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Thabiti Anyabwile is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman in the Grand Cayman Islands and a Council member with The Gospel Coalition.
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The Front Porch: The longest-running theological conflict in America is an argument about the full and true humanity of Black people. The denial of African humanity was necessary to the justification of slavery. The inferiority of Black people was central to counter-Reconstruction and Jim Crow segregation. Since 1619 America has been embroiled in a life-and-death struggle over anthropology or the doctrine of man.
Much of the contemporary cry for justice concerns this historical conflict. Whether we recognize children in parks, women with psychological issues, children in the womb, persons with disabilities, or men with criminal records as persons bearing the image and likeness of God affects how we treat them. We tend to extend justice, compassion, mercy and love to those we recognize as fellow human beings and deny it to those we do not. Consequently, Christian justice requires theological reflection on biblical anthropology.
Humanity
We believe God made all persons of every ethnic group in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). We believe God created man in two genders, male and female, equally bearing the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-27). We believe God made humanity to live in human society since it was not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). We believe God intends marriages comprised of one man and one woman to provide the basic social institution of human society and that God structured marriage such that male and female roles are distinguishable yet complementary (Gen. 2:18-24; 1 Pet. 3:1-7; Eph. 5:22-32). We believe God ordained marriage because He sought “godly offspring” (Mal. 2:15), offspring who bear His image from the womb (Ps. 139:13) and those with disability for His glory (Matt. 15:30-31).
Read more: http://thefrontporch.org/2017/05/the-glory-of-god-the-gospel-and-christian-justice-3-true-humanity/
