Category: Theology

When I was a young leader in Chicago at Adat HaTikvah, we rented from a Presbyterian Church.  I was at that time an ordained Presbyterian minister with hopes of influencing the Church to return to a more Evangelical orientation.  The Pastor of the church was a homosexual who argued that the Bible was written a long time ago before our more advanced knowledge of psychology and genetics.  We would have to adjust our moral stands to take into account this greater understanding.  We maintained a friendly relationship.  I did not know any details about his personal life.  However, in the Presbytery of Chicago, I was part of a vocal contingent that argued against this new re-adjustment.  Most of us who so argued had a high view of Scripture, that every text taught the truth when understood according to the claim of the author in context (inerrancy-see my summary in Dan Cohn-Sherbuk, Voices of Messianic Judaism, “Biblical Authority” 19-28).  Those who argued against our view had a lower view of Scripture as containing revelation, but an imperfect book.  Though we held off the moral revisionists for a season, they eventually prevailed.  They controlled 6 of the 7 major seminaries of the denomination.  Then I observed the rapid decline of the denomination (I left in 1981 on good terms).  From 5.5 million members to under 2 million, but in real terms today, maybe only a million.  There was a profession of respect for the Bible, but generally, the idea was that we must negotiate a position that accommodates modern culture.  Many other mainstream denominations also took this direction with similar declines, such as the Episcopal Church, from 3 million to under 1 million.  It was then that Dean Kelly wrote his monumental study, Why Conservative Churches are Thriving.  This is not as much today as conservative churches in America have switched to a feel-good Christianity rather than the radical call to the cross and discipleship.  However, we learned from those years of steep decline from 1975 to 2005.  

Many of the early leaders in the Messianic Jewish world were trained in the best of Evangelical institutions.  They entered their work of evangelism, planting, and pastoring holding to a high view of Scripture with confidence that on the foundational issues of theology and morals Scripture was clear (the two are intertwined) and that the consensus of the Church throughout history on these matters was firmly established.  My own professor and mentor on biblical authority was the Dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Dr. Kenneth Kantzer, whom I consider the finest teacher on these issues in the 20th century.  Dr. Walter Kaiser, who later became the President of Gorden Conwell Seminary, was also an influence.   Dr. Kaiser was one of the early teachers in our Messianic Jewish yeshivot.  

One other book was a seminal influence, Christ and Culture, by H. Richard Niebuhr.  Niebuhr argues for respecting cultures but with the centrality of Christ and his teaching being the key for what is discarded and what can be redeemed and transformed.  He argued against the liberal orientation where Christ is subsumed under culture so that what is left is not a vibrant biblical orientation.  

This all produced a foundation for me and many others where we seek to understand the universal absolutes of Biblical teaching according to its own context of cultural background for interpretation.  Then we seek to present those claims, including the claims of the Gospel, in the most relevant way, but without compromising those absolutes.   Many who do not believe in the full trustworthiness of Scripture cannot over the long time succeed in this work but will in the end compromise Biblical teaching to accommodate the culture.  It is not that there is new evidence in the culture really refutes biblical teaching.  Rather the strong cultural push against historic biblical morals is a matter of propaganda.  

Today we face a new shaking, and the Messianic Jewish world is not insulated from it.  The center of it connects to sexual identity agendas which are being given an enormous propaganda push by the left.  It includes such matters as the push back against the traditional teaching of Yeshua that God’s standard was lasting marriage without divorce of one man and one woman for life (Matthew 18); the rejection of pre-marital sex and cohabitation without marriage, and the clear standard of Torah that rejects confusion in regard to the identity of male and female.  This also includes a more tolerant acceptance of abortion. Those denominations that have embraced a cultural accommodation in steady decline.  No Church stream that is growing in evangelism and discipleship (Kingdom expansion) has embraced the cultural accommodation.  This includes Africa, India, China, East Asia, Southeast Asia and South America.  For all who are confused or in these wrong orientations, the power of the Gospel offers deliverance though repentance and submission to Yeshua.  His word remains, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”  I just do note that the formation of the new Anglican association, GAFCON, our of African and Asia is now the growing segment of Anglicanism and has totally rejected the liberalizing trends. 

This also relates to the Messianic Jewish approach to halakha.  I accept the fact that there are new situations presented by today’s society that require thinking about how biblical principles apply to new situations.  How do we apply the principles of the Sabbatical year and Jubilee to a modern age when the situation of agriculture is so different and wealth distribution cannot be done by a return to ancestral land?  How do we deal with medical issues that were never even considered in ancient days such as artificial insemination, or genetic medicine to produce cures?  What about cloning?  What about extending life through genetic manipulation?  Also, how do we apply biblical injunctions on caring for the environment?  What is consistent for Jewish people in keeping the Sabbath today and not working and what is not under the New Covenant consistent with Shabbat observance.  But halakha must not come up with adjustments or changes in Biblical absolutes such that spoken by the word of Yeshua that we make void the Word of God through our traditions.  Rabbi Lawrence Schiffman in his From Text to Tradition,  clarifies that though the Torah has a high place of authority in Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinic authority superseded biblical authority.  This we must not allow.  If we do, we will slide into decline just like the mainline denominations.  Of course liberal Judaism has made this radical adjustment.  

