RACE, RACISM AND HATRED

 RACE, RACISM AND HATRED

INTRO

The church was designed to be on the forefront of the conversations about race. The church

has been called to speak out against oppression, defend the marginalized, live as peacemakers

and lead their communities in reconciliation and transformative change. The issue of race is

rooted in a bigger issue of sin in the human heart

I. ORIGINAL SIN

Rom 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and

thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Psalm 51:5

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me

Rom 3:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Ex. Depravity of Humanity (Pig will be a Pig)

1. Shame

Gen 3:7

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were

naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings

2. Division and Hatred

 Casting of Personal Responsibility through blame

Gen 3:8-13 (Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the Serpent)

 Jealousy and Murder

Gen 6:5-8 (Cain killed Abel)

 The World System

Gen 3:17-19

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and

have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not

eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the

days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and

you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat

bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you

are, and to dust you shall return.”

There is a connection between sin and the creation (structures and systems)

II. Individual Sin vs Structural Sin

Lam 5:7

Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities.

Ezek. 18:1-8

The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, 2  “What do you mean when you use

this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: ‘The fathers have eaten sour

grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 3  “As I live,” says the Lord GOD,

“you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. 4 “Behold, all souls are Mine, The soul

of the father. As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die. 5 But

if a man is just And does what is lawful and right; 6 If he has not eaten on the

mountains, Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, Nor defiled his

neighbor’s wife, Nor approached a woman during her impurity; 7 If he has not

oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by

violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing;

8 If he has not exacted usury Nor taken any increase, But has withdrawn his hand

from iniquity And executed true judgment between man and man

Ex. If Cain were Mayor how would his policies affect Abel

Anything that simply blames a system but totally removes the possibility of

individual culpability is wrong and unbiblical

1. Historical Manifestations

a. Pre-Flood

Gen 6:5-8

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and

that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6  And

the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved

in His heart. 7  So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from

the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air,

for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of

the LORD

b. Aztec’s Atrocities

c. Romans and Greeks Barbaric Influences

d. Slavery

e. Apartheid

f. Holocaust

g. Rwanda Genocide

h. Jim Crow

i. Racial Conflict

III. EFFORTS AT ATTEMPTING TO BRING CHANGE

1. Humanistic Methods

Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the potential and

agency of human beings, individually and socially. It considers human

beings as the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.

Humanists believe that human experience and rational thinking provide

the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by. They reject

the idea of knowledge 'revealed' to human beings by God, gods, or in

special books.

Science, Advancements and technology…The best of humanity can reform us

Psalm 14:1

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have

done abominable works, There is none who does good

2. Communist Marxist Efforts

Karl Marx studied philosophy at the University of Berlin and received a doctorate

from the University of Jena in 1841, He then turned to journalism, where his

investigations disclosed what he perceived as systematic injustice and corruption

at all levels of German society.

Views so radical resulted in him being forced vacate to Paris where he met

Frederich Engels.

Appalled by the poverty and squalor in which ordinary workers lived and worked

Marx and Engels maintained that the poverty, disease, and early death that

afflicted the proletariat, (the industrial working class) were endemic to

capitalism: they were systemic and structural problems that could be resolved

only by replacing capitalism with communism.

Under this alternative system, the major means of industrial production—such

as mines, mills, factories, and railroads—would be publicly owned and operated

for the benefit of all.

Marx laid the theoretical foundations of communism, first in German Ideology

(written 1845–46, published 1932) and later in Das Kapital (1867; Capital). His

theory has three main aspects: first, a materialist conception of history; second,

a critique of capitalism and its inner workings; and third, an account of the

revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and its eventual replacement by

communism.

Marx held that human history had progressed through a series of stages, from

ancient slave society through feudalism to capitalism. In each stage a dominant

class uses its control of the means of production to exploit the labour of a larger

class of workers. But internal tensions or “contradictions” in each stage

eventually lead to the overthrow and replacement of the ruling class by its

successor. Thus, the bourgeoisie overthrew the aristocracy and replaced

feudalism with capitalism. Marx predicted, the proletariat overthrow the

bourgeoisie and replace capitalism with communism.

Marx acknowledged that capitalism was a historically necessary stage of

development that had brought about remarkable scientific and technological

changes—changes that greatly increased aggregate wealth by extending

humankind’s power over nature. The problem, Marx believed, was that this

wealth—and the political power and economic opportunities that went with

it—was unfairly distributed

There is a dominant ideology pervasive through all society and even the inferior

class embraces it.

False consciousness makes them embrace this. The number one false

consciousness is religion. Marx called it “the opiate of the people”

Marx believed that capitalism is a volatile economic system that will suffer a

series of ever-worsening crises, recessions and depressions - that will produce

greater unemployment, lower wages, and increasing misery among the industrial

proletariat. These crises will convince the proletariat that its interests as a class

are implacably opposed to those of the ruling bourgeoisie. Armed with

revolutionary class consciousness, the proletariat will seize the major means of

production along with the institutions of state power— police, courts, prisons,

and so on—and establish a socialist state that Marx called “the revolutionary

dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletariat will thus rule in its own class

interest, as the bourgeoisie did before, in order to prevent a counterrevolution

by the displaced bourgeoisie. Once this threat disappears, however, the need

for the state will also disappear. Thus, the interim state will wither away and

be replaced by a classless communist society. 1

Won’t happen. It will simply cause the proletariat to become the bourgeoisie.

Other branches of the same root

a. Liberation Theology

b. Black Liberation Theology

c. Critical Theory

d. Critical Race Theory

1. Paul the Apostle and James Cone

Jewish Oppression: Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and

now Romans. They were banished from Rome two hundred years ago and

tried again thirty years ago. Romans have invaded occupied Jerusalem. The

Roman taxation system kept many Jews poor.

Here’s What Paul does not say…

Look at all the horrors Roman and Greek Ancestors unleashed on the Jews.”

He does not say, “Jewish believers, wake up to the fact that the gentiles have

long oppressed you and that they are presently benefitting from all that

injustice.”

Ex. He understood such language would pit one group against another and it

would split the church.

a. He declared sin is everyone’s issue not just the dominant race

Romans 3:9

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have

previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin

Romans 3:10-12

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none

who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all

turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none

who does good, no, not one.

No ethnic or religious group identity can absolve anyone from evil.

“For there is no distinction”—meaning no difference between one

people group and another—“for all have sinned and fall short of the

glory of God.”

b. Second, Paul declared that being “in Christ Jesus” is a new identity

that transcends other group identities.

Gal 3:26-28

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27  For as many

of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28  There is

neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither

male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

In Christ, ethnic enemies become family, oppressed and oppressors

become brothers and sisters, and privileged and underprivileged

become siblings under the same all-loving Father.

Ex. Ted Vail

c. Third, Paul declared that God alone can absolve us of sin through

what Jesus did on the cross.

Eph 2:13-14

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought

near by the blood of Christ. 14  For He Himself is our peace, who has

made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ

Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the

Spirit

Romans 8:33-34

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

34  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is

also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes

intercession for us

Contrast Paul’s approach with that of James Cone the father of black liberation

theology. This was his understanding of reconciliation.

When whites undergo the true experience of conversion wherein they die to

whiteness and are reborn anew in order to struggle against white oppression

and for the liberation of the oppressed, there is a place for them in the black

struggle of freedom. Here reconciliation becomes God’s gift of blackness through

the oppressed of the land. But it must be made absolutely clear that it is the

black community that decides both the authenticity of white conversion and also

the part these converts will play in the black struggle for freedom. The converts

can have nothing to say about the validity of their conversion experience or what

is best for the community or their place in it, except as permitted by the

oppressed community itself. . . . White converts, if there are any to be found,

must be made to realize that they are like babies who have barely learned to

walk and talk. . . . They must be told when to speak and what to say, otherwise

they will be excluded from our struggle. . . . Unless whites can get every single

black person to agree that reconciliation is realized, there is no place

whatsoever for white rhetoric about the reconciling love of blacks and whites. .

. . Just because we work with them and sometimes worship alongside them

should be no reason to claim that they are truly Christians and thus part of our

struggle.” 2

2. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

IV. BIBLICAL WAYS TO AFFECT THE SYSTEM OF SIN

a. Transformation of the human Heart through the gospel

Romans 8:18-22

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be

compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19  For the earnest

expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God

20  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who

subjected it in hope 21  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the

bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22  For we

know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until

now.

Earnest Expectation – apokaradokia - A watching with the head erect and

outstretched. Hence a waiting in suspense

In Gen 3:17 – Creation suffered. The systems were tainted by man’s sin

Manifestation - is apokalupsis (ἀποκαλυψις), “an uncovering, a laying bare

the non-rational creation, subject to the curse put upon it because of man’s sin,

is expectantly waiting for the glorification of the saints, that it also may be

delivered from the curse under which it now exists.

This has a future and present meaning. The sons of God can now manifest and

make a difference in creation

Aztec’s Atrocities

Romans and Greeks Barbaric Influences

Slavery

Holocaust

Apartheid

Rwanda Genocide

Jim Crow

Racial Conflict

The influence of Christ has conquered these systems.

b. Discipling of the people into mature disciples

Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all

things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end

of the age.

c. Entering into unjust systems and changing what you can (If you are called)

Matthew 28:18-20

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19  Go therefore and

make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all things that I have

commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age

d. Praying. Ex. At rally we ain’t praying we have prayed long enough

1 Peter 2:1-2

Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and

giving of thanks be made for all men, 2  for kings and all who are in authority, that

we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence

2 Chron 7:14

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and

seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and

will forgive their sin and heal their land

e. Nonviolent Resistance

f. Embracing individual responsibility

Matthew 7:5

And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the

plank in your own eye? 4  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the

speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5  Hypocrite! First

remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove

the speck from your brother’s eye

Ex. Projects I grew up in and Grace Church School

Some proponents of modern day racial conflict theory believe that a minority

group cannot be racist because they are not in power. Just as cancer in any

group is cantankerous, hatred and bigoted attitudes in any group is destructive.

Hatred anywhere is just as bad as hatred everywhere. Allowing the x-ray of

honesty to reveal it in our hearts is a step towards reconciliation

g. As much as you can live at peace with all

Rom 12:18

  If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men

We are to seek peace, not disunity or division. If conflict comes to us, we can’t

help that but we are not to be the initiators of conflict. In this I do not say we are

not to fight against wrong laws, or unjust standards. But when we do our aim

should be peace as children of the Prince of Peace. Some Alternate Theories in

their essence sets people against each other based on skin color and class

distinctions. It doesn’t result in peace. Our end goal should be peace not simply a

reversal of position.

h. Esteem others as better than you are

Phil 2:3-4

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind

let each esteem others better than himself. 4  Let each of you look out not only for

his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Seeking the best interest of others is a superior way to live. It will rank you as a

Captain in the Army faith. Esteeming others as better than you are…that’s at

least Brigadier General capacity.

When the value of your fellow human is higher than that of yourself respect will

automatically follow. There is a certain dignity you will assign to them that will

break stereo types and mend offenses. Instead of devaluing an individual based

on the ethnic group they are assigned as some theories do, you value them

based on the image they bear. We are all stamped with the image and likeness

of God. Some say the best view is from the top I believe it’s from the bottom.

When I lower myself to raise you up I am never more clear. I can see what’s

wrong with you but it doesn’t blind me to what is good in you.

i. Recognize the high place of being in Christ

Rom 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to

those who are the called according to His purpose

God is helplessly redemptive…He can’t help himself. Everything in Him tends

towards redemption to such a degree that nothing can happen to you that He

will not work out for your good. Nothing! This verse is not qualified by whether

the events were good or bad. All things means everything. The worst pain your

enemies can assign can result in the greatest progress if you are in Christ. This

actually means you cannot loose. Even if you lose the game, you win the series.

My concern with Some racial Theories is they constantly remind you of victim

status. Every person of the dominant race is overtly or complicitly oppressing

you and you are hopelessly oppressed by it unless you become the majority. I

disagree with this strongly. I You are already in a majority through Christ. You

are literally winning all the time. God will ultimately turn every curve ball into a

grand slam in your life. You must not accept the victim or oppressed status…You

are liberated. You are not free due to outward circumstances but because of

inward reality. I AM lives in you. How can you be under?

j. Lovingly confront individuals and systems with a goal towards reconciliation

2 Tim 2:25

in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant

them repentance, so that they may know the truth

Since injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere as MLK Jr. wisely

stated. We must at times take both indirect and direct action against what does

not line up with the heart and the Word of God. The tension produced by

confrontation is sometimes essential. Jesus did not just come to bring pseudo

peace but authentic peace. Sometimes authentic peace is through conflict.

When we must confront our method is what will make a world of difference. Our

methods of confrontation may range from verbal to non-violent resistance. But

they must be laced with love and garnished with humility. Anything other than

this frequency will produce a dissonant chord. Some racial theories do not hope

to bring peace through reconciliation. It only seeks to be critical and blame

people for their birth status as part of a dominant oppressive race. Individualism

is almost obliterated. The group you belong to is your sin. If your group is

dominant, you have no right to even debate issues that those of the minority

group face. Group identity reigns. If we swallow such theories they will produce

the bitter indigestion of increased race and class warfare. It doesn’t resolve or

dissolve. It only enflames.

The gospel way is better. It will produce the desired result of reconciliation for

those willing to reconcile.

k. Set your hope on the coming utopia

1 Peter 1:13

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon

the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ

We live in such an unjust broken world. The fall of man and the ensuing sinful

nature humanity inherited has produced a viral strain of division that is

constantly mutating. As a result of the depravity of man I fear that if we had the

pill that totally solved the racial divisiveness across the globe, the virus would

still emerge in classism, sexism or some other “ism”. Scripture reveals that things

will not be perfected until Jesus returns and sets up His Kingdom. It is then we

will experience true earthly justice before tasting heavenly eternal justice. The

Prophet Isaiah writing of Jesus declared “ He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till

He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.

(Isaiah 42:4).

We must still fight for every form of true justice we can attain on this earth. God

wants earth as it is in Heaven. But lest we become weary and worn know that

the bell will ring soon, and the winner of fight will be Jesus. He will get the

champions belt and if faithful, we the victors crown.

Stick with the Biblical Solutions and resist any other system. It will be worth it

temporally and eternally.

Becoming a Warrior Pastor Fred

 Becoming a Warrior

Being Tough but Tender

1. You are born a warrior.

Isaiah 49:1-2 “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath

called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my

name. 

2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid

me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;” 

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth

out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Genesis 1:26-28 “We were created in the Image of God.”

Proverbs 18:21 “Like God, our victory is in our Mouth, life and death”

2. Our situation and circumstances cause us to forget who we are.

Isaiah 49:4 “Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in

vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God

3. We are warriors because of covenant.

1 Samuel 17:34-36 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there

came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: (David’s interview with Saul) 35

And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he

arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 36 Thy servant

slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them,

seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

1. We are a chosen generation, God’s own people.

 Sometimes we forget who we are. Israel was reminded by David that they were

warriors because of covenant.

 We need to know the Lord is our strength.

Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount

up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not

faint.”

Psalm 144:1-2 “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers

for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my

shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”

1. The Lord is your strength.

2 Samuel 10:12 “Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God.

The LORD will do what is good in his sight.”

Jeremiah 51:20 “Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in

pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;”

1. You become a warrior by having courage and knowing that the Lord is with you.

1 John 5:5 “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the

Son of God.”

1. Is He with you? Who is He to you?

Matthew 16:15-20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed

are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my

Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my

church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the

kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you

loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone

that he was the Messiah.”

Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you - Believe in me: receive me as your prophet,

priest, and king. For I am meek and lowly in heart - Meek toward all men, lowly toward God:

and ye shall find rest - Whoever therefore does not find rest of soul, is not meek and lowly.”

The 6 Pieces of the Armor of God and How to Use Them

Ephesians 6:10–18 “ 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the

full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our

struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly

realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you

may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand

firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of

righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the

gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can

extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with

all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for

all the Lord’s people.”

 A shield design can communicate stability, protection, longevity, tradition, solidity,

masculinity, toughness, boldness, confidence, no retreat, no surrender.

 The belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel, shield of faith,

helmet of salvation, and sword of the spirit all make up the whole armor of God.

 Every true follower of Jesus Christ needs to wear it.

1. BELT OF TRUTH

We know that in God, there is no sin, and all of His words are true and alive. He is perfect in all

of his ways (Psalm 18:30), whereas Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to

the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar

and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Thus, the belt of truth is in essence the truth we find in God

himself and His word, whereas Satan’s character displays the complete opposite of truth.

2. BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

​The second piece of the whole armor of God is the Breastplate of Righteousness, which we can

understand by looking at God’s righteous character.

Romans 3:11-12 “…that nobody is righteous by himself, nobody does good, and apart from God

seeking out for us, we are lost and unrighteous without Him.”

3. SHOES OF THE GOSPEL

To be effective soldiers of God, we must be able to move around and spread His word. In

Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus called on His disciples, as well as calling on all of His future followers

to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

4. SHIELD OF FAITH

 Use the Shield of Faith to really protect yourself as a Christian and “extinguish all the

flaming darts of the evil one”.

 Having faith in God and His promises, will act as a shield to protect us from doubt and

the lies thrown at us from the world.

5. HELMET OF SALVATION

The Helmet of Salvation is a very crucial piece of spiritual armor, as it involves protecting our

head from the lies and doubts about our salvation in Jesus that can be planted in our minds.

6. SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

Looking back to our main passage from Ephesians 4, you need to take with you “the sword of

the Spirit, which is the word of God.” 

 The Sword of the Spirit is the key weapon in our spiritual arsenal that God has given us

to win the battle against the devil.

 We are not fighting, we just trust God like Jehoshaphat. We will stand ready with praise

on our mouth.

TRUTH THE HISTORICAL IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY PT. 2

 Matthew 28:19-20

19  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all things that I have

commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen

I. EDUCATION

Several hundred years before Christ, the ancient Greeks had their philosophers

(Thales, Xenophanes (Zee NO Phanes), Par-men-i-des, Zeno, Pythagoras,

Democritus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) and their poets (Euripides, Aeschylus,

Aristophanes, and Sophocles). And to a lesser degree, the Romans also had their

gifted thinkers (Seneca, Cicero, Platus, Pliny the Elder, Lucretius, Tacitus, and

others). All were learned men who functioned in the realm of what today is called

higher education. Given this literary orientation, some historians have referred to

the Greeks and Romans as having had the first “universities.” But as Charles Haskins

has noted, these brilliant men developed no permanent institutions. They had no

libraries, they had no guild of scholars or students, and they certified no one. 1.

It can be argued, they tested no theories and engaged in no research; in fact, they

ignored and even spurned the inductive method. Hence, it does not appear correct

to assume, as is sometimes done, that the university of the twentieth century is a

lineal descendant of the ancient Greek philosophers. 2

Obedient to Christ’s command that the disciples and all Christians were to teach

people “all things” that he commanded them, newcomers to the church were

instructed as “catechumens”; that is, they were taught orally by the question-and-

answer method in preparation for baptism and church membership. Both men and

women were catechized, often over a period of two to three years.

Catechetical instruction led to formal catechetical schools with a strong literary

emphasis.

 Public Schools

 Graded Education

 Kindergarten

 Deaf

 Blind

St. Benedict of Nursia (480–543?), founded the Benedictine order’s first monastery at

Monte Cassino, Italy, in 528, and soon built monasteries in many other locations.

St. Benedict has been called “the godfather of libraries.” 3

The New Testament Gospels Jesus commands his disciples: ““Teaching them” (Matthew

28:20)

The Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve) Author unknown, ca. A.D. 85-110 Catechetical

schools Justin Martyr, ca. A.D. 150

Cathedral/episcopal schools

Founder unknown,

4th cent. Monastery/nunnery schools - Founder unknown, 5th cent.

First university (Bologna, Italy) - Emperor Frederick Barbarossa,

1158 Public schools - Martin Luther,

1530s Universal (education for all) - Martin Luther, 1530s / John Calvin

1550s Tax-supported education - Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon

1530s Compulsory education - Martin Luther

1530s Graded education - Johann Sturm,

1530s First American college - (Harvard) New Towne (1636) renamed Harvard College

after John Harvard (a clergyman) in 1639

Kindergarten schools Friedrich Froebel, 1840s

Sunday schools - Robert Raikes, 1780

Deaf education (Europe) - Abbe Charles Michel de l’Epee, 1775

Deaf education (America) - Thomas Gallaudet, 1817

16th cent. Blind education (Braille method) Louis Braille, 1834

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War—except the

University of Pennsylvania—was established by some branch of the Christian church.” 4

in 1932, when Donald Tewksbury published The Founding of American Colleges and Universities

Before the Civil War, 92 percent of the 182 colleges and universities were founded by Christian

denominations.

 Harvard College, established in 1636, now known as Harvard University, was

founded by the Congregational Church as a theological institution

 The College of William and Mary started as an Episcopalian school, also primarily

to train clergy

 Yale University began mostly as a Congregational institution to “Educate

Ministers in our Own Way.” 5

 The Methodists founded Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

 Columbia University (first known as King’s College) began as an Episcopalian

venture.

 Princeton University started as a Presbyterian school.

 Brown University had Baptist origins.

 The University of Kentucky, the University of California (Berkeley), and the

University of Tennessee, started as church schools.

Despite the massive departure of so many formerly Christian colleges from their

original charters, the fact remains that many would not be in existence today had it

not been for their Christian initiators.

Catechetical schools, cathedral schools, episcopal schools, monasteries, medieval

universities, schools for the blind and deaf, Sunday schools, modern grade schools,

secondary schools, modern colleges, universities, and universal education all have

one thing in common: they are the products of Christianity. Thus, Kennedy and

Newcombe are right when they write, “Every school you see—public or private,

religious or secular—is a visible visible reminder of the religion of Jesus Christ. So is

every college and university.” 6

II. HOSPITALS AND COMPASSION

Matthew 25:35-36

For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a

stranger and you took Me in; 36  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you

visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

Luke 10:30-37

  Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to

Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and

departed, leaving him half dead. 31  Now by chance a certain priest came down that

road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32  Likewise a Levite,

when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.

33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw

him, he had compassion. 34  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on

oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care

of him. 35  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to

the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend,

when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36  So which of these three do you think was

neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37  And he said, “He who showed mercy

on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Matthew 4:23

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel

of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the

people

Tertullian (d. ca. 220), the Latin church father in northern Africa, informs us that the

early Christians had a common fund to which they gave voluntarily, without any

compulsion, on a given day of the month or whenever they wished to contribute

(Apology 39). This fund supported widows, the physically disabled, needy orphans,

the sick, prisoners incarcerated for their Christian faith, and teachers requiring help;

it provided burials for poor people and sometimes funds for the release of slaves.

Human compassion, especially with regard to the sick and dying, among the ancients

was rare, notably among the Greco-Romans. As with the practice of charity, such

behavior was contrary to their cultural ethos and to the teachings of the pagan

philosophers. For instance, Plato (427– 347 B.C.) said that a poor man (usually a

slave) who was no longer able to work because of sickness should be left to die. He

even praised Aesculapius, the famous Greek physician, for not prescribing medicine

to those he knew were preoccupied with their illness (Republic 3.406d– 410a). The

Roman philosopher Plautus (254–184 B.C.) argued, “You do a beggar bad service by

giving him food and drink; you lose what you give and prolong his life for more

misery” (Trinummus 2.338–39).

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends 

 Orphanages

 Child Labor Laws

HOSPITALS

The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in Cappadocia about A.D. 369. It

was one of “a large number of buildings, with houses for physicians and nurses,

workshops, and industrial schools.” 27

THE RED CROSS FOUNDER

A decade or so before he died, his native country Switzerland allowed him to return

with honor and dignity, and in 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize ever

bestowed. What seemed to matter most to him was his faith in Jesus Christ. This is

apparent from the words he spoke on his deathbed: “I am a disciple of Christ as in

the first century, and nothing more.” 28

III. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

Slavery was indigenous to African and Arab countries before it made its way to

Europe. 7

Prevalence of Slavery (Not just an American Problem)

By the time of Christ came slaves made up about 75% of the population in ancient

Athens and well over half of the Roman population. Slavery was also widely

practiced by many tribes of the American Indians long before Europeans came to the

New World.

The tragedy of slavery continued in a number of countries for more than a hundred

years after it was outlawed in the United States in 1865. Ethiopia had slavery until

1942, Saudi Arabia until 1962, Peru until 1964, and India until 1976. Moreover, it still

exists to this day in Sudan. 8

SLAVERY

About 25 percent of the Americans in the South had slaves before the Civil War.

According to the United States census of 1830. Also 407 black Americans in

Charleston, South Carolina, alone owned black slaves. 9

Early Christian Opposition to Slavery

Philemon 1:15-16

For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him

forever, 16  no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially

to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord

Gal 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male

nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus

Some Christians did not fully heed Paul’s antislavery statements.

But there were changes happening. Christians interacted with slaves as they did with

those free. Slaves communed with Christians at the same altar.

The romans and Greeks had completely different views

The Romans held slaves in contempt 10

The greeks also dismissed slaves. Aristotle argued that “a slave is a living tool, just as

a tool is an inanimate slave. Therefore there can be no friendship with a slave as

slave” (Nichomachean Ethics 8.11).

CHRISTAIN INFLUENCE BEGAN TO FREE SLAVES

W. E. H. Lecky, who says,

 “St. Melania was said to have emancipated 8,000 slaves;

 St. Ovidius, a rich martyr of Gaul, 5,000;

 Chromatius, a Roman prefect under Diocletian, 1,400;

 Hermes, a prefect under Trajan,

 1,200. [And] many of the Christian clergy at Hippo under the rule of St.

Augustine, as well as great numbers of private individuals, freed their slaves as

an act of piety.” 11

3 RD CENTURY

Constantine in A.D. 315, only two years after he issued the Edict of Milan, imposed

the death penalty on those who stole children to bring them up as slaves. 12

4 TH CENTURY

 In the fourth century Lactantius (the “Christian Cicero”) in his Divine Institutes

said that in God’s eyes there were no slaves.

 St. Augustine (354–430) saw slavery as the product of sin and as contrary to

God’s divine plan (The City of God 19.15).

 St. Chrysostom, in the fourth century, preached that when Christ came, he

annulled slavery. He proclaimed that “in Christ Jesus there is no slave. . .

.Therefore it is not necessary to have a slave. . . .Buy them, and after you have

taught them some skill by which they can maintain themselves, set them free”

(Homily 40 on 1 Corinthians 10).

5 th CENTURY

St. Patrick in Ireland condemned slavery in the 5 th century.

For several centuries bishops and councils recommended the redemption of captive

slaves, and for five centuries the Christian monks redeemed Christian slaves from

Moorish servitude.

12 th CENTURY

By the twelfth century slaves in Europe were rare, and by the fourteenth century

slavery was almost unknown on the Continent of Europe.

BRITISH SLAVERY

 William Wilberforce (1759– 1833),

In 1823, two years before he had to relinquish his seat in the House of Commons

because of ill health, he presented a petition to the House of Commons to abolish

slavery, a petition that a close associate of his, Thomas Fowell Buxton, moved “as a

resolution declaring slavery repugnant to Christianity and the Constitution.” 14

A few days before he died on July 26, 1833, he received word that Parliament had

passed the Abolition Act. This act resulted in freeing 700,000 slaves by England in its

West Indies colonies. 15

Wilberforce is a magnificent example of fighting the sin of slavery in the name of

Christ. By 1840 Slavery was totally outlawed in the British Empire making it the first

modern country to outlaw slavery.

Ex. Amazing Grace

SLAVERY IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

Even after slavery came to an end in the British Empire in the 1830s, it continued in the

north and south in the British West Indies, the United States, Brazil, and Mexico. In the

United States it grew till 25% of the Southerners owned slaves.

The United States received a relatively low percentage of the ten million African slaves

imported to the New World between 1502 and the 1860s. It had received about 7%;

Brazil, 41%; the British and French colonies in the Caribbean, along with the Spanish

settlements, 47%; and the Dutch, Danish, and Swedish colonies, 5%. 16

Christian Pioneers of Abolition

 Elijah Lovejoy - killed by rioting pro-slavery radicals in his printing office in Alton,

Illinois, in November 1837, is often cited as the abolitionists’ first martyr. He was

a Presbyterian clergyman who had attended Princeton Theological Seminary. His

strong stand against slavery, prompted by his Christian convictions, cost him his

life.

 Edward Beecher, president of Illinois College, was also a strong promoter of the

abolitionist cause, largely through the auspices of the college. Black students, for

instance, were welcomed as students, a rare phenomenon in those days. The

college, a Christian institution, was labeled by the Illinois State Register of

Springfield, Illinois, as a “freedom-shrieking tool of abolitionism.” 18



Christ’s teachings definitely have to be credited with having moved Christian clergy

like Lovejoy, the Beechers (Harriet, Henry, and Edward), Mahan, Shipperd, Finney,

Weld, Torrey, and others too numerous to mention. That is also how Lyman Beecher

saw it. One researcher cites him as saying that abolitionism was the offspring of the

Great Revival that preceded it in the eastern states. 19

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) depicts the misery of America’s enslavement of the Negro. It

brought the tragedy of American slavery to the attention of the entire world.

Unfortunately, one rarely hears about the Christian motivation that moved Harriet

Beecher Stowe to write her revealing, antislavery novel. Harriet casts Uncle Tom in the

role of the suffering servant as he suffers physically under the hands of his last slave

master. Christlike, he refuses to take revenge despite powerful urgings from his fellow

slaves; he clings to the promises of Christ up to his death, which was caused by the

beatings his slave owner inflicted on him.

As one analyst has well observed, “Uncle Tom [the book] takes a Christian approach that

suffering is redemptive, and that evil will be atoned for.” 20

 On one occasion, a sea captain who met her said that he was pleased to shake the hand

that wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She responded that she did not write the book. “God

wrote it,” she said, “I merely did his dictation .” 21

The Black Church

In all of the pain and suffering that the American blacks endured during slavery, they

were greatly aided by Christianity’s presence in their lives through the vehicle of black

churches. The Negro church was virtually the only place where slaves were allowed to

congregate, to experience a spiritual union with other slaves, and to feel equal to the

white man, especially in the eyes of God.

Even Eugene Genovese, once a Marxist, credits Christianity as the institution that

enabled the black slaves in America to survive the prolonged dehumanization process. 22

In the North during the antebellum era, numerous black churches functioned as

“stations” “stations” of the Underground Railroad as well as centers of abolitionist

activities.

(1) opportunities for emotional release where individuals could express their oppression

(2) social interaction with other slaves

(3) educational opportunities so that many individuals learned to read and write

(4) socioeconomic assistance to the sick and bereaved

(5) social cohesion that gave a sense of belonging

(6) solace and comfort

(7) leadership opportunities

AMERICAS FIRST PROCLAMATION AGAINST SLAVERY

America’s first formal proclamation against slavery in 1688. He was Franz Daniel

Pastorius, a Mennonite. He brought 5000 acres and started Germantown Pennsylvania.

In 1688 Pastorius approached his Quaker friends in the Germantown area with a protest

against slavery. The formally written protest, which was signed by Pastorius and several

other German immigrants, invoked the Golden Rule, among other arguments. In part it

read, “There is a saying that we shall doe [sic] to all men, like as we will be done

ourselves, making no difference of what generation, Descent or Colour they are, and

those who steal or rob men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they not all

alike?” 23

The Quakers resisted him but in 1705 they did take a public stand against slavery.

AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Slavery ended officially in 1865 but racial segregation, which was formally legitimated by

the United States Supreme Court in 1896 in its Plessy v. Ferguson established the

“separate but equal” principle. The Supreme Court overturned the 1896 ruling in its

Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

Three years later, in 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. helped found the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference (SCLC), It’s nonviolent practices came from Christian roots. He

wanted the organization’s members and eventually all Americans to imitate the early

Christians, who, he said, “were small in number but big in commitment. They were too

God-intoxicated to be ‘astronomically intimidated.’ They brought an end to such ancient

evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.” 26

One reporter summed up the Selma event by saying, “In the age of Martin Luther,

churches discovered the individual conscience. In the age of Martin Luther King, the

churches may be discovering how to put the individual conscience to work.” 24

CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

 In 1949 the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) issued a lengthy

document in support of civil rights for American blacks,

 The Southern Baptist Convention denounced the Ku Klux Klan and its use of the

Christian cross, calling the Klan’s practice “a presumptuous sacrilege.” 25

  Also in 1949, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ, composed of twenty-

seven denominations, moved toward supporting racial integration .

Conclusion

Both the abolition of slavery and rejection of racial segregation have their roots

in the earliest teachings of Christianity.

CHRISTIANS WHO WERE PRO-SLAVERY

 In spite of St. Paul’s words to Philemon and to the Galatians, for more than a

thousand years many Christians owned slaves. This included even prominent church

leaders such as:

 Polycarp, a second-century bishop of Smyrna

 Athenagoras, a second-century Christian philosopher.

 Clement of Alexandria and Origen,

 In the thirteenth century St. Bonaventure saw slavery as a divine institution

 In 1548 Pope Paul III granted to all men, and to the clergy, the right to keep

slaves.

Many Americans who defended slavery, called themselves Christians. Every state had

preachers who argued that slavery was compatible with Christianity. But the abolitionist

movement had a considerably higher percentage of Christian clergy than did the pro-

slavery defenders. Two-thirds of the abolitionists in the mid– 1830s were Christian

clergy. 17

I see this as the evil use and abuse of good tools. Throughout history you have had cults

who use the word of God to deceive many, there have been false prophets who use the

word to ensnare many etc. People using the words of life to enslave people is evil and

demonic. But it doesn’t subtract from the validity of the word.

NOTES

1. Charles H. Haskins, The Rise of Universities (New York: Henry Holt, 1923), 3.

2. A. B. Cobban, The Medieval Universities: Their Development and Organization

(Chatham, England: Methuen, 1975), 22.

3. Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers (New York: Vintage Books, 1983), 491.

4. Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Rockville,

Md.: Assurance Publishers, 1984), 157.

5.  Thomas Clap: cited in Donald Tewksbury, The Founding of American Colleges and

Universities Before the Civil War (New York: Teachers College Columbia

University, 1932), 82.

6. 74. D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 40.

7. David R. James, “Slavery and Involuntary Servitude,” in Encyclopedia of

Sociology, ed. Edgar F. Borgatta and Marie L. Borgatta (New York: Macmillan,

1992), 4:1792.

8. Brian Eads, “Slavery’s Shameful Return to Africa,” Reader’s Digest (March 1996):

77–81.

9. United States census data for 1830, cited in Larry Koger, Black Slaveowners: Free

Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790–1860 (Columbia: University of South

Carolina Press, 1995), 20.

10. W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals (New York: Vanguard Press, 1926),

77.

11. W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagne

(New York: D. Appleton, 1927), 2:69.

12.  C. Schmidt, The Social Results of Early Christianity, trans. R. W. Dale (London:

Wm. Isbister Limited, 1889), 430.

13.  Lecky, History of European Morals, 2:71.

14.  John Stoughton, William Wilberforce (New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1880),

78

15. D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 21.

16. Robert William Fogel, Without Consent and Without Contract: The Rise and Fall

of American Slavery (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), 18.

17. Sherwood E. Wirt, The Social Consequences of the Evangelical (New York: Harper

and Row, 1968), 39.

18. Donald Mundinger, “Statement by President Mundinger,” in Sesquicentennial

Papers : Illinois College, ed. Iver F. Yaeger (Carbondale: Southern Illinois

University Press, 1982), 156.

19. Ibid, 72.

20. 42. Josephine Donovan, Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Evil, Affliction and Redemptive Love

(Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991), 12.

21.  On one occasion, a sea captain who met her said that he was pleased to shake

the hand that wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She responded that she did not write

the book. “God wrote it,” she said, “I merely did his dictation.”

22. Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974), 161–68.

23. Albert Bernhardt Faust, The German Element in the United States (Boston:

Houghton Mifflin, 1909), 1:46. The original copy of this protest is housed in the

library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

24. “Selma, Civil Rights, and the Church Militant,” Newsweek, 29 March 1965, 78.

25. “Southern Baptists Denounce Klan,” Christian Century, 14 September 1949,

1059.

26. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in A Testament of Hope:

The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., ed. James Melvin

Washington (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991), 300.

27. Fielding H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine (Philadelphia: W.

B. Saunders, 1914), 118.

28.  Cited in Gumpert, Dunant, 300.

TOP FOUR MOMS IN THE BIBLE

 TOP FOUR MOMS IN THE BIBLE

1. SARAH (Endurance)

a. Always Moving

Gen 12:1

“Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land

that I will show you

Gen 12:6

Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree

of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 7  Then the LORD appeared to

Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an

altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8  And he moved from there to the

mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on

the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 9  So

Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South…

Ex. Like a Military wife and Mom

b. Constantly Handed Off

Gen 12:10-20

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there,

for the famine was severe in the land. 11  And it came to pass, when he was close to

entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman

of beautiful countenance. 12  Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you,

that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

13  Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I

may live because of you.” 14  So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the

Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15  The princes of Pharaoh also

saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s

house. 16  He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys,

male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17  But the LORD plagued

Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18  And

Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not

tell me that she was your wife? 19  Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have

taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”

20  So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his

wife and all that he had.

Gen 20:1-5,17

And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and

Shur, and stayed in Gerar. 2  Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.”

And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3  But God came to Abimelech in a

dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the

woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4  But Abimelech had not

come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also? 5  Did he not

say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In

the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”… 17  So

Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female

servants. Then they bore children; 18  for the LORD had closed up all the wombs of the

house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

c. The Burden of the Call

Gen 16:1-2

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children… 2  So Sarai said to Abram, “See

now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children…”

d. The Scorn of the Least

Gen 16:2-4

So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children.

Please, go into my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded

the voice of Sarai. 3  Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and

gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in

the land of Canaan. 4  So he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw

that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes

e. Her stolen child

Gen 16:6

So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.”

And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence

f. Still cooking and cleaning at 90

Gen 18:1

Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in

the tent door in the heat of the day…. 4  Please let a little water be brought, and wash

your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5  And I will bring a morsel of bread,

that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have

come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” 6  So Abraham hurried into

the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead

it and make cakes.”… 8  So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had

prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

g. Trusting Her Husband was Hearing Right

Gen 22:1-2

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him,

“Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2  Then He said, “Take now your son, your only

son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a

burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you”

h. Raising a baby in her 90’s

Gen 21:1-2

For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which

God had spoken to him

2. MARY (Grace)

a. Self Esteem

Luke 1:34-38

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35  And

the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the

power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to

be born will be called the Son of God. 36  Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also

conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was

called barren. 37  For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38  Then Mary said, “Behold

the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel

departed from her.

b. Maturity

Luke 2:15-21

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the

shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that

has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16  And they came with

haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17  Now when they

had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning

this Child. 18  And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told

them by the shepherds. 19  But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her

heart. 20  Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things

that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Matthew 2:9-11

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen

in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

10  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11  And when they

had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell

down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they

presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

c. Conflict Resolution Skills

Mary had four sons, Joseph, James, Jude and Simon. Because of the virgin birth

Joseph was not the father of Jesus so these were half-brothers of Jesus. These were

not the disciples of Jesus.

Matthew 12:46-47

While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood

outside, seeking to speak with Him. 47  Then one said to Him, “Look, your mother and

Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You

Matthew 13:55

Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers

James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56  And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where

then did this Man get all these things?” 57  So they were offended at Him.

d. Discernment

John 2:1-5

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus

was there. 2  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3  And

when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

4  Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour

has not yet come.” 5  His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do

it”

3. JOCHEBED (Vision and Selflessness)

a. Bold Visionary)

Exo 2:1-4

And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2  So the

woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child,

she hid him three months. 3  But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark

of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it

in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4  And his sister stood afar off, to know what would

be done to him

b. Selfless

Exo 2:7-10

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from

the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?” 8  And Pharaoh’s

daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9  Then

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I

will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

c. Able to let go

Exo 2:10

10  And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became

her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the

water.”

4. _______________

a. Praying

b. Fasting

c. Loving

d. Caring

e. Serving

f. Giving

A Mother's love is something

that no on can explain,

It is made of deep devotion

and of sacrifice and pain,

It is endless and unselfish

and enduring come what may

For nothing can destroy it

or take that love away . . .

It is patient and forgiving

when all others are forsaking,

And it never fails or falters

even though the heart is breaking . . .

It believes beyond believing

when the world around condemns,

And it glows with all the beauty

of the rarest, brightest gems . . .

It is far beyond defining,

it defies all explanation,

And it still remains a secret

like the mysteries of creation . . .

A many splendoured miracle

man cannot understand

And another wondrous evidence

of God's tender guiding hand.

Helen Steiner Rice

IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY HISTORICALLY

IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY HISTORICALLY

I. JESUS

1. Important Statements of Jesus

John 9:5

“…I am the light of the world.”

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the

Father except through Me

Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all

things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end

of the age

Matthew 6:9-10

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will

be done On earth as it is in heaven

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come

that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly

Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to

all the nations, and then the end will come

II. THE INFLUENCE OF CHRIST IN HISTORY

This series is about Truth. It’s about defending hot topic cultural issues of our day.

Our standard of truth is derived from the Word of God. The gospels espouse the

teachings of Christ and the New Testament continues the tradition. The effects of

this document are widespread.

Christianity has had a profound impact throughout history. A world without Christ is

one no one would want to live in. There is no doubt He (Jesus ) Has made things

better for humanity on every way. Some of His followers have not always followed

his heart or dictates. They have at times not represented Jesus well. Nonetheless all

of civilization owes a debt of gratitude to the influence of the teaching of Christ.

There is a significant effort today to demonize Christianity and Christ. But

Christianity, not without it’s stains, has been a force for incredible good in the world.

I will share a few of the historical benefits.

 In the ancient world, Jesus’ teachings lifted archaic standards of morality, stopped

infanticide, prospered human life, liberated women, abolished slavery, inspired

charities and relief organizations, created hospitals, established orphanages, and

founded schools.

In medieval times, Christianity almost single-handedly kept classical culture alive by

preserving and transcribing manuscripts, building libraries, moderating warfare

through truce days, and providing dispute arbitration. Christians invented colleges

and universities.

In this modern era, Christian teaching, properly expressed, resulted in advanced

science, greater liberty and freedom, resulted in more justice, and impacted the arts

more than any other source.

Schmidt, Alvin J.. How Christianity Changed the World (p. 8). Zondervan. Kindle

Edition.

There are several areas that Christ and His followers have made a huge difference.

They are:

 Roman Culture

 Mores and Values

 Sex and Marriage

 The Role and Status of Women

 Charity and Compassion

 Hospitals and Medical Advancement

 Education

 Labor and Economics

 Scientific Advocacy and Advancement

 Liberty and Justice

 Abolition of Slavery

 Language

 Many More

Today we will focus briefly on just a few of these areas.

1. Christianity’s Impact on Roman Culture

2. Christianity’s Impact on the Role and Status of Women

Next Week:

3. Christianity’s Impact on Education

4. Hospitals and Compassion

5. Christianity’s Impact on the Abolition of Slavery

III. CHRISTIANITY AND ROME

Early Christians defied the entire systems of Rome’s morality

The Romans had a very low view of life while Christians had a very high view of life.

The early Christians believed that every one was created in the image and likeness of

God

Gen 1:27

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male

and female He created them.

Psalm 8:4-5

What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? 5

For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him

with glory and honor

1. Infanticide

In the Greek and Roman Culture reasons those born deformed or physically

weak were mostly killed. Mostly by drowning but some in more brutal ways.

Girls were killed the most

Saints stood up against this and as a result Valentinian, a Christian emperor who

was sufficiently influenced by Bishop Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia, formally

outlawed infanticide in 374 (Codex Theodosius 9.41.1). He was the first one to

do so. 1

Infanticide was never eliminated but it was greatly reduced.

2. Abandonment

The Romans also practiced abandoning children for any cause. The church

Fathers such as Tertullian and others stood against this but they also rescued

and adopted the abandoned children

Many laws were passed that outlawed abandonment as a result of Christian

influence but it was not stamped out totally

3. Gladiatorial Games

Early Greeks and Romans embraced Stocism. No regard for the weak and

defenseless of society. Christianity’s high view of life had a great impact on

Society’s ending the games.

Ex. Brutality of it all. - Animals and Humans. - 5000 in one day

Ex. 911 won’t show those dying (Christian Influence)

4. Human Sacrifices

a. Jewish History

When you see Baal Worship you see Human and child Sacrifice.

Ex. Archeologist have found infants that Ahab and Jezebel sacrificed

b. Irish before St Patrick would sacrifice Humans

c. Prussians and Lithuanians even until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries

sacrificed Humans

d. Aztec Indians in Mexico

It was the human doctrine that human life is sacred that began to put an end to

these atrocities.

5. Suicide

To take one’s own life was an act of self-glory. Hence, it is not surprising to find

that suicide was widely practiced on all levels of society.

Christian opposition to suicide over the centuries influenced and prompted

Western nations to outlaw it.

6. Cannibalism

During World War II on a remote island in the Pacific, an American soldier met a

native who could read, and the native was carrying a Bible. Upon seeing the

Bible, the soldier said, “We educated people no longer put much faith in that

book.” The native, from a tribe of former cannibals, replied, “Well, it’s good that

we do, or you would be eaten by my people today.” 2

IV. THE STATUS AND ROLE OF WOMEN

Gal 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male

nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus

What would the status of women be if Christ never came?

Ex. Lets look at countries who have rejected Christian Influence

 Some Islamic countries women still have to be veiled

 In Saudi Arabia can only drive since 2017

 Koran on Women:

A man has the right to beat and sexually desert his wife, all with the full support

of the Koran, which says,

“Men stand superior to women. . . .But those whose perverseness ye fear,

admonish them and remove them into bedchambers and beat them; but if they

submit to you then do not seek a way against them” (Sura 4:34). 3

 The Word

Eph 5:25,28

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself

for her, 28  So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who

loves his wife loves himself

1. Greeks and women

Athenian women were not permitted to leave her house unless she was

accompanied by a trustworthy male escort, commonly a slave appointed by her

husband. 4

The only woman who had some freedom was the hetaera (het era), or mistress, who

often accompanied a married man when he attended events outside his home. The

hetaera was the man’s companion and sexual partner. 5

 The average Athenian woman had the social status of a slave.

Ex. Boys school girls could not

Ex. Female infanticide was much greater than male

2. Romans and Women

While many upper-class girls informally received some education in grammar and

reading, a Roman wife, like her Athenian counterpart, was not allowed to be present

with her husband’s guests at a meal. 6

There were numerous other restrictions on women as well. For instance, a married

woman was commonly under the Roman law of manus, which placed her under the

absolute control of her husband, who had ownership of her and all her possessions. 7

A man could divorce her if she merely went out in public without a veil, according to

Plutarch (Romulus 22.3). She could never divorce him.

A woman could not even tell her husband’s slave what to do 8

This law was still in force in the early part of the fifth century and received strong

criticism from Augustine, the Christian bishop of Hippo in northern Africa.

3. Hebrews and Women

Although it did not use women sexually in religious activities, the Hebrew culture

was in some other ways as badly biased against women as was the culture of the

Greco-Romans. This was particularly true during the rabbinic era (ca. 400 B.C. to ca.

A.D. 300). The rabbinic oral law (now essentially recorded in the Talmud and

Midrash), like the customs of the Greeks and Romans, barred women from testifying

in court (Yoma 43b). 9

4. Jesus and Women

a. He treated women humanely and respectful

John 4:5-29 (Woman at the Well)

b. Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)

Jesus taught Mary as a Rabbi against rabbinic oral law

Sotah 3:4

“Let the words of the Law [Torah] be burned rather than taught to women. . . . If

a man teaches his daughter the Law, it is as though he taught her lechery.”

c. He appeared to women and sent her to tell the disciples after His Resurrection`

Matthew 28:10

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to

Galilee, and there they will see Me

d. Woman with the issue of Blood (Mark 5:25-34)

5. Paul and Women

a. House church Leaders

Apphia, “our sister,” was a leader in a house church in the city of Colossae

(Philemon 2).

In Laodicea, there was Nympha, who had a “church in her house” (Colossians

4:15).

In Ephesus, Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, had a church that met “at their

house” (1 Corinthians 16:19). Paul called Priscilla one of his “fellow workers”

(Romans 16:3)

Phoebe in Romans 16:1–2 is referred to by the male title of diakonos (deacon), a

position she held in the church at Cenchreae. Paul did not use any feminine form

of the word.

Pheobe  had a “position of authority in the churches.” 10

6. Other Issues

 Child Brides..

 Freedom to Dress…

 Freedom to Vote

 Ending Burning Widows

James 1:27

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans

and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world

 Jesus had compassion on the widow of Nain, whose son he raised from the dead

(Luke 7:11–15).

He chided the Pharisees for taking financial advantage of widows (Mark 12:40),

He commended the widow gave two mites in her offering (Luke 21:2–3).

Writing to Timothy, St. Paul urged him to have the Ephesian Christians, especially

the children and grandchildren, honor their widowed mothers (1 Timothy 5:3–4).

NOTES

1 Schmidt, Alvin J.. How Christianity Changed the World (p. 51). Zondervan. Kindle

Edition.

 2 Cited by James Hefley, What’s So Great About the Bible? (Elgin, Ill.: David C.

Cook, 1966), 76.

3 Schmidt, Alvin J.. How Christianity Changed the World (p. 97). Zondervan. Kindle

Edition.

4. Charles Albert Savage, The Athenian Family: A Sociological and Legal Study

(Baltimore: n.p., 1907), 29.

5 Verena Zinserling, Women in Greece and Rome (New York: Abner Schram, 1972),

39.

6 Balsdon, Roman Women, 272.

7. Ibid. p. 276

8. (Aulus Gellius Noctium Gellius 17.6). According to lex Voconia (a law enacted in

169 B.C.)

9. Schmidt, Alvin J.. How Christianity Changed the World (p. 102). Zondervan.

Kindle Edition.

10. E. A. Judge, “Early Christians as a Scholastic Community,” Journal of Religious

History 1 (1960–61): 128.