Dale Partridge - Genesis 9_25-29： Redeemed Distinctions and Race in the Church (Part 3)

00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, we are back in part three of a five-part series on race, nations, and Christian

00:00:15.140 nationalism. And this sermon is titled Redeemed Distinctions, Race, and the Order of Nations.

00:00:23.940 And so there's a little bit of a crossover between the main series and this particular sermon.

00:00:28.980 Now, if you've been with us, you know that we've covered some very heavy ground over the last two weeks.

00:00:36.940 In part one, we looked at Genesis chapter 9, verses 18 through 27, and we examined the scandal between Ham and Noah.

00:00:47.720 And we looked at the three most common interpretations of Ham's sin, and we landed at what was called the maternal incest view.

00:00:57.620 And we did that because it had the most explanatory power for why Noah specifically and particularly cursed Canaan.

00:01:08.960 And that was a very helpful understanding to frame up this series.

00:01:15.640 Now, we also saw that through a covenantal lens, through a view of scripture of federalism or covenantalism,

00:01:24.100 the curse pronounced on Canaan that was pronounced particularly on Canaan was pronounced also

00:01:31.880 generally on Ham. In other words, Noah cursed Ham by cursing Canaan. And this was a bit of a shift

00:01:41.440 of dimension to the modern interpretation. Now, this led us to the big question. How did this curse

00:01:50.360 that was particularly on Ham or particularly on Canaan and generally on Ham affect the broader

00:01:58.240 posterity of Ham's descendants? That was the next big question that we looked at. Was the

00:02:05.940 universal hardship or subordination or civilizational struggles experienced by Ham's

00:02:12.400 descendants, simply a massive historical coincidence, or did the Bible offer a clear,

00:02:22.600 coherent answer to the hard realities, the statistics, the biology, and the culture

00:02:28.320 that we observe in world history through the Hamitic peoples, which are mostly comprised of

00:02:35.400 the African peoples. So in part two, I argued that this curse of what I would call a curse of 1.00

00:02:44.660 civilizational station, it does extend to some degree to all of Ham's descendants. And I did so 0.99

00:02:53.680 for three reasons. First, because it again, it's fully consistent with covenant theology. I think

00:03:00.660 that it was a very consistent argument with covenant theology. Second, because it was the

00:03:05.400 general position held throughout all of church history. If you were here last week, you heard

00:03:09.820 all of the cross-references to all of the theologians, not just in the 1700s that people

00:03:15.600 would say, oh, you just looked up the transatlantic slave trade theologians and they justified. No,

00:03:20.400 we looked earlier all the way to the early church, all the way to the medieval era, all the way to

00:03:25.440 reformers and yes we did look at those theologians that were through the 1617 and 1800s and third

00:03:33.440 i came to this position because the curse does not appear to be functionally scripturally

00:03:39.840 historically limited to just canaan alone and we looked at all the historical evidence for those

00:03:45.760 claims as well now if you remember i showed how all of ham's sons which is canaan cush

00:03:53.360 Mizraim and Put. All four of these sons and their descendants really act as these kind of recurring

00:03:59.940 antagonists of God's people throughout scripture and how they became the founders of these great

00:04:07.760 cities like Babylon or Egypt or Sodom and Gomorrah and they served as these kind of biblical emblems

00:04:15.500 of oppression and idolatry and wickedness throughout the Bible. These were the descendants 1.00

00:04:22.220 of not just Canaan, but the descendants of Ham. And then we looked at Noah's prophecy in verses 0.75

00:04:29.280 25 through 27, which included this idea, this language of servant of servants and this curse

00:04:36.720 on, again, the broader dimension of Ham's line. And it was also a blessing on Shem. We looked at 0.94

00:04:42.080 the blessing on Shem, which is pointing ultimately to the Messiah coming from his line. And then we

00:04:48.160 look to that double blessing on Japheth, that there would be an enlargement of Japheth across 0.70

00:04:55.580 maybe his political or his land mass in terms of power, but also that he would dwell in the tents 0.61

00:05:03.900 of Shem. In other words, we learn that Noah prophesied these kind of broad civilizational

00:05:12.280 stations on these three macro races of humanity. And when we examined both scripture and world

00:05:21.300 history, which we did in our last sermon, we saw that clear confirmation that this subordination

00:05:28.200 again was not limited just to Canaan's line, but it was something that we saw in Ham's further

00:05:34.900 descendants as well. Lastly, we looked at the social distinctions between these groups, between

00:05:44.720 Ham and Shem and Japheth. We looked at IQ data and crime stats and family stability throughout 0.54

00:05:50.720 history and technological, civilizational outputs and military prowess. We looked at all of these

00:05:56.180 things, these different groups, and again, we concluded that it's either a massive coincidence

00:06:02.720 that, again, A, Ham's entire line was consistently acting as the antagonist of God's people

00:06:10.380 throughout scripture, B, that Ham's line finds itself in civilizational subordination to Shem