All of this relates to how we approach all the issues of LGBTQ people.  Reaching out in compassion is crucial.  Accommodation in a way that could be taken as accepting ways of life that violate absolute biblical norms must not be done.  Not only would such accommodations lead to our decline, but we would be lending ourselves to the possible damnation of those Yeshua came to save, whose salvation depends on repentance and seeking to live by biblical norms.  I am for the accommodations that welcome inquirers into our midst, but our evangelism to these groups will no doubt be much more connected to developing relationships outside of the meeting spaces of our communities.   

On a practical note, the fact of aberrant sexual orientations should be understood in a multifaceted way.  There are many factors that aid in ministry.  Some can be due to just being born after the fall such that design in creation is marred.  God has power for us to overcome such handicaps.  Secondly, there are environmental factors, upbringing, and the earliest memories.  Thirdly, there is demonic power though in a modern world we do not like to realize that there is very powerful demonic forces at work.  There are intergenerational negative inheritances.  Then there is a too rigid cultural definition of what counts as male and female ways of living.  On a ministry-level, there is much needed.  I recommend studying the writings of Messianic Jewish Scholar Michael Brown, Albert Moeller (former head of the Southern Baptist Association), and the pastoral writings of Leanne Payne. 

Imagine the Gospel story if it read like this.  

Yeshua called his 12 disciples and brought them to a special retreat in Galilee.  The trauma of Roman occupation and hard dealings with zealot terrorists was such that these disciples would not be able to do ministry for some years. After a few years of intense ministry for inner healing and deliverance, he established some communities where others could find the same benefits.  

Of course, there were many traumatized in first-century Israel, but those who were called by Yeshua entered the work and were healed as they walked in the power of God and were able to see God work through them as He worked through Yeshua.  This level of power in the Gospel is something that in the American Church, we do not know well. 

Yeshua’s ministry was primarily and first to those we call marginalized.  Early in his ministry, Yeshua announced the character of his work in these terms, 

“The Ruach ADONAI (Sprit of the LORD) is on me,

Because He has anointed me

to proclaim Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim 

release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set free the oppressed,

and to proclaim the year of 

ADONAI’S favor. 

This quote is from Isaiah 61.  The context of the Jubilee reset where lands returned to their original owners such that the whole country experienced a new economic reset.  Though the ministry of Yeshua invited all, the focus was on the marginalized and He indeed set them free as did the Apostles and the 70 in Luke 9, 10.  The Beatitudes of Matthew 5 should be understood in the same way. 

The American Church has pursued all kinds of goals but has not generally put the focus where Yeshua placed it.  He expected those who ministered with him to find healing in the “As you go,” ministry to others rather than a focus on self.  I have often asked the question.  What if the American Church was filled with Holy Spirit power and focused its efforts on the marginalized with effectiveness?  Would we still have a Black Lives Matter Movement and an increase in neo-Marxist ideas today?  I think not.  What if the Church was effective in power with those who are bound by drugs, or those with gender dysphoria?  What if even the blind would be healed, and the lame would walk?  Imagine the credibility of the Church and the progress of the Gospel in American society!

There is a new growing emphasis on Luke 4:18. I was focused on this when I heard that our friend Mike Bickle of International House of Prayer was embracing a prophetic time of focus on Luke 4:18 to be one of the defining foundations of their ministry.  Though it is not large at this point, this emphasis is growing and could be part of revival and restoration in the American Church.  

Luke 4:18 presented a ministry vision for the marginalized in Israel in the first century.  We have so many that are marginalized in Israel today, and some congregations and ministries are giving themselves to a Luke 4:18 focus.  I hope that this will be a growing key to the Messianic Jewish movement in Israel.  

A few years back, our friend Mike Bickle recommended a book that had greatly increased his understanding of the beauty of the LORD and beauty itself.  It was by the Catholic Theologian Thomas Dubay.  Patty, my wife, first read this book and was very enthusiastic about it.  Then I read it.  It almost takes your breath away.  

In Dubay’s presentation, beauty, truth, and goodness are intertwined.  The beautiful is the true.  He even notes scientist after scientist who declared that the theory more likely to be true is the most beautiful one.  This is also asserted in the very difficult but amazing book by chemist philosopher Michael Polyani, Personal Knowledge.  

Dubay presents the evidence of beauty in the world of art including music and presents the nature of beauty as a reflection of our being created in the image of God.  He presents the evidence of science.  The macrocosmic, that is the universe of galaxies and the amazing order. Yes, it is order and not something random, and all is ordered in a way to support life on earth.  He presents the microcosm, each cell an ordered and beautiful complexity that is as complex as New York City.  This has prompted America’s most famous philosopher Thomas Nagel in his book, Mind and Cosmos, to declare that the Darwinian theory of evolution is systematically impossible.  Then he describes the amazing beauty of the midcosm, creation on the plain of our normal existence, plants, animals, rocks, and trees.  By the time he is done, if you are not jaded by a weak life upbringing and disappointments, you are greatly inspired.   Great athleticism is also part of this realm of beauty. 

