The Future of Race in the Church

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00:00:04.800 | Professor John, last time you talked

00:00:06.380 | about the changes you have watched

00:00:07.760 | develop in the racial landscape in America

00:00:09.720 | over the last 50 years, since you were a boy in South Carolina.

00:00:13.920 | Do you have any predictions or longings

00:00:15.520 | as you look into the future?

00:00:17.600 | Well, I don't have as many predictions as I do longings,

00:00:21.840 | but let me make a go of it.

00:00:26.640 | When it comes to ethnic diversity,

00:00:30.160 | we should never forget one massive certainty.

00:00:34.960 | This gospel of the kingdom will be preached

00:00:39.240 | through all the world as a testimony

00:00:42.040 | to all the ethnicities.

00:00:45.640 | And then the end will come.

00:00:47.840 | Ethnic reality should be thought of globally,

00:00:52.440 | not just in narrow, local ways alone.

00:00:57.400 | And this certainly is true about the Great Commission,

00:01:02.640 | and the certainty of the success of the Great Commission

00:01:06.720 | is there because Jesus bought it with his blood,

00:01:09.800 | according to Revelation 5.

00:01:11.080 | Now, you were slain, and you bought people

00:01:13.480 | from every tribe and tongue.

00:01:14.640 | So that's going to happen.

00:01:16.440 | That's the first thing I think we should say about the future.

00:01:19.880 | All the ethnicities are going to bow their knee to Jesus someday.

00:01:24.920 | Number two, I see the continual unraveling

00:01:31.760 | of the historic, traditional overlay of biblical morality

00:01:36.480 | in America.

00:01:37.640 | For years, there was an external conformity

00:01:41.920 | with significant biblical convictions

00:01:45.280 | left over from Christian influence in this country.

00:01:48.680 | This is collapsing, and will continue to do so, I think,

00:01:52.360 | so that true Christians who submit

00:01:55.680 | to the authority of God's Word in the Bible

00:01:58.720 | will feel increasingly alien.

00:02:02.640 | This collapse, it seems to me, is being accompanied, however,

00:02:08.280 | by profound renewal and reformation

00:02:12.400 | of many churches and schools and movements and families.

00:02:18.240 | Many, many will give way and show

00:02:22.240 | their true colors of compromise, and many others

00:02:25.360 | will grow stronger and clearer in their allegiance

00:02:29.360 | to the Lord Jesus.

00:02:30.720 | So the dark gets darker, and the light gets lighter.

00:02:36.160 | That's going to happen, I believe.

00:02:38.440 | Number three, there will be an ongoing increase

00:02:44.360 | of globalization and multi-ethnic, multicultural

00:02:49.280 | reality here at home.

00:02:51.040 | We will feel ourselves increasingly

00:02:54.040 | part of a global reality near and far

00:02:58.120 | that 50 years ago was almost inconceivable

00:03:02.320 | for our insulated American mindset.

00:03:06.360 | And that increase of global diversity at home

00:03:08.920 | means that by 2043, according to the census predictions

00:03:14.920 | after 2010, America will not be a majority white country.

00:03:21.000 | And that is something that should be celebrated

00:03:25.800 | as the gospel works here, not feared.

00:03:30.280 | Number four, alongside all this diversity,

00:03:34.160 | will continue the outbreaks of evil from the human heart.

00:03:38.960 | Nothing has changed about the condition of the human heart.

00:03:42.160 | A lot of times people think with changes in society and changes

00:03:45.400 | in culture, people are getting better or worse.

00:03:47.320 | They're not.

00:03:48.560 | People get better through conversion to Christ.

00:03:52.880 | Apart from Christ, no one seeks for God.

00:03:56.080 | No one does good.

00:03:57.520 | There's just variations on the way

00:03:59.960 | our corruption expresses itself.

00:04:02.200 | The lynchings that happened 50 years ago

00:04:05.280 | come from the same heart that exists today.

00:04:09.240 | There is as much innate depravity as ever.

00:04:12.240 | It is constant.

00:04:13.680 | What changes is the kind of constraints

00:04:17.560 | society applies to inner sinfulness.

00:04:20.200 | So Eisenhower would have been impeached and removed

00:04:25.560 | from office for the immoral sexual behavior of Bill

00:04:28.720 | Clinton.

00:04:30.560 | And Bill Clinton would have been impeached and removed

00:04:34.120 | from office for the racial slurs that presidents

00:04:37.440 | got away with 50 years ago.

00:04:39.280 | What's changed is not their hearts,

00:04:41.880 | but what Americans will tolerate.

00:04:44.320 | Sinfulness doesn't change.

00:04:46.400 | Social restraints and tolerances change.

00:04:49.800 | But they can't restrain racism completely.

00:04:52.360 | And it will break out one form or another.

00:04:55.840 | That's who we are globally.

00:04:58.680 | Just a couple more.

00:05:01.200 | Alongside lukewarmness and open immorality and apostasy

00:05:06.400 | in the Church, the true bride of Christ

00:05:09.800 | will grow in conformity to Christ.

00:05:12.960 | She will be filled with the fruit of righteousness

00:05:16.400 | that comes through Jesus Christ.

00:05:17.840 | So the glory and praise of God, Philippians 1, 11.

00:05:22.360 | And that will include beautiful expressions

00:05:27.240 | of racial and ethnic togetherness and harmony,

00:05:30.320 | with many Christians globally and at home

00:05:33.400 | taking concrete steps to move toward differences in love,

00:05:40.080 | not away from them.

00:05:42.400 | And the last thing maybe to say would be,

00:05:45.520 | like Brian Lawrence and the Kainos movement

00:05:49.200 | that we've talked about before, I

00:05:51.560 | think many initiatives of thousands of pastors

00:05:54.960 | and ministry leaders and churches

00:05:57.480 | will give themselves to prayer and to study

00:06:00.040 | and to public effort to pursue Christ-exalting,

00:06:02.960 | God-centered, Bible-saturated, gospel-shaped ethnic diversity

00:06:09.080 | and harmony.

00:06:10.520 | It's a difficult, strategic time to be alive.

00:06:15.120 | And I pray the Lord keeps us faithful.

00:06:17.920 | Yes, and amen.

00:06:18.680 | Thank you, Pastor John, for that.

00:06:20.440 | This reminds me of an episode in the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:06:22.960 | series we released not too long ago titled "Churches Pursuing

00:06:26.160 | Ethnic Diversity," episode number 315.

00:06:29.240 | There you explain some very concrete ways

00:06:31.320 | a church can pursue racial diversity

00:06:33.280 | in their own community.

00:06:34.960 | And tomorrow is Friday, and we will wrap up the week

00:06:37.160 | by wrapping up this little four-part series of episodes

00:06:39.240 | on race.

00:06:39.800 | And we'll conclude by looking at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most

00:06:43.320 | powerful words.

00:06:44.720 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:06:45.840 | We'll see you tomorrow.

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00:06:50.840 | [NO AUDIO]

00:06:53.320 | you

The Future of Race in the Church

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