Saturday Sermon: We Are All Created Equal In God’s Eyes
The human race is God’s creation.
One time, there was unification, but today, we see difficulty in race relations.
Genesis 1:17 and 3:20 reveals, we all came from one mother, Eve. But we see sin, which is rebellion against God.
Genesis 10:1-32 reveals the Earth was destroyed by a God-given flood and Noah’s sons replenished the Earth.
In Genesis 11:1-9, we see mankind again rebels against God in idolatry, and God gives different languages to mankind in the form of new countries and skin color.
I believe skin colors comes from Noah’s sons. Why? I do not know except perhaps to teach mankind, to accept one another by obeying God’s word.
We go on to the New Testament of the Bible, and we see in Acts 17:25-28 that God made all races and nations, all of us by one blood for His purposes.
One thing I know for sure, I have been a licensed mortician since 1965 and have never seen from embalming but one color of blood, and it is red, regardless of the color of skin.
Why do we have race problems?
Romans 3:9-20 reveals to us that we are all sinners and guilty before God. We have no fear of God we hate, have prejudice and bigotry, and all races have this toward each other.
But why?
We do not have the rule of God’s love in our heart. There is none righteous, verse 10 tells us.
What can we do? We can embrace the cross of Christ on which there is no distinction of color of skin or races.
John 3:16 tells us Jesus died for the whole world. The cross reveals God’s love and forgiveness.
Does The Bible Say That All Men Are Created Equal
I dont normally post on a topic like this, but this article got me to thinking. I know that created equal is a prominent statement in the US Constitution. Various civil rights groups have picked up the term. Somehow I had assumed that it was in the Bible somewhere.
Read and find out what this author says.
Paul And Women: Champion Of Equality
Paul many times affirms the equality of man and woman by identifying women as laboring alongside men in ministry, by affirming many theological truths that entail the equality of men and women, and by explicitly affirming their equality.
Pauls affirmations of women in ministry
In Rom 16:116, Paul greets by name ten people he identifies as colleagues in Christian ministry. Seven of the ten are women: Phoebe, deacon of the church of Cenchrea and leader16 of many, including myself Junia, outstanding among the apostles Prisca, my fellow worker in Christ Jesus and Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis worked hard in the Lord . First Corinthians 16:16 urges believers to be subject to every fellow laborer. First Thessalonians 5:12 identifies those who labor among you as those who are over you in the Lord. It cannot be stressed enough that Paul is not simply listing these women as believers, but as ministry leaders. Paul greets many believers in this passage, but describes as ministry leaders only ten people, and seven of those are women. The three men are Aquila, Andronicus, and Urbanus. The first two are listed with their wives, highlighting their shared authority. Pauls naming such a high proportion of women leaders in an open society is unparalleled in the entire history of ancient Greek literature and suggests a level of female leadership in the early church exceptional for its culture.
Pauls explicit affirmations of the equality of man and woman
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Origin Of Thomas Jefferson’s Use Of The Phrase
Thomas Jefferson, through his friendship with , was heavily influenced by French philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu. In their often censored writings, those philosophers advocated that men were born free and equal. This later led to the French Revolution of 1789 and the concept of Human Rights . At the age of 33, Jefferson may have also borrowed the expression from an Italian friend, born in Prato, and neighbor, Philip Mazzei, as noted by Joint Resolution 175 of the 103rd Congress as well as by John F. Kennedy in A Nation of Immigrants.
An earlier mention of almost the exact same phrase is in John Milton‘s 1649 book called The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, written after the First English Civil War to defend the actions and rights of the Parliamentary cause, in the wake of the execution of king Charles I. The English poet says: “No man who knows ought, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were borne free, being the image and resemblance of God himself born to command and not to obey: and that they liv’d so”.
The Massachusetts Constitution, chiefly authored by John Adams in 1780, contains in its the wording: “All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”
Where The Phrase All Sins Are Equal In The Eyes Of God Comes From
As far as I can tell, the most common argument for the belief that all sins are created equal comes from James 2:10.
It states:
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
In other words , it doesnt matter which sin you break. If you stumble on just one point any point youre guilty of all of it. Therefore, all sins are the same, since they lead to the same end result.
