Redemptive Kingdom Diversity - The Church, Ethnic Diversity, and Racial Justice

I have been reading Jarvis William’s latest book Kingdom Diversity, and it is terrific!

Jarvis is a Black Southern Baptist Pastor and Professor of New Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His book Redemptive Kingdom Diversity provides a comprehensive biblical and theological survey of the people of God in the Old and New Testaments, offering commentary on on disputed topics related to race and racism.

Williams surveys the OT and NT and shows that God's people have always been intended to be a diverse and multi-ethnic community. God’s plan in Jesus Christ is that both Jew and Gentile are reconciled to God and then reconciled to each other. Williams then goes on to discuss several contentious aspects about “systematic racism,” “white guilt,” Black/Brown forms of racism, explaining what it means to be the church in today's multiethnic context.

This book is so good because it confronts so many people with their prejudices that Williams gets called an “Uncle Tom” by progressives and a “Marxist” by conservatives. That alone should pique your interest!

Here’s the TOC:

Introduction
1. The People of God in the Pentateuch
2. The People of God in the Historical Books, Wisdom and Poetry, and Prophets
3. The People of God in the Gospels and Acts
4. The People of God in Paul's Epistles
5. The People of God in the General Epistles and Revelation
6. Synthesis: The People of God in the Old and New Testaments
7. The People of God and Orthopraxy

The final chapter is worth the price of the book ten times over!

So many quotable gems, but here’s my favourite quote:

One of the problems with some American Christians is that they have attached a certain version of Christianity to their political party. Some Republican Christians may think that Jesus is one of them. Some Democrat Christians may think that Jesus is one of them. Other political parties may claim to be representative of Jesus and Christianity. The hard truth is that Jesus is not a member of any political party. He is not an American patriot. He is a resurrected and exalted Middle Eastern, Jewish Messiah who was an immigrant, with a genealogy that includes gentiles, a refugee, poor, born to a virgin woman, part of an ethnically marginalized group in the first century under the oppression of the Roman Empire, and wrongly incarcerated and executed by an unjust Roman system. On the day of judgment, Jesus will pour out his wrath on both Democrats and Republicans, and members of any other political parties, who do not faithfully follow him but instead live their lives refusing to submit under his lordship as the Jewish Messiah. Jesus did not shed his blood for a political party, and he does not stand in heaven draped in an American flag. He shed his blood to redeem some ethnically diverse sinners from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation and to restore the cosmos. He reigns in heaven at the right hand of God with exalted and resurrected glory. God justifies all who trust in Jesus Christ by faith.

Here’s an interview I did with Prof. Williams: