I watched Andy Stanley’s message this morning on racism with an emphasis on how others experience us as Jesus’ followers. Put another way are we legitimate Jesus followers as concluded by our actions toward others who are different than us. Andy said something like this. Each of us have an experience and we are or will become someone else’s experience. So how have we influenced others who are not the same as us?
I watched this at the suggestion of another brother in Christ, Bob Wheeler. He and I have had different experiences in life, as is true with most of us. I am in a sense answering him in this post, but my perspective considers that all Americans even all American churches are not Christ followers. I will post his response to me under the comments which was his request in his email too me.
So having taken in this message from Andy Stanley, I share the following thoughts. First being a loving follower of Jesus as to our actions, isn’t just about how we react to skin color. It is also about how we react to the not so handsome or good looking or to the skinny or rotund, or to the handicapped, and how they actually experience us as well. It’s about how the far right or far left experience us. It’s how the waitress or the policeman experience us. Do we as believers love people? And I believe that it must involve some questions: 1). can we love the person and at the same time hate the fruit of their life or the sins which become obvious? And then there is the question are some things worth resisting or taking a stand either for or against, because no matter how we will be perceived by others, as Jesus followers, it would be wrong to be hypocrites. And this we would be were we not to stand for Him and His teaching.
The Christian world view when Jesus is followed involves all of these things and more. But this more and more today is not the American’s world view.
Let me attempt to explain by giving you my testimony with one Black skinned member of our (my) human race, whom I befriended years ago. His name is Ron, I have now not heard from him in five years. He was my neighbor. He lived directly across the street.
I met Ron on the street. Got to know him when we took a neighborhood cruse to Elizabeth city. I sat on either his or my front porch steps and we talked, too many times to count after that trip. We went to church with each other as an experience. Ellen and I were the only white faces in his church. He was among several black and some mixed couples in our church. He and especially his wife Erika liked our church service but they did not come back. His church was not suited to our liking, as his church was far into the liberal gospel, and very high Episcopalian. So we did not go back.
Ron still considered me a friend, and I him. I know that because one day he said to me Jerry do you know why I like you, and I said: no Ron I don’t. He then proceeded to tell me why. He said: the day that I knew that you and Ellen were real was when you two were standing across the street talking with Tom and Ray and I came out and you yelled across to me and motioned me over.
I said: well Tom and Ray are your friends too, and he said no, they never acknowledge us when they are together with other white folks. They just ignore us.
There are many stories I could tell you about Ron, but after telling him one too many times I guess, that being right with God was all about a relationship with His Son, and that following Him changes our world view concerning things like abortion, and rioting and death penalty and property rights, and race, and that as sinners we need to be born again to even begin to know God’s perspective on these things. Some of this took place during Obama’s administration, and much of our more recent discussions were initiated because of some actions taken by his administration. These discussions evidentially were not going to change us. He would not see my points, nor I his, because we viewed these things from a different world view, as well as from different experience. So, he one day wrote me an email after Ellen and I had moved away to Florida, and he stated that he could not continue our email interactions, and we have not talked since. I have sent him a few emails, but no response. Our world views did not match.
It was not a “race” thing it was more political and religious, these things are important to ones world view. There are lines that will not be crossed based on world view. America has been about those differences, and about allowing each to hold his own while the other is being able to express his own.
Today that is changing, and one world view over others is being pushed on us from all sides, and the divide is becoming greater. Men are treating each other with less love.
We are now as a society looking at a communist form of socialism, which is devoid of God’s love. Where it is claimed that everyone is treated equal, but the fact is that they aren’t. This world that is rapidly coming into existence will ultimately fulfill what Jesus told us of in Matthew 24, and in the book of the Revelation.
Jesus also told us that if our message, which is really His, is received in a household or village that we are to remain with this people. We are to remain friends, and that when we leave we are to let with them our peace, but if they do not receive our message, we are to wipe even the dust of that place from our feet. And go our way.
We are to love our brother in Christ. We are to love and provide for a needy one such as the man beaten and left on the roadside in the example of the Good Samaritan. We are to pray for our enemies, but loving what makes them an enemy of ours because we are believers is not something that we are told to appreciate, respect, or love. We can pray for them and still hate their sin against God and us — God does both. He loves them as part of His creation, but hates their sinful actions. The two actions on His or our part are not mutually exclusive. He died to make us victors over the sin in our lives.
God has always had messengers who would present His word to the human race. Often these messages came as warnings. And often they were not well received. The messengers or prophets were often killed. This should cause us to think. If our message is always loved by the masses especially from the world, we may want to ask if it is really God’s message.
Just as it is not right for a police officer to allow himself to murder George Floyd, as he did, neither is it right to take that murder out on all police officers, nor is it right to destroy property and businesses for that murder. Nor is it right to hate all white people because a white cop was cruel. It’s God’s purpose to tell us what is right and wrong, and that list is the same for every man, no matter his color or station in life.
Having said all this, the world has not agreed to any of this and won’t without Christ in their life. So racism will continue, and it will only get worse. Christ in the heart of man is the only answer to racism. Read the story of John Newton who went from slave trader to fighting for the abolition of slavery following his conversion to Christ. Without Jesus there will be no end to racism.
• I will post Bob’s comment on email in the comments section below.
And Then Messiah Shall Come 
This is From Bob,
I am the brother in Christ and friend of Jerry who asked him to watch Andy Stanley’s recent message on racism:
https://northpoint.org/messages/this-human-race
Jerry and I have been having an ongoing dialog about racism in light of the recent death of George Floyd and the resulting protests. It began when I sent a him a copy of my response to a posting by my pastor in which he (jerry) protested his (the Pastors) “definition of righteousness that would allow him to stand by and not respond when his God, to whom he has sworn allegiance, has clearly defined righteousness as fighting oppression, injustice and suffering wherever they are, to stand with, and advocate for whoever is suffering in his name.” That sentiment is confirmed by Andy Stanley in his message and by scripture where Paul tells Christians to “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). I admitted my own guilt–my sin of omission. While I’m not a racist, I had not “carried the burden” of those suffering from systemic racism in our society. I believe racism is the “Original Sin” of our country. We declared the lofty values our country was founded on with these words in the Declaration of Independence: “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” At the same time we allowed slavery and even after it was made illegal by the 13th Amendment, we have practiced and tolerated systemic racism ever since.
Andy Stanley makes the point that it’s not good enough for us not to be racist, that we must be anti-racist. We must condemn racism and join the effort to end it. Just as it is not good enough for us to not physically abuse our wife and children, not to be sexual abusers or pedophiles, not to participate in sex trafficking, if we are not outraged by these evils and speak out against them, stand with and advocate for the victims of those evils, how can we consider ourselves to be followers of Christ, who demonstrate love by carrying each other’s burdens. I’m the kind of person who looks at the broad brush strokes of scripture rather than delve into details. My primary guide for how to live my life is to examine the life of Jesus to see how he lived, and especially to examine his interactions with other people. What I see is his deep concern for broken people and those who have been marginalized by society. I also see that his harshest criticism was directed at the religious establishment, those hyper focused on enforcing Judaic law. He described the Pharisees as impatient . . . with outward, ritual observance of minutiae which made them look acceptable and virtuous but left the inner person unreformed (Matthew 23:26-27).
Andy also asked an uncomfortable question in his video message: “How do people who don’t look like you experience you?” Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). So we need to ask ourselves, “When others look at us and our actions, do they see a Christ follower–do they see that we love them?” Love is putting others ahead of ourselves, wanting the best for them, and helping them in whatever way we can. If we follow the example of Christ, the plight of broken and marginalized people should be important to us.
