What Is Racial Reconciliation?

God's Word is plain: He calls for Racial Reconciliation! Today, many white and black separatists are distorting God's Word by twisting it around, and saying that God wants separation of the races. Nothing can be further from the truth. White separatists, for example, claim that God's true chosen people are the so-called "Aryan" race and not the Jews. They claim that the true "Israelites" are people that are descendants from the Germanic, Anglo-Saxon people. The Bible is plain, that the Israelites are the Jews as we know them today. Although God selected the Jewish people as his true chosen people, Jesus commanded that the gospel be preached to ALL races of people. For example, Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus set the example himself, in John 4:4-32. Jesus went to a town called Sychar in Samaria, where he encountered a Samaritan woman at a well, where she was drawing water. Now in those days, Samaritans were despised by Jews because they were descendants from Gentile ancestry and they worshiped differently and had their own priests. (A small group actually still survives near the village of Nablus, near ancient Shechan.) They did not associate with one another, because the Jewish Pharisees (religious leaders) taught hatred and racial prejudice to their people. Remember that racial hatred is a learned response; you are not born with hatred -- someone has to teach you to hate. Babies do not come into this world judging people by the color of their skin. This only occurs when someone teaches children to hate their neighbor because of the shade of their skin. Jews and Samaritans would not speak to each other in public, let alone share a drink of water together, but Jesus not only spoke to, and shared a drink of water with a woman of another race, he also ministered to her. He asked the Samaritan woman at the well, "Will you give me a drink?" In verse 9, the woman replied to Jesus, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus then said to her that if she knew the gift of God, and who it actually was that was asking her for a drink, then she would have asked Him, and He would have given her living water, and she would never thirst again. The woman replied to Him, "Sir, where can you get this living water?" (Verse 12 ) Jesus explained to her what He meant by the term 'living water,' which was a gift to fulfill the thirst of the inner self or the inner life, which in her case was empty indeed. She was a divorced woman who had 5 ex-husbands, and was currently living with a man that she was not married to.

It tells us in verse 6, that Jesus encountered the woman at the well, at the 6th hour of the day, that is, 6:00 AM. Why was this woman at the community well, so early in the morning? She was obviously getting her water before the other women of the town were due to arrive at the well, in so, that she could avoid ridicule and scorn. Her reputation had preceded her. The Jews would have known nothing about this woman however, because as stated in John 4:9, Jews did not associate with Samaritans. When this woman asked Jesus for this living water that He spoke of, He told her to go call her husband, and then come back. (verse 16) She replied "I have no husband." (verse 17) Jesus replied "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had 5 husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." (verse 17-18) The woman then replied "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." (verse 19-20) Jesus was first Jew, then Sir, then Prophet to the woman. He had looked into her soul. The reference to worship revealed her heart hungered to know the way of God. In verse 21-24, Jesus explained to her, "Believe me woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and truth." In verse 25, the woman said "I know that Messiah (Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us." In Verse 26, Jesus said to the woman, "I who speak to you, am He." The woman then ran back to town, and told the people in town, to come see this man who told her everything about herself, declaring to the town that Jesus was the Christ. As a result, the entire town , a town of a different race, came to see Jesus and were saved. (Verses 28-42) In this story, we see that out of this one person, God used a person of a different race, a woman, a divorced person, and a new convert to preach his Word to lead an entire town to Christ! So anyone who says that people of other races, or women, or divorced people, or new converts can not become preachers, are liars! God can and will use anyone who is willing! (John 3:16)

Jesus promised to the disciples that the Holy Spirit would be sent to the believers. On the day of Pentecost, as described in Acts Chapter 2, the promise was fulfilled. Who received the Holy Spirit? In Acts 2:5, it says people from every nation. Verses 9-11 "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phyrgia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya near Cyrene (Africa) visitors from Rome (Italians), Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs." Every race that has ever existed on the face of this earth can be directly traced to these that are described in these verses. What does this mean? It is very simple. The promise of the Holy Spirit of God was not fulfilled until God had gathered all races in one place to receive it. Acts 10:34 Peter said that God does not show favoritism, but accepts people from every Nation who fear Him and do what is right. The word nation is taken from the Greek word ethnos, meaning ethnic, which means race. So God accepts people from all races who fear Him and do what is right. The right thing is to make Jesus Lord, Savior, and Master of one's life. God unleashed the Power of the Holy Spirit and the prophecy of Joel 2:28 was fulfilled. (In the last days, God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people.") Not just some people, but all people who believe upon the name of Jesus Christ as absolute Lord of Lords and King of Kings. (Acts 2:21: "Everyone who calls on the Name of The Lord, shall be saved.")