00:06:16.180 and Japheth, which is part of this curse that Noah gives, and C, that Ham's line bears the

00:06:24.380 functional and biological and social markers of civilizational subordination and dependence

00:06:31.320 and struggle, which we're going to talk a little bit more about today. And so it was, again, it was

00:06:36.760 either a coincidence that all of those things happened to be in line with Noah's prophecy,

00:06:42.740 or it's not a coincidence. And truly, this curse does not fall just on Canaan, but fully on Ham's

00:06:53.240 lying. Now, I also mentioned that even if you didn't agree, like even if you're like, 0.53

00:07:05.400 I still don't buy it, Dale. I don't believe there's a curse on Ham. I believe the curse

00:07:10.380 was specifically on Canaan. Even if you hold that position, I know that you would certainly agree 1.00

00:07:16.840 that though, that even if Ham isn't cursed, we know for certain that he is not blessed.

00:07:23.240 and for one of the three covenant heads of humanity to receive no blessing at all

00:07:30.780 is in and of itself a form of judgment we talked about that last week as well

00:07:36.380 now an absence of a blessing on three covenant heads still largely leads us to the same conclusions

00:07:47.220 as a functional curse. And so in either circumstance, we have to deal with the reality

00:07:54.220 that it's not just Canaan's line, but there's an effect also on Ham's line.

00:08:01.300 Now, as I closed last week, I made it clear that even if there is this curse on Ham's line,

00:08:11.100 that there is a greater curse on all three lines, and that is the curse of sin.

00:08:17.220 All three lines fall short of the glory of God.

00:08:21.240 All three lines need to find forgiveness and mercy in the grace of Jesus Christ.

00:08:28.320 Every one of us is made in the Imago Dei,

00:08:30.660 but all of us stand guilty in need of forgiveness and grace in the gospel.

00:08:36.680 So today I want to take the conclusions from these previous two sermons,

00:08:42.160 and I want to address some of the common misunderstandings that could come from a sermon

00:08:48.180 series like this and I want to look at really the unequal natures of people and discuss some

00:08:56.740 of the biblical theology that people often use against this idea of a curse of ham or the idea

00:09:06.140 of distinct peoples, distinct races under God's economy. And so we're going to examine the danger

00:09:15.540 of our culture's obsession of the denial of distinctions. We're going to look at that for a

00:09:23.040 minute and how these God-given distinctions that God has put into the world are actually good.

00:09:29.180 And we should actually be the ones that are at the forefront saying that these distinctions

00:09:35.860 are good. And then finally, I'm going to close with a few important clarifications of the curse

00:09:40.920 of Ham and show how as Christians we can fully embrace God's design for peoples without falling

00:09:47.660 on a ditch on either side. So I'm going to start with this section, which is more of a topical

00:09:55.420 sermon since we're not going to be going through much scripture. There will be scripture throughout

00:09:58.740 this passage or throughout the sermon, but we're not going to be doing an exposition necessarily

00:10:03.280 today. So this section that I'm going to start is called the misuse of no distinctions in

00:10:09.000 scripture. And I think this will be a very practical and useful section for each of you

00:10:15.440 as you talk and defend this doctrine in the world. Now, if you're familiar with the New Testament

00:10:21.180 and you've read it before and you've been through the text, you know that Paul and Peter often

00:10:26.520 emphasize this concept of that there are no distinctions. It's said over and over again.

00:10:34.140 Paul famously writes in Galatians 3.28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor

00:10:39.660 free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, end quote. 0.91

00:10:46.900 Now he repeats that idea. It's not just that he says that once, he repeats it in Colossians 3.11,

00:10:51.720 Romans 3 22 and Romans 10 12 he actually says for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek

00:10:58.620 Peter says something similar in Acts 11 verse 12 and in Acts 15 verses 8 through 9 so this is not

00:11:05.640 like a small thing this is something that you see all throughout the New Testament from multiple

00:11:10.380 apostles that there is no distinction so the question becomes how can the apostles claim

00:11:17.700 that there's no distinction square up with what i'm talking about that there are distinctions

00:11:23.880 that there are differences between peoples and nations that's the question that i have often

00:11:30.340 received even uh this week i had received multiple people using that specific passage of scripture

00:11:39.000 in the comments on youtube against the sermons that i delivered the last two weeks

00:11:43.220 how are you going to say that there is distinctions? We know that in Christ there

00:11:47.900 is no distinction. There is neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free. What are you talking about,

00:11:52.360 Dale? Over and over again.

00:11:59.440 The answer to that question is always, as a theologian, in context. Context is king.