However, he leaves the greatest description of beauty to be the life of Yeshua, his amazing death for our sins and his resurrection.  It is the beauty of the LORD revealed in fullness.  

In our days at Wheaton College, Professor Clyde Kilby, a friend of C. S. Lewis, sought to awaken students to beauty, to open them to wonder, and then to the reality of God perceived in the experience of wonder. The great Rabbi scholar, Abraham Joshua Heschel, spoke of human beings finding themselves in a universe that shows grandeur everywhere. I am well aware of our struggle with the problem of evil and doubt.  However, the grandeur and beauty of life is much the greater reality.  

One of the very sad aspects of the generation growing up is a jadedness that cannot perceive beauty and the grandeur of creation.  They are jaded by hours of brain-deadening screen time and coarse musical entertainment.  I wonder how much unbelief is rooted in a culture that cannot perceive beauty.  Higher education seems to have lost the quest for truth, beauty, and goodness.  This follows along with one of my recent articles.  Our calling is to become a counter-culture where our young are educated and trained to recognize beauty and to be moved by it.  We have to overcome a culture where nothing wonderful captures the imagination of our young.  So many commit suicide because they are just blind to the reality of that which gives joy.   For us who follow Yeshua, the greatest revelation of truth, beauty, and goodness is in the Scriptures, brought to their height in the New Covenant Scriptures.  As we read them, we should ask, how is it possible that something this wonderful can be written.  Amazement at the person of Yeshua, the ideals, the morals and ethics of the text, the power of the Spirit, and more should capture and move us.  May it be so.  I do recommend to you all this wonderful book.  I want to read it once a year. 

Before Messianic Judaism in our lives from about 1970-1971, Patty and I were on a quest to ask, “What really is the nature of the Church?”  This question came in a context where secular writers were ringing alarm bells on the social trends in America, the loss of the stability of place, friendships, extended family, and local neighborhoods.  We were mere economic pawns in the system and we were allowing our lives to revolve around money and the ease of mobility for seeking greener pastures.  The end of these trends was deep alienation and loss.  Surely, we thought, the Church must have an answer to this problem.   We were also very discouraged by what we experienced as we looked for a church and experienced only what I now call “Go to meeting church.”  Sit down, stand, sing a hymn, have announcements, have a hymn, an offering, have a special music piece, have a sermon, an invitation, then a benediction, and go home.  The special music might have been really special and the sermon quite good, but … but.   “Where was the community?” We asked.  

Then we discovered Acts 2:42 ff. and groups of people who believed that the local churches should build communities of relationships that last, like an extended family, and that these churches were the key to discipleship.  Without committed lasting covenant relationships, discipleship would be greatly hindered.  We had to be committed together to make disciples and to motivate one another to deeper discipleship.  We anticipated the great teaching of Dallas Willard in his Divine Conspiracy, that one is discipled when he or she generally obeys the commandments of Yeshua.  We have sought to apply this throughout our ministry.  To mitigate against congregational hoping and moving away, we sought to encourage the people to only leave the community if convinced of the leading of the Spirit. Ultimately a person has to obey what he or she thinks the Spirit is saying.  However, to put a governor on this and the human ability to rationalize carnal desires, we asked all to test what they said the Spirit was saying and to seek confirmation with their closest friends and leaders.  Ultimately it was their decision without any negative onus.  This has worked well for us for over 49 years.  We found that a Messianic Jewish pattern of life was greatly helpful in community building.  

Today there is a new movement that adds to our knowledge of discipleship in community. One of our leadership couples in Tikkun America, Daniel and Berilyn Gillespie encouraged us to look into it.  The leaders of this movement teach that without bonding in a community where all embrace mutual encouragement and correction, discipleship does not usually take place.  This movement grew out of a ministry in Pasadena, California, the Shepherd’s House.  The center of the teaching of Shepherd’s House is that the heart is the key to discipleship, not just the head or intellectual content as is the emphasis of many churches.  They call this right-brain discipleship.  To make sure we avoid philosophic materialism, I like to speak of it as right-brain/soul or heart since all that we see in the brain exists in another dimension in the spiritual realm.  A simple introduction for understanding this teaching is the book The Other Half of the Church by Michael Hendricks and Jim Wilder.  In his last years, Dallas Willard embraced Shepherd’s House and the organization that grew out of it, Life Model Works.  This is now growing into a movement including networks of congregations.   The goal is quality discipleship.  This takes place by developing bonded relationships of love and kindness, hesed, in Hebrew.  This leads to a community where the habits of the heart are in accord with the Word and Spirit.  It is a community where the love of enemies prevails and the narcissism in all of us is overcome.  

It has never been my goal to build big or to build small but to build faithfully with the people God brings into our sphere of responsibility as elder shepherds. God’s concern is twofold.  One is the quality of discipleship in community, that is what happens to people connected in our congregations.  The second is the ability of the congregation to reach out in love to those who do not know Yeshua and draw them into the community.  When we think of ministry to the Jewish people, there are so many of our people that are wounded, confused, and hurting.  We can be a loving community of healing for our people.  This kind of community will draw them through love that is real.  

    

One of my privileges was to meet and spend time with John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard network.  He actually had a word from God to reach out to me from reading a brochure on a conference I was a part of.  This was quite amazing!  Wimber was famous for revealing the reality of the Holy Spirit, his gifts and his moving through a congregation.  He would say, “Holy Spirit come.”  People would be moved, laugh, cry, prophecy, be healed and so much more.  This was a special calling and gift.  When others asked Wimber about it and how they could see it in their congregations, he said you can do the same thing, just say, “Holy Spirit come.”  Often, they would say this, and little would happen.  More prayer and seeking God was probably necessary.  But back to Wimber: he showed how the presence and power of the Spirit could be shown in large and small gatherings.  He showed how good government could prevent debacles.  As we look beyond Wimber’s central congregation in Anaheim, California, congregations that show the Spirit with maturity also show greater power in evangelism and motivating people to give their all to the Kingdom of God.  I have been observing this now for over 40 years.  This was so true in the days when I pastored. However, most congregations that say they believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit have little in the way of showing the Spirit.  

There are too many reasons why we have so little of the manifestations of the Spirit.  However, I will list a few.  

1. Leaders are afraid that if they open their congregations to member participation that things will get out of hand.  It will embarrass visitors.  Better to have an attractive and ordered gathering. 
2. Leaders have not been trained to govern services that are open to the manifestations of the Spirit.  This ability is caught more than taught.  They need to sit under others who are doing this well to have confidence that they can do it. 
3. Leaders have brought into the seeker-sensitive errors that depend on social-psychological methods to draw people rather than seeing the Spirit as the one who draws and knows how best to bring a reality such that people really do confront the truth. 
4. Leaders have not raised up a core of mature people who can prophesy with accuracy and good impact.  Good prophecy opens up a community and is emphasized in I Cor. 14 as the key gift to desire. 
5. Leaders have not understood that home gatherings are the places where a I Cor. 12,14 type of meeting can take place so that all can participate, and then those who are mature can be released into the larger meetings. 
6. Leaders are afraid to upset people by denying them the microphone.  If only vetted people can speak, then others will be offended.  So, it is thought best to let no one speak from the congregation.  This is a great mistake. 
7. Leaders have allowed unstable and rebellious people to publicly speak and minister. Having brought shame and tension, now the leader decides it is best to allow nothing of the participation of the members spontaneously. 
8. Leaders fear it will take too much time.  It need not if it is governed well, prophecy, some manifestations but ministry during ministry times.
9. Finally, leaders have not led their congregations to seek the Lord with prayer that they might be given the grace of his manifest presence. 

It has been amazing to me to see congregations that grew and prospered with a commitment to showing the Spirit pull back and become completely controlled.  Can the Spirit speak, act and re-direct?  Is He also Lord?  Allowing and welcoming the Spirit and his manifestations is a foundational value in Tikkun.  It is a key to seeing more drawn to the Gospel, more healed, delivered, and encouraged. 

One thing I have found, the Holy Spirit has to be invited and welcomed to show Himself in a tangible way.  Wimber was right in inviting, “Holy Spirit come.”  I am sure you can think of many more examples than the nine I listed.  We read in I Corinthians that “Jews seek a sign.”  I have found the reality of the Spirit revealed has been a key in Jewish people coming to know Yeshua. Members of congregations where the Spirit shows himself learn confidence that the Spirit will show Himself through them in the marketplace and wherever they share with people who do not know Yeshua. 

I have now read several books and multiple articles on Critical Race Theory.  I want to review the contribution for Robin ‘D’Angelo and then reference Voddie Baucham, an African American scholar who now serves as a missionary in East Africa.  This will be in two parts.

Robin D’Angelo was mentored by Critical Race Theory scholars (now designated for the rest of this chapter as CRT).  She is a trainer in diversity, plurality, and sensitivity.  Her book, White Fragility, is now one of the most popular and important books fostering CRT.  The title refers to the anger and negative responses of white people who are called to a discussion of systemic racism and the structures and institutions that perpetuate racial disparities in success in the Black American demographic in the United States.  I am not writing in any way to condemn Robin D’Angelo.  People are in different places and maybe on a road toward Yeshua without knowing it.  Her heart for raising the Black community is commendable, but she may have veered off philosophically and in the best way to do this. 

Readers should review my book review on Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Anti-Racist.  D’Angelo is a fan of his. She is white and committed to fighting race disparities.  As CRT writers, they both advocate for a changed definition of racism.   The old definition was that a race (or different ethnic groups) was inferior by genetics and therefore deserving of a lesser position in society. The new CRT definition is that racism is the systems and institutions created by whites to oppress Blacks and other minorities. Thus one may be a white with benevolent feelings for blacks and strongly believe that they are created in the image of God and deserving of equal respect.  Yet you are guilty, and all whites are guilty because they inherited the systems that oppress and continue to participate in those systems.  Just what those systems are today is generally vague in CRT.  Whites are guilty of racism in a more indirect way.  All whites participate in white privilege due to this history and must face their participation in oppression.  This radical redefinition of racism is crucial and a source also for much confusion in the larger public. Though Asians and Hispanics are referenced, and the latter was also seen as oppressed, the focus of D’Angelo is overwhelmingly Blacks.  Some Hispanics are actually quite white (Argentinians, Chileans, etc. and some from Brazil and other countries.  It is never clear if whites really set systems where only whites dominate, how Asians, especially Indians, and then Nigerian Black immigrants prosper so greatly. 

First of all, I identity with the pain and utter frustration of the leaders from Black American backgrounds that almost 60 years after the great civil rights legislation of the 1960s, there is still such enormous disparity.  That Yeshua followers should search out why and seek solutions through prayer, biblical applications, and social science research is very important. 

D’Angelo deeply identifies with this problem.  However, she as her hero Kendi use neo- Marxist language where human existence is understood as the battle between oppressors and the oppressed.  The oppressed are to be liberated and equity sought.  Equity is not equality-justice as understood either in the Bible or in the American Constitutional order.  Equality in America was defined as equality before the law in the courts, equal liberty to pursue religious, economic, and other goals.  Equity is about parity in outcomes; in the number of billionaires, corporate leaders, percentages in professions, and income parity to whites more for those who are not socialists or communists. Those who define equity as equalizing income move toward socialism or communism (Patrice Cullors, founder of  Black Lives Matter).  D’Angelo never fosters communism as the answer, at least in this book.  She also does not teach that whites are inherently evil due to genetics as some do.  This latter view is the source of the uproar by parents in schools teaching a children’s version of CRT to their children 

D’Angelo presents two answers to the problem of oppression and white supremacy or privilege.  One is sensitivity training in fostering black/white relationships.  She speaks about how blacks respond to whites in ways whites do not understand. I have traveled to Asia, including Japan, Korea, China, Singapore.  I have traveled to Africa, Europe, Russia, and South America. It is good to seek a basic understanding of the cultures and the cues so we act in the best way in developing relationships.  Some of this would be helpful in developing black/white relationships.  How blacks see behaviors from whites and visa versa (She does not do the visa versa. Trust building is on the shoulders of the whites).  However, the microaggressions (many unintended) and the catalog of wrong white behavior are almost Talmudic.  Very few will be able to accomplish the behavior advised.  Walking in love and intentions of love are not sufficient.  One must master the list of rules.  The Biblical adage that love covers a multitude of sins is quite different than this list.  Those who buy into D’Angelo will commit themselves to walk on eggs.  However, one rule, to listen and try to understand the black perspective is important.  However, unlike the relativist idea of “my truth,” the black perspective is not always to be accepted as true.  He or she due to their history may see what is not really there.  D’Angelo is a relativist in the matter of truth.  Understanding is always a two-way street.  One analogy is very helpful.  Some years ago, Jews in California were polled and asked if a Jew could be elected to high office in California.  The majority said no, yet the two U. S. Senators in California were Jews.  We Jews see anti-Semitism where it is not there.  Blacks have experienced prejudice but are also now being propagandized to believe in white racism as a general characteristic.  Will such training really solve the problem of disparate achievement and prosperity for blacks?  It is doubtful.  Indeed will this predispose blacks to see racism where it is not?  Yet the perspective of the black is to be uncritically received. 

The second solution is programs and policies that will lead to parity.  The answer strangely is not in requiring excellence in education since much education is said to be based on white standards and not objective.  For some CRT theorists, objective standards are a matter of white supremacy.  Generally, affirmative action, hiring quotas, and reform of institutions so that blacks will attain is the solution.  Quotas for blacks are very problematic.  Programs for the poor not based on race would rightly disproportionately be given to blacks, and that is well and good.  But how will we do quotas?  Will it include those who are half white and black or one quarter, or with colorism, does one need to fulfill a criterion of darkness?  The solutions tend to be big government ones.  However, it can be argued that in some ways the big government solutions made things worse, and more will make things worse again. The government will promise what it cannot offer leading to more frustration. 

Some claims of institutional racism remain vague with little proof of just how this happens.  The system is racist but there is little substance presented.  It must be racist due to the disparities.  But this is circular reasoning and circular reasoning is ubiquitous with CRT people.  One answer is to change the standards for English and Math so outcomes will be the same for different races.  That will equalize outcomes but will also produce weakness in the pool of professionals needed. 

We could study claims that white teachers favor white students.  With the National Educational Association now embracing and pushing CRT in schools, it is hard to credit.  However, the claim is still made that white students are favored and treated differently.  This would not be due to the institution of public education but the prejudice of teachers.  Is that really happening so much today?  There is anecdotal evidence, but I have not seen the study to prove this when it is not based on outcomes. 

Another example is that blacks are disfavored in hiring.  I agree that overqualified people should not be favored.  However, when both a white and a black are fully sufficiently qualified, then I would think choosing the black is justified.  However, it is hard to pin down since employers pick people who they intuitively feel comfortable with.  That might favor whites.  Or it might not.   Massive studies on corporations and other businesses keeping records of black, white, and other applicants and the percent of choice when all look sufficiently qualified would be good, but how bad a problem is unclear. This does not affect Asians, Nigerians, and others. 

