Pure Church

Colin Kidd's well-researched, wide-ranging, and insightful book, The Forging of the Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000, demolishes such assumptions when it comes to the issue of race. Kidd's persuasive and learned monograph is no gloating work of Christian apologetics. If anything, he seems slightly embarrassed by how well orthodox Christianity comes out in his narrative, trying to tone it down with mitigating statements calculated to make the accounts look more balanced than they actually are. What are in fact the obvious conclusions from his evidence repeatedly appear coyly as questions. Kidd also has a habit of using refracted or muted language.

Nevertheless, there is no effective way to offset the decisive direction in which his evidence takes us. Even the Old Testament—that vast, stagnant pond in which all manner of offensive viewpoints are supposed to lurk—offers no support to racists. Kidd admits this candidly: "the Bible is itself colour-blind with regard to racial difference." Racists have often quoted Scripture when expounding their views, but Kidd observes that they imported these racial readings into the text rather than finding them there. The New Testament teaches unequivocally that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26 KJV). In traditional scientific terms, this is a denial of polygenism and an assertion of the monogenesis of the human race (thus all homo sapiens should consider each other as part of their extended family). Monogenesis is by no means a self-evident hypothesis. Traditional cultures uninfluenced by the biblical narrative—in China and Japan, for example—assumed polygenesis. As Kidd puts it, "Scripture has the benign capacity to render racial Otherness as a type of cousinage or remote kinship."

Moreover, far from this being the incidental implication of a few verses, orthodox Christians have consistently recognized the solidarity of the human race as a core theme of both the biblical narrative and formal Christian theology: the image of God in humanity, the Fall, and original sin are predicated on the understanding that all human beings are bound together in a single, common origin, lineage, and family. The Christian tradition has consistently discerned that this doctrinal teaching has substantial implications when it comes to the issue of race. To take a typical example, the 18th-century conservative biblical scholar Nathaniel Lardner averred: "all men ought to love one another as brethren. For they are all descended from the same parents, and cannot but have like powers, and weaknesses, and wants … . For notwithstanding some differences of outward condition, we have all the same nature, and are brethren."

The cause of Abraham's sin was lack of faith in God. He did not believe that God could take care of him in this new situation. But of primary interest in this episode are the consequences of his lack of faith--first, in regard to Abraham, and second, in regard to God.

So far as Abraham is concerned, the lack of faith disturbed everything. We sometimes think of our lives as existing in separate, watertight compartments, so that a sin in one area does not necessarily affect another. But life in not like that, and the situation of Abraham shows what is actually the case. When Abraham began to doubt God, thinking less of him than he should have thought, his view of himself was also altered, for he began to think more of himself than was proper. It was the old principle of the seesaw in theology. So long as our view of God is up, our view of ourselves will be down. God will be sovereign, wise, and holy. We will see ourselves as weak, foolish, and sinful. But if our view of God goes down, so that he becomes less than sovereign in our thinking, then our view of ourselves will go up and we will begin to imagine that we are generally quite able to take care of ourselves. This is what Abraham imagined. Thinking the God could not take care of him, he assumed that he would have to take care of himself, and this got him into the foolish predicament of this episode.

More than this, as his opinion of himself rose, his sensitivity to other people declined, and he began to look down on them when he did not have any reason to do so. We see this in his attitude to Abimelech. When Abimelech caught him in his deception, Abraham replied, "I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife'" (v. 11). this was a slander on Abimelech. Abimelech had a great deal of reverential fear for God and a very commendable sense of right and wrong. Abraham was blind to this because of his own foolish pride and disobedience.

Abraham's lack of faith disturbed everything so far as he was concerned. Yet--this is a glorious point on which I end--Abraham's lack of faith disturbed nothing so far as God was concerned. Abraham may have doubted God's ability to take care of him, but God's ability to do so was not altered in the slightest. He may have doubted God's grace, but God remained as gracious as he had ever been.

I am especially impressed by the way God showed his grace to Abraham. God did so when he spoke to Abimelelch. When Abimelech learned the truth about Sarah, he must have thought of Abraham as a cowardly, hypocritical, two-faced charlatan--or worse. He had cause to. but this is not the way God spoke of Abraham to Abimelech. God said, "Return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live" (v. 7). God was not indifferent to Abraham's sin. He would deal with it as he had on the occasion of its appearance in Egypt. But the sin did not change God's view of Abraham. Abraham was still "a prophet." He was still God's man.

Moreover, in all the references to Abraham that we have in the remainder of the Bible, never does God bring up this incident as if to highlight Abraham's failure--not in Romans, not in Galatians, not in Hebrews 11 (where the faith of Abraham is discussed at great length). In that last passage, Abraham is praised for the faith he showed in four situations: (1) leaving Ur for an unknown, promised land, (2) staying in the land even in times of great deprivation and danger, (3) believing that God could give him a son when he and Sarah were past the age of having children, and (4) being willing to offer up Isaac, counting that God could raise him from the dead. Not once in all this great survey of Abraham's progress in the life of faith does God refer to his past sin as if to shame him by a remembrance of it. It was forgiven and gone. It was forgotten.

It is good to serve a God like that, a God who remains sovereign even when we doubt his ability to care for us, a God who remains gracious even when we sin. to serve a God like that is this world's greatest joy and opportunity. To know that he is like that is the greatest incentive you will ever have to keep from sinning.

What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you; and in particular yours.

I’m all for a healthy theological debate…however I will not even begin to entertain a discussion into the integrity and validity of God’s Word. The truth is that not everyone will see the gates of Heaven…and Hell is real. Our repentance of sin and acceptance of Christ our Savior…by the grace of God…is the only way out of eternal damnation. Any teachings to the contrary is…heresy.

Before returning to sleep, it is wise to review the actions and mercies of the day past, so that you may be thankful for all the special mercies and humbled for all your sins. This is necessary in order that you might renew your repentance as well as your resolve for obedience, and in order that you may examine yourself to see whether your soul grew better or worse, and whether you are better prepared for suffering, death, and eternity.

Since my conversion at age 19, I have had many opportunities to share my testimony. The story of how my hatred toward other men was broken by the power of God has been featured on a couple television shows including the 700 Club. My testimony was once printed in The Messianic Times which is distributed in the United States and throughout Israel. And I’ve share it briefly on this website, in churches, and on the streets with people I have witnessed to.

What is often overlooked is how I was also (and primarily) a God-hater and a blasphemer! For much of my teenage life I hated God and glorified His enemies. All things evil and wicked were my desires. Being involved as a neo-nazi skinhead who hated certain groups of men was just a drop in the bucket compared to the intensity of my enmity toward God. Scarring my flesh with racist tattoos was a small thing compared to my lust for sin.

When I look at the present state of my sanctification, I often forget what it was like when I loved myself so much that I despised God. I give myself a hard time over little things while not too long ago I was happily headed to hell and joyously celebrating my depravity. Psalm 103:12 tells me, “…as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” I am so grateful for the Lord’s mercy, working righteousness and justice for those who, like I once was, are oppressed!

When the pressure to 'contextualize' the gospel jeopardizes the message of the cross by inflating human egos, the cultural pressures must be ignored. (p. 34)