00:12:07.360 Context is king in biblical interpretation. We have to remember that these verses that Paul

00:12:12.480 and Peter are writing are in a world that is completely opposite to ours, completely opposite

00:12:19.340 to ours. Their world is a world where visual and national and linguistic and religious and racial

00:12:26.640 and sexual distinctions were so sharp that they became hostile. They were so sharp that they

00:12:35.600 became hostile. Jews refused to help dying Samaritans on the side of the road because they 0.99

00:12:42.360 were Samaritans. They were half-breed heretics in their mind. Gentiles were considered unclean. 0.99

00:12:50.320 You didn't even want to walk on the same dust as these people. Paul could say without hesitation,

00:12:56.760 Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Ethnic and cultural prejudice was like 1.00

00:13:03.720 a fact of life. It was so extremely sharp. The distinctions between men, women, and children

00:13:10.660 would shock our generation. So Paul and Peter needed to stress that when it comes to salvation,

00:13:19.960 when it comes to salvation and entrance into the kingdom of God, there is no distinction.

00:13:27.940 That's the point, that when it comes to salvation, there is no distinction. All these distinctions

00:13:33.540 that you hold so tightly in Christ, when it comes to the entrance to the church,

00:13:38.320 when it comes to salvation, there is no distinction there.

00:13:43.260 There's no difference in how a person is redeemed.

00:13:47.780 No law-keeping, no circumcision, no special rituals, no race, no bloodline.

00:13:56.280 Only faith in Christ.

00:14:00.500 It's why Paul said in Ephesians 2.14,

00:14:03.640 Christ is our peace

00:14:07.520 who has made us, talking about Jews and Gentiles 0.99

00:14:11.440 both one and has broken down 0.52

00:14:15.660 in his flesh the dividing wall

00:14:19.200 of hostility

00:14:20.700 but to us

00:14:24.940 our generation

00:14:28.140 with our modern egalitarian mindset

00:14:32.380 that views distinctions as racist.

00:14:37.100 Every distinction is racist or it's misogyny or it's bigotry.

00:14:42.700 In our modern sense,

00:14:45.640 and where every difference has been neutralized

00:14:49.200 and made androgynous and homogenized,

00:14:53.260 we are dealing with the exact opposite problem.

00:14:57.740 We are dealing with the exact opposite problem

00:15:01.120 that the early church had. We have been told to ignore

00:15:05.140 all distinctions to such an extent that we have ignored

00:15:09.040 natural order. Oh, men could be

00:15:13.060 men. Or men could be women. Women could be men.

00:15:15.960 Oh, you know, this person is an American

00:15:20.520 even though they moved here yesterday. 1.00

00:15:25.860 Okay, we have removed and ignored all natural order.

00:15:28.800 we've rejected all of God's design because distinctions are offensive.

00:15:36.000 In one of my favorite episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond,

00:15:39.500 it's one of our family's favorite shows,

00:15:42.720 Robert, he's an Italian, and he's going on a date with a black woman.

00:15:47.920 And his mother, Marie, she's walking in, acting all awkward. 0.83

00:15:53.460 And when Ray asks, is it because she's black? 0.90

00:15:58.800 Marie replies, oh, is she black? I didn't notice. I didn't notice. And that's exactly the type of 0.94

00:16:06.240 absurdity that we live in. It's this kind of fake color blindness that we're forced to embrace.

00:16:14.380 In other words, in the past hundred years, we have so grossly overextended this doctrine of unity

00:16:20.920 that it's actually compromised the doctrine of anthropology. And at the state level,

00:16:27.820 this perversion has informed everything. Our politics, our foreign policy, our immigration

00:16:35.360 process, our civil rights laws. We are to be like a colorblind society. That's essentially 0.52

00:16:42.980 what the civil rights laws have forced us to do. We cannot, we can, it is illegal

00:16:48.480 to recognize distinctions in certain businesses or certain parameters of our public life.

00:16:57.820 now i've often said that christian nations are dying from what i would call suicidal blindness

00:17:05.840 suicidal blindness we've so suppressed the god-given reality of distinctions that we've

00:17:13.460 lost the ability to acknowledge even those distinctions that would protect us from harm 0.94

00:17:17.880 for example many white women like irena zarutska have been so thoroughly trained 1.00

00:17:27.480 to not distinguish between races that they ignore the glaring disproportionate crime 0.99

00:17:33.680 rates among black men and you know what that guy looks kind of like a psychopath 0.98

00:17:37.520 i'm going to sit right in front of him because you know what i don't want to be racist 0.97

00:17:43.100 i saw another funny video it's a british woman and she's doing a skit at like the

00:17:51.720 the border patrol tsa at the airport and she's there she's asking a muslim man

00:17:58.600 you know what his name is and he he replies a jihadi jihad my name's jihadi jihad and she

00:18:05.840 responds cheerfully oh what a wonderful name what a wonderful name and then she asks oh what do you

00:18:12.220 you for work. And he says, I make bomb. I mean, I'm an engineer. And she says, oh, we need more

00:18:18.340 engineers in this country. And you have to laugh to keep yourself from crying because it's true.

00:18:27.620 We cannot see distinctions because it's like illegal to do so.

