The Bible is Holy-spirit inspired scripture that is used to guide and teach humanity:
From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
(2nd Timothy 3:15-17).
It teaches us about God’s truth and love that extends to ALL people, regardless of skin color:
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
(Genesis 18:18, NIV).
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
(Galatians 3:28, NIV)
Disturbingly, white supremacists have been using the canonized Bible, as well as their own versions that greatly differ from the canonized Bible, as means of supporting a movement that establishes one race’s superiority over the other human races.
The Bible is not meant to establish white supremacy, brown supremacy, black supremacy, or any other kind of human supremacy over other human beings.
The Bible is meant to help human beings realize God’s supremacy over ALL creation:
Then they will learn that you alone are called the LORD, that you alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth.
(Psalm 83:18, NLT).
God’s majesty is outlined in many more old and new testament verses, many of them discussed in detail in J.J. Packer’s book, “Knowing God.”
Going back to the Bible, Mark and other gospel writers note that Jesus said that all the past Old Testament laws hung on these two commandments: 1. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and 2. Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). Nowhere in the Bible does it express the supremacy of one race over another. Even though Israelites are mentioned as God’s chosen people, they are considered to be equal in value to other races from every corner of the earth, as God wishes to see that NONE should perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16, 2nd Peter 3:9-10).
In addition to addressing errant theology put forward by white supremacist groups such as the Nazi movement, alt-right hate groups, KKK, and the Christian Identity churches, there are two main theological infections that we must be quick to treat:
1. The idea that White privilege does not exist:
The concept that all of humanity is one race, coming from Adam and Eve as our ancestors, is not mutually exclusive from the concept of acknowledging racial injustice that happens even today.
Stating the fact humanity has used skin color, despite our common origins described in the first few chapters of Genesis, to discriminate, oppress, and build empires does not undermine our common ancestry, but rather allows for those in disadvantaged backgrounds to move forward, with peace, with an accurate understanding of the past.
For example, we cannot ignore the historical fact that White slave owners in the United States systematically denied education, healthcare and other basic needs to African Americans, and some even used the Bible to justify their actions. Though slavery has been abolished, much of its repercussions continue to this day, with the term “white privilege,” being used to characterize the aftermath of those who are of white skin color having inherited a more favorable standing in the eyes of men, though not necessarily in the eyes of God.
White privilege is a term that is not meant as a put-down for my white brothers and sisters, but rather a declaration of the racial bias and injustice that had been institutionalized during the slave era in the united states, as well as numerous colonial empires in India and other countries. Racism is only now beginning to be slowly excised from our society. Just as one cannot excise a tumor without first acknowledging its existence, we must as humanity acknowledge how we have done wrong so that we can repent:
…if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. (Ezekiel 33:15, ESV).
White privilege is not a declaration that those in a more privileged position do not have struggles or have moments of injustice occur that is somehow lesser in its tragedy than an injustice experienced by a non-white brother or sister. Injustice weighs equally heavy on God’s heart, no matter its origin:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. (Isaiah 58: 1-12, NIV)
White privilege is not something that non-white people want to use as an excuse (and should not, lest they discredit current endeavors towards racial reconciliation and restoration of racial equality in this country and other countries) to continue in their struggles and circumstances, but rather a lamentation, and a call for an evil to be recognized, brought to Jesus Christ for healing and justice:
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14-21 ESV).
If we are unwilling to address this inequality within our societies, we would side with scholars like Jordan Peterson, who are content to settle the matter by simply stating that white privilege does not exist, and is a conspiracy theory with no evidence at best. The ongoing racial violence in the United States was recently brought under global scrutiny with the unjust, racially motivated murder of George Floyd. It took a heart-wrenching display of a human being with darker skin color crying out, “I can’t breathe,” while a human being with lighter skin color choked him to death using his knee, to shake the country, and perhaps the world, out of the pretense that white privilege does not exist. Must we wait for more of such incidents to occur before acknowledging that white privilege exists? The very fact that some of us can afford to question the existence of white privilege is telling of the kind of lives that are unaffected by day-to-day racism, and are therefore not required to acknowledge the existence of something that does not affect them.
Perhaps there is an unspoken fear that admitting white privilege exists means that we must also correct it- which requires us to look inward and not only question how we contributed to the existing racialized and colonial systems in place, but also formulate how we are to reform them. The Bible shows over and over (book of Judges anyone?) that human beings wishing to change their actions without changing the posture of their heart cannot and do not create lasting change.
