There are many in the KKK, White Aryan Nation, and other racist organizations who love to quote the Bible and espouse Christian principles but deny God’s Word entirely.
As believers, it’s important to keep the conversation in spiritual terms because the racist will want to talk history, politics. and a general sort of religion.
The goal, at least as I see it, of these questions isn’t to shut down the racist but rather open them up to the truth of the gospel. Shaming a racist, or anyone else, may quiet them or send them into hiding but it will not win them to the Lord. The Holy Spirt isn’t interested in clever shut down tactics, He’s interested in drawing them to the Savior.
These cultural “christians” love America but hate God. How do I know.? The Bible is clear about who God is, who Jesus is, and how those who claim to follow Jesus should behave. If you want expose the faux christianity of these cultural “christians” and begin a real conversation about true faith, start with these four questions.
Do you believe everyone is made in the image of God?
Yes, according to this verse we are.
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Gen 1:27
If we are all made in the image of the Creator, who are we to slander, kill, or make worthless any one person let alone any race of people.
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[a] The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:11-12
but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. James 3:9
Christianity mixed with racism is hypocrisy. It is hypocritical to say we love God and despise the image of God in others.
Do you believe in the commandments of Jesus?
and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:30,31
There is not ambiguity here. it cannot be explained away. When pressed by one who wanted to justify who their their neighbor was and was not, Jesus answer with a parable of a Jew and a racially mixed society called the Samaritans. This was not just a parable of two different men but two racially and religiously different men.
If we are to call ourselves believers we cannot say that one person is my neighbor and the other is not.
Do you believe Jesus died for everyone?
If Jesus did not die for everyone, then he died for no one. If a man, regardless of his skin color, cannot call on the name of the Lord to be saved, then the cross is worthless to everyone.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
Racists want a white territory to call their own, but they’re not considering the racially diverse eternity they’ll step into one day.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, Rev. 7:9
Remind those with racist beliefs that heaven is and will be a multicultural, multiethnic kingdom. Jesus said, “on earth as it is in heaven” and if He wants earth to look more like heaven, then earth cannot be divided according to race.
Do you believe hating others is a sin?
Once again, this is about a racists view of Jesus, heaven, and eternity. If they’ve had any church or bible background they know what sin is, what sin does, and the penalty for it.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. I John 4: 20,21
Hate is the antithesis to the gospel. Hate is the opposite of Jesus. To hate another person because of color, or anything else, means God is not with you, for your, or cheering on your cause.
If the racist battle cry is “for God and country” their serving the wrong god. In fact, they’ve created one than matches their ideology and borrow gods and idols from Neo-Nazi past to prop up their cause.
Like I said in the beginning, the questions we should be asking is not to solely shut people down but to open them up to a new conversation that will get them thinking in spiritual and eternal terms. We can shame them or allow the Holy Spirit to convict them. Which is more powerful? Which will lead to the winning of a heart to Christ?
We will never get rid of hate or injustice without Christ. Our tactics will only quiet those who espouse these hateful ideologies, for a time, only to rear its head later.
Let us remind ourselves, and those who oppose the gospel, of the words by the Apostle Paul
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal.3:28
If you’re on the front lines, I applaud your stand. If you’re a believer on the front lines, remember where the real war is , it is in the hearts and the minds. Our battle is not agains flesh ad blood but again powers and principalities, and only the Spirit will succeed where our tactics fail.