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.