00:18:32.740 We've been conditioned to not notice any sort of obvious patterns whatsoever to the detriment,

00:18:39.040 not only of our own bodies but the detriment of our own countries

00:18:43.280 noticing patterns would reveal

00:18:49.880 possibly some superiority or some inferiority

00:18:56.100 and in our upside down morality it's better to be tolerant

00:19:01.780 than it is to be vigilant tolerance is the ultimate virtue

00:19:06.980 of western society even if it costs your life

00:19:10.600 and this is not christian compassion it's insanity

00:19:15.140 it's one of the ditches of ignoring reality

00:19:21.580 and i believe the culture follows the church why do we have these things

00:19:28.600 in the world it's because the culture is downstream from the church

00:19:35.340 and these are the rotten cultural fruits of a wrongly interpreted Christian doctrine

00:19:41.160 of no distinctions. Let's be real. Has the elimination of distinctions made and created

00:19:48.680 more national harmony or more national chaos? Like has us not noticing reality made our nations

00:20:01.000 better or worse? Has it made people safer or under more harm? I think everybody understands

00:20:09.900 the answers to those questions. And that's the point I want to make in this series.

00:20:17.020 I want to help Christians understand that God's distinctions are good.

00:20:23.600 God's distinctions to be a man, to be a woman, to be of a particular nation or ethnic identity,

00:20:31.000 these are not accidents this is god's order for the world to ignore and to erase what god has 0.50

00:20:39.540 established is only going to produce more chaos it always does now being a becoming a christian

00:20:47.840 does not eliminate our distinctions and this again this is what the common interpretation

00:20:51.740 is is like you come to christ and we're all one in christ it doesn't matter what nation i'm from

00:20:58.080 it doesn't matter that i'm a man or a woman we're all one in christ

00:21:02.720 you know the reality is becoming a christian doesn't eliminate your distinctions it redeems

00:21:09.300 those distinctions the distinctions stay but they are redeemed it brings love and order to those

00:21:15.900 distinctions blacks and whites and arabs and men and women and children americans and mexicans and

00:21:22.480 Jews, they're all equal before God. They're all equal before God, but as groups, they are not 0.99

00:21:29.300 equal. Civilizationally, they are not equal. Biologically, they are not equal. They differ

00:21:37.500 in all of these different metrics and measurements. And we know for a fact that

00:21:45.060 when Paul said there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither

00:21:49.720 male nor female, we know that he's not saying that these racial distinctions are a race. And

00:21:56.080 how do we know that? Because if that's what he meant, he would also be saying that there's no

00:22:01.640 sexual distinctions. There's no male or female. Does that mean that there's no sexual distinctions?

00:22:07.180 Of course, that's not the interpretation because we know later Paul gives specific instructions

00:22:12.560 for men and for women that are distinct and different. So what is he saying?

00:22:19.720 What is he saying? He's saying that there is no distinctions that keep anyone coming to Christ.

00:22:29.400 There are no distinctions that keep anyone coming to Christ.

00:22:33.560 All are equally welcome under the economy of the gospel.

00:22:40.640 Now, the next obvious question is, do these distinctions affect church membership?

00:22:47.280 People go, oh, well, okay, we have distinctions.

00:22:51.540 They're not erased in Christ.

00:22:55.620 So how does that affect church membership?

00:23:00.400 Now, recently, a white pastor claimed that if a black Christian asked to go to his church,

00:23:07.360 he would refuse membership and would kindly help him find a congregation that fits his racial demographic. 0.99

00:23:14.640 That's a real thing.

00:23:17.500 So there are two extremes in this doctrine.

00:23:22.780 One pretends racial and ethnic distinctions don't exist in the real world.

00:23:27.940 That's the one we just talked about.

00:23:29.760 The other uses those distinctions to justify churches to exclude people based on race.

00:23:37.120 That's the other ditch.

00:23:39.100 So you've got both sides in the world right now.

00:23:42.980 Both positions are wrong.

00:23:47.280 Now, we do live in what I would call dual citizenship.

00:23:52.320 Citizens of a nation, we are citizens of heaven.

00:23:55.640 We know Paul says, your citizenship is in heaven.

00:23:58.600 Your polychomon, the Greek, is in heaven. 0.56

00:24:01.720 Yes, we get that.

00:24:02.640 My citizenship is in heaven, but also we know that Jesus says, give to Caesar what is Caesar, and give to God what is God's.

00:24:08.120 So we have this dual tension of citizenship.

00:24:11.880 but earthly distinctions they're real and they're significant in the world

00:24:19.900 but they must never become barriers to fellowship in the church they cannot do that in other words

00:24:28.200 when it comes to membership in the local church this is where the principle of no distinctions

00:24:35.720 does actually find its clearest and most proper application like if you're going to use the no

00:24:42.800 distinction doctrine use it here that's actually where it does make sense to function we're not

00:24:48.840 going to keep anyone from christ from the lord's table from baptism from membership based off of

00:24:56.040 distinctions anyone can become a member of our church whether you're black whether you're white

00:25:01.880 Whether you're Arab, whether you're rich, whether you're poor, whether you're man, woman, single, married, divorced, it doesn't matter.

