Christians living in America have enjoyed the blessing of religious liberty since the inception of the nation. It is clearly established in the American Constitution and is based upon biblical truth. The reality that all men are created equal is the moral lynchpin that holds our liberty in place. Replace this truth with any other doctrine, such as humanism, and true liberty will morph into authoritarianism. The greatest battle being fought in western society is a battle of truth and who gets to define what truth is.
Is Institutional Racism a Thing?
America was not founded on racism. It is true that parts of America were sick with the rot of racism which was manifest in the wicked practice of the modern-day slave trade. What overcame this rot? What healed the sickness? On a political level, it was simply living up to the biblical ideals spelled out in the Constitution. When we as a nation began to walk worthy of the truth that all men are created equal as living souls created in the image of God, America began to rise up out of the vile mire of slavery. It did not come easy. Thousands died in a bloody war, a war fought primarily over who had the right to define equality and liberty.
Man cannot define liberty and equality on his own terms. Again, this only leads to authoritarianism. The South wanted the right to define equality by their own terms. Liberty flows from equality and individual rights which have been established and defined by God. We are created in the image of God. In order to justify slavery, the government declared that the African man was sub-human. If he is not created in the image of God, he is not equal to the true human and therefore did not possess individual rights and basic liberty. Thankfully, truth prevailed, the Union was spared and slavery abolished.
But racism was still festering in the hearts of men. The struggle for true liberty is an ongoing battle. There can be no doubt that since the civil rights movement of the 60s and 70s, America has risen to become one of the least racist nations on the planet. Christians who believe and practice the teaching of Scripture have always been found at the heart of advocating for equal rights and religious liberty as defined by God.
However, race relations have been rapidly declining over the past decade. We are now being told that everything is racism. Is this true? Is America rotten with institutional racism at its very core? Was western civilization founded on racism? Or, is there something far deeper and more sinister behind this message?
Humanism and the redefining of Truth began in the garden
As a nation, we are abandoning our biblical moorings, and with it, the belief that all men are created equal. Granted, there is no such thing as a Christian nation. Christ has called His church to be a light to the nations. The church is a holy nation, a called-out people who are to go into all the world preaching the gospel of God’s Kingdom. But this is not to say that our western civilization in general, and America in particular, were not deeply influenced by biblical principles and values. America has risen to become the freest nation on earth because our founding fathers decided to define liberty and human worth according to the Bible and not what the society and culture of their time dictated. The Bible is timeless and its truth will raise any people or nation out of injustice when its teachings on righteousness are put into practice.
Our nation, our leaders and even our churches have not always lived up to the biblical standard of justice. But the sins of our fathers must not hinder us from striving to do right. Daniel counseled Nebuchadnezzar to break off his sins by righteousness and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. In doing so, God would continue to prosper his reign. True social justice is accomplished when religious and political leaders return to defining morality and truth on God’s terms.
There is a lot of talk about equality, but not as defined by the Scripture. Biblical equality means all human life has value and is precious because God made man in His own image. Western society has changed the definition of equality, replacing biblical truth with humanistic philosophy, and with it, true liberty.
Humanism cannot sustain unity and liberty. Humanism has no absolute basis for morality. No society or culture can retain liberty and individual human rights without a sense of morality and virtue. In order to maintain a facade of unity, individual rights are replaced with totalitarianism and liberty with authoritarianism.
Jesus warned of mankind’s tendency toward racial disunity and the suppression of human rights and true liberty. In Matthew 24:7 he declared, “Nation shall rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” The word translated “nation” is ethnos from which we derive our English word “ethnic” or “ethnicity.” It defines a people group. In the last days, Jesus forewarned that ethnic groups will be incited toward violence against other ethnic groups.
What is the root of this rise in violence and hatred? Jesus explains in Matthew 24:12, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
As is was in the days of Noah
Iniquity is simply defined as being contrary to the law, specifically the law of God. Iniquity is lawlessness. Today we define truth on our own terms, whether it violates God’s law or not. In fact, people are encouraged to live their own truth in defiance of Scripture. This is iniquity. Because this is the norm in society, love is growing colder and violence is increasing. Love is not winning. Iniquity is winning. Every man is encouraged to do right in their own eyes. Unfortunately, the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man is bent toward evil and depravity.
One of the humanistic philosophies that have been popularized in western society is critical race theory. CRT teaches that racism is ingrained in our society and that America was founded on white supremacist ideology. Because the institutions which are meant to protect our liberties and human rights have been oppressive to minorities in the past (slavery) they must be torn down and with them the constitutional principles upon which they were founded. We are told that we must throw out the baby with the bathwater because the baby is a white supremacist neo-nazi.
In ancient times, the Jews had a proverb: “The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” This was a way of saying that the sins of one generation will affect the proceeding. In some ways, the acceptance of modern-day slavery by so many in the past opened the door to the advance of humanism and CRT in our society. There are always consequences to sin and the greater and more evil the sin, the greater and more devastating the consequences. America abolished slavery, but the blot it left on our society remains. You may endure painful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and this surgery may save your life, but a scar will always remain. We justified slavery. We justified Jim Crow. We oppressed minorities and justified oppression. We failed to live up to God’s truth.
Even when God raised up men like Abraham Lincoln and William Wilberforce to fight for the abolition of slavery, the rot of racism and oppression was not rooted out completely. No law can change the hearts of men. What was the rot? Men deciding to define truth and justice on their own terms. Some even went so far as to use the Bible to justify slavery and segregation. Isaiah pronounces woe on those who dare to call evil good and good evil. The redefining truth in an attempt to change reality will always result in destruction and oppression. You cannot put darkness for light and expect to find your way to blessing. This iniquity is not without consequence.
God will always raise up men and women to stand for righteousness and justice. For every Nebuchadnezzar, God has a Daniel. Yes, sin can be forgiven and iniquity can be overcome. Jesus made atonement for sin and offers grace to transform lives. God gives to us new life in Christ if we will come to Him on His terms.
A nation can turn from the path of injustice if her people and her leaders seek to define truth on God’s terms. This does not mean that every citizen and every leader will become Christian. But the land can be healed if they “break their sins by righteousness.”
However, there are always consequences for iniquity. The justification of sin in one generation has the potential of allowing the justification of other sins in the next.
An anti-God agenda
Today, liberal godless leaders seek to justify the redefining of truth and justice. They are redefining oppression and what and who is a minority. They have redefined humanity and seek to use the justification of slavery and racism as a catalyst to propagate their agenda. Rather than seeking to improve social justice through righteous means as spelled out in Scripture, today’s intellectuals promote humanistic philosophy. They expelled God from the classroom and replaced morality (love thy neighbor as thyself) with self-love. Humanism teaches that since we are not created in the image of God (because there is no God), the highest ideal one can attain is your own personal identity. The greatest truth is your truth.
You oppressed slaves because they were black. Today, you oppose same-sex marriage because you oppose homosexuals. Before post-modernism, we could distinguish between a sinful lifestyle choice and the personal value of an individual created in God’s image. To put it in cliche, we can hate sin and love the sinner.
Now, homosexuality is redefined as one’s personal identity and to oppose homosexuality or same-sex marriage is to oppose the new humanity. With these new categories of personal identity, opposition to someone’s expression of self-identity is considered racism on the same level of slavery. The difference is that modern-day slavery was an egregious violation of the liberty and human rights given to us by God. It dehumanized men and women who were made in the image of God.
Opposing same-sex marriage does not dehumanize or devalue human life. Opposing gender-neutral bathrooms does not dehumanize. Being pro-life does not dehumanize the woman but elevates her God-given worth.
But none of that matters to today’s society. In the new humanity, we define oppression. We define who is a minority. We define what is right and wrong. We define truth and you will fall in line or we will shut you down.
The New Normal is an Old Evil
Iniquity has been normalized. Lawlessness is a new law. Marriage and family are the cornerstones for the propagation of a just and civil society. The LGBTQ agenda has as its goal more than trying to get people to accept them for who they are. It is a direct assault on God’s good created order for humanity. The new love promoted in our schools and in our politics is nothing more than the worship of man. In this new humanity, your value is measured by your self-defined identity. We are defined not by what God made you us to be but by what you desire to be. What’s more, the greater the oppression you have experienced as a minority, the more authoritative a voice you must be given in society.
Slavery was justified by an ideology that believed it could define truth on its own terms. If you stray from God’s law and God’s truth, you move toward iniquity, lawlessness. Iniquity divides, it suppresses love and justice and oppresses the weak and vulnerable. The ideology that allowed slavery to continue for as long as it did was not born out of Scripture nor out of the Constitution of the United States. The institutes and individuals who enforced this ideology were going against the very principles that guaranteed the liberty of individual rights and freedom from tyranny. Racism is not an institution. It is a sickness of the heart grown cold from unhitching itself from God’s truth and defining its own.
The irony of modern-day politics and culture is that the same ideology that was behind slavery is the same ideology behind critical race theory and the post-modern, humanistic redefining of truth. This ideology is not new. It began in the garden when Satan tempted man to define morality on their own terms rather than trust God. The result of following this ideology is always enslavement to corruption and destruction.
Our nation is moving rapidly toward destruction. Our only hope is Jesus Christ. That is easy to say, I know. What is the Christian to do practically when our liberties and rights are being purposely infringed upon? How do we maintain a testimony in a lawless, godless society? We will talk about this topic in the next article.