Good Ol’ George Starbuck Strikes a Blow Against Racism

  I just found an old journal with an early remembrance of my colourful old third great-grandfather fighting racism at age 70 by risking the ire of bigots and burying a lynching victim near Salem, Washington Co., IN (think of the opening scenes in the western, “The Magnificent Seven”). This was just a year after he took up his gun to fight off the maraudin’ Rebs (a veteran Major of the War of 1812, George and his father Matthew who fought under John Paul Jones were “fighting Quakers” notorious for defying the sect’s pacifism).

Source: Lillie D. Trueblood, “The Story of John Williams, Colored,” in Indiana Magazine of History, vol. 30, no. 2 (1934), pp. 149–52; online: http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/6753/7227.

Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 30, Issue 2, June 1934
Title:               The Story of John Williams, Colored
Author:            Lillie D. Trueblood
Date:               1934
Source:            Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 30, Issue 2, pp 149-152
Article Type:   Article

The Story of John Williams, Colored∗

By LILLIE D. TRUEBLOOD

John Williams, familiarly known as “Black John”, was a negro who probably came to Indiana with the Lindley family. William Lindley, father of William B. Lindley, was the sponsor of Williams in later years. It was not uncommon for Friends or Quakers who came to Indiana from North Carolina to bring negro servants with them. After settling in Indiana, it was often true that these pioneers made it possible for such servants to acquire land, clear it and make homes for themselves. Black John lived on a tract of one hundred sixty acres that he purchased of John Reyman, Sr., lying southwest of the present Legion Grounds. Mr. Reyman held a mortgage on the farm for a time but the buyer paid it off rapidly. He cleared fields, built a cabin and raised sufficient grain to fatten many hogs and cattle each year until the time of his death.

A short time ago the writer learned from Oliver Overman, whose memory travels back for more than a half century, information relative to the subject of this sketch. Mr. Overman’s grandfather, Isaac Macy, lived on the farm adjoining that of Black John. Mr. Macy had intimate dealings with his colored neighbor. The mother of the writer lived with her sister who was a daughter-in-law of “Uncle Isaac”, as Mr. Macy was called. She used to relate interesting stories about Black John that exicted one’s fancy. So vivid was her description of him that it is easy yet to picture him. He was a giant of his race—tall and sinewy with enormous feet, so large that it was necessary for him to have his shoes made to order. They were made of home-tanned leather, for there were many tanneries in this country at that time. Tanning was a pioneer industry of much importance. An aunt of the writer used to be employed by Black John to knit for him a supply of socks each fall. This she did from her homespun yarn, and huge things they were with long feet and such heels as were rarely seen.

John became quite wealthy for those days and being a negro some jealousy arose against him, accompanied by a desire to lessen his importance. One morning early in December,

∗ This article is based on a paper read at the Memorial Meeting, held at Old Blue River Friends Church on Sunday, October 2, 1932. The passages quoted from legal documents or statements made in regard to court action were copied from or based on the records of the Indiana Supreme Court and of the Washington County Circuit Court.

1864, the good people of the Blue River community were shocked and saddened when Thomas Rodman, spread the news that he had found the lifeless body of Black John in his own dooryard. Rodman had called at the home of the colored man to buy some cattle. After the discovery, he had cause for uneasiness as there was danger that he might be accused of the murder of the defenseless man.

A strong feeling against negroes existed among the pro-slavery element of Washington County during and just after the Civil War. Following the emancipation proclamation, this element felt sure that negroes would receive citizenship to which they were deeply opposed. Impelled by the heat of the situation, they proposed to destroy colored people who would not leave the neighborhood.

On the December night when the tragedy occurred, there was a light snow on the ground. The perpetrators of the deed came to the home of Black John and aroused him from his slumbers. He ran out into the yard in his night clothes throwing his purse, which contained a small amount of money, behind the wood-box as he passed. A shot rang out and the victim fell near his own cabin door, the fatal bullet having entered his back.

Since the slain man had just sold a number of hogs, a common belief, for a time at least, was that the motive for the crime was robbery. If so, there was disappointment, as Black John had left the larger part of the proceeds of the sale with William Lindley. There were those who believed robbery to be only the ostensible object of the killing, the real cause being race prejudice. It is believed to this day by one who well remembers the tragedy that the men who committed the crime were not after money, but just out to kill a “nigger”, as they would have said it.

 There were a number of colored persons living in the community and in the town of Salem near by. There was a darky meeting-house located on the southeast corner of the Joe Emmet Reyman farm with a cemetery close at hand where several colored people had been buried. It was in this burying ground that the dusky remains of our Old Blue River pioneer were laid at rest. They were conveyed to the cemetery by George Starbuck who received from William Lindley twenty-five dollars for the service.

The Blue River Friends who had interested themselves in the welfare of this worthy negro, who was never married, had counseled him to leave his property to his race to be used for the education of colored children in Indiana. Accordingly, Black John had made a will which was duly recorded in the County Clerk’s office at Salem. The document was drawn up and signed on January 15, 1857. It was witnessed by E. K. Coffin and Edward B. Hagan. The will contained the following provision:

All of my property, both personal and real, I hereby bequeath to William Lindley, to be held in trust for the education of the colored race in the state of Indiana; and further I appoint the said William Lindley as executor of this my last will and testament.

The will was probated on December 22, 1864. On March 10, 1865, the executor reported the sale of the land for $5,175. The total realized from the sale of all property was $6,401.87. The final report of the executor was filed on April 13, 1867, which showed a balance, after deducting all expenses, of $5,537.58. The report of the executor adds: “I release to the court the above amount and hereby relinquish my trust”.

Though he had completed his duties as executor, William Lindley felt it to be his obligation under the terms of the will not only to act as executor but to hold and administer the fund after the settlement of the estate. In April, 1869, therefore, he asked the Court of Common Pleas to return to him the money coming from the sale of the property of John Williams in order that he might carry out the trust. The judge of the court refused the request and then Mr. Lindley appealed to the Supreme Court of Indiana which found for the appellant. He was required to give bond in the sum of $12,000, after which he was authorized to hold the proceeds of the estate and administer the charitable trust. This settlement was made in 1870.

It is now possible after more than sixty years to throw further light on the use of this fund. The Trustee, William Lindley, or an heir, must have turned the fund over to the Indianapolis Asylum for Colored Orphan Children. Be that as it may, the custody of the funds and the use of the income therefrom were legally confirmed as vesting in the institution by the Washington County Circuit Court on June 1, 1926.

The Court’s answer to the petition of the Indianapolis Asylum for Colored Orphan Children reads:

And the court having examined said petition and being advised as to said report [of the Executor, William Lindley], do now grant the power of said petition to the Indianapolis Asylum for Colored Children and approves of the report therein contained. It is therefore ordered and directed by the court that the Indianapolis Asylum for Colored Children, Be and is appointed Trustee under the Will of John Williams deceased, to have and to hold the fund in trust provided for in said will according to the terms thereof. That said sum consists of principal of $5,000.00 now held in cash by said asylum together with accumulated interest amounting to $750.00. And in the management of aforesaid trust, the same shall be in all things under control of the Indianapolis Monthly Meeting of Friends Church, to which church the directors of the asylum shall make annual report, and to the Washington County Circuit Court every five years. And it is further provided that the Indianapolis Asylum for Colored Children shall bear all expense of administration including a fee of four ($4.00) dollars to this court.

The present generation of Washington County have been wholly ignorant of the existence of such a fund and of its intended purpose until the writer of this paper searched the records and published her findings in one of the local County papers. This was only a beginning. Much light has been added by more recent research. Such mystery seldom shrouds the last will and testament of one of the citizens of our community, and it is altogther an unusual circumstance, It may be said in conclusion that while Black John did not wield a great influence when alive, rather the opposite, the circumstances connected with his untimely death, the way he was guided in disposing of his earthly belongings, the discovery of how his bequest is being used in our commonwealth—these things may make their impress on future generations. The provision which he made to aid in the education of colored children, makes it the concern of the Society of Friends at Blue River to work for the education and uplift of backward races.

He was a man of quiet mien and lowly birth, Who dwelt among our fathers long ago; Only a rough stone marks his resting place, But memory is more than monument of stone.

“James T. Mace” at Ecclesia and Ethics Conference

James T. Mace ← Here is a webpage describing my academic presentation on 25 May 2013. I propose to use canonical biblical exegesis to synthesize a Trinitarian ecclesiology and practice global loving solidarity in support of the persecuted Church.

The eschatological ecclesiology will be further useful over the next several centuries in bringing maturity to the global Church as the Spiritually empowered imago Trinitatis Sociae, the incarnate image of God stewarding the cosmos. Thus shall we both fulfill our temporal Great Commission and enable further attainment of humanity’s perfection, which is our eternal destiny.

Spiritual Autobiography: Formed for Reforming

Bio-Reading Music: “If Ye Love Me” (John 14:15–17a; by Thomas Tallis, ca. A.D. 1505–1585).

Song lyrics: “If ye loue me, keepe my comandements, 16 And I wil pray the Father, and he shall giue you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for euer, 17 Euen the Spirit of trueth” (John 14:15–17a in the A.D. 1560 Geneva Bible).

His “commandments” are the Dual Love Command, to love [1] God and to love [2] fellow Christians: “whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 This is His commandment, that we [1] believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and [2] love one another, just as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us” (1 John 3:22–24).

Preliminary Spiritual Autobiography (still under development)

In ca. A.D. 450, St. Patrick of Ireland wrote the Confessio patricii, a short declaration, an apologetic defending his life and mission in the Church. I here do something similar with a brief account of how Christ has been active in my life calling me to and equipping me for the ministry in which I find myself.

I discern my calling to practice constructive biblical theology providing a foundation of rock to “raise up an army” to spread the love of Christ throughout the cosmos for such a time as this (cf. Esther 4:14), when the global Church must arise in systemic competition for the prize of planet earth both against Humanism (with its ideologically governmental “Universal Brotherhood of Man”) and against Islam (with its doctrinal praxis of the global Ummah).

With C. S. Lewis’ “holy dissatisfaction,” I see the Church in the world and consider how much more we can succeed at our Great Commission. How much more will the Church shine out as the light of the world (e.g., Isa 49:6; Matt 5:14) drawing all humans unto Christ (e.g., John 17:21) when we are united coals of flaming love, like the bush burning but not consumed? How can we reassemble the divided stones of the altar, in loving solidarity one with another, to bring down the heavenly Fire into the world (1 Kings 18:31–32)?

We are to be soldiers of Christ practicing the God-given unity which Ignatius recognized as one of the distinguishing marks of the true faith:

“train together with one another: struggle together, run together, suffer together, lie down together, rise up together, as God’s stewards and assessors and ministers. Please the Captain in whose army ye serve” wielding “your love as your spear” (epistle of Ignatius To Polycarp, Ign. Pol. 6:1–2).

So I must seek to facilitate ecumenical unity of denominations like Romanism, Orthodoxy, Copts, Protestants, et al, bring rapprochement between Liberal/Progressive and Conservative arms of the Church, equip the antidote for those tempted by homosexuality, etc. My life has led to this point that I can help provide vision for constructing Christian civilizational Life via empowering Hope from eschatological ecclesiological Light, offered in the spirit of that faithful little lad whom St. Andrew brought to humbly offer 5 loaves & 2 fish (John 6:8–13), which, when used by his King, fed over 5,000 souls with 12 basketfuls left over.

Father’s Prophecy of My Future Ministry

My mother testifies how, when I was 3 years old, one church minister told my parents how much she disliked it when I was occasionally absent from Sunday school since they could hardly take care of the other children without my active presence comforting those in need. And my father prophesied to my mother: “Mark my words–one day Jim will be a preacher.” Although my father was a Deacon and Elder who raised me in the Church, I was entirely unaware of this prophecy until years after his death 40 days following the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the West.

Apostasy into Scientism

During my rebellious early teen years, father allowed me freedom to stop attending church with the family, a liberty of which I negatively took advantage.  So I was drawn away in the educational system by the glamour of Scientistic Humanism, during which time I won many awards, including a statewide gold medal for my essay on alternative energy sources. But I had embraced a destructive ideology, voicing, e.g., the opinion that “Wars are good things because they decrease the surplus population.”

Christ’s Preveniently Guiding Hand along the Road Back to Faith

I began to be drawn back toward the light when I worked for the Mercer Shaw Evangelistic Association, an itinerant ministry of music, as Distribution Manager handling shipping and finances regarding sales of recorded musical products. With my earnings in hand, I took off driving a Bedford troop carrier from London to Johannesburg, first reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings while driving through the southern Saharan Mordor.

Quest for Sammath Naur in the Ahaggar Massif of the Tademait Plateau

There I encountered the godly example of the since-beatified Père Charles de Foucauld, who gave up titles, riches, and a life of selfish hedonism in order to devote his life in ministry to others until martyred by militant internationalist Senussi Islamists, some of whom believed they had been following the awaited Mahdi antichrist. This example led the way for me to escape egocentrism and give my life for the good of others.

I received a loving witness of Christian hospitality from the church in central Africa. One idyllic evening looking upon the tranquil Congo from the hilltop, I had a vision while sitting with Peace Corps workers on the grave of the missionary who founded the church and school on the banks of the river, deep in the jungle of the central région de l’Equateur.

Later in Tanzania (after surviving a murderous hippo charge and passing through the forbidden kingdom of Burundi in order to avoid Idi Amin’s invasion of the Kagera River region), there first clearly came to me the  memorable impression of the distinctly globally unitive power of the Church of Jesus Christ. This came when cross-culturally encountering a vibrant, fully-native, contextualized Christianity at a Christmas Eve service before beginning the five-day climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the morning. From the mountain heights looking down upon my Father’s world, I began to see how Christ is working to bring together all its ethnic groups under His banner.

Here I stand at 15,500′ at the end of the 3rd of 5 days climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,340′)

After experiencing the violent reaction to Apartheid in South Africa, I returned to America and spent a brief, relatively unfruitful sojourn studying medicine at Oklahoma State University. I soon took off again to circumnavigate the globe in search of Truth.

Submission, Salvation, and Experience of Christ’s Existential Reality

During a Near Death Experience in New Zealand’s Abel Tasman National Forest following my ingestion of poisonous mushrooms, with great sadness I received from Christ the message: “You have to go back; there is still something you have to do.” Within two days after my return to earth, two different Christian messengers claiming to speak to me from the Holy Spirit were sent to provide hospitality and assist me on my quest to pursue this unknown mission, mysteriously encountering on the way the international community of successors to Charles de Foucauld, Les Petits Frères de Jésus.

Yet the forces of darkness did not want to lose their grip on me, requiring a dramatic spiritual power encounter by Christ in a slummy suburb of Sydney when I finally submitted to His lordship, crying out, “Save me! And I’ll be Your man!” Instantaneously His palpable love filled the room, putting the cloud of evil preternatural darkness to flight, and I knew in the true power of His life and light my ultimate destiny.

After encountering a biblical archaeologist lecturing at the Sydney Opera House, I altered my plans to study the tribal religions of New Guinea and arranged to meet him in Cairo in a couple of months.

Remote Burmese Tribal Hills, Filled with Serpents, Tigers, and Guerrillas

But first I stopped on the way in Southeast Asia for an independent anthropological expedition among the hill tribes of the Golden Triangle. There I was taken hostage by the infamous Burmese opium warlord, Khun Sar (alias Chiang Shi Fu) and literally lived through the 23rd Psalm. This occasion provided the opportunity to experience another valuable lesson of the existential provision of Christ’s presence (and this one was more incarnate than the purely demonic oppression from which He previously delivered me). As He Shepherded me, hands bound, buffeted by rifle butts, up and over hills, down into valleys, wading streams on the night march to a small jungle prison camp deep inside the forbidden Shan Plateau, I passed through valleys of death but feared no evil. He even prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Upon my eventual release as chosen courier of letters to Pres. Reagan offering to sell all the heroin from the region to the U. S. government (to keep it off the streets), I bequeathed my first cross, which I had bought near my hovel in Sydney, to one of my captors, a Burmese Christian school-teacher-turned-freedom-fighter. Ever since that time, I have borne a burden for the persecuted Christians of Burma, suffering brutal genocide in the longest-running civil war on the planet. (See more in these 3 links to the Free Burma Rangers.)

Mission, Excavation, and Experience of Christ’s Intellectual Validity

I made it to Cairo on time via Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and preached to persecuted churches in Egypt and Turkey about how Christ walks with us through the vale of suffering. I also saw how events described in the Bible are confirmed by the archaeological record, giving me a greater faith in the veracity of the scriptural accounts. Returning to Oklahoma, I joined the ranks of those I once thought weird by pursuing a wide array of biblical, archaeological, historical, linguistic, philosophical, political, film, and speech studies.

Here Wadi Hesi below the Tell meets the road south from Jerusalem and is likely where the Acts 8:36 eunuch’s baptism fulfilled Isaiah 56:4-7

Through these studies, including two archaeological excavations in the late-bronze and iron age Shephelah (Tell el-Hesi and Tel-Lachish, with publication re the latter), I gained a solid foundation in the historical basis of our faith. Ours is the God of history Who works within this good creation to reclaim all enemy-occupied territory.

My Mentor Rev. Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer III

And in my semester with Rev. Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer III in his pioneering Alpine community of L’Abri, Switzerland (as the final new disciple to literally sit at his feet on his right hand before his death), I experienced the philosophical and practical aspects of incarnating a true community of love so that I feel called to carry on the torch.
1.
D. A favourite exploration of such themes occurred while playing the role of Tevye (Best Actor) in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Based on their mutual worship, the loving community of the village Anatevka provided a basis by which to weather the storms of intercultural conflict and persecution.

Practicing Non-Academic Ministry

Questing for the Holy Grail, Beatific Vision

Growing out of extensive theatrical experience with Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, I implemented my calling by founding and leading for several years the Soldiers of Christ ministry, using the metaphor of mediaeval chivalry for discipleship of men and boys, writing and producing plays and dramatic teaching performances incarnating exemplars of Christian virtue from biblical, literary, and historical sources in churches and schools, public evangelism, summer camp, and numerous television spots re biblical doctrine, Christian history, and cultural apologetics.

The Lesson of the Twelve Stones

Christ taught me in yet another way of His powerful provision to fulfill whatever calling a servant has (Ephesians 3:16–21). He did this by holding me up, as if by His vast invisible hand beneath, during the entire second half of a twelve-mile swim (roughly equivalent to running two consecutive marathons) before I raced off to serve in prayer as Chaplain for a meeting of the Oklahoma County Republican Men’s Club studying Constitutional government.

I was to swim 12 miles in 7 hours (and was enabled to finish in 6:56), stopping at the end of each mile to symbolically place another stone in rebuilding the altar of divided Israel so that the empowering, “altaring” fire could fall on us from heaven (1 Kings 18:31–39). Throughout, I briefly suspended the quest at times in order to record spiritual insights as they came, and they were many.

Wearing Academic Gown & Kilt of Ancient Duncan Tartan (my line of the Sacred Brethren of St. Columba, my ca. 50th great-granduncle)

Academic Soldier of Christ

A couple of years later, I discerned a call back into the academy and have picked up three master’s degrees in biblical studies, historical, and systematic theology. I have chosen to begin my doctoral work in St. Andrews, Scotland, where the ancient Celtic Culdee monastic community church continues today as the Church of St. Mary on the Rock (into which I, thinking of my academic work to revive the Church while bearing aloft the wooden cross on the final stage before placing it behind where the altar stood, recently led the ecumenical Good Friday pilgrimage of all St. Andrews churches).

Here in St. Andrews in A.D. 1559, Rev. John Knox, a fellow alumnus of the University and minister at my Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, kicked the Scottish Reformation into high gear. Fulfilling the prophecy he had made when exiled as a galley slave, brother Knox returned to preach in St. Andrews from 11–14 June, including his famous sermon “Cleansing the Temple,” and Scotland, indeed the entire world, has never been the same since. Also educated at St. Andrews was one of my great-grandfathers who became Knox’s theological and ecclesial assistant, Rev. John Craig, a Dominican monk who converted and then miraculously escaped burning by the Papal Inquisition in Rome before becoming chaplain to Scottish monarchs, minister with Knox at St. Giles, Edinburgh, translator for the Scottish Psalter, author of what became the National Covenant, Scottish Catechisms, etc.

The cleansing of the Church temple that I am facilitating is purification from anti-biblical misdefinition of the Second Great Commandment (Leviticus 19:18; Luke 10:27, etc.). We are to have a uniquely special primacy of love for fellow Christians above non-Christians (cf., e.g., Galatians 6:10). The general disobedience to the Commandment (which we cannot obey when we don’t even know what it is) generally weakens our witness to the world and prevents our complete maturity into the renewed eschatological humanity, the perfected imaginem Trinitatis Sociae, the incarnate corporate image of the Social Trinity, the Body of the God-Man Christ Jesus.

Brother Knox saw great importance to the truth that any enduring work must be founded  upon Scripture. The verse we find inscribed upon his house is the very foundation upon which my 21st-century reformation beginning from St. Andrews is based.

My birthday at Knox’s house. The old Scots Gaelic trans.: “Love…your neighbour as yourself” (Second Great Commandment, Luke 10:27), my doctoral research topic at the Univ. of St. Andrews, where Knox started the Scottish Reformation

So, after about a decade of examining the issues re the Second Great Commandment and the Samaritan parable, I am content to move forward full steam ahead with intense, full-time attempted academic verification of the hypothesis that the Second Great Commandment is still limited in scope to the covenant people. If correct, this will restore the everlasting intra-ecclesial love ethic to its proper formational role so that the Church may more brightly shine as the loving communitarian solidarity for the world.

In early 2014 I’ll be leaving St. Andrews and going to Canterbury to participate in the founding of the University of Kent’s upcoming interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Early Christianity and Its Reception. My first project for the new Centre may well be to show both the various ways in which proper understanding of the Loyal Samaritan was corrupted as its covenantal Hebraic context was lost in the Hellenic world (with, e.g., its Stoic philosophy), transformed into either an allegory of the cosmic Christ saving humanity or an expression of general humanistic φιλανθρωπία (philanthropy) as found in Greek novels, and how the Second Great Commandment suffered universalization in the post-Constantinian establishment of Christianity as the state religion.

Amidst my more academic pursuits, I have continued involvement in establishing global communion of Christians and ministering to the persecuted Church. I will probably after graduation relocate in the war-zone of central Nigeria, where Christians are being violently persecuted on the front line of Islamist expansion towards the south in their bid to control all Africa. There I will join my friends administering the ECWA Seminary in Jos, teach, and continue the mission to revive the Church worldwide through academic writing and other means of global presence.

It is not an easy quest to fulfill Christ’s commission: “there is still something you have to do”; “raise up an army” . . . “wielding your love as your spear.” But my Captain has shown His past provision for both marching through the valleys of death and crossing the 12-mile waters. I trust He will do the same in future as I walk through this minefield on the path to restoring the Creator’s intent for the perfection of Their renewed global humanity. So I will offer up my few loaves and fish, knowing that Christ will use them to perform miraculous transformation. My prayer is that one day I shall hear His approving, “Well done, good slave [doulos; δοῦλος]” (Luke 19:17). Soli Deo gloria! Halelu-Yahweh!

The last paragraph of Confessio patricii: “I pray those who believe and fear God, whosoever deigns to look at or receive this writing which Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, has composed in Ireland, that no one should ever say that it was my ignorance if I did or showed forth anything however small according to God’s good pleasure; but let this be your conclusion and let it so be thought, that—as is the perfect truth—it was the gift of God. This is my confession before I die.”

M.Litt. Dissertation for the University of St. Andrews

Mace. ‘Ensign for the Nations—MR in Luke-Acts’

This is a link to my M.Litt. Dissertation for the University of St. Andrews, “Ensign for the Nations: The Heilsgeschichtlicher Phase of Messianic Reunification in Luke-Acts.” It has to do with showing that Luke-Acts indicates that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah fulfilling the predicted reunification of north and south Israel, Judaea and Samaria. This understanding has been hidden until recently due to supremacist Judaean (i.e., Jewish Israelite) polemic and related millennia of misunderstanding of the biblical book of 2 Chronicles.

But modern science, in happy union with true religion, has set free biblical truth from these obscuring factors. Archaeology has shown the untruth of the Judaean polemic and set the Books of Chronicles free to converge with the prophets who predict reunification of all Israel, Judaea and Samaria. Archaeology and genetics have also shown the falsity of Judaean slanders against Samaritans that wrongly alleged them guilty of religious syncretism and racial miscegenation; science shows the Samaritan Israelites are just as much Israelite as are Judaean Israelites.

Thus this paper indicates that the proper understanding of the parable of the Loyal Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 is that all Israelites must love one another in order to participate in Jesus’ messianic renewal of Israel. Theological application of this will show that the Second Great Commandment is to love one’s fellow Christian as oneself.

Mt. Pleasant Church Constitution (A.D. 1801)

This historic document was probably written in the hand of my 3rd great-grandfather Moses Martin, a founding church member called upon for his writing skills.

Mt. Pleasant Church Constitution (A.D. 1801)

This project will be continued to incorporate the rest of the ancient manuscript with typed transcription on facing pages.

The “Patriarch of Dorchester” and the Founding of New England

Rev. John White (1575-1648), depiction during the Westminster Assembly

There are in history some extraordinary servants of God whose impact is disproportionate to their lack of public acclaim. Such a one is the Rev. John White (1575-1648), who happens to also be my 10th great-granduncle. (See excellent sites here, here, and here.)

Rev. White was a Fellow of New College, Oxford, the Rector of Holy Trinity, Dorchester (where he instituted social reforms incarnating the Second Great Commandment into civil government centuries ahead of their time), visionary founder of New England, and a leading moderate Puritan member and sometime Prolocutor / Chairman of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.

The chart below shows Rev. White’s relation to several people, whom I will describe further in the article to follow this brief introduction. Two of his nephews were prominent pioneers in America: 1) William White immigrated on the Mayflower (1620), and his son Peregrine was the first Christian born in New England; 2) Thomas Gardner II (my 9th great-grandfather) was the 1st Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (1623). White’s great-grandsons were John & Charles Wesley, famous founders of the Methodist revival, and he was also related to Col. John Hathorne, a prominent judge of the Salem witchcraft trials. The chart goes as far as Fred Macy Martin, my maternal grandfather.

Rev. John White’s relation to nephews 1) on the Mayflower (1620) & 2) 1st Colonial Governor of Massachusetts (1623), and to his great-grandsons John & Charles Wesley

Perhaps the most neglected area of White’s life is his extraordinary ministry that earned him the title, “Patriarch of Dorchester.” While this amazing saga has been given book-length treatment, many popular accounts of White’s life understandably allow this portion of his experiments in civil construction to be overshadowed by his other important work in American colonial adventures. But for those who are concerned with incarnating biblical principles into civil society, esp. with working out the 2d Great Commandment, White’s work in Dorchester is at least, if not more, important than his work helping found the New World. The most comprehensive treatment of White’s life remains the definitive work by Frances J. Rose-Troup, John White, the Patriarch of Dorchester and the Founder of Massachusetts, 1575-1648, with an Account of the Early Settlements in Massachusetts, 1620-1630 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1930). But this is out of print and somewhat difficult to obtain (although I use it in .pdf format). Therefore, the best, widely available treatment on this phase of ministry is by David Underdown, Fire from Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992).

In 1606 White was appointed rector of Holy Trinity parish in Dorchester. On 6 August 1613 half of Dorchester was destroyed in a great conflagration, which its inhabitants regarded as a “fire from heaven,” the catalyst for the events described in this book. Rev. White became the agent to which people looked for rebuilding the town from the ground up, and he synthesized a wonderful experiment in constructing civilization according to biblical principles, changing Dorchester into the most Puritan community in 17th-cent. England. Over the next twenty years, a time of increasing political and religious turmoil all over Europe, Dorchester became the most religiously radical town in the kingdom. The first three chapters describe political and social structures, and chs. 4 and 5 go on to relate how the paternalist Elizabethan town oligarchy was quickly replaced after the heavenly fire by Pastor White and his supporters struggling to reorder through institutional reform and moral discipline.

This group of men had a vision of a godly community in which power was to be exercised according to religious commitment rather than wealth or rank. Productive Christian capitalism empowered the loving care of the genuinely weak and needy in Christ’s Name, schools and retirement programs arose, while moral vice decreased inversely as piety burgeoned. These social reforms they instituted are a model to which those desiring to construct Christian community of loving solidarity today should look for valuable lessons.

Grandfather Moses and Abolitionism

“I want you to faithfully act in loving covenant loyalty, not mere empty ritual”
. –– my paraphrase of Hosea 6:6; quoted by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and 12:7
“Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?” –– Isaiah 58:6 NASB95

This Sunday morning I stood overlooking the woods in the falling snow atop Mt. Pleasant (Jessamine Co., Kentucky) at the church founded by my 3rd great-grandparents. Church had been called off due to the snow, but I was not alone, for spiritual communion with my saintly forefathers led me to ponder their roles in the struggles against slavery, prompting me to record this note re Christian activity in establishing godly principles into civil society.

My 3rd great-grandfather Moses Martin met Sarah/Sally Singleton, daughter of Manoah, who owned and worked several slaves in Jessamine Co., where he was also Magistrate / Justice of the Peace. Moses and Sally were original members starting the church meetings on the hill that became Mt. Pleasant church in the year of our Lord 1791 (officially established in 1801). Moses, a fine calligrapher who later became the church secretary, was chosen to write the stirring pioneer history of struggle for civil religious liberty leading up to the founding of the church as well as the Church Covenant, espousing Christian principles of loving societal responsibility. These important original documents are still in the hilltop church he helped found looking over the town of Liberty (est. 1794; now Keene) being built up around grandfather Manoah’s grist mill.

Moses fathered William Evans Martin (born 7 October 1812). Being opposed to slavery and desiring to leave the slave state of Kentucky, Moses and his family, with teen son William, moved (between 1825–1829) to pioneer what would be the new free state of Indiana. Somewhere in this time, Moses set the slaves free, not only his own but also the slaves of his wife Sarah (daughter of slavery proponent Manoah). Sarah took Moses’ emancipation ill, and some sort of strife (perhaps a kind of non-divorce separation) hurt their marriage. While they never divorced, and while it may reflect a contemporary burial practice of filling up plots in the order in which people died, Moses and Sarah are nonetheless not buried next to each other in the Old Hebron Cemetery, Washington Co., Indiana, a fact that could symbolize the suffering Moses was willing to undergo by his following Christian principles of love in emancipating all the slaves he could.

Such events as these were the American complement to contemporaneous efforts by that great soldier of Christ William Wilberforce (1759–1833) in waging his heroic and successful efforts to awaken the British Empire into abolishing the reeking sin of the slave trade (begun by another of my great-grandfathers, John Hawkins).

In Indiana, Moses’ son William Martin met and married (2 Nov 1837) Hannah Starbuck, daughter of George, a Fighting Quaker from Nantucket Island, Massachusetts (at least five grandfathers of Hannah had been colonial governors from the days of the first Puritan settlement of 1623).

At the church in North Carolina where the Underground Railroad was founded, George Starbuck was a member at that time (and he may well have played a role in the founding). So he soon moved to the territory of Indiana, which was to be a free (not a slave) state, where he became a noted Station Master, leader and activist in the Underground Railroad, hiding and aiding escaping slaves. His house, a stop, or “Station,” on the Railroad, later enshrined their bravely loving actions for the cause of liberty. Those slaves that reached George had to cross over the mighty Ohio River from Kentucky to freedom in Indiana.

A spiritual insight into the situation that escaping slaves endured is gained from such noted negro spirituals they sang as, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” The spirituals possessed a double-entendre not only of the afterlife but also of earthly civil/political liberation, with Christian activists like grandfather George being one of the “band of angels” helping escaping slaves.

“I looked over Jordan [e.g., the Ohio River], and what did I see coming for to carry me home? A band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home.”

“Many slaves in town and in plantations tried to run to a ‘free country’, that they called ‘my home’ or ‘Sweet Canaan, the Promised Land’. This country was on the Northern side of Ohio River, that they called ‘Jordan’. . . . The Underground Railroad (UGRR) helped slaves to run to free a country. A fugitive could use several ways. First, they had to walk at night, using hand lights and moonlight. When needed, they walked (‘waded’) in water, so that dogs could not smell their tracks. Second, they jumped into chariot, where they could hide and ride away. These chariots stopped at some ‘stations’, but this word could mean any place where slaves had to go for being taken in charge. So, negro spirituals like “Wade in the Water”, “The Gospel Train” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” directly refer to the UGRR.” (http://www.negrospirituals.com/history.htm)

Another secret spiritual included the lyrics, “I don’t have much time to linger here,” sung as slaves were communicating among themselves that they were preparing to escape that night. Hidden meaning is found in the famous negro spiritual, “Wade in the Water,” on the surface modeled after the healing at the Pool of Bethesda (cf. John 5:2–9), with a message of taking faithful personal initiative in actively moving from slavery to a new life of freedom. Even more specifically, it was sung also to encourage runaway slaves to walk in the water, instead of on land, in order to avoid dogs and trackers on their journey north.

Was my 2d great-grandfather William (son of Moses the emancipator and married to abolitionist Starbuck’s daughter) not also involved in the anti-slavery movement? I wish his grandson, my grandfather Fred Macy Martin, were still alive to ask what he knows. Further research will tell, but that may mean waiting for a personal interview with all of them at a future date.

So I follow in my forefathers’ footsteps, also being led to oppose the forces of slavery today, of which there are various kinds. One is that of legislated practical servitude to and dependence on what may be termed Statism (whether Humanist, pseudo-Christian theocracy, or neopagan). Such Statism erects a self-perpetuating political bureaucracy that legislates theft by confiscatory taxation in order to practice redistributionism whereby they aggrandize the state and addict those to whom they redistribute wealth, making them dependent on the state. Thus are both the middle and lower classes enslaved to the governing class, the former has the fruit of their labour unwillingly confiscated while the latter receives stolen largess creating the enslavement of dependency.

Another form of slavery, in the midst of the general oppression and Dhimmitude of a pseudo- theocratic Shari‘ah state, is a more directly forced Islamic slavery now in global resurgence. Philosopher-publisher Father Richard John Neuhaus observes: “you prick the Christian conscience . . . and get Wilberforce’s crusade to end slavery in Britain and dominions [and, I add, the American abolitionists’ crusade]; you prick the Islamic conscience in the same time, and you get Mulay Isamail’s declaration that he cannot tamper with the place God assigned for unbelievers” (“The Public Square,” First Things [June-July 2007]). The current revival of Islam still properly believes and acts in faithful observance of these Qur’anic revelations today.

Human beings are still in bondage in Sudan and elsewhere in the Islamic world (see, e.g., Robert Spencer, “The Persistence of Islamic Slavery“). Places like Muslim Pakistan still practice child slave auctions.

For example, consider the creeping imposition of Shari‘ah Law and violent spread of imperialistic Islam not only in Sudan but also in Nigeria. The history of the former Islamic empire in northeast Nigeria sets a precedent for their revival in current Nigerian practices. Slavers preferred the “booty” of young women and children valuable as concubines and eunuchs. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of Muslim men by allowing as many concubines as their fortunes allow. Young boys were often mutilated to create eunuchs, who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the Middle East. Only a small number of the boys survived after the mutilation. History repeats itself as Christian women are kidnapped and forced to “marry” Muslim men today.

But a modern Underground Railroad is run by Christian Solidarity International (CSI) facilitating the redemption and other mass liberation of many thousands of Christian slaves in Southern Sudan suffering under rapacious Arab Muslim masters from the North, showing that our activism and support of groups like CSI and iAbolish can make a difference (603 Southern Sudanese slaves were just liberated at the end of November).

C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia showed, e.g., in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (although censored from the latest film), an Islamic-style system of state-condoned slavery, with the central government of the Lone Islands cooperating with the piratical slavers supplying human merchandise in exchange for the “crescent” coins of the robed and turbaned buyers for the Calormene Empire in a way similar to real-world historical practices of the Barbary Pirates supplying the Islamic Caliphate. Slavery in The Lone Islands was overthrown by the godly soldier of Aslan, King Caspian, as has similarly occurred in our world. In A.D. 1620, my 9th great-grandfather, Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins (son of John, founder of the triangular English slave trade), led a naval expedition against the piratical Muslim slavers of the Barbary Coast, and so in A.D. 1805 did President Thomas Jefferson and the United States Marine Corps, whose hymn commemorates this liberation from slavery in its first stanza, “. . . to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country’s battles on the land as on the sea.” (On an interesting side note, the term leathernecks used for U.S. Marines derives from this event when they wore stout leather collars as armour against the terrible beheading strokes of Muslim scimitars.)

Thus does my family heritage within the historic struggle of Christians to liberate captives strengthen the task of doing my part to create theological foundations for a strong Christian civilization that will overcome both our major competitors for the future of this earth: the growing movement toward tyrannical Statism enslaving lower classes to a blasphemous god-state as well as the current revival of Islamic political culture bringing increased return not only to Dhimmitude but also to both sexual and chattel slavery in places like Nigeria and Sudan.

The highest form of faithful action in loyalty to the covenant is to obey the Double Love Command: 1) love Trinity, love Christ; 2) love Their elect Community image, the Church of Israel, the Body of Christ. The Second Great Commandment (2GC) includes the requirement to give assistance to your fellow covenant member in his physical need. As the Loyal/Faithful Samaritan obeyed the 2GC by helping his Judaean fellow covenant member (Luke 10:25–37), so did Christian abolitionists like grandfather Starbuck help rescue their fellow Christians enslaved and suffering, and so, if we want to love God, be faithful to the covenant and obey the 2GC, must we today help persecuted and enslaved Christians, the global Church lying beaten and robbed in the ditch like the fellow Israelite the Samaritan helped. All Christians have a choice: they can, like grandfather George, belong to the “band of angels” helping their suffering fellow Christians, or they can shut their eyes and be “No-good Samaritans” in danger of judgement.

“Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalms 82:4 NASB95)
“Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17 NASB95)
“If you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death, those who go staggering to the slaughter; 12 if you say, ‘Look, we did not know this’––does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay all according to their deeds?” (Proverbs 24:11–12 NASB95)

Redeeming “Social Justice” by Recovering Love for Persecuted Brethren

Project to Relieve Persecution Through Exegetically Enhancing Intra-Ecclesial Solidarity
(An Independent Study finished May 2007 under Dr. Mike Rynkiewich at Asbury Theological Seminary)

Part One–Background

A problem exists in the church today in that it does not show the love within itself that our Lord commanded. An example of the truth of this assessment is seen in our relative disregard for our suffering brethren being persecuted around the world, especially in Nigeria (briefly addressed in Part Three). An undesirable evangelistic disempowerment due to this is that the world no longer has the benefit of perhaps the prime corporate witness intended by Christ for His church to bear: the love we have for one another.

Persecution events occurring where such groups as al-Qaeda have gained sufficient power can be extrapolated into the Nigerian setting. As in Afghanistan and now in parts of Iraq, a systematic program of ideological genocide is committed against Christians whenever Islamists are able to incarnate the vision of the Qur’an and early Islam (as further defined below).

Therefore I propose that a partial solution to this seeming impasse is to be found in a recovery of the importance of intra-ecclesial love via interpretive revisionism of the Second Great Commandment (found in Part Four). This enhanced recovery of a full-orbed meaning of the Second Great Commandment is then applicable to any other ecclesial situation in the world beyond the Nigerian context treated in this paper.

Part Two–Islam

The term Islam in this paper is used to refer to closely related forms of original, Qur’anic, or true Islam (vis-à-vis liberalized, syncretized, watered-down, westernized, or otherwise unfaithful pseudo-Islams of various stripes). They are radically faithful to the tradition or Sunnah found in the Qur’an, the ahadith (especially Bukhari and Sahih Muslim), the Sirat Rasul Allah of Ibn Ishaq (as expurgated by Ibn Hisham)[1] and the history of Tabarī.[2] Such conservatively faithful believers may be known by such epithets as salafi, fundamentalist, Wahhabi, extremist, etc. Yet it would be imprecise at best to say they have perverted Islam, for they are the faithful conservatives of what is in the earliest texts and in the practices of Muhammad himself and his successors in early centuries of Islam. The peaceful practices Muslims have toward Christians are not a result of following real Islam in any sense but of their abiding by the strands of prevenient grace working in spite of Islamic writings and the example of Muhammad.

[1] Alfred Guillaume, trans., The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah (expurgated by Ibn Hisham; New Impression ed.; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Ishaq was born ca. A.D. 672.
[2] Al-Tabarī, The History of al-Tabarī (Ta’rīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk) (Bibliotheca persica; New York: State University of New York Press, 1987), 38 vols. Abū Ja‘far Muhammad b. Jarīr al-Tabarī (A.D. 839–923) by common consent produced the most important universal history in the world of Islam.

Islamic doctrine bearing on relations with Christians in Nigeria

Regarding the exegesis of its holy texts, Muslims have historically held that later parts of the Qur’an supersede earlier ones; some of its earlier verses are cancelled or deleted, for which later revelations substitute. For example, Meccan surahs to the powerless Muslims tended toward tolerance of rejecters of Islam, but later Medinan surahs from the militarily empowered prophet advocate global jihad for the forceful subjugation or slaying of persistent infidels, a condition said to endure until the final Day of Judgment.[3]

Specifically, the “Islamic doctrine of abrogation” or “naskh posits one divine operation followed by another which is not the product of divine whim but the result of God’s eternal foreknowledge.”[4] Some relevant Qur’anic verses include: “And when We change (one) communication for (another) communication, and Allah knows best what He reveals, they say: You are only a forger. Nay, most of them do not know” (16:101 Shakir); “Allah makes to pass away and establishes what He pleases, and with Him is the basis of the Book” (13:39 Shakir); “None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: knowest thou not that Allah hath power over all things?” (2:106 Yusuf Ali; in his note, Ali links this with the concept of “progressive revelation”).[5] Gilchrist devotes a section at the close of ch. 1 on “The Theory of Abrogation in the Qur’an”: “The doctrine of abrogation of actual verses of the Qur’an was clearly taught and indeed fixed by the fuqaha, the early jurists of Islam.”[6]

Thus, when the texts of Islam are correctly interpreted, there is a better foundation for the persecution of Christians than there is for liberalized policies of peaceful tolerance. Christians are polytheists who are guilty of the greatest sin of shirk, association of partners with Allah, and who have distorted the revelations supposedly given them by Allah. And Muslims are alleged to be divine tools of eschatological judgment, global conquest, and dhimmitude/ slavery.[7]

[3] For example: “(c) 2:257 reads: ‘Let there be no compulsion in Religion’. This has been annulled by the famous āyatu’s-saif, The Verse of the Sword: 9:5, ‘When the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush’. cp. also verse 29, ‘Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, etc.’” (L. Bevan Jones, “Christianity Explained to Muslims: A Manual for Christian Workers,” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM, Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006 [print ed: Calcutta: Y.M.C.A., 1938]).
[4] Theodore Pulcini, Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian Scriptures (American Academy of Religion: The Religions 2; Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1998), 65.
[5] M. H. Shakir, trans., Qur’an. Available in BibleWorks 6. 3d electronic ed., 2001 (print ed. M. H. Shakir, trans, Holy Quran [Elmhurst, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.: Tahrike Tarsile Quran; BibleWorks, LLC, 2003]); Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali, trans.,“The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an,” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM, Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006. London, Islamic Computing Centre, electronic text ed. (print ed. Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali, trans., The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an [7th ed. Elmhurst, NY: Tahrike Tarsile Quran, 2001]).
[6] John Gilchrist, “The Qur’an: The Scripture of Islam,” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM, Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006. Consider further: “Two of the greatest of the early commentators of the Qur’an, Baidawi and Zamakhshari, attempted to interpret the purpose of this facet of Qur’anic revelation in the context of a definite substitution of one passage by another. Zamakhshari taught that Surah 2.106 was revealed to counter the objections of the pagan Arabs that Muhammad at times would command his followers to do a certain thing and would later forbid it and command the opposite. He believed, unlike other commentators who held that the abrogated verses remained in the Qur’an, that Allah expressly removes (azala) one passage to insert another. He commands the angel of communication, Jibril, to announce that one passage is cancelled either by its abolition or by its replacement with another passage. Baidawi likewise taught that the mansukh verse, the ‘abrogated’ text, became of no effect.” Cf. also Thomas Patrick Hughes, “Dictionary of Islam,” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM, Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006 (print ed. Thomas Patrick Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopaedia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, Together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion [London: W. H. Allen, 1885]), 431.
[7] Cf. Bat Ye’or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam (trans. David Maisel; Rev. and enl. English ed.; Cranbury, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985). Other components of Islamic theology that facilitate persecution include divine ethical voluntarism, absolute and universal predeterminism, and eternal reprobation of subhuman infidels.

Islamic practice in the history of Nigeria

The example of the Sokhoto Sultanate in northeast Nigeria is helpful background milieu for understanding today’s activities. Notably infamous was the practice of slavery and the international marketing of northern Nigerian eunuchs.[8] The British helped repress the centuries-old Islamic slave trade after they ceased participating in it (thanks to William Wilberforce).[9]

[8] See the description of the situation in modern Nigeria on pages 253-54 of Patrick Sookhdeo, “Christians in the Muslim World,” in The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (ed. R. Spencer; Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2005), 252-56.
[9] See Paul E. Lovejoy, Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936 (African Studies Series 76; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Revival/resurgence of Islam is inherent in the system

While it is true that many Muslims are not actively imitative of the practices and doctrines of Muhammad (and so are relatively peaceful and cooperative with Christians), it is also unfortunately a fact that, when a wave of zealous revival breaks out among the faithful of Islam, that those who remain relatively peaceful and do not arise in violence usually do very little if anything to oppose it among their fellow Muslims. Such a characterization is borne out in the case of the Islamic revival in northern Nigeria, to which we now turn.

Part Three–The Current Situation

Deception Even at Asbury Theological Seminary (ATS)

An early impetus for this paper occurred when a panel of Muslims were brought to ATS, and, moderated by Dale Walker, they told ATS students, faculty and staff, as well as non-ATS people in attendance, many things. Among these was a lie from a Dr. Mahmoud from Kano, in north Nigeria. He was some sort of political scientist and researcher and should have known better, but he said there were no persecutions in Kano. Being somewhat familiar with events there, I knew this was incorrect. For example, in the preceding February, over a hundred Christians were killed in Kano by a group of Muslims with swords.

Another falsehood came from a non-ATS audience member who claimed to be from Egypt yet lied in saying that the Coptic Christians are not persecuted there. Both of these examples of seemingly intentional untruths disinforming future church leaders may be understood as examples of the holy lie (comprising part of holy war or jihad). This seems empowered by the traditional Islamic practice of imperialistically deceptive da’wa. These sanctioned forms of religious deception include taqiyya, “concealment” and the doctrine of kitman, or “mental reservation,” i.e., telling a part of the truth, but not the whole truth, with intention to mislead.[10]

[10] Cf., e.g., Qur’an Surah 16:106.

Muslim propaganda is also used in northern Nigeria to cause opposition to Christians and the west

An example is the refusal to participate in the campaign of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to eradicate polio: “Nigeria is the last major challenge to the goal of [polio] eradication, Dr. Heymann said.[11] There, the W.H.O. has run into an unexpected hurdle from accusations by some Islamic leaders that the polio vaccine leaves young girls infertile. The United Nations buys its vaccine only from countries that meet its standards. The vaccines used in Nigeria are the same as the ones used elsewhere and have not been linked to sterility, Dr. Heymann said.” Hondros specifies that the Islamic, religio-politically motivated paranoia is effectively manifested as propaganda from the mosques.[12]

[11] Lawrence K. Altman, “Pocket of Opposition to Vaccine Threatens Polio Eradication” (New York Times online, 9 December 2003). Online: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9904E 7DF113DF93AA35751C1A9659C8B63. Accessed 1 May 2007.
[12] Consider also: “Nigeria’s regional capital of Kano . . . is a dusty and historic crossroads that once marked the beginning of trade and civilization for trans-Saharan travelers. During the harmattan season, the brown earthen buildings are sandblasted with a fine yellow dust that obscures the sun. Dominated by Muslim leaders, Kano is home to a virulent mistrust of the West and, at times, of the Nigerian central government in Abuja because of its emerging ties to the United States and Europe. ‘Polio, in Nigeria, is politics,’ says a doctor in Kano’s main public hospital complex, who asked not to be named for fear of his job. The hospital was built by the British during colonial times in the 20s . . . . What brought us to this pass is this: Nigeria, long a polio hot spot, ended its polio vaccination program in 2003 in a colossally misguided protest of everything Western . . . . Religious leaders in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, twisting news reports about inadvertent contamination in some vaccinations, began preaching in mosques and market squares that polio vaccines were a Western plot to sterilize Muslim women . . . . And so, for 11 months in 2003 and 2004, polio vaccinations in northern Nigeria were suspended. Eleven months was all it took for the virus to not only gain a renewed foothold in Nigeria, but to spread to 10 other African nations that had previously wiped out the disease. . . . I accompanied a vaccination team to a rural province . . . in northern Nigeria, figuring out ways to convince suspicious rural farmers that the vaccine is safe and does not affect fertility, which is the most common anti-vaccine rumor to echo out from Friday sermons at mosques” (Chris Hondros, “Polio Rebounds in Nigeria,” The Digital Journalist [May 2005, Issue 91]). Online: http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0505/dis_hondros.html. Accessed 1 May 2007.

Nigeria as a target of Islamist conquest

A plethora of persecution events in Nigeria could be enumerated. “In Islamic countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and Nigeria, Christians suffer from persecution. In Pakistan, Islamist [spiritual leaders] have issued a fatwa [religious opinion] permitting the killing of two Christians for every Muslim killed by the American attacks in Afghanistan.”[13]

[13] The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), “Iraqi Columnist: ‘It is Difficult to Recall a Period in Which Christian Arabs Were in Greater Danger than Today,’” n.p. September 24, 2004 [cited 30 March 2007]. Online: http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP78904. Yet the latter article may also be disinformation, for there have been over a millennium of persecutions (some can be considered genocidal) against Assyrian Christians in Baghdad and in Iraq at large; see the website of the Assyrian International News Agency at http://www.aina.org/martyr.html.

Part Four–Solutions

Recovering global Christian solidarity to the level practiced by the early church would result in greater actions to alleviate the suffering.[14] In the next section of the paper, I will explore a preliminary exegetical basis for recovering this early solidarity. On a practical note, I have worked toward a proposed future event highlighting persecution in Nigeria (and elsewhere) and seeking a means to effect redress of the situation. In this vein, I have encouraged Keith Jagger of the Priscilla-Aquila ministry to work with me in producing a forum of some kind this fall of 2007.

[14] Dr. Michael Rynkiewich summarizes the work of Rodney Stark on this early solidarity: “Christianity probably did not succeed because it had a better doctrine or creed, but rather because the Christians formed real community where people cared for each other’s needs, including healing, caring for the sick, financial support for the poor, prayer with those in troubles of various kinds. It was such a strong community that they tended to survive better than others, and others saw the difference and joined because that was the kind of community they wanted to belong to.” See Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).

Part Five–Exegetically Recovering Global Christian Solidarity

Redeeming ‘Social Justice’ to Promote Love of the Persecuted Brethren

The greatest Commandment re social justice is the love of Christians for other Christians.
Since Marxist theologies of liberation abuse Scriptural concepts of social “justice” to promote socio-politico-economic agendas, those ideologues must be corrected so that the concern for justice may be put back on track re its highest concern, love of the brethren. “He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’” (Matt 22:37–40 NRSV). Jesus cites Lev 19:18 for the Commandment to love other Christians. In the original context of Leviticus, it is clear this refers to intramural relations between fellow Israelites (as distinct from strangers, sojourners or aliens, which terms would be absurd if there were no distinctions), and the same application is given by Jesus. It does not refer to our love for non-Christians (although this is also a less important obligation that is dependant upon the love for God and for fellow Christians).

Some will say that the “neighbor” to whom Jesus refers does include non-Christians and interpret the Parable of the Good Samaritan to indicate that. Yet we must remember the context. Judaea and Samaria are the remnants of the South and North Kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the divided “all Israel” which was prophesied to be restored and reunified (cf. Hos 2:23; 3:5; Isa 11 [messianic kingdom]; Jer 31:27, 31, 33 [the New Covenant]; Ezek 37 [the two “sticks” of divided Israel are united under one king]; Zech 8:13, etc.).

But there was divisiveness between the Israelites of Galilee, Judaea, and Samaria. This sort of division and bigotry is rebuked by Jesus in Luke 9:52–55:

And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them [as Elijah did]?’ 55 But he turned and rebuked them” (NRSV).

Quickly after this (Luke 10:1–24) Jesus sent out His 70 messengers to cities (presumably including Samaritan cities like the ones to which He had just been) in fulfillment of the prophecies. It was immediately after this mission that the Parable of the Good Samaritan is given in Luke 10:25–38 to foster unity among the divided Israelite groups.

In this story, The Samaritan Israelite is shown by Jesus to love the Judaean [VIoudai/oj, usu. poorly trans. as “Jew”{15}] Israelite as a “neighbor” (i.e., a fellow Israelite according to Lev 19:18), and so the Judaeans should stop excluding the Samaritans on racist, etc., bases from the Israel that Christ is reconstituting. That is the original import of the parable in its 1st c. Judaean context.

[15] Cf. the note to John 8:31 in NET: “In NT usage the term VIoudai/oi (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory (i.e., ‘Judeans’), the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus. (For further information see R. G. Bratcher, “‘The Jews’ in the Gospel of John,” BT 26 [1975]: 401-9; also BDAG 479 s.v. VIoudai/oj 2.e.) Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people in Jerusalem who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching in the temple and had believed his claim to be the Messiah, hence, ‘those Judeans who had believed him.’ The term ‘Judeans’ is preferred here to the more general ‘people’ because the debate concerns descent from Abraham.”

Christ distinguishes the Samaritans from Gentiles (Matt 10:5). Christ did not minister to non-Israelites.[16] But Christ did not consider Samaria to be outside of His reconstituting of Israel, and this is seen in His successful Messianic ministry there in John 4 (e.g., 4:22: “salvation is from the Judaeans” [see NET note 54]; cf. Hos 3:5), the command to go to “all Judaea and Samaria” before going to the outer earth[17] (Acts 1:8, where the two are treated as a unit: pa,sh| th/| VIoudai,a| kai. Samarei,a|), etc. Thus the Commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves should be seen to continue the same meaning as it originally had from Lev 19:18, and we should more highly love fellow Christians as all parts of the Israel of God (Gal 6:16) than anything else except our love for God.[18]

[16] For example, see the clear precedence shown for the covenant people in the ministry of Jesus in Mark 7:27: “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” It was only after the Syrophoenician woman embraced this lower priority that she was allowed to gather the crumbs under the covenantal table.
[17] This is not strictly geographical but refers primarily to the spiritual expansion of the Kingdom outside of ethnic Israel, i.e., to include the Gentiles, which was begun within geographical Israel, i.e., Simon Peter’s vision at Joppa to convert the household of Cornelius the centurion at Caesarea Maritima.
[18] Another portion of Scripture opposing the same sort of exclusivist, racist bigotry as Jesus does with the story of the good Samaritan is the messianic character of Isa 56. There anyone who was in origin not a genetic descendant of Abraham but a “foreigner” but who specifically had already joined himself to Yahweh in covenant as part of the people of Israel is not to be excluded by other Israelites. Since this shows a parallel theme to my assertions, it strengthens the canonical theological character of my thesis re the special primacy of intra-ecclesial love. When non-Israelites join Israel (as did Asenath, Moses’ Cushite wife [Num 12:1], Rahab, Ruth, and all ex-Gentile Christians), they are to be considered full members of Israel and not in any way excluded on racist bases of physical, genetic origin of descent nor on the purity of their bloodline (which was the problem Jesus addressed in racist Judaeans excluding the Samaritans from the covenant [and, to a smaller degree, vice-versa] based on adulterated genetics).

The special solidarity of Christ’s Body is later emphasized: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34 NRSV); “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12 NRSV). These loves are seen integrated: “He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’” (John 21:17 NRSV).

This shows the integrity of loving God (as the 1st Great Commandment says) goes hand in hand with remembering to care for our fellow Christians even though it might cost us our lives (in obedience to the 2nd Great Commandment and as reflected in Jesus’ emphatic “new commandment”). The epistles of John treat this theme, e.g., “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11 NRSV).[19]

[19] But the trajectory of this Dual-Commandment paradigm is neglected by certain Christians in favor of lesser issues like legislating socialist economics in America (pace Wallis et al.).

We must have a greater obedience by loving the Church above other agendas. For the call of the church is to first take care of her own is given as the agency for world mission. The problem of over-reactionary jettisoning of the baby with the bathwater has created a scenario in which the church neglects our primary means of witness to the world out of mistaken concepts of humanistic compassion that actually result in the disarming of our tool to overcome the world, i.e., loving Christian solidarity. It is only after we obey the divine paradigm of prioritizing the church that we can be empowered for mission. My deceased mentor Francis Schaeffer correctly identified the essential mark of the church commanded in John 17:20–21: “ I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (NASB95).[20] Thus the means provided by prioritizing intra-ecclesial solidarity is neglected only sinfully, for we must practice that obedience in order for our Great Commission to be accomplished.

[20] See Francis Schaeffer, “The Mark of the Christian,” in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview (Volume 4: A Christian View of the Church; book 3; Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1982), 181–205.

Therefore, the social justice issue of highest priority in the world for Christians today should be addressing the persecution of multi-millions of Christians at all levels, from despite to death. We can begin to redeem social justice activities by focusing on alleviating the persecution of our fellow believers, thus obeying the greatest human Commandment of loving our Christian fellow covenant members, or “neighbors,” as ourselves (and thereby empowering our world mission). Liberation theology has something to offer in this area. So, since Liberals have focused on political activism and economic boycotts to change the social environment in South Africa, then (except for the segment of them that are merely abusing religion for their socialist concerns) they should be willing to pursue a greater obedience by doing the same sorts of activities when it deals with love for our persecuted brethren instead of mere socio-economic concerns like the Marxist struggle of the urban proletariat, etc.

Yet there needs to be an attitude adjustment, as typified in the anemic prayer, by an American who seems to know nothing about real persecution, at the conclusion of the chapel service last November 2006 on the day of prayer for the persecuted church. Favoring a view of idolizing suffering similar to the way martyrdom was sought out in the early church like today’s Jihadists see martyrdom as a ticket to heaven. But this view is pathologically misconceived like the attitude of mediaeval flagellati, who would whip themselves under the mistaken notion that it was a good thing in itself. Such a view rarely if ever has arisen from actually experiencing suffering, and it wrongly idolizes romantic notions above biblical paradigms of prayer. Instead of merely praying for spiritual empowerment to endure the suffering and for facilitating the persecutors, we must learn to primarily pray as Jesus taught: “deliver us from (the) evil (one).” The same paradigm arises from the Psalms, a guide to prayer that must be recovered for the church, e.g., “God, break the teeth in their mouths, snap off the fangs of these young lions, Yahweh” (Ps 58:6 NJB). Do a search on the words “deliver” and “rescue” for a further brief taste of how we should approach this issue.

In addition, the incorrect generalization of Jesus’ instructions for those in the period of covenantal succession must be corrected by a properly contextualized hermeneutic that recognizes the “coals of fire” were heaped on fellow Israelites who were members of the Old Covenant and were being offered the New. This context is not the same as facilitating Muslims who are slaying Christians as infidels today. Also, the mistaken universalizing of Jesus’ brief sacrificial behaviour as the unique Lamb of God is highly debatable; there is significant question as to how much our seeking of martyrdom is really God’s will today. Instead, we should be willing to endure suffering when it is the unavoidable consequence of our obedience, yet we should also cease from neglecting to oppose unjust persecution and should attempt to put an end to the suffering of our brethren for their obedience. Nowhere does the Bible commend those who promote the continued prosperity of the persecutors in their unjust activities, yet that is what we do today and fallaciously label it “heaping coals of fire” where no such “heaping” actually occurs at all. The Muslims laugh at us all the way to beheading our brethren now suffering while we pray for them to suffer better instead of doing something to stop the suffering.

Instead, we should seek to obey the 2nd Great Commandment via this proverbial paradigm: “If you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death, those who go staggering to the slaughter; 12 if you say, ‘Look, we did not know this’ — does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay all according to their deeds?” (Prov 24:11–12 NRSV). “Deliver those being taken away to death, and hold back those slipping to the slaughter” (Prov 24:11 NET).[21] John Wesley notes: “Deliver – When it is in thy power. Drawn – By the violence of lawless men.”[22]

[21] The NET note: “God holds people responsible for rescuing those who are in mortal danger. The use of ‘death’ and ‘slaughter’ seems rather strong in the passage, but they have been used before in the book for the destruction that comes through evil.” Other versions translate: “Rescue those who are being dragged to death, and from those tottering to execution withdraw not” (Prov 24:11 NAB); “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter” (Prov 24:11 ESV); ”Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, O hold them back” (Prov 24:11 NASB95).
[22] John Wesley, “Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible,” The Wesleyan Heritage Collection. Wesleyan Heritage Publications Version 1.0 electronic ed., Rio, Wis.: AGES Software, 2002. (Print ed. John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament, Proverbs-Malachi [vol 4; Edinburgh: n.p., 1754-1765]). The Geneva Bible notes: “No one can be excused, if he does not help the innocent when he is in danger.”

Therefore we should promote activist strategies similar to those pressuring South Africa in order to pressure Nigeria to put an end to the social injustice of Islamic persecution against Christians and save the religious freedom (and physical existence) of the Christians from annihilation under oppressively totalitarian Islamic Shari’ah Law. This form of Islamic imperialism breaks the laws of Nigeria and embodies bigotry, prejudice and hypocrisy and arises from those within the government abusing power and lying to promote their agendas.

Under Shari’ah, Christians’ institutions like schools are deceptively confiscated and transformed into Islamic indoctrination centers. There is a definite subclass system just as bad as anything under Apartheid in South Africa. Christians are passed over for jobs or promotions in favor of less-qualified people who are Muslim. Christians are refused building permits or properties to use for worship, while government funds are misdirected hypocritically to build mosques. It involves the lawless burning of churches, homes, cars, as well as the crimes of kidnapping, torture and murder against our brethren and includes illegal obstruction of justice and cover-ups.

Addressing all these great liberal themes (abuse of power, deception, inconsistency, hypocrisy, prejudicial oppression, violent intimidation, etc.), in addition to the great Commandment to love our neighbor Christians as ourselves, should no longer be ignored in favor of merely promoting, e.g., Wallis & Sojourners’ socialistic politico-economic agendas. We should observe a great deal of relevant Scripture.[23]

[23] Consider: NRS Isa 58:6: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?”; NRS Job 29:17: “I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth”; NRS Ps 82:4: “Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked”; NRS Acts 21:31: “While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul”; NRS Acts 23:10: “When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks”; NRS Acts 23:23: “Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, ‘Get ready to leave by nine o’clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen’”; NRS 1 John 3:16: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods [e.g., power of political pressure] and sees a brother or sister1 in need and yet refuses help?”; NRS Rom 16:4: “and who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.”

Not only is Christian persecution response the highest-priority global social justice issue, it is also the means to redeem evangelistic witness. In His great final High Priestly Prayer, Jesus said it was by our solidarity in Christian loving unity that the world would know He is really of God:

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be [one] in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me
(John 17:20–23 NRSV).

This is the point of integration for the 1st and 2nd Great Commandments, to love God (Deut 6:5) and our neighbor Christians as ourselves (Lev 19:18).

Other groups like Mormons and Muslims have such an ésprit de corps, and the absence of it from Christianity in disobedience to Christ’s Commandment is a witness against the truth of the Gospel. Muslims can only conclude this when faced with our disobedient tolerance (even facilitation or assistance under the rubric of “heaping coals of fire”) of their depredations against our fellow believers in Nigeria.

Yet the primacy of loving fellow Christians in obedience to the 2nd Great Commandment is depreciated as somehow less worthy of earning spiritual points than is giving aid to those who are killing us. A sort of pathological self-denigration leads some to seek tolerance for other Christians to suffer as a means to earn themselves holiness credits. Oh, how pseudo-Christlike to rejoice in the suffering of others and believe it to be one’s own personal spiritual growth! But God is not pleased with such blemished offerings; it is better to obey than to sacrifice other Christians upon the injustice of Islamic malice.[24]

[24] Of course a word must be reiterated about defining Islam. I am in favour of those who have and are in the process of creating a liberal reformation of Islam into a new religion with which we can live and work. These liberal Muslims are to be assisted in their redefining of Islam into a peaceful religion. But original Islam, the real cult of pseudo-Allah founded from the beginning, is extant in certain faithful conservative groups like Wahhabism and Bin Ladin’s global Jihad movement. When I say “Islam,” I mean this true Islam which must be destroyed, not the liberal subversions of it that we should encourage. The former will not stop until they have achieved global domination by all means; the latter may be created in weak forms that we can convert eventually to Christianity.

Bibliography

al-Tabarī, Abū Ja far Muhammad b. Jarīr. The History of al-Tabarī (Ta’rīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk). 38 vols. Bibliotheca persica. New York: State University of New York Press, 1987.

‘Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans. “The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an.” The World of Islam CD-ROM (Version 2). London, Islamic Computing Centre, electronic text ed. Print ed.: Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali, trans. The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an. with Surah Introductions by Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi with Surah Introductions by Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi. 7th ed. Elmhurst, NY: Tahrike Tarsile Quran, 2001.

Beasley-Murray, George R. John. Thomas Nelson electronic 2d ed. Word Biblical Commentary 36. Dallas: Word, 2002.

Benedict XVI, Pope. “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections.” No pages. Cited 27 October 2006. Online: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/ speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html.

Boring, M. Eugene, Klaus Berger, and Carsten Colpe, eds. Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament. Nashville: Abingdon, 1995.

Bostom, Andrew G., ed. The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. Foreward by Ibn Warraq. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2005.

Caird, George B. The Gospel of St. Luke. The Pelican Gospel Commentaries. New York: Seabury, 1963.

Chapman, Colin. “Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenge of Islam.” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM. Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006. Print ed.: Colin Chapman. Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenge of Islam. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995.

Craddock, Fred B. Luke. Logos Research Systems electronic ed. 2002. Print ed.: Fred B. Craddock. Luke. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox, 1990.

Gilchrist, John. “The Qur’an: The Scripture of Islam.” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM. Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006.

Green, Joel B. “Discourse Analysis and New Testament Interpretation.” Pages 175-96 in Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. Edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

—–. The Gospel of Luke. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.

—–. The Theology of the Gospel of Luke. New Testament Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Guillaume, Alfred, trans. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Expurgated by Ibn Hisham. New Impression ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Habeck, Mary. Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006.

Hackett, Rosalind I. J. New Religious Movements in Nigeria. African Studies 5. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1987.

Hammond, Peter. Faith Under Fire in Sudan. 126 pages. Newlands, South Africa: Frontline Fellowship, 1996.

Hefley, James C. and Marti. By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs from the Twentieth Century and Beyond. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

Hughes, Thomas Patrick. “Dictionary of Islam.” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM. Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006. Print ed.: Thomas Patrick Hughes. A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopaedia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, Together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen, 1885.

Jones, L. Bevan. “Christianity Explained to Muslims: A Manual for Christian Workers.” The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Version 2.0) CD-ROM. Colorado Springs, Global Mapping International, 2006. print ed: Calcutta: Y.M.C.A., 1938.

Just, Arthur A. Luke. InterVarsity electronic ed. 2005. Print ed.: Arthur A. Just. Luke. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 3. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003.

Kenny, Joseph. Views on Christian-Muslim Relations. Lagos, Nigeria: Dominican, 1999.

Lightfoot, Joseph Barber. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians: A Revised Text with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. 4th ed. London: Macmillan, 1874.

Loimeier, Roman. Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria. Series in Islam and Society in Africa. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1997.

Lovejoy, Paul E. Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936. African Studies Series 76. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Marshall, I. Howard. The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text. Logos Research Systems electronic ed. 2005. Print ed.: I. Howard Marshall. The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Carlisle, England: Paternoster, 1978.

McNeill, Donald P., Douglas A. Morrison, and Henri J. M. Nouwen. Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982.

Moessner, David P. “Luke 9:1-50: Luke’s Preview of the Journey of the Prophet Like Moses of Deuteronomy.” Journal of Biblical Literature 102 (1983): 575-605.

Nolland, John. Luke 9:21–18:34. Thomas Nelson electronic ed. 2002. Print ed.: John Nolland. Luke 9:21–18:34. Word Biblical Commentary 35b. Dallas: Word, 1993.

Nsofor, Chukwunulokwu Fyne. “Christian-Muslim Relations in a Contemporary Multiethnic, Multireligious Society: Toward Nigerian National Identity.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2004.

Nwafor, John Chidi. Church and State: The Nigerian Experience: The Relationship Between the Church and the State in Nigeria in the Areas of Human Rights, Education, Religious Freedom, and Religious Tolerance. Ethik, Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft 13. Frankfurt am Main: IKO, Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, 2002.

O’Collins, Gerald, and Gilberto Marconi, eds. Luke and Acts. Translated by trans. O’Connell, Matthew J. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1993.

Okafor, Gabriel Maduka. Development of Christianity and Islam in modern Nigeria. Religionswissenschaftliche Studien 22. Würzburg: Echter, 1992.

Okoye, Festus. The Condition of Almajirai in the North West Zone of Nigeria. Kaduna, Nigeria: Human Rights Monitor, 1999.

Ostien, Philip, Jamila M. Nasir, and Franz Kogelmann, eds. Comparative Perspectives on Shariah in Nigeria. Ibadan, Nigeria; Jersey, Channel Islands, UK: Spectrum; Safari, 2005.

Oswalt, John N. The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 1-39. New International Commentary on the Old Testament . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986.

Paden, John N. Religion and Political Culture in Kano. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

Pulcini, Theodore. Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian Scriptures. American Academy of Religion: The Religions 2. ed. Paul B. Courtright. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1998.

Samaila, Nahor. “International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church .” Estes Chapel service Nov. 10, 2005.

Sanneh, Lamin. Whose Religion is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003.

Schaeffer, Francis. “The Mark of the Christian.” Pages 181-205 in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Volume 4: A Christian View of the Church; book 3. Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1982.

Sellin, G. “Lukas als Gleichniserzähler: Die Erzählung vom barmherzigen Samariter (Lk. 10, 25-37).” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 65-66 (1974-1975): 166-89, 19-60.

Shakir, M. H., trans. “[Qur’an].” Qur’an. Available in BibleWorks 6. 3d electronic ed. 2001. Print ed.: M. H. Shakir, trans. Holy Quran. Elmhurst, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.: Tahrike Tarsile Quran; BibleWorks, LLC, 2003.
Smith, D. Moody. The Theology of the Gospel of John. New Testament Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Sookhdeo, Patrick. “Christians in the Muslim World.” Pages 252-56 in The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims. Edited by Robert Spencer. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2005.

Spencer, Robert. The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2006.

Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.

Stein, Robert H. Luke. Logos Research Systems electronic ed. 2001. Print ed.: Robert H. Stein. Luke. Vol. 24 of New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman, 1992.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “Iraqi Columnist: ‘It is Difficult to Recall a Period in Which Christian Arabs Were in Greater Danger than Today’.” No pages. September 24, 2004. Cited 30 March 2007. Online: http://memri.org/bin/ articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP78904.

Thompson, J. A. The Book of Jeremiah. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980.

Wall, Robert W. “The Acts of the Apostles: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections.” Pages 1-368 in Edited by Leander E. Keck and et al. NIB 10. Nashville: Abingdon, 2002.

—–. The Acts of the Apostles: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections. Edited by Leander E. et al. Keck. NIB 10. Nashville: Abingdon, 2002.

Wesley, John. “Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible.” The Wesleyan Heritage Collection. Wesleyan Heritage Publications Version 1.0 electronic ed. Rio, Wis.: AGES Software, 2002. Print ed.: John Wesley. Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible. Arranged in 5 volumes. Edinburgh: n.p., 1754-1765.

Willimon, William H. Acts. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Atlanta: John Knox, 1988.

Wistrich, Robert S. “The Ideology of Jihad: Antisemitism/Genocide/Slavery in the Sudan.” Pages 360-63 in The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims. Edited by Robert Spencer. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2005.

Wright, N. T. Jesus and the Victory of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God 2. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.

Ye’or, Bat. The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam. Translated by trans. David Maisel. Rev. and enl. English ed. Cranbury, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985.

Germanna A.D. 1714 Pioneers with Mace Pedigree

Having in recent generations suffered from the Thirty-Years’ War (ca. A.D. 1610–1660) and the economic downturn engendered, seven villages (e.g., Müsen, Trupbach and Oberschelden) in western Germany acted upon their desire for new life in a new land, America, where they both would live out their faith in peace from those who opposed such liberty of religious practice and would freely pursue enterprising economic prosperity. The occasion to fulfill their dreams arose as a result of acting Governor Spotswood’s desire to establish the mining industry in his Virginia Colony. Nassau-Siegen in Westphalia was a province known for iron-working and the region to which came an agent recruiting miners to develop the silver ores in Virginia and later also found the iron industry. (This area of Germany was where our 8th-century Saxon grandfather, Widukind, led raging pagan resistance from his wooden-palisaded hill-fort against the Christian empire of grandfather Charlemagne until he eventually came to see the truth of Christ and became an ardent convert hated today by neopagan Odinists as a traitor.)

Trusting firmly in Jehovah, the God of their fathers, perhaps 40+ German emigrants boldly ventured forth in the summer of 1713. Our family boasts five grandparents among these hardy few pilgrims: Philipp and Elisabeth (Heimbach) Fischbach with their young daughter Maria Elisabeth, and two single men, Johannes Spielmann (who later married Mary Elizabeth Fishback) and Johann Jost Merten. (See the individuals marked in yellow atop the “Germanna A.D. 1714 Pioneer Pedigree” chart.)

This reconstruction of the Germanna hill-fort includes the Mace pedigree from five of the founders.

Link to the full high resolution image.

Arriving in the Virginia Colony in April A.D. 1714, 33 immigrants founded in Essex County the western-most point of English civilizations along the Atlantic seaboard (being the first settlers in what became Orange County in A. D. 1733). They named the settlement “Germanna” in honour of their culture of origin, enduring harsh, pioneer living conditions expanding into the wilderness. Fort Germanna was constructed as the first “Pentagon” in Virginia long before our current national military headquarters. This was a wooden palisade atop a hill (similar to the early mediaeval Saxon hill-fort such as used by Widukind).

Constructing hill-fort Germanna almost surrounded by a loop of the Rapidan River

At the center of their fort stood the heart, both spiritual and physical, of their community, the combination church and blockhouse. These Germanna pioneers were the first (or perhaps second) non-Anglican body to be granted a degree of religious toleration in varying from the established state religion and thus have a role in development of what became our American concepts of religious liberty as championed by later Christian citizens of Orange County like Rev. Elijah Craig (my 4th great-granduncle) and his influence on James Madison, father of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, esp. the First Amendment. Within this very first organized congregation of the German Reformed Church anywhere in America, they gathered to access the source of their spiritual power in Christ. In addition, the strong construction and loopholes for shooting provided a place of safety from physical danger. “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing” (fellow Saxon Martin Luther). These rugged soldiers of Christ were classed as “Rangers” by official decree and given two cannons by the government in order to facilitate their use of Fort Germanna to protect the Virginia colony to the east from depredation by ruthless Indian savages.

Fort Germanna at an early stage of habitation

In ca. A.D. 1719, the Fishbacks, Spilmans and Martins moved with others from Germanna to found the new settlement of German Town (or Germantown), where, 36 years later on land that had belonged to both Martins and Fishbacks, was born John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, principle founder of the U.S. system of Constitutional law, including the doctrine of judicial review.

Map of German Town ca. A.D. 1727, with the birthplace of Chief Justice John Marshall indicated in lot #3

Theses for 3rd-Millennial Reformation

“From Luther’s day to the present, October 31, 1517 has been considered the birthday of the Reformation. At noon on this Eve of All Saints’ Day, Luther nailed on the Castle Church door, which served as a bulletin board for faculty and students of the University of Wittenberg, his Ninety-five Theses, as his Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences has commonly been called.” (Luther’s Works 31:19)

This anniversary of Luther’s posting is the day on which I begin to similarly post my theses for reformation of the Church. As in Luther’s day, when the basic tenet of salvation by grace had generally been practically lost, so today has another Christian theological essential been distorted and lost, the true meaning and praxis of the Second Great Commandment (2GC). This widespread disobedience of the Church to the fundamental plan of God has led to a retardation in the achieving both of His Church’s maturity and so of the ultimate destiny of humanity as the restored corporate image of the Creator in the kosmos.

Yet, even amidst mighty enemies spreading darkness in hatred against the Church, we have hope for the future in recovering our basic identity and purpose through reestablishing a civilization based on 2GC. Seeing the vision of renewed Christian culture as a loving global voluntary individual communitarian solidarity. I believe the best days of restored humanity lie ahead of us.