Does The Color Of Jesus' Skin Matter

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Michael E. Abendroth here. No, Fred, this is not a rerun.

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Not a rerun. I don�t know what�s going to happen this summer, though. I�m usually in Santa Cruz, California in the summertime.

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I might have some reruns. I don�t know what to tell you. Fred, I guess you could sit in for me, but then you�d have to fly to Massachusetts to do that.

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How would that work? Although, you know what I might try doing? Here at the studio, I have a couple of nice microphones.

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I have some headphones. I have some equipment to get hooked up to Wretched Radio Live.

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I have a call box so I can take calls. Some people say, �Why don�t you take phone calls ?� Well, I take phone calls from people that I�ve scheduled for interviews.

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How�s that? I learned a long time ago, it�s hard for me to �

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I know it�s going to sound really stupid, but it�s hard to look good as a Bible teacher who receives phone calls from crazy people.

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Now, there are some questions that people could call in live and ask that might be nice and good and edifying, and we could just work through them.

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But eventually, you get people who have agendas. When I did radio and some live call -in at WVNE 760 here in Worcester, Mass.,

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there�s a guy that he�d always call in. He was not a Christian, and he�d ask about sports and politics and stuff like that.

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I don�t really have screeners. It would just be me. I�d see the phone ring, and I would hit it, and off we�d go. It�s difficult.

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It�s difficult to have the show cut people off, disagree with them, and still look nice.

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I mean, it�s not about looks. I know that, to actually be nice. Let�s put it that way. So we could actually record some shows on my

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Mac, my MacBook Pro, and that would be live shows in the summer. But then how am I going to surf?

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How am I going to ride a bicycle? I know I�m going against what

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I said. I know I�m hypocritical. I have the Christianity Today in front of me, April 2016, and I just find it fascinating.

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How do you advertise if you�re a seminary?

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If you could have one page ad in Christianity Today, still arguably the magazine of Christianity in 2016,

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I�m sure it doesn�t sell what it used to, but if you had one page ad, if I were going to have a one -page ad on No Compromise Radio, what would the ad show?

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Well, you know, for no co, I might make it funny. There�s Twitter stuff that I put out that, to me, strikes me as dryly funny.

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Is that a way to work? Is that a way to talk? What would a widow woman want?

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That was from an old John Abizini horror show sermon. What would a widow woman want?

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A husband, a rich husband. She had want.

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He said, what would she want? A want and a want. That sounds like Nebraska grammar.

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If you were advertising for a seminary, maybe you�d have a pulpit.

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Maybe you�d have a Bible. A Bible and a pulpit. Those are two things you don�t find at churches these days,

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A, from my Canadian friends. We have quite a few Canadian listeners. I�m thankful for that. Very thankful.

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I think Tim Challies actually listens to the interviews that I�ve done with him, that�s it. Remember, we�re talking about training pastors for ministry.

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As 2 Timothy would talk about war motifs, aggregarian, agricultural motifs, farming, athletes, it�s difficult.

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And then he says, remember Jesus Christ there in 2 Timothy 2. How would you advert your seminary?

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All right, let�s see. �The new Master of Theology THM degree is not simply an intensive

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Master of Divinity degree. The THM ad blank seminary is the most advanced master�s level degree available that adds on to what you�ve already learned in an

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MDiv program. This 30 credit hour program offers concentrations in Old Testament, New Testament, and Theology.

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It�s perfect for those students looking to develop a specialization, deepen their biblical and theological foundations for ministry, and to prepare for Ph .D.

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studies. Apply now. Blank seminary. For more information and to apply, visit sunsetseminary .edu

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forward slash hipster oh sorry did I say that forward slash THM.

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Maybe I�m old, I know I am. Maybe I�m out of date, probably am. But how do you convey, let�s study

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New Testament, Theology, Old Testament, deeper studies, THM on your way to a Ph .D.?

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Well, do you know how they do it? They have a guy that�s taking up a third of the page.

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He has jeans on, t -shirt, blazer, purplish blazer, scarf, beanie, large glasses, black rims, and not a hipster beard, but a beard, and his arms are folded.

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Probably a great guy. That�s not my point. My point is, how do you advertise?

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All you hipsters, this is where you ought to study, denverseminary .edu.

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Are you ready? Here you go. Are you ready? Can you make this stuff up on no -compromise radio?

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Do you want to know why dentists have job security and so do radio hosts that talk about current �evangelical� events?

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Truth Be Told section by Christina Cleveland. She is Associate Professor of Practice and Reconciliation at Duke�s University Divinity School.

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Say what? There are so many specializations. I didn�t know about it. I think

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I need to go to like, forget you, you. Forget you. That�s what I think I need to go. Maybe we have a new

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Henno University. Henno. Here�s the title. You think I�m just making this up.

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You think I just have a bone to pick. I do. This is crazy.

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Why Jesus�s skin color matters. Hmm. Let�s see.

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What does the Bible say about Jesus�s features physically? Hmm. Well, we certainly know that David and Saul were talked a lot about when it comes to their physical characteristics.

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And actually, with Saul, that�s sadly why he was chosen. David less so.

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After all, we�re trending toward a man after God�s own heart, not the externals.

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Was it Absalom? We know a lot about Absalom, at least his externals.

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I think he had so much hair. I think, wasn�t it Absalom that weighed his hair? So much flowing hair.

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Kind of a Revlon commercial guy. Feathered hair of Absalom. I don�t think it was

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Abner. I think it was Absalom, but I could be wrong. What about Jesus? We do know that in Isaiah, it is prophesied in the servant songs that he will have his beard plucked out.

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I think it�s safe to say that he had some type of beard. I don�t think it�s going to be the�

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I don�t think we can describe what kind of beard it was. Is it a five -day old, 20 -day old? I don�t know.

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Short of that, what do we do? Do we know about his hair length? Do we know about his shoe size?

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Do we know about the cubit, his� you know, how long is his elbow to the tip of his little finger?

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What do we know? What do we know about his body at all? Well, I think it�s fair to say we know he�s circumcised.

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Correct? We knew that. Is there anything else we know? Is there anything else?

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I think he has a resemblance of his mother. That�d be fair to say.

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I don�t think he looks like his father, unless it�s one of those, you know, when husband and wife live together for long enough, they look like each other and their dog.

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You know, if you�ve got an Afghan. I�ve seen those kind of tweaky pictures.

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And then the lady looks like her dog or the guy looks like his dog, a pug or something.

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But how about his skin color? Why Jesus�s skin color matters? I think we ought to say what

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Calvin said, and when the scriptures are silent, I�m silent. But I think this lady has a particular� well, she�s got a job to do, doesn�t she?

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The subtitle of this article, page 36, is �That He Was an Ethnic Minority Shapes How We Minister Today.�

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Now, I have my Bible open to James 2 about the sin of partiality. Before I look at that,

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I would like to read something from 1 Timothy, okay? There�s one God and there�s one mediator between God and man, the ethnic

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Jew, olive -skinned Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

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For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

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Notice what the text does not say. There�s one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the

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Jew, Christ Jesus. Why doesn�t it say that?

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Well, the context, of course, in 1 Timothy 2, verse 1 says, �First of all, then,

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I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

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This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.�

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What kind of people should I pray for in ministry? Paul tells Timothy, �Pray for leaders.

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Pray for all those kinds of people.� And the word �all� in Greek, pas, pan, pantes, can mean all relative, all inclusive.

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Each and every person, all, are all kinds of, all sorts of, all manner of. You have two kinds of all, relative all, inclusive all.

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Both are used in the Bible. That�s an indisputable fact. It�s a fact that people don�t like.

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It�s a fact that four -point Calvinists don�t like that, but it is, in fact, true. Pray for all kinds of leaders.

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Why? Because God desires all these kinds of leaders to be saved.

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That�s what it says in verse 4. He gave himself, in verse 6, a ransom for all these kinds.

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It�s the all of verse 1, it�s the all of verse 4, it�s the all of verse 6 in 1

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Timothy chapter 2. Pray for all these kinds of people. Now, these particular kings, they weren�t

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Jewish, not to my knowledge. And so Paul is saying, �Here�s the mediator.�

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Here, there�s a go -between, God and men. There�s the advocate. Remember that Job, in Job chapter 9, was asking about if we only had an umpire, if we only had a go -between, if we only had an advocate, 1

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John chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. It doesn�t say �Jew.� It doesn�t say �ethnic minority.�

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For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the ethnic minority,

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Christ Jesus. Friends, do you see where we�re going with all this? This is �

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I want to keep saying the word �crazy.� I should pick a different word. After one of my recent lectures, so writes

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Christina, with an �e�, a Christian college student approached me and asked me if black people are uncomfortable with the fact that Jesus is white.

