Does Reformed Theology Impede Racial Reconciliation?
00:00:00.000 | Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement,
00:00:04.880 | has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. Police have issued an all-points bulletin for
00:00:09.840 | a well-dressed young white man seen running from the scene. Nearly 50 years ago today,
00:00:15.360 | that's Walter Cronkite on air April 4th, 1968. He was standing on the balcony of a second floor
00:00:22.080 | hotel room tonight when, according to a companion, a shot was fired from across the street.
00:00:28.880 | And before we jump into today's episode, it reminds me that the MLK 50 conference is coming up
00:00:34.880 | in a few days in Memphis. And Pastor John, I know you're looking forward to it.
00:00:38.720 | And on the second evening of the conference, on Wednesday, April 4th, which marks the 50th
00:00:44.800 | anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Pastor John, you'll be delivering the
00:00:49.600 | final plenary session at 8.30 p.m. local time in a message titled "The Glory of God and Racial
00:00:57.120 | Unity." Really looking forward to that. That's Wednesday, April 4th, 8.30 p.m. in Memphis.
00:01:03.440 | Today's question is related. What does John Calvin have to do with racial reconciliation?
00:01:11.520 | In fact, does Reformed theology obstruct racial unity, or does it offer a way forward?
00:01:17.040 | The question today comes in from a listener named Drew. "Hello, Pastor John. I live in the South
00:01:20.720 | and attend a church that holds to Reformed theology and does great work for the gospel
00:01:25.200 | of Christ in our city. My question, do you think it's possible for people in the Reformed world to
00:01:30.320 | use theology as an excuse to distance themselves from churches that are predominantly African
00:01:35.920 | American in order to avoid any deep issues or discussions of race that come up? How do we fight
00:01:42.480 | this and gladly partner with our brothers and sisters in Christ and address the real issues
00:01:46.320 | of racial history that exist, especially with churches that are less obviously Reformed in
00:01:52.080 | their theology?" The first thing I would say is that the sinful human heart—that is, my heart,
00:01:59.200 | your heart, all hearts—is capable of taking every theology under the sun and every doctrine in the
00:02:09.040 | Bible and using it to advance our own personal preferences, even sinful preferences. As far as
00:02:17.600 | the content of Reformed theology goes, I think there is as much or more truth for the overcoming
00:02:25.280 | of racial and ethnic animosities in this theology as there is in any other theology. I would even
00:02:32.480 | say there is more. But accurately articulated biblical doctrine by itself is not a sufficient
00:02:42.560 | dam against the rushing currents of sin that flow in the human heart. We are not saved merely by
00:02:54.400 | accurately rehearsing and believing right doctrine. We are saved by a transforming miracle
00:03:02.800 | of the Holy Spirit called new birth. And that new birth brings into being not merely new ideas about
00:03:12.240 | God and salvation and humanity and heaven and hell, but gloriously new affections and desires and
00:03:20.400 | longings and attitudes and dispositions. And this radical, miraculous, Spirit-wrought
00:03:29.120 | transformation, with its utterly essential manifestation in ongoing growth in grace
00:03:36.800 | and knowledge and love and wisdom, that new birth is all-important in dealing with matters of racial
00:03:46.240 | tension. So, no, I don't believe the content of Reformed theology is a stumbling block
00:03:54.080 | to the pursuit of racial harmony and racial diversity. In fact, I think the content of
00:03:59.920 | Reformed theology is wonderfully, positively explosive in its true implications for overcoming
00:04:07.840 | racial hostility and suspicion and distrust and dislike. But I'll say again, any theological
00:04:16.640 | position, anyone, can be made the servant of sin and is in fact made the servant of sin somewhere
00:04:23.120 | in the world. Right doctrine in the life of the church is profoundly important. I've given
00:04:30.560 | much of my life to it. But even more important is the radical, supernatural, Spirit-wrought
00:04:39.200 | miracle of new birth that creates a new kind of human being. You might even say a new race,
00:04:45.520 | a new race that cuts across every racial and ethnic distinction, a new humanity that is not
00:04:54.480 | in its essence and not in its decisive, controlling heart, white or black or Asian or American or
00:05:02.160 | British or German or Cherokee or Southern. But let me point out a little catch in something
00:05:09.040 | I've said, and you probably picked it up if you're sharp. I said the content of Reformed
00:05:15.360 | theology is not a stumbling block to racial harmony. And the reason I stressed the word
00:05:20.640 | "content" is because the very existence of doctrine, theology, complicates racial harmony
00:05:30.960 | because it complicates human harmony. Every church that believes that unbiblical doctrine
00:05:40.000 | damages people, and that's certainly what I believe, unbiblical doctrine damages people.
