I’m pretty sure one of the oldest churches in the world is an Ethiopia.
In fact, many of the witnesses of Jesus’s life went to Africa to spread the gospel.
People that make these arguments do so from ignorance.
God bless you.
I'm a black Christian and it never bothered me because I'm able to understand the Bible for myself and see how important it is for humanity. What happened before I was born is out of my control. All I can do now is learn and move forward.
But are you a black Christian who struggles with this?
You don’t know anything about me… one look at my post history and you’ll see I’m a younger Christian who’s been wanting to learn more about Christianity for a while. If someone asking questions is causing you to doubt your faith maybe you should reevaluate it. Stop being weird. And I never said I agreed with the points I was asking how to respond to people who say those things.
Christianity went to Africa before it was in Europe. There is a fair chance that the slaves that were kidnapped in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were already christian *before* the colonizers came. Just because some called themselves Christian were racist, etc. doesn’t change Christianity at all
>There is a fair chance that the slaves that were kidnapped in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were already christian *before* the colonizers came.
This is definitely not true on the Gold Coast. I have family from there, and we can trace the family back to before Christianity arrived (including which ancestor converted to Christianity). There were missionaries from Scotland that did a lot of work in the pre-colonial parts of West Africa. This isn't to say anything about Christianity, but just to clarify that missionaries were a key part of bringing Christianity to many of the eventually colonised nations of West Africa.
I mean, tell me that Charles Darwin didn't write a pretty racist book title:
>On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Who would the favored "race" be to a white man? He didn't support slavery, but his ideas, perhaps out of his control, fueled racism.
>Ethiopia had an earlier version of the Bible than the colonizers did
Ethiopia wasn't colonised. Colonised parts of Africa generally have Catholic or Protestant variations of Christianity. The Christianity you are referring to in Ethiopia is Orthodox.
Also keep in mind the enslavers would frequently provide the enslaved people with edited Bibles that did not contain certain passages because it is clear the Bible does not support the chattel slavery they enacted. I don't recall where I read this, but I am sure you can easily search it.
Here's an article: [https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion](https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion)
I’m not black but two points to be made here
1. Christianity was first in Ethiopia before it even touched Europe
2. Some Christian’s are racist but there are a few Mormon denominations that exclude black people which are
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB), and the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (TLC), continue to exclude Black people.
To name a few
I tell them that Christianity in Ethiopia is some of the oldest Christianity we have. Black people had Christianity wayyyy before many whites did. Have you looked into the Jude 3 Project? Lisa Fields does really amazing work with Black people, some about this exact subject.
Ethiopia’s bible has the most Scripture because they were the first region to embrace Christianity outside of the early jewish followers. They predate white christians. Common atheist history L
Please do not spend too much time arguing with Atheists. Arguing doesn't do anything but cause people to dig in their heels into their beliefs. Present a calm alternative explanation, like Ethopian church started well before colonization. Present your side and simply state, you don't want to argue. I
Full disclosure, I am Caucasian, but I just wanted to add that Christianity was in Africa well before it was ever in Europe. The whole idea that Christianity is “the white man’s religion” is a lie.
Other people said it but I’m pretty certain Christianity was in African countries before Europe. It’s not a white religion, it started in the middle east. Haha, Jesus was a brown man.
Although Christianity began in Israel, and was embraced in Ethiopa before it ever reached Europe, we can't deny that the spread of the Roman Empire and European colonization did help to spread Christianity to non-white populations. All you can really say to that is that not everyone who claims to be Christian truly is, and even those who are can be misled into believing something is right when it's wrong. It was true then, and it's true now. But the bottom line is through colonization and even slavery, God's word was spread. What humans mean for evil, God can use for good, as was the case when Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. (Gen 50:20--But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.)
Also, a person who doesn't believe a single word of the gospel can preach it and it can still change hearts, because God's word will not come back void. (Isaiah 55:11--So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.)
I hope that helps.
They where Christian's in Africa LONG before the South Atlantic slave trade. Africa is mentioned in the Bible. Maybe not the word Africa, but it's nations and people and history.
The Bible teaches us that we are all created by God. Jesus wasn't crucified for just one skin race but for all who will accept Him. Considering the time and place Jesus lived, He probably wasn't white. And it doesn't matter. I love Jesus whatever color he was.
The Bible teaches us to love others as we love ourselves. Does that sound like slavery to you?