00:25:08.120 You're welcome to come to Kingsway and hear of Christ.

00:25:14.340 Now, if we were an actual nation, like every nation for the history of the world,

00:25:21.060 not some sort of multi-ethnic, multicultural experiment that we are, 0.96

00:25:26.440 it would be rare to have someone join the church that is foreign.

00:25:31.880 It would be rare. In fact, if you go to Japan and you go to a church there, which are very few, you're probably not going to see many other people except Japanese Christians there.

00:25:42.860 but even if you have a proper nation like korea or russia or mexico or you know uh

00:25:58.940 any other non-western nation a church may experience the occasional foreigner

00:26:06.580 that is in the land a stranger in the land and so if a brother or sister from a different nation

00:26:13.540 lawfully immigrates into our nation and comes to our local church you have to remember that in

00:26:19.980 christ those real distinctions that often make unity difficult in the flesh or in the world

00:26:26.000 can be overcome in the spiritual reality of the church

00:26:30.820 and that is to say all genuine believers and seekers must be welcomed at the local church

00:26:38.600 again this does not erase their biological and national distinctions we're not a colorblind

00:26:47.100 people a foreigner might not feel completely at home in our church and that is the natural cost 0.97

00:26:56.820 of being a foreigner. If I go to Korea and decide to move there and I go to a Korean church,

00:27:05.340 I am not going to expect to feel like I'm at an American church in Korea. No, I am going to feel

00:27:13.340 like a foreigner. However, I do expect to be welcomed in Christ. I do expect the distinction

00:27:20.400 to not be excluding me out of the opportunities and work and ministry of the church

00:27:29.140 because in christ there are no distinctions we are one even the great theologian jonathan edwards

00:27:39.540 he owned slaves in the 1700s now he sought to be uh what i would call a benevolent and biblical

00:27:48.260 slave master i mean that he would actually be a slave master according to scripture

00:27:53.260 and he treated his slaves as spiritual equals in the church he was a pastor of the church

00:27:59.440 and all of his slaves were baptized in part and members of his own household on sunday they were

00:28:07.400 one in christ now this spiritual unity did not erase the earthly circumstances and distinctions

00:28:15.480 or it didn't change the relationship outside of the church.

00:28:19.740 It simply shows that if the no distinctions clause applies anywhere,

00:28:23.940 it applies most directly to the local church,

00:28:29.240 where everybody is leveled by the cross.

00:28:35.520 Now, I want to give some clarifications on the curse of Ham.

00:28:40.580 I think a sermon like this and a doctrine like this can be abused very easily,

00:28:44.280 and it's why the vast majority of ministers in recent years have strayed from the historical

00:28:50.500 interpretation and i want to be careful with that so what does redeemed distinctions look like

00:29:00.940 especially as it relates to the curse of ham and it's it's kind of civilizational effects

00:29:06.660 on the African nations.

00:29:11.100 I also want to look at the corresponding

00:29:13.140 civilizational effects

00:29:15.420 on the Japhethite nations,

00:29:18.100 the European nations,

00:29:19.260 some of the Asian nations,

00:29:20.420 some of the Hispanic nations.

00:29:22.240 Now first, it's important to say clearly 1.00

00:29:24.440 that the curse of Ham 0.79

00:29:25.420 is a curse of civilizational station,

00:29:29.560 not a curse of redemption.

00:29:32.220 Not a curse of redemption.

00:29:33.560 God is saving Africans all over the world.

00:29:36.660 Corbin often tells me about the great work of the Nigerian Anglicans

00:29:41.560 and the bishops there that are holding the line on many important issues in Nigeria.

00:29:50.160 God is saving.

00:29:51.920 There are many Christian nations that have 80% of the population that are Christian.

00:29:57.740 God is saving Africans all over the world.

00:30:00.360 Second, the curse of Ham does not deny that some individual Africans can be uniquely gifted and blessed with civilizational intellect and leadership ability.

00:30:15.380 I believe that God's purpose in those cases, when you see that extraordinary black man who's gifted,

00:30:24.260 You know, maybe it's Clarence Thomas, maybe it's Votie Baca, maybe it's Thomas Sowell.

00:30:30.700 I believe that that is God's signal and purpose to raise that man up as strong leadership for his own people.

00:30:42.540 Africa and Africans desperately need really strong, godly, Christian, black men right now. 0.99

00:30:51.300 Desperately. 1.00

00:30:54.680 It's actually why I think that the late Votie Bauckham moving to Africa was one of the best decisions he ever made.

00:31:00.580 He made a massive impact over there.

00:31:04.620 And I thought it was such a good thing for him to go.

00:31:08.640 And I believe it's also why he fully embraced the idea of Christian nationalism.

00:31:12.500 He understood the distinctions doctrine.

00:31:15.780 And he was extremely gifted and able to lead the people toward Christ.

00:31:22.220 righteousness, civilizational morality, and many other things.

