He Thought He Had Me (He Didnt)

One more video for today. Normally, I don't do three, but this one I wanted to get out because I think it could help some of you.

You know, I put out a good amount of controversial material online, but it always amuses me because oftentimes the thing that gets shared and I'm supposed to feel bad about is very often something so tame.

I'll never forget one of the ladies from TheologyGal shared something I said about taxes, as if it was horrible, and everyone was responding, this is basic stuff, this is not controversial at all, which

I always find very amusing because I do say controversial things, I admit it, but the things that people share and say are so controversial, like as an example of how horrible

I am, they're usually super tame, and that's what's going on here. I saw somebody had shared this that was attempting to shame me, and someone pulled a small clip from one of my videos and blurred out my

Patreon. So petty. But anyway, I wanted to respond to this, not because I think it's going to change this guy's mind, but I actually did get a significant amount of questions about what

I said here from people that are generally supportive of me, so I thought I'd help them out. So let's listen to what was said that was supposedly so bad, and we will respond in kind.

Grateful for the slave trade, because my ancestors were brought over in the slave trade, it was very bad for them, and I want to downplay the suffering, but had that not happened, my family probably wouldn't be

Christians right now. God used that to bring the gospel to my family, and now most of my family worships the

Lord. Most of my family is in the kingdom of God, and I'm grateful to God for that. Also, most of my family is in a better financial situation and social situation than they would have been if they were still in Africa, and so I'm grateful to God for that.

Okay, so that's the clip. 30 second clip. And you know, if you have my entire catalog of controversial stuff to clip out of my videos, why would you pick this?

But it's very revealing that they picked this. So here's what he says about this. He says, here's a disciple of Doug Wilson, and here's an example of the destructive ignorance that we're dealing with.

If you're familiar with these men, you'll recognize how they encourage victims of marital and sexual abuse to endure their abusers for the supposed glory of God.

I don't really know what he's referring to there. I've never done that, but whatever. So this is a destructive ignorance.

Now, if you remember, in my video, I was actually quoting Genesis 50, where Joseph, who was talking about his being enslaved, so it's a direct parallel.

He says, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good, and he gives the specific reasons why.

Now, I was applying that to my own personal life. I'm Puerto Rican. I know my family came from the

Nigeria area of Africa, Nigeria, and also a little in Mali. It's a little bit unclear exactly where, but right around that area.

And I was saying that there's a good chance that my family wouldn't be Christians today had we stayed in Nigeria.

And we're clearly probably better off financially than if we had stayed in Nigeria.

I'm not saying that the slave trade was good, but I am saying I'm grateful to God for how he worked the slave trade in my own life, because here we am, my family's mostly

Christian and we're mostly better off than we would have been had we stayed in Nigeria. These are indisputable facts and people were coming at me like, you are such an idiot,

AD. Didn't you know that Christianity was in Africa before it was in the United States? And obviously

I do know that. But what I'm referring to is the situation as it stands right now, because yes,

Christianity was in Africa before it was in the United States. Granted, that's obvious. But today, had

I been in Nigeria, I did a quick Google. Anybody can do this. 50 % of Nigeria is

Muslim. So there's a very good chance that if my family had remained in Nigeria, we'd be

Muslim. It's a coin flip. Now God obviously works his providence however he wants. But I'm just looking at the statistics here.

Of course, I trust God, you know, would have picked me and chosen me and chosen my family had we been in Nigeria, whatever.

But what I'm saying is, had we stayed in Nigeria, 50 % of Nigeria is Muslim. If you can also

Google this for the United States, if you look at the United States in 1990, which I was a little kid in the 90s, 85 % of people in the

United States were Christian. So this is what I'm referring to. It's a fact that having the slave trade, again, it wasn't a good thing, but God used that slave trade to save many people, to pick many people for his kingdom.

And for whatever reason, providence decides, not me, half of Nigeria is

Islamic, is Muslim. And per capita income in the United States is way more than it is in Nigeria.

So these are facts. I'm just saying in my history, God used the slave trade for the benefit of my family.

Now, again, it's not a good thing. But what I'm saying is essentially what Joseph said in his life.

I'm applying it to my life. I know you guys meant the slave trade for evil, but God meant it for good.

He saved almost my entire family and he's blessed my family beyond measure.

Look, we're not rich, but the comparison between what we are here in the United States and what the per capita income in Nigeria, there's no comparison there.

And I'm not saying that this means that God couldn't have saved me some other way. Of course he could have saved me some other way. He could have saved

Israel another way besides enslaving Joseph, but he chose to enslave

Joseph for his purposes. And he did the same in the slave trade. I know that might not strike you the right way.

I know it gets you all riled up in the fields, but don't take it up with me. Take it up with God.

Anyway, I hope you find this video helpful. Again, I'm not trying to convince Athanasius, Luther, and Vandross here, but there were a number of people that said, well, what do you mean though,

AD? And they were asking honest questions. So hopefully this gives you a little bit of a window into what I was talking about.