joining the confused rebellion against the divine order (Romans 1:18-2:11) and corrupt falsehoods made to pander after the world in order to fill seats and bank accounts in all apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 12-22). For nearly forty years I have been told that this is the way it is because the people will not mature spiritually. Never mind the men telling me this have been as carnal and spiritually immature as those they lead!
Unrepentant professing Protestant Christians and their churches in sin may be the way it is, but that does not mean the longsuffering God is pleased. Therefore, as the example and warning of Israel’s dealings with the immutable God plainly shows us in Scripture (1 Corinthians 10:1-11), so, judgment not rapture is the present and immediate future for unrepentant sinning professing Protestant and other Christians in their churches. And no one should foolishly ask, “What did we do,” (Jeremiah 5:20-31, 8:4-7; Luke 14:25-35)? Time is up; the end of God’s long forbearance has come (Ezekiel 7; Amos 8:1-3). Great Babylon is falling never to rise again as the Lord clearly warned in advance nearly 2,000 years ago.
1 Read the 2015 blog reposts for August 30th and September 6th respectively to learn more about my experience with and statistics on falling Babylon the great.
I have been thanking God for and will make the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson and our sister, Asia Bibi, from imprisonment for the faith this fall an important part of my Thanksgiving celebration. Brunson, an American Pastor, had spent two years incarcerated in Turkey after living with his family and shepherding a church there 23 years. He was freed after President Trump threatened sanctions. Bibi, a Pakistan native, was arrested and held on death row 8 years as a Christian for the charge of blasphemy against Islam. Prayerfully remember fellow believers suffering all over the world for the faith and give thanks for those God graciously delivers remembering next time, it could be you (1 Thessalonians 5:18; Hebrews 13:3, 23).1 Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
1 Read this article about the arrest of an American Christian anti-abortion activist and why.
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).
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.
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 .
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