Most of this was originally posted on X and is related to discussions there:
It’s true Paul agreed with the generalization that Cretans are liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons (Titus 1:12). It’s also true that having carried out a gospel ministry at Crete, Paul expected Titus to find Cretan men who met the qualifications for eldership laid out in Titus 1:5-9. In other words, Paul expected the gospel to transform men in Crete and bring them up to the same moral and doctrinal levels of maturity found elsewhere in other faithful churches. If the gospel can transform Cretans, it can transform any people group. If Paul expected Titus to be able to raise up faithful men in Crete, there was no genetic or ethnic or racial block that somehow made sanctification impossible for Cretan believers. Again, grace can transform any and every people group.
Besides, if Cretans are somehow unable to be fully sanctified because of their race, it should be remembered that Cretans were white (Caucasian). In fact, the stereotype of Cretans Paul quotes in Titus 1 is not that different from the way Paul characterizes ALL Gentiles in other places like Romans 1:18ff, Ephesians 4:17ff, etc.
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Paul’s characterization of Cretans is not all that different from how he characterizes ALL Gentiles in texts like Ephesians 4:17ff. Stereotypes, generalizations, pattern recognition, etc., are all fine, but they need to be accurate and used in wisdom. All too often, they are just expressions of ethnic or racial malice.
I live in the South. People in other parts of the country sometimes have stereotypes or make generalizations about us. Sometimes they are fair and accurate. Sometimes they are just expressions of regional malice and arrogance. So not all generalizing is equal.
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The Christian faith makes any nation superior to what it would be without the Christian faith. And cultures are inferior or superior to one another based on how influenced they are by grace (common and special).
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Ethnic groups (generally nations) have a shared culture. Race is a biological category, ethnicity is a geo-political category, and culture is manifested ethnically, but is the product of many factors. Judgments about cultural superiority are notoriously complex because the criteria are not settled. But I have no problem making some assertions, eg, America is a superior country to Haiti and American culture is superior to Haitian culture. America is superior to Canada and Canadian culture. Etc.
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The Bible rarely deals with the category of race so any claims made along those lines will be empirical and sociological, not strictly theological. I am not convinced races are absolutely static across history (eg, we know T levels, IQ, etc. vary within a race across time). I do not believe God has built some kind of permanent racial hierarchy into the creation.
The Bible operates primarily in terms of nations. And we can say that as nations are discipled, they will be transformed and will bring their peculiar treasures into the kingdom of God (eg, Isaiah 60). Will some of those national treasures be more glorious than others? That seems likely.
Overall, my views of race and immigration mesh pretty well with the current administration, which is why I do not like racial identity politics. The racialization of politics on the right risks undermining everything the Trump administration is attempting to accomplish in immigration enforcement and other areas. The racialization of left wing politics has been destructive and there’s no reason to expect better results from the right. People who boast in race or obsess over race usually accomplish very little. Framing matters, and racial framing is counterproductive.
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What if the “race war” is a proxy for something even deeper?
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There are guys on the right who basically want to be the white version of Al Sharpton. Or the white Jesse Jackson. That’s not what we need. There are guys who believe that because the left has racialized everything, the right should as well. But that’s just dumb. And it won’t work.
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Voddie Baucham is more sanctified than David Platt and Matt Chandler. He’s a better theologian, more mature in the faith, far more courageous, and does more good for the church.
Clarence Thomas is more sanctified than fellow SCOTUS justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett. He has far more insight into the legal and constitutional issues, he writes far better opinions, and he does far more good for our country.
If your theology will not allow you to acknowledge these realities because of the races of the people involved, you need a better and more biblical theology. If your theology puts a cap on how sanctified someone can become because of their genetics, you do not understand the most fundamental truths of the gospel.
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If there are “consequences of sin in the flesh,” they apply to far more than just Cretans or blacks. Paul says in Ephesians 4:17ff that ALL Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds, and are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of heart, they are calloused, and given over to sensuality, greed, and impurity. If we are going to play the genetics game and tie this to biology, can Gentiles be sanctified? Does Gentile biology make it impossible for us to attain high levels of sanctification? Paul makes no racial distinction. The category of Gentiles would include whites, blacks, Asians — all non-Jewish people — and so Paul’s description in Ephesians 4:17ff applies to them all. Paul tells us what we are by nature.
