Christians and Racism b

In our first article, we began looking at this very relevant and often divisive issue of racism, by setting racism in the context of the whole big story of the bible, the meta-narrative of the bible. We have chosen to consider racism within the four elements of a biblical world view; Creation (this is the world as God intends it to be), Fall (this is what happened when sin came and messed everything up), Redemption (this is what Christ has done on the Cross to restore things) and Consummation (this is what it is going to look like at the end, when God sets everything right again). The previous article set racism within the context of the initial creation, the world as God intended.

From the early chapters of Genesis we extracted the following important points. First, in Genesis 1 and 2, we are introduced to a Creator God Who creates great diversity and Whose comment about this universe of diversity was “Very good”. We also noticed that in the case of Adam and Eve, human beings, diversity enriched and enhanced humanity, the very differentness of Eve in her likeness, as ideally suited to best complement (complete) Adam. So any discussion about racism and racial differences needs to recognise these biblical principles about diversity. Finally, we made the very obvious, but incredibly relevant point, that the Bible only identifies two human parents of the whole human race, which means all humans are one family, no matter their racial, ethnic or gender differences.

In this article we will seek to understand how the final three elements of a Christian world view inform our discussion about racism.

2.      How does the Fall inform the discussion about racism?

As we leave the first two chapters of Genesis, we leave with a creation which God describes as “very good”. Sadly, that “very goodness” does not last, as the sin of Adam plummets the world into an existence of sinfulness and decay. As we study the details of Genesis 3 and the Fall of man, we observe that the sin of man had several significant and relevant consequences.

The first significant consequence of sin is described in Genesis 3:7 in the words “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (ESV). The serpent’s half-truth promise of v. 5 was fulfilled, their eyes were opened. But instead of having a God-like understanding of good and evil, for the first time ever, they saw their physical differences as somehow inappropriate and whereas their differences previously had not negatively impacted their relationship with one another, now they find it necessary to cover up those differences. God’s creational “very good” diversity had become a reason for estrangement.

This estrangement was not only in a horizontal direction, human being to human being. It was also in a vertical direction, human being to God. For when the Lord comes for His regular visit to the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and Eve seek to hide themselves among the trees of the garden. So separation from one another has been compounded by separation from God.

The rest of the opening chapters of Genesis describe human beings as the poison of sin begins to spread. Sin leads to separation in chapter 3, separation leads to hostility and hostility leads to murder in chapter 4. Fractious and destructive relations among men become the order of the day and humankind becomes increasingly divided. Since the fall, sin dominates man's thoughts, behaviours and relationships.

3.      How does redemption inform the discussion about racism?

We are now and shall be eternally grateful to God, that the sad chapter of the fall is not the final chapter in the history of mankind. The Lord takes it upon Himself to write into the history of humanity, the glorious chapter of redemption.

There are three aspects of the redemption story (the gospel) that both inform us and help us deal with racism.

a.       The barrier destroying life and death of Jesus cry out loudly against racism.

As one reads the gospel stories describing the life of the Lord Jesus, one has to be struck by the way the Lord Jesus deliberately steps over the lines drawn in the sand between people who were different. He talks to immoral women, He touches a dead body and the unclean bodies of lepers, He speaks with women and even allows a woman of ill repute to touch Him, He associates and shares meals with despised traitors, the tax collectors and heals members of the households of the hated invaders, the Romans. He takes children in His arms, uses Samaritans as heroes in His stories and commends the faith of a Gentile woman. We cannot look at the life of Jesus without noticing His unprejudiced embrace of all people.

And His death similarly points to this inclusiveness of Jesus. He is crucified outside the city walls, a Saviour not just for Jews within the city but for any outside the city. Raised up, on a hill, for all to see, for all to come, arms stretched out yes, in death, but symbolically stretched out also in invitation to all who would come, without prejudice, without discrimination. The three global languages proclaiming His title on the placard above His head, Latin, Hebrew and Greek, the languages of government, religion and philosophy, the languages of the nations, a King for all people.