Then there is the issue of housing. Subsidizing ownership for the working poor is one solution, but giving mortgages to people who cannot pay them is a disaster.  Remember the mortgage meltdown in 2007.  Again, we do not know that red-lining (seeing that blacks do not purchase homes in white areas) a major problem today.  The cost of housing is a real issue.  Even now powerful firms are buying up houses to rent them and make purchases more and more out of reach. (See Blackrock on this issue) This does affect blacks.  But is this white supremacy or simple greed that is hurting most Americans of modest means who can not buy a house. 

Another is in police treatment of blacks and whites and the penalties for blacks and whites for equal crimes.  Is there disparate sentencing?  It seems that there is.  Strangely it was Donald Trump who gave orders to mitigate this problem. 

Some of the main thrusts of CRT are really theological.  All whites bear white guilt.  How do you corporately repent for being white since white is not really a corporate category for any type of biblical repentance? Is the Jew who escaped the Holocaust and is white equally guilty?  Are the Hungarians, Finns, Norwegians, Czechs, Poles, etc. equally guilty?   The descendant of slaveholders and the recent immigrant share guilt. Yes, it is said because when they come to the United States their color gives them privilege.  Is it all in skin color or is it in qualifications for the needed position at least in part?  All must repent for this sin of participating in a system that favors whites.  This is a secular version of repentance, but it goes on forever, and there is no forgiveness or release from sin. The only answer is to be forever repenting and committed to working against white privilege.  The danger of this could be in fostering greater division and backlash.  It is difficult enough for Yeshua/disciples to accept legitimate shame but for non-disciples to walk in continual humility and repentance toward the black races seems very unlikely.  Yes, under the pressure of schools and corporations and now even the military people will play the game but will not really mean it in heart.  Could all this be counter-productive?  D’Angelo is requiring a heart change in people without the Gospel.  Can this work?  I think not. Changing hearts is paramount. 

I would like to see CRT people be more clear on the ultimate vision.  How utopian are they?  CRT people are not all the same. Some are communists. Some are not.  Some just want levels of parity that no multi-ethnic society has ever attained.  Some CRT people emphasize intersectionality with the LGBTQ oppressed, women, and even the Palestinians!   Sometimes I would like each one to define justice, their ultimate vision for man, and the basis of the epistemology. (Theory of how we gain true knowledge)  Most are relativists which means they are just asserting their value preferences and narratives.  There is no real truth to any of it since there is no truth with a capital T  Most do see life through the lens of oppressor and oppressed with very strong Marxist class struggle terms that now are applied more to race than workers!

Part II

The issue of World Views: D’Angelo and Kendi 

My biggest concern is that some Christians and Messianic Jews are embracing CRT.  I believe that this is syncretism and that two incompatible world views are being mixed.  One world view comes from Atheists.  When I first read into CRT I noted this worldview disparity on the nature of sin, redemption, justice, and the hope of a glorious age to come, and more. This is really a secular cultic offshoot from Christianity.  As atheist historian Tom Holland says, the quest for equality based on the equal worth of human beings only is pursued in nations influenced by Christianity. This then is a heresy from Christianity.  Study world history.  Each tribe often favors its own and seeks to dominate and even eliminate others.  Study China, India, and Japan, and even Africa!  Yes, this is a universal problem.  Then there are the reasons they gave as to why such evil is justified. Only the United States declared due to its biblical roots that “All men were created equal.”

Some are using and fostering inter-racial hatred as part of the goal to see communism established.  This was part of the vision of Herbert Marcuse, that the elite educators would partner with the marginalized to pull off the communist revolution. 

However, we now, even more, must point out the worldview disparity.  I found Voddie Baucham’s book, Faultlines, confirming and enormously helpful on this.  I strongly recommend that all Yeshua followers who are concerned about these issues read his book. 

First is the definition of justice. In the Bible, it is the pursuit of an order of righteousness.  It is an order where every person can fulfill their God intended good destiny according to the gifts and callings they have received from God.  Adequate provision is part of this and God’s ideal will for all.  However, differences in wealth, responsibility, and vocations are assumed as part of the variety in a good society.   Due to the worth of human beings, the issue of evil people oppressing the poor, the widow, the orphan, etc. is a central theme and is ubiquitous in the Bible.  God will judge the oppressors and deliver the poor.   The focus on the poor and oppressed was to be the central thrust of the offer of the Gospel, “Good news to the poor, “ Luke 4.  The Bible also calls out those with power and money who do not use it for the good of the marginalized.  I cannot emphasize how central this theme is in the Bible, but alas not in the mainstream of the Evangelical churches.  There are many notable exceptions. 

