Myron Edmunds calls congregants at Oakwood to “stay woke” in a sermon where he said America was built on a lie, and the same religious liberty that allows people to keep the Sabbath allows gay marriage. His message begins at the 3:27:27 mark,
3:34:39 Because you died a certain way doesn’t make you no martyr . . America is built on a lie. A reference to Charlie Kirk. We get it. You don’t like America. You don’t like Charlie Kirk’s honesty, or probably his mission to help young men become respectable family men.
People (Like Myron, Claudia, Kevin, Jeffery, Ivor and Nicky, etc) say how can America be Christian when they did…. Don’t fall for that. Don’t fall for the erroneous claim that the country and people must be perfect. You aren’t. They aren’t. America was able to change, and it did. You and I need some change too.
3:29:06 the same liberties that allow you to keep the Sabbath are the same liberties that will allow a same sex couple to get married. One is a command of the Creator God, the other is axiological rebellion against that Creator’s creation. They are not moral equivalents.
3:41:51 Ellen White and the founders of the Advent Movement were woke. Nice try. You’d be getting a long letter from James and Ellen if they heard you say that.
3:35:48 slovenly black neighborhoods are caused by (white) racist policies.
Where in all the the rhetoric, Myron, do you ever admit any responsibility for yourself or the communities you are defending? Where have you ever said “Yeah, we blame others for our problems a lot but we could do better ourselves”? That would go a long way towards honest dialogue, if that’s what you would like. I would, and I’ll start by saying my life has been enriched by many Godly black brothers and sisters in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I’m glad they are here. On the other hand, our church is not enriched by generational bitterness and hidden pride.
You don’t like America. Let’s accept that. Will you like the better country and better city that we are seeking (Hebrews 11:16)? The only way for us to get in that country is through repentance and coming to Jesus Christ.
If you can push off what’s wrong with you on someone else you’re never going to deal with your own sin and resultingly you can never be saved by Jesus Christ. We can’t get into that better country without repentance, dropping our victimhood complex, admitting our own sins, accepting the forgiveness of Christ and extending forgiveness to others.
There is nothing in this culture that legally limits anybody based on their race. So the woke social justice warrior claims “We are not responsible for who we are, we came into this world a blank slate and you corrupted us. So you are responsible and should be hated.” It is a very dangerous thing which has no room for God, no room for responsibility, and no forgiveness. There is no room for confessing my sin and coming in repentance to Christ in this victimhood mentality.
Critical race theory says that human beings are the only creature on the planet that come into the world a blank slate with no innate characteristics (even gender) this is an attack on the image of God in humans. Critical race theory further says that all that you are is simply defined by culture. And culture is captive to white systemic privilege therefore it produces the results that it wants. Utter nonsense. It’s not only a theory, it is a bad theory.
I agree that fornication is a problem and should not be in the church. The solution is repentance and cleansing, which leads to freedom.
Victimhood
The victim will shake his fist in the face of God, rather than yield up the delusion of his own goodness. We see this in Ezekiel 18.
No one is a perpetual victim. We are all perpetrators of rebellion and scandalous sin against God. We are all rebels. We are all stubborn, we are all obstinate (Romans 3:23; Eph 2:3).
God does take pleasure in sinners who repent and turn from their evil ways (Ezekiel 33:11). It does not help sinners to coddle their victimhood. Rather it keeps them from experiencing repentance.
What laws in America are purposely against any ethnic group? None. There are no anti-ethnically designed laws in America. None. There were some in the past, and I am grateful that America changed course on that.
At the core of victimhood thinking is the belief that I am basically a good person and all these things that other people have done to me or to my ancestors are not my fault and they have made me what I am. I demand more stuff; I deserve it.
If we got what we deserved we would all be dead. We are alive because of His mercy (Lamentations 3:22).
If you have been saved, why would you be preoccupied with what others have done to you instead of living in joy and gratitude and forgiveness, all of which are fruits of the gospel? A person who chooses to go through life as a victim has not experienced the salvation of the gospel and the joy and forgiveness that God brings.
Instead of brokenness over my own sin, we have replaced repentance over my own sin with anger over the sins of others.
To my social justice friends I say this, you can’t fix society. You cannot fix society because Satan rules it, he is the god of this world.
We have a better God, and He is building a better city and a better country.
****