There is an important secondary audience of the From Slavery To Victory: One Man’s Journey (FSTVOMJ) Radio Special.1 It is Americans of European descent that profess to be God’s people as Christians. For truly, there would be no such thing as black American history if it were not for the imperialist European nations that competitively made their way to Africa with Christian missionaries and items to trade beginning with the Portuguese in the 15th century.2 It was not long before the black natives of the continent as slaves became part of the commodities these nations took back to their home ports and colonial holdings in what was called a New World and included North America.
In the fully blown slave trade that eventually developed, the European spawned colonies in the land destined to become the United States of America became a prime destination. As Ruler over the nations, all that was taking place and later unfolded was under the watchful “eyes” of God in His permissive will who works it in and rules over the affairs and kingdoms of men (Job 12:7-25; Psalms 22:28, 66:7, 103:19; Daniel 2:20-21, 4:1-3, 17, 24-26, 34-35; Amos 9:8, NKJV)! Surely then, the kingdoms of Europe operated with the foreknowledge and permission of God and as agents of His will though, it was not entirely perceived by them or their envoys that explored the lands beyond.
Still, as the Lord led me to assert in FSTVOMJ there was at least a superficial sense of heavenly sanction some had who at first brought Catholic, then later, Protestant missionaries to preach the Gospel to the peoples they encountered and establish churches throughout the newly discovered lands. Shortly thereafter, however, friendly trade and negotiation with the indigenous peoples including my West African forefathers gave way to conquest by superior force of arms which God had not put into their hearts, but Satan as they were driven by a lust for territory and wealth they could just conquer and take respectively (Ezekiel 28:11-19; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; Revelation 6:1-2).
Though the Most High had not put it into the hearts of European conquerors to begin violently conquering the lands they came upon and plundering the peoples including taking slaves as with those of Africa, He nevertheless used this too, within the limits of His permissive will. For their actions continued to fulfill His purposes of judgment upon all the nations of the earth beginning with Israel He had announced over two millennia earlier (Jeremiah 25:1-33, 27:1-11; Zephaniah 2:4-3:7).3 The cruelty of Europe’s kingdoms in their conquests that more than a millennium had professed such adherence to Christianity was only surpassed by many of their settled in colonists toward their slaves.
Starting at Jamestown, VA in 1619, a small number of Africans were first brought to this land and sold as indentured servants. Later, most with their progeny and newly brought slaves became chattel.4 Among the colonists of Great Britain’s thirteen colonies nearly all would have claimed to be Christians; a number in the New World ostensibly to more freely and fully practice their biblically rooted faith. Yet, the harsh, violent, oppressive and immoral treatment of their chattel by the many guilty white professed Christians can nowhere be found sanctioned by God in an objective reading of the Bible nor the racial bigotry and discrimination historically practiced with minorities of all hues.5
All such ill-treatment of minorities by white professed Christians that are guilty indicates willful disobedience at best; the fraudulence characteristic of impostors and Christianity as the counterfeit religion of men at worst.6 Indeed, if the world was to know Christians were Christ’s disciples by “love for one another,” then, American Christianity beginning from colonial times with how the many guilty white skinned professed Christians mistreated those of black and other minority skin hues as well as the Jews they labored to convert to the faith has failed miserably to the great displeasure of the Lord (John 13:34-35, NKJV).7 Moreover, through repeated practice with the unsaved over four centuries racial bigotry and discrimination are in fact systemic. This is sin and a great evil not to be minimized!
For this cause and all of the same kinds of wickedness the Lord had me cry out against among professed Christian black Americans thirty years later, our nation among the agents of Europe He once entrusted to preach the Gospel to make disciples of other nations, baptize and teach them His Word along with dispense His judgment are about to be severely judged. This is as it was with every nation He ever used to punish Israel or in the main, where is mighty Egypt, Babylon and Assyria (Jeremiah 46:1-26, 50-51; Nahum 2:8-3:19)? Not Russia or China, but the living God who repeatedly sends destructive calamities as correction is to be the nation’s priority concern led out by professed Christians who proudly now, will not receive it, seek Him or repent (Isaiah 1:1-6; Amos 4:6-5:15)!8
1 The Webcast of the radio special begin date and time will be announced soon in select media and on social media. Interested contributors can make designated gifts for the Webcast at https://fromslaverytovictory.org/Donate and receive one of the limited collectible Commemorative Cassettes.
2 See the article, European Exploration: The Age Of Discovery, Encyclopedia Britannica.
3 Read the 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.
4 See the article, First Africans In The Jamestown Colony (1619), Black Past.
5 Read the February 12, 2023 post (and particularly footnote 5), Leaders Can Get Their Nations In Trouble, under the categories Black History and Call To Repent.
