Simple Faith Baptist Church Oceanside California

Notes on The Bible & Race & Racism- Brother Edward Wirth & Pastor James W. Knox

Brother Edward Wirth's Expository Notes
Genesis 6:10

Race:

In Ac 8-10:

1. The man from Ham – a eunuch of Ethiopia
2. The man from Japheth – a centurion of Italy
3. The man from Shem – a Pharisee of Israel

What these men had in common:

1. All three moral, upright men
2. Yet each needed to be saved
3. All required a personal witness to speak to them

Their outstanding traits:

1. One reading the Bible - but this alone could not convert him
2. One heard God speak from heaven - but this alone could not convert him
3. One had a visit from an angel - but the angel instructed him to send for a witness

Their Differences:

1. Their racial origins
2. One a politician, one a theologian, one a military man (three difficult classes to reach)
3. One on his way home - in vehicle; one going from home - at work; one at home
4. One looking for peace, one destroying peace, one a keeper of the peace

• Some, like the eunuch, want to be saved but do not know how
• Some, like Saul, know how but actively fight it
• Some, like Cornelius, need only to hear and will immediately respond

Brother Edward Wirth's Expository Notes
Colossians 3:11

1Co 10:32: Jew, Gentile church of God

Christ is what make the difference in:

• National, Ethnic, and Geneological status
• Legal or governmental status
• Gender
• Religious status
• Civilized or uncivilized status

Ga 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek (Nationality, Ethnicity, Geneology) there is neither bond nor free (Legal or governmental status), there is neither male nor female (Gender): for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ga 3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew (National, Ethnic, Geneological status), circumcision nor uncircumcision (religious status), Barbarian, Scythian (civilized or uncivilized status), bond nor free (Legal and governmental status): but Christ is all, and in all.

Brother Edward Wirth's Expository Notes
Acts 17:26

There are only 12 Gentile nations according to God

God pulled out of the 12 Gentile nations a Holy Priesthood nation (Israel: Judaea) Which would be the 13th nation:

Nu 23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

De 32:8 The bounds of the Gentiles were according to the number of the children of Israel: 12 Gentile nations patterned after the 12 tribes of Israel.

The purpose of the judgment on the people after the tower of babel: Ge 11:9

Ac 17:26 (made of one blood all nations) The bounds of their habitation (12 Gentile nations) for the purpose of them seeking the Lord Ac 17:27.

 

Brother Edward Wirth's Expository Notes
Genesis 10:1

5. 1 Ham. There are anti-black racists in some parts of the United States who when confronted with the Biblical truth that God has but three classes, the Jew, the Gentile and the church of God (1Co 10:30) state that Ham is not a Gentile. Anything to justify hating someone on account of the way God formed them. This notion is put to rest when one considers that Egypt is called the land of Ham in Ps 105:23,27 and Ps 106:21-22 and the Egyptians are called Gentiles in Jer 46:1-2. Always glad to be of help.

 

v. 1 After the flood. There is nothing to indicate that any of the three had children prior to the deluge.

 

 

THE BIBLE AND RACISM

 

PLEASE If you are not going to read this entire chapter from start to finish, do not read any of it. Any part without the whole will lead to wrong conclusions and misunderstanding.

The fundamental, Bible-believing Christian finds it very difficult, when dealing with social matters, not to approach the word of God like the liberals, modernists and cultists that he so despises. Frequently, the Christian brings his social agenda to the Bible where he will seek for “proof texts” to support his position.

Nowhere is this more evident than with the racial issues which remain unresolved even though half a century of struggles for and against “civil rights” lay behind us. The liberals and the one-world socialists who are trying to make one big happy family and one mongrel race out of all humanity bring a prejudicial approach with them to the Bible. On the other hand, those who believe that the one-world government of the anti-Christ cannot come to pass until all races have been reduced to their least common denominators and all barriers and boundaries have been broken down approach the Holy Bible with equal prejudice. Both groups know what they believe, why they believe it, and rejoice to find a verse here or there in the book of books to back them up.

As usual, the truth is found not on the extreme right nor on the extreme left, but right in the center – the perfect balance that God requires. It is such a very narrow position that few ever find it. I usually end up angering and alienating those on both sides of an argument, and that will probably be the case with this study.

Before proceeding, something else needs to be said. I know many men, preachers and Christians who, because of their love of the truth and their desire to seek it out, become very much involved in the study of American history. In fact, it is a study I quite enjoy myself. Because God has so richly blessed America, many of these dear Christian men and women approach their study of American history with the mistaken notion that America is and has been a Christian nation. Therefore, they reason, that whatever America and its leaders have done in past generations has been Christian and pleasing to God. The truth of the matter is that is just not so. One of the reasons the secular and academic world so despises Christianity is the mistaken notion that the atrocious behavior of our forefathers was the work of Christians.

When Satan took Jesus Christ up on a high mountain and showed him, in a moment of time, the kingdoms of the world, he showed Him ALL OF THEM. After all, Satan is the god of this world (2Co 4:4), and he will hold that title until the second advent of Jesus Christ (Re 11:15).

The fact that God worked in a marvelous fashion so that the handful of Christians among the Mayflower colonists[1][1] and the minority of Christians in colonial America greatly influenced the majority does not change the truth. During the time of the American Revolution, only a tiny minority of Americans were Christians, but God moved so that their viewpoints were received and our nation was granted a Biblical foundation in its social and legal structure. But that does not mean this is or was a Christian nation. In fact, there never has been a Christian nation on the face of the earth.

A failure to understand this has led many Christians to become more ardent supporters and defenders of the Constitution than of the word of God. If you go to a fellowship or camp meeting and someone gets up and sings God Bless America and begins to wave the flag, the place comes unglued. Then someone will get up and preach on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the response is seldom, if ever, as enthusiastic.

Let me lead into the subject at hand with this example. I am going to state for you one of the biggest lies that anyone has ever spoken, much less committed to writing. Are you ready? “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.”[2][2] Now is there anyone with the intelligence that God gives a child who actually believes that?

“Now Brother James, wait a minute!”

No, I know where the statement is taken from. I understand the grand significance of that document. I would not be preaching freely on street corners in the United States of America were it not for that document. I understand that and thank God for it. But any man who can look around this world for maybe two or three days at the most and can sit down and pick up a pen and honestly say, “It is self evident that all men are created equal,” is a dangerous man. Something is wrong with a fellow like that. Can you name me ten people you know who are created equal? Name me five men who are created equal. Better yet, just give me two. Name me two people who are created equal.

If there are no two men on the face of this earth who are equal, then as those men gather into families, and as those families gather into communities, and as those communities gather into nations, over the course of human history will groups of unequal men be equal? Certainly not! As we get farther and farther from the landing of the ark at Ararat what will become more pronounced, the equalities of men, families, kindreds, tongues and tribes or their differences? Their differences, of course!

If you begin with the basic premise that everyone is the same, then you are hopelessly doomed when it comes to finding the truth regarding social issues. No two men are the same. No two families are the same. No two tribes are the same. No two races are the same. It is very unfortunate that our founding fathers placed that wording in the most important document in the western world. It has opened the floodgates for the anti-Christian social engineering that has brought our nation to the very threshold of the anti-Christ’s one-world system.

Now that most of you are bewildered, let us consider the matter of racial equality according to the Bible. Turn to Ac 17:24-27. We read, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of ONE BLOOD all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. The Bible statement is not that He has made men of one skin, one mind, one manner of living, one process of reasoning, or one set of moral values. He said, And hath made of one blood. That is, every man on the face of this earth can trace his lineage back to Adam.

Wait. We are in the middle of a sentence and, thus, we cannot stop there. And 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; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.

The Bible says in this passage that God established nations of men. HE, God, divided the sons of Adam into distinct groups of men, groups separate from one another. Having done that, God placed them on all the face of the earth; not all in one place, but scattered abroad throughout the earth. And GOD appointed boundaries so that each of these nations would have a place of habitation.

Not only does the word of the Lord tell us that God created the races of man and then segregated them, but it tells us why HE did so. God’s reason for separating the people into national habitations was so that they might seek Him.

Look at it again. He has appointed the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord.

Now, my friend, the first thing you must realize is that in these last days, as men have increasingly sought social change in the name of human rights, which they believe to be moral righteousness, their efforts are always couched in terminology that gives one the impression they are doing the work of God. We have reached the place in our world today where saved people and lost people alike think that equal rights, human rights and race mixing is Christianity and that any suggestion that individuals and races are different is hateful and anti-Christian.

YET, when educators, ministers, politicians, media moguls and the like speak of these matters, their purpose is to seek after life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Their purpose IS NOT to seek AFTER GOD.

We are living in a day when men are devoting their lives and fortunes to reversing the work the Almighty wrought at the tower of Babel (Ge 11) and claiming that He wants them to do so.

It is an amazing, marvelous thing that Billy James Hargis, Michael Luther King Jr.[3][3], David Duke, Desmond Tutu and Jesse Jackson can all quote the same Bible.

9807. group of men quote the Bible to prevent a certain social matter from coming to pass and wave the Bible in an attempt to prevent racial integration. On the other hand, another group of men quote the Bible to promote racial integration. All the while, no one on either side is looking for God. They just assume He is on their side. Do you understand that? The world does. It is one of the reasons they look on Christianity with contempt.

Why did God divide men into nationalities? It was so that they would seek Him. What happens when men begin to seek to integrate or to move from one nationality or one national boundary to another? Covetousness takes over. They begin to fight over land, property and territory. This is where wars come from (Jas 4:1-4; Ge 13-14). It may be a little war in the streets of Los Angeles, or it may be a big war sweeping across Europe. But all wars involve crossing boundaries for covetous reasons.

Let us examine the events recorded in Ge 11, for we need to see what the Lord established on the earth and why.

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. “Well there it is!” says the communist. “What a wonderful thing! Isn’t that great? Isn’t that what we want?” Read on. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let US make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, LET US build US a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.

What was their desire? It was to establish heaven on earth. They did not want to go to heaven. They wanted their earthly kingdom to reach to heaven.

Let US make US a name, lest WE be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language.

“What a wonderful thing this is,” beams the international socialist. But the Bible is not finished with the history lesson.

And THIS they begin to do. Now listen to me. God said when the people are one, “we the people,” and they have all one language, what they will begin to do is to try to establish heaven on earth rather than seek the true God of heaven. That is what your Bible says.

And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So THE LORD SCATTERED THEM abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth (Ge 11:1-9).

This means that the will of God, nationally, regarding peoples on the face of this earth is that they be scattered. The Lord saw to it that they were separated and that their languages were different. In His infinite perfect wisdom, and in His great love for the sons of men, He knew that the more people got together, the more unity there would be among nations and the less likely it would be that any of them would find God.

That is the Biblical truth of Ge 11. You do not have to like it or believe it. You do not even have to practice it. But that is what it says.

So all of the

· social engineering,

· uniting of diverse people,

· United Nations,

· one-world government,

· integrated society,

· mixing up of the races,

· International Versions,

· multiculturalism

may be promoted and furthered by someone quoting scripture. It may be hailed by men and women appealing to “morality” and “values” (two words never found in the word of God). But the truth of the matter is men are breaking down barriers God established, barriers set so that men would seek HIM, the true God of heaven, instead of seeking to bring about heaven on earth.

The New Testament is not silent on the issue of race. In fact, it features one of the most misused and abused verses in all the word of life. Ga 3:26-28 says, For ye are all the children of God… Oh, how modernists and liberals and religious perverts of every stripe have wrested this half of a verse out of its context and wrought great destruction thereby. But we are compelled by our love of the truth, not some social agenda, to read the whole verse. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

No one is a child of God until they receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ (not water) have put on Christ.

Do you know what happens when you go down into the baptismal tank? You get water on you. Do you know what happens when you get baptized into Christ? You get Christ in you. That is what the Bible says. To those who have received the Lord Jesus, the scripture continues: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female. If we stop there, we have not told the truth. There are millions of Jews and Greeks in the world. There are people in jail right now. There are people in slavery, as well as people free to go wherever they want. Who would be so silly as to say there are no longer males and females?

So, this time let us read the entire verse. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one IN CHRIST JESUS. You cannot take spiritual truth and seek to apply it carnally. You cannot apply spiritual truth regarding those who are in the body of Christ and seek to apply it to every man and woman walking up and down the streets of your town. That is wresting the scriptures to your own destruction.

There is male and female. There is certainly bond and free, as well as Jews and Greeks. But as the Lord of Hosts looks down from heaven and views His body, the church, He does not recognize these distinctions when it comes to spiritual matters and matters of salvation. If you cannot draw a line between

· that which is spiritual and that which is carnal,

· that which is eternal and that which is temporal,

· that which pertains to the kingdom of God (spiritual) and that which pertains to the kingdom of heaven (physical),

you are going to have some problems. These problems will not just show up in your study of the word of God, but in your neighborhood.

I have books, sermons and reprints of material that was preached and distributed in the United States during the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s. Those preachers quoted the word of God. However, they could not discern the kingdom of God from the kingdom of heaven. They were trying to apply to society what was true of the church. As a result, professing Christians helped to bring about the great debacle known as the Reconstruction (1865-1881).

Ninety years later, we had the same thing all over again, only this time with more killing, bloodshed and hatred. With the help of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Council of Christian Churches, men got together and burned Watts and Detroit, looted Philadelphia, tore up Alabama, and, well, you know the rest of the story. This was done at the instigating of people who sincerely thought they were helping to bring in Christ’s kingdom on earth. “Reverends” who never once preached the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ labored to reverse the effects of God’s judgment at Babel.

Listen carefully. If you try to take Biblical truth regarding the body of Christ and apply it to the unsaved multitudes who populate the United States of America, you are going to get riots, stabbings, shootings and rapes in the public schools, car-jackings, home invasions, gangs, drug wars, etc. You can deny it and curse me for saying it. But facts are stubborn things. They tend to hang around no matter how hard the media and the education establishment try to make them disappear. God said that if you wrested His word from its context and misused it for sensual ends, you would do so to your own destruction. America has used God’s word – misquoted and misapplied – to destroy itself. Of course, Martin King quoted the Bible, and Phil Donahue will use a quote from it as well. We have all seen the pictures of Bill Clinton coming out of church with his Bible, just like George Bush and Gerald Ford did.[4][4] That only means that fools in America will think anyone is a Christian if they see one go to church once a year and carry a Bible. It does not mean a thing.

De 32:7-8 says, Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When THE MOST HIGH DIVIDED to the nations their inheritance, when HE SEPARATED the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

God divided the landmass of the earth and established twelve national boundaries. There are not three races of men but twelve. God divided the people into twelve races and gave the nation of Israel a land grant right in the center of those countries (Eze 5:5). This is replicated in the division of the promised land among the twelve tribes of Israel, with the Levites set apart in the center.

The Most High set boundaries to keep people from getting together. Yet, man has been working for about five thousand years to reverse the Lord’s decree at Babel. When the dust is settled, (read Revelation, read Ezekiel, read Zechariah to find these things), God will have divided the people back into their national boundaries. Members of twelve separate nations will be allowed to come to the Holy City to worship Him, each one in their month. Twelve months, twelve gates, twelve nations. The millennial kingdom under the Lord Jesus Christ will not be one global society. That is the system of the beast. Jesus will reinforce the divisions established in Ge 11; 12.

So we must recognize that God is not for integration but for separation of peoples. This is not because He has called one race inferior to another. If you think God’s chosen people are the whites of America or the Anglo Saxons or the Aryans, you are just as unscriptural as Oprah Winfrey. Did you hear what I said? God chose a race of people, and it was not North Americans. God chose a race of people, and it was not Europeans. God chose a race of people, and they were not Orientals or Africans. God chose a race of people, and it was the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The chosen race is composed of the flesh and blood descendents of Eber, the Hebrews. You need to get that.

