How many times have you heard the Founding Fathers of the United States called racists because of the existence of slavery in this country? Although, slavery no longer exists, the fact of it in our history has given the descendants of those effected by slavery an excuse to express their own racist attitudes towards whites. This, effectively, destroys any chance of unity amongst the races. You would think the fact that many blacks in this country are Christians, that the love of Christ would be enough to bridge the gap and forgive the past. After all, there is no Jew, Gentile, slave or free for those in Christ, right? At least that is the way it should be. I must admit that I am one who used to hold a lot of prejudice attitudes, based on race, because of the treatment of blacks throughout history. However, after becoming a Christian, the Lord started to show me what it means to be led into all truth. Not only did I realize that because of the forgiveness God had expressed towards me, I should express it towards my fellow man. He also revealed to me that some of the historical facts I relied on to base my prejudices on were incorrect. One of those historical items that I did not truly understand was the Three-Fifths Compromise of 1788.
Much has been made of the three-fifths compromise during the haggling over the Constitution. This three-fifths clause has been portrayed as a means of dehumanizing blacks in eighteenth-century America. It was, in fact, an antislavery provision. By allowing slaveholders to count only three-fifths of their slaves in congressional calculations, it denied Southern states additional proslavery representation in Congress. Instead of our Founding Fathers being hypocritical taskmasters who only wanted freedom for themselves, they actually fast-tracked the issue of slavery that had been accepted and encouraged under British rule for the prior two hundred years. -Phil Valentine, The Conservative's Handbook, ppgs. 29-30
Truths like this simply blew my mind wide open. For so long I had believed that this provision in the constitution was the nail in the coffin for anybody claiming that the Founding Fathers, and for that matter, whites in general, were anything, but, racists. But, just like with many of the spiritual beliefs I had long held onto that were becoming obsolete, so were many of the historical, social and political beliefs I had trusted in. I am embarrassed to admit I was so naive, but I am not alone in being deceived. Unfortunately, many blacks are still in the dark as it pertains to the truth of matters of historical context. However, I am afraid that even a truth like this would do little to change their thoughts. Yes, I know I changed, and so could they, but there are many people who would rather hold on to their ignorance because they gain some of their identity from it rather than to risk losing it.
"He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken." Isaiah 53: 3-8
When you read this prophecy about Jesus Christ, it is not difficult to see the similarities between Jesus and a slave. Are not slaves despised and rejected? Do they not have many sorrows and are acquainted with grief? Many people would hide their faces from slaves because they did not consider them to be of any value. Nobody would argue that slaves were afflicted, bruised and oppressed. No wonder so many jump to the conclusion that the three-fifths clause was evidence that, in the eyes of the Founders, blacks were less than human. It is interesting that Jesus and slaves had something in common. Whereas as Jews and whites had something in common. The Jews rejected Jesus, who was one of their own. And the slaveholders rejected the slaves despite themselves being the reason the slaves were in this country! Many slaveholders used the Bible to validate their prejudice towards blacks. These slaveholders believed in something called the curse of Ham (Genesis 9: 19-27). Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis explains the this curse. "[T]here is no ‘curse on Ham’ anywhere in the Bible! Noah actually placed the curse on one of Ham’s sons, Canaan (whose descendants eventually settled in Sodom and Gomorrah and were not ‘black’), possibly because Noah saw in Canaan the same character trait (e.g. rebellion) that he saw in Ham. This curse has nothing to do with a person’s skin color." So, in all of this we have people misreading history to justify their own beliefs and prejudices. You have Jews, who knew the scriptures, reject Jesus Christ, because He was a suffering, not a reigning, Messiah. You have slaveholders, many claiming to be Christians, misreading Scripture in order to justify enslaving black people. Finally, you have blacks misunderstanding history in order to justify their prejudice against whites and the Founders of this country. All they have proved in all of this is that God is the One who is correct.
"What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:9-18
They have proved God correct in that their actions are evidence that we are all under sin. when the Bible says Jews and Gentiles, that is another way of saying everybody.There is no way anybody who rejects Jesus, enslaves another human being or who has racial prejudice against another, is righteous, has understanding or is seeking God. And the only way in which to continue in these practices is through deceit. Ignoring scripture and ignoring history is practicing deceit. And if you are practicing deceit there is no fear of God in your life. Furthermore, anybody who has been involved in dealing with people who deny scripture, history or both, to advance their cause has dealt with the attitudes that don't serve anybody any good. The result is usually people cursing each other, being bitter and everybody ending up in ruin and misery. We all know the slaves suffered 400 years of it because of slaveholder attitudes. Blacks who don't know history keep themselves in bondage to unforgiveness, fear and anger because of it. And the Jews missed what they had waited thousands of years for due to it. The Holy Spirit promised to lead us into all truth, but we have to be willing to respond to His leading. Doing so is simple, but not easy. It is simple to find the truth when God is doing the revealing. But, it is not easy to give up those things we hold onto when they don't line up with the truth. If you have lived your entire life holding onto error, the fact that your life will change and may become uncomfortable is unsettling. The changes I have gone through responding to the truth God has revealed to me has resulted in strained relationships. But, it has been worth it to know the truth. If we really desire to know the truth and stand for it, then we must not forget who it is we are standing on when the error we held onto begins to fall away.
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