Thread by @tisaiahcho

The Reformed confessions of faith state that the sine qua non of a faithful church are 1) faithful preaching of the Word, 2) administration of the sacraments, and 3) loving discipline.

Yet, in the history of the White American church, we have evidence that Christians invented

new doctrines (e.g. The curse of Ham), took literal pages out of Bibles they gave to slaves, and failed to preach texts that spoke of liberation and justice.

We have well documented evidence that Christians redefined baptism to allow slave holders to continue to enslave those

who became Christians, and the eucharist was celebrated in a segregated manner that completely went against the intent of the Sacrament.

We have clear evidence that the church failed to and/or refused to discipline those who were in the sin of slave holding and partiality

even to the highest denominational court levels.

In other words, all three marks of a faithful church were absent or severely disfigured in the White American church for generations. According to a Reformed understanding of a faithful church, we may have to grapple with

the fact that this church may have not been a church in the first place, or may have been a church like Elijah and the 7000 who were reserved by God.

The Black church, the immigrant church, and others that were birthed in the context of White supremacy may in fact be

the gift from God that the White American church needs. They may be the "Josiahs" and "Huldahs" who have been called by God to bring reform and refining to the White American church.