God the Father, Mentor's Guide, MG06

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G O D T H E F A T H E R

A White Man’s God

Many people believe today that the Christian faith is a religious tradition that has been shaped and determined by European culture, that was created by Whites for white people. It is not hard to see how they could get such a notion: the Christian tradition is associated with European cultures, with most of the liturgies, artistic expressions, and written sources springing from European roots, and God is always associated with nations of the West, more than the “South” and the “East.” As a matter of fact, many wind up rejecting Christianity because they confuse faith in the Father Almighty with endorsement of Euro-American culture and lifestyle. If you encountered someone who made the claim that the God of Christianity appears to favor the White peoples of this world, and ignores the cries of the colored peoples of history, how would you counter this? Do the doctrines of God’s providence, preservation, and governance shed any light on our problem today to show that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a White man’s God? God the Father Almighty is the God of providence, the sovereign Lord who is the source and Sustainer of all things, preserving and governing all things in his wisdom. All things exist by virtue of his will as Maker of all, and all things will bring glory to his name, which is the single unifying intention behind all life everywhere. The “providence of God” refers to the fact that “God works out his sovereign will in the universe whereby all events are disposed by him to fulfill his purposes for himself and his creation for good.” “Preservation” refers to the fact that all things exist and hold together by virtue of God’s sovereign care and provision, and “governance” refers to the truth that God is sovereign over the entire universe, possessing all authority to do with creation whatever he purposes, and will restore all creation at Christ’s return. Regardless of theories given regarding the origins of the universe, no one and nothing can claim any kind of independence from God as the source of all being. An accurate understanding of the providence of God resolves some of the modern errors of philosophy and theology, namely, pantheism, deism, fatalism, and chance.

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Restatement of the Lesson’s Thesis

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