00:31:27.120 Third, I think we've been so propagandized about slavery that we forget that scripture does not

00:31:34.840 actually forbid slavery. Now, I think it redeems slavery. Now, chattel slavery of the transatlantic 0.97

00:31:44.800 slave trade that we saw in the 1700s, that is evil. It's wicked, and it was righteous that the 0.51

00:31:50.780 Christians put an end to that. But biblical slavery, more, you know, some people might have 0.73

00:32:02.080 called it indentured servitude, was actually often a protective and pro-life measure. If you look at

00:32:09.140 it under a historical argument, a master would often take in a person who would likely have

00:32:15.420 died from poverty or from war or something else and instead bring him under his household

00:32:22.520 providing for his needs in return for indentured servitude. So there are some historical and

00:32:29.920 biblical expressions of slavery. Now, the curse of Ham is not some sort of command that Africans

00:32:37.500 should be slave. That's not what it's saying. I believe that the interpretation of this passage

00:32:42.020 of scripture is that they are a servant of servants civilizationally of Shem and Japheth, 0.80

00:32:47.720 meaning that they are subjugated politically, civilizationally, nationally to the rule and

00:32:53.140 reign of the Shemite or the Japhethite nations. I don't believe this is calling for some sort of

00:32:59.020 individual slavery and that we should justify this doctrine to bring back chattel slavery.

00:33:03.680 That's not what I'm saying. Having said that, I do believe a prophetic curse

00:33:11.880 is not merely spiritual or symbolic so when we look at these curses and these blessings

00:33:18.340 they're not just like spiritual things or symbolic things they actually manifest

00:33:22.940 in the physical world it manifests in real physical historical consequences across generations

00:33:30.380 and we saw that last week with like the intellect or the ambition or the technological capacity or 0.96

00:33:36.880 the military prowess of the Japhethite nations if you're going to be enlarging people if you're

00:33:41.740 going to be a people that grows and takes over landmass, you know what you're going to need? 0.97

00:33:46.580 Ambition. You're going to need military prowess. You're going to need to be technologically

00:33:50.720 advanced. And that is exactly what we saw with the Japhethite people. The Europeans were rolling 1.00

00:33:55.720 around in ships, beautiful, you know, 40 sail ships that are running around the edge of Africa 0.96

00:34:03.500 while Africa is still trying to figure out how to use the wheel. There was a actual physical 0.59

00:34:10.200 manifestation in these people that allowed them to fulfill the prophecy in this passage of

00:34:16.420 scripture. Now, the same principle holds true of the curse. Okay, a people under judgment of some

00:34:23.240 conditions under this curse of Ham do not remain physically untouched. And I want to talk about

00:34:28.420 how those things manifested among the African people. And I've summarized them in four G's,

00:34:35.200 four g's geography god's genetics gospel okay geography god's genetics gospel

00:34:41.540 geography let's look at number one geography how did this curse in genesis 25 to 27

00:34:50.740 manifest physically in geography so god providentially placed ham's descendants where

00:35:01.700 predominantly in some of the most geographically punishing environments on earth

00:35:08.120 okay roughly one-third of the african continent is infested with what's called the tsetse fly

00:35:16.320 and what that does is it kills so many cattle so many draft animals it prevents plow agriculture

00:35:25.440 It prevents production. It prevents efficient transport of food.

00:35:32.320 It makes life in Africa incredibly difficult.

00:35:39.380 It is some of the most harsh weather patterns and conditions anywhere outside of maybe Antarctica.

00:35:50.620 most of africa's rivers which are main main crossings for travel for trade are blocked

00:36:01.240 by the most insane rapid sections that they make them uncrossable the sahara desert is so big and

00:36:09.880 so vast it basically blocked them off from being served and supported and helped and trading with

00:36:17.740 other nations. Ultimately, outside of Antarctica, Africa is the least desirable, profitable, 0.76

00:36:27.100 livable continent in this world. And it fell, as a coincidence or by providence,

00:36:37.400 to the Hamitic peoples. And this, of course, shaped the development of those people. 0.75

00:36:44.060 because africa and their climate there which has less seasonal variation

00:36:53.300 as a result of not having seasons you don't have to have food storage or planning

00:37:00.780 or major indoor quarters compared to northern tribes of people that had to deal with winter

00:37:09.100 and you have to have systems of agricultural planning and food storage and you had to actually

00:37:15.340 build stone buildings that would withstand huge storms and so what happens in a nation that is

00:37:22.220 generally outside is that you develop physical adaptations and physical maturity and it's why

00:37:28.760 the african peoples are extremely athletic there's actually studies that show this now on the other

00:37:34.260 side is that on the Japhethite nations up north when you are indoors for a portion of the year

00:37:40.080 and you are building all these sophisticated buildings instead of having physical adaptations

00:37:45.720 you start to have intellectual adaptations and you start reading and writing and planning

00:37:51.520 and doing architecture and poetry and music and as a result over time the IQs of these two

00:37:58.380 different groups develop in different ways and so the IQs of the northern peoples are more

