F4F | A.R. Bernard Claims White Privilege is Real

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. Today we will be covering a controversial topic, and this needs to be hit up straight on, and the reason being is because there is a false narrative that many evangelicals are embracing, and this false narrative is coming from the SJW community, and it is not actually a biblical view or a biblical correction to the very real sin of racism.

Rejecting the Leftist Narrative of White Privilege

Instead, it is a sin in and of itself that literally is based upon a false narrative, and the false narrative is that all of the evils of society are caused and the result of the evil white patriarchy, and that's a false narrative that's put forward by the SJW community, and one of their terms that they're throwing around is the concept of white privilege.

But we're going to be taking a look at that concept, and I'm going to put a link to a video below. In fact, let me pull this up because we're going to be listening to A .R. Bernard and Carl Lentz of Hillsong from a Hillsong conference talking about this concept, but down below I'm going to put a link to this video, the video by Jesse Lee Peterson titled, Jesse Lee Peterson Completely Dismantles Leftist Narrative, and I'm going to say something very controversial here.

There is no such thing as white privilege. It doesn't exist, and nor is this idea of you just being a white male makes you a racist. You're sitting there going, you can't say that because you're a white male.

Yeah, I can, because I'm sorry, but these people are flat-out lying, and it's a false narrative, and there's no place for this in the church. And the reason I say that is because you call yourself a Christian.

You are a Christian. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There are no multiple races, by the way. There is only the human race. So we're going to take a look at what A .R. Bernard said, and boy is this a slick twisting of Scripture, by the way, and we'll unpack it along the way.

But let's Carl Lentz and A .R. Bernard kind of tease this out, and we'll comment along the way.

Here we go. So when you have a white person say to a person of color, yeah, you know, I don't agree with the past and the things that happened in the past, and you know, my great-great-grandfather may have been racist, but I'm not.

I don't believe in oppression and slavery and whatnot, you know, so I'm removed from all that.

So can we have a relationship on that basis? All right, so note the way he set this up. You're talking about a person whose skin color just happens to be white and is saying he's not a racist, and he's telling the truth.

There isn't a racist bone in his body. You know, is it okay for you, a person of color, can we be friends? A .R. Bernard's answer? No. Well, your assumptions are.

Wrong. You're not removed, because although you may not be the perpetrator of those injustices, you are indeed a beneficiary of those injustices. So that gives you an advantage 300 years later that I don't have 300 years later.

Now a.

Little bit of a note here. This is based upon the SJW concept known as equality of outcome. This is a Marxist concept, by the way, and I'm going to again refer you to the video from Jesse Lee Peterson where he takes this straight on.

This is the concept known as white privilege. So, you know, as if somehow, you know, if you are a person of color, you are automatically, the system is rigged and set up in such a way that you can never succeed, and it's not possible for them to have an equality of outcome.

And Jesse Lee Peterson actually addresses one of the major reasons why there are differences in outcomes between people of different skin colors, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that of the total breakdown of the nuclear family within the African-American community, and that's a major reason why there isn't a similar outcomes.

But this whole idea that of white privilege and everything being said, and that somehow I'm the beneficiary of racism. Yeah, what that does is it makes me a racist, even though I'm not a racist. Just by virtue of the fact that I'm a white man, and I went to school, and I got an education, and so everything was rigged in my favor.

Again, that's a false narrative, and it's a myth. It's not true. In fact, defining white privilege is quite difficult, I would say. But he continues, and now he's going to twist the Gospel of Luke chapter 3 in defense of this concept.

Misreading Luke 3 and Isaiah 40 as Social Justice

And we know that the.

Playing field of human experience is not level. That's why we appeal to God. That's why, you know, the prophecy said that when Messiah come, he would fill every valley, he would lower every hill and mountain, he would make the.

Now let's take a look at that passage, by the way. And let me duplicate this tab before I do that, and there's a reason why, because I want to come back to what I had put in there. The Gospel of Luke chapter 3 is the text that he's referencing, but he's not really reading it out in context, nor is he really engaging in exegesis.

What he's doing is putting a social justice ideology over this text. And here's what it says, Luke 3, 1, John was a preacher of repentance. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, and this is from Isaiah chapter 40, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now, what A. R. Bernard is doing is hijacking this prophecy and making the path straight is through the repentance preaching of John the Baptist, calling people to repent of their sins.

Crooked paths are sinful paths, and that's what is being talked about here. But what he's doing is imposing a social justice ideology and a social justice narrative over this text. And so, yeah, we've got a major problem in what A. R. Bernard is doing here.

And in just a couple minutes, he's going to overtly defend the concept of white privilege.

Straight, he would take the rough roads and make them smooth. And this is a beautiful metaphor for, number one, he would fill the valleys, and Luke, if I may, chapter 3, it opens with the power structure at the time when John and Jesus began their ministry.

And why does it present the power structure?

Yeah, it actually is quite clear as to what's going on here, is because in presenting the power structure, it anchors the story in human history, and we know when this was. And so, you know, it's basically saying, here's what was happening politically.

Here were the...you know, who was Caesar, and these were the different regional governors and Tetrarchs and things like that during the high priest of Annas and Caiaphas, and it says the Word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.

So it anchors it in human history. That's the point of all of this. But watch what A. R. Bernard is.

Going to do with it. Because the message would actually speak out against the.

Status quo and the power elite. So... What? So again, this is a social justice narrative and ideology imposed on the text. The reason why these people were mentioned has nothing to do with, like, speaking power to the oppressive, you know, power structures.

That was, you know, speaking against the oppressive power structures. What John was doing was preaching against people's sins, calling.

Them to repent. That phrase out of the book of Isaiah, when it speaks of the valley being filled, it's talking about the vacuum for righteous leadership would now be made available and filled before the people.

The vacuum for.

Righteous leadership. Uh-uh. That's not what's going on there. It would bring.

That. When it spoke of mountains and hills being lowered, it doesn't mean that he's going to go around the world and take Mount Everest and crush it to the point. No. It's metaphor for the fact that those who are proud and arrogant in positions of power will be humbled and given an empathy and...

Not just in.

Position of power. Notice he's imposing that. God opposes those who exalt themselves. The one who exalts himself will be humbled, God says. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. But you're talking in postmodern theory here, in postmodern SJW ideological terms, you know, that somehow this is all.

Just about power. ...to the realities of human experience, especially the disenfranchised and the marginalized. It speaks of the crooked being made.

Straight, that he would address corruption. The text is talking about, John preaching against sins, calling people to repent and be baptized, you know, for.

The forgiveness of sins and repentance. The rough roads being made smooth is that based upon the struggle for power and greed and corruption. Those things that lead to the abundant life, all right, there are...

Now notice he's saying all of.

This in the context of white privilege. Uh-huh. That somehow being white and in you know, in living in 21st century America, growing up in 21st century as white, that this is the equivalent of basically being in unjust power.

Wow. I mean, this makes you a racist without even being a racist. Just, it makes you racist by virtue of the fact that you are white and grew up in America at this time. That is not justice. That's an injustice.

This is not the calling of people to repent of any sins that they committed. This is something totally.

Different. ...and difficulties in the way that will be removed at the coming of Messiah. That's why right after that text, John then speaks to the crowd and he says, who's warned you to flee, you brood of vipers?

He was saying that to the Pharisees. Then they started to ask him. The tax collectors responded. The soldiers asked him, what do we do? And he began to speak to their corruption. He began to.

Speak to their injustices. See, that's where we... He spoke against their sin. So let's take a look at what was actually said. So the crowd asked him, after being baptized, what shall we do? So he answered them, whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none.

Whoever has food is to do likewise. Which, by the way, this is exactly what the moral law of the Old Covenant called for. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do?

And he said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him, and what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusations, and be content with your wages.

The Bible’s Teaching on Race, Unity, and the Image of God

Now, a little bit of a note here. Again, A .R. Bernard is citing this text in the context of a white person who says he's not a racist and wants to be friends with somebody who's a person of color, and he's saying, no, you can't.

And he is likening that white person to somebody who is corrupt and needs to somehow straighten his path. What exactly has he done? Oh, I see. He just happened to grow up in 21st century America. Does that somehow make him corrupt automatically just because of his skin color?

So you're going to note that in the SJW narrative that you are a racist just by virtue of the fact that you are white. And that's literally what A .R. Bernard is promoting here.

Need to be and have a very deep and profound and honest conversation and not be afraid. Issue of race as Christians has to be dealt with up front, and it's.

Not... Now, I agree. There is no room in Christianity for real racism. Racism where you believe that, you know, by virtue of your skin color, you are superior to people who have a different skin color than you do, and that goes all different directions.

That's not just white people being prejudiced against those who are persons of color, but real racism actually runs in reverse, you know, from people of color against those who are white, those who are Asian, those who are Hispanic.

Racism is an equal opportunity sin, and it has to be called out wherever it rears its ugly head, regardless of who's engaging in it. And here's the problem with the SJW version of their definition of racism.

It's not just a hatred or a disdain or a prejudice against somebody of a different skin color. It's not true racism unless you're in power. And so in their way of redefining racism, you can't be a racist if you are a person of color because you're not in power.

That's a lie. That's a straight up lie. And, you know, and I'm sorry, but people who hold that view need to repent because oftentimes the people who hold that view, they are in fact for real racists. And unfortunately, what I'm hearing from A .R. Bernard is a form of racism.

In this conversation, it's in your theology. We have two, we have two heritages in life. We have an earthly natural heritage that traces us back to some color, to some community, to some cultures, to some geographic location.

But our spiritual heritage, which is greater than our natural heritage, traces us back to God. And we discover the imago Dei and we're elevated to a level that transcends all of the issues and walls and barriers down here because I, in the image of God, I can transcend all of these things that try to suppress me, marginalize me and disenfranchise me.

What things are trying to suppress you, marginalize you and disenfranchise you? If, you know, I don't know what these things would be, what are you talking about? And so, again, notice he's talking about, you know, apparently, you know, the white patriarchy is, and clearly just by virtue of the fact that, you know, I'm white, I apparently am part of this, unwittingly, I'm trying to disenfranchise him.

Hogwash. That is not true at all. That is a straight up false narrative and it's a lie.

I have a whole new image of myself, and that's why if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new identity, a new image, a new self-concept, a new self-esteem.

New Identity in Christ and Biblical Unity

Yeah. And now I want to come back to those texts that I was originally referencing. Romans 10, 11. Scripture says, everyone who believes in Christ will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who come to him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Galatians 3, starting at verse 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ and there is neither Jew nor Greek.

There is neither slave nor free. There is no male, no female. You are all one in Christ. If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise. And this is a recurring theme in Scripture.

And unfortunately, SJW, this SJW ideology and this false narrative of the white patriarchy trying to suppress people and people of color and stuff like that. This is a form of racism for real. And this is actually contrary then to this idea of we all being one in Christ.

And unfortunately, A .R. Bernard clearly is bought into this this false narrative.

Can we go ahead and pound that out? OK. Do you think the the issue of white privilege is real? Absolutely.

Good. Yeah, there it is. Again, down below in the description, the YouTube channel and this will up in the audio podcast will be on the channel. It's on the main page of Fighting for the Faith for this episode will be Jesse Lee Peterson's complete dismantling of the leftist narrative as it relates to this idea of white privilege.

I'm sorry, but the idea of white privilege actually foments for real sinful racism and is based upon a false narrative. And it is a myth. It is not a real thing. So if you'd like to leave comments down below, feel free to do so.

If you found this helpful, please share it with others. And all the information on how you can support Fighting for the Faith is down below in the description. And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.

Amen.