Throughout His life and in His death, Jesus destroys the sin-raised barriers between human beings.

b.      The heart transforming power of the gospel shouts out loudly against racism.

In the gospel is the power to change hearts. Remember, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. The heart must be changed for racism to be conquered. And Jesus offers the cup to His disciples on the night of His betrayal with the words “This cup is the new covenant in My blood”. And what had God promised to do in the new covenant? Jeremiah 31:33 and especially Ezekiel 36:26 tell us that in the New Covenant, He has promised to give a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart fashioned in the image of God Himself. And God is not a racist!

Friend listen, if you are a Christian, you have a new heart, and that heart, created by God, is a heart that hates racial prejudice and hates racial discrimination.

The heart transforming power of the gospel shouts out loudly against racism.

c.       The multinational nature of the church speaks out loudly against racism

Christ’s cross-work forms a church which oversteps the usual boundaries of human society. The birth of the church in the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is hugely significant. They all spoke in the languages of the people who were listening. All of a sudden, the gospel was made available to all races, to all peoples. Pentecost reverses the curse of Babel. In Genesis 11, God curses the people to be separated into different nations, evidenced by different languages. At Pentecost, on the basis of the work of Jesus on the cross, the human obstacles of language, ethnicity, race are all overcome. Ephesians 2 puts it this way in vv. 14-16, God has removed the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile to create one new man. And in the church Galatians 3:28 tells us there is “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And so the gospel spreads in the book of Acts, from the centre of the Jewish world Jerusalem, through Judea, homeland of the Jews, into the Gentile areas of Asia Minor, and then into Europe, and finally ends in Rome, centre of the world at that time. And Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, male and female are all joined together into one body, a diverse body, oh yes, but a single body, with no one superior, no one inferior, but all one in Christ.

4.      How does consummation inform the discussion about racism?

It is the purpose of Christ, through the power of the Gospel, to redeem humanity into a new sinless kingdom (Daniel 7:13, 14). And in that kingdom, under His rule, all will be perfect again (Isaiah 11:1-10). What was lost in the Fall will be regained even more powerfully and gloriously in the consummation. Relations between God and man will be restored. No longer will man ever again question the loving rule of his Creator (Genesis 3:1-5). No longer will God need to look for man and no longer will man try to hide from God (Genesis 3:8ff). But also, relations between man and man will be restored. The sin-caused sense of awkward difference and subsequent covering and distance between humans will be no longer (Genesis 3:6, 7). Diversity will no longer be an issue of separation, and hostility and even murder (Genesis 4). Diversity will be celebrated in the new creation of God’s consummation in the way that God intended it in the first creation.

And we see this celebration of diversity so powerfully and picturesquely portrayed in the last book of the Bible. When the Holy Spirit gives John a glimpse of what worship will be like in the New Creation, this is what John sees as related in Revelation 7:9-12. “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb”. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen”.

Notice friends, who is crying this praise. People “from every nation and all tribes, and peoples and tongues”. The glorious diversity of humanity united in a glorious unity of praise. Diversity of humans, specifically, diversity of race is a celebrated feature of the celebration of the new creation of God.

And it is our responsibility that what is seen perfectly there in a perfect world, is also seen as perfectly as possible in our imperfect world.

Christians and Racism (Part One)

You will not listen to an international news service for long before the news turns to the riots in the United States. These riots were sparked by the death of an African American man, George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer. The demonstrations and riots that have resulted from this death are by far the worst in a series of racial riots that the USA has experienced, going back over 50 years.

Now while George Floyd’s death sparked these riots and demonstrations, his death does not fuel them. What fuels them is a deep sense of outrage at what is seen as systemic, endemic, pervasive racism, in which people of colour, and especially black Americans are prejudiced against by a society that has for centuries been dominated by the white community of the USA. Racism is the reason for these demonstrations.

