Module review

Begin by acknowledging that the transatlantic slave trade was a great evil, that many professing Christians were complicit, and that Scripture condemns man-stealing (Exodus 21:16; 1 Timothy 1:10). Then read Deuteronomy 28 in context: it is Moses' covenant sermon to the nation at Sinai, with blessings and curses for covenant faithfulness. Scripture records the curses falling on Israel in the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles (2 Kings 17; 25), and Daniel confesses 'the curse is poured upon us' (Daniel 9:11); after AD 70 Josephus reports captives sent to Egypt. 'Egypt again' means the undoing of the Exodus, not America, and many peoples have been enslaved, so suffering does not identify a people. Deuteronomy 30 then promises restoration and a circumcised heart, so the real question is who lifts the curse. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13), and his worth and identity can rest there, not on a genealogy.

• acknowledges the evil of slavery honestly
• reads Deuteronomy 28 as covenant curses on Israel fulfilled in recorded exiles (Daniel 9:11)
• shows suffering does not identify a people
• moves to Deuteronomy 30 and Galatians 3:13
• warm tone, invitation to keep reading together

Hebrew Israelite movements share the belief that people of African descent in the Americas (and in many groups other scattered peoples) descend from the tribes of Israel, but they differ widely. Judaic congregations, such as the main branch of Crowdy's Church of God and Saints of Christ or the Commandment Keepers, keep Sabbath and festivals in a synagogue style and do not worship Jesus as God. Christ-confessing groups such as IUIC confess Jesus (often as Yahawashi) as Messiah, usually with required Torah-keeping and often without the Trinity. Militant One West street camps, by contrast, teach sharply racial doctrines, such as white people as Edomites destined to serve or be destroyed, though not every member holds or acts on them. Ben Ammi's community in Dimona does not regard itself as Christian at all. Because of this range, your first move is to ask which group someone follows and what they believe about Jesus, so that you treat them as an individual and answer what they actually hold.

• the shared identity claim
• Judaic congregations do not worship Jesus as God
• Christ-confessing groups confess Jesus but often deny the Trinity and require Torah
• militant camps' racial teaching described without generalising to all members
• so ask first: which group, and who is Jesus?

Agree first that God's law is 'holy, and just, and good' (Romans 7:12) and that Christians must not be lawless; the Reformed tradition teaches that the moral law still shows sin and guides grateful obedience (WCF 19). Matthew 5:17-18 says Jesus came to fulfil the law 'till all be fulfilled', and in the same Gospel he is Lord of the Sabbath (12:8), while Mark 7:19 says he declared all foods clean. The ceremonial laws were shadows whose substance is Christ (Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 10:1), and the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31 makes the first covenant old (Hebrews 8:13). The apostles refused to lay the yoke of the law of Moses on Gentile believers (Acts 15:10), and Paul says no one is justified by works of the law (Galatians 2:16). Abraham was justified by faith before circumcision and 430 years before Sinai (Romans 4:10; Galatians 3:17). So obedience is the fruit of salvation, not its root, and the real need is a Saviour, since none of us has kept the law perfectly.

• affirms the goodness of the law and the moral law's continuing use
• Matthew 5:17-18 as fulfilment
• ceremonial law as shadow (Colossians 2; Hebrews 8-10)
• Acts 15 and Galatians: not justified by law-keeping
• Abraham justified by faith; obedience as fruit

The Christian should say plainly, but without insult, that this teaching is racism and that God hates racism in every direction, just as he hated the slave trade. Genesis 25:25 describes a newborn's ruddy colour and a wordplay on Edom ('red'); David is also called 'ruddy' (1 Samuel 16:12), and no one makes him European. Edom was a nation at Mount Seir south-east of the Dead Sea (Genesis 36:8), and the Idumeans were absorbed into the Jewish nation in the second century BC. Scripture teaches that God made all nations 'of one blood' (Acts 17:26), that every person bears his image (Genesis 1:27), and that Amos 9:11-12, quoted in Acts 15:16-17, welcomes the remnant of Edom and all nations into God's people. At the same time, the Christian must never mock the teacher's dress or people or generalise about Hebrew Israelites, but follow 2 Timothy 2:24-25: gentle, patient, instructing in meekness. The goal is to point to the Lamb who redeems people from every nation (Revelation 5:9).

• names the teaching as racism and rejects it
• Genesis 25:25 in context; Edom's real location and history
• Acts 17:26; Genesis 1:27; Amos 9 / Acts 15
• no counter-racism or mockery (2 Timothy 2:24-25)
• ends with Christ redeeming every nation