“Christianity is the white man’s religion”. The erroneous statement is often uttered by and the thought advanced by many of our separatist brothers. “My people destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6).
How sad and how tragic it is for those who will embrace ignorance when the Word of God is available. There is no people, except the Hebrews and other ancient inhabitants of Palestine more frequently mentioned in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments than the Ethiopians, and there is no country more frequently referred to than Ethiopia. The story of Philip and the Eunuch, found in Acts Eight, speaks to the subject with clarion clarity. Philip, after the murder of Stephen, went away from Jerusalem, and preached with great success in the city of Samaria.
The injunction not to enter into any city of the Samaritans had been withdrawn, and the whole world was now opened to the preachers of the gospel. Please take note how the Holy Spirit, who will guide us into all truth, orchestrates the evangelization of Ethiopia, with its inhospitable climate and difficulty of access. “The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and behold a man of Ethiopia, a Eunuch of great authority under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship”. Philip leads this Ethiopian Eunuch, this descendant of black Ham, to Christ. The Eunuch is baptized and “The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing”. Do you see it? The methods and instruments of Africa’s evangelization? The method, the simple holding up of Jesus Christ; the instrument, the African himself. This was the Spirit’s application and expression of the command: “Go ye into all the world” – giving the gospel to a man of color to take back to a people of color.
Christianity, the white man’s religion, yes, but the black man’s as well.
Pastor J. Amos Jones