Repentance, on the other hand, involves the complete turning away from a type of action that goes against God (and by extension, God’s creation). Unlike other types of heart change, repentance is unique in that it primarily seeks an audience with God, and whether other humans are present is a secondary matter. One could be a convicted felon and be completely unrepentant, whereas the same convicted felon could seek and audience with Jesus Christ, lay down his burdens, and have God Himself forgive and help wipe away the eternal consequences of his sin, no matter the felon’s earthly status:
“28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30, KJV)”
Jesus is the one person we can all run to, all the time, with all our sin, and He hears us, forgives us, and not only that- transforms us to help purge us from the very source of our sin- our sin nature that wants to rule over since the moment we disobeyed God (Genesis 3). Paul admits that it is hard work to repent, especially if we think we are repenting if all we are doing is making a list of rules and laws that will help us adhere to proper social and moral conduct. If we remove God from the picture, then we are left on our own to follow these man-made constructs, which on their own only serve to show us how incapable we are following them fully, individually and as a collective:
“7 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7, KJV)
Having laws and rules in place to protect people is important, especially since the idea of law and order itself came from God, who created order from chaos (Genesis 1). However, rules without God are just chains that hold us down, as Paul explains in Romans 7.
In the case of white privilege, the person who acknowledges its existence is not left to then seek their own way out of their sin. People can seek an audience with God, through Jesus Christ, repenting to God, and then asking God what one can do moving forward. In this way, acknowledging the pervasive racial inequalities due to the extant white privilege in each one of our countries would perhaps then move us towards the beautiful potential that God has created within each one of us:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
(Jeremiah 29:11).
2. Equating white privilege with God’s favor:
Several examples in the Bible contrast man-made privilege with God-given favor, but none more so than the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.
In Exodus chapters 1-14, God contrasts the uselessness of man-made privilege when compared to God-given favor through a series of plagues that affect the oppressors and frees the slaves. The more privileged class struggles to succeed in its attempts to subdue the Israelite slaves despite its technological advances (chariots), while the oppressed class sees the favor of God in protecting the land of Goshen during the plagues that affect the rest of Egypt simply because God had chosen them to be His people regardless of how much wealth or status they had. In the most epic scene, God parts the waters and the oppressed pass through safely, while the oppressors who pursue them are drowned by the same waters.
Placing our trust in man-made perks brought to us by whatever kind of privilege we enjoy can only last so long, and cannot stand up to the power and favor of God. God’s favor rests on those who seek Him, and not the privileged status this world has to offer:
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
Privilege is man-derived through colonialism, exploitation, oppression, and involves self-gain. God’s favor is miraculous (against the probabilisitic nature of events), just, and unconditionally loving.
Privilege is sinful as it puts another group of people at a disadvantage, whereas God’s favor is Holy, and expects those with many resources to help those without many resources (Luke 12:48).
Privilege reflects the fallen nature of man, while God’s favor reflects the eternal nature of God. Privilege, whether by race, money, gender, property or any other man-made status, is derived from humanity in its fallen state (Genesis 3) and is not from God.
It can be surmised that God’s blessing and societal privilege are fundamentally different in source and consequence.
In essence, one can be blessed, but not be socially privileged.
One can be socially privileged, and not be blessed by God.
In fact, it is more important that we have the privilege of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord, which does not automatically translate to us having social privilege. Because that privilege of being a child of God does automatically mean that we are blessed, as Jesus states in His sermon on the mount:
“5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:1-12, KJV)”
The purpose of privilege is man’s glory without regard to God, no matter the kind of supremacy that is being endorsed. The purpose of God’s favor, or blessing, is simply to show God’s supremacy over ALL creation, and love for ALL of humanity regardless of skin color or nationality.
There is such a thing as white privilege and it is present as global phenomenon. Yet, it is erroneous to conclude that those with white privilege are more blessed by God. By that same logic, the Egyptians would have been considered more blessed by God because they had social privilege compared to the Israelite slaves. However, God saved the Israelites, but did not honor the lives of their oppressors (Exodus 14).
Please prayerfully consider the points in this essay designed to confront the sacrilegious nature of race supremacy. Please pray that Jesus Christ gives us all wisdom on how to deal with racial conflicts, especially if you are inclined to the viewpoint that one race is superior to another. God considers all of humanity to be His children, made in His image. He does not favor one race over another. May God help us all to truly understand and live out these truths in love. Amen.