Before you get caught up in a white supremacy movement, or deceived into trying to prove the superiority of the white race, you better remember something: the head of the nations in God’s kingdom will not be the Anglo Saxons. It will be the Jews. Sorry if that disappoints you, Adolf.

 

At this point, we are ready to shift over to consider the other side of the argument. I am going to give you the standard teaching among militant fundamentalists and so-called Bible believers in America and Europe. Are you ready? Here we go. “The curse of Cain was black skin. Ham’s descendents are cursed. God’s people since Ac 7 or the Babylonian captivity, depending on which group led you astray, have been the white Europeans. Therefore, any attempt on the part of white Europeans to fellowship with the sons of Ham is courting the judgment of God.” That is as plain and simple as I can put it.

Let me remind you once again that we have to look at these claims Biblically, not socially.

First of all, to say that the curse on Cain is black skin is to state what the Bible does not state and to declare what the Bible does not declare. Let us read together Ge 4:16-22. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

I have to stop there for a minute and ask you white supremacists a very serious question. Are you comfortable with your position that Cain was the first black man and that the curse upon Cain was black skin? Okay. I am certain from my years of dealing with your comrades that if you hold to the position that Cain was the first black man, you also believe in the social, intellectual and moral inferiority of his race, the black race. So, I must ask you follow up questions. Are you then willing to face the Biblical truth that the children of Cain (who you say was a black man) were the first architects, the first industrialists, and the first husbandmen on the face of the earth? Are you willing to acknowledge that the building of cities and all that entails came from the black race? Are you willing to own that the establishment of farming and animal husbandry came from the black race? Are you willing to own that mining precious metals and using them for building purposes and industrial purposes originated with the black race? I did not think so. I have not seen any mention of this in the books you produce.

As a matter of fact, those of you who hold the position that Cain was the first black man are incensed by the teaching that is going on in our public schools today, whereby some “authority” or another tries to dredge up black men from history who have accomplished great and wonderful things and place them on equal footing with the inventions and social progress of the yellow and white races. You do not like that. You say, “There is no way. If you study history, there is no way that the black civilizations evolved and developed as the yellow race did in China and the white race did.”

Historically, you have good grounds to scoff at the revisionist views of racial history. But I am simply pointing out to you that you cannot have it both ways. You cannot say that black races never developed society and culture while claiming the Biblical father of society and culture was a black man.

The Holy Bible says that the curse on Cain was a mark. I have yet to meet anyone who teaches the mark of the beast is black skin (though the pre-politically-correct Mormons advocated such a view). The mark of the beast is a black spot (Re 13). The mark of the sealed witnesses is a black spot (Eze 9). Why would you support your argument by taking the mark in one place, Ge 4, to be something different from what you know and believe the mark to be everywhere else in the Bible? That is the same mentality you despise in cultists, hyper-Calvinists, hyper-dispensationalists, Campbell-ites and civil rights champions. Yet, when it comes to this social matter that you have a prejudice about, you will handle the Bible the same way these other men handle it. You will misuse it to prove your point.

“Well, that brother James, he is a bad guy. He won’t take anyone’s side.” Sure I will: the Lord’s side. We have to be careful how we handle the word of God.

Time for another passage. The Bible says in Ge 9:22, And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. Then verses twenty-four to twenty-seven say, And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be CANAAN; a servant of servants shall HE be unto HIS brethren.

Please listen carefully. Canaan, not Ham, was cursed. He was cursed to be the servant of his brethren, not Ham’s brethren. Read it again. Do you believe the Bible? That is what it says.

You cannot make the curse of servitude applicable to all of Ham’s descendants. You cannot make the curse of servitude apply to Canaan’s seed serving the white races (Japheth) for the the word of the Lord was Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be HIS servant (Ge 9:26). So we have a foretelling of Canaanite bondage to the Semitic people. And the Lord also said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto HIS BRETHREN (Ge 9:25). Thus, the servitude was to be rendered to the other sons of Ham.

Ge 10:6 is instructive. And the sons of Ham;

1. Cush,

2. Mizraim,

3. Phut,

4. Canaan.

Ham already had three sons, with Canaan being the fourth. The land of Ham traces out to be that of Africa.[5][5] However, the Canaanites were the descendants of Ham who dwelled in the land given to Abraham by divine covenant. Ge 10:15-20 reads, And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

Relax. It is fun to learn the word of God. Ham was not cursed. He could not be. God had already blessed Him and the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Ro 11:29). One of Ham’s sons was cursed, the curse foretelling that his own brethren would enslave him.

Here is how the curse worked itself out. When the Hamites settled their land, beginning with Egypt (Ps 106:22), the Canaanites remained in Palestine. Thus, they were out of bounds. When the Hebrews returned from Egyptian bondage to the land God had given them the Canaanites fell under the sword for being out of bounds. When those who escaped fled to the continent given to their brethren they were hated and put in bondage by their kinsmen.[6][6]

I know this upsets some of you. You just want the Bible to support your position. But you cannot afford to discredit your doctrinal teaching with false teaching regarding social issues. You may hold a position in common with others on these matters, but it is heresy to “use” the Bible and to try to force it to support your position. Once we begin to do that, we will eventually meet someone who knows the Bible well enough to prove we are mishandling it. Once it is shown that we are actually twisting God’s word just like those who we despise for so doing, we have lost our credibility. As Bible believing Christians, we have lost enough credibility already. We cannot afford any more damage to our shaky reputations.

