Who are you?
Who do you want to be?
What do you believe?
These three questions live on a bright pink post-it on my desk at work and throughout the pages of my journals. They serve as a reminder particularly when I am in a place of uncertainty or frustration.
Identification (or misidentification) is at the helm of much if not all the issues within the black community today. Despite the nationally recognized shortest month dedicated to black history, many African Americans still struggle to trace their history past the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In recent years, African Americans have begun to ask questions beyond this border landing in a variety of places. Amid the desire for cultural identity in the African American community, there has also been a dismissal of The Bible and traditional black church. I believe one major reason for this is the resistance to questions surrounding our true identity in scripture.
Hebrew Israelite camps, Muslims, and Egyptologists all offer answers to this question with deep conviction, resources and a community to reinforce their theology. While Hebrew Israelite camps offer a portion of the biblical truth of who we are, they also have additional (non-biblical) views and practices that control their followers and contort scripture to suit the desires of their leaders.
Growing up on several occasions I can remember my father, an Apostolic preacher from Queens, NY teaching a series of lessons on IDENTITY. He would comb through scripture, highlighting African locations, descriptions of my favorite bible characters’ hair and skin, and finally as I got older, breaking down the predicted details of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade of God’s Chosen people, Israel (Deuteronomy 28). I initially struggled to see all that he was endeavoring to show me because I couldn’t grasp how so many black people could be deeply persuaded about scriptures unto salvation but lack to see it also as a book of black/Israelite history. He shared this truth that has bewildered me since childhood: we’ve been taught how to read the bible.
For millions across the world, the bible is a book primarily about a European chosen people and their European savior who is gracious enough to graft the rest of the world into his fold if we follow him. Contrary to that erroneous narrative, I’ve read in scripture about an African Chosen people and their African Savior (Jesus) who’s intention is to save the world (from sin’s consequence-eternal death) through those people as they obey Him, preaching the gospel and living according to His will as His peculiar people.
It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that all the details of my father’s lessons really came together for me and I began to truly see myself; a (bloodline) descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and an Israelite from the Kingdom of Judah. The Most High has removed the veil off my eyes, and I now see scripture as the black history book that the enemy never intended us to read and truly understand (Psalms 83:1-8).
As I approach my mid-thirties, I continue to study and see myself in scripture and biblical history (the Apocrypha and other history books). My journey has led me to many more awakened Israelites, another phenomenon my father said would come to pass.
Who we are, who we desire to be and even greater, who we WILL be all derive from what we believe.
I wrote this to challenge you to question what you’ve been told about your history and ask God to reveal Himself AND yourself to you through His holy word. Don’t just settle for the things told to you from the descendants of those that oppressed our descendants. This is not a hate blog, but a post encouraging you to basic reading comprehension.
There is so much more to our story beyond slavery and it is our job to uncover it and tell the truth to the next generation so that we can propel them into being who they truly are in Christ.
Yours in Christ’s service.