For CRT, the original fall was slavery in the colonies of white nations.  The way of redemption is a works righteousness of forever repenting, humbling, shaming, and good works to fight institutional racism.  There is no forgiveness, but there may be limited levels of reconciliation.  The CRT sessions of repentance are like the Kafka novel The Trial.  One is on trial for a sin that cannot be clearly presented. One is then found guilty.  Some CRT sessions (not D’Angelos in her book) seem like Communist reeducation. There is an emphasis on listening to the stories of the oppressed, but this limited love replaces the love of different ethnicities in Messiah where we come to a passionate love for one another, a union of heart. The New Testament by contrast counsels love which can be summarized as “passionate identification with the other that seeks their good guided by law.  Their good is their destiny fulfillment in God.  That destiny is always within the parameters of God’s Law.  To support anyone in their goals contrary to God’s law is not love in a biblical sense.  Then what is salvation?  The chosen are those who are woke and salvation is in being counted among the anti-racists which among whites is a state of always repenting, always humbling, always being the one blamed.  In the Bible, all have sinned and are lost. Only by repentance and transformation in Messiah can people come to true love for one another crossing racial and ethnic boundaries.  Blacks need such transformation as much as whites. The unity of Jew and Gentile is a case in point. This huge separation has been overcome for those in Messiah.  There is “neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave or free.” (Gal. 3:20).  We now have unity in the Messiah and are able to truly love one another and put one another first.  This love must precede the work of societal progress from Christian involvement.  The basis of progress is to create communities of love where ethnic divisions are overcome in Messiah.  Those communities model what is to then influence society. 

Then what is the ultimate goal?  For Yeshua/disciples it is the Age to Come, the Millennial Age, and or the New Heavens and New Earth. Because of this, though we work for a more just order in our nations, we know that the most important issue is being in Messiah and having everlasting life.  This is not an “opiate of the people” hope. Rather we are to rescue the perishing and disciple them in ways that will lead to their success in this life as defined by Scripture.  The greatest issue of being delivered is not a new white paternalism now bringing rescue to black by white shame and repentance, but the power of the Spirit in the black person by which he or she can do all things through Messiah and partnership with white, Hispanic, and Asian believers, etc.  In this, Christians who are embracing CRT are giving themselves to another Gospel and expecting the transformation of society outside of the power of Christ.  This false Gospel will not succeed.  CRT does provide some insight into the problems, sometimes, but not always, but does not provide the solution. 

When Christians and Messianic Jews give themselves over to CRT and work for it, they generally lose the power of the Spirit to really see people change and come to victory.  They put their hope in a false Gospel and lose hold of the head.   We all must ask the question of how much positive transformation is available outside of Christ.  Progress in the western world, where there has been progress, has been rooted in the Bible and influenced by the Bible. 

Then we must note the anti-Biblical thrust of repentance for being white.  Whiteness is not a category for individual or corporate repentance since whiteness does not represent a corporate group.  An individual can repent of their individual sins. People of an ethnic group can repent in intercession for their corporate family, tribe, or nation where they have sinned.  This becomes part of the bank of intercession toward their nation officially repenting.  We can see the example of Germany repenting to the Jewish people.  Then there was restitution to the Jewish people.  However, can whites make such restitution and even those of ethnic backgrounds with no history of racism?  The United States can corporately repent of its sins, especially to Native Americans, but in reparations should Hispanics pay for it (and their taxes will) or Asians or more recent black arrivals from Africa?  The problems and inconsistencies are great.  The Bible presents corporate as well as individual repentance, but being white is not an ethnic category that is subject to repentance. Repenting for being white and for being privileged in the United States is not biblical.  God as the Lord of history gives gifts and callings to believers and if one has advantages, he or she embraces them as undeserved gifts while giving their lives to serve the needy (a biblical mandate for all).  The Church and churches can repent for their lack of engagement in lifting the poor.  Indeed, human beings under sin take advantage of and use and abuse others.  As such, the churches have a prophetic responsibility to call this out.  The fact is that those who abuse power and dominate are doing so for finances not to maintain white structures to subjugate blacks.  It is, in my view, not a race thing but a money power thing irrespective of race.  CRT struggles to show how whites seek to maintain structures to oppress blacks.  Rather, if the immoral rich would gain more riches by hiring more blacks, and if there was more money in parity for blacks, they would be glad to have more blacks.  It is all about money and power, and I do not believe today that money and power consider race as a basic way to maintain money and power.  Rather the sin of the immoral rich is to abuse and use all for their gain, black, white, Asian, and Hispanic.  Note, I say immoral rich, for there are a number of moral rich people who invest their lives in lifting the needy.  The problem of CRT is shallow repentance that without the Gospel does not go to the root of sin and CRT can not root it out!

As Baucham notes, CRT is filled with incoherence, but then coherence, logic, and contradiction are not greatly valued.  They are considered white.  The circular reasoning is amazing.  Again as Kafka, if you do not admit you are complicit in racism it proves you are. If you admit it, there you are.  Racism explains everything and is unfalsifiable as an explanation.  It is argued that American whites are prosperous due to racism, whites are more successful due to racism, and America’s wars were due to racism.  

Baucham gives his summary of reasons for racial disparity.  He does not believe the primary problems are the ones identified by CRT folks.  In this, he accuses the CRT folks of bearing false witness, and if Christians buy into CRT they will likely be bearing false witness.  I will note his list of false witness thrusts in CRT. We should note that Bauchma was raised poor in a single-parent Black home.  

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Here are some important Biblical norms and evaluations from Baucham.  

1. Humans seek to dominate and to favor their own kind.  Blacks would do the same if they had the power and the money.  The Sunnies in Iraq oppressed the Shiites for decades. When the Shiites prevailed, they oppressed the Sunnis.  All have sinned. Therefore, transformation by the Gospel and the prophetic role of the Church is crucial.  All are to repent, but of real sin. 
2. Those speaking of systemic racism are on the left and identify with the left. Therefore, they ignore conservative blacks who have given incisive analysis. CRT solutions are leftist: more redistribution, bigger government and more central government power or control over our lives.   
3. Baucham raises the question of the demise of the Black family as an enormous root of the disparity. He quotes a speech from Barak Obama from 2008 pointing this out and declaring the lack of fathers as a key reason for the disparities. 
4. Baucham points to the issues of culture in the black community re; lack of discipline in schools and lack of real achievement in passing to the next grade level.  He again quotes from Obama’s speech for this.  The culture of violence, gangs, and drugs for young men is endemic.  Obama pointed to this as well. Yes, sentencing non-violent offenders to jail rather than community supervision and restoration is a major mistake that is contrary to the Bible, but it has to be admitted that most are in prison for violent crimes.  Baucham’s description of the decline in the poor black communities since the Great Society programs, the drug epidemic, especially with crack and fentanyl today is devastating.  It was less due to systemic discrimination and much more due to white paternalism.  Have we taught blacks that they can only succeed through whites?  Does the victim emphasis hurt them?
5. The incentivizing of fatherless homes was a major institutional foundation of systemic racial disparities.  
6. The public schools are another institutional systemic racism problem to use CRT terms.  Most black parents would prefer vouchers to use in successful schools of their choice. However, blacks are subject to public schools that fail them year after year though some are very well funded (as New York and Baltimore).  The solution can be seen in those private schools, especially Christian schools, in the ghetto that are succeeding at amazing levels.  I am connected to one in Richmond where 90% gain literacy and the majority go to college and succeed.  Yet the left and the teacher’s unions see their power.  How about speaking about teachers union privilege that oppresses the Black community.  Yet the solution of CRT is to through more good money after bad and to dumb down the math, language standards, and other aspects of objective attainment.  Testing is racist.  (Yes, tests need to be really objective and not culturally prejudice). Objectivity is a white value!  
7. The issue of crime requires much more policing. Once there is a massive police presence to end drug dealing and violence, then the potential for progress is greater.  Blacks in these neighborhoods desire this but elite leftists want fewer police and to defund the police.  Part of this error is based on false witnesses.  Bauckham presents the false witness of the level of police brutality and the killing of blacks.  Yes, it exists. Yet he proves beyond a doubt that it is not disparate compared to whites and the crimes being committed.  Statistics are used in lying ways in CRT and this will greatly hurt marginal Black communities. 
8. In general, there is no black responsibility emphasis except for those blacks that do not identify with Black Lives Matter and CRT.  They foster white supremacy and privilege and are Uncle Toms.  
9. Thomas Sowell’s latest book is pointed to as a key to reading the statistics on disparities and when one looks closer, they do not say what is being claimed by CRT leaders.  

CRT and the Church and Baucham 

Baucham’s greatest concern is that the Church not embrace the false Gospel of CRT and loses its power and focus.  The way of overcoming ethnic and racial division is through the Gospel and building communities of faith.  There is enough presented in Baucham to show a serious problem of compromise in the Church.  But there are issues that Baucham does not address that speak to the CRT issues.  The primary issue for me is the kind of churches that have been created and the kind that should be created.  

Some years ago, Donald McGavern in Understanding Church Growth, argued for the Homogenous Unit Principle.  Churches grow best and evangelize best when they are made up of people of their own kind.  This has been shown to be true.  Way back in the sixties when he wrote this book, he called for Jewish congregations that would be more successful in Jewish evangelism.  Yet, the Church must demonstrate inter-ethnic/inter-racial love and unity.  While there will be a gravitation to styles and culture producing greater homogeneity, we must always work to overcome it.  If a church is largely white, Hispanic, Asian, or Black, close unity with other ethnic-based churches is important.  It is also important that there be churches that include multiple ethnic peoples while preserving respect for the cultures of these ethnic groups.  This has not been well done in America and for this, there should be corporate church repentance.  Baucham misses this important failure.  

Baucham shows the weakness of the black church, especially in sexual morality and abortion. For this, there must be much repentance. However, what of the repentance of the white churches.  Yes, sexual morality now is at an all-time low.  However, Yeshua is also just as concerned that the focus of Gospel efforts be to the poor and marginalized.  They are to be served, won to Yeshua, discipled, and built into the kind of communities that alone can disciple people. Mentoring, alternative schools, job training and so much more could have come from the Church and its business people.  There are stellar examples but way too few.  By not following the example of Yeshua in Luke 4, the Church has left the vacuum for CRT to fill.  We have giving our children to the secular education system, sacrificed them to Molech, and then not provided for the poor. I don’t mean a handout but a real hand up.  There is a great need for corporate church repentance.  I dream of the day when we have true Luke 4 churches and that the racial disparities in our culture are overcome by the Gospel. I would hope that a right engagement with CRT would challenge the Church to pursue the real answers that come from the Gospel and a coherent Christian worldview.