Oneness Embraced lesson 3

Introduction

The Oneness Embraced book

Tells the story of some little known black historical figures in America, such as Wentworth Cheswell, who performed similar missions as Paul Revere

Gives historical perspective on how the black race was thought to be inferior in this country

Dread Scott

Gives background on the black church in America

Gives a survey of blacks in the Bible and church history (assuming that the black race came from the line of Ham)

Nimrod

Ephraim, Manasseh (father Joseph, mother Egyptian)

Caleb

Zephaniah

Ethiopian Eunuch

David, Solomon, Jesus

Rahab, great great grandmother of David

(Not that Jesus was black - but wasn’t lily white)

Does Dr. Evans believe that blacks bear some responsibility for their current condition?

While some of the challenges we face in the black community truly emanate from the past and its personal and systemic aftermath, there are also many challenges that stem from our failure to properly take responsibility for and be held accountable to our actions, morality, families, the quality of services that we provide as well as the proper management of our human and financial resources. Wrong is to be judged and changed, not applauded and excused with no consequences.

While not seeking to diminish the impact of racism upon a culture, I also want us to recognize that illegitimate or continual cries of racism are self-limiting and self-defeating. They simply foster a victim mentality that reinforces a pathology of dependency. Victimology can be defined as nurturing an unfocused strain of resentment rooted in a defeatist identity through which all realities are filtered, rather than viewing challenges as opportunities to overcome. It is virtually impossible to be a victor and a victim at the same time. In God’s kingdom, victimology negates the foundational theological truths of sovereignty and victory in Christ (Romans 8: 28, 37).

Evans, Tony. Oneness Embraced (pp. 21-22). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Ham’s Curse? Gen 9:18-28

Genesis 9:20–29 CSB

Noah, as a man of the soil, began by planting a vineyard. He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked. When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said: Canaan is cursed. He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. He also said: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; Let Canaan be Shem’s slave. Let God extend Japheth; let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem; let Canaan be Shem’s slave. Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. So Noah’s life lasted 950 years; then he died.

Table of Nations

Scofield Bible notes

(5) A prophetic declaration is made that from Ham will descend an inferior and servile posterity (Gen. ix. 24, 25).

(6) A prophetic declaration is made that Shem will have a peculiar relation to Jehovah (Gen. ix. 26, 27). All divine revelation is through Semitic men, and Christ, after the flesh, descends from Shem.

(7) A prophetic declaration is made that from Japheth will descend the enlarged races (Gen. ix 27). Government, science, and art, speaking broadly, are and have been Japhetic, so that history is the Indisputable record of the exact fulfillment of these declarations.

Keil and Delitzsch

The Phoenicians, along with the Carthaginians and the Egyptians, who all belonged to the family of Canaan, were subjected by the Japhetic Persians, Macedonians, and Romans; and the remainder of the Hamitic tribes either shared the same fate, or still sigh, like the Negroes, for example, and other African tribes, beneath the yoke of the most crushing slavery.

Were these men racists? No, but some used their writings to support their own prejudicial views on race.