What is God’s Answer to Hatred and Racism?

“God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him

and do what is right.” - Acts 10:34-35

America is hurting. We’ve just spent two and a half months on lockdown. Our favorite restaurants have been closed. Our kids’ schools have been closed. High school graduations were cancelled. Even the “Happiest Place on Earth” was shut down. Churches across America had to move their services online. And 36 million Americans lost their jobs.

Our nation is hurting—and less than three weeks ago, the pain only intensified. We were horrified by the image of a rogue police officer in Minneapolis choking the life out of George Floyd as three other officers stood by and let it happen. Then, we were further horrified by the images of Mom-and-Pop stores in cities across America being vandalized, looted and set on fire.

Many of us thought that race relations in America had come a long way. But these past three weeks have made us realize that we still have a long way to go. There is still far too much distrust, resentment and hatred between Americans of different skin colors. Our politicians can’t fix the problem. Our public schools can’t fix the problem. Even the social justice warriors can’t fix the problem. They can’t fix the problem, because the underlying root of the problem isn’t political, psychological or systemic. The root of hate and racism is spiritual. That being the case, the only lasting solution to hatred and racism is found in God’s Word.

The Bible makes it clear that God has compassion and love for EVERY person He has made. We read in Romans 2:11: “God does not show favoritism.” Peter proclaims in Acts 10:34-35: “God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says, “God our Savior wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” And in Proverbs 6:16-19 we find a quick reference list of seven things God hates. Those include: hands that shed innocent blood; a heart that devises wicked schemes; and feet that are quick to rush into evil.

So, if there’s any doubt in your mind about God’s stance on what has happened in our nation over the past few weeks, allow His Word to remove all doubt. God is a loving and compassionate God, and He hates it when people shed innocent blood. George Floyd might have deserved to be arrested, but he did NOT deserve to be tortured and killed. God hates what was done to George Floyd. But because God hates it when people devise wicked schemes and rush into evil, God also hates what vandals, looters and arsonists have been doing to businesses and church buildings under the cover of protest. Those who are destroying things aren’t “protestors.” They’re criminals. They’re self-centered opportunists. And their actions are detestable to God.  

Because God is love, He hates…hate. Because God is love, He hates racism. Because God is love, He hates the violence in our nation today. And because of that, I believe that God wants to make three simple but profound pleas to us.

God’s 1st Plea: Let My Word change your thinking. “From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth” (Acts 17:26). Every human being on earth is a descendent of one man and one woman: Adam and Eve. God didn’t create a black Adam and a white Adam. He didn’t create a Chinese Eve and a Mexican Eve. Every single ethnic group on earth—every nation, every person is a descendent of that one Adam and one Eve. We all have the same great-grandparents. So, when someone asks, “How many races are there?”, the Biblical answer is ONE. There is only one race: the human race. PERIOD!

God’s 2nd Plea: Let My Son change your heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). We want to believe we are basically good. But God sees the truth: Our hearts are harder than we’ve realized. And there is nothing here on earth that can soften them. A hater can’t be taught to stop hating and start loving. Just as you can’t teach someone with blocked arteries to stop having a heart attack, you can’t teach someone steeped in hate and racism to stop having a hard, sinful heart. The only cure is to receive a heart transplant—and God’s Son Jesus Christ is the only One who can perform the operation. So, God says to you and me today: Let my Son change your heart, because hatred and racism are sins of the heart. Racism is not a SKIN problem; it’s a SIN problem.

God’s 3rd Plea: Let My spirit change your actions. “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism” (James 2:1). God doesn’t treat rich people better than poor people, or men better than women, or whites better than blacks. Neither should we. So, take time to PRAY with your brothers and sisters who look different than you. Take time to LOVE and SERVE your brothers and sisters who look different than you. And take time to LISTEN to your brothers and sisters who look different from you. When a black brother or sister feels that black lives in our country are being cheapened and cries out, “Black lives matter!”–it doesn’t help to shout back, “All lives matter!” Your black sister or brother needs you to empathize with their hurt and pain. This is the time to listen—and mourn with those who mourn.

In Luke 10, Jesus tells the story of a Jewish man who was beaten within an inch of his life and left to die at the side of the road. A brother Jew—a priest—saw him and ignored him. Another one of his neighbors—a Levite—did the same. Finally a foreigner—a Samaritan—rode by, had a gut-wrenching compassion for him, and got down off his high horse to help him. Jesus turns to you and me and says, “Christians, it’s high time for you to get down off your high horse and do likewise.”

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our LIVE outdoor worship services Sundays at 8 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. at Live.GreaterImpact.cc, on our YouTube channel (Impact Christian Church) or on Facebook.

Why Didn't God Stop It?

“He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” – Matthew 5:45

Nearly two weeks after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, our nation is still reeling. We are still in shock, still dumbfounded by the massacre, and still grasping for answers. Why did this happen? Where was God, and why didn’t He stop it? And what can we do?

Why did it happen? The answer to the first question lies in the first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world, free from crime, adultery, lust, fear, guilt and shame. Their world in the Garden of Eden was a literal paradise. And in Genesis 2, God gave Adam and Eve only one “Thou Shalt Not”: Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But one chapter later, they did just that. When that first sin entered the world, it brought a curse to this world. It took only one sin to make it a paradise no longer.

Sin ushered in all of the things that make this world miserable, from hurricanes to massacres to cancer. The tragedy in Las Vegas happened because we live in a fallen, sin-cursed world. Adam and Eve’s sin started the process of turning God’s perfect paradise into a moral sewer—but you and I would have done the same thing. God’s word tells us in Romans 3:23 that every single one of us has sinned and has fallen short of the glory of God. Suffering is one of the sad consequences of life in this sin-cursed world.

But where was God, and why didn’t He stop it? The truth is, He was right there in Las Vegas that night even though—honestly—one second before the first shot rang out, most people on the Strip didn’t want Him there. God has given us the gift of free choice. It’s a gift that allows us to love, but it’s also a gift that allows us to hate. It’s a gift that allows us to save lives, but it’s also a gift that allows us to take lives. And usually God allows us to suffer the consequences of our choices. In this sin-cursed world, bad choices affect both the righteous and the unrighteous. Accidents and tragedies happen to good and evil people alike.

In this fallen, sin-cursed world we live in, bad things happen to all of us. And good things happen to all of us. Now, I do believe that the Bible teaches that, in general, more good things come our way if we follow Christ and obey His commands. But God doesn’t guarantee us iron-clad protection against the pain and tragedy that may come our way—just as He did not spare His own son the agony of the cross.

The truth is, we will drive ourselves crazy if we don’t move past the “why” questions. We’ll likely never know why certain tragedies happen. When we’re feeling powerless in the aftermath of such events, we need to ask ourselves: “Do you believe your God is big enough and strong enough and merciful enough to redeem the tragedy—and somehow work all things together for good—even the violent things, the heart-wrenching things, the most tragic things?” Then, as soon as humanly possible, we need to move on to the final question: What should we do next?

First, we need to focus not on WHY this tragic event happened, but instead on HOW God can be glorified in the aftermath. In the days following the shooting, we’ve seen instances of God working in people and through people to redeem this horrible tragedy. We’ve heard stories of heroism at ground zero of the massacre: men lying on top of women to shield them from the gunfire; off-duty police officers leading people to safety, then turning around and heading back into the fire zone to help others; hundreds of people standing in line for hours to donate blood; thousands of people gathering for a prayer service the following Wednesday night at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas—and 185,000 more people watching that service online.

Next, we need to remember that life is fragile. We have no time to waste. Therefore, we must repent and get right with God. I hope and pray that no one reading this dies because of gunshot wounds from a madman. But the hard truth of living in this fallen, sin-cursed world is that people die tragically every single day—because of cancer, because of drunk drivers, because of heart attacks, because of natural disasters, because of stray bullets. You and I are not guaranteed tomorrow, so it’s important to get right with God today. Believe in Him. Turn away from your sin. And start following Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Finally, we need to faithfully pray for the victims’ families, for our military and first responders, and for revival in America. When we’re flooded with emotions like disgust, anger, anxiety and fear, I believe these emotions should help fuel our prayers. Romans 12:12 tells us, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” And that chapter concludes with these words in verse 21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.fccvv.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 a.m.

The Bible Has the Answers

“For the word of God is living and active….Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” – Hebrews 4:12-13

Gender roles, gay marriage, abortion, immigration reform, gun control, health care, climate change, racism and terrorism: These are nine of 2017’s hot button issues that many people assume are beyond the scope of the Bible. But as I mentioned in last week’s column, the Bible has proven itself time and again to be the most relevant book on the planet. Not convinced? Let’s put God’s word to the test with three more hot button topics.

Hot Button Issue #1: Abortion. God’s word is clear that the pre-born baby inside a mother’s womb is a child created by God. King David writes in Psalm 139:13-16: “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…..When I was woven together…Your eyes saw my unformed body.” In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord speaks bluntly to Jeremiah saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

These passages reinforce what modern medical technology has discovered: Human life begins at conception. Although the Bible doesn’t specifically say, “Thou shalt not abort a pre-born baby,” it doesn’t really need to. After all, God’s Word is clear that the life inside a mother’s womb is a human life, lovingly knit together by God. And the Bible speaks clearly in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17: “You shall not murder.” So, is it a big leap for Christians to claim that abortion is murder? Not at all! Abortion is—without a doubt—the ending of a human life. Although abortion is not the unforgiveable sin, it is a terrible sin that requires our repentance and Christ’s grace. And once we experience that grace, God’s Word calls Christians to support and defend human life at all stages (i.e., from the womb to the convalescent home).

Hot Button Issue #2: Gun Control. Obviously, guns didn’t exist in Bible times. But the following verses give us some general principles that are of help to us. For starters, in Luke 22:36 while Jesus was celebrating the Last Supper, he told his twelve disciples, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” This instruction has puzzled Bible scholars for centuries. Why did Jesus instruct his disciples to purchase a sword yet just a few hours later rebuke Peter for using his? Although we can’t be certain, it seems most likely that Jesus was advocating using a sword for self defense. In the Garden of Gethsemene, Peter received Christ’s rebuke for going on the offense. But perhaps he wouldn’t have had he been defending himself from a violent attack.

So, presumably, Christ advocates possessing a weapon for self-defense. But verses like Matthew 5:9, Matthew 5:38-39 and Romans 13:1 command us to pursue peace, turn the other cheek, and submit to the governing authorities. Taken together, here are some general biblical principles to keep in mind when considering the issue of gun control. #1: Christ never commands us to get rid of our weapons. #2: However, he wants us to be peacemakers. Christ calls us to practice turning the other cheek in our personal relationships. #3: The Lord expects us to abide by the laws of the land. Therefore, I don’t believe it’s biblically defensible for Christians to break gun control laws or stockpile illegal weapons.    

Hot Button Issue #3: Health Care. As health insurance premiums have shot up over the past ten years and the Affordable Care Act hasn’t panned out as advertised, health care has become one of the biggest hot-button topics in political circles. What can we do to improve our health care situation in the United States? Well, here are a few Scriptures to consider. In Matthew 14:14 we read, “When Jesus…saw such a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” And in Matthew 10:8 Jesus told his twelve disciples, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Bottom line: Jesus prioritized caring for the sick. Jesus called his disciples to prioritize caring for the sick. And the New Testament reinforces this command for you and me. But at the same time, God’s Word doesn’t say that this is a job for the government. Perhaps, if Christians cared for the sick to the level that Jesus told us to, we wouldn’t feel such a pressing need for universal health care.

Yes, there are many hot button issues in our nation that aren’t easily remedied. But without a doubt, the Bible has answers: timeless principles that can be applied to any modern issue or challenge we face. Sadly, in our arrogance many of us stubbornly struggle to solve our problems on our own. We rack our brains trying to discover the solutions to our most pressing problems. All the while, many of the answers are waiting patiently in the pages of God’s Word.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.fccvv.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 am.