ELECT OF GOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE BLACK CHURCH

Since the concept church in Black Church is of cardinal importance and since the church is God’s unique and exclusive possession, in the construct Black Church, therefore, by the very nature of the matter considered, the term church occupies a position of paramountcy. This truth has at least the following implications:

The epithet Black designates the ethnic particularity of a group of God's people.

Black therefore corresponds to similar distinctions such as White in White church, Asian in Asian church, and so on. If understood in a racial context, it is akin to Indo-American, Anglo-American, Scottish-American, Trinidadian-American, Pakistani-American and any or all of the copious and cumbersome permutations our un-hyphenated imaginations can concoct.

The Black Church embodies an undeniable testimony to the manifold grace of God Who is building unto and for Himself a holy, unified and catholic people from every nation of the world. That which He began with Adam in the primeval garden; continued with Abraham, the father of our faith; furthered with the other patriarchs; extended with the constitution of His covenant community, Israel; prophesied by the mouths of the prophets; fulfilled in the character and work of Jesus Christ; expanded by the affusion of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; and developed and strengthened by His apostles, will attain its glorious consummation in the eschaton when He will forever be worshiped by "... a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" “ Rev 7:9-10. Elect of the Father, redeemed by the Son, regenerated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, the church is presented by the Lord Jesus to Himself “.. in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,..” This is the revelation of the mystery of God, the display of the noblest and most profound expression of His manifold wisdom “.. to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Eph 5:27; 3:9, 10. The Black Church is an inseparable part of this glorious eschatological manifestation.

Though intervening historical particularities vary, each culture plays an equally significant role in the unfolding of this redemption drama. Israel is the only exception to this cosmic equality. Both the Old Testament, Gen 12:1-3; 17:15-16; 22:15-18; 26:1- 4; 35:11-13; Ex 19: 4-6; Dt 7:7-8; etc., and the New Testament, Mt 10:5-6; 15:21-28; Jn 4:22; Rom 1:16; etc., uphold the unique priority of Israel for a particular time, that is, the entirety of the old covenant. However when the fullness of time had come with the First Advent of Jesus Christ, the anticipatory shadows of that covenant were filled with the substance of their predictions and the gospel began to be preached to all nations. The Black Church is also a part of this historical drama.

All nations other than Israel are Gentiles and God's monergistic redemptive work regarding them is metaphorically described as that of bringing other sheep into His sheepfold, Jn 10:16 fulfilling Isa 56:8, “ The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered." ”, and as a wild olive shoot being ingrafted into a cultivated olive tree, "contrary to nature," Rom 11:11-24. The Black Church is also a part of this scheme.

In the continuing dispensation of God's provision of salvation for His people, His focus is on the elect of all races and nations and not on ethnic entities, Rom 9:6. That is to say, those whom He foreordained unto salvation through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ are individually chosen from all the nations of the world. Thus we join the elect throng singing:

Elect from every nation, Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, With every grace endued.
("The Church’s One Foundation." Written by Samuel J. Stone, 1839-1900.
# 347 in The Trinity Hymnal. (Atlanta: Great Commission Publications), Seventh Printing, 1998.

The Black Church is always to be understood foremost and fundamentally from a biblical perspective: creationally, because “.. he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "' For we are indeed his offspring.' ” Acts 17:26-28; and redemptively, as comprising God’s Own people whom He chose unconditionally from among the African (-American) people.

Ultimately, the Black Church comprises God’s elect only. It stands on equal footing with all other ethnic peoples comprising the “Israel of God,” a community of faith transcending biological descendancy. The roots of our being lie in Adam and of our faith, in Abraham, “.. the father of all who believe..” Rom 4:11, because “just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."” Gal 3:6-8.

To place our ultimate origins in Africa or in the history of Africans in America is the essence of humanism -- the elevation and exaltation of man and culture above God. Contrarily, to ascribe our roots to Adam and to Christ is the essence of biblical theism. What we are addressing here is our view of the world, our worldview, a salient feature of which is the matter of origin and destination, i.e., the issue of ultimacy. In such a case, we are bound to acknowledge that “.. from him and through him and to him are all things.. ," Rom 11:36, and that ".. for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." 1 Cor 8:6. See also Acts 17:28 along with Jn 3:16; 6:37-40, 44; 10:28, 29; etc.
The former position leads to independence from God, the latter, to dependence on Him; the former, to worship of the self as the self-sufficient measure of man, the other, to the worship of God as our Creator and Redeemer; the former to the City of Man, the other, to the City of God.

