Identity and Race Through the Lens of Scripture

it is important that we start looking at our identities with god's word because if we start there we save ourselves a lot of heartache and headache as well as confusion the black presence in the bible illustrates that that's why i want to read this segment from my book oneness embraced fourthly a study of race rooted in the bible links the pride and understanding of race with an eternal purpose thereby expanding our understanding of missiology [00:00:26]

it is clear from scripture that black people are objects of god's love and grace the very lineage of jesus included blacks and africans were among the leaders of the first century church thus african americans and white americans conceived that black people are an integral part of god's redemptive agenda and have played a decisive role in disseminating the kingdom agenda to the rest of the world all christians need to understand the eternal dimensions of black history [00:01:02]

the bible is our common ground it is the guidebook that links black and white christians to god's eternal truth therefore we should look to it for an understanding of race relations just as we read it to know how to make our everyday decisions the bible is the primary source for legitimate white and black racial pride self-authentication self-analysis intracultural and cross-cultural analysis and determining god's view of a group's national purpose [00:01:36]

a biblical perspective is critical if black people are going to relate properly to their roots and if white people are going to better understand and see us for who we are most black churches celebrate black history month but the focus is usually on black american history because there is little awareness or appreciation for black biblical history however part of the process of discipleship within the black church as well as the white church needs to be to equip our congregations [00:02:19]

with providing biblical historical accurate and logical answers to the reference and value of the ancestral presence of blacks in scripture without it african americans are asked to define themselves with a warped view of our place in history any time people have an incomplete and inaccurate view of themselves it affects their actions thus perpetuating many preconceived notions of perception and identification [00:02:58]

in the section that follows we will look to the bible for a more accurate perspective of blacks in biblical history voluminous attention is given throughout the bible to the issues of race culture genealogy and geography as they relate to the identification of people groups there is no such thing as cultural or racial neutrality every person belongs to some group even when groups intermingle they either lean toward identification with one culture or the other or they synthesize into a totally new group [00:03:30]

such as the samaritans who were the offspring of jewish and assyrian intermarrying as we saw in chapter three there is only one race the human race acts 17 26 all humans stem from one root adam and eve yet within the human race there are varieties of individuals and groups one of the ways we distinguish between individuals and groups is by color likewise the bible defines individuals and groups of people by color [00:04:17]

yet the biblical definitions are unencumbered by the negative distortions and reactions we associate with blackness in contemporary american society when discussing the issue of blacks in the bible we must understand that the designation black is a term of accommodation we are using a 21st century mindset to discuss people who in some cases live more than two millennia ago thus our distinctions are not necessarily their distinctions [00:04:40]

for example romans made a distinction between people who were dark skinned and people who had negroid physionomy today both groups would be considered black when we say black in reference to those people of the past we are on the one hand referring to the physical traits african-americans share with those ancient peoples namely skin color on the other hand we are referring to the genetic lineage of african americans and its affinity with people of the ancient near east and egypt [00:05:04]

there is no question that dark complexion people played a prominent role in biblical events descendants of african peoples have beyond a doubt an ancestral link to certain critical personages in biblical history we are sure of this because the color black is used in the bible to refer to skin tone of any dark complexion people from african or hemetic descent such a descriptive use of color can be found in the actual names of persons people groups and places particularly in the old testament world [00:05:49]

well that just begins a section to identify particular persons and groups in the bible who are defined as black so you see we can find our roots in scripture which gives us the ability to understand and apply how god wants to use our race today [00:06:15]