6 Read the two-part post beginning August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction.
7 Seeking zealously to please the Lord and do His will, no aspiring strong man or great woman of God in the image of Christ can be comfortable an extended time with disobe- dience to His command for Christians to love each other harboring attitudes of racial superiority or any animosity toward a brother in Him (Colossians 3:12-15). This reality is as the Lord leads me to write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
8 See the two-part post that begins January 16, 2022, Arriving At These Times, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Call To Repent.
I concluded the June 3, 2018 two-part post, Feminism’s Entry Into The Churches warning as I have soberly and repeatedly over the last several years especially that a dramatic intensification of God’s judgment upon His house in America was imminent. Having used me in accord with 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 to biblically demolish feminism as one of many strongholds of deceit in His house, this day the Lord has me declaring the time for His intensified judgment in punishing the unrepentant disobedient individually and collectively has come (2 Corinthians 10:6)! He does so in total consistency with His judgment of ancient Israel for their rebellion against Him also.
It is absurd to the extreme for professed Christians and those that lead them that are guilty to assert what God did in judgments upon willfully disobedient Israel is of no concern for them today since Christians have a different and more intimate relationship with Him. However, the apostle Paul specifically directs Christians to examine and be warned by what happened to Israel “as examples,” (1 Corinthians 10:1-11, NKJV). Why would he do this if in fact, what happened between God and Israel has no serious implications for Christians? As history and present-day reality prove, professed Christians in the sinful flesh and denial are exactly like the Israelites of old (Jeremiah 2:35, 5:12-13)!
This idea that from God’s perspective the relational bond with Christians is thicker than with ancient Israel is false. Just casually reading through the Old Testament it quickly becomes apparent God saw Himself as a Husband and Father to Israel as in The Book Of Jeremiah where from the first seven chapters the Lord has caused me to anchor this discourse. God loves Israel and will yet completely fulfill His promise of the nation’s restoration after severe judgment for sin over millennia ends (Jeremiah 2:1-3, 3:4, 14-20). If you are a Christian you have been saved and brought near to God by grace through faith in Israel’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus (Romans 9:1-5; Ephesians 2:11-22).
And yes, we are born again and marked out by the Holy Spirit as belonging to God according to His New Covenant with Israel first after they broke the old one (John 1:12-13, 3:1-8; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Hebrews 8:7-13). But as many willfully refuse to accept, our new life, relationship with God and promise of eternally dwelling with Him is conditioned on continuing faith in (trust, confidence and reliance upon) Him and demonstrated by love motivated obedience to the end the same as Israel of old (Matthew 24:13; John 14:15-24; Romans 11:11-22; Hebrews 3:7-19). As Israel is the manifest example, ‘“The Lord will judge His people,’” (Hebrews 6:4-8, 10:26-31, 35-39, 11:6, NKJV).
As He had done from the Exodus in sending prophets to His rebel people, so, God called Jeremiah before conception in his mother’s womb to bear what turned out to be His final call to repentance and warning of impending judgment for disobedience and apostasy to Judah (Jeremiah 1, 7:21-26). Later, the prophet Ezekiel--a contemporary taken to Babylon in the second wave of captives, also brought God’s message to His rebellious people there (Ezekiel 1:28-3:11). Similarly, in these latter days I have been gifted and called a watchman/prophet to the Lord’s churches in accord with Ezekiel 33:1-9 and have consciously served as such since 1986; warning the Lord’s sword was drawing near.
Now--in what should be to no one’s surprise, the sword of the Lord in judgment upon His house in disobedience and apostasy has fully arrived in America. His charges are spiritually exactly the same as He brought against ancient Israel. Though outwardly many professed Christians claim to know and love Jesus, their hearts are engrossed with the idols of this world to include fellow, fallen human beings and self, success, material things, wealth, power--moving far away from the Lord and changing “their Glory for what does not profit,” (Jeremiah 2:4-13, NKJV). Brazenly, they sin and commit iniquity embracing this world’s ways such as feminism taught by demons and sexual immorality. Claiming innocence in deceit, they are unwilling to “receive correction,” (Jeremiah 2:14-3:5, 5:1-9, 7:27-28, NKJV).
However, the Lord is a witness against the unrepentant who will be punished! For besides sounding the trumpet of warning for His approaching sword, all of the Lord’s true prophets cry out against the sins of His people He has seen.1 But as ancient Judah would not give heed except superficially nor learn from sister Israel’s experience, neither have guilty professed American Christians given heed or learned from all Israel; insulated in falsely crafted doctrines of security (Jeremiah 3:6-13, 21-4:4, 5:20-31, 6:16-17, 7:1-11)! Though these doctrines of ‘“peace’” come from some well meaning teachers, they are still false! Otherwise, the teachers are false just like Judah’s false prophets proven wrong by God’s judgment that fell as foretold (Jeremiah 4:5-31, 5:10-19, 6:1-15, 18-30, 7:12-20, 29-34; 2 Peter 2, NKJV).
