Religion, Theology, and Self-Improvement Sundays: What Is Prophecy? Part XVI

Among other prophecies, why isn't it reasonable to believe that Genesis Chapter 15:13-14 and Joel Chapter 3 verses 1-7 have no relevancy to the history of Black people in Africa and the Western Hemisphere? Is it not the highest form of racism to not believe that the Biblical narratives pertaining to slavery and God's selection of the oppressed as His people have an application to Black people in America, in particular?

If God could see to and through the end of the world as we know it, how could He miss the wholesale enslavement of an entire people that took place in between at least three continents on this earth, cost millions of lives and altered the political economies of several nations? For Biblical theologians and scholars to say that the slave trade involving Blacks in Africa, the Caribbean and the United States of America is not specifically addressed in the Old and New Testament is illogical and evidence that they do not fully understand the scriptures.

To deny that there are striking similarities between the Biblical narrative of the Children of Israel in Egypt and the Jews in Babylon and the actual experience of Blacks in the United States of America is unreasonable.

And for theologians, scholars and religious preachers to not advocate or seek to apply the remedy that God designed for the Children of Israel and the Jews in Babylon to Blacks in the United States of America is deliberate and can easily be characterized as deceptive.

"Coloring" the pictures and faces of the Old Testament prophets Black, as many have done, is not enough; a reasonable person has to connect the actual history of Africa and the Western Hemisphere over the last 400 years with the written description of the slave experience in Egypt and the Babylonian captivity. In fact all of the Bible can be applied, with more than practical value, to the experience of Blacks all over the world.

For nearly 30 years, Minister Jabril Muhammad's argument regarding the Law of Compound probabilities and prophecy has been before the public. In recent years he has gone into even more detail in his weekly column Farrakhan The Traveler. And of course, he went into more detail than what I covered, in his book, This Is The One.

A critical element to the theological presentation of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan is that there is the deepest connection between history and theology.

Minister Jabril Muhammad emphasizes this point in This Is The One, when he writes:

"The God of prophecy is also the God of history. The God of history fulfills His word according to His will and makes things serve His good purposes. He controls the factors that govern the historical process. Ultimately, prophecy and history reveal His purposes and will."

In his argument, Minister Muhammad lays a framework by which any two reasonable people can collect various prophecies and lay them alongside recorded history for an honest evaluation.

In a Farrakhan The Traveler article dated March 29, 1995 he wrote:

"We all have access to enough of the same materials, which if properly used could enable us all to come to agreement in those areas in which we now disagree - regardless to what it is. The Bible, the Holy Qur'an, the history of Blacks, and others, in America, are available to all. So is the history of the Nation of Islam. There is enough in the published words of both the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Louis Farrakhan to enable anyone to understand our position regarding the interpretation of both Bible and Holy Qur'an, pertaining to every significant issue facing us. Our positions on vital matters are public, clear, and have been presented in sufficient detail so that anyone can ascertain the realities in which we are all engaged."

To date, this writer has never encountered a person, verbally or in writing, overcome his argument that it is more than beyond a reasonable doubt that Black people in America are fulfilling Biblical prophecy. All they would need in order to overcome his argument, if it were possible, are accurate recorded history and the scriptures. Nothing more and nothing less.

But their effort can not ignore the history of Blacks in America if it is credible.

The implications of what Minister Jabril Muhammad has presented from his study of what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught on this subject are staggering. A careful review of the numerous Biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled by individuals, circumstances, events, communities, world leaders and institutions in the Western hemisphere should be enough for any observer to reconsider the current role assigned to Black people - on both sides of the Atlantic - in the plan of God, by theologians of the world's major religions.

Currently, Blacks are quite often asked to, in effect, go through others who are depicted as "God's chosen people" in order to get to God. This is the current state of affairs, especially in the world's major religions where communities of people who received revelation from God are perceived as the door to God for all others. If God's promise to lift the enslaved and oppressed; to make the head the tail; and to make the last first in the last days, is to be believed, then certainly Blacks throughout the world have something to look forward to.

What we have written over the last several months in this prophecy series is not even an introduction to the study of prophecy and the law of compound probabilities. Rather it is only an approach to such an introduction.

Our aim is to elevate an issue that is ignored by those who study scripture and to provoke deeper thought over the relationship between God and the people who have suffered some of the worst treatment that human beings have ever experienced.

We encourage those who believe in a Supreme Being and the scriptures to evaluate the experience of Blacks in Africa and America, particularly over the last 500 years, according to how God has handled similar experiences in the past and as described in His Word.

Cedric Muhammad

Sunday, October 1, 2000

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