For This Reason 2

[HKHaugan]

For This Reason 2

The specifics mentioned in Chapter 3 have to do with the difference between God’s and man’s definition of humanity. If Jews and Gentiles can be brought together then it can happen with any group. Jesus is the final and complete definition of humanity. He has made the two, Gentile and Jew, one in Christ. The why is clear, spiritual definition. Humanity is spiritually defined. Humanity cannot define itself. It has no objectivity. It is Jesus coming from outside into the world to define us. Jesus is the confirmation that it is spirituality that makes us one. The world on the other hand sees humanity in the shallow terms of tribal and physical characteristics. So we have Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid and a few others. Now where did those terms come from? Who devised that system? Glad you asked. Three philosophers from the 17th and early 18th century made academic attempts to place major groups into racial categories, Francois Vernier 1684, Carolus Linaeus 1735 and Johann Blumenbach 1775. The German term ‘razismus’ is the forerunner of our word ‘race.’ Obviously ‘race’ is man trying to figure himself out.

Wikipedia’s attempt to stamp such a recently derived concept of ‘race’ on earlier historic views is questionable. People have always used external differences to make internal conclusions. The point is ‘differences’ definitely not ‘race.’ Ever since the Tower of Babel event, scattered people have lived in tribal and cultural units. Language, beliefs, social behavior, economic conditions, geography and physiology have shaped ‘differences’ not ‘race.’

The idea of race, the concept of race is not native to man’s history. Differences are. The racial approach is heavily influenced in our age by our national history of slavery and the human attempts to justify it thus creating an atmosphere of paranoid suspicion. Race is not a reality except as it becomes a useful tool for power hungry demagogues and politicians whose motivations are to keep people divided and separate in order to further personal ambitions. The same has to be said for the media whose constant reportage on racial issues is all about profit. Keep people believing the racial lie and it becomes a profitable reality. One has only to review recent European history in the rise of Nazism and Communism to watch the tentacles of ‘leaning unto our own understanding.’

Here’s where the Bible trumps man’s Godless conclusions. The great point of the Bible is that it knows no racial concepts after the coming of Jesus since the biblical view of race, Jew and Gentile (in the Bible, spiritual designates), was dissolved when in Jesus the two were made one (Eph.2:11-22). When this principle is applied to all mankind’s groupings, as it was intended, all attempts to intellectually categorize people according to the externals of color, culture and class are fruitless gestures both in origin and character. Their common bond is being images of God whose plan “…hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation… (Acts 17:26)”

There is no question that biblically challenged people claiming to be Christians have attempted to designate Blacks, Hispanics, Europeans, Asians and so on, as separate and inferior races. In the case of black people for instance, the misinterpretation of God’s curse on Ham (Gen.9:25) resulting in his descendants having black skin, is not biblically verifiable on any intellectual ground and is odorous at best. Those who have used this false interpretation to justify slavery abused not only God’s Word but also God Himself who created Adam and Eve without racial designation but only as spiritual images of Him. Besides this you don’t judge a belief by its abusers but by its founder.

We have just presented another reason that eliminating the Bible in education has kept future generations from moral truth thus enabling future corrupting division in society. The future of a secular society is a society without a moral foundation. It’s like watching the incoming tide wash away even the most beautifully and well-shaped sand castle.

The fruits of the religion of secularism are bitter. It’s every man for himself, me first and get all you can while you can. This is a fruit that leaves a lingering taste from generation to generation. When in the future people begin looking for someone to blame for what is happening around them they won’t have to look far. When that fruit ripens in its full bitterness, social and cultural rebellion is inevitable because there’s no moral ground upon which any system stands. History speaks for itself but is anyone listening?

Again the answer is personal witness. What was true for the early church is the same truth that we need today. We have been too reliant on professionals who we can brag about especially when we can hide in a large church where the professionals are expected to preach perfectly, teach what we need to know and stimulate growth however the seminary taught them to do it. So many modern churches are in the entertainment business appealing to youth and the ‘way ‘outs. That’s fine as far as it goes but there is a whole sea of people who need small relational groups where their lives experience the presence of God which is not professional, polished or pleasing but real, at times confronting, but always loving and healing, sharing all the blessings needed. It’s where their hearts are engaged and interdependent. Worship is not about being one in many but being one with God in praise, thanksgiving, song and prayer. This is what our culture needs. This is what God offers to change an errant world. This is what the world of human hearts hungers for. But it has to be done day to day personally wherever and whenever we can. This is what our age is waiting for.