Evil exists in today’s world. Contrary to the tenets of moral relativism, there is objective evil. Cutting your neighbor’s head off because Allah said so is evil. Capturing people and selling them as chattel property to work in cotton fields, is evil. Manipulating a young girl by gaining her trust and selling her for sex is evil. Attempting to systematically eliminate the Jewish population in Nazi Germany is evil. Killing an innocent baby while still in his mother’s womb is evil. The depth of that sort of evil is indescribable. However, there is a thread of commonality that pulses throughout evil. The willful denial of human personhood.
The Jihadi barbarically executes humans beings because his Koran teaches that the infidel is nothing more than a stray dog. The slave trader justified his crimes by convincing himself that black people are sub-human. The sex trafficker enriches himself by treating his prostitute as nothing but a piece a meat, to be bought and sold as he sees fit. The abortionist justifies murder by training himself to play a little word game: turn “baby” into “fetus” and everything is okie dokie. Adolph Hitler implemented The Final Solution to rid the world of the Jews because he embraced Charles Darwin’s teachings. To Darwin, there was no such thing as human until you reached the white man in the evolutionary process. To Hitler, the Jew was nothing more than a stop on the long march toward humanity. The Jews were worth less to Hitler than the raw material on their backs or the precious metal in their mouths.
Charles Darwin, the patron saint of atheism and macro-evolution theory, was himself an ardent racist. Don’t believe me? The full title of one of his more popular books kind of gives it away. It is “On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” (emphasis added). You’ve heard of “survival of the fittest.” You’ve heard “from amoeba-to monkey-to man.” Why isn’t “Favoured Races” something that just rolls off of the tongue when we discuss Darwin? Atheistic macro-evolution proponents and Darwinian apologists don’t want ole Charles tied to racism. There’s only one problem, Darwin tied himself to it.
In “Favoured Races” (that’s how I refer to it) and “The Descent of Man, And Selection in Relation To Sex” Darwin put forward his evolution theory, but it included more than what’s discussed publicly. He also asserted that different “races of people,” as demonstrated by skin color and physical characteristics, were nothing more than examples of the evolutionary process toward the human species. Darwin is the one who popularized the notion that blacks were closer to animals in the evolutionary process because of their broad shoulders, big muscles, and physical strength. Darwin is the reason Australian Aborigines were made into circus acts, museum exhibits, and ultimately killed for scientific experimentation. Aborigines were turned into lab rats, having their brains examined, because they were widely believed to be Darwin’s “missing link” between monkeys and man. Darwin is the reason Hitler saw it as his duty to rid the earth of “half-breeds” and Jews in his efforts to “purify” Germany and dominate the world with the “Aryan master RACE” (emphasis added). Scripture gives us great insight as to mankind’s origin. God’s word shows us that all human beings derive from a common ancestry. See Genesis 1:26-29, 2:7-8, 2:18-25, 9:1-7; Acts 17:26-27. Denying human personhood based on skin color or physical characteristics is evil.
Additionally, Darwin is the reason we refer to people of varied skin colors as different “races” today. Each time we do, we lend credence to Darwin’s atheistic, evil, and ignorant notion when in actuality there is but one race of people: the human race. The beautiful variety of skin color we see is nothing more than the infinite creative genius of Almighty God on display through the human genome. There are numerous examples where you have what would commonly be understood as a “white couple” who have twin children where one looks like a “black child” and the other a “white child.” Remember, when discussing twins we’re talking about children born from the same egg and sperm sources. To what “race” do these children belong? You have “black couples” who have “lighter skinned children.” The list goes on and on and on. I have a sister, born to “black parents” who has a very light skin color. One trip to New Orleans, and you will see exactly what I’m talking about. That’s why I refer to human beings as human beings, and not different “races,” regardless of skin color.
Tremendous strides have been made in our country concerning “racism.” We’ve gone from slavery, Jim Crow, and ethnic inter-marriage being forbidden by law to where we currently have a “bi-ethnic” president twice elected in the White House. You’d have to be blind, ignorant, or evil yourself to deny the progress we’ve made. Nevertheless, there are people in our society who prey upon our marred past to foment current hatred. These people highlight historical atrocities to keep us divided by skin color. Never is it mentioned that the cause of those atrocities was sin. The cause was never skin. The concealed culprit that provided the breeding ground for this division was a fundamental rejection of God, which gave rise to a scientific theory based on this rejection. There is no “On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” without atheism.
As seen with Hitler, others have embraced Darwin’s worldview and applied it in contexts that created more examples of denying personhood. A book titled “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals” would become the field manual for those who viewed themselves as change agents, many of whom were nothing more than humanistic social engineers who sought to curry power for themselves at the expense of the weak, unsophisticated, and unintelligent. Sound familiar? This “Rules for Radicals…” author dedicated it to Lucifer, “the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment so effectively he won his very own kingdom.” Saul Alinsky wrote “Rules for Radicals….” In it, Alinsky proposed keeping people divided by “race” as one of the most effective ways to control and manipulate the population. The more people are segregated, emotionally, relationally, politically, and physically, the easier they will be to manipulate and control. This is an example of evil at work.