And yet, when you go back and read these verses in context, this isnt what these verses are saying at all.
In the passage leading up to this verse, James is discussing favoritism in the church
You see, back in those times, the idea that all people were created equal was VERY foreign to their way of thinking. In fact, for rich, poor, men, women, Jew, Gentile everyone to meet together as one body was completely unheard of.
In those days, women were second-class citizens , and if you were poor or had a chronic medical condition, everyone assumed you were cursed by God for some sin you have previously committed.
People didnt help the poor, the hurting or the down and out like we might today. They looked down on them and discriminated against them, assuming they were terrible sinners who deserved their punishment.
So it was no surprise the first century Christians were having trouble with it.
This is why, in James passage, hes not answering the question Are all sins equal? at all.
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The Bible Teaches The Equal Standing Of Man And Woman
Editor’s Note: This article has been translated to French. for the French version.
Is the Bible divided on the issue of gender? Many highly respected evangelical scholars believe there is a tension in the Bible between affirmations of gender equality and gender roles. Can we arrive at a consistent biblical position without doing violence to the text? Need one sacrifice good exegesis at the altar of systematic theology? Surely, good exegesis and good systematic theology go hand in hand. I have prayerfully wrestled for forty-one years with the texts apparent contradictions on gender and can honestly say that the biblical texts themselves have transformed my understanding. From creation to new creation, the Bibles message about gender in the church and marriage consistently affirms the equal standing of man and woman.
Biblical Roots Of The Declaration Of Independence
Americas Founders studied the Bible. Evidence is plentiful that political speeches and sermons of their day were filled with stories, examples, and quotes from the Bible which supported and affirmed their political beliefs. Given below are the main paragraphs from the Declaration of Independence followed by Biblical scripture which coincide with the emphasized ideas in the document. It is hoped that todays Americans will familiarize themselves with the full Biblical accounts referred to below, to get a feel for what beliefs motivated the Founders to create the first free people in modern times. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Deuteronomy 32:8 – When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
Ezra 6:21 – And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat,
Romans 2:11 – For there is no respect of persons with God.
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The Bible Never Says All Men Are Created Equal
An Anglican man rang me out of the blue the other day to ask if the New Testament teaches equality.Not really, I replied. The New Testament mentions equality once or twice, but when it comes to social relationships, it is far more interested in concepts like oneness, commonness, partnership, union, and joint-inheritance. If you make all those passages about equality, you flatten their meaning. And in any case, its become a blunderbuss word that means everything and nothing.
Considering the history of the past 50 years, let alone the last 2,000, it might seem unwise to dismiss equality so casually. Thankfully, the New Testament presents a better, higher vision.
Two New Testament texts explicitly mention isots, the Greek word for equality, proportionality, or fairness. In 2 Corinthians 8:1314, Paul urges the church in Corinth to give generously to the Jerusalem church, that there might be equality. And in Colossians 4:1, he tells masters to grant their slaves what is right and fair.
Slavery And The Phrase
The contradiction between the claim that “all men are created equal” and the existence of American slavery, including Thomas Jefferson himself owning slaves, attracted comment when the Declaration of Independence was first published. Before final approval, Congress, having made a few alterations to some of the wording, also deleted nearly a fourth of the draft, including a passage criticizing the slave trade. At that time many other members of Congress also owned slaves, which clearly factored into their decision to delete the controversial “anti-slavery” passage. Jefferson believed adding such a passage would dissolve the independence movement. Jefferson, decades before the Declaration of Independence, argued in court for the abolition of a slave. The court dismissed the case outright. In writing the declaration, Jefferson believed the phrase “all men are created equal” to be self-evident, and would ultimately resolve slavery. In 1776, abolitionistThomas Day wrote: “If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves.”This phrase is further used in Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream speech’ for many of these same reasons.
