By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired
@YourBlackSmithShop promotes 21st Century
reform of the historical Black Church.
It invites any of 2.4 billion followers of Jesus The Christ to engage as
heirs of salvation in an unprecedented recovery of Stolen Peoples Equity. The network promotes the common value, “ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE,” within
a sustainable framework for global repair and
reconciliation.
The social
action supports inclusion in United Nations Sustainable
Development Goal 1, #NoPoverty2030 with under-valued assets of the
planet’s historically marginalized.
The Truth
About #BlackJesus - A Letter To The Church At
Philadelphia
In Conflict
Resolution, truth is assessed through informed opinions based on facts and
findings. The Gospel of Jesus The Christ is
an established narrative based on reports by Jewish authors starting somewhere between 400 BCE and 4 CE. These four
centuries are summarized through linear evidence in Matthew and circular
evidence in John.
Sixteen
prophets—Isaiah to Malachi—whose writings have come down to us lived during
four centuries, from about 800 to 400 B.C. Most of them left chronological data
by which the duration of their ministry can be determined, at least
approximately. The intertestamental
period covers roughly four hundred years, from the last Old Testament prophesy Malachi 4 (c. 420 BC/BCE) to the New Testament appearance of
John the Baptist in the early 1st century AD/CE. The period is known by some accounts as the
"400 Silent Years" because it was a span where no
new prophets were raised, and God revealed nothing new to the Jewish people.
Findings
about #BlackJesus are derived from three chronological timelines dating back to
Noah’s sons Ham, Shem and Japheth. Individual belief in #BlackJesus bridges findings to facts.
The Shem version depicts #BlackJesus as a “Jew, called out of Africa.”
This version of truth includes chronological narratives in Matthew and
Luke and faith-based perspectives in John and Revelation.
The
Japeth version
reveals an enduring history of conflict seeking resolution. Over time, they clashed with kin-folk and
some landed in servitude to others.
Slavery has
long been part of the human experience. For instance, the Israelites (Shem)
were slaves in Egypt (Ham) for a time. The Israelites (Shem) then conquered the
Canaanites (Ham). Later, the Babylonians (Ham) conquered the Israelites (Shem)
only to subsequently be conquered by the Persians (Japheth). Noah's curse
should not be used as an excuse for treating any people group more poorly than
another.
Conversely,
the fact that "the people of the whole earth" descend from this one
family should encourage readers to view all people as fellow brothers and
sisters in this one family of humankind.
Atonement
for racism,
poverty and war might be achieved through the reconciliation of God and
humankind.
The Ham
Ham’s
narrative picks up after the deployment of Noah’s sons to populate three
regions. Ham’s assignment was to northern
Africa in the region corresponding to modern-day Sudan. The larger region
around Kush (later referred to as Nubia) was inhabited c. 8,000 BCE but the Kingdom of Kush rose much later. The Kerma Culture, so named after the city
of Kerma in the region, is attested as early as 2500 BCE and archaeological
evidence from Sudan and Egypt show that Egyptians and the people of Kush region
were in contact from the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (c. 3150 - c. 2613 BCE)
onwards to about 350 BCE just after the end of the Malachi 4 in the Shem
narrative.
Historically,
The Bible leads one to believe that Noah built the ark in 2,348 BC. The Bible
does not give the exact date when Noah built the ark. However, from the
generational timelines in the book of Genesis 5 and 11, the ark may have been
built 1,656 years from creation, which perhaps occurred in 4004 BC. Therefore,
Noah could have built the ark in 2,348 BC.
Christmas
2024 A.D.
The Free
African Society for the 21st Century (FAS2) is an emerging youth-led enterprise.
It originated as a social action of the Lay Ministry at Ebenezer
African Methodist Episcopal Church, Fort Washington, MD, USA.
Developing Consultants for the start-up FAS2
brand, advised
church leaders at the 1999 Lay Biennial, Syracuse, NY; AMECONVO VI,
Philadelphia, PA and the historic 2000 AMEC General Conference,
Cincinnati, OH. Agreement to partner
with Generation Alpha Heirs of Salvation may offer one last chance for the
Christian Church to be or not to be.
The Free
African Society (FAS), founded in 1787, was a benevolent organization that
held religious services and provided mutual aid for "free Africans and
their descendants" in Philadelphia. The Society was founded by Richard
Allen and Absalom Jones. It was the first Black religious institution in the
city and led to the establishment of the first independent Black churches in
the United States.
The
African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas
Originally
established as the African Church, The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas was founded in 1792 by and for
persons of African descent to foster personal and religious freedoms and
self-determination. The original African Church was an outgrowth of the Free African Society, a mutual aid organization established in 1787 by Absalom Jones, Richard
Allen and others, to assist the Black population in Philadelphia.
Mother
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, PA
The Mother
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1972. The congregation, founded in 1794, is the oldest African
Methodist Episcopal congregation in the nation.
The historic
church building is located at 419 South 6th Street in Center City Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA. The current structure,
completed in 1890, is the oldest church property in the United States to be
continuously owned by African Americans..
The church
was proposed in 1791 by members of the Free African Society of Philadelphia,
including Absalom Jones, out of a desire to create a space for autonomous
African-American worship and community in the city.
The
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, MD
The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church congregation
is the oldest independent black institution in Baltimore. Its origins date back
to the late 18th century, when blacks withdrew from the parent Methodist Church in protest against racially
segregated seating and lack of representation in church hierarchy.
To exercise
control over their own spiritual affairs, the dissenting blacks formed a
"Free African Society," congregating for prayers and meetings in
private homes. They soon adopted the name "Bethel," (a Hebrew word
meaning house of God), and in 1817, acquired their first church building, the
old German Lutheran Church on Fish Street (now Saratoga).
The
African Methodist Episcopal Church
In 1816 an
organizing conference in Philadelphia formally established the national
independent The African Methodist Episcopal
Church.
Daniel Coker,
an eminent orator and educator who later became the first recognized missionary
of the Church, joined the colonization party that went to Liberia in 1820.
Coker hosted the 1st Quadrennial Conference of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church where he was elected the new denomination’s first bishop. He declined the post, however, and Richard
Allen was appointed the following day.
The historic
denomination grew out of the Free African Society (FAS) which Richard Allen,
Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. When officials
at St. George’s MEC pulled blacks off their knees while praying, FAS members
discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial
discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these members of St. George’s
made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation.
The
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church, or the AME
Zion Church (AMEZ) is a historically African-American Christian denomination
based in the United States. It was officially formed in 1821 in New York City,
but operated for a number of years before then. The African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology.
