The Scourge Of Racism
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While the living God of the Bible objectively read, interpreted and applied has never been or could be a party to racism as affirmed in last week’s post, many professed to be His people over the centuries certainly have!1 Here in America over four centuries many whites in the majority have silently tolerated, openly practiced and endorsed racism and its oppressions among non-whites beginning with the indigenous peoples of the land and continuing very severely amidst those of my black slave forefathers and thereafter. Because God does not give endorsement to oppression on any basis, all American professed Christians should have been standing against racism to this hour.
However, the historical truth is that relatively few white professed Christians and particularly among conservative evangelicals--people of the Book--have been identified as leading out against America’s systemic racism and oppressions of blacks and other minorities. On this Sanctity Of Life Sunday spearheaded by white conservative evangelical Christians to stand for human life as of God our Creator and against the murder of the unborn as the most feeble through abortion, it is clear they with all of us in the divine image restored through and claiming love for Christ can represent God’s “righteousness and justice” as He expects (Psalms 82:1-4; 103:6, NKJV). The issue is which issues?
How about all of the moral and ethical issues God in the “whole counsel” of His Word as it is written calls out as human sin that oppresses and/or harms a neighbor in any way no matter their skin color (Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37; Acts 20:27; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:13-15; James 2:8-9)! Every biblically conservative Christian plainly sees God’s concern for the poor, widows, orphans, and even prisoners in His Word (1 Samuel 2:6-8; Psalm 68:5-6; Isaiah 61:1-2a; Galatians 2:10). But the guilty among white conservative evangelicals have largely chosen historically to ignore God’s expressed concern for the oppressed in many ways and especially through racism (Luke 4:16-21).
Indeed, it is not just the unborn oppressed by the denial of life by parents in the only recently evolved culture of death I as one unsaved once participated in that need defending. It is also those oppressed by race and ethnicity over the past four hundred years in America. To ‘“deliver’” Israel from such ‘“oppression’” is the reason God states He had ‘“come down,’” (Exodus 3:6-9, NKJV). Knowing of God’s famous act in history to deliver His oppressed people should have been enough for any professed Christian not to oppress anyone. But many of them were at the forefront of carrying out the well documented oppressions of racism in our nation among the oppressors God condemns.2
Of the notable very few white conservative evangelicals that gave some support to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he led what was thoroughly a spiritual fight during the height of the 1955-68 Civil Rights Movement to extricate blacks from America’s systemic oppressions of racism was Dr. Billy Graham. While he was not known to be among the marchers, he spoke out against and wrote a tract condemning racism. He was criticized by some fellow white conservative evangelicals in a display of total disregard for “the Book” they claimed to revere whatever all of the motives including being full on racists and the fear of man (criticism, ostracism and violence) rather than God (John 12:42-43).3
Now, while we each cannot possibly personally take on every single instance of unrighteous and unjust oppression in our land, we can and should seek the Lord about His priorities among the most egregious, long standing and urgent without neglecting others (Luke 11:42).4 The deafening historic silence and outright wicked support for oppressing blacks and other minorities through racism by whites professed to be Christians fits this bill since this has also been grave sin in the Lord’s sight from which the guilty must repent (1 John 1:5-9)!5 Denying and minimizing the oppressions of racism as some white conservative professed Christians are doing believing it negatively portrays their white heritage is evil and makes the Lord our Judge “a liar,” (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:10, NKJV).6
Born again biblically conservative Christians must come out from among professed Christians that approve of the unrighteous, unjust oppressions of racism and are unwilling to obey God in serving as He intends to avoid their judgment (Psalm 82:5-8; Proverbs 24:21-22)!7 For such persons truly show that they do “not know the Lord” and are corrupt in their practice of Christianity as with Judaism the two sons of Eli, a priest of Israel, were (1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-25, NKJV). The Lord was wroth with Hophni and Phinehas for their contempt of Him and sent a prophet to tell their father of His judgment that included their deaths on the same day as occurred (1 Samuel 2:27-36; 4:1-18)! If you know Him, the Lord expects obedience to His will and priorities (Matthew 7:21-23; John 14:15).
1 Read the January 7, 2024 post, God A Party To Racism?, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 Scripture is unequivocal: God has no regard for oppressors who are very often among the rich though, practicing oppression is not exclusive to them as American history can attest; filled as it is with the abundance of racially oppressive acts of guilty whites from all socio-economic groups threatened by any advance of minorities that might surpass them (Job 27:13-23; Psalm 12:3-5; Jeremiah 22:11-19; James 5:1-6).