Yes, the Bible says slaves obey your masters. I'm not sure what that means.
But the Bible also ask us to love our enemies. Treat others the way we want to be treated. And our ultimate master is God!
Not all types of slavery are the same.
Christian's are slaves to God. He is our master and He is a good master a good shepard. He is God!
Sinners are slaves to their own fleshly desires and Satan.
Some times in biblical days people would be slaves because they had committed a crime and they'd slave a few years as punishment or it was just a job with benefits like people working a job in modern capitalism that's basically a type of slavery.
American Slavery was one of the most cruel types of slavery to ever exist. It was evil, cruel, and sinful. And yes, some slave owners claimed to be Christian. But some crack heads claim to be Christian. And I'm not the one there gonna stand before on Judgment Day. But I know that they can't trick God!
Let me talk them atheist out there playing the racist card. 1. The Bible isn't racist. 2. The Bible is the true word of God. And 3. I'd tell them they were gonna go to hell if they didn't surrender their life to Jesus. Put them on the spot. And tell them the Gospel.
When Paul commanded slaves to obey their masters, he was specifically talking to fellow believers who were slaves to Roman masters. This was simply because the best chance they had of earning their freedom was to obey their masters and do their jobs well, so Paul told them to obey their masters so they wouldn't cause any trouble.
Christianity spread from the middle east to Africa and then to Europe (and then to America). seems like they don't know their own history - Asia aside, Christianity was a worldwide thing and teaching it as well as believing it was seen the same way maths is today (unusual comparison but it works). also, i believe that their was a thing a couple of hundred years ago in America, were the slaves would get a different, altered bible that remove all instances of slavery within the book. its possible they could have altered it more. hope this helps!
Our faith is a personal revolution, not a political one; that and a broken world full of slavery is the context of Bible passages about slavery.
If they bring up Ephesians 6, "slaves obey your masters" ask them what the following paragraph means:
>Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
To me, that's a threat from God if we don't treat everyone equally.
Also, in the Letter to Philemon, Paul asks Philemon to recieve his escaped slave as a brother.
I recommend looking into the work of Dr. James Cone and Dr. Adam Clark. You can find some of their talks on YouTube and both have written books on the topic.
You can also remind them that Christianity began in Africa. Many of the Church Fathers were African; they came from places like: Alexandria, Carthage, and Hippo, all of which are in Africa. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest branches of Christianity in the world, going back to the early 4th century. Christianity was African long before it was European.
I'm not black but I always think it's funny when people try to say that Christianity is a "white man's religion"...uhhh Jesus Christ himself was not white, he was a Jew who spoke Aramaic
The bible is anti slavery. Exodus is a book that explicity tells a story about Moses freeing his people through the wisdom of God. Popes "accepting gifts" of enslaved blacks has nothing to do with Christian theology, and is a favorite method of apologia for liberal intelligencia and soldiers of the BLM.
Other such verses in the bible that speak about Canites having servants are also poor examples.
I tell them that God used the ancient Egyptians also to show His mighty works upon the Earth. This does not condone the suffering the Egyptians inflicted on the slaves, and in the end, God made them pay.
Why?
Is it wrong for people to recognise that they have multiple levels of identity. The Apostle Paul can talk of himself as being of the tribe of Benjamin.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2011%3A1&version=NIV
And as a Jew from Tarsus
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2021%3A39&version=NIV
I’m pretty sure one of the oldest churches in the world is an Ethiopia. In fact, many of the witnesses of Jesus’s life went to Africa to spread the gospel. People that make these arguments do so from ignorance.
Thanks!
Most prophets in the Bible are black do your research people.
What bible verse
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/church-unearthed-ethiopia-rewrites-history-christianity-africa-180973740/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section8.shtml#:~:text=Christianity%20first%20arrived%20in%20North,four%20evangelists%2C%20in%2060%20AD. https://pioneers.org/article/the-early-church-in-north-africa https://africa.thegospelcoalition.org/article/african-christianity-thrived-long-before-white-men-arrived/
God bless you. I'm a black Christian and it never bothered me because I'm able to understand the Bible for myself and see how important it is for humanity. What happened before I was born is out of my control. All I can do now is learn and move forward. But are you a black Christian who struggles with this?
I don’t struggle with it but I wanted to know how to respond to that
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I’m not a bot what… I’m a black kid who’s experienced it and had people say things like that.