There’s an issue that needs to be addressed in addition to our response to these social issues. It has to do with our personal behavior. There has never been more divisiveness and polarization in our country than now, at least during my lifetime. How do we have civilized, respectful dialog to address the critical issues of our time. How do we minimize hatred and promote understanding among people who disagree on the issues. Where are the Statesmen among us? What qualities should be evident in our lives? How should others “experience” us, especially those who are not like us? Scripture provides a scorecard for us to use in measuring how we’re doing. Paul tells us what criteria to use–the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). How would those who know us best score us on those attributes? How well are we following the Great Commandment–loving God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind and loving my neighbor as myself?
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Bob thanks for the comment. This topic should elicit much discussion. I hope that it does.
I want to speak for sure to one point that you made. It’s not my intent to debate this point but to give you and others my thoughts.
The original sin of the country of which you speak is stated as racism with an ongoing systemic sin of racism even after slavery was abolished.
Your approach is implying an understanding of Americans as if all Americans are Christ followers. My understanding is based on the fact that the racism that exists is more fueled by those who are truly racist unbelievers not in Christ, and that this racism has been imputed and accepted wrongly so in most cases for the entire church through what I believe is a guilt ridden liberal church. The way I view it is that if one is guilty then surely they must repent.
My further thoughts: the constitution left many sins as individual matters between man and God. The constitutional statement that you quote was righteous. All men are created equal, but of course that fact was and is not totally true, because not all are equal. They are equal only in their protected freedom or lack thereof. Within our countries origins not all men owned slaves nor did all men condone slavery. Not all men were adulterous nor did all men condone adultery. I think you see my point. So concerning slavery which we most all in today’s society believe to be wrong; yet, that was not the case historically. So the worldview of which I spoke was not the Christian world view. There were even Christian slave owners obviously within the world system. The question is did they have the Christian world view in their dealings, or did they sin against their slaves? They did sin in our view today, but did they in God’s? Think about this God had even sent His own chosen people into slavery under Babylon, because of their sin against Him. I do believe that the Jesus following slave owner had to treat his slaves as today’s christian business man should treat his employee. Fairly is the word. Some slaves we know actually loved their owners, and some possibly most hated them.
God is the only one who knows the hearts of men. So He may have had a purpose that we today can’t comprehend for slavery throughout history.
Now what about systemic racism, that is happening after as you say the country abolished slavery. So the problem (racism) obviously was not corrected in the hearts of men, and governments can’t do that. Because passing laws does not change hearts, individuals still sin. And I again will repeat that there will never come a time this side of Christ’s coming that we will see a systemic love from all Americans Black, White, Red, or Yellow toward one another. The world and those holding to a worldly world view will never save itself. It has not done so from even slavery, because there is still an even more sinister slavery contained today in the sex slave trade which exists even in this country. Men can be and often are very evil within every period throughout history. I guess my real point is that systemic racism as well as systemic love cannot exist in the age of mankind.
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Bob’s Reply
Jerry,
I can see why you think I’m assuming that all Americans are Christian. I don’t make that assumption and am well aware that most Americans are not Christian, at least not born again believers. There are lots of people who say they embrace Christian values but certainly don’t show it the way they live. I was going from the turn that Andy Stanley took in his message when he made the distinction between how non-Christians and Christ followers should respond to racism. I did so knowing that you and I are both Christ followers. I should certainly not assume that everyone who follows your posts embrace our faith. The vast majority of racist certainly are non-Christian. An important question is whether simply not being racist is good enough for Christians or must we be anti-racist. That was the key point in Andy’s message for me.
I agree that the issue of racism will not be resolved short of Jesus’ return. The Enemy has done his job too well. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t address the issue and attempt to effect change. Our primary responsibility as believers is to show God’s love to others in a way that motivates them to acknowledge their sin, repent, accept the grace of God and allow Christ to become their Savior and Lord. We all have different ways of doing that, based on our personality and gifts. I embrace the approach of: “Preach the Gospel at all times; use words only if necessary.” As I shared in one of my previous emails, I believe that what we do speaks so loudly that most people don’t hear what we say.