The third point is this: to apply the commandments against race mixing given to the nation of Israel in the law of Moses to the Gentiles or to the church is to deny the dispensational teaching that you correctly apply to every other part of the Mosaic Law.

If a man tried to tell you that you had to keep the Sabbath, you would go into elaborate detail, proving to that man the law was not for Gentiles, nor for the church, but given to the Jews only. You know you would. And you would be right.

If a man tried to force you to keep the sacrifices or the feast days of the old covenant, you would prove to that man that the law was an agreement between God and one people, the Hebrews. You would show him that it had nothing to do with the church, nor with the Gentile. You know you would. And you would be correct.

Thus, you cannot be so inconsistent as to run to the law to try to enforce your particular viewpoint regarding race!

Hear me out. In Jos 23:11-13 the Israelites had just entered the promised land, after driving out the Canaanites. The Bible says: Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Now, you may apply that to your life and that of your children. You may apply it to a saved man marrying an unsaved woman, or a saved woman marrying an unsaved man. You may even apply it socially and say that when you mix with the people who are your enemies, you are courting trouble. But to say that these commands and this principle regarding mixed marriage, from one nation to another, is a black/white issue is just not so.

God did not give any white man any piece of land anywhere in the world. No Anglo-Saxon, no European, no German, no Scotsman was ever promised a land grant anywhere on planet earth. The context of these remarks is to a race of people called to be a pure race so God could bring from them the Messiah, the chosen seed, the promised one. They had a covenant relationship with God whereby they would be rewarded for their obedience with a long life and safety in a piece of land. This commandment was not given to Gentiles regarding marriage to other Gentiles. It was given to Jews regarding marriage to non-Jews.

I have yet to state any racial position. I am simply trying to point out to you how carelessly “Bible-believers” handle God’s word, especially when it comes to something about which they have a prejudice.

Turn to 1Ki 11:1-2. But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the LORD said UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

Fact: your marriage partner will influence your spiritual life. This is especially true for the husband. The Bible has numerous examples of women who were true to the Lord when their husbands were not, and many tales of men who fell away from God through the influence of a pagan partner.[7][7] God told you not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. There is no question about that (2Co 6:12ff). But 1Ki 11:1-2 tells you very plainly that the prohibition against marrying outside of your national lineage was given to Israel. You will stand firmly on the truth that the law applies only to the Jew when it comes to other aspects of the commandments given Moses on Mount Sinai. You must be consistent and do so in this matter or lose your credibility.

3372. 10:2-3 says, And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Are you under the law? You better not be. You better be saved and under grace. Who was under the law? Israel. Who is addressed in the passage at hand? Israel.

Look at verses 10-13 in the same chapter. And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.

We must face this passage head on if we are going to use it to make sure that white girls do not date black boys or our white sons do not take a fancy to Mexican daughters. This passage says that those who had married women of another race had to confess such unions as being a sin before God and that such MUST separate from said wives. I want one verse from any New Testament book (I will even let you use just half a verse) that will justify a born again Christian putting away his wife because he found out he was only supposed to marry a blue-eyed blonde from the Germanic tribes.

Look at the above passage again. Mixed marriages were the trespass of Israel. They had to confess to the God of their fathers. A simple comparison with Joh 1:11-13 will remind you that there are no second-generation Christians.

Ne 13:27 says, Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? Verse twenty-six asks: Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? What things? Verse twenty-five says, And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, (there’s a pastor for you) …and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Your, ye, your, your, yourselves – every single reference is to the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Returning to verse twenty-six we are told, Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did OUTLANDISH WOMEN cause to sin.

Now hear me out. Every passage that states it is a sin to marry someone of another nationality shows, by the context of the remarks, that it regards God’s chosen people, Israel, mixing with Gentiles. You know I am telling you the truth.

Whites and blacks are both Gentiles. Let this saying sink down into your ears. Whites and blacks are both Gentiles.

So what do we do with the New Testament? How do we handle these things? I will grant you, friend, it is a hard thing. I have lived all my life in the deep South. I know there are racial problems. However, I have spent enough time in the North to know things are far more racially divided there. I have read my American history. I know social and racial harmony collapsed in the cities of the North long before the trouble was exported from there to the towns of the South. But I am going to try my very best to explain in the fewest words possible the problems associated with integrated churches.

Take a couple of deep breaths and remember you promised that once you started you would read this entire book.

The following are facts.

1. Unsaved whites bring out the worst in unsaved whites.

2. Unsaved blacks bring out the worst in unsaved blacks.

3. Unsaved blacks and unsaved whites placed together in federal (public) schools will result in the full expression of the worst of both races and cultures.[8][8]

4. During the same decade when America’s public schools were integrated, prayer and Bible reading were banned from the classroom.

5. As a result of points 3 and 4, the majority of true Christians left the public school system for the refuge of private or home schools.

6. This left lost people to oversee the social integration of the children of lost people.

7. Today, there are those who want to know what to do about gangs, teen pregnancy, guns in school, gangster rap, drugs, etc. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that can be done but plan for more funerals.