Interestingly, President Obama studied and even taught Mr. Alinsky’s principles. “Rules for Radicals…” gave us the “community organizer” moniker that became Barack Hussein Obama’s job description that so aptly prepared him for the presidency (sarcasm greatly intended). The increase we’ve seen in America’s racial divide while our “first black president” is in office seems surprising on its surface. But, it’s not so surprising to an Alinsky disciple. It’s part of the plan. Hillary Clinton learned firsthand from Saul Alinsky in the Chicago area. She so admired Alinsky that she wrote her Master thesis on his teachings while she attended Wellesley College. It’s no wonder many political pundits are discussing right now how much Hillary Clinton’s chances to become the Democratic presidential nominee hang on how well she courts the “black vote” in the southern states.
We have become comfortable with prejudice and national division based on skin color. It is a sin-ladened stain on our national history and it threatens to become a perpetual stumbling block for our nation’s future. Unless, light is brought to our nation and insight provided by God’s primary vehicle, His church. We are uniquely positioned to provide healing and unity to America because we are armed with the great equalizer, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel, as conveyed by scripture, was given with a specific anthropological context as its basis.
The Gospel’s context is that every human being walking the face of the earth all descend from the same parents. There is no such thing as multiple races of human beings. There is one race; the human race. Acts 17:26-27 explains the outworking implications of the Gospel. All mankind derives from the same ancestry. Different skin colors, yes, but all the same race. Skin color does not create identity. Presidential Candidate Dr. Ben Carson was asked why he didn’t discuss “race” more often. In response Dr. Carson said “it’s because of my experience as a neurosurgeon.” The questioner thought his response was strange. Nevertheless, Dr. Carson continued “when I take someone into the operating room I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are.”
Unfortunately, many people have made skin color synonymous with identity. People have defined the whole of who they are by what color skin they are housed in. Skin color identity has given rise to skin color idolatry. Many well-meaning, self-identified Christians worship their skin color. Many of them ignored President Obama’s un-godly positions, lack of experience, and wicked ideas to vote for him for no reason other than his skin color. Then, after who he was became apparent, many of them doubled down and voted for him twice solely because he was “black.” That is skin color idolatry. Prejudice is prejudice no matter which direction it flows. Maintaining predilections about people for no other reason than skin color is prejudice. It is evil. And worst of all, it is sinful. Some say Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had the dream and President Obama fulfilled it. But from my view, President Obama has turned Dr. King’s dream into a living nightmare! Dr. King looked for a day when “people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Skin color seems to dominate much of President Obama’s ideology.
Colossians 2:8 speaks directly to the issue at hand. First, we must consider that this epistle was written to the Christians in Colossae. This was a very real city in the region where modern day Turkey sits today. Colossians 2:8 identifies the true potential for Christians to be taken captive and even diagnoses the means of that captivity. Christians can be taken captive by governing themselves by an ideology that is based upon human philosophy and worldly reasoning rather than Christ’s view of the world. Human philosophy is hollow and deceptive. Christ’s view is deep and filled with grace and truth (John 1:14). That begs the question if Christ views mankind as different species on the trek toward humanity like Charles Darwin. Or does Christ see all men as bearers of the image of God, The Imago Dei, with their skin serving as a tangible reflection of the glorious splendor of the omnipotent Creator? Thankfully, we don’t have to speculate about the answer to those questions.
As Christ’s disciples, we are equipped with the most potent resource there is to offer wholeness, healing, and unity to a broken world. Our society is collapsing from within because powerful forces have been effective in dividing us by skin color. Black brothers and sisters have been taken captive by the lie that “the white man is and forever will be out to get us and keep us down.” Our white brothers and sisters have been taken captive by the white guilt lie that “they owe the black man” for the sins of their ancestors. They’re so beaten down by that lie that they are afraid to tell the truth for fear of being labeled a racist. Hispanic brothers and sisters are being worked into a furor over the lie that they “need to align themselves with one political party if they want a future in America because only one political party really cares about brown people.” All of these hollow lies are based on human reasoning, philosophy, and tradition. None of them are based on Christ. Introduce Christ’s view into the matter and He creates a whole new picture. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the true weapon for equality. The truth of Christ’s Word establishes the fact that we have all been created equal. This is so because we all share the same blood line. There is no graded species of man moving toward human kind. There is only one race of people, the human race. The only question that remains is whether we will remain captive to human reasoning or be liberated by the truth of Christ’s Word.
