This month Jonathan Cornelius, who is part of our City of Refuge family, shares his heart with us in his blog post titled “Dealing with Misconceptions Can Help Remedy Racial Tension”
One of the main reasons I love my time at CORF is that many of the popular misconceptions that we take for granted about who God is, what the Word says, and who we are both without and in Christ are dispelled and replaced by what the Word of God actually says. It is honestly an answer to prayer that I have been praying for some time now; For God to remove all the misconceptions I have about who He is and what He has said in His word.
One such major misconception that I know must be addressed is that of Christianity being a “white man’s religion”. In a time like this, the temptation to just skip the glorifying of Christ and go straight to those causes is ever so present. And I see a lot of friends and family members falling to that temptation. People who love God, who bypass the cross of Christ to address these issues in their own strength. Or worse, use God as a tool to achieve their own talking points. The cause becomes their “god”, their life, their all. Hence the pan-African, black conscious, or Hebrew Israelite movements. Now we know Jesus of Nazareth was not white. He and His disciples were first century Middle Eastern Jews. The vast majority of the events the Bible tells us about take place in the Middle East and North Africa. From the specific naming of the third and fourth rivers that surrounded the garden of Eden in Genesis 2:14, (the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) to building of city-states like Babel and Nineveh in Genesis 10:1. From the calling of Abraham and Sarah from the Ur of the Chaldees, which is in modern day Iraq, to the calling of Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt to claim the promise land. The multiple uses of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires to bring discipline to Israel, the rescuing of the Jews from extermination in Persia (Iran) by Queen Esther. On and on it goes, and those are just some examples from the Old Testament.
What about in the New Testament? Well Jesus’ ministry, along with the birth of the church was in Israel. We already know this. But for some reason, when talking about church history, we tend to start from the time of the protestant reformation and move forward from there, which inadvertently ignores an enormous amount of church history and contributions from the 1st century Middle Eastern and North African churches. With all that history relatively unknown and ignored by the majority of even church goers, it easily becomes a tool for the adversary to use to create division and unnecessary stumbling blocks to those in the church. I hear from some of my fellow African Americans that it is hard to constantly believe in something they don’t see themselves in. Many, especially young blacks, are leaving the church and being caught up in the accusations that Christianity is just the white man’s religion, that Jesus is the white man’s God and there is no place for blacks in the white man’s church. Messengers of these lies point to the pasty white pictures of Jesus and the apostles as evidence of their slander. They point to the mistreatment of African Americans through the slave trade and the days of Jim Crow. They point to police brutality, systematic racism, the corrupt justice system and anything else to support the separation of blacks from Christianity. They even point to Scripture, completely out of context of course, to convey something as ludicrous as Jesus being a black Messiah for only black people.
Any points of racial discord is used to divide and the enemy of our souls is creeping in with a false answer of black supremacy as a pseudo-salvation. All of this may be unknown to the majority of evangelical churches today, but it is happening and gaining steam; especially in the inner cities of our urban communities. It is a major stumbling block for some mainly because these issues that I listed are not normally spoken of in churches. Silence on these issues have allowed these misconceptions to fester. Young black men and women are being sucked up into this. There are many streams of it: Pan-Africanism, black consciousness, five-percenters, Black Hebrew Israelite movement, etc. There is much online content that is popular. They even have rap music dating back from the early 90’s exerting their ideologies.
I write only to bring awareness that this is taking place, but also to encourage us to do better to point out the biblical historical credit to where it all started, the Middle East and North Africa. Christianity has Middle Eastern and North African roots. Blacks did not first become followers of Christ due to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Before America or classical western civilization even existed, Christianity was well established in those regions. A quick look at early church history would dispel any of those false notions. The Coptic Christians of Egypt trace their founding to John Mark, author of the Gospel of Mark. Ethiopian Orthodox Church traditions trace their initial exposure to the Gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch who was spoken of in Acts 8:26-40 along with other Ethiopians who were present at Pentecost. Augustine of Hippo who is known as one of the most influential Christian theologians and philosophers, famous for his writings such as “City of God” and “Confessions”, was a fourth century Algerian African bishop. That is just a handful of examples.
So, for what it’s worth, here are some solutions I try to keep in mind when dealing with these issues. 1) Let’s be ahead of the game. Let’s have these tough conversations, we have to be intentional in listening and boldly pointing out that the evil of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was wrongly done in the name of Christ. This false narrative is a very popular tool used to persuade those who are not armed with the truth. And it is easily refutable. 2) We must point out that the Gospel heavily influenced the Abolitionist and Civil Rights movements, along with the heroes of those movements. Both movements were birthed in the church. 3) Most importantly, we must stress that the love of Christ has no boundaries. We need the type of change that only the Gospel of Christ can bring. It’s hard to deal with any external issue without the internal issues being addressed.
The Gospel changes from the inside out. His grace is available to those of every nation, every tribe, every people, and every language. As it is written: “After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Rev 7:9-10 And yes, historic and grievous evil has been done inaccurately in the name of God. Against all instincts to exact punishment ourselves, vengeance is The Lord’s. They will have their reward in full for God is not mocked. Until then, we have souls to win and falsehoods to tear down. And fortunately for us, God has supplied us with the truth of the Gospel of Christ in His word which overwhelmingly does both! The gate of hell will not prevail!