The biblical answer to this is simple: ALL people groups are fallen, and now live under the wrath and curse of sin. And ALL people groups can be forgiven and sanctified by turning to Jesus and receiving his free gift of salvation. It’s true that sin can manifest in varying ways and to varying degrees in different families, nations, and cultures. It would be absurd to say every individual or every culture is equally sinful. But nothing in Scripture suggests some people groups are less fallen, less deserving of wrath, less totally depraved. Nothing in Scripture suggests that some people groups have a lower sanctification ceiling than others. Paul had plenty of opportunities to make that kind of claim but never does. Acts is written in such a way to show us the grace of gospel reaching all kinds of ethnic groups, from Jews, to Ethiopians, to cosmopolitan Romans, to barbarians. Even if some people groups have genetic dispositions to certain sins, grace can overcome it all. Paul expected the grace of the gospel to transform the men of Crete. He laid down elder qualifications in Titus 1:5ff that are just as stringent as those he gave to Timothy in Ephesus (1 Timothy 3). Paul expected the ministry of Titus to produce Cretan men who were no longer liars or evil beasts, but who are above reproach, not open to charges of debauchery or insubordination, humble, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness or violence or greed, etc. Paul does not “grade on curve” by lowering elder qualifications for Cretans because they are somehow more depraved. Obviously, Paul expected grace to transform every people group and bring them up to the same standards.
To put it simply: Sin has impacted every group in the human race. Grace can impact every people group too, and to such a degree that they can produce men who meet the qualifications for church leadership. The possibilities of grace in the process of sanctification are not limited by biology or genetics. Grace transforms and restores nature. Grace transforms cultures. Grace transforms nations. Grace is not limited by the shortcomings of the flesh.
One more note on this: The Cretans did not constitute a distinct race. Cretans were an ethnic group, but racially and biologically, they were Caucasian. If we turn Titus 1:12 into a racial (rather than ethnic/cultural) generalization, it applies to whites.
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Quite a few people who call themselves “Christian nationalists” are actually not advocating anything Christian at all, and probably should drop that part of the label. They are just “nationalists.” Or “nature nationalists.” Or “nationalists of the flesh.” It’s not at all clear what role (if any) the gospel, the Bible, or the church play in their “nationalist” political program, so why call it “Christian nationalism”?
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The immigration of many *whites* was highly controversial for a good part of American history – especially if they were Roman Catholic. Romanists formed their own school system because American public schools were considered Protestant. Etc. America was quite unique in eventually providing a place where a broader variety of Nicene/Trinitarian Christians could assimilate into a largely shared culture. But we were predominantly WASPish for a long time.
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The gospel is the story of an interethnic, interracial marriage – Jewish Messiah marries a mixed race, mostly Gentile bride.
FOLLOW UP:
Very interesting and disturbing responses to this tweet. Mostly mockery, virtually no argument for anything. Lots of rage.
The tweet was not *really* about marriage. Obviously, Jesus’ marriage is unique in that he marries a corporate person, not an individual person.
With regard to interethnic and interracial marriage, I would never bind anyone’s conscience beyond the Word of God. I certainly think interethnic marriages (in the Lord) are permissible. But they are not the “norm” and probably never will be. It’s odd to me so many guys on this app are hyper sensitive to this issue when it generally affects a very small sliver of the population. At this point, with marriage rates at an all time low, we should be happy if people get married at all, even if they are looking outside normal circles to find a bride. Given how insufferable many modern Western white women are, I would not at all blame young men for broadening their search for a wife. Just today, I saw a “far right” guy on this app suggesting American men look at Ukrainian women for brides since they are not as influenced by feminism and a whole generation of young Ukrainian men just got wiped out. That would probably not be my choice if I were a single, young man but it’s not bad advice for some men under the circumstances. It’s not good for man to be alone.
Interracial marriage is never going to be the most common way to start a family any more than adoption is going to become the most common way of building a family. And just in case someone is wondering: No, it is not somehow more godly to have an interracial or interethnic marriage, nor is it more godly to adopt children than to have natural offspring. These are largely matters of Christian liberty and prudence.
Back to the point of my tweet. My tweet was only incidentally about marriage. It’s really about redemptive history and the catholicity of the church. If racial identitarianism is making a comeback on the right (which is unfortunate imo), it is crucial to be reminded of the cosmic scope of Christ’s redemptive work and the ethnic catholicity of the church.
My tweet is also about hermeneutics, and typology in particular. This morning I linked an article that goes into this more depth (it was a critique of a TGC article) if you’re interested.
MORE FOLLOW UP: This post caused quite a scandal. But it’s worth noting that the same truth caused a great scandal in the early church. If my post is wrong, Gentiles as Gentiles cannot be saved. (My guess is most of the people objecting to the post are, ironically, Gentiles.) Much of the NT was written to work out the complications that resulted from the new covenant church/bride being a multiethnic body. Ephesians, Galatians, Romans, Acts 15, etc., all deal with this theme. Jewish and Gentile Christians had to learn to get along with one another and form coherent, unified ecclesiastical communities. That does not mean every local church needs to be multiracial or multiethnic – but the fact that God in his providence grew the earliest churches in multiethnic, cosmopolitan areas is not an accident. God wanted the earliest local churches to be models of the catholicity of the universal church.
Many people responding to this post twisted it in weird sexual ways, eg, Jesus must be bisexual or polygamous. But that’s a serious misunderstanding of biblical theology. The one bride of Christ has a corporate sex and a corporate ethnicity – the bride is obviously female and the ethnicity is “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” This should not be that hard, as these are things Scripture calls attention to again and again.
Some are so focused on racial identity politics in our contemporary context that they can’t recognize a description of the “one holy catholic apostolic church” even when it’s right in front of them. It’s like they’re wearing blinders or have tunnel vision. The race issue has become the lens through which they see everything else. They are scandalized at the thought of having to share membership in the universal church with people of other ethnicities and races.
Most negative responses read all kinds of things into my post that simply weren’t there and missed what was there. God have mercy.
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The Bible has very little to say about races and a lot to say about ethnicities/nations. While there is overlap between race and ethnicity, they are not identical and the distinctions are important (I have addressed this elsewhere).
People of all races bear God’s image. They all descend from one man. They are all fallen in one man. They can all be redeemed in One Man.
Because all individuals bear the image of God, there is a sense in which we can speak of the equality of all people. But this kind of equality does not imply egalitarianism. Individuals vary widely in gifts and talents. They vary widely in degrees of sinfulness (though all are totally depraved and thus unable to please God in the flesh). If they are believers they can reach varying levels of personal holiness. Some Christians make more progress in discipleship and grow to greater maturity than other Christians. Of course, all progress and maturation in righteousness is by grace, so those Christians who grow to a greater degree have nothing to boast about. Indeed, boasting in oneself is a sign that one does not understand the grace of the gospel at all. Everything is a gift, including natural endowments (intelligence, athletic ability, creativity, etc.) and salvific endowments (faith, repentance, etc.).
When we consider the same issues at the ethnic/national level, we must say that all cultures show the effects of the fall. Every people group has been guilty of horrific atrocities at various times in history. Widespread ignorance of history sometimes blinds us to this reality, but it is most certainly true. We can also say that God’s plan is for each nation to be discipled and brought into his kingdom en masse over the course of history. This is what the Great Commission requires (and as a postmillennialist, I believe that Great Commission will be fulfilled — I make the case for that elsewhere).
We are not required to say that each nation, or the culture of each nation, is equal. We must reject cultural egalitarianism. We must reject so-called multiculturalism. Over time, across history, as God’s plan unfolds, each nation will reflect both the effects of the fall and the effects of redemption. And of course, nations and their cultures are not static — a nation that might be horrifically wicked at one point in history might be very righteous, relatively speaking, at another time in history. Nations rise and fall. Nations repent and later apostatize. Nations are blessed and cursed and blessed again over the course of history. Some nations go out of existence altogether and new nations form. But all nations have a role to play in God’s plan for history. When a nation and its culture show signs of progress and maturing in God’s truth, goodness, and beauty, we must attribute this to grace.
A Christian nation will not boast in its accomplishments, but give thanks to God for his tender mercies. A boastful nation is not a properly Christian nation. We must boast only in what God’s grace has done among us — and the way we boast in grace is by giving thanks. Even the so-called natural endowments of a nation are bestowed by grace. Everything good in any nation comes from divine grace.
Nations, and the cultures that develop within each nation, will have diverse strengths and weaknesses, diverse gifts and talents. Obviously, different nations have different endowments, apportioned by God as he sees fit. As every nation is discipled, every nation will ultimately bring its treasures into the kingdom of God (Isaiah 60:11), but nothing in Scripture suggests that every nation and culture will bring *equally* glorious treasures into the kingdom of God. Just as individual Christians will have varying levels of glory and reward in the resurrection, so different nations will contribute varying levels of treasure to the kingdom.
We can certainly make judgments about which nations (and their cultures) have been superior to this point in history. There should be no question, at least for Christians, that the nations that belong to what we call Western Civilization (or Western Christendom) have been the high water mark to this point in history. But that does not mean Western Civilization can never be surpassed by any other nation or group of nations. It is impossible to say which national culture will be the most glorious over the course of history until history is complete. Thus claims that this or that nation is *intrinsically* superior to all other nations are premature. We do not know what the future holds, and we do not know how the leaven of the gospel might permeate and transform other nations and cultures in the millennia to come.
One thing is certain: Nations and cultures that become arrogant and boastful will be judged; and nations and cultures that are humbly receptive to the gospel and grateful for its transforming power will be blessed.
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Sanctification is not complete in this life. But nothing in Scripture suggests that there is a biological or genetic limiting factor for how far sanctification can go in some people groups compared to others. Just the opposite, in fact.
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Individually and collectively, we see differences in how far Christians make it in the sanctification process. Different starting points matter – but different rates of travel also matter. And Scripture simply doesn’t generalize here with regard to racial groups.
Sometimes the alcoholic child abuser who repents ends up further down the sanctification path than the pastor’s kid.
Whatever the case, we are all trophies of God’s grace, with nothing to boast about. And God often likes to choose the lowly and despised to make his grace all the more evident.
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