00:38:03.840 intellectually driven, where the IQs are lower of the African peoples that are more physically 0.79

00:38:08.580 driven. The next G is gods. The Hamitic peoples have endured millennia of paganism, of idolatry, 1.00

00:38:24.080 of animism, and all of which have actively hindered their development. So again, we start 0.98

00:38:30.780 to see the curse actually manifest itself, how is it played out in history? So pagan religions, 0.91

00:38:38.140 think about this for me with a second, just pay attention. Pagan religions, they don't 1.00

00:38:42.460 just affect your beliefs. Pagan religions do what? They tell you what to eat. They talk about sexual 0.99

00:38:49.400 conduct. They talk about moral norms. And so when you have thousands of years of eating burger

00:38:58.680 patties made out of flies it's a real thing it happens in berindi and congo and ethiopia

00:39:06.280 it affects your biology and when 50 of all of the african continent do cousin marriage 0.69

00:39:14.920 it affects their biology okay when people sacrifice their children and ritually drank blood 0.82

00:39:23.560 like they do in Kenya and Tanzania, it affects your biology. And these practices degrade their 0.92

00:39:31.280 health and increase the genetic defects, which is moving to my third G, which is genetics. 1.00

00:39:37.880 The Hamitic peoples have significantly lower IQ than their Shemite and their Japhethite 1.00

00:39:46.180 counterparts. Now, why does that matter? Well, because IQ strongly correlates with a variety 1.00

00:39:53.120 of very important civilizational realities. So future orientation. If you have a lower IQ,

00:40:01.220 it's difficult for you to think a year ahead. If you have an IQ of 120, 130, you can think about

00:40:07.360 3, 4, 5, 10, 15 years ahead. It correlates with long-term planning, impulse control, poverty

00:40:17.020 levels, criminality, family stability, all of these things, which are essential for what? For

00:40:23.420 building great civilizations. So again, it's not a shock. We're not just spiritualists. There's a

00:40:30.940 physical reality. It's not a shock that you look at, even today, you go to an African city today 1.00

00:40:36.880 and there's struggling sprawls of architecture and you go to Rome 2,000 years ago without

00:40:46.820 the gospel, and they have four-story pillar stone buildings. There's a difference. There's a

00:40:56.160 difference here. In addition to these sub-Saharan populations, there's also genetic defects.

00:41:05.380 There's the sickle cell genetic defect. There's the APOL1 variants that have kidney disease. 0.80

00:41:10.220 And why does this matter? Because the current lifespan expectancy of somebody in Africa 0.98

00:41:15.200 is 20 years less than that of the people of Europe. So it affects the genetics.

00:41:24.620 Lastly, we have gospel. In God's providence, the Hamitic peoples received the gospel

00:41:31.720 later than any other major people group on earth. Yeah, there are still some small people groups

00:41:39.920 that don't have the gospel, but we're talking about big groups of people. The African peoples

00:41:45.140 were to get the gospel last. 1.00

00:41:48.660 Now, the Shemites had it first. 1.00

00:41:51.400 The Japhethites had it next. 1.00

00:41:53.500 And the Japhethites took it across the world. 1.00

00:41:56.260 And who brought it to Africa? 1.00

00:41:58.560 The Europeans. 0.97

00:42:00.240 The Americans.

00:42:02.040 The missionary movement came out of Japheth

00:42:04.600 and came out and spread the gospel across Africa.

00:42:07.980 and so the compounding effects of paganism and all of these different things

00:42:17.560 really does produce the results of this curse and what this means is that the

00:42:24.160 Hamitic peoples have not labored under equal circumstances but unequal circumstances

00:42:29.620 curses have real physical effects blessings have real physical effects we're afraid to 1.00

00:42:37.860 look at that because that talks about inferiority and superiority and it talks about distinctions

00:42:42.980 and that to everybody in our generation again is is just taboo but god in his sovereign wisdom

00:42:50.660 designed these real conditions in keeping with the prophecy of genesis 9 that would place

00:42:59.660 the African peoples historically in a state of greater dependence, in a state of greater struggle,

00:43:10.940 in a state of greater need. And even with the Western efforts to solve African poverty,

00:43:19.940 we sent since 1960 trillions of dollars in foreign aid to Africa. And the transformation

00:43:29.840 has not been great. The effects have been minimal. In other words, I don't believe that this curse

00:43:37.380 can be solved with money. I do believe that money helps, but I don't believe this curse can be solved

00:43:42.600 with money. So what the real, like what is the real solution? That's what we want to talk. What

00:43:48.540 is the real solution for bringing gospel order to the world, including the Hamitic peoples? 1.00

00:43:57.260 And here's the answer. It's by embracing both the blessings and the curses that God has declared in 1.00

00:44:03.360 chapter 9 of Genesis. And here's what I mean by that. God has sovereignly assigned different

00:44:10.940 stations and trajectories to different peoples for

00:44:14.880 his glory. The Japhethites 1.00

00:44:18.920 have been blessed to be enlarged in both territory and Christian

00:44:22.760 regeneration. We see that in this passage. The Hamites

00:44:27.040 have been assigned to a civilizational station of subordination and 0.99

00:44:30.740 dependence. And the answer

00:44:35.060 to this paradigm is not endless foreign money.

00:44:38.220 that's not the answer to this problem the answer is to return to european christian colonization

00:44:47.280 of african nations i believe that's truly the answer let me tell you why

00:44:51.660 it's the only thing that has historically worked that has shown fruit

00:44:56.420 i'm not talking about overtaking africa i'm not talking about enslaving africans i'm not talking

00:45:04.680 about exploiting Africans, but I'm talking about establishing order, godly leadership, and carrying

00:45:12.020 the gospel to their lands. In fact, the only times that African nations have seen significant and

00:45:20.180 sustained civilizational improvement, and I'm talking about infant mortality rates going down, 0.98

00:45:27.020 I'm talking murder going down, I'm talking disease going down, tribal wars seizing, the only time

00:45:31.620 Africa has ever seen that happen in being sustained is when they have come under 0.99

00:45:38.480 Japhethite supervision. We saw this in colonial Kenya, Botswana, dramatically in Rhodesia. 0.96

00:45:48.760 White Christians turned a broken third world territory into a thriving first world Christian 0.99

00:45:55.600 nation in less than a century. You have a continent that has been struggling for literally 0.97

00:46:02.280 millennia. And then you bring in a handful of European Christians and they turn that 1.00

00:46:09.600 in a hundred years into a first world nation like that. You just go, why? How did that 0.66

00:46:18.980 happen? Why does that work? When supervision is removed, which it has been, the pattern always

00:46:28.720 reverses. And we have painlessly saw that in Zimbabwe, previously Rhodesia. And what this

00:46:35.400 teaches us is that nations are downstream from, well, let me say it this way. Nations are not

00:46:41.200 just downstream from religion. They're downstream from race. And I know that's a crazy thing to say, 0.77

00:46:50.160 but a nation is simply the result of its people. The state of a nation is the result of its people.

00:46:58.320 Let me prove this to you. Japan is one percent Christian. It is not a Christian nation. 0.99

00:47:05.460 Yet it remains one of the most civilized, orderly, and high-functioning nations on earth.

00:47:13.620 Congo is 95% Christian.

00:47:18.140 Yet it remains chaotic and radically underdeveloped. 0.95

00:47:23.360 It's not Christianity that takes a nation and turns it into a great nation.

00:47:29.400 It is actually the people.

00:47:31.080 now this does not mean that the gospel is unimportant to the health of a nation

00:47:36.660 it's vital but civility is not a result of christianity because you have pagan nations

00:47:48.200 like rome who were incredibly civil powerful nations before the gospel

00:47:54.780 without christ though these nations are just going to be outwardly moral

00:48:02.820 they're going to be outwardly moral and it's essentially going to be a preface to hell

00:48:09.280 great you have a great civilization that is orderly and just and you're going to hell

00:48:14.860 and so to not have christ and to have a civilized nation you've gained the whole

00:48:24.300 world and lost your soul. It's terrible. So it is only in Christ that nations find true peace.

00:48:34.340 They find true order. They find true flourishing. We don't just want civilized nations. We want

00:48:40.000 Christian nations that are civilized. And so I'll close with this. God has not called us

00:48:50.180 to erase the distinctions that he has placed in the world

00:48:55.180 but to redeem those distinctions

00:48:58.020 so that we might have a world

00:49:00.740 where there are no more tribal wars in Africa 0.97

00:49:04.120 because they are Christian. 0.98

00:49:07.240 So that we might have a world

00:49:08.860 where we can visit other nations

00:49:11.200 that are distinct

00:49:13.060 and be at peace with them

00:49:16.940 because they're also Christian.

00:49:19.160 It's a mosaic of Christian nations.

00:49:24.040 And so we want to let every people, Ham, Shem, Japheth, walk in the fear of the Lord,

00:49:30.420 in the beauty and order of their own place, so that the nations might glorify the King of Kings,

00:49:35.540 each bringing their unique glory into a redeemed world when Christ returns.

00:49:39.700 Amen?

00:49:40.300 Amen.

00:49:41.460 Let's pray.

00:49:42.180 father we thank you lord that you have given us order and lord we pray that you would help

00:49:52.380 restore order among amongst a chaotic world that removes distinctions lord help us

00:49:58.360 to find the scriptures that explain reality lord not that we might be prideful

00:50:05.460 but Lord that we might be helpful

00:50:09.760 Lord that we might restore

00:50:12.780 the kingdom of God on earth

00:50:16.340 Lord that we might preach the truth

00:50:20.720 that all people must come to Christ

00:50:22.900 we ask this in Jesus name, Amen

Dale Partridge - July 06, 2026

Genesis 9_25-29： Redeemed Distinctions and Race in the Church (Part 3)

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