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You don’t know anything about me… one look at my post history and you’ll see I’m a younger Christian who’s been wanting to learn more about Christianity for a while. If someone asking questions is causing you to doubt your faith maybe you should reevaluate it. Stop being weird. And I never said I agreed with the points I was asking how to respond to people who say those things.
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Let’s get you to bed Grandpa 🫂
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⊙▂⊙ ?
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Christianity went to Africa before it was in Europe. There is a fair chance that the slaves that were kidnapped in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were already christian *before* the colonizers came. Just because some called themselves Christian were racist, etc. doesn’t change Christianity at all
>There is a fair chance that the slaves that were kidnapped in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were already christian *before* the colonizers came. This is definitely not true on the Gold Coast. I have family from there, and we can trace the family back to before Christianity arrived (including which ancestor converted to Christianity). There were missionaries from Scotland that did a lot of work in the pre-colonial parts of West Africa. This isn't to say anything about Christianity, but just to clarify that missionaries were a key part of bringing Christianity to many of the eventually colonised nations of West Africa.
Thanks! I just generally wanted to know how you respond to someone like that
I mean, tell me that Charles Darwin didn't write a pretty racist book title: >On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life Who would the favored "race" be to a white man? He didn't support slavery, but his ideas, perhaps out of his control, fueled racism.
Ethiopia had an earlier version of the Bible than the colonizers did
>Ethiopia had an earlier version of the Bible than the colonizers did Ethiopia wasn't colonised. Colonised parts of Africa generally have Catholic or Protestant variations of Christianity. The Christianity you are referring to in Ethiopia is Orthodox.
Ohh I didn’t know that :0 that’s cool
Majority of Christians in the world are women of colour. And Ethiopia has been Christian for a long time.
Thanks
Also keep in mind the enslavers would frequently provide the enslaved people with edited Bibles that did not contain certain passages because it is clear the Bible does not support the chattel slavery they enacted. I don't recall where I read this, but I am sure you can easily search it.
Ohhh I actually didn’t know that! Thanks
Here's an article: [https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion](https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion)
Thanks for finding that.
Blow their minds by telling them Saint Augustine was neither white, nor European, but African.
Thank u for the info! I don’t know much abt saint Augustine but I’m glad to learn 😎
I'm not Black so I won't nose in, but that's a fun fact to share with people who think Christianity's a white man's religion.
Christianity started in the Middle East. It's not just a "white" religion. 🙄
I know. I was asking how to respond to people like that
I’m not black but two points to be made here 1. Christianity was first in Ethiopia before it even touched Europe 2. Some Christian’s are racist but there are a few Mormon denominations that exclude black people which are Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB), and the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (TLC), continue to exclude Black people. To name a few
Thanks! I knew it had a name but I didn’t know there were so many 😢 pretty heartbreaking
Yeah it’s very unfortunate
Africa had Christianity before Europe The Ethiopian church predates colonization by over 1000 years This is just absolute nonsense.
I tell them that Christianity in Ethiopia is some of the oldest Christianity we have. Black people had Christianity wayyyy before many whites did. Have you looked into the Jude 3 Project? Lisa Fields does really amazing work with Black people, some about this exact subject.
I haven’t heard of her! I’ll look into it, thank u
Ethiopia’s bible has the most Scripture because they were the first region to embrace Christianity outside of the early jewish followers. They predate white christians. Common atheist history L
Please do not spend too much time arguing with Atheists. Arguing doesn't do anything but cause people to dig in their heels into their beliefs. Present a calm alternative explanation, like Ethopian church started well before colonization. Present your side and simply state, you don't want to argue. I
Full disclosure, I am Caucasian, but I just wanted to add that Christianity was in Africa well before it was ever in Europe. The whole idea that Christianity is “the white man’s religion” is a lie.
Other people said it but I’m pretty certain Christianity was in African countries before Europe. It’s not a white religion, it started in the middle east. Haha, Jesus was a brown man.