3 See the February 22, 2018 article by John Blake for CNN, Where Billy Graham ‘missed the mark.’ I acknowledge Dr. Graham’s efforts--minimal to whatever extent in the eyes of some--addressing racism that included hiring black staff evangelists such as Rev. Howard O. Jones in my book, The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 16-17. The printed book is available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores. The just released E-Book is available at major E-Book sellers. Watch the book trailer.
4 As He leads, we are to give at least moral support to our brethren laboring in God’s causes we are not engaged with.
5 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction. Also, view this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on YouTube to consider the Lord’s call to return to Him.
6 While it may be true that American history among other subjects is being presented with a decidedly politically liberal worldview in the nation’s public schools which is un- righteous and unjust, for political conservatives--some calling themselves Christians--to do the same is just as wrong. Two wrongs still do not make a right! What is righteous and just before God is not to present either a politically liberal or conservative view of history to our children in our public schools, but just the facts however painful they may be to one group or another so they can learn the truth and from it.
7 Let any white conservative evangelical pastor now, losing church members no matter how much they gave because you have taken a stand against more than the social justice issue, but the sin of racism be encouraged. You have courageously done the righteous and just thing and the church the Lord has entrusted you to shepherd un- der Him has become closer to being His (Matthew 16:13-18; John 6:52-66, 21:15-17). Courage is of the character of Christ aspiring strong men and great women of God are to display in His image I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available in the Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
On the heels of such an incredible journey through God’s Word tracking Christ’s post-cross activity and resulting promise of the Christian’s glorious destiny in Him just concluded in the April 2016 blog reposts, my great desire is to continue on. Lord willing, I will return soon to the subject of the resurrection and immortality of faithful Christians. However, my focus has been painfully diverted momentarily from the glories to come to the currently escalating rebellion against God that is participated in even by many professing Christians and their churches falsely claiming He has changed His program for mankind in this present, mortal age (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).
Amazingly, from the question of to whom does it belong to what one’s rights are with it, the human body is at the center of this very open rebellion against God in these latter days. And why would this not be so? If human beings are going to rebel against their Creator, then it stands to reason that everything, absolutely everything including the human body tied to His will for them would be the object of resistance as is fully implied in His foretold Word about this rebellion (Psalm 2:1-3). I have been down this road a few times in my blogs, but the May 2014 posts, "The Body Beautiful," Pt. 1 and 2 under the same category as this blog, God’s Creatures, serve as excellent related posts.
Those posts and this edited 2013 repost are intended to state again briefly what God from His Word instructs as a foundation about males, females, their natural, mortal bodies and corresponding roles and responsibilities in this present age written not for worldly rebels as a first priority, but those professing to be Christians in the churches so they might repent before it is too late. For if we as fallen creatures are ready to visit punishment on our children for rebelling against our instructions, how much more the living, just and holy God our Creator (Isaiah 13:11-12)? This repost also forms the basic underpinning for next week’s blog and those to come discussing the immortal body.
Originally Posted May 5, 2013
Men and women have natural bodies designed by God to fulfill the divine will and purposes for this present, mortal age. Their bodily forms follow the respective functions male and female have in the divine purposes of governance and procreation (Genesis 1:26-28). God created Adam the male first making him the federal head of the human race. He then created the woman by taking a rib from Adam and dividing him functionally into two, bringing them back together as one in marriage (Genesis 2:7, 21-24). From His actions as Creator, clearly, God is the Owner of the human body and the soul that inhabits it! As a result, human beings cannot just do as they please with their bodies and lives in opposition to the divine will without consequences (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4).
Concerning men as males and women as females, as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, they are “different by design.” For example, in general historically, men are geared in brain function toward logic, reason and objectivity critical for problem solving, take charge leadership. Women, on the other hand, major in multi-tasking as managers and are more subjectively inclined. These and all other seemingly distinctive behavioral characteristics of males and females are those of the one man, Adam, divided and accentuated in each by God’s intentional design of their respective natural bodies in accord with His will. Thus, individually and together male and female are man (Genesis 2:23)!
In the image and likeness of God who alone "gives life to all things" (1 Timothy 6:13a, NKJV), Adam as a male was equipped in his body with the means to initiate human physical life. The testicles of man produce, store and deliver living seed that not only initiates human physical life, but also powerfully determines whether that life will be male or female. God gave the man a sex organ which is a perfectly designed instrument for the pleasurable delivery of his seed during the course of intimacy with his wife. While biologically it is possible for unmarried males and females to procreate, this occurs outside of God’s will that children be conceived in the context of marriage (Genesis 4:1).
So concerned was God that a man be interested in sex that leads to procreation, He also designed his testicles to produce a hormone called testosterone that in cooperation with his brain gives him a highly intense desire to have intercourse with his wife. Barring reproductive issues in either the man or his wife, lots of sex would yield lots of children in accord with the divine purpose for fruitful procreation affirmed after Noah’s flood and again following the wrath of Christ’s Second Coming among surviving mortals beginning with the Jewish remnant (Genesis 9:1; Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Isaiah 65:20-25; Jeremiah 31:1-9, 27-28; Ezekiel 36:7-15, 37-38; Romans 11:25-27; Revelation 7:1-8).
The reproductive system in the natural body of the woman is more involved than the man’s. God designed her body to enjoy intimacy with her husband and to also produce hormones that heighten her sexual interest. Not only does she receive her husband’s sex organ by way of a special body cavity that dually serves as a birth canal, but God gave her the apparatus to produce living seed to conceive after mingling with his. When a woman of childbearing ability does not become pregnant, her seed dies and God designed her body to expel it during a menstrual cycle.
God designed the woman’s body to have a womb in order to host a newly conceived human being for nourishment and development in its protective walls until time for birth. Upon birth, God designed the woman to be able to feed up to two babies at once with milk from her breasts that have been awakened for service by hormones in her body. Plainly, to the glory of God as the male body is purposely constructed to initiate human physical life, the female body is purposely and intricately built for conceiving and bearing that life! In the image and likeness of God too, the woman as a mother bonds with and nurtures her children (Genesis 3:8-9; Deuteronomy 32:9-12; Matthew 23:37).
Tragically, because of sin, the natural body does not always form as designed nor does it or the human soul that inhabits it function perfectly. In fact, the body begins to undergo decay leading to death after only a relatively short time (Genesis 3:16-19). Males with no or malfunctioning testicles and women that have been barren, missing reproductive parts of the body or that miscarry are seen throughout history. Too, in willful rebellion against God’s purposes men and women driven by a corrupt lust for pleasure have selfishly misused the sexual function of their natural bodies and murdered its fruit justly bringing divine wrath upon themselves (Romans 1:18-32). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
After foretelling ‘“the end of’” Jerusalem and the Temple in desolation ‘“with’” the overflowing ‘“flood’” of Roman military might in 70 A.D. (Daniel 9:26b, NKJV), the angel, Gabriel, sent to help Daniel understand makes the astonishing assertion, ‘“and till the end of the war desolations are determined’” plainly by God (Daniel 9:26c, NKJV). No specific war is named as any next prophetic timeline event prior to or slated for the final seven of the seventy sevens in the vision.1 Indeed, nothing like what is spoken of in Daniel 9:27 for the final seven of the seventy sevens has taken place after Messiah came or could since Israel’s Temple as a required prop lies in ruins to this day!
There is only one biblically sound and historically accurate conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing: there has been a delay or timeout inserted by God into His prophetic timeline vision! After the cutoff of Messiah and the sixty-ninth seven, God paused the ticking clock leaving the remaining seven years of the total four hundred and ninety to be fulfilled suspended until He in sovereignty chose the precise moment to restart it. First among His purposes in the delay, God would allow the ongoing spiritual war between Satan and Himself to continue with desolations in the earth until He brings it to His preordained from eternity end and that include the events of Daniel 9:27!
Meantime, of the many prophecies the Lord Jesus spoke before His death, burial, resurrection and ascension many calculate was in 33 A.D.,2 He foretells two other purposes for God’s delay that has now, lasted nearly two millennia. Second then, the Lord declares this delay before the final seven years of God’s prophetic timeline ‘“are the days of vengeance’” upon the Jewish people for their transgression to include rejecting Him to His face and afterward, the Gospel about Him by His apostles ‘“that all things which are written may be fulfilled,’” (Hosea 3, 5:8-6:3; Luke 13:34-35, 21:20-24a; Acts 3:1-4:22, NKJV).3 Third, the delay is ‘“the times of the Gentiles,’” (Luke 21:24b, NKJV).
God’s gracious purpose for the Gentiles during our times is the salvation of many. To this end, the Lord Jesus instructs His apostles about the scope of their mission and work when meeting with them after His resurrection (Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-16; Luke 24:46-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8). Thus, though He was cutoff and left with nothing concerning His reign as the King of Israel at that time, with His resurrection predetermined from eternity the Lord immediately took charge to command the preaching of the Gospel about Him for salvation as well as still to come visible reign over the nation and entire earth from it as the priority message of His disciples until He returns!
Paul, the Jewish apostle to us Gentiles affirms the foregoing about God’s purposes for delay in completing the prophetic timeline vision given to Daniel as he carried out the mission and work after being rejected by many of his fellow Jews (Acts 13:26-47). Empowered by the Holy Spirit he was so bold as to preach in the heart of pagan idolatry declaring God’s call “to repent” to the Gentiles as both John the Baptist and the Lord before him did among the Jews (Matthew 3:1-2; Mark 1:14-15; Acts 17:16-34, NKJV). He also pointedly instructs and warns Gentiles about the two purposes the Lord gives for God’s delay in a strategic letter to believers at Rome (Romans 9-11).
This leads to a fourth purpose of God in His delay during these times of the Gentiles. It has been and is that while laboring to save the willing from among the Jews and Gentiles, He also brings warning judgments on the unsaved world. This is so they might have a foretaste of His coming wrath, perhaps, reconsider their wicked ways and repent! Consequently, Jews in unbelief and violent opposition to the Gospel from the first century have suffered greatly (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, NKJV) as have Gentile nations still drinking fully from God’s ‘“cup of fury’” with many calamities, conquerors, wars, conflicts, violence, murders, economic hardships and widespread death from various means to include famine and pestilence as foretold (Jeremiah 25:15-31; Revelation 6:1-8, NKJV).
A final purpose in God’s delay tied to the message of the Gospel, the mission and work to proclaim it is to allow Messiah time to ‘“build’” His Church composed of Jews and Gentiles; God’s glorious “mystery” from eternity unfolded during this, Messiah’s epoch who lives forever (Matthew 16:13-20; Ephesians 2-3, NKJV)! We who make up His Church are equipped by God to “stand” in the ongoing spiritual war Satan presses against us too (Ephesians 6:10-18, NKJV).4 God waits for His redeemed through the generations in gracious longsuffering until the Gospel is ‘“preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations’” and every last soul foreknown to Him is accounted for; ‘“and then,’” to the horror of every scoffer, ‘“the end will come,’” (Matthew 24:14; 2 Peter 3:1-9; NKJV).
This being so, ‘“the end’” the Lord speaks of is also the end of God’s delay to proceed with the last seven of His seventy sevens prophetic timeline vision and its events given to Daniel (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15). We are not there yet, but necessary props for this final dramatic period are being put into place by God. Israel back in the land as a nation since 1948 is the single most prophetically vital prop He has put into place to date since this will be followed by the building of a third Temple. In fact, Temple construction will come about due to never before seen severe judgments by God that convince the world He is and to leave Israel alone in their quest (Revelation 8-9).5 After this, Christ’s apostle, John, hears an angel say ‘“that there should be delay no longer,’” Revelation 10:1-7, NKJV).
1 This does not mean that until the end there would be no wars and desolations on earth as Bible prophecy even cited later in this post foretells and history easily shows has been the case. However, read the January 9, 2022 post, Easier To Read Bibles, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Instruction where the Lord leads me to write about "the overarching spiritual war" in back of all human wars as well as The Right Side Of History, posted January 30, 2022, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview discussing the “seventy weeks” prophecy.
2 Bible students have long wrestled with the correct way to reconcile up to eight years being off in the dating of Christ’s birth and death based on God’s prophetic timeline. The issue turns on whose calendar dating method is used: the Jewish 360 day year or the Catholic Gregorian 365 day year that replaced Julius Caesar’s calendar in the the 16th century. Accepting He was born sometime between 6-4 B.C. during Herod’s reign as Scripture indicates (Matthew 2:1; Luke 1:5) and after making adjustments for the transition year from B.C. to A.D., using the Jewish calendar one comes to A.D. 33 for the chronology of events attending to Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of which I find no biblical reason to contest.
3 In stating, ‘“that all things which are written may be fulfilled,’” the Lord continues the thematic thread of hope by the prophets who after declaring God’s judgment, also spoke of His future blessing of Israel. Thus, note how the passages of Hosea and Luke 13:34-35 I cite end. Hosea 6:1-3 in context even gives the general time frame of two thousand years for how long Israel’s punishment and God’s delay presented in this post would be starting from when He began to “tear them” in A.D. 70. Obvious- ly, more than two literal days have passed since then. This span is calculated as uniquely used in the eternal perspective of God elsewhere in Scripture (Scripture inter- prets Scripture) based on one day being the equivalent of one thousand years (Hosea 5:14-15; Psalm 90:1-4; 2 Peter 3:8, NKJV).
4 The Lord’s charge through the apostle Paul “to be strong” in Ephesians 6:10, NKJV is made throughout the Bible to men. He led me to write the book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to instruct Christian men about the absolutely essential need we have to know all of what God has in mind for us commanded by Him to be strong in the image of His Son, Jesus Christ! Read the sample chapter on our Web Site. Then, get the book in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 See the September 29, 2019 post, God Almighty In A 21st Century World, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
As the Lord leads me to make plain in the book, The Scourge Of Racism, racism leaves no one involved untouched; not the object or the perpetrator!1 In the book chapter similarly titled as today’s post, He leads me to firmly assert the very real resulting wounds of racism in the American Church require healing through God’s methodologies already prescribed in His written Word! Of course, one must first be biblically conservative to honor and preserve God’s instruction in His Word intact and willing to objectively interpret, apply and submit to it in obedience. Because all or some part of the foregoing is missing in the main, the Church is now, under God’s judgment!2
Through its human vessels beginning with guilty professed Christian white colonists from before the nation’s founding, their local assemblies and subsequent institutions, the Church in this land that came to be America has tolerated, practiced and enabled racism within its ranks.3 Some of the guilty professed Christian objects of racism in bitterness have returned the favor. Obviously, none of these persons were practicing biblical conservatism in preserving or obeying Christ’s commandment to “love one another” over the past four centuries nor are the guilty doing so now (John 13:34-35, NKJV).4 This ungodly reality is contrary to the example of many biblical personages.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the foremost example of a biblical conservative. He announced to Israel He had not come “to destroy the Law or the Prophets…but to fulfill” them (Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 16:14-18, 24:25-27, 44-45, NKJV). Every godly person in the Bible after Christ also treats the Word of God with reverence and acts on it as it is written (Joshua 8:30-35; Daniel 9:1-2; Luke 2:25, 23:50-51).5 Even Satan and his demon cohort take God’s Word at face value while corrupting it to whoever will pay heed (Matthew 4:1-7, 8:28-29; 2 Peter 3:14-16). No, Christ’s commandment that His disciples love each other has willfully not been honored, preserved or obeyed!
There is absolutely no excuse for disobeying Christ’s commandment for the real “born again” Christian because the impetus and spiritual substance of God’s love through the Holy Spirit fills our hearts providing what we need to obey (John 3:1-8; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, NKJV). Beyond yielding to the sinful flesh along with worldly family and cultural conditioning, this raises the prospect of fear and the outcome of cowardice which the Lord does not accept as a reason for disobedience (Romans 13:8-14; Galatians 5:19-25; Revelation 21:8). After these reasons only one other is plausible and that is the disobedient are not Christians at all, but impostors and apostates.6
In my book, I do not pretend healing racism’s wounds in the American Church will be easy. The biblical process will be spiritually, psychologically and emotionally challenging for authentic Christians that have been practicing even subtle racism a long time. For the personal sin of racism and that of one’s fathers must be confessed and repented from before God to receive His forgiveness (Daniel 9:8-11; 1 John 1:8-2:2).7 Also, the forgiveness of those known brothers and sisters one has been bigoted toward and discriminated against is to be sought. Guilty black and Christians of every other hue must confess and repent from bitterness and be willing to forgive those past and present who have brought harm through racism (Mark11:25-26; Ephesians 4:31-32; Colossians 3:12-13).
1 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR. Learn more about the book to be released October 5th and the specific chapter referred to, The Sting Of Racism, at this link. The book will be widely available in Ministry Web Site Stores, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
2 Read the June 10, 2018 post, God’s Judgment Upon His House, under the categories Bible Prophecy and God’s Creatures.
3 See the respective September 10 and 17, 2023 posts, Our American Heritage and Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, both under the category, Biblical Worldview.
4 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction.
5 This is the heart of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It remains available in the Strong Man Store among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
6 See the two-part post beginning August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction. Practicing and attempting to pass off a counterfeit form of manmade of Christianity, religious folk as impostors that grow worse and apostates who knowingly infiltrate local assemblies are foretold (2 Timothy 3:1-9, 13; Jude 3-4, 16-19). These are easily persuaded by Satan, sin and self to hate as racists because the love of God is not in them!
7 Racism is most assuredly among the sins of the fathers and one’s own the Lord is expecting those professed Christians who will return to Him to confess and repent from in His appeal through this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord.
Surely, especially the young souls of this 21st century will ask me, “What is the big deal about women leading men in the churches? They are doing so everywhere else in the world. Aren’t you just being sexist, legalistic and judgmental?” If the matter of divine order was not to be taken seriously, then I am thoroughly convinced God would not have me wasting my time bothering with it as it concerns restoring men or for any other reason. However, divine order is the critical issue of this present age. Since fallen angels and mankind have rebelled against it, the Holy God has pronounced judgment on both! God is a God of order throughout all of existence (Jeremiah 23:24). As the Lord led me to write about in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the divine Family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit have order within their triunity and equality as God. God the Father reigns as absolute supreme, sovereign with the Son and Holy Spirit in joyful submission. The Holy Spirit carries out the will of the Father and the Son. From eternity, the triune God has reigned over the environs and creatures of the spiritual realm (Exodus 3:13-14; Psalm 90:2). Led by a single rebel, some of the holy angels created in the order of their domain and ranks rebelled against God to be condemned to everlasting fire (Ezekiel 28:11-19; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:3-4, 20:10). It is written: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” (Genesis 1:1, NKJV). With that statement as the opening of the divine commissioned written communication to mankind through Moses, God makes the unequivocal declaration that God is the Creator of the entire physical creation or what is called today, the cosmos which according to the Encarta Dictionary is “the universe considered as an ordered and integrated whole.” Indeed, the order that exists in the universe from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies in the billions filled with solar systems and planets such as our earth in orderly procession is mind boggling (Psalm 147:4-5; Isaiah 40:25-26)! Clearly, the God of order created the cosmos with order! Even the most cynical fools among scientists today that say “there is no God,” must acknowledge the staggering order of the cosmos (Psalm 14:1-3, 19:1-6, NKJV). Our Creator even created His cosmos, the earth and its contents in an orderly fashion leading to the apex and ultimate purpose for the divine work: the creation of man to rule over all that God had created (Genesis 1:2-26; Psalm 8; Hebrews 2:5-8a). God gave mortal man purpose and order (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:7). Man dwelt in a body of order and could appreciate not only the technical wonder of the creation that surrounded him, but its beauty (Genesis 2:8-14). In the order God gave man, God retained the right of sovereign Headship as Creator giving him tasks and a commandment (Genesis 2:15-17). After creating his female companion from him for him in accord with the divine order of marriage, she led them to rebel against God (Genesis 2:18-3:6). Nevertheless, their sin did not cause God to change the divine order of marriage. As I wrote in an April 2011 Commentary for another platform, “Man as male and female in marriage is God's orderly program for them to fulfill His purposes in this age. Man the male as the head of his family--even after falling in sin--is so by divine will, design and order (Genesis 3:16b).” We now exist in and observe a cosmos as well as earth with all of its many systems of order after their ruin at the rebellion and fall of man (Genesis 3:17-19). As God did not change the divine order of marriage after man sinned and the pre-announced judgment was carried out, neither did God alter the ultimate divine purpose for mankind to rule over the cosmos. In accord with the foreordained divine plan, the Son of God came down to make atonement for our sins in His death on the cross, burial and resurrection so that God might righteously forgive and fully restore men that believe (Hebrews 2:8b-18). After redeemed men, God will also restore the cosmos (Romans 8:18-22). Truly, the Lord Jesus and His apostles joyfully heralded God’s good news! The apostle Paul in particular sent to the Gentiles taught the will, instructions and commandments of God’s order faithfully (1 Timothy 2:11-15). But now, knowing the plain warning of the apostle Paul that applies to all men (Romans 1:18-2:16), many professing Christians are participating in the world’s rebellion against God’s order of marriage and that of His house with women leading and taking authority over men. Therefore, as only a foretaste and warning of the wrath to come, the whole world that banks on the dependable order of time installed by God at creation will experience among other of His judgments very near, its abrupt disruption as humanity has known it on earth (Revelation 8:12-13). Again, as I wrote in that 2011 Commentary, “If the fixed order of day and night that God has established were to be disrupted, chaos on earth would ensue. So it is now with human rebellion against His fixed order of the family” and I add for this blog, His house. But no one seems to care about this except the faithful--every aspiring strong man and great woman of God! Since the world and many professing Christians in rebellion believe that casting aside the divine order is no big deal, God is about to show them as a consequence how wrong they are. Let the faithful saints be comforted in their foreknowledge and understanding of why the Lord’s judgment suddenly falls. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
Guilty disobedient white professed Christians willfully ignoring, setting aside and corrupting God’s Word over four hundred years to enable them in their churches and those making no such profession in the larger American society to uphold the bigotries, discriminatory acts and oppressions of racism has not gone without divine imposed and unintended consequences. Surely, for racism and other sins the severe judgment now, upon His Church has been imposed by Christ!1 Too, there are many unforeseen unintended consequences along the way sin always has that are contributing to the devastating spiritual, moral and ethical chaos, ruin and collapse of churches along with our nation.
The centuries long flagrant disregard for and disobedience to the clear teaching of Scripture against racism, its discriminatory acts and oppressions with other sins by the majority white professed Christian American Church has spawned the unforeseen outcome of a latter day generation that is at ease doing the same on such issues as marriage, divorce, feminism, abortion, same sex relations, gender identity and roles to name some.2 Another is the social chaos this state of affairs is causing that cannot be overstated; most of which will not be reversed until Christ returns to install and enforce the transcendent spiritual principles, morality and ethics of God’s Kingdom on earth (Psalm 2)!
Yet another unforeseen unintended consequence of brazen contempt for and disobedience to God’s Word on racism’s discriminatory acts and oppressions with other sins is the ongoing splintering of the American Church into ever increasing fragments as each man, woman or party must have their own typically unbiblical theological spin, belief system and way (Acts 20:29-30).3 Of course, the American Church has never been without division over theology since those that came from Europe to form the colonies were from various Catholic, Protestant and other professed Christian sects.4 But the splintering today is in over drive with thousands of denominations, churches, groups and sects.
The selfish mindset behind the splintering is not only a product of championed American individualism labeled freedom, but still an unabashed refusal to heed the instruction and warnings of Christ and His apostles on an issue; this time that of division. The Lord’s express will is brotherhood and unity (Matthew 23:8; John 17:20-23). Paul, the Lord’s apostle to us Gentiles asked rhetorically when the seeds of division were being planted in the first century, “Is Christ divided,” (1 Corinthians 1:13, NKJV)? The Lord warned ‘“And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand,’” (Mark 3:25, NKJV). No exception with our nation, the American Church fragmenting is collapsing too.
To be sure, there is a biblical place for God’s faithful to disassociate themselves from harlot professed Christians that in their practice of sin create a manmade religious “form” of the faith as the apostle Paul gives prophetic warning (2 Timothy 3:1-9, NKJV). Also, the Lord foretells a falling away from Him by ‘“offended’” splinter factions near His return in which they ‘“will betray…and hate one another;’” helping to give rise to ‘“many false prophets’” who ‘“deceive many,’” (Matthew 24:10-11, NKJV). This is now, well under way and helps in part explain why the guilty many in the American Church refuse to repent when confronted with God’s Word objectively read, interpreted and applied.5
Indeed, as the Lord leads me to write in The Scourge Of Racism, the world filled with those calling themselves progressives--religious and otherwise--is doing the right thing morally by not only owning the wrong done to blacks and other minorities through racism’s bigotry, discriminatory acts and oppressions, but attempting to do something about it whatever all of their skewed motives and efforts.6 Confessing sin is supposed to be automatic to all professed Christians since none have been saved apart from it. However, with hearts hardened into the numerous forms of manmade Christianity the religion and as de facto apostates that put worldly conservative values ahead of God’s Word many evangelicals in the American Church will not confess racism as sin and repent.
Refusing to repent from sinning against the Lord as religionists in contempt of Him and with hardened hearts was the issue with Hophni and Phinehas I wrote about in last week’s post (1 Samuel 2:22-25).7 Please note in the passage cited that God was not indifferent toward the two sinning priests. His judgment had already been determined and in His timing announced by an unnamed “man of God,” then, confirmed through the child prophet, Samuel (1 Samuel 2:27-34, 3:1-18, NKJV).8 As to a hardened heart, even the Philistines’ religious leaders warned their kings not to go there as they considered having “the ark of the Lord” after seven months of misery. They recognized a hardened heart is what destroyed Pharaoh and will anyone (1 Samuel 6:1-6; Romans 2:4-5, NKJV).9
1 Read the October 8, 2023 post, Racism A Reason For Church Judgment, under the category, Instruction along with the one on October 15, 2023, In Judgment, Grace, Mercy And Revival, under the category, Glory To God!
2 Blacks and other minorities long before were naturally taking their religious cues from whites in the lead who introduced Christianity in its various forms to them over the centuries also with negative outcomes. See the September 4, 2016 post, Christianity The Religion American Style, under the category, Call To Repent.
3 As with Israel during the period of the Judges when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” so, the American Church at this hour with one major difference. Israel’s condition was blamed on them not having a king, but we have One; even the same One they rejected then and guilty professed Christians reject now: God in Christ (Judges 21:25, NKJV)!
4 In spite of their theological differences, there was cooperation on founding the nation, building it and establishing its general cultural mores loosely based on select Judeo- Christian teaching from the Bible. This general culture as the Lord has been leading me to repeatedly point out shamefully included ensuring the dominantstanding of whites through the bigoted, discriminatory and oppressive deeds of racism. For the record, restrictions on sexual immorality was in no way bigoted, discriminatory or op- pressive since they are plain instruction directly from God’s Word (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8).
5 See the February 2, 2014 post, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy. Impostors and apostates do not submit to God or His Word--never have and never will (Romans 8:5-9; 2 Timothy 3:10-13; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 12-22)!
6 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 15-17. The printed book is available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet book- sellers and brick and mortar bookstores. The just released E-Book is available at major E-Book sellers. Watch the book trailer.
7 Read the January 14, 2024 post, Racism’s Oppressions A Divine Priority, under the category, Call To Repent.
8 For those that would dismiss the Lord’s call to repent through me confirmed by His written Word because of no name recognition and through racist eyes, being a no ac- count black man, beware since every word of the Lord the unnamed “man of God” declared in the passage came to pass--glory to God!
9 Don’t let a hard heart keep you from hearing the Lord’s call to return through our Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on YouTube (Hebrews 3:7-19)!
In the midst of teaching “The Character Of The Strong Man Of God” which is Unit Two of The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study1 to locally incarcerated inmates as basic instruction for biblical manhood, I remain amazed at the lack of godly character among professed Christian men out here in the “free” world. From pastors to men in the pews over my forty year journey I have dealt with many that have no shame in being faithless, proud, disobedient, disloyal to God, weak in sin, dispassionate and cowardly about Kingdom causes, spiritual slackers, impatient, ungodly, dishonest, liars and unmerciful.2 Their lack of godly character is not even an issue for these men.
Here’s where I get accused of being a “goody two shoes,” “idealistic,” “too serious,” “super religious,” “unrealistic” and “legalistic” as a “self-righteous Pharisee” since God does not require perfection or that kind of “extreme” devotion. Instead, as I hear so much in Christian media and the churches today, God is more concerned with what He can do for us; how He can make us happy, healthy and wealthy. When character is mentioned, it is only as a means to the end of manipulating God into doing what we want, rather than what the Bible actually teaches as His priority will for our development and regeneration as eternal image bearers of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29)!
Faithful Bible students know that in point of fact God cannot be manipulated and that these mostly spiritual charlatans are deceived and deceivers as false teachers who will meet their just end (Galatians 1:6-10; Philippians 3:17-19; 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 13; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 3:14-18). And if you are one following after them, you will also receive their reward unless you come to your spiritual senses and repent before it is too late in having become hardened into resisting the truths of God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:22-26, 3:14-17). We were redeemed through the blood of Jesus to the divine end of being “transformed” into His image which includes His godly character (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV).
What is Christ-likeness but God-likeness since He is the very “image of the invisible God,” (John 14:7-9; Colossians 1:15, 2:9; Hebrews 1:1-4, NKJV)? All of who God is in nature and character Christ is! For example, in nature God is love and so is Christ. In character, God is holy, righteous, just and true and so is Christ. Man was designed and created by God to uniquely display the divine image in nature and character, but sin was the foil through our first forefather, Adam (Genesis 1:26, 3:1-11). Christ the eternal Word and Son of God took on mortal flesh and came as a second Adam to redeem the willing and restore the divine image in us (John 1:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:47-49).
Now, God renews the divine image in those who become Christians by the Holy Spirit who indwells and brings us to spiritual birth with a new nature (John 3:1-8; Titus 3:4-7). The sanctifying work of God through the Spirit thereafter is to effect and perfect the renewing of the divine image in us with our cooperation by purposely transforming and conforming us to the image of Christ as was earlier stated. Select attributes of the divine nature such as love, joy and goodness are displayed in us through His inner presence as natural fruit. We cooperate by being willing at all times to crucify the deeds of the flesh (Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 5:8-12; Colossians 3:1-17).
A number of the unique divine attributes of character and those otherwise that are desirable by Him, God must construct in us. Christ--who is our example in all things--through His mortal sojourn among us fully demonstrates this reality. In divine character, for example, He was perfectly faithful to God (1 Corinthians 1:9; Hebrews 3:1-6). As I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics3 and teach in the men’s group study from Scripture, the Lord Jesus as a Man had to learn obedience through all that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).4 Preceding obedience certainly was faith and humility as traits of divinely approved character He would have to put into practice which we are also called to do and grow in (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 12:1-2; 2 Peter 1:1-11).
Indeed, contrasting every sinful way of professed Christian men in character defect I listed at the beginning of this post, Christ perfectly displayed what pleases God even as the Father proclaimed of Him on the mountain (Matthew 17:1-7; 2 Peter 1:16-18). So, having repeatedly affirmed my own failure to yet arrive at perfection in Christ, I nevertheless, share in common with all God’s sold out aspiring strong men of history a daily yearning to do so (Philippians 3:12-14). And though it is quite painful at times, I understand God must chisel, hammer and nail in my life to construct the godly character of Christ in me because it is absolutely essential to holy living if men will see Him in peace and rule now as well as in His Kingdom come like Him (Hebrews 12:3-17; Revelation 1:4-8, 2:26-29)!
1 Learn more about the Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and how you could possibly have me come teach it with the men of your church or men’s organization through
the Strong Man Institute on the Strong Man Of God Web Site.
2 Each of these ungodly character traits is the polar opposite of what God wills for His aspiring strong men as I teach in the Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study.
3 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store.
4 Walk through a short presentation about what the strong man of God is and even read a chapter of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics for a fuller explanation on our Web Site.
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