Of course, racism is neither confined to the USA, nor to just black and white relations. Zimbabwe has a shameful history of racial prejudice, as does South Africa, and non-white soccer players in Europe regularly face racial abuse. The Holocaust illustrates a white on white racism, while the Rwandan genocide and South African xenophobic murders illustrate a black on black racism.

What is the answer to the question of racism? Well, at the end of the day, racism is a problem of every human heart. As well-meaning and useful many proposed solutions to racism might be, any permanent and final solution to racism must come from a power that is able to deal with the issue at the level of the human heart. And that power is the power of the gospel.

At Covenanters Christian Church, the Elders have felt led by the Lord to try and shed light on this subject. Our desire is to bring biblical clarity and gospel light on the issue. We want to move the discussion out of the context of loud shouting matches fuelled by strong personal feelings, into the context of divine understanding, informed by biblical truth.

We begin by setting racism in the context of the whole big story of the Bible, the meta-narrative of the Bible. To do that, we will consider racism within the framework often used to explain a biblical world view; Creation (this is the world as God intends it to be), Fall (this is what happened when sin came and messed everything up), Redemption (this is what Christ has done on the Cross to restore things) and Consummation (this is what it is going to look like at the end, when God sets everything right again). This first article will explore how the initial creation informs the issue of racism.

1.       How does Creation inform the discussion about racism?

The first 2 chapters of Genesis show us the universe as God originally intended, God’s perfect world. It is interesting to see how God went about His creative work. He began by separating things, and then filled the spaces. On day 1 He separated light from dark, on day 2 He separated the waters above from waters below and forms the sky/atmosphere. On day 3 He separated the waters below from land. Having separated things, God then filled the spaces. And so, on day 3, He filled the land with vegetation, plants and trees. On Day 4 He filled the “expanse of the heavens” with the sun, the moon, the stars. On day 5 He filled the waters below with fish and the sky/atmosphere with birds. Finally, on day 6, He filled the land with animals, culminating of course in the creation of mankind, created uniquely in the image of God and created male and female. And having completed His creative work, God looked at all that He had made and concluded that it was “very good” v. 31. Genesis 2 elaborates on the creation of humankind, and in the creation we discover that the ideal helper for Adam is not another just like him. It is another who is like him in substance, dignity and value (made from his rib) but also different.

Now how does the creation story inform the racism debate? There are 4 simple principles or truths that we can draw from Genesis 1 and 2 which help in establishing a biblical perspective on racism.

a.       We are introduced in Genesis 1 and 2 to a Creator God Who creates great diversity

We cannot avoid noticing that when God creates, He seems to relish diversity. Not only does He create various spaces or spheres that are different, He populates these spaces with a huge diversity of created things. The moon is different from the sun, star differs from star, birds are not fish, cucumbers are different from oak trees and of course, as all married people are aware, male differs from female.

Diversity is a significant part of the God’s creative plan. He fashioned the universe with creative diversity. Therefore we should not think that diversity in race is in and of itself a bad thing. God intended diversity. Should we not look for diversity in our communities?

b.      This universe of diversity is said by God to be “very good”

But in fact, we need to go further. Not only was diversity a significant part of God’s creative plan, diversity was a significant part of God’s creative plan that He considered “very good.” God’s assessment of His amazing, diverse creation was “very good!” Amongst other things, creative diversity was something that He considered “very good.”  God not only creates diversity; He also delights in diversity.

Now this observation concerning the delight of God in His diverse creation surely encourages us to similarly delight in diversity. And in the context of this article, in the diversity of race. If God is so pleased to see the diversity of creatures in His creation, should we not also be pleased to see diversity in race within our communities?

c.       In the case of Adam and Eve, diversity enriched and enhanced humanity

When God created a helpmeet for Adam, it was an Eve not a ‘Steve’ He created. In other words, He did not make someone just like Adam. He made someone like Adam, but different. And it was in her difference, in her diversity, that she most fully complemented him.