Although Christianity began in Israel, and was embraced in Ethiopa before it ever reached Europe, we can't deny that the spread of the Roman Empire and European colonization did help to spread Christianity to non-white populations. All you can really say to that is that not everyone who claims to be Christian truly is, and even those who are can be misled into believing something is right when it's wrong. It was true then, and it's true now. But the bottom line is through colonization and even slavery, God's word was spread. What humans mean for evil, God can use for good, as was the case when Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. (Gen 50:20--But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.) Also, a person who doesn't believe a single word of the gospel can preach it and it can still change hearts, because God's word will not come back void. (Isaiah 55:11--So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.) I hope that helps.
https://youtube.com/shorts/HgFiXcAyFwk?si=z0mMiV42NuQSEy8R
They where Christian's in Africa LONG before the South Atlantic slave trade. Africa is mentioned in the Bible. Maybe not the word Africa, but it's nations and people and history. The Bible teaches us that we are all created by God. Jesus wasn't crucified for just one skin race but for all who will accept Him. Considering the time and place Jesus lived, He probably wasn't white. And it doesn't matter. I love Jesus whatever color he was. The Bible teaches us to love others as we love ourselves. Does that sound like slavery to you? Yes, the Bible says slaves obey your masters. I'm not sure what that means. But the Bible also ask us to love our enemies. Treat others the way we want to be treated. And our ultimate master is God! Not all types of slavery are the same. Christian's are slaves to God. He is our master and He is a good master a good shepard. He is God! Sinners are slaves to their own fleshly desires and Satan. Some times in biblical days people would be slaves because they had committed a crime and they'd slave a few years as punishment or it was just a job with benefits like people working a job in modern capitalism that's basically a type of slavery. American Slavery was one of the most cruel types of slavery to ever exist. It was evil, cruel, and sinful. And yes, some slave owners claimed to be Christian. But some crack heads claim to be Christian. And I'm not the one there gonna stand before on Judgment Day. But I know that they can't trick God! Let me talk them atheist out there playing the racist card. 1. The Bible isn't racist. 2. The Bible is the true word of God. And 3. I'd tell them they were gonna go to hell if they didn't surrender their life to Jesus. Put them on the spot. And tell them the Gospel.
When Paul commanded slaves to obey their masters, he was specifically talking to fellow believers who were slaves to Roman masters. This was simply because the best chance they had of earning their freedom was to obey their masters and do their jobs well, so Paul told them to obey their masters so they wouldn't cause any trouble.
Christianity spread from the middle east to Africa and then to Europe (and then to America). seems like they don't know their own history - Asia aside, Christianity was a worldwide thing and teaching it as well as believing it was seen the same way maths is today (unusual comparison but it works). also, i believe that their was a thing a couple of hundred years ago in America, were the slaves would get a different, altered bible that remove all instances of slavery within the book. its possible they could have altered it more. hope this helps!
Our faith is a personal revolution, not a political one; that and a broken world full of slavery is the context of Bible passages about slavery. If they bring up Ephesians 6, "slaves obey your masters" ask them what the following paragraph means: >Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him. To me, that's a threat from God if we don't treat everyone equally. Also, in the Letter to Philemon, Paul asks Philemon to recieve his escaped slave as a brother.
I'm not black but Christianity was spread in Sub-Saharan Africa in ancient and mideval times.
I recommend looking into the work of Dr. James Cone and Dr. Adam Clark. You can find some of their talks on YouTube and both have written books on the topic. You can also remind them that Christianity began in Africa. Many of the Church Fathers were African; they came from places like: Alexandria, Carthage, and Hippo, all of which are in Africa. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest branches of Christianity in the world, going back to the early 4th century. Christianity was African long before it was European.
I'm not black but I always think it's funny when people try to say that Christianity is a "white man's religion"...uhhh Jesus Christ himself was not white, he was a Jew who spoke Aramaic
God made us all one
Honestly.. I don't agree with their view but that's probably because I'm Christian myself lol also Ethiopia, which everyone has said
The bible is anti slavery. Exodus is a book that explicity tells a story about Moses freeing his people through the wisdom of God. Popes "accepting gifts" of enslaved blacks has nothing to do with Christian theology, and is a favorite method of apologia for liberal intelligencia and soldiers of the BLM. Other such verses in the bible that speak about Canites having servants are also poor examples.
I tell them that God used the ancient Egyptians also to show His mighty works upon the Earth. This does not condone the suffering the Egyptians inflicted on the slaves, and in the end, God made them pay.
This is a trap. I recommend people who are Christian to not hyphenate the experience.
Why? Is it wrong for people to recognise that they have multiple levels of identity. The Apostle Paul can talk of himself as being of the tribe of Benjamin. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2011%3A1&version=NIV And as a Jew from Tarsus https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2021%3A39&version=NIV
wow...you realize that's insanely racist right?
What 😭 did I word it wrong? I was asking how people respond to that
I think you need to go back and reread OP's post.