Once the promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled and the different races of people received the Holy Spirit, they began to act like Christians should act, that is, one big happy family! There were no denominational, racial, class, or social divisions! In Acts 2: 42-47, it plainly states that when all the different races of people received the Holy Spirit, they devoted themselves to the apostle's teachings of Jesus, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer. All, not some, but all the believers were
together and had everything in common. This means that red, yellow, black, brown, and white had everything, not some things, but everything in common! (verse 44) In verse 45, it says that the more fortunate believers sold their very own possessions, to take care of the less fortunate believers, and gave to anyone as he had need. How many Christians actually practice this today? In Verses 46-47, it says that they all met together everyday in the temple courts. (OH MY!!! does this mean the different races actually went to church together, instead of their own separate churches?) Not once a year to acknowledge one another, but everyday! They broke bread in their homes, (WOW! DOES THIS ACTUALLY MEAN THAT THE DIFFERENT RACES OF PEOPLE WENT TO EACH OTHERS HOMES, AND DID NOT STAY IN THEIR OWN SEPARATE NEIGHBORHOODS?) and ate together (you mean blacks and whites actually sat down at the same table and ate together?) with glad and sincere hearts, (does this actually mean that the different races were glad to be together and were serious about it?) praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people." Now notice how it says the favor of ALL the people. Remember, not everyone in Jerusalem, where this took place, were Christians. As a matter of fact this took place only a few weeks after Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. It says, however, that the Christians had the favor of all the people who seen this. This means that even the non-Christian unbelievers were looking upon them with favor, because they were amazed that all the different races were actually practicing what they preached. They had never seen the different races and social classes of people come together in peace and harmony before, so they were saying among themselves, "Hey, man, there must be something to this Christianity stuff!"

The last part of verse 47 sums it all up for the true miracle of God's purpose: "and The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved!" Today, many churches are crying out to God for revival, and asking God to fill their churches, but many have not seen this happen. Could it be that the reason God has not fulfilled their request, is because He is not about to place newborn Christians into a temple that allows racial, class, social, denominational, and educational divisions and barriers? Think about it!

There are many many more verses in the Word of God that speaks out against racism. It would take a long time to write them all for this web site. However, I do want to touch on one last thing. In the book of Revelation, John was allowed to see heaven. This is what he saw. Revelation 7:9: "I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, ( note: for
those wacky cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses, that come to your door and tell you that only 144,000 will be saved, you may now answer them with the fact that John saw a great multitude in heaven that NO ONE COULD COUNT, so that blows their theory all to pieces!) from every nation (ethnos = ethnic, race), tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of The Lamb! ( Note: since the Throne of God is located in the center of heaven, that means that all the different races of people were gathered together in the center of heaven in front of Jesus, and not in their own separate sections and neighborhoods!) Rev. 7:10 "And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to OUR God, who sits on the Throne, and to the Lamb.' By saying "OUR" God, that means that Jesus is Lord to all races of people! Since God allows all races of people to live in heaven, we must realize that those who can not love and get along with others, and that do not want to live around other races of people, will not be welcome in heaven! We are given just a few short years here on earth to prepare ourselves to live for eternity in heaven. If we can not get along with other races of people while here on earth for a few short years, then how can we get along with them for eternity? The answer is simple: you will not be able to! Therefore, if you do not love other races of people while here on earth, you won¹t love them in heaven, so you will not be allowed to live there. You will spend forever in eternal darkness with the lord and master of hate, bigotry, racism, and unforgivness, whose name is Satan! Would you like to spend eternity with him? Do you think that will be fun and cool to go to be with Satan? Let's see what the Word says about that! Revelation 20:10: "And the devil, who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever!" Rev.20:15: "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Rev. 21:8: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, (see 1 John 3:15 which states "Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that NO murderer has eternal life in him!") the sexually immoral, ( lesbians, homosexuals, fornicators, and adulterers) those who practice magic arts, (witches, psychic hot line operators and those who call them, palm readers, horoscope readers, and fortune tellers) the idolaters (those who place anything above Jesus) and all liars -- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur." Doesn¹t sound like too cool of a place to spend forever, does it?

Folks, the good news is, that if you have been guilty of any of these things, you can still repent, do a complete turn around, tell God that you are sorry, promise never to do these things again, and ask Jesus to come into your heart, and make Him Lord, and Master of your life. If you do this, then Jesus will write your name down in the book of life, and you will be able to live in heaven forever with all races of people, who are created in God's image! Rev. 22:12, Jesus tells us that he is coming soon, to give to EVERY person according to what he or she has done. My question is, "Are YOU ready for Him, and do you really want Him to give back to you, according to what you have done?"