108 – RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
What is racism? Doctrine or attitude that affirms the superiority of certain human races, and is characterized by a disdain towards races considered inferior. For example: A certain nation progresses better than another and begins to consider the other inferior. Blacks and whites are different solely in their color of their skin, as they are the same in their spirits and intelligence. Since white men in Europe and America developed a great deal, and Africans remained as a primitive society, they were considered inferior beings, and were turned into slaves. They were transported in ships and sold as animals. They worked without pay and without freedom, under floggings and punishments.
In the USA, before the Secession War, the states of the North had four million slaves. The states of the South, eleven in all, because they were more agricultural, opposed the idea of the abolition of slavery. The war lasted five years. The abolition was in 1863, when the North fought to win the separatist war, under President Abraham Lincoln, which was murdered.
Racial discrimination is so abominable, that all nations had to put an end to this commerce. In England, in the city of Liverpool alone, there were two thousand slave ships. In 1781, Roscol, a historian of that city, raised up his voice against this commerce of blood. William Pitt, a British Statesman, pronounced in the Parliament an admirable speech of two hours, in 1973, a pathetic depiction of the horrors of the slave traffic. The abolitionist movement took shape in Europe. In 1792, on the 16th of May, Denmark abolished the traffic of black people in its colonies. In the continental congress in Philadelphia, in 1780, Pennsylvania had pronounced the freedom of the slaves born after the independence declaration. Soon after that, the states of the North and of the Center of the USA forbid the acquisition of new slaves. Smuggling, then, began. After these prohibitions, the commerce of black slaves in Europe grew.
In 1817, in England, this commerce became a capital crime. In 1831, their government pronounced the immediate release of all slaves of the royalty. In August 1, 1834, slavery was abolished in England. France, Austria and Russia were late in implementing the end of slavery, which had already been proposed in the congress, in Vienna, in December 20, 1841. In Mexico, the ships of traffic were confiscated, and the captains punished with ten years in prison. In Brazil, Princess Isabel abolished slavery in May 13, 1888,
Slavery came to an end, but racial prejudice and discrimination remains. In the USA, discrimination lasts 135 years, already. The blacks were not allowed in restaurants and hotels where whites went. Their children could not go to the schools of whites.
If whites discriminate between themselves because of their evil hearts, one can accept. What is unbelievable is that a God—declared good by his own Son (Matt.19:16-17), full of love (1 John 4:7-8), who saves all men (1 Tim.4:10) and who has proclaimed universal grace, and thus, pardon to all, with no distinctions (Titus 2:17), and who has sent his Son to save everyone who believes, that is, black, white, yellow, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, slave or free, idolatrous, criminal, prostitutes and homicides—would make racial discrimination. If the Father loves all men, he also loved the Egyptians, who were hated and discriminated by the demiurge, or Cosunocrator, or the prince of the powers of the air, who, according to many of the fathers of the Church in the first two centuries, was a racist, showing preferences, discriminating people and kingdoms. To that god, all peoples and kingdoms were filthy, except his people. “For you are a holy people to Jehovah; and Jehovah has chosen you to be a people for His own possession” (Deut.14:2). Israel did not correspond to the plans of Jehovah, and was sent to captivity in Assyria, in 721 BC, as punishment. Years later, in 606 BC, the kingdom of Judah went to captivity in Babylon.
Jehovah promises to restore both kingdoms, making them into one (Ezek.37). Jeremiah sets up 70 years for this great work (Jer.25:11; 29:10-14). The kingdom of Israel would be superior to the other kingdoms, and all peoples would serve Israel, which shows the divine discrimination. “And foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you; for I My wrath I struck you, and in My favor I have had compassion on you” (Is.60:10). “And strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, and foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers” (Is.61:5). “Thus says Jehovah your God, ‘Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. And kings will be your guardians, and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; And you will know that I am Jehovah; those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame’” (Is.49:22-23).
We read in the New Testament that the true God is the Father of all the peoples, and that in his kingdom no one is going to kiss any one’s feet. “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also” (Rom.3:29). Jehovah was
God only to Israel, but the Father is God of all men (Eph.4:6).
Christians, inspired in the Old Testament and fed by the desire to be superior to the nations, made a scatological interpretation of Revelations in which they dream of ruling over the peoples with an iron rod, for a thousand years. The basic texts for this dream are found in the book of Revelations. “And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father” (Rev.2:26,27). “And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev.5:10). “…and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Rev.20:4).
If Jesus will form a superior people to reign over an inferior people with an iron rod, he will be matching the plans of Jehovah.
Thoughts that help clear the issue:
1. Jesus will not rule in this world, for he declared, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
2. Paul said that he will live in a celestial kingdom, and not in an earthly kingdom (2 Tim.4:18).
3. Our country is not on this earth, and we are foreigners here (Heb.11:13-16).
4. The earth is the kingdom of Satan, and God is not going to bring his kingdom together with Satan’s kingdom (Matt.12:24-28).
5. The church is the kingdom of God among men, but only as to deliver them from Satan’s power, and bring them to the kingdom of light (Acts 26:18; Col.1:12-13).
6. Peter says that our inheritance is in heaven and not on earth (1 Pet.1:3-4).
By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira