Welcome back to part 4 of this series of articles. In part one I reported that as I was writing that article a number of people were gathering in South London to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the British abolition of slavery, and I asked the question: Would The Lord Jesus Christ have joined in?
Since reporting that event there has been considerable press coverage with images that I found to be the most wretched, phoney and pathetic I have ever witnessed. Young and not so young white men with fake chains and shackles around their legs and wrists wearing T shirts with ‘So Sorry’ emblazoned across the front of them parading themselves for all to see. Some were even down on their knees groveling on the ground. Now this may appear to some of you as OK, even all very fine, but in reality what does it say about them and what does it say about modern Britain (I tend to leave the word ‘Great’ out these days). Furthermore, what does it prove? Has their wretched groveling proved anything and has it changed anything? No. Has their stupid, irresponsible, immature emotional behaviour changed history? No. Will their behaviour make them ‘feel better’? Very unlikely as it’s the permanent guilt that ‘keeps them going’; it makes them ‘feel good’ and feel ‘righteous’. This is how wretched they are. Has this behaviour made a positive impression on the black people of South London? I very much doubt it and if I were a black person I would consider it a patronising insult and treat the whole phony episode with contempt. So what’s it all about and would the Lord Jesus Christ have joined them in their little parade of false remorse for the cameras. I don’t think so, in fact, I know so. The only anniversaries The Lord Jesus Christ will be interested in, if any, will be the future anniversaries of the commencement of His Kingdom here on this earth when He returns. None of man’s activities in this age will be remembered, nor commemorated, by way of an anniversary in God’s Kingdom, if anything The Lord will want them all forgotten!
The question now is this: how can I be so sure The Lord Jesus Christ would not join in this celebration? To answer that we need to understand the origins of slavery and ask ourselves why the Lord Jesus Christ allowed it to take place at all? The answer to that question can be found in Genesis 9 where we read of The Lord’s curse on Canaan. This curse, pronounced by the Lord through Noah, came, because of Canaan’s father’s sin - see verses 25-27. Noah’s son Ham, Canaan’s father, ’saw his father Noah’s nakedness which in Biblical language can be interpreted that he had sexual intercourse with his father whilst his father was in a drunken sleep. Some commentators have interpreted these Scriptures to mean that Noah’s nakedness was his wife’s nakedness and Ham, therefore, had sexual relations with his mother. Either way, Ham was in deep, deep, serious trouble and so were his descendants.
OK, am I saying that Canaan and his descendants were and are black? Yes. How do I know that? Easy, Cush, Canaan’s brother was black; the name Cush literally means ‘black’ and all dark and brown skinned people are descended from Ham. OK, back to this curse of The Lord through Noah upon Canaan and here are the verses:
Genesis 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
The word ’servant’ here means a ‘bondman’ or a man in bondage - a sold-man - a slave. Canaan and his descendants were to be slaves and even worse than that, slaves of slaves. Notice too, that they were also to be slaves of the descendants of Shem (white people) and slaves of the descendants of Japheth (yellow people). They were also to become slaves of slaves. Many slave masters promoted certain numbers of their slaves to the positions of overseers and managers on their plantations and that meant they had authority over their fellow slaves - Canaan’s descendants became slaves of slaves.
Here is another truth; Africans were sold to white slave traders, but by whom? Other Africans, black people sold their own kind into slavery. Captains or commanders of slave ships didn’t capture the Africans they took on board their ships; they had already been captured by other Africans. This was big business and a lucrative business for all concerned, not just the ship’s masters and owners. These facts are, of course, conveniently forgotten, deliberately played down or just ignored by liberal do-gooders in the west, especially in the media, who seem to want to continually beat themselves, and us, up about a time in our history that we can do nothing about, nor change. The point we have to take from this is that blacks were as guilty as whites in this whole episode of history. Any other view is evil, treacherous, western liberal, manipulation of the truth.
Here is another question; if we were to replace the sin of slavery with the sin of murder and celebrate its abolition, would it make any sense? If these people in South London had been celebrating the 200th anniversary of the British abolition of murder do you think The Lord Jesus Christ would have joined in with that? Do you think He would have joined in, when black youths, in drug gang wars, are being murdered on the very same streets of South London? We need to understand that slavery on this earth has never gone away - it still goes on - especially in the Arab countries of the Middle East. Slavery is also rife in the sex industry. The British abolishing it didn’t bring it to an end.
Here is another question: Is The Lord Jesus Christ interested in man’s ‘achievements’ i.e. all those things that man can do, and does do, under his own strength? Well yes, up to a point but then again no, because The Lord Jesus Christ created man in the first place. He was, therefore, and is, perfectly well aware of what His creation is capable of ‘achieving’; including the past, the present and what they could be capable of in the future.
When man fell in the Garden of Eden he acquired the knowledge of good and evil through eating the fruit of the tree he was commanded not to eat. Now because man has acquired the knowledge of good and evil he is, therefore, quite capable of doing both things. This in turn can depend very much upon outside influences, his mood swings, his general disposition and/or his motives. His motives for ‘doing good’ or what we call ‘do-gooding’ do not come from the Godhead; they come from the fallen man himself. Man, therefore, is very able at doing evil i.e. enslaving people and also very able at do-gooding i.e. abolishing slavery. All this ’slavery’ or ‘abolition of slavery’ amounts to is an active demonstration of man’s behaviour in his fallen condition, nothing else. I hope you can now see why The Lord Jesus Christ would not be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the British abolition of slavery. It is wholly a celebration of man’s achievements. Slavery and its abolition have got nothing to do with The Lord Jesus Christ.
Now here is some information for mainstream Christians who have been sucked into this deceptive worldly liberal phenomenon called “Permanent guilt over slavery.” You see, they haven’t a clue about what the Lord Jesus Christ actually said about slavery? So let’s go to Ephesians now to find out and thereby set the record straight: Ephesians 6:5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
In the above verse we can see another example of translators tinkering with the Word of God. In the Greek, the word for ’servants’ is ‘doulos’ which means slaves. So here we have The Lord Jesus Christ through Paul saying to slaves “be good obedient slaves” not rebellious “I want my freedom” slaves. In verse 9, verse 5 it is then supported with: “And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.” Here we have The Lord Jesus Christ through Paul telling slave masters to be equitable and just toward their slaves. There is neither one jot nor an inkling of the suggestion that the status quo of the slave master/slave arrangement should be changed nor rebelled against.
Here is concrete evidence that The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to change this world nor did He leave any instructions with His Apostles to do so either. That also means that we as Christians are not to get involved in this world’s political systems, even if they look good and righteous on the outside.
Would Jesus Christ have ‘made a stand’ against apartheid? To answer this and affirm what I have said above, what we have to understand is that the Lord Jesus Christ did not come the first time i.e. in the first century to change this world (age) nor its systems of governance, nor in fact, people’s sinful lifestyles. He came to take away all the sins of mankind and allow the Father time to draw those He had predestined, to His Son - the gift of Gracious Salvation to those being called and to no one else. Apartheid was just another of man’s systems of governance (like the Roman Empire in Christ’s time) and the impetus to change it or abolish it, was from man or from liberal ‘do-gooding’ men - self-righteous zealous men. The misguided issue of ‘human rights’ is also tied up in this apartheid thing as well but I will not go into that here. Here too is another Truth; the Roman Empire was far more evil, ruthless and cruel than the Apartheid governments of South Africa, and yet The Lord Jesus Christ did not say a word nor lift a finger against it, but He did tell Pontius Pilate that this world/age was not His kingdom.
Moreover, what many mainstream Christians also forget is the Barabbas character in the account of The Lord Jesus Christ’s trial. He is mentioned in God’s Word for good reason, for Barabbas was big on regime change, he was a zealot and he wanted the Romans out of Judea!! He wanted freedom and independence for the Jews. Had he been alive during the apartheid era he too would have been big on regime change in South Africa too. He would have fought tooth and nail to get the white man out of power in South Africa and he would definitely have been big on ‘human rights’ too.
Back to the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ and we know the story don’t we? The crowd (representing all of mankind) called out for Barabbas to be released, not The Lord Jesus Christ. Barabbas was a man after their own hearts, a man with whom they had much in common, and a man they could relate to. Barabbas was their hero - a ‘freedom’ fighter. The Lord Jesus Christ was a ‘nobody’ when compared with Barabbas. The Lord Jesus Christ might as well have been a foreign invader from outer space such was their hatred for Him.
OK, so Barabbas was big on regime change, but was The Lord Jesus Christ big on regime change? No He wasn’t, not then, but He will be in the future when He returns to shepherd the nations of this earth with a rod of iron - the biggest regime change you will ever see.
Finally, did Barabbas win in his zeal to remove the Romans from Judea? Not a chance, for in 70 AD, less than 40 years later, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem completely - they razed it to the ground. It will be very interesting to see what becomes of South Africa over the next thirty years or so. If Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) is anything to go by I don’t hold out much hope for it. Keep your eyes on the news folks and witness all the end time results of man’s self-righteous do-gooding!!
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Would The Lord Jesus Christ have ‘made a stand’ against apartheid, no way?
Will The Lord Jesus Christ bring an end to slavery (because it still goes on today, even in 2007)? Oh yes, but not until He returns to take His Throne as King of kings and Lord of lords and all of man’s ways, his systems, his governments and futile ideas are brought to an end. The Lord Jesus Christ please hurry that day!
Charles Crosby
Revised and edited 12th September 2007
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