I’ll be interested in seeing the comments you get to our posts.
Bob
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Bob, I appreciate that you clarified. I certainly don’t disagree with the purpose. Making unbelievers and believers think about their relationship to God should always be that purpose. Because then the Holy Spirit can do His work.
I guess that I had not thought about non Christians being anti-racist, but in this world today that is certainly possible. What I’m confusing in my mind is possibly my thinking that the worldly side of America does not seem capable of identifying with the Biblical Jesus, and there seems to be animosity to what I would call biblical Christianity which seems By the worldly to be more and more identified with ignorance and an “unscientific” approach to the world. What are your thoughts there? I post tomorrow, and will include these ongoing discussions.
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From Bob,
Christians certainly don’t have a monopoly on the values we embrace. There are billions of people of other religions or no religion at all who hold themselves to high ethical standards, love other people and support a multitude of charitable causes from addressing world hunger, homelessness, access to health care, drug abuse; protecting victims of physical and sexual abuse and human trafficking; protecting the environmental . . . and there is certainly now a global groundswell of support for racial equality and efforts to end to systemic racism.
Biblical Christianity isn’t incompatible with science. I’m not aware of any Christians other than a few radical fringe groups that believe science is evil and oppose scientific advances. As a Christian, I’m certainly grateful for scientists who are finding cures to disease, improving agricultural yields, advancing technology that improves all of our lives, exploring ways to address environmental problems and pursuing knowledge about our world and the universe.
Bob
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Bob the people of whom you speak are probably not the ones attempting to take down America today. But the left is attempting to take over America. They shame those of us who will listen, but they enable the parties such as BLM, and ANTIFA to do the very things that they claim to hate. White guilt must be kept alive in order to give moral power to them. I think that you Bob and many of the white Americans who are inadvertently supporting what is happening on the streets of Our cities, and the tactics which are now spreading across what were formerly western Christian nations. You might not mean to be doing this, but by confessing guilt because God has blessed you, and apparently has not blessed them to that same extent, and to confess that guilt to these men and women, who have no intent to forgive you nor do they have any intent to stop what they are doing no matter what you do is only fueling their own sinfulness. They have embraced one another irregardless of race appearing to be anti racist but at the same time they claim blacks who disagree with them are Uncle Tom’s, and that whites who disagree are reprehensible. They want to equally divide your possessions, and make the laws that will govern us all. And their goal is to place all whites along wit blacks who support us into slavery to atone for our sins. They know nothing about real redemption or forgiveness, because they have never experienced either.
Jerry
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“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows…”
Matthew 24:7-8
The Greek word for “nation” is ethnos – which by definition means “a race (as of the same habit), that is, a tribe; specifically a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually by implication pagan): – Gentile, heathen, nation, people.”
The current unrest and racial violence is the sign of the times, it is the beginning of the coming sorrow as the precursor to the Final Revelation of Jesus Christ and the Judgment of Satan and all who follow him. The 10 toes of Daniel’s image (iron and clay) must come to pass. There is no stopping this as Jesus said these things must come to pass. It is here in the growing darkness they who are of the Light must shine. We do not take up causes, respond to the mayhem around us we simply let the light of His Love shine and love all peoples without partiality. Jesus spoke to the despised Samaritan woman at the well, He did not align Himself with her on the level of racism but on the grounds of her need of Him. Such is to be the true message of salvation. We are to be a people who do not become entangled in the affairs (political nor worldly).
“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”
2 Timothy 2:4
The only justice God offers this world is Christ crucified.
Blessings
BT
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Man what a good word. Thanks Brian for the biblical perspective. Sometimes I can’t help myself from taking sides.
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https://www.theblaze.com/news/token-tim-scott-perfect-response
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