Staff writer, desiringGod.org
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)
Why might God, with every conceivable possibility available to him, decide to create and nurture new life through
parents? Why would he bring us into the world through a father and a mother?
As with everything God does, he has many reasons (and most of them unknown to us, at least for now). Genesis might give us the highest, most overarching reason, though: âThen God said, âLet us make man
in our image, after our likenessââ (Genesis 1:26). And then two verses later, âAnd God blessed them. And God said to them, âBe fruitful
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When trying to solve any problem, large or small, it’s important to remember that hasty solutions based on poorly diagnosed problems lead to failure and frustration. This is true whether we’re talking about marketing, medicine, or ministry. And it’s especially true when it comes to repairing an injustice as complex as slavery and racism in America.
Today, there is a tendency to oversimplify the problem. But anyone objectively examining the history of American racism knows that the problem is far from simple. In his own reflections on American race relations, the Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck expressed confidence that the resources for a solution existed within Christianity. According to biographer James Eglinton, however, he lamented that this solution would never come to pass unless the American church “underwent a profound transformation.”