Too, as in ancient Israel, the prophets of ‘“peace’” today outnumber those of judgment in truth. But He comforts us that are true as He did Jeremiah (Jeremiah 14:10-16, NKJV). Thus, His judgment will be as the storm the Lord Jesus describes in Luke 6:46-49. Testing by way of severe persecution that tries every professed Christian soul to reveal faith and love in the faithful2 or impostors and rebels that fall away along with the withdrawal of the almost universal protection from calamity church and parachurch property graciously enjoyed has come as foretold (Matthew 24:9-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-2:4; 1 Peter 1:3-9, 4:12-19; Revelation 17:16-18:8).3 Hear His word to me the morning of May 31, 2018: “I will burn away the chaff in the fire of judgment until only a remnant is left ready to receive the Lord!”
1 All of my posts under the category, Call To Repent, are a starting point for how the Lord has used me to cry out against the sins of His people in love, grace, mercy and
with sober exhortation to repent to avert punishment!
2 The earlier reference to Ezekiel as among the first captives taken to Babylon should encourage faithful Christians--every aspiring strong man and great woman of God
in the image of Christ--now facing God’s intensified judgment upon His house. For with Ezekiel was also Daniel who though both were impacted by the adversities of
God’s judgment upon all Judah, they were still used mightily by Him and brought forth two of the Bible’s most significant prophetic books! So, let us be as they and all
of the faithful saints used of God in history to witness Christ and stand true to Him until He comes (Daniel 11:32-35; 1 Corinthians 16:13-14).
3 See among other posts The Falling Away, February 2, 2014, The Man Of Sin, February 23, 2014, The Prayers Of The Saints parts 1 and 2, March 16-23, 2014 and
Babylon Is Falling, August 23, 2015, all under the category, Bible Prophecy. Also, read Praise For The Lord God Almighty!, September 13, 2015 under the category,
Glory To God! and Willful And De Facto Apostates, March 20, 2016 under the category, The Faith.
In the post, Kings And Judges With Christ, under the category, Encouragement, on August 8, 2021, I wrote to encourage God’s faithful about the glorious vindication and victory our God gives us after suffering in the cause of Christ and the Kingdom. This vindication and victory comes at the forced end of three and one half years of what the Lord Jesus describes as “great tribulation” the saints will endure with only a tiny remnant surviving. They will see Christ’s return with mortal eyes before being “changed” and joining the greater number of resurrected saints en route to Him in the sky (Matthew 24:15-22, 29-31; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NKJV).
To “bypass death”--one of the common mortal human experiences of living on earth--as the Lord had me mention in another place, is a prospect of magnitude beyond incredible!1 Biblically conservative teachers of God’s Word all well know, believe and teach His consequential judgment of death for Adam’s disobedience presented in Genesis 2:15-17 and set in motion as his and his progeny’s experience in perpetuity the day he actually sinned (Genesis 3:6-11, 17-19, 4:8, 5:5). Death has been so routinely the normative experience of mankind since, it is a byword for certainty and inevitability. Even the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died--not for any sins of His, but ours!
Indeed, the Lord took on a mortal body and permanently became one of us as the Son of Man, to die in our place and make atonement for our sins (Isaiah 53; John 10:14-18; Romans 3:9-26; Hebrews 2:14-17, 9:22-28). And though the Lord was resurrected from the dead on the third day after and is “alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18, NKJV) still, He died! The Bible records only two exceptions to the rule mortal humans die. Enoch and Elijah bypassed death millennia apart by God’s sovereign will and actions (Genesis 5:21-24; 2 Kings 2:9-11). These men had in common a single minded devotion to God. So then, a mortal bypassing the experience of death is extremely rare!
Yet clearly, bypassing death is exactly what the apostle Paul sets forth as revelation from Christ he is to convey as a reality for those among the saints “who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord,” (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:15, NKJV). Rather than death, these remnant saints are instantaneously transformed from mortal to glorious immortal and “caught up together” with those resurrected “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, NKJV). The bypass of death here is plainly the experience of those saints who remain alive through great tribulation until that “day of the Lord” and His wrath arrives (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, NKJV).2
As I wrote in a August 9th Facebook post promoting the August 8th blog, “God has ordained that His saints should suffer in the cause of Christ and the Kingdom in part as a matter of His “righteous judgment” to “be counted worthy of” it and the glories that follow (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, NKJV). This “is also totally consistent with His eternal spiritual principle: “…before honor is humility,” (Proverbs 15:33, 18:12; 1 Peter 1:3-12, 5:5-11, NKJV)” as I wrote too. Seeing the revealed weakness and falling away to date of many professed American Christians during God’s Coronavirus judgment, it is evident many do not possess a mindset to suffer anything for Christ and the Kingdom.3
This, of course, is the other reason the Lord in wisdom allows His professed people to go through various trials and finally, the great tribulation to demonstrate our faith, love and faithfulness in all perseverance; naturally separating out from our midst those that are not really His or sold out to Him!4 The perseverance of the saints is not a foregone conclusion as some teach. The Bible allows for real Christians to fall away in unbelief (Matthew 24:10; Hebrews 3:7-19). Perseverance is the God expected and helped outcome of a real Christian’s displayed faith, love (shown by obedience) and faithfulness through the most severe trials and tribulation to the end (Mark 13:13; Romans 5:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1:20-24; Hebrews 6:11-12, 10:32-39; 1 Peter 1:5-9; Revelation 12:7-13:18, 14:9-13).
