At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plane before God’s throne. Some of the groups near the front talked heatedly—not with cringing shame, but with belligerence because of their misfortune and mistreatment.
“How can God judge us? How can He know about racial bigotry?” snapped a cynical brunette as she jerked back a sleeve to reveal a tattoo number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror, beatings, torture, death!”
In another group, a Black man lowered his collar. “What about this?” he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. “Lynched for no crime but being Black. We have suffocated in slave ships, been ripped from loved ones, toiled until only death gave release.”
A Native American moved to the front of his gathered tribe and declared, “We were ripped off and railroaded out unjustly. We were mocked and suffered terribly.
“How about us?” beckoned a Hispanic man encircled by his entire family. “So what if America receives over a million immigrants yearly and has a process for becoming a citizen? Lawbreaking is OK if you’re told there’s free stuff yet were oppressed and turned away!”
Stretched out across the plane were hundreds of such mistreated minorities. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He permitted in the world. How fortunate that God was able to live in heaven, where there was no repression, only sweetness and light. No weeping, no fear, no hunger, no hatred. Indeed, what did God know about the misfortunes men and women experienced? “After all, God leads a pretty sheltered life!” they chanted in unison.
So each group sent out a leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. There was a Jew, a Black, an untouchable from India, an illegitimate son, a prisoner of war, a Hispanic, a Native American, a gypsy, a Polish immigrant and on and on.
In the center of the plane, they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case and demands. It was rather simple: Before God would be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had endured; their decision was that God “should be sentenced to live on earth as a man!”
But, because He was God, they set certain safeguards to be sure He could not use His divine powers to help Himself. They agreed upon 10 conditions.
1. Let Him be born a person of color, a minority, a Jew from an obscure, poor place touching Asia, Africa and Europe.
2. Let the legitimacy of His birth be doubted, so that no one will know who His Father really is.
3. Let Him champion a cause so just, but so radical, that it brings down upon Him the hate, condemnation and eliminating efforts of the establishment and every major traditional religious authority.
4. Let Him be the object of put-downs and ridicule, spat upon and labeled a “demon” and “mad.”
5. Let Him try to describe what no man has ever seen, touched, heard or smelled, and let Him try to communicate God.
6. Let Him be betrayed by His dearest friends.
7. Let Him be indicted on false charges, tried before a prejudiced jury and convicted by a corrupt and cowardly judge representative of systemic racism.
8. Let Him experience what it’s like to be terribly abandoned and alone.
9. Let Him be tortured and let Him die naked in total humiliation! Let Him die the most excruciating death possible alongside despised criminals.
10. Finally, let His name live on so that for centuries it is used as a common curse word in moments of rage.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud and gleeful murmurs of approval went up from the great throng of people. But when the last finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long, eerie silence. No one uttered another word. No one moved.
Suddenly they “woke!” God had already served His sentence, punished in our place so we could be pardoned and transformed by the power of the risen Christ.
Sin Causes Separation
Decades ago, I first heard the story I adapted for this commentary. I don’t know who first shared it, but 40 years later, it’s more relevant than ever, especially in light of continuing ethnic tensions today.
The Bible tells us clearly, “Certainly, the hand of the Lord is not so short that He cannot save, nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear” (Isa. 59:1-2).
Ongoing racial tensions, fighting and resentment have their root in sin and demonic activity. The antidote only comes when we align with God’s design for humanity. From start to finish the Scripture calls us to repent (turn from our selfish ways) and turn to the living God who loves us and offered up His Son on Calvary as a sacrificial substitute to satisfy his righteous judgment and secure for us forgiveness and adoption as children of God.
The answer is not primarily legislation or education but regeneration by the Spirit of the living God!
Racing towards the most important election in America’s history, our focus should not be on the GOP but God.
Our allegiance as Christians is not to follow the elephant or the donkey as party symbols but the Lamb of God.
Black Leader Tells Us the Truth
Recently, I did a commentary and podcasts where I felt God wanted me to sit down and listen to observations and insights from my daughter regarding reaching young people in these turbulent times.
In this article, I attempted to do the same thing with a seasoned Black leader not afraid to boldly expose a narrative deceiving millions and dividing our nation in a diabolically engineered scheme.
Barrington Allen is a respected leader and author who is courageous in our culture. I’ve known him for over a decade, and he never holds back from telling the truth from a biblically informed worldview.
—What is the truth about the Democratic Party and its treatment of Blacks for centuries?
—Should Blacks support Black Lives Matter and encourage their children to participate in their marches and rallies?
—Are the NBA and athletes like LeBron James leading us on a right path for social justice today?
—Is the United States of America inherently racist, warranting a cultural revolution advanced by a “progressive” socialist vision to remedy existing problems?
—Were our Founding Fathers racists, and should their monuments be removed for a new revolution of a Marxist utopia?
—Should we agree with the narrative of “white privilege” and “systemic racism” and allow our children to be indoctrinated along these lines?
—What about slavery, reparations and the so-called “epidemic of police brutality” toward people of color?
Listen to a Learned Black Leader
I encourage you to pay close attention to what is shared in this commentary and the four embedded podcasts with senior leader, Barrington Allen, director of “Total Life Victory” ministry and the author of The Fallacy of Race. This Biola University graduate brings a perspective you, your family, church and ministry need to hear in this critical time as we vote for values and according to a Biblical vision.
Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Kamala Harris and a multitude of other celebrities and leaders are filling the airways with their views that unfortunately do not, for the most part, align with sacred Scripture. The result is division, deception and destruction of our American history and heritage.
Here’s the Deal: Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., as a Black leader promotes peace and progress by encouraging us that our “conversation about race should be more about what you see through the windshield than in the rearview mirror.” Partake of what Barrington Allen lays out and be a “peacemaker” so we’re biblical, balanced and beyond reproach when it comes to addressing ethnic tensions in our country today. {eoa}
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