Are African Christians Worshipping the White Man’s God?

Last year (2018) a concerned Christian sent me this email:

“Hello Patrick,

There’s been a controversial debate on this poster that am attaching here.
It’s argued that Jesus is portrayed as white and the devil being black!

The argument is that Jesus has been portrayed as white by European to show that blacks needs them as saviors as this was a tactic used during colonialism , where are there those who believe since most wrong doings/sins were introduced by colonialist they should represent evil/devil for that matter!  Do you think there are Christian who have not been liberated from this??, just the other day during Easter, there’s a church that decided to hire an Indian to act as Jesus during their Easter plays.
Now, some people were furious to see this poster and a colleague  just wrote to me saying that’s why I stopped going to church, ‘if you portray black as hell then probably we are beyond repair’ we have had this argument over and over but now I need an intervention from a theologian as I believe you are!
Whats Jesus race? Does it matter? We we know that he died for all of us..

Do we have a scripture backing up the black hell!! How is hell illustrated from the Bible point of view.

Many thanks and my apologies for this long text.

Kind regards”

Is this true? Are Africans Worshiping the white man’s god?

I have shared the Gospel with Kenyans who said that I worship the white man’s god which really had me thinking. But the question is as as this person asked, “Who is Jesus?” “What was His race?” or “Does it matter?”

Jesus was an Israelite and Jewish to be specific from the tribe of Judah. As far as fact is concerned, He did not have an American passport neither did He speak in a British accent (in fact the English language which stemmed from Germanic Latin came a thousand years after Christ) nor did He have European features as He was a typical first century Jew (hence the reason why Judas had to identify Him on the night of His betrayal cause HE looked just like anybody – Isaiah 53:2) and probably looked more like the Orthodox Jews we see in Israel and the Arabs in the Middle East or North Africa. He probably spoke Aramaic (a Chaldee or Babylonian dialect of Hebrew) and Hebrew (which was the language of the Israelites and what was used to write 99% of the Old Testament and the rest was in Aramaic) and very unlikely spoke Greek (which was for the learned which Jesus was not – John 7:15).

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So, yes, Jesus was probably a brown person and because of European artists (especially famous Italians artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci) portrayal of Jesus in their paintings as having the features of a European, that is what has been adopted by the Western world and even in a number of films of on Jesus’ life. “The Passion” by Mel Gibson, a 2004 film, stood out because of Gibson’s attention to detail which was a close portrayal of a Jewish Jesus. Note that the middle age Italian painters lived about 1500 years after Christ, in Europe, and therefore they were nowhere near witnesses as to how Jesus Christ looked like.

The Europeans depicted Jesus as they thought He would have looked like in their society. Jesus was not soft, effeminate looking as we see in most of these paintings but was a probably a brown, Jewish man who was hard hit by the sun (He was always walking), had hard hands (He was a carpenter) and dirty feet because of walking in dry and dusty Judea and kept a beard and the outward appearance of Israelites as prescribed by the Torah (Law).

So, with all that said, does Jesus’ skin colour matter? What about His eyes? His nose? To be honest with you I really don’t care if Jesus was brown, black, white, blue, pink, purple or green. What matter to me is what He came to do; His mission. The Bible tells us that God loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son (Jesus Christ) to die on the cross for our sins and that He did. Now we are told in this new covenant that “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” – Colossians 3:11. The Apostle John when he saw a vision of the saints, the redeemed worshiping Him who sat on the Throne and the Lamb said, “I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” – Revelation 7:9-10.

One day, FOREVER, FOR ALL ETERNITY we shall be with Jesus in Heaven and in the eternal city, the New Jerusalem and there shall be people from all nations, tribes, race etc. Think about it, we shall all be one in Christ and that’s what matters. In fact we see that the resurrected Jesus’ appearance as John saw Him in the book of revelation is quite something else as He has an appearance that is more angelic than human. Let’s see what the Scriptures say:

When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire.  His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves.  He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.

 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last.I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

Remember also, that Jesus said that God is Spirit – John 4:20-24. He is not flesh really but His true nature is Spirit and thus we cannot limit Him to a certain race or tribe. We know that Jesus took the form of flesh and was a Jewish man (the Jews are the chosen people of God and salvation comes from the Jews) but that doesn’t mean that a certain race or tribe is the true form of God.

People are coming up with all kinds of excuses to reject the Gospel in order to live a life of their own pleasure and sin. People know the truth and it’s very simple. The Truth is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this is what it says: God made man, man sinned, sin separated man from God, God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins and whoever believes in Jesus is reconciled to God, simple as that. Do you know Jesus today? Personally, as your Lord and Saviour? Please make sure you do…your life and eternal destiny depend on it.

I realise I have not responded on hell and what it looks like but I hope to do it in due time. Until next time, BE Blessed.

If you are not saved, that is, born-again please read this article here and accept Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Saviour and Love. He loves you too much. Please make this decision today, you will never regret it.