Therefore, bypassing death is not the experience of billions of professed Christians in an “any moment” secret mass event that removes them from tribulation as is popularly depicted by many conservative evangelical Christians in what is called “the rapture.” But consistent with its biblical rarity, the bypass of death is for a remnant of faithful saints. Their faith, love and faithfulness in all perseverance enduring the greatest hardships and persecution against the saints of God in human history will be rewarded with the honor of bypassing death and being made immortal wherever they stand at the Second Coming of Christ!5 Whether they are conscious of it or not, these will all be of those we are teaching to be aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ!6
1 See the two-part post that begins January 5, 2020, Revelation’s Seven Churches In Time, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 Included among these preserved from death remnant saints are Jewish Christians who have suffered as a group historically longer than any other Christians! Read the two-
part post beginning February 16, 2020, Christ’s Message To His Faithful, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Encouragement along with the one that follows on March
1, 2020, Offended By The Truth? It is under the category Call To Repent for very serious reasons tied to the February post.
3 In the January 5, 2020 blog already cited, the Lord enabled me to foresee the negative consequences that have occurred because professed Christians were not able to “go
to church.” Once again, the never should have been day of soft pedaling the Gospel to build big churches and pastor egos is over! Sincere repentance fed revival remains
the only solution for helping willing professed Christians prepare for so many even more severe trials and tribulation than the Coronavirus pandemic that are on the way.
Read also the March 29, 2020 post, Standing In Christ’s Strength, under the category, Encouragement.
4 See the two-part post starting June 7, 2020, Days Of Separation, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 Read the two-part post, The Prayers Of The Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy that starts on March 16, 2014. Also, read my 2017 multi-part purposeful work to dis-
till what is coming and motivate professed Christian men to get in the game entitled, Restoring Men In Two Minute Drill, beginning on July 30th under the categories Bible
Prophecy and The Cause. Sadly, many of these men do not possess the heart of Lot for God much less Enoch or Elijah (2 Peter 2:7-8).
6 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is my flagship instructional resource for teaching aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ who are the
Lord’s faithful! The book and companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study are available at your favorite internet
book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
In the last decade the impossible dream of a black President as a professed Christian from a sinfully broadminded denomination, wickedly linked our long time just cause for racial equality with that of all rebels against the divine order and biblical morality. By the grace of God I was among those He dispatched in 2008 warning not to vote for a man to be President just because he was black since this would be as wrong as what many white Americans had been doing.8 But deceived by the novelty and notion of creating history, a large number did so; making a terrible spiritual miscalculation in disobedience and disloyalty to God (Matthew 7:13-14; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 16:13-15).
The legally sanctioned social changes fostered by former President, Barrack Obama, compare in divine offense and devastating consequences to follow with that of Israel’s king Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:25-13:2, 33-34, 14:14-16) and Judah’s Manasseh even after he repented and revival led later by godly Josiah (2 Kings 21:1-16, 23:15-18, 24-27; 2 Chronicles 33:10-17).9 Leaders of any hue that defy the holy God and His Word always bring on His judgment because He does not condone sin (Proverbs 14:34; Ezekiel 18:4) and is immutable (Hebrews 13:8)! Having endured slavery does not spare black Americans in sin from further judgment with all other guilty Gentiles as it did not Israel.
For the God of restoration and judgment is working His plan unabated so that the Gentiles with His people, Israel, will shortly come to fully understand Israel was scattered and has suffered judgment from Him as have all peoples for their sins (Ezekiel 39:21-29). The historic spread of the Gospel and various experiences of His judgment among the ethnicities, races, tribes and languages of the Gentiles are so because God is man’s Creator, Judge, Savior and sovereign Ruler (Genesis 2:7; Psalm 50:6; Isaiah 45:20-25; Daniel 4:17)! Repentance and faith in the Gospel of His Son is His one and only provided path to saving righteousness (John 14:6; Acts 4:8-12; Romans 3:21-31).