Now we realise there were no racial differences in Eden. But surely the example of the strengthening diversity of Adam and Eve must suggest to us that in God’s economy, diversity is enriching, diversity is strengthening and better than uniformity. And of course, this wonderfully informs the discussion about race and racism. Those of us who are privileged to have enjoyed belonging to a multi-racial community will attest to the enrichment that comes when cultures mix and make a stronger and richer community than what exists when members are all the same.

d.      There are only two parents of the whole human race

When Paul was debating the Athenian philosophers in Acts 17, he pointed out to them that, though they did not even acknowledge Him, Paul’s  God had “made the whole world and all things in it” (v. 24) and also “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (v. 26). As he stood in the centre of this circle of foreign, Greek philosophers, Paul established they and he shared common parents.

Adam and Eve are the only parents of all mankind, of all races. There are not two strands of humanity, just the one. Now obviously this fact has a huge impact upon our inter-racial relations. Many of us care for our own family members and would willingly make enormous sacrifices for their good. It would do all of our racial relations the world of good if, when we looked into the eyes of every other human being we ever encounter, or see on television or view through the internet, and said to ourselves, “There is my brother. There is my sister.” People who share the same parents are siblings, they are brothers, they are sisters!

Is it Biblical to Practice Communion Online?

One of the questions that has faced churches around the world in this present crisis of Covid 19, is “How in these times of non-assembly do we genuinely do church?” Many answers have arisen, and churches have met the challenge in creative ways. These include live streamed services, video recordings, audio recordings, Zoom and Face live on-line meetings. By and large, churches seem to have been able to continue sharing in the essential elements of worship such as prayer, worship in song, the reading of the scriptures, relevant liturgy, and the preaching of the word. But two elements of worship have proved particularly problematic: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. How does the church practice these ordinances in a time of forced separation and even more basically, can a church practice these biblically in a time of forced separation?

Because it is the less frequent of the two ordinances, baptism does not raise nearly as many questions as does the Lord’s Supper. After all, a person can wait a few months for baptism without any adverse impact and the Bible sets the precedent of individual baptism in the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Philip as recorded in Acts 8. However, most churches practice the Lord’s Supper far more often than they perform baptisms. Some churches have the Lord’s Supper once a month, others every week in every corporate worship service. Churches have had to wrestle with the issue, “Can a church biblically celebrate together the Lord’s Supper when they are not able to gather together physically for that meal?”

Over the Zimbabwe shut down period, we have had three Lord’s Supper services at Covenanters Christian Church. The Elders of Covenanters Christian Church believe it is not unbiblical to do Communion (the Lord’s Supper) in our dispersed condition. In our case, we have adopted a pre-recorded audio mp3 service as our “service delivery” and we incorporate the Lord’s Supper into that service. We strive to have careful preparation in terms of biblical instruction, and we follow the procedure of I Corinthians 11, allowing people to pause the recording for their own times of prayer, reflection, and partaking of the elements.

Why are we, as the Elders, convinced that such a practice is biblically permissible, in contrast to many others who have felt biblically constrained to stop? We think it is helpful to first present the reasons most often raised against “on-line” dispersed celebrations of the Lord’s Supper. Certainly, the strongest argument, one which we feel has significant weight, is that in Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 11, the Lord’s Supper takes place when the Church gathers. Five times over Paul states that the Lord’s Supper is taking place when the church comes together in verses 17, 18, 20, 33, 34. Now that “coming together” is more than merely a physical happening, it is powerfully meaningful in that the many are joined as one. In chapter 10:17, speaking of sharing in the bread of the Lord’s table, it says,

“Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.”

Some argue strongly from I Corinthians 10:17 that the Lord’s Supper is “a shared meal”, and that to remove the symbolic action of the shared meal is to remove an essential symbol of the ordinance. To quote one author,

“Though the action of a shared meal and the context of the covenant assembly are not sufficient conditions for celebrating the Lord’s Supper, they are necessary conditions.” 1

The argument concludes that physically gathering is an essential element of the Lord’s Supper. Without the physical gathering, any Supper cannot be the Lord’s Supper.