 

What has that got to do with integrated churches? That is quite elementary. Some churches integrated by changing their dress, music, standards, Sunday school and so on in order to accommodate a more culturally diverse congregation. As a result, they ended up with the worst of the white churches (ignorant misuse of the gifts of the Spirit) and the worst of the black churches (fleshy music and flashy clothes). What an inner city high school is to genuine education, the Trinity Broadcasting Network and Benny Hinn are to Christianity. The rural, federal elementary school is not as bad as the big city high school. The small town charismatic outfit is not as carnal as Pat and Jan. But they all have the same compromise in common; a compromise that was mandated by a broader mix of unsaved people in the church house.

The problem is not one of blacks in white churches or whites in black churches. The problem is allowing unsaved blacks and unsaved whites to set the doctrinal agenda and moral standards of a church. Make no mistake about it; voting rights based on membership allow the unregenerate member and the carnal baby just as much say as the pastor or spiritually minded elder. Soon a church becomes a flesh-fest – not because blacks and whites are worshipping together, but because their worship is not in spirit and in truth.

However, there is another type of integration that can take place in a church. Suppose saved, born again whites leave the world, its culture and its ways in order to enjoy proper fellowship in a local church. And suppose saved, born again blacks leave the world, its culture and its ways in order to enjoy proper fellowship in a local church. Is there any Biblical warrant for separating saved people from saved people in the true Christian community?

Let us go back to Ga 3:28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Surely, just as there is a social distinction between races and sexes in the kingdom of heaven, this scripture tells us there is no distinction, racially or sexually, within the kingdom of God. If the purpose of your local church is social (politics, banquets, community service, etc.), then enforce whatever distinctions you must to maintain its social purity. If the purpose of your gathering is spiritual, then you are going to have a hard time placing divisions or schisms within the body of Christ that God has not placed there.

Before you say too much, let me show you something in Mt 10. For three and one-half years twelve men ate, drank, roomed, worked and labored together as the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of them was a colored man. This is something you have not seen in one painting nor depicted in one movie.[9][9] Are you ready? Mt 10:2-4 says, Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; SIMON THE CANAANITE, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Upon whom did God place the curse? Canaan. One cannot claim the historical blessing upon Shem or prosperity of Japheth and ignore the implications for the Canaanites. But, ladies and gentlemen, according to Ga 3 and Ro 5-8, every one of us was under a curse; the curse of sin. You know that when the Lord Jesus Christ saved us, He lifted that curse and set us free?

Here among the company of the Lord’s twelve apostles was a member of a once-accursed race, Simon the Canaanite. Now why do you think the Holy Spirit put that in the Bible? Why do you think God saw fit to note that, to highlight that, to signify that? I believe it was because of the very discussion we are having here.

It gets better, or worse, depending on your point of view. Ac 13 says, Now there were in the church… Read that again, just in case you did not get it quite right. Now there were IN the CHURCH that was at Antioch… Someone will say, “Brother James, I know about Antioch. That is where the believers were first called Christians. That is where the Biblical manuscripts for our pure text came from. That is the focal point and the center of the church after it moved out of Jerusalem and away from the Jews as the Holy Spirit moved toward the Gentiles, with the Apostle Paul. Yes sir, Antioch.”

Well, that is good. I am glad you know that. I am glad you have that understanding, because it will help you with the verses that follow. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called NIGER… Simeon had a nickname, a designation by which the Lord and his brethren referred to him. That name was “Black,” as in the Niger River (the Black River) or Nigeria, (the land of the blacks). The highly offensive racial epithet is but a rude mispronunciation of the word.

Yes, the passage tells of certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. The (only one) church in Antioch had people from all over the place. There was a guy from Cyrenia, a guy who had been brought up a Roman, old Saul was there with his pal Barnabas, and right smack in the middle of the bunch was a man of color. Isn’t that something?!

One must never forget that the church is a called-out assembly separated from the world. It is not Jew. It is not Gentile. It is not Caucasian, Negro, Semitic or Occidental. It is one body made up of people who all have the same father (Joh 1:12-13) and the same mother (Ga 4:26).

 

Now I am not going to tell you what to do or how to run your church. I am not going to tell you to have an integrated or a segregated church. That is up to you. I am just trying to help you make sure that whatever position you take that you do not misuse the Bible to support it. The last thing we need is another Bible believing preacher or Christian losing his credibility because he is misusing the scriptures the same way a charismatic or a Seventh Day Adventist would.

On the day when God came down to visit the tower of Babel, He confounded the speech and the language of those assembled there so that they could not understand one another. When God came down on the day of Pentecost, in grace He united three thousand people from every kindred, nation, tongue and tribe under the face of the earth. Among those who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ He reversed the edict of Babel.

I believe with all my heart that a German and an Iranian are two very different people, that the way an Italian looks at things and the way a Zimbabwean looks at things are very different. You will not convince me that when it comes to war, a Vietnamese will fight the same way a Scandinavian will. You will not convince me that when it comes to social mores an African in the bush looks at things the same way as an Irishman. You will not convince me of these things because they are just not so.

But my friend, think of what happened when you were truly born again. Your way of thinking and your life were completely changed. You were given a new nature by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Day by day you are being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus.

I hope you understand that does not just happen to people of your race and nationality. Could it be that our problem is that we are so carnal we expect everyone else to be equally carnal? Could it be that so little of our thoughts and ways have been surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s control that we suppose no one is really changed when they are saved?