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I responded, �Jesus is not white. The Jesus of history looked more like me, a black woman, than you, a white woman.�

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I thought this subject was supposed to be called �Truth Be Told.� Are all

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Semitic people closer to black skin than white skin?

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It actually shows a picture of her as well. From this portrait, this painting kind of thing that�s of her, it�s a picture that�s computerized to look more like a little sketch painting thing, color.

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It�s not just black and white. I would say, objectively, she�s a lighter -skinned black lady, not an expert on pigment or lack thereof, but Jesus looks more like me, and then she says, �But we do know this, a black woman than you, a white woman.�

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I wasn�t shocked by the student�s assumption that Jesus was of European descent or the certitude with which she stated it.

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When I am in U .S. Christian spaces, I encounter this assumption so often that I�ve come to believe it is the default assumption about Jesus� appearance.

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How can I argue with her anecdotal evidence? I don�t think in the circles

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I run in, nobody thinks that way. They don�t even think in those categories. They think of Jesus as a

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Jew. How do Jewish people look? How hard is that? I know there�s the hangover of white

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Jesus pictures, but if you don�t have pictures around, the only picture we have is as it�s painted in the

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New Testament scriptures. Indeed, white Jesus is everywhere. A 30 -foot -tall white

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Savior stands at the center of Biola University�s campus. White Jesus is featured on Christmas cards and the recent

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History mini -channel, the Bible, dramatically introduced a white Jesus to more than 100 million viewers.

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In most of the Western world, Jesus is white. Yeah, but in scripture, he�s a man, he�s a

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Jewish man. Is that why we have like a couple of genealogies about Jesus, Matthew, and Luke?

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While Christ the Lord transcends skin color and racial divisions, that�s true, she finally said something

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I like, white Jesus has real consequences. And so do false canards and false assumptions.

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In all likelihood, if you close your eyes and picture Jesus, you�ll imagine a white man. Uh, no, not true.

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Without conscious intention or awareness, or Bible reading, might I add, many of us have become disciples of a white

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Jesus. Name one, except this lady here, I don�t even know who this lady is. Disciples of the white

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Jesus. Friends, I need Jesus as a substitute, and I need

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Jesus as a representative. And he has to be a man. The incarnation deals with the man.

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And when you even hear the word Jesus Christ, who he is on earth, the Messiah, our

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Christ Jesus. This is ludicrous. I, of course,

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I don�t know her thoughts and her intentions and her motives, but I don�t want my kids to be taught by this kind of teaching.

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Without conscious limitation, intention rather, or awareness, many of us have become disciples of a white Jesus. Not only is white

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Jesus inaccurate, he can also inhibit our ability to honor the image of God and the people who aren�t white.

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How? If Jesus isn�t white, Jesus is dark.

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Now I look at you and I think, well, Jesus is dark, you�re dark too, I can now minister to you.

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I thought the New Testament paradigm was a little different. I�m a sinful, wreck, depraved, thoughts and intentions of my heart only evil continually.

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I�m an enemy of God, I�m helpless, I�m ungodly, I�m unrighteous, I�m a sinner. And that does not stop the love of God.

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The triune God sought me out. His Son, the Father�s Son, died for me because the

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Father loved me, the Son loved me. Jesus was raised from the dead, and I�m in Christ now, and God has loved me with an everlasting love.

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I read the New Testament, I don�t think about race at all. I think of Jew -Gentile distinctions, that I do think of.

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But friend, could I tell Christina Cleveland something now? African blacks and European whites are both

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Gentile. I know.

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We�re just adding in extra things. Jesus of Nazareth likely had a darker complexion than we imagine.

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Oh, okay. If he�s Semitic, if he�s Jewish, he is

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Jewish. There are light -skinned Jews, there are darker -skinned Jews. Not unlike the olive -skinned common among Middle Easterners today.

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Okay. Is olive -skin closer to black, or is it closer to white?

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Is it in between? Princeton Biblical Scholar, do those three words go together?

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James Charlesworth, I think in some cases they do, just depending on when Princeton and whose opinion you�re looking for, go so far as to say

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Jesus was most likely dark brown and suntanned. The earliest depictions of an adult Jesus showed him with an oriental cast and a brown complexion.

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But by the 6th century, some Byzantine artists started picturing Jesus with white skin, a beard, and hair parted down the middle.

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This image has become the standard. In the colonial period, Western Europe for the most part exported its image of a white

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Christ worldwide. And white Jesus often shaped the way Christians understood Jesus� ministry and mission.

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Some 19th century Christians, eager to justify the cruelties of slavery, went out of their way to present Jesus as white.

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By negating his true identity as a dark -skinned, oppressed minority, slaveholders were baited but better able to justify the master -slave hierarchy and forget

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Jesus� ministry to set the oppressed free, Luke 4 .18. This lady should know better if she�s an associate professor of the practice of reconciliation at Duke University�s Divinity School.

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It�d help if I could talk, but I�m just a radio show host. Oppressed minority.

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In Israel, in maybe she wants me to say Palestine, Jesus was an oppressed minority.

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Oh yes, he was oppressed because Rome was there. Was he a minority? Might have been a minority when he went to Decapolis.

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There�s a lot of Jews there too. As a Jew, Jesus was an ethnic minority in the Roman Empire. We�re looking at the

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Roman Empire, she says. Jews were marginalized by Romans, Greeks, and other non -Jewish ethnic groups in imperial cities.

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As an infant, Jesus was a target of rule or sanction and fantasy. Did that have to do with ethnic minority stuff?

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Or did that have to do with a satanic plot to kill the God -man? Throughout his life,

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Jesus knew the pain of being a member of an ethnic group whose culture, religion, and experiences were marginalized by those in power.

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Okay, then why does the New Testament say nothing of that? Oh yeah, but he had to pay taxes.

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To quote the band XTC, �Are you perceiving me ?� She goes on to say, �Since

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Jesus belonged to an ethnic minority, we are compelled to reevaluate who Jesus was and with whom he identified as he fulfilled his mission.�

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How about seek and save those who are lost? How about Jews and Gentiles? When people who were on the outskirts gathered,

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Jesus was among them, not only because he ministered to them, but because he was one of them. See how we're adding extra layers?

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You've got Jew and Gentile bifurcation, which the Bible knows of. Jew -Gentile,

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Jew -barbarian, Jew -pagan. That bifurcation, Galatians 3, we understand, and in Christ there aren't any of those.

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But now in Christ, we have another bifurcation, and it's not Jew -Gentile. It's pigment -oriented.

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I reject that, because Jesus is not a minority, an ethnic minority. The mediator between God and man is the man,

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Christ Jesus. How does the New Testament show who Jesus is?

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And that's how we need to preach it and teach it. I see nothing about skin color at all. I see blacks and whites and everybody in between as Gentiles, unless you're a

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Jew. You're a Gentile. And what's the difference? Ancestor worship in South Africa or worshiping a tree in England?

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There's no difference because they both need righteousness. Let's not add these extra pigment colors now to have false, like a new division.

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In order to follow Jesus in his mission today, okay, now she's going to tell me. Here's her punchline.

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We must often choose a love that is based in solidarity. Many well -meaning Christians minister across the social gap, but whites can minister to people of color without truly seeing them as equals.

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The higher income people can serve lower income. I reject that. If people do that, shame on them.

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This involves seeing non -European cultural perspectives and customs as valid and valuable, listening to people who are marginalized and demonstrating without words and actions that both spiritual and social liberation are central to the gospel.

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Wrong. Spiritual and social liberation are not central to the gospel.

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That's not true. Spiritual liberation is, social liberation isn't.

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See where she goes? She leads you down here and takes you to the white Jesus. Worship the dark -skinned

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Jesus. That is so wrong. You know, racism goes a lot of different ways.

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And in my opinion, this kind of talk only fuels both sides. Jesus is a man.

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The incarnation shows that he's a man and the gospel has nothing to do with social liberation. Tell that to slaves back in the

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New Testament. They weren't socially liberated, were they? Of course they weren't.

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Jesus' skin color does not matter. Truth be told, it doesn't matter and that he was an ethnic minority doesn't matter.

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It doesn't shape the way we minister today. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.