And now, we are coming to the end of this period of grace since as foretold by the Lord Jesus, this would occur after the Gospel had been preached in all the world “as a witness” and very few peoples remain that have not heard it (Matthew 24:6, 14, NKJV). Until now, the Lord has visited individual Gentile nations with judgments of every kind including those of Europe and their satellites that have served as His instruments of it upon other nations--God is perfectly just!10 But His foretold regional and global judgments approach and will be especially hard on nations that have long had the Gospel and now, reject it (Jeremiah 25:30-33; Luke 21:10-11, 25-26; Revelation 8:1-11:6).
Following after will be God’s wrath (Zephaniah 1:14-2:15; Revelation 14:6-16:21). Only a tiny remnant of what is Israel today will survive the foretold final outpour of God’s wrath upon sinful human rebellion against Him. Honoring the faith of their fathers, God promised in mercy to hear the cry of this future remnant in tribulation that would be delivered through the Second Coming of His Son (Deuteronomy 4:29-31; Matthew 24:15-31). As foretold by the prophets and affirmed by the Lord’s apostles, this Jewish remnant with the Davidic kingdom will be restored in the land and He will reign over them (Isaiah 25:9; Hosea 3; Zephaniah 3:8-20; Acts 3:13-21; Romans 11:11-36)!
Because of Israel’s prophetic future, professed Gentile Christians were specifically instructed not to get “haughty” during this final Jewish Diaspora since we stand only by faith (Romans 11:19-22, NKJV)! For we do not replace Israel as some falsely hold. We enjoy the blessings of God’s New Covenant with those Jews that believe and to whom the Gospel went out first (Acts 2:1-39, 3:22-26; Ephesians 2:11-22). Due to the aforementioned falsehood and more, professing Christianity teaches Israel no lessons on faith in or faithfulness to God since judgment is upon it too (1 Peter 4:16-19)! Truly, all manner of ungodliness mar its history on the earth.
The historical sins of professing Christianity include the worship of relics and icons (idolatry) in manmade religion, political intrigue, violence, murders, crusades (wars), sexual immorality, heresies with syncretism, racism and twisted sanction of the violent subjugation of indigenous peoples and the immoral practices of slavery. Luther’s Reformation did not halt much of this since many Protestants are guilty of the same things. Today, it is rank rebellion as well as divisions rooted in disobedience to God’s Word as I have already written about among professing black American Christians. These are not God pleasing works of faith, but sin; sin that has not gone and will not go unpunished by the Lord (Psalm 135:14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Hebrews 3:1-4:13, 10:26-31; Revelation 17-19:4)!
Glory to God who preserves His faithful in judgment! Commissioned as Israel to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” that gives glorious witness to God on the earth (Exodus 19:5-6; Isaiah 43:10-13; Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 2:4-10), the faithful of professing Christianity in history have been so. Truly, only His faithful ones will stand to the end through persevering faith in Christ (Revelation 3:7-13, 7:9-17, 12:9-11)! ‘“And we shall reign on the earth’” with Him also (Revelation 5:8-10, 19:5-20:6, NKJV)! Therefore, I will again glorify my God for His amazing wisdom and power to fruitfully fulfill His cause to restore men despite evil opposition and sinful human failure (Genesis 22:15-18). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
8 Read the October 2008 Journal, Judging Righteous Judgment in the Journal Archives of The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site.
9 This is not said to suggest Mr. Obama’s break with the Bible as a professing Christian is the sole instance of this in American Presidential, Congressional or Court
history. His social policies sanctioned by the courts following a long line of blatant breaks with biblical instruction and morality, however, have pushed the nation
past the point of return (see the introduction of my July 12, 2015 blog, Powerlessness Of Being The Minority, Pt. 1, under the category, Encouragement) and
“remedy” with God leading to certain national judgment even with immediate repentance and revival as the Scriptures cited show. This shame is not what our
Christian slave forefathers endured by faith waiting for.
10 Read part three and the conclusion of the Journal article, Spiritual Reality Is The Reality in the Journal Archives on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project
Web Site.
Considered uncivilized like other natives of the islands and lands in the Western hemisphere because they lacked the knowledge and customs of Western Civilization as well as the heavy clothing due to living in a much warmer climate, my West African ancestors were at first intrigued by the white skinned visitors. They engaged in trade with these men that also initially involved the selling of usually captives from rival tribes in territorial wars as slaves. They welcomed the Catholic and later Protestant missionaries who found them to be as spiritually unregenerate as the formerly mentioned barbarian tribes of Europe which after a millennium, had apparently been forgotten about.1
Indeed, just like the Europeans and every Gentile nation on the face of the earth, my West African forefathers had been guilty before God of practicing all manner of spiritual wickedness. This includes worshipping the creation--demons as themselves and masquerading as gods they deceived human minds to invent and construct with their hands as idols, the heavenly bodies, nature, sinful mortal flesh and ancestors long deceased. They too practiced witchcraft, sorcery and blood sacrifice in rituals of ignorance. Many tribes were also violent, ruthless and predatory; biblically defined sexual immorality, widespread. All of this is true while they also built great and rich empires.
