RACISM OR CHRISTIANITY?

You Can’t Have Both!

 

 

Recently, a friend of mine, who was pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in Greenville, Miss., invited several black preachers and their congregations to hear a guest preacher in his church. Several of those black brethren came to hear a man preach the gospel. But when they arrived, they were turned away at the door by the church deacons. Later, a native black missionary from Jamaica was refused permission to preach in the church, because he was black.

                Needless to say, my friend resigned his pastoral office. Several members also left the church. Now they are seeking to establish a church where the gospel can be preached, and where all who love Christ and his gospel can freely gather to worship, regardless of their skin color. I publicly applaud this pastor and these people! Their decision is not merely a political one. It involves the very glory of God and the gospel of his grace. Racism is far too common among religious people. It needs to be denounced in unmistakable terms.

                You can have either racism or Christianity; but you cannot have both. In Christ there is no such thing as black and white. Our Lord has sent us to proclaim the gospel to all men, because all are sinners in need of his grace. We invite all men to come to Christ in faith, confessing their sins. And all who come are our brethren. Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, black and white, all are one in Jesus Christ. We are all chosen by the same love, redeemed by the same blood, regenerated by the same power, called by the same grace, clothed in the same righteousness, members of the same body, and heirs of the same promise.

                Can I love Christ and despise my black brother for whom Christ died? Perish the thought! "This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you." "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." I say, Where Christ lives in the heart and reigns as Lord, racism must die! In this place, we welcome our black brethren who desire to hear the gospel of God's free-grace and serve the honor of Christ. We know that the Church and Kingdom of Christ is made up of God's-

 

Elect from every nation,

Yet one o'er all the earth!