 

I want to conclude with a look at a few selected verses from the Holy Bible, the living word of the living God. We shall read them with very little comment, for in the context of our study little is required.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have ALL MEN to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom FOR ALL, to be testified in due time (1Ti 2:3-6).

Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? (Ac 11:17).

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they (Ac 15:11).

For as the body is ONE, and hath many members, and ALL the members of that ONE body, being many, are ONE body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into ONE body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles (no distinction in color here, Gentiles – period), whether we be bond or free; and have been ALL made to drink into ONE Spirit (1Co 12:12-13).

Till we all come in the unity of the faith…speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him…From whom THE WHOLE BODY FITLY JOINED TOGETHER and compacted by that which EVERY joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love (Eph 4:13-16).

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they ALL may be ONE… I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me…(Joh 17:20-23).

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. BY THIS shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (Joh 13:34-35).

AMEN.

 

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

 

 

It is obvious that these remarks have been principally directed to white readers. I must conclude with a few bold and loving remarks to my black brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

1. Everything is not about skin color.

 

One of the great difficulties faced by blacks and whites as they seek to have Christian fellowship is that the vast majority of black men and women in America have been taught to see every slight, obstacle, offense or setback as a deliberate attack made against them because of the color of their skin.

Believing the word of God, instead of the news media, will help you to understand that the sons of Adam constantly sin against one another and continually strive with one another. The self-love in one man butts heads with the self-love in another. To take every sin and transgression as being racially motivated is a very unrealistic and unscriptural view.

Please allow me to illustrate. Bill, who is white, enters the church and walks past Henry, who is white, without speaking. Rude? Sure. Deliberate? Not likely. So Henry gets on with his life. The next week Bill, who is white, walks past Randy, who is black, without speaking. Rude? Of course. Deliberate? Not likely. But Randy thinks to himself, “He didn’t speak to me because I am black.”

That kind of thinking has kept numbers of born-again, well-liked people from continuing to fellowship with their brethren. The human race is rude and selfish – regardless of your skin color.

 

2. Please stop allowing people who were never slaves to keep provoking you to hate people who never owned slaves.

 

Granted, there are some wacko whites that endorse the views of Hitler just as there are some wacko blacks that endorse the views of Farrakhan. It is certain that both of these men represent the opinion of only a tiny fraction of the people of their race. Stop being influenced by fools – men who hate others simply because of the skin color GOD gave them.

 

3. Get out of a church that preaches politics and social division and get in one that preaches the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and teaches the pure and perfect word of God.

 

You cannot find one place in the New Testament where the church spent five minutes on politics, social reform, boycotts, marches, voting drives, etc. When any church, black or white, becomes part of a social or political movement it ceases to resemble anything God ordained. “Reverends” who do not minister the word of life should be ignored!

 

4. Politicians are not interested in solving problems. The problems make them relevant.

 

The fact of the matter is that 99.9999% of politicians care first and foremost about getting re-elected. They do not care about you or me. They care about power.

The Lord Jesus Christ loves you and cares for you. He is your friend, provider, savior, comforter, guide, and protector. In short, everything government promises Jesus delivers.

Do not allow yourself to be drawn away from the issues of life and life eternal by men who stir up your discontent to gain your support that they might satisfy their own lust for power and recognition.

 

 

Hatred stirreth up strifes:

but love covereth all sins

(Pr 10:12).

 

 

 

A UNION MORE BIZARRE
THAN INTER-RACIAL MARRIAGE

 

It has proven very difficult to track the origin of the false doctrine that makes the mark of Cain black skin, since those who would teach such a thing would most likely have been illiterate (for anyone who could read a Bible would soon weary of trying to find such a teaching in its pages) or they would have had a following so small and backward that their teachings would not have made it into print, or would have had very limited circulation.

But it seems that I was looking in the wrong place. I thought of searching the thirty some-books I own which were published before the American Civil War both for and against slavery and/or abolition. Not much there. I thought of searching the collected sermons of ministers from a variety of denominations who taught from the days of Colonial America through the era of reconstruction. Not much there. Sure, there was plenty in the material put out by southern fundamentalists and “Bible-believers” from 1958-88, but that was material borrowed from the anti-integration crowd and was way too late to be source material or to point to the origin of the doctrine.

Silly me. I never thought to follow a trail leading from a Baptist pulpit to our old pal Joseph Smith. Yet, strange as it may seem, the bigots with Bibles today are echoing the doctrines of the bigots with Books of Mormon from a century ago.

So, tell your white supremacy preacher to put on his secret underwear, gather up all his Caucasian wives and let’s take a covered wagon out to Utah and find out where he got the notion that black skin was a curse.

In the Book of Abraham authored by Joseph Smith the following doctrine was established. Each person’s place in the world is determined by their conduct while living as spirits in the pre-mortal world. In The Pearl of Great Price, these were called “noble and great ones” (3:22) and were the spirit children of god’s (lower case my change) sexual relations with his brides.

Those who served god well, and were obedient to his commands, were rewarded by good birth situations when they became humans on earth. Those who had done well were born as Caucasians. Those who had done exceptionally well were born into Mormon families. If you had been a poor servant you would have dark skin. If you were a total failure you would be born black. Joe Smith taught that the darker the skin the greater the punishment for your failure in the pre-physical-birth spirit realm.

Mormon apostle Mark Petersen spoke in Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954 to a gathering of teachers at Bringham Young University. The leader of the LDS church said, “Can we account in any other way for the birth of some of the children of God in darkest Africa? Because of performance in our pre-existence some of us are born as Latter-day saints. These are rewards and punishments.”

Joseph Fielding Smith (the 10^th Mormon president) wrote in Doctrines of Salvation (1954) “There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. We once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient, more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here (more whiteness) and those who were not faithful received less (darker skin).”

When Joe Smith wasn’t busy committing adultery he twisted the doctrine of Satan’s rebellion around and turned it into a fairy tale. He taught that those who bravely fought with Christ and aided Him in defeating Satan[10][10] were rewarded by being born into white Mormon families. Those who did not help Christ were born with black bodies.

It was not an Alabama Baptist, but Mormon apostle Bruce McConkie who said, “Cain was cursed with dark skin. He became the father of the Negoes.” Those remarks were made in his comments on The Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses, 7:8.

Bruce was simply echoing the teaching of Bringham Young who wrote in Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, on October 9, 1859: “You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable, and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. Cain slew his brother…and the Lord put a mark on him, which is the flat nose and black skin…then another curse is pronounced upon the same race – that they should be the ‘servant of servants;’ and they will be, until that curse is removed.”

Some of my brethren teach these very things and imagine they are setting forth Bible doctrine. Anyone with the slightest measure of discernment can see that Bringham was establishing a Mormon pattern wherein each successive generation would blindly contradict the teachings of the one that came before them. In the quotation above he says that Cain’s skin became black as a result of something done on earth, thus blatantly contradicting what Joe Smith had said. Second, he also sets forth the erroneous teaching, still espoused by many fundamentalists, that the post-flood curse fell on Ham not Canaan.

Anyone who has studied Mormonism in detail, considered its history and evaluated its doctrines knows that it is actually nothing more than a sex-cult for men. It began as a way to collect wives on earth, with the opportunity for celestial breeding if one stayed true to the teachings of adulterers Smith and Young. The Mormon priesthood, the hope of all young males in the system, is not about gaining access to or a relationship with God, or Jesus Christ, or anything so spiritual. Rather, it allows one to have everlasting sexual relations in the afterlife. The founders of the club did not want black men mating with white women so they invented “church doctrines” that gave their god credit for supporting their wishes.

Observe; Elder George Richards, Conference Report, 1939: “The Negro is an unfortunate man. He has been given a black skin. But that is nothing compared with that greater handicap that he is not permitted to receive the Priesthood and the ordinances of the temple, necessary to prepare men and women to enter into and enjoy a fullness of glory in the celestial kingdom, [i.e., godhood].”

So if you have black skin you cannot become a god. Why does that matter to a Mormon. Joseph Fielding Smith will tell you. “Blacks cannot hold the priesthood because they are an inferior race cursed with a black skin.” As an added punishment they “have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning. Most unfortunate for blacks is the loss of priesthood blessings, which meant that no black man can reproduce in eternity like white Mormons.”

In the 1970s the Mormon god changed his mind, realizing that public scrutiny and political correctness would never allow their “no black gods mating in our heavens” teaching and that such teaching would not match their image as a Christian church. The Mormons then pulled one of those stunts that only rich cults can get away with. They amended their doctrine enough to be lauded by the gullible press and brain-dead public but not enough to change anything in principle. Look carefully at the “change” made, in the words of Apostle Mark Petersen: “If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can enter the celestial kingdom.” Sounds OK, but he added, “He will go there as a servant.” So what part of that do you think the media reported, and continues to report?

 

Below I am going to list some quotations. All of them are made (privately now since the BJU case) by born again, blood washed, pastors in the good ole USA who honestly believe they are standing for Biblical truth. What passes for the faith once delivered to the saints is actually another faith once delivered to the latter day saints.

“Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned. This inequality is not of man’s origin. It is the Lord’s doing.” McConkie

“It is not the authorities of the Church who have placed a restriction on him (the black man) regarding the holding of the priesthood. It was not the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was the Lord.” J.F. Smith

“We believe it a great sin in the eyes of our heavenly Father for a white person to marry a black one. It is a proof of the mercy of God that no such race appears able to continue for many generations.” The LDS Juvenile Instructor. Obviously these false prophets are hoping none of their juveniles ever visits Brazil or The Bahamas.

“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be do.” Bringham Young, Journal of Discourses 10, 100. How does anyone take this religion seriously when the see such unions all around them without one such death on record?

“We must not intermarry with the Negro. If I were to marry a Negro woman and have children by her, my children would all be cursed as to the priesthood. If there was one drop of Negro blood in my children, they receive the curse. There are 50 million Negroes in the US. If they were to achieve complete absorption with the white race, think what that would do to the work of the church.” Petersen

I guess this means they keep the bus kids in a separate building so they won’t sit with the white children in the church auditorium.

 

So the next time you hear a white preacher in a fundamental church declare that his good old KJV taught him that Cain was cursed with black skin, all the sons of Ham are cursed, whites are specially blessed by God and contact with blacks would harm the work of the church, just remember, he did not learn that from the Bible. He is just repeating the notions of sexual perverts like Old Joe Smith and his buddy Bringham Young.

 

For more information on the subject of Mormons and race one should read One Nation Under Gods by Richard Abanes.