Nevertheless, as with all other Gentiles since the first century, the grace of God in restoration came to West Africa as initially the Gospel was preached and Christianity introduced to many by the European missionaries. However, the simmering wrath of God longsuffering and forbearing in judgment, who had with all other nations post-Noah’s flood been good to Africa also while He waited to judge their sins (Acts 14:8-18, 17:29-31), brought it through the imperialistic Europeans as His instruments when they violently launched their transatlantic slave trade. Again, the prophets of God foretell His judgment on the Gentile nations for sin (Isaiah 14:22-16:14, 18:1-19:17, 21:11-16; Ezekiel 25-26, 29-31).
Besides death and destruction, among the judgments God foretold through His prophets He would visit upon the Gentiles is captivity and bondage (Isaiah 20). For those heroically minded individuals cut from the Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death” mold, I remind you that any one that dies without faith in Jesus Christ or perfect obedience to God’s law, perishes eternally with no hope of deliverance from Hell whether Jew or Gentile (Jeremiah 9:25-26; Romans 1:18-3:20; Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:11-15).2 Therefore, in a biblical worldview being a living slave with hope is better than being hopelessly double dead in sin (Isaiah 38:9-20; Ephesians 2:1-10)!3
While lamenting his people he watched go into Babylonian captivity as divine judgment, the prophet Jeremiah found hope renewed in God’s mercy, compassion and impeccable character (Lamentations 3:19-38) asking, “Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins,” (Lamentations 3:39, NKJV)? Though a number of West Africans were killed on their soil resisting the Europeans and others in transit to slavery, the survivors who became Christians experienced God’s restoration in chains. They came to appreciate Jeremiah and Daniel’s conclusion that slavery as God’s judgment was righteous and merciful (Lamentations 3:40-42; Daniel 9:1-15)!4
What is God’s will for those He restores in grace and mercy through the Gospel and delivers from bondage of any kind? Is it not to go tell it (Exodus 10:1-2, 12:21-28; Luke 4:16-21, 8:26-39, 22:14-20, 24:13-49)? Surely, my Christian slave forefathers did tell it in a rich legacy of work songs and spirituals I will not cease to remind the generations behind me are there for their benefit first, then, the entire world! They chose not to run away or escape on the Underground Railroad and instead, stand by faith in God. Satan has deceived many into scoffing at them, but they are heroes in God’s eyes because like Daniel, they willingly submitted to His judgment; trusting in His goodness, grace and mercies new every morning when joy comes after any night of weeping (Psalm 30:4-5)!
Though the release from bondage brought still more adversity, those that clung to God by faith in Jesus Christ walked in the victories of restoration and testified, while waiting for new deliverances and His majestic coming (1 John 5:4; Revelation 1:4-8, 2:8-11, 3:7-13)! For as Paul, the Jewish apostle to us Gentiles consoles, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,” (Romans 8:18, NKJV). And again, it is written, “The just shall live by faith,” (Romans 1:17, NKJV). But the numbers of those living by faith among black Americans today are certainly relatively small since the heavy hand of divine judgment hangs over our communities like the soupy mist of settled fog; a clear sign of God’s displeasure (Hebrews 11:6).
1 In a nod of appreciation to the days of radio drama, I was blessed of the Lord to write, produce and voice my personal search for biblical understanding of the black
experience in an award winning docu-drama entitled, From Slavery To Victory: One Man’s Journey now a Webcast on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project
2 Quoted from Patriot, Patrick Henry’s speech made to the Second Virginia Convention held at the St. John’s Church, March 23, 1775, Wikipedia.
3 I do realize there are many different worldviews black Americans have of our historical experience that are mostly rooted in victimization. A biblical worldview of the
black American experience is only possible by the mind renewing work of the Holy Spirit when a man has been truly converted. I am led by the Holy Spirit to explore
eleven major worldviews black Americans have of our experience and compare them for benefit to us with the biblically formed worldview consistent with God’s
now, nearly two millennia long cause to restore men and punish the sins of Gentile nations in a seven-part 2006 article entitled, The Renewing Of Our Minds. Read it
in the Journal Archives on the From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site. 4 Read through the presentation beginning on the Home Page of The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site that uses art and graphics to make these im-
portant points as well.
It should go without saying that if the living God is calling professed Christians as followers of His Son to repentance, then, non-Christians ought to be on notice too! Indeed, it is written: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now ‘“If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear,”’” (1 Peter 4:17-18, NKJV)? Because God in holy character operates in perfect justice (Deuteronomy 31:30-32:4), nobody gets away with anything; sin must be judged and punished (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:17-19; Psalm 62:9-12; Ezekiel 18:4; Matthew 12:33-37).
