The Answer to Racism
[Below are, in part, the closing words of Dr. Thomas B. Warren at the conclusion of his debate on the existence of God, with Wallace I. Matson, philosophy professor UCal Berkeley. The debate was held in Tampa, FL, September 1978. Although delivered over 40 years ago, the message is as appropriate today as when first spoken.]
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I try to do as the Apostle Paul did, to preach the whole counsel of God.” I try to preach that every man ought to love every other man on this Earth; that if there is any answer to the racism we find in the world, it is in the religion of Jesus Christ; that the gospel has the great purpose of drawing all men into one body, that we may all be one in Christ, no matter whether you are from Africa, Europe, China, South America, or wherever. Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 2:13-16. And to intimate that we Christians do not love those who live in adultery or in homosexuality or that we do not love those who are even guilty of murder is to simply and flagrantly misrepresent us. The fact that we point out that these things are sin and that those who live in willful disobedience and who die in that condition will be lost, does not mean that we do not love them!
It was the same Lord who said to the woman taken in adultery, “Go thy way and sin no more,” who said in Matthew 7:14-15, “Enter ye in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction and many are there that enter in thereby. But narrow is the gate and straight the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it.”
It was our same Lord who taught—as recorded in Matthew 25:46—regarding the great and awful day of the judgment when every one of us shall be resurrected from the dead to stand before Him to give an account for the deeds done in the body, 2 Corinthians 5:10-11. And the Lord Jesus Christ who loved every person, even Wallace Matson, who was aware of his unhappy childhood, is aware of his problems even today, who loves him in spite of all that he has said against Him and who would forgive him—even as he would have forgiven Judas, if Judas had come to Jesus in penitence and, in effect, fallen down and said, “O Lord forgive me, I know I have been wrong.” Our Lord would have been as willing to put His arm around Judas, in loving kindness and forgiveness, as He did around Peter. Peter denied Him; Judas betrayed Him. But Peter repented! And whose sermon do we have recorded in the second chapter of Acts but that of Peter? Dr. Matson, that's Christianity!
We are brought together in one body, to love each other, because we love Christ. Just as two ants which are on a wheel walking around, as they begin to walk down the spokes—coming nearer to the hub—they are coming nearer to each other. There is no way that two people can come nearer to Christ without coming nearer to each other! How deeply sorry I feel for every person who has rejected God, for every person who has rejected the gift of God, for every person who in spite of the fact that Jesus said “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Thomas B. Warren
The Warren-Matson Debate, 343-44