Summary: As the chosen Of God, the Black Church finds its ultimate origin in biblical theology. It cannot claim any soteriological particularism for itself but must look to and thank the Triune God for His gracious salvation whereby He has been pleased to include her in His cosmic redemptive scheme.


Next issue: The Church As A Community: Its Called Context.

THE CHURCH IS THE PEOPLE OF GOD

When we consider the term Black Church we must seek to understand not only what it means but also which term takes precedence. Is it the Black Church or is of the Black Church? In other words, which is the defining category? Is “Black” the defining characteristic of the church? Or, is "Church" the premier entity of which Black is a particular kind? These are important preliminary considerations when we engage in profitable study of such an encompassing subject.

Constraints of time, space and means urge me to answer the above questions immediately and unequivocally: in the construct, the Black Church, the term church is of paramount importance. It is a biblical term with a wide variety of applications but it is primarily used to indicate God's (Own) people, with the dominant notion of their assembly in His Presence. This we will develop in later segments but now it is sufficient to supply the following proofs that the church is an institution divinely constituted as God’s Own people:

It Is God’s Chosen Or Elect People
Dt 4:37: And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

10:15: Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.

Rom 8:33: Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

1 Pe 2:10: Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

God Chose Her From Among All The Nations Of The World
Amos 3:2: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

cf.
Ex 19:5: Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

He Has Marked Them Out For Himself
Ps 4:3: But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; ..

… Even Before The Creation Of The World To Live Holy Lives
Eph 1:4: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

It Is His Unique, Exclusive, Personal Possession
Ex 19:5-6: Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."

Dt 14:2 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

1 Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, ..


It Is Chosen By God Through A Condescending, Voluntary Divine Act With No Meritorious Qualities Inhering In The Object Of His Affection
Dt 7:7-9: It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

1 Cor 1:26-29: For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.


God Exalts Her Above All Nations
Dt 26:18-19: And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised."

As God's People They Are Zealous To Do Good Works
Tit 2:14: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

God Writes His Law On Heir Hearts
Heb 8:10: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Cf. Jer 31:31-34

As God’s Personal Possession, They Are To Publish Praises Of His Divine Saving, Electing Mercies Toward Them To All World
1 Pe 2:9-10: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

They Will Enjoy Eternal, Eschatological Bliss In His Presence
Rev 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.


To those who say how can these texts be said to refer to the church when the word itself is not included among them, I respond that you are precisely correct. Scripture does not merely give us words or terms; the Holy Spirit also speaks to us from the pages of Holy Writ in concepts and thoughts which can be systematically identified and traced throughout redemptive history. Although the word church makes its first biblical, chronological appearance in Mt 16:18, the reality of the church as a divinely instituted and constituted, historical, biblical-theological entity, occurs in the very early and formative years of recorded redemptive history. Dispensationalist claims to the law of first reference--- “the first reference to any doctrine in Scripture usually contains the embryonic truth of its development.” That is, God introduces a subject in microscopic form and then later enlarges it. [Elmer Towns, Theology For Today (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1989), p. 609], --- in support of their view that the church is a New Testament doctrine making its first canonical appearance in Mt 16, betray a static approach to the study of Scripture and a grave theological anemia in fathoming “.. the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,” Eph 3:9. These claims destroy the thematic and structural unity of Scripture and proffer a false, major and rigid dichotomy between the old and new covenants; law and grace; Israel and the church, while admitting some degree of unity. Contrarily, the Reformed view, to which I subscribe, maintains the essential unity between these categories while acknowledging the discontinuities as necessarily arising from the progressive development of the history of redemption. Such unity is achieved by the ubiquitous Immanuel Principle, "I will be Your God and you will be My people," God's covenant promise and commitment to bind Himself by His hesed, His steadfast love, to those He sovereignly elects out of the mass of fallen humanity.

Summary: The church is God’s elect, assembled people of all ages, in both the old and new covenant.

Note: Each of the segments in this series is integrally and theologically linked to its forerunner. I therefore ask that you keep this in mind and do not disjoin them should you determine to read them in toto.

Next article: The implications for the Black Church as God’s Own people.

WHAT IS THE BLACK CHURCH? QUESTIONS GALORE, PT. III

And now, the final set of questions on the Black Church.

What are the primary view and practice of the Black Church regarding its history?
Does it regard origin to be in Africa or in Abraham?. That is, does the Black Church consider its birth in the introduction of Christianity to the Black slaves by White slave-masters or does it count itself to be hewn from the rock and from the quarry that is Abraham? (Isa 51:1, 2)

Does it acknowledge the sovereign, providential purpose of God in actively permitting slavery as His perfect instrument for bringing the gospel to Black slaves? Or, does it fault the White man for his involvement in slavery and its disgusting aftermath of racial segregation, Jim Crow, etc.?

