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The best chapter in the book. By far.
All right, we got the Woke Church, chapter nine. This is an exciting day because this is the last chapter in the book and I am happy to be done with it. But I will say it kind of ends on a little bit of a high note, which is good.
I am very happy to say that chapter nine is the best chapter in the book by far. And I actually was kind of expecting that when I saw the table of contents. I thought what he would end with was kind of what he ended with in his MLK 50 speech, which was really good.
It was about revelation and how the reality of the end times church, the eschatological church of revelation and how it's every tribe, every tongue, every nation bowing before the Lord, all doing the same thing, worshiping God, regardless of their ethnic differences, regardless of where they came from, they all were wearing the white robes.
Why has it gotta be white? I don't know. But they're all wearing the white robes, worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Awesome, awesome stuff. That's something that I think about often in all of that.
There are a few issues with the chapter, but again, this is the best chapter in the book and I agree with most of it. He does something that I find so annoying, but this is not a criticism because a lot of people do this and I understand why they do it, but he's talking about revelation.
And so he wants to say, this is not about pre-millennial, post-millennial, all-millennial. It's not about your specific eschatology, which a lot of people like to say that, but then they go and enunciate the specific eschatology.
So it's just, I find that kind of funny. It's not that annoying, it's just kind of funny. So he'll say, it's not about pre-millennial, post-millennial, all-millennial, but we all know that things are gonna get worse and worse and worse.
And I'm like, well, but that's an eschatological position. So let's not pretend like you're not putting forward your eschatology when you clearly are. You also, a couple of quick things. One line here on page 170, he says, wherever, whatever you are ethnically, God placed you.
You are not here by accident. He singled you out and created you on purpose and for a purpose. That's a great line, man. That's how I feel about my Puerto Rican ethnicity. I feel like it's intentional, providential.
I think that it's awesome that I have ancestors that were slaveholders. I think it's awesome that I have ancestors that were slaves. I think it's awesome that I have ancestors that were natives whose land was stolen.
I think that that works to my advantage in many ways. And I thank God for that. No matter what you are, if you're white completely or if you're black or whatever, Chinese, Korean, God made you that ethnicity for a reason and he has a specific plan for that.
I think that's great. Here is what, oh, another thing, an admission on page 175. Listen up, social justice warriors. He very clearly says that there could be saved racists. That's obvious to me. I think a lot of people on my side say, yeah, clearly there are some racists that are saved.
He says it's a sin among many other sins and if racists know Jesus, they're gonna be in heaven. I think that's a great thing for him to say and it's a very basic thing for him to say from my perspective and from people on my perspective.
But to be honest, I'm in some groups that I don't, I'm in some Facebook groups online that I don't participate in because I know the minute I say something, I'm gonna be kicked out. But these groups are vile, man.
Like they will say, I mean, lots of people believe that none of the Puritans were saved because they held slaves. Lots of people say that if you held a slave or if you were a racist in any way, then there's no possible way you could be an actual Christian.
I see people say this all the time. Dr. Eric Mason, if that's your position, that a racist or a slave holder can't be a Christian, can't be a saved, but blood-bought, regenerated Christian, Dr. Eric Mason says to you, that's not true.
And I agree with him. You don't wanna start playing that game where there are certain sins that you can't have and actually be saved because once you go down that road, that's the works righteousness road.
That's the road that says that if you have a certain sin, you can't be a Christian. Now listen, if you're not repentant, if you're unregenerate, you're gonna go to hell. But listen, all of us have sins, besetting sins that we war against, that we still, for whatever reason, it could be fear of man, it could be all these other things that we still engage in.
And so once you go down that road, that's a road you don't wanna be walking down. John Edwards, I see people call Whitfield and Edwards, they couldn't possibly be saved. Dr. Eric Mason doesn't agree with you and neither do I.
So that's great. Here's the key part I wanted to talk about here. Here's the key part, actually there's two. Listen to this. He's talking about the multi-ethnic church of the Eschaton, of the book of Revelation.
And here's what he says. This is a key idea in this debate. It's page 176. He says, if the church of today began to look like the future that Revelation speaks of, it would be the kind of witness that would literally rock the world.