00:05:47.200 | Every church that believes that, every person that believes that will, for the sake of love,
00:05:52.640 | experience tension with other churches and other people that believe and teach unbiblical doctrine.
00:06:00.640 | They can't treat it as negligible if it hurts people and dishonors God. And by doctrine,
00:06:07.760 | I simply mean how you understand the Bible and what it teaches about the nature of God and the
00:06:13.840 | nature of Christ and the Holy Spirit and the atonement and the nature of faith and what's
00:06:19.280 | the Christian life like and how do you live it, what's heaven and hell like, and how do you avoid
00:06:24.720 | going to one and go to the other. If a church down the street treats the Bible as one religious
00:06:32.960 | source among many and treats Christ merely as an exemplary teacher and belittles the substitutionary
00:06:40.000 | atonement as divine child abuse and marginalizes the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in
00:06:45.440 | sanctification, my relational harmony with that church and those folks is going to be much more
00:06:56.160 | complicated than if they believe the historic Christian things I believe. And that's true
00:07:03.200 | whether that church is predominantly white or predominantly black. During most of my ministry,
00:07:11.360 | it has been much harder to relate to liberal white churches in Minneapolis than it has been
00:07:18.640 | to relate to Bible-believing black churches that we had connections with. So what I'm saying
00:07:25.200 | is that it's not the content of Reformed theology or the content of Arminian theology per se that
00:07:34.160 | creates problems for racial harmony, but the very existence of doctrine. Doctrine itself complicates
00:07:42.640 | that harmony because it complicates human harmony. If a predominantly black church or a predominantly
00:07:51.520 | white church or any other kind of ethnic church believes and teaches unbiblical doctrines,
00:08:00.000 | this is added to any racial or ethnic challenges of harmony. But they're not the same. They're not
00:08:09.360 | the same since the doctrinal challenges exist among people of the very same race and the very same
00:08:15.760 | ethnicity. So let me give four very brief bullet points on what we might do in view of this
00:08:26.800 | multi-layered challenge of relationships between racially and doctrinally different churches.
00:08:34.560 | Number one, let there be recurrent, earnest, biblical preaching and teaching on the blood-bought
00:08:44.400 | beauty of ethnic diversity according to Revelation 5-9. The shedding of His blood—by His shed blood—Christ
00:08:54.720 | ransomed people from every people, language, tribe, and nation. Racial harmony and unity and love and
00:09:04.880 | respect and delight cost Jesus His life. Not to want it—and I say this—every church in any culture
00:09:16.400 | that has a history of alienation, not to want this, not to love this, not to pursue this is to belittle
00:09:25.360 | the blood of Jesus. Number two, let us preach and teach and counsel and converse in such searching
00:09:36.480 | and probing and fearless ways that we identify and name and root out every form of ethnic lovelessness.
00:09:47.760 | Number three, let us realize that there are many different kinds of togetherness
00:09:56.160 | that may be appropriate for people holding significant doctrinal views. There are friendships
00:10:05.440 | and work relationships and conferences and conversations and seminars and ethical causes,
00:10:13.680 | as well as various kinds of services, so we don't have to despair of any kind of connectedness with
00:10:22.400 | people across racial lines if there happen to be certain doctrinal barriers in the way.
00:10:28.400 | Number four, let us find ways of saying to each other and to the community that if there are
00:10:37.760 | doctrinal convictions that create some limits of togetherness, it is not the racial differences
00:10:46.640 | that divide us. Let's work at finding ways to say that, make that clear. And number five, finally,
00:10:56.000 | let there be an empathetic effort in our churches to know and understand the past and present
00:11:04.960 | streams that feed the river of present tensions. Let's not live with our head in the sand.
00:11:15.120 | - So good. Thank you, Pastor John. And if you want to see how Reformed Theology relates to
00:11:20.400 | racial reconciliation, see Pastor John's book, Bloodlines. And again, if you're in Memphis or
00:11:25.680 | plan to attend the MLK50 conference, be looking for Pastor John's final plenary session, Wednesday,
00:11:30.320 | April 4th, 8.30 p.m. local time. Don't miss it. And thank you for listening and continuing to
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00:11:55.360 | you can do those things at our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:57.600 | Well, we're going to break for the weekend. And on Monday, we're going to return to talk
00:12:03.280 | about the Great Commission and who did Jesus give the Great Commission to? It's a really
00:12:07.200 | good question. You don't want to miss. That's on Monday. We'll see you on the other side of
00:12:10.640 | the weekend. -
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