Has the Black Church forgiven Whites (the White Church) for their role in slavery and in their propagation of a myriad of injustices to Blacks? If so, how is this forgiveness objectified in its life? Does it continue to extend forgiveness to them?

Is it committed to a separate existence from the White church? Is the Black Church (like many White churches) determined to pursue mono-cultural membership?

Does it view the civil rights movement as the major impetus in its development?


What Are the Primary View and Practice of the Black Church regarding Its Future ?
Is the Black Church an institution of hope? By this I do not mean hope in general or a feeble expectation that someday things will get better. What I mean is this: does the Black Church unswervingly hold that Christ alone is its only hope both in this life and in the life to come?

Do the sermons and the teachings of Black pastors remind their hearers that they are pilgrims in a foreign land on their way to the new Jerusalem?


Does it view the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion as mere symbols of faith in Christ? Does it see them as memorials and signs of "our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior?" Or, does it view them as signs and seals of God's promises to His elect, effectually mediated through faith in Christ and His saving work, and guaranteeing the fullness of our redemption at His Second Coming?


This ends the trilogy of questions on the Black Church. These questions were intended to stimulate thought and, perhaps, to invigorate discussion on this crucial subject that will always be before us. Deo volente, the next blogs will attempt to examine the church from a biblical perspective. Perhaps unfortunately, but necessarily, the next blog will also introduce some questions which should lead us into our discussion.

WHAT IS THE BLACK CHURCH? QUESTIONS GALORE, PT. II

We now move to the second part of this series on the Black Church and draw attention to the major characteristics of the Black Church. What are some of the major characteristics of the Black Church? I submit that these may be determined mainly by its pastoral preaching and teaching.

Is the focus of the Black Church on the eternal and invisible? Is the message from its pulpit anchored in God's eternal purposes which He is unfolding inexorably in our communities and the rest of the world, according to His most perfect, wise and eternal counsel? Do pastors constantly remind their members by precept and practice that their lives are to be shaped by the absolute, transcendent truth of God's Word? Do they exhort them to live in light of the reality that this world and all of its schemes are passing away, are but a vapor?

Related to this issue is this concern: does the Black Church reflect the eternal principles of the kingdom of heaven on earth? That is to say, does it hammer home such counter-cultural principles as taking up our cross daily and following Jesus as a normal requirement for kingdom membership? Does it emphasize self-abnegation, even to the point of losing one's life in order to find it, for the sake of Jesus? Are its ministries concerned with only or mostly temporal matters?

Is the Black Church producing kingdom disciples armed with a theistic worldview and a clear understanding of their responsibilities as citizens of two kingdoms?

Is it equipping its members with an "epistemological self-consciousness" that is rooted in the Scripture, the verbum Dei, the word of God, so that they fully understand that they know only because God has spoken?

Is Scripture the God-breathed, inerrant, infallible eternal Word of God, the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct? Or is it on par, if only in some cases, with other literature?

Are its members actively worshiping and serving God in ways that hasten the day of Christ's return?

Is the Black Church God-honoring, Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered in all aspects of its ministry? That is to say, is the Triune God the focus of all that it does? For example, is God both the Subject as well as the Object in its worship? Are all things properly ordered to grant Him the honor and glory that are due Him only? Is the commitment to glorify God only conspicuous and pervasive in the Black Church?

What is the dominant theology of the Black Church? Or, what are the dominant theologies of the Black Church? Is biblical religion the driving and dominant element in its teaching or is it a sidelined reference occasionally consulted for its exemplary merits?

Is Christ crucified placarded as man's only hope of salvation from sin and from the eternal wrath of a holy God Who must punish evil? If this is so, then, is this truth the warp and woof of the ministry of the Black Church?

Is the scandal of the particularity of Christ and His work a stumbling-block to the Black Church or is it gladly embraced as the ultimate demonstration of the wisdom, love and power of God?

Are the specific claims of the Christian faith faithfully propounded as God's unique standards for all His elect?

Is the Triune God revered as the only God, infinite, unmatchable, supreme, most excellent in the absolute superlatives of His attributes or is He subversively deconstructed to equality with a or any other god variously called "he", "the one", "the man upstairs," god (as in T.D. Jakes’ Sabellian theology) or with the popular god who desires and even guarantees material prosperity for his people?

Is the deity that is proclaimed from the Black pulpit one that can be manipulated into man's service by praise, prayer, tithes, obedience and other human works?

This is the second of three sets of questions on this pressing issue.