All churches don't have to be multi-ethnic and we need to be fine with that. But if our churches are homogeneous, we need to work to have a strong racial IQ. I don't really know what that's supposed to mean.
But anyway, this is a key idea because it kind of puts forward this idea that multi-ethnic churches would be a good witness. And here's the thing. He says, this is not really about what your specific Eschatology is.
I think it is though. I think it is because I have no problem with a multi-ethnic church. I guess technically I have a multi-ethnic church that I pastor. So obviously I don't have a problem with it, but I also don't have any problem with homogeneous churches.
He doesn't either, he says, but he kind of puts forward like, what a greater witness it would be if it was multi-ethnic. I don't think necessarily it would be because here's the reality. The way I believe Eschatology, I think that the world is being recreated currently.
I think that the world is being regenerated. I think that this started with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now you can disagree with me, that's fine. It's not consummated yet. We're not actually in the perfect, not end times, what am I saying?
That we're not in the perfect completely regenerated new heavens and new earth right now. Just like we're not in our new bodies right now, but we're being sanctified and worked on by Christ. But I think that, so my position is the church is already multi-ethnic.
You just need to accept that fact. The church already looks like the church in Revelation. So he puts this forward like, that's what we should strive for, to strive to look like the church of Revelation.
And I say, no, we're already that church. If you look at the church of Jesus Christ, it is every color, it is every ethnicity. Every tongue is worshiping God on a Sunday. I often think about that when I take the pulpit on Sunday and I open up in a prayer, I think in my mind sometimes, how many people at this very moment are worshiping the Lord on the Lord's day in different languages, different countries, different continents.
All around the world, people are taking some time out of their week just to honor Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I think about that. We are already the church of Revelation from an ethnic perspective.
Every Lord's day we gather and it's an amazing, amazing thing. If that's not a good enough witness for you, then I think you've got some issues. You know what I mean? If that's not a good enough witness for you, you've got some issues.
To know that there's a little hut in Ethiopia that I've been to and they're gathering together and preaching the word of God and singing songs to the Lord and just worshiping. There's a little house church in China that's ducking and dodging the police, worshiping the Lord.
And then there's a little storefront, used to be a deli in Rutland, Vermont, where a Puerto Rican is preaching the word of God, singing psalms and spiritual songs to the Lord with his congregation. And it's just an amazing thing to think that that Revelation church that you think that we should be striving for, well, we already have that.
I think that's awesome. But it's kind of strange because listen to what he says here. He says, when I was doing doctoral work in Boston, there were Ethiopian churches, Cambodian churches, Brazilian churches, Chinese churches, Nigerian churches.
And from a mission standpoint, for these groups to attempt to merge for the sake of multi-ethnicity would be counterproductive. I would say this is also important for predominantly white and black churches within the same city.
So he's like, well, it would be a great witness if we were to be multi-ethnic churches, but it's okay to have black churches, white churches, things like that. So I need more explanation there. He doesn't really explain it too much.
That's pretty much all he says about it. There's a few more sentences, but he doesn't really explain it. And so I'm wondering, what is this debate about? If it's cool to have a white church and a black church, and again, I don't accept those terms, but if he wants to use them, that's fine.
And all these things are totally cool, then what are you saying? What are you saying? He says, it's important for every church to be on the spectrum from multi-ethnic friendly to multi-ethnic. And this is the problem.
I think that most churches are already multi-ethnic friendly even if they're homogeneous. And so he never proves that they aren't. He just states it as if it's obvious. And I just don't see that that's the case at all.
All right, let's see what we have here. Oh, this is the last thing I wanted to say about this. He says, this is on page 177. He says, every church needs to be engaged in the key issues of justice, but multi-ethnic churches have the opportunity to lead the way.
I'm not sure why that would be the case, but whatever. It's not enough to be in the same room. We have to engage in the same mission. As difficult as this seems, engaging racial injustice can be a mechanism for reaching the lost and reinvigorating those who have left the church.
And he doesn't, look, look, he admits that the gospel is, the redeeming work of Jesus Christ is the gospel, and that alone gives the increase. So he's not saying heresy here, don't get me wrong, but can't you see by saying engaging racial justice can be a mechanism for reaching the lost, don't you see how that has a tendency of replacing the gospel?
I'm not saying you're doing that, but I'm saying, can't you see why some people would be so enamored by this and say, well, it's a mechanism like any other to reach the lost. And I'm saying, no, there's really only one mechanism to reach the lost.
There's only one thing that regenerates hearts, and it ain't law, it ain't justice. That's not what does it. That's not what reanimates hearts. That's not what turns something from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.
It's okay to talk about justice, but you're never going to get actual justice unless the people bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. I was just talking to Tom Buck on the phone. We were just chatting through a passage of scripture that he's gonna preach on this week.
And this is actually the whole point, because God's law, if you notice, it starts, the 10 commandments, it starts with worshiping God. It starts with the justice you owe to God, the love you owe to God, but it doesn't disconnect it from what you owe to each other.
So the 10 commandments, it starts with how to love God. And then the back end, it talks about how to love your neighbor as yourself. It also, in the law of God, oftentimes God will state what we should do with each other.
So you shouldn't steal. And then he'll say, I am the Lord. And it's like, you shouldn't steal. And the reason you shouldn't steal is because I am the Lord. That person has my image and all of that. And so I think we gotta make sure that, yes, justice is something that Christians should preach about, but it's not the mechanism for reaching and reinvigorating the lost.
It's not a mechanism for that. The gospel is a mechanism for that. The gospel is a mechanism for that. You can preach law at someone all day long, but unless you're actually preaching the word of the gospel, the gospel is the thing that has the power to change the heart.
The law only convicts. The law only puts people in a position where I'm under the wrath of God. If you don't go then to the gospel, then you got nothing, man. You got nothing. Anyway, like I said, in general though, this chapter was great.
Now, before I wanted to finish, I wanted to say this. Also Ligon Duncan's forward. I don't have much to say to it. It just seems to be very political, is what I'll say. Anyway, what I wanna say this. I read the book.
I don't recommend the book. It's not worth the money, is what I'll say. You could get all of Dr. Eric Mason's views on video. There's nothing really profound here. I was hoping that there would be a lot of resources and notes and so I could find out why he believes what he believes, but there really isn't much of that.
That's why one of the reasons I bought the book is so I could find out what are the sources that he's getting this stuff from? And unfortunately, it's just not there. And so overall, I just can't recommend the book.
But I wanna make sure this is clear. I don't hate Eric Mason, first of all. And if you wanna read this book, I don't say you shouldn't. I just wouldn't recommend it. But the reality, and also I think he is a godly, what am I trying to say?
I think he preaches the word of God and he does a good job when he preaches the word of God. What I think though is that he gets off script often. And when he does, he might put forward a verse or two that he thinks undergirds his position, but it's not preaching the Bible when he gets off script.
He preaches something else and it comes from another source, another form of authority. I don't know what it is exactly, but you can tell when he's doing it because the scripture verses are pretty unrelated to what he's saying.
When he says that Jay-Z and rap culture has done more for race relations in the 2000 year old church of God, you know he's not getting that from the scripture. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that bad company corrupts good morals, not the other way around.
When he says that you should look to South Africa's reconciliation board as an example for the church, and you know in your mind, well, that's actually failed. But even if it hadn't failed, no, we don't look to pagan cultures to talk about, to see what the church should do.
We look to the scripture. Like you know when he's doing this. So you know, don't hate the guy. I think he's a good preacher when he preaches the word of God. I think he's a terrible preacher when he preaches whatever else he preaches.
And that's the reality. Would I like to have a conversation with Dr. Eric Mason? Yeah, I sure would. But unfortunately, Dr. Eric Mason has a habit of when you ask him any question that's not approved kind of question, he'll block you.
And I'm blocked on Twitter and all that kind of stuff and things like that. Anyway, I hope that you found this whole kind of review helpful. And if there's any other book reviews that you want me to do, please let me know in the comments, things like that.
I'll probably do a few others. My patrons get sort of a first dibs at that kind of thing. But, and hey, if you wanna support the stuff that I'm doing and want me to buy more books and review them, I would be glad to have more patrons.
I do appreciate all of that support. It is very awesome. Thank you so much for watching and for commenting and all of this stuff. I hope this was helpful. God bless.