Unless therefore, God had sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to take on man’s judgment and punishment for sin, none would be saved (John 3:16-21, 36). Again, without God having taken the initiative out of His great love, grace, mercy and righteousness to make a way of salvation from sin for mankind through repentance and faith in the Gospel of Christ--that He died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day, this fallen world and mankind as sinners after giving an account for every sin committed would have long ago endured His wrath and been eternally destroyed (Genesis 6:5-8; John 8:21-24; Romans 1:16-17, 3:9-31, 5:6-9, 10:4-13)!
Instead, those of us who have repented of our sins and believed the Gospel of Christ have been forgiven, indwelt and brought to eternal spiritual life by the Spirit of God as well as reconciled to Him after being enemy combatants (Acts 2:36-39; Romans 5:10-11; Colossians 1:19-23). The foregoing is supposed to be the result in every case. But keeping it real, in addition to many who are weak in the faith, there have been numerous rebels, impostors and apostates who have dwelt among the Church the Lord has been building from the first century A.D. and misrepresented it to the on looking world (Acts 2:40-47, 5:1-11; Romans 16:17-20; Galatians 2:1-5; 1 John 2:18-23; Jude 3-19).
For this cause, God is righteously at work in His house through judgment calling His weak in the faith, backslidden and rebel professed people to repentance; testing and disciplining even the faithful to conform us fully to the glorious divine character resident in Christ (Hebrews 12:1-17). He is also exposing and separating out of His house the false, unrepentant disobedient and fallen away since Christ in all sobriety returns for a bride He sacrificed Himself to “sanctify and cleanse,” that does not have “spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” but is “holy and without blemish,” (Ephesians 5:25-27; 2 Peter 3:14, NKJV). Professed Christians thinking otherwise are deceived (Galatians 5:19-21, 6:7-8)!
Thus, if it is all like that for professed Christians as the apostle Peter serves up in his warning I quoted in the first paragraph of this post, then, the non-Christian is truly in grave peril. For God’s command to ‘“all men everywhere to repent’” is so ‘“because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has ordained;” giving “assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead,’” (Acts 17:30-31, NKJV). The Lord led me to end my last post confirming He has not turned from His day of wrath upon all of those who have disobeyed His Gospel command to repent! It is coming more certainly than tomorrow’s sunrise!1
As I also recently briefly wrote about discussing these days of increasing post-Christianity unbelief in God,2 like ground with its overgrown weeds removed as preparation for planting, but after a delay grows back, so, the world has had a brief moment when the bright promise of Christianity filled it with the knowledge of God enough for many at least to believe in His existence. Now, helped in part by the willful neglect of guilty professed Christians and their churches in sin, compromise and corruption, all of the weeds of wickedness seen historically in secular atheism, false religions and the deeds of the flesh are growing back exceedingly worse than before (Luke 11:14-26).3
Refusing to believe in God does not dismiss Him from existence as He led me to state another way in a 2022 post!4 His steadily intensifying judgments in these latter days besides being remedial are warnings intended primarily to cause all to recognize His reality and repent before it is too late. However, because of proudly refusing to believe in the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible who warned millennia ago through His prophets about the escalating severity of the calamities we now, see coming upon the world, non-Christians (and many biblically ignorant professed Christians) are foolishly attributing them all to manmade climate change in the false hope they can fix things. Not! Surely, climate change is occurring, but it is not exclusively due to human cause (Amos 3:6-7, 5:8-9).
1 Read the April 23, 2023 post, A Word To God’s Faithful, under the category, Encouragement.
2 See the September 25, 2022 post, The Epidemic Of Unbelief In God, under the category, Encouragement.
3 The faithful and devoted heart of the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ is required to stand firm against this never before seen spiritual tide as I write about them in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics! You can pick up a Hard or Soft Cover Edition of the book as well as companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
4 Read the October 2, 2022, Unbelief In God Has Consequences, under the category, Instruction.
Is it just me or does anyone else also see the glaring inconsistency of teaching me I am the head of my house by God’s design and purposeful will, but when I come to His house, the God who made me the head changes everything? Like a bizarre, mind bending movie where things are familiar, but out of place and nothing is as it should be, so, the growing number of churches today with women as pastors, worship leaders and authority figures over adult men in what is supposed to be the God of the Bible’s “household,” “family” and “house;” His Father the Lord Jesus taught us in Him to also address as “Father,” (Matthew 6:9; Ephesians 2:19-22, 3:14-15; Hebrews 3:1-6, NKJV)!
There has been a change made in the churches led by pastors that are responsible true enough, but the ever consistent and immutable God has not authorized it as He leads me to make absolutely clear in a very important second Appendix of my book. This change to allow women to speak into the whole church assembly and be deployed into positions of authority over men is exclusively the action of sinful flesh in defiance of Scripture! It has come about from the same demonically deceitful instruction that has also allowed those that pervert God’s sexual design to pastor, lead worship and ministries in what is supposed to be God’s house.
After millennia, to now--at the end of this age--fully set aside men and God’s order of mankind in His house is wickedly brazen; showing no fear of God whatsoever in sinning with such a high hand. You surpass even the people and leaders of ancient Israel who also corrupted themselves in spiritual harlotry, disrespected God’s house, profaned His great name and caused His enemies to blaspheme (Ezekiel 16:23-30; Malachi 1:6-2:16; Romans 2:24; James 4:17). For those who question by what authority I have stood to say such things in crying out against this ongoing rebellion in God’s house, I will ask you an even more important and eternally troubling question.
By what authority have you stood to usurp Jesus Christ, God’s appointed Head of the Church, to dishonor men and change the divine order of mankind in His house as antichrists (Daniel 7:25; Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:15-18)? At the Lord’s command and in the power of the Holy Spirit, I have taken my stand to wage war on and pull down strongholds of deceit in all of the arguments raised up against “the knowledge of God” embodied in the whole counsel of His Word on men and the order of mankind in His house; “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” in His cause to restore men and declaring His judgment on the unrepentant (2 Corinthians 10:3-6, NKJV)!6
For while the world culture may be in rebellion against the will, way and Word of God, such should not be the case among us who have been set apart as His and are His house (1 Peter 2:4-5)! We were saved from out of the world culture not to live to or honor it above God any longer, but as “His own special people” to exalt Him and proclaim His praises with supporting godly deeds (1 Peter 2:9-12, NKJV). So, the world culture may be celebrating with guilty professed Christians in their break with ancient, biblical orthodoxy on men and the divine order of mankind in yet another display of the foretold “falling away,” but the Head of His house is not pleased (2 Thessalonians 2:3, NKJV)!
Let me be very clear from the prophetic Word of God to the professed Christian following after world culture and the unbeliever listening in. The corrupt egalitarian, anything goes world as a tower of Babel you seek to build will not come to fruition without contest from God in severe judgments (Genesis 11:1-9; Revelation 8:1-11:19) or long stand before it is destroyed in wrath by Christ (Isaiah 2:10-22, 13:9-13; Revelation 6:12-17, 16)!7 He now, graciously calls unbelievers to repentance and faith in the Gospel to be saved from His coming wrath; repentance leading to revival among those in sin as professed Christians so they may not be condemned with the world, but rather vigorously preach the Gospel especially to men as the Lord modeled so they might be completely restored.
The faithful pastor should not fret or fear your obedience has been in vain and the wicked in and outside of God’s house are getting away with anything (Malachi 2:17, 3:13-4:3). Those that profess to be Christians and continue to refuse God’s offer of forgiveness through repentance from all disobedience including rebellion against His order of mankind will be caught in the intensifying judgment He has begun in His house and that will be more evident in 2017--beware rebel women in positions of unbiblical authority (Revelation 2:20-23)! It has begun in His house so the world may see God is just and fear; for this assures their destruction without repentance to follow (1 Peter 4:17-18). All who die in their sins also face the judgment seat of Christ in terror (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)!
Now, therefore, woe to the pastors that oppress and marginalize the men you shepherd! You will give an account of every soul harmed by your disobedience. If the Lord commands Israel’s faithful to keep the “Law of Moses” and to look for Him to send Elijah before “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” to restore men and their children, how is it that you have failed to grasp you are to keep His Word and labor to make ready a people prepared for His coming through restoring men and their children also (Malachi 4:4-6, Luke 12:42-48, NKJV)? Does not the judgment of Adam, Aaron, Solomon, Jeroboam, Ahab, Asa and the Pharisees frighten you at all (Genesis 3:17b-19; Exodus 32:25-35; 1 Kings 11:9-13, 13:33-14:11, 21:17-26; 2 Chronicles 16:11-14; Matthew 23:25-24:2)? The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
6 I have addressed most of the more popular arguments of the rebellion in all of my May 2015 blogs.
7 The tragedy of inequality among mankind does not originate with God’s creation of men and women for when all was created, He declared His work ‘“very good,’” (Genesis 1:31, NKJV)! After this, the next greatest statement of human equality came from the lips of the first man when he raved about the woman made from him in perfect correspondence to him in every way (Genesis 2:23). Human inequality originates with sin and all of the evil ways it corrupts the human heart (Mark 7: 17-23)! This being true, how can the noble cause to eliminate sin invented human gender and racial inequality, for example, be lumped together with that of over- turning the decree of God that only sex inside of male and female marriage is righteous? Therefore, until my final breath as a Christian black American male. I will be offended by the sexually immoral person’s evil and false claim that rejecting his sin is equivalent to rejecting me as a man of color by the purposeful design of God! Read my May 8-15, 2016 blogs.
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