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How Are We As Believers To Respond To These Truths About Equality And Diversity
What Jesus stood for and the Bible teaches is justicepursuing what is right according to what God says not what society and people say . Like Jesus who recognized differences, we need to reach out to all people without distinction as to economic status, ethnicity, or gender. We are not to show favouritism . Like Jesus and the prophets, we need to stand against greed, the love of money, and class prejudice. Both the prophets and Jesus alike condemn those who oppress the poor, the orphan, and the widow .
We need to resist the growing polarization in our day over differences and what constitutes justice. At one pole you have those who teach class privilege defending injustice, corrupt rulers, greed, and consumerism. At the other pole are those who want to deny differences and say all social, economic, and political differences must be removed by redistributing wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. Should we ignore the legitimate needs of others or take advantage of, abuse, or oppress one another? No! But is each person owed what another has for equality sake? Absolutely not!
We now live in a time when the scales of justice become imbalanced because one group seeks certain rights by demonizing another group. Rather than looking at individuals and specific details on their own merit prejudice and injustice are rampant because one group is rewarded or punished just because they belong to a given social group.
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But What If These Interpretations Are Wrong
The answer to this question will be different depending on the tradition of the person asking. For example, for some Christians, affirming or not affirming transgender and non-binary people is connected to salvation and eternity. For other Christians, the afterlife isnt their main concern, but instead their focus is determining what it means for Christians to contribute to human flourishing and to the moral integrity of the church. Whatever is at stake for the person asking, it is important to note the role of humility, grace and having a consistent standard to apply in discerning what is true of God. We read in Pauls letter to the Corinthians that until Christ returns we are bound to see truth in a way that is incomplete, a mere reflection, as in a mirror, dimly . The Bible calls its interpreters to the awareness that even if ultimate truth about any subject isnt always in our grasp, we can still remain committed to the task of trying to find it.
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So Are All Sins Equal In The Eyes Of God What Does The Bible Say
James chapter 2 isnt actually about whether all sins are equal in the eyes of God. But thankfully, there are plenty of other Bible verses that are.
Take these for example:
- In Matthew 5:19, Jesus refers to the least of these commandments, implying that some commandments are more important than others.
- In John 19:11, Jesus says the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin, meaning there are lesser and greater sins.
- Matthew 11:23 24 says, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you, implying that their judgments will be unequal because their sins were unequal.
- In Luke 12:47-48, Jesus tells a parable in which some servants are beaten with many blows while others are beaten with few blows. Again, different judgments implies different amounts/severity of sin.
- 1 John 5:16 tells us that some sins lead to death, while others do not.
- And most terrifying of all, in , Jesus tells us that theres something known as the unforgivable sin. In other words, not only are some sins worse than others, but there is actually one sin SO TERRIBLE you cannot be forgiven for it. Yikes!
And these are just a few examples. There are tons more.
Plus, its just common sense.
Would you expect or even want the same punishment for someone who drove 5 mph over the speed limit and for someone who brutally murdered their own children?
I highly doubt it.
Yes, every sin separates us from God, but that doesnt mean all sins are equal.
Who Raises Women To Be Equal To Men
Satan raise women to be equal to men. In other words, Satan makes women men gives women a spirit of a man
Its for this reason you see women dressing like men, doing manly roles, fighting and arguing men, wives arguing and fighting their husbands not respecting and submitting, etc.
Any wife with a spirit of a man cannot respect and submit to her husband that spirit of a man to a woman is of Satan.
Also a spirit of women to men is of Satan. Some men have a spirit of a woman from Satan reason the walk, speak, dress, etc, like women.
Satan makes women men and men women
Feminists are Satanists
Every person saying women are equal to me and what a man can do a woman can do is Satan speaking through that person
Every person fighting for women equality, women to be equal to men, is a Satanist
Women empowerment is of Satan. Why are you empowering them? Why not empower the men?
Why do you not want the TRUTH? Professing to be wise, you have become fools and God has given you up to uncleanliness, lusts of your hearts and to dishonor your body .
Lesbianism woman want to be equal to men thus do what a man can do thus they exchange the natural use to what is against nature
Evil and wickedness has increased in this earth because of this fools professing to be wise denying the TRUTH.
Women are not equal to men
No woman is equal to a man
Wives are not equal to their husbands
Narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life and few find it
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