A second argument arises in some circles that the Lord has appointed. To quote the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 29, Section 3, He has appointed,

“His ministers to declare his word of institution to the people; to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use; and to take and break the bread, to take the cup, and (they communicating also themselves) to give both to the communicants; but to none who are not then present in the congregation”.

The argument is simply this, that without the presence of Christ’s ministers, ordained in part to preside over the Lord’s Supper, there can be no partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Now having argued in this way, those who hold this position strongly affirm that it is not ideal to withhold the Lord’s Supper from God’s people, that as an important means of grace, it is important to the spiritual health of God’s people. However, in the light of these biblical arguments, Christians, they argue, must recognise that this is a time to fast and not to feast, and to lament the loss of this important part of worship.

In the light of these arguments, how have we as a church felt biblically justified in celebrating the Lord’s Supper? Well for us, the issue is simple and our point of variance from the above position is simple. While we agree that the corporate physical gathering is an important part of the Lord’s supper, and the physical presence of Christ’s under-shepherds is ideal, we do not agree that the over-riding symbol of the Lord’s Supper is that of a physically shared meal. We see that I Corinthians 10:17 points not primarily to a physically shared meal as much as to a spiritually shared meal, that offered by Jesus in John 6 and elaborated by Paul in I Corinthians 11.  We believe that those who present these arguments are making the symbolism of the physically shared meal more important than the symbolism of sharing in Christ. It seems to us that while Paul indicates that this meal took place when the church came together, he does not make the coming together the key issue. The key issue with him is the remembrance, and celebration together (as much as we are able to make that together wherever we are) of the broken body and poured out blood of Christ. If due to circumstances beyond our control that dictate it taking place together in a variety of physical locations, then it should take place.

It is interesting in this discussion of physical and “spiritual” presence, that Paul earlier had spoken earlier in 1 Corinthians, spoken of the possibility of being present spiritually, even though not physically there.  In I Corinthians 5:3, when in the context of church discipline, he speaks of himself as being “present in spirit.”

In the discussion of the need for the physical gathering of the church, it is also interesting that Acts 2:42-47 speaks of the early believers “breaking bread from house to house” v. 46. Surely this establishes precedent for the Lord’s Supper in smaller communities than the whole gathered church.

Whilst respecting Reformed brothers and sisters who take a contrary view, we also do not believe that the Bible supports the idea that an ordained and recognised minister of the gospel has to preside over the Lord’s Supper and disburse the elements. Such a stance seems to us too much like the very sacerdotalism of both elements and priest, that the Reformation took issue with, with the Church of Rome historically.

We have pastoral concerns also in a position that says only in the physically gathered corporate worship services can the Lord’s Supper take place. Does this mean that Christians who for other reasons than the lockdown pandemic are separated from the body of God’s people, are prohibited from partaking of the Lord’s Supper? Must believers on long journeys not share in this central sacrament of their faith? What about prisoners, even prisoners for Christ, isolated in cells? What about those who are sick in the hospital or bed ridden at home because of serious illness? Will advocates of the “no on-line Lord’s Supper” withhold the powerfully strengthening sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to these because the whole church has not physically gathered? Surely one of the things about the Lord’s Supper is that if we must partake in isolation, the meal itself reminds us that we are not in isolation. We are joined to a wide body of fellow partakers. We find it problematic as well that to speak of the church’s physical gathering to be essential, how many people would legitimately comprise the gathered church? It is a majority of members? Do 2 or 3 constitute a legitimate gathering? Certainly Jesus seemed to think so in Matthew  18:20, when He spoke of (church) discipline.

Now we hasten to add that this present situation of “on-line Lord’s Suppers” is not ideal, and certainly, were it not for these extreme conditions we would not take this route. Nor do we hold that this arrangement is normal, it certainly is not. We long for the day when again we can and will physically assemble and physically share together the Lord’s Supper in the most ideal way. Until then though, we will continue to practice the Lord’s Supper in a less than ideal, but, we believe, biblically permitted way.

1. https://www.scottrswain.com/2020/03/03 /should-we-live-stream-the-lords-supper/